CHAPTER V
PLANT LIFE
Besides bacteria and unicellular algæ there are other forms of plant life in the Polar Regions. Various forms of seaweeds, both large and small, were taken by the Scotia naturalists when dredging in shallow Antarctic waters. In Spitsbergen waters and in the Barents Sea, off Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, the Scottish expeditions have dredged up great quantities of different kinds of seaweed, especially laminaria, and after a storm on the west coast of Prince Charles Foreland I have seen piles of laminaria and other seaweed fully 5 or 6 feet in height, heaped up above the ordinary high-water level. This seaweed ultimately rotted on the shore or was driven inland by the wind. There is one remarkable feature of polar shores; and it is that, except in a few very secluded nooks and crannies, no seaweed will be found between high- and low-water mark, nor in depths of less than a fathom or two below low-water mark.
On examining the rocks on which one would expect this seaweed to grow one finds that they are very much smoother and more rounded-off than the rocks on the shores of warmer seas. They are, in fact, quite polished. The reason is not far to seek, for to the depth of a fathom or so the sea becomes frozen solidly during the winter, and when summer comes and the pack breaks up, this and even heavier ice is driven along the shore and grinds over the rocks, rubbing and polishing them and preventing seaweed from growing there. Naturally also, for the same reason, one need not expect to find shore animals, and, as a matter of fact, shore fauna is very scanty in the Polar Regions. There may be a few limpets in a relatively deep crack, or a few amphipods and a stray fish, but there are few hiding-places for them among rocks so depleted of weeds. No sessile animal is safe from being crushed and scoured off the rocks by stranding ice. Even on a sandy shore there is little, though there is better chance here, especially if it does not shelve steeply. Worms, copepods, ostracods and the like may sometimes be found in abundance on a shallow sandy shore, especially if there is some bar or barrier which prevents heavy ice being stranded on the beach at high water during the short summer season.
On the land, plant life may be represented by more than diatoms and other algæ. But, be it noted, land plants have a better chance and are far more numerous in the Arctic than in the Antarctic Regions. For whereas there are about 400 species of flowering plants in the Arctic Regions, until Dr. Charcot discovered two flowering plants in more than one locality on the western coast of Graham Land—a grass, Aira antarctica, and a small umbelliferous plant, Colobanthus crassifolius var. brevifolius—no flowering plant was known to exist in the Antarctic Regions with the exception of this grass, which was known to be a native of the South Shetlands. A considerable number of plants, however, occur on some subantarctic islands, such as Kerguelen, South Georgia, etc. Except these two flowering plants which I have mentioned not a single one has yet been found on any land in the vicinity of Antarctica or the islands immediately adjacent to that continent, not even in the South Orkneys. Though grass had been reported on these islands, we know now that it certainly does not exist.
The most likely reason for this absence of flowering plants is the short Antarctic summer with temperatures very much below those of the Arctic Regions. In the South Orkneys, for instance, in 60° 44′ S. the mean summer temperature of the three summer months (December, January, and February) is below freezing-point, viz. 31.7° F.; and in no month does the mean rise to 33° F.; at Snow Hill, Graham Land (64° 24′ S.) the mean of January, the warmest month, is 30.38° F., while at Cape Adare, Victoria Land (71° 18′ S.), the summer mean is 30.4° F.
Comparing these summer temperatures with those of the Arctic Regions, it is found that in Spitsbergen (79° 53′ N.) the mean temperature of July (corresponding to January in the south) is as high as 41.50° F., and that in Franz Josef Land (80° N.) it is 35.6° F. in the same month. The mean temperature in Spitsbergen for June, July, and August is 37.1° F., and even that of the ice-bound King Oscar Land in 76° 40′ N., 88° 40′ W., is 33.35° F. The point is, that while the mean temperature of the summer months in the Arctic Regions is well above freezing-point, viz. 32° F., that of the Antarctic Regions is practically always below the freezing-point. "This remarkably cold Antarctic summer," says Dr. Rudmose Brown, "acts in two ways upon plant life: firstly, the winter snow lies late on the ground—all the later as the summer is a cloudy and somewhat sunless period, and December is well advanced before the majority of available sites are laid bare, while in February the winter again begins; secondly, and this is the chief reason, it is doubtful if a flowering plant could obtain the requisite amount of heat needed for its various life functions even to reach the flowering stage, while the maturation of its fruit would be next to impossible" ("Antarctic Botany," by R. N. Rudmose Brown, Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1906, vol. xxii, No. 9). Another very serious factor against plant life in the Antarctic Regions is the presence of enormous numbers of penguins on almost every available piece of ground on which plants could grow. It is only occasional out-of-the-way spots, not readily accessible to the sea, and so free from penguins, that are available for plant growth. On Mossman Peninsula, in Scotia Bay, there was one very favourable place, where about an acre of rocky ground was covered with 6 or 8 inches of moss and vegetable soil derived from the moss that had grown there for many a year. Such mossy grounds, however, are very late in losing their winter snow, so that if the seeds of flowering plants reached such a nidus they would have very little chance, even if they germinated, of securing a sufficiently firm foothold before the summer was gone. Owing to a prevalence of north-west winds, Dr. Rudmose Brown is of opinion that some wind-blown seeds of Fuegian plants may reach Graham Land, the South Shetlands, and the South Orkneys; but the absence of driftwood on these lands shows that there is much less chance of their reaching these lands, either by sea or ice, than there is in Arctic Regions, where on most shores enormous quantities of driftwood are stranded year after year, so much so that some places have the appearance of timber yards.
The absence of land birds, with the solitary exception of the Sheath-bill (Chionis), is against the transit of seeds, though some petrels, the Dominican Black Back Gull, the skuas, and the shags may occasionally carry seeds to these lands.
As far as the geographical distribution of plants is concerned, Skottsberg and Rudmose Brown consider the parallel of 60° S. forms a more or less natural limit. (Note how difficult it is to give a hard and fast limit for the boundary of the Antarctic Regions: the astronomer takes the Antarctic Circle, the botanist the 60th parallel of south latitude, and the oceanographer the limits of floating ice.) "The flora of the Antarctic regions," says Dr. Rudmose Brown, "as thus defined, contains only two phanerogams, namely, Aira antarctica (Hook. Des.) and Colobanthus crassifolius (Hook, f. var. brevifolius, Eng.). The former of these has long been known from Antarctic Regions, having been collected by Eights about 1820 at the South Shetlands, and it also occurs on Danco Land, but its discovery along with Colobanthus crassifolius, by Dr. Turquet, of the French Antarctic Expedition at Biscoe Bay, Anvers Island, in 64° 50′ S., 68° 40′ W., is very interesting, for this is the most southerly record for flowering plants known. Descampsia antarctica was also found by Dr. Turquet at Booth-Wandel Island, 65° 5′ S. It is extremely probable that further exploration will somewhat extend the range of these species." In 1910 Dr. Charcot's expedition in the Pourquoi Pas? found these two flowering plants as far south as 68° S. "Ferns are entirely wanting in the Antarctic, as was only to be supposed, but mosses are relatively abundant, and form almost the chief constituent of the flora. Collections of these are known from various points around the pole, including Graham Land, South Shetlands, South Orkneys, Wilhelm Land and Victoria Land, but those from the Atlantic and American sides are incontestably the richer, no doubt largely because of the nearer proximity of extra-polar land and consequent possibility of migration, but also to some extent because that side of the Antarctic regions has received more careful and serious exploration than any other." Dr. Jules Cardot, who has examined the mosses brought back by all the recent expeditions, places the total number of species at present known at about 51. Nearly 50 per cent. are endemic, while about 23 per cent, are found in Arctic Regions as well, but the majority of these are of more or less cosmopolitan distribution. Only six Antarctic hepatics are known, and only one fungus discovered by M. Racovitza of the Belgica.
Lichens predominate though more numerous as individuals than species. Various orange-coloured species of Placodium even show well-marked coloration on precipitous rocks in winter. The grey and shaggy Usnea melaxantha, Ach., is more luxuriant than any other and produces good "fruits." All but one of the South Orkney lichens collected by Dr. Rudmose Brown of the Scotia have been previously recorded from the Arctic Regions. Altogether about 75 per cent. of the Antarctic species are also Arctic forms. Twenty-five species of marine algæ, including five new species, were taken by the Scottish Expedition in South Orkney waters. Of diatoms I have already spoken. Fresh-water algæ are almost confined to unicellular kinds, but had been little studied until Mr. James Murray found "abundance of fresh-water algæ, including some very small diatoms, in ponds, and also in earthy deposits, which may have originated in ponds."
This is a brief summary of all that is known regarding the Antarctic flora. It is quite impossible to enter into similar detail regarding the Arctic flora on account not only of its profusion, as already indicated by the number of flowering plants, but also because of the enormous amount of investigation that has been carried out by very many eminent botanists from every civilised nation. The literature of Arctic botany fills many shelves. In so much detail has Arctic flora been investigated, that it is quite a rare thing to record a new species, and even regarding distribution there is little more to be learnt. The present interest is the study of the physiology of Arctic plants, and here a beginning has already been made. Under these circumstances it is neither necessary nor desirable to enumerate even in the most general way species of Arctic plants nor to discuss their distribution more than I have done already in the case of the diatoms of the Arctic seas and floes.
But plant life in Arctic lands is a feature of such importance that it must not be passed by without giving some consideration to it in a general way. One striking feature is, that no matter how far north the explorer goes, no matter how desolate a region he visits, he is sure to come across one or more species of flowering plants. A poppy, buttercup, or saxifrage is almost certain to be met with, and of all these the Arctic poppy (Papaver radicatum) is perhaps the most persistent. There is no place that I have visited in Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya, or elsewhere, however barren, desolate, and wind-swept, where I have not found the Arctic poppy growing, stunted it may be, yet growing and even flowering; and, if there exist in the least degree slightly more favourable conditions, it will grow with great luxuriance and in great profusion. Similarly, on the coasts of Greenland and on the Arctic islands north of America wherever plant life can succeed the poppy is to be found. Next to the poppy, the purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) is probably the most hardy Arctic flowering plant, and in suitable places may grow in even greater profusion than the poppy. I have seen the Foreland Laichs of Prince Charles Foreland in July resembling an extensive Scottish moor in September, one blaze of purple for miles, but purple with this saxifrage instead of with heather. A yellow buttercup (Ranunculus nivalis) is another very common Arctic species growing almost anywhere, and very different in appearance according to what ground it is growing on, and to what extent it is protected from wind. Cerastium alpinum is also met with everywhere, great masses of white brightening the landscapes. Other flowering plants that every Arctic traveller is thoroughly familiar with are: scurvy-grass (Cochlearia officinalis), the sulphur-flowered buttercup (Ranunculus sulphureus), the little bladder campion (Silene acaulis), several potentillas (P. nivea, P. pulchella, and others), the blaeberry (Empetrum nigrum), many saxifrages, notably Saxifraga cernua, S. cæspitosa, S. Hirculus, the rock rose (Dryas octopetala), the cotton grass (Eriophorum), and last, but not of least importance, the Arctic willow (Salix polaris and S. herbacea), which often covers acres of ground. Neither must we forget the great host of grasses and sedges. Few of these plants are endemic to Arctic Regions; they often develop characteristic forms or varieties, but most of the species are found also in northern Europe, Asia, and America. Further south they appear at higher altitudes. A few we find on the hilltops of Scotland. There are two ferns in Spitsbergen and a few more in other Arctic lands, but the Arctic Regions are not favourable to fern growth. Of mosses and hepatics there are many different species, most of which thrive exceedingly well, and the same may be said of lichens. Fungi are also quite common, especially puff-balls, with their "Deadman's snuff." One common feature that Arctic and Antarctic mosses and lichens exhibit is the infrequency of any reproduction except by purely vegetative means; by growth, in fact, continuous or discontinuous, for as a rule they are barren: "fruits" in a state of maturity are comparatively rare.
Although there are many barren stretches in Arctic lands, especially those regions that are open, exposed, and wind-blown, yet even on such places stunted desert-like tufts of some of the commoner species will be found, especially the Arctic poppy and purple saxifrage. These were growing on a narrow strip of ground only a few yards long, and at the most four or five yards in breadth, on an island in Franz Josef Land, north of the 80th degree of latitude, that was otherwise completely covered with permanent ice and snow. I have also found these plants growing on the tops of the mountains of Spitsbergen north of the 79th degree of latitude, at an altitude of more than 3,000 feet—as bleak exposed places as any on the face of the globe. Give these plants the least bit of fair play as regards environment—a sheltered glen, or the shores of a loch or firth, where there is sufficient moisture, plenty of sun, and good soil enriched by the water running down from the wonderful bird cliffs inhabited by hundreds of thousands if not millions of birds, or by the droppings of reindeer, musk-oxen, and other animals, and a veritable paradise of verdure is produced. I have basked in the sun on wide stretches of the purple saxifrage, and have wandered over meadows green with the Arctic willow, and many different species of saxifrage and mosses; I have waded through grass and sulphur-flowered buttercups up to the knee and plunged my hands deep into velvet banks of rich green and red mosses, while my eyes have feasted on a brilliant display of green, white, gold, and purple. Other Arctic explorers have had the same experiences—Scoresby, in Jameson's Land (71° N.) on the east coast of Greenland, says, "the ground was richly dotted with grass, a foot in height," and, he continues, "more inland, my father, who explored this country to a great extent, discovered considerable tracts that might justly be denominated greenland, patches of several acres, occurring here and there of as fine meadow-land as could be seen in England. There was a considerable variety of grasses and many other plants in a beautiful state" (Journal of a Greenland Voyage, by Wm. Scoresby, junior, F.R.S.E., 1823, p. 214). In Grinnell Land (79° N.) in 1875 the British Arctic expedition met with "luxuriant vegetation," and in 82° 30′ N. Captain Markham (The Great Frozen Sea) says, "Some of the hills surrounding these lakes were beautifully carpeted with the pretty little purple saxifrage, a Draba, a Potentilla and other wild flowers, while the valleys were covered with patches of luxuriant vegetation, consisting of grasses and delightfully soft moss." Speaking of the island of Waigatz, Colonel Feilden says, "Nowhere in the Arctic Regions have I seen such wonderful masses of colour; one may wade through acres of blossoming plants a foot high, veritable Arctic flower-gardens. . . . My words fail, I know, to give any adequate description of the immense charm attaching to this Arctic flora" ("Visits to Barents and Kara Seas, with Rambles in Novaya Zemlya, 1895 and 1897," by Colonel H. W. Feilden, Geog. Journal, April 1898). Again, Conway says, "A veritable Arctic garden surrounded the tents, for the ground was gay with blossom. There were large patches of Saxifraga oppositifolia scattered about like crimson rugs. Dryas octopetala and the Arctic poppy were as common as buttercups and daisies in a meadow. Yellow potentillas (P. verna and multifida) added their welcome note of bright colour. The Alpine Cerastium was the gracefullest blossom of the company. Then there were two Drabas, a Silene, Melandryum apetalum, Oxyria reniformis, and a number of other plants not yet in flower, besides the mosses. It was strange to meet again in this remote region so many plants that I had found by the glaciers and amongst the crags of the Karakoram-Himalaya. Papaver nudicaule, Saxifraga oppositifolia and Saxifraga Hirculus climb to a height of 17,000 feet and more on the sides of the greatest giants of that most wonderful range. Here they all were again, as bright, and maintaining themselves as happily in the heart of the Arctic Regions as on the backbone of Asia" (The First Crossing of Spitsbergen, by Sir W. Martin Conway, 1897, p. 125). Such quotations could be almost infinitely multiplied, for every Arctic voyager has been similarly fascinated with the wonderful luxuriance and beauty of the Arctic flora.
But besides being a fascinating feature of Arctic scenery, vegetation on Arctic lands has played and will continue to play a most important role in Arctic exploration. Without it the North Polar Regions could not have been penetrated so extensively as they have been by man, and if greater advantage had been taken of it directly or indirectly there would not have occurred some of the disasters that have marred Polar exploration. As long ago as 1671 Martens knew the value of sorrel and scurvy-grass in Spitsbergen for human food. "I desire," says Martens, "the courteous Reader to accept at present of these for Sample to shew him that on these rough, barren, and cold Mountains, there yet grow some Plants, for the Nourishment both of Man and Beast. The Herbs grow to their perfection in a short time, for in June, when we first arrived in Spitsbergen, we saw but very little Green, and yet in July most of them were in flower, and some of them had their Seeds already ripe, whence we observe the length of their summer." It is a striking fact, although it was recognised two and a half centuries ago that Arctic plants afforded "Nourishment both for Man and Beast," that more advantage was not taken of them and of the "Beasts" this rich vegetation also sustained. Without this rich Arctic vegetation from lichens onwards there could be no musk-oxen, no reindeer, no Arctic hares, no lemmings, no owls, no ptarmigan, no geese, fewer ducks, no purple sandpipers, stints, sanderlings, buntings or any other land birds, few insects, and a scarcity of other invertebrates.
With all these animals, which will be considered in more detail later on, Arctic lands become habitable for the various tribes of Eskimos that live and thrive there, and European races have been able to penetrate parts that could not otherwise have been reached with means that have been at our disposal up to the present time. Without these animals the Arctic tundra of Europe, Asia, and America could not have been crossed and opened up so thoroughly, the coast of Greenland could not have been explored except in the most meagre way, and the great Archipelago of islands—great and small, that stretches towards the Pole to the north of our Canadian Dominion—could not have been investigated as it has been.
But not only does all this magnificent supply of fresh food from Arctic land animals depend on the luxuriant vegetation there, but some of the plants are actually adjuncts to the food supply, notably scurvy-grass and sorrel, both of which are pleasant and healthy vegetables, and both of which help to ward off scurvy. Lichens have even been used as food for men crossing barren wastes where hardly any other plant existed, and when animals were not there to be hunted or difficult to secure. Franklin, Richardson, and Back maintained life by eating "an old pair of leather trousers, a gun cover, a pair of old shoes with a little 'tripe de roche' that they succeeded in scraping off the rocks."
The success of Polar expeditions depends not only on selecting a good set of healthy men, but also, once the expedition is in the field, on maintaining that good health and even on improving it. Scurvy has been the deadliest enemy of Polar expeditions, whether they have been for hunting or for exploration. Spitsbergen and other Arctic lands are one huge cemetery containing the remains of scurvy-stricken men and women who have died through ignorance and obstinacy, and even within the last few years many hunters have died because they have preferred to eat badly-cured fish and badly-prepared animal foods, instead of feeding on the food that the Almighty had placed at the very doors of their miserable and filthy huts.
Half the members of the British Polar Expedition of 1875–76 were saturated with scurvy, and expeditions as late as those of the Balæna (Weddell Sea, Antarctic), 1892–93, Windward (Franz Josef Land, Arctic), 1894–97, and the Discovery (Ross Sea, Antarctic), 1901–04, were all seriously crippled with the appearance of that terrible scourge. On shore at Cape Flora Dr. Reginald Kœttlitz was able to prevent scurvy because the leader and staff followed his advice and lived chiefly on bear meat and guillemots, but, as Dr. Neal has pointed out, nearly all the men on board the Windward "refused to eat bear meat, but lived on tinned provisions, with plenty of tinned vegetables and any amount of lime-juice. The whole ship's company, except three or four men, had scurvy, and those who did not have scurvy were the very ones who took bear's meat whenever they could get it. The ship arrived in Norway in September 1895, having lost three men from scurvy, and with fourteen others who would have been dead in a few days if they had not reached land."
For many a year lime-juice has been used as a preventive and cure, but doubtlessly the best that can be said of it is that it will do no harm using it in cases of scurvy, and it may or may not be useful in other directions. On board the Balæna one ounce of lime-juice was regularly served, "according to the act," every day to every man on board, and yet, on the return voyage to Britain, one and all were more or less tainted with scurvy, including one seaman who was very seriously ill, and who was receiving fully two ounces of lime-juice a day. The Balæna, flying the yellow flag, put in at Portland for coal and potatoes, and apparently the potatoes, which were ravenously devoured by the crew in the raw state when they came on board, and which were afterwards copiously served out boiled, had the wonderful effect of largely obliterating the scurvy before the vessel reached Dundee four days later. While as to the seaman who was utterly prostrated, and who was so ill that he was expected to die any day, he so far recovered as to be able to walk ashore in Dundee. At the same time the Norwegian ship Jason, that did exactly the same voyage as the Balæna, had no lime-juice on board, and had not the least trace of any scorbutic symptoms.
Dr. William H. Neale, who spent the winter of 1881–82 with Mr. Leigh Smith in Franz Josef Land, in The Practitioner for June 1896, describes how, though the wrecked party "had practically nothing to live upon but bear and walrus meat for twelve months, there was not a drop of lime-juice saved from the ship; and the vegetables were so few that they could not be taken into account." Dr. Neale continues, "My belief is that our complete freedom from scurvy was due to our living in a pure atmosphere night and day, and our diet being mainly fresh meat with plenty of blood in it. . . . Give me a hut on shore and a rifle with easy access of game, and I would defy scurvy in the Arctic Regions; but to live on board a ship, to live in a hot forecastle or cabin, and to live on tinned provisions, is the best means of courting the disease."
We know now, by careful physiological research and by further experience of well-equipped expeditions basing their food equipment on the results of our knowledge obtained by these investigations, that scurvy is largely, if not entirely, due to the presence of injurious ptomaines associated with animal food-stuffs, and it has been said by an eminent physiologist that it is simply a form of chronic ptomaine poisoning. A well-equipped Polar expedition, where the greatest possible care has been exercised by the leader, and honestly carried out by the contractors, should not, therefore, have scurvy on board or on shore at its encampments. It must be acknowledged, however, that it is very difficult to make absolutely sure that all the preserved meat-stuffs on board are reliable, expecially as there are scandalous contractors, who care nothing for sacrificing the health, and even the lives, not only of those who penetrate the Polar Regions, but of those who journey to other parts of the world, both in times of peace and war.
The great maxim to follow in Polar exploration as regard food supplies is to live as far as possible on the products of the sea or land where the work of the expedition lies. If the expedition is exploring in the Antarctic Regions, let it feed on the excellent flesh of the seals and fish which can be got plentifully there, and on the eggs and flesh of the innumerable penguins and other birds. If the expedition is in the Arctic Regions, let it luxuriate in the flesh of the musk-ox, reindeer, hare, and ptarmigan; and let the meat of bear, walrus, seal, and guillemot, as well as other birds, be utilised, remembering that all this "flesh is grass," and let scurvy-grass and sorrel be eaten as the natural vegetables of the Polar Regions. Tinned foods, if risked at all, should be used merely as a variety apart from the staple fresh foods above mentioned. Then there will be no sign of scurvy.