Ringnes, Borden, Brock, King Christian, Lougheed, Mackenzie King and Meighen islands (the so-called northwestern Queen Elizabeth Islands) it constitutes the most barren part of the high Arctic region. Some idea of its bleakness is conveyed by the remarks of others who worked there. Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1921), on visiting Ellef Ringnes in June 1916, wrote "I did not see a blade of grass and the district struck me as the most barren I had even seen"; S. D. MacDonald (1961) who spent the field season of 1954 at Isachsen, stated, "My immediate impression of Isachsen was of a region of utter desolation". Summers at Isachsen, the richest locality on the island, are colder than at any other Arctic weather station. Accordingly, Ellef Ringnes probably supports fewer forms of life than any other ice-free Arctic land mass of comparable size (). The total confirmed flora comprises 49 species of vascular plants and about 85 of fungi; only 10 species of mammals and 15 of birds have been recorded on the island. Mammals include muskox, Peary caribou, polar bears and Arctic foxes References Further reading Antoniades, Dermot, Marianne S V Douglas, and John P Smol. 2003. "The Physical and Chemical Limnology of 24 Ponds and One Lake from Isachsen, Ellef Ringnes Island, Canadian High Arctic". International Review of Hydrobiology. 88, no. 5: 519. Atkinson, Nigel. 2003. "Late Wisconsinan Glaciation of Amund and Ellef Ringnes Islands, Nunavut: Evidence for the Configuration, Dynamics, and Deglacial Chronology of the Northwest Sector of the Innuitian Ice Sheet". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 40: 351–363. Lea, Brian N. Oceanographic Observations Near Cape Macmillan, Ellef Ringnes Island, N.W.T. Victoria: Dobrocky Seatech Limited, 1978. Saville, D. B. O. Bird and Mammal Observations on Ellef Ringnes Island in 1960. 1961. St-Onge, D.A. et Gullentops, F. 2005 Morphodynamics of Cold High Latitude Semiarid Regions: The Example of Ellef Ringnes, Island, Nunavut; Géographie physique et Quaternaire, vol. 59, n°2-3, 2005, p. 103-111. Atkinson, N. and England, J., 2004. Postglacial emergence of Amund and Ellef Ringnes islands, Nunavut: implications for the northwest sector of the Innuitian Ice Sheet. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 41: 271-28 Bravar, J.-P. and Petit, F., 2000. Les cours d’eau, dynamique du système fluvial. 2e édition, Armand Colin, Paris, 222 p. DeWolf, Y.C., 1988. Stratified slope deposits, p. 91-110. In M.J. Clark, ed., Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 6. Wiley, New York, 382 p. French, H.M., 1996. The Periglacial Environment, second