But as soon as the first frosts of September announce the approach of winter, all animals, with but few exceptions, hasten to leave a region where the sources of life must soon fail. The geese, ducks, and swans return in dense flocks to the south; the strand-birds seek in some lower latitude a softer soil which allows their sharp beaks to seize a burrowing prey; the waterfowl forsake the bays and channels that will soon be blocked up with ice; the reindeer once more return to the forest; and in a short time nothing is left that can induce man to prolong his stay in the treeless plain. Soon a thick mantle of snow covers the hardened earth, the frozen lake, the ice-bound river; and conceals them all-for seven, eight, nine months at a time-under its monotonous pall, except where the furious north-east wind sweeps it away and lays bare the naked rock.
This snow, which, after it has once fallen, persists untilthe long summer day has effectually thawed it, protects in an admirable manner the vegetation of the higher latitudesagainst the cold of the long winter season. Thanks to this protection, and to the influence of a sun which for three or four months together circles above the horizon,③ and in favourable localities calls forth the powers of vegetation in an incredibly short time, even Washington, Grinnell Land,④ and Spitzbergen are able to boast of flowers.
The Arctic forest-regions are of still greater extent than the vast treeless plains which they encircle. When we consider that they form an almost continuous belt, stretching across three fourths of the world, in a breadth of from one thousand to fourteen hundred miles, even the woods of the Amazon, which cover a surface fifteen times greater than that of the British Isles, shrink into comparative insignificance. Unlike the tropical forests, which are characterized by an endless variety of trees, these northern woods are almost entirely composed of cone-beares, and one single kind of fir or pine often covers an immense extent of ground.
Another peculiarity of these forests is their apparent youth. This is sufficiently explained by the shortness of the summer, which, though able to bring forth new shoots, does not last long enough for the formation of wood. Hence the growth of trees becomes slower and slower the farther north they are found.
A third distinctive feature of the Arctic forests is their harmless character. There the traveller finds no poisonous plants; even thorns and prickles are rare. No venomous snake glides through the thicket, no crocodile lurks in the swamp. Even their beasts of prey-the bear, the lynx, the wolf-are less dangerous and blood-thirsty than the dreaded monsters of the torrid zone.
WORDS
abundance, plenty. announce, intimate. appease, assuage. burrowing, mining. converts, transforms. counteract, check. depositing, placing. distinctive, characteristic. effectually, thoroughly. elevated, raised. enormous, vast. excessively, extremely.
geographers, writers on geography.
incredibly, not to be believed. inhospitable, unfriendly. insignificance, unimportance. interrupted, broken.
latitude, distance from the equator.
localities, districts. melancholy, saddening. migratory, wandering. morasses, marshes. penetrated, advanced. persists, lasts. unexplored, not searched. venomous, poisonous.
NOTES
① Mercury into a solid body.-The fact that mercury freezes at 39° below zero, makes spirit thermometers preferable for use in high latitudes. (See lesson on The Thermometer.)② Ptarmigan, a bird of the grouse family, called, from the colour of its wings and breast,the white grouse. Its legs are feathered to the toes. It frequents lofty mountains, as those of Scandinavia and Scotland. It is not found in England.
③ Above the horizon.-During summer in the northern hemisphere there is around theNorth Pole-then leaning towards the sun-a region, varying in extent from day to day, within which, for many weeks together, the sun never sinks below the horizon. Then the polar regions enjoy perpetual day. During winter, in the same regions, the sun never rises above the horizon for many weeks together. Then these regions are subject to perpetual night.
④ Washington, Grinnell Land.-The former, the extreme north-west of Greenland,adjoining the open sea of Kane or Hayes; the latter west of the former, and separated from itby Kennedy Channel, a continuation of Baffin Bay.
QUESTIONS
Who discovered the North Pole? Who discovered the sea that rolls around it? What is its breadth? Name the three zones of the Arctic regions. Of what has the belt of ice been the scene? How far has man penetrated into it? What is the average winter temperature within the Arctic Circle? How low has the thermometer been known to fall in the extreme north? How is man able to bear these low temperatures? What is the treeless zone called? By what is the want of trees there caused? What forms the chiefvegetation there? What causes its awful silence in winter? When do the birds return? What has attracted them? What birds of prey follow the sea- fowl? With what do the rivers at the same time swarm? What leads the reindeer to the sea-shore? What leads man also into that region in summer? When do the animals again migrate southward? Of what use is the snow in these high latitudes? Why is the sun"s influence so great there in summer? What is the extent of the Arctic forest regions? Compare their extent with that of the woods of the Amazon. Wherein do they differ in character from tropical woods? How is their apparent youth accounted for? What is meant by their harmless character?