714 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



currents, the mountains display abnormal 

 temperature conditions ; and while an arctic 

 vegetation prevails on the seashore, forests 

 with subtropical Japanese species occur at a 

 certain elevation, and only on the highest 

 summits does the forest again give place to 

 arctic plants. The principal trees of the 

 forest are pines, firs, and Siberian larches. 

 The growth is very rapid and the struggle 

 for existence severe, so that many trees are 

 killed ; the dead trees still standing and 

 others fallen are so numerous as to make 

 these forests almost impassable. On the 

 west side of the island maples, birches, and 

 large numbers of mountain ashes abound. 

 At a certain height, especially in the more 

 interior portions of the island, quite a sud- 

 den change to subtropical trees occurs. 

 High bushes of Japanese Flex crenata, 

 stems of bamboo as high as a man, bush- 

 like vaccinium, fine hydrangeas, and the 

 colossal leaves of Araliacece and Pctasites 

 make their appearance, and foi'm an almost 

 Indian jungle beneath the conifers of the 

 far north. On the highest summits the 

 forest disappears and is replaced by dwarf 

 firs, Cemhra pumila, and evergreen stretches 

 of Empeirum niffrum. Where the seashore 

 is flat and exposed to the wind trees are en- 

 tirely wanting, and an approximation to the 

 arctic tundras prevails. The true tundra 

 region, however, is not on the seashore, but 

 in the great longitudinal valleys, where a 

 regular polar tundra, with frozen soil, peat 

 bogs, and arctic vegetation, occurs. The 

 banks of the streams are, however, clothed 

 with luxuriant vegetation. At a distance of 

 a quarter to a half mile from the river 

 bank the peat bog gives place to a charming 

 meadow of calamagrosiis grasses, with park- 

 like groups of birches, poplars, willows, etc., 

 and an exuberant bush vegetation. 



Do the Poor hate the Rich ? — An inter- 

 esting discussion is going on in the Contem- 

 porary Review between Mr. Hobson and Mr. 

 W. H. Mallock, as to whether the poor hate 

 the rich. Mr. Hobson affirms it and Mr. 

 Mallock denies it. An impression that they 

 do prevails largely among certain classes of 

 philanthropists and socialists. The London 

 Spectator, reviewing the (Hscussion, thinks 

 that, however it may be in the continental 

 countries of Europe, this is not the case in 



England and among Americans of English 

 descent. The immense majority of these 

 accept differences in pecuniary conditions as 

 part of the order of things, and rather ap- 

 prove them as affording incentives for am- 

 bition and grounds for hope. They do not 

 hate the rich, because they would all like to 

 be rich, and hope by some means some day 

 to become so. They rather regard them as 

 sources of benefit to the community, as per- 

 sons who will keep up the standard of living, 

 and who increase the general mass of op- 

 portunities. They will welcome the settling 

 of a wealthy man among them, because he 

 will spend money. Those may hate the rich 

 who have been disappointed, or who have 

 lost the hope of joining their number, but 

 few others. " Have the multitude, whether 

 in England or the United States, ever tried 

 to limit wealth, or divide wealth, or confis- 

 cate wealth at death, or in any way what- 

 ever endeavored to cause wealth to cease to 

 be ? They have examples of such legisla- 

 tion before them all over the continent, but 

 they not only do not carry similar measures, 

 but they never ask for them, and would 

 treat any candidate who relied upon them in 

 his programme as either a mere faddist or an 

 advocate of novel and disagreeable social 

 heresies. . . . The truth is that both here 

 and in America discontent, when it exists — 

 and of course there is plenty of it — takes 

 the eelf-pitying direction, and not the direc- 

 tion of envy. We remember, about five 

 years ago, being much struck with the form 

 taken by the discontent of a raging orator in 

 one of the parks. He was boiling over with 

 fury against the rich, and at last, rising to 

 the height of his argument, he burst out into 

 an apostrophe : ' You rich fellers, you have 

 funds, you have bonds, you have railway 

 shares : tell me, you wretches, why we 

 should not have them too ? ' That, not the 

 stripping of the rich, was the English 

 rough's genuine and most hearty aspiration." 



The Ways of Sparrows, — The habits of 

 the London sparrow have been studied with 

 much advantage by a writer in the London 

 Spectator, who finds more method in the 

 ways of the bird than we are usually apt to 

 imagine. The site of the sparrows' nests is 

 chosen with much care, and always with a 

 view to avoiding the diuigers from cats. 



