1869.] ( 397 ) 



NOTICES OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS. 



THE POLAR WOELD.* 



The distribution of animal and vegetable life upon the surface of 

 our globe is regulated, with remarkable exactness, by the quantity 

 of sunshine which falls upon each parallel of latitude. In other 

 words, the measure of solar energy which, as luminous, or calorific, 

 or chemical force — to say nothing of electrical power — becomes 

 active upon any spot of Earth, determines, not merely the life 

 which shall exist upon that SjDot, but the variety of that life, be it 

 vegetable or animal. 

 In the tropics, where 



" The long sunny lapse of a summer-day's light 



Shining on, sGiuiug on, by no shadow made tender," 



quickens the circulation of those fluids which are the life-stream 

 of plant and animal alike, we find an exuberance of vitality. The 

 vegetable world assumes a gigantic character, and bursts into 

 flowers and fruits, in which nature's chemistry has produced the 

 deepest dyes and the most luscious juices. The animal world also 

 revels in an excess of life, and every passion is stimulated to the 

 utmost by the influence of radiant forces, which are the beginning 

 and the end of organized being. There men are 



" Souls made of fiie, and children of the sun 

 With whom revenge is virtue." 



In the temperate zones all nature assumes a milder aspect; trees 

 and shrubs, flowers and fruits, animals and man, are in the enjoy- 

 ment of a more subdued existence ; and every j)henomenon, whether 

 physical or physiological, is marked by the weaker influence of the 

 solar power. As we advance towards the arctic or antarctic zones we 

 find a gradual decline in the manifestations of vital power, and every 

 organized creation assumes a peculiar character, which strikingly 

 marks the struggle for existence under the diSiculties of a diminish- 

 ing quantity of light and heat. At last we arrive at a region 

 where vegetable life appears limited to' the reindeer-moss, and 

 animal existence is restricted to such creatures as can make a snow 

 cave their home, and support the heat necessary for life, by gorging 

 themselves with fuel, in the shape of masses of fat, washed into 

 their stomachs with large draughts of animal oil. 



* ' The Polar World ; a Popular Description of Man and Nature in the Arctic 

 and Antiirctic Kegions of the Globe.' By Dr. G. Hartwig. Longmans, Green, 

 & Co. 1861). 



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