398 Notices of Scientijic Works. [July, 



' The Polar World ; a Popular Description of Man and Nature 

 in the Arctic and Antarctic Eegions of the Globe,' is devoted to a 

 fuU consideration of those cheerless regions near the poles of our 

 Earth, and the conditions of existence within then- ice-bound cu'cles. 

 The frigid zone of the northern hemisphere is strikingly cut off 

 from the temperate regions by belts of forest. We have a zone of 

 evergreen coniferae, which gradually shades off towards the north 

 into a treeless waste. These wastes, known as " barrens " in North 

 America and " tundri " in Eussia, are produced by the ice-cold 

 winds which sweep unchecked over the islands or the flat coasts 

 of the Polar Ocean, and for miles and miles compel even the hardiest 

 plant to crouch before the blast and creep along the ground. 

 These " tundri " represent in a striking manner the peculiar -phe- 

 nomena of arctic life. In the winter an awful silence, interruj^ted 

 only by the melancholy hoot of a snow owl or by the yelp of a 

 hungry fox, reigns supreme over this vast expanse. But during 

 this period of frigid repose, nature has been garnering her stores, 

 and with the awakening spring she pours over air and sea and land 

 a teeming luxui'iance of fife, wliich draws from the south an army 

 of destroyers. " Eagles and hawks follow the traces of the nata- 

 torial and strand birds ; troops of ptarmigans roam among the stimted 

 bushes ; and when the sun shines, the finch or the snow-bimting 

 warbles his merry note. While thus the warmth of summer 

 attracts hosts of migrating birds to the arctic wildernesses, shoals 

 of salmon and sturgeons enter the rivers, in obedience to the 

 instinct that forces them to quit the seas and to swim upwards, for 

 the purpose of depositing their spawn in the tranquil sweet waters 

 of the stream or lake. About this time, also, the reindeer leaves the 

 forest to feed on the herbs and hchens of the tundi-a, and to seek 

 along the shores, fanned by the cooled sea-breeze, some protection 

 against the attacks of the stinging flies that rise in myriads fi'om 

 the swamps. Thus during several months the tmidra presents an 

 animated scene, in which man also plays his part. The birds of the 

 air, the fishes of the water, the beasts of the earth, are all obliged 

 to pay their tribute to his various wants, to appease his hunger, to 

 clothe his body, or to gratify his greed of gain." 



Dr. Kane observes, " No eider-down in the cradle of an hifant 

 is tucked in more kindly than the sleepmg-dress of winter about 

 the feeble plant-hfe of the arctic zone." Ere yet the destroying 

 blasts of winter sweep over earth and ocean, the light and feathery 

 snow has carefully covered up eveiy organized thing ; and in a state 

 of repose, resting on or in the earth, kept warm by its snowy 

 mantle, the plant and the animal await that awakening which 

 comes with the rising of the sun above the horizon. 



I'o the contemplative mind nothing can bo more hitercsting 

 than to read, in the pleasant words of Dr. Hartwig, of the way in 



