E7g2- ow the climate of Rufsia. 258 
become exceedingly scarce, nor will that want be easily 
remedied. And it may be expected to prove scarcest in 
those very places where it most abounds; as has happen- 
éd with ourselves ; because in those places no care will be 
taken to preserve the woods, till they be totally extermina- 
ted. This we know is actually the case in Scotland; for 
those places which were some hundreds of years ago entire- 
‘ly covered with impenetrable weods, are now so destitute of 
timber that not a tree can be seen; whereas in other 
places, little groves of trees are scattered about every 
where. This defect, in Aberdeenthire especially, we are 
now rapidly correcting; and in half a century that will 
be once more a finely wooded country. But in Rufsia 
such a want could be with much greater difficulty sup- 
plied’; and therefore the greater care fhould now be taken 
to obviate it. 
Were we, however, to form our judgement of the cli- 
mate of Rufsia from its herbaceous plants, and small fhrubs, 
instead of its trees, when compared with our own, we 
fhould draw a very different conclusion ; for we fhould 
there probably find many small fhrubs, and herbaceous 
plants, that stood the winter perfectly well in the open 
ground, which require artificial protection in this coun- 
try; for the snow which falls there in the beginning of 
winter, covers the whole surface of the ground, to such 
a depth as to Metter them almost entirely from the effects 
of frost ; to which they are often here exposed, quite bare, 
for several months together. Where the snow is of a suf- 
ficient depth, indeed, the frost can have little imprefsion on 
the soil, or the roots of the plants which are in it ; and in 
ahe spring it is often found, that plants, influenced by the 
heat of the sun penetrating the snow throughout the day, 
and protected from the frosts in the evening, have begun 
te spring long before the snow be melted, so as to appear 
VOL. xii. KK , 
