180 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



frigid to the torrid zone ; and if we do not possess 

 the rich variety of the tropical regions, the palms, 

 the teak, the jnahogany, the banyan, and the bao- 

 bab, yet are we, on the other hand, provided with 

 some tribes that cannot be surpassed in usefulness 

 or in beauty. And it is worthy of remark, he 

 added, that some one species of the oak and of 

 the pine, those two most useful trees, are to be 

 found in every climate of the earth, excepting 

 in the immediate polar regions. The woods of 

 northern Russia, of Norway, and Sweden, con- 

 sist, with little variation, of the pine tribe. The 

 Scotch fir retains its dense foliage during the long 

 winter, and affords shelter to the wild animals 

 of the forest ; and the greater the intensity of 

 cold, the firmer and more dense the timber be- 

 comes in texture. This tree supplies the pea- 

 santry with their cottages, their boats, and their 

 fuel. Tar, rosin, and turpentine, are extracted 

 from it by very rude methods of distillation, and 

 its ashes produce potash. On the mountainous 

 ranges of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Apen- 

 nines, it grows luxuriantly at that elevation 

 where the temperature is similar to that of the 

 northern regions. In the mountains of Thibet, 

 which are now considered the highest in the 

 world, six different species of pine flourish ; and 

 even at the elevation of 12,000 feet, forests 

 of pine are found mixed with birch and rho- 

 dodendron 



