UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 185 



plants, except the gradual opening of the willow 

 catkins. Early in June, the first, or female band 

 of reindeer passed to the northward of lat. 65 ; 

 their progress seemed to be regulated by the un- 

 covering of the lichens. When the thaw is much 

 farther advanced, the lichens become too tender 

 and pulpy, and the deer resort to the swamps to 

 feed upon the grass, or rather hay, which having 

 been frozen up in the preceding autumn^ retains 

 its sap and nutritive qualities, when the snow melts 

 from around it in spring. In a few days, how 

 ever, the stalks become dry, and the seeds are shed ; 

 but the deer by that time have reached the sea- 

 coast, where other plants supply them with food, 

 which, however, are not so fattening as the lichens. 

 On Midsummer-day the dwarf birch opened 

 its buds ; a fortnight afterwards the ice on the 

 larger lakes broke up, and several plants flowered. 

 But on the 5th of September a storm set in, 

 which clothed all the country with snow for the 

 winter ; and in the beginning of October the party 

 again walked over the lakes which they had 

 crossed on the ice in the middle of June ; an in- 

 terval of only 116 days. 



The sap of the trees and shrubs freezes there 

 in winter ; arid the wood becomes so hard that 

 the chips produced by an axe flew off more like 

 splinters of stone than of wood. 



In all those dreary districts there are no traces 

 of the influence of man over the appearance of 



R3 



