110 INFLUENCE OF THE OCEAN ON FORESTS. 



where the Region of the Great Plains is supposed to 

 terminate ; and it extends northwards as far as the 

 arctic circle, which is drawn by geographers at 

 Latitude 6632' North. This zone thus occupies a belt 

 as near as possible 1000 geographical miles in width. 

 At some points, as we ourselves have seen, the region 

 of trees surpasses these limits, but if so they are of 

 dwarfed growth, and the heavy forest has almost com- 

 pletely ended: a region of stunted bush, growing in 

 patches, nevertheless in many places extends some 

 distance into our next and last division, namely the 

 Arctic Zone, before tree life finally ceases. In the 

 southern hemisphere, the mighty expanse of the great 

 southern ocean occupies, as we have said, nearly the 

 whole of the corresponding area in that part of the 

 world. The reports of navigators show that it is a 

 region of almost constant storm, where the giant rollers 

 driven by the westerly gales continually chase each 

 other with little intermission round the world in that 

 region, throughout the year.* 



In the previous section we have drawn attention to 

 the influence of the ocean breezes in promoting the 

 growth of trees, and have pointed out that in consequence 

 the whole of the eastern seaboard of the United 

 States was formerly a region covered with dense forests 

 which usurps the position which would otherwise be 

 occupied by open plains; but that as the influence of 

 these water-bearing winds ceases, so the forest also 

 ceases, and the treeless plains take its place. It would 

 not now be easy to define the exact boundary line 



* These gales are known by mariners as " The Brave Winds " 

 which blow almost unceasingly in the Southern Hemisphere, from about 

 Lat. 40 S., in a stiff westerly gale. 



