ARCTIC MEADOWS. 273 



arctic crop, but if so, its quality and the percentage 

 of its yield will compensate for that. 



Arctic hay, so far as we have seen it, is generally 

 short in its length, and would make a poor show in 

 an English market. The fields are also generally very 

 full of beautiful wild flowers, we cannot call them 

 weeds, but we fear they do not improve the quality 

 of the grass as a feeding stuff. The hay harvest in 

 Norway, Sweden and Russia forms quite a curious 

 spectacle to the stranger, on account of the peculiar 

 way they work it, by drying the grass on high wooden 

 hurdles, where being exposed to the full influence of 

 sun and wind it quickly dries, when it is at once 

 conveyed into log huts standing in the middle of the 

 fields, which are constructed specially for its reception. 

 In the high latitudes, such as that of Spitzbergen 

 and other lands lying far to the northward, mere 

 words can give but a faint idea of their utter desolation 

 and almost complete barrenness. 



It is probable that so far north as Spitzbergen it 

 is always freezing in the shade, even during the 

 hottest day in summer from the moment in fact that 

 the sun's rays are not actually shining directly upon 

 an object. On the sunlit side of a hill therefore, it 

 may be quite hot, while on its shaded portion many 

 degrees of frost prevail. This is clearly shown by 

 the perfectly antiseptic condition of the atmosphere 

 which always exists there, it being well known that 

 at a temperature of 32 F. or below it, putrefactive 

 fermentation is arrested. Where severe frost therefore 

 prevails, food supplies of all kinds will keep good for 

 an indefinite period. Thus in Russia during winter 

 they expose piles of carcases of oxen, pigs, etc., for 



VOL. II. 1 8 



