TUNDRA REGION 81 



other species of the heather family are numerous, and 

 in the tundra or barrens their dwarf bushes are pre- 

 ponderating; among them occur evergreen rhododendron, 

 Jcalmia, ledum, bearberries, and other bushes of a 

 similar character, clad with lichens. The well-known 

 bloom-mats carpeting the southern slopes of many of 

 the hills and knolls, like islands or oases of beauty, are 

 said to reach their best development in Alaska. The 

 most brilliant representative of their flora, i.e. the 

 dodecatheon primrose, has found favour in our gardens, 

 together with a handsome willow-bush which grows 

 along the rivers, the arctic poppy, saxifrages, gentians, 

 &c. Further north, the tundras of the high Arctic 

 islands become poorer and poorer in vegetation. 



The lichens of the * Great Barrens ' support a fairly 

 abundant animal population, the furs and feathers of 

 which are sought after by Eskimos, Indians, and back- 

 woodsmen, who repair at intervals to the trading posts 

 of the Hudson Bay Company, the only centres of barter 

 of these bleak regions. 



The thick clouds of mosquitoes, which tenant the 

 tundra and prove such an unmixed nuisance to man, 

 fulfil an important role in the economy of the animal 

 world, in providing an inexhaustible supply of food 

 for the innumerable legions of migrant birds, which 

 are attracted from parts as remote as the southernmost 

 extremity of South America. 



The Great Canadian Forest. Hudsonian Forest. In 

 Canada the transition from cold moors to temperate 

 conditions is very gradual, for between the actual tundra 

 and the dense forest extends a wide belt of mixed type 

 called the * scattered forest '. It is remarkable that the 

 northern limit of the regular Canadian tai>a should 



O O 



follow the latitude of the southern limit of that of west 



1159.1 Q 



