262 EUROPE 



remainder, such are the conditions to which organisms 

 must adapt themselves. Yet even the hostility of such 

 an environment has not proved too much for the powers 

 of endurance of plant and animal life. Seventy-two plant 

 species, in addition to many species of animals, are able 

 to live and reproduce on snow and ice. They are reduced 

 to the most elementary forms, hardly more than drops of 



FIG. 104. Snow-bound Tundra 



living matter finding their powers of resistance in the 

 nature of their own substance rather than in adventi- 

 tious means of protection, for of external devices such as 

 higher forms of life are able to evolve, there appear to be 

 few or none. Living things are reduced to a powdering 

 of tiny cells penetrating the snow to a depth of one or 

 two inches. The bright colours, rose, red, purple and 



