THE POLAR WORLD 



TUE TUNDKA OF SIBERIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE ARCTIC LANDS. 



The barren Grounds or Tundri. — Abundance of animal Life on the Tundri in Summer.— Their Silence 

 and Desolation in Winter. — Protection afforded to Vegetation by the Snow. — Flower-growth in 

 the higliest Latitudes. — Character of Tundra Vegetation. — Southern Boundary-line of the barren 

 Grounds. — Their Extent. — The forest Zone. — Arctic Trees. — Slowness of their Growth. — Monotonj' 

 of the Northern Forests. — Mosquitoes. — The various Causes which determine the Severity of an 

 Arctic Climate. — Insular and Continental Position. — Currents. — Winds. — Extremes of Cold observed 

 by Sir E. Belcher and Dr. Kane.— How is Man able to support the Rigors of an Arctic Winter?— 

 Proofs of a milder Climate having once reigned in the Arctic Regions. — Its Cause according to 

 Dr. Oswald Heer. — Peculiar Beauties of the Arctic Regions. — Sunset.— Long lunar Nights.— The 

 Aurora. 



A GLANCE at a map of the Arctic regions shows us that many of the 

 -^-*- rivers belonging to the three continents — Europe, Asia, America— dis- 

 charge their Avaters into the Polar Ocean or its tributary bays. The terri- 

 tories drained by these streams, some of which (such as the Mackenzie, the 

 Yukon, the Lena, the Yenisei, and the Obi) rank among the giant rivers of 

 the earth, form, along with the islands within or near the Arctic circle, the 

 vast region over which the frost-king reigns supreme. 



Man styles himself the lord of the earth, and may with some justice lay 

 claim to the title in more genial lands where, armed with the plough, he com- 

 pels the soil to yield him a variety of fruits ; but in those desolate tracts 



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