180 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



populous. This is in accordance with the view I have 

 advanced, that in the struggle for existence these broad- 

 leaved trees always remain master of the field, wherever 

 man begins to destroy the primitive forest. 



' The forests are virgin forests, but these virgin forests 

 cannot be compared with the luxuriant vegetation of the 

 tropical forests, where the favourable condition of soil calls 

 forth a proper growth, which, unchecked, makes the equa- 

 torial forests unapproachable by anything seen here, where 

 on the contrary, there is a poor soil and a severe climate. 

 These make growth a slow process ; and, on the other 

 hand, storms, gales, frosts, and fires destroy an immense 

 number of trees, which with difficulty have attained in the 

 course of centuries considerable size. Under ruins of 

 forests thus produced there frequently accumulates water, 

 creating marshes, which are met with in every direction. 

 Everywhere in traversing these forests one meets with 

 fallen decaying trees, overturned by storms, or reduced 

 near the ground by fires. Everywhere are these met with ; 

 and everywhere also are seen masses of stones and bare 

 granite boulders, while peat and moss bogs cover exten- 

 sive areas, in a word, it may be said, moss and lichens, 

 bogs, stones, fallen wood these are the characteristic 

 features of the Northern forest. The virgin forests of the 

 tropics are characterised by profuse and luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion ; those of the Polar regions are the products of nature 

 which here is poor, and often destroys her own progeny in 

 their early or unspent life, and provides but little nourish- 

 ment for them as they grow up, and accordingly we find 

 in the forests of Vuig that the growth of trees is slow. A 

 pine tree does not attain its exploitable maturity of ten 

 vershoks in thickness at a height of ten arschins, or 23^ 

 feet from the ground in less than from 150 to 170 years, 

 and a critical age with the trees appears to be that extend- 

 ing from 50 to 80 years. Trees of larger dimensions are 

 generally trees of from 300 to 350 years' growth ; but 

 these have often such defects as unfit them for use. 

 Defective trees, which are extensively disseminated over 



