mouun. i'u lake an obvious example, AxiiL Hi.ytt, llie Norwegian botanist, has l)y iiis 

 studies of the peat-bogs in Norway, been able to separate 7 different zones — four layers of 

 peal with liiiec inlcivcning layers of remains of forests — representing deposits after 

 as many coresjjonding moist and dry periods, indicating that three drier periods of climate 

 alternated with four moist ones since the glacial epoch. I had, unfortunately, no 

 lime or occasion for digging out in any of all the peal-bogs in which the rrjankai country 

 abounds, and wliicli would no doubt bring to light many interesting facts. The bogs 

 were now frequently more or less dried up, and the original vegetation had been gradu- 

 ally mixed uj) with other plants, or, in the process of time, wholly expelled l)y these 



Fifi -t;!. From the lower ])art of the subalpine regions on the south side of the Sayansk moun 



tains. In the background drying up conifeis. 



invaders, ^^ hich do not belong to the typical Sphagnum swamps. In similar places were 

 often to be found common copse-wood of Betiila humilis, Betula rotiindi/olia, or in 

 places, high and well grown firs and various Salices, and with an undergrowth of divers 

 species of grasses and sedges, especially Carex caespilosa, which might form tussocks 

 to over one meter high, Vacciniuin Myrlilliis, Vaccinium vitis idaea, and besides, also 

 very commonly Vaccinium uliginosum subspec. imberbe nov. subspec, Rubus arcticus, 



71 



