THE POLAR ZONE. 15 



the year below the freezing-point, the rocky, barren soil, 

 and a want of water during the short summer. 



And now we may form some faint idea of what this Polar 

 summer is like, if we imagine the sun shining on this scanty 

 vegetation, almost as bright at midnight as at midday (so 

 as to give the air no time to lose any of the heat it has re- 

 ceived), till it sometimes even melts the tar in the seams of 

 the ships which make their way there. When the sun shines 

 from the north, it may be looked at as we look at the moon, 

 with an undazzled eye ; and sometimes its rays are obscured 

 for a time by thick and sudden fogs. Clouds of wild-fowl 

 fill up the picture, darkening the air as a whole flock of 

 them rises at once ; and not only wild-fowl, but a variety of 

 other birds congregate in these regions in summer, to lay 

 their eggs. 



Though there is neither tree nor shrub growing in this 

 zone, the frequent appearance of Pine-trees, drifting about 

 in the Arctic Ocean, used to be considered by sailors as a 

 kind of mystery ; but it is supposed that these trees have 

 at some time been torn up by land-floods, and driven into 

 the sea by the many great rivers which flow through the 

 northern parts of Russia into this ocean. From the decayed 

 state in which they are always found., there is reason to 



