44 



CHAPTER IY. 



THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 



FROM 58 TO 45 LATITUDE. 



THE face of most of the countries of the Old World lying 

 in this zone is so greatly altered by long cultivation, that 

 to get any idea of what they originally were, we must recol- 

 lect what the state now is of that part of North America 

 called the British Territories, which is included in this belt 

 of land. Our best plan will be, first, to find our way, as 

 well as we can, through the North American forests, and 

 then, crossing the Atlantic, we shah 1 be able to compare the 

 natural state of vegetation, as it still exists in the New 

 World, with its altered and cultivated appearance in the 

 older countries of this hemisphere, England, France, Ger- 

 many, etc. The desolate steppes of the Don and the Yolga 

 also lie in this zone ; Caucasus, the Ural and Altai moun- 



