10 VOICES FEOM THE WOODLANDS. 



Linnseus, in his Lapland Tour, notes the gradual decrease 

 of vegetation on mountain sides. Esmack, member of the 

 Norwegian Council of Mines, sought to ascertain such facts 

 as bore expressly on the subject, and for this purpose he 

 ascended Schneehattun, or the Snow-capped Mountain. This 

 wild hill had much to interest the naturalist. It was shrouded 

 with a snowy mantle, on which clouds seemed to rest; and 

 at one point, where a partial thaw had occurred, layers of 

 vegetable mould, separated by a rind of ice, were readily 

 discovered. Considerable difference, with regard to the boun- 

 dary line of vegetation, was obvious on the sides of the moun- 

 tain, as likewise the kind of trees and shrubs, in proportion 

 as they were capable of bearing a greater or less degree of cold. 

 Fruit-trees throve and became productive at an elevation of 

 one thousand feet ; barley and oats, in sheltered places, from 

 fifteen to eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. 

 To these succeeded forests of larch and pine, or birch-trees, 

 in regular gradation ; next, short grass, with several species 

 of herbs, adapted to the pasturage of cattle ; higher up the 



