BIRCH. 217 



Such giant trees are found in the wildest solitudes among 

 primeval forests, where the sound of the woodman's axe is 

 never heard. Linnaeus spoke of those vast forests as ex- 

 tending to the base of the Lapland Alps, and that, as- 

 cending their bleak sides, they went on to within two 

 thousand feet below the line of perpetual snow, although 

 diminishing in growth the higher they advanced; below 

 which point even such of the hardiest forest-trees that had 

 accompanied them went no further, and our kindred be- 

 came dwarf and stunted, with short thick stems and stiff 

 and widely-spreading branches, prepared to resist the strong 

 winds from the north. And yet, as if unwilling to relin- 

 quish their ancient empire, they still proceeded, becoming 

 even more stunted, till their topmost boughs might be 

 surveyed from a slight elevation. Here, then, is their 

 utmost boundary, and at this, also, the dwarf crimson 

 bramble and common heath cease to diversify the sterile 

 soil, although alpine coltsfoot and the Pedicularis sylvatica 

 accompany our tribe to its utmost boundary. 



