70 



FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



into dunes along the banks; thus a soil foreign to the tundra is 

 formed. On these sand-hills the larch grows, even in the tundra of 

 Siberia, to a stately tree, and becomes, in association with willows 

 and dwarf alder bushes, an ornament to the landscape. In the 

 neighbourhood of small lakes the trees may even be grouped 

 together, and, with the shrubs already named, form a natural 



park which would not escape observation even in a much richer 

 and more fertile district, and is here so very remarkable that it 

 leaves a lasting impression. 



When the larch has taken root in the sand-hills, there grow up 

 under its sheltering branches other tall-stemmed plants such as 

 sharp-leaved willows, mountain ash, black alder, and woodbine 

 bushes, and there spring from the sand many flowers which one 

 thought to have left far behind in the south. The surprised 



