THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 167 



in America part of Columbia, Newfoundland, 

 and the British territory ; the south of Pata- 

 gonia, Terra del Fuego, and the Falkland 

 Islands. The mean annual temperature is 

 between 42 and 53. Deciduous trees are a 

 characteristic feature of this zone in Europe, as 

 evergreen ones were of the last. The chief 

 forests are composed of oak, elm, beech, pine, 

 fir, lime, etc., while willows of many species 

 abound in the moist and marshy lands. The 

 oak is found as far north as 63 at Drontheim, 

 in Norway ; on the confines of Asia it ceases 

 to grow at 57-J lat., and on the east of Asia 

 it has its northern limits on the banks of the 

 Argoun 51^ N. lat., eight hundred miles 

 nearer to the equator than its limits in western 

 Europe. 



The oak is the most valuable timber tree of 

 this zone for strength, durability, and general 

 usefulness. One, which was felled in 1810 for 

 the use of the navy, contained 2,426 cubic feet 

 of sound and convertible timber. The bark 

 was estimated at six tons ; five men were em- 

 ployed twenty days in cutting down and ship- 

 ping it, and two sawyers were engaged for five 

 months in cutting it up. The whole produce of 

 the tree when brought to market was nearly 

 GOO. It will not flourish in tropical climates. 

 Bishop Heber mentions that, in the Botanic 

 Garden at Calcutta, he saw what excited a me- 

 lancholy kind of interest a little wretched oak, 

 kept alive with difficulty under a sky and in a 

 temperature so perpetually stimulating, that no 



