THE ARCTIC ZONE. 175 



moss is like a merry harvest-time. In Siberia, 

 vast forests ' of firs appear ; while in Kams- 

 chatka, similar forests are found of the birch. 

 Many of the smaller plants are similar to our 

 own. The juniper abounds, and the dog-rose, 

 the Scotch rose, the red currant, the hawthorn, 

 the white poplar, the mountain ash, and others, 

 are found wild in Kamschatka as well as in our 

 own country. On the shores of Hudson's Bay, 

 it is said no trees are found north of 60. 



7. The Arctic Zone embraces a still smaller 

 belt than the sub-arctic zone. It extends 

 from the arctic circles to 72 lat. Its mean 

 temperature is not certainly known ; it may 

 be at the maximum 35 Fahr. ; but in the 

 colder part of this zone it is much lower, often 

 below the freezing point. It embraces Lapland, 

 the Loffoden Islands, Neva Zembla, and the 

 extreme north of Siberia, part of Greenland, 

 and the extreme north of North America, of 

 which very little is known ; and in the south- 

 ern hemisphere a few islands in 68 lat., of 

 whose vegetation we know nothing, if, indeed, 

 they have any. As we have witnessed the 

 luxuriance, abundance, and splendour of the 

 plants in the tropical parts of our globe, so we 

 find, as we approach the poles, the reverse is 

 the case. A green turf is not quite wanting, 

 though only scantily seen ; while vast and 

 dreary tracts are covered with lichens, and 

 others are occupied with immense forests 

 of fir. 



The lichens are some of the first vegetable 



