68 DISCREPANCIES. 



of wingless gnat,* the other something like a flea, but 

 really one of the PanorpadcB,f — I have found numerous 

 in similar circumstances, and in no other. 



As a curious incident, not altogether out of place in 

 this connexion, though the parallelism of the cases is 

 more apparent than real, we may notice the trees which 

 Mr Atkinson found growing, under very unusual circum- 

 stances, in the valley of the Black Irkout, in Eastern 

 Siberia, a romantic gorge, whose precipitous sides are 

 formed of different marbles — one white, with deep purple 

 spots and small veins, another a rich yellow kind, equal, 

 if not superior, to the best Sienna, but wholly untouched 

 by man. " We reached," he says, " a part of the ravine 

 filled with snow and ice, where large poplars were grow- 

 ing, with only their tops above the icy mass; the 

 branches were in full leaf, although the trunks were 

 imbedded in the snow and ice to a depth of twenty-five 

 feet. I dismounted, examined several, and found that 

 there was a space around the stem, nine inches wide, filled 

 with water, the only parts that appeared to be thawing, 

 I have often seen flowers penetrating a thin bed of snow, 

 but this was the first time I had found trees growing 

 under such circumstances." J 



The burning, sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa seem 

 at first sight to be utterly without organic life, and doubt- 

 less they are the most barren of all regions. But even 

 there both animals and vegetables do exist. Several sorts 



* Chionea araneoides. f Boreus hyemalii, 



t Atkinson's Siberia, p. 595. 



