152 THE FOREST Laps OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
drawing breath.” In many parts of Lapland the days in 
summer are bright, serene, and warm, and the season, 
though short, remarkably healthy and delightful. At 
Altengaard, as observed by Baron Von Buch, in 79° North 
Lat. the thermometer generally stood at 70° or 72° in 
July; and the mean temperature of the month was 
nearly 63°.’ 
One consequence of the peculiarities of climatic condi- 
tion is that most of the ports of the White Sea are frozen 
in winter, while Norwegian ports of a much higher latitude 
to the west of the White Sea remain open, and this not- 
withstanding the temperature on land there being lower 
than it is along the northern coast of Russia. 
On this subject an interesting paper by Professor Daa, 
of the University of Christiana, was read at the Interna- 
tional Congress of Students of Geographical Science, held 
in Paris in 1876. The following is a summary of this 
paper :— 
It is generally known that the navigation of all the 
Russian ports on the White Sea is interrupted by ice 
during many months of the year, while the Norwegian 
coast remains open; and this remarkable difference has 
been attributed to the influence of the Gulf Stream, which 
moderates the climate of the country, but has no influence 
on that of the other. This opinion in regard to the con- 
trast of climate in the two parts of the same sea is so 
rooted in the public opinion, that it is found in quite a 
number of publications, and yet, as a physical theory, it is 
destitute of any foundation. The frontier separating the 
two countries is altogether an artificial and arbitrary one. 
The Gulf Stream does not terminate at that point; it 
flows on to Nova Zembla, and it moderates in this way the 
climate of all these latitudes. 
It is nevertheless the case that the Norwegian ports in the 
Arctic Ocean —Tromsoe, Hammerfest, Sandoe, and Vardoe 
—are never frozen during the winter, while the Russian 
towns of Kila, Kem, Onega, Archangel, Mezen, and Pusto- 
zersk, are shut off by the ice for many months every year. 
