THE POLAR WORLD. 



ground. The European and Asiatic species differ, however, from those which 

 grow in America. 



Thus in the Russian empire and Scandinavia we find the Scotch fir [Pinus 

 sylvestris), the Siberian fir and larch {Abies sibirica^ Larix sibirica), the Picea 

 obovata, and the Pi7ius cembra ; while in the Hudson's Bay territories the 

 woods principally consist of the white and black spruce {Abies alba and 

 nigra) f the Canadian larch {Larix canadensis^ and the gray pine {Pinus 

 banJcsiana). In both continents birch-trees grow farther to the north than 

 the conifera?, and the dwarf willows form dense thickets on the shores of every 

 river and lake. Various species of the service-tree, the ash, and the elder are 

 also met with in the Arctic forests ; and both under the shelter of the woods 

 and beyond their limits, nature, as if to compensate for the want of f i-uit-trees, 

 produces in favorable localities an abundance of bilberries, bogberries, cran- 

 berries, etc. {Empetrum^ Vaccinium), whose fruit is a great boon to man and 

 beast. When congealed by the autumnal frosts, the ben-ies frequently remain 

 hanging on the bushes until the snow melts in the following June, and are 

 then a considerable resource to the flocks of water-fowl migrating to their 

 northern breeding-places, or to the bear awakening from his winter sleep. 



VERGE OF FOREST REGION. 



