22 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



ably upon the limits of the forests ; in others, where the configuration of the 

 land prevents their action, the woods advance farther to the north. 



Thus the barren grounds attain their most southerly limit in Labrador, 

 where they descend to latitude 57°, and this is sufficiently explained by the 

 position of that bleak peninsula, bounded on three sides by icy seas, and washed 

 by cold currents from the north. On the opposite coasts of Hudson's Bay 

 they begin about 60°, and thence gradually rise toward the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie, where the forests advance as high as 68°, or even still farther to the 

 north along the low banks of that river. From the Mackenzie the barrens 

 again descend until they reach Bering's Sea in 65° l!^. On the opposite or 

 Asiatic shore, in the land of the Tchuktchi, they begin again more to the south, 

 in 63°, thence continually rise as far as the Lena, where Anjou found trees in 

 71° N., and then fall again toward the Obi, where the forests do not even reach 

 the Arctic circle. From the Obi the tundri retreat farther and farther to the 

 north, until finally, on the coasts of Norway, in latitude 70°, they terminate 

 with the land itself. 



Hence we see that the treeless zone of Europe, Asia, and America occupies 

 a space larger than the whole of Europe. Even the African Sahara, or the 

 Pampas of South America, are inferior in extent to the Siberian tundri. But 

 the possession of a few hundred square miles of fruitful territory on the south- 

 western frontiers of his vast empire would be of greater value to the Czar than 

 that of those boundless wastes, which are tenanted only by a few wretched 

 pastoral tribes, or some equally wretched fishermen. 



The Arctic forest-regions are of a still greater extent than the vast treeless 

 plains which they encircle. When we consider that they form an almost con- 



COAST OF NORWAY. 



