THE ARCTIC LANDS. 



19 



vegetation, and a few scanty grasses or dwarfish flowers that may have found 

 a refnge in some more sheltered spot are unable to relieve the dull monotony 

 of the scene. 



In winter, when animal life has mostly retreated to the south or sought a 

 refuge in burrows or in caves, an awful silence, interrupted only by the hooting 

 of a snow-owl or the yelping of a fox, reigns over their vast expanse ; but in 

 spring, when the brown earth reappears from under the melted snow and the 

 swamps begin to thaw, enormous flights of wild birds appear upon the scene 

 and enliven it for a few months. An admirable instinct leads their winged 

 legions from distant climes to the Arctic wildernesses, where in the morasses 

 or lakes, on the banks of the rivers, on the flat strands, or along the fish-teem- 

 ing coasts, they find an abundance of food, and where at the same time they 

 can with greater security build their nests and rear their young. Some re- 

 main on the skirts of the forest-region ; others, flying farther northward, lay 

 their eggs upon the naked tundra. Eagles and hawks follow the traces of the 

 natatorial and strand birds; troops of ptarmigans roam among the stunted 

 bushes ; and when the sun shines, the finch or the snow-bunting warbles his 

 merry note. 



While thus the warmth of summer attracts hosts of migratory birds to the 

 Arctic wildernesses, shoals of salmon and sturgeons enter the rivers in obe- 

 dience to the instinct that forces them to quic the seas and to swim stream 

 upward, for the purpose of depositing their spawn in the tranquil sweet wa- 

 ters of the stream or lake. About this time also the reindeer leaves the 

 forests to feed on the herbs and lichens of the tundra, and to seek along the 

 shores fanned by the cooled sea-breeze some protection against the attacks of 

 the stinging flies that rise in myriads from the swamps. Thus during several 

 months the tundra presents an animated scene, in which man also plays his 

 part. The birds of the air, the fishes of the water, the beasts of the earth, are 

 all obliged to pay their tribute to his various wants, to appease his hunger, to 

 clothe his body, or to gratify his greed of gain. 



But as soon as the first frosts of September announce the approach of win- 

 ter, all animals, with but few exceptions, hasten to leave a region where the 

 sources of life must soon fail. The geese, ducks, and swans return in dense 

 flocks to the south ; the strand-birds seek in some lower latitude a softer soil 

 which allows their sharp beak to seize a burrowing prey ; the water-fowl for- 

 sake the bays and channels that will soon be blocked up with ice ; the reindeer 

 once more return to the forest, and in a short time nothing is left that can in- 

 duce man to prolong his stay in the treeless plain. Soon a thick mantle of 

 snow covers the hardened earth, the frozen lake, the ice-bound river, and con- 

 ceals them all — seven, eight, nine months long — under its monotonous pall, 

 except where the furious north-east wind sweeps it away and lays bare the 

 naked rock. 



This snow, which after it has once fallen persists until the long summer's 

 day has effectually thawed it, protects in an admirable manner the vegetation 

 of the higher latitudes against the cold of the long winter season. For snow 

 is so bad a conductor of heat, that in mid-winter in the high latitude of 78° 



