226 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



snow which annually falls in the highest latitudes. So much is certain that it 

 can not be small, to judge by the violence and swelling of the rivers in spring. 

 The summits of the hills, and the declivities exposed to the reigning winds, are 

 constantly deprived of snow, which, however, fills up the bottom of the valleys 

 to a considerable height. Great was Middendorff's astonishment, while travel- 

 ling over the tundra at the end of winter, to find it covered with no more than 

 two inches, or at the very utmost half a foot, of snow ; the dried stems of the 

 Arctic plants everywhere peeping forth above its surface. This was the natu- 

 ral consequence of the north-easterly storms, which, sweeping over the naked 

 plain, carry the snow along with them, and form the snow-waves, the compass of 

 the northern nomads. 



It is extremely probable that, on advancing towards the pole, the fall of snow 

 gradually diminishes, as in the Alps, where its quantity likewise decreases on 

 ascending above a certain height. 



On measuring the thickness of the ice, Middendorff was very much surprised 

 to find it nowhere, both in the lakes and on the river, thicker than eight feet, and 

 sometimes only four and a half; its thickness being constantly proportionate to 

 the quantity of snow with which it was covered. At first he could hardly be- 

 lieve that this simple covering could afford so efficacious a j^rotection against the 

 extreme cold of winter in the '74th degree of latitude, but the fact is well known 

 to the Samoiedes, who, whenever they require water, always make the hole 

 where the snow lies deepest. 



The tundras of Taimuria were found to consist principally of arid plateaux 

 and undulating heights, where the vegetation can not conceal the boulders and 

 the sand of which the crust of the earth is formed. 



The withered tij^s of the grasses scarcely differ in color from the dirty yel- 

 low-brown moss, and the green of the lower part of the stalks appears as through 

 a veil. Nothing can be of a more dreary monotony than this vegetation when 

 spread over a wide surface; but in the hardly perceptible depressions of the 

 plains where the spring water is able to collect, a fresher green gains the upper 

 hand, the stalks are not only longer, but stand closer together, and the grass, 

 growing to a height of three or even four inches, usurps the place of the moss. 

 Here and there small patches of Dryas octopetala^ or Cassiope tetragona, and 

 much more rarely a dwarf ranunculus, diversify the dingy carpet, yet without 

 being able to relieve its wearisome character. But very different, and indeed 

 truly surprising, is the aspect of the slopes which, facing the Taimur lake or 

 river, are protected against the late and early frosts. Here considerable patches 

 of ground are covered with a lively green, intermingled with gayly-colored flow- 

 ers, such as the brilliant yellow Sieversia, the elegant Oxytropis, the blue and 

 white Saxifragas, the red Armeria alpina, and a beautiful new species of Del- 

 phinium. All these various flowers are not dwarfs of stunted growth, forPole- 

 raones, Sisymbrias, Polygonums, and Papavers above a foot high decorate the 

 slopes, and Middendorff found an islet in the Taimur covered like a field wdth a 

 Senecio, of which some of the most conspicuous specimens were more than a foot 

 and a half high, and bore no less than forty flowers above an inch in diameter. 



The progress of vegetation is uncommonly rapid, so that, as Middendorff re- 



