MIDDENDORFF'S ADVENTURES IN TAIMURLAND. 



22? 



marks, if any one wishes to see the grass grow, he must travel to the Taimur. 

 Scarcely do the first leaves peep forth when the blossoms also appear, as if, con- 

 scious of the early approach of autumn, they felt the necessity of bringing their 

 seeds to a rapid maturity under this wintry sky. 



With regard to the animal creation, the general law of polar uniformity was 

 fully confirmed in Taimurland. The same lemmings were found which peo- 

 ple the whole north of Asia and America, and as high as 75° I^. lat. they found 

 the traces of the snow-hare, which inhabits the complete circle of the Arctic re- 

 gions of the globe. The Arctic fox, everywhere at home in the treeless wastes, 

 is here also pursued by the northern glutton; and following the herds of the 

 reindeer, the wolves, and the Samoiedes, roams up and down the tundra. The 

 ptarmigan, which in Scandinavia and on Melville Island feeds on berries and 

 buds, appears also as a summer visitor at the mouth of the Taimur in 75° 4' N. 

 lat., and the ivory gull of the northern European seas likewise builds its nest 

 on the rocks of that distant shore. 



The more vigorous vegetation on the sheltered declivities of the Taimur pro- 

 vides food for a comparatively greater number of insects than is found on the 

 coasts of Nova Zembla. Bees, hornets, and three different species of butterflies, 

 buzzed or hovered round the flowers, and caterpillars could be gathered by 

 dozens on the tundra, but their mortal enemies had pursued them even here ; 

 and ichneumon flies crept out of most of them. Two spiders, several flies, 

 gnats, and tipulae, a curculio, and half a dozen carabi completed Middendorff's 

 entomological list, to which, no doubt, further researches would have consid- 

 erably added. 



Thus, at the northern extremity of Asia, as in every other part of the world, 

 the naturalist finds the confirmation of the general law that, where the means 

 of Hfe are given, life is sure to come forth. 



