WRANGELL. 



235 



itants fancy they have spring when about noon the rays of the sun begin to 

 make themselves felt, which generally takes place about the middle of March, 

 but this so-called spring has frequent night-frosts of twenty degrees. Their 

 autumn is reckoned from the time when the rivers begin to freeze over, that is, 

 from the first days of September, when a cold of thirty degrees is already by 

 no means uncommon. As may easily be supposed in a climate like this, the 

 vegetation of summer is scarcely more than a struggle for existence. 



In the latter end of May the stunted willow-bushes put out little wrinkled 

 leaves, and those banks which slope towards the south become clothed with a 

 semi-verdant hue ; in June the temperature at noon attains 72° ; the flowers 

 show themselves, and the berry-bearing plants blossom, when sometimes an icy 

 blast from the sea destroys the bloom. The air is clearest in July, and the 

 temperature is usually mild, but then a new plague arises for the torment of 

 man. Millions and millions of mosquitoes issue from the swamps of the tun- 

 dra, and compel the inhabitants to seek refuge in the dense and pungent smoke 

 of the " dymok ury, ' or large heaps of fallen leaves and damp wood, which are 

 kindled near the dwelUngs and on the pasture-grounds, as the only means of 

 keeping off those abominable insects. 



These tormentors, however, are not without use, for they compel the rein- 

 deer to migrate from the forests to the sea-shore and the ice, thus exposing 

 them to the attack of the hunters, and they also prevent the horses from stray- 

 ing in the plains, and wandering beyond the protection of the smoke. 



Scarcely is the mosquito plague at an end, when the dense autumn fogs rising 

 from the sea spoil the enjoyment of the last mild hours which precede the nine 

 months' winter. In January the cold increases to — 45° ; breathing then be- 

 comes difficult ; the wild reindeer, the indigenous inhabitant of the Polar region, 

 withdraws to the thickest part of the forest, and stands there motionless, as if 

 deprived of life. 



With the 22d November begins a night of thirty-eight days, relieved in some 

 degree by the strong refraction and the white of the snow, as well as by the 

 moon and the aurora. On the 28th December the first pale glimmering of dawn 

 appears, which even at noon does not obscure the stars. With the re-appear- 

 ance of the sun the cold increases, and is most intense in February and March 

 at the rising of the sun. Even in winter completely clear days are very rare, 

 as the cold sea-wind covers the land with mists and fogs. 



The character of the vegetation corresponds with that of the climate. Moss, 

 stunted grass, dwarfish willow-shrubs, are all that the place produces. The 

 neighboring valleys of the Aniuj, protected by mountains against the sea-wind, 

 have a somewhat richer flora, for here grow berry-bearing plants, the birch, the 

 poplar, absinthe, thyme, and the low-creeping cedar. This poverty, however, 

 of the vegetable world is strongly contrasted with the profusion of animal life 

 over these shores and on the Polar Sea, Reindeer, elks, bears, foxes, sables, 

 and gray squirrels fill the upland forests, while stone-foxes burrow in the low 

 grounds. Enormous flights of swans, geese, and ducks arrive in spring, and 

 seek deserts where they may moult and build their nests in safety. Eagles, 

 owls, and gulls pursue their prey along the sea-coast ; ptarmigan run in troops 



