24 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



ground. The European and Asiatic species differ, however, from those which 

 grow in America. 



Thus in the Russian empire and Scandinavia we find the Scotch fir {Piniis 

 sylcestris), the Siberian fir and larch {Abies sibirica, Larix sibirica), the .Plcea 

 obovata, and the P'uuis cembra ; while in the Hudson's Bay territories the 

 woods principally consist of the white and black spruce (Abies alba and 

 nigra), the Canadian larch [Larix canadensis, and the gray pine [Pinus 

 banksiana). In botli continents birch-trees grow farther to the north than 

 the coniferge, and the dwarf willows form dense thickets on the shores of every 

 river and lake. Various species of the service-tree, the ash, and the elder are 

 also Tuet with in the Arctic forests ; and both under the shelter of the woods 

 and beyond their limits, nature, as if to compensate for the want of fruit-trees, 

 produces in favorable localities an abundance of bilberries, bogberries, cran- 

 berries, etc. {Empetrum, Vaccinimn), whose fruit is a great boon to man and 

 beast. When congealed by the autumnal frosts, the berries frequently remain 

 hanging on the bushes until the snow melts in the following June, and are 

 then a considerable resource to the flocks of water-fowl migrating to their 

 northern breeding-places, or to the bear awakening from his winter sleep. 



VERGE OF FOREST REGION. 



