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Show 268 CLIMAT AL DISTRIBUTION the summer, and seek their subsistence by hu?ting and river-fishing. return northward in th~ wmter, build their habitations of ice, feel warm 1~ them, just because the cold is too intense for allowmg any of the ice to melt, even by the s~oke and he~t of the lamps, which serve at once for hght ~.nd culu1:ary purposes, and watc.h. the seals at theu breathmg-holes for fresh prov1s10ns. Even farther to the southward, the plants are few. and such as do appear are of the most humbld app~arance. In Iceland there are 3: few stunte shrubby bushes, but none of them ?f s1ze e~ough. for a hop-pole, or even for a substantml walkn~g-stlck. Notwithstanding, the Iceland~rs have ple~1t1ful supplies of timber wafted to theu shores w1thout any trouble or exp~nse o~ importation. Great I?art of North America-that 1s, the northern par~ of 1t, ~as once one continuous pine forest, and notw1thstandmg the "grubbing" by.the E?ropeans wh? have settled there, much of it 1s a p1ne forest still. In those forests which have stood for ages there are of course trees in all stages both of growth and decay; and as pines, in swampy places, are generally assailed by funcri at the surface of the ground, as soon as they h;ve ceased to vegetate, many of them are thrown down every seas?n; and. when the " freshets," or floods of the sprmg, set . m, .they are rolled onward to the sea. Those who hve m places where there is no flood, but where th~ surface of the earth is clear,-and every porous soil absorbs part of the water which falls from the clouds,-can form but little idea of the violence of a flood over a frozen surface, where the earth absorbs not a ~rop, and the melting of the snow is added to ~he ram that falls. The combined violence of these 1s very great, and by means of it vast quantities of drift-wood are every season though not in all seasons equally, rolled down the rivers of Northern America into \he sea, and thence distributed by the sea currents, ale \lg the .. ) . ) ', 01<· PLANTS. shores o~ ... jll' the dre~rv i~lanCl,s ~1-j.,a~_ l~e near,.l,lJ.t margirl'~f.'the polar ic~· · ~ .~, · .· ... ~he~ rlne fore'-5tR 'fortn , t.!J~ ch::ro:ct~ristic ve!tetatlOn of the verge of the northern polar zone and the northern part of the temperate one. There ~orne ?f the species ~refound far to the south-as in the Island of Tenenffe, and the mountains of Mexico and S?~e o~ the West India islands ; but it is a cu;ious distmctwn of !he two hemispheres, that though there are trees m the southern that are called pines, and have some of the characters of the tribe there is not a true pine found native to the southw~rd of the equator. Even in the north, where they are found in all the three. q~a~ter~ that abut on the Arctic Sea, there are pe?uhantles m those pines. Towards the east of Asm they are of small dimensions, but the timber is heavy, and very hard and durable. As one advances westward, they increase in size ; and the tallest that are met with on the old continent are in Norway In America they are very tall ; and towards the shores o~ the. Pacific they are giants of from 300 to 400 feet m hmght, and 18 or 20 in diameter. Ano~her peculiarity is, that though some species g~ow .m the peat-s:wamps, the majority follow the du~ctwns of the rocky m01~ntains,. those especially whiCh are composed of gramte, while the debris and sec?n~ary strata are covered with trees which shed their leaves. }"'ew plants, ~xcept fungi and mosses, thrive under the shade of pmes, though in all the pine districts there are numerous species of wild berries and other sub-shrubby pla~Its in the. vacant spaces. In those fore~ts there Is, accordmgly, but little to a!tract notice, except the gl-oomy grandeur of the p~nes themselves. There are no climbing and twi~ mg pl~nts ; an~ flowers. are few, and by no means mterestmg ; while of native fruits there may be said to be none. Z2 |