. Narrative of discovery and adventure in the polar seas and regions [microform] : with illustrations of their climate, geology, and natural history ; and an account of the whale-fishery. Natural history; Sciences naturelles. VEGETABLE LIFE. £9 The plants of more genial climates, indeed, when inserted at the commencement of the short bright summer, spring up and wear for some time a promising appearance ; but they are all nipt by the surly winter. Still, in the northern regions, especially when approaching the Arc- tic zone, she does employ resources similar to those by which animal life is pr
. Narrative of discovery and adventure in the polar seas and regions [microform] : with illustrations of their climate, geology, and natural history ; and an account of the whale-fishery. Natural history; Sciences naturelles. VEGETABLE LIFE. £9 The plants of more genial climates, indeed, when inserted at the commencement of the short bright summer, spring up and wear for some time a promising appearance ; but they are all nipt by the surly winter. Still, in the northern regions, especially when approaching the Arc- tic zone, she does employ resources similar to those by which animal life is preserved. The fir, the pine, and other trees peculiar to the climate, on being pierced, distil, not the balmy and fragrant gums of Arabia and India, but rich, thick, coarse juices, whereby their internal heat is maintained, and which, in the shape of pitcli, tar, and turpentine, serve many valuable purposes. Through the cherishing influences of these juices, the lakes of North America are boi*dered with tall dark forests, which afford to the agricultural countries an inexhaustible supply of useful timber. Even their gloomy foliage, while the forests of the south are every autumn strewing the ground with their faded leaves, braves through the winter all the fury of the northern tempest. Before reaching, however, the inclement sky of the Arctic regions, this magnificent growth decays. Trees gradually dwindle into meagre and stunted shrubs. Beyond the Polar circle, these monarchs of the wood, if they appear at all, rise only to the height of a few feet, throwing out lateral branches. On Melville Pen- insula, dwarf-willow and the Andromeda tetragona afford to the Esquimaux their only material for anns and utensils. Considerable quantities of drift-timber are, no doubt, frequently found on those remote shores, supposed to have floated originally from the mouths of rivers, on the Asiatic as well as the American continent. The species which abound most in those dreary climates belong
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
