. A complete geography. s growing on the edge of asnowbank. PLANTS AND ANIMALS 19 pass away, all within tlie few short weeks of summer. Some ofthese plants produce berries, which after ripening are preserved bythe snows ; thus, when the birds arrive in the spring, they find foodready for them. Animals of the North.—The summer development of insects israpid, like the growth of plants. As the snow melts and the surfacethaws, the ground becomes wet and swampy, and countless millionsof insects appear. Amongthem the most common is,apparently, the are few parts of theworld where this
. A complete geography. s growing on the edge of asnowbank. PLANTS AND ANIMALS 19 pass away, all within tlie few short weeks of summer. Some ofthese plants produce berries, which after ripening are preserved bythe snows ; thus, when the birds arrive in the spring, they find foodready for them. Animals of the North.—The summer development of insects israpid, like the growth of plants. As the snow melts and the surfacethaws, the ground becomes wet and swampy, and countless millionsof insects appear. Amongthem the most common is,apparently, the are few parts of theworld where this creature is aworse pest than on the barrensof North America and the tu7i-dras of Europe and Asia, asthese treeless, frozen lands arecalled. Few large land animals areable to thrive in so cold aclimate and where there issuch an absence of plant reindeer, or caribou, themusk-ox, polar bear, white fox,and Arctic hare are the largestfour-footed land animals (Fig. 22) ; andptarmigan are the most common land Fig. 21. •Walrus on the Arctic floe ice. the crow, sparrow, and The ptarmigan changes its plumage to white in winter, and otheranimals of the Arctic, such as the fox, polar bear, baby seal, and hare, arealso white. This serves to conceal them, in that land of snow and ice, sothat they may hide from their enemies, or steal upon their prey unawares. The tiny white fox feeds upon birds and other animal food ; but theother land animals, except the polar bear, live upon plants, such as berries,grass, and moss. The caribou finds a kind of plant, called reindeermoss, which grows upon rocks that rise above the deep winter it were not for this, the reindeer would not be able to live through thelong winter. 20 NORTH AMERICA While some animals live upon the land in the Arctic regions,many more have their homes in the sea, because there, excepting atthe very surface, the temperature never descends beloAv the freezingpoint. Therefore, there is plenty of animal li
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