【英文读物】The Polar World.docx

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1、【英文读物】The Polar WorldPREFACE.The object of the following pages is to describe the Polar World in its principal natural features, to point out the influence of its long winter-night and fleeting summer on the development of vegetable and animal existence, and finally to picture man waging the battle

2、of life against the dreadful climate of the high latitudes of our globe either as the inhabitant of their gloomy solitudes, or as the bold investigator of their mysteries.The table of contents shows the great variety of interesting subjects embraced within a comparatively narrow compass; and as my c

3、onstant aim has been to convey solid instruction under an entertaining form, I venture to hope that the public will grant this new work the favorable reception given to my previous writings.NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.I have made no alterations in the text of Dr. Hartwigs book beyond changing the or

4、thography of a few geographical and ethnological terms so that they shall conform to the mode of representation usual in our maps and books of travel. For example, I substitute Nova Zembla for “Novaya Zemla”, and Samoïedes for “Samojedes.” Here and there throughout the work I have added a sente

5、nce or a paragraph. The two chapters on “Alaska” and “The Innuits” have been supplied by me; and for them Dr. Hartwig is in no way responsible.The Illustrations have been wholly selected and arranged by me. I found at my disposal an immense number of illustrations which seemed to me better to elucid

6、ate the text than those introduced by Dr. Hartwig. In the List of Illustrations the names of the authors to whom I am indebted are supplied.vi The following gives the names of the authors, and the titles of the works from which the illustrations have been taken: Atkinson, Thomas Witlam: “Travels in

7、the Regions of the Upper Amoor;” and “Oriental and Western Siberia.” Browne, J. Ross: “The Land of Thor.” Dufferin, Lord: “Letters from High Latitudes.” Hall, Charles Francis: “Arctic Researches, and Life among the Esquimaux.” Harpers Magazine: The Illustrations credited to this periodical have been

8、 furnished during many years by more than a score of travellers and voyagers. They are in every case authentic. Lamont, James: “Seasons with the Sea-Horses; or, Sporting Adventures in the Northern Seas.” Milton, Viscount: “North-west Passage by Land.” Whymper, Frederick: “Alaska, and British America

9、.” Wood, Rev. J. G.: “Natural History;” and “Homes without Hands.”I trust that I have throughout wrought in the spirit of the author; and that my labors will enhance the value of his admirable book.CHAPTER I. THE ARCTIC LANDS. The barren Grounds or Tundri.Abundance of animal Life on the Tundri in Su

10、mmer.Their Silence and Desolation in Winter.Protection afforded to Vegetation by the Snow.Flower-growth in the highest Latitudes.Character of Tundra Vegetation.Southern Boundary-line of the barren Grounds.Their Extent.The forest Zone.Arctic Trees.Slowness of their Growth.Monotony of the Northern For

11、ests.Mosquitoes.The various Causes which determine the Severity of an Arctic Climate.Insular and Continental Position.Currents.Winds.Extremes of Cold observed by Sir E. Belcher and Dr. Kane.How is Man able to support the Rigors of an Arctic Winter?Proofs of a milder Climate having once reigned in th

12、e Arctic Regions.Its Cause according to Dr. Oswald Heer.Peculiar Beauties of the Arctic Regions.Sunset.Long lunar Nights.The Aurora.A glance at a map of the Arctic regions shows us that many of the rivers belonging to the three continentsEurope, Asia, Americadischarge their waters into the Polar Oce

13、an or its tributary bays. The territories drained by these streams, some of which (such as the Mackenzie, the Yukon, the Lena, the Yenisei, and the Obi) rank among the giant rivers of the earth, form, along with the islands within or near the Arctic circle, the vast region over which the frost-king

14、reigns supreme.Man styles himself the lord of the earth, and may with some justice lay claim to the title in more genial lands where, armed with the plough, he compels the soil to yield him a variety of fruits; but in those desolate tracts18 which are winter-bound during the greater part of the year

15、, he is generally a mere wanderer over its surfacea hunter, a fisherman, or a herdsmanand but few small settlements, separated from each other by immense deserts, give proof of his having made some weak attempts to establish a footing.It is difficult to determine with precision the limits of the Arc

16、tic lands, since many countries situated as low as latitude 60° or even 50°, such as South Greenland, Labrador, Alaska, Kamchatka, or the country about Lake Baikal, have in their climate and productions a decidedly Arctic character, while others of a far more northern position, such as the c

17、oast of Norway, enjoy even in winter a remarkably mild temperature. But they are naturally divided into two principal and well-marked zonesthat of the forests, and that of the treeless wastes.3. INDIAN SUMMER ENCAMPMENT, ALASKA.The latter, comprising the islands within the Arctic Circle, form a belt

18、, more or less broad, bounded by the continental shores of the North Polar seas, and gradually merging toward the south into the forest-region, which encircles them with a garland of evergreen coniferæ. This treeless zone bears the name of the “barren grounds,” or the “barrens,” in North Ameri

19、ca, and of “tundri” in Siberia and European Russia. Its want of trees is caused not so much by its high northern latitude as by the cold sea-winds which sweep unchecked over the islands or the flat coast-lands of the Polar Ocean, and for miles and miles compel even the hardiest plant to crouch befor

20、e the blast and creep along the ground.Nothing can be more melancholy than the aspect of the boundless morasses or arid wastes of the tundri. Dingy mosses and gray lichens form the chief19 vegetation, and a few scanty grasses or dwarfish flowers that may have found a refuge in some more sheltered sp

21、ot are unable to relieve the dull monotony of the scene.In winter, when animal life has mostly retreated to the south or sought a refuge in burrows or in caves, an awful silence, interrupted only by the hooting of a snow-owl or the yelping of a fox, reigns over their vast expanse; but in spring, whe

22、n the brown earth reappears from under the melted snow and the swamps begin to thaw, enormous flights of wild birds appear upon the scene and enliven it for a few months. An admirable instinct leads their winged legions from distant climes to the Arctic wildernesses, where in the morasses or lakes,

23、on the banks of the rivers, on the flat strands, or along the fish-teeming coasts, they find an abundance of food, and where at the same time they can with greater security build their nests and rear their young. Some remain on the skirts of the forest-region; others, flying farther northward, lay t

24、heir eggs upon the naked tundra. Eagles and hawks follow the traces of the natatorial and strand birds; troops of ptarmigans roam among the stunted bushes; and when the sun shines, the finch or the snow-bunting warbles his merry note.While thus the warmth of summer attracts hosts of migratory birds

25、to the Arctic wildernesses, shoals of salmon and sturgeons enter the rivers in obedience to the instinct that forces them to quit the seas and to swim stream upward, for the purpose of depositing their spawn in the tranquil sweet waters of the stream or lake. About this time also the reindeer leaves

26、 the forests to feed on the herbs and lichens of the tundra, and to seek along the shores fanned by the cooled sea-breeze some protection against the attacks of the stinging flies that rise in myriads from the swamps. Thus during several months the tundra presents an animated scene, in which man als

27、o plays his part. The birds of the air, the fishes of the water, the beasts of the earth, are all obliged to pay their tribute to his various wants, to appease his hunger, to clothe his body, or to gratify his greed of gain.But as soon as the first frosts of September announce the approach of winter

28、, all animals, with but few exceptions, hasten to leave a region where the sources of life must soon fail. The geese, ducks, and swans return in dense flocks to the south; the strand-birds seek in some lower latitude a softer soil which allows their sharp beak to seize a burrowing prey; the water-fo

29、wl forsake the bays and channels that will soon be blocked up with ice; the reindeer once more return to the forest, and in a short time nothing is left that can induce man to prolong his stay in the treeless plain. Soon a thick mantle of snow covers the hardened earth, the frozen lake, the ice-boun

30、d river, and conceals them allseven, eight, nine months longunder its monotonous pall, except where the furious north-east wind sweeps it away and lays bare the naked rock.This snow, which after it has once fallen persists until the long summers day has effectually thawed it, protects in an admirabl

31、e manner the vegetation of the higher latitudes against the cold of the long winter season. For snow is so bad a conductor of heat, that in mid-winter in the high latitude of 78°20 50° (Rensselaer Bay), while the surface temperature was as low as -30°, Kane found at two feet deep a tempe

32、rature of -8°, at four feet +2°, and at eight feet +26°, or no more than six degrees below the freezing-point of water. Thus covered by a warm crystal snow-mantle, the northern plants pass the long winter in a comparatively mild temperature, high enough to maintain their life, while, wit

33、hout, icy blastscapable of converting mercury into a solid bodyhowl over the naked wilderness; and as the first snow-falls are more cellular and less condensed than the nearly impalpable powder of winter, Kane justly observes that no “eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly th

34、an the sleeping-dress of winter about the feeble plant-life of the Arctic zone.” Thanks to this protection, and to the influence of a sun which for months circles above the horizon, and in favorable localities calls forth the powers of vegetation in an incredibly short time, even Washington, Grinnel

35、l Land, and Spitzbergen are able to boast of flowers. Morton plucked a crucifer at Cape Constitution (80° 45 N. lat.), and, on the banks of Mary Minturn River (78° 52), Kane came across a flower-growth which, though drearily Arctic in its type, was rich in variety and coloring. Amid festuca

36、and other tufted grasses twinkled the purple lychnis and the white star of the chickweed; and, not without its pleasing associations, he recognized a solitary hesperisthe Arctic representative of the wall-flowers of home.4. ROCKS AND ICE.Next to the lichens and mosses, which form the chief vegetatio

37、n of the treeless zone, the cruciferæ, the grasses, the saxifragas, the caryophyllæ, and the compositæ are the families of plants most largely represented, in the barren grounds or tundri. Though vegetation becomes more and more uniform on advancing to the north, yet the number of

38、individual plants does not decrease.21 When the soil is moderately dry, the surface is covered by a dense carpet of lichens (Corniculariæ), mixed in damper spots with Icelandic moss. In more tenacious soils, other plants flourish, not however to the exclusion of lichens, except in tracts of me

39、adow ground, which occur in sheltered situations, or in the alluvial inundated flats where tall reed-grasses or dwarf willows frequently grow as closely as they can stand.5. COAST OF LABRADOR.It may easily be supposed that the boundary-line which separates the tundri from the forest zone is both ind

40、istinct and irregular. In some parts where the cold sea-winds have a wider range, the barren grounds encroach considerably22 upon the limits of the forests; in others, where the configuration of the land prevents their action, the woods advance farther to the north.6. COAST OF NORWAY.Thus the barren

41、 grounds attain their most southerly limit in Labrador, where they descend to latitude 57°, and this is sufficiently explained by the position of that bleak peninsula, bounded on three sides by icy seas, and washed by cold currents from the north. On the opposite coasts of Hudsons Bay they begin

42、 about 60°, and thence gradually rise toward the mouth of the Mackenzie, where the forests advance as high as 68°, or even still farther to the north along the low banks of that river. From the Mackenzie the barrens again descend until they reach Berings Sea in 65° N. On the opposite or

43、Asiatic shore, in the land of the Tchuktchi, they begin again more to the south, in 63°, thence continually rise as far as the Lena, where Anjou found trees in 71° N., and then fall again toward the Obi, where the forests do not even reach the Arctic circle. From the Obi the tundri retreat f

44、arther and farther to the north, until finally, on the coasts of Norway, in latitude 70°, they terminate with the land itself.Hence we see that the treeless zone of Europe, Asia, and America occupies a space larger than the whole of Europe. Even the African Sahara, or the Pampas of South America

45、, are inferior in extent to the Siberian tundri. But the possession of a few hundred square miles of fruitful territory on the south-western frontiers of his vast empire would be of greater value to the Czar than that of those boundless wastes, which are tenanted only by a few wretched pastoral trib

46、es, or some equally wretched fishermen.7. ARCTIC FOREST.The Arctic forest-regions are of a still greater extent than the vast treeless plains which they encircle. When we consider that they form an almost continuous23 belt, stretching through three parts of the world, in a breadth of from 15° to

47、 20°, even the woods of the Amazon, which cover a surface fifteen times greater than that of the United Kingdom, shrink into comparative insignificance. Unlike the tropical forests, which are characterized by an immense variety of trees, these northern woods are almost entirely composed of conif

48、eræ, and one single kind of fir or pine often covers an immense extent of24 ground. The European and Asiatic species differ, however, from those which grow in America.8. VERGE OF FOREST REGION.Thus in the Russian empire and Scandinavia we find the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris), the Siberian fi

49、r and larch (Abies sibirica, Larix sibirica), the Picea obovata, and the Pinus cembra; while in the Hudsons 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 both continents birch-trees grow farther to the north than the coniferæ, and the dwarf willows