国外英文文学系列 The Polar World.docx

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1、1国外英文文学系列国外英文文学系列 The Polar WorldTitle:The Polar WorldA popular description of man and nature in the Arctic andAntarctic regions of the globeAuthor:G.HartwigPREFACE.The object of the following pages is to describe the Polar World in its principal natural features,to point out the influence of its lo

2、ng winter-night and fleeting summer on the development ofvegetable and animal existence,and finally to picture man waging the battle of life against thedreadful climate of the high latitudes of our globe either as the inhabitant of their gloomysolitudes,or as the bold investigator of their mysteries

3、.The table of contents shows the great variety of interesting subjects embraced within acomparatively narrow compass;and as my constant aim has been to convey solid instructionunder an entertaining form,I venture to hope that the public will grant this new work thefavorable reception given to my pre

4、vious writings.NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.I have made no alterations in the text of Dr.Hartwigs book beyond changing the orthography of2a few geographical and ethnological terms so that they shall conform to the mode ofrepresentation usual in our maps and books of travel.For example,I substitute No

5、va Zembla for“Novaya Zemla”,and Samoedes for“Samojedes.”Here and there throughout the work I haveadded a sentence or a paragraph.The two chapters on“Alaska”and“The Innuits”have beensupplied by me;and for them Dr.Hartwig is in no way responsible.The Illustrations have been wholly selected and arrange

6、d by me.I found at my disposal animmense number of illustrations which seemed to me better to elucidate the text than thoseintroduced by Dr.Hartwig.In the List of Illustrations the names of the authors to whom I amindebted are supplied.vi The following gives the names of the authors,and the titles o

7、f the worksfrom which the illustrations have been taken:Atkinson,Thomas Witlam:“Travels in the Regions of the Upper Amoor;”and“Orientaland Western Siberia.”Browne,J.Ross:“The Land of Thor.”Dufferin,Lord:“Letters from High Latitudes.”Hall,Charles Francis:“Arctic Researches,and Life among the Esquimau

8、x.”Harpers Magazine:The Illustrations credited to this periodical have been furnished duringmany 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 NorthernSeas.”Milton,Viscount:“North-west Pa

9、ssage by Land.”Whymper,Frederick:“Alaska,and British America.”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 enhancethe value of his admirable book.3CHAPTER I.THE ARCTIC LANDS.The barren Grounds or T

10、undri.Abundance of animal Life on the Tundri in Summer.TheirSilence and Desolation in Winter.Protection afforded to Vegetation by the Snow.Flower-growth in the highest Latitudes.Character of Tundra Vegetation.SouthernBoundary-line of the barren Grounds.Their Extent.The forest Zone.Arctic Trees.Slown

11、ess of their Growth.Monotony of the Northern Forests.Mosquitoes.The variousCauses 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 ableto support the Rigors of an Arctic Winter?Proofs o

12、f a milder Climate having once reigned in theArctic 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 threecontinentsEurope,Asia,Americadi

13、scharge their waters into the Polar Ocean or its tributarybays.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 theislands within or near the Arctic circle,the vast region

14、over which the frost-king reigns supreme.Man styles himself the lord of the earth,and may with some justice lay claim to the title in moregenial 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 gre

15、ater part of the year,he isgenerally a mere wanderer over its surfacea hunter,a fisherman,or a herdsmanand but fewsmall settlements,separated from each other by immense deserts,give proof of his having madesome weak attempts to establish a footing.It is difficult to determine with precision the limi

16、ts of the Arctic lands,since many countriessituated as low as latitude 60or even 50,such as South Greenland,Labrador,Alaska,Kamchatka,or the country about Lake Baikal,have in their climate and productions a decidedlyArctic character,while others of a far more northern position,such as the coast of N

17、orway,enjoyeven in winter a remarkably mild temperature.But they are naturally divided into two principaland 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,more or less broa

18、d,bounded by the continental shores of the North Polar seas,and gradually merging toward thesouth into the forest-region,which encircles them with a garland of evergreen conifer.Thistreeless zone bears the name of the“barren grounds,”or the“barrens,”in North America,and of“tundri”in Siberia and Euro

19、pean Russia.Its want of trees is caused not so much by itshigh northern latitude as by the cold sea-winds which sweep unchecked over the islands or the4flat coast-lands of the Polar Ocean,and for miles and miles compel even the hardiest plant tocrouch before the blast and creep along the ground.Noth

20、ing can be more melancholy than the aspect of the boundless morasses or arid wastes ofthe tundri.Dingy mosses and gray lichens form the chief19 vegetation,and a few scanty grassesor dwarfish flowers that may have found a refuge in some more sheltered spot are unable torelieve the dull monotony of th

21、e scene.In winter,when animal life has mostly retreated to the south or sought a refuge in burrows or incaves,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,when the brown earth reappears from under themelted snow a

22、nd the swamps begin to thaw,enormous flights of wild birds appear upon thescene and enliven it for a few months.An admirable instinct leads their winged legions fromdistant climes to the Arctic wildernesses,where in the morasses or lakes,on the banks of therivers,on the flat strands,or along the fis

23、h-teeming coasts,they find an abundance of food,andwhere 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 their eggsupon the naked tundra.Eagles and hawks follow the traces of the

24、 natatorial and strand birds;troops of ptarmigans roam among the stunted bushes;and when the sun shines,the finch or thesnow-bunting warbles his merry note.While thus the warmth of summer attracts hosts of migratory birds to the Arctic wildernesses,shoals of salmon and sturgeons enter the rivers in

25、obedience to the instinct that forces them toquit the seas and to swim stream upward,for the purpose of depositing their spawn in thetranquil sweet waters of the stream or lake.About this time also the reindeer leaves the foreststo feed on the herbs and lichens of the tundra,and to seek along the sh

26、ores fanned by the cooledsea-breeze some protection against the attacks of the stinging flies that rise in myriads from theswamps.Thus during several months the tundra presents an animated scene,in which man alsoplays his part.The birds of the air,the fishes of the water,the beasts of the earth,are

27、all obligedto pay their tribute to his various wants,to appease his hunger,to clothe his body,or to gratifyhis greed of gain.But as soon as the first frosts of September announce the approach of winter,all animals,withbut few exceptions,hasten to leave a region where the sources of life must soon fa

28、il.The geese,ducks,and swans return in dense flocks to the south;the strand-birds seek in some lowerlatitude a softer soil which allows their sharp beak to seize a burrowing prey;the water-fowlforsake the bays and channels that will soon be blocked up with ice;the reindeer once morereturn to the for

29、est,and in a short time nothing is left that can induce man to prolong his stay inthe treeless plain.Soon a thick mantle of snow covers the hardened earth,the frozen lake,theice-bound river,and conceals them allseven,eight,nine months longunder its monotonouspall,except where the furious north-east

30、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 effectuallythawed it,protects in an admirable manner the vegetation of the higher latitudes against the5cold of the long winter season.For snow is so bad a conductor of h

31、eat,that in mid-winter in thehigh latitude of 7820 50(Rensselaer Bay),while the surface temperature was as low as-30,Kane found at two feet deep a temperature 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 warmcrystal snow-man

32、tle,the northern plants pass the long winter in a comparatively mildtemperature,high enough to maintain their life,while,without,icy blastscapable of convertingmercury into a solid bodyhowl over the naked wilderness;and as the first snow-falls are morecellular and less condensed than the nearly impa

33、lpable powder of winter,Kane justly observesthat no“eider-down in the cradle of an infant is tucked in more kindly than the sleeping-dress ofwinter about the feeble plant-life of the Arctic zone.”Thanks to this protection,and to theinfluence of a sun which for months circles above the horizon,and in

34、 favorable localities callsforth the powers of vegetation in an incredibly short time,even Washington,Grinnell Land,andSpitzbergen are able to boast of flowers.Morton plucked a crucifer at Cape Constitution(8045N.lat.),and,on the banks of Mary Minturn River(7852),Kane came across aflower-growth whic

35、h,though drearily Arctic in its type,was rich in variety and coloring.Amidfestuca 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 hesperis the Arcticrepresentative of the wall-flowers of home.

36、4.ROCKS AND ICE.Next to the lichens and mosses,which form the chief vegetation of the treeless zone,thecrucifer,the grasses,the saxifragas,the caryophyll,and the composit are the families ofplants most largely represented,in the barren grounds or tundri.Though vegetation becomesmore and more uniform

37、 on advancing to the north,yet the number of individual plants does notdecrease.21 When the soil is moderately dry,the surface is covered by a dense carpet of lichens(Corniculari),mixed in damper spots with Icelandic moss.In more tenacious soils,other plantsflourish,not however to the exclusion of l

38、ichens,except in tracts of meadow ground,which occurin sheltered situations,or in the alluvial inundated flats where tall reed-grasses or dwarf willowsfrequently 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

39、 forest zoneis both indistinct and irregular.In some parts where the cold sea-winds have a wider range,thebarren grounds encroach considerably22 upon the limits of the forests;in others,where theconfiguration of the land prevents their action,the woods advance farther to the north.6.COAST OF NORWAY.

40、Thus the barren grounds attain their most southerly limit in Labrador,where they descend tolatitude 57,and this is sufficiently explained by the position of that bleak peninsula,boundedon three sides by icy seas,and washed by cold currents from the north.On the opposite coasts ofHudsons Bay they beg

41、in about 60,and thence gradually rise toward the mouth of theMackenzie,where the forests advance as high as 68,or even still farther to the north along thelow banks of that river.From the Mackenzie the barrens again descend until they reach BeringsSea in 65 N.On the opposite or Asiatic shore,in the

42、land of the Tchuktchi,they begin again6more to the south,in 63,thence continually rise as far as the Lena,where Anjou found trees in71 N.,and then fall again toward the Obi,where the forests do not even reach the Arctic circle.From the Obi the tundri retreat farther and farther to the north,until fi

43、nally,on the coasts ofNorway,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 thanthe whole of Europe.Even the African Sahara,or the Pampas of South America,are inferior inextent to the Siberian tundri.But the p

44、ossession of a few hundred square miles of fruitfulterritory on the south-western frontiers of his vast empire would be of greater value to the Czarthan that of those boundless wastes,which are tenanted only by a few wretched pastoral tribes,or some equally wretched fishermen.7.ARCTIC FOREST.The Arc

45、tic forest-regions are of a still greater extent than the vast treeless plains which theyencircle.When we consider that they form an almost continuous23 belt,stretching through threeparts of the world,in a breadth of from 15 to 20,even the woods of the Amazon,whichcover a surface fifteen times great

46、er than that of the United Kingdom,shrink into comparativeinsignificance.Unlike the tropical forests,which are characterized by an immense variety of trees,these northern woods are almost entirely composed of conifer,and one single kind of fir orpine often covers an immense extent of24 ground.The Eu

47、ropean 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 Siberianfir and larch(Abies sibirica,Larix sibirica),the Picea obovata,and the Pinus cembra;while in theHudsons

48、Bay territories the woods principally consist of the white and black spruce(Abies albaand nigra),the Canadian larch(Larix canadensis),and the gray pine(Pinus banksiana).In bothcontinents birch-trees grow farther to the north than the conifer,and the dwarf willows formdense thickets on the shores of

49、every river and lake.Various species of the service-tree,the ash,and the elder are also met with in the Arctic forests;and both under the shelter of the woods andbeyond their limits,nature,as if to compensate for the want of fruit-trees,produces in favorablelocalities an abundance of bilberries,bogb

50、erries,cranberries,etc.(Empetrum,Vaccinium),whosefruit is a great boon to man and beast.When congealed by the autumnal frosts,the berriesfrequently remain hanging on the bushes until the snow melts in the following June,and are thena considerable resource to the flocks of water-fowl migrating to the