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CHAPTER I.
T H E P O L A R D E S E R T S.

IN countries which enjoy an always elevated temperature, the excess of their fertility is not much more favourable than extreme dryness to the material and moral development of man. There can be no doubt that the exuberant vegetation is a potent cause of the insalubrity of the atmosphere. And thus it comes that civilization, commerce, industry, labour, have only been able to establish themselves and to make any considerable progress in temperate or even cold countries, where man has found a climate more healthy, but at the same time sufficiently unequal, and often sufficiently inclement, to compel him to defend himself by various means against the rigour of the atmosphere, and a soil capable of furnishing him abundantly with the products necessary for his wants, but on the condition that he gains them by intelligent and persistent toil—by the “sweat of his brow.”

When we arrive under a latitude or a thermometrical mean which exceeds by some degrees that of England or France, we find the inhabitants giving way to sloth and indolence; their manners are at once softer and yet fiercer, their passions more violent and their tastes more fertile; arts and poesy occupy them to the neglect of the exact sciences; industry and commerce languish, agriculture is despised. But if, on the contrary, we proceed towards the north, we discover a greater degree of civilization, a warmer devotion to labour. The most industrious peoples of the world, the English and the Dutch, inherit a cold, humid, and even foggy atmosphere. In Canada and the northernmost States of the American Union, the Anglo-Saxon race has lost nothing of its laborious habits and its enterprising audacity. In Sweden and in Norway, in Russia, even in Siberia, the traveller meets with towns and villages in a flourishing condition up to the 60th parallel of north latitude and beyond, under a climate whose mean annual temperature is inferior to the mean winter temperature of France, and where the thermometer frequently descends in winter below—40° R. Thus, then, we see that the warm bland tropical air enervates the mind as well as the body, while the cold of the north seems to increase their energy. It is also true that cold climates, all things considered, are healthier than hot countries, where disease is more rapid and fatal in its inroads; and that, finally, civilization furnishes man with the means of protecting himself against the injurious effects of a very low temperature, while it leaves him without defence against those of excessive heat. We shall see hereafter that the human organism modifies itself, in the Polar regions, in such a manner as to support, without too great suffering, a degree of cold which at the outset it appears to us must be absolutely intolerable.

We may place between the isothermal lines of +5° and of 0° the limit where commences the territory which, in the northern hemisphere, merits the name of the Region of the Polar Deserts. Already, in effect, under this glacial latitude, the landscape assumes a sombre and desolate aspect, which seems to indicate the propinquity of the “funereal glaciers” of the Pole. The daring traveller who beards the Winter-king in his own realms meets no more with massive and lofty mountain-crests; a few only of the great chains of Europe and Asia—here the Scandinavian Alps, there the Oural Mountains; still further, at the easternmost extremity of Asia, some scattered summits, which we may consider as belonging to the elevation of the Altai, prolong even to the Arctic shores their cantled and snow-shrouded peaks. Everywhere, also, immense steppes, intersected by swamps and relieved with woods of fir and birch, spread for leagues upon leagues in the dull light of a wintry sky, until they merge into those rent and rocky plains, bare of all vegetation except a few lichens and mosses, which are almost always encrusted in glittering snow and ice, and mingle in the distance with the frost-bound waters of the Arctic Sea.

It is in America that these icy deserts are most extensive; not only because that continent stretches much nearer the Pole than does the Old World, but because, owing to its geographical disposition and geological structure, it is much more exposed, even towards the south, to that combined action of the atmosphere, land, and water, whose effects constitute the Arctic climate.[190]

This climate, then, prevails over nearly the whole of Danish America, the recently-acquired possessions of the United States, the Hudson’s Bay Territory, and Labrador, down to that inconsiderable watershed which separates from the tributaries of Hudson’s Bay, the three basins of the St. Lawrence, the five great lakes, and the Mississippi. This line of watershed undulates between the 52nd and 49th parallel of latitude, from Belle-Isle Strait to the sources of the Saskatchewan, in the Rocky Mountains, where it inflects towards the Pacific Ocean, skirting on the north the basin of the Columbia.

“Thus circumscribed on the side of the south,” say Messieurs HervÉ and F. de Lanoye,[191] “the Arctic lands of America, including the archipelagoes of the north and north-east, cannot measure less than 560,000 square leagues. They therefore greatly exceed in superficies the mass of the European lands, estimated at about 490,000 square leagues.”

The same authors divide the Arctic lands into three regions, of which one—they name it “the Province of the North-West”—belongs rather to those undulating Prairies described in Book III. than to the Polar Deserts. The two others are the “Middle or Wooded Region,” and the “Barren Landes.” The Wooded Region comprehends the basins of the Upper Mackenzie, the Churchill, the Nelson, and the Severn. Hudson’s Bay cuts into it on the east with its deep anfractuosities. The navigation of this Mediterranean of the North, open to the currents and to the drift of the Polar ices, begins only in the month of June, to close in that of September; yet in this interval the obstruction of the ices is so great that it occupies a stout vessel two months to traverse the diameter of the bay. Along the littoral of this sea the soil never thaws below the surface, and it often freezes on the very surface in the middle of summer.

Like a fierce and despotic tyrant does Winter reign on these shores for from eight to nine months. From the end of September the earth, the rivers which flow into the bay, their affluents, and the chaplet of lakes which connect them with one another, all disappear under a layer of hoar-frost. “The provinces of New Wales and of Maine do not enjoy for a longer period than three months the temperature of +11° (centigrades), necessary for the development of vegetation. The southern shores of the Great Bear and Slave Lakes possess that temperature for only two months at the most.” It is not until the month of May that the thermometer rises ever so little above zero in the Wooded Region, and that a breath of life passes into the plants. Then only the reddish shoots of the willows, the poplar trees, and the birches attire themselves in their long cottony pods; the thickets grow green; the dandelion, the burdock, and the saxifrages flourish at the foot of the rocks; then the sweet-brier, the gooseberry, and the strawberry put forth their fruity burden; and above these dwarf shrubs the pines, the larches, the thuyas display all the luxury of their sombre verdure. But at the same time the melted snows have transformed the soil, recently so hard and polished like marble, into peaty bogs, where myriads of mosquitoes swarm—an intolerable scourge, which the traveller can only escape by surrounding himself with clouds of smoke.

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THE DESERT OF ICE (ARCTIC POLE).
THE DESERT OF ICE (ARCTIC POLE).

The commencement of the region of “Barren Landes” is marked by a line drawn from the mouth of the Churchill in Hudson’s Bay to Mount St. Elias on the Pacific coast, and passing by the southern shores of the Bear and the Slave Lakes. To the north of this region it loses itself in the eternal ices, with the last shores of the Parry Archipelago; to the east and to the north-east, the conformity of the soil and the identity of the climate include within it the greatest part of Labrador and all Greenland, from which it is only separated accidentally by the breaking up of the ices which constantly solidify Baffin’s Bay, and renders so difficult, in those districts, the distinction between land and water. “In these vast countries,” say the writers already quoted, “the primitive crust of the globe preserves still the chaotic character which it assumed at the moment that its fluid elements congealed. Except at the bottom of the ravines and hollows, where each winter’s thaw has accumulated long tracts of moss and the wrecks of dwarf willows—the embryo vegetation of the Polar clime—the slow action of the ages has nowhere oxidized this rough rude surface to the extent of clothing with a layer of mould its abrupt nakedness. There no transitionary stratum extends between the primeval granite and the erupted rocks. There, prolonged chains of trachyte, and gigantic causeways of basalt, display again their strata as regular, their ridges as keen, their rents as deep, as on the morrow of that day when they emerged from the original chaos. At a great number of points, as at the bottom of Repulse Bay and in the interior of Melville Island, whole skeletons of whales elevated from the depths of ocean, with the submarine layer wherein death had ensepulchred them, have not received in all the ages that have passed by since their exposure to the day any other shroud than the snows of successive winters, which, melting before the suns of successive summers, annually uncovers their whitened bones, irrefragable proofs of a great geological law.”

In Asia, the isothermal line of 0° descends even towards the 55th parallel of latitude—that is to say, a little lower than in America; but beyond this line we meet again, as I have already said, with towns of some importance, such as Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia, in lat. 58° 11´ north; Irkutsk, in lat. 58° 16´ north; and Iakutsk, in lat. 62°. All this northern part of Siberia is only distinguished by the greater rigour of its climate, and by a more and more scanty vegetation from the great Steppes, of which it is the continuation. However, the north-eastern extremity, comprising the peninsula of Kamtschatka, bristles with volcanic mountains which still exhibit some craters in activity, notably those of Avatcha and KlioutchevskoÏ, or Klutschew. The latter belches forth its fires from one of the loftiest summits of the globe.

In Continental Europe, the only Polar Lands, properly so called, are Russian Lapland and the deeply-indented coast of Northern Russia. To the north of the most advanced point of that coast, and separated from the continent by a narrow arm of the sea, lie three almost contiguous islands, which form Nova Zembla (lat. 68° 50´ to 76° north); desert islands, inhabited by a few fishermen, and containing a few vegetables and animals. The western side of the group is traversed by a mountain-range 2000 feet in height. Finally, almost in the centre of the Frozen Sea, and at nearly equal distances from the Old and the New World, rises the gloomy archipelago of Spitzbergen (that is, the Peaked Mountains), first visited by Barentz in 1596, and lying between the parallels of 77° and 81°, and the meridians of 10° and 24° east of Greenwich. Their summits, I need hardly tell you, are shrouded in eternal ice and snow, and separated by narrow valleys, or rather ravines, mostly occupied with those slowly-moving ice-rivers called glaciers. The surrounding seas swarm with fish, and the frozen wastes of the islands are haunted by the Arctic fox, the reindeer, and the white bear. The walrus and the seal live upon their shores, which bristle everywhere with lofty granitic rocks, and glaciers that plunge down into the very waters. Their extremities are constantly throwing off huge masses of ice, which float out to sea, and in the shape of icebergs appal and threaten the mariner. Except during a brief interval of summer, the access to Spitzbergen is barred by a formidable barrier of ice, and the channels between the different islands are so blocked up by the same material, that it was long doubted whether Spitzbergen was not one large island deeply fissured and intersected by creek and gulf. It is wholly uninhabited, but the voyager landing at certain points of the coast—in Madeleine Bay, for example—treads at every step upon human bones thickly scattered over the snow, pell-mell with the bones of bears and seals, and upon the ghastly memorials of empty or half-open coffins. These are the remains, the last relics, of unfortunate seamen slain by cold and hunger in these desolate regions. For want of strength to dig decent graves, on account of the thickness of the ice, the survivors load the coffins with pieces of rock to act as a rampart against the wild beasts. But “the great man in a pelisse,” as the Norwegian hunters denominate the white bear, has stout arms, and, impelled by famine, he frequently succeeds in displacing the stones, and making a hideous banquet off the frozen bodies.

The very ocean which washes this gloomy coast shows us the Arctic Desert under a form which is at once more imposing, more majestic, and more terrible. On its surface float vast fields, mountains, and banks of ice, far more formidable to the mariner than the typhoons and cyclones of the Torrid Zone. These floating ice-mountains proceed, as I have said, from the terrestrial glaciers which, in these latitudes, descend to the margin of the sea, frequently project a considerable distance beyond the coast, and, loosened by their own weight or by the incessant clash and collision of the waves, splinter into enormous fragments. Hence it is that their ice, when liquefied, supplies a fresh, sweet, and wholesome water for drinking purposes. Their outlines are of the most fantastic, and often of the most beautiful character; old ruined keeps of Norman castles, long lines of frowning battlements, minarets and domes of Moorish mosques, and the tapering spires, arched roofs, and flying buttresses of mediÆval cathedrals. Lit up by the radiance of an Arctic sun, they wear a most singular and weird beauty, and probably the time may come when the artist will gain that inspiration from their sublime or graceful shapes which he now seeks in the forest, on the sea-shore, or in the pine-clad mountain-glen.

Masses of ice rise every year from the bosom, so to speak, of the Polar Sea, and accumulating together, and with the ruins of half-dissolved icebergs, gradually develop into immense ice-fields, which have often an area of several thousand square yards. Their thickness varies, but is always considerably inferior to that of the icebergs. It is not uncommon, however, for them to attain an elevation of 300 feet, and you can form an idea of their gigantic dimensions by recollecting that the submerged portion will be from four to eight times the height of that which rises above the waves. During the winter, mountains and fields of ice congeal together in such wise as to spread over the ocean a compact and impenetrable crust, an immense desert of snow, broken up by walls and columns—I should rather say, by monuments—of fantastic design, whose radiant glittering surfaces reflect in changing lights of amethyst, azure, vermilion, gold, and emerald, the wondrous fires of the northern auroras. When, after a long absence, the sun returns to dart obliquely his rays upon the Pole, all this crust splits up and becomes dislocated; the confusion spreads; the ocean-currents carry off to sea the blocks and floes of ice which roll, and glide, and chase, and cross each other, hurtling together in an indescribable mÊlÉe, and with a fearful tempest of sounds!

This is not the place to speak of the dangers which beset the seaman who dares to penetrate into the silent recesses of the Polar Seas. And, indeed, a tale so often told would have little interest for the English reader, who cannot fail to be familiar with the adventures of the Arctic explorers, from Hudson to M‘Clure, through the long list of honoured and immortal names—Parry, Ross, Franklin, Scoresby, Davis, M‘Clintock, and Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Too many, alas! have fallen victims to their heroic courage, and the most fortunate have not returned in safety without accomplishing prodigies of valour and energy, without undergoing the severest privations and most terrible sufferings.

Their efforts and their sacrifices, let us add, have not been barren. Not only has the great North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific been finally explored, but the discovery of an open and comparatively warm sea around the geographical pole of our globe—the discovery, too, of the magnetic pole, and of the double pole of cold—ought to be ranked with the most brilliant scientific achievements on which our age can pride itself. Thanks to those heroes of science, the Arctic Polar region is now extensively known and very generally surveyed. It is not possible to say so much of the Antarctic Polar region. There the approach is not facilitated by any continent, or, indeed, any fraction of a continent. The “Land of Fire” (Tierra del Fuego), which is the nearest point, is not calculated to brighten the hopes of the explorer, and the difficulties and perils which oppose themselves to his southward progress seem insurmountable. Three illustrious travellers—sons of England, France, and America respectively—Sir James Ross, Dumont D’Urville, and Rear-Admiral Charles Wilkes, attempted, however, in the first half of the present century, to penetrate the mystery which enshrouds this extremity of our globe.

After sailing for many days amongst prodigious icebergs, which sometimes threatened to crush his ships, and sometimes to immure them in a gloomy prison, Dumont D’Urville considered himself fortunate in sighting, on the very line of the Antarctic Circle, a range of black rocky cliffs which he named Clarie Coast and Adelie Land. About the same time Rear-Admiral Wilkes discovered, in 67° 4´ south latitude, and 147° 30´ east longitude, a bay which he called the Bay of Disappointment, because he found himself there stopped short by impassable ice, and deceived in his hope of reaching the Austral Continent. The same navigator, in 65° 59´ south latitude, and 105° 18´ east longitude, saw, or thought he saw, an extent of coast which he computed at 65 miles in length, and 3000 feet in elevation above the sea-level. This coast appeared to him entirely covered with snow. Disembarking at the point mentioned, he ascertained the presence, under the snow, of clay, red granite, and basalt, but no sign of stratification. On the beach, frequented by the Cachalot whale, the seal, and legions of sea-birds, were found numerous zoophytes and some small crustaceans.

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Adelie Land (Antarctic Ocean).
Adelie Land (Antarctic Ocean).

The accuracy of the American navigator’s observations has been, however, disputed by geographers, and in 1841 Sir James Ross demonstrated that the threshold of this problematical continent was, at least in certain places, much more distant than Wilkes had supposed. Sir James himself discovered, between 70° and 78° south latitude, an extensive tract of land which he named South Victoria, and which extends nearer the South Pole than any other yet known. Its shores are rendered imposing by a line of lofty and snow-crowned mountains, some of which are volcanic. To two of the more majestic of these the English voyager gave the names of his two ships—Mount Erebus and Mount Terror. The former is 12,400 feet in height.[192]

Sir James Ross traced the continents of this desolate icy coast for seven hundred miles, until his progress was arrested by a solid impenetrable barrier of lofty ice. He reached, however, on another meridian, the latitude of 78° 4´ south, the nearest approach yet made to the Antarctic Pole.

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CHAPTER II.
ANIMAL LIFE AND VEGETABLE LIFE IN THE POLAR DESERTS.

THE mantle which Flora has spread over the naked body of this earth is, says Humboldt, unequally woven. Thickest in those places where the sun soars to a great altitude in a cloudless sky, it is of thinner texture towards the poles, where Nature seems benumbed and torpid, where the precipitate return of frost leaves no time for the buds to unfold, and surprises the fruits before they have attained maturity.

The number of plants capable of withstanding the prolonged and terrible Arctic winters, and of contenting themselves with the scanty heat and light which the pale sun of those regions pours upon them during his brief stay above the horizon, is, in effect, very limited. We have seen, in the preceding chapter, how restricted is the flora of that part of the American polar lands which has received the somewhat ambitious appellation of the “Wooded Region.” This flora, so poor and stunted, is nevertheless the flora of a comparatively fortunate zone. We find it, with some variations, to the north of Sweden, Russia, and Siberia. There we encounter those ultimate masses of foliage which have any pretensions to the title of Forests—Pines, Firs, Elms, and Birches are the only species which compose them. Further north these trees form but small woods, alternating with clumps of poplars and dwarf willows. The Myrtle of our sub-Alpine forests, and a small winding Honeysuckle, with rounded leaves, rosy and fragrant flowers, cover in certain places considerable surfaces. Still further north the arborescent species are completely wanting; but vivacious plants, belonging to the families of RanunculaceÆ, SaxifragaceÆ, CruciferÆ, and GramineÆ, spread out their flowers on the surface of the rocks. To the firs and birches, already so stinted, succeed, in the same localities, a few scattered shrubs; among others, the thorny Gooseberry bush, the common Strawberry, the Raspberry-pseudo-Mulberry (Rubus ChamÆmorus)—exclusively indigenous to these regions—and the Oleander of Lapland (Rhododendron Laponicum). Still advancing northward, we meet, on the extreme confines of the continent, some Dravas (CruciferÆ), Potentillas (RosaceÆ), Bur-weeds and Rushes (CyperaceÆ), and, finally, a few Mosses and Lichens. The commonest mosses are the Splechnum, which resemble small umbels; and, in moist localities, the Sphagnum, or Bog-Moss, whose successive accumulation, from a very remote epoch, has formed, with the detritus of some CyperaceÆ, extensive breadths of peat, which might be utilized as a combustible. The lichens and the mosses are the last plants which, owing to the simplicity of their organization, are able to develop and reproduce themselves on the Arctic rocks and under the dense layer of snow which covers them. Their abundance in almost all the polar wastes, where every other nutritious plant is wanting, proves an inestimable benefit for the few inhabitants of those deserts. It will suffice to mention, as representatives of the singular family of Cryptogams, the Iceland Moss, which medical science employs in the treatment of pulmonary diseases; and the Reindeer Moss, whose foliaceous expansions frequently cover vast extents of soil, and form veritable pasture-grounds where the reindeer find almost their only nutriment.

But if the Polar Flora offers few details of interest, it is otherwise with the Polar Fauna. The most important orders of the Animal Kingdom, and particularly of the class Mammalia, are there represented by species not less worthy of attention than those that people the savage countries of the torrid and temperate zones.

Among the Ruminantia we may mention the Eland and the Stag of Canada, which range—the former in the Old and New Continents, the latter in the New World only—to a very high latitude; but, to confine myself to the characteristic species of the Hyperborean Fauna, I shall here speak only of the Musk-Ox and the Reindeer.

The Musk-Ox, or Ovibos (Ovibos Moschatus), is, as its zoological name indicates, an intermediate animal between the ox and the sheep. Smaller than the former, larger than the latter, he reminds us equally of both in his form and appearance. He has an obtuse nose; horns broad at the base, covering the forehead and crown of the head, and curving downwards between the eye and ear until about the level of the mouth, where they turn upwards; the tail is short, and almost lost in the thickness of the hair, which is generally of a dark brown, and of two kinds, as with all the animals of Polar regions,—a long hair, which on some parts of the body is thick and curled, and, beneath it, a fine kind of soft, ash-coloured wool; the legs are short and thick, and furnished with narrow hoofs, resembling those of the moose. The female is smaller than the male, and has also smaller horns. Her general colour is black, except that the legs are whitish; and along the back runs an elevated ridge or mane of dusky hair.

The musk-ox, as might be inferred from his name, exhales a strong odour of musk, with which his very flesh is impregnated, and which communicates itself to the knife employed in cutting him up. Not the less is he esteemed a precious prey by the Indians and Eskimos, who hunt him actively. He wanders in small herds over the rocky prairies which stretch to the north of the great lakes of North America. He is an irascible animal, and will fight desperately in defence of the female.

The Reindeer (Cervus Turandus) is about the size of our English stag, but of a squatter and less graceful form. He stands about four feet six inches high. His head is crowned with remarkably long and slender horns; and they have branched, recurved, and round antlers, whose summits are palmated. His colour is brown above and white beneath; but as the animal advances in age, it changes into a grayish-white, and is sometimes almost wholly white. The nether part of the neck droops like a kind of hanging beard. His hoofs are large, long, and black; and so are the secondary hoofs behind. The latter, while the reindeer is running, make by their collision a curious clattering sound, which may be heard at a considerable distance.

This species formerly spread over Europe and Asia to a tolerably low latitude.CÆsar particularizes it among the animals of the Hercynian Forest. Even at the present day troops of wild reindeer traverse the wooded summits of the prolongation of the Ural Mountains. They advance between the Don and the Volga to the 46th parallel of latitude; and they extend their wanderings even to the foot of the Caucasus, on the banks of the Kouma. But their true habitat is that belt of ice and snow bounded by the Arctic polar circle, or, more properly, by the isothermal line of 0° centigrade. “Both the wild and the tame reindeer,” says Desmoulins, “ change their feeding-grounds with the seasons. In winter they descend into the plains and valleys; in summer they take refuge upon the mountains, where the wild herds gain the loftiest terraces, the more easily to escape the attacks of gadflies and other insect enemies. It is very remarkable that each species of animal has, so to speak, his insect parasite. The oestre so terrifies the reindeer that the mere appearance of one in the air will infuriate a herd of a thousand animals. As it is then the moulting season, these insects deposit their eggs in the skin, where the larvÆ lodge and multiply ad infinitum, incessantly renewing centres of suppuration.”

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THE REINDEER OF LAPLAND.
THE REINDEER OF LAPLAND.

To the natives of North America, says a zoologist, the reindeer is only known as a beast of chase, but he is a most important one. There is hardly a part of the animal which is not made available to some useful purpose. Clothing made of the skin is, according to Sir J. Richardson, so impervious to the cold, that, with the addition of a blanket of the same material, any one so clothed may bivouac on the snow with safety in the most intense cold of an Arctic winter’s night. The venison, when in high condition, has several inches of fat on the haunches, and said to equal that of the fallow-deer in our best English parks: the tongue and some of the tripe are reckoned most delicious morsels. Pemmican is formed by pouring one-third part of melted fat over the pounded meat, and incorporating them well together. The Eskimos and Greenlanders consider the stomach or paunch, with its contents, a great delicacy; and Captain Sir James Ross says that these contents form the only vegetable food which the natives of Boothia ever taste.[193]

The order of Rodents has no other representatives in the Arctic Deserts than the Arctic Hare and the Alpine Lagomys. The former is a little larger than our European hare. His abundant fur, gray in summer, grows white in winter, and affords him protection, by a merciful provision of nature, against the carnivorous beasts of prey. It becomes impossible to discern him from the snowy mantle which covers all the earth. He is a native of Labrador and Greenland.

The Lagomys are small animals, scarcely exceeding the Guinea-pig in size, and measuring only nine inches in length. His long head is ornamented with a pair of short, broad, and rounded ears. He inhabits the AltaÏ Mountains, but extends even into Kamtschatka, seeking an asylum in the wooded tracts among the mossy rocks and flashing waterfalls, lodging in the fissures or burrowing in the most sequestered corners. During the autumn he lays up a store of winter provision by collecting the finest grass and moss and herbs. These he dries in the sun, and disposes in small heaps or hayricks, which vary in size according to the number of animals employed, and frequently furnish the sable-hunter with provender for his horse in the hour of direst emergency.

The group of Arctic Carnivora, more numerous than the reader would at the first glance suppose, includes those animals which furnish commerce with the costliest furs.

Except the Fox and the White Bear, of which I shall presently speak, all these Carnivora belong to the family which has for its type the “long-spined animal”—the common European Weasel (Mustela)—and which borrows from it its zoological appellation of MustelidÆ.

In this family the most remarkable genera are undoubtedly the Martens, the Polecats, the Gluttons, and the Otters.

The Martens of the North are cousins-german of the weasels, so justly feared by our farmers and villagers on account of the extensive depredations which they commit in the poultry-yard. The martens are not less ferocious; but in the fir and birch forests which they inhabit, it is upon the small rodents, the birds, and, when necessity prompts, upon the reptiles, that they exercise their sanguinary tyranny. They scale trees as nimbly as cats; and their flexible body enables them to introduce themselves into the smallest openings, where a cat could not pass, and into the burrows and fissures of the trees or rocks which serve as an asylum for their victims. They are, moreover, very pretty animals, with lively manners, a cunning physiognomy, and a rich furry attire. Besides the ordinary marten, which is found in all the north of Europe, zoologists distinguish in this genus several species exclusively indigenous to the coldest regions of the two continents. The most renowned for the beauty of his coat is the Zibelline, or Sable, which we must look for in Northern Russia and Siberia. Its hairs, whose general shade is a grayish-brown, possess this singular property, which distinguishes them from every other kind of fur—they have no particular inclination, and consequently may be laid down indifferently in any direction whatever.

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Ermine and Sable-Marten.
Ermine and Sable-Marten.

The genus Polecat (Mustela putarius) comprehends the smallest of all known Carnivora—the Weasel, the Ferret, and the Ermine. The temperate countries of Europe possess one variety of the latter species; but the ermines of the extreme north have a much fuller and softer fur. These animals, like many others, change their garb according to the season. The ermine, which poets have adopted as the emblem of purity, on account of his spotless whiteness, in reality only merits that dangerous honour in the winter; it is then only that he assumes that immaculate robe which the proudest monarchs are content to wear. In summer its colour is a clear maroon. His tail alone remains at all times of a beautiful shining black.

The Glutton (Gulo Arcticus) is a carnivorous quadruped of a very voracious nature, about the size of a large badger, between which and the polecat he appears to form a link. His legs are short and robust; he has a compact body, large head, and unwieldy gait. His ears are small; his tail is short and tufted. His skin is a black brown on the top of the head and back; a white line extends along each flank, from the shoulder to the root of the tail. The muzzle is black; the remainder of the body a deep brown. Like most of the mammals of the Polar region, he has two kinds of hair—the upper long and coarse, the lower soft, fine, and of an uniform brown colour. The glutton owes his name to his extreme voracity. He does not fear to attack animals of the size of the reindeer; he leaps upon them, fastens his claws in them, rends them to pieces, until at length they fall exhausted. After having gorged himself on their flesh and blood, he hides the remainder for another repast.

The genus Otter (Lutra vulgaris) comprehends several species, distributed over nearly all the countries of the world. I shall here speak only of the Otter of Kamtschatka, or Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris), so named on account of his essentially aquatic habits. He weighs from seventy to eighty pounds. In full season his colour is perfectly black; at other times, of a dark brown. He attains the length of three feet, including his tail; has hind-feet resembling those of a seal; the upper jaw is armed with six, and the lower with four incisors. The grinders are broad, and well adapted for crunching crustaceous animals. He runs with great rapidity, and swims with astonishing ease and swiftness. Of late years, however, he has been the object of so murderous a chase on the part of the Russian and American hunters that he has almost disappeared from the Polar shores. The skins of the sea otter are much prized by the Chinese, who pay for them from seventy to one hundred roubles a-piece. Very few ever reach the European market.

Among those Carnivora which are able to accommodate themselves to the severest climates, I may mention the Foxes. These animals attire themselves, under the Polar latitudes, in a fur of sufficient thickness to endure the intense cold they are required to support; and this fur is esteemed among the most precious varieties, under the names of Isatis skin, White Fox, Black, Blue, and Tricoloured Foxskins. The shades vary according to Reynard’s habitat, his age, and also the season; they correspond in like manner to the differences of race, but not to the differences of species. The most valuable skins are obtained from those foxes which belong to very cold countries; and it seems that as they recede from a certain latitude, they lose their value. “Some Blue Foxes were killed by our hunters,” says Madame LÉonie d’Aunet, “which were stunted and ugly. The Spitzbergen foxes do not in any respect resemble the foxes of Iceland or Siberia, whose fur is so beautiful and in such high repute. That they may be thoroughly protected from the cold, they do not wear upon their bodies a fur so much as several thick folds or layers of very thick hair, so intermingled and threaded that it is rather a mattress than a coat of fur. Moreover, instead of being of a somewhat tawny colour, like the Iceland foxes, they are of an ashen-gray. Their skin, nevertheless, is excellently adapted for making carpets.”

I see no intermediaries between the small Carnivora we have just passed in review, and the formidable tyrant of the icy Deserts, the Polar or Marine Bear (Ursus marinus), popularly known as the White Bear; an improper appellation, as it confounds the Bear of the Arctic Seas with the Albino variety of the Common Bear.

The former constitutes a perfectly distinct species, whose characteristics, apart from the yellowish-white colour of his rich soft fur, are a flattened and elongated head, a long neck, high legs, and feet whose conformation is admirably adapted to the habitat and amphibious existence of the animal. In fact, the sole of each foot is garnished with a thick fleece, which permits the Arctic bear to walk on the ice as on a carpet, and the toes are connected by a membrane which renders them eminently fit for natatory purposes.

The Arctic bear seldom visits the land; his favourite sojourn is the floating ice-field, and his diet the corpses of whales and seals, or even living PhocÆ, which he fearlessly attacks at the impulse of hunger. “On seeing his intended prey,” says Captain Lyon, “he gets quietly into the water, and swims until to leeward of him, from whence, by frequent short dives, he silently makes his approaches, and so arranges his distances that at the last dive he comes to the spot where the seal is lying. If the poor animal attempts to escape by rolling into the water, he falls into the bear’s clutches; if, on the contrary, he lies still, his destroyer makes a powerful spring, kills him on the ice, and devours him at leisure.”

In cases of urgency the bear does not scruple to make a prey of man, and he is assuredly a formidable antagonist. His dimensions are enormous; he is endowed with prodigious strength. Some individuals have been met with who measured nine to ten feet in length. Their average size is about six feet in length, and about three in height, to the top of the shoulder. Spite of their ferocity, which with them, as with nearly all the Carnivora, is a natural consequence of their appetite, the white bears are sociable in their habits: they frequently wander about in small troops, and those of a family invariably “flock together.” The male, the mother, and their young are united by the ties of an affection which is capable of the most intrepid devotion. The female especially watches over her cubs with the most anxious solicitude, and defends them to the last extremity. Of this philoprogenitiveness a voyager relates what seems to me a truly pathetic example:—

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The White Bear and her Cubs.
The White Bear and her Cubs.

A vessel belonging to a small squadron commanded by Captain Philippe was caught in the Polar ice. One morning, the look-out man signalled the approach of three bears, which were advancing rapidly towards the vessel, attracted by the odour of some seal’s flesh roasted on the previous evening. The three consisted of a she bear and her two cubs. The seamen at a suitable moment fired at the latter, and killed them. The mother was also wounded, but not mortally. It was a spectacle which drew tears from the least susceptible to see the marks of sorrow and tenderness lavished by this poor beast upon her young. She carried to them a piece of the flesh which she had taken possession of, and divided it into two portions, which she placed before them. Seeing that they did not eat, she touched them alternately with her fore-paws, and endeavoured to raise them, uttering at the same time the most lamentable groans. Then she withdrew, halted a few paces, and summoned her little ones by a low sad cry. As they remained insensible to her appeal, she returned to them, moved them anew, smelt them on every side, dragged them some distance, again returned, still moaning and bewailing, licked their wounds, called them; and finally, when assured that they had ceased to live, and understanding what had transpired, she stood half erect by a great effort, turned towards the ship, and gave vent to a roar of agony and rage, an unmistakable imprecation against her murderers. The latter replied with a discharge of musketry. The poor bear fell smitten between her two little ones, and died licking their wounds.

Among other Mammiferous animals belonging to the Polar regions, my space only permits me a brief allusion to the Seal and the Walrus. The Seal (Phoca vitulina) seems to the eye a compound of the fish and the quadruped; having the tail of the former, the head, spine, and body of the latter. Its physiognomy is remarkable for its peculiarly mild and intelligent expression. Its elongated, conical body tapers from the shoulders to the tail. Its feet are of singular construction. They are covered with a membrane, and so united to the body that they might be mistaken for fins, but for the sharp strong claws that terminate them.

Seals swim with great rapidity, and can remain under water for a considerable period. The species are very numerous. The Greenland or Harp Seal (Phoca Greenlandica) measures about six feet in length. The Bearded Seal (P. barbata) is from seven to ten feet long. The largest known species is the Elephant Seal or Sea-Elephant (Macrorhinus proboscideus), whose girth at the largest part of the body is from fifteen to eighteen feet, and its length from twenty-five to thirty feet. It is a native of the Antarctic Seas. The Sea-Lion (Platyrhynchus leoninus), so called from its long full mane, inhabits both the northern and southern coasts of the Pacific. The Sea-Bear (Arctocephalus ursinus) derives its name from the fur and shape of the head.

The Walrus or Morse (Trichecus) is a genus of the PhocidÆ, or Seal family, distinguished by its widely different cranium and teeth. In the adult lower jaw are neither incisors nor canines, while the upper bristles with two enormous tusks, which are directed downwards, and are sometimes two feet long. It chiefly feeds upon molluscs and marine vegetables, and its flesh in its turn affords a dainty repast to the inhabitants of the Polar Deserts.

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CHAPTER III.
THE INHABITANTS OF THE ARCTIC WILDERNESSES:—THE LAPLANDERS—SAMOIEDES—OSTIAKS—KAMTSCHATDALES—ESKIMOS, OR ESQUIMAUX.

TO the various populations which occupy the Arctic regions of both the Old and the New World, the general appellation of Hyperboreans is sometimes given. Do these populations truly form, as some ethnologists assert, a distinct and homogeneous race; or are they not rather independent offshoots of the Japhetic race in Europe, of the Mongolian in Asia, of the Redskins in America? To this question I can give no satisfactory reply. I will only say that if the different fractions of this great group exhibit among themselves external differences of a very marked character, they are drawn together, on the other hand, by no less striking resemblances. In truth, these resemblances are markedly physiological, and should, I think, be exclusively attributed to the powerful and irresistible action of external agencies. If there be, indeed, one region where the influence of climate on the constitution of man is manifest, that region is assuredly the Polar Zone. There the conditions of life differ wholly from those which prevail in all other parts of the globe, and it necessarily results that modifications take place in the organism of the men subject to those conditions, which ought to be regarded as wholly independent of the origin of races and of their ethnographic characters properly so called.

The Hyperboreans are small, squat, ugly, and deformed. Their legs are short and sufficiently straight, but so thick, says Bory de St. Vincent, that to the spectator they seem swollen and diseased. Their head is generally of large size. They have long, coarse, straight hair, a thin beard, a broad countenance, a great mouth, high cheek-bones, and half-closed eyes, of a light colour, as gray or yellowish, but never blue. Their complexion is sometimes of a yellowish-white, as with the Laplanders; sometimes of a deep yellow or reddish-brown, as with the Eskimos and the Greenlanders. The latter peculiarity may be invoked as a very plausible argument in support of the opinion which gives to the Arctic peoples different origins. It shows also, once more, that the more or less intense colouring of the skin among the African races is not an effect of the solar heat, as was commonly supposed.

Considered from a physiological point of view, the Hyperboreans are distinguished by a remarkable uniformity of characteristics, which deserve to be specified. The sanguine temperament predominates among them. Their nervous system is but slightly developed, their sensibility blunted, their intelligence slow, their imagination feeble. Their external perspiration is almost null, and they are accustomed to suppress it entirely by induing their bodies in oily substances. On the other hand, their organs of nutrition and respiration are endowed with an extraordinary activity; and in this lies the secret of the extreme facility with which they support for several successive months the most rigorous cold. We know, indeed, that man and the warm-blooded animals possess, in their respiratory apparatus, a positive internal furnace, where a notable part of the carbon and the hydrogen contained in their venous blood is consumed in contact with the air. But to maintain this furnace at such a degree of heat as shall always preserve the temperature of the body at its normal standard (39° C.), the inhabitants of Arctic climes need constantly feed it with fuel, that is, with substances rich in carbon and hydrogen. Hence the keen appetite of the Hyperboreans for oil, fat, and flesh; hence, too, their voracity. The inhabitants of torrid or temperate regions, while sojourning among the icy wastes of the Pole, quickly become sensible of the same necessity, and eagerly feed upon aliments which elsewhere would inspire them with insurmountable disgust.

It is a remarkable fact that most of the diseases so frequent and so murderous in civilized countries are unknown in the Polar lands. But, on the other hand, ophthalmia is endemic, and the cutaneous affections, as well as cerebral and pulmonary congestion, are of common occurrence. To sum up: the already scattered and scanty population of the Arctic Zone is daily decreasing, and will probably be extinct in a few generations.

The manners of all the Hyperboreans present the same general features: they are peaceable, inoffensive, and reduced, if I may use the expression, to the utmost possible minimum of physical and intellectual activity. This race, or group of races, is represented on the two continents by several distinct peoples. Those most clearly defined are:—

The Laplanders inhabit the northernmost coasts of the Scandinavian peninsula. They are ignorant, uncultivated, and torpid, rather than savage. In spite of their frequent contact with the Russians and the Swedes, they have no industrial resources, no art, no other commerce than that which is afforded by the products of the chase, of their fisheries, or their herds of reindeer. Christianity, to which they were converted about two centuries ago, has not aroused them as yet from their moral and intellectual lethargy. All religion being reduced, so far as they are concerned, to oral tradition, the devotion of each is in proportion to his memory. Education among them has attained to this standard, that a Laplander who knows his alphabet corresponds to a young man among us who has graduated at Oxford or Cambridge.

A French traveller, M. de Saint-Blaize, furnishes some details respecting this people:—

“The race of Laplanders is constantly diminishing in numbers. It is of Asiatic origin, as may be clearly discerned in their language and the type of their physiognomy. Some are fishers, and dwell upon the coast; others are shepherds, who traverse the mountains in every direction, pasturing their reindeer on the white moss. During the three months’ summer the Laplander leads his herd into the elevated regions, to withdraw them from the excessive heats and the mosquito-plagues: in winter, he brings them near the dwellings of men, principally for the sake of protecting them more effectually from his bitter enemies, the wolves, of whom he never speaks but with a sentiment of profound hatred. The Laplander’s wealth is his herd, which feeds him, clothes him, and procures him, by way of barter, brandy and tobacco, the only objects of his desire.

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Lapland Fishers.
Lapland Fishers.

“The independent life of this nomadic people is not without its charm. Accustomed from his infancy to privations and fatigues of every kind, the Laplander suffers little. His body acquires an extraordinary vigour, and most of our maladies are unknown to him. If during a journey a Lapland woman gives birth to a child, she places the new-born in a piece of hollow wood, where a hole has been cut out to receive the little one’s head; then slings this cradle on her back, and resumes her journey. When she halts, she suspends her wooden chrysalid to a tree, and the wire-work protects it from the teeth of ferocious beasts. The reverse of this simple medal is an old age almost inevitably very unhappy. It is said that when a Laplander has no longer the strength to render himself useful, his children abandon him by the roadside, with just provisions enough to support him for a few days. The traveller frequently encounters in the forest the skeletons of old men who have thus perished in gloomy solitude.”

The cradle to which our authority refers is described by Professor Forbes as cut out of solid wood and covered with leather, in flaps so arranged as to lace across the top with leathern thongs; the inside and the little pillow are rendered tolerably soft with reindeer moss, and the infant fits the space so exactly, that it can neither stir hand nor foot.

The Lapp hut, says Professor Forbes,[194] is formed interiorly of wood, by means of curved ribs uniting near the centre in a ring, which is open, and allows free escape for the smoke; the fire being lighted in the centre of the floor. The exterior is covered with turf. The door is of wood on one side. The inmates recline on skins on the floor, with their feet towards the fire; and behind them, on a row of stones near the wall of the hut, are their various utensils. Their clothing—chiefly of tanned skins and woollen stuffs—looked very dirty.

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A Samoiede Family.
A Samoiede Family.

The Samoiedes (or Samoyedes) are scattered, to the number of about a thousand families, along the coasts of the Frozen Sea, in the government of Archangel, and, in Siberia, in the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk. Ethnologists generally consider them to have a common origin with the Finns of Europe. In stature they are somewhat taller than the Lapps, and their colour is more of a tawny. The marked features of their countenance recall the Hindu type. The forehead is high, the hair black, the nose long, the mouth well-formed; but the sunken eye, veiled by a heavy lid, expresses a cruel and perfidious nature. The manners of the Samoiedes are brutal. In character they are wily, fierce, and cunning. They are shepherds, hunters, traders, and, when opportunity serves, robbers. They clothe themselves in reindeer-skins, like the other Hyperboreans of the old continent. They shave off their hair, except a tolerably large tuft which they allow to flourish on the top of the head, and they pluck out the beard as fast as it grows. The women adorn themselves with a belt of gilded copper, and with a profusion of ornaments in glass beads and metal. They are heathens, worshipping the sun and moon, the water and the trees; in fact, whatever object meets their eyes they convert into a deity; and, above all, they adore the bear, offering prayers and sacrifices to him before venturing on an expedition to hunt him down!

The Ostiaks and the Yakouts are established in the northernmost districts of Siberia, from the Oural Mountains to Kamtschatka. I borrow from a Polish lady, Madame Felinska, long exiled in Siberia, some curious details relative to the Ostiaks, whom, during her banishment, she had numerous opportunities of studying. Seeking one day a pathway through a wood, she encountered a couple of Ostiaks on the point of performing their religious duties. These consist in placing themselves before a tree—a larch in preference—in the wildest and densest part of the forest, and there executing a series of epileptic contortions. Such pagan demonstrations are forbidden them, says Madame Felinska; but, despite the Christianity which they have professed to accept, they are and will remain pagans.

Nearly every Ostiak carries about his person a rude image of the divinities which he adores under the name of SchaÏtan; but this does not prevent him from wearing on his breast a small copper crucifix. The SchaÏtan represents the human figure, carved in wood, or, rather, cut out of a small fragment of wood. It is of different sizes, according to the price and the various uses for which it is intended: if for carrying on the person, it is small; images for decorating the hut are much larger; but in every case the god is clothed in seven pearl-embroidered chemises, and suspended to the neck by a chaplet of silver coins. The wooden deity occupies the place of honour in the huts and cottages, and before commencing a repast, they take care to offer him the daintiest morsel, smearing his lips with fish or raw game; when this sacred duty is performed, they eat in contentment.

The priests of the Ostiaks are called Scha-mans; they enjoy immense influence, which they employ in furtherance of the basest superstition and in promotion of their own personal interest. Ambition and egotism dispense with knowledge and science in order to corrupt mankind.

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Yakout Hunter Worried by a White Bear.
Yakout Hunter Worried by a White Bear.

The Ostiaks and the Samoiedes are great hunters of the white bear. It is the same with the Yakouts, a people dwelling near the Bouriats, and approaching, like them, to the Mongol type. It seems that the object of the chase is not always to kill the animal, but to catch him alive. Madame Felinska relates that she saw one day a considerable troop of bears conducted to BÉrÉzov like a herd of tame cattle, and apparently quite as inoffensive. She neglects to inform us, however, by what means they had been reduced to this state of passive obedience. The Ostiaks and the Yakouts frequently attack the white bears body to body, without any other weapon than a hatchet or a long cutlass. They need to strike the animal with extreme skill and vigour, to slay him at the first blow, or otherwise they incur extreme peril. If he misses his stroke, the hunter’s only resource is to fling himself on the ground and lie motionless, until the bear, while smelling his body and turning him over, incautiously offers himself again to his attack.

The Yakouts are nearly of average height. They are robust and brave, honest and hospitable, but addicted to idolatry and polygamy.

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Kamtschatdales.
Kamtschatdales.

The Kamtschatdales are smaller and shorter than the Yakouts. They have a round flat face, a broad depressed nose, and prominent cheek-bones. They are of a friendly, mild, and peaceable character. They have a strong partiality for the song and the dance, and their amusements frequently degenerate into orgies. Small-pox and excessive brandy-drinking have reduced to a few hundred families a population which numbered, a century ago, fully 15,000 souls.

One sole population inhabits the immense icy plains which extend into America even beyond the Polar circle. I refer to the Eskimos, who are found—encamped in summer under tents made of reindeer or seal-skin, hidden in winter in their snow-huts—from Behring’s Strait even to Cape Farewell. This race has the reddish-brown tint of the North American Indians. In its small stature and physical forms it does not differ from other Hyperboreans; but in physiognomy and the flattened skull it singularly recalls the men of lofty stature who inhabit the other extremity of the American continent, the Patagonians. The physiognomy, the character, and the manners of the Eskimos have been frequently described. The courageous navigators who have explored the Polar Sea in quest of a North-west Passage have held frequent intercourse with these poor people, and all agree in eulogizing their gentleness, their patriarchal life, their eagerness to succour strangers. An American, Captain Hall, the last adventurer who has set himself the task of discovering the wrecks of Franklin’s ill-fated expedition, spent a whole year in the midst of the Eskimos, whose amiability and generosity he praises in no stinted terms. Exclusively hunters and fishers, the Eskimos have no other domestic animal than the dog; they harness it to their sledges, and also train it to chase the seal, the walrus, and the reindeer. It is in the summer only that they hunt the latter animal. In that genial season there is no lack of other game, terrestrial and marine. It is for them a season of abundance, wherein they gorge themselves with flesh, blood, and fat. During the winter they often fast several days at a time, and remain immured in their huts like hybernating animals; but at length, driven by famine and by want of oil, they go forth upon the ice in search of the seals which come up to breathe. When they have been fortunate enough to kill one, they divide it amongst them amicably, and regale themselves upon it until only the bones remain, after which they endure a new period of privation. Thus they live from day to day, in continual alternations of gluttony and abstinence, without injury to their health, and without shortening their lives. And it is worthy of notice that Europeans who once consent to adopt this regime—to drink the warm blood and eat the raw flesh and fat of seals—soon accept of it without the slightest repugnance, and become capable of enduring, like true Hyperboreans, the terrible cold of the long Polar winters.

The inhabitants of Sagalien, one of the northerly Asiatic islands, are a race called the Anios, the same people who form the aboriginal population of Jesso, and some tribes of whom also dwell on the opposite shores of Manchooria. They are uncultured and pagan savages, who dwell in huts built of rough logs, and live upon the proceeds of their fishery and the chase. Their women are ugly and little; the men are tall, lithe, straight, and strong, with flowing hair and unkempt beard and moustaches. Like the Samoiedes they worship the bear; feasting the living animals on the choicest dried fish, and planting young pines round the cages in which they are kept. Their graves they regard with similar feelings of veneration.

The other Hyperborean races do not widely differ in character and physical appearance from those already described.

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CHAPTER IV.
T H E M O U N T A I N S.

FROM the Polar deserts to the icy crests of the mountains the transition is natural. There are here, so to speak, two varieties of a single class of deserts, which we might call the Deserts of Cold, since the coldness of the climate is the dominant cause which in both renders the soil more and more unproductive and uninhabitable. In effect, it is not only in departing from the Tropic Zone that we see the mean temperature gradually sinking even to the point whereat all liquids congeal and all terrestrial life becomes impossible. The same phenomenon occurs in proportion as we ascend in the atmosphere. It is a consequence of the properties of the gaseous medium which envelops our globe, and takes place in obedience to certain laws which science has been able to ascertain and define. We know now that the decline of the temperature is always in proportion to the elevation of places or of the atmospheric strata; but the value of the relation which exists between the two terms may be modified by various circumstances—such as the direction of the prevailing wind, the hygrometrical state of the atmosphere, the hour of the day, and particularly the climate, or, to speak more exactly, the thermic latitude. The warmer the climate, the more sensible the difference between the temperature of the air at the level of the sea and that which we observe at a certain height; greater, nevertheless, is the height to which we must rise to find the region where the thermometer never descends below 0°, and where, consequently, the snows and ices of the mountains do not melt in any season.

As a mean, we estimate every 580 feet of elevation in the Torrid Zone as equal to one thermometrical degree, and in the Temperate Zone at one degree for every 450 feet, the cooling of the air. That is, for every 580 feet in the one instance, and every 450 feet in the other, as we ascend above the sea’s level, the temperature decreases one degree. In the Polar regions the decrease of temperature is insensible up to a certain height, which has not yet been ascertained. At Ingloolich, in 69° 21´ north latitude, Captain Parry flew a kite to a height of 400 feet, with an À minima thermometer attached. At this elevation the temperature of the air was 31° below zero, or the same as on the ice-fields of the sea. Humboldt counted one degree of declination for every 550 feet on Chimborazo. De Saussure obtained one degree for every 440 feet on Mont Blanc.

The limit of eternal snows, or perpetual snow-line, which at the Pole sinks to the very level of ocean, rises higher and higher as it approaches the lower latitudes, and attains its maximum elevation towards the Equinoctial Line. It follows, that in the countries bordering on the Arctic Circle, mountains of very moderate altitude show themselves all through the year in a shroud of radiant snow; while, under the Tropics, if we would meet with masses of eternal ice, we must mount to a height of 13,500 feet and more. The limit of the permanent snows is, however, affected by a variety of local circumstances, such as the neighbourhood of great seas or forests. The subjoined table, therefore, which shows the height of the curve of congelation in different latitudes, is founded upon the known law of the decrease of heat by elevation, and must be regarded rather as approximatively correct than strictly accurate.

TABLE OF SNOW-LINE.

That the foregoing table needs considerable modification in particular localities is evident from the following facts:—In the Scandinavian Alps, lat. 65° north, the snow-line occurs at an elevation of 5200 feet, instead of 2722; in the Alps of Savoy, lat. 45° north, it is found at 7650 feet, which is nearly that of the table. On the southern slope of the Himalayas the traveller ascends to an elevation of upwards of 15,000 feet before he enters the realms of snow and ice, and on the northern slope to 12,750 feet. Finally, in the Andes of Bolivia, according to Pentland, the curve of congelation lies between 14,400 and 14,800 feet.

Thus, then, in the mid Torrid Zone, we must accomplish a weary ascent of 13,000 to 15,000 feet before we can find ourselves transported from the calcined plains whose sands scorch and blister our feet, or the dense forests whose innermost depths teem with the most exuberant and beautiful floral life, to the heart of icy deserts and the sublime silence of the mountains. And in passing from one to the other of these extremes, we traverse in a few hours all the climates which succeed one another from the Equator to the Pole. Nevertheless, I must point out an important difference between the Polar deserts and the snowy regions of the mountains, which is wholly to the advantage of the former.

I have already shown that, under the highest latitudes, men find, in the exceptional activity of their functions of nutrition, and, above all, of respiration, a powerful re-agent against the intensity of the external cold. This resource fails him on the mountain summit. In vain will he attempt, as a succedaneum against the cold, to modify his ordinary regimen, to drink warm blood, to eat fat and raw flesh; his stomach will reject such aliment, or digest it only with difficulty, and he will not suffer less from the extreme rigour of the temperature. At the Pole air pours freely into our lungs, and its pressure stoutly maintains the equilibrium of the fluids of our body. Such is not the case when we soar, Icarus like, into the higher regions of the atmosphere; in proportion as we ascend, the air rarefies, and its pressure diminishes. Consequently, respiration becomes difficult and painful; the quantity of oxygen designed to cherish animal heat by the combustion of the carbon and hydrogen of the blood becomes insufficient; at the same time, the tissues and the liquids which they enclose expand; perspiration, instead of diminishing, experiences a relative augmentation; if the atmospheric pressure is much too weak, the blood extravasates, and forces itself out through the nose, the ears, and the pores of the skin. In a word, that peculiar malady which has been named the mal des montagnes, and which is not always unattended with danger, attacks the hardiest traveller, and compels him with all speed to return to lower and securer levels.

When, therefore, we speak of “the pure and living air” of the mountains, of the vigour and health of their inhabitants—even as the poet says—

we are really to understand those lofty hills which are decorated in some places with the name of mountains, or the table-lands that form the first steps of the great chains. Such, indeed, are the only inhabited and inhabitable mountains. There only is the cultivation of a few plants still possible; there only can the wild beasts find an asylum in wood or forest, and the cattle green fields of pasture; there may man plant his feet, build his dwellings, devote himself to rearing his herds, to the chase, or to more sedentary industries. Let us remember, moreover, that the salubrity of the air of elevated districts has been greatly exaggerated, and that if we meet with many mountaineers agile, robust, and intelligent, we also meet with a great number affected by organic diseases either wholly unknown or very rare in the plains, such as goÎtre, scrofula, and cretinism.

The structure of the mountains, their form, and the nature of their soil, suffice, even without these meteorological conditions I have just indicated, to render them impracticable as the dwelling-place of man and of most animals. To ascend them is almost always an enterprise of the most hazardous, frequently of the most perilous character. To climb the lofty peaks of the Himalaya, to scale the majestic brow of Chimborazo, to ascend the frozen sides of the Jungfrau or Mont Blanc, is an achievement of which the boldest boast, as if they had won a Waterloo or an Inkermann! Only a keen longing after that notoriety which for some minds fills the place of renown, or a passion for dangerous enterprise such as stimulates the pioneer or the explorer, or a powerful scientific and artistic interest, can impel the Alpine adventurer—can instigate a Saussure, a Forbes, a Pentland, or a Tyndall, to mount the scarped ramparts of primeval rocks, to tread warily along precipices which the chamois can scarcely traverse, to escalade the savage cliffs and frozen pinnacles, and to breathe

The annals of mountaineering are illuminated with many stirring stories of human endurance, patience, and heroism; but, alas! the page is too often robed in black, and too frequently records the death of some unhappy explorer!

It is no part of my plan to trace the geological history of mountains. We know that their formation has been attributed, according to a satisfactory theory, to the upheavals and expansions of the igneous matter which, in the primitive ages, boiled under the solid crust produced by the superficial solidification of our planet, and whose ebullition, though considerably decreased, even in our own days is frequently made known in volcanic phenomena and earthquakes. At divers epochs the crust of the globe will have been rent and dislocated, giving vent to floods of fused mineral matter; these, solidifying in their turn, will have produced those inequalities of the earth’s surface which we call mountains; enormous inequalities, as they appear to us; mole-hills or grains of sand if we compare them with the volume of the terrestrial sphere.

The distribution of the mountains over the surface of the continents and islands, and the forms which they have assumed, seem, at the first glance, altogether capricious and irregular. Yet an attentive study speedily demonstrates that some higher law than that of chance presided at the violent and tumultuous production of these majestic masses. Thus, in the first place, it is evident that every mountain not a volcano connects itself of necessity to other mountains, and forms a chain of greater or less length, which departs a little from the straight line, or rather from the arc of the great circle. The principal chains throw out branches, and by mountain knots, as they are called, unite with other secondary chains—the whole composing a mountain system; but the apparent irregularities of these systems may always be referred to one common direction.

If from the disposition of mountains we pass to their distribution, we perceive that all chains which have sprung from the same geological convulsion are always distinctly parallel, and the successive chains distinctly perpendicular among themselves; so that the age of a chain is known by its direction. Nor is there anything to astonish us in this species of symmetry, when we recollect that every substance previously liquefied or diluted by heat, and which, while cooling, becomes contracted by the closer compression of its atoms, splits with a certain degree of regularity, generally following lines which intersect each other at right angles. And it is through the crevices of the cooled terrestrial crust that these fused matters have escaped, according to the hypothesis generally admitted by geologists, which, by solidifying in their turn, have created the mountains. I can only indicate these considerations to the reader; their development would beguile us too far from our prescribed path.

If we direct our attention now to the configuration of mountains, we shall see that this configuration depends essentially on the nature of the rocks which constitute them. Granite, for example, is one of those which offers the most varied outlines, as the reader may see without quitting the United Kingdom, in the rugged, fantastic, broken masses of the Argyllshire Highlands, that hem in the waters of Loch Goil and Loch Long. Granite abounds in the tropical zone, and seems to prefer chains of moderate elevation. Granite heights are generally distinguished by abrupt and polished flanks, pointed or dentelated summits, scarped approaches, deeply fissured slopes, and narrow, wild, and profound valleys.

Gneiss, a felspathic and micaceous rock, of schistous structure, is found in layers sometimes horizontal or gently inclined, sometimes undulating and complicated towards the border. The contours of the gneiss mountains are less cloven than those of mountains of granite; but numerous fissures and indentations are still discoverable.

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The Organ Mountains of Rio Janeiro.
The Organ Mountains of Rio Janeiro.

Porphyry generally occurs in isolated peaks, with almost vertical flanks; seldom in continuous chains. Porphyritic mountains, says M. Maury, imprint on the landscape a peculiarly picturesque character. This rock sometimes appears under the form of tall pillars set in close juxtaposition—it is then known as columnar porphyry; and to groups of these columns have been given in some countries the name of Orgues or Organs, on account of their resemblance to the organ pipes which discourse solemn music in our cathedrals.

Thus: in Mexico two mountains occur distinguished by this appellation, Los Organos; one is that of Mamanchota, situated to the north of the Indian village of Actapan. The portion soaring out of the rock, says Humboldt, is three hundred feet in height; but the absolute elevation of the summit of the mountain, at the point where the Organos begin to shoot aloft, is 1385 toises (about 5310 feet). The other is the Jacal, which is nearly 9600 feet above the sea-level, and crowned with forests of pine and cedar.

But the most celebrated Organ Mountains are those which rear their glittering shafts at the extremity of the bay of Rio Janiero. “It is not only the aspect of these pointed summits,” says Dr. Yvan, “that reminds the spectator of the sublime instrument of our churches; the strange sounds which escape from between these cylinders of rock render the analogy still more striking, and complete the illusion. The voice of the tempest, the lamentations of the forests bowed by the passing winds, the doleful wails of the jaguars, the cries of the howling monkeys passing between these sonorous peaks, produce a harmony before which all human instrumentation loses its grandeur. We feel that it is the universal soul which inspires the chords of the majestic keys. The Serra dos Organos is clothed in virgin forest over three-fourths of its extent; it is only at long intervals, and in obscure valleys, that we encounter any traces of human industry, or that we traverse some circular treeless hollows, in which an abundant herbage flourishes, and feeds the troops of horses and oxen enclosed in these natural parks.”

The Organ Mountains of Epailly (in the department of the Haute Loire, in France) and of Bart (in the CorrÈze), and the Colonnades of Chenavari (in the ArdÈche), belong to the basaltic formation, rendered so remarkable by its frequent arrangement in prismatic columns of extreme regularity. Basalt also gives birth to chains which resemble vast walls, and sometimes appears in the form of pyramids, plateaux, or simple mamelons.

Of the columnar arrangement the Palisades, on the banks of the river Hudson, may be particularized as a noble example; but a still grander spectacle is presented on the river Columbia, west of the Rocky Mountains, where the waters pour through a valley walled on either side with tier upon tier of pillars, to the height of fully a thousand feet.

The Trachytes, massive rocks of excessive roughness, occasionally appear in the shape of cones, at times in that of domes or enormous balloons, and at times as cupolas with spire-like points, like minarets. The chalks, the sandstones, the diorites, have all their characteristic aspect, and give to the mountains where they dominate, and to the landscapes which surround them, an easily recognizable physiognomy. And, finally, everybody knows the particular configuration affected by the volcanic mountains.

The great mountain-chains are unequally distributed in different parts of the world, and their disposition varies in a remarkable manner in the two great continents. For the most part it agrees with the direction of the principal land masses in each. Thus, in the Old World, the chief ranges assume an easterly and westerly course, following the parallels of latitude; in the New, a northerly and southerly direction, like that of the meridians of longitude.

In Europe, the mountains are numerous, but generally of very moderate elevation. In the north, we find the Scandinavian Alps, covering nearly the whole of Norway and some part of Sweden. From the Naze, or Cape Lindesnaes, they roll far away, like foam-crested billows, to the very shore of the Frozen Sea. The central and highest part of the mass, between latitude 62° and 63°, is called the Dover-feld; the more northerly portion, the Koelin Mountains; the more southerly, Lang-feld and Hardanger-feld. Their summits are comparatively flat—felds, or fields, as the name indicates; on the eastern side they slope gradually to the plains bordering the Gulf of Bothnia, their sides clothed with dense forests of pine and fir; on the west they rise abruptly from the margin of the ocean, and their steep, barren, and swarthy flanks are broken up by numerous inlets, or fiords, where the waters lie cradled in gloom and desolation. Their highest point is now known to be Skags-tol-tind, in the Lang-feld range, upwards of 8000 feet. All the loftier summits rise above the snow-line, and wear night and day, winter and summer, a shroud of frost and snow. The glaciers are often of great magnificence, and equal, if they do not transcend in sublimity, those of the Alps of Switzerland and Savoy.

The Mountains of Scotland seldom exceed 3500 feet in height; the principal summits, however, Ben Mac-Dhui, and Ben Nevis, are respectively, 4390 and 4368 feet. Ben Lawers, on the west side of Loch Tay, reaches 3984 feet; Ben More, in the south-west of Perthshire, 3818 feet; and Schehallion, 3514 feet. Ben Lomond, east of the famous lake of that name, has an altitude of 3191 feet. The characteristics of the Scotch mountains are their barren sides, only relieved by patches of purple heather; their originally fantastic and broken outlines; their deep, narrow, savage glens, which are often of the gloomiest and most desolate aspect; and their still deep tarns, or lakes, mirroring each lofty height in their clear and glassy surface.

The most important of the European systems is that of the Alps, whose majestic and glorious landscapes have been for ages the admiration of the poet and the artist. They begin, on the west, near the head of the Gulf of Savoy; sweep round the upper portion of Italy, as if to shut out that historic peninsula from the European mainland; bend to the south-east to approach the Adriatic; and throw out a spur, or prolongation, along the eastern shore of that sea, and parallel with it. That portion of the system which borders the Mediterranean is distinguished as the Maritime Alps; between Italy on the one side, and France and Savoy on the other, lie the Cottian and Graian Alps; from Mont Blanc to Monte Rosa stretch the Pennine Alps; further to the eastward extend the Lepontine, Rhetian, and Noric Alps; and south-easterly, the Carnic, the Julian, and the Dinaric Alps. The Bernese Alps form the northern barrier of the Valley of the Rhone; their direction is parallel to that of the Pennine.[196]

The principal Alpine summits are:—Mont Blanc, the “monarch of mountains,” 15,750 feet; Monte Rosa, 15,150 feet; Finster-Aarhorn, 14,109; the Jungfrau, 13,716; and the Ortler Spits, 12,852 feet. The scenery of the Alps is always of the grandest character; its more remarkable features being its huge glaciers, or ice-rivers, with their brilliant and ever-changing hues.

It is supposed that there are at least four hundred of the great glaciers, varying from three to thirty miles in length, from a hundred to six or seven hundred feet in thickness, and from a few yards to a couple of miles in breadth. The total superficial area of the glaciers in Switzerland, Savoy, Piedmont, and the Tyrol, has been estimated at 1400 square miles.

The Apennines must be considered a subsidiary portion of the Alps, rather than as an independent system. They branch off from the Maritime Alps, and traverse the entire length of Italy. Several peaks rise to an elevation of between 7000 and 8000 feet; but the average height scarcely exceeds 3000 feet. Monte Coma, the culminating point, is 9523 feet.

The south of Italy is occupied by a remarkable volcanic region, where the subterranean fires still give awful signs of their intense activity. Mount Vesuvius, which raises its conical mass, girdled with vines and chestnuts, above the fair city of Naples, is 3978 feet above the sea-level. Its sister volcano, Mount Etna, in the island of Sicily, attains a far loftier elevation (10,872 feet),[198] and exhibits a charming variety of picturesque scenery. The forest region on the lower slopes is rich in glowing effects of colour, while near the summit the landscapes wear a grander aspect. Mr. Matthew Arnold has painted an Etnean picture with marvellous force in the following beautiful passage.[199]

Between France and Spain lies the great system of the Pyrenees, whose topmost peaks exceed 11,000 feet in altitude. Their entire breadth averages between forty and fifty miles; the southern slope is exceedingly rugged and abrupt, and the passes or defiles exhibit a character of exceeding savageness. The two loftiest crests are Mount Maladetta, 11,426 feet, and Mont Perdu, 11,275 feet. The interior of Spain consists of an elevated table-land, bordered by the wild mountain-ranges of the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Morena. The average height of the snowy chain of the Nevada is 6000 feet, but the Peak of Mulharen soars to the noble elevation of 11,678 feet.

In France, we meet with the chains of the Cevennes and the Vosges, the former extending along the right bank of the Rhone, with an average altitude of 3000 feet; the latter stretching from north to south along the right bank of the Rhine. The vine-clad slopes of the latter offer many a romantic picture to the wayfarer in Rhineland. Very curious in geological interest are the extinct volcanic mountains of Auvergne; so black, charred, scathed, and desolate, that one might suppose them to have been the scene of some old-world battle between the Titans and the Olympian gods. Here the Puy de Sancy exceeds 6000 feet (6215), and the now silent cone of the Puy de DÔme, 4500 feet in height.

The Hungarian Mountains, or Mountains of Germany, occupy the country between the Rhine and the eighteenth meridian of east longitude. Here we meet with the dark and densely wooded crests of the Schwarz Wald, or Black Forest; the Erz-Gebirge, on the borders of Saxony and Bohemia; and the rich metalliferous masses of the legend-haunted Harz. Continuing our survey to the eastward, our glances rest on the bold and many-peaked groups of the Carpathians, which, commencing near the sources of the Oder and the Vistula, describe a semicircle round the fertile Hungarian plain for between seven and eight hundred miles. Striking down to the Danube, it faces on the opposite side the lofty wall of the Balkan, and through the gorge thus formed, the famous “Iron Gates” of ancient story, the river rolls its waters with impetuous rapidity. The more elevated summits of the Carpathians possess an average height of 5000 feet, but Mount Lomnitz reaches the loftier level of 7962 feet.

On the borders of Asia lies the long and narrow chain, or rather chains, of the Ural Mountains, with an average altitude of from 2000 to 2500 feet, sinking in about latitude 57° to a rocky ridge of little more than 1100 feet. The loftiest crest is Mount Yaman, in latitude 54° 13´, 5387 feet. The Ural Mountains possess abundant mineral treasures, both gold and platinum occurring in extensive abundance.

The chain of Mount Caucasus stretches for about 700 miles between the Black and Caspian Seas, in the direction of north-west and south-east. It exceeds 150 miles in breadth, throwing out from the central mass numerous branches and parallel ridges, and enclosing a network of valleys, plains, and ravines. The culminating point appears to be the group or mountain-knot of Elburz, in the meridian of 42° 25´ E., which attains the stupendous elevation of 18,493 feet. Kasbek, which is really in Asia, reaches 16,500 feet.

In the Asiatic continent the grandest mountain-system is that of the Himalayas (or “Snowy Mountains”), which limit the Thibetan table-land on the south, and divide it from the hot plains of northern India. They extend in an east and west direction for about 1500 miles, with a breadth of from 200 to 250; and consist of a number of parallel ranges, divided by transverse valleys, and rising one above another like a series of gigantic terraces. The slopes are clothed with an exceedingly rich and beautiful flora, and far up to the very snow-line extend magnificent breadths of forest foliage.[200] On the southern slope this snow-line is about 15,000 feet high; on the northern, 18,000 feet. The loftiest summit of the Himalayas, and probably the very apex of our globe, is Mount Everest (latitude 27° 59´), 29,002 feet in altitude. Kunchin-jinga is 28,156 feet; Dhawalgiri, 28,000 feet; and Javaher, 25,746 feet above the ocean-level.

“As we ascend the exterior face of these mountains,”[201] says Captain Strachey, “tropical vegetation prevails to a height of about 4000 feet, though even from 3000 feet a few of the forms of colder climates begin to appear; the vegetation, however, is, on the whole, scanty on this declivity. Far different is it when we follow the same zone of elevation into the interior of the mountains, along the courses of the larger rivers, which, owing to the great depths of their valleys, carry a tropical flora into the very heart of the mountain region. The sheltered and confined beds of these rivers, where the two great requisites for tropical vegetation, heat and humidity, are at their maximum, often afford the finest specimens of forest scenery, varied by an admixture of the temperate forms of vegetable life, which here descend to their lowest level. Thus the traveller’s eye may rest on palms and acacias intermingled with pines; on oaks or maples covered with epiphytal orchideÆ; while pothos and clematis, bamboos and ivy, fill up the strangely contrasted picture.

“Above 4000 feet oaks and rhododendrons greatly increase in number, and these trees, with andromeda (Pieris), form the great mass of the forest from 6000 to 8000 feet. Species of the deciduous trees of the temperate zone are gradually introduced as we rise, and these again, with the addition of other pines, prevail in the upper regions of forest—that is, from 8000 to 11,500 feet.”

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The Himalayas—Mount Gaurisankar (28,000 feet).
The Himalayas—Mount Gaurisankar (28,000 feet).

Glaciers abound in the loftier Himalayas. The lowest elevation to which they descend is about 11,500 feet above the level of the sea.

The Altai Mountains lie north of Mongolia, with an average elevation of from 5000 to 7000 feet. Eternal snow crowns their loftiest summit, Mount Bielukha, 11,063 feet. In Central Asia we find the chains of the Thian-shan, partly volcanic, and the Kuen-lun, which are little known, but probably lift their towering heads to an altitude of fully 20,000 feet. China is traversed from west to east by two mountain-ranges, the Pe-ling and Nan-ling, or “Northern” and “Southern,” which prolong their rocky heights to the very shores of the Pacific. West of the table-land of Pamer the eye rests upon the formidable chain of the Beloor-tagh, from 18,000 to 20,000 feet in elevation; and on the borders of Central Asia the Himalaya, the Beloor-tagh and other chains unite in the colossal knot or group of the Hindoo-Koosh. Thence, with a westerly course, extend the Paropamisan and Caspian Mountains, the latter culminating in Mount Demavend, 14,300 feet, near the Caspian Sea. The Soleiman Mountains border on the rugged plateau of Afghanistan; in Armenia rises the fable-haunted crest of Agri-dagh, or Mount Ararat, 17,260 feet; while, in Asia Minor, the Taurus chain, which so often beheld the banners and glancing spears of the Romans, attains its loftiest in Mount ArgÆus, or Arjish-dagh, 13,100 feet; and along the coast of Syria rolls the undulating range of Lebanon, with Mount Hermon soaring to 9600 feet. Arabia is occupied by a branch of the Lebanon, which runs southward into the Sinaitic peninsula. The highest of the Sinai Mountains is 9300 feet above the sea.

The average altitude of the Ghauts, which line the east and west coasts of Hindostan, is 3000 feet; but some of their summits aspire to 8000 feet.

A range of high mountains traverses the dreary peninsula of Kamtschatka, and appears to be a continuation of the volcanic chain which forms the Kurile Islands, and extends even to Japan and the great islands of the Eastern Archipelago. Many of the Kamtschatkan volcanoes are still active, such as Avatsha, Kluchevsky, and Assachnish, and though shrouded in snow and ice project from their seething caldrons vast showers of ashes, stones, boiling water, and lava. Avatsha is 9600 feet high.

The Indian islands contain many colossal mountains, mostly, if not all, of a volcanic character, and the same generalization is true of the beautiful Polynesian archipelagos:—

Mount Ophir, in Sumatra, is 13,840 feet high; Stamat, in Java, 12,300 feet; Indiapura, in Sumatra, 12,140 feet; Tomboro, in the island of Sumbawa, 7600 feet; and Kilauea, in the Sandwich Islands, 3970 feet. Kina-balu, in Borneo, is a magnificent mass, 13,968 feet in height. “Its grand precipices,” says a traveller,[202] “its polished granite surfaces glittering under the bright tropical rays, the dashing cascades, which fall from so great a height as to dissolve in spray before being lost in the dark valleys below, have a magical effect upon the imagination.”

My rapid survey of the mountain-systems of the globe now brings both writer and reader to the African Continent, which contains, however, an unusually large proportion of plain and low level. The northern mountain-ranges, which extend from east to west parallel to the Mediterranean, are known to geographers under the general appellation of Mount Atlas, whose culminating point occurs in the peak of Miltoin, 11,400 feet, to the south-east of the city of Morocco.

In the north-eastern part of the continent lie the Mountains of Abyssinia, the highest pinnacle being that of Geesh, which towers at an elevation of 15,000 feet above the sea. Many other summits are also crowned with “snows eternal,” feeding a succession of streams which pour their waters into the White Nile.

Detached masses and mountain-groups spread along the western coast, between the 12th and 18th parallels of north and south latitude respectively. To the north of the Equator lie the Kong Mountains; and near the coast of the Bight of Biafra rises the semi-extinct volcano of the Camaroons, 13,129 feet high. This elevation is far exceeded by that of the colossal summits, which on the eastern coast are situated within a few degrees of the equinoctial line, and wear a crown of snow which is indissoluble. One of these, Kilimandjaro, has an altitude of 22,814 feet, while Kenia cannot be less than 20,000 feet. Others are probably equal, or little inferior, to these in height.

In South Africa are three ranges of mountains, or rather terraces, the northernmost of which is called the Nieuweld, and runs in a general course of east and west. Towards its eastern extremity it bears the name of the Sneeaberg, or Snowy Mountain, and its summits are frequently 1000 feet high. The Compassberg group is 7000 feet in elevation. Immediately to the south of Cape Town rises the curious flat-topped Table Mountain, 3582 feet in height. The Peak of Teneriffe, in the Canary Isles, off the north-west coast, is volcanic; it rises 12,236 feet above the sea.

Asia possesses, as we have seen, the loftiest mountain-peaks, but it is on the American continent we meet with the grandest mountain-systems. We remark, in the first place, that they are all directed from north to south; in the second, that they are grouped along the western and eastern coasts in two unequal systems, converging towards each other as they run southward. In North America these two systems are the Rocky Mountains on the west; and the Apalachian, or Alleghany, on the east. The former consists of a mountain-region, diversified with valleys, terraces, and plateaus, varying in breadth from 40 to 100 miles, and raising several summits to a very conspicuous elevation, as in Mount Brown, 15,900 feet, and the volcanic peak of Mount Elias, in California, 17,500 feet.

The Apalachian range extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the parallel of 34°, a course of 1500 miles. It is intersected by Lake Champlain and the valley of the Hudson. Its average height does not exceed 3000 feet; but it culminates in Mount Washington to an altitude of 6234 feet.

In South America the chain of the Rocky Mountains is prolonged in the magnificent system of the Cordilleras de los Andes, or the Andes, which commences immediately to the southward of the Isthmus of Panama, extends along the whole stretch of the western coast, and finally terminates in the rocky archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. This chain is locally distinguished into the Columbian, Peruvian, Bolivian, Chilian, and Patagonian Andes. Its widest extension occurs between the 20th and 25th parallels, where it measures upwards of 400 miles across. Throughout its entire course it attains a very considerable elevation. Its volcanic character is very marked. Thus, in the Columbian Andes, Antisana and Cotopaxi are still active; in the Chilian, Aconcagua is the loftiest volcano on the globe; in the Patagonian, four active volcanoes occur. The region at the base of the Chilian Andes suffers more from volcanic convulsion than any other part of the world, and its towns are repeatedly destroyed by earthquakes.

The principal summits are:—Aconcagua, 23,944 feet; Chimborazo, 21,415 feet; Sahama, 22,350 feet; Cotopaxi, 18,867; Antisana, 19,136 feet; Sorata, 21,286 feet; and Illimanni, 21,149 feet.

On the eastern coast we meet with the Mountains of Guiana and the Mountains of Brazil, never reaching a higher level than 5000 feet. Mount Sarmiento, in Tierra del Fuego, is 6900 feet above the sea. In the West Indies the loftiest point is found in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, 7278 feet.

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CHAPTER V.
VEGETABLE LIFE AND ANIMAL LIFE IN THE MOUNTAINS.

THE same changes that we observe in the characters of vegetable life as we advance towards the Pole reproduce themselves, the reader will easily understand, as we ascend the mountain-sides. Only, in the former case the gradation is slow and scarcely perceptible; in the latter, it displays itself rapidly; in such wise that a distance of a few hundred yards in height is equivalent to a journey of several degrees in latitude. It is scarcely necessary to add that the warmer the climate, the higher we must rise to reach the belt or zone where flourish the species peculiar to Arctic countries.

In every land the flora of the lowest region of the mountains is virtually the same as that of the adjacent plains, and it is only at an elevation of 300 feet that we discern a positive change of aspect. In temperate Europe, the Normandy fir and the Epicea begin to form, at that altitude, forests of considerable extent. These trees are from 120 to 150 feet in height, with a pyramidal configuration, sombre foliage, and drooping boughs, and whose bark takes to itself a clothing of various lichens (notably Usneas), the long filaments, branchy and yellowish, clinging to the branches of the most aged individuals. In the shadow of these resinous trees thrive the honeysuckle, the rose, the wild raspberry. At the base of the senile trunks are developed the crawling or climbing stems, ever verdurous, of various lycopodiums. In rocky localities the great yellow gentian unfolds its long spikes of golden flowers, in company with the elegant martagon, whose yellow-spotted red corollas are rolled up turban-wise. At a higher level, between 4500 and 6000 feet, the cembro pine, rare enough in France and England, more common in the mountains of Central Europe, and the larch, whose leaves fall every winter, are the last representatives of the true arborescent Flora.

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1. Fir, with bearded Usnea. 2. Great Yellow Gentian. 3. Martagon, or Turk’s Cap Lily.
1. Fir, with bearded Usnea.
2. Great Yellow Gentian.
3. Martagon, or Turk’s Cap Lily.

Still continuing our ascent, we meet now with nothing but an herbaceous vegetation. Here and there only, in turfy places and abrupt ravines, a few birches and some dwarf willows display themselves, scarcely taller than the herbs which surround them. It is in the rocky hollows also that the oleanders or ferruginous rhododendrons vegetate, sole representatives in Europe of a genus which among the Asiatic mountains numbers several species. The Flora of the Alpine prairies is, moreover, extremely varied. The GramineÆ dominate therein, but associated with other families which enamel with the most brilliant colours the bright green carpet of those cold regions; the bright yellow or orange of the CompositÆ; the blue of the Phyteumas, of the Larkspurs, and the Campanulas; the rose of the Carnations and the Centaureas; the intense purple of the Ranunculuses (NigritellÆ). In the most arid localities we admire the azure flowers of the little Gentianellas and the white blossoms of the Saxifrages; their presence, under such conditions, filling our souls with wonder, and stimulating our hearts to praise their divine Creator.

Some of the plants which enrich the lofty slopes of the European mountains are endowed with an agreeable aromatic odour, and with keen stimulating properties. Such are the Artemisias and the AchilleÆ. To the former of these families belongs the Artemisia glacialis, which the mountaineers consider an universal panacea, and which enters into the composition of the famous liqueur of the Chartreux.

On the threshold of the eternal snows, under the influence of the icy breezes, vegetation grows rarer and yet rarer, until it is reduced to a few species which compensate for their insignificance by their beauty. Such are the Campanula of Allioni, with its graceful bells of blue; the delicate Saxifraga, whose rosy flowers also expose their beauties on the frost-bound shores of Spitzbergen; the Soldanella of the Alps; the Ranunculus of the Glaciers; numerous AndrosellÆ, some of which do not exceed a third of an inch in height; finally, on the extreme border, and straggling even on the moraines of the Glaciers, where no other plant can live, the little Myosotis, which grows in small tufts covered with white down, and starred with delicate blue flowers. At a still higher level we find only a few lichens relieving the monotonous surface of the rocks; and sometimes, flourishing under unknown circumstances, the Protococcus nivalis, whose red globules communicate to the snow a blood-red tint.

The Mountain Flora will offer us, in other parts of the globe, the same series of diminution, commencing with the groups which people the low lands of each geographical zone, and terminating with those which, at the level of the sea, are met with only in the Frozen Zone. Some mountain-chains, however, possess genera or species exclusively belonging to them. It is on the ridges of Atlas and Lebanon, at an elevation of 3500 or 5400 feet, that the majestic cedars spread their umbrageous branches. The cedars of Atlas attain a stature of 120 to 140 feet, and their trunk measures, at the base, from a yard to a yard and a half in diameter. “When young,” says M. Charles Martins,[204] “they have a pyramidal form; but when they soar above their neighbours, or above the rock which protects them, there comes a sudden storm, a flash of lightning, or an insect pierces their terminal shoot, and deprives them of their shapely spire; the tree is discrowned; then the branches spread horizontally in terraces or layers of verdure, one upon another, screening the sky from the gaze of the traveller, who presses forward in a sort of twilight under these vaults impenetrable to the solar rays. From an elevated point of the mountain still more majestic is the spectacle. The horizontal surfaces resemble lawns of the deepest green, or of a glaucous colour like that of water, upon which are sprinkled cones of a violet hue; the eye plunges into an abyss of greenery in whose depth mutters an invisible torrent.”

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Cedar of Lebanon.
Cedar of Lebanon.

The cedar of Atlas constitutes, if not a species, at least a distinct variety from the cedar of Lebanon. The latter is now very rare on the mountain which is regarded as its native habitat. The prophet Ezekiel describes it in all its glory: “A cedar with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature ... his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth” (Ezek. xxxi. 3, 5). But those immense green forests which once stood out in dark deep shadow against the radiant sky are now reduced to a single scanty grove—a grove containing, according to Dr. Hooker, but four hundred trees, and of these four hundred only twelve of the ancient majestic race. They are situated high up on the western slope of the mountain-range, two hours south-east from Tripoli, and at an elevation above the sea-level of 6172 feet. Most of the Lebanon patriarchs are about 50 feet in height, and of nearly the same girth. One, however, measures 63 feet in circumference.

The cedar was introduced into England towards the close of the seventeenth century, and has become permanently naturalized. It is even found in a flourishing condition as far north as Inverness. It does not, however, attain such gigantic dimensions here as on the slopes of Lebanon. There is one at Goodwood, in Sussex, 25 feet in circumference; and another at Peperharrow, in Surrey, 15 feet. In the Jardin des Plantes a celebrated tree, whose terminal shoot was struck by a chance shot during the siege of the Bastile, boasts of the following proportions:-Ten feet girth at three feet from the ground, and ten feet and a half on a level with the soil. Its horizontal branches extend fully forty-five to fifty feet in length, and cover, consequently, a surface of upwards of 300 feet in circuit.

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Rhododendrons of the Himalaya. 1. Rhododendron Pendulum. 2. Rhododendron Dalhousie. 3. Rhododendron Nivale.
Rhododendrons of the Himalaya.
1. Rhododendron Pendulum. 2. Rhododendron Dalhousie. 3. Rhododendron Nivale.

If we would now pass in review the complete series of Zones of Vegetation, it is to the north of Hindostan, in the Himalaya, or to South America and the Cordillera of the Andes, that we must transport ourselves. On the first steps, or lowest terraces, of these immense chains, we shall see the tropical Flora revealing all its wealth and its puissance; there, between 3500 and 6900 feet above the sea-level, we meet with nearly all the plants peculiar to temperate climes, and those which only belong to the northern lands. On the Himalayan slopes, the pine and the cedar flourish at an elevation of 7500 feet. Advancing from this limit, we soon encounter a great variety of Rhododendrons, a shrub now well known in our European gardens, and highly prized for its ever green foliage and rich full bloom. It thrives at the height of 12,000 feet; a few species even battle with the elements at an altitude of 15,000 feet, but they are then only stunted and crawling plants. With these are associated, at about 10,000 feet, the alder, the birch, and the willow. The plains are covered, at the same time, with a prodigious host of RanunculaceÆ, CompositÆ, Saxifrages, and PinnalaceÆ, to which succeeds all the army of Lichens. Thus, then, it appears that the same laws determine always and everywhere the orographic distribution of plants. Only the influence of elevation is counterbalanced here by that of climate; whence it results that the arborescent species endure at a far greater height than on our European mountains.

In the same manner that the Himalaya “resumes,” so to speak, the Flora of all the climates of the Old World, does the Cordillera of the Andes, and, notably, that portion of the chain situated between Peru and Venezuela, present all the vegetable types of the New World, disposed upon its plateaux and its slopes as upon a gigantic flight of steps. In the lower region, the plants of Tropical America, favoured by a marshy soil, deck themselves out in their most gorgeous attire. At an elevation of between 1800 and 3500 feet, the vegetation is neither so brilliant nor so varied, but it has not yet thrown off its original character. We remark here a constant abundance of MyrtaceÆ, LaurenaciÆ, and BignoniaceÆ, as well as numerous epiphytous plants—OrchidaceÆ, Ferns, BromeliaceÆ. From 3500 to 9000 feet we mark the successive appearance of plants belonging to the colder countries of North America: EscallionÆ, MagnoliaceÆ, VacciniaceÆ, and SolanaceÆ. Here and there a few BromeliaceÆ and some other epiphytes display themselves. We encounter also in this zone a small number of PalmaceÆ; among others, the Ceroxylon and the Diplothenium. But soon the arborescent vegetation almost wholly disappears, and only a few stunted bushes remain, similar to those which, in the Alps, succeed the larch. Then come meadows almost entirely formed of CompositÆ, UmbelliferÆ, and Saxifrages; and, finally, the Lichens, the last plants-the last forms of vegetable life—lingering on the frontiers of the region of eternal snow.

If the law which presides over the orographic distribution of plants were applicable to the animal kingdom, we should meet on the frozen crests of the mountains with the same species as, or, at least, with analogous species to, those we have seen in the vicinity of the Pole. But it is not so. Plants flourish wherever they can find, with an endurable climate, a soil in which their roots can develop themselves and imbibe the juices needful for their support; but the conditions which render a country inhabitable for animals—I mean the higher animals more particularly—are wholly different and more complex. A facility for removing from place to place in search of food is one of these conditions, and assuredly one of the most essential. But the number of terrestrial animals capable of climbing the scarped flanks, of traversing the narrow ridges, and leaping across the precipitous chasms of the mountains, is extremely limited. However, a few Herbivora excel in these perilous exercises. They are Ruminants of small size, with tiny limbs, and small ungulated hoofs; Moufflons, wild Goats, Chamois, Kids, which seek on inaccessible heights a refuge against the attacks of man and the Carnaria, and bound, with marvellous agility and precision, from rock to rock, from icy crag to crag, over the most formidable gulfs, and up the most precipitous steeps.

The Moufflons, or Wild Sheep, erroneously regarded by some naturalists as the ancestors of our domestic sheep, form a genus whose species are distributed in Asia, America, and Northern Africa, and in the mountainous islands of the Mediterranean. The Musmon Moufflon, which inhabits the mountains of Corsica, of Sardinia, of Cyprus, and of Candia, is nearly the size of a sheep, but far more robust. His hair, which is only wool properly so called, is a reddish-brown over nearly the whole of his body, and whitish under the belly and the legs. His horns are of great size, transversely crumpled, with a simple curve, and a sharp extremity. Among the Asiatic species the largest is the Masimon argali, which inhabits the AltaÏ and the mountains of Kamtschatka, and approaches the ass in size. His skin is a yellowish-brown, with some white on the fore-feet. His horns describe an almost complete circle. The American species is the Musimon montanus, which we find in the Rocky Mountains. Finally, the region of the Atlas and of the AurÈs Mountains is the country of the Ruffled Moufflon (Moufflon À Manchettes), so named on account of his long hairs, which fall from his shoulders upon the extremity of his anterior legs. His neck is also supplied with a thick mane.

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Musk-Deer.
Musk-Deer.

The Wild Goats and Bouquetins probably form, as the best authorities represent, but one and the same genus. In any case the latter are much better known than the former. They closely resemble our domestic goats, from which they chiefly differ in the prodigious development of their horns, the said horns being generally knotty, slightly divergent, and supported by osseous axes. Their name, according to Gervais, comes from two words, Bouc-estain, signifying the Goat of the Rocks. They belong exclusively to the Old Continent. These animals are very wild. The precipitousness and lofty elevation of their pasture-grounds render their chase a matter of peril. The same may be said of the Chamois, or Isard, which inhabits the loftiest ridges of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the mountains of Greece. Dogs are of no avail in hunting these animals. In Asia the falcon is employed in capturing the bouquetin. In Europe the chamois-hunters are excellent marksmen—indefatigable, fearless, capable of great endurance, keen, and vigilant. It is at morn and eve that they venture forth on their hazardous enterprise. The chamois wander in small troops. Their voice is a kind of low bleating; but when one of them descries approaching danger, he immediately raises a sharp cry, which is the signal of flight. Driven together and closely packed, the poor animals stand at bay, and dash themselves upon the daring hunter with an impetuosity which often proves fatal to him.

The Musk-Deer form a distinct family in the order Ruminantia. In their external conformation they resemble both the stag and the antelope, but they have neither horns nor antlers; their stomach is deficient in the part named the feuillet, which exists in all the other Ruminantia; finally, their upper jaw is provided with two long canines, which among the males project from the mouth, and which serve at one and the same time as defensive arms and as instruments to dig out of the soil the roots upon which these animals feed. All the species of this genus are Asiatic, except one, which is a native of Guinea. I can only particularize here the Musk-Deer of Thibet and Nepaul, which furnishes commerce with the curious product, so useful in medicine and perfumery, known as musk. This product is an extremely odorous and unctuous substance, contained in a special organ situated under the belly of the male. The high price which it commands would make the chase of the musk-deer very profitable, were not these animals so rare and so difficult to get at. They lead a solitary life among the scarped rocks and in the thorny bushes bordering on the glaciers. In winter they descend towards more temperate localities. They are caught either in snares or with nooses, or slain with arrows. The Tongusian hunters, to attract the musk-deer, imitate the cry of their young by applying the mouth to a fragment of bark. The chase is only pursued in winter and autumn. In Thibet the hunters require a special license from the government.

We may pass over the species of Rodents which burrow among the mountains, with a word of allusion to the traditional companion of the poor wandering Savoyard, the Alpine Marmot. This gentle and interesting animal is so well known to my readers that I need not pause to describe him.

In the deep gorges and dense forests which break up the monotony of the lofty table-lands, live in fierce solitude the congeners of the “Man in the White Cloak” of the Polar deserts—Bears with a thick fur and of a sombre hue. While these animals seem designed by their organization to feed upon flesh, and while their strength enables them to seize upon the largest game—which, indeed, they occasionally do—their diet is omnivorous, and they even exhibit, in general, a marked predilection for the aliment of a vegetable nature. The reader, moreover, will remember with what eagerness the bears of our menageries and zoological gardens devour the bread, cakes, or fruit which their visitors press upon them. In their native mountain homes they will rather fly from man than attack him; but if assailed and closely pressed, they defend themselves bravely, rearing upon their hind-feet, and endeavouring to suffocate their aggressor with their muscular arms. If caught in their youth they are easily tamed, and display a greater intelligence than any of the other carnivora.

The genus UrsidÆ, or Bears, is wholly wanting in Africa, but has its representatives in Europe, Asia, and America. The European species are: the great Brown Bear, formerly distributed over all the mountains and through all the forests of Western and Northern Europe, and which is still sufficiently common in the Alps, the Pyrenees, and some wooded highland districts of Russia; and the Bear of Asturias, found only in the sierras of the Iberian peninsula. The latter is of smaller dimensions than the former. His hide is tawny.

Asia possesses: the Syrian Bear and Bear of Lebanon, two varieties of the same species, distinguished by Horsfield under the name of Ursus isabella, in allusion to the dirty brown colour of his skin; the Boar of Thibet, which is found in the Himalayan chain and the islands of Japan—in size and appearance he approximates to our European bear, but differs in the blacker shades of his hair; the Malay Bear (Prochilus Malayanus), which is jet black, climbs trees with agility, and lives on a vegetable diet; and the Juggler, or Jungle Bear of India (Prochilus ursinus), originally named the “Five-fingered Sloth,”—a great favourite with the Indian jugglers on account of his adaptability and mildness.

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1. Black Bear of Canada. 2. Gray Bear of North America.
1. Black Bear of Canada. 2. Gray Bear of North America.

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THE CONDOR OF THE ANDES.
THE CONDOR OF THE ANDES.

To North America belong the Black Bear (Ursus Americanus) and the Grisly Bear (Ursus ferox). The former has a long head, a pointed nose, small eyes, and short round ears; his limbs are strong, unwieldy, and thick; his tail is short; feet large; and the hair on the body smooth, glossy, and black. The Grisly Bear is about nine feet long, a narrow and flattened muzzle, sunken eyes, and formidable teeth; he ranges over not only the entire chain of the Rocky Mountains, but in the prairies and forests which occupy the centre and west of the great continent, where his sanguinary instincts and prodigious strength render him a formidable antagonist. The Black Bear of Canada, on the contrary, is the least ferocious and least carnivorous of his genus. His chief food is of a vegetable nature—grain, fruits, and roots—but he does not disdain an occasional regale of pork. He commits great depredations on the maize-fields, and is also exceedingly partial to honey. From the nature of his food, his flesh is exceedingly succulent, and much relished by the Canadian settlers.

Ascend the wildest and most barren mountains, even to the limit where all life ceases to exist; or the flank of a perpendicular rock, in a crevasse, in some chink or fissure where the foot of man or quadruped may never rest; and there, were you able to approach sufficiently near, you would see some interlaced branches and stems, and within it a few fragments, a few gnawed and polished bones, while a strong odour scented the surrounding air. Regard it more attentively—some tiny creatures are astir upon that unclean couch. Yes: your gaze now rests on the eyry of one of those aËrial tyrants, Eagles or Vultures, which alone can dwell on the cloud-crowned, wind-swept heights. I must confine myself here to mentioning the largest and most formidable species, which surpasses all the others in sweep and speed and power of flight—the Condor of the Andes. This bird possesses the habits and voracity of other vultures, and, as if conscious of his enormous strength, shows himself the most audacious. He frequently pounces upon living animals; but his non-retractile talons, blunted by their attrition upon the rocks, do not permit him to carry off his prey; he contents himself with fixing it against the ground with one of his claws, while he rends it to pieces with his powerful beak. Gorged with food, he becomes incapable of flight. You may then approach him; but should you attempt to seize him, he opposes a desperate resistance, and as he enjoys an extraordinary tenacity of life, the victory will probably cause you a prolonged struggle and many cruel wounds.

A story is told of a Chili miner, of more than ordinary physical force, who attacked—hand-to-hand, as it were—a condor while digesting his greedy banquet, and unable to make his escape. The engagement was long and desperate. The man was compelled to put forth all his strength. At length, exhausted, torn, and bleeding, he left his enemy on the field of battle, and carried off for a trophy a few feathers, which he showed to his comrades, affirming that he had never fought a harder fight. The other miners went in search of the corpse of this terrible bird. They found him standing erect, and flapping his wings in order to fly away. They only killed him by crushing in his head with a hatchet.

The condor enjoys the privilege of an exceptional longevity. The Indians of the Andean plains assert that he lives nearly a hundred years. He builds no regular nest; the female is satisfied with a hollow in the rocky cliff of sufficient size to shelter her while hatching her eggs. Both parents busy themselves very attentively in bringing up their young, disgorging in their beaks the food which they have themselves taken. The young birds grow slowly; it is not until they are six weeks old that they begin to flutter round their parents. Their training, however, lasts but a few months; after which they separate of their own accord from the male and female birds, and seek their own nourishment.

The condor has the loftiest flight of all the winged race. He has been seen towering in the “blue serene,” on a level with the snow-crowned summit of Illimani, 23,000 feet above the sea, in a region where man cannot endure the excessive rarefaction of the air. When, in the fulness of time, civilization shall have conquered to itself the South American continent, the condor, flying for refuge to these brain-wildering heights among the icy peaks of the Cordillera, shall be, perhaps, in that quarter of the globe, the latest denizen of the Desert—the last representative of The Savage World.

Index.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

Abbye-Singh, the tiger-killer, 310.
Abyssinia, its physical features, 248;
flora, 248-50;
mountains, 596.—See also Shoa, Tigre.
Abyssinian meadow-grass, 242.
Acacia detinens, 257.
Acacia doratoxylon, 279.
Acacias, family of, their characteristics, 411.
Acrostichon grande, 277.
ActÆas described, 261.
Adansonia digitata (the Baobab), 409.
Adour, the, valley of, 27.
Africa, interior of, described, 186, 187;
southern plateau, 187, 194, 195;
its general physical features, 187, 188;
Karroos of Southern Africa, 188, 191.—See Cape Colony, Central Africa, Equitorial Africa, Kaffraria, Kalihari, Natal, Senegambia.
African elephant, characteristics of, 451.
Agami, the, described, 354.
Agouti, the, described, 342.
Agua, the, described, 363.
Ahu, the, described, 65.
Akhaf, the desert of, 106, 109.
Albert N’yanza, the, discovered by Sir S. Baker, 202.
Alfa, the, described, 150.
Alfourous, the, their manners, 525.
Alleghany Mountains, the, character of, 216.
Alligator, the, its natural history, 357, 358.
Alligator lucius, 357.
Aloe socotrina, 249.
Aloes, various species of, described, 254.
Alpaca, the, characteristics of, 334, 335.—See Huanacu.
Alpine Squirrel, the, 499.
Alps, the, referred to, 14;
described, 589, 590.
Alps, the Scandinavian, described, 588.
AltaÏ Mountains, the, description of, 594.
Amazon, forests of the river, their characteristics, 386, 387.
Amboyna, island of, its species, 421.
America, progressive civilization of, 205, 206;
Spanish conquests in, 206, 209;
probable future of, 209;
character of its fauna, 281-283.—See North America, South America.
Anastatica hierochuntica, 149.
Andamanese, the, character of, 525.
Andes, the, description of, 597, 598;
Condor of, 613, 614;
vegetation and character of the Pampas of, 228, 229.
AndrosellÆ, the, described, 601.
Annona (ox-heart), the, described, 246.
Ant-eater, habits of the great, 346, 347.
Anthropomorphic apes, natural history of, 470-487.
Antilope Dorcas, the, account of, 169.
Apache Indians, the, described, 335.
Apalachian Mountains, the, features of, 597.
Ape, the, natural history of, 463;
habitat, 464.—See Baboon, Chimpanzee, Cynocephali, Cynopitheci, Gorilla, Monkey, Orang-Outang.
Apennines, the, their character and aspect, 590.
Apios tuberosa, 260.
Aponogeton distachyum, 256.
Apteryx Australis, its natural history, 377, 378.
Aquila bifasciata, 75.
Arabian Deserts, the, description of, 106.
Arabs, the, their origin, 176;
physique, 176;
history, 176, 177;
religion, 177;
attachment to polygamy, 177;
love of rapine, 177;
religious zeal, 178;
general characteristics, 178, 179;
household wealth, 178, 180.—See Bedouins.
Aralia crassifolia, 277.
Ararat, Mount, its physical aspect, 595.
Araucanians, the, their habits and manners, 541.
Arctic discovery, reference to, and account of, 552-555.
Arctic regions, the, described, 548.—See Polar Regions.
Ardea alba, 72.—See Heron.
Areca saccharifera, 418.
ArgÆus, Mount, description of, 595.
Ariel Gazelle, the, natural history of, 169.
Aristida pungens, 148.
Armadillo, the, natural history of, 345, 346.
Arnee Buffalo, the, description of, 297, 308.
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 398, 591.
AroidaceÆ, the, family of, 438.
Artemisia alba, 151.
Artemisia glacialis, 601.
Artesian wells, 161.
Artocarpus incisa, 414.
Arundo conspicua, 275.
Asiatic elephant, the, its natural history, 450, 451.
Asimina triloba, 259.
Asinus Quagga, the, natural history of, 291, 292.
Ass, the, its habits and peculiarities, 56.
Ass, Wild, the.—See Onagra.
Astelia Banksii, 276.
Asturias, bear of, described, 609.
Atacania, the Pampas of, 219.
Ateles, the, their natural history, 489, 490.
Atkinson, T. W., quoted, 58, 77, 79, 88.
Atlas Mountains, the, their situation and physical aspect, 124, 596.
Atmosphere of mountain-regions, 582, 583.
Aureilhan, lake of, 30.
Australia, discovery of, 231, 232;
its deserts, 232;
rivers, 232;
mountains, 235;
adventure and exploration in, 235, 236;
wilderness of, 237;
expedition by Burke and Wills, 237-240;
its flora, 273-281;
its fauna, 366-378;
its characteristic vegetation, 422-424;
its aboriginal population, 522, 523.
Auvergne, its extinct volcanoes, 591, 592.
Avatsha, mount, 595.
Aye-Aye, the, its natural history, 494.
Baboon of the Atlas, the, described, 465.
Bahiouda, desert of, described, 122, 123.
Baker, Sir S., quoted, 202, 287, 288.
Baleniceps, the, account of, 321.
Balsams, the yellow, described, 261.
Bamboo, the, its physiology and uses, 402.
Bamunguatos Mountains, the, chain of, 196.
Banana, the, its physiology and uses, 246, 249, 402, 403.
Banyan, the, account of, 404, 405.
Baobab, the, characteristics and discovery of, 409, 410.
Barth, Dr., quoted, 204.
Barbary Squirrel, the, account of, 500.
Barren landes, the, described, 549.
Bassia buttyracea, 410.
Batata, the, account of, 242.
Bates, H. W., quoted, 341, 347, 358, 386, 387, 388, 395, 396, 397, 434, 435, 446, 468.
Batna, account of, 127.
Baudouin, lake, description of, 114, 117.
Bauhinias, the, characteristics of, 439.
Bear, the Arctic, natural history of, 565, 566;
adventures with, 567, 568;
bear of Europe and Asia, 609, 610;
of North America, 610, 613.
Bear, the White, account of, 551, 566.
Beaver, the, natural history of, 342;
dams built by, 343, 344;
mode of hunting, 345;
gradual disappearance of, 345.
Bechuana country, the, dryness of, 191.
Bedford, Earls of, their works in the Fen country, 44.
Bedouins, the, their manners, habits, religion, and warlike disposition, 179, 180.
Beloor-tagh, mountains of, described, 595.
Benguela, description of, 193;
flora of, 251.
Benin, climate and aspect of, 193.
Berbers, the, their characteristics, 182.
Betel-nut tree, the, account of, 422.
Biafra described, 193.
Bielukha, mount, described, 594.
Biscarosse, lake, 30; forest, 38.
Bisons, the, natural history of, 338;
mode of hunting, 339;
food, migrations, uses, 339.
Bittern, the great, account of, 72.
Black Bear, the, account of, 610.
Black mosquito grass, 263.
Black Mountains, the, 188, 212, 215.
Black pepper, whence procured, 245.
Black Swan, the, account of, 376.
Boa-Constrictor, the, natural history of, 358, 359.
Boars of America, account of, 330.
Boitard, quoted, 456.
Bolas, Indian, a mode of hunting with, 336, 337.
Bonald, quoted, 503.
Borassus flabelliformis, 401, 402.
Bos arni, 297.
Bos bubalus, 297.
Boswellia serrata, 407.
Botauris stellaris, 72.—See Bittern.
Botocoudos, the, described, 539.
Bradypus torquatus, 496.
Brande, W. T., quoted, 60, 251, 252, 408.
Bray, Mrs., quoted, 41.
Brayera anthelmintica, 249.
Brazil, Campos of, their physical aspects, 270, 271.
Bread-fruit tree, its character and properties, 414, 415.
Brittany, physical history of, 18-20;
geology 18, 19;
its Druidic monuments, 19;
its landes, 20, 24;
its inhabitants, 23;
its dunes, or sand-hills, 32, 35.
Brown Bear, the, account of, 609.
Brun, Malte, quoted, 589.
Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby, described, 375.
Bryant, W. C., quoted, 216.
Bubalus, the, described, 294.
Bucephalus viridis, 327.
Buckland, Dr., quoted, 447.
Buckland, Frank, quoted, 328.
Buenos Ayres, Pampas of, 226, 228.
Buffalo, the, natural history of, 296;
mode of hunting, 297;
of Kaffraria, 408.
Cucamis, the, described, 257.
CucurbitaceÆ, the, account of, 164.
D’Auret, Madame Leonie, quoted, 565.
Daw, the, natural history of, 292.
Dead Sea, description of, 99;
its phenomena and desolation, 100;
its basin, 101;
probable origin, exploration of, 102;
constituents and character of its waters, 105, 106.
Deane, quoted, 20.
Delegorgue, quoted, 301, 302.
Delta, the, of the Nile, 102.
Derrias, the, account of, 470.
Deserts, the, of France, 13-38;
England, 39-45;
of Europe and Asia, 46-50;
animal life in, 51-77;
inhabitants of, 78-94;
deserts of sand, 95, 96, 131, 132, 133;
rainless deserts, 96, 97, 123;
of salt, 97, 98, 110;
of Persia, 97, 98;
of Arabia, 106-117;
of Africa, 118-134;
phenomena of the Deserts, 139-148;
vegetation in, 149-162;
animal life in, 162-173;
fauna of, 173, 174;
inhabitants of, 174-185;
of Africa, 186-205, et passim.
Desfontaines, quoted, 465.
Desmoulins, quoted, 558.
Desplobado, Desert of, 229.
De St. Blaize, M., quoted, 571-573.
De St. Vincent, M. Bory, 569.
Diard, quoted, 288, 289.
Dima, the, account of, 249.
Dinotherium, the, described, 447.
Dioscorea alata, 242.
Djemel, or Common Camel, the, 163-165.
Dog-headed Opossum, the, described, 372.
Dogs, the Prairie, so-called, 350-352;
wild dogs, 313.
Dolmens of Brittany, the, 20.
Doranthes excelsa, 280, 281.
Douc, the, account of, 468.
DracÆna terminalis, 422.
Dromedary, the, natural history of, 162, 163.
Dryandra, the, nature and properties of, 280.
Dryobabanops camphora, 418.
Dseren, the, described, 67.
Du Chaillu, quoted, 323, 481, 483.
Duck-billed Platypus, the, characters of, 374, 375.
Dunes, or Sand-hills.—See Sand-hills.
D’Urville, Dumont, explorations of, 553.
Dutch discoveries in Australia, 232.
Dyer, quoted, 44
Eagles, adventure with, 75-77.
Echidna, the, natural history of, 373, 374.
Echinacea purpureas, 261.
Egagra, the, reference to, 67.
Egypt, desert of, described, 120;
soil, 152;
vegetable life of, 152-154;
inhabitants of, 183, 184.
ElÆis Guinensis, 412.
Eland, the, natural history of, 65, 66.
Elburz, Mount, 592.
Eleasine Corocana, 242.
Eleasine Tocussa, 242.
Electric Eel, the, its nature and phenomena, 364;
mode of catching them, 365, 366.
Elephant, the, natural history of, 286, 450;
various species, habitat, mode of march, 451;
treatment of the young, 451, 452;
mode of entrapping, 452-455;
elephant hunts in Hindostan and Ceylon, 455, 456;
general characteristics, 456-459.
Elephant Seal, the, 568.
El-Kantara, Oases of, described, 158, 159.
Ellis, Rev. William, quoted, 427, 527.
Emerson, R. W., quoted, 516.
Emu, the, natural history of, 375, 376;
the “Wingless,” 377.
England, colonial empire of, 209.
EpacridÆ, the, natural history of, 277.
Ephedra, 264.
Ephedra alata, 148.
Epicea, the, described, 599.
Equatorial Africa, expedition in, by Burton and Speke, 201;
Barth and Denham, 203, 204.
Erica Cavendishiana, 255.
Eriocaulons, the, description of, 262.
Eriodendron SamaÜma, 388.
Erosion, Desert of, its physical features, 128, 131.
Eskimos, or Esquimaux, the, in Arctic America, their appearance, character, habits, and manners, 578.
Etna, mount, description of, 590;
physical character of, 591.
Eucalyptic, or gum-trees of Australia, described, 279, 280.
Euhydra tribus, 564, 565.
EuphorbiaceÆ, the, description of, 248, 254.
Europe, invasions of, by Asiatic tribes, 79.
Falls of the Zambesi, described, 198, 201.
Felinska, Madame, quoted, 575.
Fen country of England, the, described, 41;
extent of, 42;
ancient aspect, 42;
modern landscapes, oases, drainage, 43, 44;
present productiveness, 44;
general character, 45.
Fennec, the, characteristics of, 314, 315.
Ficus Indica, or Banyan-tree, 404, 405;
of the Indian Archipelago, 412.
Fish Hawk, the, described, 356.
Fishing Eagle, the, described, 355, 356.
Flamingo, the, description of, 320;
habits of, 321;
varieties of, 353.
Flax, Australian, its properties, 276.
Fletcher, quoted, 24.
Flying Squirrel, the, natural history of, 500, 501.
Fontainebleau, forest of, described, 17.
Forbes, Professor, quoted, 573.
Forest, a petrified, account of, 117.
Forests, their general features, 379, 380;
botany of, 380;
influence of, on temperature, and properties, 383, 384;
in Europe and Asia, 384;
in America, 385-389;
flora of, 389-394.—See Woods.
Forgues, M., quoted, 98, 99.
Fox squirrel, the, natural history of, 500.
Foxes, the Polar, characteristics of, 565.
France, deserts of, described, 13, 14;
mountains of, 14-17;
forests of, 17;
marshes, 17, 18.
Fromentin, M., quoted, 132.
Gallago, the, account of, 491.
Gamboge, Indian, its uses, 415, 416.
Gangeticus Crocodilus, 323.
Gariep river, the, in South Africa, 191.
Gascony, characteristics of the Llandes of, 24, 27-29;
its sand-hills, 35, 36.
Gavial, the, natural history of, 323.
Gazella Soemmeringii, 169.
Gazelles of the Steppes, description of the, 169.
Genets, the, natural history of, 316.
Gentian, the yellow, described, 599.
Gervais, M. Paul, quoted, 371-373, 466.
Ghauts, mountain-range of the, in Hindostan, 595.
Ghonds, cannibalism amongst the, 511.
Gibbon, the historian, quoted, 178, 179.
Gibbon-Lar, the, 478.
Gibbon Monkey, the, character of, 470;
habitat, and natural history of, 477;
various species of, 477-479.
Gibbon-Siamang, the, 477.
Gipsies, the, their habitats, 84;
their various names, and immigration into Europe, 85;
peculiarities of, 86;
in Russia, 87.
Giraffe, the, natural history of, 293, 294.
Glutton, the Arctic, described, 563.
Gneiss mountains, characteristics of, 585, 586.
Gnu, the, natural history of, 294, 295.
Goat, the Wild, described, < a href="@public@vhost@g@html@files@43396@43396-h@43396-h-1.htm.html#page_067" class="pginternal">67, 607.
Goats’ Serpent, the, account of, 326, 327.
Gobi, desert of, its physical features, 97;
plateau of, 47.
Goethe, quoted, 190.
Goose, the Cerefaced, described, 376.
Gorilla, the, natural history of, 481-486;
its appearance and habits, 482, 483;
mode of hunting, 484.
Gossypium, the, account of, 407.
Gould, quoted, 371.
Grallatores, the African, characters of, 321.
GramineÆ, the, family of, 437.
Granite, structure of, 585.
Grasses of the American Steppes, 267.
Gray, Dr., quoted, 291.
Gray Squirrel, the, account of, 499, 500.
Great Karoo, the, described, 188.
Green Climber, the, account of, 327.
Grey, Sir George, quoted, 376.
Grisly Bear, the, habits and physiology of, 610.
Guacho of the Pampas, the, 230, 231.
Guaiacum, its properties, 264.
Guaranis, the, manners and customs of, 538, 539.
Guatemala, flora of, 266.
GuÉpard, the, natural history of, 310.
Guiana, savannahs of, 245, 246.
Guinea corn, its properties, 242.
Guinea palm, the, character of, 413.
Guinea pepper, nature of, 246.
Gulo Arcticus, 563.
Gymnoti, the, 364.—See Electric Eel.
Gynerium saccharoides, 273.
HaliÆtus Leucocephalus, 355.
Hare, the Arctic, 561.
Hare, the Varying, 67.
Harpy Eagle, the, natural history of, 355.
Harris, Major, quoted, 472.
Heather-cock, the, described, 75.
Hectia PitcairniÆfolia, 279.
Helichrysum fruticosum, 255.
Hell, Madame Hommaire de, quoted, 50, 58, 61, 62, 63, 81, 84.
Helps, Arthur, quoted, 508, 515, 516.
Hemionus, or Wild Horse, the, natural history of, 290, 291.
Hemippus, or Wild Mare, the, natural history of, 434.
Leeba river, the, 197, 198;
flora of, 257, 258.
LeguminosÆ, the, family of, described, 277.
Leopard, the, natural history and anecdotes of, 303-305.
Lepus variabilis, 67.
Liana tieutÉ, described, 417.
Lichen esculentus, 173, 174.
Lignum vitÆ, 264.
Limoniastrum Guyanianum, 149.
LinnÆus (Linne), quoted, 428, 463, 471, 491.
Linum marginale, 276.
Lion, the, natural history of, 300;
old fables respecting, 300;
habits of, 301;
general characters of, 303.
Livingstone, Dr., quoted, 192, 195, 197, 198,

256, 257, 298, 299, 302, 303, 325, 326.
Llama, the, natural history of, 333;
anecdotes respecting, 337.
Llaneros, the, account of, 220.
Llano-Estacado, the, 219.
Llanora, flora of, 266, 267.
Llanos, the.—See Pampas.
Lobata, plains of, 197.
LoganiaceÆ, the, family of, described, 417.
Longfellow, quoted, 42, 128, 385, 600.
LorinthaceÆ, family of, described, 251.
Loris, the, natural history of, 491.
Lucan, quoted, 165.
Lund, Dr., quoted, 496.
Lupata Mountains, in Africa, 191.
Lyon, Captain, quoted, 566.
Maca, the, account of, 229.
Macropus giganteus, 368, 369.
Madagascar, flora of, 424-428.
Mahari, the, natural history of, 163, 164.
Mahogany Tree, the, account of, 410.
MaÏs del Agua, 270.
Makis, the, habits of, 492, 493.
Malabar Squirrel, the, natural history of, 500.
Malays, the, character and habits of, 526, 527.
Mamanchota, Organ Mountain of, 587.
Mammoth, the, natural history of, 448-450.
Man, supposed analogy between the Ape and, 471;
early history of, 515.
Manchineal, the, nature and qualities of, 427, 440.
MandinkÉ, the, tribe of, 518.
Mandrill, the, described, 469.
Mangrove tree, the, physiology of, 411, 412, 442.
Manioc, the, properties of, 242.
Manna plant, particulars of, 173.
Mant, Bishop, quoted, 72-75.
Mara, the, reference to, 342.
Marmot, the Alpine, account of, 608, 609.
Marquesas Islands, the, inhabitants of, 529, 530.
Marsupials, their physiology and characteristics, 367.—See Kangaroo, Phalanga, Phascolarctos, Thylacyni.
Martagon, the, described, 599.
Martens of the North, the, account of, 562, 563.
Martin, Sir Roger, his exploits as a tiger-killer, 310.
Martins, M. Charles, quoted, 124, 127, 131, 132, 133, 136, 138, 154, 601, 602.
Massaranduba, the, described, 388, 435.
Mastodon, the, particulars of, 447, 448.
Mauritia Palm, the, uses and importance of, 268.
Maury, Captain, quoted, 526, 532, 533, 534, 586.
Mauvaises Terres, in Nebraska, description of the, 212.
Mediterranean, the, 542.
Mekran, Desert of, 98.
Melantha punctuata, 150, 154, 161, 601, 602.
Mesembryanthema described, 253, 257.
Mexico, Pampas of, 219;
Savage Man in, 537.
Michelet, quoted, 321, 322.
Milton, the poet, quoted, 100, 197, 265, 393.
Milton, Lord, and Dr. Cheadle, quoted, 385, 386.
Milvus ater, 75.—See Kite.
Minizan, destruction of, 38.
Minosa, the, account of, 268.
Mint, Australian, described, 276.
Mirage, the, description of, 143;
its effects and origin, 144, 145;
explanation of, 146;
characteristics of, 147, 148.
Mohammed, reference to, 178.
Mollugo cerviana, 253.
Moluccas, Flora of the, 421.
Mongolia, its position, history, present condition, ruined cities, 92;
religion, races, and physical characteristics, 93, 94.
Mongolian family, the, offshoots of, 175.—See Arabs, Shemites.
Monkey, the, of the Old World, 468;
of South America, 468, 488.—See Chacma, Derrias, Douc, Mandrill, Howling Monkey, Preacher Monkey, Red Monkey, Spotted Monkey.
Monodora myristica, 246.
Monostremata, the, natural history of, 373-375.—See Echidna.
Montoir, marshes of, 17, 18.
Moore, quoted, 98, 136, 143, 155, 156.
Morin, quoted, 203.
Mossamedes, gardens of, 251.
Mosses, Arctic, properties of, 556.
Moufflon, the, description of, 606.
Mount Despair, 238.
Mountains, the, atmosphere of, 582, 583;
distribution and configuration of, 585;
constituents of, 585, 586;
of Europe, 588, 592, 597, 598;
of Asia, 593-596;
of Africa, 596, 597;
vegetable and animal life of, 598-614.
Mourad, Desert of, 127.
Mpongwes, the, account of, 518.
MulhaÇen, Peak of, in the Pyrenees, 591.
MÜller, Max, quoted, 79, 88, 92.
Murray, C. A., quoted, 351, 352, 360.
Murray, the river, 235.
Musa, ensete, 249.
Musimon argali, 606.
Musimon montanus, 606.
Musk-deer, the, 608.
Musk-ox, the, 557, 558.
MustelidÆ, the, natural history of, 317.
Mycetes Beelzebub, 468, 469.
Mycetes strumineus, 468.
Myosotis, the, 601.
Myrmecophaga piliata, 346-348.
Myrsine variabilis, 277.
Nadjed, table-land of, 111.
Nandau, the, account of, 353.
Nanguer (Gazelle), the, described, 169.
Narsilia macropus, 276, 277.
Nasalis larvatus, 468.
Natal, coast of, 191.
Nature, the study of, 428, 429.
Negro Cynopithecus, the, described, 467.
Negro, the, habitat of, 516, 517;
his physical peculiarities, 517;
in Africa, 517-521;
in Australia, 522.
Nelumbium calophyllum, 259, 262.
Nepenthes distillatoria (or Pitcher Plant), the, described, 421.
New Holland, rivers of, 232.
Ngami, Lake, in Central Africa, 194;
flora of, 257.
Nieuveld Bergen, in South Africa, 187, 597.
Niger, the, delta of, 193; valley of, 204.
Nigritia, vegetation of, 246, 247.
Nile, river, fecundity of, 118, 152;
struggle between it and the Desert, 118;
mountains of, 119;
scenery of the valley of, 120;
sources of the, 203;
valley of, 152.
Nipa fructicans, 418.
North America, superiority of, over South America, 209;
Deserts of, 210.—See Prairies.
Noukahiva, islanders of, 530-532.
Nova Zembla, described, 550.
NshiÉgo-MbouvÉ, the, account of, 481.
Nubia, women of, 184, 185.
Nuphar lutea, 263.
Nutmeg, the Calebash, account of, 246.
Nux Vomica, its properties, 417.
N’yanyizi-Nyassa, lake in Central Africa, 201.
Nylghau, the, description of, 295.
Oases of the Sahara, 128;
their formation, 154;
vegetable life of the, 155-157;
of El-Kantara, described, 158, 411.
Rhus toxicodendrum, 259.
Richardson, Sir J., quoted, 211, 561.
RocellÆ, the, nature and properties of, 251.
Rocky Mountains of North America, the, 210, 211.
Rodentia, family of the, described, 169.
Roebuck of Tartary, the, described, 65.
Roggeveld Bergen, the, in South Africa, 187.
Rose, Cooper, quoted, 462.
Rose of Jericho, the, described, 149.
Ross, Sir James, quoted, 556, 561;
Arctic discoveries of, 554, 555.
Rowe, Rev. J., quoted, 40.
Rowe, Nathaniel, quoted, 300.
Ruskin, J., quoted, 383, 384, 579.
Saccharum officinarum, 246.
Sachot, M. Octave, quoted, 527.
Sagalien, inhabitants of, described, 579.
Sago-palms, the, properties of,

421.
Sahara, the African, its physical aspects, 123, 124;
mountains, 127;
oases, described, 128, 154;
its peculiarity of aspect, 151;
area, 151, 152;
climate of, 155.
Saiga, the, natural history of, 66, 67.
SalsolaceÆ, the, properties of, 148.
Salt Desert, the, character of.—See Deserts.
Salt-wort, described, 148.
Samoiedes, the, history and character of, 573-575.
Sand, Deserts of.—See Deserts.
Sand-hills of Brittany, the, 32;
their mode of formation, 35;
of Gascony, 35;
density and configuration, 36, 37;
inland encroachments, 37, 38;
their peculiar influence, 38;
of Africa, 133, 134.
Santalum acuminatum, 279.
Sapucaya, or Monkey’s Nut, the, described, 434.
Sarcoramphus Papa, the, account of, 354.
Sarkha, Desert of, 97.
Sarmiento, Mount, California, 598.
Sarracenia, the, characters of, 262.
Sassafras laurel, the, described, 261, 262.
Savacou, the, described, 354.
Savage Man, his abasement and mean pleasures, 503;
his sanguinary instincts, 504, 505;
his love of intoxicating drinks, want of a literature and of science, 505;
his intellectual deficiencies as compared with Civilized Man, 506;
his neglect of trade and commerce, imperfect conceptions of the Supreme Being, 507;
sun-worship, 508;
his priestcraft and superstition, 509;
his low moral standard and cannibal tastes, 510.—For Savage Races, see pp. 516-542, and 569-679.
Savannahs of Guinea, their features, 245.
Savenay, marshes of, described, 17, 18.
Saxifragas, the, properties and uses of, 601.
Schomburgk, Sir R., quoted, 417, 439.
Scindapsus pertusus, 421.
Sciurus Alpinus, account of, 499;
Carolinensis, 499, 500;
getulus, 500;
maximus, 500;
vulgaris, 499;
vulpinus, 500.
Sea-Bear, the, natural history of, 568.
Sea-Lion, the, natural history of, 568.
Sea-shore Wolf, the, natural history of, 313.
Seal, the, habitats, manners, and physiology of, 568.
Sechura, pampa of, described, 219.
Senegal, serpent-worship of, 323;
serpents of, described, 324.
Senegambia, physical features of, 240, 241;
flora of, 241;
cereal growth of, 241, 242.
Sennaar, physical features of, 247.
Sensitive plant, the, described, 268.
Serpent-Bird, the, of the Cape, natural history of, 321.
Serpents of the Steppes, the, described, 77;
of Asia and Africa, 323-328.—See Ophidia, Viper.
Shakspeare, quoted, 322.
Shekanis, the, account of, 518, 519.
Shelley, the poet, quoted, 43, 105, 379.
Shemites, the, characteristics of, 175, 176.—See Arabs, Tibboos, Touraregs.
Shepherd races of Asia, their history, manners, customs, and character, 78, 79.
Shirwa, Lake, in Africa, 201.
Shoa, vegetable life in, 249.
Short-eared Rock Kangaroo, the, natural history of, 375.
Silk-cotton tree, the, properties of, 388.
Silphium laciniatum, 260.
Silphium terebinthinaceum, 266.
Simoom, the, phenomena and effects of, 135-138.
Sinai, Mount, physical aspect and associations of, 112, 113, 114, 597.
Sioux Indians, cemeteries of the, 215.
Sivas, quicksands of, described, 110, 111.
Skags-tol-tind, Mount, referred to, 588.
Sloth, natural history, habits, and manners of the, 494-496.—See Three-toed Sloth, Two-toed Sloth.
Smilax rotundifolia, 259.
Smith, Sydney, quoted, 274.
Smyth, Admiral, quoted, 590.
Sneebergen, mountain-range so called, 187, 597.
Snow, perpetual, limit of, 581.
Socotrine aloes, value of, 249.
SolidungulÆ, the, order of, 290, 291.
Somerville, Mrs., quoted, 97, 98, 211, 223, 589.
Sonnerat, M., quoted, 494.
Sorgho grass, properties of, 242.
Southey, quoted, 404, 405, 508.
South America, inferiority of, to North, 209;
its deserts, 210.—See Pampas, Virgin Forests.
Spain, its conquests in America, 206, 209.
Spenser, quoted, 356.
Sphagnum, the, properties of, 556.
Spider Monkey, the, described, 489, 490.
Spitzbergen, description of, 550, 551.
Spotted Monkey, the, described, 469.
Squirrel, the, natural history, habits, and characteristics of, 497-499.—See Alpine Squirrel, Barbary Squirrel, Common Squirrel, Flying Squirrel, Gray Squirrel, Malabar Squirrel.
Squirrel Monkey, the, 490.
Stag, the Spotted, described, 340;
Yellow, described, 57.
Staghorn, the, described, 277.
Stanley, Dean, quoted, 99, 100, 101, 137.
Stapelia hirsuta, 234.
Steppes, the, in Europe and Asia, their extent, 46, 47;
their plateaux, 47;
their vegetable life, 47-49;
phenomena connected with, 49, 50;
animal life of, 51;
ornithology, 71-77;
erpetology, 78;
inhabitants, 78.
Steppes of South America, the, surface of, 220;
vegetation, swamps, and conflagrations of, 221-224;
a night on, 225;
inundations of, 226;
solitude of, 227;
Steppes of Patagonia, 227, 228;
Buenos Ayres and the Andes, 228, 229;
of Desplobado, 229;
hurricanes of, 230;
animal life of, 230, 231.
Sterculia acuminata, 445.
SterculiaceÆ, the, family of, 411.
St. Hilaire, Augustus, quoted, 539.
St. John, Spenser, quoted, 596.
Stipa crinita, 279.
Stipa tenacissima, 150.
Stocqueler, quoted, 309.
Stork, the, description of, 320.
Strachey, Captain, quoted, 593.
Strelitza regina, described, 256.
Struthio camelus, 318.—See Ostrich.
Strychnine, nature and properties of, 417.
StyraceÆ, family of, their characteristics, 406.
Sugar cane, history of, 246.
Sugar palm, the, described, 418.
Sumatra, vegetable life in, 416, 417;
cannibalism in, 511, 513.
Sun, worship of, once prevalent, 508.
Surinam toad, the, described, 363.
Swamp oak, the, qualities of, 277.
Swan’s Marsh, the, reference to, 259.
Swietenia Mahogani, its uses, 410.
Table Mountains, the, geography of, 597.
Talfourd, Sir T. N., quoted, 504, 505.
Tallow tree, the, properties and uses of, 408.
Tamanoir, the, described, 346.
Tamarind, the, characteristics of, 411.
Tamias, the, account of, 502.
Tanganyika, Lake, in Central Africa, 201, 202.
Tanguen, or Tanghin, the, properties of, 427.
Tapioca, commercial value of, 242.
Tapir, the, 288, 289;
natural history of the American, 328;
mode of defence, and peculiarities of, 329, 330.
Tarpan, the, natural history of, 51-55;
reference to, 291.
Tartar-NogaÏs, the, their territories, customs, and religion, 80, 81.
Taro, the, account of, 245.
Tarsi, the, description of, 492.
Taylor, Henry, quoted, 210.
Taylor, Tom, Professor, quoted, 20.
Tchad, Lake, discovery of, 203, 204;
description of, 204.
Teak, the, properties and commercial value of, 406.
Tegeter, Mount, referred to, 247.
Telfaria pedata, the, described, 246.
Temperature, laws affecting, 580.
Teneriffe, peak of, described, 597.
Tennyson, quoted, 14, 28, 44, 151, 231, 596.
TÉtÉ, flora of, 258.
Texas, vegetable life of, 262-266.
Theobroma cacao, properties of, 245.
Thibet, bear of, 609.
Thomson, quoted, 119.
ThrasaËtus, 355.
Three-toed Sloth, the, natural history of, 496.
Thylacyni, the, natural history of, 371-373.
Ti, the, described, 277.
Tibboos, the, of Africa, their habits and character, 181-183.
Tierra-del-Fuego, inhabitants of, 541.
Tiger, the, natural history of, 305;
described by Buffon, 306;
by Daubenton, 306;
characteristics, habits, swiftness of, 307, 308;
mode of hunting, 309, 310.
Tiger-cats, the, description of, 429.
TigrÉ, geological features of, 248;
flora of, 248, 249.
Tillandra usneoides, 264, 265.
Tip, desert of, 111.
Toads.—See Agua, Bull-Frog, Surinam Toad.
Tocusra, the, 242.
Todea Africana, 256.
Toothache-tree, the, described, 264.
Topaz, the, account of, 540.
Touaregs, the, of Africa, their manners, habits, and characteristics, 181-183.
Trachytic rocks, character of, 588.
Traveller’s tree, the, described, 279, 427.
Trecul, M., quoted, 254, 263, 264, 266.
Tree-ferns, their character, 436, 437.
Trees, colossal, of Peru, 387-389.
Tremaux, M., quoted, 120, 137, 184, 185. al">531