In the Temperate Zone, farther from the tropics, and receiving the Sun’s
rays with greater obliquity, all the forms of vegetable growth are more
modest than in the preceding. The forests are less dense and varied, the
foliage is less luxuriant, and flowers of brilliant hues are confined
to shrubs and herbaceous plants.
Though useful plants are numerous, yet scarce a species is of value in
its spontaneous growth; and, above all, the long dormant season, when
the trees and shrubs are bare and apparently lifeless, stamps the
vegetation of this zone with an aspect of inferiority.
The animal world still shows a large number of noble species; yet there
are some orders which, like the plants, are dormant during the winter;
while many of the birds migrate to warmer climes. Associated with
deciduous forests, boundless fertile prairies, and arid steppes--are the
bear, the wolf, the lynx, the bison, and many species of elk and deer.