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.
[Illustration: 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.
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."
[Illustration: 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.
* * * * *
[Illustration: 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:--
[Illustration: 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.
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:--
In Europe, the Laplanders (or Lapps), and the Samoiedes;
In Asia, the Ostiaks, Yakouts, and Kamtschatdales; and,
In North America, the Eskimos (or Esquimaux).
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.
[Illustration: 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.
* * * * *
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
THE MOUNTAINS.
"Blue, and baseless, and beautiful,
Did the boundless mountains bear
Their folded shadows into the golden air.
The comfortlessness of their chasms was full
Of orient cloud and undulating mist,
Which, when their silver cataracts hissed,
Quivered with panting colour."
RUSKIN.
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.
-------------------------------------
| | | |
| | MEAN | HEIGHT |
|LATITUDE. | TEMPERATURE | OF THE |
| | AT THE LEVEL | SNOW- |
| | OF THE SEA. | LINE. |
| | | |
-------------------------------------
| | Degrees |
| | Centrigrade. |
| | | Degrees |
| | | Fahrenheit. |
| | | | Feet. |
| | | | |
| 0 | 29·00 | 84·2 | 15,207 |
| 1 | 28·99 | 84·2 | 15,203 |
| 2 | 28·96 | 84·1 | 15,189 |
| 4 | 28·86 | 83·9 | 15,135 |
| 5 | 28·78 | 83·8 | 15,095 |
| 6 | 28·68 | 83·6 | 15,047 |
| 7 | 28·57 | 83·4 | 14,989 |
| 8 | 28·44 | 83·2 | 14,923 |
| 9 | 28·29 | 82·9 | 14,848 |
| 10 | 28·13 | 82·6 | 14,764 |
| 15 | 27·06 | 80·7 | 14,220 |
| 20 | 25·61 | 78·1 | 13,478 |
| 25 | 23·82 | 74·9 | 12,557 |
| 30 | 21·75 | 71·1 | 11.484 |
| 35 | 19·46 | 67·0 | 10,287 |
| 40 | 17·02 | 62·6 | 9,001 |
| 45 | 14·50 | 58·1 | 7,671 |
| 50 | 11·98 | 53·6 | 6,334 |
| 51½[195] | 11·24 | 52·3 | 5,950 |
| 54 | 10·02 | 50·0 | 5,290 |
| 55 | 9·54 | 49·2 | 5,034 |
| 56 | 9·07 | 48·3 | 4,782 |
| 57 | 8·60 | 47·5 | 4,534 |
| 58 | 8·14 | 46·6 | 4,291 |
| 60 | 7·25 | 45·0 | 3,818 |
| 65 | 5·18 | 41·3 | 2,722 |
| 70 | 3·39 | 38·1 | 1,778 |
| 75 | 1·94 | 35·5 | 1,016 |
| 80 | ·87 | 33·6 | 457 |
| 85 | ·22 | 32·4 | 117 |
| 86 | ·14 | 32·3 | 76 |
| 87 | ·08 | 32·2 | 44 |
| 88 | ·04 | 32·1 | 20 |
| 89 | ·01 | 32·0 | 5 |
| 90 | ·00 | 32·0 | 0 |
| | | | |
-------------------------------------
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--
"An iron race the mountain-cliffs maintain"--
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 difficult air of the iced mountain-tops."
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.
[Illustration: 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.
"Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!
Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven
Beneath the keen full moon? Who bade the sun
Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet."[197]
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]
"'Tis the last
Of all the woody, high, well watered dells
On Etna; and the beam
Of noon is broken there by chestnut boughs
Down its steep verdant sides; the air
Is freshened by the leaping stream, which throws
Eternal showers of spray on the mossed roots
Of trees, and vines of turf, and long dark shoots
Of ivy-plants, and fragrant hanging bells
Of hyacinths, and on late anemones,
That muffle its wet banks; but glade,
And stream, and sward, and chestnut trees,
End here; Etna beyond, in the broad glare
Of the hot noon, without a shade,
Slope behind slope, up to the peak, lies bare;
The peak, round which the white clouds play."
* * * * *
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."
[Illustration: 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:--
"Summer-isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea."
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.
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.
[Illustration: 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.
"And with childlike, credulous affection,
We behold their tender buds expand--
Emblems of our own great resurrection,
Emblems of the bright and better land."[203]
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."
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 1. Black Bear of Canada. 2. Gray Bear of North America.]
[Illustration: 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.
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, 295, 296.
BUFFON, quoted, 58, 71, 448, 479.
Bull-frog, the, described, 363, 364.
Buriäts, the, account of, 91, 92.
Burke and Wills, Australian expedition of, 236-240.
BURNETT, quoted, 310, 313.
BURTON, Captain R. F., quoted, 514.
Bustard, the, natural history of, 75.
Butter-tree, the, natural account of, 411.
BYRON, quoted, 14, 135, 136, 201.
Cæsalpineæ, the, account of, 445.
Caimans.--See ALLIGATOR.
_Caladium segmium_, 245.
Calebash nutmeg, the, account of, 246.
California, giant trees of, 430, 431.
Calla, the, account of, 256.
_Callistimon salignum_, 277.
_Callithrix sciurus_, 490.
_Calomys bizcacha_, 342.
Camaroon Mountains, the, account of, 596.
Camel, the, natural history of, 58-64;
docility and usefulness, 58, 59;
physiology, 59, 60;
habits, 60-62;
moral qualities, 62, 63;
story of, 63, 64.--See DROMEDARY.
Camel-herd, the, described, 318.
Campanula of Allioni, the, 601.
Campos of Brazil, vegetable life of, 272, 273.
Canada, future prospects of, 209.
Cannes, Keltic memorials at, 19.
Cannibalism in Hindostan, 510;
in Polynesia, 513;
in Africa, 514;
in Ombaï, 519.
Caoutchouc, nature and properties of, 441, 442.
Cape Colony, account of, 188, 191.
Cape Eland, the, 295.
Cape Negro, 193.
Capim Gordura, described, 271.
Capybara, account of the, 341.
Caracara, the, account of, 355.
Caraccas, the Llanos of, 268.
Cariama, the, account of, 354.
Caribs, the, their manners and customs, 538, 539.
Oarnivora, the, habitat and history of, 167-169.
_Carolinea insignis_, 437.
Carpathian Mountains, the, account of, 592
CARRETTE, M., quoted, 166, 167.
Carrion plant, the, described, 254.
Caspian Mountains, the, 595.
Cassanga, flora of, 258.
Cassava bread, described, 242.
Cassia, the, account of, 241.
Casso, the, described, 249.
Cassowary, the, natural history of, 318, 319.
_Castor fiber_, 343.--See BEAVER.
_Casuarina equisetifolia_, 277.
Cathartes, Urubu, the, described, 56.
Catoblepus Gnu, the, described, 295.
Caucasus, mountain-range of, described, 592.
Cazau, lake of, 29, 30.
Cebidæ, the, natural history of, 487, 488.
Cedar-trees, in the Atlas region, 601, 602;
in England, 603;
in the Lebanon, 603.
_Celastrus edulis_, 249.
Central Africa, physical features of, 196-198.
Cerastes, the, natural history of, 171, 172.
_Cercopithecus Diana_, 469.
_Cercopithecus ruber_, 469.
Cereopsis, the, account of, 376, 377.
_Cereus Peruvianus_, 266.
Cervus Mexicanus, the, account of, 340.
Cevennes, the, natural features of, 14, 591.
Ceylon, reference to, 415.
CEZA, PIERRE DE, quoted, 438.
Chacma, the, described, 470.
CHAMBERS, WILLIAM, quoted, 38.
Chamois, the, natural history of, 607, 608.
Characeæ, the, described, 259.
Cheetah, the, natural history of, 310, 313.
Cheiromys Madagascariensis, 494.
Chilason, the, described, 68.
Chiquitos, the, account of, 540.
Chulon, the, described, 68.
Ciconia, the, natural history of, 320.
Civets, the, natural history of, 316.
Citrulli, the, 257.
Climate, influence of, 543, 544.
CLOQUET, Dr., quoted, 110.
_Clusia rosea_, 437.
Cobra, the, physiology of, 327, 328.
Cocoa-nut palm, the, description of, 245.
_Cocos oleracea_, 245.
_Coffæa Arabica_, 245.
Coffee-tree, description of, 245
COLERIDGE, S. T., quoted, 119, 120, 590.
_Colocasia mucronatum_, 245.
Colonial millet, account of, 242.
Comanches Indians, the, habits of, 535.
Common Buffalo, the, physiology of, 297.
Common Squirrel, the, 499.
Compass Berg, the, account of, 188.
Compositæ, the, in botany, 253.
Condor of the Andes, account of, 613, 614.
Coniferæ, the, family of, 423, 424.
Convolvuli, American, described, 439.
_Convolvulus Batatas_, 242.
Cook, Captain, voyages of, 232.
Cooper's Creek, in Australia, 236, 238.
Copal-tree, the, properties of, 428.
Coracan, the, account of, 242.
_Corchorus olitorius_, 245.
Cordilleras, the, physical features of, 267.
Corral in Ceylon, the, 299.
_Corypha Australis_, 281.
_Corypha inermis_, 268.
Cossacks, the, manners and customs of, 81, 82.
Cotton-plant, the, in the Sahara, 158.
Cow-tree, the, properties of, 388.
CRAWFORD, quoted, 406.
Crocodile, the, natural history of, 322;
mode of trapping, 323.
_Crotalus horridus_, 359.
_Croton sebiferum_, 407, 408.
Cucamis, the, described, 257.
Cucurbitaceæ, the, account of, 246.
Cuon Bansu, the, described, 315.
Curlew, the, natural history of 72, 73.
CUVIER, quoted, 286, 345.
Cycadaceæ, the, properties and nature of, 286.
_Cycas circinnalis_, 421.
_Cygnus atratus_, 376.
Cynocephali, the, natural history of, 464;
habits and propensities, 466.
Cynopitheci, the, natural history of, 466, 467.
DANTE, quoted, 148.
Darling, the river, in Australia, 235.
Dartmoor, physical history of, 39;
its _tors_, or granite hills, 40;
morasses, 40;
ancient forests, 40.
DARWIN, Dr., quoted, 341.
Date-palm, the, its character, fruit, and uses, 154-156.
Date-tree, the, thorny, properties of, 412.
DAUMAS, General, quoted, 132, 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.