Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 172

In these regions, where the sun is always low, and in winter is above the horizon but a small part of the time, all nature becomes increasingly monotonous. The conifers, with their stiff forms and sombre hues, impart a dreary aspect even to the summer landscape; and, during the long winter, all life seems suspended.

The animal world, however, is more rich and varied than the vegetable.

Here we meet the great moose and the brown bear, the beaver and other rodents, in large numbers; the sable, the mink, the ermine, and a host of other animals whose fine, soft furs form one of the main resources of this inhospitable clime.

In the Arctic Zone—where the forests give place to dwarf trees, stunted or creeping shrubs, mosses, and lichens—the reindeer, the musk-ox, and the white bear are the only representatives of the larger land animals, though the smaller furry tribes are still numerous.

The sea, however, more genial in its temperature than the land, swarms with living creatures of innumerable species, among which are the largest representatives of the animal kingdom. The whale, the walrus, and the seal, inhabit the Arctic seas; with every grade of marine life, down to the animalculæ, which are so numerous as to give their color to great areas of sea-water; and water-fowl, without number, and of many varieties, enlivens the icy shores.