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.

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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.

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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."

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]

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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:--

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.

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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.