from the multitude of sunken rocks. The interior is mountainous,
intersected by marshes, and abounding with streamlets and lakes.

Detached from the Arctic lands, this country ought to partake in some
degree of the temperate cold regions, but whether owing to the
elevation of its mountains, or the influence of the perpetual fogs
that cover the neighbouring seas, it is as frozen a region as those to
the west of Hudson's Bay; and though it lies some degrees farther
south than Greenland, yet the cold during the long winter is far more
severe, the thermometer being frequently 32° below 0° of Fahrenheit.
Perhaps the immense quantity of drift ice which accumulates on the
eastern shores, and which extends for so many miles out to sea, may
have some influence on the temperature of the climate. The summer, on
the other hand, during the short time that it lasts, is proportionally
warmer, the thermometer rising from 70° to 80° above 0. Vegetation
then proceeds with uncommon rapidity; the shrubs and plants expand as
if by enchantment; and the country assumes the luxuriance and beauty
of a European summer. Forests of pine and larch are scattered over the
country, the trees of sufficient size to be used in building, or to be
sawn into boards; there are also willows, birch, aspen, and alder, in
considerable quantities.

The land animals are the same as those in Greenland. The _rein-deer_,
this beautiful and useful creature, is found in considerable herds,
but has not hitherto been domesticated, being only hunted for its
flesh, which makes an agreeable variety of food; and its skin, which
is an elegant and necessary article of clothing, as the fur is always
richer in proportion to the intensity of the cold, against which it
forms an excellent defence; they are hunted with dogs, and formerly
used to be easily killed with the bow and arrow, but the introduction