Far North — the “country of white silence”

The Far North is diverse. This is glaciers and stony deserts of Arctic Region, drifting ice of the Arctic seas, tundra, sometimes sad, low and waterlogged, sometimes dry covered with a motley carpet of blossoming grass in summer. These are dense bushes and single trees, larches groves of fur-trees, gnarled birches. The Far North — it is endless string of lakes, dense system of brooks, channels and rivers. It is seacoasts — now steep, smoothed out by waves, now endless beaches with blockages of trunks, thrown out by the sea. The Far North is the territory of a surprising nature, territory of contrasts. In winter it is long polar night, mysterious play of northern lights in the sky frosts, howling of snowstorm. In the summer it is the sun, not setting all the day round, transparent air, unusual colours. We call the Far North severe and hospitable, sad and charming beautiful. It is the “the country of white silence”. Is there something common in all this variety? Yes, there is. Sun here never rises high above horizon and carries not enough heat. Such phenomenon as the polar day and polar night, eternal frost are characteristics of the Far North. Because of deficiency of heat the alive organisms here direct many efforts to saving of it, on struggle with a cold. In a word, the life in these areas develops already “on a bound of possibility”, and this is the cause of fragility, instability, special vulnerability of local nature. In summer the ground becomes covered with parti-coloured carpet of blossoming grass, flocks of geese, ducks and seagulls, herds of deers and walruses appear. This “alive North” is the most interesting side of northern nature.