To the north, south, east, and west—in all directions for hundreds of miles—stretched forests and in a wide-spread veil of . Brown-trunked and pines towered on high. Beneath there was a thick, impenetrable jungle of firs, , wild-berries, junipers, and low-hanging birches. , deep-sunken, lichen- covered springs of reddish water were hidden amidst undergrowth in little , couched in layers of turf bordered by red bilberries and huckleberries.  
With September came the frosts—fifty degrees below zero. The snow lay everywhere—crisp and dazzling. There was daylight for three or four hours only; the remainder of the time it was night. The sky was lowering, and brooded darkly over the earth. There was a tense and stillness, only broken in Septem............