Chapter 649 Eating Grass
It was already very late, and most of them hesitated whether to continue to starve all night and wait until dawn the next day to set off.
Originally, Bifang should have prepared a shelter within two hours before dark, but when he saw the mountains nearby, he acted on impulse.
He was too hungry. Even in the wilderness, he had never been so hungry. When people are extremely hungry, they will never be too rational.
After three days without food, coupled with the cold taking away the heat, Bifang was undoubtedly even hungrier than at normal temperatures.
A shrunken
Of course, Bifang was still quite rational as he did not completely occupy the place.
His extremely strong eyesight allowed him to see more clearly and farther, and to grasp the distance more accurately. He had a feeling that he could arrive before dark.
Fortunately, Bifang made the right bet.
It's less than half an hour until dark, no, it's doubtful even a quarter of an hour!
The impression left by the Arctic Ocean in the minds of 99% of the world's people is one of ice and snow with monotonous colors.
Indeed, due to the harsh climate, the Arctic region is indeed not popular with plants, and it is difficult to see red flowers and green trees.
The plants on the island are mainly mosses and lichens. Some islands in the south grow cold-resistant herbs and small shrubs, but this does not mean that this place is dead and barren.
On the contrary, the Arctic Ocean is a paradise for many animals, such as the famous polar bears, seals, Arctic foxes, reindeer, snow hares, whales, herrings, cod, etc. In summer, there are also many birds visiting the Siberian coast.
In fact, the potential of living things is extremely huge. Even in the North and South Poles, no matter how harsh the environment is, they can always occupy a place and survive successfully.
Even though Bifang walked across the vast ice field for nearly three thousand kilometers, there would essentially be Arctic foxes and polar bears. It's just that because there is no bottom food chain, their numbers are already scarce, so Bifang didn't see a single one.
“It may seem like there is no food inside the polar region, but just keep looking.”
"In this remote area, animals are rarely disturbed by humans, so it is not difficult to capture them sometimes."
"Take penguins for example. Of course, these creatures are only found near the Antarctic Circle. I'm just giving an example. Many early explorers used them as food. I heard that penguin meat tastes a bit like beef and lamb, and has distinct layers of fat and lean meat."
"There are rabbits and lemmings, foxes and wolves, reindeer, musk oxen, Arctic caribou, elk and moose, seals, which are very fat but large and can be aggressive. And finally, polar bears, which are best avoided - they are very large and usually aggressive."
[I think if I were to go to the North Pole, even if I really had to take emergency shelter, I would not be able to defeat it...]
[Polar Bear: Thank you for the winter warmth, my friend. I am worried about having no food to eat, and I have three bear cubs to raise at home. I cannot thank you enough! ]
[Be more confident. A normal person can't walk out of that ice field. I don't know the direction at all. If I were on the ice field of dozens of kilometers, I would just be wandering around like a headless fly and would have frozen to death long ago.]
But in the current situation, it is impossible to catch animals.
Time does not allow it. It is impossible for Bifang to find the animal trail in more than ten minutes, and he has to set traps. Hunting is even more impossible. The only way is to sit and wait for the rabbit to come to him. It would be good enough if he can eat some grass.
Bifang's purpose is also some plants.
"Most polar plants are edible. They can usually be peeled, dried and cooked, or added to boiled tea. Some can also be eaten raw. Some are rich in trace elements and can supplement the body's needs."
"For example, arctic willow - the bark, shoots and new roots are all edible and rich in vitamin C."
"Litmus can be boiled or soaked. Most of the lichens and mosses on the rocks are also edible. Lichens and mosses are a good source of food, but there are not many of them. They must be boiled or roasted before eating, and don't eat too much at one time. Stone fungus is the best ingredient, and it can also be eaten raw."
"Spruce and pine needles, buds and bark can be cooked and eaten. The Chinese Volunteer Army relied on pine needles to make tea, which solved the problem of night blindness and enabled them to fight beautiful battles at night time and time again."
"There are also lingonberries, which are red berries that are very nutritious and the leaves can be cooked or roasted, and cloudberries, which are golden berries that are high in vitamin C and the leaves can be used to make tea."
"If you have fire materials, such as wood, plants, or animal fat, then you can make a fire and cook, but it is difficult, and without a lot of time and luck, it is almost impossible to think about it. Don't expect to find branches to make fire as easily as in lower latitudes."
"But it's easy to find lichens and mosses on exposed rocks. Reindeer and other animals rely on them for survival. There are 300 species of lichens and 600 species of mosses recorded in Greenland. In 1954, people also found spores of bacteria and fungi at a depth of 3,400 meters under the Arctic Ocean."
Bifang knelt on one knee in the snow, and used both hands to dig at the rock in front of him, clearing away the snow. What was revealed was the cold and smooth stone surface, which seemed to have no moss or lichen as he had mentioned.
But Bifang did not give up. He scraped away the snow between the rocks and the frozen soil, and a touch of green finally appeared before everyone's eyes.
There really are plants!
The audience was shocked.
Greenland is pristine. Every mountain that people see here is hundreds of millions of years old, and the floating ice is thousands or tens of thousands of years old.
It has been a mythical realm since ancient times, and this remote island has become the source of all fantasy and mystery.
The dazzling aurora, the boundless tundra, the glittering icicles, the strange icebergs, the almost extreme cold and the Inuit who hardly speak, it is as pure as a fairy tale world.
But that is for travelers. For survivors, this place is simply an extremely cold hell.
But even in a world of white, there are still green plants growing tenaciously in the cracks.
How does it survive?
With temperatures dropping dozens of degrees below zero, the cell fluids must be frozen, right?
[By the way, why are polar plants evergreen? I think they are mostly green.]
[Fuck, now that you put it that way, it seems to be the case. Shouldn't high latitudes be seasonal? ]
"Because the polar regions are full of mosses, also known as tundra, which is a biological community growing on cold permafrost, a biological community in an extreme environment. They have many special adaptations to the harsh polar environment."
"For example, the stems and leaves of these plants are tightly attached to the ground and can withstand snow pressure very well. As long as there is a short period of warm weather every year, the plants will germinate immediately and complete the process of growth, flowering and fruiting in two months."
"The reason why evergreen plants can survive is to better absorb sunlight. There are no seasons here. It's half a year of daylight and half a year of night. It's good enough for evergreen plants to survive. There's no seasonal change."
"Trees shed their leaves and grow leaves in order to better store energy. It is very difficult for polar plants to survive, let alone store energy, so they grow very slowly."
Bifang directly picked the young leaves and stuffed them into his mouth, just like chewing ice cubes. There was no taste or feeling at all, and they quickly went into his stomach.
Although it is best to cook moss before eating, Bifang now has no such conditions and it is good enough to fill his stomach.
Bifang is confident in his digestive ability.
