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Show (PAllT I. ISLAND LIFE. 176 ll' --- . u the dreary sh Ol .e s of We m.g - Sir Edward Belcher discovered o the trunk and root of a fu-ton Channel in 75-f N. Lat., where it was found. . It which had evidently gr~wnAb. s alba or white fir, whwh tree the speCieS M ' l . fe . peared to belong to d . the most norther y .com r ap reaches 68o N. Lat. an IS .c t in circumference and now ne four 1ee . p t · k' lm own. Similar. trees, do b Li.e ut. Me c ham in Pnnce a nc ~ s thirty feet long, we:e fo~~ y and other Arctic explorers have Island in Lat. 76 12. N:, h latitudes which may all probably found remains of trees m ~lg . d as that of the ice-preserved be referred to the same mild peno . Arctic mammalia. t 'lder climate are found m . · of a recen ml · 1 ,. SI. mi'l ar indiCatwns N denskJO... 1d says.. "At vanous p ace:::; S 'tzberaen. Professor or f Lomme Bay, at Cape pi Spit;bergen, at the bottom ~ Advent Bay, there are on ~ l t nd's strata m M t'l Thordsen in B oms ra d h c~lls of a bivalve, y ~ us ' d 11 develope s e · b found large an we - d l' . g on the coasts of Spitz ergen, . t w foun 1 vm h erlulis which IS no no S d' avia it everyw ere covers ' t . st of can m G thouah on the wes coa Th . shells occur most ple nt 1' - o b -shore. ese . V ll the rocks nea.r t e se~ which runs through Remdeer a ~y fully in the bed of a nver b bly washed out of a thm t Cape Thordsen. They are prot a ty or thirt y feet above a . ht f about wen bed of sand at a hmg ? h . . tersected by the river. The the present sea-level, wh1C 1S mt b very crrcat, and it has h. b d canno e o l aeoloaical age of t 1S e h sent basin of the Ice Soum ' o o d · t e pre b clearly been forme smce f it has been hollowed out y or at least the greater part o ' glacial action." 1 • jl ra -One of the most startling and The Miocene Arctw o ·. . of the last twenty years f h ientific discovenes . fl. . important 0 t e SC l' f a luxuriant J\110CCnC ora m has been that of the re 1CS ~ It . a discovery that was A t' reawns 1s f various parts of the rc .lC o ~ considered by many men o totally unexpected, and lS e:venlln.o 'bl . but it is so thoroughly l tely unmte 1gl e' . science to be comp e d' t and important bearmg on d . b such a uec . t . established, an lt ~s . in the resent volume, tha.t 1 1S the subjects we are discussmg l t !utline of the facts before necessa ry to lay a tolerably comp e e our readers. . "Geology of Spitzbergen,'' p. 267. 1 Geologicalltfagaztne, 1876, C'HAP. IX.] MILD ARCrl'IC CLIMATES. 177 The Miocene flora of temperate Europe was very like that of Eastern Asia, Japan, and the warmer part of Eastern North America of the present day. It is very richly represented in Switzerland by well preserved fossil remains, and after a close comparison with the flora of other countries Professor Heer concludes that the Swiss Lower Miocene flora jndicates a climate corresponding to that of Louisiana, North Africa, and South China, while the Upper Miocene climate of the same country would correspond to that of the south of Spain, Southern Japan, and Georgia (U.S. of America). Of this latter flora, found chiefly at CEninghen i~ the northern extremity of Switzerland, 465 species are known, of which 166 species are trees or shrubs, half of them being evergreens. They comprise sequoias like the California giant trees, camphor-trees, cinnamons, sassafras, bignonias, cassias, gleditschias, tulip-trees, and many other American genera, together with maples, ashes, planes, oaks, poplars, and other familiar Eur'Opean trees represented by a variety of extinct species. If we now go to the west coast of Greenland in 70o N. Lat., we find abundant remains of a flora of the same general type as that of CEninghen but of a more northern character. We have a sequoia identical wi~h one of the species found at CEninghen, a chestnut, salisburia, liquidambar, and sassafras, and even a magnolia. We have also seven species of oaks, two planes, two vines, three beeches, four poplars, two willows, a walnut, a plum, and several shrubs, supposed to be evergreens; altogether 137 species, mostly well and abundantly preserved ! But even further north, in Spitzbergen, in 78° and 79° N. Lat. and one of the most barren and inhospitable regions on the globe, an almost equally ri'ch fossil flora; has been discovered including se"\7'·eral of the Greenland species, and others peculiar, but mostly of the same genera. 'rhere seem to b-e no evergreens here except coniferre, one of which :is identical with the swamp-cypress (Taxodium distickurn) now found living in the Southern United States! There are also eleven pines, two Libocedrus, two sequoias, with oaks, poplars, birches, planes, limes, a hazel, an ash, and a walnut; also water-lilies, pondweeds, and an iris-altogether about a hundred species of N |
