ANCIENT LAND CONNECTIONS 11 



customary to distinguish the New World form (D. hud- 

 sonius) from the Old World banded lemming (D. torquatus), 

 but they are very closely allied. Several varieties of the 

 former inhabit the mainland and islands of arctic America, 

 including the north and east coasts of Greenland. The 

 whole genus Dicrostonyx (Myodes), is confined to the Arctic 

 Regions. As in the case of the reindeer and other arctic 

 species, we possess fossil testimony of a former southern 

 extension of the range of the banded lemming in Europe.* 

 It occurred in Central Europe, and also in England and 

 Ireland, yet, as far as we know, it never penetrated into the 

 United States in Pleistocene times. That the banded lemming 

 is not a recent immigrant to Greenland, but has persisted 

 there from pre-Glacial times seems to be indicated by the 

 fact that Colonel Feilden f discovered its remains, with those 

 of the reindeer and musk-ox, in post-Tertiary (Pleistocene) 

 deposits from sea-level to an altitude of 1,000 feet in northern 

 Greenland. 



There are a couple of other mammals in Greenland, viz : 

 the arctic wolf and the arctic fox, which need not be specially 

 considered here. Nevertheless, a significant factor in connec- 

 tion with one of these carnivores has been pointed out by 

 Major Barrett-Hamilton and Mr. Bonhote.J It is that the 

 arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) of Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya 

 and Iceland agrees with that from eastern Greenland, form- 

 ing a variety distinct from those -of the European and 

 American mainlands. 



All the mammals alluded to as inhabiting Greenland, live 

 also in Europe in identical or closely allied forms, or did so in 

 former times. Hence it is permissible to argue that a land- 

 connection once bridged over the intervening ocean. The 

 affinity between Greenland and arctic America in some 

 respects is even closer than that between Greenland and 

 Europe. Only the narrow Davis Strait and the still narrower 

 Kennedy Channel separate the two countries. Another 



* Scharff, E. F., G. Coffey, and others, " Caves of Kesh," p. 196. 



t Feilden, H. W., and C. E. de Eance, " Geology of Arctic Coasts," 

 p. 566. 



J Barrett-Hamilton, G. B. H., and I. L. Bonhote, " Sub-species of 

 Arctic Fox," p. 288. 



