GEOLOGICAL CLIMATE IN HIGH LATITUDES. 353 



the Miocene, covered with magnificent forests of magnolias, oaks, cy- 

 presses, and a hundred other species. In more remote periods they 

 abounded in plants and animals, whose fellows of identical species 

 lived at the same time,* or at least in the same geological period, near 

 the equator. 



These statements are so extraordinary that they need to be es- 

 tablished by unanswerable evidence. Of this there is a great 

 abundance. 



In latitude 81 40' Captain Nares found the remains of corals in 

 vast quantities. These creatures require not merely a warm but an 

 equable temperature. Those of to-day can not live where the temper- 

 ature falls below 66 Fahr. Sir Charles Lyell says : " The same 

 genera, and to some extent the same species, of Ammonites are found 

 in those high latitudes and in India. Remains of a large ichthyo- 

 saurus were brought by Sir Edward Belcher from latitude 77 16'. 

 Others were found by the Swedish expedition in Spitzbergen, latitude 

 78 10'." In Dana's " Manual of Geology," under the heading " Cli- 

 mate," in all the early periods, abundant illustration is given of the 

 uniformity of climate in high and in low latitudes. On page 181 he 

 sums up in these words : " No marked difference between the life of 

 the primordial period in warm and cold latitudes has been observed " ; 

 and again, on page 253, " The living species, from 30 to 80, were in 

 part the same, or closely allied." 



It is unnecessary to multiply proofs. All geologists agree that, all 

 over the world, the plants and animals of any particular horizon were 

 exceedingly alike, and very often identical. The living species to 

 which they are most nearly allied are peculiarly sensible to changes of 

 temperature. 



So far, therefore, as it is possible to judge the past by the present, 

 the fossils indicate a warm and uniform temperature almost to the 

 poles, such as is now found in regions inhabited by similar species. 

 Geologists are forced to this conclusion. In that wonderful work, 

 Professor Dana's " Manual of Geology," it crops out everywhere : 

 Page 266, "There is no sufficient evidence of cold arctic seas" ; page 

 289, " There was little difference of temperature between temperate 

 and arctic seas." (See pages 352, 452, 480, 488, 514, 521, 526, etc.) 

 All tell the same story. " No zones of climate." Warm arctic seas 

 all the year round. 



It may, however, be thought that no very certain conclusions can 

 be drawn from these facts, because the identical species which flour- 

 ished in those remote times are no longer extant, and perhaps they 



* It is of small importance, in reference to these questions, whether Huxley's M Homo- 

 taxy " is true or not. If true, then these same species lived first in high latitudes, and 

 afterward in low, or vice versa. The important point for my present inquiry is, that the 

 same species lived and flourished in places where life-conditions now are so extremely 

 unlike. 



vol. xxix. 23 



