230 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



MIOCENE FLORA OF NORTH GREENLAND. 



Ill the Journal of the Royal Dublin Society, Prof. O. Heer de- 

 scribes a collection of fossil plants from the arctic regions, from 

 Atanekerdluk, in lat. 70 N., and from a height of 1,080 feet. He 

 has recognized G3 species, and believes that the plants grew on 

 the spot where their remains are found. Adding 3 species be- 

 fore described, out of the 66, 18 are found in the miocene of cen- 

 tral Europe, 9 being common to the upper and lower molasse, 

 while 4 have not as yet been noticed in the upper molasse ; he 

 therefore infers " that the fossil forest of Atanekerdluk flourished 

 in that high northern latitude at the lower miocene epoch," and 

 that north Greenland had a much warmer climate during the mio- 

 cene period than it has at present. He. estimates that a rise of 

 temperature of 30 F. would suffice to render possible the exist- 

 ence of these plants in that locality. ^ There were found two spe- 

 cies of Sequoia, one of which (S. Langsdorjii} , found fossil as low 

 as central Italy, is the most common tree at Atanekerdluk ; it is so 

 closely allied to the redwood ($. sempervirens) that he regards the 

 latter as its lineal descendant. This tree requires a summer tem- 

 perature of 59 or 60 F., and for the ripening of its fruit and 

 seeds one of about 64 ; the winter temperature must not fall be- 

 low 31, and the mean annual temperature must be about 49. 

 The climate of Greenland, therefore, must have been at least as 

 warm as that of Lausanne, and was probably somewhat warmer. 

 He says, " It is impossible, by any rearrangement of land and 

 water, to produce for the northern hemisphere a climate which 

 would explain the phenomena in a satisfactory manner;" and con- 

 cludes with the .remark, "that we are here face to face with a 

 problem whose solution, in all probability, must be attempted, 

 and we doubt not completed, by the astronomer." 



GOLD REGION OF CANADA. 



In the region of Hastings, Upper Canada, gold occurs in rocks 

 of the Laurentian age, associated, 1, in the black carbonaceous 

 matter; 2, in the reddish ochrey oxide of iron, found in the same 

 crevices as the latter; 3, in plates in the midst of crystalline fer- 

 riferous bitter-spar. These singular relations are thus explained 

 by T. Sterry Hunt, Esq. : " The black matter, probably in the form 

 of bitumen, was first introduced into the fissures, which were sub- 

 sequently filled with the ferruginous bitter-spar, whose deposition 

 was contemporaneous with that of the gold, and whose decompo- 

 sition no doubt yielded the ochreous oxide of iron." 



GOLD IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



Mr. Thomas Belt, in a paper read before the Nova Scotia Insti- 

 tute, accounts for the poverty of the gold deposits of that province 

 by the absence of true alluvial deposits there. He maintains that 

 the drift, had it been deposited from floating icebergs on a sub- 

 merged land, must have been levelled when, at the time of eleva- 



