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 arotio 
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, R. F., G. Coffey, and others, “ Caves of Ivesh,” p. 196. 
t Feilden, H. W., and C. E. de Ranee, “Geology of Arctic Coasts,” 
p. 566. 
J Barrett-Hamilton, G. E. H., and I. L. Bonhote, “ Sub-species of 
Arctic Fox,” p. 288. 
