FAUNA OF WHITE MOUNTAINS 
35 
northern part of the continent, still he concedes that even 
during the Glacial Epoch, life of the tundra type may have 
flourished in Alaska.* 
Hence it is not unreasonable to argue from his point of 
view that life could also have existed in Greenland at that 
time, and this opinion I endeavoured to vindicate in the 
last chapter. Even Professor Adams does not venture to 
cast a doubt upon the correctness of the current geological 
theories, and speaks of three distinct belts of life in the 
vicinity of the ice margin (p. 56). The latter being fringed 
to the south, by tundral biota (fauna and flora), next to which 
came the northern trans-continental coniferous forest belt 
and its associated fauna, and finally the deciduous forests. 
All these are assumed to have moved forward to the north on 
the disappearance of the ice. 
That the so-called “ tundral ” or what we might call arctic 
fauna and flora actually did advance far south of their present 
habitats can be demonstrated much more clearly than by the 
occurrence of a few stray fossil reindeer’s antlers south of 
the area covered by glacial drift. 
Whether the past southward migrations of the reindeer 
were influenced by climatic changes or by other considera¬ 
tions, we cannot definitely assert. Since we are told that 
there was a refrigeration of the climate during the Glacial 
Epoch, we are apt to assume that this lowering of the tem¬ 
perature drove the reindeer and other arctic species to more 
southern localities. The former occurrence of an animal of 
such a roving disposition as the reindeer in more southern 
districts may have been due to a natural expansion of its 
range, and this need not imply a change of temperature. 
The fauna and flora of the White Mountains has been cited 
as a living testimony of a former arctic climate in latitudes 
where temperate conditions now prevail. 
Surrounded by an entirely alien assemblage of animals and 
plants we find in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, 
not far from the city of Boston, an extraordinary gathering 
of species, many of which are only known elsewhere in 
Labrador and Greenland. A thousand miles away from their 
* Adams, Chas. C., “ Dispersal of North American Biota,”- pp. 55—58. 
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