2G4 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFI-C DISCOYERT. 



destitute of mineral fuel. This fact at once directs our attention to 

 the lignite formations in the region of the Rocky Mountains. It is 

 to be hoped that the general government will see the importance of 

 making appropriations for their careful examination at an early 

 day. — Am. Jour. Sc. Arts (2), 45, p. 426. 



EXPLORATIONS IN GREENLAND. 



Mr. Whymper read a paper on this subject before the British 

 Association, in 1868, from which the following are extracts: — 



Through the labors of Prof. Heer, of Zurich, we know that the 

 present treeless coast was, during the miocene period, possessed 

 of foliage very far from an Arctic character. On the spot where 

 now the largest shrubs have a maximum diameter of scarcely 

 an inch, not only firs, birches, and poplars grew, but oaks, beeches, 

 chestnuts, planes, walnuts, hazel-nuts, the vine, and the magnolia 

 flourished. Then came the glacial condition of the country, with 

 subsequent changes in temperature and elevation of surface. The 

 peculiar climate of Greenland is due chiefly to the ocean currents. 



There were also proofs of a much colder climate having once 

 existed in these regions, as well as of the much warmer climate 

 at a still more remote period. There was no doubt that at that 

 period, which was called the glacial period, the glaciers were 

 much more extensive than they are now. ^ In Norfolk and Suffolk 

 we had the shells which lived in a sea which was decidedly of an 

 arctic character. Mr. Whymper, when he went to Disco Island, 

 collected fossil plants about 100 feet above the level of the sea, 

 and other fossils on the main land about 1,200 feet high. He also 

 found fossil shells which had been pronounced b}'' Dr. Torrell, of 

 Sweden, to be arctic shells. It proved that that part of Green- 

 land had been submerged, in the glacial period, to the depth of 

 500 feet. With regard to the fossil plants, they belonged to the 

 lower miocene period. With reference to how this change had 

 taken place, he adhered still to the opinion that the probable cause 

 of it consisted in the altered distribution of land and sea since the 

 miocene period. Of one thing we were quite certain, that as 

 there had been some slight changes of physical geograph}- , as 

 shown by these shells, even within the period of living species of 

 shells, so there had been changes in physical geography since the 

 miocene period, which had been on a scale so much greater that 

 the shape of our continents and the position of our oceans had 

 been greatly altered. At that time the marine currents, which are 

 capable of carrying water from the equatorial to the polar regions, 

 must have been perfectly different. 



ERUPTION OF MOUNT ETNA. 



The " London News " says : •• It is not merely that Mount Etna 

 has again broken forth into eruption, but that the new outburst is 

 characterized by a violence and intensity indicative of the wide 



