665 



Thai there has existed a Tertiary land connection between 

 Europe and Greenland, of which the present islands are remains, 

 is assumed by several investigators , e. g. Wallace, A. Gray, 

 Nathorst, and olhers, and il is even possible lliat il existed during 

 the Glacial Period, or through a part of it. Bul nothing is known 

 for certain regarding this, the supposition resis mainly on the 

 homogenous character of the circumpolar flora, which is more 

 easily explained by the assumption of a land connection. On the 

 other hånd, il mav be taken for granted that tceland, the Færoes, 

 Shetlands, etc. were formerly larger; regarding the Færoes, Hel- 

 land (1. c. p. 178) goes even so far as to sav that thev are onlv 

 the ruins of an old country, but this naturally far from proves 

 the fornier existence of a continuous land connection. But pre- 

 glacial and glacial land connection have no importance as regards 

 the present question; what we have to consider liere, is. how far 

 there has existed a post-glacial land connection. 



Several geojogisls believe in a post -glacial land connection, 

 e. g. Forbes, and James Geikie (1. c). The latter does not, how- 

 ever, give any geologicai evidence in support of the theory, but 

 draws his conclusions from the flora. In 1883 Nathorst 1 also 

 expressed himself in favour of the existence of a land connection 

 and has, like Geikie on pi. E. (»Europe in early Postglacial times. 

 First age of forests«), given on a map a sketch of the hypothetical 

 boundaries of the connecting helt of land. He stales in the paper 

 in question that the floral conditions »give the strongest evidence 

 of« the vegetation having immigrated into the Færoes, etc, across 

 a continuous stretch of land, and this must have happened at the 

 very first melting of the ice. Thus the »Scandinavian« flora must 

 have been the very first which could have immigrated into Green- 

 land alter the Glacial Period. As regards Spitzbergen he goes so 

 far as to say (p. 285) that »it possesses no higher forms of piants 

 which are peculiar to it; its phanerogains as well as its vascular 

 cryptogams all occur in other countries; hence, it mav be con- 

 cluded as a certainty, that its ilora is due to immigration, and that 

 the immigration took place across land 2 .« However. it is hardly 



1 »Polarforskningens Bidrag o. s. v. in Nordenskiold's »Studier og Forsk- 

 ningar.« Stockholm 1883. 



2 >Det eger ingen enda derstådes uteslutande forekommande hogre vaxt, dess 

 fanerogamer sa val som kårlkryptogamer finnas alle åfven inom andra lander. På 

 grund heraf kan man med såkerhet antaga, att dess flora år dit invandrad, och at t 

 denna invandring skett ofver land 



