22 BERING LAND 



liking for tapirs would suspect them of swim- 

 ming across, and since their family existed 

 there has been no land passage round the 

 southern edge of the Pacific. So, if w^e would 

 find the ancient tapir range which once con- 

 nected Malaya with Mexico and Brazil, we are 

 driven to search for a pathway round the 

 North Pacific. 



The map of the ocean floor shows the Pacific 

 Deep as reaching northward to the sixtieth 

 parallel. Beyond that lie the new shoals of 

 Bering Sea, with a ground-swell so terrific in 

 winter that I have seen a hard-bitten middle- 

 aged seaman driven mad with fear. This is 

 the site of Bering Land, an ancient country 

 about the size of Scandinavia, which joined 

 the mainlands of Asia and North America. 

 The latitudes of this land were those of Nor- 

 way, and it formed the basin of the lower 

 Yukon. 



Before there was an}^ polar cold on Earth, 

 when the magnolia blossomed in Greenland, 

 this cloudy rain-swept country was warm 

 enough for tapirs. As the sky cleared it managed 

 to harbour camels, and became a pasturage 

 for animals of the horse family. Let us see 

 then whether these were of the actual species 

 we call the horse. 



