ALPINE FLOWERS 



There are, for instance, such flowers as Seapink {Armeria\ 

 Sea Plantain (Plantago maritima), Scurvy-grass, and others, 

 which can be found on windy, desolate gullies and corries 

 high up on the Highland hills, and which also occur on the 

 sea-coast, but never between the seashore and the tops of the 

 mountains. You might search every field, every moor, and 

 every riverside throughout the country, but you would not 

 discover those three plants anywhere between the seashore 

 and the summits. 



At first sight it seems quite impossible to explain why this 

 should be the case. But all those three plants are found in the 

 Arctic regions, and the explanation is in reality quite simple. 



At one time the shores of England and Scotland formed 

 part of the Arctic regions. Ice and snow covered the hills 

 and mountains ; huge glaciers occupied the valleys and 

 flowed over the lowlands, plastering the low grounds with 

 clay which they dragged underneath them, and polishing 

 and scratching any exposed rocks. 



When the ice began to melt away and left free "berg 

 battered beaches '' and " boulder-hatched hills," Lincolnshire 

 and Yorkshire must have been like the Antarctic regions in 

 those days. This is how Dr. Louis Bernacchi describes the 

 Antarctic continent : — 



"The scene before us looked inexpressibly desolate. . . . 

 No token of vitality anywhere, nothing to be seen on the 

 steep slopes of the mountains but rock and ice. . . . Gravel 

 and pebbles were heaped up in mounds and ridges. In some 

 places these ridges coalesced so as to form basin-shaped 

 hollows. Bleached remains of thousands of penguins were 

 scattered all over the platform, mostly young birds that had 

 succumbed to the severity of the climate."" 



Great Britain must have been just as savage and desolate 



104 



