ON THE VALUE OF THE FOSSIL FLORAS OF THE ARCTIC 
REGIONS AS EVIDENCE OF GEOLOGICAL CLIMATES. 
By Prof. A. G. Natnorst, of Stockholm. 
Translated from the French original? by E. A. Newry Arser, M. A., F.G.S8. 
Among the problems which are constantly called to mind during 
geological explorations in the Arctic regions, that of the climates of 
the past naturally demands special attention. The contrast between 
the present and the past is there more striking than in any other 
region. Beneath the snow and ice bordering the Arctic Sea one 
marvels to find, for example, large corals in beds belonging to the 
Carboniferous system, or again the remains of saurians, ammonites, 
or nautiloids in those of Triassic age. But when one bears in mind 
the extreme richness of the invertebrate fauna of the Arctic Seas 
to-day, when one remembers the colossal whales which find their 
subsistence in these waters, one may be inclined to ask if it has not 
been an error to conclude, from the occurrence of the fossils above 
mentioned, that the climate was formerly more genial than it is to-day. 
Should we not be underestimating the creative power of life if we 
imagine that, among the saurians, the ammonites, and the nautiloids, 
no species has been able to develop which was adapted to life in the 
Arctic Seas? If the reindeer and the musk ox were extinct, who 
would imagine that these beasts were able to flourish on the scanty 
vegetation of the high parallels north of 80° of latitude? And who 
would suppose that such monsters as the mammoth and the woolly 
rhinoceros could find sufficient nourishment in the poor vegetation 
of the tundras or the coniferous forests? Such examples teach pru- 
dence; there is certainly no question which requires so much caution 
as the problem of deducing from the faunas of the past the climatic 
conditions under which they flourished. 
This remark applies with equal force to the floras. Although 
to-day the cycads only occur in warm regions, it would be an error 
1 A paper read before the Eleventh International Geological Congress on Aug. 25, 1910. «Sur la valeur 
des flores fossiles des régions arctiques comme preuve des climats géologiques,’”’ Stockholm, 1910. Also in 
Compt. Rend. Eleventh Intern. Geol. Congr., Stockholm, 1912. Reprinted by permission from the Geo- 
logical Magazine, London, Decade V, vol. 8, No. 563, pp. 217-225, May, 1911. 
2 The English translation has been revised by Prof. Nathorst, and references added. 
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