FOSSIL FLORAS OF ARCTIC REGIONS—-NATHORST. aon 
in all stages of decay. Also, in certain places, these remains were 
still fairly abundant at a distance of 1,100 to 1,200 kilometers from 
the shore. This distance corresponds to about 10 degrees of latitude. 
It is thus proved that the remains of plants may be transported for 
very considerable distances. But this is true only of marine deposits. 
If we are concerned with fresh-water sediments, the example given 
has no bearing on the case. 
One might, however, reasonably suppose that a river, flowing in 
the direction of the meridian from south to north, might have carried 
from the southern regions leaves and other fragments of vegetation 
which became buried in some deposit of the stream itself, or of a lake, 
which it traversed, or of its delta. This is a possibility which must 
not be neglected, but on the other hand it must not be treated as 
though it were an ascertained fact, since we do not know how far it 
applies to the case in point. 
The fact is, it is puerile to attempt to draw conclusions as to the 
ancient climates of the Arctic regions, before the nature of the 
deposits in which the fossil plants have been found has been ascer- 
tained. It is especially important that an attempt should be made 
to answer the question, Did the plants once flourish in the neighbor- 
hood of the deposits in which they are found, or were they trans- 
ported from far-away lands? It is this question which an attempt 
will here be made to solve, by furnishing a concise résumé of the 
principal beds containing fossil plants in the Arctic regions. 
In Bear Island,! and in Ellesmere Land,? beds extremely rich in 
plant remains are met with belonging to the Devonian system. The 
fossil plants of Bear Island occur in the series of beds which also 
include several seams of coal. Beneath the coal, which is composed 
essentially of the bark and trunks of Bothrodendron, one finds, as 
elsewhere, bituminous schists containing roots, and from this one 
can show that the plants of which we speak flourished, at least in 
part, in situ. This is likewise proved by the actual nature of the 
plants, as much in the older beds with Archzopteris fimbriata Nath., 
as in the more recent with Pseudobornia ursina Nath. The latter 
species has been found with large stems or rhizomes, as well as very 
small ones, only a few millimeters in diameter, to which extremely 
delicate, almost membranous, leaves are still attached. It is hence 
quite certain that there is here no question of the plants having come 
from distant regions. The materials have not been sorted out. One 
sees a medley of branches, small and large, and the perfection of the 
1A. G. Nathorst, “Zur Oberdevonischen Flora der Biiren Insel:” Kong]. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 
vol. 36, No. 3, Stockholm, 1902. 
27d., ‘Die Oberdevonische Flora des Ellesmere Landes:” Rep. 2nd Norweg. Arctic Exped. in the Fram 
vol. 1, Christiania, 1904. 
38734°—sm 1911——22 
