ito RECAPITULATION. [CHAP, n, 



and water would probably not be low enough to preserve the flesh ; 

 and hence, carcasses drifted beyond the shallow parts near an arctic 

 coast, would have only their skeletons preserved : now in the extreme 

 northern parts of Siberia bones are infinitely numerous, so that even 

 islets are said to be almost composed of them ; * and those islets lie no 

 less than ten degrees of latitude north of the place where Pallas found 

 the frozen rhinoceros. On the other hand, a carcass washed by a flood 

 into a shallow part of the Arctic Sea, would be preserved for an 

 indefinite period, if it were soon afterwards covered with mud, 

 sufficiently thick to prevent the heat of the summer-water penetrating 

 to it ; and if, when the sea-bottom was upraised into land, the covering 

 was sufficiently thick to prevent the heat of the summer air and sun 

 thawing and corrupting it. 



Recapitulation. I will recapitulate the principal facts with regard to 

 the climate, ice-action, and organic productions of the southern hemi- 

 sphere transposing the places in imagination to Europe, with which we 

 are so much better acquainted. Then, near Lisbon, the commonest 

 sea-shells, namely, three species of Oliva, a Voluta and Terebra, would 

 have a tropical character. In the southern provinces of France, 

 magnificent forests, intwined by arborescent grasses and with the trees 

 loaded with parasitical plants, would hide the face of the land. The 

 puma and the jaguar would haunt the Pyrenees. In the latitude of 

 Mont Blanc, but on an island as far westward as central North America, 

 tree-ferns and parasitical Orchideae would thrive amidst the thick woods. 

 Even as far north as central Denmark, humming-birds would be seen 

 fluttering about delicate flowers, and parrots feeding amidst the ever- 

 green woods ; and in the sea there, we should have a Voluta, and all 

 the shells of large size and vigorous growth. Nevertheless, on some 

 islands only 360 miles northward of our new Cape Horn in Denmark, 

 a carcass buried in the soil (or if washed into a shallow sea, and 

 covered up with mud) would be preserved perpetually frozen. If some 

 bold navigator attempted to penetrate northward of these islands, he 

 would run a thousand dangers amidst gigantic icebergs, on some of 

 which he would see great blocks of rock borne far away from their 

 original site. Another island of large size in the latitude of southern 

 Scotland, but twice as far to the west, would be "almost wholly 

 covered with everlasting snow," and would have each bay terminated 

 by ice-cliffs, whence great masses would be yearly detached : this 

 island would boast only of a little moss, grass, and burnet, and a 

 titlark would be its only land inhabitant. From our new Cape Horn in 

 Denmark, a chain of mountains, scarcely half the height of the Alps, 

 would run in a straight line due southward ; and on its western flank 

 every deep creek of the sea, or fiord, would end in " bold and astonish- 

 ing glaciers." These lonely channels would frequently reverberate 

 with the falls of ice, and so often would great waves rush along their 

 coasts ; numerous icebergs, some as tall as cathedrals, and occasionally 

 loaded with " no inconsiderable blocks of rock," would be stranded on 

 the outlying islets ; at intervals violent earthquakes would shoot 

 * Cuvier COssemeiis Fossiles, torn, i., p. 151), from Billing's Voyage, 



