>/k4. 1878] 



NATURE 



267 



Climate of Spitzbergen in the Triassic Period. — The Tiiassic 

 beds of Spitzbergen, lat. 79°, have afTorded species of 



Nautilus j Ceratites 



Ammonites \ Halobia 



closely allied to, if not identical with, those of the St. Cassian 

 beds of South Austria. 



Climate of Alaska in the Triassic and yurassic Periods. — In 

 the neighbourhood of Cook's Inlet, in Alaska, lat. 60° N., shells 

 characteristic of the triassic and Jurassic periods have been 

 found : — 



Monotis Triassic.^ 



Auctlla Jurassic. 



Ammonites Wosnessarski ,, 



Ammonites biplex ,, 



Belemnites pascillosus ,, 



Pleuromya unioides ,, 



and similar fossils are found along the Pacific Coast of North 

 America. 



It is not possible to explain the occurrence of tropical animals 

 in the three above-mentioned localities, by any change in the 

 position of the earth's axis, even if so great an amount of change 

 as would be required were possible. This statement can be 

 proved as follows : — Let a great circle be drawn, joining Spitz- 

 bergen with Cook's Inlet, Alaska ; this circle will pass nearly 

 through the North Pole. In order to explain the tropical climate 

 of these two localities, and also of the Parry Islands, the pole 

 must be displaced at right angles to the great circle joining 

 Spitzbergen and Alaska, along the meridian long. II7°E., nearly 

 that of Pekin. The present difference of latitude between New 

 Orleans and Spitzbergen is 45° ; so that, in order to make the 

 Arctic regions tropical, we must move the North Pole 45° on 

 the meridian of Pekin, bringing it within 300 miles to the north 

 of that city. Hence it follows that, during the triassic period, 

 Pekin lay under the North Pole, covered by the polar ice-cap. 

 Let us now consider what the South Pole was doing : it had 

 moved on the opposite meridian, and had reached the mouth of 

 the Rio Negro, on the east coast of Patagonia, about 1,000 miles 

 to the south-south-east of Valparaiso and the Chilian Andes. 

 Jurassic strata have been found in the Chilian Andes at 34° S., 

 containing the tropical Ammonites biplex, which is found also in 

 Alaska, 60° N., and in Europe. This locality lies within 700 

 miles of the necessary position of the South Pole, and cannot 

 have enjoyed a tropical climate. The proposed alteration of the 

 North Pole is consistent with the occurrence of tropical animals 

 in the Parry Islands, in Spitzbergen, and in Alaska ; while the 

 proposed alteration of the South Pole would permit tropical 

 animals to exist in New Zealand and New Caledonia ; but the 

 occurrence of Jurassic ammonites within 700 miles of the South 

 Pole is fatal to the proposed shifting of the axis of rotation, 

 even if that were allowable to the extent required. 



The Climate of the Arctic Regions during the Tertiary Miocene 

 Period. — There is abundant evidence to show that during the 

 miocene tertiary period the northern parts of the continents of 

 Arnerica and Europasia possessed a nearly common forest vege- 

 tation,.with a temperate climate, resembling that now enjoyed 

 by the northern parts of Italy, such as Lombardy. 



The localities in which the lignite beds are found, that indicate 

 the former existence of this remarkable vegetation, are the fol- 

 lowing : — 



Greenland (Disco), lat. 70°. 



Grinnell Land, lat. 81° 44'. 



Spitzbergen (West Coast), lat. 77°. 



Alaska and Mackenzie River, lat. 70° to 60°. 

 TVa g&m.% Sequoia (redwood) has representatives in all these 

 localities, and one Greenland species, S. gigantea, is very near 

 the great Californian species which lived in North America in 

 cretaceous times (and still live in California). In Spitzbergen 

 there are found in the miocene beds two species of Libocedrus ; 

 and of these, one, viz., Z. decurrens, is now living in Cali- 

 fornia among the Redwoods, while the other still lives in the 

 Andes of Chili. The common Taxodium (cypress) of the 

 Southern Statesoccurs fossil in the miocene beds of Spitzbergen, 

 Greenland, and Alaska.^ 



' Triassic slates, containing MonotU and Haljtia, have been recently 

 discovered in places widely separate from each other, all over the globe 

 viz. :— New Zealand, New Caledonia, North-West America, Upper India 

 beyond the Himalayas, and in Spitzbergen. 



» The following genera have been described by Prof. Heer as found at 

 .Mackenzie River and Alaska; there are many species of each : — 



All the genera mentioned in the note are found in Greenland and 

 Spitzbergen, as well as in Alaska ; and, according to Prof. Heer, 

 indicate a mean annual temperature of 48° F, during the 

 miocene period in localities where the mean annual temperature 

 is now as low as zero. During the eocene tertiary period, 

 according to Ettingshausen, there flourished a flora in the Tyrol, 

 which indicates a mean annual temperature between 74° F. 

 and 81° F., the species being largely Australian in character. 

 According to the same author the miocene flora of Vienna was 

 sub-tropical, corresponding to a mean annual temperature 

 between 68° F. and 79° F., and closely resembling that of sub- 

 tropical America. It can be shown by a method similar to that 

 employed for the triassic and Jurassic periods, that the North 

 Pole was practically in the same place during the miocene 

 period that it now occupies. 



If we join the Mackenzie River and Spitzbergen by the arc of 

 a great circle the North Pole must be moved at right angles to 

 this arc, away from Greenland, through 30°, in order to give all 

 these northern localities a Lombardic climate. The direction in 

 which the pole must be moved is on the meridian of Nagasaki 

 (one of the Japanese Islands), and it reaches a point close to 

 Yakutsk, within 800 miles of the Peninsula of Kamtschatka 

 and the Island of Saghalien, off" the Amoor. 



Here we meet with a difficulty similar to that offered by the 

 South Pole in the triassic period. The Island of Saghalien and 

 the Peninsula of Kamtschatka contain miocene coal bed.^, 

 requiring at least a sub-tropical climate, which would be im- 

 possible under the supposed circumstances. Also the Islands of 

 Yesso, Nagasaki, and Kiusiu, somewhat farther off, contain 

 similar coal beds.' 



It is very remarkable that, while there exist so many proofs of 

 a warm climate near the North Pole in former geological 

 periods, there is no evidence from fossils of cooler climates 

 having ever existed in the tropics. It was at one time thought 

 that an exception to this statement occurred in the Island of 

 Java, where, it w^as asserted, a tertiary flora was to be found, 

 indicating rather a temperate than a tropical climate. The full 

 investigations of Goppert, however, have satisfactorily shown 

 that the tertiary flora of Java is of eocene age, and essentially 

 tropical in character, containing numerous specimens of palms, 

 Musas, peppers, laurels, magnolias, and Proteacece. 



From all these facts we are entitled to conclude that, down to 

 so recent a period as the miocene tertiary, climates depended 

 chiefly on the internal heat derived from the cooling earth. As 

 we are precluded from assigning large changes in the position 

 of the poles as a cause for large changes of climate, a very 

 interesting question thus arises as to the sense in which we call 

 the miocene tertiary a recent period. This question may be 

 thus discussed :— We may regard the plants and animals pre- 

 served in the fossil state in the Arctic regions as self -registering 

 thermometer.-, recording for us the mean temperature of those 

 regions at successive epochs, marking so many fixed points on 

 the earth's thermometrical scale. In addition to these we have 

 the present temperature of the Arctic regions directly observed, 

 and two other temperatures determined by physical and physio- 

 logical conditions : these are the temperature of boiling water, 

 and the temperatiu-e at which albumen coagulates. No stratified 

 rocks could have been formed on the earth before the first point 



Planera. yuglans (walnut). 



Castanea (chestnut). Carya (hickory). 



Diospyros (ebony tree). Rhus (sumach). 



Daccinium (bilberry). Vitis (vine). 



Acer (maple). 

 All these are indicative of a Lombardic climate, for their living represen 

 tatives (e.xcepting V'accinium and Acer) do not extend into the north 

 temperate region. 



' Spitzbergen, and the islands of New Siberia, in miocene times, supported 

 a vegetation pointing to like conditions of climate. Further east the coal- 

 fields of Saghalien seem to be likewise of mid-tertiary age, and those of 

 Yesso, I believe, belong to the same epoch. In the Island of Kiusiu miocene 

 rocks are developed to an enormous extent; the volcanic conglomerates, 

 shales, and sandstones of Nagasaki, seem to exceed 5,000 feet in thickness, 

 and the upper portion of this very important series contained, prior to its 

 denudation, one of the richest coal-fields in the world. In the Island of 

 Takosima, where a good section is obtainable, there exist, within a thickness 

 of little more than 300 feet, no less than fourteen beds of coal, varying from 

 I to 8 feet thick, and whose united thickness amounts in the aggregate to 

 about 57 feet. Some cf them rest on shales containing remains of the old 

 flora, which bears a close resemblance to that of the district at the present 

 day. Unfortunately this rich fossil flora remains as yet undescribed. The 

 fossil flora of Spitzbergen and New Siberia finds its nearest analogue in that 

 of North China and Japan, so that we are compelled to believe in the former 

 extension of a similar flora over the intermediate districts, as well as in the 

 occurrence of very similar conditions of climate." — "The Border Lands of 

 Geology and History" (pp. 28-9). By Thomas \V. KIngsraill. Shanghai 

 1877. 



