APPENDIX. 283 



possibly at some other places on the coast. T ne beds rest directly 

 and apparently conformably on the Upper Cretac^pus, and have af- 

 forded only eleven species of plants. Magnolia is represented by 

 two species, Laurus by two, Platanus by two, and one of these said 

 to be identical with a species found by Lesquereux in the 1 aramie,* 

 Viburnum, Juglans, Quercus, each by one species ; the ubiquitous 

 Sequoias by S. Langsdorffii. This is pretty clearly a Lower Lanraie 

 flora. 



5. The Atanekerdluk series, consisting of shaly beds, with lime- 

 stone intercalated between great sheets of basalt, much like the 

 Eocene of Antrim and the Hebrides. These beds have yielded 187 

 species, principally in bands and concretions of siderite. and often 

 in a good state of preservation. They are referred to the Lower 

 Miocene, but, as explained in the text, the flora is more nearly akin 

 to that of the Eocene of Europe and the Laramie of America. The 

 animal fossils are chiefly fresh- water shells. Onoclea sensibilis, 

 several conifers, as Taxites Olriki, Taxodium distichum, Olyptostro- 

 bus Europc&us, and Sequoia Langsdorffii, and 42 of the dicotyledons 

 are recognised as found also in American localities. Of these, a 

 large proportion of the more common species occur in the Laramie 

 of the Mackenzie River and elsewhere in northwest Canada, and in 

 the western United States. It is quite likely also that several spe- 

 cies regarded as distinct may prove to be identical. 



It would seem that throughout the whole thickness of these 

 Tertiary beds the flora is similar, so that it is probable it belongs al- 

 together to the Eocene rather than to the Miocene. 



No indication has been observed of any period of cold intervening 

 between the Lower Cretaceous and the top of the Tertiary deposits, 

 so that, in all the vast period which these formations represent, the 

 climate of Greenland would seem to have been temperate. There 

 is, however, as is the case farther south, evidence of a gradual dimi- 

 nution of temperature. In the Lower Cretaceous the probable mean 

 annual temperature in latitude 71 north is stated as 21 to 22 

 centigrade, while in the early Tertiary it is estimated at 12 centi- 

 grade. Such temperatures, ranging from 71 to 53 of Fahrenheit, 

 represent a marvellously warm climate for so high a latitude. In 

 point of fact, however, the evidence of warm climates in the arctic 

 regions, in the Palaeozoic as well as in the Mesozoic and early Ter- 

 tiary, should perhaps lead us to conclude that, relatively to the whole 

 of geological time, the present arctic climate is unusually severe, and 



* Viburnum marginatum of Lesquereux. 



