THE ARCTIC LANDS. 



29 



There are many proofs that a milder chmate once reigned in the northern 

 regions of the globe. Fossil pieces of wood, petrified acorns and fir-coues 



ARCTIC CLOTHING. 



have been found in the interior of Banks's Land by M'Clure's sledging-parties. 

 At Anakerdluk, in North Greenland (70° N.), a large forest lies buried on a 

 mountain surrounded by glaciers, 1080 feet above the level of the sea. Not 

 only the trunks and branches, but even the leaves, fruit-cones, and seeds have 

 been preserved in the soil, and enable -the botanist to determine the species of 

 the plants to wiiich they belong. They show that, besides firs and sequoias, 

 oaks, plantains, elms, magnolias, and even laurels, indicating a climate such as 

 that of Lausanne or Geneva, flourished during the miocene period in a coun- 

 try where now even the willow is compelled to creep along the ground. Dur- 

 ing the same epoch of the earth's history Spitzbergen Avas likewise covered 

 with stately forests. The same poplars and the same s\vamp-cypress {Taxo- 

 dium dubium) which then flourished in North Greenland have been found in 

 a fossilized state at Bell Sound (76° N.) by the Swedish naturalists, who also 

 discovered a plantain and a linden as high as 78° and 79° in King's Bay — a 

 proof that in those times the climate of Spitzbergen can not have been colder 



