2 ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 



Lapland rhododendron, many kinds of saxifrages, cinquefoil, 

 crowfoot, a willow-herb, a lousewort, the narrow-leaved arnica 

 and other flowering plants for a time infuse variety into the 

 brownish-grey landscape, giving it quite a gay appearance 

 with the many brightly-coloured blossoms. During a couple 

 of weeks in the short summer the natives may even have the 

 advantage of gathering crow- berries (Empetrum nigrum), 

 which grow in great abundance almost everywhere, just as 

 they do in boreal America and Europe. 'The bilberry and 

 cowberry are also noticeable, but they are less common and 

 do not seem to be used by the natives, nor is the cloudberry, 

 whose fruit rarely ripens. All these are well-known American 

 and European plants. The most valuable vegetable, which is 

 largely used for food, is a tall angelica. It sometimes attains 

 a height of six feet in favourable localities. 



During early Tertiary times many species of conifers and 

 several of our common deciduous oaks, poplars, walnuts, 

 maples, lindens, magnolias and beeches flourished in Green- 

 land. Many of the same trees also lived in Iceland, Spits- 

 bergen, Grinnell Land, boreal North America and the New 

 Siberian islands. It is evident that the climate all round 

 the Arctic Ocean must have been mild. Many causes have 

 been assigned for the change from the former temperate 

 climatic conditions to the arctic ones now prevailing in the 

 eame region. A less restricted circulation of warm ocean 

 water into the circumpolar area might, as has been suggested, 

 help to bring about such a state. Yet it would not alone be 

 sufficient. Sun and light for a longer period than now obtains 

 would seem to have been necessary to ripen the wood of the 

 trees and bring the fruit to maturity. At any rate, all this 

 luxuriant flora must have disappeared from these northern 

 regions long before the Ice Age. It is quite possible, and I 

 even think it probable, that many of our common arctic and 

 alpine plants originated in these remote Tertiary times. I 

 cannot adduce any direct geological evidence for such a belief, 

 since few of these plants possess properties which would 

 enable the remains of their leaves to be preserved in a fossil 

 condition. The assumption is founded chiefly on their wide 

 geographical distribution. 



As I am dealing mainly with faunistic problems, the 



