PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 25 



major ; two species of deer and a horse have been found in both. 

 Other species, such as the tapir and mastodon point to a probably 

 earlier date or to a warmer climate. The difference of latitude 

 may account for its more southern character, as well as for the 

 presence of two species of apes, which do not occur in the Forest 

 Bed. As a number of free-roaming animals are common to England 

 and France, the freshwater Pliocene period was probably a con- 

 tinental one. I had the pleasure of visiting several Pliocene beds 

 on the Riviera last spring, belonging to its middle and lower 

 divisions, all of which are marine. The Pliocene Italian beds ex- 

 pand into a wide thick sheet, between the Apennines and the sea, 

 east of Leghorn. Several isolated patches occur westward on the 

 coast-line as far west as from Nice to Ventimiglia, the Italian and 

 French frontier ; they are accompanied with thick beds of con- 

 glomerates, which form a marked feature on the coast. 



Hitherto the conflict between man and the ice has ended in the 

 defeat of the former, but another effort is now contemplated by 

 means of a systematic and well-organised expedition under the 

 direction of Dr. Nansen, of whose success in crossing Greenland 

 with a small party of six I gave an account in my last anniversary 

 address. The failure of the Jeanette expedition (1879-1880), 

 accompanied by the loss of the vessel, seemed to be an extinguisher 

 of all attempts to reach the North Pole by Behring Straits. The 

 results, however, have turned out to be much more favourable than 

 could have been expected, when it is taken into consideration that 

 the surviving crew did not reach Siberia across the ice without 

 great difficulty and danger. Three years after the wreck of the 

 vessel several articles which had belonged to her were found on the 

 shore of Julianshaab, in Greenland, whither they had been iceborne 

 from the opposite side of the Polar Sea. Curiosity was aroused as 

 to how the journey across the Arctic Sea from Behring Straits 

 had been accomplished, and what unknown current had con- 

 veyed them. They could not have passed through Smith 

 Sound, as the only current which reaches Julianshaab comes 

 eastward by Cape Farewell. It seems highly probable that a 



