63(5 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



seem, none of them, to have had the remotest conjecture of it. 

 The faets are admitted, and it cannot be urged against its author 

 that he has marshalled in its support fictitious premises. His 

 arguments, drawn from the facts, may be erroneous. Yet it is 

 true that many of them which have not as yet been otherwise 

 satisfactorily explained are easily accounted for upon his theory. 

 Modern explorers have added much to our knowledge of the 

 Arctic regions which corroborates the arguments of Captain 

 Symmes. The most of them have found an open sea. They 

 tell of immense flocks of birds and migrating animals going 

 north in winter. They speak of warm currents of air and water 

 coming from the north. 



Spitzbergen, on the south side of the verge, is a bleak, barren 

 country, while, to the northward, plants, flowers, and trees are 

 found. This island is upon or partly within the verge, and the 

 north part would lie within and be warmer than the southern 

 portion of the island. 



Driftwood is found in great quantities upon the northern coasts 

 of Iceland, Norway, Spitzbergen, and the Arctic borders of Si- 

 beria, having every appearance of a tropical production. Trees 

 of large dimensions and of different kinds are found, some in a 

 good state of preservation. Vegetables of singular character, 

 and flowers of peculiar fragrance and color, unknown to botan- 

 ists, are sometimes found in this drift. These could not be the 

 production of the cold Arctic regions, nor is it probable they 

 were drifted thither by the Gulf Stream or by submarine cur- 

 rents, for their specific gravity would make this impossible. 

 Besides, they are not found along the southern coasts of these 

 localities, as they would be if borne north by the Gulf Stream 

 along through the Atlantic. 



Eminent modern scientists, Darwin among others, declare that 

 the climate of the Polar regions, as far as explored, is the same 

 now that it always has been, yet the farther north we penetrate 

 in greater abundance are found vestiges of elephants, tortoises, 

 crocodiles, and other beasts and reptiles of a tropical climate. 

 These are found in greatest abundance along the banks of rivers 



