THE ARCTIC LANDS. 



29 



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

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



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 which 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 was likewise covered 

 with stately forests. The same poplars and the same swamp-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 



