194 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



Botany in the University of Zurich, and Director of the 

 Botanic Garden in that city, whose decease we now deplore, 

 and of the importance of whose work it is impossible to 

 speak in too high terms. ' Feeble in body, bedridden for 

 years, but indefatigable in despite of his infirmities, apply- 

 ing his clear vision and his extensive and varied know- 

 ledge to the pursuit of an object, the great value of which 

 was apparent to him from the commencement of his inves- 

 tigations, he has become like the Pole, the covered secrets 

 of which he has unveiled the immobile point towards 

 which, during the last ten years and more, have gravi- 

 tated the pioneers of the North, the illustrious navi- 

 gators, the skilled explorers, men of science, and men of 

 action when occasion called for it, men of suffering who 

 have traversed in all directions the Arctic solitudes, to 

 survey their coasts, to search into their cliffs, to sound 

 their depths, and lastly, to bring back as trophies cases of 

 fossils and minerals, which have become the possession of 

 the museums of Dublin, of London, of Copenhagen, and of 

 Stockholm, but at the cost of unceasing deeds of courage.' 

 Such are the terms in which he is spoken of by one who 

 has followed him in his special studies. 



Results of these studies have been embodied by him in 

 a work entitled Die Fossile Flora der Polarlaender . 



We may find our interest in a story marred by our 

 being told by another, whilst we are engaged in reading it, 

 what is the plot and what is the issue of it ; but I believe 

 it will be otherwise if I pause to state what are the con- 

 clusions at which Dr Heer arrived from the study of 

 these and other fossils, and indicate the course of reasoning 

 by which these conclusions have been attained. His con- 

 clusions, stated briefly, are, that vegetation may have first 

 made its appearance in the vicinity of the North Pole, and 

 thence spread southwards towards the southern hemi- 

 sphere : the indications of this having been the case 

 being, amongst others, these : remains of plants, more 

 especially of arborescent plants and trees, similar to those 



