,THE ARCTIC FAUNA. 147 



It seems probable that a similar gradual refrigera- 

 tion 'of climate in northern latitudes has taken place 

 after Miocene times as has been proved to have 

 occurred in Europe. 



Some years ago Dr. Haacke propounded the hypo- 

 thesis that the centre of creation of all the larger 

 groups of animals was situated in the region of the 

 North Pole, and that the newly originated groups must 

 always push the older ones farther and farther south 

 into the most remote corners of the earth. As 

 instances of the correctness of his view he quotes 

 the fact that the more ancient mammals, such as 

 Monotremes, Marsupials, Lemurs, Edentates, and 

 Insectivores, all inhabit the more southerly parts 

 of the world. The Apteryx, Moa, Rhea, and the 

 Ostrich, as well as ^Epyornis, which is only recently 

 extinct, are found in the same regions. But we have 

 no palseontological evidence in favour of these ex- 

 travagant views. Fossil Edentates and Marsupials 

 are almost entirely confined to the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, and the supposition that because these 

 primitive mammals inhabit the extreme south of our 

 great continental land-masses, they therefore came 

 from the north, cannot be said to be an argument. 

 Nevertheless, I am quite with Dr. Haacke in consider- 

 ing that the North Pole, or, we might say, the lands 

 within the Arctic Circle, have been the place of 

 origin of some of our European mammals, and there 

 can be no doubt that certain species in other groups, 

 among invertebrates and also plants, have originated 



