THE ARCTIC FAUNA. 465 



which will be dealt with more fully presently. The 

 important point is to consider what light the Green- 

 land flora arid fauna will throw upon the problem 

 of the continuity of the aforesaid land-connec- 

 tion during the Glacial period. We have seen 

 that the Barren-ground Reindeer, a typically Polar 

 species, penetrated as far south as the Pyrenees, the 

 Arctic Hare went as far, while a number of other 

 species of Polar animals and also of plants occur 

 in the Alps. Of these it remains to be seen how 

 many have come direct by way of Northern Europe 

 or from the Polar Regions by way of Asia. At any 

 rate, as the origin of the Alpine animals and plants 

 will be discussed in another chapter, there is no need 

 to dwell on this subject at present. 



From the nature of the distribution in Ireland of 

 Arctic plants and animals, which occur mostly on the 

 north and west coasts, it would seem that a stream of 

 migration entered from Scotland, and I have no doubt 

 that that same migration came into Scotland directly 

 from Scandinavia by a route over which now roll the 

 waves of the North Sea. There is, moreover, as I 

 already mentioned on p. 94, a very interesting so-called 

 American element in the north-western European 

 flora, that is to say, plants now found in North-west 

 Europe and North America without occurring in 

 Greenland or any of the islands which might have 

 formed the former highway between the Old World 

 and the New. These are probably some of the more 

 ancient Polar plants which have become extinct in 



