14  SMITHSONIAN    MISCELLANEOUS    COLLECTIONS  VOL.    96 
and  flowering  plants.  In  Tertiary  time  there  existed  a  markedly  differ- 
ent assemblage  of  plants,  to  judge  from  fossil  remains  that  have  been 
found,  first  by  A.  J.  Collier,  and  later,  in  1930,  by  the  present  writer. 
Collier's  discovery  of  fossil  sequoia  on  St.  Lawrence  Island  was  first 
announced  by  Knopf  in  1910: 
On  St.  Lawrence  Island  ....  Collier  has  discovered  some  coal-bearing  sedi- 
ments carrying  plant  remains.  A  few  conifers  and  dicotyledons  were  found, 
among  which  Knowlton  has  identified  Sequoia  langsdorfi,  indicating  Kenai  age. 
This  bit  of  evidence,  incomplete  and  unsatisfactory  as  it  is,  is  the  most  important 
yet  discovered  that  bears  on  the  question  of  a  land  connection  between  the 
continents  during  the  early  part  of  the  Tertiary.    [Knopf,  1910,  pp.  415-416.] 
In  1930,  at  the  suggestion  of  Prof.  Ralph  W.  Chaney,  the  writer 
located  a  coal  and  shale  deposit  on  the  north  side  of  the  island,  proba- 
CAPE  CHIBUKAK 
GAMBELL 
NORTH  CAPE 
CAPE  HUKULIAK 
WEST  CAPE   '  X-      ^--  n  1 
SOUTHWEST  CAPE 
NORTHEAST 
CAPE 
'EAST  CAPE 
°<^  PUNUH  ISLAND 
SOUTHEAST  CAPE  W  CAPE  KIALEGAK 
Fig.  I. — Map  of  St.  Lawrence  Island,  Bering  Sea. 
bly  the  same  one  found  by  Collier,  and  obtained  from  it  a  number 
of  plant  remains,  which  Professor  Chaney  identified  as  sequoia,  pop- 
lar, sycamore,  and  alder  (Chaney,  1930,  pp.  653-654).  The  occurrence 
on  this  barren  Alaskan  island  of  trees  which  are  now  restricted  to 
a  more  southerly  range,  particularly  the  sequoia  or  redwood,  the 
seeds  of  which  apparently  do  not  retain  their  viability  after  being 
transported  in  water,  may  be  regarded  as  direct  evidence  of  the  long 
postulated  Tertiary  land  connection  between  Asia  and  America,  the 
existence  of  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  explain  the  many  and  close 
resemblances  between  the  plant  and  animal  life  of  the  two  continents 
during  past  geologic  epochs  and  at  the  present  time. 
