Vice- President's Address. 199 



examination of the geognostic condition, and an investiga- 

 tion of the fossil flora and fauna of the Polar lands, show no 

 signs of a glacial era having existed in those parts before the 

 termination of the Miocene period." Well, as we have seen, 

 there is no reason to believe that the geographical conditions 

 in our hemisphere, at any time previous to the close of the 

 Pliocene period, could ever have induced glacial conditions 

 comparable to those of the Pleistocene Ice Age. The strata 

 referred to by Nordenskiold are, for the most part, of marine 

 origin, and their faunas are sufficient to show us that the 

 Arctic seas were formerly temperate and genial. If any ice 

 existed then, it could only have been in the form of glaciers 

 on elevated lands. And it is quite possible that these, 

 during periods of high eccentricity, may have descended to 

 the sea and calved their icebergs ; and, if so, erratics may 

 yet be found embedded here and there in the Arctic 

 fossiliferous formations, although ISTordenskiold failed to see 

 them. One might sail all round the Palieozoic coast-sections 

 of Scotland w^ithout being able to observe erratics in the strata, 

 and yet, as we know, these have been encountered in the 

 interior of the country. The wholesale scattering of erratics 

 at any time previous to the Pleistocene, must have been 

 exceptional even in Arctic regions, and consequently one is 

 not surprised that they do not everywhere stare the observer 

 in the face. 



The general conclusion, then, to which I think we may 

 reasonably come, is simply this : — That geological climate 

 has been determined chiefly by geographical conditions. 

 So long as the lands of the globe were discontinuous 

 and of relatively small extent, warm ocean currents reaching 

 Polar regions, produced a general uniformity of temperature 

 — the climate of the terrestrial areas being more or less 

 markedly insular in character. Under those conditions, 

 the sea would nowhere be frozen. But when the land- 

 masses became more and more consolidated, when, owinsr 

 to the growth of the continents, warm ocean currents 

 found less ready access to Arctic regions, then the tempera- 

 ture of those regions was gradually lowered until eventually 

 the sea became frost-bound, and the lands were covered 



