GEOLOGY OF ARCTIC EURASIA 87 



5. The Verkhoyansk and Tas-Khaya-Khtakh Ridges should be 

 investigated geographically and geologically. Of course, these moun- 

 tains have already been covered in general by Point 2 above, as belong- 

 ing to the least-known parts of Arctic Eurasia. 



6. The geology of the Chukchi Peninsula, especially in its eastern 

 part, should be studied with the object of deciding whether or not it 

 belongs entirely to the old Siberian continent or is composed partly 

 of younger formations connected perhaps with Pacific structures. 



7. Special attention should be paid to the examination of the fossil 

 floras of Arctic Eurasia ranging between the Upper Paleozoic (Upper 

 Carboniferous or Permian) and the post-Tertiary. With the Upper 

 Paleozoic flora is connected a much-disputed question concerning 

 Gondwana Land and Angora Land, their connection with, or independ- 

 ence of, each other. Mesozoic floras probably have not always been 

 well differentiated, the Triassic from the Jurassic, and the latter from 

 the Cretaceous. A zonal distribution of different Mesozoic floras and 

 true conclusions on the physico-geographical continental conditions of 

 corresponding periods could be achieved only after such differentiation 

 has been accomplished. The Tertiary flora raises very important and 

 difficult questions on the variations of climatic zones in the Tertiary 

 period. A bold theory on the displacement of the poles has been pro- 

 posed to explain peculiar circumpolar distributions of Tertiary floras. 

 The study of post-Tertiary floras brings out very important conclu- 

 sions on the fluctuation of Arctic climate in recent time, geologically 

 speaking, and provides a means of broad correlation. 



8. Examination of marks of the Ice Age should be undertaken 

 where they are to be found, or positive proof furnished of their absence. 

 During these investigations it is necessary to keep in mind that the 

 great Siberian rivers in their estuaries produce, by means of river ice, 

 rounded rocks shaped like those carved by glaciers and covered with 

 scratches and grooves. In the same way large masses of drift very 

 similar to moraines may accumulate. All these phenomena have been 

 studied by Russian geologists, for example on the lower Yenisei. There 

 are also known instances when they were erroneously considered as 

 the traces of old glaciers. 



9. The study of the present shore line and its oscillations and 

 the connection of the latter with the geological structure of the country 

 should be further pursued. The recent morphology of the Arctic 

 coast of Eurasia and of the continental shield, the relation of islands 

 to the continent, etc., as determined during the last phases of geological 

 history, are other important objects of study. 



10. The frozen corpses of extinct animals should receive more 

 attention. Although much has been done in this particular field, much 

 more remains to be done. For different reasons the study has been 

 concentrated chiefly on the remnants of the mammoth, while other 



