51 6 REVIEWS 



Marine formations of Cretaceous age were found in West Antarctica 

 and Graham Land by the Nordenskjold Expedition, containing fossils 

 identical with those of the same age found in India/ 



The occurrence of dicotyledons in marine sediments of Oligocene or 

 early Miocene age, in West Antarctica, seems to imply a temperate cli- 

 mate, but this evidence and that of the associated marine fossils are 

 thought to be not altogether decisive. "Considering aU the evidence 

 together, we are perhaps justified in visualizing conditions similar to those 

 at present existing near the outer limits of the temperate zones of to-day, 

 though the presence of some. 50 sub-tropical forms and only twenty 

 temperate forms in the flora suggests a somewhat warmer environment" 

 (p. 433). The possible existence of glaciation farther south at these or 

 earlier times (Eocene) is suggested, but the weakness of the grounds for 

 the suggestion is also noted. 



Late Tertiary time in Antarctica is said to have been characterized 

 by great eruptions of volcanic material. At three localities in this region 

 true erratics occur, from which, as also from supporting evidence of other 

 sorts, it is inferred that glaciation was present during some part of this 

 time. 



The evidence bearing on the initiation of the present climatic state 

 is said to be less complete and satisfactory than could be desired. It can- 

 not well be sketched briefly, and the reader is referred to the details 

 offered. 



In summation, it is inferred that, incomplete as the record is, it "is 

 eloquent of the fact that, to all appearance, any glacial conditions have been 

 the exception and not the rule in A ntarctica. ' ' This conclusion, the reviewer 

 believes, is in general harmony with the testimony of the geological forma- 

 tions within the Arctic Circle, where the stratigraphic and paleontologic 

 evidences are more ample and explicit. Now that this mass of evidence 

 from the South Polar circle has been piled upon the still greater mass of 

 similar evidence, long known, from the North Polar region, as well as the 

 important new testimony added recently by Lauge Koch^ and A. C. 

 Seward,^ there ought to be no longer any disputation over the former 

 existence of warm climates in polar latitudes for long periods between the 

 known glacial periods. 



^ The authors fail to cite the evidence of similar import found in a collection of 

 fossils made by the artist Stokes and determined by Stuart Weller, Jour. Geol., Vol. XI 

 (1903), pp. 413-19; especially p. 414. 



^ Lauge, Koch, "Stratigraphy of Northwest Greenland," Meddelhena fra Dansk 

 Geologiske Forening, Bd. 5, No. -17, 1920, and later papers. 



■ 3 A. C. Seward, A Summer in Greenland, Cambridge University Press, 1922. 



