136 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
appear. However, it is not necessary to discuss this now. I think 
it is clear that physical geography teaches us that the islands of 
the Arctic Ocean, with Nova Zembla and Sanjos and Spitzbergen, 
are mountain tops of a sunken continent, and this continent pro- 
duces strong evidence of the early forms of life, which we will see 
more as we deal with the climate of prehistoric times relative to the 
‘north land home. 
Leading scientific authorities agree that at one time the regions 
within the Arctic Circle enjoyed a tropical climate. 
Prof. Nicholson says: ‘‘In the early Tertiary period the climate 
of the northern hemisphere, as shown by the Eocene animals and 
plants, had a much hotter climate than at present, and that these 
conditions extended to the Arctic Circle.” 
Mr. Grant Allen says: ‘“‘One thing at least is certain, that 
until recently, geologically speaking, our earth enjoyed a much 
warmer climate even to the Poles, and that its vegetation was much 
of the same type as that which prevails in the modern tropics.” 
Nadullac, in alluding to distant ages, says that life freely 
abounded at the North Pole. 
Prof. Croll says: ‘‘ The Arctic regions even to the Pole was 
free from ice, and covered with luxuriant vegetation.” 
Dr. Koerl holds that the Pole was originally warmer than our 
equator is now, and tropical foliage abounded, and probably even 
reached to the Pole itself. He says: “In the Mesozoic ages the 
predominance of reptile life, and the general character of the fossil 
types of that great class of vertebrata, indicate a warm climate and 
an absence of frost between the 40 parallel of latitude and the North 
moles 
The best authorities in Paleontological Botany, both in Europe 
and America, have reached the conclusion that all the floral types 
and forms revealed in the oldest fossils of the earth originated in 
the region of the North Pole, and thence spread first over the north- 
ern and then over the southern hemisphere, proceeding from north 
to south. 
To give a chronological history in proof of the above statement 
would take too much time. Let me just mention their names : 
Prof Asa Gray, of America; Prof. Oswald Heer, of Switzerland ; 
Sir Joseph Hooker, of England ; Otto Kunbze, of Germany ; Count 
