194 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
Botany in the University of Zurich, and Director of the 
Botanic Garden in that city, whose decease we now deplore, 
and of the importance of whose work it is impossible to 
speak in too high terms. ‘Feeble in body, bedridden for 
years, but indefatigable in despite of his infirmities, apply- 
ing his clear vision and his extensive and varied know- 
ledge to the pursuit of an object, the great value of which 
was apparent to him from the commencement of his inves- 
tigations, he has become like the Pole, the covered secrets 
of which he has unveiled—the immobile point towards 
which, during the last ten years and more, have gravi- 
tated the pioneers of the North, the illustrious navi- 
gators, the skilled explorers, men of science, and men of 
action—when occasion called for it, men of suffering—who 
have traversed in all directions the Arctic solitudes, to 
survey their coasts, to search into their cliffs, to sound 
their depths, and lastly, to bring back as trophies cases of 
fossils and minerals, which have become the possession of 
’ the museums of Dublin, of London, of Copenhagen, and of 
Stockholm, but at the cost of unceasing deeds of courage.’ 
Such are the terms in which he is spoken of by one who 
has followed him in his special studies. 
Results of these studies have been embodied by him in 
a work entitled Die Fossile Flora der Polarlaender. 
We may find our interest in a story marred by our 
being told by another, whilst we are engaged in reading it, 
what is the plot and what is the issue of it; but I believe 
it will be otherwise if I pause to state what are the con- 
clusions at which Dr Heer arrived from the study of 
these and other fossils, and indicate the course of reasoning 
by which these conclusions have been attained. His con- 
clusions, stated briefly, are, that vegetation may have first 
made its appearance in the vicinity of the North Pole, and 
thence spread southwards towards the southern hemi- 
sphere: the indications of this having been the case 
being, amongst others, these: remains of plants, more 
especially of arborescent plants and trees, similar to those 
