FAUNA OF WHITE MOUNTAINS 35 



northern part of the continent, still he concedes that even 

 during the Glacial Epoch, life of the tundra type may have 

 flourished in Alaska.* 



Hence it is not unreasonable to argue from his point of 

 view that life could also have existed in Greenland at that 

 time, and this opinion I endeavoured to vindicate in the 

 last chapter. Even Professor Adams does not venture to 

 cast a doubt upon the correctness of the current geological 

 theories, and speaks of three distinct belts of life in the 

 vicinity of the ice margin (p. 56). The latter being fringed 

 to the south by tundral biota (fauna and flora), next to which 

 came the northern trans-continental coniferous forest belt 

 and its associated fauna, and finally the deciduous forests. 

 All these are assumed to have moved forward to the north on 

 the disappearance of the ice. 



That the so-called " tundral " or what we might call arctic 

 fauna and flora actually did advance far south of their present 

 habitats can be demonstrated much more clearly than by the 

 occurrence of a few stray fossil reindeer's antlers south of 

 the area covered by glacial drift. 



"Whether the past southward migrations of the reindeer 

 were influenced by climatic changes or by other considera- 

 tions, we cannot definitely assert. Since we are told that 

 there was a refrigeration of the climate during the Glacial 

 Epoch, we are apt to assume that this lowering of the tem- 

 perature drove the reindeer and other arctic species to more 

 southern localities. The former occurrence of an animal of 

 such a roving disposition as the reindeer in more southern 

 districts may have been due to a natural expansion of its 

 range, and this need not imply a change of temperature. 



The fauna and flora of the White Mountains has been cited 

 as a living testimony of a former arctic climate in latitudes 

 where temperate conditions now prevail. 



Surrounded by an entirely alien assemblage of animals and 

 plants we find in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, 

 not far from the city of Boston, an extraordinary gathering 

 of species, many of which are only known elsewhere in 

 Labrador and Greenland. A thousand miles away from their 



* Adams, Chas. C, "Dispersal of North American Biota," pp. 55 — 58. 



D 2 



