North Polar Exploration. 339 



conclusion that the same region teems with animal life. It is 

 peculiarly important that such a region should be examined in 

 the interests of natural history. Not only may there be oppor- 

 tunities for studying the habits of animals as yet little known, 

 and of discovering the long-concealed haunts of those right 

 whales which have deserted Baffin's Bay, but it is also more 

 than probable that new species may be found in the unknown 

 north. Here may be the last hiding-place of that curious 

 manatee (Rhytina), which was last seen by Steller in 1741, off 

 Behring's Island, and which is conjectured by Professor Owen 

 to have been separated from its natural habitat in the Indian 

 Ocean, at some remote period, by the rising of the Asiatic 

 continent. The seas which support whales and seals must be 

 tenanted by myriads of fish, and of those minute organisms 

 which are disclosed by the dredging-machine, while the pre- 

 sence of walrus tells us of submarine forests of sea-weed. The 

 Arctic flora, too, is as yet very imperfectly known, as regards 

 either the land or the sea • and Dr. Kane's expedition alone 

 discovered twenty-seven new species of plants. The recent 

 paper by Dr. Hooker, pointing out the geographical distribu- 

 tion of plants in the Arctic regions, suggests the light that 

 may be thrown upon the interesting problems connected with 

 it, and the incalculable value of researches into the botany of 

 the unknown Polar region.* 



The investigation of the geological character of the Polar 

 region will throw a flood of light on the world's early history, 

 and will be of incalculable value to science. It must be 

 remembered that no professional geologist has ever been in 

 the Arctic regions, and that the action of the vast glaciers of 

 Greenland, with their mighty icebergs, has never been 

 examined by a trained eye. Yet it is here alone that the 

 condition of that remote period when all Europe was similarly 

 situated, can be satisfactorily studied. The formations hitherto 

 discovered in the Arctic regions, the tertiary lignite of Disco, 

 the carboniferous sandstone of Melville Island, and the Silurian 

 corals, trilobites, and cephalopods of other parts of the Parry 

 group, all indicate a much warmer climate than now exists 

 even in Europe. If similar formations are met with in close 

 proximity to the Pole, we shall learn that there must once 

 have existed conditions of life and heat there which are very 

 different from those now prevailing. We shall receive addi- 

 tional proofs of that great internal heat which appears once to 

 have warmed the earth's crust, and to have produced a rich 

 vegetation in the Arctic zone. The geologists certainly have 



* See Outlines of the Distribution of Arctic Plants, by Dr. Hooker. Trans- 

 actions of the Linnaan Society, vol. xxiii., p. 251. 



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