ARCTIC INTERGLACIAL PERIODS. 193 



In Bank's Land, Prince Patrick's Island, and Melville 

 Island, as in Northern Siberia, full-grown trees have 

 been found in abundance at considerable distances in 

 the interior, and at elevations of two or three hundred 

 feet above sea-level. The bark on many of them was 

 in a perfect state. Capt. McClure, Capt. Osborn, and 

 Lieut. Mecham, by whom they were found, all agreed 

 in thinking that they grew in the place where they 

 were found. 



It is true that more recent Arctic voyagers have 

 come to the conclusion that these trees must have been 

 drifted down the rivers from the south. There can be 

 little doubt that the greater part of the wood found 

 there, as in Siberia, is drift-wood. But may there not 

 be also, as in Siberia, two kinds of wood ? — a 

 " Noashina " and an " Adamshina," — a kind which was 

 drifted and another kind which grew on the spot. 

 This is a point which will require to be determined. 



That so little has as yet been done in the way of 

 searching for such evidence of interglacial periods is, 

 doubtless, in a great measure due to the fact that most 

 of those, if not all, who have visited those regions 

 entertained the belief that there is an a priori 

 improbability that a condition of climate which would 

 have allowed the growth of trees in such a place 

 prevailed so recently as Post-tertiary times. Even 

 supposing those Arctic voyagers had considered the 

 finding of interglacial deposits a likely thing, and had 

 in addition made special search for them, the simple 

 fact that they should have failed to find any trace of 

 them could not, as we have already shown, be regarded 

 as even presumptive evidence that none existed. Take 

 Scotland as an example. Abundant relics of inter- 

 glacial age have there been found from time to time ; 

 but amongst the many geologists who visit that country 



