THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



33 



velopment and extraordinary bathy metrical range 

 of the animals inhabiting the depths. For light is 

 an influence of great power in the development of 

 marine life. On the other hand, we may attribute 

 to the general deficiency of light during a great part 

 of the year, the dulness of hue which is so marked 

 a feature of Arctic animals. 



The existence in Spitzbergen of great beds of clay, 

 forming cliffs one hundred feet high, and an exten- 

 sion of land of considerable dimensions,* containing 

 fossil shells, all of Arctic species, and indeed, cor- 

 responding exactly with the characteristic inhabi- 

 tants now living in the Arctic seas, shows that the 

 existing zoological condition of the Arctic province 

 has been of long standing, and dates back, in all 

 probability, from the Pleistocene epoch — that which 

 immediately preceded the present. Yet, at an infi- 

 nitely distant period in time, very different condi- 

 tions of climate must have prevailed in this now 

 barren and inhospitable region • for beds of coal, 

 and traces of an extensively developed vegetation, 

 and limestones abounding in organic remains, form 

 parts of the structure of that ice-bound island, t 

 which is mainly made up of palaeozoic rocks of sedi- 

 mentary origin. The strange tower-like mountains 

 and spindle-shaped peaks, that call forth expres- 

 sions of admiration and wonder from all who have 

 sailed along its rocky shores, mostly owe their ec- 



* Keilhau. + Robert. 



D 



