112 PROF. J. LOGAN LOBLEY, F.G.S., F.E.G.S., OX THE HISTORY 



^Asia, is indicative of a former land connection between 

 Northern Europe and Greenland. Tlie evidence afforded by 

 ithe flora of the Arctic regions of the Old and New Worlds also 

 points in the same direction, and this is all supported by the 

 configuration of the sea-bottom betw^een Norway, Eranz-Josepli 

 land, Iceland and Greenland. 



One of the most interestino; results of the Arctic migration 

 southwards was the presence of reindeer {Maiigifer tarandus) in 

 Europe as far south as the Pyrenees, and, too, in very large 

 numbers, as is shown by their remains in the South of France. 

 The cave deposits of the department Dordogne contain abun- 

 <lant bones of reincieer of the same type as those now living in 

 the Barren Grounds of North America, which are smaller and 

 have more rounded antlers than the Siberian type. This 

 reindeer, called in America, Caribou, has left its bones in many 

 places in the Pleistocene deposits of the British Islands, including 

 Ireland, and it remained as a living species in Caithness, the 

 ii:iost northerly county of Scotland, until the thirteenth century. 

 As additional evidence of now vanished Arctic lands, reindeer 

 -are in the islands of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya. 



The arctic fox (Ccmis lagopus) is now confined to the 

 mountains of Norway, but its bones attest its former presence 

 in Britain and other European localities. The arctic hare 

 (Lepus varicihilis) is still in the British Islands, but confined to 

 Ireland and Scotland, though it ranges on the continent of 

 Europe into Scandinavia and Eussia in the north, and in the 

 south to the Alps, Pyrenees and the Caucasian mountains. 

 This hare is white in the Arctic regions both summer and 

 winter, in Scandinavia it is white in winter and brown in 

 summer, while in Ireland it is brown all through the year. 



Other Arctic immigrants to Europe are the stoat {Mustcla 

 ermincea), which gives the much valued ermine, and the 

 lemmings, two species of which are fossil in the Pleistocene of 

 fjhis country. The whale and the seal must also be added to 

 the Arctic mammals of Europe. 



Of Arctic birds we had in the extreme north of the British 

 Islands until the beginning of the last century the remarkable 

 ■species called the Great Auk (Alca impcnnis) which was very 

 .similar to the penguin now so abundant in the Antarctic 

 regions. The well known Scotch, or red grouse {Lagopus 

 scoiims) is an Arctic immigrant, as are also the willow grouse 

 -of Norway and the ptarmigan. 



As both reptiles and amphibians are unknown in the Arctic 

 regions, we cannot ascribe any European species of these classes 



