CHAP, IX 



MILD ARCTIC CLIMATES 



187 



vegetation such as now sometimes occur in tropical 

 countries. On sandy or coralline islands in the Malay 

 Archipelago there will often be found a vegetation con- 

 sisting almost wholly of cycads, pandani, and palms, while 

 a few miles off, on moderately elevated land, not a single 

 specimen of either of these families may be seen, but a 

 dense forest of dicotyledonous trees covering the whole 

 country. A lowland vegetation, such as that above de- 

 scribed, might be destroyed and its remains preserved by a 

 slight depression, allowing it to be covered up by the de- 

 tritus of some adjacent river, while not only would the 

 subsidence of high land be a less frequent occurrence, but 

 when it did occur the steep banks would be undermined 

 by the waves, and the trees falling down would be floated 

 away, and would either be cast on some distant shore or 

 slowly decay on the surface or in the depths of the ocean. 



From the remarkable series of facts now briefly sum- 

 marized, we learn, that whenever plant-remains have been 

 discovered within the Arctic regions, either in Tertiary 

 or Cretaceous deposits, they show that the climate was one 

 capable of supporting a rich vegetation of trees, shrubs, 

 and herbaceous plants, similar in general character to that 

 which prevailed in the temperate zone at the same periods, 

 but showing the influence of a less congenial climate. 

 These deposits belong to at least four distinct geological 

 horizons, and have been found widely scattered within the 

 Arctic circle, yet nowhere has any proof been obtained of 

 intercalated cold periods, such as would be indicated by 

 the remains of a stunted vegetation, or a molluscan fauna 

 similar to that which now prevails there. 



Stratigrapliical Uvidcncc of Long-Contimied Mild Arctic 

 Conditions. — Let us now turn to the stratigraphical evidence, 

 which, as we have already shown, offers a crucial test of 

 the occurrence or non-occurrence of glaciation during any 

 extensive geological period ; and here we have the testimony 

 of perhaps the greatest living authority on Arctic geology 

 — Professor Nordenskjold. In his lecture on " The Former 

 Climate of the Polar Regions," he says : " The character 

 of the coasts in the Arctic regions is especially favourable 

 to geological investigations. While the valleys are for the 



