190 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part I. 



country did not consist almost wholly of precipitous snow-clad 

 mountains, it would be capable of supporting most of the vegetable 

 products of the American coast in the latitude of Bordeaux.^ 



With these astounding facts before us, due wholly to the 

 transference of a portion of the warm currents of the Atlantic 

 to the shores of Europe, even with all the disadvantages of 

 an icy sea to the north-east and ice-covered Greenland 

 to the north-west, how can we doubt the enormously 

 greater effect of such a condition of things as has been shown 

 to have existed during the Tertiary epoch ? Instead of one 

 great stream of warm water spreading widely over the North 

 Atlantic and thus losing the greater part of its store of heat 

 hefore it reaches the Arctic seas, we should have several streams 

 conveying the heat of far more extensive tropical oceans by 

 comparatively narrow inland channels, thus being able to 



1 Professor Haugliton has made an elaborate calculation of the differ- 

 ence between existing climates and those of Miocene times, for all the 

 places where a Miocene flora has been discovered, by means of the actual 

 range of corresponding species and genera of plants. Although this 

 method is open to the objection that the ranges of plants and animals are 

 not determined by temperature only, yet the results may be approxi- 

 mately correct, and are very interesting. The following table which 

 summarizes these results is taken from his Lectures on Physical Geography 

 (p. 344) :- 







Latitude. 



Present 



Miocene 



Difference. 







Temperature. 



Temperature. 



1. 



Switzerland .... 



47°.00 



53°.6 F. 



69°.8 F. 



16° 2 F. 



2. 





54°.21 



45°.7 „ 



62°.6 „ 



16°. 9 „ 



3. 





65°30 



35° 6 „ 



48°.2 „ 



12°.6 „ 



4. 



Mackenzie River . . 



65°.00 



19°4 „ 



48°.2 „ 



28°. 8 „ 



5. 



Disco (Greenland) 



70°.00 



19°.6 „ 



55°.6 „ 



36°.0 „ 



6. 



Spitzbergen .... 



78°.00 



16°.5 „ 



51° 8 „ 



35°.3 „ 



7. 



Grinnell Land . , . 



81°.44 



1° 7 



42° 3 „ 



44°.0 „ 



It is interesting to note that Iceland, w^hich is now exposed to the full 

 influence of the Gulf Stream, was only 12°'6 F. warmer in Miocene times, 

 while Mackenzie River, now totally removed from its influence, was 

 28° warmer. This, as well as the greater increase of temperature as we 

 go northward and the polar area becomes more limited, is quite in 

 accordance with the view of the causes which brought about the Miocene 

 climate which is here advocated. 



