15G 
rUESlDEXT’s xVDDRESS. 
long darkness of winter, lias been a stumbling-block to many 
geologists. If, however, Ave are willing to accept existing facts, all 
cause for astonishment disappears. To-day in Grinnell Land, on 
the very same area where in former ages this luxuriant Miocene 
vegetation flourished, and where now the mean annual temperature 
is more than three degrees below zero of Fahrenheit, there exists a 
very considerable phanerogamic vegetation. We find some sixty 
flowering plants in Grinnell Land, whilst a tree-shrub, Salix arctica, 
grows in sufficient abundance to form the principal food of con- 
siderable herds of ruminants, namely, the Musk-Sheep (Ovibos 
moscliatus), an animal not inferior in size to the small Highland 
cattle of North Britain. "When the Miocene flora flourished in 
Grinnell Land, the climate there must have been as genial in 
Avinter as that of England now is ; probably more so ; and if under 
existing conditions of temperature, and the same prolonged absence 
of the sun bcloAv the horizon, Ave noAv find in Grinnell Land shrubs 
and plants flourishing, Avhilst the Musk-Sheep, the Arctic Wolf, the 
Arctic Fox, the Ermine, Avuth countless thousands of Lemmings 
live there throughout the year, and propagate their species, then 
surely Ave ought to admit, that granting the Polar area the present 
climate of Florida, the Magnolia, the Live Oak, and the Orange 
might flourish at the North Pole to-day. 
If the period of one hundred and forty-tAVO days, during Avhich 
the sun is beloAV the horizon in Grinnell Land, Avas a season of 
continuous darkness, black as an uulighted coal-pit, then avc might 
fairly Avonder how plants and animals could exist there ; and as 
there seems to bo Avith many persons a very great misconception 
on this subject, I Avill give a foAV facts from my oAvn experience, 
Avhich perhaps may enable us to better realize the conditions of 
light and darkness, during the Avinter months, at a position on our 
globe only four hundred and fifty miles from the North Pole. 
The sun sunk boloAv our horizon at Floeberg Beach on the 12th 
of October, and re-appeared on tlie 2nd of March, a period of only 
tAventy-nine days less than its calculated disappearance at tlie Nortlx 
Pole. On the 30th November, Avith a perfectly clear sky, from a 
distance of Italf-a-mile in a southerly direction, the ship Avas visible 
