1G2 
rRESIDENT S AEDRES3. 
been a potent factor in dispersing southwards the Polar flora and 
fauna. It appears to me that we are inclined at times to refer 
somewhat vaguely to this Glacial extension, as if we were 
acquainted with it as an ice- cap that embraced in its solid folds 
the entire circumference of the northern hemisphere, to a very low 
latitude. But what are the actual facts 1 Dr. Archibald Geikie thus 
summarizes the area over which the action of the Glacial period may 
be traced : — “It reached such a height that the whole of the north 
of Europe Avas buried under snow and ice, extending southwards 
even as far as Saxony. The Alps and Pyrenees Avere loaded Avith 
vast snoAV-fields, from Avhich enormous glaciers descended into the 
plains, overriding ranges of minor hills on their AA\ay. The greater- 
part of Britain Avas similarly ice-covered. In North America also, 
Canada and the Eastern States of the American Union, doAvn to 
about the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude, lay under the 
northern ice-sheets.”* Accepting this description as an outline of 
the area over Avhich the great Glacial episode extended in the 
northern hemisphere, Ave find, roughly speaking, that betAA^een the 
fortieth meridian of east longitude passiirg through the White Sea, 
and the 1G0° of Avest longitude passing through Alaska, but separated 
by the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, is included all that 
portion of the northern hemisphere Avhich presents us Avith proofs 
of that abnormal exterrsion of ice Avhich Ave style the Glacial epoch. 
Great as this extension of the Glacial episode Avas, it is only 
fair to point out that from the Kola Peninsula in 40° east longitude 
to Bering Straits, the vast tundras of Siberia, extending through 
one hundred and fifty degrees of longitude, do not appear to 
present any traces of that abnormal ice episode Avhich is so remark- 
ably impressed on north -Avestern Europe, and the northern part of 
America. On this point Ave have the authority of the most 
competent of observers, Baron Nordenskiuld, aaTio in ‘ The Voyage 
of the Vega’ frequently refers to the subject, and av rites : — 
“ It is certain that the ice-cap did not extend over the plains 
of Siberia, Avhere it can be proved that no ice age, in a 
# Geikie, ‘Text Book of Geology,’ pp. 883-81. 
