30 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
consist of survivals from the glacial period, which next preceded 
the present, which is not the case in the Polar Sea, where the 
Gulf Stream distributes its waters, and whither it thus carries 
types from more southerly regions. But a complete and exact 
knowledge of which animal types are of glacial, and which of 
Atlantic origin, is of the greatest importance, not only for zoology 
and the geography of animals, but also for the geology of Scan¬ 
dinavia, and especially for the knowledge of our loose earthy layers. 
Few scientific discoveries have so powerfully captivated the 
interest, both of the learned and unlearned, as that of the colossal 
remains of elephants, sometimes well preserved, with flesh and 
hair, in the frozen soil of Siberia. Such discoveries have more 
than once formed the object of scientific expeditions, and care¬ 
ful researches by eminent men; but there is still much that is 
enigmatical with respect to a number of circumstances connected 
with the mammoth period of Siberia, which inrha'ps was con¬ 
temporaneous with our glacial period. Specially is our know¬ 
ledge of the animal and vegetable types, which lived contem¬ 
poraneously with the mammoth, exceedingly incomplete, although 
we know that in the northernmost parts of Siberia, which are 
also most inaccessible from land, there are small hills covered 
wdth the bones of the mammoth and other contemporaneous 
animals, and that there is found everywhere in that region so- 
called Noah’s wood, that is to say, half-petrified or carbonised 
vegetable remains from several different geological periods. 
Taking a general view of the subject, we see that an 
investigation, as complete as possible, of the geology of the 
Polar countries, so difficult of access, is a condition indis¬ 
pensable to a knowledge of the former history of our globe. In 
order to prove this I need only point to the epoch-making 
influence which has been exerted on geological theories by the 
discovery, in the rocks and earthy layers of the Polar countries, 
of beautiful fossil plants from widely separated geological 
periods. In this field too our expedition to the north coast of 
Siberia ought to expect to reap abundant harvests. There are 
besides to be found in Siberia, strata which have been deposited 
almost contemporaneously with the coal-bearing formations of 
South Sweden, and which therefore contain animal and vegetable 
petrifications which just now are of very special interest for 
geological science in our own country, with reference to the dis¬ 
coveries of splendid fossil plants which of late years have been 
made at several places among us, and give us so lively an idea 
of the sub-tropical vegetation which in former times covered the 
Scandinavian peninsula. 
