36 
A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEBGEN. 
admit that it may have been at times as much as 30°. 
This would imply a more extensive Arctic circle, and 
a higher, therefore a hotter, sun during the mid¬ 
summer months. It is possible to conceive a time 
when the Polar regions were under the most favour¬ 
able conditions as regards heat—a time when the 
earth was at its nearest to the sun in midsummer 
when the Polar region contained little or no land, 
and when the sun rose high in the heavens, shining 
for weeks or even months with noon-clay power. At 
present the conditions are for the most part not the 
most favourable for warming the North Pole; and 
the fact that it is less ice-encumbered than the South 
Pole probably arises from there being, as is supposed, 
little land near it. The conjectures above given as 
to what may have been are rendered probabilities by 
the character of the fossil plants which have been 
discovered in high latitudes. On Bear Island has 
been found the earliest rich land flora as yet known. 
Its age is assigned to the beginning of the Carbon¬ 
iferous epoch, or the later portion of the Devonian 
epoch. This flora comprises species of Calamites, 
Lepidodendron, Cyclostigma, and many ferns. The 
individual specimens are exceedingly abundant. The 
flora has been traced from 47° to 76° N. A flora of 
a somewhat similar character occurred in Parry Island 
