Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 34.djvu/103

Rh The most abundant foliage-leaves of Grinnell Land belong to Corylus MacQuarrii, Forb., sp., which is spread over the whole Arctic zone and is nearly related to the living C. avellana, L. Very beautiful leaves of C. insignis, Heer, occur; this species I have also received from Greenland; and in the form of its leaf it resembles the American Hazel. An Elm (Ulmus borealis, Heer) is represented by a couple of leaves and a fruit, and a Viburnum (V. Nordenskiöldi) by several fragments of leaves. Both species are also known from Spitsbergen.

These trees and shrubs doubtless lived on the land, and covered the plains and hills of this far northern region with green; but that there also existed stagnant water is shown by a water-Lily (Nymrphæa arctica, Heer) of which the rhizoma, exactly agreeing with one from the Ice-fiord, Spitzbergen, was found. Here the leaves and fruit could also be identified (see 'Flora Arctica,' ii. tab. xiv. figs. 1, 2, 6, 7).

The thick lignite bed of Grinnell Land would indicate a large peat-moss, in which most probably a small lake existed. On the shallow bottom of this lake the great rhizomes of the Water-Lilies might spread; and from them the leaves would rise to the surface of the water. On the muddy shore stood the large reeds and the sedges (Carices), the Birches and the Poplars, the Taxodia with their graceful foliage, and the rigid-leaved Torelliæ. The drier spots and neighbouring chains of hills were probably occupied by the Polar and Feilden Pines (P. polaris and P. Feildeniana), by the Firs, the Hemlocks, and the Hayes-Spruce (Pinus Dicksoniana and P. Hayesiana). To these must be added the Elm and the Hazel bushes, whose fresh green foliage will have served to break the gloomy garb of the Pine-forest. This forest was no doubt inhabited by animals; yet hitherto only the elytron of a Beetle (Carabites Feildenianus, Heer) has been discovered lying with the plants. A further careful investigation of this important locality would no doubt produce more such remains, and also promise a further rich result in plants.

In the lignite itself we may expect to find the teeth and bones of vertebrate animals.

If we glance back at the facts communicated, we shall find that they confirm and extend the earlier results in a most satisfactory manner. As was to be expected, during the Miocene period there appear in this most northern portion of the earth, for the most part, the same species, with which we are already acquainted from Spitzbergen and Greenland; and it is highly probable that the same flora extended up to the Pole, and that, supposing dry land to have existed there, this latter was clothed with the same forest of coniferous and leafy trees.

That the flora of Grinnell Land approaches much more closely to that of Spitzbergen than to that of Greenland, is easily intelligible from the greater difference of latitude. The plant-bearing locality of Grinnell Land lies much nearer to the north-west of Spitzbergen (Ice-fiord and King's Bay) than to Disco and the opposite peninsula of Noursoak, which have furnished the Miocene plants of Greenland.