the inference. We revert to the theory of central
heat—of a change in the position of the
earth's axis, or with an amusing theorist we are
willing to believe that the earth turns its external
coat, or skin inside out—admitting anything, in
fact, rather than suppose what is probably the
case, that a change produced gradually in the
relative position and distribution of the land in a
manner quite consistent with experience, affords
sufficient explanation of all the phenomena.

The circumpolar regions have beyond a doubt
a distinct geological relation with the continents
to which they are adjacent. Granite, granitic,
and other crystalline rocks, apparently of a very
ancient date, prevail in many parts near the
arctic circle, as they do in Scandinavia and in the
northernmost parts of North America, and rocks
of very old date, referred to the Silurian period of
geologists, and consisting of limestones abounding
with fossils, occupy a considerable tract
on the land bordering on the American boundary
of the Arctic Ocean and the archipelago that
extends northwards from it. These limestone
beds are not, however, of the same age, nor are
the fossils identical. They indicate succession,
and some difference in the condition of the sea.

Carboniferous limestone and even beds of true
coal of some thickness and extent, are developed
rather largely in and near Melville Island, one of
the larger and most northerly groups of the great
arctic archipelago, in latitude nearly approaching
to 80°. This deposit probably corresponds
with some of those workea in the continent of
America far to the south, and seems to have been
formed of similar vegetation. Such vegetation
does not now approach these northerly lands.

Coming to rocks of more modern date, we
find the secondary series represented by the
borders of a basin measuring nearly three hundred
miles from east to west in latitude 77°,
and ranging on the whole south of the line of
carboniferous rocks. Not only are shells here
found in limestone and sandstone belonging to
the lower part of the oolitic period, but the
bones of one of those gigantic fish-lizards, for
which the lias beds of Lyme Regis and Whitby
are so famous, were brought away from the east
side of Baffin's Bay by Sir Edward Belcher, and
are preserved for comparison.

A poor kind of sulphurous coal of a much
more modern date (tertiary), is worked at Disco
in Greenland, and is found in some of the islands
off the Mackenzie River. Near the latter place
there is a considerable bed of similar material
of better quality, while trunks of trees covered
with flint layers of pipeclay, alternating with
leaves and small blocks of altered vegetable
matter that takes fire almost spontaneously,
mark the continuance of action in these desolate
regions, from the earliest times to the present
day. Very large deposits similar to those of
most recent date, are still being formed at the
mouths of some of the rivers, and in other
convenient positions. "The wood hills of New
Siberia," says Hedenstrom, " can be seen at a
distance of seventy miles. They consist of
horizontal beds of sandstone, alternating with
bituminous beams or trunks of trees to the height
of a hundred and eighty feet." They seem to
be actually of human origin, and large as they
are, have probably been placed where we find
them by the Eskimos, but there are no traditions
of their origin beyond the superstition that
they are subterranean trees of Adam's time, and
the wood is so far altered as to indicate the lapse
of a long period since they were placed.

The facts with regard to the existence of
whole carcases of elephants, rhinoceroses, and
other large animals buried in the frozen cliffs of
Siberia, and the trade in elephants' tusks that
supplied Europe with ivory during some
centuries from these deposits, have been too often
narrated to justify more than a reference to
them here. It is, however, as difficult to over-
rate the importance of these phenomena as it is
to exaggerate the number and variety of the
instances where such things have been seen, and
although, no doubt, the original owners of these
debris were migratory, and therefore adapted to
a very different climate from that of the country
in which they were finally overtaken by some
unusual cause of destruction, still great changes
must have occurred to admit of the growth of
the vegetable food that would be required even
for their temporary subsistence. There is, as
we have already said, some reason to believe
that the climate is even now changing, and the
vegetation actually receding still further away
from the pole. Many of the islands have certainly
been covered, at no distant date, by much
larger timber than now grows upon them.

There is of necessity very little known of the
geology of the antarctic land. The whole of
that deep inlet visited by Sir James Ross, as
well as other land described, is girdled
completely with solid ice of great thickness, so that
even volcanic rocks were only seen where the
snow had been melted from the hot ashes of the
burning cone. In all places, however, within
the limits of the antartic circle .where land has
been reached, it appears to be little more than
a repetition of old volcanic deposits.

The human inhabitants of the arctic region
of the earth—in the antarctic there are absolutely
none—are limited to a few well marked tribes,
of which the Eskimos (Esquimaux), the Samoyeds,
and the Lapps are the chief. The Eskimos are
very widely spread, and are a well indicated
race of pure blood and fair growth. Their egg-
shaped laces and Mongol expression has generally
been observed by travellers; the eye is
small and placed obliquely, the nose broad and
depressed, the lips thick, and the hair black and
coarse. They tattoo; each tribe having a
particular pattern, and some of the western tribes
cut holes in the lower lip to insert ornaments
of bone, metal, or stone. They live in log-houses
closed with snow, in an atmosphere which to a
European is quite unendurable, and feed almost
without exception on animal food, rejecting
scarcely any part, and hardly cooking at all
They migrate to a certain extent, travelling for
a distance of several hundred miles to meet and
traffic with other tribes. They also receive and