and one of the races of the Stoat entered our
continent from the same direction--when we, moreover, carefully review
the numerous other instances quoted of plants and animals which could
only have reached us from the north, the irresistible conclusion is
forced upon us that a land-connection existed at no very distant period
between Northern Europe and the Arctic Regions of North America. This is
not a new hypothesis. Many geologists are of opinion that a land-passage
did exist within comparatively recent times, uniting Europe, Greenland,
and North America. But the position of this old land-bridge, as I have
mentioned, has been generally placed somewhat farther south than I
should feel inclined to put it.

The fact that very extensive glaciers formerly covered the mountains of
Scandinavia on the eastern side, whilst they scarcely reached the sea on
the west (Feilden, _a_, p. 721), seems to favour the view of a warm
current having washed the western shores. As I shall attempt to show
later on (p. 179), the Arctic Ocean extended across Northern Russia at
that time from the White Sea to the Baltic--that is to say, to the
eastern shores of Scandinavia, which country was then joined to the
north of Scotland. The predisposing agents to a copious snowfall existed
in Scandinavia, viz., an excessive evaporation of the warm Atlantic
waters and unusual precipitation in the form of snow owing to the cold
given off by the Arctic waters on the east side of the mountains. It is
therefore probable that the land-connection which united Europe and
North America was farther north than has been supposed.

If we sail straight across from Northern Scandinavia to Greenland, we
traverse an exceedingly deep marine basin; but if we examine the
sub-marine bank which runs all along the coast of the former country
from south to north, we find that it does not end when the extreme north
of the land is reached. The bank extends much farther north, and is
continued as far as Spitsbergen. As I have said before, the latter, as
well as Bear Island, must be looked upon as the remains of a large mass
of sunken land--the ancient Scandinavia stretching far into the Arctic
Circle. Professor Nathorst speaks of Spitsbergen as a northern
continuation of Europe, not only geographically, but also botanically
and geologically. However, this northern land must have stretched even
farther--not perhaps farther north, but farther west. Here lay the old
land-connectio