"From what has been already stated it appears that the animal and vegetable relics found in the Polar regions, imbedded in strata deposited in widely separated geological eras, uniformly testify that a warm climate has in former times prevailed over the whole globe. From palaeontological science no support can be obtained for the assumption of a periodical alternation of warm and cold climates on the surface of the earth."[71]
And now we have the equally positive language of A. R. Wallace:
"It is quite impossible to ignore or evade the force of the testimony as to the continuous warm climate of the North Temperate and Polar Zones throughout Tertiary times. The evidence extends over a vast area both in space and time, it is derived from the work of the most competent living geologists, and it is absolutely consistent in its general tendency ... Whether in Miocene, Upper or Lower Cretaceous, Jurassic, Triassic, Carboniferous or Silurian times, and in all the numerous localities extending over more than half the Polar regions, we find one uniform climatic aspect of the fossils."[72]
Of course in all this I am taking the various kinds of fossils in the traditional chronological order. But I shall presently show on the best of authority that Man existed in "Pliocene" or perhaps "Miocene times," and in view of such an admission we have, even from the standpoint of current theory, a vital, personal interest in this question of climate. Let us take, then, the following from James Geikie, the great champion of the Glacial theory, on the climate of the Arctic regions at this part of the human epoch:
"Miocene deposits occur in Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, and at other places within the Arctic Circle. The beds contain a similar (similar to the "most luxuriant vegetation" of Switzerland) assemblage of plant-remains; the palm-trees, however, being wanting. It is certainly wonderful that within so recent a period as the Miocene, a climate existed within the Arctic regions so mild and genial as to nourish there beeches, oaks, planes, poplars, walnuts, limes, magnolias, hazel, holly, blackthorn, logwood, hawthorn, ivy, vines, and many evergreens, besides numerous conifers, among which was the sequoia, allied to the gigantic Wellingtonia of California. This ancient vegetation has been traced up to within eleven degrees of the Pole."[73]
According to Dana and other American geologists the "Glacial Period" is only a variation intervening between the warm Tertiary and the equally warm "Champlain Period," and it was during the latter that the mammoth, mastodon, etc., roamed over Europe, Asia, and America. Of the climate then indicated, when all acknowledge that Man was in existence, this author says:
"The genial climate that followed the Glacial appears to have been marvelously genial to the species, and alike for all the continents, Australia included. The kinds that continued into modern time became dwindled in the change wherever found over the globe, notwithstanding the fact that genial climates are still to be found over large regions."[74]
In his "Geological Story Briefly Told," he uses even stronger language:
"The brute mammals reached their maximum in numbers and size during the warm Champlain Period, and many species lived then which have since become extinct. Those of Europe and Britain were largely warm-climate species, such as are now confined to warm temperate and tropical regions; and only in a warm period like the Champlain could they have thrived and attained their gigantic size. The great abundance of their remains and their condition show that the climate and food were all the animals could have desired. They were masters of their wanderings, and had their choice of the best."[75]