In Prince Patrick’s Island, in latitude 76° 12′ N., longitude 122° W., near the head of Walker Inlet, and a considerable distance in the interior in one of the ravines, a tree protruding about 10 feet from a bank was discovered by Lieutenant Mecham. It proved to be 4 feet in circumference. In its neighbourhood several others were seen, all of them similar to some he had found at Cape Manning; each of them measured 4 feet round and 30 feet in length. The carpenter stated that the trees resembled larch. Lieutenant Mecham, from their appearance and position, concluded that they must have grown in the country.[133]
Trees under similar conditions were also found by Lieutenant Pim on Prince Patrick’s Island, and by Captain Parry on Melville Island, all considerably above the present sea-level and at a distance from the shore. On the coast of New Siberia, Lieutenant Anjou found a cliff of clay containing stems of trees still capable of being used for fuel.
“This remarkable phenomenon,” says Captain Osborn, “opens a vast field for conjecture, and the imagination becomes bewildered in trying to realise that period of the world’s history when the absence of ice and a milder climate allowed forest trees to grow in a region where now the ground-willow and dwarf-birch have to struggle for existence.”
Sir Roderick Murchison came to the conclusion that all those trees were drifted to their present position when the islands of the arctic archipelago were submerged. But it was the difficulty of accounting for the growth of trees in such a region which led him to adopt this hypothesis. His argument is this: “If we imagine,” he says, “that the timber found in those latitudes grew on the spot we should be driven to adopt the anomalous hypothesis that, notwithstanding physical relations of land and water similar to those which now prevail, trees of large size grew on such terra firma within a few degrees of the north pole!—a supposition which I consider to be wholly incompatible with the data in our possession, and at variance with the laws of the isothermal lines.”[134] This reasoning of Sir Roderick’s may be quite correct, on the supposition that changes of climate are due to changes in the distribution of sea and land, as advocated by Sir Charles Lyell. But these difficulties disappear if we adopt the views advocated in the foregoing chapters. As Captain Osborn has pointed out, however, Sir Roderick’s hypothesis leaves the real difficulty untouched. “A very different climate,” he says, “must then have existed in those regions to allow driftwood so perfect as to retain its bark to reach such great distances; and perhaps it may be argued that if that sea was sufficiently clear of ice to allow such timber to drift unscathed to Prince Patrick’s Land, that that very absence of a frozen sea would allow fir-trees to grow in a soil naturally fertile.”[135]
As has been already stated, all who have seen those trees in arctic regions agree in thinking that they grew in situ. And Professor Haughton, in his excellent account of the arctic archipelago appended to McClintock’s “Narrative of Arctic Discoveries,” after a careful examination of the entire evidence on the subject, is distinctly of the same opinion; while the recent researches of Professor Heer put it beyond doubt that the drift theory must be abandoned.
Undoubtedly the arctic archipelago was submerged to an extent that could have admitted of those trees being floated to their present positions. This, as we shall see, follows from theory; but submergence, without a warmer condition of climate, would not enable trees to reach those regions with their bark entire.
But in reality we are not left to theorise on the subject, for we have a well-authenticated case of one of those trees being got by Captain Belcher standing erect in the position in which it grew. It was found immediately to the northward of the narrow strait opening into Wellington Sound, in lat. 75° 32′ N. long. 92° W., and about a mile and a half inland. The tree was dug up out of the frozen ground, and along with it a portion of the soil which was immediately in contact with the roots. The whole was packed in canvas and brought to England. Near to the spot several knolls of peat mosses about nine inches in depth were found, containing the bones of the lemming in great numbers. The tree in question was examined by Sir William Hooker, who gave the following report concerning it, which bears out strongly the fact of its having grown in situ.
“The piece of wood brought by Sir Edward Belcher from the shores of Wellington Channel belongs to a species of pine, probably to the Pinus (Abies) alba, the most northern conifer. The structure of the wood of the specimen brought home differs remarkably in its anatomical character from that of any other conifer with which I am acquainted. Each concentric ring (or annual growth) consists of two zones of tissue; one, the outer, that towards the circumference, is broader, of a pale colour, and consists of ordinary tubes of fibres of wood, marked with discs common to all coniferæ. These discs are usually opposite one another when more than one row of them occur in the direction of the length of the fibre; and, what is very unusual, present radiating lines from the central depression to the circumference. Secondly, the inner zone of each annual ring of wood is narrower, of a dark colour, and formed of more slender woody fibres, with thicker walls in proportion to their diameter. These tubes have few or no discs upon them, but are covered with spiral striæ, giving the appearance of each tube being formed of a twisted band. The above characters prevail in all parts of the wood, but are slightly modified in different rings. Thus the outer zone is broader in some than in others, the disc-bearing fibres of the outer zone are sometimes faintly marked with spiral striæ, and the spirally marked fibres of the inner zone sometimes bear discs. These appearances suggest the annual recurrence of some special cause that shall thus modify the first and last formed fibres of each year’s deposit, so that that first formed may differ in amount as well as in kind from that last formed; and the peculiar conditions of an arctic climate appear to afford an adequate solution. The inner, or first-formed zone, must be regarded as imperfectly developed, being deposited at a season when the functions of the plant are very intermittently exercised, and when a few short hours of sunshine are daily succeeded by many of extreme cold. As the season advances the sun’s heat and light are continuous during the greater part of the twenty-four hours, and the newly formed wood fibres are hence more perfectly developed, they are much longer, present no signs of striæ, but are studded with discs of a more highly organized structure than are usual in the natural order to which this tree belongs.”[136]
Another circumstance which shows that the tree had grown where it was found is the fact that in digging up the roots portions of the leaves were obtained. It may also be mentioned that near this place was found an old river channel cut deeply into the rock, which, at some remote period, when the climate must have been less rigorous than at present, had been occupied by a river of considerable size.
Now, it is evident that if a tree could have grown at Wellington Sound, there is no reason why one might not have grown at Banks’s Land, or at Prince Patrick’s Island. And, if the climatic condition of the country would allow one tree to grow, it would equally as well allow a hundred, a thousand, or a whole forest. If this, then, be the case, Sir Roderick’s objection to the theory of growth in situ falls to the ground.