The History of the European Fauna

by R. F. Scharff

Fig. 9.—The Great Auk (Alca impennis).

The members of the genus Lagopus, including the various species of Grouse, are likewise of northern origin. The British Red Grouse (L. scoticus), which may be looked upon as a form of the Scandinavian Willow Grouse (L. albus) (compare p. [91]), constitutes in some respects a curious case of parallelism with the Arctic Hare, since the latter, in its more southern station, generally retains the summer fur throughout the year. The allied Ptarmigan (L. mutus) inhabits Scandinavia, the Ural Mountains, and some of the Asiatic mountain ranges. It is also found in the European Alps and in the Pyrenees. The North European range of the Ptarmigan suggests that we are dealing with an ancient species which came south from the Arctic Regions at about the same time as the Arctic Hare; but it is more probable, as I have shown in a subsequent chapter (p. [334]), that this species has entered Europe more recently with the Siberian migrants from Central Asia, where indeed the genus had its original home. The Black Cock (Tetrao tetrix) and the Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) have also come to us from the east, and have even penetrated into Ireland. They are therefore some of the few instances of members of the Siberian invasion having become temporarily established there.

Reptiles and amphibia are altogether unknown in the Polar Regions, but a large number of fish, chiefly marine, have taken their origin there. The Salmon family are of Arctic origin, as also are the Sticklebacks and the Perches, many of the Cod family, the Herrings, and several of the Flat fish.

It would lead me too far to refer to the invertebrate fauna of the Polar Regions, but a few remarks on the Arctic plants may not be out of place.

The principal Arctic genera are Salix, Ranunculus, Draba, Pedicularis, Potentilla, Saxifraga, Carex, Juncus, Luzula, Eriophorum, and others.

Among the most characteristic Arctic plants may be mentioned Dryas octopetala, to which I have already referred as occurring in the west of Ireland; Saxifraga oppositifolia, another British species, occurs in the higher mountains of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; Braya alpina, Papaver nudicaule, Lychnis apetala, Diapensia lapponica, and Lobelia Dortmanna, which is found in the lakes of Scotland and Ireland. The dwarf birch (Betula nana) also, which still occurs in Scotland and the North of England, and which had formerly a wider range in the British Islands, should be included among these; but there are other plants probably of Arctic origin, though not now occurring in the Arctic Regions, and to these may be classed the so-called American species of plants which are found on the northern and western coasts of Ireland, in the Hebrides, in Scotland, and in North America. These are no doubt the relics of an Arctic flora which flourished in high latitudes in past times when the climate there was more temperate. A list of these species will be found on page [166].

As none of them occur in Siberia, they must either have found their way to North America and to Europe from the Arctic Regions, or have travelled from North America across the latter to Europe. In any case a former land-connection between the two continents must have existed. This becomes the more evident when we examine the remarkable results obtained by the late Professor Heer, who first described the Tertiary plant-beds in North Greenland. No less than 282 species of plants have been described by this eminent botanist from these deposits. A large number of the plants found were trees belonging to the genus Sequoia, Thujopsis, and Salisburia, besides beeches, oaks, planes, poplars, limes, and magnolias. That they grew on the spot is proved by the fruits, which have been obtained from these beds in various stages of growth.

From a similar deposit in Spitsbergen a large number of fossil plants have also been brought to light, many of which are identical with those found in Greenland; and some of the Greenland forms (such as Taxodium distichum and Sequoia Langsdorfii) have been found too in Alaska, showing that there was probably a continuity of land between Spitsbergen and North America by way of Greenland. Two species of Sequoias, namely, S. sempervirens and S. gigantea, the well-known Californian giant trees, are very closely allied to the Greenland forms discovered by Professor Heer.

Heer assigned the Arctic plant-bearing beds to the Miocene epoch, but doubts have been recently thrown upon this opinion by Mr. Starkie Gardner, who brought forward arguments in support of his theory of their being of the Eocene age. Professor Heer, however, was able to meet these criticisms, and he is ably supported in his views by Professor Engler and other eminent continental botanists.