IV.—Further Investigations regarding the Submerged Terraces and River Valleys Bordering the British Isles

Extract

I. Introductory.—The researches of previous investigators have had the result of showing that the platform on which are planted the British Isles and adjoining parts of the European continent was formerly connected by land with Iceland through the Shetland and Faeröe Islands, and this again with Greenland. This former connection is placed beyond doubt by the character of the fauna and flora. Dr. Wallace includes Iceland in his Palæarctic region, which embraces the British Isles and Europe; and, as Professor Newton has shown, all the land mammalia, with only three exceptions, are European. The exceptions are those of Arctic habitats–the polar bear, the Arctic fox, and a mouse (Mus Icelandicus). Amongst the birds, the peculiar species are allied to those of Europe and the Faeroes. The botany and entomology of Iceland have been described in the Transactions of this Institute by the Eev. Dr. Walker, F.L.S.,3 and his observations bear witness to the former land connection of Iceland with the British Isles. He remarks that “the first thing that strikes a visitor from the latter country is not the number of Arctic species, but the great abundance of plants that are very rare and local in Britain, such as Saxifraga cmspitosa, Lichnis alpina, and Erigeron alpinum, etc.” The disappearance of the former glacial conditions from the British Isles and their continuance in Iceland account for the remarkable abundance of the plants referred to.