If we take into consideration the palæontological evidence of the two races of Reindeer in Europe, one of which came to us from the north, and that the Arctic Hare 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.