The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

THE GREAT EXTINCTIONS 247
trict. . . . Generally speaking the Agropyrum cristatum L. Bess is a
plant of the plains (steppes) and is widespread in the plains of Dauria.
. . . The general range of this plant includes southern Europe (in
European Russia it is adapted to the plains belt),
southern Siberia,
Turkestan, Djungaria, Tian-Shan, and Mongolia.
Nevertheless, the variety found in the stomach differs slightly from
both the European and Oriental-Siberian varieties found today.
d. Hordeum violaceum Boiss. et Huet. [After a detailed anatom-
ical description of the remains of this plant in the stomach contents,
the writer continues.] Our specimens are in no particular different
from the specimens of this species from the Yakutsk, Irkutsk, and
Transbaikal districts. [The plant is, apparently, no longer found
with the Aldan
along the Lena River, except south of its junction
River. It is found in dry, grassy areas. It is not found in the Arctic
Turochansk. . . . Gen-
regions.] Its northernmost point is apparently
erally speaking, in Siberia this plant is a meadow found in moister places
in the plains.
plant and is also
e. Agrostis sp. ... it does not appear possible to identify the
species positively. [Apparently, no plant precisely similar is known at
the present day. Thus it may represent an extinct form.]
f. Gramina gen. et sp. A grass, but preservation is not good
enough to allow any more precise identification.
g. Carex lagopina Wahlenb. The remains of this sedge are numerous
in the contents of the stomach. [The specimens exactly resemble
varieties growing today. The measurements show no reduction in
size. Its range extends to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. It is found
in mountainous regions, including the Carpathians, Alps, and Pyrenees.
It is also found in the peat bogs of western Prussia, in Siberia
as far south as Transbaikalia and Kamchatka, in eastern India, North
America, and the southern island of New Zealand.]
h. [Omitted apparently a numbering error in the text.]
in the stomach did not
i. Ranunculus acris L. [The specimens
permit identification of the precise variety of this buttercup, though
pods equally large are occasionally found.] The general range of this
plant is very great. It includes all Europe and Siberia, it stretches to
the extreme north, spreads to China, Japan, Mongolia, and North
America. However, over this area this species very much deteriorates
into many varieties which are considered by some to be independent
species. [This plant grows in rather dry places. It is not at present
found growing together with the Beckmannia Eruciformis, although
it is found with it in the stomach.]
j. Oxytropis sordida (Willd)
Trantv. In the contents of the stom-
ach were found several fragments of these beans. ... In the frag-