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

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EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
climatic zones. Scott, for example, says: "The very rich floras
from the Green River shales, from the Wilcox of the Gulf
Coast and from the Eocene of Greenland, show that the
climate was warmer than in the Paleocene, and much warmer
than today" (372:103).
In this Eocene Epoch we find evidence of warm climate in
the north that is truly overwhelming. Captain Nares, one of
the earlier explorers of the Arctic, described a twenty-five-foot
seam of coal that he thought was comparable in quality to
the best Welsh coal, containing fossils similar to the Miocene
fossils of Spitsbergen. He saw it near Watercourse Bay, in
northern Greenland (319:!!, 141-42). Closer examination
revealed that it was, in reality, lignite. Nevertheless, the con-
tained fossils clearly indicated a climate completely different
from the present climate of northern Greenland:
The Grinnell Land lignite indicates a thick peat moss, with probably
a small lake, with water lilies on the surface of the water, and
reeds on the edges, and birches and poplars, and taxodias, on the
banks, with pines, firs, spruce, elms and hazel bushes on the neighbor-
ing hills . . . (319:11,335).
Brooks thinks that the formation of peat bogs requires a
rainfall of at least forty inches a year, and a mean temperature
above 32 F. (52:173). This suggests a very sharp con-
trast with present Arctic conditions in Grinnell Land.
DeRance and Feilden, who did the paleontological work
for Captain Nares, also mention a Miocene tree, the swamp
cypress, that flourished from Central Italy to 82 N. Lat., that
is, to within five hundred miles of the pole (319:!!, 335).
They show that the Miocene floras of Grinnell Land, Green-
land, and Spitzbergen all required temperate climatic condi-
tions, with plentiful moisture. They mention especially the
water lilies of Spitzbergen, which would have required flow-
ing water for the greater part of the year (319:!!, 336).
In connection with the flora of Spitzbergen, and the fauna
mentioned earlier, it should be realized that the island is in
polar darkness for half the year. It lies on the Arctic Circle,
as far north of Labrador as Labrador is north of Bermuda.