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

ANCIENT CLIMATES 69
nian to the Eocene, show well-marked annual rings, indicat-
ing seasons like those of the present time^ Furthermore, Berry
goes on to say:
Detailed comparisons of these Arctic floras with contemporary floras
from lower latitudes . . . show unmistakable evidence for the exist-
ence of climatic zones . . . (430:266).
Brooks concludes, on the basis of Berry's evidence, that cli-
matic zones existed in the Eocene (52:24). Ralph W. Chancy,
after a study of the fossil floras of the Tertiary Period (from
the Eocene to the Pliocene), concluded that climatic zones
existed (72:475) during that whole period. The distinguished
meteorologist W. J. Humphreys, whose fundamental work,
The Physics of the Air, remains a classic, remarked in 1920
that there was no good evidence of the absence of climatic
zones from the beginning of the geological record. Finally,
Dr. C. C. Nikiforoff, an expert on soils (both contemporary
and fossil soils), has stated that "In all geological times there
were cold and warm, humid and dry climates, and their ex-
tremes presumably did not change much throughout geological
history" (375:191). We will return, below, to the
significance of fossil soils, and present other evidence showing
persistence of sharply demarcated climatic zones during the
earth's history. But where, at this point, does the evidence
leave us?
On the one hand, the evidence shows that the plants and
animals of the past were distributed without regard to the
present direction of the climatic zones. I have been unable to
do more than suggest the immensity of the body of evidence
supporting this conclusion. On the other hand, the attempt
to deny the existence, in the past, of sharply demarcated cli-
matic zones like those of the present has failed. It may even
be said to have failed sensationally. There is no scrap of evi-
dence for it, except the evidence it is supposed to explain,
while, on the other hand, it is in contradiction both with
the fundamentals of astronomy and the preponderance of
geological evidence.