THE VEGETATION OF NORTH GREENLAND. 149. 
As the sea in other respects furnishes the principal means of living 
to the inhabitants of this coast, so does it in measure supply the want 
of forests in Greenland, by bringing thither timber from unknown dis- 
tant regions. The driftwood is brought up Davis Strait, as it seems, 
by the same stream which brings the drift-ice from Spitzbergen round 
Cape Farewell. Whence it originally comes is not yet with certainty 
known, but it appears to me reasonable to carry out the analogy with 
the drift-ice, and to suppose that it is borne into the sea by the Rus- 
sian or Siberian rivers, goes by the north round Iceland, and so the 
same way as the ice. It is thrown up in the greatest plenty on the 
coast of South Greenland, and thence in decreasing quantity up to 
Upernivik, where it is still found, though rarely. The Eskimos at the 
extremity of Baffn's Bay hardly know what it is. The only other 
possible starting-point would be the North American rivers; but there 
is no appearance of any current setting over from them to the coast of 
Greenland, whereas the masses of ice from Baffin’s Bay and the coast 
of North Greenland are carried over to the west, and down to the coast 
of Newfoundland. In agreement with this supposition, the drift-timber 
is found chiefly on the southernmost parts of the North Greenland coast, 
and the net-work of islands is there peculiarly adapted to catch it. 
Hence it proceeds to the south-east bay and Green Island, but is 
wanting from the east side of Disko Bay up to Waigate. A small 
quantity touches the south side of Disko, but in the part of the island 
bordering on the Waigate it is tolerably plentiful, and then it begins 
again on the continent at the northern opening of the Sound, and a 
good deal is washed up at Hare Island. It does not appear to enter 
Omenak’s Fiord, and but little reaches Upernivik. Floating wood is 
collected for use scarcely anywhere but in the Egedesminde ‘district, 
where it is found near the trading place Aito, and on the outer islands, 
and in pieces of all sizes, the largest as whole stems of fir-trees, of 
about twenty ells in length. Here the Greenlanders use it for build- 
ing and for firing, and when they find it on their journeys they drag it 
above high watermark, which is a token of appropriation. We may 
suppose that all that the sea here casts up is used, and it can scarcely 
amount to twenty fathoms yearly along the whole district. It is less 
used in the Waigate, and ‘has therefore accumulated; at the southern 
extremity of the district of Upernivik it is gathered to the amount 
perhaps of one fathom yearly. UT 
