Introduction. 23 



one a poplar (popnlus (ranula ? the common aspen), all 

 of which are trees found in Siberia. 



" By way of supplement to these observations on the 

 Greenland side, it maybe mentioned that the Jeannette 

 Expedition frequently found Siberian driftwood (fir and 

 birch) between the floes in the strong northerly current 

 to the northward of the New Siberian Islands. 



" Fortunately for the Eskimo, such large quantities 

 of this driftwood come every year to the coasts of 

 Greenland, that in my opinion one cannot but assume 

 that they are conveyed thither by a constantly-flowing 

 current, especially as the wood never appears to have 

 been very long in the sea, at all events not without 

 having been frozen into the ice. 



"That this driftwood passes south of Franz Josef 

 Land and Spitzbergen is quite as unreasonable a theory 

 as that the ice-floe with the relics from the Jeannette 

 drifted by this route. In further disproof of this assump- 

 tion it may be stated that Siberian driftwood is found 



J 



north of Spitzbergen in the strong southerly current, 

 against which Parry fought in vain. 



"It appears, therefore, that on these grounds also we 

 cannot but admit the existence of a current ""flowing 

 across, or in close proximity to, the Pole. 



" As an interesting fact in this connection, it may also 

 be mentioned that the German botanist Grisebach has 

 shown that the Greenland flora includes a series of 

 Siberian vegetable forms that could scarcely have 



