Introduction. 21 



of the whole of the fcanncttes drifting be taken, it will 

 be found to be only i mile in the 24 hours. 



" But are there no other evidences of a current flowing 

 across the North Pole from Bering Sea on the one side 

 to the Atlantic Ocean on the other ? 



" Yes, there are. 



" Dr. Rink received from a Greenlander at Godthaab 

 a remarkable piece of wood which had been found among 

 the drift-timber on the coast. It is one of the ' throwing 

 sticks ' which the Eskimo use in hurling their bird-darts, 

 but altogether unlike those used by the Eskimo on the 

 west coast of Greenland. Dr. Rink conjectured that it 

 possibly proceeded from the Eskimo on the east coast 

 of Greenland. 



" From later enquiries,* however, it appeared that it 

 must have come from the coast of Alaska in the 

 neighbourhood of Bering Strait, as that is the only 

 place where ' throwing sticks ' of a similar form are 

 used. It was even ornamented with Chinese glass 

 beads, exactly similar to those which the Alaskan 

 Eskimo obtain by barter from Asiatic tribes, and use 

 for the decoration of their ' throwing sticks.' 



" We may, therefore, with confidence assert that this 

 piece of wood was carried from the west coast of Alaska 

 over to Greenland by a current the whole course of 



r See on this point Dr. Y. Nielsen in Forhandlinger i I 'idenskabssel- 

 skabet i Christiania. Meeting held June nth, 1886. 



