1827. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 31 7 



subject. The wood is often tough and good; indeed chap. 

 some that was taken from Choris Peninsula was supe- ^^^" 

 rior to the pine we procured at Monterey ; but from oTt. 

 this stage of preservation it may be traced to old trunks 

 crumbling to dust. Some trees still retained their 

 bark, and appeared to have been recently uprooted ; 

 and comparatively few showed marks of having been 

 at sea. 



Some circumstances favour an opinion, by no 

 means uncommon, that this wood is drifted from the 

 southward ; such as its being found in large quanti- 

 ties on Point Rodney, the many floating trees met 

 with at sea to the southward of Kamschatka, &c. ; 

 but the quantity of this material found by Captain 

 Franklin and Dr. Richardson at the mouths of the 

 rivers on the northern coast of America, and some 

 being found by us high up Kotzebue Sound, in Port 

 Clarence, and other places, where it is hardly possible 

 for it to be drifted, considering the outset of fresh 

 water, renders it more probable that it is brought 

 down from the interior of America. Rivers quite 

 sufficient for this purpose will be found on an in- 

 spection of the chart, but without this we need only 

 advert to the before-mentioned rapid current of nearly 

 fresh water to prove their existence. Did the wood 

 come by sea from the southward, we could scarcely 

 have failed seeing some of it in our passage from 

 Petropaulski, and during our cruises to the north- 

 ward of Beering's Strait ; but scarcely any was ob- 

 served between Kamschatka and St. Lawrence Island ; 

 none between that place and Beering's Strait ; and 

 only six or seven pieces of short wood to the north- 

 ward, notwithstanding the coast was closely navigated 

 in both years by the ship and the barge. Besides, 



