24 DRIFT-WOOD. 



ation of this subject possesses more interest than 

 at first sight may appear. We have the au- 

 thority of nearly every navigator for upwards of 

 three centuries, that drift-wood has been in- 

 variably seen somewhere near the parallel of 

 Cape Farewell ; whilst, on the other hand, by 

 the recent voyages of Sir E. Parry and Sir J. 

 Ross we are assured of the entire absence of 

 drift-wood from the north-western parts visited 

 by them. Sir E. Parry, in particular, asserts that 

 none was seen by him in a period of five years. 

 Whence then does this wood come ? Egede 

 tells us that, in some parts of Greenland, he saw 

 a small species of pine, perhaps not unlike the 

 swamp fir of Hudson's Bay ; but the wood ob- 

 served by us was of a longer kind, more resem- 

 bling that usually found inland on the alluvial 

 banks of large rivers ; and there seem to be only 

 two places whence the wind and prevailing cur- 

 rent could bring wood of that description. It 

 may be, that it proceeds originally from some 

 part of the coast of Labrador, and that the trees 

 there being detached from the banks of the 

 streams, on the breaking up of the spring ice, 

 and carried down by the floods which usually 

 accompany the disruption, are whirled about in 

 the conflicting eddies along the sea-shore, until 

 getting within the influence of the regular south- 

 erly current, they are met by a south west gale* 



