A PIECE OF DRIFT-WOOD FOUND. 418 



west increased to a strong breeze. A shout of 

 " What have you got there ? " announced the 

 return of the men : the jocular answer of " A 

 piece of the North Pole" immediately brought 

 Mr. King and myself from out the tent; and we 

 found that they had really picked up a piece of 

 drift-wood nine feet long and nine inches in diame- 

 ter, together with a few sticks of smaller drift- 

 wood and a part of a kieyack. When the large 

 trunk was sawed, I was rather surprised to see it 

 very little sodden with water; a proof that it could 

 not have been exposed for any considerable time 

 to its action. From the peculiar character of the 

 wood, which was pine, of that kind which is re- 

 markable for its freedom from knots, I had no 

 doubt that it had originally grown somewhere 

 in the upper part of the country, about the 

 M c Kenzie ; and of this I was the morecompetei 

 to judge from my recollection of the drift-wood 

 west of that large river, which it exactly resem- 

 bled. Though we had strong reasons to be 

 grateful for this unlooked-for treasure, as afford- 

 ing us the means of enjoying a hot meal — the first 

 for several days, — yet there were other consider- 

 ations which gave it in my eyes a far greater im- 

 portance. In it I saw what I thought an incon- 

 trovertible proof of the set of a current from the 

 westward along the coast to our left, and that 

 consequently we had arrived at the main line of 



