1864.] J. M. JONES ON OCEAN DRIFTS. 45 



wliicli they lay imbedded, in the shore-rock about high-water 

 mark ; nor could we at all account for such a singular circum- 

 stance, until we were informed by a geological friend that stones 

 had been found among the roots of trees cast away on other 

 oceanic islands, when a clue to the mystery was at once afforded us. 



Thus we see in some measure the effect of ocean currents upon 

 islands like those of the Bermudas, far removed from continents ; 

 and the case is the same in other parts of the world. Take for 

 example the Keeling or Cocoa Islands, which are situate in the 

 Indian Ocean at a distance of about six hundred miles from the 

 coast of Sumatra, which owe their vegetation to seeds transported 

 by currents from that island, Java, and Australia, and on whose 

 shores are found stones and pebbles as in the Bermudas. Canoes 

 of undoubted Javanese construction have also been found cast 

 ashore ; and many other instances are adduced by Chamisso, Dar- 

 win, and others, of the effect of currents upon these islands. 



If such cases can be adduced of the introduction to distant 

 islands of the ocean of whole faunas and floras, why may we not 

 infer that in many cases islands like those of the Pacific have 

 been peopled by the human race in a similar manner ? We too 

 frequently hear of sad cases of the survivors of abandoned vessels 

 remaining on the ocean in open boats for a fortnight, or three 

 weeks, or even longer, drifted along by the winds and currents 

 in various directions. Canoes laden with people have been drifted 

 from island to island in the Pacific, although hundreds of miles 

 from each other, as is well known ; while, according to Robertson, 

 the fresh bodies of two men, of a race unknown to Europeans, 

 were cast ashore, after a series of westerly gales, upon the 

 Azores, doubtless from North or South America, proving that 

 they had nearly completed their long drift voyage in their canoe 

 before some untoward accident befel them and prevented their 

 arriving alive. 



We cannot therefore see, if human life can be prolonged under 

 such circumstances, why we may not grant the drift and currents 

 of the ocean a still greater usefulness in that of carrying to other 

 lands a precious burden of human souls, to populate in process of 

 time whole continents as well as islands ; and, instead of looking for 

 different centres of creation, to grant that one alone was made in 

 conformity with the statements of holy writ. 



(Read before a meeting of the Nat. Hist. Society of N. Brunswick, 29th 

 January 18G4.) 



