TO THE ARCTIC REGIONS. lil 
that the rise and fall of the tides at this place are very 
inconsiderable. If we were to judge, however, of their 
rise and fall from another circumstance which was 
observed, we should be apt to draw a very different 
conclusion: the circumstance I allude to, is the dis- 
covery of the skeleton of a whale, and some pieces of 
fir-wood, at the distance of between two and three 
hundred yards from the beach, and which were sup- 
posed to have been washed up there by the sea. ‘That 
the wood had been carried hither by the sea, is I think 
beyond a doubt* ; and as to the bones of the whale, 
it is very obvious from whence they came.. The only 
way then in which I can reconcile this fact, with the 
rise and fall of the tide, is by supposing that, in the 
spring, when the ice breaks up, pieces of it may be 
driven up considerably beyond the tide-mark, by the 
violent shock, or pressure of one floe being forced 
upon another by the wind, &c., consequently, what- 
ever happens to be lying on the beach will, of course, 
be carried inland by the ice. That floes do force 
smaller pieces of ice on shore in this manner, when 
they happen to come with velocity against the land, 
is a fact that I have no hesitation in affirming to be 
true, from the many instances that I have seen of ice 
aground where we knew it could not have been floated 
by the tide. I am not disposed, however, to assert 
that this is the way in which the bones and pieces of 
wood in question, were carried to the place where they 
were found; I have only suggested that they might 
possibly be driven there by these means. 
* The pieces of wood in question bore indeed evident marks 
of their having been brought here by the sea, for they were 
bruised into thin laminz and fibres, by the pressure of the ice. 
