^70 REMARKS AND OPINIONS, 



Tlie quantity of drift wood which the sea brings 

 to the north, and casts up, and among which there 

 are decidedly southern kinds of trees, as well as 

 northern firs * ; the seeds of well known southern 

 siliquose plants, which are washed on the shores of 

 Oonalashka, as well as of Radack, (though less 

 numerous t,) cannot make us conclude with cer- 

 tainty, on a general motion of the waters of the 

 Great Ocean, towards the north. On the one 

 "side, northern trees are thrown up at Radack, as 

 well as southern ones at Oonalashka, and on the 

 other side, as Beering's Strait decidedly offers 

 too small an autlet for such a ciu-rent, it seems to 

 ns more natural to suppose, according to theory, 

 in case the fact was decided, that a double cur- 

 rent takes place in the sea, as in the atmosphere. 

 An upper one of the warmed lighter water tow ards 

 the north, and an under one of the cold heavier 

 water to the equator. 



* We have seen at Oonalashka some joiners' work, in which 

 onlj' the drift wood thrown upon the shore of these islands was 

 used, and which was distinguished for the great variety of 

 beautiful species of wood. But the high north produces only 

 birches and firs, and here, only far in the interior of the con- 

 tinent. We saw on the same island a large wrought block of 

 camphire wood, which had likewise been cast up by the sea. 

 The traces of the hand of man necessarily weakens it evi- 

 dence. It might have been brought by some ship. 



f They were eagerly sought by the Aleutians, as a particular 

 superstition was attached to these sivi7nming stones. They are 

 said to be more numerously washed up on the eastern coast of 

 the island. 



