KAMTSCHATKA. 271 



Tlie inhabitants of the Aleutian islands, of St. 

 Lawrence Island, and of the shores of Beering*s 

 Straits, possess no other than drift wood. It is 

 thrown up in different quantities in different years. 

 It is to be observed that it is washed more to the 

 American coast than to the Asiatic. In Kot- 

 zebue's Sound, we found it in large quantities, and, 

 on the otlier hand, there was a scarcity of it in 

 St. Lawrence Bay, where the Tschukutskoi burnt 

 only moss and a little willow brush-wood. It might 

 be asked, whether the accounts of forests on the 

 opposite coast, might not refer as well to the drift- 

 wood, in which they abound, as to the forests of 

 Norton Sound, and the interior ? 



The alluvial sand hills on the American coast 

 contain branches of trees and wood, of the same 

 kind as that thrown up on the shore. 



The drift wood of the north appears to us in 

 general to be brought from the interior of the 

 continent, by rivers and currents, and in the seas 

 which we describe, to tome particularly from 

 America. Perhaps the river which flows into the 

 sea between Bristol Bay and Norton Sound may 

 be one of the most considerable sources. 



The currents in the Icy Sea, along the coast of 

 Siberia, are in general but little known, and we 

 hesitate to draw conclusions from uncertain inform- 

 ation. Liachofi'and Schalaurofi' found the current 

 to run west to the north of the Yana and theColima, 

 Sauer and Billing, in a west wind, east, and in a 



