TROPICAL DRIFT-WOOD. 261 



across an expanse of stormy ocean, thousands of miles 

 in width, that causes the port of Hammerfest to be 

 kept clear of ice throughout the year. 



That this is so, there is not a shadow of a doubt, 

 for upon its waves the current carries with it irre- 

 fragible testimony of its origin, in the quantity of 

 drift-wood that it is constantly depositing all along 

 these coasts, which affords an unfailing supply of 

 firewood to their inhabitants. Experts have also 

 frequently examined the timber thus cast up, and 

 have found that a good deal of it consists of sorts 

 growing only in tropical lands, and known to flourish 

 in Central America and the West Indian Islands, 

 from whence the Gulf Stream proceeds: "The large 

 seeds of the 'Entada Gigalobium'" for instance, "carried 

 by the Gulf Stream from the Gulf of Mexico, are found 

 at the northern extremity of Spitzbergen, " * and so 

 greatly does its tepid water modify the climate, 

 in these high latitudes, that whereas, as we have 

 stated on the authority of Professor Nordenskiold, 

 the regular forest stops at Tromsoe (Lat. 69 39' 

 \2 n N.), which he assigns as the northern limit of 

 trees upon the west coast, we are assured on what 

 seems competent authority, that they reappeared again, 

 and used to flourish in former days, upon the island 

 of Kvalo (i.e. Whale Island), upon which the town 

 of Hammerfest stands, which "was once well wooded, 

 but there are now no trees left, except a small birch 

 wood, 6 kilometres in the south part of the island, " f 

 the other trees having all been cut down for firewood. 



* Encycl. Brit., gth Edition, Vol. xxii, p. 408. 



y Murray's Handbook for Travellers in Norway, 8th Edition, 1892, 

 p. 179. 



