84 A SUMMER IN GREENLAND 



Disko Island reach their northern limit on Hare 

 Island, and these are regarded by Mr Porsild as 

 relicts of a time subsequent to the Glacial period 

 when the climate was more genial than at present. 

 The Alpine Potentilla and the Alpine Veronica are 

 two examples of the southern species recorded from 

 Hare Island. These southern plants ripen their 

 seeds and fruits late in the autumn and are met 

 with only in places where they are well covered 

 with snow during the winter. 



On the beach were substantial pieces of drift- 

 wood, a characteristic feature of many parts of the 

 Greenland coast. In former days it was from logs 

 of wood washed ashore that the Greenlanders 

 obtained the whole of the timber used in the 

 construction of their boats and weapons. A micro- 

 scopical examination of samples of drift-wood has 

 demonstrated that much of it comes from the 

 forests of northern Siberia : after the fallen stems 

 and branches reach the sea by Siberian rivers they 

 are carried many hundred miles by the Polar cur- 

 rent down the east coast of Greenland, round Cape 

 Farewell and north again through Davis Strait 

 and Baffin Bay. Drifted logs are abundant on the 

 coasts of Spitsbergen, Bear Island, the small and 

 lonely island of Jan Mayen, and other Arctic lands. 

 If, as is often possible, the provenance of the wood 

 can be ascertained, its distribution furnishes valu- 

 able information on the subject of ocean currents 1 . 



1 An account of the botanical nature and provenance of the 

 Greenland drift-wood was published in 1903 by Dr Ingrarson 

 in the Transactions of the Royal Swedish Academy (Kong/. 

 Svensk. Vetemkapsakad. Hand. vol. 37). 



