94 ADVENTURES IN THE NORTHERN SEAS. 



1. Nineteen twentieths, at least, of the visible 

 wood in Spitzbergen lies actually on the shore, just 

 above the reach of the waves. 



2. A great quantity of it is on the Thousand Isl- 

 ands, and other outlying reefs and skerries, which 

 are composed entirely of bare trap rocks without a 

 particle of soil, and which could not, in their pres- 

 ent state of barrenness, have borne trees even in a 

 temperate climate. 



3. It is all much water-worn, as if from long ex- 

 posure in the sea and rolling on the beach ; also, a 

 great deal of it is worm-eaten, and I do not believe 

 that worms that bore wood exist in Spitzbergen. 

 Even the wood found here and there, far inland, 

 and high above the sea, is water-worn. 



4. Entire logs, with the roots on them, are very 

 rare either on the shore or inland. 



5. Many of these larger pieces bear marks of the 

 axe of ancient date.* 



6. Wherever drift-wood is found inland, or above 

 the level of the sea, it is generally associated with 

 the bones of whales ; so that I think all these facts, 

 taken together, make up a pretty conclusive case 

 against the in situ suggestion. 



This island, as well as all the other off-lying in- 

 lets and skerries on the south, southeast, and south- 

 west of Spitzbergen (I do not include Hope Isl- 

 and), is composed of a rough, coarse-grained trap 



* This might have been done since it came to Spitzbergen, 

 and so I do not lay much stress on this argument. 



