16 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



think that, owing to the opposition of tides and winds, many 

 years elapse before they arrive there. Something far more 

 inexplicable was observed by Captain M'Clure in his late 

 successful attempt to discover the North-west Passage, which 

 shall be given in his own words ; it is impossible to read 

 them without a feeling of surprise, when we remember the 

 "total absence of trees and shrubs above 72 of latitude," 

 which, in the present state of our globe, is laid down as a 

 rule. " An exceedingly old Esquimaux encampment was met 

 with in making some inland excursions (apparently in Ba- 

 ring's Island), and a most interesting discovery of a range 

 of hills, composed of one entire mass of wood in every stage, 

 from a petrifaction to a log fit for firewood; many large 

 trees were amongst it, but, in endeavouring to exhume them, 

 they were found too much decayed to stand removal ; the 

 largest piece that we have been able to bring away being 

 three feet ten inches in girth and seven feet in length. 

 These were found at an elevation of three hundred feet 

 above the beach, in latitude 74 27' north : the beach is 

 strewed with chips and small bits of wood, as are the water- 

 courses and ravines as far as any person has walked inland, 

 evidently washed down by the thaw from these ligneous 

 hills." This is one proof amongst others which exist, that 



