44, REV. D. GATH WHITLEY, ON THE 
covered apparently with ashes, but on closer examination this 
ash is also found to be a petrifaction and so hard that it can 
scarcely be scraped off with a knife. On the summit another 
curiosity is found, namely, a long row of beams, resembling the 
former, but fixed perpendicularly in the sandstone. The ends, 
which project from 7 to 10 inches, are for the greater part 
broken. The whole has the appearance of a ruinous dyke.”’* 
These “ wood hills” rise to such a height that they were visible 
from a distance of nearly 80 miles: similar buried forests are 
found in the island of Kotelnoi. By these expeditions the 
islands were thoroughly surveyed.f 
These discoveries were truly wonderful. These islands had 
never before been visited, and a most lucrative trade in fossil 
ivory was speedily opened up from them. So enormous was 
the quantity of tusks of elephants and rhinoceroses discovered 
in New Siberia that in 1821 one trader brought away 20,000 lbs. 
of fossil ivory from New Siberia alone. 
In 1821-23 the Russian Government sent Admiral Wrangell 
to the Northern coast of Siberia, in order that he might survey 
the regions around the mouth of the Kolyma, and Lieutenant 
Anjou, who accompanied Wrancell, was directed to examine 
the New Siberian Islands. Anjou was instructed to survey the 
islands, and to endeavour to reach the unknown land which 
Sannikoff had seen from the northern coasts of Kotelnoi and 
Fadeyeffskoi. The instructions of the government were ably 
carried out by Anjou, but he was unable to advance far over the 
ice to the north of the New Siberian Islands, because lhe was 
always stopped by open water. He was consequently quite 
unable to discover Sannikoff’s mysterious island. ‘The “ Wood 
Hills” in New Siberia, discovered by Hedenstrém, were visited 
by Anjou who thus describes them—“ They are merely a steep 
declivity, 20 fathoms high, extending about 5 versts (3 miles) 
along the coast. In this bank, which is exposed to the sea, beams 
or trunks of trees are found, generally in a horizontal position, 
but with great irregularity, fifty or more of them together, the 
largest being about ten inches in diameter. The wood is not 
very hard, is friable, has a black colour, anda slight gloss. When 
laid on the fire it does not burn with a flame, but glimmers, and 
emits a resinous odour.”} 
* Wrangell, zdem, p. 486 (note). 
+ The account of Hedenstriém’s journey is given by Wrangell in his 
book, pp. 482-500. 
t Wrangell, p- 486 (note). An account of Anjou’s expedition i is given 
in Wrangell’s book above quoted, 
