LXXxIt 
Low Istanp. 
BasaLTic. 
PLantTs. 
ANIMALS, 
Birps, 
DriFtT-woop. 
SPT PAZ ERE CR VG CE a, 
by the meeting of the ftreams from the great ocean, rufhing along the weft fide of 
Spitzbergen, and through the Waygaz, and forcing up the gravelly bottom of this 
fhallow part, where the lead touches the bottom at from two to five fathoms water, 
at half a-mile from its weftern fide * 
To the eaftward of this is another low ifland, almoft oppofite to the mouth of the 
Waygat : it is remarkable for being part of the Ba/altic chain, which appears in fo 
many places in the northern hemifphere. The columns were from eighteen to 
thirty inches in diameter, moftly hexagonal, and formed a moft convenient pave- 
ment. The middle of the ifle was covered with vegetables, Mofles, Sorel, Scurvy 
Grafs, and Ranunculufes in bloom on Fuly 30th. OF quadrupeds, the Rein- 
deer fattened here into excellent venifon; the 4réfic Fox; and a fmall animal 
Jarger than a Weefel, with fhort ears, long tail, and {potted with black and white, 
were feen. Small Snipes, like Jack Snipes; Ducks, then hatching; and Wild 
Geefe feeding, helped to animate this dreary fcene +. 
The beach was formed of an antient aggregate of fand, whale-bones, and old 
timber, or drift-wood. Fir-trees feventy feet long, fome torn up by the roots, 
others frefh from the axe, and marked with it into twelve feet lengths, lay con- 
fufedly fixteen or eighteen feet above the level of the fea, intermixed with pipe- 
ftaves, and wood fafhioned for ufe ; all brought into this elevated fituation by the 
fwell of the furious furges. 
The appearance of drift-wood is very frequent in many parts of thefe high lati- 
tudes: in the feas of Greenland, in Davis’s ftreights, and in thofe of Hudfon ; and 
again on the coafts of Nova Zemlja. I have only two places from whence | can 
derive the quantity of floating timber which appears on the coaft of Nova Zemlja 
and thefe iflands: the firft is from the banks of the Ody, and perhaps other great 
rivers, which pour out their waters into the Frozen ocean. In the fpring, at the 
breaking up of the ice, vaft inundations fpread over the land, and fweep away whole 
forefts, with the aid of the vaft fragments of ice ; thefe are carried off, rooted up, 
and appear entire in various places. Such as are found marked into lengths, 
together with pipe-ftaves, and other fafhioned woods, are {wept by the Norwegian 
floods out of the rivers, on the breaking of a /entze t, a misfortune which fometimes 
happens, to the bankruptcy of multitudes of timber-merchants. At fuch times 
not only the trees which are floating down the torrents, but the faw-mills, and all 
other places in which bufinefs is carried on, undergo the fame calamity ; and the 
timber, in whatfoever form it happens to be, is forced into the ocean, and con- 
veyed by tides or tempefts to the moft diftant parts of the north. 
* Phips, 54. + The fame, 58. } Purchas, iii. 527. 
Let 
