88 PINE DEIFT-WOOD. 



evidently been deeply implanted in some poor 

 walrus who had come here to die of his wound : 

 it was somewhat lighter than those we had in 

 use, so we ground it sharp, and afterwards 

 used it at the capture of many walruses. I 

 found a very large pine-tree (I think Abies 

 excelsa), with the roots on, but much water- 

 worn and worm-eaten, as if long at sea ; this 

 tree, as well as thousands of others I have seen, 

 lay far above high-water mark. 



Lord Dufferin, in his clever and delightful 

 " Letters from High Latitudes," states that this 

 drift-wood is " brought to Spitzbergen by the 

 Gulf Stream ; " but I think his Lordship must 

 have inserted this remark without due consider- 

 ation, for, although a feeble remnant of the 

 tail of the Gulf Stream undoubtedly prevails 

 over the polar current during the three summer 

 months, so far as to exercise considerable 

 influence on the south and west coasts of 

 Spitzbergen, still it is impossible that it can 

 bring pine wood with it, as the debris of the pine 

 forests of North America cannot come within 

 the influence of the Gulf Stream. There are 

 certainly pine forests on the south of Cuba and 

 in [Florida, the refuse of which might possibly, 

 by the course of the currents, be directed 



