ITS DERIVATION. 89 



towards Spitzbergen ; but it is obviously 

 not from these comparatively limited areas 

 that the vast quantity of pine drift-wood found 

 on the shores of Spitzbergen is derived. I 

 once found on the beach, near Hammerfest, 

 a large piece of mahogany much water-washed, 

 and drilled as full of worm-holes as it could be 

 without falling to pieces — in fact, perfectly 

 honeycombed. This had unmistakably come 

 from the West Indies by the Gulf Stream, and 

 if all the drift-wood in Spitzbergen consisted of 

 mahogany also, I should imagine no doubt 

 could exist as to its derivation ; but consisting, as 

 it does, entirely of pine, (with the sole exception 

 of some few pieces of oak, &c. which have formed 

 parts of wrecked vessels,) I think it is equally 

 clear that it has come from the continent of 

 Siberia. This is the explanation which all the 

 frequenters of Spitzbergen give of its history, 

 and I think, upon reflection, that it is the most 

 feasible one. 



I presume that the spring floods in such 

 mighty rivers as the Obi, the Yenisei, and the 

 Lena, for a great part of their course draining 

 a pine-clad country, must carry down enormous 

 quantities of drift-wood, partly loose and partly 

 imbedded in ice : and that this is carried out to 



