HOWORTH ON SURl'ACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 485 



the United States coast as far south as Florida, an area which 

 I shall describe more particularly in a future paper. I will now 

 adduce the facts which make it clear that the elevatory movement 

 is shared by the whole Arctic border-land of America. 



In Franklin's voyage in 1819, 1820, and 1821, he mentions 

 having found much Drift-wood in the estuary of the Copper-Mine 

 River. He also picked up " some decayed wood far out of reach 

 " of the water." He adds that the Copper-Mine River itself 

 brings down no drift-wood.* In his second voyage along the 

 Arctic Sea he describes the coast from the Mackenzie River to the 

 Rocky Mountains as very shallow and full of shoals and reefs. 

 Inside some of the latter was brackish water, as was also the water 

 in pools at some distance inland ; piles of wood were also thrown 

 up itir from the coast.f While Franklin surveyed the coast west- 

 ward, Dr. Richardson did the same to the east. The latter says : 

 " On the coast from Cape Lion to Point Keats there is a line of 

 *' large drift-timber, evidently thrown up by the waves, about 12 

 " feet in perpendicular height above the ordinary tides." He 

 shortly afterwards mentions that in the Polar Sea when cumbered 

 with ice such waves are impossible, and as his journey was in the 

 hot season, and the sea was then crowded with hummocks, the 

 inference that the drift-wood was thrown up by the waves is 

 inadmissible, and the line of drift-wood 12 feet above the sea-level 

 is only a parallel to the numerous other cases. The vast sheet 

 of shallow and brackish water, 140 miles long and 150 broad, which 

 is separated from the Polar Sea by low banks and spits of sand, 

 and is called by Dr. Richardson " Esquimaux Lake," formed, there 

 can be little doubt, very recently, as that traveller suggested, a 

 bay of the Polar Sea, and is an example of the creation of huge 

 brackish lakes by a sea which is constantly contracting, such as 

 are common in the eastern borders of the Caspian. " M'Clure 

 " found shells of Cyprina Islandica at the summit of the Cox- 

 *' comb Range, in Baring Island, at an elevation of 800 feet above 

 ** the sea level. Captain Parry has also recorded occurrences of 

 " Venus (probably Cyprina Islandica) in Byam-Martin Island, 

 " and in the recent voyage of the ' Fox ' the surgeon found the 

 " following sub-fossil shells at Port Kennedy, at elevations of 

 " 100 feet to 500 feet : — Saxicava rugosa^ Tellina jjvoxima, 

 *' Astarte arctica (borealis), My a Uddevallc7isis, Mya truncata, 

 *' Cardium sp., Buccinum undatufn, Acmea testudinalis, and 

 •' Balanus Uddevallensis.^'\ 



Speaking of the eastern part of Melville Island, Parry says : 

 " One of the ' Hecla's ' men brought to the boat a narwhal's horn, 

 *' which he found on a hill more than a mile from the sea, and 

 " which must have been carried there by the Esquimaux or by 

 " bears (!).... Sergeant Martin and Captain Sabine's 

 " servant brought down to the beach several pieces of iir-tree 

 " which they found nearly buried in the sand at the distance of 



* " Narrative," p. 357. f Ibid., p. 134. 



% " Appendix to M*Clintock's Narrative." 



