540 MURCHISON, ARCTIC GEOLOGY AND DRIFT-WOOD. 



earth, &c., was found to extend its roots into what he supposed 

 to be soil.* 



If from this observation we should be led to imagine that all 

 the innumerable fragments of timber found in these polar latitudes 

 Ijclonged to trees that grew upon the spot, and on the ground 

 over which they are now distributed, we should be driven to 

 adopt the anomalous hypothesis that, notwithstanding physical 

 relations of land and water similar to those which now prevail 

 (i.e., of great masses of land high above the sea), trees of large 

 size grew on such terra Jirma within a few degrees of the North 

 Pole ! A supposition which I consider to be wholly incompatible 

 with the data in our possession, and at variance with the laws 

 of isothermal lines. If, however, we adopt the theory of a former 

 submarine drift, followed by a subsequent elevation of the sea- 

 bottom, as easily accounting for all the phenomena, we may 

 explain the curious case brought to our notice by Sir Edward 

 Belcher, by supposing that the tree he uncovered had been floated 

 away with its roots downwards, accompanied by attached and 

 entangled mud and stones, and lodged in a bay, like certain 

 " snags " of the great American rivers. Under this view, the 

 case referred to must be considered as a mere exception, whilst 

 the general influence we naturally draw is, that the vast quantities 

 of broken recent timber, as observed by numerous Arctic ex- 

 plorers, were drifted to their present position when the islands 

 of the Arctic Archipelago were submerged. This inference is 

 indeed supported by the unanswerable evidence of the submarine 

 associates of the timber, for from the summit of Coxcomb Range 

 in Banks Land, and at a height of 500 feet above the sea, 

 Capt. M'Clure brought home a fine large specimen of Cyprina 

 Islandica^ which is undistinguishable from the species so common 

 in the Glacial Drift of the Clyde ; whilst Capt. Sir E. Belcher 

 found the remains of Whales on lands of considerable altitude in 

 lat. 78° north. Reasoning from such facts, all geologists are 

 agreed in considering the shingle, mud, gravel, and beaches, in 

 which animals of the Arctic region are imbedded in many parts 

 of Northern Europe, as decisive proofs of a j^eriod wlien a glacial 

 sea covered large portions of such lands ; and the only distinction 

 between such deposits in Britain and those which were formed 

 in the Arctic circle is, that the wood which was transported to the 

 latter has been preserved in its ligneous state for thousands of 

 years through the excessive cold of the region. 



P.S. Since the above was written Capt. Collinson transmitted 

 to me an instructive collection of rock-specimens collected during 

 his survey. Most of them show the great prevalence of crystal- 

 line rocks along the north coast of America. 



* This trunk of a White Spruce, standing dead in North Devon, is noticed 

 in Belcher's " Last Arct. Voy./' i. p. 380, with a note by Dr. Hooker at 

 p. 381. — Editor. 



