550 



KEELING ISLAND. 



April, 1836. 



a group of lagoon islands in the midst of the Pacific, ob- 

 tained stones for sharpening their instruments by searching 

 the roots of trees which are cast up on the beach. It will 

 be evident that this must have happened several times, since 

 laws have been established that such stones belong to the 

 chief, and a punishment is inflicted on any one w^ho attempts 

 to defraud him of this right. When the isolated position 

 of these small islands in the midst of a vast ocean — their 

 great distance from any land excepting that of coral forma- 

 tion, a fact well attested by the value which the inhabitants, 

 who are such bold navigators, attach to a stone of any kind,* 

 — and the slowness of the currents of the open sea are all 

 considered, the occurrence of pebbles thus transported does 

 appear wonderful. Stones may often be thus transported ; 

 and if the island on which they are stranded is constructed 

 of any other substance besides coral, they would scarcely 

 attract attention, and their origin at least would never have 

 been guessed. Moreover this agency may long escape dis- 

 covery from the probability of trees, especially those loaded 

 with stones, floating beneath the surface. In the channels 

 of Tierra del Fuego large quantities of drift timber are cast 

 upon the beach, yet it is extremely rare to meet a tree 

 swimming on the water. It is easy to conceive that water- 

 logged wood might be transported, when floating close to 

 the bottom, and occasionally even just touching it. The 

 knowledge of any result which (with suflicient time allowed) 

 can be produced by causes, though appearing infinitely im- 

 probable, is valuable to the geologist, for he by his creed 

 deals with centuries and thousands of years as others do with 

 minutes. If a few isolated stones are discovered in a mass 

 of fine sedimentary strata, it cannot, after the above facts, be 

 considered as very improbable that they may have been drifted 

 there by the floating timber of a former epoch. 



During another day I visited Horsburg and West Island. 



* Some natives carried by Kotzebue to Kamtschatka collected stones 

 among other valuable articles to take back to their country. 



