rent kinds o f wood among it, the
greatefr part is Norway pitch-iir * ; but
befides this, one finds common fir,
linden, willow f , cork-wood, and two
that curious obferver and delineator o f nature George
Edwards. But the wood coming down the Miffiiiippi
is remarked by Boffu, in his Travels through North
America, vol. i. pag. 19. T h e coaft of Greenland is
benefited by drift-wood, in thefame manner as Iceland.
See Crantz’s Hiif. o f Greenland, vol. i. pag. 37, T h e
northern coail: o f Siberia is often covered with wood in
a moil ailoniilaing manner. See John George Emelin’s
Travels through Siberia, vol. ii. pag. 415. Nor
is the coaft o f Kamfchatka deftitute o f floating-wood.
See J.F. Miller’s-colleaion o f Ruffian TranfafHons,
vol. iii. pag. 67. T h e great rivers o f Siberia, fuch as
the Lena, Kolyma, Yenifea, and others, carry chiefly
in fpring many wood-trees along with their waters
into the ocean, where if is often floating in various
diredlons, fet by winds and currents, and checked by
the immenfe malTes o f ice, till, after many months and
years, it is thrown up and left on the coaft, for the
benefit o f the inhabitants o f thefe frigid regions,
■which are too cold for the growth o f trees. Iceland
receives its drift-wood by ftrong wefterly and north-
wefterly gales, varying with foutherly winds, which
feems to confirm the opinion, that the drift-wood
comes from North America; it confifts chiefly o f
pmus abies, picea, limbra, and larix, tilia europea, be-
tula alba, and fallx caprea, and fome unknoivn kinds
of wood : and, according to Cateiby’s Nat. Hift. of
Carolina, great quantities o f thefe enumerated woods
are found floating down the rivers o f Virginia and Carolina
; and another part feems to come round the
north o f Europe from the Siberian rivers.
^ Pinus abies, Linn. f Salix caprea, Linn.
i forts
forts of red-wood, which are called
rauda grene and ftaffaejk in Iceland,
and on account o f their colour and
hardnefs are employed in various
kinds o f neat work. It comes mail
probably from the northern parts o f
Tartary, and partly from Virginia
and Carolina. As to what relates to
agriculture, it may be difcovered by
many paifages o f the antient Icelandic
accounts, that corn formerly
grew in Iceland. In later times feve-
ral trials have been made with it, but
they have been attended with little fuc-
cefs.,
Governor Thodal fowed a little barley
in 1772, which grew very brilldy ;
but a iliort time before it was to be
reaped, a violent ilorm fo utterly de-
itroyed it, that only a few grains were
found fcattered about.
If we confider, befides thefe ilrong
winds, or rather hurricanes, the froils
which frequently fet in during May
and June, we iliall difcover a number
of difficulties that check the pro-
grefs of agriculture in Iceland. If,
notwithilanding thefe obilacles, it
can
j