Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

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 wiU 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 who 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 agencj may long escape dis- covery from the probabihty 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 sufficient 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.