The number of mystery logs being washed up along the coast of Bermuda has doubled during the past 24 hours prompting a warning to mariners to stay alert for further hazardous logs that might appear in the waters around the Island.

There are now four freshly retrieved logs safely pulled on to dry land at Dockyard ? one of which was found drifting in the North Atlantic 11 miles east of St. George?s last Saturday.

The latest log to be brought to Dockyard yesterday for storage was reported near St. Catherine Point and was towed to St. George?s overnight before being loaded up by the Navigation Aids Department and taken to Dockyard to be laid out with the rest of the growing collection of logs.

At Ariel Sands on the south side of the Island a log has beached itself and is expected to be cut up and removed during the coming days.

And yesterday afternoon a park ranger was sent to investigate the sighting of another log bobbing around in the water near the Causeway at the Blue Hole Hill side.

The increasing number of large logs being found in the waters around the Island has prompted the Rescue Coordinating Centre for Bermuda to issue a warning for mariners to keep their eyes peeled for any more of the hazardous pieces of lumber that might be out in the waters around the Island.

Anyone spotting further floating logs is asked to report them immediately.

A duty officer at Harbour Radio said: ?Several large 70ft poles have recently been reported adrift or washed ashore and we are asking mariners to keep a look out and report any more to us. Any further sightings will be broadcast.?

The logs have all been around 60ft and 80ft long and resemble telegraph poles. But their origin is unclear and the only clue so far has come from a brass tag attached to one log that came ashore at Clearwater Beach last week and bore the information ?JHB E-O5 OFC 160? leading Seattle-based world famous beachcomber Curtis Ebbesmeyer to speculate that the log might have fallen from a container ship travelling from Canada to South Africa.

However, an 80ft log brought to Dockyard last Thursday had a tag with the letters ORG, which might indicate it came from Oregon according to an official at the Navigation Aids Department. Mr. Ebbesmeyer is keen for beachcombers and others to help in the detective work to discover the source of the logs.

He told : ?The main hope of solving the mystery at this point comes from three lines of inquiry. The first is tags, maybe other poles will carry other tags pointing to their origin. Secondly, beachcombers need to look carefully along the entire length of the poles for brands indicating species or company, and thirdly the wood needs to be identified to species level.?