R trick: plot data in one scale, label axes on the original scale

Here is the way to do it. First, get the data and plot it in the logarithmic scale, say, without the y axis:

x <- exp( rnorm( 100 ) )
plot( log( x ), yaxt="n" )

Create the labels:

a <- 1:ceiling( max( x ) )

Finally, draw the axis at the original scale and with your desired labels:

axis(2, at=log(a), label=a)