on that sequestered little spot. On this
extraordinary operation of nature, many conjectures should have been
offered, but no good or satisfactory reason has ever been assigned to
satisfy my mind; for the simple reason, that the same causes would
produce the same effect on St. Helena, Ascension, or any other island or
promontory exposed to a wide expanse of water. I shall attempt to
describe the scene that a succession, of rollers would present,
supposing, what has indeed happened, that a vessel is caught on the
coast when coming in.

The water will be perfectly smooth--not a breath of wind--when,
suddenly, from the north, comes rolling a huge wave with a glassy
surface, never breaking till it meets the resistance of the land, when
it dashes down with a noise and a resistless violence that no art or
effort of man could elude. It is succeeded by others. No anchorage
would hold, if there were anchorage to be had; but this is not the case;
the water is from ninety to one hundred fathoms deep, and, consequently,
an anchor and cable could scarcely afford a momentary check to any ship
when thus assailed; or, if it did, the sea would, by being resisted,
divide, break on board, and swamp her. Such was the fate of the
unfortunate ---, a British sloop of war; which, after landing the
captain and six men, was caught in the rollers, driven on shore, and
every creature on board perished, only the captain and his boat's crew
escaping. This unfortunate little vessel was lost, not from want of
skill or seamanship in the captain or crew, for a finer set of men never
swam salt water; but from their ignorance of this peculiarity of the
island, unknown in any other that I ever heard of, at least to such an
alarming extent. Driven close into the land before she could find
soundings, at last she let go three anchors; but nothing could withstand
the force of the "rollers," which drove her in upon the beach, where she
broke in two as soon as she landed, and all hands perished in sight of
the affected captain and his boat's crew, who buried the bodies of their
unfortunate shipmates as soon as the sea had delivered them up.

There is another remarkable peculiarity in this island: its shores to a
very considerable extent out to sea are surrounded with the plant called
_Fucus maximus_, mentioned by Captain Cook; it grows to the depth of
sixty fathoms, or one hundred and eighty feet, and reaches in one long
stem to the surface, when it cont