er, and over all is a
coat of rich mould, ten or twelve feet deep. The declivity of the upper
surface, from the circumference to the centre, is the natural cause why
all the dews and rains, which fall upon the island, are conveyed in small
rivulets toward the middle, where they are emptied into four large
basins, each of about half a mile in circuit, and two hundred yards
distant from the centre. From these basins the water is continually
exhaled by the sun in the daytime, which effectually prevents their
overflowing. Besides, as it is in the power of the monarch to raise the
island above the region of clouds and vapours, he can prevent the falling
of dews and rain whenever he pleases. For the highest clouds cannot rise
above two miles, as naturalists agree, at least they were never known to
do so in that country.

At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in
diameter, whence the astronomers descend into a large dome, which is
therefore called _flandona gagnole_, or the astronomer's cave, situated
at the depth of a hundred yards beneath the upper surface of the adamant.
In this cave are twenty lamps continually burning, which, from the
reflection of the adamant, cast a strong light into every part. The
place is stored with great variety of sextants, quadrants, telescopes,
astrolabes, and other astronomical instruments. But the greatest
curiosity, upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a
prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver's shuttle. It is in length
six yards, and in the thickest part at least three yards over. This
magnet is sustained by a very strong axle of adamant passing through its
middle, upon which it plays, and is poised so exactly that the weakest
hand can turn it. It is hooped round with a hollow cylinder of adamant,
four feet yards in diameter, placed horizontally, and supported by eight
adamantine feet, each six yards high. In the middle of the concave side,
there is a groove twelve inches deep, in which the extremities of the
axle are lodged, and turned round as there is occasion.

The stone cannot be removed from its place by any force, because the hoop
and its feet are one continued piece with that body of adamant which
constitutes the bottom of the island.

By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and move
from one place to another. For, with respect to that part of the earth
over which the monarch presides, the sto