water; but as the tide never rose or fell more than eighteen inches or
two feet, this was impossible.

This peculiarity of the tide--its slight rise and fall--had not attracted
our observation till some time after our residence on the island. Neither
had we observed another curious circumstance until we had been some time
there. This was the fact, that the tide rose and fell with constant
regularity, instead of being affected by the changes of the moon as in
our own country, and as it is in most other parts of the world,--at least
in all those parts with which I am acquainted. Every day and every
night, at twelve o'clock precisely, the tide is at the full; and at six
o'clock every morning and evening it is ebb. I can speak with much
confidence on this singular circumstance, as we took particular note of
it, and never found it to alter. Of course, I must admit, we had to
guess the hour of twelve midnight, and I think we could do this pretty
correctly; but in regard to twelve noon we are quite positive, because we
easily found the highest point that the sun reached in the sky by placing
ourselves at a certain spot whence we observed the sharp summit of a
cliff resting against the sky, just where the sun passed.

Jack and I were surprised that we had not noticed this the first few days
of our residence here, and could only account for it by our being so much
taken up with the more obvious wonders of our novel situation. I have
since learned, however, that this want of observation is a sad and very
common infirmity of human nature, there being hundreds of persons before
whose eyes the most wonderful things are passing every day, who
nevertheless are totally ignorant of them. I therefore have to record my
sympathy with such persons, and to recommend to them a course of conduct
which I have now for a long time myself adopted,--namely, the habit of
forcing my attention upon _all_ things that go on around me, and of
taking some degree of interest in them, whether I feel it naturally or
not. I suggest this the more earnestly, though humbly, because I have
very frequently come to know that my indifference to a thing has
generally been caused by my ignorance in regard to it.

We had much serious conversation on this subject of the tides; and Jack
told us, in his own quiet, philosophical way, that these tides did great
good to the world in many ways, particularly in the way of cleansing the
shores of the land, and carrying