ON THE ICTIS OF DIODORUS SICULUS. 295 
extends, there is no other place on the Cornish 
coast which will answer to it.”’* In defence of 
this opinion, it has been asserted, and with perfect 
truth, that St. Michael’s Mount, at high water, 
is an island; and that, at low water, it is con- 
nected, by a narrow isthmus, with the main land. 
Still there are difficulties of no trifling magnitude 
to be overcome, before we can give our assent to 
this hypothesis. 
Diodorus speaks of ‘‘the neighbouring islands :” 
but St. Michael’s Mount is only a single mass of 
rock, rising abruptly, in solitary grandeur, from 
the bosom of the waves; and attracting the eye 
of the observer, in a peculiar manner, by its very 
abruptness. 
Diodorus also says of these ‘ islands,” (still 
using the plural,) that “they appear islands” 
only at “ high water ;”’ and that, when the tide 
is out, the intervening space is left dry, and 
“they are seen to be peninsulas.” This he 
mentions as something peculiarly deserving of the 
reader’s attention: but his commentators have 
overlooked the important fact, that there were 
other islands, in the vicinity of the one which he 
* Chap. xv. p. 524. 
