X INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



deranging its original level seems to be more inexplicable than the 

 formation of all the surrounding parts. These are indeed nothing 

 more than what is common to many islands, and to many other 

 parts of the terrestrial globe. The corresponding strata of the 

 opposite shores of Britain and France, leave no room to doubt but 

 they were once united. The stratum of shells and mud on the 

 hills at Agrigentum, three miles from the harbour, and 1200 feet 

 above the sea, the oyster-shells found on the high mountains in 

 Jamaica, the fossil bones of elephants found by Mr. Humboldt, 

 on the Andes, 3280 yards above the level of the sea, and many 

 other instances that might be adduced, serve only to furnish most 

 incontestable proof that this globe has undergone many surpris- 

 ing changes since it was first created. 



There are some other circumstances which seem to have escaped 

 the notice of those who have written upon St. Helena, arising 

 probably from having taken too short a time to explore it ; or 

 from not being able to obtain information. Their accounts have 

 certainly led to several erroneous impressions. 



For my own part, I perfectly recollect the idea I had formed of 

 this place before I resided upon it. I considered it merely as a 

 rocky island, rising' ahimptly out of the ocean, and having an 

 iinfathomable depth all around it ; excepting at James's Bay and 

 Sandy Bay, where the anchorage grounds, as I then imagined, 

 had been formed by the deposition of soil washed down by the 

 rains. 



Such were my own ideas from the accounts I had read and 

 heard ; and as I have very strong reason to believe that this is the 

 general notion of St. Helena, at the present time, it is proper I 

 should enter a little more into its local and physical circumstances. 



That part of St. Helena, which is elevated above water, measures 

 lOf miles long, 6| broad, and is 28 miles in circumference. The 



