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sents but little to amuse the reader: the continued prospect of 

 sk} r and water affords no topic for a descriptive pen; although 

 the glorious spectacle of the rising and setting sun is perhaps no 

 where beheld with such grand effect as on the boundless ocean: 

 a scene to which neither the language of Milton, nor the pencil 

 of Claude can do justice. 



Before we discovered the island, we saw several of the St. 

 Helena pigeons, a sea-bird which has obtained that name, al- 

 though it bears no resemblance to the genus. These birds are 

 always seen to the windward of the island, but never to the lee- 

 ward; thus directing the wanderers on the ocean to this haven 

 of repose and refreshment, after a long voyage, although it is 

 little more than a volcanic eruption, rising in the vast Atlantic, 

 and but a speck in a map of this terraqueous globe. There is 

 every appearance of volcanic agency throughout the island, which 

 is situated in the latitude of 16 degrees south, and 5° 44' of west 

 longitude, from London. It is twenty seven miles in circumference, 

 consisting chiefly of high rocky mountains, and deep vallies; 

 composed of lava, scoria, ashes, and marine shells, similar to the 

 strata of Etna, Vesuvius, and other volcanoes. The highest hill is 

 called Diana's Peak, and its summit is c 2d96 feet above the level 

 of the sea. The stupendous cliffs on the coast are so extremely 

 steep, that a ship sailing under them appears from their lofty sum- 

 mits no bigger than her buoy; and we could but just distinguish 

 the islanders surveying us, as we passed close under their perpendi- 

 cular sides sixteen hundred feet high. 



St. Helena affords neither anchorage nor soundings, except at 

 Sandy-bay, and the bank on the north-west side of the island, 



