POLLIPELL'S ISLAND. 153 



accounts of strangely formed beasts and monstrously endowed 

 men, supposed in their time to exist upon this new continent — 

 how they could possibly pass over in silence the Herculean feats 

 of that remarkable individual whose very name alone has made 

 famous throughout the earth one of the smallest possible islets 

 in the whole course of the majestic Hudson. For who has ever 

 heard of the Hudson without hearing of the island of 

 Pollipelx ? and who — though dying with curiosity to know 

 " who was Pollipell" — who would be willing to betray his igno- 

 rance of a name so familiar ? Surely no one ! The greenest 

 tourist over that storied wave would not blush more dunce- 

 ishly if compelled to ask " who was Hendrich Hudson." 



We will not insult the reader by presuming that we could 

 enlighten him by a direct reply to so ignorant a question ; 

 knowing at the same time that he will absolve us from all 

 intentional impertinence if it should be necessary hereafter to 

 allude incidentally to the personage who gave name to the 

 island while pursuing the present cursory enquiry in relation 

 to the peculiarities and history of this celebrated spot. 



PolIipelPs Island then — in shape like a cloven-cone, tufted 

 here and there with scrub-oaks and evergreens — will, to the eye 

 of many a gazer, often change its position when viewed from 

 the adjacent head-lands. These changes, as some of the most 

 learned professors of the neighboring National Academy have 

 not disputed — these apparent changes of position are not 

 explainable by any new law of optics as yet discovered. They 

 are called " apparent" because each fresh observation that has 



