94 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
when the high-hearted fathers of the emigration first 
consecrated them to the service of a free nation. By 
a freak of nature, as the subsiding plain cracked and 
shivered into twenty thousand fissures, an irregular oval 
area, of about two hundred feet by fifty, was left almost 
entirely surrounded by a crevice so deep and broad as 
to be utterly impassable;—at one extremity alone a 
scanty causeway connected it with the adjoining level, 
and allowed of access to its interior. It is true, just 
at one point the encircling chasm grows so narrow as 
to be within the possibility of a jump; and an ancient 
worthy, named Flosi, pursued by his enemies, did 
actually take it at a fly: but as leaping an inch short 
would have entailed certain drowning in the bright 
green waters that sleep forty feet below, you can 
conceive there was never much danger of this entrance 
becoming a thoroughfare. I confess that for one 
moment, while contemplating the scene of Flosi’s 
exploit, I felt,—like a true Briton,—an idiotic desire 
to be able to say that I had done the same;—that I 
survive to write this letter is a proof of my having 
come subsequently to my senses. 
This spot then, erected by nature almost into 
