cture of this island, from where you now stand, you
will perceive at once, that it has been the crater of some large
volcano. It is easy to imagine, that after having reared its head above
the surface of the sea, by some of those sudden caprices of ever-working
nature, the base has again sunk down, leaving the summit of the crater
floating on the ocean. Such is our opinion of the formation of this
island; and I doubt whether your geologists on the continent would
produce a more satisfactory theory."

"What? you have communicated with Europe, then?" cried I, delighted at
the hopes of return.

"We have had communication, but we do not communicate again. In the
winter time, this island, which, strange as it may appear to you, does
not change its position many hundred miles in the course of centuries,
is enclosed with the icebergs in the north: when the spring appears, we
are disengaged, and then drift a degree or two to the southward, seldom
more."

"Are you not then affected by the winds and tides?"

"Of course we are: but there is a universal balance throughout nature,
and everything finds its level. There is order, when there appears
disorder--and no stream runs in one direction, without a counter stream,
to restore the equilibrium. Upon the whole, what with the under
currents, and the changes which continually take place, I should say
that we are very little, if at all, affected by the tides--which may be
considered as a sort of exercise, prescribed by nature to keep the ocean
in good health. The same may be affirmed with respect to the winds.
Wind is a substance, as well as water, capable of great expansion, but
still a substance. A certain portion has been allotted to the world for
its convenience, and there is a regularity in its apparent variability.
It must be self-evident, when all the wind has been collected to the
eastward, by the north-west gales which prevail in winter, that it must
be crowded and penned up in that quarter, and, from its known expansive
powers, must return and restore the equilibrium. That is the reason that
we have such a long continuance of easterly winds, in the months of
February and March."

"You said that you had communication with Europe?"

"We have occasionally visits perforce, from those who are cast away in
ships or boats; but the people who come here, have never returned. The
difficulty of leaving the island is very great: and we flatter
ourselves, that few who have remained