This peculiarity of the tide--its slight rise and fall--had not
attracted our observation till some time after our residence on the
island. Neither had we observed another curious circumstance until we
had been some time there. This was the fact that the tide rose and fell
with constant regularity, instead of being affected by the changes of
the moon as in our own country, and as it is in most other parts of the
world--at least in all those parts with which I am acquainted. Every
day and every night, at twelve o'clock precisely, the tide is at the
full; and at six o'clock every morning and evening it is ebb. I can
speak with much confidence on this singular circumstance, as we took
particular note of it, and never found it to alter. Of course, I must
admit, we had to guess the hour of twelve midnight, and I think we
could do this pretty correctly; but in regard to twelve noon we are
quite positive, because we easily found the highest point that the sun
reached in the sky by placing ourselves at a certain spot whence we
observed the sharp summit of a cliff resting against the sky, just
where the sun passed.
Jack and I were surprised that we had not noticed this the first few
days of our residence here, and could only account for it by our being
so much taken up with the more obvious wonders of our novel situation.
I have since learned, however, that this want of observation is a sad
and very common infirmity of human nature, there being hundreds of
persons before whose eyes the most wonderful things are passing every
day, who nevertheless are totally ignorant of them.
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