and tlu'u ono raises its lu\ad niul l'iiiils n «mii-ìohn,
prolongx'd eroak. startlinglv lik(' oiu' of tln' dia'ix'r
tonos ot’ tho human voioi'. Ono rarOv ohsi'rvos il in
tho davìight and in tlii' midst of othor noise's, hut at
nigiu it is Avoird onoiigli. and tho Kme'lv ollioor ol' Ilio
middlo Avaioh. whoso thoughts ma_v havo wandi'ia'd
lor tho momom from tho imminont iotdaug liaok lo
some moro ¿ronial memory, is often pulU'd up with a.
start hy that grutf ‘ whaat ’ alongside iu tho darknoss,
close holow tho hridgo.
The stnieturo of this island is A cry much (he same
as that of Tristan, only tluit the jn-o-cmincnt feature
of the latter, the s i i o a a w eone. is A A ' a u t i u g . A A v a i l
of volcanic rocks, ahout the same height as the elilf
at Tristan, aud which one is iueliued to helieve to have
heen a: one time continuous AA'ith it, entirely surrounds
Inaccessihle Island, falling for the most jiart sheer
iuiu The sea, and it seems th a t it slopes sufficiently
TO alloAv a Tolerably easy ascent to the jtlateau on
I he Top aT one jAoinT only.
There is a shallow hay in AA'hich the ship anchored
in nfreen fathoms on the east side of the island ;
and there, as in Tristan, a narrow belt of I oav ground
extending for ahout a mile along the shore is in te rposed
between the cliff and the sea. A pretty
water-iall tossed itself doAvn ahout the middle of
the hay over the cliff from the plateau ahove. A
iittle way down it Avas nearly lo.st in spray, like the
.Stauhhaeh, a n i collected itself again into a rivulet,
■affik^re it regained the rock at a lower Icvei. A hut
huiit of stones and clay, and roofed Avith sjiars and
thavdi, lay in a little hollow near thr; waterfall, and
the two Gei'mans in excellent health and spirits, hnt
cnrapl ured at, the siglil of ilic ship and longing for a
passage any where out of the i.sland, vV'-re do'/Vti oti tne
hca.ch wa,iling for the iirst boat. '1 heir story is a
enrioiis otu!, and as Ca.fitain Xare-i agr^jvl to take
I hern to I he (Jafn, we had ample time to get an
aeeoiini of their adventures, and, to supplerne.ot
from their exfierienee such crude notion- of the
nature of the place as ue could gather during our
short stay.
i ’rederiek and Gustav .Sloltenhoif are .sons of a
dyer in Aix-la-Chapelle. I ’rederiek, the elder, was
employed in a rnerehant’s office in Aix-Ia-Chajrdle
at the time of the outbreak of the Traneo-Prussiari
war. lIcAvas called on to serve in the German a r m y ,
where he attained the rank of second lieutenant,
and took j)art in the siege of Aletz and Thion-
ville. At the end of the campaign he was dk-
charged, and returned home to find his old s-ituation
filled np.
In the meantime, his vounser brother. Gustav.
Avho AA'as a sailor and had already made several tr:p=.
joined on the 1st of August, 1S70. at Greenock, as
an ordinary seaman, the English shijt •' Beacon Light,'
hound for Eangoon. On the way out the cargo
Avhich consisted of coal caught fire when they werr
from six to seA'en hundred miles north-west oi Tristan
d’Acnnha, and for tlu-ee days all hands A\-ere dtiag
Iheir utmost to extinguish the ñio?. On the third
day the hatches, A v h ic h had heen hattonevi d o w n t:
exclude the air, hlcAv up. the main liatcii carrying
overboard the second mate who had heen stattdi'ag
on it at the time of the explosion. fh.e boats haa
ht'i'ii iirovisioncd heforehaud, r e a d y to leave t'c.c sVc.o