The Island Has Scarcely Ever Been Visited, Nor Is It
Probable That A Ship Had Been Wrecked There.
From the absence
of any better explanation, I came to the conclusion that
it must have come entangled in
The roots of some large tree:
when, however, I considered the great distance from the
nearest land, the combination of chances against a stone thus
being entangled, the tree washed into the sea, floated so far,
then landed safely, and the stone finally so embedded as to
allow of its discovery, I was almost afraid of imagining a
means of transport apparently so improbable. It was therefore
with great interest that I found Chamisso, the justly
distinguished naturalist who accompanied Kotzebue, stating
that the inhabitants of the Radack archipelago, a group of
lagoon-islands in the midst of the Pacific, obtained stones
for sharpening their instruments by searching the roots of
trees which are cast upon the beach. It will be evident that
this must have happened several times, since laws have been
established that such stones belong to the chief, and a
punishment is inflicted on any one who attempts to steal them.
When the isolated position of these small islands in the
midst of a vast ocean - their great distance from any land
excepting that of coral formation, attested by the value
which the inhabitants, who are such bold navigators, attach
to a stone of any kind, [7] - and the slowness of the currents
of the open sea, are all considered, the occurrence of pebbles
thus transported does appear wonderful.
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