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the state of things to the southward.
By this time the vast, murky cloud that had so long overhung the new
outlet of the volcano, was dispersed. It was succeeded by one of
ordinary size, in which the thread of smoke that arose from the crater,
terminated. Of course the surrounding atmosphere was clear, and nothing
but distance obstructed the view. The Peak was indeed a sublime sight,
issuing, as it did, from the ocean without any relief. Mark now began to
think he had miscalculated its height, and that it might be _two_
thousand feet, instead of one, above the water. There it was, in all its
glory, blue and misty, but ragged and noble. The crater was clearly many
miles beyond it, the young man being satisfied, after this look, that he
had not yet seen its summit. He also increased his distance from
Vulcan's Peak, as he named the mountain, to ten leagues, at least. After
sitting in the cross-trees for fully an hour, gazing at this height with
as much pleasure as the connoisseur ever studied picture, or statue, the
young man determined to attempt a voyage to that place, in the Bridget.
To him, such an expedition had the charm of the novelty and change which
a journey from country to town could bring to the wearied worldling, who
sighed for the enjoyment of his old haunts, after a season passed in the
ennui of his country-house. It is true, great novelties had been
presented to our solitary youth, by the great changes wrought
immediately in his neighbourhood, and they had now kept him for a week
in a condition of high excitement; but nothing they presented could
equal the interest he felt in that distant mountain, which had arisen so
suddenly in a horizon that he had been accustomed to see bare of any
object but clouds, for near eighteen months.
That afternoon Mark made all his preparations for a voyage that he felt
might be one of great moment to him. All the symptoms of convulsions in
the earth, however, had ceased; even the rumbling sounds which he had
heard, or imagined, in the stillness of the night, being no longer
audible. From that source, therefore, he had no great apprehensions of
danger; though there was a sort of dread majesty in the exhibition of
the power of nature that he had so lately witnessed, which disposed him
to approach the scene of its greatest effort with secret awe. So much
did he think of the morrow and its possible consequences, that he did
not get asleep for two or three hours, though he awoke in the morning
unconscious of any want of rest. An hour later, he was in his boat, and
under way.
Mark had now to steer in an entirely new direction, believing, from what
he had seen while aloft the day before, that he could make his way out
into the open ocean by proceeding a due south course. In order to do
this, and to get into the most promising-looking channel in that
direction, he was obliged to pass through the narrow strait that
separated the Reef from the large range of rock over which he had roamed
the day succeeding the earthquake. Of course, the bridge was removed, in
order to allow the boat's mast to pass; but for this, Mark did not care.
He had seen his stock the previous evening, and saw that it wanted for
nothing. Even the fowls had gone across to the new territory, on
exploring expeditions; and Kitty herself had left her sweet pastures on
the Summit, to see of what the world was made beyond her old range. It
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is true she had made one journey in that quarter, in the company, of her
master; but, one journey no more satisfied her than it would have
satisfied the curiosity of any other female.
After passing the bridge, the boat entered a long narrow reach, that
extended at least two leagues, in nearly a direct line towards Vulcan's
Peak. As it approached the end of this piece of water, Mark saw that he
must enter a bay of considerable extent; one, indeed, that was much
larger than any he had yet seen in his island, or, to speak more
accurately, his group of islands. On one side of this bay appeared a
large piece of level land, or a plain, which Mark supposed, might cover
one or two thousand acres. Its colour was so different from anything he
had yet seen, that our young man was induced to land, and to walk a
short distance to examine it. On reaching its margin, it was found to be
a very shallow basin, of which the bottom was mud, with a foot or two of
salt water still remaining, and in which sea weed, some ten or twelve
inches in thickness, was floating. It was almost possible for Mark to
walk on this weed, the green appearance of which induced him to name the
place the Prairie. Such a collection of weed could only have been owing
to the currents, which must have brought it into this basin, where it
was probably retained even previously to the late eruption. The presence
of the deposit of mud, as well as the height of the surrounding rocks,
many of which were doubtless out of water previously to the phenomenon,
went to corroborate this opinion.
After working her way through a great many channels, some wide and some
narrow, some true and some false, the Bridget reached the southern verge
of the group, about noon. Mark then supposed himself to be quite twenty
miles from the Reef, and the Peak appeared very little nearer than when
he left it. This startled him on the score of distance; and, after
meditating on all his chances, the young man determined to pass the
remainder of that day where he was, in order to put to sea with as much
daylight before him as possible. He desired also to explore the coast
and islands in that vicinity, in order to complete his survey of the
cluster. He looked for a convenient place to anchor his boat,
accordingly, ate his dinner, and set out on foot to explore, armed as
usual with a fowling-piece.
In the first place, an outlet to the sea very different from that on the
eastern side of the group, was found here, on its southern. The channel
opened into a bay of some size, with an arm of rock reaching well off on
the weather side, so that no broken water was encountered in passing
into or out of it, provided one kept sufficiently clear of the point
itself. As there was abundance of room, Mark saw he should have no
difficulty in getting out into open water, here, or in getting back
again. What was more, the arm, or promontory of rock just mentioned, had
a hummock near a hundred feet in height on its extremity, that answered
admirably for a land-mark. Most of this hummock must have been above
water previously to the late eruption, though it appeared to our
explorer, that all the visible land, as he proceeded south, was lifted
higher and on a gradually-increasing scale, as if the eruption had
exerted its force at a certain point, the new crater for instance, and
raised the earth to the northward of that point, on an inclined plane.
This might account, in a measure, for the altitude of the Peak, which
was near the great crevice that must have been left somewhere, unless
materials on its opposite side had fallen to fill it up again. Most of
these views were merely speculative, though the fact of the greater
elevation of all the rocks, in this part of the group, over those
further north, was beyond dispute. Thus the coast, here, was generally
fifty or eighty feet high; whereas, at the Reef, even now, the surface
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of the common rock was not much more than twenty feet above the water.
The rise seemed to be gradual, moreover, which certainly favoured this
theory.
As a great deal of sand and mud had been brought up by the eruption,
there was no want of fresh water. Mark found even a little brook, of as
perfectly sweet a stream as he had ever tasted in America, running into
the little harbour where he had secured the boat. He followed this [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]