Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/89

Rh and there re-embarking in a small sloop which served as the means of communication between Redonda and the outside world. The sloop was chartered by the phosphate company, and made trips, whenever required, to Montserrat and St. Kitts for mails and supplies. The former island is about fourteen miles away and in plain sight, while the latter is-thirty miles distant, but it is the nearest cable office.

The Bermuda first touched at St. Kitts, and to reach Montserrat it was necessary to pass within four miles of Redonda, and it was with great interest that we watched for it to appear. Approached from the northwest, it presented the appearance of two rounded hillocks, one much higher and broader than the other. No trees could be seen and no signs of life, but some small white objects on the southwest side near the sea and some more halfway toward the summit were thought to be houses.

A sail of three hours in the sloop carried us from Montserrat to the island, which we reached just as the sun was setting on the last evening in June. Viewed from the south, the larger peak only of the island could be seen, and this gave it a domelike yet one-sided appearance, owing to the western side being steeper than the eastern.

A nearer approach to the island showed that it rose from the sea with vertical walls to the height of several hundred feet, with the highest cliffs on the western side. At the southern end was a plateau, back of which rose the domelike peak. At the foot of the western cliffs was a narrow beach covered with large bowlders fallen from above, and here a small pier projected into the sea. As we approached the pier, a boat manned by two negroes put off to meet us, with a strongly built man with pleasant face and brown beard and dressed in white linen sitting in the stern. The man proved to be Captain H, the superintendent of the mine, who welcomed us to Redonda and transferred us with our luggage to the shore.

The beach was only a few yards in width, and above us towered the cliffs, over five hundred feet high. Groups of men stood on their brink, looking down at us and appearing like silhouettes against the clear sky. Not far from the wharf the cliffs were broken down by a strep, narrow gorge. The ascent to the plateau above was up this gorge, and was accomplished upon an aërial tramway.

Two stout, heavy wire cables were stretched up the gorge and firmly anchored at both ends. Upon each cable ran a trolley, from which was suspended a large iron bucket. To each trolley was attached the end of a light yet strong wire cable, which passed over a set of heavy pulleys at the top of the cliff, thus causing one bucket to ascend as the other descended. When passengers