Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/66

 60 T II E C R A T E R ; considerations, which began to press more and more pain fully on his mind, each foot as he advanced, served to in crease the intensity of the interest with which he noted every appearance on, or about, the reef, or island, that he was now approaching. Bob had less feeling on the sub ject. He had less imagination, and foresaw consequences and effects less vividly than his officer, and was more ac customed to the vicissitudes of a seaman s life. Then he had left no virgin bride at home, to look for his return ; and had moreover made up his mind that it was the will of Providence that he and Mark were to Robinson Crusoe it awhile on that bit of a reef. Whether they should ever be rescued from so desolate a place, was a point on which he had not yet begun to ponder. The appearances were anything but encouraging, as the dingui drew nearer and nearer to the naked part of the reef. The opinions formed of this place, by the examination made from the cross-trees, turned out to be tolerably accurate, in several particulars. It was just about a mile in length, while its breadth varied from half a mile to less than an eighth of a mile. On its shores, the rock along most of the reef rose but a very few feet above the surface of the water, though at its eastern, or the weather extremity, it might have been of more than twice the usual height ; its length lay nearly east and west. In the centre of this island, however, there was a singular formation of the rock, which appeared to rise to an elevation of something like sixty or eighty feet, making a sort of a regular circular mound of that height, which occupied no small part of the widest portion of the island. Nothing like tree, shrub, or grass, was visible, as the boat drew near enough to render such things apparent. Of aquatic birds there were a good many: though even they did not appear in the numbers that are sometimes seen in the vicinity of uninhabited islands. About certain large naked rocks, at no great dis tance however from the principal reef, they were hovering in thousands. At length the little dingui glided in quite near to the island. Mark was at first surprised to find so little surf beating against even its weather side, but this was ac counted for by the great number of the reefs that lay for