The "Bonadventure" sailed along this coast for the distance of half a mile.It was easy to see that it was composed of blocks of all sizes, from twenty to three hundred feet in height, and of all shapes, round like towers, prismatic like steeples, pyramidal like obelisks, conical like factory chimneys.An iceberg of the Polar seas could not have been more capricious in its terrible sublimity! Here, bridges were thrown from one rock to another; there, arches like those of a wave, into the depths of which the eye could not penetrate; in one place, large vaulted excavations presented a monumental aspect; in another, a crowd of columns, spires, and arches, such as no Gothic cathedral ever possessed.Every caprice of nature, still more varied than those of the imagination, appeared on this grand coast, which extended over a length of eight or nine miles.
Cyrus Harding and his companions gazed, with a feeling of surprise bordering on stupefaction.But, although they remained silent, Top, not being troubled with feelings of this sort, uttered barks which were repeated by the thousand echoes of the basaltic cliff.The engineer even observed that these barks had something strange in them, like those which the dog had uttered at the mouth of the well in Granite House.
"Let us go close in," said he.
And the "Bonadventure" sailed as near as possible to the rocky shore.
Perhaps some cave, which it would be advisable to explore, existed there?
But Harding saw nothing, not a cavern, not a cleft which could serve as a retreat to any being whatever, for the foot of the cliff was washed by the surf.Soon Top's barks ceased, and the vessel continued her course at a few cables-length from the coast.
In the northwest part of the island the shore became again flat and sandy.A few trees here and there rose above a low, marshy ground, which the colonists had already surveyed, and in violent contrast to the other desert shore, life was again manifested by the presence of myriads of water-fowl.That evening the "Bonadventure" anchored in a small bay to the north of the island, near the land, such was the depth of water there.The night passed quietly, for the breeze died away with the last light of day, and only rose again with the first streaks of dawn.
As it was easy to land, the usual hunters of the colony, that is to say, Herbert and Gideon Spilett, went for a ramble of two hours or so, and returned with several strings of wild duck and snipe.Top had done wonders, and not a bird had been lost, thanks to his zeal and cleverness.
At eight o'clock in the morning the "Bonadventure" set sail, and ran rapidly towards North Mandible Cape, for the wind was right astern and freshening rapidly.
"However," observed Pencroft, "I should not be surprised if a gale came up from the west.Yesterday the sun set in a very red-looking horizon, and now, this morning, those mares-tails don't forbode anything good."These mares-tails are cirrus clouds, scattered in the zenith, their height from the sea being less than five thousand feet.They look like light pieces of cotton wool, and their presence usually announces some sudden change in the weather.
