growing apparently in the midst of the waves, the shape of the coast
was roughly that of the concave side of a bow, the two visible
extremities being about three-quarters of a mile apart.

He guessed, by the way in which the sea raced past these points, that
the land did not extend beyond them. Behind him, it rose steeply to a
considerable height, 150 or 200 feet. In the center was the tallest
hill, which seemed to end abruptly towards the south-west. On the
north-east side it was connected with a rocky promontory by a ridge of
easy grade. The sailor turned to the south-west, as offering the most
likely direction for rapid survey.

He followed the line of vegetation; there the ground was firm and
level. There was no suggestion of the mariner's roll in his steady
gait. Alter his clothing, change the heavy boots into spurred
Wellingtons, and he would be the _beau idéal_ of a cavalry
soldier, the order of Melchisedec in the profession of arms.

He was not surprised to find that the hill terminated in a sheer wall
of rock, which stood out, ominous and massive, from the wealth of
verdure clothing the remainder of the ridge. Facing the precipice, and
separated from it by a strip of ground not twenty feet above the
sea-level in the highest part, was another rock-built eminence, quite
bare of trees, blackened by the weather and scarred in a manner that
attested the attacks of lightning.

He whistled softly. "By Jove!" he said. "Volcanic, and highly
mineralized."

The intervening belt was sparsely dotted with trees, casuarinas, poon,