The boat launched--We visit the coral reef--The great breaker that
never goes down--Coral insects--The way in which coral islands are
made--The boat's sail--We tax our ingenuity to form fish-hooks--Some of
the fish we saw--And a monstrous whale--Wonderful shower of little
fish--Water-spouts.
It was a bright, clear, beautiful morning when we first launched our
little boat, and rowed out upon the placid waters of the lagoon. Not a
breath of wind ruffled the surface of the deep. Not a cloud spotted the
deep blue sky. Not a sound that was discordant broke the stillness of
the morning, although there were many sounds, sweet, tiny, and
melodious, that mingled in the universal harmony of nature. The sun was
just rising from the Pacific's ample bosom and tipping the mountaintops
with a red glow. The sea was shining like a sheet of glass, yet heaving
with the long deep swell that, all the world round, indicates the life
of ocean; and the bright seaweeds and the brilliant corals shone in the
depths of that pellucid water, as we rowed over it, like rare and
precious gems. Oh! it was a sight fitted to stir the soul of man to its
profoundest depths, and, if he owned a heart at all, to lift that heart
in adoration and gratitude to the great Creator of this magnificent and
glorious universe.
At first, in the strength of our delight, we rowed hither and thither
without aim or object. But after the effervescence of our spirits was
abated, we began to look about us and to consider what we should do.
"I vote that we row to the reef," cried Peterkin.
"And I vote that we visit the islands within the lagoon," said I.
"And I vote we do both," cried Jack; "so pull away, boys."
As I have already said, we had made four oars, but our boat was so
small that only two were necessary. The extra pair were reserved in
case any accident should happen to the others. It was therefore only
needful that two of us should row, while the third steered, by means of
an oar, and relieved the rowers occasionally.
First we landed on one of the small islands and ran all over it, but
saw nothing worthy of particular notice. Then we landed on a larger
island, on which were growing a few cocoa-nut trees. Not having eaten
anything that morning, we gathered a few of the nuts and breakfasted.
After this we pulled straight out to sea and landed on the coral reef.
This was indeed a novel and interesting sight to us. We had now been so
long on shore that we had almost forgotten the appearance of breakers,
for there were none within the lagoon; but now, as we stood beside the
foam-crested billow of the open sea, all the enthusiasm of the sailor
was awakened in our breasts, and as we gazed on the widespread ruin of
that single magnificent breaker that burst in thunder at our feet, we
forgot the Coral Island behind us; we forgot our bower and the calm
repose of the scented woods; we forgot all that had passed during the
last few months, and remembered nothing but the storms, the calms, the
fresh breezes and the surging billows of the open sea.
This huge, ceaseless breaker, to which I have so often alluded, was a
much larger and more sublime object than we had at all imagined it to
be. It rose many yards above the level of the sea, and could be seen
approaching at some distance from the reef. Slowly and majestically it
came on, acquiring greater volume and velocity as it advanced, until it
assumed the form of a clear watery arch, which sparkled in the bright
sun. On it came with resistless and solemn majesty--the upper edge
lipped gently over, and it fell with a roar that seemed as though the
heart of Ocean were broken in the crash of tumultuous water, while the
foam-clad coral reef appeared to tremble beneath the mighty shock!
We gazed long and wonderingly at this great sight, and it was with
difficulty we could tear ourselves away from it. As I have once before
mentioned, this wave broke in many places over the reef and scattered
some of its spray into the lagoon, but in most places the reef was
sufficiently broad and elevated to receive and check its entire force.
In many places the coral rocks were covered with vegetation--the
beginning, as it appeared to us, of future islands. Thus, on this reef,
we came to perceive how most of the small islands of those seas are
formed. On one part we saw the spray of the breaker washing over the
rocks, and millions of little, active, busy creatures continuing the
work of building up this living rampart. At another place, which was
just a little too high for the waves to wash over it, the coral insects
were all dead; for we found that they never did their work above water.
They had faithfully completed the mighty work which their Creator had
given them to do, and they were now all dead. Again, in other spots the
ceaseless lashing of the sea had broken the dead coral in pieces, and
cast it up in the form of sand. Here sea-birds had alighted, little
pieces of seaweed and stray bits of wood had been washed up, seeds of
plants had been carried by the wind, and a few lovely blades of bright
green had already sprung up, which, when they died, would increase the
size and fertility of these emeralds of Ocean. At other places these
islets had grown apace, and were shaded by one or two cocoa-nut trees,
which grew, literally, in the sand, and were constantly washed by the
ocean spray; yet, as I have before remarked, their fruit was most
refreshing and sweet to our taste.
Again at this time Jack and I pondered the formation of the large coral
islands. We could now understand how the low ones were formed; but the
larger islands cost us much consideration, yet we could arrive at no
certain conclusion on the subject.
Having satisfied our curiosity and enjoyed ourselves during the whole
day in our little boat, we returned somewhat wearied, and withal rather
hungry, to our bower.
"Now," said Jack, "as our boat answers so well, we will get a mast and
sail made immediately."
"So we will," cried Peterkin, as we all assisted to drag the boat above
high-water mark. "We'll light our candle and set about it this very
night. Hurrah, my boys, pull away!"
As we dragged our boat, we observed that she grated heavily on her
keel, and as the sands were in this place mingled with broken coral
rocks, we saw portions of the wood being scraped off.
"Hallo!" cried Jack on seeing this, "that won't do. Our keel will be
worn off in no time at this rate."
"So it will," said I, pondering deeply as to how this might be
prevented. But I am not of a mechanical turn naturally, so I could
conceive no remedy save that of putting a plate of iron on the keel;
but as we had no iron, I knew not what was to be done. "It seems to me,
Jack," I added, "that it is impossible to prevent the keel being worn
off thus."
"Impossible!" cried Peterkin. "My dear Ralph, you are mistaken; there
is nothing so easy."
"How?" I inquired, in some surprise.
"Why, by not using the boat at all!" replied Peterkin.
"Hold your impudent tongue, Peterkin," said Jack, as he shouldered the
oars; "come along with me, and I'll give you work to do. In the first
place, you will go and collect cocoa-nut fibre, and set to work to make
sewing twine with it--"
"Please, captain," interrupted Peterkin, "I've got lots of it made
already--more than enough, as a little friend of mine used to be in the
habit of saying every day after dinner."
"Very well," continued Jack; "then you'll help Ralph to collect
cocoa-nut cloth, and cut it into shape, after which we'll make a sail
of it. I'll see to getting the mast and the gearing; so let's to work."
And to work we went right busily, so that in three days from that time
we had set up a mast and sail, with the necessary rigging, in our
little boat. The sail was not, indeed, very handsome to look at, as it
was formed of a number of oblong patches of cloth; but we had sewed it
well by means of our sail-needle, so that it was strong, which was the
chief point. Jack had also overcome the difficulty about the keel, by
pinning to it a _false_ keel. This was a piece of tough wood, of the
same length and width as the real keel, and about five inches deep. He
made it of this depth because the boat would be thereby rendered not
only much more safe, but more able to beat against the wind; which, in
a sea where the trade-winds blow so long and so steadily in one
direction, was a matter of great importance. This piece of wood was
pegged very firmly to the keel; and we now launched our boat with the
satisfaction of knowing that when the false keel should be scraped off,
we could easily put on another; whereas, should the real keel have been
scraped away, we could not have renewed it without taking our boat to
pieces, which Peterkin said made his "marrow quake to think upon."
The mast and sail answered excellently, and we now sailed about in the
lagoon with great delight, and examined with much interest the
appearance of our island from a distance. Also, we gazed into the
depths of the water, and watched for hours the gambols of the curious
and bright-coloured fish among the corals and seaweed. Peterkin also
made a fishing-line, and Jack constructed a number of hooks, some of
which were very good, others remarkably bad. Some of these hooks were
made of iron-wood, which did pretty well, the wood being extremely
hard, and Jack made them very thick and large. Fish there are not
particular. Some of the crooked bones in fish-heads also answered for
this purpose pretty well. But that which formed our best and most
serviceable hook was the brass finger-ring belonging to Jack. It gave
him not a little trouble to manufacture it. First he cut it with the
axe then twisted it into the form of a hook. The barb took him several
hours to cut. He did it by means of constant sawing with the broken
penknife. As for the point, an hour's rubbing on a piece of sandstone
made an excellent one.
It would be a matter of much time and labour to describe the appearance
of the multitudes of fish that were day after day drawn into our boat
by means of the brass hook. Peterkin always caught them--for we
observed that he derived much pleasure from fishing--while Jack and I
found ample amusement in looking on, also in gazing down at the coral
groves, and in baiting the hook. Among the fish that we saw, but did
not catch, were porpoises and sword-fish, whales and sharks. The
porpoises came frequently into our lagoon in shoals, and amused us not
a little by their bold leaps into the air and their playful gambols in
the sea. The sword-fish were wonderful creatures; some of them
apparently ten feet in length, with an ivory spear six or eight feet
long projecting from their noses. We often saw them darting after other
fish, and no doubt they sometimes killed them with their ivory swords.
Jack remembered having heard once of a sword-fish attacking a
ship--which seemed strange indeed; but as they are often in the habit
of attacking whales, perhaps it mistook the ship for one. This
sword-fish ran against the vessel with such force that it drove its
sword quite through the thick planks, and when the ship arrived in
harbour, long afterwards, the sword was found still sticking in it!
Sharks did not often appear, but we took care never again to bathe in
deep water without leaving one of our number in the boat to give us
warning, if he should see a shark approaching. As for the whales, they
never came into our lagoon, but we frequently saw them spouting in the
deep water beyond the reef. I shall never forget my surprise the first
day I saw one of these huge monsters close to me. We had been rambling
about on the reef during the morning, and were about to re-embark in
our little boat to return home, when a loud blowing sound caused us to
wheel rapidly round. We were just in time to see a shower of spray
falling, and the flukes or tail of some monstrous fish disappear in the
sea a few hundred yards off. We waited some time to see if he would
rise again. As we stood, the sea seemed to open up at our very feet; an
immense spout of water was sent with a snort high into the air, and the
huge, blunt head of a sperm whale rose before us. It was so large that
it could easily have taken our little boat, along with ourselves, into
its mouth! It plunged slowly back into the sea, like a large ship
foundering, and struck the water with its tail so forcibly as to cause
a sound like a cannon shot.
We also saw a great number of flying-fish, although we caught none; and
we noticed that they never flew out of the water except when followed
by their bitter foe the dolphin, from whom they thus endeavoured to
escape. But of all the fish that we saw, none surprised us so much as
those that we used to find in shallow pools after a shower of rain; and
this not on account of their appearance, for they were ordinary-looking
and very small, but on account of their having descended in a shower of
rain! We could account for them in no other way, because the pools in
which we found these fish were quite dry before the shower, and at some
distance above high-water mark. Jack, however, suggested a cause which
seemed to me very probable. We used often to see water-spouts in the
sea. A water-spout is a whirling body of water, which rises from the
sea like a sharp-pointed pillar. After rising a good way, it is met by
a long tongue, which comes down from the clouds; and when the two have
joined, they look something like an hour-glass. The water-spout is then
carried by the wind, sometimes gently, sometimes with violence, over
the sea, sometimes up into the clouds, and then, bursting asunder, it
descends in a deluge. This often happens over the land as well as over
the sea; and it sometimes does much damage, but frequently it passes
gently away. Now, Jack thought that the little fish might perhaps have
been carried up in a water-spout, and so sent down again in a shower of
rain. But we could not be certain as to this point, yet we thought it
likely.
During these delightful fishing and boating excursions we caught a good
many eels, which we found to be very good to eat. We also found turtles
among the coral rocks, and made excellent soup in our iron kettle.
Moreover, we discovered many shrimps and prawns, so that we had no lack
of variety in our food; and, indeed, we never passed a week without
making some new and interesting discovery of some sort or other, either
on the land or in the sea.