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 mountain tops 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 sea-weeds 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 wide-spread 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 sea-weed 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 sea-weed. 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 pen-knife. 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 arose 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.