A	»	B	»	C	»	D	»	E
F	»	G	»	H	»	I	»	J
K	»	L	»	M	»	N	»	O
P	»		R	»	S	»		T
U	»		V	»	W	»		Z

William James - "A Pluralistic Universe"

Samuel Johnson - "The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, In Nine Volumes"

Various - "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction"

Emerson Hough - "The Purchase Price"

Layoffs at Random House, Simon & Schuster
Moreover Technologies - Premier purveyor of real-time news and RSS feeds from across the Web

Citigroup Cuts Estimates and Price Target on Amazon.com (AMZN) Due To Flat Online Retail Growth
Ad - Get Info for Book Publishing from 14 search engines in 1.

Farewell To Okada In PortHarcourt
'Yes, Virginia, book publishing is NOT recession proof,' said Patricia Schroeder, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Publishers. 'It's sad day.' At Random House, the country's largest general trade publisher, the man who

The Crater by James Fenimore Cooper

J >> James Fenimore Cooper >> The Crater




Having ascertained these facts, Mark provided himself with a
fowling-piece, provisions, &c., and set out to explore his newly
acquired territories on foot. His steps were first directed to the point
where it appeared to the eye, that the vast range of dry land to the
westward, extending both north and south, had become connected with the
Reef. If such connection existed at all, it was by two very narrow necks
of rock, of equal height, both of which had come up out of the water
under the late action, which action had considerably altered and
extended the shores of Crater Island. Sand appeared in various places
along these shores, now; whereas, previously to the earthquake, they had
everywhere been nearly perpendicular rocks.

Mark was walking, with an impatient step, towards the neck just
mentioned, and which was at no great distance from the ship-yard, when
his eye was attracted towards a sandy beach of several acres in extent,
that spread itself along the margin of the rocks, as clear from every
impurity as it was a few hours before, when it had been raised from out
of the bosom of the ocean. To him, it appeared that water was trickling
through this sand, coming from beneath the lava of the Reef. At first,
he supposed it was merely the remains of some small portion of the ocean
that had penetrated to a cavity within, and which was now trickling back
through the crevices of the rocks, to find its level, under the great
law of nature. But it looked so pleasant to see once more water of any
sort coming upwards from the earth, that the young man jumped down upon
the sands, and hastened to the spot for further inquiry. Scooping up a
little of the water in the hollow of his hand, he found it sweet, soft,
and deliciously cool. Here was a discovery, indeed! The physical comfort
for which he most pined was thus presented to him, as by a direct gift
from heaven; and no miser who had found a hoard of hidden gold, could
have felt so great pleasure, or a tenth part of the gratitude, of our
young hermit, if hermit we may call one who did not voluntarily seek his
seclusion from the world, and who worshipped God less as a penance than
from love and adoration.

Before quitting this new-found treasure, Mark opened a cavity in the
sand to receive the water, placing stone around it to make a convenient
and clean little basin. In ten minutes this place was filled with water
almost as limpid as air, and every way as delicious as the palate of man
could require. The young man could scarce tear himself away from the
spot, but fearful of drinking too much he did so, after a time. Before
quitting the spring, however, he placed a stone of some size at a gap
in the rock, a precaution that completely prevented the hogs, should
they stroll that way, from descending to the beach and defiling the
limpid basin. As soon as he had leisure, Mark resolved to sink a barrel
in the sand, and to build a fence around it; after which the stock might
descend and drink at a pool he should form below, at pleasure.

Mark proceeded. On reaching the narrowest part of the 'Neck,' he found
that the rocks did not meet, but the Reef still remained an island. The
channel that separated the two points of rock was only about twenty feet
wide, however, though it was of fully twice that depth. The young man
found it necessary to go back to the ship-yard (no great distance, by
the way), and to bring a plank with which to make a bridge. This done,
he passed on to the newly emerged territory. As might have been
expected, the rocks were found tolerably well furnished with fish, which
had got caught in pools and crevices when the water flowed into the sea;
and what was of still more importance, another and a much larger spring
of fresh water was found quite near the bridge, gushing through a
deposit of sand of some fifteen or twenty acres in extent. The water of
this spring had run down into a cavity, where it had already formed a
little lake of some two acres in surface, and whence it was already
running into the sea, by overflowing its banks. These two discoveries
induced Mark to return to the Reef again, in quest of the stock. After
laying another-plank at his bridge, he called every creature he had over
into the new territory; for so great was the command he had obtained
over even the ducks, that all came willingly at his call. As for Kitty,
she was never more happy than when trotting at his side, accompanying
him in his walks, like a dog.

Glad enough were the pigs, in particular, to obtain this new range. Here
was everything they could want; food in thousands, sand to root on,
fresh water to drink, pools to wallow in, and a range for their
migratory propensities. Mark had no sooner set them at work on the
sea-weed and shell-fish that abounded there, for the time being at
least, than he foresaw he should have to erect a gate at his bridge, and
keep the hogs here most of the time. With such a range, and the
deposits of the tides alone, would have no great difficulty in making
their own living. This would enable him to increase the number kept,
which he had hitherto been obliged to keep down with the most rigid
attention to the increase.

Mark now set out, in earnest, on his travels. He was absent from the
Reef the entire day. At one time, he thought he was quite two leagues in
a straight line from the ship, though he had been compelled to walk four
to get there. Everywhere he found large sheets of salt water, that had
been left on the rocks, in consequence of the cavities in the latter. In
several instances, these little lakes were near a mile in length, having
the most beautifully undulating outlines. None of them were deep, of
course, though their bottoms varied. Some of these bottoms were clean
rock; others contained large deposits of mud; and others, again, were of
a clean, dark-coloured sand. One, and one only, had a bottom of a
bright, light-coloured sand. As a matter of course, these lakes, or
pools, must shortly evaporate, leaving their bottoms bare, or encrusted
with salt. One thing gave the young man great satisfaction. He had kept
along the margin of the channel that communicated with the water that
surrounded the Reef, and, when at the greatest distance from the crater,
he ascended a rock that must have had an elevation of a hundred feet
above the sea. Of course most of this rock had been above water
previously to the late eruption, and Mark had often seen it at a
distance, though he had never ventured through the white water near so
far, in the dingui. When on its apex, Mark got an extensive view of the
scene around him. In the first place, he traced the channel just
mentioned, quite into open water, which now appeared distinctly not many
leagues further, towards the north-west. There were a great many other
channels, some mere ribands of water, others narrow sounds, and many
resembling broad, deep, serpenting creeks, which last was their true
character, being strictly inlets from the sea. The lakes or pools, could
be seen in hundreds, creating some confusion in the view; but all these
must soon disappear, in that climate.

Towards the southward, however, Mark found the objects of his greatest
wonder and admiration. By the time he reached the apex of the rock, the
smoke in that quarter of the horizon had, in a great measure, risen from
the sea; though a column of it continued to ascend towards a vast,
dun-coloured cloud that overhung the place. To Mark's astonishment he
had seen some dark, dense body first looming through the rising vapour.
When the last was sufficiently removed, a high, ragged mountain became
distinctly visible. He thought it arose at least a thousand feet above
the ocean, and that it could not be less than a league in extent. This
exhibition of the power of nature filled the young man's soul with
adoration and reverence for the mighty Being that could set such
elements at work. It did not alarm him, but rather tended to quiet his
longings to quit the place; for he who lives amid such scenes feels that
he is so much nearer to the arm of God than those who dwell in uniform
security, as to think less of ordinary advantages than is common.

Mark knew that there must have been a dislocation of the rocks, to
produce such a change as that he saw to the southward. It was well for
him it occurred there at a distance, as he then thought, of ten or
fifteen miles from the Reef, though in truth it was at quite fifty,
instead of happening beneath him. It was possible, however, for one to
have been on the top of that mountain, and to have lived through the
late change, could the lungs of man have breathed the atmosphere. Not
far from this mountain a column of smoke rose out of the sea, and Mark
fancied that, at moments, he could discern the summit of an active
crater at its base.

After gazing at these astonishing changes for a long time, our young man
descended from the height and retraced his steps homeward. Kitty gladly
preceded him, and some time after the sun had set, they regained the
Reef. About a mile short of home, Mark passed all the hogs, snugly
deposited in a bed of mud, where they had esconced themselves for the
night, as one draws himself beneath his blanket.




Chapter XII.



"All things in common nature should produce
Without sweat or endeavour: treason, felony,
Sword, pike, gun, or need of any engine
Would I not have; but nature should bring forth
Of its own kind, all foizen, all abundance
To feed my innocent people."

_Tempest._


For the next ten days Mark Woolston did little but explore. By crossing
the channel around the Reef, which he had named the 'Armlet' (the young
man often talked to himself), he reached the sea-wall, and, once there,
he made a long excursion to the eastward. He now walked dryshod over
those very reefs among which he had so recently sailed in the Bridget,
though the ship-channel through which he and Bob had brought in the
Rancocus still remained. The two buoys that had marked the narrow
passage were found, high and dry; and the anchor of the ship, that by
which she rode after beating over the rocks into deep water, was to be
seen so near the surface, that the stock could be reached by the hand.

There was little difference in character between the newly-made land to
windward and that which Mark had found in the opposite direction. Large
pools, or lakes, of salt water, deposits of mud and sand, some of which
were of considerable extent and thickness, sounds, creeks, and arms of
the sea, with here and there a hummock of rock that rose fifteen or
twenty feet above the face of the main body, were the distinguishing
peculiarities. For two days Mark explored in this direction, or to
windward, reaching as far by his estimate of the distance, as the place
where he had bore up in his cruise in the Bridget. Finding a great many
obstacles in the way, channels, mud, &c., he determined, on the
afternoon of the second day, to return home, get a stock of supplies,
and come out in the boat, in order to ascertain if he could not now
reach the open water to windward.

On the morning of the fourth day after the earthquake, and the
occurrence of the mighty change that had altered the whole face of the
scene around him, the young man got under way in the Bridget. He shaped
his course to windward, beating out of the Armlet by a narrow passage,
that carried him into a reach that stretched away for several miles, to
the northward and eastward, in nearly a straight line. This passage, or
sound, was about half a mile in width, and there was water enough in
nearly all parts of it to float the largest sized vessel. By this
passage the poor hermit, small as was his chance of ever seeing such an
event occur, hoped it might be possible to come to the very side of the
Reef in a ship.

When about three leagues from the crater, the 'Hope Channel,' as Mark
named this long and direct passage, divided into two, one trending still
more to the northward, running nearly due north, indeed, while the other
might be followed in a south-easterly direction, far as the eye could
reach. Mark named the rock at the junction 'Point Fork,' and chose the
latter passage, which appeared the most promising, and the wind
permitting him to lay through it. The Bridget tacked in the Forks,
therefore, and stood away to the south-east, pretty close to the wind.
Various other channels communicated with this main passage, or the Hope;
and, about noon, Mark tacked into one of them, heading about north-east,
when trimmed up sharp to do so. The water was deep, and at first the
passage was half a mile in width; but after standing along it for a mile
or two, it seemed all at once to terminate in an oval basin, that might
have been a mile in its largest diameter, and which was bounded to the
eastward by a belt of rock that rose some twenty feet above the water.
The bottom of this basin was a clear beautiful sand, and its depth of
water, on sounding, Mark found was uniformly about eight fathoms. A more
safe or convenient basin for the anchorage of ships could not have been
formed by the art of man, had there been an entrance to it, and any
inducement for them to come there.

Mark had beaten about 'Oval Harbour,' as he named the place, for half
an hour, before he was struck by the circumstance that the even
character of its surface appeared to be a little disturbed by a slight
undulation which seemed to come from its north-eastern extremity.
Tacking the Bridget, he stood in that direction, and on reaching the
place, found that there was a passage through the rock of about a
hundred yards in width. The wind permitting, the boat shot through this
passage, and was immediately heaving and setting in the long swells of
the open ocean. At first Mark was startled by the roar of the waves that
plunged into the caverns of the rocks, and trembled lest his boat might
be hove up against that hard and iron-bound coast, where one toss would
shatter his little craft into splinters. Too steady a seaman, however,
to abandon his object unnecessarily, he stood on, and soon found he
could weather the rocks under his lee, tacking in time. After two or
three short stretches were made, Mark found himself half a mile to
windward of a long line, or coast, of dark rock, that rose from twenty
to twenty-five feet above the level of the water, and beyond all
question in the open ocean. He hove-to to sound, and let forty fathoms
of line out without reaching bottom. But everywhere to leeward of him
was land, or rock; while everywhere to windward, as well as ahead and
astern, it was clear water. This, then, was the eastern limit of the old
shoals, now converted into dry land. Here the Rancocus had, unknown to
her officers, first run into the midst of these shoals, by which she had
ever since been environed.

It was not easy to compute the precise distance from the outlet or inlet
of Oval Harbour, to the crater. Mark thought it might be five-and-twenty
miles, in a straight line, judging equally by the eye, and the time he
had been in running it. The Summit was not to be seen, however, any more
than the masts of the ship; though the distant Peak, and the column of
dark smoke, remained in sight, as eternal land-marks. The young man
might have been an hour in the open sea, gradually hauling off the land,
in order to keep clear of the coast, when he bethought him of returning.
It required a good deal of nerve to run in towards those rocks, under
all the circumstances of the case. The wind blew fresh, so much indeed
as to induce Mark to reef, but there must always be a heavy swell
rolling in upon that iron-bound shore. The shock of such waves expending
their whole force on perpendicular rocks may be imagined better than it
can be described. There was an undying roar all along that coast,
produced by these incessant collisions of the elements; and
occasionally, when a sea entered a cavern, in a way suddenly to expel
its air, the sound resembled that which some huge animal might be
supposed to utter in its agony, or its anger. Of course, the spray was
flying high, and the entire line of black rocks was white with its
particles.

Mark had unwittingly omitted to take any land-marks to his inlet, or
strait. He had no other means of finding it, therefore, than to discover
a spot in which the line of white was broken. This inlet, however, he
remembered did not open at right angles to the coast, but obliquely; and
it was very possible to be within a hundred yards of it, and not see it.
This fact, our young sailor was not long in ascertaining; for standing
in towards the point where he expected to find the entrance, and going
as close to the shore as he dared, he could see nothing of the desired
passage. For an hour did he search, passing to and fro, but without
success. The idea of remaining out in the open sea for the night, and to
windward of such an inhospitable coast, was anything but pleasant to
Mark, and he determined to stand to the northward, now, while it was
day, and look for some other entrance.

For four hours did Mark Woolston run along those dark rocks, whitened
only by the spray of the wide ocean, without perceiving a point at which
a boat might even land. As he was now running off the wind, and had
turned out his reef, he supposed he must have gone at least
five-and-twenty miles, if not thirty, in that time; and thus had he some
means of judging of the extent of his new territories. About five in the
afternoon a cape, or headland, was reached, when the coast suddenly
trended to the westward. This, then, was the north-eastern angle of the
entire formation, and Mark named it Cape North-East. The boat was now
jibed, and ran off west, a little northerly, for another hour, keeping
quite close in to the coast, which was no longer dangerous as soon as
the Cape was doubled. The seas broke upon the rocks, as a matter of
course; but there being a lee, it was only under the power of the
ceaseless undulations of the ocean. Even the force of the wind was now
much less felt, the Bridget carrying whole sail when hauled up, as Mark
placed her several times, in order to examine apparent inlets.

It was getting to be too late to think of reaching home that night, for
running in those unknown channels after dark was not a desirable course
for an explorer to adopt. Our young man, therefore, limited his search
to some place where he might lie until the return of light. It is true,
the lee formed by the rocks was now such as to enable him to remain
outside, with safety, until morning; but he preferred greatly to get
within the islands, if possible, to trusting himself, while asleep, to
the mercy of the open ocean. Just as the sun was setting, leaving the
evening cool and pleasant, after the warmth of an exceedingly hot day,
the boat doubled a piece of low headland; and Mark had half made up his
mind to get under its lee, and heave a grapnel ashore in order to ride
by his cable during the approaching night, when an opening in the coast
greeted his eyes. It was just as he doubled the cape. This opening
appeared to be a quarter of a mile in width, and it had perfectly smooth
water, a half-gunshot within its mouth. The helm was put down, the
sheets hauled aft, and the Bridget luffed into this creek, estuary,
sound, or harbour, whichever it might prove to be. For twenty minutes
did Mark stand on through this passage, when suddenly it expanded into a
basin, or bay, of considerable extent. This was at a distance of about a
league within the coast. This bay was a league long, and half a league
in width, the boat entering it close to its weather side. A long and
wide sandy beach offered on that side, and the young man stood along it
a short distance, until the sight of a spring induced him to put his
helm down. The boat luffed short round, and came gently upon the beach.
A grapnel was thrown on the sands, and Mark leaped ashore.

The water proved to be sweet, cool, and every way delicious. This was at
least the twentieth spring which had been seen that day, though it was
the first of which the waters had been tasted. This new-born beach had
every appearance of having been exposed to the air a thousand years.
The sand was perfectly clean, and of a bright golden colour, and it was
well strewed with shells of the most magnificent colours and size. The
odour of their late tenants alone proclaimed the fact of their recent
shipwreck. This, however, was an evil that a single month would repair;
and our sailor determined to make another voyage to this bay, which he
called Shell Bay, in order to procure some of its treasures. It was true
he could not place them before the delighted eyes of Bridget, but he
might arrange them in his cabin, and fancy that she was gazing at their
beauties. After drinking at the spring, and supping on the rocks above,
Mark arranged a mattress, provided for that purpose, in the boat, and
went to sleep.

Early next morning the Bridget was again under way, but not until her
owner had both bathed and broken his fast. Bathe he did every morning
throughout the year, and occasionally at night also. A day of exertion
usually ended with a bath, as did a night of sweet repose also. In all
these respects no one could be more fortunate. From the first, food had
been abundant; and now he possessed it in superfluity, including the
wants of all dependent on him. Of clothes, also, he had an inexhaustible
supply, a small portion of the cargo consisting of coarse cotton jackets
and trousers, with which to purchase sandal-wood. To these means,
delicious water was now added in inexhaustible quantities. The late
changes had given to Mark's possession territory sufficient to occupy
him months, even in exploring it thoroughly, as it was his purpose to
do. God was there, also, as he is everywhere. This our secluded man
found to be a most precious consolation. Again and again, each day, was
he now in the practice of communing in spirit, directly with his
Creator; not in cold and unmeaning forms and commonplaces, but with such
yearning of the soul, and such feelings of love and reverence, as an
active and living faith can alone, by the aid of the Divine Spirit,
awaken in the human breast.

After crossing Shell Bay, the Bridget continued on for a couple of
hours, running south, westerly, through a passage of a good width, until
it met another channel, at a point which Mark at once recognized as the
Forks. When at Point Fork, he had only to follow the track he had come
the previous day, in order to arrive at the Reef. The crater could be
seen from the Forks, and there was consequently a beacon in sight, to
direct the adventurer, had he wanted such assistance; which he did not,
however, since he now recognized objects perfectly well as he advanced,
About ten o'clock he ran alongside of the ship, where he found
everything, as he had left it. Lighting the fire, he put on food
sufficient to last him for another cruise, and then went up into the
cross-trees in order to take a better look than he had yet obtained, of
the state of things to the southward.

By this time the vast, murky cloud that had so long overhung the new
outlet of the volcano, was dispersed. It was succeeded by one of
ordinary size, in which the thread of smoke that arose from the crater,
terminated. Of course the surrounding atmosphere was clear, and nothing
but distance obstructed the view. The Peak was indeed a sublime sight,
issuing, as it did, from the ocean without any relief. Mark now began to
think he had miscalculated its height, and that it might be _two_
thousand feet, instead of one, above the water. There it was, in all its
glory, blue and misty, but ragged and noble. The crater was clearly many
miles beyond it, the young man being satisfied, after this look, that he
had not yet seen its summit. He also increased his distance from
Vulcan's Peak, as he named the mountain, to ten leagues, at least. After
sitting in the cross-trees for fully an hour, gazing at this height with
as much pleasure as the connoisseur ever studied picture, or statue, the
young man determined to attempt a voyage to that place, in the Bridget.
To him, such an expedition had the charm of the novelty and change which
a journey from country to town could bring to the wearied worldling, who
sighed for the enjoyment of his old haunts, after a season passed in the
ennui of his country-house. It is true, great novelties had been
presented to our solitary youth, by the great changes wrought
immediately in his neighbourhood, and they had now kept him for a week
in a condition of high excitement; but nothing they presented could
equal the interest he felt in that distant mountain, which had arisen so
suddenly in a horizon that he had been accustomed to see bare of any
object but clouds, for near eighteen months.

That afternoon Mark made all his preparations for a voyage that he felt
might be one of great moment to him. All the symptoms of convulsions in
the earth, however, had ceased; even the rumbling sounds which he had
heard, or imagined, in the stillness of the night, being no longer
audible. From that source, therefore, he had no great apprehensions of
danger; though there was a sort of dread majesty in the exhibition of
the power of nature that he had so lately witnessed, which disposed him
to approach the scene of its greatest effort with secret awe. So much
did he think of the morrow and its possible consequences, that he did
not get asleep for two or three hours, though he awoke in the morning
unconscious of any want of rest. An hour later, he was in his boat, and
under way.