nd the
surf to hearing--when I was aware of land again, not only on the weather
bow, but dead ahead. I played the part of the judicious landsman,
holding my peace till the last moment; and presently my mariners
perceived it for themselves.

"Land ahead!" said the steersman.

"By God, it's Kauehi!" cried the mate.

And so it was. And with that I began to be sorry for cartographers. We
were scarce doing three and a half; and they asked me to believe that
(in five minutes) we had dropped an island, passed eight miles of open
water, and run almost high and dry upon the next. But my captain was
more sorry for himself to be afloat in such a labyrinth; laid the
_Casco_ to, with the log line up and down, and sat on the stern rail and
watched it till the morning. He had enough of night in the Paumotus.

By daylight on the 9th we began to skirt Kauehi, and had now an
opportunity to see near at hand the geography of atolls. Here and there,
where it was high, the farther side loomed up; here and there the near
side dipped entirely and showed a broad path of water into the lagoon;
here and there both sides were equally abased, and we could look right
through the discontinuous ring to the sea horizon on the south.
Conceive, on a vast scale, the submerged hoop of the duck-hunter,
trimmed with green rushes to conceal his head--water within, water
without--you have the image of the perfect atoll. Conceive one that has
been partly plucked of its rush fringe; you have the atoll of Kauehi.
And for either shore of it at closer quarters, conceive the line of some
old Roman highway traversing a wet morass, and here sunk out of view and
there re-arising, crowned with a green tuft of thicket; only instead of
the stagnant waters of a marsh, the live ocean now boiled against, now
buried the frail barrier. Last night's impression in the dark was thus
confirmed by day, and not corrected. We sailed indeed by a mere causeway
in the sea, of nature's handiwork, yet of no greater magnitude than many
of the works of man.

The isle was uninhabited; it was all green brush and white sand, set in
transcendently blue water; even the coco-palms were rare, though some of
these completed the bright harmony of colour by hanging out a fan of
golden yellow. For long there was no sign of life beyond the vegetable,
and no sound but the continuous grumble of the surf. In silence and
desertion these fair shores slipped past, and were submerged and rose
again with