the change of plan,
without remonstrance, bent on taking things as they came, in humility
and cheerfulness.

Nevertheless, it was far easier bravely to determine in this matter,
than to execute. The heat was now so intense for the greater part of the
day, that it would have far exceeded the power of our two mariners to
support it, on a naked rock, and without shade of any sort. The frame of
the pinnace must be set up somewhere near the water, regular ways being
necessary to launch her; and nowhere, on the shore, was the smallest
shade to be found, without recourse to artificial means of procuring it.
As Mark's impatience would no longer brook delay, this artificial shade,
therefore, was the first thing to be attended to.

The leeward end of the reef was chosen for the new ship-yard. Although
this choice imposed a good deal of additional labour on the two workmen,
by compelling them to transport all the materials rather more than a
mile, reflection and examination induced Mark to select the spot he
did. The formation of the rock was more favourable there, he fancied,
than in any other place he could find; offering greater facilities for
launching. This was one motive; but the principal inducement was
connected with an apprehension of floods. By the wall-like appearance of
the exterior base of the mount, by the smoothness of the surface of the
Reef in general, which, while it had many inequalities, wore the
appearance of being semi-polished by the washing of water over it; and
by the certain signs that were, to be found on most of the lower half of
the plain of the crater itself, Mark thought it apparent that the entire
reef the crater excepted, had been often covered with the water of the
ocean, and that at no very distant day. The winter months were usually
the tempestuous months in that latitude, though hurricanes might at any
time occur. Now, the winter was yet an untried experiment with our two
'reefers,' as Bob sometimes laughingly called himself and Mark, and
hurricanes were things that often raised the seas in their neighbourhood
several feet in an hour or two. Should the water be actually driven upon
the Reef, so as to admit of a current to wash across it, or the waves to
roll along its surface, the pinnace would be in the greatest danger of
being carried off before it could be even launched. All these things
Mark bore in mind, and he chose the spot he did, with an eye to these
floods, altogether. It might be si