onsiderable 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