rds us,
striking our upturned side so violently that it hove us fairly over on
our beam-ends, whilst it lifted us clear of the ledge to which we had
hung, and launched us into the unbroken water to leeward.

Once clear of the ledge, the little craft instantly righted, and I put
the helm hard up. We soon paid off, and swept away to leeward once
more; but we were now in a good broad channel, with comparatively smooth
water, and I saw, with satisfaction, that the surf on each side of us
was becoming less and less heavy every minute.

Five minutes might have elapsed perhaps after we last struck, when I saw
land looming through the haze ahead, and soon afterwards we found
ourselves clear of the reefs altogether--inside of them, that is--and
floating on the comparatively smooth surface of an extensive lagoon.

High land now distinctly appeared ahead of us, and we shortly discovered
that it formed a portion of an island of considerable size, the northern
end of which lay about three points on our starboard-bow.

Towards this point I at once directed the head of the cutter, with the
object of getting under a lee as quickly as possible, and, if
practicable, into a berth which would permit of our careening our poor
little craft and examining into the extent of her damage. I directed
Bob to open the companion now, as I was fearful that Ella might have
received some injury when the cutter was hove on her beam-ends; but, to
my great joy, as soon as the doors were thrown back, there she was,
clinging desperately to the ladder, terribly frightened, but unhurt, as
she assured me, beyond a few unimportant bruises.

As we neared the northern extremity of the island, towards which I was
steering, we found that it terminated in an almost perpendicular cliff
of some fifty or sixty feet in height, constituting the northern part of
the base of a high hill, rising almost to the dignity of a mountain,
which was thickly-wooded almost to its summit, and to the very verge of
the cliffs, close under which we were now gliding swiftly along.

As my eye ranged over the northern face of these cliffs, which we had by
this time opened, I detected a rather singular break in them at a
particular point; and, curiosity prompting me, I sheered the cutter a
little closer to get a nearer view of it.

Approaching still nearer, it seemed to me that this break extended quite
to the water's edge; but it was not until we were almost past it that I
felt conv