those mighty waves. He looked
out to sea, and beheld the swell rising and taking form, and increasing
in speed as it came on. Calmly divesting himself of his coat and boots,
he sat down beside his dog, and awaited the event. At that moment he
observed, with intense gratitude to the Almighty, that the raft was
drifting so straight towards the middle of the channel in the reef, that
there seemed every probability of being carried through it; but the hope
thus raised was somewhat chilled by the feeling of weakness which
pervaded his frame.

"Now, Cuffy," said he, patting the terrier gently, "rouse up, my doggie;
we must make a brave struggle for life. It's neck or nothing this time.
If we touch that reef in passing, Cuff, you an' I shall be food for the
sharks to-night, an' it's my opinion that the shark as gits us won't
have much occasion to boast of his supper."

The sailor ceased speaking abruptly. As he looked back at the
approaching roller he felt solemnised and somewhat alarmed, for it
appeared so perpendicular and so high from his low position, that it
seemed as if it would fall on and overwhelm the raft. There was,
indeed, some danger of this. Glancing along its length, Jarwin saw that
here and there the edge was lipping over, while in one place, not far
off, the thunder of its fall had already begun. Another moment, and it
appeared to hang over his head; the raft was violently lifted at the
stern, caught up, and whirled onward at railway speed, like a cork in
the midst of a boiling cauldron of foam. The roar was deafening. The
tumultuous heaving almost overturned it several times. Jarwin held on
firmly to the mast with his right arm, and grasped the terrier with his
left hand, for the poor creature had not strength to resist such furious
motion. It all passed with bewildering speed. It seemed as if, in one
instant, the raft was hurled through the narrows, and launched into the
calm harbour within. An eddy, at the inner side of the opening, swept
it round, and fixed the end of one of the largest spars of which it was
composed on the beach.

There were fifty yards or so of sandy coral-reef between the beach
outside, that faced the sea, and the beach inside, which faced the land;
yet how great the difference! The one beach, buffeted for ever, day and
night, by the breakers--in calm by the grand successive rollers that, as
it were, symbolised the ocean's latent power--in storm by the mad deluge
of bi