ch had first attracted
his attention inclosed a bay about a mile wide and nearly that depth,
the water of which was quite smooth and unbroken inside the inner line
of breakers. And whilst examining this bay, with the idea that a
knowledge of it might be useful to his friends, Ned's eye was arrested
by an object on the inner edge of the reef, and almost in smooth water,
which a more careful inspection showed him to be a wreck. This
discovery he determined not to report, but to communicate, if possible,
to the little party before they were landed. And, to make more certain
of being able to do so, he there and then tore a leaf out of his pocket-
book and jotted down a few notes respecting his observations, which he
thought they might be glad to have.

At length the ship handsomely weathered the most southerly extremity of
the island, this proving to be a bold projection in a vertical cliff,
the summit of which towered in some places to a height of nearly sixteen
hundred feet above the sea. This cliff extended along the whole
southern seaboard of the island, towering highest at the point where it
met the curious transverse cliff before mentioned, and gradually
becoming lower as it neared the eastern end of the island, which now
showed itself to be about eleven miles in length from east to west.
With the exception of the mountain, the conical top of which Ned had
seen over the summit of the transverse cliff, that cliff seemed to be
the highest part of the island; though the rest of it was also hilly,
gradually sloping, however, to the eastward until it terminated in a
beautiful white sandy beach, on which Ned soon saw that a landing might
be effected without difficulty.

As soon as Ned had piloted the ship into a position where she might be
hove-to with safety, Williams called him down on deck, on reaching which
he was summoned aft.

"Now then!" exclaimed Williams, "let's give this cargo"--pointing to
Ned's collection of miscellaneous articles for the passengers'
benefit--"an overhaul. You seem quite determined that they shall not
want for much, by the look of it."

"Of course not; why should they?" demanded Ned. "They are not going on
shore to please themselves, but to please you; and it is only right that
they should be supplied with everything necessary to make themselves
thoroughly comfortable. They ought not to be allowed to want for
_anything_."

Williams admitted that there was some truth in that argument