he gives me any occasion for it he shall have another!" The
skipper then went away laughing, but Mr Meldrum, from the vindictive
look he had seen on the man's face did not think it a laughing matter at
all.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

THE BARRIER REEF.

As the light increased, the land in front could be seen more distinctly
rising steadily out of the seal with the high elevated peak in the
centre which Mr Meldrum had identified the day before as the Mount Ross
marked on the chart. The mountain, however, showed now on the port bow;
so, the ship must necessarily have run down a considerable portion of
the western coast, after they had abandoned the idea of weathering the
island on the port tack--which they had done as soon as they were
alarmed by the sound of breakers, letting her drive to leeward--before
the collision with the berg. This was a discovery which did not appear
to give Mr Meldrum much satisfaction.

"It's a great pity," he said to the captain, "that we could not get
round that northerly cape I pointed out to you, before the snowstorm and
sea-fog set in! There were one or two good bays there marked on the
chart, such as Christmas Harbour and Cumberland Bay, which have been
properly sounded and have the points laid down; but of this western
coast little appears known, and it has been only from surmise that the
outlines of the map have been sketched in. I really don't think any
exploring party has ever visited it since Monsieur Lieutenant de
Kerguelen-Tremarec briefly surveyed it in 1772--more than a hundred
years ago."

"And it might have changed a lot since then," observed Captain Dinks.

"Yes," continued Mr Meldrum; "for the French discoverer narrated all
sorts of wonders about a raging volcano, with geysers and hot springs
like those of Iceland; and if volcanic agency has been at work since
then, no doubt the place is very much altered."

"If there is a live crater there, it can't be so very cold then, eh?"

"I don't know about that," replied Mr Meldrum. "Away in the north, I
have seen boiling water freeze as soon as it was exposed to the outside
air; so I don't suppose it will be much warmer here than we can expect
from all accounts."

But, warm or cold, it was the only haven of refuge for the sinking ship,
which slowly, and more slowly still, by reason of the stormy sea and
shifting wind, the latter of which grew gustier as the morning advanced,
made her laboured way towards the land in cra