enish stuff like the
dross of an iron-furnace, forming dark clefts and caves here and there,
into which a ceaseless sea pours a fury of foam; overhanging them with a
swirl of gray, haggard mist, amidst which sail screaming flights of
unearthly birds heightening the dismal din. However calm the sea
without, there is no rest for these swells and those rocks; they lash
and are lashed, even when the outer ocean is most at peace with, itself.
On the oppressive, clouded days, such as are peculiar to this part of
the watery Equator, the dark, vitrified masses, many of which raise
themselves among white whirlpools and breakers in detached and perilous
places off the shore, present a most Plutonian sight. In no world but a
fallen one could such lands exist.

Those parts of the strand free from the marks of fire, stretch away in
wide level beaches of multitudinous dead shells, with here and there
decayed bits of sugar-cane, bamboos, and cocoanuts, washed upon this
other and darker world from the charming palm isles to the westward and
southward; all the way from Paradise to Tartarus; while mixed with the
relics of distant beauty you will sometimes see fragments of charred
wood and mouldering ribs of wrecks. Neither will any one be surprised at
meeting these last, after observing the conflicting currents which eddy
throughout nearly all the wide channels of the entire group. The
capriciousness of the tides of air sympathizes with those of the sea.
Nowhere is the wind so light, baffling, and every way unreliable, and so
given to perplexing calms, as at the Encantadas. Nigh a month has been
spent by a ship going from one isle to another, though but ninety miles
between; for owing to the force of the current, the boats employed to
tow barely suffice to keep the craft from sweeping upon the cliffs, but
do nothing towards accelerating her voyage. Sometimes it is impossible
for a vessel from afar to fetch up with the group itself, unless large
allowances for prospective lee-way have been made ere its coming in
sight. And yet, at other times, there is a mysterious indraft, which
irresistibly draws a passing vessel among the isles, though not bound to
them.

True, at one period, as to some extent at the present day, large fleets
of whalemen cruised for spermaceti upon what some seamen call the
Enchanted Ground. But this, as in due place will be described, was off
the great outer isle of Albemarle, away from the intricacies of the
smalle