was visible, and we had begun to ask ourselves whether we had
not found a watery planet, when Gazen suddenly cried out,

"Land!"

"Whereaway?" I enquired with breathless interest.

He pointed a little to the right of our course, and following the
direction of his finger, I saw a dim outline where sea and sky met. It
might have been mistaken for the tip of a cloud, but as we advanced it
rose above the horizon and took a definite shape not unlike a truncated
cone.

The glasses showed it to be an island apparently of volcanic formation,
and after a brief consultation with Carmichael, we steered towards it.
The emotion of Columbus when he arrived at the Bahamas affords, perhaps,
the nearest parallel to our feelings, but in our case the land in sight
was the outlier of another planet. Watchful curiosity and silent
expectation, the ineffable sorcery of new scenes, the mystery of the
unknown, the romance of adventure, the exultation of triumph, and the
dread of disaster, were inextricably blended in our hearts. It was a
glorious hour, and come what might, we all felt that we had not lived in
vain.

The island rose out of the sea like a volcanic peak, and was evidently
encircled with a barrier reef, as we could trace a line of snowy surf
breaking on its outer verge, and parting the sapphire blue of the deep
water without from the emerald green shoals within. The coast, sweeping
in beautiful bays, dotted with overgrown islets, and fended by rocky
promontories, was rimmed with beaches of yellow sand. The steep sides of
the mountain, broken with precipices, and shaggy with vegetation,
ascended from a multitude of spurs and buttresses, resembling billows of
verdure, and towered into the clouds.

I have used the word verdure, but it is really a misnomer, for although
the prevailing tint of the foliage was a dark green, the entire forest
was streaked like a rainbow with innumerable flowers, and the breeze
which blew from it was laden with the most delightful perfume, Evidently
it was all a howling wilderness, for we could not detect the slightest
vestige of human dwellings or cultivation. We did not even observe any
signs of bird or beast. A profound stillness brooded over the solitude,
and was scarcely broken by the drowsy murmur of distant waterfalls.

A forest, like the sea or desert, has a magical power to stimulate the
fancy and touch the primitive chords of the heart. Even a Scotch
hillside, or a Devonshire moor, can th