convexity at its base.

On arriving at the bottom, they found themselves in the narrowest of
ravines. The hillock from which they had descended was but the highest
summit of a long ridge, trending in the same direction as the coast.
Another ridge, of about equal height, ran parallel to this on the
landward side. The bases of the two approached so near that their
sloping sides formed an angle with each other. On account of the abrupt
acclivity of both, this angle was almost acute, and the ravine between
the two resembled a cavity out of which some great wedge had been cut,
like a section taken from the side of a gigantic melon.

It was in this re-entrant angle that the castaways found themselves,
after descending the side of the dune, and where they had proposed
spending the remainder of the night.

They were somewhat disappointed on reaching their sleeping-quarters, and
finding them so limited as to space. In the bottom of the ravine there
was not breadth enough for a bed, even for the shortest of the party,
supposing him desirous of sleeping in a horizontal position.

There were not six feet of surface, nor even three, that could strictly
be called horizontal. Even longitudinally, the bottom of the "gully"
had a sloping inclination; for the ravine itself tended upwards until it
became extinguished in the convergence of its inclosing ridges.

On discovering the unexpected "strait" into which they had launched
themselves, our adventurers were for a time nonplussed. They felt
inclined to proceed farther in search of a "better bed", but their
weariness outweighed this inclination; and, after some hesitation, they
resolved to remain in the "ditch" into which they had so unwillingly
descended. They proceeded therefore to encouch themselves.

Their first attempt was made by placing themselves in a half-standing
position, their backs supported upon the sloping sides of one of the
ridges, with their feet resting against the other. So long as they kept
awake, this position was both easy and pleasant; but the moment any one
of them closed his eyes in sleep, and this was an event almost
instantaneous, his muscles, relaxed by slumber, would no longer have the
strength to sustain him; and the consequence would be an uncomfortable
collapse to the bottom of the "gully", where anything like a position of
repose was out of the question.

This vexatious interruption of their slumbers happening repeatedly, at
length roused