ter. It was dark, thick, pitchy; it sent up hot steams to the edge: it
was one of the secrets of nature, laid bare when the ocean was taken
away. Fire seemed to be at work below, for occasionally it would boil
with more violence, and rush on with an increased, increasing noise,
then sullenly fall back to the first gloomy sound. It bewildered the
sense; and though it could threaten no more than death, yet it was death
with so many horrors around it, that the body and mind both shrank from
it. How was it possible, too, to cross it? Yet their way lay over it;
for behind was certain destruction, and before it was not yet proved
impossible that they might find the element of water. Paulett felt that
it would not do to linger on the brink; he drew his family away from the
sight, and he himself went up and down to find some narrower place, and
some means by which to make a bridge over the abyss; and it was not till
their assistance could avail him that he returned for them, and brought
them to the place where he hoped to get over. It was a fearful point,
for in order to reach a space narrow enough to have a chance of throwing
a plank over, it was necessary to go down the broken side of the
precipice some twenty feet, and there, high above the seething lava, to
cross on such a piece of wood as could be got to span the abyss, and
then clamber up the rugged opposite side. Paulett had been down to the
point he selected, and had got timber, which a wrecked vessel had
supplied, to the edge, so that Ellen and Charles might push a plank down
to him, and he might try, at least, to cast it to the opposite bank. His
head was steady, his hand strong; no one of them spoke a word while he
stood below, steadying himself to receive the plank. Ellen's weak arm
grew powerful; her wit was ready with expedients, to aid him in this
necessity. Her frame and spirit were strung to the very uttermost, and
she was brave and silent, doing all that could be done. No word was
spoken till Paulett said, "I have done it;" and Ellen and Charles had
seen him place the plank, and secure it on his own side of the abyss
with stones. Then they held their breath, beholding him cross it; but
his firm foot carried him safely, and he heaped stones on the other side
also. He came over again, sprang up the side, and now smiled and spoke.

"After all it is but a mountain torrent, Ellen," he said, "and the water
would have destroyed us like yonder seething flood; yet we hav