nd sea. It lay out of the latitude
of ships. Only a few Mexican sheep-herders lived there, up at the east
end where less-rugged land allowed pasture for their flocks. A little
rain falls during the winter months, and soon disappears from the
porous canon-beds. Water-holes were rare and springs rarer. The summit
was flat, except for some rounded domes of mountains, and there the
deadly cholla cactus grew--not in profusion, but enough to prove the
dread of the Mexicans for this species of desert plant. It was a small
bush, with cones like a pine cone in shape, growing in clusters, and
over stems and cones were fine steel-pointed needles with invisible
hooks at the ends.

A barren, lonely prospect, that flat plateau above, an empire of the
sun, where heat veils rose and mirages haunted the eye. But at sunset
fog rolled up from the outer channel, and if the sun blasted the life on
the island, the fog saved it. So there was war between sun and fog, the
one that was the lord of day, and the other the dew-laden savior of
night.

South, on the windward side, opened a wide bay, Smugglers Cove by name,
and it was infinitely more beautiful than its name. A great curve
indented the league-long slope of island, at each end of which low,
ragged lines of black rock jutted out into the sea. Around this immense
bare amphitheater, which had no growth save scant cactus and patches of
grass, could be seen long lines of shelves where the sea-levels had been
in successive ages of the past.

Near the middle of the curve, on a bleached bank, stood a lonely little
hut, facing the sea. Old and weather-beaten, out of place there, it held
and fascinated the gaze. Below it a white shore-line curved away where
the waves rolled in, sadly grand, to break and spread on the beach.

At the east end, where the jagged black rocks met the sea, I loved to
watch a great swell rise out of the level blue, heave and come,
slow-lifting as if from some infinite power, to grow and climb aloft
till the blue turned green and sunlight showed through, and the long,
smooth crest, where the seals rode, took on a sharp edge to send wisps
of spray in the wind, and, rising sheer, the whole swell, solemn and
ponderous and majestic, lifted its volume one beautiful instant, then
curled its shining crest and rolled in and down with a thundering,
booming roar, all the curves and contours gone in a green-white seething
mass that climbed the reefs and dashed itself to ruin.