of the waves. And thus it was, for they were
unconsciously coasting Aurigny. Between the west of Ortach and the
Caskets and the east of Aurigny the sea is hemmed in and cramped, and
the uneasy position determines locally the condition of storms. The sea
suffers like others, and when it suffers it is irritable. That channel
is a thing to fear.

The _Matutina_ was in it.

Imagine under the sea a tortoise shell as big as Hyde Park or the Champs
Elysees, of which every striature is a shallow, and every embossment a
reef. Such is the western approach of Aurigny. The sea covers and
conceals this ship-wrecking apparatus. On this conglomeration of
submarine breakers the cloven waves leap and foam--in calm weather, a
chopping sea; in storms, a chaos.

The shipwrecked men observed this new complication without endeavouring
to explain it to themselves. Suddenly they understood it. A pale vista
broadened in the zenith; a wan tinge overspread the sea; the livid light
revealed on the port side a long shoal stretching eastward, towards
which the power of the rushing wind was driving the vessel. The shoal
was Aurigny.

What was that shoal? They shuddered. They would have shuddered even more
had a voice answered them--Aurigny.

No isle so well defended against man's approach as Aurigny. Below and
above water it is protected by a savage guard, of which Ortach is the
outpost. To the west, Burhou, Sauteriaux, Anfroque, Niangle, Fond du
Croc, Les Jumelles, La Grosse, La Clanque, Les Eguillons, Le Vrac, La
Fosse-Maliere; to the east, Sauquet, Hommeau Floreau, La Brinebetais, La
Queslingue, Croquelihou, La Fourche, Le Saut, Noire Pute, Coupie, Orbue.
These are hydra-monsters of the species reef.

One of these reefs is called Le But, the goal, as if to imply that every
voyage ends there.

This obstruction of rocks, simplified by night and sea, appeared to the
shipwrecked men in the shape of a single dark band, a sort of black blot
on the horizon.

Shipwreck is the ideal of helplessness; to be near land, and unable to
reach it; to float, yet not to be able to do so in any desired
direction; to rest the foot on what seems firm and is fragile; to be
full of life, when o'ershadowed by death; to be the prisoner of space;
to be walled in between sky and ocean; to have the infinite overhead
like a dungeon; to be encompassed by the eluding elements of wind and
waves; and to be seized, bound, paralyzed--such a load of misfortune
stupefies an