,
hardened by the heat of intruded volcanic rocks.
But now: what is the limestone? and how did it get where it is--not
into the mortar, I mean, but into the limestone quarry? Let me tell
you, or rather, help you to tell yourselves, by leading you, as
before, from the known to the unknown. Let me lead you to places
unknown indeed to most; but there may be sailors or soldiers among my
readers who know them far better than I do. Let me lead you, in
fancy, to some island in the Tropic seas. After all, I am not
leading you as far away as you fancy by several thousand miles, as
you will see, I trust, ere I have done.
Let me take you to some island: what shall it be like? Shall it be
a high island, with cliff piled on cliff, and peak on peak, all rich
with mighty forests, like a furred mantle of green velvet, mounting
up and up till it is lost among white clouds above? Or shall it be a
mere low reef, which you do not see till you are close upon it; on
which nothing rises above the water, but here and there a knot of
cocoa-nut palms or a block of stone, or a few bushes, swarming with
innumerable sea-fowl and their eggs? Let it be which you will: both
are strange enough; both beautiful; both will tell us a story.
The ship will have to lie-to, and anchor if she can; it may be a
mile, it may be only a few yards, from the land.
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