Stories by English Authors: the Sea | Page 5

the boat and hauling
in upon the braces, and then there was nothing for me to do but to
watch, with dying eyes, the shadow of the ship till it faded, and the
stars shone where she had been.
The sky shed very little light, and there was no foam to cast an
illumination of its own. However, by this time, as you will suppose, I
was used to my situation; that is to say, the horror and novelty of my
condition had abated, and settled into a miserable feeling of despair; so
that I was like a dying man who had passed days in an open boat, and
who languidly directs his eyes over the gunwale at the sea, with the
hopelessness that is bred by familiarity with his dreadful posture. It was
some time after the ship had melted into the airy dusk that I seemed to
notice, for the first time since I had been in the life-buoy, the lump of
blackness at which I had been straining my eyes when the vessel heeled
and I fell. It had the elusiveness of a light at sea, that is best seen (at a
distance) by gazing a little on one side of it. It lay, a black mass, and
whether it was a vast huddle of weeds, or a great whale killed by the
earthquake, or solid land uphove by the volcanic rupture, was not
conjecturable. It hung, still and not very tall, for I could not see that it
put out any stars, and was about a mile distant. Whatever it might prove,
I could not be worse off near or on or amid it than i was here; so,
setting my face toward it, I began to strike out with my legs and arms.
The water was so fiery, it chipped in flashes to every blow of my hands.
I swam in the utmost terror, never knowing but that the next moment I
should be feeling the teeth of a shark upon my legs, for the sparkling of
the sea to my kicks and motions was signal enough for such a beast if it
was a league distant; but I may as well say here that there is no doubt
the shock of earthquake and the flame effectually cleared the sea in its
neighbourhood of every kind of fish that floated in it, though the hope
of such a thing could yield me but very little comfort while I swam.
I continued to make good progress, and presently approaching the
block of blackness, for so it looked, perceived that it was certainly
land,--a solid rock, in short,--the head of some mountainous submarine
formation lifted ten or twelve feet above the sea. I could now discern a
faintness of vapour circling up from it and showing like steam against
the stars. Its front stretched a length of a few hundred feet; how far it

went behind I could not tell. A small sound of creaming waters came
from it, produced by the light swell washing its shelter side. It lay all in
a line of grayish darkness even when I was quite close, and I could see
nothing but the shapeless body of it. Of a sudden my feet struck ground,
and I waded thirty paces along a shelf that was under water till my
paces lifted to the dry beach. But by this time I was fearfully exhausted;
I could scarcely breathe. My legs and arms were numbed to the weight
of lead. The atmosphere was warm, but not unbearably so--not hotter
than it had been at noon in the ship. Steam crawled up from every pore,
like the drainings of smoke from damp straw, but it did not add to the
distress of my breathing. I made shift to stagger onward till I had gone
about fifty feet from the wash of the sea. Nature then broke down; my
knees gave way, I stumbled and fell--whether in a swoon or whether in
a death-like slumber, I cannot say; all I can tell is that when I awoke, or
recovered my senses, the sun stood fifteen degrees above the horizon,
and I opened my eyes upon a hot and dazzling sky.
I sat up in the utmost amazement. My mind for some time was all
abroad, and I could recollect nothing. Memory then entered me with a
bound, and I staggered to my feet with a cry. The first thing I took
notice of was that my clothes were nearly dry, which was not very
reconcilable with the steam that was still issuing from the island,
though it was as I say. My bones ached cruelly, but I was not sensible
of any particular languor. The brilliance was so blinding that I had to
employ my eyes