Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/120

114 THE CRATER; tion and examination induced Mark to select the spot he did. The formation of the rock was more favourable there, he flincie J, than in any other place he could find ; offering greater facilities for launching. This was one motive; but the principal inducement was connected with an ap prehension of floods. By the wall-like appearance of the exterior ase of the mount, by the smoothness of the sur face of the Reef in general, which, while it had many in equalities, wore the appearance of being semi-polished by the washing of water over it; and by the certain signs that wen? to I e found on most of the lower half of the plain of the crater itself, Mark thought it apparent that the entire reef the crater excepted, had been often covered with the wat< r of the ocean, and that at no very distant day. The winter months were usually the tempestuous months in that latitude, though hurricanes might at any time occur. Now, the winter was yet an untried experiment with our two ree ers, as Bob sometimes laughingly called himself and Maik, and hurricanes were things that often raised the seas in their neighbourhood several feet in an hour or two, Should the water be actually driven upon the Reef, so as to admit of a current to wash across it, or the waves to rx)ll along its surface, the pinnace would be in the great est danger of being carried off before it could be even launched All these things Mark bore in mind, arid he chose the spot he did, with an eye to these floods, alto- g<^tl er. It might be six or eight months before they could bo ready to get the pinnace into the water, and it now wanted I tut six to the stormy season. At the western, or leeward, extremity of the island, the little craft would be under the lee of the crater, which would form a sort of breakwater, and might be the means of preventing it from being washed away. Then the rock, just at that spot, was thn e or four feet higher than at any other point, suffi ciently ntwr the sea to admit of launching with ease; and the two advantages united, induced our young reefer to incur the labour of transporting the materials the distance named, in } -reference to foregoing them. The raft, however, was put in requisition, and the entire frame, with a few of the planks necessary for a commencement, was carried round at t ne load.