Neb’s companions had watched his daring attempt with painful anxiety, and when he was out of sight, they fixed their attention on the land where their hope of safety lay, while eating some shell-fish with which the sand was strewn.  It was a wretched repast, but still it was better than nothing.  The opposite coast formed one vast bay, terminating on the south by a very sharp point, which was destitute of all vegetation, and was of a very wild aspect.  This point abutted on the shore in a grotesque outline of high granite rocks.  Towards the north, on the contrary, the bay widened, and a more rounded coast appeared, trending from the southwest to the northeast, and terminating in a slender cape.  The distance between these two extremities, which made the bow of the bay, was about eight miles.  Half a mile from the shore rose the islet, which somewhat resembled the carcass of a gigantic whale.  Its extreme breadth was not more than a quarter of a mile.

Opposite the islet, the beach consisted first of sand, covered with black stones, which were now appearing little by little above the retreating tide.  The second level was separated by a perpendicular granite cliff, terminated at the top by an unequal edge at a height of at least 300 feet.  It continued thus for a length of three miles, ending suddenly on the right with a precipice which looked as if cut by the hand of man.  On the left, above the promontory, this irregular and jagged cliff descended by a long slope of conglomerated rocks till it mingled with the ground of the southern point.  On the upper plateau of the coast not a tree appeared.  It was a flat tableland like that above Cape Town at the Cape of Good Hope, but of reduced proportions; at least so it appeared seen from the islet.  However, verdure was not wanting to the right beyond the precipice.  They could easily distinguish a confused mass of great trees, which extended beyond the limits of their view.  This verdure relieved the eye, so long wearied by the continued ranges of granite.  Lastly, beyond and above the plateau, in a northwesterly direction and at a distance of at least seven miles, glittered a white summit which reflected the sun’s rays.  It was that of a lofty mountain, capped with snow.

The question could not at present be decided whether this land formed an island, or whether it belonged to a continent.  But on beholding the convulsed masses heaped up on the left, no geologist would have hesitated to give them a volcanic origin, for they were unquestionably the work of subterranean convulsions.

Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Herbert attentively examined this land, on which they might perhaps have to live many long years; on which indeed they might even die, should it be out of the usual track of vessels, as was likely to be the case.

“Well,” asked Herbert, “what do you say, Pencroft?”