Exactly two hundred feet behind the angle formed by the river, the wall, terminated by a fall of rocks, died away in a gentle slope to the edge of the forest.  It was a natural staircase.  Herbert and the sailor began their ascent; thanks to the vigor of their muscles they reached the summit in a few minutes; and proceeded to the point above the mouth of the river.

On attaining it, their first look was cast upon the ocean which not long before they had traversed in such a terrible condition.  They observed, with emotion, all that part to the north of the coast on which the catastrophe had taken place.  It was there that Cyrus Harding had disappeared.  They looked to see if some portion of their balloon, to which a man might possibly cling, yet existed.  Nothing!  The sea was but one vast watery desert.  As to the coast, it was solitary also.  Neither the reporter nor Neb could be anywhere seen.  But it was possible that at this time they were both too far away to be perceived.

“Something tells me,” cried Herbert, “that a man as energetic as Captain Harding would not let himself be drowned like other people.  He must have reached some point of the shore; don’t you think so, Pencroft?”

The sailor shook his head sadly.  He little expected ever to see Cyrus Harding again; but wishing to leave some hope to Herbert:  “Doubtless, doubtless,” said he; “our engineer is a man who would get out of a scrape to which any one else would yield.”

In the meantime he examined the coast with great attention.  Stretched out below them was the sandy shore, bounded on the right of the river’s mouth by lines of breakers.  The rocks which were visible appeared like amphibious monsters reposing in the surf.  Beyond the reef, the sea sparkled beneath the sun’s rays.  To the south a sharp point closed the horizon, and it could not be seen if the land was prolonged in that direction, or if it ran southeast and southwest, which would have made this coast a very long peninsula.  At the northern extremity of the bay the outline of the shore was continued to a great distance in a wider curve.  There the shore was low, flat, without cliffs, and with great banks of sand, which the tide left uncovered.  Pencroft and Herbert then returned towards the west.  Their attention was first arrested by the snow-topped mountain which rose at a distance of six or seven miles.  From its first declivities to within two miles of the coast were spread vast masses of wood, relieved by large green patches, caused by the presence of evergreen trees.  Then, from the edge of this forest to the shore extended a plain, scattered irregularly with groups of trees.  Here and there on the left sparkled through glades the waters of the little river; they could trace its winding course back towards the spurs of the mountain, among which it seemed to spring.  At the point where the sailor had left his raft of wood, it began to run between the two high granite walls; but if on the left bank the wall remained clear and abrupt, on the right bank, on the contrary, it sank gradually, the massive sides changed to isolated rocks, the rocks to stones, the stones to shingle running to the extremity of the point.