Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1875-08-14
UNEXPECTED PRIZES.
BY CAPTAIN n. W. BECKWITH.
Hearth and Home

B1 taIIAlN n. W. bEth
Hearth and HomeI
What's the matter, stroke-oarsman"
"Nothin', sir, but feels the 'eat haw-
full" replied the person addressed, wip-
Ing his Redeemed brow with one hand,
while he strove to give stroke with the
other. But his oar-bade flew about as
though suddenly attacked with st. Vitus'
dance; the next instant the blood-red
flush gave place to deadly pallor, he
gasped for breath and fell backwards.
The next oarsman caught him. "Water
the bailing dish-souse his iace" No
sooner said than done. In another mo-
ment, with much gasIing and sputter-
ing, he revived. Put him down in the
stern-sheets here; put his head under
the shadow of the thwarts; lay jacket
under it-so. Cox'n, give me the yoke
lines-take you his oar"
CAY, ay, sir. This comes O lettin'
chap half dead with the scurvy take his
place when he warn't fit for it; | was a
fool to let him do it," growled the
Pathological cox'n, as he spat on his
horny palms and took up the relin-
quished oar. "Now, then, chaps" he
continued, cone good squirt and let's
shove her through this here airless
gulch. There's a brisk breeze rufiling
the seas beyond" :"
He might well say "airless gulch."
1t was long, exceedingly narrow. and
tortuous passage between two islands of
the Mazilla group, outliers from the main
to the eastern side of Macassar Straits.
The cliffs of trap and basalt rose To an
enormous height on either hand, FORM
ing the very counterpart of Norwegian
ford. A word, a plash of the oar, re-
vcrberated and rebounded along the
beetling walls like deep thunder. Vast
scores and fssures occasionally broke
the continuity. Their sides bosky with
bright green shubbery, relieved the dark
gray Of the rocks, and now and then
gave passage to clear streamlet, which
threw its slender column upon the boul-
der-strewn beach below with noise like
Niagara. Very cool it looked, but the
tropic sun was blazing overhead, and no
breeze could penetrate such apass to any
depth.
Five minutes spurt, however, brought
us to the northern entrance, and the
first breath of the fresh nor'west mon
soon brought new strength and vigor to
the wearying oarsmen, while the sudden
tapping of the crisp green wavelets
against our bow was as cheering as sud
den burst of music. Even the invalid
crawled out and reared his head against
the life-giving breeze, asserting in his
Cockaicne phrase that already he felt
"stronger ard better nor hever,"
Round the towering eastern bluff we
spun, shaping course for an accessible
number Of the group, when such wildly
magnificent and fantastic sight greeted
our ewes as is seldom seen but in dreams
dreams backed by the magic of
hasheesh or opium. Another Eden q"
was my involuntary exclamation.
The whole face of the enormous cliff
was sculptured into endless forms of
architecture by the viewless form of the
monsoon and the plash of the wavelets
driven by its breath at the base, where,
assisted by the tidal action, the ancient
trap was carven into a range of deep
caverns, regularly divided by immense
pillars supporting perfect arches, above
which heavy coping, formed by quick
quartz rose vein, ran horizontally, pro-
jecting shelflike and supporting another
range of basaltic pillars, superposed
with an astonishing approximation to
regularity above the massive support be-
low, the softer partitions between
weathering" out into inches instead of