The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-08-12
UNEXPECTED PRIZES.
BY CAPTAIN N. w. DECKwITH.

BY CAPTAIN N. W. BECKwITH.
Hearth and Home.l
"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-blade flew about as
though suddenly attacked with st. Vitus'
dance; the next instant the blood-red
flush gave place to deadly pallor, he
gaspeu for breath and fell backwards.
The next oarsman caught him. "Water
the bailing dish-souse his facep No
sooner said than done. In another mo-
ment, with much gasring 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' a
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
con tinued, cone good squirt and let's
shove her through this here airless
gulch. There's brisk breeze ruffling
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 ~ an
enormous height on either hand, form
ing the very counterpart of Norwegian
ford. A word, a plash of the oar, re-
verberated and rebounded along the
beetling walls like deep thunder. Vast
scores and assures 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 it, slender column upon the boul-
der-strewn beach below with noise liFe
Niagara. Very cool it looked, but the
tropic sun was blazing overhead, and no
breeze could penetrate such apass to any
depth.
Five minutes squirt, 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 a sud-
den burst of music. Even the invalid
crawled out and reared his head against
the life-giving breeze, asserting in his
Cockaigne phrase that already he felt
"stronger and 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 eyes as is seldom seen but in dreams
dreams backed by the magic of
he lheesh or opium. "Another Eden p
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 range of deep
caverns, regularly divided by immense
pillars supporting perfect arches, above
which a heavy coping, formed by quick
quartz rose vein, ran horizontally, pro-
jecting shelf-like 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
darksome caves beneath the less rapidly
disentegrating action of wind and sun
and rain. A third range, more broken
and less perfectly produced, but still
preserving the arch, crowned this, and
threw over the whole that irresistible
suggestion of antiquity and abandon
ment wherewith Nature sometimes re-
produces the air that pervades the for
saken towers and castles of human
handiwork. Rank verdure and shrub.
berry showed above like moss on an
antique roof, and broad strips of thickly
climbing plants starting from the shelves
below-n0w worming, now hiding arch
and column in its upward course-gave
all the effect of ivy-perhaps, indeed, it
wac with its deep green glossiness. In
stinctively l raised by hand-the oars
ceased-we foated silently upon the
sunlit waters. Back from the hollow
caverns, like deep and solemn chant,
came the sound of regurgitating waves,
as they beat in ceaseless rhythm in the
far dark depths beyond. Rapt and spell
bound we gazed and listened.
at minds o. Melrose or Hollywood"
murmured old Jack Malcolm, the second
oar, in bated breath. :" Eb, sirs, what
place to visit by moonlight"
Gay, mate" responded his next
neighbor, ore rotundo, Especially about
low water. You'd nail 'arf a cargo o.
seal skelp and blubber i'm one night in
sich trap az this"
30 slave most literal and dull ="
The spell was broken. "Give way,
menl"' and with steady stroke we sped
toward the next island in the chain.
Like the Montaran Isles in Carimata
Straits the geology and therefore the ap-
pearance of the Mazillas is incredibly
various. The one we now approached
proved as different from the twin mount
aims Just passed between as can we'll be
conceived. It is exceedingly low and
fiat, not even the gentlest knoll or un-
dulation being visible along its surface.
A heavy, fertile soil, girdled by a beach
of dazzling white sand, supports a dense
growth Of heavy timber, mainly. what
appears TO be q species of huge gum.
....... II