ESCAPE TO A DESERT ISLAND. I09 



saw that the reef must soon be covered ; we therefore con- 

 veyed the boats to a place of safety, and filling them with all 

 the provisions that could be collected, proceeded to the 

 highest sand-bank, as the only place which held out the re- 

 motest chance of safety. 



"The people now collected together to ascertain who of 

 the crew had perished, when sixteen were missing: the 

 captain, surgeon^s assistant and fourteen seamen. We di- 

 vided our men into parties, each headed by an officer: some 

 were sent to the wreck and along the beach in search of 

 provisions, others to roll up the hogsheads of beer and butts 

 of water that had floated on shore ; but the greater number 

 were employed in hauling the two cutters up, which the 

 carpenters were directed to repair." 



Such is a graphic account of a fearful shipwreck on a 

 barren coral reef, from one of the survivors among the crew. 

 One can thus form an idea of the dangers to wliich seamen 

 are exposed by these colossal works of tiny polyps: 



** For often the dauntless mariner knows 



That he must sink beneath, 

 Where the diaaiond on trees of coral grows 



In the emerald halls of death." 



