250 THE OCEAJSr. 



Imagine a belt of land in the wide Ocean, not 

 more than half a mile in breadth, but extending, in 

 an irregular curve, to the length of ten or twenty 

 miles or more : the height above the water not more 

 than a yard or two at most, but clothed with a mass 

 of the richest and most verdant vegetation. Here 

 and there, above the general bed of luxuriant foliage, 

 rises a grove of cocoa-nut trees, waving their feathery 

 plumes high in the air, and gracefully bending their 

 tall and slender stems to the breathing of the plea- 

 sant trade-wind. The grove is bordered by a narrow 

 beach on each side, of the most glittering whiteness, 

 contrasting with the beautiful azure waters by which 

 it is en\droned. From end to end of the curved isles 

 stretches, in a straight line, forming, as it were, the 

 cord of the bow, a narrow beach, of the same snowy 

 whiteness, almost level with the sea at the lowest 

 tide, enclosing a semicircular space of water between 

 it and the island, called the lagoon. Over this line 

 of beach, which occupies the leeward side, the curve 

 being to windward, the sea is breaking with sublime 

 majesty; the long unbroken swell of the Ocean, 

 hitherto unbridled through a course of thousands of 

 miles, is met by this rampart, when the huge billows, 

 rearing themselves upwards many yards above its 

 level, and bending their foaming crests, "form a 

 graceful liquid arch, glittering in the rays of a tro- 

 pical sun as if studded with brilliants. But, before 

 the eyes of the spectator can follow the splendid 

 aqueous gallery which they appear to have reared, 

 with loud and hollow roar they fall, in magnificent 

 desolation, and spread the gigantic fabric in froth 



