II. 



THE NORTH ROCK. 



In the open ocean, north of Flatts Village, lies a cluster of 

 rocks upon which the foot of man has thus far but rarely trod. 

 Gray and weather-beaten, they are yet firm as of old, and bear 

 well the marks that a struggle with the sea has impressed upon 

 them. During some six hours of the day these isolated rock 

 pinnacles, of which the largest barely' exceeds the double- 

 height of man, are united to one another by a species of or- 

 ganic or living basement, while during the remaining hours 

 they are immersed in the blue coralline sea by which they are 

 everj'where surrounded. Nine miles distant lies Bermuda — 

 or more properly, the hundred or more islands and islets which 

 together constitute the Bermudas — a soft line of purple 

 stretched against the southern sky. To the southwest the eye 

 detects the white shaft of Gibb's Hill Light, a giant pillar cap- 

 ping one of Bermuda's greatest elevations — 245 feet-^while to 

 the southeast the pharos of St. David's, the all-guardian of the 

 archipelago, plays hide-and-seek with the foot-hills that nestle 

 at its base. Beyond is all sea — the green-blue ocean in whose 

 bosom are locked the treasures of an unseen world. 



This fragment of a universe is practically all that is to be 

 seen of the great outer reef, which lies buried, even at low 

 water, at some little depth beneath the surface. The distance 

 from the main-land renders access to it difficult, and it is only 

 under exceptionally favorable conditions of water that it can 

 be approached with advantage. Even after the surrounding 

 shallows have been crossed it is not yet easy to effect a landing, 



