WHALING VOYAGE. 
273 
nature wore its accustomed brightness, the air was serene 
and sweet, and the hurricane had passed. 
A few days after we had experienced the typhoon, we 
ran in under the lee of South Island to repair our 
damage, and two boats were sent on shore to obtain 
some fish, plenty of which surround these islands. When 
we got on shore we saw the devastation the storm had 
committed on some parts of the island. Large tamana 
trees, which are a kind of mahogany, had been blown 
down, while the smaller trees were damaged in various 
ways to a frightful extent ; large masses of coral had 
been detached from the rocks by the fury of the waves, 
and were driven and left high upon the beach. 
Winding along the indented and rocky shore in the 
boats, we suddenly came to the mouth of a marine cave 
of considerable extent, and the boats were headed in, to 
explore the beauties of this solitary place, situated so 
far from the common haunts of man. When we had 
ventured within a short distance of this ocean grotto, 
we were all greatly delighted at the natural beauties 
which adorned it in every part ; we could not form any 
idea of its extent inwards, for all was darkness in that 
direction, although we must have been at one time fifty 
yards within its mouth, and where the sea still formed 
its door. About twenty yards within its entrance was 
the spot which nature had fixed upon to bestow her 
beauties with the most liberal hand. If the eve as- 
•/ 
cended, then its high and vaulted roof was seen, fretted 
and time-worn into a thousand fantastic forms,— the 
long stalactites hung down midway, and pierced the 
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