THEY rowed more than a mile, so deep was the glorious bay; and then their oars struck the ground.

But Hazel with the boat-hook propelled the boat gently over the pellucid water, that now seemed too shallow to float a canoe; and at last looked like the mere varnish of that picture, the prismatic sands below; yet still the little craft glided over it, till it gently grazed the soft sand and was stationary.

So placidly ended that terrible voyage.
Mr.Hazel and Miss Rolleston were on shore in a moment, and it was all they could do not to fall upon the land and kiss it.
Never had the sea disgorged upon that fairy isle such ghastly specters.
They looked, not like people about to die, but that had died, and been buried, and just come out of their graves to land on that blissful shore.
We should have started back with horror; but the birds of that virgin isle merely stepped out of their way, and did not fly.
They had landed in paradise.
Even Welch yielded to that universal longing men have to embrace the land after perils at sea, and was putting his leg slowly over the gunwale, when Hazel came back to his assistance.

He got ashore, but was contented to sit down with his eyes on the dimpled sea and the boat, waiting quietly till the tide should float his friend to his feet again.
The sea-birds walked quietly about him, and minded him not.
Miss Rolleston ascended a green slope very slowly, for her limbs were cramped, and was lost to view.
Hazel now went up the beach, and took a more minute survey of the neighborhood.
The west side of the bay was varied.

Half of it presented the soft character that marked the bay in general; but a portion of it was rocky, though streaked with vegetation, and this part was intersected by narrow clefts, into which, in some rare tempests and high tides combined, tongues of the sea had entered, licking the sides of the gullies smooth; and these occasional visits were marked by the sand and broken shells and other _debris_ the tempestuous and encroaching sea had left behind.
The true high-water mark was several feet lower than these _debris,_ and was clearly marked.