The oars were got out and off we started, and after four hours' steady rowing, the lieutenant, who was steering by compass, made out the land looming high above us.

Another quarter of an hour's row and we dropped our grapnels close to the foot of the cliffs, and the men were told to get a sleep as well as they could till morning.
"As soon as it was daylight we were off again and rowed to the end of the island; for, as Mr.Earnshaw said to the third lieutenant, we had best begin at the end and do the work thoroughly.

When we got to the point we turned and rowed back, keeping about two hundred yards from the cliff, so that we could see well up.

They were about a hundred feet high--sometimes a little less, sometimes a good bit more, and they went as straight up from the water's edge as the cliffs at Dover, only there weren't no beach.

It was deep water right up to the foot.
"We went along very slowly, the men only just dipping their oars into the water, and all of us watching every foot of the cliffs.