"Ah, if we were able to dig out a dwelling in that cliff, at a good height, so as to be out of the reach of harm, that would be capital! I can see that on the front which looks seaward, five or six rooms--" "With windows to light them!" said Herbert, laughing.
"And a staircase to climb up to them!" added Neb.
"You are laughing," cried the sailor, "and why?
What is there impossible in what I propose?
Haven't we got pickaxes and spades?
Won't Captain Harding be able to make powder to blow up the mine?
Isn't it true, captain, that you will make powder the very day we want it ?" Cyrus Harding listened to the enthusiastic Pencroft developing his fanciful projects.

To attack this mass of granite, even by a mine, was Herculean work, and it was really vexing that nature could not help them at their need.

But the engineer did not reply to the sailor except by proposing to examine the cliff more attentively, from the mouth of the river to the angle which terminated it on the north.
They went out, therefore, and the exploration was made with extreme care, over an extent of nearly two miles.

But in no place in the bare, straight cliff, could any cavity be found.

The nests of the rock pigeons which fluttered at its summit were only, in reality, holes bored at the very top, and on the irregular edge of the granite.
It was a provoking circumstance, and as to attacking this cliff, either with pickaxe or with powder, so as to effect a sufficient excavation, it was not to be thought of.