My earliest impressions are of a huge, misshapen rock, against which the hoarse waves beat unceasingly.

On this rock three pelicans are standing in a defiant attitude.

A dark sky lowers in the background, while two sea-gulls and a gigantic cormorant eye with extreme disfavor the floating corpse of a drowned woman in the foreground.

A few bracelets, coral necklaces, and other articles of jewelry, scattered around loosely, complete this remarkable picture.
It is one which, in some vague, unconscious way, symbolizes, to my fancy, the character of a man.

I have never been able to explain exactly why.