It's a mile
deep water off them cliffs, but on the other side it shoals gradual
from tide marks to ten fathoms water, which holds for a quarter of a
mile--keep her as she is, you could scrape them cliffs with a
battleship without danger of groundin'."
After a minute or two, he took the wheel himself and steered her whilst
the fellows stood by the halyards ready to let go at a moment's notice.
It was an impressive place, this north side of the island of San Juan;
the heavy swell came up smacking right on to the sheer cliff wall,
jetting green water and foam yards high to the snore and boom of caves
and cut outs in the rock. Gulls haunted the place. The black petrel,
the Western gull and the black-footed albatross all were to be found
here; long lines of white gulls marked the cliff edges, and far above,
in the dazzling azure of the sky, a Farallone cormorant circled like
the spirit of the place, challenging the newcomers with its cry.
Harman shifted his helm, and the _Heart of Ireland_ with main boom
swinging to port came gliding past the western rocks and opening the
sea to southward where, far on the horizon, lovely in the morning light
like vast ships under press of sail, the San Lucas Islands lay remote
in the morning splendour.
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