Judging by what he then saw, and recalling the particulars of the
examination made from the cross-trees of the ship, he supposed that the
dangers and difficulties of the navigation must extend, in an east and
west direction, at least twelve marine leagues; while, in a north and
south, the distance seemed to be a little, and a very little less. There
was necessarily a good deal of conjecture in this estimate of the extent
of the volcanic mountain which composed these extensive shoals; but,
from what he saw, from the distance the ship was known to have run amid
the dangers before she brought up, her present anchorage, the position
of the island, and all the other materials before him to make his
calculation on, Mark believed himself rather to have lessened than to
have exaggerated the extent of these shoals. Had the throes of the
earth, which produced this submerged rock, been a little more powerful,
a beautiful and fertile island, of very respectable dimensions, would
probably have been formed in its place.

From the time of reaching the reef, which is now to bear his name in all
future time, our young seaman had begun to admit the bitter possibility
of being compelled to pass the remainder of his days on it. How long he
and his companion could find the means of subsistence in a place so
barren, was merely matter of conjecture; but so long as Providence
should furnish these means, was it highly probable that solitary and
little-favoured spot was to be their home. It is unnecessary to state
with what bitter regrets the young bridegroom admitted this painful
idea; but Mark was too manly and resolute to abandon himself to despair,
even at such a moment. He kept his sorrows pent up in the repository of
his own bosom, and endeavoured to imitate the calm exterior of his
companion. As for Bob, he was a good deal of a philosopher by nature
and, having made up his mind that they were doomed to 'Robinson Crusoe
it,' for a few years at least, he was already turning over in his