"
"I can hardly believe that this weakness extends as far as the
sailors," said I, laughing. "At all events, you will be released the
instant you reach France."
"Sooner too, I trust, Wallingford," resumed the father. "These
Frenchmen can have it their own way, out here in the solitude of the
Pacific; but, once in the Atlantic, I shall expect some British
cruiser to pick us up, long ere we can reach France."
This was a reasonable expectation, and we conversed about it for some
time. I shall not repeat all that passed; but the reader can have no
difficulty in understanding, that Major Merton and myself communicated
to each other every fact that was likely to be of interest to men in
our situation. When I thought it prudent to take my leave, he walked
some distance with me, holding his way to a point on the outer side of
the island, where I could get a view of the wreck. Here he left me,
for the moment, while I proceeded along the beach, ruminating on all
that had passed.
The process by which nature uses her materials to found islands in the
midst of oceans like the Pacific, is a curious study. The insect that
forms the coral rock, must be an industrious little creature, as there
is reason to think that some of the reefs that have become known to
navigators within the last sixty or seventy years, have since been
converted into islands bearing trees, by their labours.
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