Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 114: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL. abattoir, where he came down to prey upon the sleeping sea lion, even <5 cen- turies before he had lumbered down up- on Alfa, Hardal, and probably many another of those hapless immigrants besides. Here as in a trap he found his prey. Often one could suppose the sea lions passed through the sea entrance at the far end of the bay, failed*to find exit, and tired with wearily threshing round their prison walls, landed to take their siesta in the sun. Here asleep they fell unawares into his maw, or,.surprised in the rock ringed pool, gave him many a jovial hunt in the clear depths between the cliffs. At the far side of the beach were other lumps, embedded in the sand. To them we strode and began to dig at them with our axes. It scarcely came as a surprise when the powdery silt fell aside to disclose timbers sticking up gauntly from below —the worn joists and ribs of some stranded vessel. One or two of the great timbers— carven and decorated by hands long dead—were now wind planed and worn by the sand drift, and slanted deep into the pebbles. We shoveled and scraped to trace them further. Below the soil they rounded almost at right angles, and we uncovered one of them at full length. It measured a good forty paces—the keel, as we could but suppose, of some Mayan bark, sole remnant of what had been a gallant ship in the squadron of that lost and hapless race. We scratched and delved, but noth- ing further than dried wood splinters did we discover. Finally we decided to explore the ravine for traces of the Mayans, or for the track of the great Beast. This latter was plain as a cart trail on the softer ground, but soon faded and was lost among the rubble. We felt no fear of consequences should we suddenly unlair the monster, for though the walls of the cafion were 105 steep, they were broken by ledges. Up these we could skip swiftly enough, while he, with his ungainly body, would be unable to follow. So up the loose rattling pebbles. we toiled to draw near by degrees to the top, where the ravine passed into a scar of the mountain ridge, and then sinking rapidly, clove its way deep among the spurs and gullies oi the far side. At this pomt the immensity of the placter we had crossed that morning was apparent. It stretched away west- ward in broad horizon touching acres of snowfield. Through another cleft a branch of it sank into the valley below us. Far down we could see a streamlet issue from its foot. | From theheights above the tumble 3! crevasses converged in the narrows like the handle of some huge fan. It smote into the gorge at its straitest, the brook pols glinting away between the rocks. On the spur between the valleys was broken rubble dotted with great boul- ders. Above all, in sunlit, cloud-hke purity, the snow crest hung majestic. Out in the distance, seen through the tunnel-like formation of the cliffs, the sea glanced and gleamed, flecked with white bergs to the far horizon. It was the sight of this last that brought us up all standing. It seemed a trifle astounding to be confronted with the sea again when we had thus turned inland, and for some few mo- ments we debated on the problem un- availingly. Then as I gazed round me various things seemed famihar. In an instant the explanation came. We were standing im the very cafion up which we had marched the previous day, only we were entering the other end. No wonder that I had thought J had seen before that hlue glacier foot and that chain of broken pools down the stream. I had—and not twenty four hours before, too—but from the other side. : Our ship and the sunk lake basin were on a great promontory. COIN ElOOO We had. eo