The Coral Island A Tale of the Pacific Ocean
CONTENTS CHAP. I. MY EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER II. THE DEPARTURE--A DREADFUL STORM III. THE CORAL ISLAND IV. OUR ISLAND DESCRIBED--CURIOUS DISCOVERIES V. ENCHANTING EXCURSIONS AMONG THE CORAL GROVES VI. AN EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR VII. HORRIBLE ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK VIII. THE BEAUTIES OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TEMPT PETERKIN TO DIVE IX. PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY ROUND THE ISLAND X. MAKE DISCOVERY OF MANY EXCELLENT ROOTS AND FRUITS XI. EFFECTS OF OVER-EATING, AND REFLECTIONS THEREON XII. SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TANK XIII. NOTABLE DISCOVERY AT THE SPOUTING CLIFFS XIV. STRANGE PECULIARITY OF THE TIDES XV. BOAT-BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY XVI. THE BOAT LAUNCHED--WE VISIT THE CORAL REEF XVII. A MONSTER WAVE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
pipe, and while lighting it I shall tell you what I have heard about the
attack on the fort yonder. My father told me; his father told him."
He jerked his head in the direction of the ruined fort, a small, square
stone structure on the sea cliff, now nothing but crumbling walls. Then
he slowly produced a tobacco pouch, a bit of flint and tinder, and a
long-stemmed pipe fitted with a microscopical bowl of baked clay. To
fill such a pipe requires ten minutes' close attention. To smoke it to a
finish takes but four puffs. It is very Breton, this Breton pipe. It is
the crystallization of everything Breton.
"Go on," said I, lighting a cigarette.
"The fort," said the mayor, "was built by Louis XIV, and was dismantled
twice by the English. Louis XV restored it in 1730. In 1760 it was
carried by assault by the English. They came across from the island of
Groix--three shiploads, and they stormed the fort and sacked St. Julien
yonder, and they started to burn St. Gildas--you can see the marks of
their bullets on my house yet; but the men of Bannalec and the men of
Lorient fell upon them with pike and scythe and blunderbuss, and those
who did not run away lie there below in the gravel pit now--thirty-eight
of them."
"And the thirty-ninth skull?" I asked, finishing my cigarette.
The mayor had succeeded in filling his pipe, and now he began to put his
CONTENTS CHAP. I. MY EARLY LIFE AND CHARACTER II. THE DEPARTURE--A DREADFUL STORM III. THE CORAL ISLAND IV. OUR ISLAND DESCRIBED--CURIOUS DISCOVERIES V. ENCHANTING EXCURSIONS AMONG THE CORAL GROVES VI. AN EXCURSION INTO THE INTERIOR VII. HORRIBLE ENCOUNTER WITH A SHARK VIII. THE BEAUTIES OF THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA TEMPT PETERKIN TO DIVE IX. PREPARE FOR A JOURNEY ROUND THE ISLAND X. MAKE DISCOVERY OF MANY EXCELLENT ROOTS AND FRUITS XI. EFFECTS OF OVER-EATING, AND REFLECTIONS THEREON XII. SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE TANK XIII. NOTABLE DISCOVERY AT THE SPOUTING CLIFFS XIV. STRANGE PECULIARITY OF THE TIDES XV. BOAT-BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY XVI. THE BOAT LAUNCHED--WE VISIT THE CORAL REEF XVII. A MONSTER WAVE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES