The Pine-tree coast . res upon acresof jagged ledges, blackened as by fire, ripped up as by an earthquake, some-times set upright in ragged rows, like grave-stones, sometimes resembling thebroken tusks of some prehistoric monster that has been turned to stone, hutcan still bite and tear whatever the sea throws into its grinning jaws. Is itpossible, we ask, that water, ami water alone, has done all this . And if chance would the stoutest ship that ever Moated have . It was only a year or two ago, that a north-bound schooner struck heavilyon Bunkin Island reef. Look off, a short mile out
The Pine-tree coast . res upon acresof jagged ledges, blackened as by fire, ripped up as by an earthquake, some-times set upright in ragged rows, like grave-stones, sometimes resembling thebroken tusks of some prehistoric monster that has been turned to stone, hutcan still bite and tear whatever the sea throws into its grinning jaws. Is itpossible, we ask, that water, ami water alone, has done all this . And if chance would the stoutest ship that ever Moated have . It was only a year or two ago, that a north-bound schooner struck heavilyon Bunkin Island reef. Look off, a short mile out. where the sea breaksviciously at the right of yonder island ! That is the very place. It was a darkwinters night, — just what the sailor most dreads, — with a cold needle-pointeddrizzle freezing to everything as it fell, and the wind blowing a stiff gale fromthe northeast. The captain had lost his reckoning,—in fact, he was standingstraight for the land without knowing it ; so before any one thought id danger,. Ioisox ivv. 104 THE PINE-TREE COAST. the vessel was on the reef, among the roaring breakers, where no seamanshipcould avail. The crew gave themselves up for lost, as every monster breakerthat drove in over the reef lifted the doomed vessel clear of the rocks, only tolet her down again with a crash that threatened to break every timber in herstout frame. Wood and iron could not long withstand that pounding. Fearingthat the masts would fall and kill them, the sailors kept below, and in terrorwatched for the moment when the wreck should go to pieces, and all be swal-lowed up in the waves. A miracle saved them. The schooner actually poundedover the reef into deeper water, where, though foundering, she still kept free of the rocks, she drove right on till this ragged shore again broughther up, and this time held her fast. She soon went to pieces. I saw her stemsticking up among the rocks where her perilous voyage had ended. When thetide fell, the crew got
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