Fire Island

“ There was plenty of light for the evolutions, so hoisting sails which looked orange in the glow, they ran for the first opening they could find in the reef, passed through in safety, and stood out to sea, where they lay to a few miles away, watching the awfully grand display of fire, rising fountain-like from the volcano, down whose sides golden and blood-red water seemed to be running in streams. ”

“ We went southward down the island on the side of the lagoon, walking through long-drawn forest aisles of palm, and on a floor of snowy sand. No life was abroad, nor sound of life; till in a clear part of the isle we spied the embers of a fire, and not far off, in a dark house, heard natives talking softly. To sit without a light, even in company, and under cover, is for a Paumotuan a somewhat hazardous extreme. ”

“ As we move away southwardly, the receding outlines of the island look more and more volcanic. A chain of hills and cones, all very green, and connected by strips of valley-land so low that the edge of the sea-circle on the other side of the island can be seen through the gaps. We steam past truncated hills, past heights that have the look of the stumps of peaks cut half down,—ancient fire-mouths choked by tropical verdure. ”

“ When night fell, all retired to their improvised couches, it being considered unnecessary to keep a watch; for they replenished the fire so thoroughly before turning in that it would burn until morning. And if the ships should by any chance happen to sight the island during the night, they must inevitably see the fire, built as it was on the highest point of the bank, and, seeing it, would know that the castaways were alive on the island. ”

“ At four o'clock we came in sight of land stretching before Long Island. It was Fire Island. In the center rose a lighthouse, which shone over the surrounding land. The passengers again invaded the upper decks and bridges. ”

“ But the fire stopped you. And if it hadn't been for the fire, Uncle Dick never would have been aroused to the necessity of leaving his business long enough to [80] make us a visit, and if it hadn't been for the visit you never would have had this position in Salesbury."
"That's so," Alec assented, gravely. "It's a whole chain of those islands that you and Aunt Eunice are always singing about. I'll make a map of them some day and name each one: 'Fire Island,' 'Isle of Uncle Dick,' etc. Then I'll name the whole group after you: 'Flip's Providence Islands,' or something like that." ”

“ It is the Opinion of some ingenious Persons who have lived twenty Years upon the Place, that the whole Island being a Soil mightily impregnated with Brimstone, did in former Times take Fire, and blow up all or near all at the same Time; and that many Mountains of huge Stones calcined and burnt, which appear all over this Island, especially in the South-West Part of it, were cast up and raised out of the Bowels of the Earth at the Time of that general Conflagration ”

“ So anxious were they to get across, that the Beach seemed much wider than they had ever imagined. At last they reached the ridge 117 of hills that lie on the inner side of the surf strand, shutting out all view of the ocean, and toiled to the top. The hills seemed very steep and high to them, for in all their lives they had never been away from the low and level south side of the Island.
Reaching the top, that far and mighty prospect of the great deep burst upon them. ”

“ They must resign themselves to bear the cold with fortitude, and when the dry season returned would undertake a great hunt of the moufflons, which they had seen on Mount Franklin, and whose wool the engineer could surely make into warm thick cloth. He would think over the method.
“Well, we must toast ourselves before the fire!” said Pencroff.” There’s plenty of fire wood, no reason for sparing it.”
“Besides,” added Spilett, “Lincoln Island is not in very high latitude, and the winters are probably mild. ”

“ By this time, the Pasha, grabbing a large fire-extinguisher, tore down the stairs and went headlong down to the beach. The rest of the maskers were not slow to follow so that before the third explosion sounded they all were near enough to see by the reflection of the flare that a blazing launch was stranded on Isola Bella and already, like a torch, one of the fir trees was burning fiercely.
The danger was evident to all for even the youngest Islander knew that if once the firs caught fire, the entire island was doomed ”

“ The removal of the flag and flagstaff; the "hole" in the hill; the fire in the forest; the branded bull, all indicated that people had, at various times, visited the island. But the finding of their boat, with the positive evidence furnished by the oar and the rope, was conclusive, and what made it the more interesting was the fact that the island must have had such a visit within two, or at the most, not over three months ago.
Each was too busy to give much time for discussing the probabilities. They had entirely forgotten the cave. ”

“ In expressing an opinion that these people have no means of passing the water, it must be understood to be a deduction from our having met with no canoe, or the remains of any about the port; nor with any tree in the woods from which a sufficient size of bark had been taken to make one. Upon Boston Island, however, there were abundant marks of fire; but they had the appearance, as at Thistle's Island, of having been caused by some conflagration of the woods several years before, rather than of being the small fire places of the natives. ”

“ Everything of value on board was taken to the island, even the iron-work of the ship itself being removed, and when the Bounty was reduced to an empty and useless hulk, she was set on fire and burnt to the water-edge, that no passing ship might see any trace of inhabitants on the lonely island where these unhappy men sought to hide themselves. ”

“ You have a look, Panton.”
The latter took the glass and stood sweeping the mountain slope for some minutes, during which Smith and Wriggs sat down, and lit their pipes for a restful smoke.
“All plain enough, as far as I can judge, my lads. That dark part in the most wooded district is an old volcano, and this that we are on seems to be quite new and active. I should say this island has been quiescent for hundreds of years before it burst out into eruption, and sent up this great pile of rock and ashes. Now then, what next?”
“Back to the tent before we are overtaken by the darkness,” said Drew. ”

“ At one time it seemed so low that it occurred to me it was some exhalation from the lake, a vapour produced by the vast collections of vegetable remains accumulated on its margin. To put an end to my doubts on this score, I climbed up a tree, and there I discovered—victory and release from my enforced captivity—that it was the smoke from a fire burning in the interior of [57] the island. A fire! The island was undoubtedly inhabited, then—inhabited, too, by human beings, since man alone can procure himself fire, man alone knows how to use it, and man alone has need of it. ”

“ Our first thoughts were that we could remain on the island and escape the fury of the flames, and so we might have done had we possessed water sufficient to quench not only our own thirst but that of the animals. A moment's reflection, however, convinced us that we could not exist for half a day where we were, with a scorching sun overhead and a roaring fire in front, and that, if we intended to escape, we must begin to make preparations without delay, as every second the flames increased and extended on all sides. ”

“ Well, about the Deadman’s Island affair. One Saturday afternoon in midsummer four of us—Robert Branks, a brother of Mrs. Doctor Powell, William Galley, James Estall and a fourth whose name I cannot now remember hired a boat at Lachapelle’s, near James Bay Bridge, and made for Deadman’s Island. We enjoyed the luxury of running about the island like the savages on Robinson Crusoe’s island, then dived into deep water, swam around for a time and landed to dry and warm ourselves at a fire we had made for that purpose. All boys know that a fire is indispensable to swimming and bathing. ”

“ The way affairs were run on that little island was something to be proud of, as he well knew, and which even a distinguished camper and woodsman must admire. The boys were busy describing the wonders of Ellen’s Isle and kept saying, “Wait until you see our girls. Wait until you see Sahwah dive off the bow of the war canoe and Gladys hold a parasol over her head when she swims. Wait until you eat some of Hinpoha’s slumgullion!”
“I’m surprised they’re not all down on the landing waiting for us,” said Mr. Evans, as they ran the launch in. “They generally are. But they’ll be down immediately.” ”

“ This island is surrounded by a chain, and there is a ring of fire seven miles wide between the chain and the castle. No man can come near the island without breaking the chain, and the moment the chain is broken the fire stops burning at that place; and the instant the fire goes down the knight rushes out and attacks and slays every man that's before him." [217] The king of Greece, Cucúlin, and Lug Longhand now sailed on in the speckled boat towards the island of the Flood. ”

“ Fire is an important factor in the ecology of the tree-island glades, just as it is in the pineland. Here, too, artificial barriers such as canals and roads have hindered the spread of natural fires. There is some evidence that tree islands were scattered more thinly over the sawgrass prairie a half-century ago, when a single fire might wipe out scores of them and destroy much of the bed of peat that provided a foothold for them. A bird’s-eye view of the glades region today shows many tree islands that have been established in recent decades. ”

“ Fire-wood there is none throughout the whole island. The rich inhabitants have it brought from Norway or Denmark; the poor burn turf, to which they frequently add bones and other offal of fish, which naturally engender a most disagreeable smoke. ”

“ It may safely be assumed that the fire, and the thick wreaths of smoke then visible were like those of to-day, the result of man's hands, and not of subterranean forces—in fact, kindled in all probability by fishermen, who were clearing this uninhabitable island of the close impervious brushwood that so greatly impedes locomotion, and were rendering it capable of being traversed, as well as susceptible of cultivation. ”

“ As Apes’ Island was everywhere densely covered with forest and undergrowth it was exceedingly probable that, unless something unforeseen occurred to extinguish the fire, every living thing upon it would be destroyed, except such creatures as might essay to swim the Middle Channel and take refuge upon West Island. ”

“ During our stay the island was fired, in order to remove the "spear-grass," which is so destructive to cattle. The fire spread over the whole island, and continued to rage for several days, consuming not only all the grass, but also a great quantity of scrub, and laying bare a vast extent of arid stony surface. It was now an easy matter to collect land-shells, for they lay dead in prodigious numbers on the bare summits of the hills as well as in the hollows, gullies, and other more likely places. ”

“ On November 29, from seven oʼclock in the evening, the volcano threw up more fire than all put together in the preceding seven months. The burning column seemed to mingle with the clouds; the whole of the island was one ignited mass. A wind blew. And as the priests and the mayor (Alcalde) were just remarking that the fire might reach the town, a mass of stones was thrown up with great violence ”

“ The winters in the latitude of Sullivan’s Island are seldom very severe, and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a fire is considered necessary. ”

“ Last Island has gone! How it went I first heard from the lips of a veteran pilot, while we sat one evening together on the trunk of a drifted cypress which some high tide had pressed deeply into the Grande Isle beach. The day had been tropically warm; we had sought the shore for a breath of living air. Sunset came, and with it the ponderous heat lifted,—a sudden breeze blew,—lightnings flickered in the darkening horizon,—wind and water began to strive together,—and soon all the low coast boomed. Then my companion began his story; perhaps the coming of the storm inspired him to speak! ”

“ The “Gov’ment” had never felt it necessary to build a pier at Friar’s Island, so the only way to land the stores and the barrels of oil was to lower a few of them at a time from the tender into the little boat, row them back to the shore, and then haul them up by a derrick to a small platform that jutted out from the rocks. It was Pacific Ocean, you know, straight up to the island, with no friendly bay or shallow water, just wild surf and big breakers to the very base of the unfriendly cliffs. ”

“ I could in time build some kind of a boat, and reach the Society Islands to the northward of me, or the South American coast to the eastward, or even New Zealand to the westward. I was not without hope, and, although far from cheerful in my dreadful solitude, I could not but think that I should be comparatively happy and contented if I felt sure of my island being uninhabited; but I dreaded, in my exploration about to be undertaken, to come suddenly upon some savage village, that would destroy all my desire to still live, and almost put me in a mood to take my own life with my [84] own hands. ”

“ Though there is no pass, the surf at high tide breaches over the gaps between the islands. The largest island is only a mile and a half long, and none of them are more than half a mile across. Dotted about the surface of the lagoon are a number of motu—tiny islets—each with its flock of sea fowl, its clump of palms, and shining beach of coral sand. Set in a lonely stretch of the Pacific, the place is almost cut off from communication with the outside world; twice or three times in the course of a year a trading schooner calls to leave supplies and take off copra. ”