Isles of the Sea by Oliver Optic

As soon as the lecture of Mr. Mapps was ended, all hands were allowed to go on shore. The elegant barge of the Marian had gone directly from the American Prince to the landing-place, having on board Don Roderigue and his daughter. The boat was pulled by four seamen with a coxswain in the stern, all attired in holiday uniforms; and the barge was fitted up as gayly as a festive gondola in the Grand Canal of Venice, for the young lady and her father.

"Here we are! " exclaimed Lieut. Scott, as he stepped on the shore with Capt. Wainwright. "I had an idea we should hear immense flocks of canary-birds whistling in the island, and be in canary-seed up to our knees."

"Of course you did not expect to see canary-birds in the streets of a city, unless you saw them in cages," added the captain. "Didn't the professor just tell you these birds came from the island of Alegranza?"

"I supposed he only said that to get off that jawbreaker. I couldn't tell the names of more than two of these islands after he had given them all."

"That was because you had not looked them up beforehand. Most of them are given on the chart of the North Atlantic."

"I am not so much of a bookworm as some of the fellows."

"Here comes Dr. Winstock," continued Wainwright, as the captain's barge of the Prince came up to the landing.

"I suppose he will convoy us here, as he has before," added Scott. "I wonder if there is a place on the face of the earth where he has not been."

"He was a surgeon in the navy for a good many years; and I suppose our men-of-war have visited all these islands."

"Are you willing to take us in tow, doctor? " asked Scott, as the surgeon, attended by Capt. Sheridan and Lieut. Murray, approached them.

"I shall be very happy to do so if you won't labor too hard with those tremendous jokes of yours," replied the doctor, laughing.

"I don't think I labor very hard at them. I try to be as solemn as an owl; but somehow I don't get along worth a cent," pleaded Scott.

"I should be sorry to have you break your back by struggling in the other direction; and I have not the slightest objection to your jokes; only labor not to be funny."

"I strive not to do so; and I have rejected some of the best things ever thought of, because I found I had been studying upon them."

"Doubtless you did wisely. But we will commence our walk," added Dr. Winstock, as he led the way from the shore. "I suppose you noticed the appearance of the island from the ships?"

"I noticed it during the whole of my watch yesterday," replied Scott; "and I thought it looked more like a busted volcano than any thing I ever saw before."

"At a distance the mountain near the centre seems to be the whole island; and some of the pictures of the peak make it rise directly from the sea."

"The whole thing looked like a cinder just raked out of a blacksmith's forge. It don't look so now."

"It reminds me of Greece, where the hills are red and barren. There appears to be no room for the cultivation of any thing on this island, as you look at it from the sea; for we cannot see any thing of its beautiful valleys and plains enclosed by mountains. But the appearance is not very far from the fact, for not more than one-seventh of the whole surface of the island can be cultivated; but the arable land is immensely productive."

"What do they raise here? " asked Murray.