To my amazement I saw that their eyes were sightless, that the extreme heat of the waters had clouded their limpid orbs milk white and shut out the light forever!
A cold chill crept over me, for, to me, the spectacle was as uncanny as if the carp had sprung from the elder baron’s table and begun to swim about in their native element once more.
But the list of strange things was not yet exhausted, for as I drew nearer to the beach, you may imagine my mingled wonder and amusement at seeing scores of fish with their backs planted against the sand furrows, calmly fanning themselves with their broad, flat tails.
Upon setting foot upon the shore, I was astonished to find the land, for far as the eye could reach, covered deep with millions and millions of eggs of different sizes, varying from that of a pigeon to that of an albatross or wild goose.
In places these eggs lay in heaps far higher than my head; in others they were ranged in long lines, like white furrows turned by some gigantic plough!
Suddenly the truth dawned upon me. To these shores vast flocks of sea-birds came to lay their eggs year after year, attracted by the warmth of the atmosphere. There they build their rude nests and fill them with eggs and enter upon the task of hatching out their young, when suddenly the heated waters hurled by some gale or resistless current, rises upon their resting places and spreads death where life was just beginning, by cooking the countless thousands of eggs which fill their nests. And so on from year to year, until now I behold the work of a thousand floods, which have in turn added their contribution to this vast stock!
While standing on the shores of this wonderland, one morning, gazing out across the steaming surface of Neptune’s Caldron, several of my crew came running toward me with startled mien and great outcry, all pointing skyward. I turned and looked in the direction indicated.
A vast cloud, black and threatening, hung in the heavens.
As I stood watching it, it broadened and widened until it fairly darkened the light of day.
My men were now on their knees, uttering the most piteous lamentations, for they imagined the end of the world was at hand.