"Hallo!" cried Pencroft, "here is Neb turning up his nose at my gulf, just as I was thinking of presenting it to America!"
"But, at any rate, is the water deep enough?" asked the engineer, "for a depth sufficient for the keel of the Bonadventure, would not be enough for those of our iron-clads."
"That is easily found out," replied Pencroft.
And the sailor sounded with a long cord, which served him as a lead-line, and to which was fastened a lump of iron. This cord measured nearly fifty fathoms, and its entire length was unrolled without finding any bottom.
"There," exclaimed Pencroft, "our iron-clads can come here after all! They would not run aground!"
"Indeed," said Gideon Spilett, "this gulf is a regular abyss; but, taking into consideration the volcanic origin of the island, it is not astonishing that the sea should offer similar depressions."
"One would say too," observed Herbert, "that these cliffs were perfectly perpendicular; and I believe that at their foot, even with a line five or six times longer, Pencroft would not find the bottom."
"That is all very well," then said the reporter; "but I must point out to Pencroft that his harbour is wanting in one very important respect!"
"And what is that, Mr. Spilett?"
"An opening, a cutting of some sort, to give access to the interior of the island. I do not see a spot on which we could land."