Already there is a movement afoot in England to establish a colony in the Marquesas. Permission has somehow been obtained from the French Government—a process comparable with the extraction of a particularly obstinate winkle from its shell—to purchase blocks of land, and distribute them amongst intending settlers who already number over a thousand.
"Lucky thousand!" say I, "and good luck to them!"
THE PAUMOTU ISLANDS
The people of the atolls—including Mr. Mumpus
Chapter X headpiece
CHAPTER X
The people of the atolls—including Mr. Mumpus
From the moment I first set eyes on an atoll it fascinated me, and its lure has not departed with the years.
Think of any place in the world that you have seen, and an atoll is different. It is the fairy ring of the sea. Out of the depths it comes, rearing a vegetation and people of its own, and often into the depths it goes, leaving no trace. How? Why? Scientists murmur something about the coral polyp; but, not being a scientist, I prefer my theory of the fairy ring. That was how it looked to me many years ago, and that was how it looked again from the masthead of the dream ship.