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Late at night, the watchers on the shore at Cohasset, three miles away, heard the tolling of the lighthouse bell, and through the flying scud caught occasional glimpses of the light; but morning showed nothing left of the structure except twisted stumps of iron piles, bent and gnarled, as though the waves which tore them to pieces had been harder than they.
Some of the islands lay in the shade, dark and gloomy, while others were bright and favored spots. The white lighthouse was sometimes very cheerfully marked. There was a schooner about a mile from the shore, at anchor, laden apparently with lumber. The sea all about her had the black, iron aspect which I have described; but the vessel herself was alight.
To leeward of the lighthouse the collision or meeting of the waves produced a pure white kind of drift: it rose about thirty feet in height, like a fine downy mist, which, in its fall, fell upon the face and hands more like a dry powder than a liquid substance.
I had long planned to take a sea voyage, and when I got this news I decided to go at once, and bring her back. Then I was to renew my search for you. "An agent in San Francisco told me of a vessel about to sail for Hong Kong, and I deserted my post at the lighthouse and sailed. I admit I did wrong in leaving so suddenly, but it seemed to be the best thing to do.
A storm in the winter is the time to visit it a lighthouse or a fisherman's hut the true hotel. A man may stand there and put all America behind him." This was all true in Thoreau's day and long after.
"Like enough," said Peterson; and so gently we moved on up the dredged channel, and at last made fast at the tumble-down wharf of the lighthouse; courteously waiting for the little craft of the tender to make its landing.
In ancient times the chief fort or castle was called the "morro," or Moorish tower, because it was generally round; and San Juan, like Havana, has its Morro as the most prominent point of its fortifications. It stands on a bluff jutting out from the city walls and has a lighthouse immediately in the rear of it.
Presently a light breeze sprang up, rolling the fog before it, and then dying away, leaving the lighthouse enshrouded. During fog there is more danger to shipping than at any other time. In the daytime, in ordinary weather, rocks and lighthouses can be seen. At nights lights can be seen, but during fog nothing can be seen until danger may be too near to be avoided.
Many people would have thought it dull, for we seldom saw a strange face, and the lighthouse men were only allowed to go on shore for a few hours once in every two months. But I was very happy, and thought there was no place in the world like our little island. Close to the tower of the lighthouse was the house in which I and my grandfather lived.
The island being so high it afforded a fine view of the country round. On the one side rose the heavily wooded slopes of the mainland, with the spires and roofs of St. Pierre in the distance. A mile or so to the left of St. Pierre a lighthouse stood out in the water, gleaming white against the dark land behind it. It was only visible by day, however, for it was no longer used as a beacon.
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