{"id":"01KG6YH8FG2DDTD6CP1VVHD9P5","cid":"bafkreiepprby4jlkvngajaxvv347yzanudvnkbigucoim4ja7bd7peaxse","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6224,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":6155,"text":"SKETCH THIRD.\r\nROCK RODONDO.\r\n\r\n“For they this tight the Rock of vile Reproach,\r\nA dangerous and dreadful place,\r\nTo which nor fish nor fowl did once approach,\r\nBut yelling meaws with sea-gulls hoars and bace\r\nAnd cormoyrants with birds of ravenous race,\r\nWhich still sit waiting on that dreadful clift.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“With that the rolling sea resounding soft\r\nIn his big base them fitly answered,\r\nAnd on the Rock, the waves breaking aloft,\r\nA solemn ineane unto them measured.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“Then he the boteman bad row easily,\r\nAnd let him heare some part of that rare melody.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“Suddeinly an innumerable flight\r\nOf harmefull fowles about them fluttering cride,\r\nAnd with their wicked wings them oft did smight\r\nAnd sore annoyed, groping in that griesly night.”\r\n\r\n\r\n“Even all the nation of unfortunate\r\nAnd fatal birds about them flocked were.”\r\n\r\n\r\nTo go up into a high stone tower is not only a very fine thing in\r\nitself, but the very best mode of gaining a comprehensive view of the\r\nregion round about. It is all the better if this tower stand solitary\r\nand alone, like that mysterious Newport one, or else be sole survivor\r\nof some perished castle.\r\n\r\nNow, with reference to the Enchanted Isles, we are fortunately supplied\r\nwith just such a noble point of observation in a remarkable rock, from\r\nits peculiar figure called of old by the Spaniards, Rock Rodondo, or\r\nRound Rock. Some two hundred and fifty feet high, rising straight from\r\nthe sea ten miles from land, with the whole mountainous group to the\r\nsouth and east. Rock Rodondo occupies, on a large scale, very much the\r\nposition which the famous Campanile or detached Bell Tower of St. Mark\r\ndoes with respect to the tangled group of hoary edifices around it.\r\n\r\nEre ascending, however, to gaze abroad upon the Encantadas, this\r\nsea-tower itself claims attention. It is visible at the distance of\r\nthirty miles; and, fully participating in that enchantment which\r\npervades the group, when first seen afar invariably is mistaken for a\r\nsail. Four leagues away, of a golden, hazy noon, it seems some Spanish\r\nAdmiral’s ship, stacked up with glittering canvas. Sail ho! Sail ho!\r\nSail ho! from all three masts. But coming nigh, the enchanted frigate\r\nis transformed apace into a craggy keep.\r\n\r\nMy first visit to the spot was made in the gray of the morning. With a\r\nview of fishing, we had lowered three boats and pulling some two miles\r\nfrom our vessel, found ourselves just before dawn of day close under\r\nthe moon-shadow of Rodondo. Its aspect was heightened, and yet\r\nsoftened, by the strange double twilight of the hour. The great full\r\nmoon burnt in the low west like a half-spent beacon, casting a soft\r\nmellow tinge upon the sea like that cast by a waning fire of embers\r\nupon a midnight hearth; while along the entire east the invisible sun\r\nsent pallid intimations of his coming. The wind was light; the waves\r\nlanguid; the stars twinkled with a faint effulgence; all nature seemed\r\nsupine with the long night watch, and half-suspended in jaded\r\nexpectation of the sun. This was the critical hour to catch Rodondo in\r\nhis perfect mood. The twilight was just enough to reveal every striking\r\npoint, without tearing away the dim investiture of wonder.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBW6GAC082J1TCC47K17","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH8FGYPFKXEYPRD1K6H3X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.568Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:06.351Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}