{"id":"01KG6YH8ZF4R8R2BX2PT693WHP","cid":"bafkreihg6mvjwruhvbxzd6sk67mtsk77n65ipjmp7glguoeswtin5dgvju","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6511,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":6442,"text":"called, were discovered. Though I know of no account as to whether any\r\nof them were found inhabited or no, it may be reasonably concluded that\r\nthey have been immemorial solitudes. But let us return to Redondo.\r\n\r\nSouthwest from our tower lies all Polynesia, hundreds of leagues away;\r\nbut straight west, on the precise line of his parallel, no land rises\r\ntill your keel is beached upon the Kingsmills, a nice little sail of,\r\nsay 5000 miles.\r\n\r\nHaving thus by such distant references—with Rodondo the only possible\r\nones—settled our relative place on the sea, let us consider objects not\r\nquite so remote. Behold the grim and charred Enchanted Isles. This\r\nnearest crater-shaped headland is part of Albemarle, the largest of the\r\ngroup, being some sixty miles or more long, and fifteen broad. Did you\r\never lay eye on the real genuine Equator? Have you ever, in the largest\r\nsense, toed the Line? Well, that identical crater-shaped headland\r\nthere, all yellow lava, is cut by the Equator exactly as a knife cuts\r\nstraight through the centre of a pumpkin pie. If you could only see so\r\nfar, just to one side of that same headland, across yon low dikey\r\nground, you would catch sight of the isle of Narborough, the loftiest\r\nland of the cluster; no soil whatever; one seamed clinker from top to\r\nbottom; abounding in black caves like smithies; its metallic shore\r\nringing under foot like plates of iron; its central volcanoes standing\r\ngrouped like a gigantic chimney-stack.\r\n\r\nNarborough and Albemarle are neighbors after a quite curious fashion. A\r\nfamiliar diagram will illustrate this strange neighborhood:\r\n\r\n [Illustration]\r\n\r\nCut a channel at the above letter joint, and the middle transverse limb\r\nis Narborough, and all the rest is Albemarle. Volcanic Narborough lies\r\nin the black jaws of Albemarle like a wolf’s red tongue in his open\r\nmonth.\r\n\r\nIf now you desire the population of Albemarle, I will give you, in\r\nround numbers, the statistics, according to the most reliable estimates\r\nmade upon the spot:\r\n\r\nMen, \tnone. Ant-eaters,\tunknown. Man-haters,\tunknown.\r\nLizards,\t500,000. Snakes,\t500,000. Spiders,\t10,000,000.\r\nSalamanders,\tunknown. Devils,\tdo. Making a clean total\r\nof\t11,000,000,\r\n\r\nexclusive of an incomputable host of fiends, ant-eaters, man-haters,\r\nand salamanders.\r\n\r\nAlbemarle opens his mouth towards the setting sun. His distended jaws\r\nform a great bay, which Narborough, his tongue, divides into halves,\r\none whereof is called Weather Bay, the other Lee Bay; while the\r\nvolcanic promontories, terminating his coasts, are styled South Head\r\nand North Head. I note this, because these bays are famous in the\r\nannals of the Sperm Whale Fishery. The whales come here at certain\r\nseasons to calve. When ships first cruised hereabouts, I am told, they\r\nused to blockade the entrance of Lee Bay, when their boats going round\r\nby Weather Bay, passed through Narborough channel, and so had the\r\nLeviathans very neatly in a pen.\r\n\r\nThe day after we took fish at the base of this Round Tower, we had a\r\nfine wind, and shooting round the north headland, suddenly descried a\r\nfleet of full thirty sail, all beating to windward like a squadron in\r\nline. A brave sight as ever man saw. A most harmonious concord of\r\nrushing keels. Their thirty kelsons hummed like thirty harp-strings,\r\nand looked as straight whilst they left their parallel traces on the\r\nsea. But there proved too many hunters for the game. The fleet broke\r\nup, and went their separate ways out of sight, leaving my own ship and\r\ntwo trim gentlemen of London. These last, finding no luck either,\r\nlikewise vanished; and Lee Bay, with all its appurtenances, and without\r\na rival, devolved to us.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGBW6TDDHGY5MJRJDQ5QF","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH8ZFY54MBD38H4BKYSM3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH8ZFA8XSSMQS87TEC94M","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:56.079Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:06.658Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}