{"id":"01KG8AKYJM7TST8NMV7G6B6RFT","cid":"bafkreifnzbizxkjxnoub6gwytjgyjx3kdebxmyrmoowjhkpzbsbbn7ccsi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5939,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.023Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":5886,"text":"No voice, no low, no howl is heard; the chief sound of life here is a\r\nhiss.\r\n\r\nOn most of the isles where vegetation is found at all, it is more\r\nungrateful than the blankness of Aracama. Tangled thickets of wiry\r\nbushes, without fruit and without a name, springing up among deep\r\nfissures of calcined rock, and treacherously masking them; or a parched\r\ngrowth of distorted cactus trees.\r\n\r\nIn many places the coast is rock-bound, or, more properly,\r\nclinker-bound; tumbled masses of blackish or greenish stuff like the\r\ndross of an iron-furnace, forming dark clefts and caves here and there,\r\ninto which a ceaseless sea pours a fury of foam; overhanging them with\r\na swirl of gray, haggard mist, amidst which sail screaming flights of\r\nunearthly birds heightening the dismal din. However calm the sea\r\nwithout, there is no rest for these swells and those rocks; they lash\r\nand are lashed, even when the outer ocean is most at peace with,\r\nitself. On the oppressive, clouded days, such as are peculiar to this\r\npart of the watery Equator, the dark, vitrified masses, many of which\r\nraise themselves among white whirlpools and breakers in detached and\r\nperilous places off the shore, present a most Plutonian sight. In no\r\nworld but a fallen one could such lands exist.\r\n\r\nThose parts of the strand free from the marks of fire, stretch away in\r\nwide level beaches of multitudinous dead shells, with here and there\r\ndecayed bits of sugar-cane, bamboos, and cocoanuts, washed upon this\r\nother and darker world from the charming palm isles to the westward and\r\nsouthward; all the way from Paradise to Tartarus; while mixed with the\r\nrelics of distant beauty you will sometimes see fragments of charred\r\nwood and mouldering ribs of wrecks. Neither will any one be surprised\r\nat meeting these last, after observing the conflicting currents which\r\neddy throughout nearly all the wide channels of the entire group. The\r\ncapriciousness of the tides of air sympathizes with those of the sea.\r\nNowhere is the wind so light, baffling, and every way unreliable, and\r\nso given to perplexing calms, as at the Encantadas. Nigh a month has\r\nbeen spent by a ship going from one isle to another, though but ninety\r\nmiles between; for owing to the force of the current, the boats\r\nemployed to tow barely suffice to keep the craft from sweeping upon the\r\ncliffs, but do nothing towards accelerating her voyage. Sometimes it is\r\nimpossible for a vessel from afar to fetch up with the group itself,\r\nunless large allowances for prospective lee-way have been made ere its\r\ncoming in sight. And yet, at other times, there is a mysterious\r\nindraft, which irresistibly draws a passing vessel among the isles,\r\nthough not bound to them.\r\n\r\nTrue, at one period, as to some extent at the present day, large fleets\r\nof whalemen cruised for spermaceti upon what some seamen call the\r\nEnchanted Ground. But this, as in due place will be described, was off\r\nthe great outer isle of Albemarle, away from the intricacies of the\r\nsmaller isles, where there is plenty of sea-room; and hence, to that\r\nvicinity, the above remarks do not altogether apply; though even there\r\nthe current runs at times with singular force, shifting, too, with as\r\nsingular a caprice.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK2X95MW8MXF3N2304VRG","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKYJMJ3XKMDDE4SPR99XK","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKYJVJ4MVNJ36Q38KFRGT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.076Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.981Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}