noon
As close in as we dared cruise , we found fathomless depths , and always the same undented coastline of bald cliffs . As darkness threatened , we drew away and lay well off the coast all night . We had not as yet really commenced to suffer for lack of water ; but I knew that it would not be long before we did , and so at the first streak of dawn I moved in again and once more took up the hopeless survey of the forbidding coast . Toward noon we discovered a beach , the first we had seen . It was a narrow strip of sand at the base of a part of the cliff that seemed lower than any we had before scanned . At its foot , half buried in the sand , lay great boulders , mute evidence that in a bygone age some mighty natural force had crumpled Caprona 's barrier at this point . It was Bradley who first called our attention to a strange object lying among the boulders above the surf .