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The appearance
of the island when I came on deck next morning was altogether
changed. Although the breeze had now utterly failed, we had made a
great deal of way during the night, and were now lying becalmed
about half a mile to the south-east of the low eastern coast.
Grey-coloured woods covered a large part of the surface. This even
tint was indeed broken up by streaks of yellow sandbreak in the
lower lands, and by many tall trees of the pine family, out-topping
the others - some singly, some in clumps; but the general colouring
was uniform and sad. The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in
spires of naked rock. All were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass,
which was by three or four hundred feet the tallest on the island,
was likewise the strangest in configuration, running up sheer from
almost every side, then suddenly cut off at the top like a pedestal
to put a statue on.
From 'Treasure Island' by Robert Louis Stevenson. Published in
Puffin Books 1994.
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