Prince Caspian 贾思潘王子 Chapter 1　The Island -4

When they were dressed again they set out along the shore with the sea on their left hand and the wood on their right.

Except for an occasional seagull it was a very quiet place.

The wood was so thick and tangled that they could hardly see into it at all; and nothing in it moved - not a bird, not even an insect.

Shells and seaweed and anemones, or tiny crabs in rockpools, are all very well, but you soon get tired of them if you are thirsty.

The children's feet, after the change from the cool water, felt hot and heavy. Susan and Lucy had raincoats to carry.

Edmund had put down his coat on the station seat just before the magic overtook them, and he and Peter took it in turns to carry Peter's great-coat.

Presently the shore began to curve round to the right. About quarter of an hour later, after they had crossed a rocky ridge which ran out into a point, it made quite a sharp turn.

Their backs were now to the part of the sea which had met them when they first came out of the wood, and now, looking ahead, they could see across the water another shore, thickly wooded like the one they were exploring.

"I wonder, is that an island or do we join on to it presently?" said Lucy.

"Don't know," said Peter and they all plodded on in silence.

The shore that they were walking on drew nearer and nearer to the opposite shore, and as they came round each promontory the children expected to find the place where the two joined.

But in this they were disappointed. They came to some rocks which they had to climb and from the top they could see a fairway ahead and - "Oh bother!" said Edmund,

"it's no good. We shan't be able to get to those other woods at all. We're on an island!"

It was true. At this point the channel between them and the opposite coast was only about thirty or forty yards wide; but they could now see that this was its narrowest place.

After that, their own coast bent round to the right again and they could see open sea between it and the mainland.

It was obvious that they had already come much more than halfway round the island.