"
HELL'S HOLE
The next day the big ram went around with the boy on his back, and
showed him the island. It consisted of a single massive mountain. It was
like a large house with perpendicular walls and a flat roof. First the
ram walked up on the mountain-roof and showed the boy the good grazing
lands there, and he had to admit that the island seemed to be especially
created for sheep. There wasn't much else than sheep-sorrel and such
little spicy growths as sheep are fond of that grew on the mountain.
But indeed there was something beside sheep fodder to look at, for one
who had gotten well up on the steep. To begin with, the largest part of
the sea--which now lay blue and sunlit, and rolled forward in glittering
swells--was visible. Only upon one and another point, did the foam spray
up. To the east lay Gottland, with even and long-stretched coast; and to
the southwest lay Great Karl's Island, which was built on the same plan
as the little island. When the ram walked to the very edge of the
mountain roof, so the boy could look down the mountain walls, he noticed
that they were simply filled with birds' nests; and in the blue sea
beneath him, lay surf-scoters and eider-ducks and kittiwakes and
guillemots and razor-bills--so pretty and peaceful--busying themselves
with fishing for small herring.
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