Other end of the island

After lunch, Link and Vernon went back to the cave, while Lucas and
Todd were playing a game of pool. The laptop wasn't fully charged yet
so they spent time looking at some of the artifacts. Vernon said he
really needed much more time to go through the stuff. There were so
many barrels, crates and boxes that contain things they couldn't even
begin to look through. Vernon said that he would like to have the
artifacts put in a museum if Linc didn't object. Linc said he wanted
that too, but what museum, and where?
Vernon said when he got back to Utah he would like to tell a few other
anthropologists about the stash here. He didn't need to tell anyone
where it is, just that he had access to it, and it may well be the
stuff from the French museum that disappeared during the first world
war. That along with a bunch of photos of some of the artifacts
should convince them that they all need to get together and find a
secure building for a new museum for it all.
Linc told Vernon to tell them, If they could all come up with a
building, he would take care of seeing the material transported to it.
Vernon said he hoped Linc could do just that. Linc told him, he could
do it.

They took some of the artifacts out to the kitchen and put them on the
table to take pictures. Vernon told Linc that he and Todd could sleep
down here at the cave and he could take more pictures before they went
to bed. Linc made a note to look for some clean bedding for the beds
in one of the dressers.
While Vernon took more pictures, Linc found the clean bedding, took
the spreads off the beds and made them up.

Linc said they really should be thinking about getting back to the
house and fix supper.
After supper they sat out on the veranda and talked until it was almost dark.
Vernon and Todd took some bottles of water with them and headed for
the cave while Lucas and Linc went off to bed.

The next morning Linc woke up to the smell of coffee. He went into the
kitchen, poured a cup and went out onto the veranda to find Vernon and
Todd sitting in the sunshine drinking theirs. A few minutes later
Lucas came out and joined them.

After breakfast, Linc told Vernon that he and the others were going to
explore the other end of the island after he was all set up in the
cave to start collecting info on the artifacts.
Linc was concerned about the walk to the other end of the island might
be too much for Lucas, but Lucas told him he felt fine and if he got
tired he would stop and rest a bit.
At the cave, while Vernon was getting setup, Linc got a hammer and a
chisel out of a tool kit in the pantry, and put them in a bag.

As they walked down the beach, Linc noticed that the beach was getting
much wider, and there were a few rocks and small bushes. Some of the
rocks were out in the water in places and there were a few tidal pools
by them. The further they walked, the more rocks and even some stuff
that had washed up on the beach. Seaweed, clam shells, crab shells and
even some driftwood. Tiny crabs was sliding in and out of it too.
As they walked, Linc noticed that the sand was not as solid near the
water, and was making the walking harder for Lucas so they went up
closer to the mountain.
There were a lot more rocks and brush up there but it was a lot easier
walking. Some of the shrubs had flowers and the bees were all over
them.
Todd had said he thought the end was a mile away, but Linc figured
they had already went over a mile and a half. He was about to ask
Lucas if he wanted to rest a bit, when Todd yelled and ran around a
couple of huge boulders. As they followed him, they saw that he had
climbed up on another huge boulder and was pointing up at the
mountain. As they got closer to him, they looked up at the mountain
and saw that there was a huge bowl in the side of it. Trees, vines,
shrubs, and a beautiful waterfall cascading in steps down the face of
it too. Linc could clearly see that this island was just the top of an
extinct volcano that had blown out at the side.
As they went around a big boulder, there were some smaller ones by a
huge pool of sparkling clear water that the waterfall fell into.
Lucas sat down on one of them by the pool to rest. Todd took off his
boots and jumped off the boulder into the pool and swam over to them.
As Linc looked around he could see coconut and date palm trees.
Looked like a few avocados and mangos too. Lots of birds that look
like parakeets flying around as well. He thought that this island was
in a tropical place for sure now.
Linc could see that there were a lot of rocks around the pool.
Material from the blowout Some of the boulders must have been from
the side of the volcano itself, and were mostly a basalt. Dark grey,
and a lighter grey that had a lot of tiny quartz particles in it, and
others were a couple of different types of lava ejected from the
explosion. A bit of tufa was in some of the chunks. That made them
quite friable.
Linc walked over to the pool and looked in. He could see where the
force of the water had scoured the bottom right down to bedrock, that
was black and shiny like a mirror. The water cascaded over the rocks
at the edge and flowed down the beach to the ocean.
Linc left the bag by Lucas and Todd sitting on the rocks, and followed
the stream down to the ocean. It had worn down through the sand to
the bedrock in quite a few places and made small pools. There were
quite a few flowering shrubs growing along side of it, and Linc
wandered in between them until he came out, looking at a long stretch
of beach between him and the waters edge. He walked clear down to
where the stream entered the ocean.
He walked back up through the rocks, trees and shrubs to the pool
where the others were. He saw that Todd had climbed out of the pool,
dripped off and put his boots back on. He picked up the bag and asked
Todd where the cave was. Todd led them around some big boulders and
pointed toward the mountain. He told them he almost missed it, but
saw how the bees were swarming up above to an overhanging ledge, where
he could see a huge honey combs hanging and bees swarming all over it.
Looking below it he saw another opening through the brush and trees.
They all went through the vegetation and went into the cave. It was
really an old lava tube.
The tube was quite large, almost cave like, here at the opening. They
saw along one side of it, wood had been stacked with an axe laying on
it. A shovel was sitting there as well. There was a nice fire pit in
the front of the cave with a grate on it, and a rusty iron pot sitting
there. On the other side were some rocks with a couple of crab traps
on it. The trunk was up against the wall of the cave so they drug it
out into the middle of the cave. Linc tapped the hinges and the hasp
with the hammer to loosen the corrosion, then used the chisel to pop
the hasp and to pry up the lid.
There was a tray in the top of the trunk that contained a few
toiletries and a fire starting kit.
Linc took the tray out and put it aside. In the trunk was two old
musty bedrolls, a pair of pants some old newspapers and a book. On the
inside cover was written, Claude Hancks So Claude and Marchard must
have stayed in this cave while the big cave was being formed.
As Linc and Lucas were looking at the book, Todd took the bag and
left the cave.
Lucas said the book was a volume of poetry, and browsed through it
reading a line or two here and there in it. It had beautiful
illustrations in it.
Todd came back to the cave with a bag of mangos and avocados. He
showed Linc and asked how the fruit, shrubs and critters came to be on
an island so far from land. Linc explained that millions of years ago
this volcano might have erupted many times very close to the mainland
to form an island. It was a very old island because a lot of it had
crumbled into sandy beaches. After the side blew out from the last
eruption, and the water began to fall , the big birds, could have
nested in the rocks, leaving seeds to grow. Bees and smaller birds
came as the trees and shrubs grew. Then as the tectonic plates
drifted apart, the island had moved away from the mainland to the
middle of the ocean.

They went back to the big cave where Vernon was still trying to finish
up. He was in one of the rooms trying to get a picture of the room
but told them the light from the lamp was not bright enough and his
phone didn't have a flash. He asked Linc if he had a camera, to which
Linc said no. Todd popped up with, " I have one in my pack, and no I
didn't take any island pictures either." "That's my man" said Linc
as Todd went for the camera.
After taking some pictures of several rooms, The took the laptop to
recharge and went up to the house for lunch.
After lunch, they sat around and talked about finding a museum, the
book from the trunk and the other end of the island. After a while,
Vernon said, " I'm at a standstill here, why don't we go back to the
cabin and finish out the rest of our time here. Todd and I can get in
some more fishing, Ok"? Linc told them to gather up their stuff, and
they went back to the cabin.

At the cabin the next morning after breakfast, Linc heard Vernon tell
Todd he was going to catch the most fish. He had to smile to himself,
because Vernon used to tell him the same thing when he was a kid.

To be continued.