We stationed ourselves on the narrow isthmus within a few rods of each other, while a boatman went round to the opposite side to lay on the dogs.

Then volcanic cliffs, a sandy isthmus, and a cluster of masts and funnels got distinct, and Lister fixed the glasses on a white stripe across a cinder hill.

As to the obstruction we had seen indicated on the chart, that proved to be the ruins of an old bridge extending out from the mainland along the submerged isthmus.

[Illustration: GADABOUT LOOKING FOR THE LOST ISTHMUS.]

The south-east portion was almost cut off from the mainland by a narrow, marshy isthmus about two miles wide, over which the natives dragged their canoes with little difficulty.

North Holland touched Friesland, and where the gulf now extends there was a vast region sprinkled with fresh-water lakes, the largest of which, the Flevo, mentioned by Tacitus, was separated from the sea by a fertile and populous isthmus.

Now Thapsus is situated on a kind of peninsula, with the sea on one side and a marsh stretching along on the other: between them lies a narrow, swampy isthmus so that one has access to the town from two directions by an extremely narrow road running along both sides of the marsh close to the surf.

At the height of our interest, the flow of life across the historic isthmus lost colour, then died away.

Across the little isthmus which connected this peninsula with the mainland they built a strong fence, or stockade, to keep the Indians away from their huts.