It was called "The Bay of the Fifteen Islets," and the action took place on St. John's Eve off the coast of Sicily.
It was the name of those islets where vessels under the Count de La Pérouse had miscarried. I straightened suddenly.
At this spot the Amazon appears under a truly grandiose aspect, but its course is more than ever encumbered with islands and islets.
It was four or five miles wide, and was gemmed with green islets; and all round, appearing through the clouds in jagged outline, were the opal summits of the snowy peaks.
The tiny microscopic animals that secrete this polypary live by the billions in the depths of their cells. Their limestone deposits build up into rocks, reefs, islets, islands. In some places, they form atolls, a circular ring surrounding a lagoon or small inner lake that gaps place in contact with the sea.