That notion was soon given over
(эта затея вскоре была брошена;descended [dɪ`sendɪd] formidable [`fɔ:mɪdəbl] quarter [`kwɔ:tə] strength [streŋθ]
IT was broad day when I awoke, and found myself tossing at the south-west end of Treasure Island. The sun was up, but was still hid from me behind the great bulk of the Spy-glass, which on this side descended almost to the sea in formidable cliffs.
Haulbowline Head and Mizzen-mast Hill were at my elbow; the hill bare and dark, the head bound with cliffs forty or fifty feet high, and fringed with great masses of fallen rock. I was scarce a quarter of a mile to seaward, and it was my first thought to paddle in and land.
That notion was soon given over. Among the fallen rocks the breakers spouted and bellowed; loud reverberations, heavy sprays flying and falling, succeeded one another from second to second; and I saw myself, if I ventured nearer, dashed to death upon the rough shore, or spending my strength in vain to scale the beetling crags.
Nor was that all
(но это было не все); for crawling together on flat tables of rocks (ползавших на плоских столах = плитах скал) or letting themselves drop into the sea with loud reports (или прыгавших в воду с громким звуком), I beheld huge slimy monsters (я увидел огромных скользких чудовищ) — soft snails as it were (как мягкие слизняки они были;I have understood since that they were sea lions
(я узнал впоследствии, что они были морскими львами), and entirely harmless (совершенно безобидными). But the look of them (но их вид), added to the difficulty of the shore (вдобавок к трудности = крутизне берега;