The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

ack against the current. Whatever the stuff is, we don't want to crash into it at this
speed!"
They did as Drinian said, and so continued to go slower and slower. The whiteness did
not get any less mysterious as they- approached it. If it was land it must be a very strange
land, for it seemed just as smooth as the water and on the same level with it. When they
got very close to it Drinian put the helm hard over and turned the Dawn Treader south so
that she was broadside on to the current and rowed a little way southward along the edge
of the whiteness. In so doing they accidentally made the important discovery that the
current was only about forty feet wide and the rest of the sea as still as a pond. This was
good news for the crew, who had already begun to think that the return journey to
Ramandu's land, rowing against stream all the way, would be pretty poor sport. (It also
explained why the shepherd girl had dropped so quickly astern. She was not in the
current. If she had been she would have been moving east at the same speed as the ship.)
And still no one could make out what the white stuff was. Then the boat was lowered and
it put off to investigate. Those who remained on the Dawn Treader could see that the boat
pushed right in amidst the whiteness. Then they could hear the voices of the party in the
boat clear across the still water) talking in a shrill and surprised way. Then there was a
pause while Rynelf in the bows of the boat took a sounding; and when, after that, the boat
came rowing back there seemed to be plenty of the white stuff inside her. Everyone
crowded to the side to hear the news.
"Lilies, your Majesty!" shouted Rynelf, standing up in the bows.
"What did you say?" asked Caspian.
"Blooming lilies, your Majesty," said Rynelf. "Same as in a pool or in a garden at home."
"Look!" said Lucy, who was in the stern of the boat. She held up her wet arms full of
white petals and broad flat leaves.
"What's the depth, Rynelf?" asked Drinian.
"That's the funny thing, Captain," said Rynelf. "It's still deep. Three and a half fathoms
clear."
"They can't be real lilies - not what we call lilies," said Eustace.
Probably they were not, but they were very like them. And when, after some consultation,
the Dawn Treader turned back into the current and began to glide eastward through the
Lily Lake or the Silver Sea (they tried both these names but it was the Silver Sea that
stuck and is now on Caspian's map) the strangest part of their travels began. Very soon
the open sea which they were leaving was only a thin rim of blue on the western horizon.
Whiteness, shot with faintest colour of gold, spread round them on every side, except just
astern where their passage had thrust the lilies apart and left an open lane of water that