during the following night they were awakened by a terrific crashing and splintering noise coming from their minute jungle ; when some of the bolder spirits went to investigate in the morning they found that the trees had been smashed in a broad swathe that started on the hubmost shore of the atoll and made a line of total destruction pointing precisely edgewise , littered with broken lianas , crushed bushes and a few bewildered and angry oysters .