d and slimy as it was. I drank it in large
quantities, for it was hot, and only moistened my palate without
quenching the craving of my appetite. Of water there was enough; I had
more to fear from want of food.

"What could I eat? The ibis. But how to cook it? There was nothing
wherewith to make a fire--not a stick. No matter for that. Cooking is
a modern invention, a luxury for pampered palates. I divested the ibis
of its brilliant plumage, and ate it raw. I spoiled my specimen, but at
the time there was little thought of that: there was not much of the
naturalist left in me. I anathematised the hour I had ever promised to
procure the bird. I wished my friend up to his neck in a swamp.

"The ibis did not weigh above three pounds, bones and all. It served me
for a second meal, a breakfast; but at this _dejeuner sans fourchette_ I
picked the bones.

"What next? starve? No--not yet. In the battles I had had with the
alligators during the second night, one of them had received a shot that
proved mortal. The hideous carcass of the reptile lay dead upon the
beach. I need not starve; I could eat that. Such were my reflections.
I must hunger, though, before I could bring myself to touch the musky
morsel.

"Two more days' fasting conquered my squeamishness. I drew out my
knife, cut a steak from the alligator's tail, and ate it--not the one I
had first killed, but a second; the other was now putrid, rapidly
decomposing under the hot sun: its odour filled the islet.

"The stench had grown intolerable. There was not a breath of air
stirring, otherwise I might have shunned it by keeping to windward. The
whole atmosphere of the islet, as well as a large circle around it, was
impregnated with the fearful effluvium. I could bear it no longer.
With the aid of my gun, I pushed the half-decomposed carcass into the
lake; perhaps the current might carry it away. It did: I had the
gratification to see it float off.

"This circumstance led me into a train of reflections. Why did the body
of the alligator float? It was swollen--inflated with gases. Ha!

"An idea shot suddenly through my mind--one of those brilliant ideas,
the children of necessity. I thought of the floating alligator, of its
intestines--what if I inflated them? Yes, yes! buoys and bladders,
floats and life-preservers! that was the thought. I would open the
alligators, make a buoy of their intestines, and that would bear me from
the islet!