eggs for breakfast, and to turn his thoughts in
some other direction.

It occurred to him that fresh eggs being, in the existing state of the
market, too expensive a luxury for breakfast, fresh fish might serve as
a very satisfactory substitute; he therefore made his way to the beach,
and taking his fishing-line, launched the raft and went off as far as
the inner edge of the reef, wondering meanwhile how the presence of
those domestic fowls could be accounted for upon the island. If the
_Mermaid_ had not obviously been wrecked too recently to admit of the
existence of so nourishing a brood, he would have thought that they must
have formed part of the live stock of that vessel, and that when she
struck and her decks were swept, the coops had been smashed and the
fowls had succeeded in effecting their escape to the shore. This,
however, was impossible on the face of it, and he knew not how otherwise
to account for it, unless they had been landed and left by some passing
ship, which seemed even more improbable.

He was not long in reaching the inner edge of the reef, where he laid in
his oars, baited his hook with one of a few shell-fish with which he had
provided himself for the purpose, and dropped the line into the water,
where it had not been above half a minute when he felt a tremendous tug.
Pulling up the line quickly, he found that he had captured a
magnificent nine-pounder in splendid condition, the fish being very like
a salmon in shape, make, and colour, excepting that it had a longer,
sharper head, and a finer tail. Securing his prize, he at once put
about and made for the shore, as he was anxious to reach the camp on the
other side of the island that evening.

Having caught his fish, the next question was how it could be cooked.
He had been revolving this matter in his mind on his return journey from
the reef, and remembered having somewhere read of a process which he
thought would suit his present condition. He remembered having noticed
an outcrop of clay not far from where he had camped on the previous
evening, and making his way to the spot, he secured a sufficient
quantity to serve his purpose. The next thing he required was a
quantity of leaves, and he plunged into the woods to search for some
which might be suitable. He found plenty, but they were all of a class
unknown to him, and as they would come into intimate contact with his
food in the process of cooking, he hesitated about making use of th