troduced himself as Green, the oldest inhabitant of the island and
with whom Captain Brown had already had an acquaintance of some years'
duration--cordially invited Fritz to land, the skipper having explained
that he wished to see the place and hear all about it. He told the
brothers aside, however, that perhaps they'd better not mention their
intention of settling on Inaccessible Island, for the inhabitants of
Tristan, who sent expeditions every year on sealing excursions there,
might not like to hear this news.

While on their way to the shore with the old man and four of the
islanders--the other Tristaners remaining on board the ship to select
certain articles they required from her stores and arrange for the
barter of fresh meat and potatoes with Captain Brown in exchange--Fritz
observed that, some distance out from the land, there was a sort of
natural breakwater, composed of the long, flat leaves of a giant species
of seaweed which grew up from the bottom, where its roots extended to
the depth of fifteen fathoms. This, old Green pointed out, prevented
the rollers, when the wind was from the westward, from breaking too
violently on the shore, between which and the floating weed was a belt
of calm water, as undisturbed as the surface of a mountain tarn.

The landing-place was of fine black sand, showing the volcanic character
of the mountain peak above, which Green said was over eight thousand
feet high and had an extinct crater on the top; and, when Fritz and his
brother had jumped out of the boat, they proceeded up to the little
settlement of the islanders, which was called "Edinburgh" out of
compliment to his Royal Highness Prince Alfred, who had visited the
place when cruising in HMS _Galatea_, just four years before their
landing.

The village consisted of some dozen cottages or so, roughly built of
square blocks of hewn stone dovetailed into each other, without mortar,
and thatched with tussock-grass. The houses were scattered about, each
in its own little garden, enclosed by walls of loosely piled stones
about four feet high; but, as it was now the early spring of Tristan,
these had very little growing in them. One of the enclosures, Fritz
noticed, had a lot of marigolds in flower, another, several dwarf
strawberry plants just budding, while a third was filled with young
onions; but the majority displayed only the same coarse, long tussock-
grass with which the cottages were thatched.

When the broth