ght have a supply of vegetables anon.

At first sight, there did not appear to be any means of exit from this
little valley; for, the steep cliffs that hedged in its sides and back
lifted themselves skywards to the height of nearly a thousand feet,
while their fronts were generally so smooth and perpendicular that it
would have been impossible even for a monkey to have climbed them--much
less human beings, albeit one was a sailor and pretty well accustomed to
saltatory feats! But, on their inspecting the apparently insurmountable
breastwork a little closer, Fritz noticed, as the young Tristaner had
pointed out to them, that, by the side of the gorge through which the
waterfall made its erratic descent to the lower level, the face of the
cliff was more strongly indented; so that, by using the tussock-grass,
which grew there in great abundance, as a sort of scaling ladder, and
taking advantage of the niches in the rock to step upon where this
failed, the summit could be thus easily gained. The top, however, was
so far away from the beach and the foothold so insecure that the work of
ascending the crag would be a most hazardous proceeding at the best of
times, to the elder brother at all events.

While Fritz was thus cogitating, and diligently studying the features of
the scene around, Eric was waiting for him impatiently at the door of
the rough-looking hut which the sailors had built for them under the
superintendence of Captain Brown and the Tristaner.

The young sailor was too restless to remain quiet very long.

"Do come along, brother!" he called out after a while. "What a time you
are, to be sure; we'll never be able to unpack our things before it's
dark, unless you look sharp!"

"All right, I'm coming," replied the other; and he was soon by the side
of Eric, who had already begun to overhaul the various articles that had
been brought up from the boat by the sailors and piled up in a corner of
the hut.

"What a lot of things!" exclaimed the lad. "Why, there are ever so many
more parcels than I thought there were!"

"Yes," said his brother; "it is all that good Captain Brown's doing, I
suppose. When we were parting, he told me that he had left me a few
`notions,' besides our own traps."

"He has too, brother. Just look here at this barrel of beef; you didn't
pay him for that, eh?"

"No," said Fritz; "I only bought some pork and ship's biscuits, besides
flour and a few groceries."

"Then he has thoug