ed a most intimate acquaintance, for more than one hard day's work
had I done in helping to spread them over my uncle's land, where they
were used as manure for potatoes.

After having satisfied myself with a survey of the tall signal-staff,
and guessed at the dimensions of the barrel at the top, I turned away
from it, and commenced wandering over the reef. This I did to see if I
could find some curious shell or other object that would be worth
carrying back with me--something to keep as a memento of this great and
hitherto pleasant excursion.

It was not such an easy matter getting about; more difficult than I had
imagined. I have said the stones were coated over with a slimy
substance, and this made them slippery too. Had they been well soaped,
they could not have been smoother to the tread; and before I had
proceeded very far, I got a tolerably ugly fall, and several severe
scrambles.

I hesitated as to whether I should go farther in that direction, which
was to the opposite side from where I had left the boat; but there was a
sort of peninsula jutting out from the main part of the reef; and near
the end of this I saw what I fancied to be a collection of rare shells,
and I was now desirous of possessing some. With this view, then, I kept
on.

I had already observed several sorts of shells among the sand that lay
between the boulders, some with fish in them, and others opened and
bleached. None of these kinds were new to me, for I had seen them all
many a time before--even in the potato-field, where they turned up among
the wreck. They were only blue mussels, and a sort the farm people
called "razors," and "whelks," and common "cockle-shells." I saw no
oysters, and I regretted this, for I had grown hungry and could have
eaten a dozen or two; but it was not the ground for these. Plenty of
little crabs and lobsters there were, but these I did not fancy to eat
unless I could have boiled them, and that of course was not possible
under the circumstances.

On my way to the front of the peninsula, I looked for "sea-urchin," but
none fell in my way. I had often wished to get a good specimen of this
curious shell, but without success. Some of them turned up now and then
upon the beach near our village, but they were not allowed to lie long.
As they made a pretty ornament for the mantel-shelf, and were rare upon
our coast, it was natural they should be prized above the common kinds,
and such was in reality the c