their timber is now dry and seasoned, ready for
working up at once. But caution is called for in selecting those to be
cut down. Were they taken indiscriminately, much of Caesar's labour
might be thrown away; for, as has been said, many of the trees are
heart-decayed, without showing outward sign of it, the result of an
ever-humid atmosphere. Aware of this, Chips tries each one by tapping
it with the auger before Caesar lays his axe to it. [Note 1.]

For days after, the chipping strokes of the axe, with the duller thuds
of wood mallets on wedges, awaken echoes in the Fuegian forest such as
may never have been heard there before. When felled, the trunks are cut
to the proper length, and then split into rough planks by means of
wedges, and are afterwards smoothed with the knives.

With such insufficient tools, the work is necessarily slow, and is still
further retarded by another requirement, food, which has meanwhile to be
procured. The supply, however, proves less precarious than was
anticipated, the kelp-bed yielding an unlimited amount of shell-fish.
Daily at ebb-tide, when the rocks are uncovered, the two youths swim out
to it and bring off a good number of limpets and mussels; they also
continue to catch other fish, and now and then a calf seal is clubbed,
which affords a change of diet, a delicate one, too, the fry of the
young seal being equal to that of lamb. The scurvy-grass and wild
celery, moreover, enable "the doctor" to turn out more than one variety
of soup.

But for the still pervading fear of a visit from the savages, and other
anxieties about the future, their existence would be tolerable, if not
enjoyable. It is in no way monotonous, constant work in the
construction of the boat, with other tasks, securing them against that;
and, in such intervals of leisure as they have, kind Nature here, as
elsewhere, treats them to many a curious spectacle. One is afforded by
the "steamer-duck," [Note 2] a bird of commonest occurrence in Fuegian
waters; it is of the genera of Oceanic ducks or geese, having affinity
with both. It is of gigantic size, specimens having been taken over
three feet in length and weighing thirty pounds. It has an enormous
head--hence one of its names, Loggerhead duck--with a hard powerful beak
for smashing open the shells of molluscs, which form its principal food.
Its wings are so short and weak that flight in the air is denied it.
Still it uses them effectually in flapping,