arely lays up store for the
future, and hence is often in terrible straits, at the very point of
starvation. Clearly, it is so with those just landed; and having eaten
up everything eatable that they can lay their hands on, there is a
scattering off amongst the trees in quest of their most reliable food
staple--the beech-apple. Some go gathering mussels and limpets along
the strand, while the more robust of the women, under the direction of
the old men, proceed to the construction of wigwams. Half a score of
these are set up, long branches broken from the trees furnishing the
rib-poles, which are roofed over with old seal-skins taken out of the
canoes. In a wonderfully short time they are finished, almost as
quickly as the pitching of a soldier's tent. When ready for occupation,
fires are kindled in them, around which the wretched creatures crouch
and shiver, regardless of smoke thick and bitter enough to drive a
badger from its hole. It is this that makes them blear-eyed, and even
uglier than Nature intended them to be. But the night is now near
beginning, a chill, raw evening, with snow falling, and they can better
bear smoke than cold. Nor are they any longer hungry. Their search for
shell-fish and fungus has been rewarded with success, and they have
eaten gluttonously of both.

Meanwhile, our friends the castaways have been left to themselves, for
the time undisturbed, save by the dogs, which give them almost
continuous trouble. The skulking curs, led by one of their kind, form a
ring around the camp, deafening the ears of its occupants with their
angry baying and barking. Strangely enough, as if sharing the antipathy
of their owners, they seem specially hostile to "the doctor," more
furiously demonstrating their antagonism to him than to any of the
others. The poor fellow is kept constantly on the alert to save his
shins from their sharp teeth.

Late in the evening, the old chief, whom the others call Annaqua ("the
arrow") pays the camp a visit, professing great friendship, and again
going through the patting and "chucking" process as before. But his
professions ill correspond with his acts, as the aged sinner is actually
detected stealing the knife of Seagriff himself, and from his person,
too!--a feat of dexterity worthy the most accomplished master of
legerdemain, the knife being adroitly abstracted from its sheath on the
old sealer's hip during the exchange of salutations. Fortunately, the
theft