anquil as a pond.

Luckily the weed-bed is not continuous, but traversed by an irregular
sort of break, through which it seems practicable to make way. Into
this the gig is directed, and pulled through with vigorous strokes.
Five minutes afterward her keel grates upon a beach, against which,
despite the tumbling swell outside, there is scarce so much as a ripple.
There is no better breakwater than a bed of kelp.

The island proves to be a small one--less than a mile in diameter--
rising in the centre to a rounded summit, three hundred feet above
sea-level.

It is treeless, though in part overgrown with a rank vegetation, chiefly
tussac-grass [Note 2], with its grand bunches of leaves, six feet in
height, surrounded by plume-like flower-spikes, almost as much higher.

Little regard, however, do the castaways pay to the isle or its
productions. After being so long tossed about on rough seas, in
momentary peril of their lives, and eating scarcely a mouthful of food
the while, they are now suffering from the pangs of hunger. On the
water this was the last thing to be thought of; on land it is the first;
so as soon as the boat is brought to her moorings, and they have set
foot on shore, the services of Caesar the cook are called into
requisition.

As yet they scarcely know what provisions they have with them, so
confusedly were things flung into the gig. An examination of their
stock proves that it is scant indeed: a barrel of biscuits, a ham, some
corned beef, a small bag of coffee in the berry, a canister of tea, and
a loaf of lump sugar, were all they had brought with them. The
condition of these articles, too, is most disheartening. Much of the
biscuit seems a mass of briny pulp; the beef is pickled for the second
time (on this occasion with sea-water); the sugar is more than half
melted; and the tea spoiled outright, from the canister not having been
water-tight. The ham and coffee have received least damage; yet both
will require a cleansing operation to make them fit for food.

Fortunately, some culinary utensils are found in the boat the most
useful of them being a frying-pan, kettle, and coffeepot. And now for a
fire!--ah, the fire!

Up to this moment no one has thought of a fire; but now needing it, they
are met with the difficulty, if not impossibility, of making one. The
_mere_ work of kindling it were an easy enough task, the late occupant
of the _Calypso's_ caboose being provided with flint, st