y companions and myself. When a second book was
required of me, I stuck to the same regions, but changed the locality.
While casting about in my mind for a suitable subject, I happened to
meet with an old, retired "Nor'wester" who had spent an adventurous life
in Rupert's Land. Among other duties he had been sent to establish an
outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company at Ungava Bay, one of the most
dreary parts of a desolate region. On hearing what I wanted, he sat
down and wrote a long narrative of his proceedings there, which he
placed at my disposal, and thus furnished me with the foundation of
_Ungava, a tale of Eskimo-Land_.

But now I had reached the end of my tether, and when a third story was
wanted I was compelled to seek new fields of adventure in the books of
travellers. Regarding the Southern seas as the most romantic part of
the world--after the backwoods!--I mentally and spiritually plunged into
those warm waters, and the dive resulted in _The Coral Island_.

It now began to be borne in upon me that there was something not quite
satisfactory in describing, expatiating on, and energising in, regions
which one has never seen. For one thing, it was needful to be always
carefully on the watch to avoid falling into mistakes geographical,
topographical, natural-historical, and otherwise.

For instance, despite the utmost care of which I was capable, while
studying up for _The Coral Island_, I fell into a blunder through
ignorance in regard to a familiar fruit. I was under the impression
that cocoa-nuts grew on their trees in the same form as that in which
they are usually presented to us in grocers' windows--namely, about the
size of a large fist with three spots, suggestive of a monkey's face, at
one end. Learning from trustworthy books that at a certain stage of
development the nut contains a delicious beverage like lemonade, I sent
one of my heroes up a tree for a nut, through the shell of which he
bored a hole with a penknife and drank the "lemonade"! It was not till
long after the story was published that my own brother--who had voyaged
in Southern seas--wrote to draw my attention to the fact that the
cocoa-nut is nearly as large as a man's head, and its outer husk over an
inch thick, so that no ordinary penknife could bore to its interior! Of
course I should have known this, and, perhaps, should be ashamed of my
ignorance--but, somehow, I'm not!

I admit that this was a slip, but such, and other sl