his
forecastle to lie in. Right under the hatch, where the light was
strongest, was a dead rat. I stooped to pick it up, meaning to fling it
on to the deck, but its tail broke off at the rump, like a pipe-stem.

Close against the after bulkhead that separated the forecastle from the
cook-room was a little hatch. There was a quantity of wearing-apparel
upon it, and I should have missed it but for catching sight of some
three inches of the dark line the cover made in the deck. On clearing
away the clothes I perceived a ring similar to that in the lazarette
hatch, and it rose to my first drag and left me the hold yawning black
below. I peered down and observed a stout stanchion traversed by iron
pins for the hands and feet. The atmosphere was nasty, and to give it
time to clear I went to the cook-house and warmed myself before the
fire.

The fresh air blowing down the forecastle hatch speedily sweetened the
hold. I lowered the lanthorn and followed, and found myself on top of
some rum or spirit casks, which on my hitting them returned to me a
solid note. There was a forepeak forward in the bows, and the casks
went stowed to the bulkhead of it; the top of this bulkhead was open
four feet from the upper deck, and on holding the lanthorn over and
putting my head through I saw a quantity of coals. If the forepeak went
as low as the vessel's floor, then I calculated there would not be less
than fifteen tons of coal in it. This was a noble discovery to fall
upon, and it made me feel so happy that I do not know that the assurance
of my being immediately rescued from this island could have given a
lighter pulse to my heart.

The candle yielded a very small light, and it was difficult to see above
a yard or so ahead or around. I turned my face aft, and crawled over the
casks and came to under the main-hatch, where lay coils of hawser,
buckets, blocks, and the like, but there was no pinnace, though here she
had been stowed, as a sailor would have promptly seen. A little way
beyond, under the great cabin, was the powder-magazine, a small
bulkheaded compartment with a little door, atop of which was a small
bull's-eye lamp. I peered warily enough, you will suppose, into this
place, and made out twelve barrels of powder. I heartily wished them
overboard; and yet, after all, they were not very much more dangerous
than the wine and spirits in the lazarette and fore-hold.

The run remained to be explored--the after part, I mean, under