d up, consisted of a store
of meat and of several gallons of beer, that is to say enough to sustain
them for three days, the time which Harding assigned for the expedition.
They hoped besides to supply themselves on the road, and Neb took care
not to forget the portable stove.

The only tools the settlers took were the two woodmen's axes, which
they could use to cut a path through the thick forests, as also the
instruments, the telescope and pocket-compass.

For weapons they selected the two flint-lock guns, which were likely
to be more useful to them than the percussion fowling-pieces, the first
only requiring flints which could be easily replaced, and the latter
needing fulminating caps, a frequent use of which would soon exhaust
their limited stock. However, they took also one of the carbines and
some cartridges. As to the powder, of which there was about fifty pounds
in the barrel, a small supply of it had to be taken, but the engineer
hoped to manufacture an explosive substance which would allow them to
husband it. To the firearms were added the five cutlasses well sheathed
in leather, and, thus supplied, the settlers could venture into the vast
forest with some chance of success.

It is useless to add that Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb, thus armed, were
at the summit of their happiness, although Cyrus Harding made them
promise not to fire a shot unless it was necessary.

At six in the morning the canoe put off from the shore; all had
embarked, including Top, and they proceeded to the mouth of the Mercy.

The tide had begun to come up half an hour before. For several hours,
therefore, there would be a current, which it was well to profit by, for
later the ebb would make it difficult to ascend the river. The tide was
already strong, for in three days the moon would be full, and it was
enough to keep the boat in the center of the current, where it floated
swiftly along between the high banks without its being necessary
to increase its speed by the aid of the oars. In a few minutes the
explorers arrived at the angle formed by the Mercy and exactly at the
place where, seven months before, Pencroft had made his first raft of
wood.

After this sudden angle the river widened and flowed under the shade of
great evergreen firs.

The aspect of the banks was magnificent. Cyrus Harding and his
companions could not but admire the lovely effects so easily produced
by nature with water and trees. As they advanced the forest