ut between his
friends and him a barrier still more impassable.

On the 27th of September a circumstance occurred deserving of note.

If it gave more work to Godfrey and his two companions, it at least
assured them of an abundant reserve of food.

Godfrey and Carefinotu were busied in collecting the mollusks, at the
extreme end of Dream Bay, when they perceived out at sea an innumerable
quantity of small moving islets which the rising tide was bringing
gently to shore. It was a sort of floating archipelago, on the surface
of which there walked, or flew, a few of those sea-birds, with great
expanse of wing, known as sea-hawks.

What then were these masses which floated landwards, rising and falling
with the undulations of the waves?

Godfrey did not know what to think, when Carefinotu threw himself down
on his stomach, and then drawing his head back into his shoulders,
folded beneath him his arms and legs, and began to imitate the movements
of an animal crawling slowly along the ground.

Godfrey looked at him without understanding these extraordinary
gymnastics. Then suddenly--

"Turtles!" he exclaimed.

Carefinotu was right. There was quite a square mile of myriads of
turtles, swimming on the surface of the water.

About a hundred fathoms from the shore the greater part of them dived
and disappeared, and the sea-hawks, finding their footing gone, flew up
into the air in large spirals. But luckily about a hundred of the
amphibians came on to the beach.

Godfrey and the negro had quickly run down in front of these creatures,
each of which measured at the least from three to four feet in diameter.
Now the only way of preventing turtles from regaining the sea is to turn
them on their backs; and it was in this rough work that Godfrey and
Carefinotu employed themselves, not without great fatigue.

The following days were spent in collecting the booty. The flesh of the
turtle, which is excellent either fresh or preserved, could perhaps be
kept for a time in both forms. In preparation for the winter, Godfrey
had the greater part salted in such a way as to serve for the needs of
each day. But for some time the table was supplied with turtle soup, on
which Tartlet was not the only one to regale himself.

Barring this incident, the monotony of existence was in no way ruffled.
Every day the same hours were devoted to the same work. Would not the
life become still more depressing when the winter season would oblige
Go