the real keel, and about five inches deep. He made
it of this depth because the boat would be thereby rendered not only
much more safe, but more able to beat against the wind--which, in a sea
where the trade-winds blow so long and so steadily in one direction, was
a matter of great importance. This piece of wood was pegged very firmly
to the keel; and we now launched our boat with the satisfaction of
knowing that when the false keel should be scraped off we could easily
put on another,--whereas, should the real keel have been scraped away,
we could not have renewed it without taking our boat to pieces, which
Peterkin said made his "marrow quake to think upon."

The mast and sail answered excellently; and we now sailed about in the
lagoon with great delight, and examined with much interest the
appearance of our island from a distance. Also, we gazed into the
depths of the water, and watched for hours the gambols of the curious
and bright-coloured fish among the corals and seaweed. Peterkin also
made a fishing-line; and Jack constructed a number of hooks, some of
which were very good, others remarkably bad. Some of these hooks were
made of iron-wood--which did pretty well, the wood being extremely
hard--and Jack made them very thick and large. Fish there are not
particular. Some of the crooked bones in fish-heads also answered for
this purpose pretty well. But that which formed our best and most
serviceable hook was the brass finger-ring belonging to Jack. It gave
him not a little trouble to manufacture it. First he cut it with the
axe, then twisted it into the form of a hook. The barb took him several
hours to cut. He did it by means of constant sawing with the broken
penknife. As for the point, an hour's rubbing on a piece of sandstone
made an excellent one.

It would be a matter of much time and labour to describe the appearance
of the multitudes of fish that were day after day drawn into our boat by
means of the brass hook. Peterkin always caught them--for we observed
that he derived much pleasure from fishing--while Jack and I found ample
amusement in looking on, also in gazing down at the coral groves, and in
baiting the hook. Among the fish that we saw, but did not catch, were
porpoises and swordfish, whales and sharks. The porpoises came
frequently into our lagoon in shoals, and amused us not a little by
their bold leaps into the air and their playful gambols in the sea. The
swordfish were wonde