d crest, its flocks of sea-gulls, its
sloping east end, where he stood, running down to a low point. He had
seen them all at a distance before; and now that he stood here, he
recognized all.

He was on Ile Haute!

The moment that he recognized this startling fact, he thought of his
boat. He hurried to the beach. The tide was very low. To his immense
relief he found the fastening of the boat secure, and he turned away at
once, without any further examination, to think over his situation, and
consider the best plan for reaching the main land. Making a
comfortable seat for himself on the sail, he sat down, and drawing out
the box, he took some biscuit. Then feeling thirsty, he went off in
search of fresh water. Before he had walked many paces he found a
brook.

The brook was a small one, which ran from the lofty west end of the
island to the low land of the east, and thence into the bay. The water
was good, and Tom satisfied his thirst by a long draught.

Judging by the position of the sun, it was now about seven o'clock in
the morning; and Tom seated himself once more, and began to try to
think how it was that he should have come in a direction so entirely
different from the one which he had believed himself to be taking. He
had fully expected to land at Petitcodiac, and he found himself far
away on the other side of the bay. Yet a little reflection showed him
how useless it was to try to recall his past voyage, and how impossible
it was for him to account for it, ignorant as he was of the true
direction of the wind and of the tide. He contented himself with
marking a rude outline of his course on his memorandum book, making
allowance for the time when he turned on that course; and having summed
it all up to his own satisfaction in a crooked line which looked like a
slip-knot, he turned his attention to more important matters.

There was one matter of first-rate importance which now pressed itself
upon his thoughts, and that was, how to escape from his present
situation. As far as he could see, there was no inhabitant on the
island, no house, no cultivation, and no domestic animal. If there had
been anything of that kind, they would be visible, he knew, from the
point where he was standing. But all was deserted; and beyond the open
ground in his neighborhood arose the east end, wooded all over its
lofty summit. From Captain Corbet's words, and from his own
observation, he knew that it was a desert islan