too much of the element,
perhaps, but Mark observed that a tropical sun would soon remove that
objection. His great apprehension was that he had commenced his
gardening too late, and that the dry weather might set in too soon for
the good of his vegetables; if any of them, indeed, ever came up at all.
Here was one good soaking secured, at all events; and, knowing the
power of a tropical sun, Mark was of opinion that the fate of the great
experiment he had tried would soon be known. Could he succeed in
producing vegetation among the _debris_ of the crater, he and Bob might
find the means of subsistence during their natural lives; but, should
that resource fail them, all their hopes would depend on being able to
effect their escape in a craft of their own construction. In no case,
however, but that of the direst necessity, did Mark contemplate the
abandonment of his plan for getting back to the inhabited world, his
country, and his bride!

That night our mariners had a sounder sleep than they had yet been blest
with since the loss of their shipmates, and the accident to the vessel
itself. The two following days they passed in securing the ship. Bob
actually made a very respectable catamaran, or raft, out of the spare
spars, sawing the topmasts and lower yards in two, for that purpose, and
fastening them together with ingenuity and strength, by means of
lashings. But Mark hit upon an expedient for getting the two kedges
ashore, that prevented the necessity of having recourse to the raft on
that occasion. These kedges lay on the poop, where they were habitually
kept, and two men had no great difficulty in getting them over the
stern, suspended by stoppers. Now Mark had ascertained that the rock of
the Reef rose like a wall, being volcanic, like all the rest of the
formation, and that the ship could float almost anywhere alongside of
it. Aided by the rake of the stern of an old-fashioned Philadelphia-built
ship, nothing was easier than to veer upon the cable, let the vessel drop
in to the island, until the kedges actually hung over the rocks, and then
lower the last down. All this was done, and the raft was reserved for
other purposes. Notwithstanding the facility with which the kedges were
got ashore, it took Mark and Bob quite half a day to plant them in the
rock precisely where they were wanted. When this was accomplished,
however, it was so effectually done as to render the hold even greater
than that of the sheet-anchor