d he might find a particular sort of
little fish, that greatly resembled the Norfolk Hog-fish, one of the
most delicious little creatures for the pan that is to be found in all
the finny tribe. He had been gone a couple of hours, when Mark, who was
at work within the crater, picking up the encrusted ashes that formed
its surface, heard Bob's shout outside, as if he wished assistance.
Throwing down the pick, our young man ran out, and was not a little
surprised to see the sort of cargo with which Bob was returning to port.
It would seem that a great collection of sea-weed had formed to windward
of the rock where Bob had gone to fish, at which spot it ordinarily
gathered in a pile until the heap became too large to lodge any longer,
when, owing to the form of the rock, it invariably broke adrift, and
passed to the southward of the Reef, floating to leeward, to fetch up on
some other rock, or island, in that direction. Bob had managed to get
this raft round a particular point in the reef, when the wind and
current carried it, as near as might be, directly towards the crater. He
was calling to Mark to come to his assistance, to help get the raft into
a sort of bay, ahead of him, where it might be lodged; else would there
be the danger of its drifting past the Reef, after all his pains. Our
young man saw, at once, what was wanted, got a line, succeeded in
throwing it to Bob, and by hauling upon it brought the whole mass ashore
in the very spot Betts wished to see it landed.

This sea-weed proved to be a great acquisition on more accounts than
one. There was as much of it in quantity as would have made two
good-sized loads of hay. Then, many small shell-fish were found among
it, which the pigs and poultry ate with avidity. It also contained
seeds, that the fowls picked up as readily as if it had been corn. The
hogs moreover masticated a good deal of the weed, and poor Kitty, the
only one of the domestic animals on the Reef that was not now living to
its heart's content, nibbled at it, with a species of half-doubting
faith in its salubrity. Although it was getting to be late in the
afternoon, Mark and Bob got two of Friend Abraham White's pitchforks
(for the worthy Quaker had sent these, among other implements of
husbandry, as a peace-offering to the Fejee savages), and went to work
with a hearty good-will, landed all this weed, loaded it up, and wheeled
it into the crater, leaving just enough outside to satisfy the pigs and
t