among the tools, at the bottom he discovered three spare
heads. He had, however, to fix a handle to one of them. The first
thing to be done was to find a piece of wood suited for the purpose.
After hunting for some time, he discovered a piece of oak, washed ashore
from the wreck. On measuring it, he ascertained that it was large
enough to form three handles. Before, however, he could use a saw to
his satisfaction, he considered that it would be necessary to form a
stool, which he did from a piece of plank, with four stout legs fixed in
the ground, close to his hut. He could now shape the handles without
difficulty. Having sawn out one, he set to work with chisel and plane,
and quickly formed a long handle which pleased him well. Fixing it
securely in the axe-head, he poised it, and found that it was all he
could desire.

Throwing off his jacket and waistcoat, rolling up his shirt sleeves, and
fastening a handkerchief round his waist, he set to work, and began
chopping away at the trunk of the tree, on the lee side, so that, the
last stroke being given on the weather side, it might fall without fear
of crushing him. He laboured away without cessation until he had cut
through nearly half the tree, when his arms began to ache. He stopped,
retiring to a little distance to contemplate his work. "Another two
hours will do it, and I should like to get it down before dark," he
exclaimed.

The wood was tolerably soft. This gave him hopes that he should be able
to shape it without difficulty. His first idea had been to form only a
fishing punt, which would enable him to go off a short distance from the
land, or to visit the various bays in the island, where fish might
abound. But as he considered the size of the tree, he thought it might
be as well to construct one large enough to cross to any of the islands
to the northward, which he knew to exist in that direction. For some
thirty feet the trunk was almost of the same circumference. By adding
weather boards, and decking over a portion of the stern and head, he
might form a boat of a size sufficient to venture on a long voyage.

After resting himself, he again set to work, until he had cut into the
heart of the tree. Having penetrated deeply into the tree on the lee
side, he now stood on the weather side, and prepared to give the
finishing strokes. After every stroke, he watched to see in which
direction the tree was bending, that he might spring out of the wa