now had considerable
knowledge of the general characteristics of the entire group, to which I
could add when I set out to traverse the intersecting channels.

The matter about which I was now most anxious was the erection of our
projected house on our little islet of Eden; and to the cutting and
shaping of the timber that was to be employed in its construction Billy
and I at once devoted ourselves energetically, making remorseless
inroads upon the wreck for the required materials, but maintaining the
cabins and after part of the ship intact, that we might not deprive
ourselves of the one dwelling-place until the other was ready to receive
us. And I was all the more anxious to get this important piece of work
completed without loss of time because I had a suspicion that in those
latitudes there is what is known as a "hurricane season", during which
extremely violent gales are prevalent, and I knew that the very first of
these--when it came--might destroy the wreck and so turn us out of house
and home.

No sooner had we begun our work than I recognised the wisdom that had
prompted me to prepare a carefully drawn detailed plan of our future
house beforehand, for now I was able to determine, by reference to my
plan, the exact dimensions and shape of every piece of timber required,
thus saving a vast amount of time and labour that must otherwise have
been spent in consideration, and in the tentative fitting together of
the several pieces.

There is no need to tax the patience of the reader by describing in
detail our daily progress. Let it suffice to say that we worked all day
and every day from dawn to sunset, until at length, after five weeks of
strenuous but uneventful labour, punctuated at intervals by
thunderstorms of terrific violence, accompanied by torrential downpours
of rain--which we thankfully utilised for the replenishment of our
fresh-water supply--the carpenter work of our projected house was
finished, and then came the still more formidable task of erection.

We began by loading our boat with as much as she would carry of the
building materials and the requisites for a few days' stay upon the
islet; and then we left the wreck, arriving at our destination rather
late the same evening, taking the short cut through those parts of the
intersecting channels that we had already traversed upon the occasion of
our discovery of the islet. The choice of a site for the house, and the
unloading and conveyance of