m in small barrels, a layer of herrings and a layer of salt;
and when the barrel was full, the ass, led by Francis, took them up to
the storehouse. This labour occupied us several days, and at the end of
that time we had a dozen barrels of excellent salt provision against the
winter season.

The refuse of this fishery, which we threw into the sea, attracted a
number of sea-dogs; we killed several for the sake of the skin and the
oil, which would be useful to burn in lamps, or even as an ingredient
in soap, which I hoped to make at some future time.

At this time I greatly improved my sledge, by placing it on two small
wheels belonging to the guns of the ship, making it a light and
commodious carriage, and so low, that we could easily place heavy
weights on it. Satisfied with our labours, we returned very happy to
Falcon's Nest, to spend our Sunday, and to thank God heartily for all
the blessings he had given us.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXI.

We went on with our labours but slowly, as many employments diverted us
from the great work. I had discovered that the crystals of salt in our
grotto had a bed of gypsum for their base, from which I hoped to obtain
a great advantage. I was fortunate enough to discover, behind a
projecting rock, a natural passage leading to our store-room, strewed
with fragments of gypsum. I took some of it to the kitchen, and by
repeated burnings calcined it, and reduced it to a fine white powder,
which I put into casks, and carefully preserved for use. My intention
was, to form our partition-walls of square stones, cemented with the
gypsum. I employed my sons daily to collect this, till we had amassed a
large quantity; using some, in the first place, effectually to cover our
herring-barrels. Four barrels were salted and covered in this way; the
rest my wife smoked in a little hut of reeds and branches, in the midst
of which the herrings were laid on sticks, and exposed to the smoke of
a fire of green moss kindled below. This dried them, and gave them the
peculiar flavour so agreeable to many.

We were visited by another shoal of fish a month after that of the
herrings. Jack first discovered them at the mouth of Jackal River, where
they had apparently come to deposit their eggs among the scattered
stones. They were so large, that he was sure they must be whales. I
found them to be pretty large sturgeons, besides salmon, large trout,
and many other fishes. Jac