myself heard, was now my chief object.

Before setting out on another expedition, I placed my provisions where I
hoped the rats would not be able to get at them, after carefully corking
down the bottles of pickles and the jar of olives, and closing the keg
of biscuits. I thought it very likely that the rats would try to make
their way through the latter, but I intended to examine it frequently to
ascertain whether they had commenced operations. I had been turning in
my mind a better means of catching the rats than the one I had before
adopted. I thought and thought over the matter, but could not arrive at
any conclusion. Being no longer pressed by hunger, I was less in a
hurry than I should have been had I only rats' flesh to depend on. I
pined for fresh air, but at the same time I was most inconvenienced for
want of light. I was, however, already able to find my way about in a
wonderful manner.

I had pictured in my mind's eye all the objects around, and had the
whole of my prison mapped out clearly in my brain, as I supposed it to
exist. Perhaps it was not exactly according to reality. There were the
kelson and the stout ribs of the ship, the planking over them, the
water-butts on either side, the stout bulkheads. At one end my
bed-place; the opening which I had formed at the other end, the bales,
the packing-cases, the casks, and last of all the crate. Into this last
I intended soon again to return, in the faint hope that I might force my
way through it into some upper region. It was, I judged from the ease
with which I had torn off the planks, old and rotten, and I could not
therefore suppose that any heavy weight had been placed above it. I
should have observed that I had reason to congratulate myself the ship
was new and well caulked, and that not a leak existed throughout her
length, for had any bilge-water been in her the stench would have been
insufferable, and would soon either have deprived me of life or produced
a serious sickness. As it was, considering what ships' holds generally
are, the air was comparatively pure, and I did not suffer much from the
confinement. The fact I have mentioned would account for the number of
rats in the hold, for being sagacious animals they are said always to
desert a ship likely to go down. Probably, being inconvenienced by the
water in the regions to which they are quickly driven when discovered,
they take their departure on the earliest opportunity. I have