her with the cassava,
and a variety of peas; but aside from the foregoing, nothing else was
available.

While talking on this subject one day the Professor remarked: "In my
wanderings I found quite a variety of plants that we might utilize in
our proposed garden or farm. One of them is a small, triangularly
formed, dark brown seed, which you may recognize."

"That," was Harry's answer, "looks something like our buckwheat."

"You are right; I found several varieties; none of them exactly like the
kind grown in the States, but we can readily propagate it, so that it
will be practically the same."

"How is the propagation done, so as to bring about the change?"

"It is merely a careful selection of the best varieties of the
particular plant, and by budding, grafting, or inarching, transmitting
the qualities of the good kind to the stalk or tree which bears the
inferior kind. That is done with vegetation which is perennial, like
fruit trees and the like."

[Illustration: _Fig. 38. Grafting. Fig. 39. Budding. Fig. 40.
Inarching._]

"But how could any of these methods be used with the buckwheat?"

"An entirely different method is used in cultivating vegetation of that
kind. You probably have seen wild oats growing here, as in the States.
In its wild or native state the grains are so small as to be utterly
useless. It is found that by taking this wild plant and changing the
soil in which it grows, the seed will finally develop and become larger,
until, in time, we get the full grain. The same thing is true in the
development of fruit which is full of seeds. The banana in its wild
state is full of seeds. By this process of cultivation it has finally
become entirely seedless, and the value of the fruit greatly enhanced."

Beyond the Cataract was a low and level stretch of meadow, which the
Professor thought was rich and could be readily worked, and it was the
field which they determined to devote to agricultural purposes.

In the meantime, the plans for the boat were developed. A description of
the recovered after part of the life-boat will make their plans better
understood. When they landed on the rock, and its forward part was
crushed and washed away, they saw the stern portion lodged in a saddle
in the rocks. It was there for an instant only, as the next wave
dislodged it, and when it was eventually found, months afterwards, it
had caught in the rocks a hundred feet further inland.

The part which they recovered