st now. You must do that for
yourselves. Try and remember what I have said, and think about it
whenever you have an opportunity." Jerry and I thanked the captain for
what he had told us, and I, as before, at once dotted it down as well as
I could in my note-book.

Crossing the Atlantic, we sighted a glittering white rock rising fifty
feet out of the water. It was, I found, the Island of Saint Paul's. It
had a curious appearance, standing thus alone in the ocean 500 miles
from the coast of America, and 350 from the Island of Fernando Noronha--
the snowy pinnacle of a submarine mountain. We hove-to close to it, and
a boat being lowered, Mr McRitchie, Mr Brand, Jerry, and I, went on
shore. The whole rock is not three-quarters of a mile in circumference.
Its white colour, we found, was produced by a thin coating of a
substance formed by the washing off of the birds' dung, collected there
in a succession of ages. The rock was covered with birds--my old
friends, the booby and the noddy, I had so often read about. They
stared at us with a stupid look as we pulled up, not at all able to make
us out, and in no way disposed to make way for us. Gerard and I were
for knocking as many as we could on the head; but Cousin Silas would not
allow us, observing that we did not want them for food, and that they
had a far better right to the rock than we had. The booby, Mr
McRitchie told us, is a species of gannet, and the noddy a species of
tern. The first lays her eggs on the bare rock, but the latter
constructs a nest with sea-weed. While the doctor was eagerly hunting
about for specimens of natural history, we were amused by watching the
proceedings of some of the few inhabitants of the rock. By the side of
several of the noddies' nests we saw a dead flying-fish, evidently
deposited there by the male bird. Whenever we succeeded in driving away
any one of the females, instantly a big crab, which seemed to have been
watching his opportunity from the crevices of the rocks, would rush out,
and with greedy claws carry off the prey. One fellow, still more
hungry, ran away with one of the young birds. Another was going to make
a similar attempt.

"I ought to stop that fellow, at all events!" said Jerry, giving Master
Crab a stunning blow. We tied his claws, and presented him as a trophy
to the doctor.

"A fine specimen of _Graspus_" cried our scientific friend, stowing him
away in his wallet.

"A capital name!" said Jerr