consideration to
the question of the maintenance of our health, which, in its turn, meant
that we must carefully regulate our diet, and alter it as much as
possible, not depending too much upon fruit, but varying it by a
frequent change to fish, our only possible alternative.

But we soon discovered that in order to catch fish, as well as for many
other purposes, it was not only very desirable, but also almost
imperatively necessary _that_ we should have something in the nature of
a boat, which, of course, remained to be built. Then there was the
salvage of everything contained in the wreck of the schooner, including
the timber and metal of which she was built; to say nothing of certain
gardening operations projected by Murdock, with the object of improving
the quality of the fruit growing in the immediate vicinity of our cave,
the cultivation of certain vegetables, and sundry other schemes having
for their object the betterment of our condition during the period of
our sojourn upon the island--Murdock's hobby happening to be gardening,
as Cunningham's happened to be yacht designing (and, as often happens
when men take up some useful occupation as an amusement, both soon
proved themselves to be exceptionally skilful in all matters relating to
their respective hobbies). Therefore, while Chips, Sails, and I went
strenuously to work upon the operation of salving everything that we
could find aboard the wreck, the boatswain, with the assistance of poor
Cooky's fire shovel, and a few other iron implements which he converted
into tools, devoted himself to the production of a fruit and vegetable
garden in the immediate neighbourhood of our cave dwelling, clearing
away all the scrub which grew around and choked some two dozen fruit
trees, digging and hoeing up the soil, and planting therein every
potato, onion, and bean that we could find for him among the cook's
stores aboard the ship. And while he and we were busy in the manner
described, Cunningham rescued a few sheets of paper and some lead
pencils from the skipper's cabin, carefully dried the former, sharpened
the latter, and, with an empty packing case for table, and a scale
constructed with the assistance of the carpenter's two-foot rule,
assiduously devoted himself to the task of designing what he called a
"catamaran" for immediate use, and then a small schooner by means of
which we were eventually to make our escape from the island and return
to civilisation.

The