Betts was very fond of fishing, and could pass whole days, at a time, in that quiet amusement, provided he had a sufficient supply of tobacco.  Indeed, one of the greatest consolations this man possessed, under the present misfortune, was the ample store of this weed which was to be found in the ship.  Every man on board the Rancocus, Mark alone excepted, made use of tobacco; and, for so long a voyage, the provision laid in had been very abundant.  On this occasion, Bob enjoyed his two favourite occupations to satiety, masticating the weed while he fished.

With Mark it was very different.  He was fond of his fowling-piece, but of little use was that weapon in his present situation.  Of all the birds that frequented the adjacent rocks, not one was of a sort that would be eaten, unless in cases of famine.  As he walked over the island, that afternoon, his companion was the goat, which had been driven ashore on the new gangway, and was enjoying its liberty almost as much as the ducks.  As the animal frisked about him, accompanying him everywhere in his walks.  Mark was reminded of the goats of Crusoe, and his mind naturally adverted to the different accounts of shipwrecks of which he had read, and to a comparison between his own condition and those of other mariners who had been obliged to make their homes, for a time, on otherwise uninhabited islands.

In this comparison, Mark saw that many things made greatly against him, on the one hand; while, on the other, there were many others for which he had every reason to be profoundly grateful.  In the first place, this island was, as yet, totally without vegetation of every kind.  It had neither plant, shrub, nor tree.  In this he suffered a great privation, and it even remained to be proved by actual experiment, whether he was master of what might be considered the elements of soil.  It occurred to him that something like vegetation must have shown itself, in or about the crater, did its debris contain the fertilizing principle, Mark not being sufficiently versed in the new science of chemical agriculture, to understand that the admixtures of certain elements might bring to life forces that then were dormant.  Then the Reef had no water.  This was a very, very great privation, the most serious of all, and might prove to be a terrible calamity.  It is true that, just at that moment, there was a shower every day, and sometimes two or three of them; but it was then spring, and there could be little reason to doubt that droughts would come in the hot and dry season.  As a last objection, the Reef had no great extent, and no variety, the eye taking it all in at a glance, while the crater was its sole relief against the dullest monotony.  Nor was there a bit of wood, or fuel of any sort to cook with, after the supply now in the ship should be exhausted.  Such were the leading disadvantages of the situation in which our mariners were placed, as compared with those into which most other shipwrecked seamen had been thrown.