down the pick, our young man ran out, and was not a little surprised to see the sort of cargo with which Bob was returning to port.  It would seem that a great collection of sea-weed had formed to windward of the rock where Bob had gone to fish, at which spot it ordinarily gathered in a pile until the heap became too large to lodge any longer, when, owing to the form of the rock, it invariably broke adrift, and passed to the southward of the Reef, floating to leeward, to fetch up on some other rock, or island, in that direction.  Bob had managed to get this raft round a particular point in the reef, when the wind and current carried it, as near as might be, directly towards the crater.  He was calling to Mark to come to his assistance, to help get the raft into a sort of bay, ahead of him, where it might be lodged; else would there be the danger of its drifting past the Reef, after all his pains.  Our young man saw, at once, what was wanted, got a line, succeeded in throwing it to Bob, and by hauling upon it brought the whole mass ashore in the very spot Betts wished to see it landed.

This sea-weed proved to be a great acquisition on more accounts than one.  There was as much of it in quantity as would have made two good-sized loads of hay.  Then, many small shell-fish were found among it, which the pigs and poultry ate with avidity.  It also contained seeds, that the fowls picked up as readily as if it had been corn.  The hogs moreover masticated a good deal of the weed, and poor Kitty, the only one of the domestic animals on the Reef that was not now living to its heart’s content, nibbled at it, with a species of half-doubting faith in its salubrity.  Although it was getting to be late in the afternoon, Mark and Bob got two of Friend Abraham White’s pitchforks (for the worthy Quaker had sent these, among other implements of husbandry, as a peace-offering to the Fejee savages), and went to work with a hearty good-will, landed all this weed, loaded it up, and wheeled it into the crater, leaving just enough outside to satisfy the pigs and the poultry.  This task concluded the first week of the labour already mentioned.

At the termination of the second week, Mark and Betts held a council on the subject of their future proceedings.  At this consultation it was decided that it would be better to finish the picking up of a considerable plot of ground, one of at least half an acre in extent, that was already commenced, within the crater, scatter their compost over it, and spade all up together, and plant, mixing in as much of the sea-weed as they could conveniently spade under.  Nothwithstanding their success in finding the loam, and this last discovery of a means of getting sea-weed in large supplies to the Reef, Mark was not very sanguine of success in his gardening.  The loam appeared to him to be cold and sour, as well as salt, though a good deal freshened by the rain since it was put in the crater; and he knew nothing of the effects of guano, except