"Yes, and my trip has led to discoveries as well as booty," answered he; "interesting discoveries which will tempt us again in the same direction. Come, boys, let's carry up the things."
As soon as possible all assembled round him. "Ever since I possessed the cajack it has been my ambition to make a voyage of discovery along the coast, which we have never explored beyond the point at which I killed the walrus. "This morning dawned magnificently; the calm sea, the gentle breeze, all drew me irresistibly to the fulfilment of my purpose.
"I left the harbor unperceived, the current quickly bore me out to sea, and I rounded the point to the left, passing just over the spot where, beneath the waves, lie the guns, cannon balls, ironwork, and all that was indestructible about our good old wreck. And would you believe it? Through the glassy clear water, undisturbed by a ripple, I actually saw many such things strewn on the flat rocky bottom.
"Pursuing my way, I passed among rugged cliffs and rocks which jutted out from the shore, or rose in rugged masses from the water. Myriads of sea fowl inhabited the most inaccessible of these, while on the lower ridges, seals, sea bears, and walruses were to be seen, some basking lazily in the sun, some plunging into the water, or emerging awkwardly from it, hoisting their unwieldy bodies up the rocks by means of their tusks.
"I must confess to feeling anything but comfortable while going through places held in possession by these monsters of the deep, and used every effort to pass quickly and unnoticed. Yet it was more than an hour and a half before I got clear of the rocks, cliffs, and shoals to which they resorted, and neared a high and precipitous cape, running far out to sea. Right opposite to me, in the side of this rocky wall, was a magnificent archway, forming, as it first appeared to me, a lofty entrance to an immense vaulted cavern, I passed beneath this noble portal and examined the interior. It was tenanted by numbers of a small species of swallow, scarcely larger than a wren, and the walls were covered by thousands of their nests. They were rudely built, and their peculiarity was that each rested on a kind of platform, something like a spoon without the handle, I detached a number, and found that they had a curious appearance, seemingly made of something fibrous and gelatinous, and more like a set of sponges, corals, or fungi, than nests of birds, I have brought them home in my fishing net."
"When placed in water and well soaked," I said, "they soften and swell, and are made into soup of very strengthening and restorative quality."
"After laying in my store of nests," continued Fritz, "I pursued my way through this vaulted cave or corridor; which, presently turning, opened into a very lovely bay, so calm and lake-like, that, although of considerable size, I concluded at once it must be nearly land locked. Its shores, beyond the rocky boundary through which I penetrated, extended in a fertile plain toward what seemed the mouth of a river, beyond which lay rough, and probably marshy, ground, and a dense forest of cedars, which closed the view.
"The water beneath me was clear as crystal; and, gazing into its depths and shallows, I perceived beds of shellfish, like large oysters, attached to the rocks and to each other by tufts of hairy filaments.
"'If these are oysters,' thought I, 'they must be better worth eating, as far as size goes, than our little friends in Safety Bay,' and thereupon I hooked up several clusters with my boat hook, and landing soon after on the beach, I flung them on the sand, resolving to fetch another load, and then tow them after me in the fishing-net.
"The hot sun disagreed with their constitution, I suppose; for when I came back the shells were all gaping wide open; so I began to examine them, thinking that after all they were probably much less delicate than the small oysters we have learnt to like so much.