I directed my three eldest boys to kill a dozen of these large fishes with sticks and pickaxes instead of using powder, and they promptly began the attack. It is remarkable that boys in general have a disposition for the destruction of animals, which by degrees leads them to view their sufferings with indifference. I felt regret in being urged occasionally by circumstances to encourage this propensity; it therefore gave me pleasure to see them return in a few minutes and entreat me to allow them a little powder and some bullets, that they might dispatch the poor harmless creatures at once without much pain. I acquiesced of course in their entreaty and commended the humane idea, which I thought well worth the ammunition expended in the execution of it. It was in our peculiar situation impracticable for us to yield to that morbid sensibility which shudders at inflicting the smallest suffering upon an animal; nor can I help thinking such exhibitions somewhat absurd, since those very persons do not scruple to have on their table a nice chicken, a large fish, lobsters, and many other animals that have as valid a right to live as those we were necessitated to kill: however, I represented constantly to my children that cruelty and the passion of immolating without necessity, any of the brute creation, degrade man, and may lead on to the worst of crimes. On this occasion I was gratified in seeing they had surpassed me in consideration and humanity. In a very short time, after a few firings, the number of fishes was completed; we skinned them while fresh with little trouble, well rubbed them with salt on both sides, and hung them to dry in the sun, to be afterwards dressed in our grotto. Curiosity induced my wife to cook a piece of one of them, but it proved so bad that we threw it to our dogs, the eagle, and jackal, who made a hearty meal of it. The fat we preserved carefully, of which we collected a quantity; it was first put into a copper, melted and cleansed properly, then poured into casks and kept for the tan-house and lamp. When time should allow, I purposed making soap with it, and this design excited my wife’s zeal in the unpleasant though ultimately useful task we were engaged in. We also took care of the bladders, which are very large, for the purpose of holding liquids; the remaining parts that could be turned to no account were thrown into the adjoining stream; and this last act most unexpectedly procured us a regular supply of a far more palatable food—a number of fine fresh-water lobsters which came to feed on these offals. We bored through the sides of some empty chests, which we placed and kept down in the water with stones, and thus caught and preserved as in a reservoir as many lobsters as we wanted. A similar contrivance was fixed in Safety-Bay, which first became filled with live herrings, and subsequently with various kinds of small fishes that were caught with ease.
At this time I likewise made some improvements in our sledge, to facilitate the carrying of our stores from Falcon’s Stream to our dwelling in the rock at Tent House. I raised it on two beams, or axle-trees, at the extremities of which I put on the four gun-carriage wheels I had taken off the cannon from the vessel; by this alteration I obtained a light and very convenient vehicle, of moderate height, on which boxes and casks could be placed with little difficulty. Pleased with the operations of the week, we set out all together with cheerful hearts for Falcon’s Stream to pass our Sunday there, and once more offer our pious thanks to the Almighty for all the benefits he had bestowed upon his defenceless creatures.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
New fishery;—New experiments and chase;—New discoveries and house.
The arrangement of our grotto went on, sometimes as a principal, sometimes as an intermediate occupation, according to the greater or less importance of other concerns: but though we advanced thus with moderate rapidity, the progress was notwithstanding such as to afford the hope of our being securely established within it by the time of the rainy season.
From the moment I discovered gypsum to be the basis of the crystal salt[22] in our grotto, I foresaw the great advantages I should derive from it for our undertaking; but being unwilling to enlarge the dimensions of our dwelling by digging further, I tried to find a place in the continuation of the rock, which I might be able to blow up: I had soon the good fortune to meet with a narrow slip between the projections of the rocks which I could easily, by the means I proposed, convert into a passage that should terminate in our work-room. I found also on the ground a quantity of fragments of gypsum, and removed a great number of them to the kitchen, where we did not fail to bake a few of the pieces at a time when we made a fire for cooking, which, thus calcined, rubbed into a powder when cold: we obtained a considerable quantity of it, which I put carefully into casks for use when the time should come for finishing the interior of our dwelling. My notion was, to form the walls for separating the apartments of the squares of stone I had already provided, and to unite them together with a cement of this new ingredient, which would be the means both of sparing the timber, and increasing the beauty and solidity of the work.
It is almost incredible the immense quantity of plaster we had in a short time amassed; the boys were in a constant state of wonder as they looked at the heap, and protested they believed that I staid up at night to work. I seized the opportunity of imprinting on their minds the value of a firm and steady perseverance in an object once engaged in, the reward of which they now so agreeably experienced: When we first cast our eyes, continued I, on this rock, how little did we conceive it possible to transform it into a comfortable dwelling-place; yet we have not only in our own persons sufficed for carpenters and masons, but even plasterers too, and so effectually, that if we had it much at heart, we might adorn our walls with stucco as is the mode in Europe; we possess both the materials and intelligence, and with the addition of patience and industry, there is scarcely any thing, even what at first should seem impossible, too difficult for our performance.
The first use I made of the plaster was to complete some covers I had begun with other materials for my herring tubs, four of which I stopped down to render them impenetrable to the air; the rest of the herrings we intended to dry and smoke. For this purpose we erected a little sort of hut of reeds and branches, as is practised in Holland and America by the fishermen; we placed rows of sticks reaching from side to side across the hut, and laid the herrings upon them, and then lighted a heap composed of moss and fresh cut branches of trees, to produce a stronger and more effective vapour for the purpose: we made the door tight, and had soon the pleasure of adding a large stock of exquisitely flavoured dried herrings to our former store for the ensuing winter.
About a month after the singular visit of the herrings, which had now entirely left our shores, we received another and not a less profitable one from a fish of a different species: we observed Safety Bay to be filled with large fishes which seemed eager to push to the shore for the purpose of depositing their eggs among the stones in fresh water. Jack was the first to discover this circumstance: he told me he had seen a great number of whales swimming about in Jackal’s River, and supposed they were come in pursuit of the herrings, and that he was glad the greedy creatures would be disappointed. I replied that there must be some delusion in what he had seen, as I could not conceive of a regiment of whales arriving in our diminutive rivulet. Pray come with me, father, answered he, and look at them; some of them are as large as you, and if they are not whales, I will lay a wager that neither are they herrings. Hah, hah, master Jack, you are on the retreat then, I see; but between the whale and the herring there are many kinds and sizes, so I will e’en take side with you and wager that they are not herrings.
It however appeared to me worth while to go and convince myself on the spot, respecting these new-comers. Jack and I walked to the mouth of Jackal’s River, and immediately perceived immense quantities of a large fish moving slowly towards the banks, and some of them from four to eight feet in length. By the pointed snout I supposed the largest to be sturgeons, while the smallest I pronounced to be salmon. Jack now strutted and exulted as if he had gained the command of a regiment of soldiers:—What say you, now, father? said he, this is nothing like your little paltry herrings! A single fish of this troop would fill a tub!—No doubt, answered I: and with great gravity I added,—Pr’ythee, Jack, step into the river, and fling them to me one by one, that I may take them home to salt and dry.
He looked at me for a moment with a sort of vacant doubt if I could possibly be in earnest; then seizing suddenly a new idea—Wait a moment, father, cried he, and I will do so: and he sprung off like lightning towards the cavern, from whence he soon returned loaded with a bow and arrows, the bladders of the sea-dogs, and a ball of string to catch, as he assured me, every one of the fishes. I looked on with interest and curiosity to mark what was next to happen, while the animation of his countenance, the promptitude and gracefulness of his motions, and the firm determination of his manner, afforded me the highest amusement. He tied the bladders round at certain distances with a long piece of string, to the end of which he fastened an arrow and a small iron hook; he placed the large ball of string in a hole in the ground, at a sufficient distance from the water’s edge, and then he shot off his arrow, which the next instant stuck in one of the largest fishes. My young sportsman uttered a shout of joy. At the same moment Fritz joined us, and witnessed this unexpected feat without the least symptom of jealousy. Well done, brother Jack, cried he, but let me too have my turn.—Saying this he ran back and fetched the harpoon and the windlass, and returned to us accompanied by Ernest, who also desired to show his prowess in a contest with our newly discovered mariners. We were well pleased with their opportune arrival, for the salmon Jack had pierced struggled so fiercely, that all our endeavours to hold the string were insufficient, and we dreaded at every throw to see it break and the animal make good its escape. By degrees, however, its strength was exhausted, and aided by Fritz and Ernest, we succeeded in drawing it to a bank, where I put an end to its existence.