The family Robinson Crusoe

by Johann David Wyss

We now began to look about for breakfast; Fritz taking care not to neglect his monkey, who sucked one of the goats as quietly and as contentedly as if she had been his mother. My wife undertook to milk another, and then the cow, and afterwards gave some of the milk to each of the children: with a part of what remained she made a sort of soup with biscuits, and the rest she put into one of the flasks, to accompany us in our expedition. During this time, I was preparing the boat for another journey to the vessel, to bring away a sufficient quantity of planks and timbers for the bridge. After breakfast we set out; and this time I took with me Ernest as well as Fritz, that we might accomplish our object in a shorter time. We rowed stoutly till we reached the current, which soon drew us on beyond the bay; but scarcely had we passed a little islet, lying to one side of us, than we perceived a prodigious quantity of sea-gulls and other birds, whose various and discordant sounds so disagreeably assailed us, that we were obliged to stop our ears. Fritz would instantly have fired upon them, if I had not prevented him. I had a great curiosity to discover what could possibly be the reason of so numerous an assembly of these creatures. I therefore steered to the spot; but, finding that the boat made but little way, I hoisted my sail, that we might have the assistance of the wind.

To Ernest our expedition afforded the highest delight. He was in ecstasies at seeing the sail begin to swell, and the motion of the streamer in the air. Fritz, on his part, did not for a moment take his eyes from the islet where the birds had assembled. Presently he suddenly exclaimed: I see what it is; the birds are all pecking, tooth and beak, at a monstrous fish, which lies dead upon the soil.

Tooth! brother Fritz, replied Ernest; it must be curious to see birds with teeth. Fritz, however, was right; I approached, sufficiently near to step upon the land, and after bringing the boat to an anchor with a heavy stone, we walked cautiously and gently up to the birds. We soon perceived that the object which attracted them was in reality an enormous fish, which had been thrown by the sea upon the islet, and whose dead body lay invitingly there for all the birds which should pass that way. Indeed, so eagerly were they occupied with the feast, that though we were within the distance of half gun-shot, not one of them attempted to fly off. We observed with astonishment the extreme voracity of this plumed group; each bird was so intent upon its prey, that nothing could have been more easy than to have killed great numbers of them with our sticks alone: we did not, however, envy them their prize. Fritz did not cease to express his wonder at the monstrous size of the animal, and asked me by what means he could have got there.

I believe, answered I, you were yourself the means; there is every appearance that it is the very shark you so skilfully wounded yesterday. See, here are the two balls which you discharged at its head.

Yes, yes, it is the very same, said my young hero skipping about for joy; I well remember I had two balls in my gun, and here they are, lodged in his hideous head.

I grant it is hideous enough, continued I; its aspect even when dead makes one shudder with disgust, particularly when I recollect how easy it would have been for him to have devoured us. See what a horrible mouth he has, and what a singular kind of mustachio projecting above! and what a rough and prickly skin! one might almost use it for a file. Nor is he small of his species; for I would lay any wager that he measures more than twenty feet, from head to tail. We ought to be thankful to Providence, and a little to our Fritz also, for having delivered us from such a monster! But let us each take away with us a bit of his skin, for I have an idea that it may in some way or other be useful to us. But how to drive away these eager intruders, so as to get at him, is the difficulty.

Ernest instantly drew out the iron ramrod from his gun, and in a few moments killed several, by striking among them to right and left, while all the others took their flight. Fritz and I then advanced and cut several long strips of the skin from the head of the shark, with which we were proceeding to our boat, when I observed, lying on the ground, some planks and timbers which had recently been cast by the sea on this little island. I therefore made choice of such as seemed proper for my purpose; and, with the assistance of the crow and a lever which we had brought with us, I found means to get them into the boat, and thus spare ourselves the trouble of proceeding further to the vessel. I bound the timbers together, with the planks upon them, in the manner of a raft, and tied them to the end of the boat; so that, in consequence of this adventure, we were ready to return in about four hours after our departure, and might with justice boast of having done a good day’s work. I accordingly pushed again for the current, which soon drove us out to sea; then I tacked about, and resumed the direct route for the bay and for our place of embarkation, by this means avoiding the danger of touching upon shallows. All this succeeded to my utmost wishes; I unfurled my sail, and a brisk wind soon conveyed us to our landing-place.

While we were sailing, Fritz, at my request, had nailed the strips of skin we cut from the shark, to the mast to dry. Ernest had been employed in examining the birds he had killed with his ramrod. I cannot imagine, father, said he, why you should think they are not good to eat. What is their name?

I believe they are called sea-gulls, a bird that lives upon the carcases of other animals, and whose flesh for that reason must have contracted a bad flavour; there are many kinds of them, and all of so senseless a nature, as to fly down in flocks upon dead whales, even while the fishermen are round them cutting them up; and the birds try to seize upon small pieces of the fat, as they hold them in their hands; and they suffer themselves to be killed, rather than let go their prize.

They must indeed be stupid creatures, said Fritz, to have let Ernest kill them with the ramrod. But look here, father, you were wrong in telling me to nail my skins to the mast; for they have curled round in drying, and I cannot make them flat again.