With this resolution I accoutred myself, as in my first walk, with my instruments and arms; but instead of travelling the lake-side, I went along the wood, and therein found great plenty of divers kinds of fruits \ though I could scarce persuade myself to taste or try the effects of them, being so much unlike our own, or any I had seen elsewhere. I observed amongst the shrubs abundance of a fruit, or whatever else you may call it, which grew like a ram's-horn; sharp at the point next the twig it was fastened to, and circling round and round, one fold upon another, which gradually increased to the size of my wrist in the middle, and then as gradually decreased till it terminated in a point again at the contrary extreme; all which spiral, if it were fairly extended in length, might be a yard or an ell long. I surveyed this strange vegetable very attentively; it had a rind, or crust, which I could not break with my hand, but taking my knife and making an opening therewith in the shell, there issued out a sort of milky liquor in great quantity, to at least a pint and half, which having tasted, I found as sweet as honey, and very pleasant: however, I could not persuade myself any more than just to taste it. I then found on the large trees several kinds of fruit, like pears or quinces, but most of them exceeding hard and rough, and quite disagreeable; so I quitted my hopes of them.
About three miles from my grotto I met with a large space of ground full of a low plant, growing only with a single woody stalk half a foot high, and from thence issued a round head, about a foot or ten inches diameter, but quite flat, about three-quarters of an inch thick, and just like a cream-cheese standing upon its edge: these grew so close together, that upon the least wind stirring, their heads rattled against each other very musically; for though the stalks were so very strong that they would not easily either bend or break, yet the fanning of the wind upon the broad heads twisting the stalks, so as to let the heads strike each other, they made a most agreeable sound.
I stood some time admiring this shrub, and then cutting up one of them, I found it weighed about two pounds; they had a tough green rind or covering, very smooth, and the inside full of a stringy pulp, quite white. In short, I made divers other trials of berries, roots, herbs, and what else I could find, but received little satisfaction from any of them for fear of bad qualities. I returned back ruminating on what things I had seen, resolving to take my cart the next walk, and bring it home loaded with different kinds of them, in order to make my trials thereof at leisure: but my cart being too flat and wanting sides, I considered it would carry very little, and that what it would otherwise bear, on that account, must tumble and roll off, so I made a fire and turned smith; for with a great deal to do breaking off the wards of a large key I had, and making it red-hot, I by degrees fashioned it into a kind of spindle, and therewith making holes quite round the bottom of my cart, in them I stuck up sticks about two feet high that I had tapered at the end to fit them.
Having thus qualified my cart for a load, I proceeded with it to the wood, and cutting a small quantity of each species of green, berry, fruit, and flower that I could find, and packing them severally in parcels, I returned at night heavy-laden, and held a council with myself what use they could most properly be applied to.
I had amongst my goods, as I said, a copper-kettle which held about a gallon: this I set over my fire and boiled something by turns of every sort in it, watching all the while, and with a stick stirring and raising up one thing and then another, to feel when they were boiled tender: but of upwards of twenty greens which I thus dressed, only one proved eatable, all the rest becoming more stringy, tough, and insipid for the cooking. The one I have excepted was a round, thick, woolly-leafed plant, which boiled tender and tasted as well as spinach; I therefore preserved some leaves of this to know it again by; and for distinction called it by the name of that herb.
I then began upon my fruits of the pear and quince kind, at least eight different sorts; but I found I could make nothing of them, for they were most of them as rough and crabbed after stewing as before, so I laid them all aside. Lastly, I boiled my ram's-horn and cream-cheese, as I called them, together. Upon tasting the latter of these, it was become so watery and insipid, I laid it aside as useless. I then cut the other and tasted the juice, which proved so exceeding pleasant that I took a large gulp or two of it, and tossed it into the kettle again.
Having now gone through the several kinds of my exotics, I had a mind to re-examine them after cooling, but could make nothing of any of my greens but the spinach. I tried several berries and nuts too, but, save a few sort of nuts, they were all very tasteless. Then I began to review the fruits, and could find but two sorts that I had any the least hopes from. I then laid the best by and threw the others away. After this process, which took me up near a whole day, and clearing my house of good-for-nothings, I returned to reexamine my cheese, that was grown cold, and was now so dry and hard I could not get my teeth into it; upon which I was going to skim it away out of my grotto, saying, "Go, thou worthless!" (for I always spoke aloud my thoughts to myself)—I say I was just despatching it when I checked my hands, and as I could make no impression with my teeth, had a mind to try what my knife would do. Accordingly I began at the edge of the quarter, for I had boiled but a quarter of it, but the rind was grown so hard and brittle that my knife slipping and raking along the cut edge of it, scratched off some powder as white as possible; I then scraped it backward and forward some time, till I found it would all scrape away in this powder, except the rind, upon which I laid it aside again for farther experiment.
During this review my kettle and ram's-horn had been boiling, till hearing it blubber very loud, and seeing there was but little liquor in it, I whipped it off the fire, for fear of burning its bottom, but took no further notice of it till about two hours after; when returning to the grotto, I went to wash out my kettle, but could scarce get my ram's-horn from the bottom; and when I did, it brought up with it a sort of pitchy substance, though not so black, and several gummy threads hanging to it, drawn out to a great length. I wondered at this, and thought the shell of the ram's-horn had melted, or some such thing, till, venturing to put a little of the stuff on my tongue, it proved to my thinking as good treacle as I had ever tasted.
This new discovery pleased me very much. I scraped all the sweet thing up, and laid it near my grotto in a large leaf of one of the trees (about two feet long, and broad in proportion) to prevent its running about. In getting this curiosity out of my kettle, I found in it a small piece of my cheese, which I suppose had been broke off in stirring; and biting it (for it was soft enough) I think it was the most luscious and delicate morsel I ever put into my lips. This unexpected good fortune put me on trying the best of my pears again; so setting on my kettle, with very little water, and putting some of my treacle into it, and two of the best pears quartered, I found, upon a little boiling, they also became an excellent dainty.
Having succeeded so well, I was quite ripe for another journey with my cart; which I accordingly undertook, taking my route over the stone bridge, to see what the other side of the lake produced. In travelling through the trees, I met, amongst other things, with abundance of large gourds, which, climbing the trees, displayed their fruit to the height of twenty or thirty feet above the ground. I cut a great many of these, and some very large ones of different hues and forms; which of themselves making a great load, with some few new sorts of berries and greens, were the gathering of that day. But I must tell you I was almost foiled in getting them home; for coming to my stone bridge, it rose so steep, and was so much ruggeder than the grass or wood ground, that I was at a set upon the first entrance and terribly afraid that I should either break my wheels or pull off my axle-trees. Hereupon I was forced to unload, and carry my cargo over in my arms to the other side of the bridge; whither having then, with less fear but much caution, drawn my cart, I loaded again and got safe home.