CHAPTER XII.
Exploration of the island: Fourth day. Finish the exploration of the island, and build stone house at Rapid River.
I soon had my fire in a blaze and my breakfast despatched, and startedforward on my explorations. As I advanced, I saw that I was on asmooth, hard sand-beach, with a scanty growth of cedars and pines onmy right hand inland. After walking a few miles I turned to the rightand walked inland, expecting, from the formation of the land, thatthe part of the island I was upon could not be very wide; and sureenough, after a short half mile through the stunted cedars, I came outupon Perseverance Bay, and within plain sight of Point Deliverance andStillwater Cove, some three miles distant. I found that I was upon anarrow tongue of land which formed the western boundary of PerseveranceBay and ended in the promontory that I had seen from Point Deliverancein looking across the bay on the first day of my explorations.
I did not consider it worth while to pass back again to the west shore,but kept along on the beach on the margin of Perseverance Bay towardsthe point to the northward. In a mile or two more I reached it, andfound that it consisted of quite a sandy elevation, covered withstunted cedars, and evidently the extreme northern point of my island.I named it _West Signal Point_. Here I sat down and took a review ofmy situation. I had virtually made the circuit of the island; for fromwhere I sat I could see the margin of Perseverance Bay, which, if Ifollowed, would end in landing me at the mouth of Stillwater Cove, nearmy hut.
I saw that my task was completed, and that I was alone on my island,the only living human being, the latter-day Robinson Crusoe. Myfeelings were those of joy and grief,--joy, that it had pleasedProvidence to keep me out of the hands of savages, where I couldpass my life in peace, if it was so willed; grief, that I should beforced to this lonely and solitary life. I sat many hours at thisspot, thinking over plans for the future, and what I should do tomake myself comfortable and protected from wind and weather, and fromfuture enemies, should any ever visit me. On the whole, I found my mindmuch relieved at the positive proof that I had of the island beinguninhabited, and when I arose and started for home it was with a freerstep and lighter heart than I had had since my landing.
A trudge of about seven miles, as near as I could judge, brought meto Stillwater Cove without adventure of any kind, although I passedmany objects in the way of birds, trees, and vegetables that were ofintense interest to me. From thence, a walk of about a mile broughtme to my hut at about five o'clock by the sun, hungry and tired, butperfectly well and strong. Convinced as I was of the utter solitude ofthe island, still it was with care and almost awe that I approachedmy hut, almost expecting to see some strange creature, either humanor savage, within its walls. Nothing met my ear or eye. Quietnessand solitude reigned, and everything was exactly as I had left it. Iexamined my lamp tower, and found that two of the lights had gone out,I suppose on account of the wick, but the others were burning well butdimly. I immediately gave matters here my attention, and soon had allto rights and "ship-shape." I had even a feeling of comfort as if Ihad arrived home, and I went about the matter of getting supper andstarting my fire with a cheerful feeling; and whilst doing so I caughtmyself at one time quietly humming an old sea ditty.
I saw plainly that my residence at this point was at an end, and thatRapid River was the place for me to make my home. So I took littlecare to arrange matters about me on this evening, but sat down in amatter-of-fact way and ate my supper, whilst the sun was sinking intothe west; but when night came on, with my pipe as a solace, I thoughtof everything, and these are a few of the thousand and one things thatcoursed through my mind. I gathered together the following facts:--
_First._ That the island was uninhabited, fruitful, and fertile,abounding in everything that could conduce to my comfort; pure freshwater in several localities, birds and fishes of many varieties, goats,trees of all sizes and growth, tobacco and sweet potatoes, coal andsulphur; an evidently mild and even climate, and many useful things, nodoubt, which I had not yet discovered in my hasty circuit of it.
_Second._ That I was the only living soul upon it, and that all thesenatural treasures were mine to avail myself of by industry, ingenuity,and perseverance.
Such being the facts of the case, what should be my future course, andwhat my plans and duty? Amongst the many that flashed through my mind,I picked out these, as forming the most important to first receive myattention.
_First._ To erect a strong, serviceable habitation at Rapid River,which I had already in my mind concluded to call the _Hermitage_.
_Second._ To ascertain at as early a day as possible, by the best meansat my service, and by the assistance of my "Bowditch's Navigator," thelatitude and longitude of my island, as near as I could come at it.
_Third._ To project a chart from the "Epitome," and find out how far Iwas from other lands.
_Fourth._ To never desist from seeking for iron ore at everyopportunity, for with that I could do almost anything.
_Fifth._ To study out some way of building a boat, of size andstrength, without the use of iron or timbers to strengthen her.
_Sixth._ To take the greatest care of my seeds, and watch with theutmost solicitude those which I had planted.
_Seventh._ To capture at as early a date as possible one or two of thewild goats, so as to be able to breed up tame ones for my use.
_Eighth._ To procure at once some kind of ink, and keep up my journaland reckoning on birch-bark leaves.
These were amongst the first tasks that my brain gave my body toexecute, and although thousands of others ran through my head, they allmore or less depended upon the consummation of these cardinal ones.At a late hour I sought my seaweed couch in my hut, and fell asleep.The next morning I commenced work in earnest. I had my idea about ink(which, if my memory served me right, the old Robinson Crusoe had somuch difficulty about and was unable to make), and wending my way tothe beach of Stillwater Cove, with my harpoon in hand, I waded in, andcommenced looking carefully for squid or cuttle-fish, feeling positivethat the ground was too good for them not to be found there, havingseen them frequently lying dead in the seaweed whilst passing aroundthe island.
I had not long to hunt before I saw several on the pure white sandbefore me at the bottom of the water, about the usual size of those athome, say some six inches in length, but when I attempted to strikeone with the harpoon it darted out of the way, backwards, just as theyused to do in my boyhood days, ejecting at the same time the fluidfrom his body which I desired to preserve. I saw that it was uselessto try and get any of these in deep water, and therefore waded ashoreand commenced looking for them in the numerous shallow pools thatthe receding tide had left near the margin of the water, and I wassuccessful in finding five nice fellows embayed in a small, shallowpool, not six feet in circumference, whence I had no difficulty inkicking them out upon the sand, opening them with my knife, and pouringthe contents of their dark fluid (which is the sepia of commerce)into a deep mussel-shell. I had the foundation for good ink, and withthe addition of a little water, and a quill made from the feathersof my friends the gulls, I was easily fitted out with pens, ink, andbirch-bark, which was all I needed for many a long day to come.
This task ended, and a trial made of my new ink by making some notesand entries of my doings up to this time, I commenced upon another,and that was the building of the Hermitage at Rapid River. I selecteda beautiful spot a short distance below the fall, the noise of whichwas delightful to my ears, and laid out the foundations for my futureresidence. I was at least three weeks preparing all the materials forthe building of the same, passing over each day to my task and back tothe hut to sleep. I was determined that my future residence should bestrong and well built, and able to withstand the action of wind andrain, and for this purpose I passed my time in gathering large massesof clam and oyster shells, and reducing them to lime by the actionof fire. This was long and laborious work, but I needed lime to makemortar, and I could only get it in this way. I also wanted some hairto mix into my mortar, and t
his puzzled me for a day or two, but Ibethought me of the goat's skin that I had brought home with me fromnear Mirror Lake, and I at once put it to soak in one of the largesea-oyster shells in water impregnated with wood ashes and some of mylime to make the hair come off, which it readily did after a few days.I then went about, whilst burning my shells for lime, to capture somemore of the goats, and by means of numerous snares made of my manillarope, and placed in the localities that I found they frequented, Ihad no difficulty in capturing as many as I desired, all of which Ikilled and cut the flesh into narrow strips and cured it in the air forfuture use. The lye in which I soaked the skins gave me the hair for mymortar, and the skins remaining, although not tanned in a proper sense,were useful to me in a thousand ways.
When I had gotten together a sufficient quantity of lime, hair, andnice dry sand, and an immense pile of the largest stones that I couldmove, I commenced to build my house.
I marked out a parallelogram of what I should judge by my eyes to beabout twelve feet in width by eighteen feet in length, and upon thesestaked-out lines I dug a trench some three feet in depth, and into itI pushed my heaviest stones for the foundations, taking care to placeparticularly large and smooth ones at the corners.
Luckily building material was plenty and at no great distance. Rocks ofall sizes were to be found at the base of the rocky point that was justbelow me on Stillwater Cove. Of course I used much larger stones thanI could lift, which I got to where I wanted them, and into place, bymeans of small rollers, which were sections of quite large tree-limbs,that I had cut off with infinite care and patience with my knife, intothe requisite length, and large, strong stakes of wood, made in thesame manner, which I used as crowbars, or as we sailors should callthem, and more properly, handspikes. After my first tier was laid roundabout the whole trench, I rolled in other stones on top, putting mortarbetween them before I pried them into place. When the trench was filledI commenced to use smaller stones, but still ones that were quite largeand almost unmanageable; and as the walls got higher, I had to contentmyself with stones that I could lift with my hands. But then, again,I at this point commenced to double my wall, using two stones side byside where I had formerly at the base used one. In this way my house,gradually, after some three months' incessant labor, began to takeshape. On the front, sides, and rear, at proper distances and height,I inserted large timbers so as to form windows. These timbers, whichwere often as large as my thigh, I obtained by finding dead treesthat would suit my purpose in the woods, and burning them off at theproper length, so that I could handle them. Of course a foot or two ora burned end was of no consequence, as it was laid upon the wall in ahorizontal position, and mortared into its place with the stones thatwere piled upon it. In this way I formed rough but strong uprights andcross-pieces for my door and windows, all of them firmly built into thewall, and forming part of the solid walls themselves.
BUILDING THE STONE HUT.--PAGE 120.]
At the end of some three months, after incessant and exhaustive labor,I had the satisfaction of seeing the stone work to my house all done,the top of the walls being at least two feet above my head, and Ishould say at least twelve inches thick; this was all mortared up bothon the outside and inside, and was as strong as a fort. The last layersof stone gave me the most trouble, but by means of a large, nearlyround stone, upon which I stood, I was enabled to finish my task,although at great pains. The erection of the roof was comparativelyan easier matter, although that also took me a long time and was onlycompleted after great patience. I found growing on the shores of RapidRiver a species of cane, and I found that I could cut these downwithout difficulty, and gathering a large number of them, I splicedthem together for my uprights and ridge-pole, with manilla yarns, andthen laid the remainder close together from the ridge-pole to theeaves, projecting over the latter some two feet. These were securedto the ridge-pole by manilla strands, and in the centre of my house astrong forked tree as large as my leg received the ridge-pole from bothends of the house, and sustained it. This cane roofing, which was bothlight and strong, I thatched heavily with sedge, similar to that withwhich I had covered my hut. I fastened up the openings that I had leftfor windows with goat skins for the present, hanging them on woodenpegs which I could remove when the weather was fine. At the rear endof my house I had, I should have said, built me a nice open fire-placeand a tall chimney, which I had had to finish after the roof was done,so as to stand upon the latter to carry the chimney up high enough tomake it safe to carry away the sparks from my thatch. Into this large,dry, airy, and clean room, I brought by different trips all my worldlygoods. I had put out the lamps in the tower at the landing-place hutlong ago, having no further need of it, but I still kept it as areceptacle for my spare flint, steel, and tinder, and knew that I couldgo there to obtain them to start a fire should I by chance be withoutthem on my own person.
Whilst my house was in course of construction I had not been idle abouta thousand and one other things, but I had let nothing of importanceinterfere with this--to me--imperative duty. After my house was allfinished I commenced setting out round about it, at about fifty pacesdistant, a species of alder, which I noticed grew rapidly and thickly,and which I foresaw would in a very few years entirely conceal myhabitation. When I had gotten things well about me, I found by myjournal that I was in the month of March,--in other words, that thesummer had passed and that I had been none too soon in preparing myselffor the winter, which was yet to visit me.