and with these manufactured a pair of trousers, and the upper part served for a jacket. This suit, however, was at last worn out; and he was obliged to resort at last entirely to a seal-skin costume almost identical with that of Robinson Crusoe, as described by Defoe. As they had no razors among them, the addition of long beards to their seal-skin dresses and fur caps, with a knife and steel stuck in their belts, gave them a wild, grotesque appearance, which caused some mirth among the party.
The timber, old iron, and nails, which they had so fortunately discovered, were from the remains of a hut erected by some Americans about sixteen years before—a fact which they ascertained from some tallies of skins obtained by them, on which the date of 1805 was cut. As there were traces of similar ruined huts in the neighbourhood, a party were detached to explore the island. In about a month these returned, bringing with them skins which they had collected and prepared, much timber which they had found, and also a three-legged pot, used by the South Sea men in procuring oil from the blubber. They now manufactured saws out of the iron hoops, and the carpenter contrived various other tools out of old iron bolts, beaten out with the solitary hammer on a stone anvil after being heated.
They now felt themselves able to construct another habitation of a more comfortable kind; and soon afterwards set to work to construct a rude boat, in which it was determined that some of the party should set sail in the hope of finding some escape; for the chance of any vessel coming to their rescue became apparently every day less and less, and two years had now rolled
