he Future; Ma

p. Before taking my departure, however, two questions of importance must be solved, if possible, namely, t

hich continued to furnish me with an ample supply of fruit, an idea came to me, and so astonished was I t

kni

imes, in our boyhood, my brother and I, on our excursions in the woods, had made fires with old gun-flints and our pocket-knives

substitute for flint, for I did not expect to find the real article here, as

t last, round and flat, about the size of a silver dollar. It was very dark, almost black, and appeared to be quite hard. Wiping it with my hand I laid it down in the sun and waited impatiently for it to dry. When perfectly free of moisture, I opened my knife, and holding the blade

once more tried to produce a spark. I was soon able to obtain a spark frequently, but they invariably failed to reach the floss, or to ignite when they touched it. But I saw that I had fire within reach, and it only required perseverance to procure it. Holding the knife blade closer to the floss, I struck again. This time a shower of tiny sparks descended to the floss, and, yes, it had caught! Quickly dropping the knife and stone I partially covered it with my hands and very gently blew upon it. A tiny wreath of smoke a

tree, I allowed the fire to go out, feeling full con

creepers that I had set out along the walls of the stockade, until they showed no further signs of wilting during t

to move it without disturbing the earth immediately surrounding it; when but a few inches below the top of the ground I came across a round, hard object which I at first thought to be a large root of the tree, but in digging still further around it I saw that the supposed root moved, until finally I lifted it out of the ground. As I did so I noticed that it had one end attached to the vine that I was after. The root was fully a foot and a half long, and about five inches in diameter, slightly rounded at the ends. I cut off the vine with my knife, and ran with the root to

and sufficient to sustain life even if I found no o

the vines were growing up to conceal it, they would, in the meantime be stori

of a bow and arrows at first suggested itself, but this was abandoned for the bow-gun, for, as boys, we we

g to the centre of the bamboo. From the lower end of the notch I split away the upper half of the tube, thus forming a spout about four feet long which was to carry the arrow. For a breech I selected a forked stick, the butt of which I carefully rounded and smoothed until it would fit tightly into the round socket at the l

branches; and, on bending it down toward the ground and cutting it, I found that it was elastic and quite hard. From the tree I cut a section about three feet long, which I squared for a distance of two inches i

through into the groove of the barrel. Into this I carefully fitted the squared portion of the bow, after which notches opening in opposite directions were cut on the lower side of the barrel, one on

ng one end of each, and notching the other to receive the string. To give sufficient weight to the execution end of the arrow, I split a piece of the tough vine into fine strips, with which I closely wound the arrows near the ends, until the proper weight was se

be tested. Carefully separating the longest fibres of the cocoanut cloth. I

e groove of the gun and, raising the gun to my shoulder, I released the string with an upwar

he success of my bow-gun, and after constructing a quiver for the arrows from a piece of the cocoanut cloth fastened together with

way. I roasted several of the yams, and gathered two dozen oranges which were stored in a bag made

in a short piece of bamboo, which I stopped up tightly at both ends with wooden plugs.

after which, closing the door of the stockade and fastening it with withes of the vine, I slung the quiver of arrows and