The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-02-23

olt-we may as well see what we've
got.'''
Here Ben took the notebook from
the table, and turned over the pages,
muttering, 'Lost fore-topsail sheet
block, " "Monk sprained his ankle, y
"Spoke the Mary Anne" '+Ice seen, y
ssLeft ship" "Adrift.' - cob! here,
that's it. -
'sYou see," said Ben, addressing
me, e'I always had to keep the log,
and 1 used to keep log of my own
at the same time, till at last it got
such o way with me that I felt as if ]
hadn't done my duty if there was NO
log kept-got to be regular thing
with me. Lord, sir! there's in that bot
tom cupboard the logs-sdiaries' is
printed on the back; I call 'em logs
of ali I've done since [ left the sea.
L do it every day after tea, and can't
quite be happy without. it. I heard
the minister say some poetry about
that kind of thing
use doth breed habit in man,
think it was.
CHOW, this here, rs I said, is the
log of my voyage in the floating
island, as I called it in joke once to
the missus She said it was so good
q name that it's always been called so
since"
"Well,' said I, ''wnat had you got
when you came to count up?'
<'Three guns-one was rifed-that
was the boy's-fne, handsome stock
it had, too, very light, tho; but,
Lord! they let these only sons have
anything. Two hatchets- short han
dles-the boy hadn't got one. Then
there was three blankets and our
clothes we'd got on. There was in
the three bags about twelve pounds
of fat pork, cooked, and about the
same of biscuit. Sands had some
tea, but Sleepy Sam had got all the
coffee in his bag, so we'd none with
us. I'd got bit of lanyard in my
jacket pocket. One large fsh-hook
that was the queerest thing Sands
says to the boy:
What's that in the corner of
your bags'
"sOh! it's hook to catch shark
with. Aunt Nelly gave it me-
OSAAS SAiOuS1s ~ Wt1so DdIt)t(l
hook, with a cork on the end-he was
a careful boy, that-and bit of chain
to it, about two feet.
And what did you bring it here
for?' says I. Expect to catch sharks?'
'Lord! how Sands laughed.
No., says the boy; only the
Captain said you'd most likely shoot
some seals, so I thought that would
stick into them to drag them along
over the ice.
cit wasn't such bad notion, YOU
see; so Sands gave over laughing. T
think that was all we'd got with us,
and poor lookout it was, too.
There was food enough, on short al
lowance, to last about five days. BY
that time, we thought, if we had got
into what they call the Arctic cold
current, we should get down to about
slxty-one degrees or so, and fall in
with some whalcrs. So we made up
out minds to it, and set about getting
little to rights. The first point was
to get little warm, because the cold
is not only unpleasant, but makes
you eat more, if you've got it, and
want more if you haven't.
''The wind still kept South, and
soon we could see nothing but our
own bit of ice all round. When we
got to wind'ard, it felt warm, so we
took all the things round to wind'ard
and cut hole in the ice to put them
in, with n small gutter leading from
it, SO as to keep 'em from the wet.
Then we cut a sort Of platform level
to stand on, but it was dreadful
sloppy; the ice was melting rs fast rs
it could-running down in streams
from the top as the sun shone on it,
and making the air quite damp.
''Next morning, we resolved on q
search Of the island, as we called it.
Sands and I, with the two guns, went;
the boy stayed on the platform to
look OUT
How large was it, Stevens, alto
gether?"
II should say about three times as
big as n thousand ton vessel-of
course, of different shape. Here's
the sketch made of it; it's as near
as l could remember. You see there
were two peaks and bit of foe at
the bottom. 1t wasn't so big, by
long chalk, as some I've seen, you
know
Lets see-where was I? Oh. II
know. Sands and I went down to
the fioe-piece, and says I to Sands,
fThot'11 hraok off coop. ~ oo,,+ o4,,> I