Dana.


The very day succeeding the arrival of the Sea Lion of the Vineyard, even
while his mate was clearing the vessel, Daggett had a gang on the north
shore, killing and skinning. As Roswell's rules were rigidly observed, no
other change was produced by this accession to the force of the sealers,
than additional slaughter. Many more seals were killed, certainly, but all
was done so quietly that no great alarm was awakened among the doomed
animals themselves. One great advantage was obtained by the arrival of the
new party that occasioned a good deal of mirth at first, but which, in the
end, was found to be of great importance to the progress of the work.
Daggett had taken to pieces and brought with him the running part of a
common country wagon, which was soon found of vast service in transporting
the skins and blubber across the rocks. The wheels were separated, leaving
them in pairs, and each axle was loaded with a freight that a dozen men
would hardly have carried, when two or three hands would drag in the load,
with an occasional lift from other gangs, to get them up a height, or over
a cleft. This portion of the operation was found to work admirably, owing,
in a great measure, to the smooth surfaces of the rocks; and
unquestionably these wheels advanced the business of the season at least a
fortnight;--Gardiner thought a month. It rendered the crews better
natured, too, much diminishing their toil, and sending them to their bunks
at night in a far better condition for rest than they otherwise could have
been.

Just one month, or four weeks to a day, after the second schooner got in,
it being Sunday of course, Gardiner and Daggett met on the platform of a
perfectly even rock that lay stretched for two hundred yards directly