sufferings. My companion, I believe, slept pretty soundly; but
at day break, when we rolled out of our dwelling, I felt nearly
disqualified for any further efforts. Toby prescribed as a
remedy for my illness the contents of one of our little silk
packages, to be taken at once in a single dose. To this species
of medical treatment, however, I would by no means accede, much
as he insisted upon it; and so we partook of our usual morsel,
and silently resumed our journey. It was now the fourth day
since we left Nukuheva, and the gnawings of hunger became
painfully acute. We were fain to pacify them by chewing the
tender bark of roots and twigs, which, if they did not afford us
nourishment, were at least sweet and pleasant to the taste.

Our progress along the steep watercourse was necessarily slow,
and by noon we had not advanced more than a mile. It was
somewhere near this part of the day that the noise of falling
waters, which we had faintly caught in the early morning, became
more distinct; and it was not long before we were arrested by a
rocky precipice of nearly a hundred feet in depth, that extended
all across the channel, and over which the wild stream poured in
an unbroken leap. On each hand the walls of the ravine presented
their overhanging sides both above and below the fall, affording
no means whatever of avoiding the cataract by taking a circuit
round it.

'What's to be done now, Toby?' said I.

'Why,' rejoined he, 'as we cannot retreat, I suppose we must keep
shoving along.'