plums; and, lastly, the wood-pigeon. To these Peterkin added a bit
of sugar-cane, which he had cut from a little patch of that plant
which he had found not long after separating from us; "and," said
he, "the patch was somewhat in a square form, which convinces me it
must have been planted by man."

"Very likely," replied Jack. "From all we have seen, I'm inclined
to think that some of the savages must have dwelt here long ago."

We found no small difficulty in making up our minds how we were to
cook the pig. None of us had ever cut up one before, and we did
not know exactly how to begin; besides, we had nothing but the axe
to do it with, our knife having been forgotten. At last Jack
started up and said, -

"Don't let us waste more time talking about it, boys. Hold it up,
Peterkin. There, lay the hind leg on this block of wood, so;" and
he cut it off, with a large portion of the haunch, at a single blow
of the axe. "Now the other, - that's it." And having thus cut off
the two hind legs, he made several deep gashes in them, thrust a
sharp-pointed stick through each, and stuck them up before the
blaze to roast. The wood-pigeon was then split open, quite flat,
washed clean in salt water, and treated in a similar manner. While
these were cooking, we scraped a hole in the sand and ashes under
the fire, into which we put our vegetables, and covered them up.

The taro-root was of an oval shape, about ten inches long and four
or five thick. It was of a mottled-gray colour, and had a thick
rind. We found it somewhat like an Irish potato, and exceedingly
good. The yam was roundish, and had a rough brown skin. It was