V.

They had an old whale-boat[1] which they had bought at St. Helena, with mast, sails, and oars, three spars for a roof, a door, and a glazed window; a wheel-barrow, two spades and a shovel, two pickaxes, a saw, a hammer, two chisels, two or three gimlets, and some nails; a kettle, a frying-pan, two sauce-pans, knives and forks, and some crockery; two blankets each, and empty covers[2] which they afterwards filled with sea-birds’ down. They had a lamp, a bottle of oil, and six dozen boxes of Bryant and May’s matches.

For internal use[3] they had two hundred pounds _of_ flour, two hundred pounds _of_ rice, one hundred pounds _of_ biscuits, twenty pounds _of_ coffee, ten pounds _of_ tea, thirty pounds _of_ sugar, three pounds _of_ table-salt, a little pepper, eight pounds _of_ tobacco, five bottles _of_ gin, six bottles _of_ Cape wine[4], six bottles _of_ vinegar, and some Epsom salts. A barrel _of_ coarse salt was provided for curing seal-skins, and forty empty casks were intended for oil. Their arms and ammunition consisted of a short English rifle, an old German fowling-piece, two and a half pounds _of_ powder, two hundred bullets, and four sheath-knives[5]. The captain of the whaler gave them some seed potatoes, and they had a collection of the ordinary garden seeds.

When they had been four days on the island, they had a visit from a party of men from Tristan, who had come on their annual sealing excursion. They were ten days on Inaccessible, and were very friendly in their intercourse with the new comers.

[1] the whale-boat, +das beim Wallfischfang gebräuchliche Boot+. We have not a compound noun to render the English term. Say ‘They had an old boat, which had been used (+benutzt+) for whale-fishing and which they had bought in (S. 46, N. 6) the Island _of_ St. Helena.

[2] here +Überzug+, m., pl. +Überzüge+.

[3] +Für ihre körperlichen Bedürfnisse.+

[4] +Kapwein+, m.

[5] +Jagdmesser+, m.

_Section 238._

A CURIOUS STORY.