In the meantime, Spilett and Herbert hunted in the neighborhood, or with their guns loaded with ball, adventured into the unexplored depths of the Far West. It was an inextricable tangle of great trees growing close together. The exploration of those thick masses was very difficult and the engineer never undertook it without taking with him the pocket compass, as the sun was rarely visible through the leaves. Naturally, game was not plenty in these thick undergrowths, but three ai were shot during the last fortnight in April, and their skins were taken to Granite House, where they received a sort of tanning with sulfuric acid. On the 30th of April, a discovery, valuable for another reason, was made by Spilett. The two hunters were deep in the south-western part of the Far West when the reporter, walking some fifty paces ahead of his companion, came to a sort of glade, and was surprised to perceive an odor proceeding from certain straight stemmed plants, cylindrical and branching, and bearing bunches of flowers and tiny seeds. The reporter broke off some of these stems, and, returning to the lad, asked him if he knew what they were. “Where did you find this plant?” asked Herbert. “Over there in the glade; there is plenty of it.” “Well, this is a discovery that gives you Pencroff’s everlasting gratitude.” “Is it tobacco?” “Yes, and if it is not first quality it is all the same, tobacco.” “Good Pencroff, how happy he’ll be. But he cannot smoke all. He’ll have to leave some for us.” “I’ll tell you what, sir. Let us say nothing to Pencroff until the tobacco has been prepared, and then some fine day we will hand him a pipe full.” “And you may be sure, Herbert, that on that day the good fellow will want nothing else in the world.” The two smuggled a good supply of the plant into Granite House with as much precaution as if Pencroff had been the strictest of custom house officers. Smith and Neb were let into the secret, but Pencroff never suspected any thing during the two months it took to prepare the leaves, as he was occupied all day at the ship-yard. On the 1st of May the sailor was again interrupted at his favorite work by a fishing adventure, in which all the colonists took part. For some days they had noticed an enormous animal swimming in the sea some two or three miles distant from the shore. It was a huge whale, apparently belonging to the species _australis_, called “cape whales.” “How lucky for us if we could capture it!” cried the sailor. “Oh, if we only had a suitable boat and a harpoon ready, so that I could say:—Let’s go for him! For he’s worth all the trouble he’ll give us!” “Well, Pencroff, I should like to see you manage a harpoon. It must be interesting.” “Interesting and somewhat dangerous,” said the engineer, “but since we have not the means to attack this animal, it is useless to think about him.” “I am astonished to see a whale in such comparatively high latitude.”