The engineer’s proposal was unanimously applauded. The inland bay unrolled like a map before their eyes, and they had only to name the features of its contour and relief. Spilett would put down the names over the proper places, and the geographical nomenclature of the island would be complete. First, they named the two bays and the mountain as the engineer had suggested. “Now,” said the reporter, “to that peninsula projecting from the southwest I propose to give the name of Serpentine Peninsula, and to call the twisted curve at the termination of it Reptile End, for it is just like a snake’s tail.” “Motion carried,” said the engineer. “And the other extremity of the island,” said Herbert, “the gulf so like an open pair of jaws, let us call it Shark Gulf.” “Good enough,” said Pencroff, “and we may complete the figure by calling the two sides of the gulf Mandible Cape.” “But there are two capes,” observed the reporter. “Well, we will have them North Mandible and South Mandible.” “I’ve put them down,” said Spilett. “Now we must name the southwestern extremity of the island,” said Pencroff. “You mean the end of Union Bay?” asked. Herbert. “Claw Cape,” suggested Neb, who wished to have his turn as godfather. And he had chosen an excellent name; for this Cape was very like the powerful claw of the fantastic animal to which they had compared the island. Pencroff was enchanted with the turn things were taking, and their active imaginations soon supplied other names. The river which furnished them with fresh water, and near which the balloon had cast them on shore, they called the Mercy, in gratitude to Providence. The islet on which they first set foot, was Safety Island; the plateau at the top of the high granite wall above the Chimneys, from which the whole sweep of the bay was visible, Prospect Plateau; and, finally, that mass of impenetrable woods which covered Serpentine Peninsula, the Forests of the Far West. The engineer had approximately determined, by the height and position of the sun, the situation of the island with reference to the cardinal points, and had put Union Bay and Prospect Plateau to the east; but on the morrow, by taking the exact time of the sun’s rising and setting, and noting its situation at the time exactly intermediate, he expected to ascertain precisely the northern point of the island; for, on account of its situation on the Southern Hemisphere, the sun at the moment of its culmination would pass to the north, and not to the south, as it does in the Northern Hemisphere. All was settled, and the colonists were about to descend the mountain, when Pencroff cried:— “Why, what idiots we are!” “Why so?” said Spilett, who had gotten up and closed his note-book. “We have forgotten to baptize our island!” Herbert was about to propose to give it the name of the engineer, and his companions would have applauded the choice, when Cyrus Smith said quietly:—