It may be imagined that at the first glimpse of daybreak, he was not a little anxious to get out of the wood, for he now began to suffer severely from want of food. For some hours he wandered about in the intricacies of this wild and uninhabited spot, supported in the hope that his toils were near their termination. Often did he listen in breathless attention to catch the sound of any signal-gun to guide his footsteps, and often did he shout in expectation of being heard by those who might have been despatched in search of him. He ascended the high trees, but his view was constantly intercepted by forests and elevated hills wooded to their summits. Hunger now forced on him the necessity of seeking some means of subsistence; he accordingly prepared with his knife a formidable bludgeon, and scarcely had an hour passed when, startled by a rustling among the underwood, he expected some kind of animal to sally forth, but was surprised to see a large black snake glide out from its concealment and raise its head, "nimble in threats," at his approach. Having got within range of his stick, he immediately "rapped" it "o' the coxcomb," whereupon it rolled itself up, and after a few twists and twirls remained stationary, with its forked tongue thrust out of its mouth. In this desolate situation night again overtook him, and although the climate of the island, notwithstanding its latitude, is generally mild, and the middle of the day pleasantly warm, yet the mornings and the evenings are rather cold; consequently, he had to struggle against both cold and hunger without any apparent remedy. The simple circumstance of having met with a snake in the day did not seem of much consequence, but the idea of meeting one in the night, occasioned by his hearing those peculiar noises usually made by them at this period, kept him in continual anxiety. He ascended a tree, and having eaten some of the leaves, remained during the obscurity of a night intensely dark, with his spirits dreadfully depressed, for he now began to fear that the ship would sail without him; his situation appeared hopeless, and he passed a sleepless and desponding night; the noises kept up in the woods convinced him that many birds of prey existed upon the island. When day began to appear, he descended from the tree, and had not gone many paces when he perceived a large owl perched, with the most imperturbable gravity, upon a low bough, with its large eyes intently fixed on him, but as if unconscious of his appearance. He quietly approached near enough to knock it on the head, and thus he had the good fortune to provide himself with a breakfast. Having eaten sufficiently of this carrion, which left his mouth as bitter as wormwood, he set out with a determination of moving in a right line, which could not fail of bringing him to the sea-shore at some part of the island. Towards evening he was seized with a most painful sickness, and felt cold and disheartened; he had not seen during this day any