The blubber of the whale boiled and stored--A unique machine--Expedition to Prospect Hill--Whale's tongue is voted no delicacy--We land on Whale Island--Jack discovers a strange skeleton--Turtle turning--Towed ashore--The loom completed--Return of the herring shoals--Basket making--We manufacture a sedan chair--Ernest's wild ride therein--A boa constrictor appears--He retreats to the marsh--Suspense--Poor Grizzle's fate--An awful scene--Death of the monster--An account of snakes--Remedies for poisoned bites--Ernest writes Grizzle's epitaph--The serpent stuffed and placed in the museum, 222 CHAPTER XII. We examine the marsh--A cave discovered--We find the floor covered with fuller's earth--Discharge our pistols--Jack's fright--Ernest captures an eel--An expedition toward the Gap--Visit Falconhurst and Woodlands and examine the country round--Franz shoots a capybara--Ernest and Knips fight the rats--A lecture on musk--Cinnamon apples--A peccary hunt--We prepare the peccary meat--Disasters at Prospect Hill--An exploring expedition through the Gap--We find our barrier broken down--Across the desert--Strange objects in the distance--An account of ostriches--An ostrich slain--We discover the nest--A mud tortoise--We encounter bears--A desperate fight--Back again to camp--We skin the bears and smoke their flesh--Pepper found--Three of the boys start on an expedition--I discover talc, 242 CHAPTER XIII. The boys return and give an account of their adventures--How they captured the antelopes--How Fritz caught the rabbits and Jack rode down the gazelles--How they followed the honey bird and Jack tried to rob the bees' byke--We sup on the bears' paws--Across the desert again--Sight three ostriches--The male bird captured--We secure him between Storm and Grumble--The mother's astonishment at our new pet--Return to Woodlands--Home again--We establish colonies on Shark and Whale Islands--Turn our attention to agriculture--The difficulties of ostrich training--My patent saddle and bridle--I exercise my ingenuity in various trades, 268 CHAPTER XIV. The rainy season again--The building of the cajack--The mother invents a swimming dress--A visit to our colonies--Mysterious seaweed--The mother's surprise--A visit to Whale Island--Mischievous pigs--The three boys return from a day's hunting--They display their treasures--A new skinning apparatus--We make a crushing machine--An early harvest--We prepare a threshing floor--Reaping in Italian fashion--Threshing also in Italian fashion--Return of the herring shoals, 284 CHAPTER XV.