Part 201

+sich erweisen als.+

= drove.

= who had come over.

= doing.

a spare suit of clothes, +ein Reserveanzug+, m.

here +auf´nehmen+; early potatoes, +frühzeitige Kartoffeln+.

+noch übrig.+

Section 241.

A CURIOUS STORY.

IX.

In January Frederick swam round the point again, and mounted the cliff. He shot four pigs, ran the fat into buckets, and threw the hams down to his brother on the beach below. He saw the four last goats, but spared them to increase their number. In February a boat came to the west side from Tristan, and its crew killed the four goats, and departed without communicating with the Stoltenhoffs.

The relations between the Tristan people and the brothers does not appear to have been so cordial latterly as it was at first, and the Stoltenhoffs believe that the intention of their neighbours in killing the goats, and in delaying from time to time to bring them some live stock, which they had promised them, was to force them to leave the island. It may have been so, for the Tristan men had been in the habit of making a yearly sealing expedition to Inaccessible Island, and no doubt the presence of the energetic strangers lessened their chance of success.

In March the brothers once more swam round the point, and ascended the cliff. After staying on the plateau together for a few days, it was settled that Frederick should remain above to procure (S. 58, N. 8) a stock of lard for the winter, Gustav returning to the hut and storing it. When a pig was killed, the hide, with the fat in it, was rolled up, secured with thongs of skin, and thrown over the cliff, where Gustav then ran the lard into a cask.

+Landspitze+, f.

+laufen lassen.+

+verschonen.+

= without having seen the Stoltenhoffs.

= that their neighbours killed the goats and delayed, etc., ... in order to force them, etc.

+um es zuzubereiten.+

Section 242.

A CURIOUS STORY.

During the second winter, the privations of the brothers do not seem to have been great. They were getting accustomed to their mode of life, and had always sufficient food, such as it was. They were remarkably well educated. Both could speak and read English fluently, and the elder had a good knowledge of French. Their library consisted of eight volumes: Schoedler’s Natural History, a German Atlas, Charles O’Malley, Captain Morrell’s Voyages, two old volumes of a monthly magazine, Hamlet and Coriolanus with French notes, and Schiller’s poems. These books they came to know almost by heart, but they had considerable resources in themselves, in the intelligent interest they took in the ever-changing appearances of nature.

When the “Challenger” arrived, they were preparing for another summer; but the peculiar food, and the want of variety in it, were beginning to tell upon them, for all their original stores were exhausted, with the exception of the Epsom salts, which were untouched, neither of them having had an hour’s illness during their sojourn; and they were heartily glad of a passage to the Cape.

Frederick came to the ship before we left for the South in December. He was then comfortably settled in a situation in a merchant’s office in Cape Town, and Gustav was on his way home to see his people before resuming the thread of his roving sailor’s life.—W. J. J. SPRY, “THE CRUISE OF THE CHALLENGER.”

and — was = and the food at their disposal (+und die ihnen zu Gebote stehende Nahrung+) was at least always sufficient (+ausreichend+).

a monthly magazine, +eine Monatsschrift+.

= they knew at last almost by heart.

= friends or relations.