Swiss Family Robinson

weather for a while became wilder, and the storms fiercer than ever. Thunder roared, lightning blazed, torrents rushed towards the sea, which came in raging billows to meet them, lashed to fury by the tempests of wind which swept the surface of the deep.
    The uproar of the elements came to an end at last. Nature resumed her attitude of repose, her smiling aspect of peaceful beauty; and soon all traces of the ravages of floods and storms would disappear beneath the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics.
    Gladly quitting the sheltering walls of Rockburg to roam once more in the open air, we crossed Jackal River , for a walk along the coast, and presently Fritz with his sharp eyes observed something on the small island near Flamingo Marsh, which was, he said, long and rounded, resembling a boat bottom upwards.
    Examining it with the telescope, I could form no other conjecture, and we resolved to make it the object of an excursion next day, being delighted to resume our old habit of starting in pursuit of adventure. The boat was accordingly got in readiness; it required some repairs, and fresh pitching, and then we made for the point of interest, indulging in a variety of surmises as to what we should find.
    It proved to be a huge stranded whale. The island being steep and rocky, it was necessary to be careful; but we found a landing-place on the further side. The boys hurried by the nearest way to the beach where lay the monster of the deep, while I clambered to the highest point of the islet, which commanded a view of the mainland from Rockburg to Falconhurst .
    On rejoining my sons, I found them only half-way to the great fish, and as I drew near they shouted in high glee:
    `Oh, father, just look at the glorious shells and coral branches we are finding! How does it happen that there are such quantities?'
    `Only consider how the recent storms have stirred the ocean to its depths! No doubt thousands of shellfish have been detached from their rocks and dashed in all direction by the waves, which have thrown ashore even so huge a creature as the whale yonder.'
    `Yes; isn't he a frightful great brute!' cried Fritz. `Ever so much larger than he seemed from a distance. The worst of it is , one does not well see what use to make of the huge carcase .'
    `Why, make train oil, to be sure,' said Ernest. `I can't say he's a beauty, though, and it is much pleasanter to gather these lovely shells, than to cut up blubber.'
    `Well, let us amuse ourselves with them for the present,' said I, `but in the afternoon, when the sea is calmer, we will return with the necessary implements, and see if we can turn the stranded whale to good account.'
    We were soon ready to return to the boat, but Ernest had a fancy for remaining alone on the island till we came back, and asked my permission to do so, that he might experience, for an hour or two, the sensations of Robinson Crusoe.
    To this, however, I would not consent, assuring him that our fate, as a solitary family, gave him quite sufficient idea of shipwreck on an uninhabited island, and that his lively imagination must supply the rest.
    The boys found it hard work to row back, and began to beg of me to exert my wonderful inventive powers in contriving some kind of rowing machine.
    `You lazy fellows!' returned I. `Give me the great clockwork out of a church tower, perhaps I might be able to relieve your labours .'
    `Oh father!' cried Fritz. `Don't you know there are iron wheels in the clockwork of the large kitchen-jacks? I'm sure mother would give them up, and you could make something out of them, could you not?'
    `By the time I have manufactured a rowing-machine out of a roasting-jack, I think your arms will be pretty well inured to the use of your oars! However, I am far from despising the hint, my dear Fritz.'
    `Is coral of any use?' demanded Jack suddenly.
    `In former times it was pounded and used by chemists; but it is now chiefly used for various ornaments, and made into beads for necklaces et cetera. As such, it is greatly prized by savages, and were we to fall in with natives, we might very possibly find a store of coral useful in bartering with them.
    `For the present we will arrange these treasures of the deep in our library, and make them the beginning of a Museum of Natural History , which will afford us equal pleasure and instruction.'
    `One might almost say that coral belongs at once to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms,' remarked Fritz; `it is hard like stone, it has