DWELLERS OF THE SURF 



105 



which they collect in stone basins and wooden casks. I had 

 one keg of good clean, northern spring water which had been 

 saved from the ship, which I propped up outside the house and 

 used as sparingly as possible. Until it rained again I knew it 

 would be a considerable task to replace it. 



To save water I washed everything in the surf. Soap would 

 not lather in salt water but by pounding and diligent scrubbing 

 I kept things reasonably clean. Pots and pans were most difficult 

 but were not as bad as they might have been, for I had no grease. 

 The Daxons had made away with the lot of it. Coleman had 

 personally lugged ashore from the wreck three cases of tinned 

 shortening but they had mysteriously disappeared somewhere 

 between the Lagoon Christophe and iMathewtown. 



Fortunately the vast pile of tin cans under the canvas in the 

 yard made the use of water for cooking largely unnecessary 

 though eating out of tin cans which had no identification made 

 meals always a matter of surprise. The labels had all been 

 washed off in the wreck and though I tried segregating the 

 containers by shape and size I never quite succeeded in telling 

 them apart. The most dismal meal was served late one afternoon 

 when after returning ravenously hungry from an all day trip 

 in the field, I opened four cans in a row and found they con- 

 tained no less than four varieties of lima beans. It was the third 

 consecutive day that I had inadvertently opened lima beans 

 but I knew I could not waste food so I resignedly gulped them 

 down. I had some very weird combinations. Opened cans soon 

 spoiled in the tropical heat and I had to eat whatever came to 

 light. Salmon, siruped cherries and canned pumpkin were per- 

 haps the worst. 



For my personal use I had the privilege of a magnificent 

 bathtub. This was no modern one with gleaming metal and 

 delicate porcelain but was a pool hollowed out of the rocks 

 by the action of the surf. It was about four feet deep and was 



