254 ACCOMMODATING STAG. 



current from the eastward, that we could make 

 110 head against it; and it being now 9 P.M., 

 we went ashore in a little sandy hay to spy out 

 the land and see whether it afforded anything 

 for supper. I took my rifle and my glass, and 

 ascended to the top of a neighbouring hillock, 

 and from there I soon discovered our evening 

 meal provided to our hands in the shape of 

 a fat stag, grazing by himself on the slope of 

 a hill about a mile distant. I therefore an 

 nounced to the crew that we should sup there 

 and set two of them to gather wood and make 

 a fire, while the other two accompanied me 

 to carry down the stag, who was still quietly 

 engaged with his own supper, and in a happy 

 state of unconsciousness of how soon he would 

 be called upon to conjugate the verb to sup 

 in a passive instead of an active sense. 



A beautifully developed terrace of trap 

 rocks conducted me within forty yards of 

 the stag, and in twenty minutes more he was 

 at the side of the fire which, like those of the 

 cannibals in Robinson Crusoe, had been lighted 

 for him while yet alive. 



I shudder to think how many pounds of 

 this meritorious animal we consumed in the 

 shape of chops, marrow-bones, and kaLols. 



