126 CRUISE OF THE BARRERA 



result was a hopeless confusion of trousers, shirts, 

 underwear, and shoes on the cabin floor. Collect- 

 ing parties returning to the schooner would strip 

 off their wet clothes on deck and then hasten below 

 to overhaul the junk pile for something to wear. 

 Those fine discriminations between meum and 

 tuum, supposed to characterize civilized man, 

 became dulled, and the search for clothes was not 

 so much for one's individual and particular gar- 

 ments as for any garments that seemed reasonably 

 dry and of approximate fit. Thus there were many 

 good-natured accusations of theft. "Some in- 

 famous scoundrel has stolen my only dry shirt " 

 was a frequent complaint of the late arrival, and 

 our crew was always vastly amused by our arraign- 

 ments of each other upon such serious charges. 

 Whenever, under dire necessity, one had to tap his 

 trunk for a fresh article of clean, well-laundered 

 linen, avarice shown in every eye and little plots 

 were hatched. 



We had by this time seen enough of the coast to 

 form some definite idea of its configuration and the 

 reasons therefor, and we had had ample opportun- 

 ity to study the island-shelf over which we had been 

 sailing day by day. The rough sketch opposite, 



