This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 Excerpt: ...of cloth in the form of a hood, which we could pull over our heads, and over the whole she spread a layer of caoutchouc, thus rendering the suit waterproof. Encased in these garments, we could go out and in as we required, without endangering either our health or our clothes. Although our winter quarters were of the poorest description, we yet managed to make our sojourn in them both pleasant and profitable. The writing of my journal was a most agreeable pastime both for myself and my wife, who was of great service in helping me to recall the events that had transpired since the shipwreck. For the benefit of the boys I instituted a night-school, and strove to recall to their memories the different subjects which they had learned at school, and which they were forgetting rapidly. The books that we had chosen from the captain's collection proved to be of the greatest use to us both for instruction and amusement, and afforded us many a pleasant hour that otherwise would have passed very wearily. The last and most useful occupation of the winter was the making of a couple of carding-combs, which were necessary for combing the flax. These I formed by sticking a number of long fine nails at equal distances in a piece of tin. In order to fix them solidly in their places, I poured melted lead between them. I next nailed the bit of tin to a small board, and the machine was finished. It seemed so suitable for the purpose that my wife was tempted to begin work immediately; but as the flax had got wet with the rain, and we were unable to light a fire to dry it, she was obliged to put off her combing and carding till a more favourable season. Who can describe our delight when, after long weeks of confinement and privation, the clouds rolled back, showing the blue sky be...