Expecting a second harvest, we were constrained to prepare the field
for sowing again, and immediately therefore commenced mowing down the
stubble. While engaged in this, flocks of quails and partridges came to
glean among the scattered ears. We did not secure any great number, but
resolved to be prepared for them next season, and by spreading nets, to
catch them in large quantities.
My wife was satisfied when she saw the straw carried home and stacked;
our crop of maize, which of course had not been threshed like the other
corn, afforded soft leaves which were used for stuffing mattresses,
while the stalks, when burnt, left ashes so rich in alkali as to be
especially useful.
I changed the crops sown on the ground to rye, barley and oats, and
hoped they would ripen before the rainy season.
The shoals of herring made their appearance just as we finished our
agricultural operations. This year we pickled only two barrels of them;
but we were not so merciful towards the seals, which arrived on the
coast directly afterwards. We hunted them vigorously, requiring their
skins for many purposes, more especially for the completion of the
cajack. On the little deck of that tiny vessel I had made a kind of
magazine, in which to store pistols, ammunition, water and provisions,
and this I meant to cover with seal-skin, so as to be quite watertight.
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