After our return to Falcon's Nest, I requested my sons to continue their exercises in gymnastics.

I wished to develope all the vigour and energy that nature had given them; and which, in our situation, were especially necessary.

I added to archery, racing, leaping, wrestling, and climbing trees, either by the trunks, or by a rope suspended from the branches, as sailors climb.

I next taught them to use the _lasso_, a powerful weapon, by aid of which the people of South America capture savage animals.

I fixed two balls of lead to the ends of a cord about a fathom in length.