But this biscuit is no good at all.

Let me but just get hold of one fish, and I shall know fast enough how to use it to catch some more." And the true difficulty was how to catch the first fish.

It was evident that fish were not abundant in these waters, nevertheless the lines were cast.

But the biscuit with which they were baited dissolved at once in the water, and we did not get a single bite.

For two days the attempt was made in vain, and as it only involved what seemed a lavish waste of our only means of subsistence, it was given up in despair.
To-day, the 30th, as a last resource, the boatswain tried what a piece of coloured rag might do by way of attracting some voracious fish, and having obtained from Miss Herbey a little piece of the red shawl she wears, he fastened it to his hook.