Extra oars were carried slung on each side of the boats just under the gunwales, for the Major on the former journey had been much hampered by being obliged to halt to search for timber suitable for oars and then to make them.

There was one thing about the boats which we soon discovered was a mistake.

This was the lack of iron on the keels.
The iron had been left off for the purpose of reducing the weight when it should be necessary to carry the boats around bad places, but the rocks and gravel cut the keels down alarmingly, till there was danger of wearing out the bottoms in the long voyage to come.[4] Jack was a great fisherman, and it was not long before he tried his luck in the waters of the Green.

No one knew what kind of fish might be taken--at least no one in our party--and he began his fishing with some curiosity.

It was rewarded by a species of fish none of us had ever before seen, a fish about ten to sixteen inches long, slim, with fine scales and large fins.