The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 — page 130: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

130 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. and children also embarked in her to proceed round to Grant Island in charge of Captain Blake and his two assistants ; whilst the engineer and Henderson, armed with their repeating rifles and an axe each in their belts, set out in company for the gap in the cliffs, their intention being to proceed overland, and to separate at the head of the river, each taking one of its banks with the object of ascertaining whether any suitable quarry site could be found in a situation convenient for the shipment of stone on board the raft. The quest occupied the two friends for the greater part of the day, they arriving abreast the islet within half an hour of each other, and reaching its friendly shores just in time to assist the working party there in putting the finishing touches to quite a respectable structure—half tent, half bower—for which the skipper had acted the part of architect. The house, or shelter rather, for it was too rough and ready an affair to be worthy of the former appellation, was really a very creditable production— roomy and watertight, though it was doubtful whether it would prove capable of withstanding the buffeting of a hurricane—and Captain Blake was very “justly proud of it. On comparing notes it was found that both the explorers had been success- ful in their search. Both had found stone of a more or less suitable quality, somne of it, indeed, being excellent; but the honors of the day fell to the doctor’s lot, he having not only discovered a quarry site in a most convenient situation, with stone of a quality far superior to anything that Grant had met with, but also an outcrop of coal. This discovery was of infinitely greater value to the party, situated as they then were, than would have been the finding of agold mine, andGrant in particu- lar—who perhaps realized more fully than any of the others the exceeding importance of the discovery—was greatly elated thereat. 3 Fully alive to the importance of developing these new resources without delay, the five men started in the raft at daybreak next morning, well pro- vided with picks, shovels, crowbars, sledges, and such other implements as it was thought might be useful, together with a keg of powder from the maga- zine of the Mermaid, and made their way up stream, Henderson acting as pilot. The quarry was first reached, being situated only about half a mile above Grant Island, and a single glance sufficed to satisfy the refugees that here was stone not only of superior quality, but amply sufficient in quantity for every possible want of the party. The quarry face consisted of an almost perpen- dicular cliff of gray limestone springing out of the soil at a distance of only some fifty feet from the margin of the stream ; it was about thirty feet in height, and fully one hundred and fifty feet long. Captain Blake and Nicholls landed here, provided with the powder and such tools as they needed, and instructed by the engineer—who promised to rejoin them as soon as he had inspected the coal output—began at once to lay bare the stone at the top of the cliff. The rest of the party then proceeded in the raft to the ‘‘coal mine,’’ as they already began to term it, which they found about a quarter of a mile further on. ‘The outcrop proved, as Henderson had asserted, to be genuine (€(0) - Wet fad