SOME OF NED'S SCIENCE.
"How shall we cook our fish, Ned?" asked Charley, the next morning. He
had already thrown wood upon the embers when Ned and Jack came out of
the hut.
"We must roast them," said Ned, "now that we have no bacon to fry them
with. We can broil sometimes and roast sometimes, for variety. Without
butter broiled fish are rather dry. I'll be cook this morning, and show
you how to roast small fish."
With that he went to the beach and walked along the water's edge till he
found a bunch of clean, wet sea-weed. Returning to the fire, he
carefully wrapped the mullets in this, and placed them in the hot ashes,
covering them with live coals to a depth of several inches. Half an hour
later he took them carefully out of their wrappings, and placed them on
the log that did duty for a table.
The fish were beautifully done, and looked as tempting as possible, but,
upon tasting them, a look of consternation came over Jack's countenance.
"I never thought of that," said Jack, "but we are out of salt! What
shall we do? We can't live altogether on shrimps and oysters; and fish
without salt is a difficult dish to eat."
"We must make some salt," said Ned.
"Out of the sea-water?" asked Charley.
"Yes. It is slow work, and without clarifying materials we'll get a
rather black product, but it will be salt for all that."
"What will make it black?" asked Jack.
"Impurities. The sea-water is filled with various things--common salt,
mostly, of course, but there are Glauber's salts, Epsom salts, magnesia,
and many other things, including salts of silver and iron. In making
salt out of sea-water, these impurities must be got rid of, or the salt
will be of a dirty brownish color. We can't clarify it, but we can use
it very well for all our purposes. We'll have to put up with a poor
breakfast, but we'll do better by night. I'll start our salt-works
immediately after breakfast, and then I'll leave Charley in charge of
the business, because I have an idea of my own that I want to carry out.
We must devote ourselves to-day exclusively to the business of getting
food, I suppose."
"Yes, that is the first thing to be done. We are at the starvation point
and must get something to eat before we begin on the boat. What is the
plan that you speak of?"
"I shan't tell you, because it may come to nothing, though I'm hopeful."
"All right, I hope it will turn out well. Meantime, I'll take the cast
net and get some shrimps and possibly some fish, and then if I had any
thing to bait with, I would set some rabbit traps or something of that
sort. But I haven't, and so I can't. Charley can carry on the salt-works
while you do whatever it is you mean to do."
The salt-works consisted of nothing more than the kettle. Filling this
with clear sea-water, Ned set it to boil, saying:
"Now, Charley, as it boils down add more water, and toward night we can
stop adding water and let the salt settle. It will begin to settle
before that time, and when it does you can dip the wet salt up from the
bottom and spread it out on a plank to dry."
"All right. I'll make a dipper out of a tin cup by fastening a stick to
it for a handle. But what makes the salt settle?"
"Why, don't you see? You can only dissolve a certain amount of salt in a
certain amount of water; if you put more in it sinks to the bottom,
being heavier than water, and stays there. When a liquid has as much of
any thing dissolved in it as it can hold, it is said to be saturated; we
call it a saturated solution. Now when you boil sea-water it evaporates,
and the quantity of water steadily decreases. After awhile so much of
the water is evaporated that we have a saturated solution, and then if
you evaporate half a pint more of it the salt that a half pint of water
can hold in solution must settle to the bottom. It is a curious fact
that water which is saturated with one substance, so that it can not
hold any more of it, is still capable of dissolving other substances and
holding them in solution. Sometimes, in making salt, men take advantage
of that fact."
"How?" asked Jack, who had become interested in Ned's explanation.
"Why, by washing out the impurities of the salt with salt water. Having
a quantity of impure salt they put it into a funnel-shaped vessel with a
small hole in the bottom; then they take clear water and pure salt and
make a saturated solution of that; this water cannot dissolve any more
salt, but it is still capable of dissolving the other substances which
constitute impurities; so it is poured into the vessel that contains the
impure salt, and as it passes through it dissolves and carries off the
impurities, but doesn't dissolve any of the salt."
"Why can't we purify our salt in that way?" asked Charley.
"Because we have no pure salt with which to make the solution."
"That's so, but I didn't think of it. I wish I knew as much as you do
about such things."
"I don't know much," answered Ned. "I have always been curious to know
facts of the sort, and my father has encouraged me to find them out. I
ask questions and read what books I can on such subjects; but I learn
most by looking and thinking for myself. Still I know very little about
scientific matters; really I do. But we're wasting time; I must be off
and so must you, Jack. Keep the salt kettle boiling, Charley, and don't
forget to add water to it from time to time. When you pour cold water in
you can skim the scum off, and in that way you'll get rid of a good deal
of impurity."
With that the boys separated. Jack went down along the shore, with the
cast-net in his hand; while Ned struck off into the woods with the
coffee-pot, which, now that the boys had no coffee, was no longer in use
at camp.
Jack returned about noon, bringing back a fine lot of shrimps, half a
dozen fish, a few crabs, and some oysters, together with the news that
he had discovered a large oyster bank which could be reached by wading
at low tide.
Charley greeted him with a smiling face on which there was a look of
triumph.
"Look here, Jack," he said, going to a plank upon which there were two
or three little white heaps; "Ned is out in his science this time; I've
got beautifully white salt as you see, and not the dark, impure stuff he
said I would get; but that isn't all; instead of settling to the bottom
of the kettle, it rises to the top to be skimmed off."
"Yes, I could have told you that," said Ned, who had arrived unobserved.
"It's a way that it has. Taste your salt, Charley."
Charley did so, looked puzzled, and then turned to Ned.
"What is it, old fellow?" he asked.
"Why, beautifully white salt to be sure," answered Ned; "isn't that what
you said it was?"
"Yes, I said that," answered Charley, "but now I know better. It is
tasteless."
"Magnesia usually is," said Ned.
"Is that magnesia?"
"Yes, in the main. It is mixed a little with other things perhaps, but
it is mostly magnesia. That is why I told you to skim it off. We don't
want it in the salt."
"But I haven't any salt," said Charley, "I've filled the kettle up every
fifteen minutes but no salt has settled yet."
"Your solution isn't saturated yet," said Ned. "This water contains only
about two per cent of salt, or possibly in its impure state three per
cent. To make one kettleful of salt we must boil away from thirty to
fifty kettlefuls of water. The kettle holds two gallons, and so, in
order to get a pint of salt we must boil away two or three kettlefuls of
water. You have filled it up enough for to-day; now keep it boiling and
we'll get a pint or two of salt, before night, and meantime we can pour
a little of the boiled-down water on our fish for dinner, for I'm
hungry."
"By the way, Ned," said Jack, "what luck have you had?"
"Good. I've brought back a coffee-pot half full, and have made
arrangements for more to-morrow."
"Well, I like puzzles and riddles and things of that sort," said Jack,
"but I hate to wait for 'our next month's number' for the answer. What
is it you've got in the coffee-pot?"
"Bread," answered Ned, "or a substitute for it. I've been gathering the
seeds of grasses and weeds."
"Seeds of grasses!" exclaimed Charley; "why, who ever heard of anybody
eating grass seeds?"
"You've turned sceptic, Charley, since your faith in your beautiful
white salt received such a shock," said Ned; "but still I think some
grass seeds are occasionally eaten by men,--wheat, for example, and
rice and corn."
"That's so," said Charley, abashed; "only I never thought of wheat and
rice, etc., as grasses. But are wild grass seeds good to eat?"
"Yes, of course. All ordinary grass seeds are composed of substantially
the same materials, and they are all nutritious. I have gathered about a
quart, meaning to mash them up and make a sort of bread out of them; but
there isn't time for that now, so I mean to boil them for dinner. The
important thing is to have some kind of grain food to eat, and in that
way we'll get it somewhat as if we had rice."
"That's a capital idea, Ned," said Jack. "Is there plenty of seed to be
had?"
"Yes, now that I know where it is, though it is very slow work gathering
such seed. I have only to gather it and winnow it. I can winnow a little
faster next time, because I shall take something along to winnow upon,
if it is only a clean handkerchief. I've thought of something else too."
"What is that?" asked Charley.
"Acorns and other nuts. They are rather green yet, but they are
nutritious, and we can beat them into a palatable bread. Hogs grow fat
on them, and there is no reason why they should not prove nutritious to
us. I'm going to find some edible roots, too, if I can."
"What a splendid provider you are, Ned," said Charley, "particularly as
we have the oysters, shrimps, etc., for a foundation to build upon."
"Well," replied Ned, "do you know I have been thinking that we should
not starve even if we hadn't the water for a source of supply?"
"How is that?"
"In casting about for a variety of things to eat, I have naturally tried
to think of every thing that could support life, and have been surprised
to find how many things there are that can be eaten in extreme cases. If
we were in real danger of starving we could eat snails and earthworms
for meat----"
"Ugh!" exclaimed Charley.
"Well, snails and earthworms are both regarded as delicacies by many
people in France. They actually have snail farms, where the creatures
are fattened for market."
"As a business?"
"Yes, as a business. There is a demand for snails at high prices,
because people who can pay well for them are fond of them. Then we could
kill a few snakes and lizards here, I suppose. In fact, I killed a snake
this afternoon, and if I hadn't been afraid of disgusting you fellows, I
should have brought it home as a valuable contribution to our larder,
for snakes are uncommonly good eating."
"Did you ever eat one?" asked Jack.
"Yes; or at least a part of one. There is no reason why snakes should
not be eaten, except a groundless prejudice. Their flesh is both good
and wholesome."
"Hurrah for our scientist!" said Jack. "I begin to see now, that our
supplies are a good deal greater than I supposed. For my part, I mean to
have a snake breakfast some of these mornings just for variety's sake.
Why, we shall begin to live like princes presently."
"Will you really lay aside prejudice, Jack, and eat a well-cooked
snake?" asked Ned.
"Certainly I will," said Jack.
"And you, Charley?"
"I see no objection, now that I think of it," said Charley.
"Very well; then I'll go for my snake. It isn't a hundred yards away,
and it will furnish us meat, which is much more strengthening than an
exclusive diet of fish and such things can be."
The snake--a large one--was brought to camp, skinned, dressed, and
broiled to a crisp brown on a bed of coals. When done it was appetizing
both in appearance and in odor, and the boys, who, naturally, were very
hungry after their scanty breakfast and diligent work, ate it with keen
relish, eating with it some boiled grass seeds. The only complaint made
concerning the grass seeds was that there was not half enough of them.
The salt kettle had been filled more frequently than Ned had supposed,
and the yield for the day was more nearly a quart than a pint.
"Now we are beginning to know how to live," said Jack. "We have only to
get a good start and keep a fair supply of food ahead. But we must lay
in a good stock of seeds to-morrow. I'll go with you, Ned, and we'll
both work at that, while Charley minds camp and makes salt."
"To-morrow will be Sunday," said Charley.
"No it won't; this is Friday," said Jack.
"Let's see," said Ned. "We got to Bluffton on Monday evening, didn't we?
Well, the next day we went fishing; that was Tuesday. The next day we
came over here; that was Wednesday. The next day, Thursday, the wreck of
the _Red Bird_ occurred. Friday we spent in getting food and bringing
the wreck around here to the camp. That was yesterday, and so to-day is
Saturday. Lucky that Charley thought of it. We mustn't work to-morrow,
and so we must catch a lot of shrimps and fish with the net to-night."
The boys worked with the net until nearly midnight, and slept late the
next morning. They observed Sunday as a day of rest, and rest was a
thing that they greatly needed just at that time. It was agreed that on
Monday morning Jack and Ned should go after grass seed, while Charley
should mind camp, make salt, and use the net.