Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note.

The title page of this edition is a bit confusing. The author of the original work 'Der Schweizerische Robinson' was Johann David Wyss, and it was edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss. This edition was translated by William Henry Giles Kingston.

_The Swiss Family Robinson._ _Frontispiece_--(_Page 88_)

THE SWISS FAMILY
ROBINSON

A Translation from the Original German

BY
JOHANN RUDOLF WYSS

EDITED BY
WILLIAM H. G. KINGSTON

ILLUSTRATED BY
WALTER S. ROGERS

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Storm-tossed--Wrecked--Deserted--Supper--We make swimming-belts for
the children--An anxious night--The gale moderates--We examine
our cargo--Jack introduces two new acquaintances--How shall we
get on shore?--Jack's plan--We adopt it--The use of a lever--Our
tub-boat completed--Another night on the wreck--We collect the
cargo--And embark--Jack's friends will not be left behind--Steer
for the shore--Once more on land--We erect a tent--Glue
soup--Jack makes the acquaintance of a lobster--Ernest shirks the
water--Oysters and salt--How shall we eat our soup?--Ernest
solves the difficulty--Fritz returns--The sucking pig--How to
open an oyster and how to eat it--The dogs devour the
agouti--Fritz's anger--Our first night in the new country, 1

CHAPTER II.

A morning consultation--Breakfast--Away on an expedition--Over the
stream and through the grass--An unexpected reinforcement--Search
in vain for our comrades--Rest by a stream--Fritz finds a "round
bird's nest"--Natural history of a cocoanut--Calabash trees--The
use of gourds--How to make a bottle--A lovely but lonely
scene--Sugar-canes--Monkeys of use--Cocoanut milk turned to
champagne--Turk kills an unfortunate mother monkey--Carry the
orphan home--Display our treasures--A sumptuous supper--Ernest's
penguin--Champagne turned to vinegar--A fight with jackals--A
curious sentinel--A visit to the wreck--We rig our craft--Stow a
cargo--Sleep on board--Floats for our herd--We embark--Encounter
a shark--Land--Relate our adventures, 19

CHAPTER III.

The mother relates her adventures--Proposes that we should build a
nest--How Jack treated the jackal skin--How the boys were
surprised by a bustard--How they found the mangrove tree--How
the dogs caught the crabs--We discuss the possibility of making a
house in the tree--To bed once more--We start for the wreck--The
shark again--Return to land--Franz's crawfish--Bridge
building--We pack up--A family removing in patriarchal style--A
prickly enemy--Jack shoots it--We reach our new home--Fritz rids
our poultry of an enemy--Little Franz finds the figs--Dinner--We
prepare materials for our nest--Flamingoes--Roast and tame--The
use of trigonometry--A cord carried over the bough--The rope
ladder made--We mount our tree--Sleep under the roots--The
building of the nest--Retire to roost for the first time, 44

CHAPTER IV.

A day of rest--A parable for the young people--Quiet
recreation--Geographical nomenclature--The margay and porcupine
skins made of use--An expedition to Tentholm--Potatoes,
potatoes--Tropical vegetation--The use of the karatas--Jack's
greediness and its punishment--Ernest discovers cochineal--Arrive
at Tentholm--The poultry rebellious--Return to
Falconhurst--Ernest roused out early--We collect wood for a
sledge--Master Knips turns thief--Franz's plan for the saving of
ammunition--Ernest and I take the sledge to Tentholm--Ernest's
laziness exemplified--He catches a salmon--We start for
home--Kill a kangaroo--And cook it, 73

CHAPTER V.

Jack and Ernest disappear--Fritz and I start for the wreck--The
boys' ambuscade--We form a raft--Ransack the vessel--Again
embark--A turtle in sight--Fritz harpoons it--The turtle acts as
"Steam Tug"--Safe ashore--Return home--Jack's clay field--A fresh
discovery--The mother's cellar--A trip to the wreck--The
pinnace--Jack's raid on the Lilliputians--A secret revealed--A
new method of grinding flour--Wholesome or
poisonous?--Bread-making in earnest, 92

CHAPTER VI

Now for the pinnace--Repeated visits to the wreck--The pinnace
built--How shall we cut her out--The difficulty solved--We fit
her out--Fire a salute--The mother's surprise--We visit
Falconhurst--Attend to our fruit trees--Athletics--The lasso--An
excursion--A bustard captured--Ernest discovers a magician--Jack
fights him--The Liane Rouge--We turn carvers--Ernest's alarm--The
old sow again--We discover a sleeping beauty--Return with it to
the camp--Knips pronounces our apples "good"--Return to
Falconhurst, 108

CHAPTER VII.

Fritz and I return to the Calabash Wood--Fritz shoots a ruffed
grouse--We come across waxberry bushes--Sociable grosbeaks--Fritz
captures a parrot--A lecture on ants--Caoutchouc trees--The
sago-palm and the edible worms--Return with sugar-canes to
Falconhurst--Candle-making--How to make butter without a
churn--Plant trees and adorn Tentholm--Last visit to the
wreck--The first ducklings on the island--Falconhurst again--An
excursion--We pitch our tent--Fritz and Jack ascend the cocoanut
trees--Ernest brings us a delicacy--Loss of Grizzle--Jack and I
go in pursuit--Giant bamboos--Encounter with buffaloes--The
buffalo calf--Find a jackal's lair--Reach our camp--What happened
in our absence--Fritz's pet--Sago manufacture--Meet with our sow
and her family again--How Ernest tamed the eagle, 127

CHAPTER VIII.

Prop our young trees--A lecture on grafting--A new idea
broached--Why should we not build stairs within the trunk of our
tree?--Jack finds one objection--I make a beehive, and we drive
the bees from the tree--Stair-making--Additions to our family of
domestic animals--The education of the "pets"--Shoemaking--We
lead water from the stream to Falconhurst--A strange animal
approaches--Our old ass and his companion--The onager
captured--Provisioning our winter quarters--Capture of ruffed
grouse--We discover flax--The rainy season, 151

CHAPTER IX.

Spring again--We begin to hew a cave--Jack makes a discovery--We
drive the foul air from the cavern--The mother and her boys join
us--We explore the cave--Fit it up as our winter quarters--The
herring-bank--We catch seals--Fishing on a grand scale--Isinglass
and caviare--We visit our plantations--An expedition to
establish a colony--The building of "Woodlands"--Jack and Fritz
return to Falconhurst for provisions--Ernest and I explore--A
"beast with a bill"--We build a canoe--Franz undertakes the
education of Grumble--We continue our work at the cave--Carpet
making--Thanksgiving-day--A startling salute--Athletics and
shooting--Prize giving--Manufacture of birdlime--Fritz and Jack
ride off for caoutchouc--Shoot a crane and badger--Find
"Woodlands" turned upside down by monkeys--Discover ginseng, 168

CHAPTER X.

Birdlime--A midnight raid--The massacre at Woodlands--Capture of
Molucca pigeons--A pigeon-house--Fritz and I prepare a conjuring
trick--Great success of our experiment--Lichen and nutmegs
discovered--Jack's adventure--The loom manufactured--Winter
stores prepared--The rainy season sets in--Interior of our house
arranged--We study languages--The return of spring--A stranded
whale--An account of coral--We go to work on the whale's
carcass--Remarks on the habits of the whale, 199

CHAPTER XI.

The blubber of the whale boiled and stored--A unique
machine--Expedition to Prospect Hill--Whale's tongue is voted no
delicacy--We land on Whale Island--Jack discovers a strange
skeleton--Turtle turning--Towed ashore--The loom
completed--Return of the herring shoals--Basket making--We
manufacture a sedan chair--Ernest's wild ride therein--A boa
constrictor appears--He retreats to the marsh--Suspense--Poor
Grizzle's fate--An awful scene--Death of the monster--An account
of snakes--Remedies for poisoned bites--Ernest writes Grizzle's
epitaph--The serpent stuffed and placed in the museum, 222

CHAPTER XII.

We examine the marsh--A cave discovered--We find the floor covered
with fuller's earth--Discharge our pistols--Jack's fright--Ernest
captures an eel--An expedition toward the Gap--Visit Falconhurst
and Woodlands and examine the country round--Franz shoots a
capybara--Ernest and Knips fight the rats--A lecture on
musk--Cinnamon apples--A peccary hunt--We prepare the peccary
meat--Disasters at Prospect Hill--An exploring expedition through
the Gap--We find our barrier broken down--Across the
desert--Strange objects in the distance--An account of
ostriches--An ostrich slain--We discover the nest--A mud
tortoise--We encounter bears--A desperate fight--Back again to
camp--We skin the bears and smoke their flesh--Pepper
found--Three of the boys start on an expedition--I discover talc, 242

CHAPTER XIII.

The boys return and give an account of their adventures--How they
captured the antelopes--How Fritz caught the rabbits and Jack
rode down the gazelles--How they followed the honey bird and Jack
tried to rob the bees' byke--We sup on the bears' paws--Across
the desert again--Sight three ostriches--The male bird
captured--We secure him between Storm and Grumble--The mother's
astonishment at our new pet--Return to Woodlands--Home again--We
establish colonies on Shark and Whale Islands--Turn our attention
to agriculture--The difficulties of ostrich training--My patent
saddle and bridle--I exercise my ingenuity in various trades, 268

CHAPTER XIV.

The rainy season again--The building of the cajack--The mother
invents a swimming dress--A visit to our colonies--Mysterious
seaweed--The mother's surprise--A visit to Whale
Island--Mischievous pigs--The three boys return from a day's
hunting--They display their treasures--A new skinning
apparatus--We make a crushing machine--An early harvest--We
prepare a threshing floor--Reaping in Italian fashion--Threshing
also in Italian fashion--Return of the herring shoals, 284

CHAPTER XV.

Trial of the cajack--Fritz kills a walrus--We carry home its
head--The storm--Where is Fritz?--Safe at last--The fishing
season--An expedition proposed--Three of the boys start for
Woodlands--Pigeon post--Encounter with a hyena--Wood Lake
explored--A tapir--Prospect Hill pillaged--A tragedy--The boys in
danger--We join them--We build a summer house--Discover the cacao
plant--Fritz ascends the stream--He sees elephants and
hippopotami--Jack's "moist secret"--We return to Rockburg--Grace
and Beauty--Shark Island is fortified, 297

CHAPTER XVI.

Ten years afterward--Our farms and farmyards--Fritz makes a voyage
of discovery--Cape Minster and the swallows' nest--Pearl
oysters--A magnificent bay--The strange message--An excursion to
Pearl Bay--Fritz proposes to search for the stranger, and
prepares his canoe for her reception--The pearl fishery--An
encounter with a wild boar--Jack's accident--Truffles--A midnight
alarm--The lion and his mate--Our enemies overcome--Juno's
death--We set sail for Rockburg--Fritz leaves us, 317

CHAPTER XVII.

Juno's epitaph--Fritz does not appear--We start in search of him--A
cachalot whale--The unexpected appearance of a savage--Fritz in a
dusky disguise--He leads us to Fair Isle, and shows us the
wonders therein--The stranger--Fritz narrates his adventures--How
he saw toucans--Encountered a tiger--Lost Pounce--Found the
Smoking Rock, and Jenny Montrose--The history of the
stranger--Wolves dispute our right to the whale--Coco joins his
brethren--Jack and Jenny search for the truant--We leave Pearl
Bay--A hearty reception--A visit to Falconhurst--Jack displays
our stud--The rainy season again, 338

CHAPTER XVIII.

Spring and its accompanying work--The mysterious guns--Who fired
them--A storm--Fritz and I reconnoiter--The English brig--We
visit her in the yacht--Captain Littlestone--We are cordially
welcomed--Mr. Wolston and his family--An earnest
consultation--Our visitors at Rockburg--The supper--Who is for
Europe and who for New Switzerland?--The decision--Farewell, 358

THE
SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON