`After laying in my store of nests,' continued Fritz, `I pursued my way through this vaulted cave or corridor; which, presently turning, opened into a very lonely bay, so calm and lake-like, that, although of considerable size, I concluded at once it must be nearly land-locked. Its shores, beyond the rocky boundary through which I penetrated, extended in a fertile plain towards what seemed the mouth of a river, beyond which lay rough and probably marshy ground, and a dense forest of cedars, which closed the view.
`The water beneath me was clear as crystal; and, gazing into its depths and shallows, I perceived beds of shellfish, like large oysters, attached to the rocks and to each other by tufts of hairy filaments.
`"If these are oysters," thought I, "they must be better worth eating, as
