Page:The Swiss Family Robinson (Kingston).djvu/476

430 at great risk, these nests are procured; the annual weight obtained being upwards of fifty thousand pounds, and the value more than £200,000.

“When placed in water and well soaked, they soften and swell, and are made into soup of very strengthening and restorative quality.

“I think you might try your hand on these, mother, just for curiosity's sake.”

“I can't say I fancy the look of the queer things,” said she, “but I don't mind trying if they will turn to jelly; though boiling birds'-nests is cookery quite out of my line.”

“Oh do, mother, let us taste birds'-nests as soon as you can, though the idea makes me fancy my mouth full of feathers!” laughed Jack.

“It is really a most curious formation,” said Fritz. “From whence are the swallows supposed to get this kind of gelatine?”

“It has never been exactly ascertained,” I replied, “whether the birds discover or produce this curious substance. But what-ever may be its basis, it is clear that a very large portion of it is furnished by certain glands, which pour out a viscid secretion.”

“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 shell-fish, like large oysters, attached to the rocks and to each other by tufts of hairy filaments.