Читать книгу The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne - Страница 12

CHAPTER XII

The colonists of Lincoln Island cast one last glance around, then proceeded around the crater by its narrow ridge and, a half hour later, climbed down to the first plateau to their night camp.

Pencroff thought it was mealtime, and he raised the question of adjusting the two watches belonging to Cyrus Smith and the reporter.

Gideon Spilett’s watch had not been damaged by the sea water since the reporter had been thrown on the beach from the first, out of reach of the waves. It was an instrument of excellent accuracy, a real pocket chronometer, which Gideon Spilett had never forgotten to wind carefully each day.

As to the engineer’s watch, it had obviously stopped during the time Cyrus Smith spent on the dunes.

The engineer reset it, estimating approximately from the height of the sun that it was about nine o’clock in the morning. He set his watch to that hour.

Gideon Spilett was about to do the same when the engineer held him back saying:

“No, my dear Spilett, wait. You’ve kept the time of Richmond, haven’t you?”

“Yes, Cyrus.”

“Consequently your watch is set to the meridian of that city, a meridian which is very nearly that of Washington?”

“No doubt.”

“Very well, then keep that setting. Remember to wind it carefully but don’t touch the hands. This will be useful.”

“What good will that be?” thought the sailor.

They ate so well that the supply of game and almonds was now completely exhausted. But Pencroff was not uneasy. They would resupply themselves en route. Top, whose portion was meager, would know how to find some new game under the cover of the brushwood. Moreover, the sailor simply intended to ask the engineer to make powder and one or two hunting guns, thinking this would present no difficulty for Cyrus Smith.

On leaving the plateau, Cyrus Smith proposed that they take a new road back to the Chimneys. He wanted to explore Lake Grant which was so magnificently surrounded by a border of trees. They followed the crest of one of the foothills where the creek* that fed the lake probably found its source. While chatting, the colonists were already using the proper names that they had chosen, and this facilitated the exchange of ideas. Harbert and Pencroff—the one young and the other like a small child—were delighted and, while walking along, the sailor said:

“Hey, Harbert, how things are coming along! We can’t possibly get lost, my boy, since whether we follow the road to Lake Grant or we rejoin the Mercy by crossing the woods of the Far West, we’ll necessarily arrive at Grand View Plateau and consequently at Union Bay.”

Even though they had not formed a compact group, the colonists would not wander too far from each other. Very certainly some dangerous animals inhabited the thick forests of the island, and it would be prudent to be on guard. As a rule, Pencroff, Harbert, and Neb went on ahead, preceded by Top who poked his nose into every corner. The reporter and the engineer went together. Gideon Spilett was ready to record every incident. The engineer was silent most of the time, wandering from the road only to pick up some mineral or vegetable substance, which he put into his pocket without making any comment.

“What the devil can he be picking up?” murmured Pencroff. “I’ve looked carefully and I don’t see anything worth bending over for.”

About ten o’clock, the small troop descended the last slopes of Mount Franklin. The soil was still scattered with only a few bushes and some sparse trees. They walked on yellowish calcinated ground forming a plain about a mile long which preceded the border of the woods. Some large sections of basalt which, according to Bischof,¹ require three hundred fifty million years to cool, were strewn on the plain, very broken up in places. However, there were no traces of lava, which had poured down especially the northern slopes.

They continued on, preceded by Top.

Cyrus Smith believed they could reach the creek without incident. He was explaining that the creek would unfold under the trees at the edge of the plain, when he saw Harbert running towards him, while Neb and the sailor were hiding behind some rocks.

“What is it, my boy?” asked Gideon Spilett.

“Smoke,” replied Harbert. “We’ve seen smoke rising among the rocks about a hundred feet from us.”

“Men in this area?” said the reporter.

“Let’s avoid showing ourselves before we know who we’re dealing with,” replied Cyrus Smith. “I especially fear the natives if there are any on this island. Where’s Top?”

“Top’s up ahead.”

“And he doesn’t bark?”

“No.”

“That’s strange. Nevertheless, let’s try to call him back.”

In a few minutes, the engineer, Gideon Spilett, and Harbert joined their two companions and they all hid behind some basalt debris. From there, they could clearly see smoke with a characteristic yellow color twirling into the air.

Top was recalled by a low whistle from his master who, making a sign to his companions to wait for him, glided among the rocks.

The colonists were motionless, waiting for the result of this exploration with a certain anxiety, when a call from Cyrus Smith made them run up. They soon joined him and were at once struck by a very disagreeable odor. This recognizable odor allowed the engineer to guess at the identity of this smoke which had caused some anxiety.

“This fire,” he said, “or rather this smoke is the result of nature’s efforts alone. It’s due to a sulfuric spring, which will allow us to treat ourselves if we have laryngitis.”

“Good,” said Pencroff. “What a pity I don’t have a cold.”

The colonists went to the spot where the smoke escaped and saw a sulfuric salt spring pouring out abundantly among the rocks. The water gave off a vivid sulfuric acid odor after absorbing the oxygen from the air.

Cyrus Smith dipped his hand into it, finding these waters oily to the touch. He tasted it and found it to be a little sweet. As for its temperature, he estimated it at 95° Fahrenheit (35° Centigrade above zero). Harbert asked him how he made his evaluation.

“Very simple, my child.” he said. “On plunging my hand into this water, I felt no sensation of either hot or cold. It’s the same temperature as the human body, around 95°.”

The smoke was from a sulphuric spring.

Since the sulfuric spring was of no immediate benefit, the colonists went toward the thick border of the forest which grew a few hundred feet away.

There, as they had guessed, the brisk clear waters of the stream ran between high banks of red ground, a color revealing the presence of iron oxide. This color immediately gave the watercourse the name of Red Creek.

It was only a large brook, deep and clear, formed by the mountain waters which, half stream and half torrent, flowed peacefully here on a sand bed, gurgling over the tops of the rocks or falling in a cascade. It flowed toward the lake a mile and a half away, and its width varied from thirty to forty feet. Its waters were fresh, which led them to believe that so were the waters of the lake. This would be a fortunate circumstance in the event they should find a dwelling on its border more agreeable than the Chimneys.

As to the trees which shaded the banks of the creek a hundred feet downstream, they appeared for the most part to be of a species which are abundant in the temperate zone of Australia and of Tasmania and not the same as the conifers which grew on that part of the island already explored a few miles from Grand View Plateau. At this time of the year, at the beginning of April, which corresponds to the month of October and early autumn in the northern hemisphere, the leaves had not yet begun to fall. This was especially so with the casuarinas and the eucalyptus, some of which would furnish next spring a sweet manna perfectly similar to the manna of the Orient. Some clusters of Australian cedars also grew in the clearings, covered with a tall grass called “tussock”² in Australia. However, the coconut which grows so abundantly in the archipelagos of the Pacific seemed to be missing on this island³ whose latitude was doubtless too low.

“What a pity” said Harbert, “a tree which is so useful and which has such beautiful nuts.”

As for the birds, they swarmed among the somewhat sparse branches of the eucalyptus and the casuarinas since these did not interfere with their wings. Black, white, or grey cockatoos, parrots and parakeets with a plumage tinged with all colors, “kings” with a bright green crowned with red, blue loris and “blue mountains” created a sight like looking through a prism. They flew amid a deafening clatter.

All at once, a strange concert of discordant voices resounded from a thicket. The colonists heard successively the singing of birds, the cries of quadrupeds and a sort of clapping which they would have believed escaped from the lips of a native. Neb and Harbert ran toward this bush forgetting the most elementary principles of prudence. Very fortunately, there was no fearsome beast there, nor a dangerous native, but very simply a half dozen mocking and singing birds which they recognized as “mountain pheasants.” A few strokes of the stick, skillfully applied, ended this scene of mimicking and also procured some excellent game for the evening meal.

Harbert also pointed out some magnificent pigeons with bronze colored wings, some topped by a superb crest, others draped in green like their cousins from Port Macquarie; but it was impossible to catch them any more than the crows and magpies which flew away in flocks. A firing of small shot would have produced a great slaughter among these birds, but the hunters were still limited to stones for missiles and to sticks for hand held weapons, and these primitive devices were inadequate.

Their inadequacy was demonstrated more clearly again when a troop of hopping and bounding quadrupeds, making leaps of thirty feet, real flying mammals, ran away over the thicket so nimbly and at such a height that they seemed to pass from one tree to another like squirrels.

“Kangaroos!” shouted Harbert.

“Can we eat them?” replied Pencroff.

“Stewed,” responded the reporter, “they compare to the best venison! …”

Gideon Spilett had not finished this enticing statement when the sailor, followed by Neb and Harbert, rushed after the kangaroos. Cyrus Smith called them back but in vain. It was also in vain that the hunters chased this springy game which bounced like a ball. After five minutes of running, they were out of breath and the band of kangaroos disappeared in the brushwood. Top had no more success than his masters.

“Mr. Cyrus,” said Pencroff when they rejoined the engineer and the reporter, “Mr. Cyrus, you can see that it’s indispensable to make some guns. Will that be possible?”

“Perhaps,” replied the engineer, “but we’ll first begin by making some bows and arrows, and I don’t doubt that you’ll become just as skilled in their use as the Australian hunters.”

“Arrows, bows!” said Pencroff with a condescending pout. “That’s all well and good for children!”

“Don’t be proud, friend Pencroff,” responded the reporter. “Bows and arrows sufficed for centuries to stain the earth with blood. Powder is only an invention of yesterday, but war is as old as the human race, unfortunately.”

“That’s very true, and you must excuse me, Mr. Spilett,” replied the sailor, “I always speak too hastily.”

Harbert however, engrossed in his favorite science of natural history, returned to the subject of the kangaroos by saying:

“Besides, we had an encounter there with a species that is difficult to capture. They were giant kangaroos with long grey fur, but if I am not mistaken, there also exist black and red kangaroos, rock kangaroos and rat kangaroos, which are much easier to catch. There are at least a dozen different species …”

“Harbert,” replied the sailor dogmatically, “for me there is only one species of kangaroo, the ‘kangaroo-on-the-spit,’ and that is precisely the one that we won’t be having this evening.”

They could not help laughing on hearing this new classification by Master Pencroff. The good sailor could not hide his regret at being reduced to a dinner of singing pheasants, but good fortune would once more accommodate him.

Top took a strong interest in the hunt, nosing about everywhere with an instinct increased by a ferocious appetite. It was even likely that, if he managed to catch some game, nothing would be left to the hunters because Top was now hunting for himself. Neb did well to watch him.

About three o’clock, the dog disappeared into the brushwood, and some muffled growlings soon indicated that he was fighting with some animal.

Neb dashed forward and, sure enough, he found Top greedily devouring a quadruped which, ten seconds later, would have been impossible to recognize. But, fortunately, the dog had fallen upon an entire brood. He had killed three, but two other rodents—the animals in question appeared to be of this order—were lying strangled on the ground.

Neb reappeared, triumphantly holding one of these rodents in each hand whose size exceeded that of a hare. Their yellow fur was mixed with greenish spots and their tail existed only as a rudimentary nub.

The citizens of the Union did not hesitate to give these rodents the name which befitted them. They were “maras,” a sort of agouti,⁴ a little larger than their cousins from the tropical countries, real American rabbits, with long ears and with five molars on each side of the jaws, which is the distinguishing characteristic of agoutis.

“Hurrah!” cried Pencroff. “The roast has arrived, and now we can go home!”

The march, momentarily interrupted, was resumed. The clear water of Red Creek rambled on under a canopy of casuarinas, banksias,⁵ and gigantic gum trees. Superb liliaceous⁶ plants grew to a height of twenty feet. Other species of trees, unknown to the young naturalist, leaned over the brook which they heard murmuring under these arches of foliage.

The watercourse was becoming noticeably wider, and Cyrus Smith was led to believe that they would soon reach its mouth. And, upon leaving a thick mass of beautiful trees, it suddenly appeared before them.

The explorers had arrived on the western shore of Lake Grant, an area worth examining. This expanse of water with a circumference of about seven miles and with an area of 250 acres was set within a border of various species of trees. Toward the east, the the sparkling horizon of the sea appeared. In the north, the lake traced a slightly concave curve which contrasted with the sharp outline of is lower point. Numerous aquatic birds frequented the banks of this small Ontario. The “Thousand Islands” of its American namesake were represented by a rock which emerged above the surface at several hundred feet from the southern bank. There, several pairs of kingfishers lived together, perched on a stone, solemn, motionless, on the lookout for passing fish, then, plunging into the water with a sharp cry, they would reappear with their prey in their beaks. Elsewhere on the banks and on the islet strutted wild ducks, pelicans, waterfowl, redbeaks, philedons with a tongue like a paintbrush, and one or two specimens of those splendid lyrebirds⁷ whose tail unfolds like the gracious motion of a harp.

As for the waters of the lake, they were sweet and clear. From the many concentric circles bubbling on its surface, they could not doubt but that it abounded in fish.

“This lake is truly beautiful,” said Gideon Spilett. “We could live on its shore.”

“We’ll live here!” replied Cyrus Smith.

The colonists, who wanted to return to the Chimneys by the shortest way, went toward the angle formed in the south by the junction of the banks of the lake. With some difficulty, they cut a path through the thickets and brushwood where the hand of man had never made its mark, and so they went toward the shore, arriving at the north of Grand View Plateau. They crossed two miles in this direction when, after a last screen of trees, the plateau appeared, covered with a thick turf, and beyond that, the infinite sea.

In order to return to the Chimneys, it would have been sufficient to cross the plateau for a distance of a mile and to descend to the bend formed by the first detour of the Mercy. But the engineer wanted to find out how and where the overflow of water escaped from the lake. The exploration was prolonged under the trees for a mile and a half toward the north. It was probable that an outlet existed which went through a breach in the granite. In sum, the lake was only an immense basin which the creek gradually replenished, and it could well be that the overflow escaped to the sea by some falls. If such was the case, the engineer thought that it might be possible to utilize this waterfall’s force, now without profit to anyone. They continued to follow the banks of Lake Grant along the plateau; but after going another mile in this direction, Cyrus Smith had not been able to discover the outlet.

It was then half past four. The preparations for dinner required that the colonists go back to their dwelling. The small troop then retraced its steps along the left bank of the Mercy, and Cyrus Smith and his companions finally arrived at the Chimneys.

There, the fire was lit, and Neb and Pencroff took on the duty of chefs, the one by virtue of being a Negro, the other by virtue of being a sailor. And they skillfully prepared a meal of grilled agoutis to which they all did justice.

The meal completed, the time came for everyone to get ready for bed. Cyrus Smith took some small samples of different minerals from his pocket and said briefly:

“My friends, here’s iron ore, pyrites, clay, lime and coal. This is what nature gives us as its contributions to our efforts. Tomorrow we’ll do our share.”

Grilled agouti.

*Name which Americans give to a small, unimportant watercourse.

CHAPTER XIII

“Well, Mr. Cyrus, where shall we begin?” Pencroff asked the engineer the next morning.

“At the beginning,” replied Cyrus Smith.

The colonists did indeed have to begin at the very beginning. They did not even possess the tools needed to make tools, and they did not find themselves in the position of Nature which, “having time, economizes on effort.” They had no time since they had to provide immediately for the needs of their very existence. And if, profiting from their acquired experience, they had nothing to invent, they nonetheless had everything to make. Their iron and steel was still only in the mineral state, their pottery was in the clay state, their linen and clothes were in the state of textile materials.

It must be said, however, that these colonists were “men” in the truest sense of the word. The engineer could not have been seconded by companions of more intelligence, devotion, or zeal. He had questioned them, and he knew their strengths.

Gideon Spilett, a reporter of great talent, having learned everything in order to speak about everything, could contribute with his mind and body to the island’s colonization. He would not recoil before any task and, being a passionate hunter, he would make a business out of what had been until then a sport for him.

Harbert, a courageous lad, already remarkably educated in the natural sciences, would make a substantial contribution to the common cause.

Neb was devotion personified. Skillful, intelligent, tireless, robust, with a constitution of iron, he understood a little about blacksmithing and would be very useful to the colony.

As for Pencroff, he had sailed on all the oceans, had been a carpenter in the Brooklyn dockyards, a tailor’s aide in the Navy, gardener, farmer during his furloughs, etc., and like a true man of the sea, he was prepared for anything and knew how to do everything.

It would truly be difficult to unite five men more suitable to battle fate and to be more assured of triumphing against it.

“At the beginning,” Cyrus Smith said. Now this beginning that the engineer referred to was the construction of an apparatus which would serve to transform natural substances. It is known that heat plays a role in these transformations. Now the fuel, wood or coal, was available for immediate use and they must proceed to make a furnace for using it.

“What is the purpose of the furnace?” asked Pencroff.

“To make the pottery that we need,” replied Cyrus Smith.

“And with what will we make the furnace?”

“With bricks.”

“And the bricks?”

“With clay. Let’s go, my friends. In order to avoid transportation problems, we’ll establish our workshop at the very place of production. Neb will bring the provisions, and there will be no lack of fire for cooking food.”

“But,” replied the reporter, “if there’s to be no lack of food, then we’ll have to make some hunting weapons.”

“Ah! If we only had a knife,” shouted the sailor.

“What then?” asked Cyrus Smith.

“Then I would quickly make a bow and arrows, and there would be plenty of game in the pantry.”

“Yes, a knife, a sharp blade …,” the engineer said as if speaking to himself.

At this moment he turned his attention toward Top who was prowling around the beach.

Suddenly Cyrus Smith appeared to have an idea.

“Here, Top,” he said.

The dog ran up at his master’s call. He took Top’s head between his hands, detached the collar the animal carried on his neck and broke it in two parts, saying:

“Here are two knives, Pencroff!”

The sailor responded with two hurrahs. Top’s collar was made of a thin band of tempered steel. All that was needed was to first grind it on a sandstone so as to give it a keen sharp edge, and then to remove the burr on a finer sandstone. Now this type of sandy rock existed in abundance on the beach and, two hours later, the colony’s stock of tools was composed of two sharp blades which fit easily into sturdy handles.

The conquest of this first tool was saluted like a triumph, and one that had come just in time.

They left. It was Cyrus Smith’s intention to return to the eastern shore of the lake. On the previous day, he had noticed clay soil, and taken a sample. They walked along the bank of the Mercy, crossed Grand View Plateau and, after a walk of five miles, they arrived at a clearing situated 200 feet from Lake Grant.

On the way, Harbert discovered a tree whose branches are used by the Indians of South America to make their bows. It was the “crejimba”¹ of the palm tree family which bears no edible fruit. Some long straight branches were cut, stripped of leaves, pruned, made thicker in the center and thinner at the extremities, and all that remained was to find a suitable plant for the cord of the bow. This was a species belonging to the mallow family, the “hibiscus heterophyllus,”² which furnishes fibers of remarkable tenacity that can be compared to the tendons of animals. Pencroff thus made some quite strong bows and now he only needed arrows. These were easy to make with some straight and rigid branches without knots. But it would not be very easy to find an iron-like substance to use on the points. But Pencroff said that he had done his share of the work, and chance would do the rest.

The colonists arrived on terrain that they recognized from the previous day. It was composed of this figuline clay which can be used to make bricks and tiles, and it would therefore be very useful in carrying out the operation. The manual labor required would not present any great difficulty. It sufficed to thin this clay with some sand, mold the bricks, and bake them in the heat of a wood fire.

Ordinarily, bricks are pressed into molds but the engineer was content to form them by hand. All that day and the following were employed with this work. The clay, mixed with water, was then puddled with the hands and feet of the men, and then divided into blocks of equal size. A skilled workman could make, without a machine, up to 10,000 bricks in twelve hours; but, in their two days of work, the five brickmakers of Lincoln Island made about 3,000 which were laid out alongside each other until the time, three or four days later, when they would be dry and ready for baking.

On April 2nd, Cyrus Smith determined the geographical position of the island.

On the previous evening, he had noted exactly the time when the sun disappeared below the horizon, taking into account refraction. This morning, he noted no less exactly the time when it reappeared. Between the setting and the rising, twelve hours less twenty four minutes elapsed. Thus six hours and twelve minutes after today’s sunrise, the sun would exactly pass the meridian and the point in the sky that it would occupy at that moment would be north.*

Three thousand bricks were laid out.

At the indicated hour, Cyrus noted this point by lining up two trees with the sun which would serve as a reference mark. He thus obtained a fixed meridian for subsequent operations.

The men spent the two days preceding the baking of the bricks looking for fuel. They cut off branches around the clearing and gathered all the wood that had fallen under the trees. They also hunted a little in the vicinity, more efficiently since Pencroff possessed several dozen arrows armed with very sharp points. It was Top who had furnished these points. He brought in a porcupine, mediocre as food, but of incontestable value thanks to its quills. These quills were securely attached to the ends of the arrows and their stability was assured by a tail made with the feathers of cockatoos. The reporter and Harbert promptly became skillful archers. Game of both fur and feathers was abundant at the Chimneys: capybaras, pigeons, agoutis, heather cocks, etc. For the most part, these animals were killed in the part of the forest situated on the left bank of the Mercy which they gave the name Jacamar Woods in remembrance of the bird that Pencroff and Harbert had pursued during their first exploration.

This game was eaten fresh, but they saved the legs of the capybara which they smoked over a fire of green wood after having aromatized it with fragrant leaves. This food was fortifying, but it was always roast upon roast, and the diners would have been happy to hear the sound of beef boiling on the hearth. For this, however, they would have to wait until pots were made and consequently until the oven was built.

During these excursions, which were made only within a restricted radius around the brickyard, the hunters were able to verify the recent passage of large animals with powerful claws of a species they did not recognize. Cyrus Smith urged them to be extremely prudent because it was likely that the forest concealed several dangerous beasts.

And it was well that they did. One day, Gideon Spilett and Harbert saw an animal that resembled a jaguar. It was fortunate that this animal did not attack them because they might not have gotten away without some serious wounds. But as soon as they could get their hands on a real weapon, such as one of the guns that Pencroff clamored for, Gideon Spilett vowed an intense war against the ferocious beasts in order to purge them from the island.