Robur-le-conquerant. English

by Jules Verne

  Chapter XII

  THROUGH THE HIMALAYAS

  During the night the fog cleared off. There were symptoms of anapproaching typhoon--a rapid fall of the barometer, a disappearanceof vapor, large clouds of ellipsoid form clinging to a copper sky,and, on the opposite horizon, long streaks of carmine on aslate-colored field, with a large sector quite clear in the north.Then the sea was smooth and calm and at sunset assumed a deep scarlethue.

  Fortunately the typhoon broke more to the south, and had no otherresult than to sweep away the mist which had been accumulating duringthe last three days.

  In an hour they had traversed the hundred and twenty-five miles ofthe Korean strait, and while the typhoon was raging on the coast ofChina, the "Albatross" was over the Yellow Sea. During the 22nd and23rd she was over the Gulf of Pechelee, and on the 24th she wasascending the valley of the Peiho on her way to the capital of theCelestial Empire.

  Leaning over the rail, the two colleagues, as the engineer had toldthem, could see distinctly the immense city, the wall which dividesit into two parts--the Manchu town, and the Chinese town--thetwelve suburbs which surround it, the large boulevards which radiatefrom its center, the temples with their green and yellow roofs bathedin the rising sun, the grounds surrounding the houses of themandarins; then in the middle of the Manchu town the eighteen hundredacres of the Yellow town, with its pagodas, its imperial gardens, itsartificial lakes, its mountain of coal which towers above thecapital; and in the center of the Yellow town, like a square ofChinese puzzle enclosed in another, the Red town, that is theimperial palace, with all the peaks of its outrageous architecture.

  Below the "Albatross" the air was filled with a singular harmony. Itseemed to be a concert of Aeolian harps. In the air were a hundredkites of different forms, made of sheets of palm-leaf, and having attheir upper end a sort of bow of light wood with a thin slip ofbamboo beneath. In the breath of the wind these slips, with all theirnotes varied like those of a harmonicon, gave forth a most melancholymurmuring. It seemed as though they were breathing musical oxygen.

  It suited Robur's whim to run close up to this aerial orchestra, andthe "Albatross" slowed as she glided through the sonorous waves whichthe kites gave off through the atmosphere.

  But immediately an extraordinary effect was produced amongst theinnumerable population. Beatings of the tomtoms and sounds of otherformidable instruments of the Chinese orchestra, gun reports by thethousand, mortars fired in hundreds, all were brought into play toscare away the aeronef. Although the Chinese astronomers may haverecognized the aerial machine as the moving body that had given riseto such disputes, it was to the Celestial million, from the humblesttankader to the best-buttoned mandarin, an apocalyptical monsterappearing in the sky of Buddha.

  The crew of the "Albatross" troubled themselves very little aboutthese demonstrations. But the strings which held the kites, and weretied to fixed pegs in the imperial gardens, were cut or quicklyhauled in; and the kites were either drawn in rapidly, soundinglouder as they sank, or else fell like a bird shot through bothwings, whose song ends with its last sigh.

  A noisy fanfare escaped from Tom Turner's trumpet, and drowned thefinal notes of the aerial concert. It did not interrupt theterrestrial fusillade. At last a shell exploded a few feet below the"Albatross," and then she mounted into the inaccessible regions ofthe sky.

  Nothing happened during the few following days of which the prisonerscould take advantage. The aeronef kept on her course to thesouthwest, thereby showing that it was intended to take her to India.Twelve hours after leaving Peking, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evanscaught a glimpse of the Great Wall in the neighborhood of Chen-Si.Then, avoiding the Lung Mountains, they passed over the valley of theHoangho and crossed the Chinese border on the Tibet side.

  Tibet consists of high table-lands without vegetation, with here andthere snowy peaks and barren ravines, torrents fed by glaciers,depressions with glittering beds of salt, lakes surrounded byluxurious forests, with icy winds sweeping over all.

  The barometer indicated an altitude of thirteen thousand feet abovethe level of the sea. At that height the temperature, although it wasin the warmest months of the northern hemisphere, was only a littleabove freezing. This cold, combined with the speed of the"Albatross," made the voyage somewhat trying, and although thefriends had warm traveling wraps, they preferred to keep to theircabin.

  It need hardly be said that to keep the aeronef in this rarefiedatmosphere the suspensory screws had to be driven at extreme speed.But they worked with perfect regularity, and the sound of their wingsalmost acted as a lullaby.

  During this day, appearing from below about the size of a carrierpigeon, she passed over Garlock, a town of western Tibet, the capitalof the province of Cari Khorsum.

  On the 27th of June, Uncle Prudent and Phil Evans sighted an enormousbarrier, broken here and there by several peaks, lost in the snowsthat bounded the horizon.

  Leaning against the fore-cabin, so as to keep their placesnotwithstanding the speed of the ship, they watched these colossalmasses, which seemed to be running away from the aeronef.

  "The Himalayas, evidently," said Phil Evans; "and probably Robur isgoing round their base, so as to pass into India."

  "So much the worse," answered Uncle Prudent. "On that immenseterritory we shall perhaps be able to--"

  "Unless he goes round by Burma to the east, or Nepal to the west."

  "Anyhow, I defy him to go through them."

  "Indeed!" said a voice.

  The next day, the 28th of June, the "Albatross" was in front of thehuge mass above the province of Zang. On the other side of the chainwas the province of Nepal. These ranges block the road into Indiafrom the north. The two northern ones, between which the aeronef wasgliding like a ship between enormous reefs are the first steps of theCentral Asian barrier. The first was the Kuen Lung, the other theKarakorum, bordering the longitudinal valley parallel to theHimalayas, from which the Indus flows to the west and theBrahmapootra to the east.

  What a superb orographical system! More than two hundred summits havebeen measured, seventeen of which exceed twenty-five thousand feet.In front of the "Albatross," at a height of twenty-nine thousandfeet, towered Mount Everest. To the right was Dhawalagiri, reachingtwenty-six thousand eight hundred feet, and relegated to second placesince the measurement of Mount Everest.

  Evidently Robur did not intend to go over the top of these peaks; butprobably he knew the passes of the Himalayas, among others that ofIbi Ganim, which the brothers Schlagintweit traversed in 1856 at aheight of twenty-two thousand feet. And towards it he went.

  Several hours of palpitation, becoming quite painful, followed; andalthough the rarefaction of the air was not such as to necessitaterecourse being had to the special apparatus for renewing oxygen inthe cabins, the cold was excessive.

  Robur stood in the bow, his sturdy figure wrapped in a great-coat. Hegave the orders, while Tom Turner was at the helm. The engineer keptan attentive watch on his batteries, the acid in which fortunatelyran no risk of congelation. The screws, running at the full strengthof the current, gave forth a note of intense shrillness in spite ofthe trifling density of the air. The barometer showed twenty-threethousand feet in altitude.

  Magnificent was the grouping of the chaos of mountains! Everywherewere brilliant white summits. There were no lakes, but glaciersdescending ten thousand feet towards the base. There was no herbage,only a few phanerogams on the limit of vegetable life. Down on thelower flanks of the range were splendid forests of pines and cedars.Here were none of the gigantic ferns and interminable parasitesstretching from tree to tree as in the thickets of the jungle. Therewere no animals--no wild horses, or yaks, or Tibetan bulls.Occasionally a scared gazelle showed itself far down the slopes.There were no birds, save a couple of those crows which can rise tothe utmost limits of the respirable air.

  The pass at last was traversed. The "Albatross" began to descend.Coming from the hills out of the forest region there was now beneaththem an immense p
lain stretching far and wide.

  Then Robur stepped up to his guests, and in a pleasant voiceremarked, "India, gentlemen!"