L'île mystérieuse. English

by Jules Verne

  Chapter 13

  "Well, captain, where are we going to begin?" asked Pencroft nextmorning of the engineer.

  "At the beginning," replied Cyrus Harding.

  And in fact, the settlers were compelled to begin "at the verybeginning." They did not possess even the tools necessary for makingtools, and they were not even in the condition of nature, who, "havingtime, husbands her strength." They had no time, since they had toprovide for the immediate wants of their existence, and though,profiting by acquired experience, they had nothing to invent, still theyhad everything to make; their iron and their steel were as yet only inthe state of minerals, their earthenware in the state of clay, theirlinen and their clothes in the state of textile material.

  It must be said, however, that the settlers were "men" in the completeand higher sense of the word. The engineer Harding could not have beenseconded by more intelligent companions, nor with more devotion andzeal. He had tried them. He knew their abilities.

  Gideon Spilett, a talented reporter, having learned everything so as tobe able to speak of everything, would contribute largely with his headand hands to the colonization of the island. He would not draw back fromany task: a determined sportsman, he would make a business of what tillthen had only been a pleasure to him.

  Herbert, a gallant boy, already remarkably well informed in the naturalsciences, would render greater service to the common cause.

  Neb was devotion personified. Clever, intelligent, indefatigable,robust, with iron health, he knew a little about the work of the forge,and could not fail to be very useful in the colony.

  As to Pencroft, he had sailed over every sea, a carpenter in thedockyards in Brooklyn, assistant tailor in the vessels of the state,gardener, cultivator, during his holidays, etc., and like all seamen,fit for anything, he knew how to do everything.

  It would have been difficult to unite five men, better fitted tostruggle against fate, more certain to triumph over it.

  "At the beginning," Cyrus Harding had said. Now this beginning of whichthe engineer spoke was the construction of an apparatus which wouldserve to transform the natural substances. The part which heat plays inthese transformations is known. Now fuel, wood or coal, was ready forimmediate use, an oven must be built to use it.

  "What is this oven for?" asked Pencroft.

  "To make the pottery which we have need of," replied Harding.

  "And of what shall we make the oven?"

  "With bricks."

  "And the bricks?"

  "With clay. Let us start, my friends. To save trouble, we will establishour manufactory at the place of production. Neb will bring provisions,and there will be no lack of fire to cook the food."

  "No," replied the reporter; "but if there is a lack of food for want ofinstruments for the chase?"

  "Ah, if we only had a knife!" cried the sailor.

  "Well?" asked Cyrus Harding.

  "Well! I would soon make a bow and arrows, and then there could beplenty of game in the larder!"

  "Yes, a knife, a sharp blade." said the engineer, as if he was speakingto himself.

  At this moment his eyes fell upon Top, who was running about on theshore. Suddenly Harding's face became animated.

  "Top, here," said he.

  The dog came at his master's call. The latter took Top's head betweenhis hands, and unfastening the collar which the animal wore round hisneck, he broke it in two, saying,--

  "There are two knives, Pencroft!"

  Two hurrahs from the sailor was the reply. Top's collar was made of athin piece of tempered steel. They had only to sharpen it on a piece ofsandstone, then to raise the edge on a finer stone. Now sandstone wasabundant on the beach, and two hours after the stock of tools in thecolony consisted of two sharp blades, which were easily fixed in solidhandles.

  The production of these their first tools was hailed as a triumph. Itwas indeed a valuable result of their labor, and a very opportune one.They set out.

  Cyrus Harding proposed that they should return to the western shore ofthe lake, where the day before he had noticed the clayey ground of whichhe possessed a specimen. They therefore followed the bank of the Mercy,traversed Prospect Heights, and after a walk of five miles or more theyreached a glade, situated two hundred feet from Lake Grant.

  On the way Herbert had discovered a tree, the branches of which theIndians of South America employ for making their bows. It was thecrejimba, of the palm family, which does not bear edible fruit. Longstraight branches were cut, the leaves stripped off; it was shaped,stronger in the middle, more slender at the extremities, and nothingremained to be done but to find a plant fit to make the bow-string.This was the "hibiscus heterophyllus," which furnishes fibers of suchremarkable tenacity that they have been compared to the tendons ofanimals. Pencroft thus obtained bows of tolerable strength, for which heonly wanted arrows. These were easily made with straight stiff branches,without knots, but the points with which they must be armed, that isto say, a substance to serve in lieu of iron, could not be met with soeasily. But Pencroft said, that having done his part of the work, chancewould do the rest.

  The settlers arrived on the ground which had been discovered the daybefore. Being composed of the sort of clay which is used for makingbricks and tiles, it was very useful for the work in question. There wasno great difficulty in it. It was enough to scour the clay with sand,then to mold the bricks and bake them by the heat of a wood fire.

  Generally bricks are formed in molds, but the engineer contented himselfwith making them by hand. All that day and the day following wereemployed in this work. The clay, soaked in water, was mixed by the feetand hands of the manipulators, and then divided into pieces of equalsize. A practiced workman can make, without a machine, about tenthousand bricks in twelve hours; but in their two days work the fivebrickmakers on Lincoln Island had not made more than three thousand,which were ranged near each other, until the time when their completedesiccation would permit them to be used in building the oven, that isto say, in three or four days.

  It was on the 2nd of April that Harding had employed himself in fixingthe orientation of the island, or, in other words, the precise spotwhere the sun rose. The day before he had noted exactly the hour whenthe sun disappeared beneath the horizon, making allowance for therefraction. This morning he noted, no less exactly, the hour at whichit reappeared. Between this setting and rising twelve hours, twenty-fourminutes passed. Then, six hours, twelve minutes after its rising, thesun on this day would exactly pass the meridian and the point of the skywhich it occupied at this moment would be the north. At the said hour,Cyrus marked this point, and putting in a line with the sun two treeswhich would serve him for marks, he thus obtained an invariable meridianfor his ulterior operations.

  The settlers employed the two days before the oven was built incollecting fuel. Branches were cut all round the glade, and they pickedup all the fallen wood under the trees. They were also able to hunt withgreater success, since Pencroft now possessed some dozen arrows armedwith sharp points. It was Top who had furnished these points, by bringingin a porcupine, rather inferior eating, but of great value, thanks tothe quills with which it bristled. These quills were fixed firmly at theends of the arrows, the flight of which was made more certain by somecockatoos' feathers. The reporter and Herbert soon became very skilfularchers. Game of all sorts in consequence abounded at the Chimneys,capybaras, pigeons, agouties, grouse, etc. The greater part of theseanimals were killed in the part of the forest on the left bank of theMercy, to which they gave the name of Jacamar Wood, in remembrance ofthe bird which Pencroft and Herbert had pursued when on their firstexploration.

  This game was eaten fresh, but they preserved some capybara hams, bysmoking them above a fire of green wood, after having perfumed them withsweet-smelling leaves. However, this food, although very strengthening,was always roast upon roast, and the party would have been delightedto hear some soup bubbling on the hearth, but they must wait till a potcould be made, and, consequently, till the oven was buil
t.

  During these excursions, which were not extended far from thebrick-field, the hunters could discern the recent passage of animals ofa large size, armed with powerful claws, but they could not recognizethe species. Cyrus Harding advised them to be very careful, as theforest probably enclosed many dangerous beasts.

  And he did right. Indeed, Gideon Spilett and Herbert one day saw ananimal which resembled a jaguar. Happily the creature did not attackthem, or they might not have escaped without a severe wound. As soonas he could get a regular weapon, that is to say, one of the guns whichPencroft begged for, Gideon Spilett resolved to make desperate waragainst the ferocious beasts, and exterminate them from the island.

  The Chimneys during these few days was not made more comfortable, forthe engineer hoped to discover, or build if necessary, a more convenientdwelling. They contented themselves with spreading moss and dry leaveson the sand of the passages, and on these primitive couches the tiredworkers slept soundly.

  They also reckoned the days they had passed on Lincoln Island, and fromthat time kept a regular account. The 5th of April, which was Wednesday,was twelve days from the time when the wind threw the castaways on thisshore.

  On the 6th of April, at daybreak, the engineer and his companions werecollected in the glade, at the place where they were going to performthe operation of baking the bricks. Naturally this had to be in the openair, and not in a kiln, or rather, the agglomeration of bricks made anenormous kiln, which would bake itself. The fuel, made of well-preparedfagots, was laid on the ground and surrounded with several rows of driedbricks, which soon formed an enormous cube, to the exterior of whichthey contrived air-holes. The work lasted all day, and it was not tillthe evening that they set fire to the fagots. No one slept that night,all watching carefully to keep up the fire.

  The operation lasted forty-eight hours, and succeeded perfectly. It thenbecame necessary to leave the smoking mass to cool, and during this timeNeb and Pencroft, guided by Cyrus Harding, brought, on a hurdle made ofinterlaced branches, loads of carbonate of lime and common stones,which were very abundant, to the north of the lake. These stones, whendecomposed by heat, made a very strong quicklime, greatly increased byslacking, at least as pure as if it had been produced by the calcinationof chalk or marble. Mixed with sand the lime made excellent mortar.

  The result of these different works was, that, on the 9th of April,the engineer had at his disposal a quantity of prepared lime and somethousands of bricks.

  Without losing an instant, therefore, they began the construction ofa kiln to bake the pottery, which was indispensable for their domesticuse. They succeeded without much difficulty. Five days after, the kilnwas supplied with coal, which the engineer had discovered lying open tothe sky towards the mouth of the Red Creek, and the first smoke escapedfrom a chimney twenty feet high. The glade was transformed into amanufactory, and Pencroft was not far wrong in believing that from thiskiln would issue all the products of modern industry.

  In the meantime what the settlers first manufactured was a commonpottery in which to cook their food. The chief material was clay, towhich Harding added a little lime and quartz. This paste made regular"pipe-clay," with which they manufactured bowls, cups molded on stonesof a proper size, great jars and pots to hold water, etc. The shape ofthese objects was clumsy and defective, but after they had been bakedin a high temperature, the kitchen of the Chimneys was provided with anumber of utensils, as precious to the settlers as the most beautifullyenameled china. We must mention here that Pencroft, desirous to know ifthe clay thus prepared was worthy of its name of pipe-clay, made somelarge pipes, which he thought charming, but for which, alas! he had notobacco, and that was a great privation to Pencroft. "But tobaccowill come, like everything else!" he repeated, in a burst of absoluteconfidence.

  This work lasted till the 15th of April, and the time was well employed.The settlers, having become potters, made nothing but pottery. Whenit suited Cyrus Harding to change them into smiths, they would becomesmiths. But the next day being Sunday, and also Easter Sunday, allagreed to sanctify the day by rest. These Americans were religious men,scrupulous observers of the precepts of the Bible, and their situationcould not but develop sentiments of confidence towards the Author of allthings.

  On the evening of the 15th of April they returned to the Chimneys,carrying with them the pottery, the furnace being extinguished untilthey could put it to a new use. Their return was marked by a fortunateincident; the engineer discovered a substance which replaced tinder.It is known that a spongy, velvety flesh is procured from a certainmushroom of the genus polyporous. Properly prepared, it is extremelyinflammable, especially when it has been previously saturated withgunpowder, or boiled in a solution of nitrate or chlorate of potash.But, till then, they had not found any of these polypores or even any ofthe morels which could replace them. On this day, the engineer, seeinga plant belonging to the wormwood genus, the principal species of whichare absinthe, balm-mint, tarragon, etc., gathered several tufts, and,presenting them to the sailor, said,--

  "Here, Pencroft, this will please you."

  Pencroft looked attentively at the plant, covered with long silky hair,the leaves being clothed with soft down.

  "What's that, captain?" asked Pencroft. "Is it tobacco?"

  "No," replied Harding, "it is wormwood; Chinese wormwood to the learned,but to us it will be tinder."

  When the wormwood was properly dried it provided them with a veryinflammable substance, especially afterwards when the engineer hadimpregnated it with nitrate of potash, of which the island possessedseveral beds, and which is in truth saltpeter.

  The colonists had a good supper that evening. Neb prepared some agoutisoup, a smoked capybara ham, to which was added the boiled tubercules ofthe "caladium macrorhizum," an herbaceous plant of the arum family.They had an excellent taste, and were very nutritious, being somethingsimilar to the substance which is sold in England under the name of"Portland sago"; they were also a good substitute for bread, which thesettlers in Lincoln Island did not yet possess.

  When supper was finished, before sleeping, Harding and his companionswent to take the air on the beach. It was eight o'clock in the evening;the night was magnificent. The moon, which had been full five daysbefore, had not yet risen, but the horizon was already silvered by thosesoft, pale shades which might be called the dawn of the moon. At thesouthern zenith glittered the circumpolar constellations, and above allthe Southern Cross, which some days before the engineer had greeted onthe summit of Mount Franklin.

  Cyrus Harding gazed for some time at this splendid constellation, whichhas at its summit and at its base two stars of the first magnitude, atits left arm a star of the second, and at its right arm a star of thethird magnitude.

  Then, after some minutes thought--

  "Herbert," he asked of the lad, "is not this the 15th of April?"

  "Yes, captain," replied Herbert.

  "Well, if I am not mistaken, to-morrow will be one of the four days inthe year in which the real time is identical with average time; thatis to say, my boy, that to-morrow, to within some seconds, the sun willpass the meridian just at midday by the clocks. If the weather is fineI think that I shall obtain the longitude of the island with anapproximation of some degrees."

  "Without instruments, without sextant?" asked Gideon Spilett.

  "Yes," replied the engineer. "Also, since the night is clear, I willtry, this very evening, to obtain our latitude by calculating theheight of the Southern Cross, that is, from the southern pole above thehorizon. You understand, my friends, that before undertaking the workof installation in earnest it is not enough to have found out that thisland is an island; we must, as nearly as possible, know at what distanceit is situated, either from the American continent or Australia, or fromthe principal archipelagoes of the Pacific."

  "In fact," said the reporter, "instead of building a house it wouldbe more important to build a boat, if by chance we are not more than ahundred miles from an inhabited coast."

&
nbsp; "That is why," returned Harding, "I am going to try this evening tocalculate the latitude of Lincoln Island, and to-morrow, at midday, Iwill try to calculate the longitude."

  If the engineer had possessed a sextant, an apparatus with which theangular distance of objects can be measured with great precision, therewould have been no difficulty in the operation. This evening by theheight of the pole, the next day by the passing of the sun at themeridian, he would obtain the position of the island. But as they hadnot one he would have to supply the deficiency.

  Harding then entered the Chimneys. By the light of the fire he cut twolittle flat rulers, which he joined together at one end so as to forma pair of compasses, whose legs could separate or come together. Thefastening was fixed with a strong acacia thorn which was found in thewood pile. This instrument finished, the engineer returned to the beach,but as it was necessary to take the height of the pole from above aclear horizon, that is, a sea horizon, and as Claw Cape hid the southernhorizon, he was obliged to look for a more suitable station. The bestwould evidently have been the shore exposed directly to the south; butthe Mercy would have to be crossed, and that was a difficulty. Hardingresolved, in consequence, to make his observation from Prospect Heights,taking into consideration its height above the level of the sea--aheight which he intended to calculate next day by a simple process ofelementary geometry.

  The settlers, therefore, went to the plateau, ascending the left bank ofthe Mercy, and placed themselves on the edge which looked northwest andsoutheast, that is, above the curiously-shaped rocks which bordered theriver.

  This part of the plateau commanded the heights of the left bank, whichsloped away to the extremity of Claw Cape, and to the southern side ofthe island. No obstacle intercepted their gaze, which swept the horizonin a semi-circle from the cape to Reptile End. To the south the horizon,lighted by the first rays of the moon, was very clearly defined againstthe sky.

  At this moment the Southern Cross presented itself to the observer in aninverted position, the star Alpha marking its base, which is nearer tothe southern pole.

  This constellation is not situated as near to the antarctic pole as thePolar Star is to the arctic pole. The star Alpha is about twenty-sevendegrees from it, but Cyrus Harding knew this and made allowance forit in his calculation. He took care also to observe the moment when itpassed the meridian below the pole, which would simplify the operation.

  Cyrus Harding pointed one leg of the compasses to the horizon, theother to Alpha, and the space between the two legs gave him the angulardistance which separated Alpha from the horizon. In order to fix theangle obtained, he fastened with thorns the two pieces of wood on athird placed transversely, so that their separation should be properlymaintained.

  That done, there was only the angle to calculate by bringing back theobservation to the level of the sea, taking into consideration thedepression of the horizon, which would necessitate measuring the heightof the cliff. The value of this angle would give the height of Alpha,and consequently that of the pole above the horizon, that is to say, thelatitude of the island, since the latitude of a point of the globe isalways equal to the height of the pole above the horizon of this point.

  The calculations were left for the next day, and at ten o'clock everyone was sleeping soundly.