The Mysterious Island (72 page)

In the meanwhile the corral was not abandoned. Every other day one of
the settlers, driving the cart or mounted on an onager, went to look
after the flock of musmons and goats and bring back the supply of
milk required by Neb. These excursions at the same time afforded
opportunities for hunting. Therefore Herbert and Gideon Spilett, with
Top in front, traversed more often than their companions the road to
the corral, and with the capital guns which they carried, capybaras,
agouties, kangaroos, and wild pigs for large game, ducks, grouse,
jacamars, and snipe for small game, were never wanting in the house.
The produce of the warren, of the oyster-bed, several turtles which were
taken, excellent salmon which came up the Mercy, vegetables from the
plateau, wild fruit from the forest, were riches upon riches, and Neb,
the head cook, could scarcely by himself store them away.

The telegraphic wire between the corral and Granite House had of course
been repaired, and it was worked whenever one or other of the settlers
was at the corral and found it necessary to spend the night there.
Besides, the island was safe now and no attacks were to be feared, at
any rate from men.

However, that which had happened might happen again. A descent of
pirates, or even of escaped convicts, was always to be feared. It was
possible that companions or accomplices of Bob Harvey had been in the
secret of his plans, and might be tempted to imitate him. The colonists,
therefore, were careful to observe the sea around the island, and every
day their telescope covered the horizon enclosed by Union and Washington
Bays. When they went to the corral they examined the sea to the west
with no less attention, and by climbing the spur their gaze extended
over a large section of the western horizon.

Nothing suspicious was discerned, but still it was necessary for them to
be on their guard.

The engineer one evening imparted to his friends a plan which he had
conceived for fortifying the corral. It appeared prudent to him to
heighten the palisade and to flank it with a sort of blockhouse, which,
if necessary, the settlers could hold against the enemy. Granite House
might, by its very position, be considered impregnable; therefore the
corral with its buildings, its stores, and the animals it contained,
would always be the object of pirates, whoever they were, who might land
on the island, and should the colonists be obliged to shut themselves
up there they ought also to be able to defend themselves without any
disadvantage. This was a project which might be left for consideration,
and they were, besides, obliged to put off its execution until the next
spring.

About the 15th of May the keel of the new vessel lay along the dockyard,
and soon the stem and stern-post, mortised at each of its extremities,
rose almost perpendicularly. The keel, of good oak, measured 110 feet
in length, this allowing a width of five-and-twenty feet to the midship
beam. But this was all the carpenters could do before the arrival of the
frosts and bad weather. During the following week they fixed the first
of the stern timbers, but were then obliged to suspend work.

During the last days of the month the weather was extremely bad. The
wind blew from the east, sometimes with the violence of a tempest. The
engineer was somewhat uneasy on account of the dockyard shed—which
besides, he could not have established in any other place near to
Granite House—for the islet only imperfectly sheltered the shore from
the fury of the open sea, and in great storms the waves beat against the
very foot of the granite cliff.

But, very fortunately, these fears were not realized. The wind shifted
to the southeast, and there the beach of Granite House was completely
covered by Flotsam Point.

Pencroft and Ayrton, the most zealous workmen at the new vessel, pursued
their labor as long as they could. They were not men to mind the wind
tearing at their hair, nor the rain wetting them to the skin, and a blow
from a hammer is worth just as much in bad as in fine weather. But when
a severe frost succeeded this wet period, the wood, its fibers acquiring
the hardness of iron, became extremely difficult to work, and about the
10th of June shipbuilding was obliged to be entirely discontinued.

Cyrus Harding and his companions had not omitted to observe how severe
was the temperature during the winters of Lincoln Island. The cold was
comparable to that experienced in the States of New England, situated at
almost the same distance from the equator. In the northern hemisphere,
or at any rate in the part occupied by British America and the north of
the United States, this phenomenon is explained by the flat conformation
of the territories bordering on the pole, and on which there is no
intumescence of the soil to oppose any obstacle to the north winds;
here, in Lincoln Island, this explanation would not suffice.

"It has even been observed," remarked Harding one day to his companions,
"that in equal latitudes the islands and coast regions are less tried by
the cold than inland countries. I have often heard it asserted that the
winters of Lombardy, for example, are not less rigorous than those of
Scotland, which results from the sea restoring during the winter the
heat which it received during the summer. Islands are, therefore, in a
better situation for benefiting by this restitution."

"But then, Captain Harding," asked Herbert, "why does Lincoln Island
appear to escape the common law?"

"That is difficult to explain," answered the engineer. "However, I
should be disposed to conjecture that this peculiarity results from the
situation of the island in the Southern Hemisphere, which, as you know,
my boy, is colder than the Northern Hemisphere."

"Yes," said Herbert, "and icebergs are met with in lower latitudes in
the south than in the north of the Pacific."

"That is true," remarked Pencroft, "and when I have been serving on
board whalers I have seen icebergs off Cape Horn."

"The severe cold experienced in Lincoln Island," said Gideon Spilett,
"may then perhaps be explained by the presence of floes or icebergs
comparatively near to Lincoln Island."

"Your opinion is very admissible indeed, my dear Spilett," answered
Cyrus Harding, "and it is evidently to the proximity of icebergs that
we owe our rigorous winters. I would draw your attention also to an
entirely physical cause, which renders the Southern colder than the
Northern Hemisphere. In fact, since the sun is nearer to this hemisphere
during the summer, it is necessarily more distant during the winter.
This explains then the excess of temperature in the two seasons, for, if
we find the winters very cold in Lincoln Island, we must not forget that
the summers here, on the contrary, are very hot."

"But why, if you please, captain," asked Pencroft, knitting his brows,
"why should our hemisphere, as you say, be so badly divided? It isn't
just, that!"

"Friend Pencroft," answered the engineer, laughing, "whether just
or not, we must submit to it, and here lies the reason for this
peculiarity. The earth does not describe a circle around the sun, but
an ellipse, as it must by the laws of rational mechanics. Now, the earth
occupies one of the foci of the ellipse, and so at one point in its
course is at its apogee, that is, at its farthest from the sun, and
at another point it is at its perigee, or nearest to the sun. Now it
happens that it is during the winter of the southern countries that
it is at its most distant point from the sun, and consequently, in a
situation for those regions to feel the greatest cold. Nothing can be
done to prevent that, and men, Pencroft, however learned they may be,
can never change anything of the cosmographical order established by God
Himself."

"And yet," added Pencroft, "the world is very learned. What a big book,
captain, might be made with all that is known!"

"And what a much bigger book still with all that is not known!" answered
Harding.

At last, for one reason or another, the month of June brought the cold
with its accustomed intensity, and the settlers were often confined to
Granite House. Ah! how wearisome this imprisonment was to them, and more
particularly to Gideon Spilett.

"Look here," said he to Neb one day, "I would give you by notarial
deed all the estates which will come to me some day, if you were a good
enough fellow to go, no matter where, and subscribe to some newspaper
for me! Decidedly the thing that is most essential to my happiness is
the knowing every morning what has happened the day before in other
places than this!"

Neb began to laugh.

"'Pon my word," he replied, "the only thing I think about is my daily
work!"

The truth was that indoors as well as out there was no want of work.

The colony of Lincoln Island was now at its highest point of prosperity,
achieved by three years of continued hard work. The destruction of the
brig had been a new source of riches. Without speaking of the complete
rig which would serve for the vessel now on the stocks, utensils and
tools of all sorts, weapons and ammunition, clothes and instruments,
were now piled in the storerooms of Granite House. It had not even
been necessary to resort again to the manufacture of the coarse felt
materials. Though the colonists had suffered from cold during their
first winter, the bad season might now come without their having any
reason to dread its severity. Linen was plentiful also, and besides,
they kept it with extreme care. From chloride of sodium, which is
nothing else than sea salt, Cyrus Harding easily extracted the soda and
chlorine. The soda, which it was easy to change into carbonate of soda,
and the chlorine, of which he made chloride of lime, were employed for
various domestic purposes, and especially in bleaching linen. Besides,
they did not wash more than four times a year, as was done by families
in the olden times, and it may be added, that Pencroft and Gideon
Spilett, while waiting for the postman to bring him his newspaper,
distinguished themselves as washermen.

So passed the winter months, June, July, and August. They were severe,
and the average observations of the thermometer did not give more than
eight degrees of Fahrenheit. It was therefore lower in temperature than
the preceding winter. But then, what splendid fires blazed continually
on the hearths of Granite House, the smoke marking the granite wall with
long, zebra-like streaks! Fuel was not spared, as it grew naturally a
few steps from them. Besides, the chips of the wood destined for the
construction of the ship enabled them to economize the coal, which
required more trouble to transport.

Men and animals were all well. Master Jup was a little chilly, it must
be confessed. This was perhaps his only weakness, and it was necessary
to make him a well-padded dressing-gown. But what a servant he was,
clever, zealous, indefatigable, not indiscreet, not talkative, and
he might have been with reason proposed as a model for all his biped
brothers in the Old and New Worlds!

"As for that," said Pencroft, "when one has four hands at one's service,
of course one's work ought to be done so much the better!"

And indeed the intelligent creature did it well.

During the seven months which had passed since the last researches made
round the mountain, and during the month of September, which brought
back fine weather, nothing was heard of the genius of the island. His
power was not manifested in any way. It is true that it would have
been superfluous, for no incident occurred to put the colonists to any
painful trial.

Cyrus Harding even observed that if by chance the communication between
the unknown and the tenants of Granite House had ever been established
through the granite, and if Top's instinct had as it were felt it, there
was no further sign of it during this period. The dog's growling
had entirely ceased, as well as the uneasiness of the orang. The two
friends—for they were such—no longer prowled round the opening of the
inner well, nor did they bark or whine in that singular way which from
the first the engineer had noticed. But could he be sure that this was
all that was to be said about this enigma, and that he should never
arrive at a solution? Could he be certain that some conjuncture would
not occur which would bring the mysterious personage on the scene? who
could tell what the future might have in reserve?

At last the winter was ended, but an event, the consequences of which
might be serious occurred in the first days of the returning spring.

On the 7th of September, Cyrus Harding, having observed the crater, saw
smoke curling round the summit of the mountain, its first vapors rising
in the air.

The colonists, warned by the engineer, left their work and gazed in
silence at the summit of Mount Franklin.

The volcano had awoke, and the vapor had penetrated the mineral layer
heaped at the bottom of the crater. But would the subterranean fires
provoke any violent eruption? This was an event which could not be
foreseen. However, even while admitting the possibility of an eruption,
it was not probable that the whole of Lincoln Island would suffer from
it. The flow of volcanic matter is not always disastrous, and the island
had already undergone this trial, as was shown by the streams of lava
hardened on the northern slopes of the mountain. Besides, from the shape
of the crater—the opening broken in the upper edge—the matter would be
thrown to the side opposite the fertile regions of the island.

However, the past did not necessarily answer for the future. Often, at
the summit of volcanoes, the old craters close and new ones open.
This had occurred in the two hemispheres—at Etna, Popocatepetl, at
Orizabaand on the eve of an eruption there is everything to be feared.
In fact, an earthquake—a phenomenon which often accompanies volcanic
eruption—is enough to change the interior arrangement of a mountain,
and to open new outlets for the burning lava.