Part 33

But during these excursions, the colonists took care to be well armed, for they frequently encountered certain wild boars, very savage and very fierce, against which they had to fight in earnest.

A terrible war was also waged against the jaguars during this season. Gideon Spilett had vowed a special hatred against them, and his pupil Harbert ably seconded him. Armed as they were, they scarcely feared meeting one of these wild beasts.

Harbert's boldness was superb, and the reporter's coolness astonishing. Thus some twenty magnificent skins already adorned the great hall of Granite House, and if this continued, the race of jaguars would soon be extinct on the island, a goal the hunters were pursuing.

The engineer sometimes took part in various reconnaissances made in the unknown portions of the island, which he observed with minute attention. It was other traces than those of animals that he sought in the thickest parts of these vast woods, but never did anything suspicious appear to his eyes. Neither Top nor Jup, who accompanied him, betrayed by their attitude that there was anything extraordinary, and yet, more than once again, the dog barked at the mouth of that well which the engineer had explored without result.

It was about this time that Gideon Spilett, aided by Harbert, took several views of the most picturesque parts of the island, by means of the photographic apparatus which had been found in the chest and which had not been used hitherto.

This apparatus, furnished with a powerful lens, was very complete. Substances necessary for photographic reproduction, collodion to prepare the glass plate, silver nitrate to sensitize it, hyposulfate of soda to fix the obtained image, ammonium chloride to bathe the paper intended to give the positive proof, acetate of soda and gold chloride to impregnate the latter, nothing was lacking. The papers themselves were there, all chlorinated, and before placing them in the frame upon the negative proofs, it sufficed to soak them for a few minutes in silver nitrate diluted with water.

The reporter and his assistant therefore became, in a short time, skilled operators, and they obtained fairly beautiful proofs of landscapes, such as the whole of the island, taken from the plateau of Grande-Vue, with Mount Franklin on the horizon, the mouth of the Mercy, so picturesquely framed in its high rocks, the clearing and the corral backed against the first slopes of the mountain, the whole curious development of Cape Claw, of Wreck Point, etc.

The photographers did not forget to take the portrait of all the inhabitants of the island, excepting no one.

"That populates," said Pencroff.

And the sailor was delighted to see his image, faithfully reproduced, adorn the walls of Granite House, and he willingly stopped before this exhibition as he would have done before the richest shop windows of Broadway.

But, it must be said, the best succeeded portrait was unquestionably that of Master Jup. Master Jup had posed with an impossible-to-describe seriousness, and his image was lifelike!

"One would say he is about to make a face!" cried Pencroff.

And if Master Jup had not been pleased, it would have been very difficult; but he was, and he contemplated his image with a sentimental air, through which peeped a slight dose of vanity.

The great heats of summer ended with the month of March. The weather was sometimes rainy, but the atmosphere was still warm. This month of March, which corresponds to the month of September of the northern latitudes, was not as fine as might have been hoped. Perhaps it announced an early and rigorous winter.

It might even have been believed, one morning—the 21st—that the first snows had made their appearance. Indeed, Harbert, having placed himself early at one of the windows of Granite House, cried:

"Why! The islet is covered with snow!"

"Snow at this time?" replied the reporter, who had joined the young boy.

Their companions were soon near them, and they could only ascertain one thing, which was that not only the islet, but the whole shore, at the foot of Granite House, was covered with a white layer, uniformly spread upon the ground.

"That is certainly snow!" said Pencroff.

"Or it very much resembles it!" answered Nab.

"But the thermometer marks fifty-eight degrees (14 centigrade above zero)!" observed Gideon Spilett.

Cyrus Smith looked at the white sheet without pronouncing, for he really did not know how to explain this phenomenon, at this time of year and with such a temperature.

"A thousand devils!" cried Pencroff, "our plantations are going to be frozen!"

And the sailor was preparing to descend, when he was preceded by the agile Jup, who let himself slide to the ground.

But the orang had not touched earth, when the enormous layer of snow lifted and scattered in the air in flakes so innumerable that the sunlight was veiled for a few minutes.

"Birds!" cried Harbert.

They were, in fact, swarms of sea birds, with plumage of dazzling white. They had fallen by hundreds of thousands upon the islet and upon the coast, and they disappeared afar, leaving the colonists astounded as if they had assisted at a change of scene, which had made summer succeed winter in a fairy-like setting. Unfortunately, the change had been so sudden, that neither the reporter nor the young boy managed to bring down one of these birds, of which they could not recognize the species. A few days after, it was the 26th of March, and it was two years since the castaways of the air had been thrown upon Lincoln Island!

CHAPTER XIX

Two years already! And for two years the colonists had had no communication with their fellow men! They were without news of the civilized world, lost upon this island, as well as if they had been upon some insignificant asteroid of the solar world! What was then passing in their country? The image of the fatherland was always present to their eyes, that fatherland torn by civil war, at the moment they had left it, and which the rebellion of the south perhaps still bloodied! It was for them a great sorrow, and often they spoke of these things among themselves, never doubting, however, that the cause of the North should triumph for the honor of the American confederation.

During these two years, not a vessel had passed in sight of the island, or at least not a sail had been perceived. It was evident that Lincoln Island was outside the routes followed, and even that it was unknown—which the charts proved, moreover—for, failing a port, its watering place should have attracted the ships desirous of renewing their provision of water. But the sea which surrounded it was always desert, as far as the eye could extend, and the colonists could scarcely count but upon themselves to return home.

However, a chance of safety existed, and this chance was precisely discussed, one day of the first week of April, by the colonists, who were assembled in the hall of Granite House.

Precisely, there had been question of America, and they had spoken of the native land, which they had so little hope of seeing again.

"Decidedly, we shall have but one means," said Gideon Spilett, "one only, to leave Lincoln Island, that will be to construct a vessel large enough to hold the sea for some hundreds of miles. It seems to me that when one has made a shallop, one can well make a ship!"

"And that one can well go to the Pomotou," added Harbert, "when one has gone to Tabor Island!"

"I do not say no," replied Pencroff, who always had a preponderant voice in maritime questions, "I do not say no, although it is not quite the same thing to go near and to go far! If our shallop had been threatened by some bad gust during the voyage to Tabor Island, we knew that the port was distant neither on one side nor the other; but twelve hundred miles to cross, that is a pretty stretch of road, and the nearest land is at least at that distance!"

"If need were, Pencroff, would you not attempt the adventure?" asked the reporter.

"I will attempt whatever is wished, Mr. Spilett," answered the sailor, "and you know well that I am not a man to draw back!"

"Remark, besides, that we count one sailor more among us," observed Nab.

"Who?" asked Pencroff.

"Ayrton."

"That is just," replied Harbert.

"If he consented to come!" observed Pencroff.

"Bah!" said the reporter, "do you believe then that if Lord Glenarvan's yacht had presented itself at Tabor Island while he still inhabited it, Ayrton would have refused to depart?"

"You forget, my friends," said then Cyrus Smith, "that Ayrton no longer had his reason during the last years of his stay. But the question is not there. It is a matter of knowing if we should count among our chances of safety this return of the Scottish vessel. Now, Lord Glenarvan promised Ayrton to come take him again at Tabor Island, when he should judge his crimes sufficiently expiated, and I believe he will return."

"Yes," said the reporter, "and I will add that he will return soon, for it is now twelve years since Ayrton was abandoned!"

"Eh!" replied Pencroff, "I am well agreed with you that the lord will return, and soon even. But where will he touch? at Tabor Island, and not at Lincoln Island."

"That is so much the more certain," replied Harbert, "that Lincoln Island is not even set down on the chart."

"Also, my friends," resumed the engineer, "we must take the necessary precautions so that our presence and that of Ayrton at Lincoln Island may be signaled at Tabor Island."

"Evidently," replied the reporter, "and nothing is easier than to deposit, in that cabin which was the dwelling of Captain Grant and Ayrton, a notice giving the situation of our island, a notice which Lord Glenarvan or his crew cannot fail to find."

"It is even unfortunate," observed the sailor, "that we forgot to take this precaution during our first voyage to Tabor Island."

"And why should we have taken it?" replied Harbert. "We did not know Ayrton's history at that moment; we ignored that one should come seek him some day, and when we knew this history, the season was too advanced to permit us to return to Tabor Island."

"Yes," replied Cyrus Smith, "it was too late, and it is necessary to put off this crossing to next spring."

"But if the Scottish yacht came meanwhile?" said Pencroff.

"That is not probable," replied the engineer, "for Lord Glenarvan will not choose the winter season to venture into these distant seas. Either he has already returned to Tabor Island since Ayrton has been with us, that is to say for five months, and has departed again, or he will not come until later, and it will be time, from the first fine days of October, to go to Tabor Island and leave a notice there."

"It must be owned," said Nab, "that it would be very unfortunate if the Duncan had reappeared in these seas only some months ago!"

"I hope it is not so," replied Cyrus Smith, "and that heaven will not have taken from us the best chance that remains to us!"

"I believe," observed the reporter, "that in any case we shall know where we stand when we have returned to Tabor Island, for if the Scots have returned there, they will necessarily have left some traces of their passage."

"That is evident," replied the engineer. "Thus, my friends, since we have this chance of repatriation, let us wait with patience, and if it is taken from us, we shall then see what we must do."

"In any case," said Pencroff, "it is well understood that if we leave Lincoln Island in one way or another, it will not be because we find ourselves badly off there!"

"No, Pencroff," replied the engineer, "it will be because we are far from all that a man should cherish most in the world, his family, his friends, his native land!"

The things being thus decided, no more question was made of undertaking the construction of a vessel large enough to venture, either as far as the archipelagos in the north, or as far as New Zealand in the west, and they occupied themselves only with the accustomed labors with a view to a third wintering at Granite House.

However, it was also decided that the shallop should be employed, before the bad days, to make a voyage around the island. The complete reconnaissance of the coasts was not yet finished, and the colonists had but an imperfect idea of the shore to the west and north, from the mouth of the Falls River as far as the Mandible Capes, nor of the narrow bay which hollowed itself between them like a shark's jaw.

The project of this excursion was put forward by Pencroff, and Cyrus Smith gave it full adherence, for he wished to see by himself all this portion of his domain.

The weather was variable then, but the barometer did not oscillate by abrupt movements, and one could therefore count on manageable weather.

Precisely, during the first week of April, after a strong barometric fall, the resumption of the rise was signaled by a strong west wind which lasted five or six days; then, the needle of the instrument became stationary again at a height of twenty-nine inches and nine tenths (759.45 mm), and the circumstances appeared propitious to the exploration.

The day of departure was fixed for the 16th of April, and the Bonadventure, moored at Balloon Harbor, was provisioned for a voyage which might have some duration.

Cyrus Smith informed Ayrton of the projected expedition and proposed to him to take part in it; but, Ayrton having preferred to remain on land, it was decided that he would come to Granite House during the absence of his companions. Master Jup was to keep him company and made no recrimination.

On the 16th of April, in the morning, all the colonists, accompanied by Top, were embarked. The wind blew from the southwest, in a fine breeze, and the Bonadventure had to tack in leaving Balloon Harbor, in order to gain Reptile Point. Of the ninety miles which measured the perimeter of the island, the south coast counted some twenty from the harbor to the point. Thence, necessity of making these twenty miles as close-hauled as possible, for the wind was absolutely dead ahead.

It took no less than the whole day to reach the point, for the boat, in leaving the harbor, found but two hours of ebb and had, on the contrary, six hours of flood which it was very difficult to shake out. Night was therefore come, when the point was doubled.

Pencroff then proposed to the engineer to continue the route at small speed, with two reefs in his sail. But Cyrus Smith preferred to moor at some cable-lengths from land, in order to see this part of the coast during the day. It was even agreed that, since it was a matter of a minute exploration of the island's shore, they would not navigate by night, and that, evening come, they would cast anchor near land, as long as the weather permitted it.

The night therefore passed at anchor under the point, and the wind having fallen with the mist, the silence was no longer troubled. The passengers, with the exception of the sailor, perhaps slept a little less well aboard the Bonadventure than they would have done in their rooms at Granite House, but finally they slept.

The next day, April 17, Pencroff got under way at daybreak, and, large before and port tacks, he could range very close to the western coast.

The colonists knew this wooded coast, so magnificent, since they had already traversed on foot its edge, and yet it excited again all their admiration. They coasted the land as near as possible, moderating their speed, so as to observe all, taking care only not to strike some tree trunks which floated here and there.

Several times even, they cast anchor, and Gideon Spilett took photographic views of this superb littoral.

Toward noon, the Bonadventure had arrived at the mouth of the Falls River. Beyond, on the right bank, the trees reappeared, but more scattered, and, three miles farther, they no longer formed but isolated clumps between the western buttresses of the mount, whose arid spine prolonged itself to the shore. What a contrast between the southern portion and the northern portion of this coast! As much as that one was wooded and verdant, as much the other was harsh and wild! One would have said one of those "iron coasts," as they are called in certain countries, and its tormented contexture seemed to indicate that a veritable crystallization had abruptly produced itself in the basalt still boiling from geologic epochs. A heaping of terrible aspect, which would have at first frightened the colonists, if chance had thrown them upon this part of the island! When they were at the summit of Mount Franklin, they had not been able to recognize the deeply sinister aspect of this shore, for they dominated it from too high; but, seen from the sea, this littoral presented itself with a character of strangeness, the equal of which was perhaps met in no corner of the world.

The Bonadventure passed before this coast, which it skirted at the distance of half a mile. It was easy to see that it was composed of blocks of all dimensions, from twenty feet up to three hundred feet in height, and of all forms, cylindrical like towers, prismatic like belfries, pyramidal like obelisks, conical like factory chimneys. An ice field of the glacial seas would not have been more capriciously erected in its sublime horror! Here, bridges thrown from one rock to another; there, arcades arranged like those of a nave, whose depth the eye could not discover; in one place, large excavations, whose vaults presented a monumental aspect; in another, a veritable mob of points, of pyramidions, of spires such as no Gothic cathedral has ever counted. All the caprices of nature, more varied still than those of the imagination, drew this grandiose littoral, which prolonged itself over a length of eight or nine miles.

Cyrus Smith and his companions looked with a sentiment of surprise which touched upon stupefaction.

But, if they remained mute, Top, he, did not restrain himself from throwing barks which the thousand echoes of the basaltic wall repeated. The engineer observed even that these barks had something bizarre, like those the dog made heard at the mouth of the well of Granite House.

"Let us land," said he.

And the Bonadventure came to graze as near as possible the rocks of the littoral. Perhaps there existed there some grotto which it behooved to explore? But Cyrus Smith saw nothing, not a cavern, not an crevice which could serve as retreat to any being whatsoever, for the foot of the rocks bathed in the very surf of the waters. Soon the barks of Top ceased, and the boat resumed its distance at some cable-lengths from the shore.

In the northwest portion of the island, the bank became flat and sandy again. Some rare trees profiled themselves above a low and marshy land, which the colonists had already glimpsed, and, by a violent contrast with the other so desert coast, life manifested itself then by the presence of myriads of aquatic birds.

In the evening, the Bonadventure moored in a slight indentation of the littoral, to the north of the island, near land, so deep were the waters in this place.

The night passed peaceably, for the breeze extinguished itself, so to speak, with the last gleams of day, and it resumed only with the first hues of dawn.

As it was easy to accost the land, that morning, the sworn hunters of the colony, that is to say Harbert and Gideon Spilett, went to make a walk of two hours and returned with several strings of ducks and snipes.

Top had done wonders, and not a game was lost, thanks to his zeal and his address.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the Bonadventure got under way and sped very rapidly in rising toward the north Mandible Cape, for it had wind astern, and the breeze tended to freshen.

"Besides," said Pencroff, "I should not be astonished if some west wind were preparing. Yesterday, the sun set on a very red horizon, and here, this morning, 'cat's tails' which presage nothing good."

These cat's tails were slender cirrus, scattered at the zenith, and whose height is never inferior to five thousand feet above the level of the sea. One would have said light pieces of cotton, whose presence ordinarily announces some approaching trouble in the elements.

"Well," said Cyrus Smith, "let us carry as much sail as we can carry, and let us go seek refuge in Shark Gulf. I think the Bonadventure will be in safety there."

"Perfectly," replied Pencroff, "and, besides, the north coast is formed only of dunes little interesting to consider."

"I should not be sorry," added the engineer, "to pass not only the night, but also tomorrow's day in this bay, which deserves to be explored with care."

"I believe we shall be forced to it, whether we wish it or not," replied Pencroff, "for the horizon begins to become threatening in the western part. See how it blackens!"

"In any case, we have good wind to gain the cape," observed the reporter.

"Very good wind," replied the sailor; "but to enter the gulf, it will be necessary to tack, and I should like to see clearly in these waters which I do not know!"

"Waters which must be sown with reefs," added Harbert, "if we judge by what we have seen on the south coast of Shark Gulf."

"Pencroff," said then Cyrus Smith, "do the best, we rely upon you."

"Be easy, Mr. Cyrus," replied the sailor, "I shall not expose myself without necessity! I should prefer a knife thrust in my live works than a rock thrust in those of my Bonadventure!"

What Pencroff called live works, was the immersed part of the keel of his boat, and he cared more for it than for his own skin!

"What time is it?" asked Pencroff.

"Ten o'clock," replied Gideon Spilett.

"And what distance have we to cover to the cape, Mr. Cyrus?"

"About fifteen miles," replied the engineer.

"That is the affair of two hours and a half," said then the sailor, "and we shall be abreast of the cape between noon and one o'clock. Unfortunately, the tide will turn at that moment, and the ebb will leave the gulf. I fear therefore greatly that it will be difficult to enter it, having wind and sea against us."

"Especially as it is full moon today," observed Harbert, "and these April tides are very strong."

"Well, Pencroff, can you not moor at the point of the cape?" asked Cyrus Smith.

"Moore near land, with bad weather in prospect!" cried the sailor. "Do you think of it, Mr. Cyrus? That would be to wish voluntarily to run ashore!"

"Then, what will you do?"

"I shall try to keep the offing until the flood, that is to say until seven o'clock in the evening, and if there is still a little daylight, I shall attempt to enter the gulf; if not, we shall remain at beating about during the whole night, and we shall enter tomorrow at sunrise."

"I have said it to you, Pencroff, we rely upon you," replied Cyrus Smith.

"Ah!" said Pencroff, "if there were only a lighthouse on this coast, it would be more convenient for navigators!"

"Yes," replied Harbert, "and this time, we shall not have a complaisant engineer who lights us a fire to guide us to port!"

"Why, by the way, my dear Cyrus," said Gideon Spilett, "we have never thanked you; but frankly, without that fire, we should never have been able to reach..."

"A fire...?" asked Cyrus Smith, very astonished at the reporter's words.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”