The Mysterious Island Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Captain Grant's Children

Chapter 127 The Mysterious Island (12)
Everyone couldn't help laughing at the sailor's new classification method for kangaroos.Dinner tonight looks to be just pheasant.The honest and honest sailor regretted this very much, and made no secret of his emotions.Still, maybe good luck will favor him again.

Top searched for prey everywhere, which was based on instinct and strong appetite.If a certain prey fell into Top's mouth at this time, it might not leave anything for the immigrants.At this time, Top was searching for prey for himself.Neb followed Top, and also supervised it.

About three o'clock Top disappeared among the brambles.Then came its low cry, which indicated that it was wrestling with some animal.

Neb rushed over, and sure enough, Toppu was devouring a quadruped, looking very greedy.Had it been any later, even ten seconds later, the animal would have been in Top's stomach and would have been unrecognizable long ago.However, Top's prey was not one, but a clutch. He caught three at once, and the other two were killed and lay on the ground.

Neb was very happy, holding in both hands what Topp had just harvested. This animal was bigger than a hare, and its fur was yellow, with light green spots in the middle.As for the tail of this animal, only a little trace can be seen.For the immigrants, the first thing to do was to name this animal, and they did not hesitate to name it "Mara". Mara is a type of agouti, only slightly larger than its tropical counterparts.It has very long ears, but it is a real American rabbit.The animal has five molars on each side of the upper and lower jaws.This is their hallmark and what sets them apart from normal agouti.

"Hurrah!" rejoiced Pencroft. "Today's roast! We can go home now!"

Then, they moved on.Surrounded by tall iron trees, tamarisks and eucalyptus trees, the water of the Red River is extremely clear, flowing under the arched shade formed by those tall trees.The beautiful lilac trees are twenty feet tall.In addition, there are some trees, which are unfamiliar to the young naturalist.The trees sloped towards the brook, which gurgled and murmured in its shade.

At this time, the river widened significantly.From this, Cyrus Harding judged, the mouth of the river must be approaching.When they walked out of the dense bushes, the mouth of the river appeared in front of them.

At this time, the immigrants came to the west bank of "Grant Lake".The area of ​​the lake is about 250 acres, and its circumference is about seven nautical miles.There are all kinds of trees growing around the lake, and this place is really worth exploring.Going east, past the towering trees, the shimmering sea appeared in front of you.To the north, the curve of the lake is slightly concave, in contrast to the sharply angled outline of the lake below.There are a large number of water birds living here by the lake.A rock outcropped from the surface of the lake, about a few hundred feet from the south shore of the lake.Several pairs of kingfishers lived on the rocks, and they sat motionless on the rocks, waiting for the fish to swim past, then dashed over and dived into the water.When they surfaced again, they already had their prey in their mouths.In other places, there are some mallards, pelicans, black water chickens, red-billed jays, tongue jays and lyrebirds.They swaggered, and the tails of the lyrebirds spread out like an elegant harp.

The lake water of "Grant Lake" is very clear, but the color is darker, and some places are still bubbling, and concentric circles cross and disperse around the water surface. It can be seen that there are many fish living in the water.

"It's beautiful here! We're going to live by the lake!" Jardin Splane said.

"Yes!" replied Cyrus Harding.

The settlers, desiring to get back to the "chimney" as soon as possible, chose to take a short cut, which led them to the corner formed by the junction of the lakes, and passed easily through bushes and brambles.They made a way through bushes and brambles where no trace of man had hitherto been found.In this way, they walked towards the sea, and they would come to the north of Prospect Heights.After walking two nautical miles in this direction, passing through the last row of trees, the plateau appeared in front of us, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of fine grass.On the other side of the highlands is the endless sea.

As long as you cross the highland of this sea mile diagonally, and then go down to the corner of the "Grateful River", you can reach the "Chimney".Cyrus Harding, however, wished to see the drainage of the lake, and where the water drained away when it was overfilled.So they went northward for a nautical mile and a half or so.There, there may have been some outfall, presumably through the granite wall.In any case, this lake is a basin, and when the water of the Red River fills it, the excess water must form a waterfall and flow into the sea.If that were the case, the engineers thought the waterfall would be useful, harnessing the power of the waterfall to serve them.At this time, this water power was wasted in vain.So they followed the "Grant Lake" and climbed to the high ground.After traveling a nautical mile in this way, the drain was not found, but it must be there.

It was already 04:30, it was time to prepare dinner, so they had to go back to their residence first.So, a group of them returned to the "chimney" along the left bank of the "Thanksgiving River".

To-night's cooks are Neb and Pencroft.The two of them lit a fire, cooked the roasted guinea pig, and everyone ate it with relish.After dinner, everyone was getting ready to go to bed.Cyrus Harding took from his pocket the few ores of various kinds which he had picked up during the day, and said these words:

"My friends, you see, this is iron ore, this is pyrite, this is clay, this is limestone, and this is coal. You see, this is a resource provided by nature. Next, It's up to us!"

Manufacturing tools

Early the next morning Pencroft asked the engineer: "Mr. Cyrus, where shall we begin?"

"From scratch!" replied Cyrus Harding.

Yes, for immigrants, everything has to start from scratch.They don't even have the tools necessary to make life now, they don't even have the conditions like nature.After all, nature "has time and saves effort", but they don't have time. What is most in short supply now is the necessities of life, and they have to prepare immediately.If everything is based on past experience and there is no need to invent and create new things, then they must at least manufacture everything they need.The available iron and steel is still a pile of ore, the pottery they will use is still a pile of clay, and the clothes and fabrics they will wear are still in their raw state.

It must be admitted, however, that these immigrants were noble and capable men.These companions of the engineer Cyrus Harding were intelligent, loyal, and full of passion, and they went out of their way to help the engineer.Engineers have also visited them, knowing and being convinced of their capabilities.

Jardine Splane is knowledgeable and has a wide range of topics. He will use his mind and hands to make various contributions to the development of the island.Moreover, he is also a person who never backs down in the face of any difficulty.In addition to being a good reporter, he is also good at hunting, which was just a hobby before and will be his career in the future.

Harbert was an excellent boy, with an excellent education in natural history, and would be of great assistance in the common quest.

Neb was quick-witted, intelligent, tireless, physically strong, and literally the very embodiment of loyalty.In addition to having a physique of steel, Neb did know a little bit about blacksmithing.This is of great help to immigrants.

As for Pencroft, he had been a sailor, and was still in a borough of Brooklyn, New York.He worked as a carpenter on a construction site and as an assistant tailor on a state-owned giant ship.In addition, during his sabbaticals, he worked as a gardener and planted fields.He is simply an all-rounder who can do everything.

It is not an easy task for these five people who have fought against fate and are victorious to gather together.It would be even more difficult to find someone stronger than them.

"Again!" said Cyrus Harding.By "head" the engineer meant to build a tool that could be used to alter natural matter.The role of heat in the change is self-evident.There is no shortage of fuels such as wood or coal, which can be used immediately.Now the problem is to build a stove that utilizes the fuel.

"What can the stove be used for?" asked Pencroft.

"Can make pottery, that's what we need," replied the engineer.

"But what shall we use to build the furnace?"

"Use bricks!"

"Where are the bricks?"

"It's made of clay. My friends, let's get started. Transportation is too labor-intensive and time-consuming, so we set up the workshop at the place where the raw materials are produced. Neb is responsible for delivering the food, and the fire for cooking the food will never be missing."

"There will be no fire. But now there are no hunting tools, what if there is a shortage of food?" the reporter asked.

"Ah! If only we had a knife!" said the sailor.

"And then?" asked the engineer.

"Then I will soon make bows and arrows, so there will be a lot of wild game stored."

"Yes, a knife, a sharp blade..." the engineer said to himself.

Then he turned his eyes to Top, who was walking up and down the beach.

The engineer's eyes suddenly became active.

"Top, come here!" he said.

"Hearing his master's call, Top ran up. He took Top's head in his arms, took off the collar around his neck, broke it off, and said to the sailor:
"And here are the two knives, Pencroft."

"Hurrah!" was the sailor's response.Top's collar was made of thin tempered steel.Just sharpen it on sand to sharpen the tip and finer sand to smooth out the burrs.This kind of sand and stones are everywhere on the beach. In less than two hours, two sharp knives were ready.The next step is to attach a strong handle to them, which is not difficult.

It was the immigrants' first tool, and it was a huge win.For them, this victory came at the right time, which is a precious harvest.

Then, they set off.Cyrus Harding was to return to the western shore of "Grant Lake," where he had found the clay yesterday.So we walked along the bank of the "Grateful River", passed through "Prospect Heights", and after walking five miles, we came to a clearing in the woods.It is only two hundred steps away from "Grant Lake".

On the way, Hubbert made a new discovery.He discovered a tree whose branches were used by Indians in South America to make bows.This kind of tree is the Klekimba tree, which belongs to the palm tree, and the fruit cannot be eaten.The branches of this kind of tree grow long and straight. Remove the leaves and cut them into a shape that is thick in the middle and thin at the ends. Then find a plant that is suitable for making a bowstring, and you can make a bow.They found a Malvaceae plant, a mutated shrub.The fibers of this plant are extremely strong, almost as strong as the ligaments of animals.In this way, Pencroft obtained a bow of great power.The next thing is to miss the arrow.In fact, arrows are not difficult to find, as long as they are straight and knotless branches, the problem is that arrows that can replace iron are not so easy to find.Nature would help him, Pencroft thought, if he did his best.

The settlers came to the land surveyed yesterday.It's made of clay, which is used to make bricks and tiles, so it's the perfect place for the job.The job is not difficult to do, just add sand to the clay to reduce the plasticity of the clay, then support the bricks with a mold, and dry them with the heat of a firewood.

Bricks are usually made by pressing them out of molds, but now they can only be made by the hands of engineers.For two whole days, I was doing this work.The clay was first soaked with water, and then the immigrants stirred it evenly with their hands and feet, and then divided it into prisms of equal size.Without machines, a skilled worker can make 1 yuan of bricks in 3000 hours by hand alone.But these workers on "Lincoln Island" worked for two full days before making [-] yuan of bricks.These bricks have been arranged one by one, and after they are completely dry, that is, after three or four days of natural drying, they can be baked.

It was not until April 4 that engineers had time to take the position of the island.The day before, he had noted the exact time when the sun disappeared below sea level, also taking into account the refraction of light.The next morning, he recorded the time when the sun rose.There is a total difference of twelve hours and 2 minutes between sunrise and sunset.After the sun rose, six hours and twelve minutes later, the sun just reached the meridian, where it was in the sky at that time.Cyrus Harding recorded the position according to the above time, and found the two trees in line with the sun as markers.Thus, in this way, the engineer obtains a constant meridian.This has significant implications for his subsequent actions.

In the first two days of brick firing, everyone was busy preparing fuel.They picked up all the twigs that had fallen from the ground, and fell some of them, and piled them up in the clearing.At the same time, the hunting work is also going on.By this time Pencroft had many sharp bows and arrows.Thanks also to Top, who brought back a porcupine.Porcupine is not a delicious food, but the hard thorns on its body are something that is urgently needed now.These thorns are firmly mounted on the tip of the arrow, and the feathers of the cockatiel are used for orientation.The reporter and Harbert soon became two skilled and deft archers.Delicious delicacies such as capybara, pigeon, agouti and big grouse are easily hunted by them and stored in the "chimney".Most of these animals were hunted in the forests on the left bank of the "Grateful River".Therefore, the immigrants called this forest "Central and South American Forest".This is in honor of the bird that Pencroft and Hubbert had chased on their first expedition.

All these wild game were eaten fresh, except capybara ham.The ham is smoked over a fire made of green wood, and the aromatic leaves give the ham an aroma.However, although this kind of food is said to be nutritious, the immigrants thought that if there was the sound of boiling broth on the stove, how delicious it would be if they ate barbecue every day!This cannot be achieved until the casserole is made, and as for the casserole, until the kiln is built.

The settlers took excursions around the brickworks and, although not extensive, saw large animals passing by.From the traces, the claws of these animals are very powerful, but it is impossible to identify their species.Cyrus Harding told his companions to be extra careful, because there might be some kind of dangerous beast hidden in the forest.

Yes, the engineers did it right.One day, Jardine Splane and Hubbert saw an animal that looked like a jaguar.Fortunately, the animal did not attack them at the time, otherwise even if it could escape, it would be seriously injured.But if he had had a real weapon, a gun, Jardin Splain would have fought the beasts and cleared them from the island.

These days, the "chimney" is business as usual and has not been repaired.Because the engineer decided to find or build a more comfortable dwelling.So, they just spread a layer of dry moss and dead leaves in the passage of the "chimney".Even in such primitive beds, weary immigrants slept soundly.

They had been here twelve days since the settlers had landed on Lincoln Island.The days on the island were recorded by them.Today is Wednesday, April 4th, the No. 5 day that the hurricane dumped its victims on this coast.

April 4th is the day of burning bricks.From dawn the engineers and their comrades gathered in the clearing to prepare the bricks.Of course, this activity is carried out in the open air rather than in a kiln, or it can be said that the bricks gathered together are a self-baking kiln.The fuel was some firewood bundles that had been prepared long ago. After they were placed on the ground, several rows of dry bricks were placed around them, and a huge cube was soon formed, with several ventilation holes set outside the cube.The placement alone took a whole day, and the firewood was not lit until evening.That night, everyone did not sleep, but guarded the kiln and took good care of it so that the fire would not recede.

The process of firing the bricks lasted 48 hours and was a complete success.The next step is to wait for the mass of smoking bricks to cool down.During this period, Neb and the sailors, led by Cyrus Harding, wove branches out of baskets and brought several baskets of limestone.This is actually a very common stone on the island, especially on the north side of the lake.Limestone is thermally decomposed to provide a viscous quicklime, which expands once the fire is extinguished.This lime is mixed with sand to reduce the shrinkage of the mortar when it cures, so that a good quality mortar is obtained.

On April 4, after a series of works, the engineers got the lime and bricks.Immediately sprang into action, kilns were built so that all the necessary pottery for the home could be baked.Their work went well.Five days later, the kiln was running on coal.The coal was discovered by engineers at the mouth of the open "Red River".The first plumes of smoke wafted from the twenty-foot "chimney."This clearing in the forest has been turned into a factory.Pencroft was no longer skeptical that the kiln could produce the products of modern industry.

The first thing to be made, and the most urgent need for the immigrants, was a pottery suitable for cooking food.The raw material was clay from the ground, to which engineers also mixed lime and quartz.This lump of mud became "pipe soil".Using well-shaped pebbles as molds, the settlers fashioned pipes, cups, plates, and large jars and tanks for holding water.Although the shape of these utensils looks irregular and even clumsy, after being baked at high temperature, they become precious living utensils in the kitchen of the "chimney", which is no less valuable than any expensive utensils.

It should also be said that sailors made several crude pipes out of this clay.This clay lives up to its name.The sailors thought their creations were very lovely, the only regret was that they had no tobacco.Alas, it was torture to Pencroft.

"There will be tobacco, and there will be everything!" The sailor was confident, but also impulsive, and kept repeating this sentence.

(End of this chapter)