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

Chapter 178 The Mysterious Island (63)
It should be added, too, that Cyrus Harding was not exaggerating.Many people may think that introducing water into a volcano can extinguish it.But they don't know that if the volcano is filled with water, it is like water pouring into a closed container, and the temperature of this container may be as high as thousands of degrees to make the water vaporize immediately, and at the same time release huge energy suddenly, so that any Even the outer shell can't resist it, just like it will cause a boiler explosion with a hot fire that makes the steam suddenly expand, which can cause a part of the earth to explode to a large extent.

Needless to say, the island is threatened with disintegration.This disintegration is not only terrible, but it will happen very soon. The rock wall of the 'Dhaka Basement' can only last as long as it lasts, but it is not calculated in months or weeks. But in days, maybe in hours!Maybe, just a few minutes is enough.

Everyone's first feeling is heartbroken!But they are not sad because their lives are threatened, but they are sad because this land, this island is about to be destroyed!It received them when they had nothing, and their work and labor on it made it more fertile and yielded a bountiful harvest every year.They love it and want it to prosper even more.But now, I want to see its destruction with my own eyes, to see that so much hard work wasted in vain, and so much work done in vain!
Pencroft wept, and large tears rolled down his cheeks.He didn't hide his feelings for Kojima in the slightest.

Everyone talked for a while, mainly discussing what opportunities they had for being saved.The final result of the discussion is that every second counts, and the enthusiasm is soaring, and the ship is rushed out and the interior is arranged at the same time.At present, this is the only chance for everyone to be saved!
Therefore, all human effort is required.What is the use of harvesting, reaping, hunting, and so forth from now on?If it is necessary to provide food for the sailing ship, no matter how long the journey is, the food stored in the warehouse is more than enough!The most important thing is to be able to use the ship before the disaster cannot be avoided.

Work continued frantically. Around January 1, half of the hull plating was installed.So far, nothing has changed on the top of the volcano. It has been steam, smoke, mixed with flames, and incandescent stones ejected from the crater.

On the night from the 23rd to the 24th, the first layer of magma reached under the crater, and under the action of internal stress, the cap-like volcanic cone was removed, making a loud noise.At first everyone thought that the island was broken, and rushed out of the "Granite Palace".

It was about two o'clock in the morning.

The sky seemed to be on fire.That volcanic cone above, that platform a thousand feet high and weighing billions of pounds, was thrown onto the island and caused an earthquake.Fortunately, the volcanic cone fell to the north, and fell on a plain of sand and tuff between the volcano and the sea.The crater opened wide at this time, casting a strong light into the sky, and the atmosphere immediately became white-hot.At the same time, a large amount of magma overflowed the new roof, just like water overflowing from an overfilled basin, and long waterfalls cascaded down, like thousands of fiery snakes crawling, with thousands of red heads. The lion is running wild.

Ayrton shouted: "'Corral'! 'Corral'!"

Indeed, you see, because of the orientation of the new crater, the magma is rushing towards the "corral".It seems that the most fertile places on the island, as well as the source of the Red River and the forests of Central and South America, will soon be destroyed by magma.

As soon as they heard Ayrton's cry, they all rushed to the wild ass shed, and harnessed the cart.At this time, everyone had only one thought in their minds, which was to rush to the "corral" and release the locked animals to escape for their lives!

It was almost three o'clock in the morning when they reached the "corral". There was a lot of wailing in the "corral", and the blue sheep and goats were extremely frightened.The torrent-like magma, wrapped in other substances, fell from the branches of the mountain ridge to the grassland, swallowing a fence.Ayrton flung the door open, and the terrified animals fled in every direction.

An hour later, the boiling magma filled the entire "corral", burned down the house, swallowed the fence, and the "corral" disappeared in an instant.

Everyone wanted to fight this wild magma, they tried, but it was futile.In the face of catastrophes in nature, human beings can only do nothing.

It was dawn, and it was January 1th.Before returning to Granite House, Cyrus Harding watched the flood of lava again, to see its final course.In short, the ground slopes from "Franklin Peak" to the east coast, but what is worrying is that although there are dense Central and South American forests blocking it, the rapid magma flow may extend to "Looking Hills".

"The lake will protect us," Jardin Splane said.

Cyrus Harding said only one short word: "I hope so!"

The volcanic cone above "Franklin Peak" has fallen on the plain. Everyone wanted to go and see it, but the magma blocked their way.On the one hand, the magma flows along the Red River Valley; on the other hand, the magma flows along the "Waterfall River" valley.It is absolutely impossible to cross this magma flow.All we can do is retreat before it.Everyone felt very strange when they saw the volcano that had gone to the top. Its head was like a flat table, which replaced the previous crater.The two cracks on the south side and the east and west edges of the crater are pouring magma, and two streams of magma can be clearly seen flowing down the mountain.A thick cloud of smoke and ash piled up over the new crater.The deafening thunder and the roar of the mountains are intertwined.Igneous rock erupted from the crater, soared more than 1000 feet into the air, and exploded in the air, blooming in the air like being machine-gunned.The sky was flashing with lightning, thunder bursts, and the volcanic eruption responded.

At around seven o'clock in the morning, the edge of the Central and South American forest where everyone was hiding could no longer stay.Volcanic eruptions scattered around them like bullets, and the magma overflowing from the bed of the Red River was about to cut off the "corral" road.The first row of trees was ignited, and the sap in the trunks immediately turned into steam and exploded like a pyrotechnic box in an instant, but the other trees that were slightly dry were intact.

Everyone walked up the "corral" road.They were basically walking backwards, very slowly.Because the ground was tilted, the magma quickly flowed to the east, and as soon as the magma that had just flowed hardened, it was immediately covered by the magma that came from behind.

However, the mainstream of the "Red River Valley" is even more dangerous.Part of the forest was on fire, the trees were filled with smoke and dust, and the hot magma had made the roots of the trees crackling.

Everyone stopped by the lake, which is half a nautical mile away from the mouth of the Red River.They are faced with the question of life and death choices.

Cyrus Harding was accustomed to analyze the situation rationally.He knew the partners in front of him very well, and knew that they listened to him, so he said: "The lake water may block the magma, which can prevent some islands from being completely destroyed; the magma may also flood the Far West Forest, so that the vegetation on the ground will be gone. On this bare rock, we can't make our way out, and it won't be long before the island explodes!"

"Then it's no use building ships, is it?" cried Pencroft, arms crossed, and stamping his feet.

Cyrus Harding replied, "Don't be anticlimactic, Pencroft!"

At this time, the lava flow had swallowed the tall trees and rushed to the edge of the lake along a new channel.The ground there is a bit high, if the ground is higher, it should be able to block the galloping magma.

Cyrus Harding cried, "Do it!"

It was immediately clear to everyone that the engineer's idea was to build a dam to stop the torrent and force it to flow into the lake.

Everyone ran to the construction site, brought shovels, picks, axes and other tools, and kept digging and cutting trees. In just a few hours, a dam three feet high and several hundred meters long was built.When they're done, it feels like they've only been doing it for a few minutes.

It's dangerous!As soon as the dam was built, the magma flow reached the lower part of the mound in an instant, and the magma flow kept rising... rising... and was about to pass the only obstacle that prevented it from reaching the Far West Forest... It stagnated... ...one second...two seconds...one minute...After 1 minute of stagnation, this 1 minute is too scary.At last it fell like a twenty-foot waterfall into "Grant Lake," and the dam worked.

Everyone watched the struggle between the two in silence, motionless and tense.

This is a thrilling water and fire battle!There are extremely terrible scenes, which are difficult to describe with writing, and difficult to describe with a brush!The boiling magma had just been injected into the water, and there was a constant hissing sound, as if the valve of a huge boiler was suddenly opened, and a large amount of steam was erupted into the sky, forming a swirling airflow.However, it seems that the magma is never exhausted, and new magma is constantly gushing out.According to this situation, no matter how large the amount of water in the lake is, it will not be replenished, and will eventually be exhausted by the continuously pouring magma.

Immediately after the first magma flowed into the lake, it solidified.More and more piled up, and soon it was above the water.New magma flowed over their surfaces, turned into cold and hard stone, and expanded towards the center of the lake.In this way, a dike was formed, which would soon fill up the lake.But the lake will not overflow, because the lake is baked into steam by the magma.There was a loud hiss and crackle in my ears.The water vapor condenses into rain and falls to the surface of the sea.The dikes are expanding, and the lake was still calm just now, but now there is a huge steaming rock pile, as if countless reefs have been raised.Let us imagine that if a violent hurricane disturbs the lake water, and then condenses instantly in the severe cold of minus [-] degrees, then the powerful magma breaks into the lake, and within three hours, the calm lake will become like this.

This time, water is doomed to be defeated by fire.

However, for everyone, it is beneficial for the magma to flow in the direction of "Grant Lake".For the time being, "Prospect Heights", "Granite Palace" and the shipbuilding site were preserved.In this way, they won a few days of respite.In the past few days, it is necessary to pay close attention to loading the ship's shell plates and carefully fill in the ship's seams.Even without rigging, the boat can stay in the water.Then the boat can be launched so that everyone can take refuge on board.The most feared thing now is the explosion of the small island. If it happens, there will be no safety on the land. Although the "Granite Palace" is still safe for the time being, when an explosion occurs, the granite walls can be closed at any time, which is too dangerous!

During the next six days, from January 1th to 25th, everyone worked hard to build the ship, and did what twenty men could do at one go.Just as they were about to take a rest, the more violent flames from the crater made them dare not stop and continued to work day and night.The volcano continued to spew, but it seemed that the amount of spewing was small.Fortunately, "Grant Lake" has been basically filled, and if new magma is re-injected, they will overflow the lake and spread to "Prospect Heights", and from there to the beach.

The situation remained precarious, and while this part of the island was preserved, its western portion was worrisome.

Because the river valley is wide and the terrain on both sides of the Red River is low-lying, the second stream of magma flowing down the waterfall valley is unimpeded along the way.The magma poured into the Far West Forest.Because of the hot weather, the trees in this period were extremely dry, and the trees burned instantly, and the intertwined branches and leaves between the trees made the fire more rapid.What's more, the speed of burning trees is much faster than that of magma below.

The terrified animals, therefore, the jaguar, the wild boar, the capybara, all that fly and run on the ground, took refuge beyond the Thanksgiving River and in the Duck Swamp.Since everyone was busy building ships, they didn't care about guarding against these beasts.They gave up the "Granite Palace" and didn't want to hide in the "Chimney", so they set up a tent at the mouth of the "Grateful River" and lived a wild life.

Cyrus Harding and Jardine Splane climbed Prospect Heights every day.Sometimes Herbert accompanied them, but Pencroft never did, for he did not want to see the island so ruined!

The scene is indeed harrowing.In the past, the island was verdant and full of vitality, but now it is full of volcanic tuff, and there are strange-shaped roots everywhere that have been stripped of branches and blackened by smoke. Occasionally, a cluster of green trees stands at the end of the "serpentine peninsula" , looked very desolate. Falls Valley and Thanksgiving Valley can no longer pour a single drop of water into the sea. If "Grant Lake" is also completely dried up, everyone will have no way to drink water.Fortunately, the sand spit to the south of it did not suffer, and there is a pond, which is the last remaining drinking water on the island.To the northwest, a volcanic ridge branch appears, like a giant claw attached to the ground.They are bumpy and have sharp edges.For all of us, the scene was painful, horrifying, and even more regrettable.They originally had fertile land, dense forests, clear rivers, and good harvests.In an instant, it was all destroyed.They now only have this barren rock to hide in. If they don't have the items to support them, they won't be able to survive at all!
Jardine Splane said one day, "It's so heart-wrenching!"

The engineer replied, "Splain, that's right, I hope God will let us make this boat quickly, and it alone can protect us now!"

"If I'm not mistaken, have you noticed that the volcano seems to be stopping? Although the magma is still spouting, the amount is less than before."

(End of this chapter)