TOP’S CONTRIBUTION—MAKING BOWS AND ARROWS—A BRICK-KILN—A
POTTERY—DIFFERENT COOKING UTENSILS—THE FIRST BOILED MEAT—MUGWORT—THE
SOUTHERN CROSS—AN IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATION.
“Now then, Mr. Smith, where shall we begin?” asked Pencroff the next
morning.
“At the beginning,” answered the engineer.
And this, indeed, was necessary, as the colonists did not even possess
implements with which to make implements. Neither were they in that
condition of nature which “having time,” economizes effort; the
necessities of life must be provided for at once, and, if profiting by
experience they had nothing to invent, at least they had everything to
make. Their iron and steel was in the ore, their pottery was in the
clay, their linen and clothes were still to be provided.
It must be remembered, however, that these colonists were _men_, in the
best sense of the word. The engineer Smith could not have been aided by
comrades more intelligent, or more devoted and zealous. He had
questioned them, and knew their ability.
The reporter, having learned everything so as to be able to speak of
everything, would contribute largely from his knowledge and skill
towards the settlement of the island. He would not shirk work; and, a
thorough sportsman, he would follow as a business what he had formerly
indulged in as a pastime. Herbert, a manly lad, already well versed in
natural science, would contribute his share to the common cause. Neb
was devotion personified. Adroit, intelligent, indefatigable, robust,
of iron constitution, knowing something of the work in a smithy, his
assistance would be considerable. As to Pencroff, he had sailed every
sea, had been a carpenter in the Brooklyn yards, an assistant tailor on
board ship, and, during hie leaves of absence, a gardener, farmer,
etc.; in short, like every sailor, he was a Jack-of-all-trades.
Indeed, it would have been hard to bring together five men, more able
to struggle against fate, and more certain to triumph in the end.
“At the beginning,” Smith had said. And this beginning was the
construction of an apparatus which would serve to transform the natural
substances. Every one knows what an important part heat plays in these
transformations. Therefore, as wood and coal were already provided it
was only necessary to make an oven to utilize them.
“What good is an oven,” asked Pencroff.
“To make the pottery that we want,” replied Smith.
“And how will we make an oven?”
“With bricks.”
“And how will we make the bricks?”
“With the clay. Come, friends. We will set up our factory at the place
of production, so as to avoid carriage. Neb will bring the provisions,
and we shall not lack fire to cook food.”
“No,” replied the reporter, “but suppose we lack food, since we have no
hunting implements?”
“If we only had a knife!” cried the sailor,
“What, then?” asked Smith.
“Why, I would make a bow and arrows. And game would be plenty in the
larder.”
“A knife. Something that will cut,” said the engineer, as if talking to
himself.
Suddenly his face brightened:
“Come here, Top,” he called.
The dog bounded to his master, and Smith having taken off the collar
which the animal had around his neck, broke it into halves, saying:—
“Here are two knives, Pencroff.”
For all response, the sailor gave a couple of cheers. Top’s collar was
made from a thin piece of tempered steel. All that was therefore
necessary was to rub it to an edge upon a sand-stone, and then to
sharpen it upon one of finer grain. These kind of stones were readily
procurable upon the beach, and in a couple of hours the implements of
the colony consisted of two strong blades, which it was easy to fasten
into solid handles. The overcoming of this first difficulty was greeted
as a triumph and it was indeed a fortunate event.
On setting out, it was the intention of the engineer to return to the
western bank of the lake, where he had noticed the clay, of which he
had secured a specimen. Following the bank of the Mercy they crossed
Prospect Plateau, and after a walk of about five miles, they arrived at
a glade some 200 paces distant from Lake Grant.
On the way, Herbert had discovered a tree from which the South American
Indians make bows. It was the “crejimba,” of the palm family. From it
they cut long straight branches, which they peeled and shaped into
bows. For cords they took the fibres of the “hibiscus heterophyltus”
(Indian hemp), a malvaceous plant, the fibres of which are as strong as
the tendons of an animal. Pencroff, having thus provided bows, only
needed arrows. Those were easily made from straight, stiff branches,
free from knots, but it was not so easy to arm them with a substitute
for iron. But Pencroff said that he had accomplished this much, and
that chance would do the rest.
The party had reached the place discovered the day before. The ground
was composed of that clay which is used in making bricks and tiles, and
was therefore just the thing for their purpose. The labor was not
difficult. It was only necessary to scour the clay with sand, mould the
bricks, and then bake them before a wood fire.
Usually, bricks are pressed in moulds, but the engineer contented
himself with making these by hand. All this day and the next was
employed in this work. The clay, soaked in water, was kneaded by the
hands and feet of the manipulators, and then divided into blocks of
equal size. A skilled workman can make, without machinery, as many as
10,000 bricks in twelve hours; but in the two days the brickmakers of
Lincoln Island had made but 3,000, which were piled one upon the other
to await the time when they would be dry enough to bake, which would be
in three or four days.
On the 2d of April, Smith occupied himself in determining the position
of the island.
The day before he had noted the precise minute at which the sun had
set, allowing for the refraction. On this morning, he ascertained with
equal precision the time of its rising. The intervening time was twelve
hours and twenty-four minutes. Therefore six hours and twelve minutes
after rising the sun would pass the meridian, and the point in the sky
which it would occupy at that instant would be north.
At the proper hour Smith marked this point, and by getting two trees in
line obtained a meridian for his future operations.
During the two days preceding the baking they occupied themselves by
laying in a supply of firewood. Branches were cut from the edge of the
clearing, and all the dead wood under the trees was picked up. And now
and then they hunted in the neighborhood, the more successfully, as
Pencroff had some dozens of arrows with very sharp points. It was Top
who had provided these points by bringing in a porcupine, poor game
enough, but of an undeniable value, thanks to the quills with which it
bristled. These quills were firmly fastened to the ends of the arrows,
and their flight was guided by feathering them with the cockatoo’s
feathers. The reporter and Herbert soon became expert marksmen, and all
kinds of game, such as cabiais, pigeons, agoutis, heath-cock, etc.,
abounded at the Chimneys. Most of these were killed in that part of the
forest upon the left bank of the Mercy, which they had called Jacamar
Wood, after the kingfisher which Pencroff and Herbert had pursued there
during their first exploration.
The meat was eaten fresh, but they preserved the hams of the cabiai by
smoking them before a fire of green wood, having made them aromatic
with odorous leaves. Thus, they had nothing but roast after roast, and
they would have been glad to have heard a pot singing upon the hearth;
but first they must have the pot, and for this they must have the oven.
During these excursions, the hunters noticed the recent tracks of large
animals, armed with strong claws, but they could not tell their
species; and Smith cautioned them to be prudent, as, doubtless, there
were dangerous beasts in the forest.
He was right. For one day Spilett and Herbert saw an animal resembling
a jaguar. But, fortunately, the beast did not attack them, as they
could hardly have killed it without being themselves wounded. But,
Spilett promised, if he should ever obtain a proper weapon, such as one
of the guns Pencroff begged for, that he would wage relentless war on
all ferocious beasts and rid the island of their presence.
They did not do anything to the Chimneys, as the engineer hoped to
discover, or to build, if need be, a more convenient habitation, but
contented themselves by spreading fresh quantities of moss and dry
leaves upon the sand in the corridors, and upon these primitive beds
the tired workmen slept soundly. They also reckoned the days already
passed on Lincoln Island, and began keeping a calendar. On the 5th of
April, which was a Wednesday, they had been twelve days upon the
island.
On the morning of the 6th, the engineer with his companions met at the
place where the bricks were to be baked. Of course the operation was to
be conducted in the open air, and not in an oven, or, rather, the pile
of bricks would in itself form a bake-oven. Carefully-prepared faggots
were laid upon the ground, surrounding the tiers of dry bricks, which
formed a great cube, in which air-holes had been left. The work
occupied the whole day, and it was not until evening that they lit the
fire, which all night long they kept supplied with fuel.
The work lasted forty-eight hours, and succeeded perfectly. Then, as it
was necessary to let the smoking mass cool, Neb and Pencroff, directed
by Mr. Smith, brought, on a hurdle made of branches, numerous loads of
limestone which they found scattered in abundance to the north of the
lake. These stones, decomposed by heat, furnished a thick quick-lime,
which increased in bulk by slacking, and was fully as pure as if it had
been produced by the calcimation of chalk or marble. Mixed with sand in
order to diminish its shrinkage while drying, this lime made an
excellent mortar.
By the 9th of April the engineer had at his disposal a quantity of
lime, all prepared, and some thousands of bricks. They, therefore,
began at once the construction of an oven, in which to bake their
pottery. This was accomplished without much difficulty; and, five days
later, the oven was supplied with coal from the open vein, which the
engineer had discovered near the mouth of Red Creek, and the first
smoke escaped from a chimney twenty feet high. The glade was
transformed into a manufactory, and Pencroff was ready to believe that
all the products of modern industry would be produced from this oven.
Meantime the colonists made a mixture of the clay with lime and quartz,
forming pipe-clay, from which they moulded pots and mugs, plates and
jars, tubs to hold water, and cooking vessels. Their form was rude and
defective, but after they had been baked at a high temperature, the
kitchen of the Chimneys found itself provided with utensils as precious
as if they were composed of the finest kaolin.
We must add that Pencroff, desirous of knowing whether this material
deserved its name of pipe-clay, made some large pipes, which he would
have found perfect, but for the want of tobacco. And, indeed, this was
a great privation to the sailor.
“But the tobacco will come like everything else,” he would say in his
hopeful moments.
The work lasted until the 15th of April, and the time was well spent.
The colonists having become potters, made nothing but pottery. When it
would suit the engineer to make them smiths they would be smiths. But
as the morrow would be Sunday, and moreover Easter Sunday, all agreed
to observe the day by rest. These Americans were religious men,
scrupulous observers of the precepts of the Bible, and their situation
could only develop their trust in the Author of all things.
On the evening of the 15th they returned permanently to the Chimneys,
bringing the rest of the pottery back with them, and putting out the
oven fire until there should be use for it again. This return was
marked by the fortunate discovery by the engineer of a substance that
would answer for tinder, which, we know, is the spongy, velvety pulp of
a mushroom of the polypore family. Properly prepared it is extremely
inflammable, especially when previously saturated with gunpowder, or
nitrate or chlorate of potash. But until then they had found no
polypores, nor any fungi that would answer instead. Now, the engineer,
having found a certain plant belonging to the mugwort family, to which
belong wormwood, mint, etc., broke off some tufts, and, handing them to
the sailor, said:—
“Here, Pencroff, is something for you.”
Pencroff examined the plant, with its long silky threads and leaves
covered with a cotton-like down.
“What is it, Mr. Smith?” he asked. “Ah, I know! It’s tobacco!”
“No,” answered Smith; “it is Artemesia wormwood, known to science as
Chinese mugwort, but to us it will be tinder.”
This mugwort, properly dried, furnished a very inflammable substance,
especially after the engineer had impregnated it with nitrate of
potash, which is the same as saltpetre, a mineral very plenty on the
island.
This evening the colonists, seated in the central chamber, supped with
comfort. Neb had prepared some agouti soup, a spiced ham, and the
boiled corms of the “caladium macrorhizum,” an herbaceous plant of the
arad family, which under the tropics takes a tree form. These corms,
which are very nutritious, had an excellent flavor, something like that
of Portland sago, and measurably supplied the place of bread, which the
colonists were still without.
Supper finished, before going to sleep the party took a stroll upon the
beach. It was 8 o’clock, and the night was magnificent. The moon, which
had been full five days before, was about rising, and in the zenith,
shining resplendent above the circumpolar constellations, rode the
Southern Cross. For some moments the engineer gazed at it attentively.
At its summit and base were two stars of the first magnitude, and on
the left arm and the right, stars, respectively, of the second
magnitude and the third. Then, after some reflection, he said:—
“Herbert, is not to-day the 15th of April?”
“Yes, sir,” answered the lad.
“Then, if I am not mistaken, to-morrow will be one of the four days in
the year when the mean and real time are the same; that is to say, my
boy, that to-morrow, within some seconds of noon by the clocks, the sun
will pass the meridian. If, therefore, the weather is clear, I think I
will be able to obtain the longitude of the island within a few
degrees.”
“Without a sextant or instruments?” asked Spilett.
“Yes,” replied the engineer. And since it is so clear, I will try
to-night to find our latitude by calculating the height of the Cross,
that is, of the Southern Pole, above the horizon. You see, my friends,
before settling down, it will not do to be content with determining
this land to be an island; we must find out its locality.”
“Indeed, instead of building a house, it will be better to build a
ship, if we are within a hundred miles of an inhabited land.”
“That is why I am now going to try to get the latitude of the place,
and to-morrow noon to calculate the longitude.”
If the engineer had possessed a sextant, the work would have been easy,
as this evening, by taking the height of the pole, and to-morrow by the
sun’s passage of the meridian, he would have the co-ordinates of the
island. But, having no instruments he must devise something. So
returning to the Chimneys, he made, by the light of the fire, two
little flat sticks which he fastened together with a thorn, in a way
that they could be opened and shut like compasses, and returned with
them to the beach. But as the sea horizon was hidden from this point by
Claw Cape, the engineer determined to make his observation from
Prospect Plateau, leaving, until the next day, the computation of the
height of the latter, which could easily be done by elementary
geometry.
The colonists, therefore, went to the edge of the plateau which faced
the southeast, overlooking the fantastic rocks bordering the shore. The
place rose some fifty feet above the right bank of the Mercy, which
descended, by a double slope, to the end of Claw Cape and to the
southern boundary of the island. Nothing obstructed the vision, which
extended over half the horizon from the Cape to Reptile Promontory. To
the south, this horizon, lit by the first rays of the moon, was sharply
defined against the sky. The Cross was at this time reversed, the star
Alpha being nearest the pole. This constellation is not situated as
near to the southern as the polar star is to the northern pole; Alpha
is about 27° from it, but Smith knew this and could calculate
accordingly. He took care also to observe it at the instant when it
passed the meridian under the pole, thus simplifying the operation.
The engineer opened the arms of his compass so that one pointed to the
horizon and the other to the star, and thus obtained the angle of
distance which separated them. And in order to fix this distance
immovably, he fastened these arms, respectively, by means of thorns, to
a cross piece of wood. This done, it was only necessary to calculate
the angle obtained, bringing the observation to the level of the sea so
as to allow for the depression of the horizon caused by the height of
the plateau. The measurement of this angle would thus give the height
of Alpha, or the pole, above the horizon; or, since the latitude of a
point on the globe is always equal to the height of the pole above the
horizon at that point, the latitude of the island.
This calculation was postponed until the next day, and by 10 o’clock
everybody slept profoundly.