Chapter 12
They now began the descent of the mountain. Climbing down the crater,they went round the cone and reached their encampment of the previousnight. Pencroft thought it must be breakfast-time, and the watches ofthe reporter and engineer were therefore consulted to find out the hour.
That of Gideon Spilett had been preserved from the sea-water, as he hadbeen thrown at once on the sand out of reach of the waves. It was aninstrument of excellent quality, a perfect pocket chronometer, which thereporter had not forgotten to wind up carefully every day.
As to the engineer's watch, it, of course, had stopped during the timewhich he had passed on the downs.
The engineer now wound it up, and ascertaining by the height of the sunthat it must be about nine o'clock in the morning, he put his watch atthat hour.
"No, my dear Spilett, wait. You have kept the Richmond time, have younot?"
"Yes, Cyrus."
"Consequently, your watch is set by the meridian of that town, which isalmost that of Washington?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Very well, keep it thus. Content yourself with winding it up very,exactly, but do not touch the hands. This may be of use to us.
"What will be the good of that?" thought the sailor.
They ate, and so heartily, that the store of game and almonds wastotally exhausted. But Pencroft was not at all uneasy, they would supplythemselves on the way. Top, whose share had been very much to his taste,would know how to find some fresh game among the brushwood. Moreover,the sailor thought of simply asking the engineer to manufacture somepowder and one or two fowling-pieces; he supposed there would be nodifficulty in that.
On leaving the plateau, the captain proposed to his companions to returnto the Chimneys by a new way. He wished to reconnoiter Lake Grant, somagnificently framed in trees. They therefore followed the crest of oneof the spurs, between which the creek that supplied the lake probablyhad its source. In talking, the settlers already employed the nameswhich they had just chosen, which singularly facilitated the exchangeof their ideas. Herbert and Pencroft--the one young and the other veryboyish--were enchanted, and while walking, the sailor said,
"Hey, Herbert! how capital it sounds! It will be impossible to loseourselves, my boy, since, whether we follow the way to Lake Grant, orwhether we join the Mercy through the woods of the Far West, we shall becertain to arrive at Prospect Heights, and, consequently, at Union Bay!"
It had been agreed, that without forming a compact band, the settlersshould not stray away from each other. It was very certain that thethick forests of the island were inhabited by dangerous animals, and itwas prudent to be on their guard. In general, Pencroft, Herbert, and Nebwalked first, preceded by Top, who poked his nose into every bush. Thereporter and the engineer went together, Gideon Spilett ready to noteevery incident, the engineer silent for the most part, and only steppingaside to pick up one thing or another, a mineral or vegetable substance,which he put into his pocket, without making any remark.
"What can he be picking up?" muttered Pencroft. "I have looked in vainfor anything that's worth the trouble of stooping for."
Towards ten o'clock the little band descended the last declivities ofMount Franklin. As yet the ground was scantily strewn with bushes andtrees. They were walking over yellowish calcinated earth, forming aplain of nearly a mile long, which extended to the edge of the wood.Great blocks of that basalt, which, according to Bischof, takes threehundred and fifty millions of years to cool, strewed the plain, veryconfused in some places. However, there were here no traces of lava,which was spread more particularly over the northern slopes.
Cyrus Harding expected to reach, without incident, the course of thecreek, which he supposed flowed under the trees at the border of theplain, when he saw Herbert running hastily back, while Neb and thesailor were hiding behind the rocks.
"What's the matter, my boy?" asked Spilett.
"Smoke," replied Herbert. "We have seen smoke among the rocks, a hundredpaces from us."
"Men in this place?" cried the reporter.
"We must avoid showing ourselves before knowing with whom we have todeal," replied Cyrus Harding. "I trust that there are no natives on thisisland; I dread them more than anything else. Where is Top?"
"Top is on before."
"And he doesn't bark?"
"No."
"That is strange. However, we must try to call him back."
In a few moments, the engineer, Gideon Spilett, and Herbert had rejoinedtheir two companions, and like them, they kept out of sight behind theheaps of basalt.
From thence they clearly saw smoke of a yellowish color rising in theair.
Top was recalled by a slight whistle from his master, and the latter,signing to his companions to wait for him, glided away among therocks. The colonists, motionless, anxiously awaited the result of thisexploration, when a shout from the engineer made them hasten forward.They soon joined him, and were at once struck with a disagreeable odorwhich impregnated the atmosphere.
The odor, easily recognized, was enough for the engineer to guess whatthe smoke was which at first, not without cause, had startled him.
"This fire," said he, "or rather, this smoke is produced by nature alone.There is a sulphur spring there, which will cure all our sore throats."
"Captain!" cried Pencroft. "What a pity that I haven't got a cold!"
The settlers then directed their steps towards the place from which thesmoke escaped. They there saw a sulphur spring which flowed abundantlybetween the rocks, and its waters discharged a strong sulphuric acidodor, after having absorbed the oxygen of the air.
Cyrus Harding, dipping in his hand, felt the water oily to the touch.He tasted it and found it rather sweet. As to its temperature, that heestimated at ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit. Herbert having asked onwhat he based this calculation,--
"Its quite simple, my boy," said he, "for, in plunging my hand into thewater, I felt no sensation either of heat or cold. Therefore it has thesame temperature as the human body, which is about ninety-five degrees."
The sulphur spring not being of any actual use to the settlers, theyproceeded towards the thick border of the forest, which began somehundred paces off.
There, as they had conjectured, the waters of the stream flowed clearand limpid between high banks of red earth, the color of which betrayedthe presence of oxide of iron. From this color, the name of Red Creekwas immediately given to the watercourse.
It was only a large stream, deep and clear, formed of the mountainwater, which, half river, half torrent, here rippling peacefully overthe sand, there falling against the rocks or dashing down in a cascade,ran towards the lake, over a distance of a mile and a half, its breadthvarying from thirty to forty feet. Its waters were sweet, and it wassupposed that those of the lake were so also. A fortunate circumstance,in the event of their finding on its borders a more suitable dwellingthan the Chimneys.
As to the trees, which some hundred feet downwards shaded the banks ofthe creek, they belonged, for the most part, to the species which aboundin the temperate zone of America and Tasmania, and no longer to thoseconiferae observed in that portion of the island already exploredto some miles from Prospect Heights. At this time of the year, thecommencement of the month of April, which represents the month ofOctober, in this hemisphere, that is, the beginning of autumn, theywere still in full leaf. They consisted principally of casuarinas andeucalypti, some of which next year would yield a sweet manna, similar tothe manna of the East. Clumps of Australian cedars rose on the slopingbanks, which were also covered with the high grass called "tussac" inNew Holland; but the cocoanut, so abundant in the archipelagoes of thePacific, seemed to be wanting in the island, the latitude, doubtless,being too low.
"What a pity!" said Herbert, "such a useful tree, and which has suchbeautiful nuts!"
As to the birds, they swarmed among the scanty branches of the eucalyptiand casuarinas, which did not hinder the display of their wings.Black, white, or gray cockatoos, paroque
ts, with plumage of all colors,kingfishers of a sparkling green and crowned with red, blue lories,and various other birds appeared on all sides, as through a prism,fluttering about and producing a deafening clamor. Suddenly, a strangeconcert of discordant voices resounded in the midst of a thicket. Thesettlers heard successively the song of birds, the cry of quadrupeds,and a sort of clacking which they might have believed to have escapedfrom the lips of a native. Neb and Herbert rushed towards the bush,forgetting even the most elementary principles of prudence. Happily,they found there, neither a formidable wild beast nor a dangerousnative, but merely half a dozen mocking and singing birds, known asmountain pheasants. A few skillful blows from a stick soon put an end totheir concert, and procured excellent food for the evening's dinner.
Herbert also discovered some magnificent pigeons with bronzed wings,some superbly crested, others draped in green, like their congeners atPort-Macquarie; but it was impossible to reach them, or the crows andmagpies which flew away in flocks.
A charge of small shot would have made great slaughter among thesebirds, but the hunters were still limited to sticks and stones, andthese primitive weapons proved very insufficient.
Their insufficiency was still more clearly shown when a troop ofquadrupeds, jumping, bounding, making leaps of thirty feet, regularflying mammiferae, fled over the thickets, so quickly and at such aheight, that one would have thought that they passed from one tree toanother like squirrels.
"Kangaroos!" cried Herbert.
"Are they good to eat?" asked Pencroft.
"Stewed," replied the reporter, "their flesh is equal to the bestvenison!--"
Gideon Spilett had not finished this exciting sentence when the sailor,followed by Neb and Herbert, darted on the kangaroos tracks. CyrusHarding called them back in vain. But it was in vain too for the huntersto pursue such agile game, which went bounding away like balls. After achase of five minutes, they lost their breath, and at the same time allsight of the creatures, which disappeared in the wood. Top was not moresuccessful than his masters.
"Captain," said Pencroft, when the engineer and the reporter hadrejoined them, "Captain, you see quite well we can't get on unless wemake a few guns. Will that be possible?"
"Perhaps," replied the engineer, "but we will begin by firstmanufacturing some bows and arrows, and I don't doubt that you willbecome as clever in the use of them as the Australian hunters."
"Bows and arrows!" said Pencroft scornfully. "That's all very well forchildren!"
"Don't be proud, friend Pencroft," replied the reporter. "Bows andarrows were sufficient for centuries to stain the earth with blood.Powder is but a thing of yesterday, and war is as old as the humanrace--unhappily."
"Faith, that's true, Mr. Spilett," replied the sailor, "and I alwaysspeak too quickly. You must excuse me!"
Meanwhile, Herbert constant to his favorite science, Natural History,reverted to the kangaroos, saying,--
"Besides, we had to deal just now with the species which is mostdifficult to catch. They were giants with long gray fur; but if I am notmistaken, there exist black and red kangaroos, rock kangaroos, and ratkangaroos, which are more easy to get hold of. It is reckoned that thereare about a dozen species."
"Herbert," replied the sailor sententiously, "there is only one speciesof kangaroos to me, that is 'kangaroo on the spit,' and it's just theone we haven't got this evening!"
They could not help laughing at Master Pencroft's new classification.The honest sailor did not hide his regret at being reduced for dinner tothe singing pheasants, but fortune once more showed itself obliging tohim.
In fact, Top, who felt that his interest was concerned went and ferretedeverywhere with an instinct doubled by a ferocious appetite. It was evenprobable that if some piece of game did fall into his clutches, nonewould be left for the hunters, if Top was hunting on his own account;but Neb watched him and he did well.
Towards three o'clock the dog disappeared in the brushwood and gruntingsshowed that he was engaged in a struggle with some animal. Neb rushedafter him, and soon saw Top eagerly devouring a quadruped, which tenseconds later would have been past recognizing in Top's stomach. Butfortunately the dog had fallen upon a brood, and besides the victim hewas devouring, two other rodents--the animals in question belonged tothat order--lay strangled on the turf.
Neb reappeared triumphantly holding one of the rodents in each hand.Their size exceeded that of a rabbit, their hair was yellow, mingledwith green spots, and they had the merest rudiments of tails.
The citizens of the Union were at no loss for the right name of theserodents. They were maras, a sort of agouti, a little larger than theircongeners of tropical countries, regular American rabbits, with longears, jaws armed on each side with five molars, which distinguish theagouti.
"Hurrah!" cried Pencroft, "the roast has arrived! and now we can gohome."
The walk, interrupted for an instant, was resumed. The limpid waters ofthe Red Creek flowed under an arch of casuarinas, banksias, and giganticgum-trees. Superb lilacs rose to a height of twenty feet. Otherarborescent species, unknown to the young naturalist, bent over thestream, which could be heard murmuring beneath the bowers of verdure.
Meanwhile the stream grew much wider, and Cyrus Harding supposed thatthey would soon reach its mouth. In fact, on emerging from beneath athick clump of beautiful trees, it suddenly appeared before their eyes.
The explorers had arrived on the western shore of Lake Grant. The placewas well worth looking at. This extent of water, of a circumference ofnearly seven miles and an area of two hundred and fifty acres, reposedin a border of diversified trees. Towards the east, through a curtainof verdure, picturesquely raised in some places, sparkled an horizon ofsea. The lake was curved at the north, which contrasted with the sharpoutline of its lower part. Numerous aquatic birds frequented the shoresof this little Ontario, in which the thousand isles of its Americannamesake were represented by a rock which emerged from its surface, somehundred feet from the southern shore. There lived in harmony severalcouples of kingfishers perched on a stone, grave, motionless, watchingfor fish, then darting down, they plunged in with a sharp cry, andreappeared with their prey in their beaks. On the shores and on theislets, strutted wild ducks, pelicans, water-hens, red-beaks, philedons,furnished with a tongue like a brush, and one or two specimens of thesplendid menura, the tail of which expands gracefully like a lyre.
As to the water of the lake, it was sweet, limpid, rather dark, and fromcertain bubblings, and the concentric circles which crossed each otheron the surface, it could not be doubted that it abounded in fish.
"This lake is really beautiful!" said Gideon Spilett. "We could live onits borders!"
"We will live there!" replied Harding.
The settlers, wishing to return to the Chimneys by the shortest way,descended towards the angle formed on the south by the junction ofthe lake's bank. It was not without difficulty that they broke a paththrough the thickets and brushwood which had never been put aside by thehand of men, and they thus went towards the shore, so as to arrive atthe north of Prospect Heights. Two miles were cleared in this direction,and then, after they had passed the last curtain of trees, appeared theplateau, carpeted with thick turf, and beyond that the infinite sea.
To return to the Chimneys, it was enough to cross the plateau obliquelyfor the space of a mile, and then to descend to the elbow formed bythe first detour of the Mercy. But the engineer desired to know howand where the overplus of the water from the lake escaped, and theexploration was prolonged under the trees for a mile and a half towardsthe north. It was most probable that an overfall existed somewhere, anddoubtless through a cleft in the granite. This lake was only, in short,an immense center basin, which was filled by degrees by the creek, andits waters must necessarily pass to the sea by some fall. If it was so,the engineer thought that it might perhaps be possible to utilize thisfall and borrow its power, actually lost without profit to any one.They continued then to follow the shores of Lake Grant by climbing theplat
eau; but, after having gone a mile in this direction, Cyrus Hardinghad not been able to discover the overfall, which, however, must existsomewhere.
It was then half-past four. In order to prepare for dinner it wasnecessary that the settlers should return to their dwelling. The littleband retraced their steps, therefore, and by the left bank of the Mercy,Cyrus Harding and his companions arrived at the Chimneys.
The fire was lighted, and Neb and Pencroft, on whom the functions ofcooks naturally devolved, to the one in his quality of Negro, to theother in that of sailor, quickly prepared some broiled agouti, to whichthey did great justice.
The repast at length terminated; at the moment when each one was aboutto give himself up to sleep, Cyrus Harding drew from his pocket littlespecimens of different sorts of minerals, and just said,--
"My friends, this is iron mineral, this a pyrite, this is clay, this islime, and this is coal. Nature gives us these things. It is our businessto make a right use of them. To-morrow we will commence operations."