Chapter 11
Winter arrived with the month of June, which is the December of thenorthern zones, and the great business was the making of warm and solidclothing.
The musmons in the corral had been stripped of their wool, and thisprecious textile material was now to be transformed into stuff.
Of course Cyrus Harding, having at his disposal neither carders,combers, polishers, stretchers, twisters, mule-jenny, nor self-actingmachine to spin the wool, nor loom to weave it, was obliged to proceedin a simpler way, so as to do without spinning and weaving. And indeedhe proposed to make use of the property which the filaments of woolpossess when subjected to a powerful pressure of mixing together, and ofmanufacturing by this simple process the material called felt. This feltcould then be obtained by a simple operation which, if it diminishedthe flexibility of the stuff, increased its power of retaining heat inproportion. Now the wool furnished by the musmons was composed of veryshort hairs, and was in a good condition to be felted.
The engineer, aided by his companions, including Pencroft, who was oncemore obliged to leave his boat, commenced the preliminary operations,the subject of which was to rid the wool of that fat and oily substancewith which it is impregnated, and which is called grease. This cleaningwas done in vats filled with water, which was maintained at thetemperature of seventy degrees, and in which the wool was soaked forfour-and-twenty hours; it was then thoroughly washed in baths of soda,and, when sufficiently dried by pressure, it was in a state to becompressed, that is to say, to produce a solid material, rough, nodoubt, and such as would have no value in a manufacturing center ofEurope or America, but which would be highly esteemed in the LincolnIsland markets.
This sort of material must have been known from the most ancient times,and, in fact, the first woolen stuffs were manufactured by the processwhich Harding was now about to employ. Where Harding's engineeringqualifications now came into play was in the construction of the machinefor pressing the wool; for he knew how to turn ingeniously to profitthe mechanical force, hitherto unused, which the waterfall on the beachpossessed to move a fulling-mill.
Nothing could be more rudimentary. The wool was placed in troughs, andupon it fell in turns heavy wooden mallets; such was the machine inquestion, and such it had been for centuries until the time when themallets were replaced by cylinders of compression, and the material wasno longer subjected to beating, but to regular rolling.
The operation, ably directed by Cyrus Harding, was a complete success.The wool, previously impregnated with a solution of soap, intended onthe one hand to facilitate the interlacing, the compression, and thesoftening of the wool, and on the other to prevent its diminution bythe beating, issued from the mill in the shape of thick felt cloth. Theroughnesses with which the staple of wool is naturally filled were sothoroughly entangled and interlaced together that a material was formedequally suitable either for garments or bedclothes. It was certainlyneither merino, muslin, cashmere, rep, satin, alpaca, cloth, norflannel. It was "Lincolnian felt," and Lincoln Island possessed yetanother manufacture. The colonists had now warm garments and thickbedclothes, and they could without fear await the approach of the winterof 1866-67.
The severe cold began to be felt about the 20th of June, and, to hisgreat regret, Pencroft was obliged to suspend his boat-building, whichhe hoped to finish in time for next spring.
The sailor's great idea was to make a voyage of discovery to TaborIsland, although Harding could not approve of a voyage simply forcuriosity's sake, for there was evidently nothing to be found on thisdesert and almost arid rock. A voyage of a hundred and fifty miles in acomparatively small vessel, over unknown seas, could not but cause himsome anxiety. Suppose that their vessel, once out at sea, should beunable to reach Tabor Island, and could not return to Lincoln Island,what would become of her in the midst of the Pacific, so fruitful ofdisasters?
Harding often talked over this project with Pencroft, and he found himstrangely bent upon undertaking this voyage, for which determination hehimself could give no sufficient reason.
"Now," said the engineer one day to him, "I must observe, my friend,that after having said so much, in praise of Lincoln Island, afterhaving spoken so often of the sorrow you would feel if you were obligedto forsake it, you are the first to wish to leave it."
"Only to leave it for a few days," replied Pencroft, "only for a fewdays, captain. Time to go and come back, and see what that islet islike!"
"But it is not nearly as good as Lincoln Island."
"I know that beforehand."
"Then why venture there?"
"To know what is going on in Tabor Island."
"But nothing is going on there; nothing could happen there."
"Who knows?"
"And if you are caught in a hurricane?"
"There is no fear of that in the fine season," replied Pencroft."But, captain, as we must provide against everything, I shall ask yourpermission to take Herbert only with me on this voyage."
"Pencroft," replied the engineer, placing his hand on the sailor'sshoulder, "if any misfortune happens to you, or to this lad, whomchance has made our child, do you think we could ever cease to blameourselves?"
"Captain Harding," replied Pencroft, with unshaken confidence, "weshall not cause you that sorrow. Besides, we will speak further of thisvoyage, when the time comes to make it. And I fancy, when you have seenour tight-rigged little craft, when you have observed how she behaves atsea, when we sail round our island, for we will do so together--I fancy,I say, that you will no longer hesitate to let me go. I don't concealfrom you that your boat will be a masterpiece."
"Say 'our' boat, at least, Pencroft," replied the engineer, disarmed forthe moment. The conversation ended thus, to be resumed later on, withoutconvincing either the sailor or the engineer.
The first snow fell towards the end of the month of June. The corral hadpreviously been largely supplied with stores, so that daily visits toit were not requisite; but it was decided that more than a week shouldnever be allowed to pass without someone going to it.
Traps were again set, and the machines manufactured by Harding weretried. The bent whalebones, imprisoned in a case of ice, and coveredwith a thick outer layer of fat, were placed on the border of the forestat a spot where animals usually passed on their way to the lake.
To the engineer's great satisfaction, this invention, copied from theAleutian fishermen, succeeded perfectly. A dozen foxes, a few wildboars, and even a jaguar, were taken in this way, the animals beingfound dead, their stomachs pierced by the unbent bones.
An incident must here be related, not only as interesting in itself, butbecause it was the first attempt made by the colonists to communicatewith the rest of mankind.
Gideon Spilett had already several times pondered whether to throw intothe sea a letter enclosed in a bottle, which currents might perhapscarry to an inhabited coast, or to confide it to pigeons.
But how could it be seriously hoped that either pigeons or bottles couldcross the distance of twelve hundred miles which separated the islandfrom any inhabited land? It would have been pure folly.
But on the 30th of June the capture was effected, not withoutdifficulty, of an albatross, which a shot from Herbert's gun hadslightly wounded in the foot. It was a magnificent bird, measuring tenfeet from wing to wing, and which could traverse seas as wide as thePacific.
Herbert would have liked to keep this superb bird, as its wound wouldsoon heal, and he thought he could tame it; but Spilett explained tohim that they should not neglect this opportunity of attempting tocommunicate by this messenger with the lands of the Pacific; for if thealbatross had come from some inhabited region, there was no doubt butthat it would return there so soon as it was set free.
Perhaps in his heart Gideon Spilett, in whom the journalist sometimescame to the surface, was not sorry to have the opportunity of sendingforth to take its chance an exciting article relating the adventuresof the settlers in Lincoln Island. What a success for the authorizedreporter
of the New York Herald, and for the number which should containthe article, if it should ever reach the address of its editor, theHonorable James Bennett!
Gideon Spilett then wrote out a concise account, which was placed in astrong waterproof bag, with an earnest request to whoever might find itto forward it to the office of the New York Herald. This little bag wasfastened to the neck of the albatross, and not to its foot, for thesebirds are in the habit of resting on the surface of the sea; thenliberty was given to this swift courier of the air, and it was notwithout some emotion that the colonists watched it disappear in themisty west.
"Where is he going to?" asked Pencroft.
"Towards New Zealand," replied Herbert.
"A good voyage to you," shouted the sailor, who himself did not expectany great result from this mode of correspondence.
With the winter, work had been resumed in the interior of Granite House,mending clothes and different occupations, among others making the sailsfor their vessel, which were cut from the inexhaustible balloon-case.
During the month of July the cold was intense, but there was no lack ofeither wood or coal. Cyrus Harding had established a second fireplace inthe dining-room, and there the long winter evenings were spent. Talkingwhile they worked, reading when the hands remained idle, the time passedwith profit to all.
It was real enjoyment to the settlers when in their room, well lightedwith candles, well warmed with coal, after a good dinner, elderberrycoffee smoking in the cups, the pipes giving forth an odoriferous smoke,they could hear the storm howling without. Their comfort would have beencomplete, if complete comfort could ever exist for those who are farfrom their fellow-creatures, and without any means of communication withthem. They often talked of their country, of the friends whom they hadleft, of the grandeur of the American Republic, whose influence couldnot but increase; and Cyrus Harding, who had been much mixed up with theaffairs of the Union, greatly interested his auditors by his recitals,his views, and his prognostics.
It chanced one day that Spilett was led to say--
"But now, my dear Cyrus, all this industrial and commercial movementto which you predict a continual advance, does it not run the danger ofbeing sooner or later completely stopped?"
"Stopped! And by what?"
"By the want of coal, which may justly be called the most precious ofminerals."
"Yes, the most precious indeed," replied the engineer; "and it wouldseem that nature wished to prove that it was so by making the diamond,which is simply pure carbon crystallized."
"You don't mean to say, captain," interrupted Pencroft, "that we burndiamonds in our stoves in the shape of coal?"
"No, my friend," replied Harding.
"However," resumed Gideon Spilett, "you do not deny that some day thecoal will be entirely consumed?"
"Oh! the veins of coal are still considerable, and the hundredthousand miners who annually extract from them a hundred millions ofhundredweights have not nearly exhausted them."
"With the increasing consumption of coal," replied Gideon Spilett, "itcan be foreseen that the hundred thousand workmen will soon become twohundred thousand, and that the rate of extraction will be doubled."
"Doubtless; but after the European mines, which will be soon worked morethoroughly with new machines, the American and Australian mines will fora long time yet provide for the consumption in trade."
"For how long a time?" asked the reporter.
"For at least two hundred and fifty or three hundred years."
"That is reassuring for us, but a bad look-out for ourgreat-grandchildren!" observed Pencroft.
"They will discover something else," said Herbert.
"It is to be hoped so," answered Spilett, "for without coal there wouldbe no machinery, and without machinery there would be no railways, nosteamers, no manufactories, nothing of that which is indispensable tomodern civilization!"
"But what will they find?" asked Pencroft. "Can you guess, captain?"
"Nearly, my friend."
"And what will they burn instead of coal?"
"Water," replied Harding.
"Water!" cried Pencroft, "water as fuel for steamers and engines! waterto heat water!"
"Yes, but water decomposed into its primitive elements," replied CyrusHarding, "and decomposed doubtless, by electricity, which will then havebecome a powerful and manageable force, for all great discoveries, bysome inexplicable laws, appear to agree and become complete at the sametime. Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employedas fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly ortogether, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light, ofan intensity of which coal is not capable. Some day the coalrooms ofsteamers and the tenders of locomotives will, instead of coal, be storedwith these two condensed gases, which will burn in the furnaces withenormous calorific power. There is, therefore, nothing to fear. As longas the earth is inhabited it will supply the wants of its inhabitants,and there will be no want of either light or heat as long as theproductions of the vegetable, mineral or animal kingdoms do not fail us.I believe, then, that when the deposits of coal are exhausted we shallheat and warm ourselves with water. Water will be the coal of thefuture."
"I should like to see that," observed the sailor.
"You were born too soon, Pencroft," returned Neb, who only took part inthe discussion by these words.
However, it was not Neb's speech which interrupted the conversation, butTop's barking, which broke out again with that strange intonation whichhad before perplexed the engineer. At the same time Top began to runround the mouth of the well, which opened at the extremity of theinterior passage.
"What can Top be barking in that way for?" asked Pencroft.
"And Jup be growling like that?" added Herbert.
In fact the orang, joining the dog, gave unequivocal signs of agitation,and, singular to say, the two animals appeared more uneasy than angry.
"It is evident," said Gideon Spilett, "that this well is in directcommunication with the sea, and that some marine animal comes from timeto time to breathe at the bottom."
"That's evident," replied the sailor, "and there can be no otherexplanation to give. Quiet there, Top!" added Pencroft, turning to thedog, "and you, Jup, be off to your room!"
The ape and the dog were silent. Jup went off to bed, but Top remainedin the room, and continued to utter low growls at intervals during therest of the evening. There was no further talk on the subject, but theincident, however, clouded the brow of the engineer.
During the remainder of the month of July there was alternate rain andfrost. The temperature was not so low as during the preceding winter,and its maximum did not exceed eight degrees Fahrenheit. But althoughthis winter was less cold, it was more troubled by storms and squalls;the sea besides often endangered the safety of the Chimneys. At timesit almost seemed as if an under-current raised these monstrous billowswhich thundered against the wall of Granite House.
When the settlers, leaning from their windows, gazed on the huge waterymasses breaking beneath their eyes, they could not but admire themagnificent spectacle of the ocean in its impotent fury. The wavesrebounded in dazzling foam, the beach entirely disapppearing under theraging flood, and the cliff appearing to emerge from the sea itself, thespray rising to a height of more than a hundred feet.
During these storms it was difficult and even dangerous to venture out,owing to the frequently falling trees; however, the colonists neverallowed a week to pass without having paid a visit to the corral.Happily, this enclosure, sheltered by the southeastern spur of MountFranklin, did not greatly suffer from the violence of the hurricanes,which spared its trees, sheds, and palisades; but the poultry-yard onProspect Heights, being directly exposed to the gusts of wind from theeast, suffered considerable damage. The pigeon-house was twice unroofedand the paling blown down. All this required to be remade more solidlythan before, for, as may be clearly seen, Lincoln Island was situated inone of the most dangerous parts of the Pacific. It really a
ppeared as ifit formed the central point of vast cyclones, which beat it perpetuallyas the whip does the top, only here it was the top which was motionlessand the whip which moved. During the first week of the month of Augustthe weather became more moderate, and the atmosphere recovered the calmwhich it appeared to have lost forever. With the calm the cold againbecame intense, and the thermometer fell to eight degrees Fahrenheit,below zero.
On the 3rd of August an excursion which had been talked of for severaldays was made into the southeastern part of the island, towards TadornMarsh. The hunters were tempted by the aquatic game which took up theirwinter quarters there. Wild duck, snipe, teal and grebe abounded there,and it was agreed that a day should be devoted to an expedition againstthese birds.
Not only Gideon Spilett and Herbert, but Pencroft and Neb also took partin this excursion. Cyrus Harding alone, alleging some work as an excuse,did not join them, but remained at Granite House.
The hunters proceeded in the direction of Port Balloon, in order toreach the marsh, after having promised to be back by the evening. Topand Jup accompanied them. As soon as they had passed over the MercyBridge, the engineer raised it and returned, intending to put intoexecution a project for the performance of which he wished to be alone.
Now this project was to minutely explore the interior well, the mouthof which was on a level with the passage of Granite House, and whichcommunicated with the sea, since it formerly supplied a way to thewaters of the lake.
Why did Top so often run round this opening? Why did he utter suchstrange barks when a sort of uneasiness seemed to draw him towards thiswell? Why did Jup join Top in a sort of common anxiety? Had this wellbranches besides the communication with the sea? Did it spread towardsother parts of the island? This is what Cyrus Harding wished to know. Hehad resolved, therefore, to attempt the exploration of the well duringthe absence of his companions, and an opportunity for doing so had nowpresented itself.
It was easy to descend to the bottom of the well by employing the ropeladder which had not been used since the establishment of the lift. Theengineer drew the ladder to the hole, the diameter of which measurednearly six feet, and allowed it to unroll itself after having securelyfastened its upper extremity. Then, having lighted a lantern, taken arevolver, and placed a cutlass in his belt, he began the descent.
The sides were everywhere entire; but points of rock jutted out here andthere, and by means of these points it would have been quite possiblefor an active creature to climb to the mouth of the well.
The engineer remarked this; but although he carefully examined thesepoints by the light of his lantern, he could find no impression, nofracture which could give any reason to suppose that they had eitherrecently or at any former time been used as a staircase. Cyrus Hardingdescended deeper, throwing the light of his lantern on all sides.
He saw nothing suspicious.
When the engineer had reached the last rounds he came upon the water,which was then perfectly calm. Neither at its level nor in any otherpart of the well, did any passage open, which could lead to the interiorof the cliff. The wall which Harding struck with the hilt of his cutlasssounded solid. It was compact granite, through which no living beingcould force a way. To arrive at the bottom of the well and then climbup to its mouth it was necessary to pass through the channel under therocky subsoil of the beach, which placed it in communication with thesea, and this was only possible for marine animals. As to the questionof knowing where this channel ended, at what point of the shore, and atwhat depth beneath the water, it could not be answered.
Then Cyrus Harding, having ended his survey, re-ascended, drew up theladder, covered the mouth of the well, and returned thoughtfully to thediningroom, saying to himself,--
"I have seen nothing, and yet there is something there!"