The Mysterious Island. Jules Verne
sky and water.
But at one point on this horizon, a vague light suddenly appeared, slowly descending as the clouds rose to the zenith.
It was the slender crescent of the moon about to set. But its light was sufficient to clearly show the horizon then detached from a cloud, and the engineer was able to see its trembling image reflected for a moment on the liquid surface.
Cyrus Smith seized the boy’s hand and, with a solemn voice, said:
“An island!”
At that moment, the light of the lunar crescent was extinguished by the waves.
CHAPTER XI
A half hour later, Cyrus Smith and Harbert returned to camp. The engineer merely told his companions that the land where they had been thrown by chance was an island and that the next day they would discuss their options. Then each made the best sleeping arrangement he could, and in this crevice of basalt at a height of 2500 feet above sea level, the “islanders” enjoyed a deep sleep during a peaceful night.
The next day, March 30th, after a quick breakfast of roasted tragopan, the engineer wanted to climb to the volcano’s summit in order to carefully observe the island. He and his friends would perhaps be imprisoned for life here if this island was situated far from all land or if it was not near the lanes of ships visiting the archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean. This time, his companions followed him in this new exploration. They too wanted to see this island which they would ask to fulfill all their needs.
It was about seven o’clock in the morning when Cyrus Smith, Harbert, Pencroff, Gideon Spilett, and Neb broke camp, and none appeared uneasy about the situation. They had faith in themselves but it should be noted that the basis of this faith was not the same in Cyrus Smith as in his companions. The engineer had confidence because he felt capable of wresting from this savage nature all that would be necessary for his life and the life of his companions; they feared nothing precisely because Cyrus Smith was with them. Pencroff especially, since the incident of the rekindled fire, would not despair for an instant even if he found himself on a bare rock, if the engineer was with him on this rock.
“Bah!” he said. “We left Richmond without permission from the authorities! It would be a devil of a thing if we didn’t succeed in leaving a place where no one was holding us back!”
Cyrus Smith followed the same path as the day before. They went around the cone by the plateau which formed the shoulder up to the opening of the enormous crevice. The weather was magnificent. The sun rose in a pure sky and its rays enveloped the entire eastern side of the mountain.
They reached the crater. It was just as the engineer had recognized it in the darkness, that is to say a vast crater that extended 1000 feet above the plateau. From the base of the crevice, broad thick flows of lava had meandered over the sides of the mountain, marking out the route of the eruptive material into the lower valleys which criss-crossed the northern portion of the island.
The interior of the crater, whose inclination was not more than thirty five to forty degrees, presented no difficulties or obstacles to climbing. They saw traces of very old lava which probably had poured out at the summit of the cone before this lateral crevice opened a new route.
As to the volcanic chimney which established communication between the subterranean levels and the crater, they could not estimate its depth by looking at it since it was lost in darkness. But there was no doubt that the volcano was completely extinct.
Before eight o’clock, Cyrus Smith and his companions were gathered at the summit of the crater on a conical elevation of the northern rim.
“The sea! The sea everywhere!” they said as if their lips could not hold back this word that made islanders of them. The sea was an immense circular expanse around them. Perhaps on climbing to the summit of the cone Cyrus Smith had hoped to discover some coast, some neighboring island, which he had not been able to see in the darkness of the previous night. But nothing appeared on the horizon for a radius of over fifty miles. No land in sight. Not a sail. An immense desert. The island occupied the center of a circumference that seemed to extend to infinity in all directions.
The engineer and his companions, speechless, motionless, gazed at the ocean for several minutes. Their eyes strained to make out its furthest limits. Pencroff, who possessed a marvellous power of vision, saw nothing. If there was land anywhere on the horizon, even if it appeared as an imperceptible vapor, the sailor would undoubtedly have detected it because nature had truly placed two telescopes under his eyebrows.
After the ocean, their attention shifted to the island itself which they could see in its entirety. The first question was asked by Gideon Spilett:
“About how large is the island?”
It did not appear to be very substantial in the middle of this immense ocean.
Cyrus Smith reflected for several moments. He looked all around the island taking into account the height at which they were situated; then:
“My friends,” he said, “I believe I’m not mistaken in giving the shoreline of the island a perimeter of more than 100 miles.”*
“And its area?”
“That’s difficult to estimate,” replied the engineer, “because it’s outline is so irregular.”
If Cyrus Smith was not mistaken in his evaluation, the island was nearly as large as Malta or Zakynthos in the Mediterranean; but at the same time it was much more irregular and less rich in capes, promontories, points, bays, coves, or creeks. Its truly unusual shape surprised them, and when Gideon Spilett sketched its contours at the engineer’s suggestion, they found that it resembled some fantastic animal, a sort of monstrous pteropoda1 which was sleeping on the surface of the Pacific.
This was the exact configuration of the island, a map of which was immediately and concisely sketched by the reporter:
The eastern portion of the coast on which the castaways had landed was curved on a large arc and bordered by a vast bay which ended in the southeast by a sharp cape, a point hidden from Pencroff at the time of his first exploration. In the northeast, two other capes closed the bay and between them a narrow gulf was hollowed out which resembled the half opened jaw of some formidable shark.
From the northeast to the northwest, the coast was rounded like the flattened skull of a wild beast rising to a kind of indeterminate hump whose center was occupied by the volcanic mountain.
From this point on, the coastline was somewhat regular north and south, cut at two thirds of its length by a narrow creek, and it ended in a long tail resembling the caudal appendage of a gigantic alligator.
This tail formed a true peninsula which extended for more than thirty miles into the sea, counting the southeast cape of the island, already mentioned. The lower shore of this strangely-shaped piece of land curled around, creating a natural open harbor.
In it smallest width, that is to say between the Chimneys and the creek observed on the western coast, the island measured only ten miles. And its greatest length, from the jaw of the northeast to the end of the tail in the southwest, came to about thirty miles.
As to the interior of the island, its general appearance was thus: very wooded in all of its southern portion from the mountain up to the shore and dry and sandy in its northern part. Between the volcano and the east coast, Cyrus Smith and his companions were surprised to see a lake, bordered by green trees, whose existence they had not suspected. Seen from this height, the lake seemed to be at the same level as the sea but on reflection the engineer explained to his companions that the altitude of this small expanse of water must be 300 feet because the plateau which served as its basin was that high above the coast.
“Is this a fresh water lake?” asked Pencroff.
“Necessarily,” replied the engineer, “because it must be fed by waters which flow down from the mountain.”
“I see a small