Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen

So, Mr. Smith, where do we start?asked Pencroft the next morning to the engineer. Start from scratch.Cyrus.Smith replied. Indeed, residents had to start with the first step.They don't even have the basic tools to make tools, and unlike nature, they have plenty of time and can save some effort.They have no time, because they have to manufacture for themselves the necessities of life that cannot be lacking for a moment, and although they have the experience of many predecessors, they do not need to fumble and create, but they still need to do everything; their steel and iron are still there. Ores are in the state, pottery is in the clay state, and cloth and clothing are in the textile state.

But one thing must be explained, these residents are human beings, and they are out-and-out spirits of all things.Engineer Smith could not have found more intelligent and enthusiastic assistants than these companions.He knew them, he knew who was capable. Ji Ding.Spilett was a shrewd and capable correspondent who learned everything in order to be able to talk about everything.His mind and hands can do a lot to develop this isolated island.He doesn't back down from any job.He was an avid hunter, but now he was turning what had been his pastime into his profession. Herbert was a brave boy, and he already possessed a considerable knowledge of natural science, which he could bring great benefit to the common cause.

Neboo is earnestness personified.He is smart, quick-witted, strong, strong, with a physique like steel, and he also knows some common sense in blacksmithing, so he must be of great use in the team. As for Pencroft, he sailed every sea, worked as a carpenter in the Brooklyn shipyard, as an assistant tailor on board a ship in this state, and in his holidays as a gardener, planter, etc.At the same time, like all sailors, he can do everything, and do everything well. These five people are all able to fight against fate, and they are very sure of winning. It is indeed rare to be able to get these five people together.

Cyrus.Smith has already said, start from scratch.The gimmick the engineer refers to is to make an instrument with which to alter natural matter.As we all know, a lot of heat energy is needed in this process.Fuel (wood or coal) is readily available and a stove must now be made. What are you doing for a stove?asked Pencroft. Used to burn the pottery we need.Smith replied. What to use for the stove? Use bricks. Where did the bricks come from? Made of clay.Let's get started, friends.In order to save trouble, we turned the place where the raw materials were produced into a workshop, and Naboo was in charge of delivering the food. There was plenty of fire for cooking.

No, said the correspondent, if there were no hunting weapons, there would be no food, so what then? Ah, it would be nice to have a knife!cried the sailor. how?Cyrus.Smith asked. yes!With a knife I can make a bow and arrow in no time.In this way, there can be a lot of game in the kitchen! Yes, a knife, a sharp knife the engineer said to himself. At this moment Smith saw Top running up and down the bank, and suddenly his face brightened. Top, come here!He said. When Top heard his master shout, he came running, and Smith, taking his head between his elbows, unfastened the collar from his neck, and breaking it in two, said:

Here are two knives, Pencroft! The sailor gave two cheers of joy instead of answering.Top's collar is made of a thin sheet of tempered steel, just open it in sand and sharpen it in a finer stone.There are a lot of sand and stones on the beach, and it only took two hours for them to sharpen the knife and install a strong handle, so the team has two sharp knives as tools. When the first tools were made, they cheered in triumph.It was indeed the fruit of their valuable labor, and it was done in a very timely manner.They set off.Cyrus.Smith suggested that we should go to the west bank of Lake Grant, where he had noticed the pottery fields the day before, and had picked up some to bring back as specimens.So they walked along the Mercy River, through Prospect Heights, for more than five miles, and came to a clearing two hundred feet from Grant Lake.

On the way Herbert discovered a tree from which the Indians of South America made bows.This is the creijiba tree of the palm family, and the fruit of this tree cannot be eaten.They cut long, straight branches, stripped the leaves, and thinned the ends to make them thicker in the middle, so that it was only a matter of finding a suitable branch for the bowstring.They found a hibiscus, whose fibers were so strong that they could be compared with tendons in animals.Pencroft thus made a rather powerful bow, and now only the arrows were left.Arrow shafts were easy to make. He found some hard, straight branches without knots and made them.Arrowheads were still lacking, and iron substitutes were not easy to find.Pencroft said that he had done his part, and that chance remained.

Residents came to the place they had discovered the day before.There is clay everywhere, which is very useful for making bricks and tiles.This work is not difficult, as long as the sand is used to filter out the impurities in the clay, and then the clay is shaped into bricks, and then fired with firewood. The adobe is usually molded, but the engineer had to do it by hand.It took two full days to do this work. The workers soaked the clay in water and mixed it with hands and feet.Then divide them into pieces of the same size.A skilled worker without a machine can make about 10,000 yuan in twelve hours, but these five brickmakers on Lincoln Island can make less than 3,000 yuan in two days.They lined up the adobes they made one by one, and waited three or four days for them to be completely dry before they could be used to build a furnace.

On April 2nd, Smith determined the direction of the island, that is, found out the exact direction of the sunrise.The day before he had noted exactly when the sun dipped below the horizon, taking into account differences in refraction.This morning, he recorded the rising time of the sun with equal precision.Twelve hours and twenty-four minutes from sunrise to sunset.Therefore, at six hours and twelve minutes after sunrise, the sun on this day should be passing the meridian, and its position in the sky at this time is true north. When the said time was reached, Cyrus made a note of this, and found two trees in line with the sun, which would help him in orienting himself.He did this work silently by himself, and thus found out the local eternal meridian.

In the two days before the stove was ready, the inhabitants gathered a large quantity of fuel.They cut down all the branches near the glade, and picked up any dead branches that had fallen from the bottom of the trees.Pencroft now had several dozen pointed arrows, and the hunt went more smoothly.These arrows are obtained through top.It hunted back a porcupine. Although this porcupine pork was not tasty, the hard spines on its body were very valuable.Put these spines on the arrowhead, add some cockatoo feathers, and the shot will be very accurate and effective.The correspondent and Herbert soon became skilled archers.From then on, there was a large variety of game in the grotto, such as: capybaras, pigeons, agouti, grouse, etc.Most of these animals were brought from the woodlands on the left bank of the Mercy, which they named Woodpecker Wood, because Pencroft and Herbert had chased a woodpecker here on their first expedition. .

They ate most of these wild game fresh, but they also left some capybara legs.They first wrapped the capybara legs with fragrant leaves, and then smoked them with firewood.Although this kind of food is very nutritious, they bake it today and bake it tomorrow, and everyone really hopes that there will be some sound of boiling soup on the stove; this must wait until the pot can be made, that is, the stove must be built. None of these hunting trips were very far from the brickyard.On one occasion the hunters, on their way, found the recent tracks of some great animal, with powerful claws, but they could not recognize what kind of beast it was.Cyrus.Smith asked everyone to be cautious, there are probably many wild animals in the forest. His instructions are correct.Sure enough, one day Keating.Spilett and Herbert saw a beast which looked like a leopard.Fortunately, it didn't rush over, otherwise, even if they managed to escape by chance, they would inevitably be seriously injured.Ji Ding.Spilett decided that once he had an official weapon, the gun that Pencroft wanted, he would fight these beasts desperately and wipe out all the beasts on the desert island. They haven't renovated the grotto these days, because the engineer hopes to find a more convenient residence, and if necessary, they can build one by themselves.For the time being, they spread a layer of moss and dead leaves on the sandy ground of the passage, without any further plans, and after being tired from work, they slept soundly on these primitive beds. They counted the days spent on Lincoln Island, and they have kept a daily journal since that time, Wednesday, April 5th, which was the twelfth day after the storm had thrown their victims on the shore. . On the 6th of April, at dawn, the engineer and his companions assembled in the glade, where they intended to burn bricks.This work is usually done not in a kiln but in the open air, and the congealed adobes are built into a large kiln which is then used to fire the adobes themselves.They put the bundled firewood on the ground, surrounded the fuel with dried bricks in rows, and soon formed a cube, and opened several ventilation holes in the outermost layer of the cube.This work went on all day, and it was not until evening that they began to light the fires on the fagots.No one slept that night, and all took care of the firewood so that it would not go out. The brick-burning work continued for forty-eight hours, and the result was a complete success.Then it was necessary to wait for the steaming semi-finished product to cool down. During this period, Neb and Pencroft were led by Cyrus.Smith led the way to the north of the lake, and returned with a large load of limestone and common stones there in a basket woven of twigs.After heating, they decompose into a kind of quicklime with high purity. After boiling, the volume of quicklime expands greatly.They have a very pure texture, at least as chalky or calcium carbonate fired.Lime and fine sand are mixed together and it becomes a fine mortar. These preparations were made separately, and by April 9th ​​the engineer had a good deal of slaked lime and thousands of bricks at his disposal. They seized the time and immediately started building kilns, preparing to bake pottery, which is indispensable in their daily life.They succeeded without much difficulty, and after five days coal was burning in the kiln, as the engineer discovered in the open air near the mouth of the Red River.The first plumes of smoke rose from the twenty-foot chimney.The glade was turned into a workshop, and Pencroft even thought that all kinds of modern industrial products could be made in this kiln, which is not too much. During this period, the residents first produced a clay pot for cooking.The main raw material is pottery clay, and Smith added some lime and quartz to it to form a formal tube soil.They took stones of appropriate shape as molds, and out of clay they made rice bowls, teacups, and some large jugs for water, etc.The pottery looked heavy and unattractive, but when it was fired at such a high temperature, the kitchens of the caves were filled with utensils which the inhabitants valued as much as the finest glazed china.It must be mentioned that Pencroft, in order to know whether this clay was worthy of the title of pipe-clay, made several large pipes, and was very satisfied with the result, although the absence of tobacco, which greatly annoyed him.Other things can be found, and tobacco must be found too!He repeated confidently. The work continued until the fifteenth of April, without wasting any time.The residents suddenly became potters, and they only made pottery all day long.When Cyrus.Smith thought they should be blacksmiths, and they would become blacksmiths.But the next day was Sunday, and it was Easter, and everyone agreed to take the day off. On the evening of April 15th, they transported the pottery to the grotto, and the stove had been extinguished, and they would burn it when there was a new use in the future.When they went back, they met a lucky thing; the engineer found a substitute for tinder.He obtained a spongy, soft flesh from a plant in the Polyporaceae family.This fungus is very flammable when properly prepared, especially if it has been impregnated with gunpowder, or boiled in a solution of nitrate or potassium chloride.In the past, they have never found such a porous fungus, nor have they found a substitute edible fungus.One day the engineer saw a plant of the genus Artemisia, the main species being wormwood, peppermint, Artemisia argyi, etc. He collected a few handfuls and handed them to the sailors, saying: Here, Pencroft, you will be glad this time. Pencroft looked carefully, and saw that the plant had many shiny long whiskers, and the leaves were covered with soft hairs. What is this, Mr. Smith?Was it tobacco, asked Pencroft? No, replied Smith, it is wormwood, which the scholars call Chinese wormwood, but we shall use it for tinder. When the wormwood was sufficiently dried, and especially when the engineer afterwards drenched it in a solution of nitrates, it became a very flammable pyrophoric material.As for the nitrates, which are actually saltpeter, there are many such deposits on the island. On this day, the settlers had a hearty dinner. Neb stewed a pot of agouti broth and a smoked capybara leg.He added some boiled fritillary tubers to the smoked legs, this herb of the white star calla genus, which is very delicious and nutritious, a bit like the pudera sago sold in the UK, which can now be taken Eat it with bread, for the inhabitants of Lincoln Island have hitherto had no bread. After dinner, before going to bed, Smith and his friends went for a walk on the beach.It was eight o'clock in the evening, and the night was very beautiful.This was the fifth day after the full moon, and the moon hadn't risen yet, but a silvery-white soft light had already appeared on the horizon.That could be regarded as the dawn of the moon.The South Pole star shines on the southern zenith, most notably the Southern Cross.Engineers had seen it a few days earlier from the top of Mount Franklin. Cyrus.Smith stared at this beautiful constellation for a long time. There is a first-magnitude star at the upper and lower ends of it, a second-magnitude star on the left, and a third-magnitude star on the right. He thought for a few minutes, then asked the boy: Herbert, is today the fifteenth of April? Yes, Mr. Smith.Herbert said. Tomorrow, if I remember correctly, is one of four days in a year when the actual time is exactly equal to the average time, that is to say, boy, when the clock strikes twelve tomorrow, when will the sun be is passing the meridian in seconds.If the weather is fine, I think that the longitude of the island can be roughly calculated accurately, and the difference will not be a few degrees at most. No instrument, no sextant?Ji Ding.asked Spilett. No, said the engineer, and besides, the night is very clear tonight, and I will now calculate the height of the Southern Cross, that is, try to find out our latitude from the celestial pole on the horizon.You know, friend, that we cannot be sure that this land is an island until we have done some serious work of bearing; we must know its distance from America, Oceania, or the principal islands of the Pacific, as precisely as possible. Indeed, said the correspondent, in case we were within a hundred miles of inhabited shores, a boat would be of more importance than a house. So, said Smith, I will try to find the latitude of Lincoln Island tonight, and I will try to find the longitude tomorrow at noon. So Smith went back into the grotto.Under the firelight, he cut two small flat rulers and connected one end of them to make a pair of compasses.The two legs of the compass can be separated or joined together. The connecting part is nailed together with a strong rubber tree thorn found in the woodpile. The instrument is ready, and the engineer returns to the beach.But the height of the Celestial Pole had to be measured on a cloudless horizon, that is to say, over the sea, and the southern horizon was blocked by the claw, so he had to find another more suitable spot.The most ideal place is obviously facing the coast to the south, but that requires some work, crossing the Mercy River.Smith finally decided to observe on Prospect Heights. Naturally, he also considered the altitude of the highland. He planned to use the basic principles of geometry to find the height of the highland the next day. So the inhabitants climbed up the left bank of the Mercy, and went to the high ground.They stood on the edge of the plateau, that is, on the strangely shaped rocks along the river from northwest to southeast. In front of this highland is the hill on the left bank of the Mercy River.The hills sloped down towards the end of Claw Point and the southern part of the island.At a glance, they could see clearly the horizontal line of the entire semicircle from the corner of the claw to the corner of the reptile, without any obstruction.The rising Moon illuminates the southern horizon, which stands out clearly against the sky. At this time, the Southern Cross appeared in front of the observer, and the two crosses were inverted at the bottom of the constellation, which is closer to the South Pole. This constellation is farther from the South Pole than Polaris is from the North Pole.The second cross is about twenty-seven degrees from the South Pole, Cyrus.Smith knew this and took this angle into account in his calculations.When the cross II passed the meridian facing the South Pole, he also carefully observed it, so that the work was simple. Cyrus.Smith points one foot of the compass to the horizontal line and the other foot to the cross two, and the distance between the two compasses feet forms the angular distance between the two crosses and the horizontal line.To fix the angle obtained, he fastened a bar of wood across the feet of the compasses with a needle, so that the proper angle between them was preserved. After finishing this step, the next step is to calculate the angle.But first of all, the depression angle of the horizontal line must be taken into account, so it is necessary to observe at sea level and measure the height of the cliff.With the above-mentioned angles, the height of cross 2 can be obtained. From here, the height of the celestial pole on the horizontal line can also be obtained, that is, the latitude of the island, because the latitude of any place on the earth is always equal to the local celestial pole on the horizontal line. high. The calculations were left to the next day, and by ten o'clock everyone was fast asleep.