Swiss Family Robinson Part 33

The sea being calm, and the tide suiting better, we found it easy to land close to the whale; my first care was to place the boat, as well as the casks, in perfect security, after which we proceeded to a close inspection of our prize.

Its enormous size quite startled my wife and little boy; the length being from sixty to sixty-five feet, and the girth between thirty and forty, while the weight could not have been less than 50,000 lbs.

The color was a uniform velvety black, and the enormous head about one-third of the length of the entire hulk, the eyes quite small, not much larger than those of an ox, and the ears almost undiscernable.

The jaw opened very far back, and was nearly sixteen feet in length, the most curious part of its structure being the remarkable substance known as whalebone, ma.s.ses of which appeared all along the jaws, solid at the base, and splitting into a sort of fringe at the extremity. This arrangement is for the purpose of aiding the whale in procuring its food, and separating it from the water.

The tongue was remarkably large, soft, and full of oil; the opening of the throat wonderfully small, scarcely two inches in diameter.

'Why, what can the monster eat?' exclaimed Fritz; 'he can never swallow a proper mouthful down this little gullet!'

'The mode of feeding adopted by the whale is so curious,' I replied, 'that I must explain it to you before we begin work.

'This animal (for I should tell you that a whale is not a fish; he possess no gills, he breathes atmospheric air, and would be drowned if too long detained below the surface of the water); this animal, then, frequents those parts of the ocean best supplied with the various creatures on which he feeds. Shrimps, small fish, lobsters, various molluscs, and medusae form his diet.

'Driving with open mouth through the congregated shoals of these little creatures, the whale engulfs them by millions in his enormous jaws, and continues his destructive course until he has sufficiently charged his mouth with prey.

'Closing his jaws and forcing out, through the interstices of the whalebone, the water which he has taken with his prey, he retains the captured animals, and swallows them at his leisure.

'The nostrils, or blow-holes, are placed, you see, on the upper part of the head, in order that the whale may rise to breathe, and repose on the surface of the sea, showing very little of his huge carcase.

'The breathings are called "spoutings," because a column of mixed vapor and water is thrown from the blow-holes, sometimes to a height of twenty feet.

'And now, boys,' cried I, 'fasten on your buskins, and let me see if you can face the work of climbing this slippery mountain of flesh, and cutting it up.'

Fritz and Jack stripped, and went to work directly, scrambling over the back to the head, where they a.s.sisted me to cut away the lips, so as to reach the whale bone, a large quant.i.ty of which was detached and carried to the boat.

Ernest laboured manfully at the creature's side, cutting out slabs of blubber, while his mother and Franz helped as well as they could to put it in casks.

Presently we had a mult.i.tude of unbidden guests. The air was filled by the shrill screams and hoa.r.s.e croaks and cries of numbers of birds of prey; they flew around us in ever narrowing circles, and becoming bolder as their voracity was excited by the near view of the tempting prey, they alighted close to us, s.n.a.t.c.hing morsels greedily from under the very strokes of our knives and hatchets.

Our work was seriously interrupted by these feathered marauders, who, after all, were no greater robbers than we ourselves. We kept them off as well as we could by blows from our tools, and several were killed, my wife taking possession of them immediately for the sake of the feathers.

It was nearly time to leave the island, but first I stripped off a long piece of the skin, to be used for traces, harness, and other leather-work. It was about three-quarters of an inch thick, and very soft and oily--but I knew it would shrink and be tough and durable.

I also took a part of the gums in which the roots of the baleen or whalebone was still embedded, having read that this is considered quite a delicacy, as well as the skin, which, when properly dressed and cut in little cubes, like black dice, has been compared, by enthusiastic (and probably very hungry) travellers, to cocoanut and cream-cheese.

The boys thought the tongue might prove equally palatable, but I valued it only on account of the large quant.i.ty of oil it contained.

With a heavy freight we put to sea, and made what haste we could to reach home and cleanse our persons from the unpleasant traces of the disgusting work in which we had spent the day.

Next morning we started at dawn. My wife and Franz were left behind, for our proposed work was even more horrible than that of the preceding day; they could not a.s.sist, and had no inclination to witness it.

It was my intention to open the carcase completely, and, penetrating the interior, to obtain various portions of the intestines, thinking that it would be possible to convert the larger ones into vessels fit for holding the oil.

This time we laid aside our clothes and wore only strong canvas trousers when we commenced operations, which were vigorously carried on during the whole of the day; then, satisfied that we could do so with a clear conscience, we abandoned the remains to the birds of prey, and, with a full cargo, set sail for land.

On the way, it appeared to strike the boys (who had made not the slightest objection to the singularly unpleasant task I had set them) as very strange that I should wish to possess what they had been working so hard to procure for me.

'What can have made you wish to bring away that brute's entrails, father? Are they of any use?'

'There are countries,' I replied, 'where no wood grows of which to make barrels, and no hemp for thread, string and cordage. Necessity, the mother of all the more valuable inventions, has taught the inhabitants of those countries, Greenlanders, Esquimaux and others, to think of subst.i.tutes, and they use the intestines of the whale for one purpose, the sinews and nerves for the other.'

We were right glad to land, and get rid, for the present, of our unpleasant materials, the further preparation of which was work in store for the following day.

A refreshing bath, clean clothes, and supper, cheered us all up, and we slept in peace.

Chapter 11

'Now for the finishing up of this dirty job,' cried I, merrily, as we all woke up next morning at daybreak. And after the regular work was done, we commenced operations by raising a stand or rough scaffold on which the tubs full of blubber were placed and heavily pressed, so that the purest and finest oil overflowed into vessels underneath.

The blubber was afterwards boiled in a cauldron over a fire kindled at some distance from our abode, and by skimming and straining through a coa.r.s.e cloth, we succeeded in obtaining a large supply of excellent train oil, which, in casks and bags made of the intestines, was safely stowed away in the 'cellar', as the children called our roughest store-room.

This day's work was far from agreeable, and the dreadful smell oppressed us all, more especially my poor wife, who, nevertheless, endured it with her accustomed good temper. However, she very urgently recommended that the new island should be the headquarters for another colony, where, said she, 'any animals we leave would be safe from apes and other plunderers, and where you would find it so very convenient to boil whale-blubber, strain train oil, and the like'.

This proposal met with hearty approval, especially from the boys, who were always charmed with any new plan; and they were eager to act upon it at once. But when I reminded them of the putrefying carcase which lay there, they confessed it would be better to allow wind and storms, birds and insects to do their work in purging the atmosphere, and reducing the whale to a skeleton before we revisited the island.

The idea of a rowing-machine kept recurring to my brain, and I determined to attempt to make one. I took an iron bar, which when laid across the middle of the boat projected about a foot each way. I provided this bar in the middle with ribbed machinery, and at each end with a sort of nave, in which, as in a cart wheel, four flat spokes, or paddles, were fixed obliquely. These were intended to do the rowers'

part.

Then the jack was arranged to act upon the machinery in the middle of the iron cross-bar, in such a way that one of its strong cogwheels bit firmly into the ribs, so that when it was wound up, it caused the bar to revolve rapidly, of course turning with it the paddles fixed at either end, which consequently struck the water so as to propel the boat.

Although this contrivance left much to be desired in the way of improvement, still when Fritz and I wound up the machinery, and went off on a trial trip across the bay, we splashed along at such a famous rate, that the sh.o.r.es rang with the cheers and clapping of the whole family, delighted to behold what they considered my brilliant success.

Everyone wanted to go on board, and take a cruise, but as it was getting late, I could not consent. A trip next day, however, was promised to Cape Disappointment and the little settlement of Prospect Hill.

This proposal satisfied everybody. The evening was spent in preparing the dresses, arms and food which would be required, and we retired early to rest.

Intending to be out all day, the house was left in good order, and we departed on our expedition, provided, among other things, with spades and mattocks, for I wished to get young cocoanut trees and shrubs of different kinds, that, on our way back, we might land on Whale Island, and begin our plantation there.

We directed our course towards the opposite side of the bay. The sea was smooth, my rowing-machine performed its work easily, and leaving Safety Bay and Shark Island behind us, we enjoyed at our ease the panorama of all the coast scenery.

Landing near Prospect Hill, we moored the boat, and walked through the woods to our little farm, obtaining some fresh cocoanuts, as well as young plants, on the way.

Before coming in sight of the cottage at the farm, we heard the c.o.c.ks crow, and I experienced a sudden rush of emotion as the sound recalled in a degree painfully vivid, the recollection of many a ride and walk at home, when we would be greeted by just such familiar sounds as we approached some kind friend's house. Here, but for the unconscious animals, utter solitude and silence prevailed, and I with my dear family, whose visit would have been hailed with delight in so many homes, advanced unnoticed to this lonely cottage.

So long had been our absence that our arrival created a perfect panic.

The original animals had forgotten us, and to their progeny, lambs, kids, and chickens, who had never seen the face of man, we seemed an army of fierce foes.

The boys found it impossible to milk the goats, until, by the use of the la.s.so, they captured them one after the other, bound their legs, then giving them salt to lick, they soon obtained a supply of excellent milk which was poured from the cocoanut sh.e.l.ls they used into calabash flasks, so that we could take with us what was not required at dinner.

The fowls were enticed by handfuls of grain and rice, and my wife caught as many as she wished for.

We were by this time very ready for dinner, and the cold provisions we had with us were set forth, the chief dish consisting of the piece of whale's tongue, which, by the boys' desire, had been cooked with a special view to this entertainment.

But woeful was the disappointment when the tongue was tasted! One after another, with dismal face, p.r.o.nounced it 'horrid stuff,' begged for some pickled herring to take away the taste of train-oil, and willingly bestowed on Fangs the cherished dainty.