The Swiss Family Robinson Part 28

I foresaw much interesting study on discovering that we possessed the grammars and dictionaries of a great many languages, a subject for which we all had a taste. With French we were well acquainted. Fritz and Ernest had begun to learn English at school, and made further progress during a visit to England. The mother, who had once been intimate with a Dutch family, could speak that language pretty well.

After a great deal of discussion, we agreed to study different languages, so that in the event of meeting with people of other nations, there should be at least one of the family able to communicate with them.

All determined to improve our knowledge of German and French.

The two elder boys were to study English and Dutch with their mother.

Ernest, already possessing considerable knowledge of Latin, wished to continue to study it, so as to be able to make use of the many works on natural history and medicine written in that language.

Jack announced that he meant to learn Spanish, "because it sounded so grand and imposing."

I myself was interested in the Malay language, knowing it to be so widely spoken in the islands of the Eastern Seas, and thinking it as likely as any other to be useful to us.

Our family circle by and by represented Babel in miniature, for sc.r.a.ps and fragments of all these tongues kept buzzing about our ears from morning to night, each sporting his newly acquired word or sentence on every possible occasion, propounding idioms and peculiar expressions like riddles, to puzzle the rest.

In this way, the labor of learning was very considerably lightened, and every one came to know a few words of each language.

Occasionally we amused ourselves by opening chests and packages. .h.i.therto untouched, and brought unexpected treasures to light--mirrors, wardrobes, a pair of console tables with polished marble tops, elegant writing tables and handsome chairs, clocks of various descriptions, a musical box, and a chronometer were found; and by degrees our abode was fitted up like a palace, so that sometimes we wondered at ourselves, and felt as though we were strutting about in borrowed plumes.

The children begged me to decide on a name for our salt-cave dwelling, and that of Rockburg was chosen unanimously.

The weeks of imprisonment pa.s.sed so rapidly, that no one found time hang heavy on his hands.

Books occupied me so much that but little carpentering was done, yet I made a yoke for the oxen, a pair of cotton wool carders, and a spinning wheel for my wife.

As the rainy season drew to a close, the weather for a while became wilder, and the storms fiercer than ever. Thunder roared, lightning blazed, torrents rushed toward the sea, which came in raging billows to meet them, lashed to fury by the tempests of wind which swept the surface of the deep.

The uproar of the elements came to an end at last.

Nature resumed her att.i.tude of repose, her smiling aspect of peaceful beauty; and soon all traces of the ravages of floods and storms would disappear beneath the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics.

Gladly quitting the sheltering walls of Rockburg to roam once more in the open air, we crossed Jackal River, for a walk along the coast, and presently Fritz with sharp eyes observed something on the small island near Flamingo Marsh, which was, he said, long and rounded, resembling a boat bottom upward.

Examining it with the telescope, I could form no other conjecture, and we resolved to make it the object of an excursion next day, being delighted to resume our old habit of starting in pursuit of adventure.

The boat was accordingly got in readiness; it required some repairs, and fresh pitching, and then we made for the point of interest, indulging in a variety of surmises as to what we should find.

It proved to be a huge, stranded whale.

The island being steep and rocky, it was necessary to be careful; but we found a landing-place on the further side. The boys hurried by the nearest way to the beach where lay the monster of the deep, while I clambered to the highest point of the islet, which commanded a view of the mainland, from Rockburg to Falconhurst.

On rejoining my sons, I found them only half-way to the great fish, and as I drew near they shouted in high glee:

"Oh! father, just look at the glorious sh.e.l.ls and coral branches we are finding. How does it happen that there are such quant.i.ties?"

"Only consider how the recent storms have stirred the ocean to its depths! No doubt thousands of sh.e.l.l-fish have been detached from their rocks and dashed in all directions by the waves, which have thrown ash.o.r.e even so huge a creature as the whale yonder."

"Yes; isn't he a frightful great brute!" cried Fritz. "Ever so much larger than he seemed from a distance. The worst of it is, one does not well see what use to make of the huge carcase."

"Why, make train oil, to be sure," said Ernest. "I can't say he's a beauty, though, and it is much pleasanter to gather these lovely sh.e.l.ls, than to cut up blubber."

"Well, let us amuse ourselves with them for the present," said I, "but in the afternoon, when the sea is calmer, we will return with the necessary implements, and see if we can turn the stranded whale to good account."

We were soon ready to return to the boat, but Ernest had a fancy for remaining alone on the island till we came back, and asked my permission to do so, that he might experience, for an hour or two, the sensations of Robinson Crusoe.

To this, however, I would not consent, a.s.suring him that our fate, as a solitary family, gave him quite sufficient idea of shipwreck on an uninhabited island, and that his lively imagination must supply the rest.

The boys found it hard work to row back, and began to beg of me to exert my wonderful inventive powers in contriving some kind of rowing machine.

"You lazy fellows!" returned I; "give me the great clockwork out of a church tower, perhaps I might be able to relieve your labors."

"Oh, father!" cried Fritz, "don't you know there are iron wheels in the clockwork of the large kitchen-jacks? I'm sure mother would give them up, and you could make something out of them, could you not?"

"By the time I have manufactured a rowing-machine out of a roasting-jack, I think your arms will be pretty well inured to the use of your oars! However, I am far from despising the hint, my dear Fritz."

"Is coral of any use?" demanded Jack suddenly.

"In former times it was pounded and used by chemists; but it is now chiefly used for various ornaments, and made into beads for necklaces, etc. As such, it is greatly prized by savages, and were we to fall in with natives, we might very possibly find a store of coral useful in bartering with them.

"For the present, we will arrange these treasures of the deep in our library, and make them the beginning of a Museum of Natural History, which will afford us equal pleasure and instruction."

"One might almost say that coral belongs at once to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms," remarked Fritz; "it is hard like stone, it has stems and branches like a shrub, and I believe tiny insects inhabit the cells, do they not, father?"

"You are right, Fritz; coral consists of the calcareous cells of minute animals, so built up as to form a tree-like structure.

"The coral fishery gives employment to many men in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, and other places. The instrument commonly used consists of two heavy beams of wood, secured together at right angles, and loaded with stones. Hemp and netting are attached to the under side of the beams, to the middle of which is fastened one end of a strong rope, by which the apparatus is let down from a boat, and guided to the spots where the coral is most abundant.

"The branches of the coral become entangled in the hemp and network; they are broken off from the rock, and are drawn to the surface of the water.

"Left undisturbed, these coral insects, laboring incessantly, raise foundations, on which, in course of time, fertile islands appear, clothed with verdure, and inhabited by man."

"Why, father, here we are at the landing place!" exclaimed Jack. "It has seemed quite easy to pull since you began to tell us such interesting things."

"Very interesting, indeed; but did you notice that the wind had changed, Jack?" remarked Ernest as he shipped his oar.

The animated recital of our adventures, the sight of the lovely sh.e.l.ls and corals, and the proposed work for the afternoon, inspired the mother and Franz with a great wish to accompany us.

To this I gladly consented, only stipulating that we should go provided with food, water, and a compa.s.s. "For," said I, "the sea has only just ceased from its raging, and being at the best of times of uncertain and capricious nature, we may chance to be detained on the island, or forced to land at a considerable distance from home."

Dinner was quickly dispatched, and preparations set on foot.

The more oil we could obtain the better, for a great deal was used in the large lantern which burnt day and night in the recesses of the cave; therefore all available casks and barrels were pressed into the service; many, of course, once full of pickled herrings, potted pigeons, and other winter stores, were now empty, and we took a goodly fleet of these in tow.

Knives, hatchets, and the boys' climbing buskins, were put on board, and we set forth, the labor of the oar being greater than ever, now that our freight was so much increased.

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 her 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 pounds.