The Coral Island - Robert Michael Ballantyne (little readers txt) 📗
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taste.
Again at this time Jack and I pondered the formation of the large
coral islands. We could now understand how the low ones were
formed, but the larger islands cost us much consideration, yet we
could arrive at no certain conclusion on the subject.
Having satisfied our curiosity and enjoyed ourselves during the
whole day, in our little boat, we returned, somewhat wearied, and,
withal, rather hungry, to our bower.
“Now,” said Jack, “as our boat answers so well, we will get a mast
and sail made immediately.”
“So we will,” cried Peterkin, as we all assisted to drag the boat
above high-water mark; “we’ll light our candle and set about it
this very night. Hurrah, my boys, pull away!”
As we dragged our boat, we observed that she grated heavily on her
keel; and, as the sands were in this place mingled with broken
coral rocks, we saw portions of the wood being scraped off.
“Hallo!” cried Jack, on seeing this. “That won’t do. Our keel
will be worn off in no time at this rate.”
“So it will,” said I, pondering deeply as to how this might be
prevented. But I am not of a mechanical turn, naturally, so I
could conceive no remedy save that of putting a plate of iron on
the keel, but as we had no iron I knew not what was to be done.
“It seems to me, Jack,” I added, “that it is impossible to prevent
the keel being worn off thus.”
“Impossible!” cried Peterkin, “my dear Ralph, you are mistaken,
there is nothing so easy - “
“How?” I inquired, in some surprise.
“Why, by not using the boat at all!” replied Peterkin.
“Hold your impudent tongue, Peterkin,” said Jack, as he shouldered
the oars, “come along with me and I’ll give you work to do. In the
first place, you will go and collect cocoa-nut fibre, and set to
work to make sewing twine with it - “
“Please, captain,” interrupted Peterkin, “I’ve got lots of it made
already, - more than enough, as a little friend of mine used to be
in the habit of saying every day after dinner.”
“Very well,” continued Jack; “then you’ll help Ralph to collect
cocoa-nut cloth, and cut it into shape, after which we’ll make a
sail of it. I’ll see to getting the mast and the gearing; so let’s
to work.”
And to work we went right busily, so that in three days from that
time we had set up a mast and sail, with the necessary rigging, in
our little boat. The sail was not, indeed, very handsome to look
at, as it was formed of a number of oblong patches of cloth; but we
had sewed it well by means of our sail-needle, so that it was
strong, which was the chief point. Jack had also overcome the
difficulty about the keel, by pinning to it a FALSE keel. This was
a piece of tough wood, of the same length and width as the real
keel, and about five inches deep. He made it of this depth because
the boat would be thereby rendered not only much more safe, but
more able to beat against the wind; which, in a sea where the
trade-winds blow so long and so steadily in one direction, was a
matter of great importance. This piece of wood was pegged very
firmly to the keel; and we now launched our boat with the
satisfaction of knowing that when the false keel should be scraped
off we could easily put on another; whereas, should the real keel
have been scraped away, we could not have renewed it without taking
our boat to pieces, which Peterkin said made his “marrow quake to
think upon.”
The mast and sail answered excellently; and we now sailed about in
the lagoon with great delight, and examined with much interest the
appearance of our island from a distance. Also, we gazed into the
depths of the water, and watched for hours the gambols of the
curious and bright-coloured fish among the corals and sea-weed.
Peterkin also made a fishing line, and Jack constructed a number of
hooks, some of which were very good, others remarkably bad. Some
of these hooks were made of iron-wood, which did pretty well, the
wood being extremely hard, and Jack made them very thick and large.
Fish there are not particular. Some of the crooked bones in fish-heads also answered for this purpose pretty well. But that which
formed our best and most serviceable hook was the brass finger-ring
belonging to Jack. It gave him not a little trouble to manufacture
it. First he cut it with the axe; then twisted it into the form of
a hook. The barb took him several hours to cut. He did it by
means of constant sawing with the broken penknife. As for the
point, an hour’s rubbing on a piece of sandstone made an excellent
one.
It would be a matter of much time and labour to describe the
appearance of the multitudes of fish that were day after day drawn
into our boat by means of the brass hook. Peterkin always caught
them, - for we observed that he derived much pleasure from fishing,
- while Jack and I found ample amusement in looking on, also in
gazing down at the coral groves, and in baiting the hook. Among
the fish that we saw, but did not catch, were porpoises and sword-fish, whales and sharks. The porpoises came frequently into our
lagoon in shoals, and amused us not a little by their bold leaps
into the air, and their playful gambols in the sea. The sword-fish
were wonderful creatures; some of them apparently ten feet in
length, with an ivory spear, six or eight feet long, projecting
from their noses. We often saw them darting after other fish, and
no doubt they sometimes killed them with their ivory swords. Jack
remembered having heard once of a sword-fish attacking a ship, -
which seemed strange indeed; but, as they are often in the habit of
attacking whales, perhaps it mistook the ship for one. This sword-fish ran against the vessel with such force, that it drove its
sword quite through the thick planks; and when the ship arrived in
harbour, long afterwards, the sword was found still sticking in it!
Sharks did not often appear; but we took care never again to bathe
in deep water without leaving one of our number in the boat to give
us warning, if he should see a shark approaching. As for the
whales, they never came into our lagoon, but we frequently saw them
spouting in the deep water beyond the reef. I shall never forget
my surprise the first day I saw one of these huge monsters close to
me. We had been rambling about on the reef during the morning, and
were about to re-embark in our little boat, to return home, when a
loud blowing sound caused us to wheel rapidly round. We were just
in time to see a shower of spray falling, and the flukes or tail of
some monstrous fish disappear in the sea a few hundred yards off.
We waited some time to see if he would rise again. As we stood,
the sea seemed to open up at our very feet; an immense spout of
water was sent with a snort high into the air, and the huge blunt
head of a sperm whale arose before us. It was so large that it
could easily have taken our little boat, along with ourselves, into
its mouth! It plunged slowly back into the sea, like a large ship
foundering, and struck the water with its tail so forcibly as to
cause a sound like a cannon shot. We also saw a great number of
flying fish, although we caught none; and we noticed that they
never flew out of the water except when followed by their bitter
foe, the dolphin, from whom they thus endeavoured to escape. But
of all the fish that we saw, none surprised us so much as those
that we used to find in shallow pools after a shower of rain; and
this not on account of their appearance, for they were ordinary-looking and very small, but on account of their having descended in
a shower of rain! We could account for them in no other way,
because the pools in which we found these fish were quite dry
before the shower, and at some distance above high-water mark.
Jack, however, suggested a cause which seemed to me very probable.
We used often to see water-spouts in the sea. A water-spout is a
whirling body of water, which rises from the sea like a sharp-pointed pillar. After rising a good way, it is met by a long
tongue, which comes down from the clouds; and when the two have
joined, they look something like an hour-glass. The water-spout is
then carried by the wind, sometimes gently, sometimes with
violence, over the sea, sometimes up into the clouds, and then,
bursting asunder, it descends in a deluge. This often happens over
the land as well as over the sea; and it sometimes does much
damage, but frequently it passes gently away. Now, Jack thought
that the little fish might perhaps have been carried up in a water-spout, and so sent down again in a shower of rain. But we could
not be certain as to this point; yet we thought it likely.
During these delightful fishing and boating excursions we caught a
good many eels, which we found to be very good to eat. We also
found turtles among the coral rocks, and made excellent soup in our
iron kettle. Moreover, we discovered many shrimps and prawns, so
that we had no lack of variety in our food; and, indeed, we never
passed a week without making some new and interesting discovery of
some sort or other, either on the land or in the sea.
CHAPTER XVII.
A monster wave and its consequences - The boat lost and found -
Peterkin’s terrible accident - Supplies of food for a voyage in the
boat - We visit Penguin Island, and are amazed beyond measure -
Account of the penguins.
ONE day, not long after our little boat was finished, we were
sitting on the rocks at Spouting Cliff, and talking of an excursion
which we intended to make to Penguin Island the next day.
“You see,” said Peterkin, “it might be all very well for a stupid
fellow like me to remain here and leave the penguins alone, but it
would be quite inconsistent with your characters as philosophers to
remain any longer in ignorance of the habits and customs of these
birds; so the sooner we go the better.”
“Very true,” said I; “there is nothing I desire so much as to have
a closer inspection of them.”
“And I think,” said Jack, “that you had better remain at home,
Peterkin, to take care of the cat; for I’m sure the hogs will be at
it in your absence, out of revenge for your killing their great-grandmother so recklessly.”
“Stay at home?” cried Peterkin; “my dear fellow, you would
certainly lose your way, or get upset, if I were not there to take
care of you.”
“Ah, true,” said Jack, gravely, “that did not occur to me; no doubt
you must go. Our boat does require a good deal of ballast; and all
that you say, Peterkin, carries so much weight with it, that we
won’t need stones if you go.”
Now, while my companions were talking, a notable event occurred,
which, as it is not generally known, I shall be particular in
recording here.
While we were talking, as I
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