The weather became very unsettled and stormy.
Heavy clouds gathered on the horizon, and passing storms of wind, with thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain, swept over the face of nature from time to time.
The sea was in frequent commotion; heavy ground swells drove masses of water hissing and foaming against the cliffs. Everything heralded the approaching rains. All nature joined in sounding forth the solemn overture to the grandest work of the year.
It was now near the beginning of the month of June, and we had twelve weeks of bad weather before us.
We established some of the animals with ourselves at the salt cave. The cow, the ass, Lightfoot, Storm, and the dogs were all necessary to us. While Knips, Fangs, and the eagle were sure to be a great amusement in the long evenings.
The boys would ride over to Falconhurst very often to see that all was in order there, and fetch anything required.
Much remained to be done in order to give the cave a comfortable appearance, which became more desirable now that we had to live indoors.
The darkness of the inner regions annoyed me, and I set myself to inventing a remedy.
After some thought, I called in Jack’s assistance, and we got a very tall, strong bamboo, which would reach right up to the vaulted roof. This we planted in the earthen floor, securing it well by driving wedges in round it. Jack ascended this pole very cleverly, taking with him a hammer and chisel to enlarge a crevice in the roof so as to fix a pulley, by means of which, when he descended, I drew up a large ship’s lantern, well supplied with oil, and as there were four wicks, it afforded a very fair amount of light.
Several days were spent in arranging the various rooms.
Ernest and Franz undertook the library, fixing shelves, and setting in order the books we had salvaged from the wreck.
Jack and his mother took in hand the sitting room and kitchen, while Fritz and I, as better able for heavy work, arranged the workshops. The carpenter’s bench, the turning lathe, and a large chest of tools were set in convenient places, and many tools and instruments hung on the walls.
An adjoining chamber was fitted up as a forge, with fireplace, bellows, and anvil, complete, all of which we had found in the ship, packed, together, and ready to set up.
When these great affairs were settled, we still found in all directions work to be done. Shelves, tables, benches, movable steps, cupboards, pegs, door handles, and bolts—there seemed no end to our requirements, and we often thought of the enormous amount of work necessary to maintain the comforts and conveniences of life which at home we had accepted as matters of course.
But in reality, the more there was to do the better. I never ceased contriving fresh improvements, being fully aware of the importance of constant employment as a means of strengthening and maintaining the health of mind and body. This, indeed, with a consciousness of continual progress toward a desirable end, is found to constitute the main element of happiness.
Our rocky home was greatly improved by a wide porch which I made along the whole front of our rooms and entrances, by leveling the ground to form a terrace, and sheltering it with a veranda of bamboo, supported by pillars of the same.
Ernest and Franz were highly successful as librarians.
The books, when unpacked and arranged, proved to be a most valuable collection, capable of affording every sort of educational advantage.
Besides a variety of books of voyages, travels, divinity, and natural history (several containing fine colored illustrations), there were histories and scientific works, as well as standard fiction in several languages. There was also a good assortment of maps, charts, mathematical and astronomical instruments, and an excellent pair of globes.
Occasionally we amused ourselves by opening chests and packages hitherto 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. 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 passed so rapidly that no one found time hang heavy on his hands.
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 attitude of repose, her smiling aspect of peaceful beauty. 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 farther 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 halfway to the great fish, and as I drew near they shouted in high glee:
“Oh, father, just look at the glorious shells and coral branches we are finding. How does it happen that there are such quantities?”
“Only consider how the recent storms have stirred the ocean to its depths! No doubt thousands of shellfish have been detached from their rocks and dashed in all directions by the waves, which have thrown ashore 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 carcass.”
“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 shells 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.”
“Is coral of any use?” inquired Jack.
“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.”
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, assuring 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.”
Upon our return the animated recital of our adventures, the sight of the lovely shells 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 compass. “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 burned day and night m 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.
The color was a uniform velvety black, and the enormous head about one-third of the length of the entire bulk, the eyes quite small, not much larger than those of an ox, and the ears almost undiscernible.
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, masses 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 never can 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 possesses 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 together with his prey, he retains the captured animals, and swallows them at his leisure.
“The nostrils, or blowholes, 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 carcass.
“The breathings are called ‘spoutings,’ because a column of mixed vapor and water is thrown from the blowholes, sometimes to a height of twenty feet.
“And now, boys, 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 assisted me to cut away the lips, so as to reach the whalebone, a large quantity of which was detached and carried to the boat.
Ernest labored 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 multitude of unbidden guests.
The air was filled by the shrill screams and hoarse 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, snatching 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 leatherwork. 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.
The boys thought the tongue might prove palatable, but I valued it only on account of the large quantity 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 assist, and had no inclination to witness it.
It was my intention to open the carcass 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.
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.
