第72章

How grateful the inhabitants of Granite House then were to Heaven for having prepared for them this solid and immovable retreat! Cyrus Harding had also his legitimate share of thanks, but after all, it was Nature who had hollowed out this vast cavern, and he had only discovered it.There all were in safety, and the tempest could not reach them.If they had constructed a house of bricks and wood on Prospect Heights, it certainly would not have resisted the fury of this storm.As to the Chimneys, it must have been absolutely uninhabitable, for the sea, passing over the islet, would beat furiously against it.But here, in Granite House, in the middle of a solid mass, over which neither the sea nor air had any influence, there was nothing to fear.

During these days of seclusion the settlers did not remain inactive.

There was no want of wood, cut up into planks, in the storeroom, and little by little they completed their furnishing; constructing the most solid of tables and chairs, for material was not spared.Neb and Pencroft were very proud of this rather heavy furniture, which they would not have changed on any account.

Then the carpenters became basket-makers, and they did not succeed badly in this new manufacture.At the point of the lake which projected to the north, they had discovered an osier-bed in which grew a large number of purple osiers.Before the rainy season, Pencroft and Herbert had cut down these useful shrubs, and their branches, well prepared, could now be effectively employed.The first attempts were somewhat crude, but in consequence of the cleverness and intelligence of the workmen, by consulting, and recalling the models which they had seen, and by emulating each other, the possessions of the colony were soon increased by several baskets of different sizes.The storeroom was provided with them, and in special baskets Neb placed his collection of rhizomes, stone-pine almonds, etc.

During the last week of the month of August the weather moderated again.

The temperature fell a little, and the tempest abated.The colonists sallied out directly.There was certainly two feet of snow on the shore, but they were able to walk without much difficulty on the hardened surface.

Cyrus Harding and his companions climbed Prospect Heights.

What a change! The woods, which they had left green, especially in the part at which the firs predominated, had disappeared under a uniform color.

All was white, from the summit of Mount Franklin to the shore, the forests, the plains, the lake, the river.The waters of the Mercy flowed under a roof of ice, which, at each rising and ebbing of the tide, broke up with loud crashes.Numerous birds fluttered over the frozen surface of the lake.

Ducks and snipe, teal and guillemots were assembled in thousands.The rocks among which the cascade flowed were bristling with icicles.One might have said that the water escaped by a monstrous gargoyle, shaped with all the imagination of an artist of the Renaissance.As to the damage caused by the storm in the forest, that could not as yet be ascertained; they would have to wait till the snowy covering was dissipated.

Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, and Herbert did not miss this opportunity of going to visit their traps.They did not find them easily, under the snow with which they were covered.They had also to be careful not to fall into one or other of them, which would have been both dangerous and humiliating;to be taken in their own snares! But happily they avoided this unpleasantness, and found their traps perfectly intact.No animal had fallen into them, and yet the footprints in the neighborhood were very numerous, among others, certain very clear marks of claws.Herbert did not hesitate to affirm that some animal of the feline species had passed there, which justified the engineer's opinion that dangerous beasts existed in Lincoln Island.These animals doubtless generally lived in the forests of the Far West, but pressed by hunger, they had ventured as far as Prospect Heights.Perhaps they had smelled out the inhabitants of Granite House.

"Now, what are these feline creatures?" asked Pencroft."They are tigers,"replied Herbert."I thought those beasts were only found in hot countries?""On the new continent," replied the lad, "they are found from Mexico to the Pampas of Buenos Aires.Now, as Lincoln Island is nearly under the same latitude as the provinces of La Plata, it is not surprising that tigers are to be met with in it.""Well, we must look out for them," replied Pencroft.

However, the snow soon disappeared, quickly dissolving under the influence of the rising temperature.Rain fell, and the sheet of white soon vanished.Notwithstanding the bad weather, the settlers renewed their stores of different things, stone-pine almonds, rhizomes, syrup from the maple-tree, for the vegetable part; rabbits from the warren, agouties, and kangaroos for the animal part.This necessitated several excursions into the forest, and they found that a great number of trees had been blown down by the last hurricane.Pencroft and Neb also pushed with the cart as far as the vein of coal, and brought back several tons of fuel.They saw in passing that the pottery kiln had been severely damaged by the wind, at least six feet of it having been blown off.

At the same time as the coal, the store of wood was renewed at Granite House, and they profited by the current of the Mercy having again become free, to float down several rafts.They could see that the cold period was not ended.