Chapter 19 Chapter Nineteen

For the next two weeks, the Cliftons did not go on an expedition, and all remained in the cave to attend to domestic affairs.The most important thing is the clothing problem, they have to use animal skins instead of cotton.For this reason, under the leadership of their uncle, they hunted another six or seven seals.Afterwards, the amphibians became so vigilant that they stopped coming to the island to bask in the sun.Had to look for them again. Fortunately, on the 18th and 19th, the children hunted another six or seven foxes with arrows.It is a large-eared, canid, with yellowish fur, slightly larger than the average fox.Mrs. Clifton was very satisfied with this new discovery, which enriched the raw materials for clothing.Uncle Robinson was even more elated, as if he had no other desires in this world.Once, Mr. Clifton asked him if there was anything missing.He replied: "Yes." But he refused to say what was missing.

Having dealt with the matter of materials for winter clothing, Mr. Clifton decided to make an inland expedition on May 31st.Its purpose is twofold, one is to find out the geographical environment of this land; the other is to further explore the natural resources here.Uncle Robinson gave good advice for the expedition: "Why don't we take advantage of the water transportation that nature provides us? We can take a boat and go up the river until the boat can no longer sail, then disembark and walk, and when we come back, we can take the boat back," said the uncle. . His proposal was adopted unanimously.But there was still an important question to be resolved, and that was who should go on the expedition and who should stay.Leave Mrs. Clifton and her little girl alone for two or three nights?Although the brave woman agreed to be left alone with her youngest daughter, her husband thought it inappropriate.Mark agreed to stay with his mother because he considered it his duty.However, one can also see that it was also a kind of self-sacrifice for him.

"But," said Uncle Robinson, "why don't we all go out together? It's June now, and the days are long and the nights are short, so what's the point of spending the night in the woods? So I suggest you all join the expedition." .Besides, most of the time is spent by boat, and it will not be tiring. If everyone agrees, and there are no other difficulties, we can start on Monday and return on Wednesday evening." This proposal was welcomed by everyone, adults and children unanimously approved.Thus, preparations for the expedition began.The food to be brought on the road are: barbecue, smoked fish, boiled eggs, fruit.Besides this my uncle made arrows, and clubs for weapons, and he took an axe, for both defense and offense if need be.As for the fire, they arranged it in this way: they divided the tinder into two halves, kept one half in the cave for use on their return, and took the other half with them on the way.It can be seen that looking for substances to replace tinderma has become one of the important tasks of future expeditions.

The eve of departure was Sunday, a day of rest and worship.Mr. and Mrs. Clifton took this opportunity to teach their children good moral concepts; and Uncle Robinson also took the opportunity to preach to them the experience and principles he had summed up in natural philosophy.The next day, May 31, the whole family got up at dawn.Uncle had already prepared the tools needed to sail the boat; he fitted the boat with sails, oars, and coconut fiber ropes.In this way, when the wind is down, the sails can be hoisted and sailed; when the wind is headed, oars can be rowed and ropes can be pulled, thereby ensuring smooth sailing on the water.

At six o'clock in the morning, the boat was pushed into the sea.They all got into the boat and took their places: Mark and Robert in the front, Mrs Clifton and the two little children in the middle; Uncle and Clifton in the rear.Uncle steers, and Mr. Clifton controls the sails. The breeze blows from the sea, and there are fine waves on the sea.The seabirds sang happily and flew in the air.Raising the sails, the boat sailed lightly in the channel formed between the coastline and the small island.The tide was beginning to rise, and in a few hours the rising tide would carry the boat up the river.

The boat went smoothly, and soon arrived at the northern end of the island, near the mouth of the river.Harry Clifton tightened the sails, and the wind and tide blew, and the boat entered the river smoothly, getting farther and farther away from the cliff, and gradually sailed out of the shadow of the cliff.The sun shines softly on the body, and the whole family is extremely happy.Fido couldn't help screaming for joy, and Jack responded mischievously. Then the boat came to the first bivouac, and Mrs. Clifton pointed out to her husband where they had pitched their tents using the boat for a roof.The boat flew past, and the first campground disappeared from sight in an instant.

Soon the river carried the boats into the woods, and the tall trees on the bank formed a green arcade, some with low-hanging branches almost touching the water.The sail was out of use, and Uncle told Mark and Robert to furl it up.The two teenagers completed the task skillfully.They started rowing with oars.But the tide was still rising, and the speed of the boat was still very fast. My uncle no longer used the rudder, but used the stern oar to control the direction of the boat. "The scenery on both sides is very charming," said Mr. Clifton, looking at the river winding through the forest.

"Yes, the light of water, the shadow of trees, the scenery of nature is so beautiful." Mrs. Clifton replied. "You will see other and more beautiful sights," put in the uncle. "I repeat, fate has brought us to a paradise." "Have you surveyed the river?" asked Mrs. Clifton. "Certainly," continued Robert, "my uncle and I have already walked through the jungle vines on the right bank." "What a magnificent tree!" exclaimed Mr. Clifton. "Yes," replied the uncle, "there are all kinds of trees here, and we will never be short of wood."

Indeed, on the left bank of the river, there are many elm trees, the wood of which is very suitable for building houses and can be preserved in water for a long time; there are also a large number of hackberry whose kernels can be squeezed for oil; In the distance, the engineer also saw clusters of Akebia trees, whose flexible branches hang down to the water surface, which are good materials for making ropes; there are also two or three persimmon trees with hard wood, I don’t know what they are The reason fell to the ground.Among these large trees, engineers also found the American locust tree, which is endemic to North America and can be seen at New York's altitude.

The most eye-catching among these large trees is a Humboldt lily common in the Canary Islands. "Look, how beautiful the tree over there is!" Mark and Robert admired. "It's a dracaena," said Mr. Clifton, "and I'll tell you one more surprise, that these tall trees are nothing but onions." "Is that possible?" Mark asked. "Or it can be said that they all belong to the bulbous plants such as lilies, onions, shallots, chives, asparagus. Sometimes these unnoticed plants bring us more benefits than those tall trees. I tell you that bulbous plants are also Including: tulips, aloe vera, hyacinths, daffodils, tuberose and a New Zealand flax, the plant your mothers knew best."

"Father," Mark asked, "how did nature arrange that in the same genus, some were as huge as a dracaena, a hundred feet high, while others were as small as an onion, only eight inches?" "Because they have the same properties, my dear boy, so do the animals, just as it will surprise you to know that sharks and rays belong to the same family. And the bulb family is very widespread on the earth, up to several thousand Plant it!" "Yes," continued Uncle Robinson, "Mrs. Clifton, I think someday I'll find some bulbs for your cooking. And don't look down on dracaena, on Sandwich Island, people Eat the tender pith part of its root, call it 'di'. I have eaten it too. It tastes great when boiled. It can also be mashed and fermented to make a delicious drink." "That's right," said the engineer again, "the dracaena you speak of may be a darker red than what we see. The one we see oozes a resin known as dragon's blood. It is good for stopping bleeding." medicinal materials, so when foreigners occupied Canary Island, they used to plunder this resin in large quantities." The boat set off at six o'clock and arrived on the lake an hour later.From here, the western part of the cliff can be seen again, and the vast shining sea and golden sandy beach.Seeing the beautiful scenery in front of them, the children became even more excited, and the boat reached the vast lake, from which they could enter the upper reaches of the river northward.Uncle Robinson, hoisted the sails, and the boat sailed briskly to the west bank.Looking at the lake, Clifton remembered the suspicious phenomenon he saw when he first came to the lake, so he observed the lake carefully, and the children only cared about the beautiful scenery and played happily.Jack stretched his hand into the lake, and with the sound of rushing water, there were waves of water. At the request of Mark, everyone stayed on the island in the middle of the lake for a while.This is a rock protruding from the water with an area of ​​about one acre. It is covered with grass, which seems to be a paradise specially dedicated to the birds by the lake for nesting and laying eggs.All kinds of birds can be found here.Fido screamed and tried to jump at the birds, but was stopped by Mr. Clifton.He believes that the island in the middle of the lake should be regarded as a hunting sanctuary, and the birds should not be easily disturbed, otherwise they will fly away and find another place to nest and breed. After the exploration of the island in the middle of the lake, Uncle Robinson drove the boat to the estuary of the upper reaches of the river.The river flowed into the dense forest again, and sailing in these low green arcades required not only lowering the sails, but also lowering the masts.When the boat reached the upper reaches of the river, the effect of the high tide could no longer be felt. Uncle and Mark began to paddle, and the engineer took the helm. "We're in strange land!" Clifton said. "Yes sir, I have never explored so far. We are waiting for your expedition. I don't know where this river will go, but I think it must be long, because, you see , the river is quite wide!" Indeed, the new estuary is still seventy to eighty meters wide, and the riverbed shows no signs of becoming thinner.The flow of the river is not very fast, and under the stroke of the oars, the light boat leans against the left bank for a while, and then leans against the right bank for a while. The boat had been traveling for three hours, the sun had risen high, and the sun was shining on the river through the lush branches. The explorers often went ashore to explore, and they found many useful plants.A species of wild spinach of the family Chenopodiaceae, widely distributed in clumps.Mrs. Clifton had picked some for cooking, and she was going to transplant some and turn them into homegrown vegetables.She also found some wild daylilies, cabbages, watercresses, horseradish, radishes, and a plant with thin stems covered with many hairy twigs, a meter high, bearing many small brown grains.Clifton recognized it as black mustard, the raw material for black pepper. They picked many precious plants and put them into the boat, and everyone boarded the boat again and continued to travel.On another section of the river bank, Mark and Robert caught several pairs of small birds from the bird's nest. They had slender beaks, long necks, short wings, and seemed to have no tails. They were geese waterfowl.They decided to keep one male and one female and keep them in a poultry pen.The young hunters also shot a few cuckoos, a pigeon-like bird with green spots, crimson wings, and a white-edged, straight flower crown.The plumage of this bird is very beautiful, and the meat tastes very delicious. During a shore survey, an important material was discovered due to Little Jack's mischief.The little guy rolled happily in an open space, his clothes were covered with yellow soil.For this, he was reprimanded by his mother, Jack immediately withered, he felt very ashamed. "Come, Mrs. Clifton, don't scold him, he's a boy, and let him play!" said the uncle. "He can play, but he can't roll on the ground!" replied the mother. "But how can you play if you don't roll around," the uncle defended. "This time I think," said Mr. Clifton, "that instead of blaming Jack, he should be commended for rolling in the yellow earth." "why?" "Because these loesses are clay, clay for ordinary but very useful pottery." "Crockery!" exclaimed Mrs. Clifton. "Yes, because I don't doubt that Uncle Robinson was not only a carpenter, lumberjack, and tanner, but he was also a potter." "He's only a sailor," interrupted the uncle, "and that's enough." Little Jack took his father and uncle to the clearing where he was rolling, and Mr. Clifton discovered that it was indeed clay, the proper name for which is china clay.In order to further confirm his opinion, he picked up a handful of this soil, licked and tasted it, and felt a thirsty feeling in his mouth, so he was sure that it was a kind of sandy siliceous clay, which could be used for pottery. "What a discovery!" exclaimed Mr. Clifton. "I even think it's kaolin, which can also be used to make porcelain." "Let's make the pottery first," said the uncle. "I'm sure Mrs. Clifton will love these clay pots." So, we loaded a lot of this plastic clay into the boat.After returning to the cave, my uncle can use it to make pots, dishes and other utensils. Then the whole crew boarded the boat again, rowed the oars, and the boat sailed leisurely toward the upper reaches of the river.Gradually, the river became more and more winding and narrow, and it is estimated that it is not far from the source of the river.Uncle guessed that the depth of the water under the boat was only two or three feet.And Mr. Clifton reckons the boat had traveled about eight kilometers from the point where the river emptied into the lake. In the valley through which the explorers were sailing, the trees began to thin out.The dense forest was gradually replaced by big trees in twos and threes.The steep banks of the river are full of huge rocks.The topography has changed significantly here.The branch of the main peak overlooking the mountains is also formed from here. At around 11:30, the buoyancy of the river was obviously insufficient, which indicated that it was difficult to sail further by boat.Black reefs dotted the riverbed, and not far away came the roar of a waterfall. The boat was driving along the river, and after a sharp turn, a waterfall suddenly appeared in front of people.The scenery here is pleasant: in the picturesque canyon, the pine trees are tall and straight, the boulders in the river are covered with moss, and the shapes are different. The river flows turbulently, but the water volume is not large. The reefs are divided into several strands, and sometimes they merge together, falling from a high place to form a waterfall.The whole family is immersed in this beautiful scenery. "Wow, what a beautiful waterfall!" Jack shouted. "Father, father!" Bell begged his father, "Come closer!" But little Bell's request was not fulfilled.Every stroke of the boat was in danger of hitting rocks, so they had to moor on the left bank of the river, fifty meters away from the waterfall, and everyone went ashore.Immediately the two youngest children were running and fighting on the river beach. "What shall we do now?" "Let's climb up!" said the impetuous Robert, pointing to the towering main peak to the north of the disembarkation place. "My boys, before we go on a hike, I have a piece of advice for you." "What advice, Mother?" Mark asked. "have lunch." This proposal was unanimously accepted.The food they brought was brought from the small boat, and the birds they hunted on the road were grilled on the fire. Soon the air was filled with the aroma of barbecue. Everyone was in a hurry to get on the road, and the lunch was over soon.In order not to get lost when they returned, and they had to find the river that took them to this place by boat, Mr. Clifton and his uncle observed carefully along the way, carefully remembering various landform features.