Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty Two

Uncle Robinson's wish has been fully satisfied: a paradise-like island; a loving family; a pipe and some tobacco leaves.If a large ship passed by here at this time, he would not be able to make up his mind whether to leave this small island. However, for this small group, there are too many things they lack!Although Harry Clifton did not know what their future would be, he was not at all willing to neglect his children's education.Although he doesn't have any books in his hands, isn't he himself a living encyclopedia.He opened cultural classes for the children, and he also lost no time in imparting to them the knowledge and experience he had acquired in nature.Classes begin with instructive subjects.Science courses mainly include nature, history, geography, and then religious and moral courses, which need to be learned in daily practice; philosophy, a theoretical course that is directly summed up in long-term experience, is best taught by Uncle Robinson , in this respect, even the professors of Oxford and Cambridge Universities can not compare with him.Nature is an all-encompassing school, she opens her heart to everyone who wants to know her, and Uncle Robinson is the best believer and missionary in this school.Mrs. Clifton, the venerable mother, unites the members of the small group tightly with her tenderness and great love. She is the most competent moral teacher and the soul of the group.

During the most distant expedition, the explorers brought back some sulfur-containing substances from the sulfur spring.If saltpeter can be found, the engineer intends to make some fine, or even usable, gunpowder.On July 20, the engineer went to the northern part of the cliff to investigate. There, he found a cave with a damp wall and a layer of potassium nitrate on it.This is a natural saltpeter powder.Over time, nitrates are separated from the rock by capillarity. Clifton told his uncle about his discovery and said he intended to make gunpowder. "It is impossible for us to make gunpowder of sufficient quality," continued the engineer, "that we cannot obtain pure nitrate powder, because it requires a special method for purification. So I have to use natural nitrate salt instead. But whether we make it Any grade of gunpowder will be of use to us when we need to blow up mountains and open holes."

"Great, so we can expand our hole a bit and open a few more warehouses around." "In addition, this nitrate can also be used to 'nitrify' the ground in our yard, that is, to mix the nitrate into the soil on the ground, and then tamp the ground, so that the ground will become hard and impermeable in the future." So the nitrate played its first role, and the islanders nitrated and compacted the ground in their yards and in their holes.Afterwards, the floor became as hard and flat as granite, and my mother polished it until it shone like a wooden floor. Then, the engineer started making his gunpowder.The children watched from the sidelines and participated in the whole process of making.Although the gang had only one stone-ball pistol, they were so interested in the production of gunpowder that they seemed to have a whole artillery arsenal to furnish them.

To make gunpowder, you only need to mix nitrate, sulfur, and carbon evenly together.The purpose of the carbon is to burn, producing a large amount of gas which gives the firearm its firing power.Mr. Clifton has sulfur and nitrate, but carbon.It is relatively easy to make carbon. They did not find chestnut trees or poplar trees that are specially used to make gunpowder carbon for weapons, but the carbon burned from elm wood can be used to make mine explosives.Mr. Clifton selected many young branches, stripped of the bark, which produced a great deal of ash; the branches were then fired in pre-dug pits.

Of course the engineer knew the proportions of gunpowder: seventy-five parts nitrate, twelve and a half parts sulfur, twelve and a half parts carbon.These three substances are first ground into powder by different methods, then mixed together, heated, put into a pounding bowl, and pressed into a cake shape with a mallet.In this way, Clifton Engineers made crude powder cakes.The next procedure is to granulate the medicine cake. This is a difficult but necessary process.Because powdered gunpowder can only deflagrate, but cannot cause an explosion immediately, it cannot produce a blasting effect.

Engineers tried to granulate the gunpowder cake.He put the gunpowder cake in the sun for two days, and then pounded it into small pieces; these pieces were put into a round clay pot; the pot was fixed on a pulley taken from the ship; Use a rope to quickly turn the pulley, and the pieces of gunpowder cake rotate in the tank, rubbing and colliding with each other, and gradually turn into slightly angular rough particles.Although it is not smooth, it is particles after all.These granules are then left to dry thoroughly in the bright sun. The next day, Robert kept urging his father to test their new product.The pistol had been wiped clean and charged.Robert wanted to be the first to test fire, but his uncle disagreed.In order to prevent the pistol from exploding and injuring the child in case the gunpowder was too strong during the test shooting, the uncle decided to undertake the task of the first test shooting by himself.In order not to hurt himself, he took some necessary safety measures.

The first shot was fired.The charge in the gun did not detonate immediately; after a moment of burning, the powder gases fired the stone pellets in the gun. A burst of cheers resounded through the sky accompanied by the sound of gunpowder firing.This is the children's cries of joy.They finally had firearms.Mark and Robert also tried out the firearms, and they were very satisfied with this new invention.Of course, gunpowder is not as good as real ammunition, but at least it can be used to blow up mountains and open holes. While the men worked on their various projects, Mrs. Clifton had been tending the poultry to keep them thriving.Since chickens can be domesticated, why can't four-legged animals be domesticated?Mr. Clifton decided to build a dedicated livestock pen.He chose a few acres of land on the north side of the lake, one mile away from the residence.It is a plain with lush green grass, and it is easy to draw fresh water from the river.The engineer was in charge of marking out the perimeter of the fence, and the uncle was in charge of cutting down trees in the woods and machining them into pillars to support the hedge.The project was very difficult, but fortunately they were not in a hurry to finish it soon, and my uncle planned to start domesticating livestock in the spring of the following year.During this period, it is important to go to the forest to cut down trees, and to conduct other investigation activities.

During an investigation, the engineer discovered another valuable cycad tree.The tree is common in Japan, from which it can be inferred that the geographical position of the island is not as far north as they thought. One day, after a big lunch of fish and meat, Clifton asked the children: "How do you think our life is going? Is there anything missing?" "No! Father," replied Mark, Robert, and Jack in unison. "Is there nothing missing in the food and beverage?" "It's hard to answer," the uncle said loudly. "There is game, fish, shellfish, and fruit. What else is there?"

"No, we still lack something." Little Jack said. "What's missing?" asked the father. "pastry." "What a glutton!" said Clifton, "but the boy has a point anyway, and it is a pity to have no bread, or rather no pastry." "It is true, we have forgotten the bread. But don't worry, my little sir, we shall have bread when Miss Bell's wheat grows." "It didn't take that long," said Clifton, "just this morning, I found a tree that provides a fine starch." "Sago!" cried Mark, "as Swiss Robinson Crusoe discovered!"

"Sago rice!" The uncle also suddenly realized, "This is really a good thing. I ate it in the Maluku Islands. There are large sago rice forests there, and each tree can produce 400 kilograms of sago rice. The rice made from it The group is very nutritious. Your discovery is really valuable, let's go to the sago rice forest!" Uncle stood up after speaking, picked up the ax and wanted to go out.Mr. Clifton stopped him. "Wait a minute, my friend, I'm not talking about the sago tree at all, because sago grows in the tropics, and our island is more northerly. It's just a cycad tree, and its starch is similar to sago."

"Then, sir, let's harvest this stuff like sago!" Clifton and his uncle left the children at home, and they headed for the forest.They reached the river and were about to cross the river. "Sir," said the uncle standing on the bank, "we'll just build a bridge here, otherwise we'll have to row a boat across it, and it's a waste of time." "I agree," replied the engineer, "but we should build a drawbridge, which can be retracted to the left bank when not in use. For this river is our natural barrier, and it keeps the beasts from the north from coming to us." "True," replied the uncle, "but a large part of the south side is open, and they can still pass freely." "Then why don't we build a long fence or ditch the southern passage? Who's going to stop us?" "It won't be me," said Uncle Robinson, "I'd better cut down the trees for the bridge." A few minutes later, Clifton and his uncle were in the forest to the northeast.Fido, who accompanied them on the expedition, often pushed an agouti or a capybara out of the grass.Uncle also noticed several groups of monkeys jumping between the branches, because they jumped so fast that he couldn't identify what kind they belonged to. Half an hour later, the two partners came to the edge of the woods. Here is a vast flat land, sparsely grown with clumps of plants similar to palm trees.This is the cycad tree of which Mr. Clickton mentioned.There are pieces of bark like fish scales growing on its trunk, and the clear veins on the leaves draw parallel lines.This kind of tree is short, and it is not so much a tree as a shrub. "That's one of those precious plants," said Clifton, "that has a lot of nutritious flour in its trunk. It's nature's gift to us, and it's all ground for us." "Mr. Clifton," said the uncle, "nature did what she had to do. What would happen to poor wretches thrown on an island without her help? I thought, some Islands may have been created specifically for people who died at sea, and this island is one of them. Well, let's get to work." Speaking of which, the uncle and the engineer began to cut the stems of the cycad tree. In order not to increase the useless burden, they decided to extract the flour on the spot. The cycad is then composed of glandular tissue; it contains some powdery medulla; and some strands of matter pass through the powdery medulla; some concentric ring-like membranes divide the powdery medulla in many small Gerry; and this flour also has a foul-smelling slime mixed in, which is easily removed by pressing.It is this powdery substance that is extremely nutritious, and a small amount of cycad powder can feed a person.Clifton also told his uncle that in the past Japanese law prohibited the export of this precious plant. After several hours of work, the two partners had harvested enough flour, and they picked up the harvest and set out on the way back.When they passed through the forest again, they found that they seemed to be surrounded by monkeys.This time they could observe the monkeys clearly.These animals are tall, and they seem to be the most advanced type of quadrupeds.These are some chimpanzees, gorillas, and gibbons, all of which belong to the same genus of apes, so they are called this because they are very human-like in many ways. These animals are some tough opponents because they are both strong and intelligent.Have these guys seen humans in the past?How do they feel about humans?When Clifton and Uncle were seen passing between them, some grimaced, others made bluffing aggressive gestures.And these two bipeds, with firm steps, without squinting, go forward bravely.But they were still a little apprehensive about the prospect of a dreadful fight with these quadrupeds. "Sir," said the uncle, "we can make a battalion of these fellows!" "Yes," replied Mr. Clifton, "it's too bad for the monkeys to see us, and it would be a nuisance if they followed us back to the hole." "Don't worry," said the uncle, "you can shake them off when you cross the river. Come on!" The two companions quickened their pace, and in order not to provoke the grimacing team, they neither dared to look at them, nor did they dare to make any movements.A group of more than a dozen monkeys escorted them all the time.One of the orangutans, who seemed to be the leader of the gang, approached Clifton and Uncle now, eyeing them face to face, and then returned to his own kind. Mr Clifton was able to watch the animal closely as it approached.The orangutan is six feet tall, with a well-proportioned body and a broad chest; its head is moderately sized, its facial angle reaches sixty-five degrees, its skull is round, and its nose is protruding; its hair is smooth, soft, and shiny. It is a typical image of an ape, its eyes are slightly smaller than human eyes, but shining with wisdom.He also had a chestnut curly goatee, and his white teeth came and went now and then under his moustache. "What a handsome boy!" exclaimed the uncle. "If we understand its language, we can chat with it." As Clifton and Uncle quickened their pace, the monkeys were drawn behind and disappeared into the woods.In the end, only the leader was left alone, still following them.The animal followed them with an incomprehensible obstinacy.As long as there is a slight distance from it, it will throw off its long legs and rush up like a long-distance runner who cannot compete. At four o'clock, the two of them reached the river, and the raft was anchored on the bank, and it was time to shake off the orangutan. The orangutan went as far as the river, and watched the two men load their harvest on the raft, and watched their every move with interest, without any intention of abandoning them. "Attention," said the uncle, "it's time to get rid of this companion." The cable was untied, and Uncle and Clifton jumped on board the raft simultaneously, and got off the shore as fast as they could.At this time, the orangutan also jumped up and landed on the other end of the raft, almost overturning the raft.The uncle rushed forward with the ax in hand, but the orangutan stood there motionless, staring at him without any hostility. Uncle's weapon was lowered. It was obvious that fighting on a raft was inappropriate, even disastrous. Let's play it by ear when we get to the other side. After crossing the river, Uncle and Clifton got off the raft; the orangutan got off the raft too.They walked towards the cave, and the monkey followed them closely.They circled the north shore of the lake, passed through the coconut groves, and reached the foot of the cliff, and the orangutan followed closely behind.At last they came to the fence, opened the gate, went in at once, and shut it behind them. Night came, a cloudy, dark night.Have the orangutans been at the door?Yes, because a strange sound sounded from time to time, breaking the silence of the night.