Chapter 32 Chapter 32: The First Day of Sailing

On August 13th we woke up very early.We're ready to set off in this breezy, stylish vehicle. A mast made of two staves joined together, a rig made of another stave, a sail made of our blankets—these were our equipment.There is no shortage of ropes, and everything is well-equipped and satisfying. At six o'clock the professor gave the order to come aboard.Provisions, luggage, instruments, weapons, and plenty of fresh water were placed on the raft.Hannes made a rudder so that he could steer the boat.I let go the hawser which fastened us to the shore, and spreading the sail, we set off at once.

As soon as we left the small port, my uncle, who was interested in geographical names, suggested that the small port should be named after me. "If you ask me," I said, "I'd like to have another name for it." "what name?" "Port Grauban. That would be a lovely name on a map." "Let's call it Port Grauban." Henceforth, the memories of my beloved girl will be associated with our successful expedition. The wind was blowing from the northeast; we were driving very fast ahead of it.A strong wind exerted considerable force on our raft, like a mighty fan, pushing the sails and making the boat go.When the hour was approaching, my uncle calculated the speed.

"If we go on like this," said he, "we shall cover at least ninety miles in a day, and soon reach farther shores." I didn't answer, but just went to the front of the raft.The rocks to the north were disappearing towards the horizon; the left and right banks seemed to be moving further and further apart to facilitate our passage.A sea stretched before my eyes; great clouds cast fast-moving gray shadows, and seemed to place an extra weight on the dim surface of the water.The silver light of the electric lamp was reflected by the waves everywhere, making the sides of the raft sparkle little by little.Soon all land was out of sight, and not a single fixed thing could be seen.Had there been no trace of foam on our raft, I would have believed that our boat had been running quite smoothly.

At noon, large groups of seaweed floated on the surface of the sea.I know that the prolificity of this plant is astonishing, that they grow on the bottom of the sea at a depth of four hundred atmospheres below twelve thousand feet, and that they tend to form clumps strong enough to impede the progress of large ships; There are no seaweeds as huge as those in the Liedenbroek Sea. Our raft came near some three or four thousand feet of black carrageen, which stretched out of sight like a gigantic boa constrictor; and looking at these endless clumps made me feel It's very pleasant, and I often want to see an end, but after a few hours, my patience still has no results.

What a great force of nature has created this plant!In the earliest days, when only plants dominated the earth due to heat and humidity, I don’t know what kind of scene it was! Night had come, but, as I had observed the day before, the sheen of the air had not gone away.It's a regular occurrence that anyone can count on seeing.After supper I sprawled at the foot of the mast, and soon fell asleep, and lost myself in sweet dreams. Hannes held the helm motionless, and kept our raft ahead of the wind; there was no need of the rudder just now. After we set off from the port of Grauban, Professor Liedenbrock asked me to start writing a "diary at sea", telling me to record all the small things and interesting phenomena I observed, as well as the direction of the wind, the speed, the distance traveled, and in short Write down everything that happened during the novel voyage.

I will now copy here these diaries, which are faithfully and faithfully entered, so that our voyage may be more closely acquainted. On Friday, August 14, a steady northeasterly wind blew.The raft sailed fast and straight.The coast was about ninety miles away.Nothing on the horizon.The intensity of the light does not change.The weather was fine, the clouds were light and light, and the atmosphere was white and luminous like molten silver everywhere.The thermometer read thirty-two degrees Celsius. At noon, Hanns tied the hook to the line, took a piece of meat as bait, and put it into the sea.For two hours he caught nothing.Then there was a movement in the line; Hannes pulled it up and a struggling fish was caught on the hook at the end of the line.

"A fish!" cried the uncle. "It's a sturgeon," I continued, "a little sturgeon!" The professor examined the fish carefully and came to a different conclusion.The head of this fish is flat and round, and the front part of the body is a pelvis. It has no teeth in its mouth and has well-developed pectoral muscles, but it has no tail.This fish certainly belonged to that genus which naturalists have named sturgeons, but differed from them in one important point. Uncle was not at a loss, he looked at it for a while and said: "This fish belongs to a long-extinct species that was found in the fossil field in Devon."

"What!" said I, "have we found living inhabitants in those primordial seas?" "Found it," said the uncle, continuing to observe. "You see these fossils are in a different form than the present specimens. It's a real pleasure for a naturalist to find one of these animals and it's alive." "Then what class does it belong to?" "It belongs to the hard scale fish family, the (wooden shield) head fish family; as for the species, it is..." "what?" "Pteroptera, I swear it; there's a thing about that fish that every fish in the ground water has."

"What feature?" "It's blind!" "Blind?" "Not only is it blind, but it has no visual organs at all." I watched - and couldn't say anything more.Perhaps this was a special case, so the bait was put on the hook and cast again.It must have been a productive sea, for within two hours we had a good number of pteroptera and other extinct fish--bifins, of which species my uncle could not tell; all All fish have no eyes.This unexpected harvest is good for our food supply. I think we may come across reptiles for which scientists have successfully reproduced specimens based on surviving bones and cartilage.

I picked up the binoculars and looked at the sea.It looks very deserted.I think we must be too close to the coast. I look up.Immortals have reproduced some stuffed birds, why can't the birds use their wings in this dreary air?Fish can provide it with plenty of food.No, the air seemed to be as lifeless as the shore. Yet my fantasies took me to the wondrous realm of paleontology, and I too indulged in daydreams.I dreamed of seeing giant tortoises on these waters—ancient soft-shelled turtles like floating islands.On the dusky shore, I seem to see the nerve-numbed Pristodon—a huge tapir hiding behind a rock, ready to compete for meat with the defenseless beast, a species of rhinoceros, horse, hippopotamus and camel. There are closely related monsters.The gigantic mastodon shook its body, banging its tusks against rocks; the giant sloth crouched on all fours to dig in the ground, its growl echoing.Above, the proto-ape - the first monkey - climbed the precipitous heights.Above, the Pterodactyl, with its winged claws, flew through the dense air like a large bat.Above, a gigantic bird, stronger than a cassowary and larger than an ostrich, spread its broad wings and bumped its head against the granite top.

The whole world of these fossils came to life again in my fantasies, and my fantasies went back to the first days of Genesis, long before the birth of man, when this incomplete world was not yet prepared for him.When I think back through the ages - mammals disappeared, then birds, then fish, crustaceans, cartilaginous animals.Hundreds of years passed like days.The phytophytes of the transitional period also vanished.The heat of the earth itself increased, and was greater than that received from the sun; the plants grew large, and I walked (木沙)(木罗) like a ghost, leaning against the trunk of a huge coniferous tree, and in Rest in the shade of a hundred-foot stone pine. By this time the plant itself was gone; the granite had lost its solidity, the water on the surface boiled, and the ground was filled with steam.Now the earth itself is a cloud of white-hot gas, as big and bright as the sun! At the center of this nebula, I passed through interstellar space, my body disintegrated, until at last I was an unmeasurably light atom, passing through the infinite space between the huge orbits of this flaming earth! What an amazing dream!Where has it taken me?With trembling hands, I wrote all these novel scenes.I've left everything behind, and in my violent fantasies I've forgotten the professor, the guide, and the raft— "What's the matter?" said the uncle.I stared at him with wide eyes in a daze. "Be careful, Aksai, you will fall into the sea!" At this moment, I felt myself being hugged tightly by Hannes.If it hadn't been for him to hold me, under the influence of the dream, I must have fallen into the waves of the sea. "Is he crazy?" the professor exclaimed. "What's the matter?" I just woke up. "Are you sick?" "No, I was just thinking about it, but it's over, is everything ok?" "Very good, calm." "Yes, calm! We're going fast. If my calculations are right, we'll be ashore soon." Upon hearing this, I stood up and looked forward, but what I saw was still boundless water, and what connected with the water were the clouds in the sky.

---

Notes: