by George Sand
My uncle showed them in vain that what they took for an exceptional summer was only the effect of a climate that was new for them and stable in this region; that in case of a sudden thaw, we were in a position to wait for weeks and months for the propitious moment; they mutinied. Nostalgia had gripped them, they missed their desolate climes, their dens under the snow, their rancid, salted fish, perhaps also their relations and their friends. In short, they wanted to leave, and they did not return to obedience until they were faced with Nasias’s threat. He presented them with his diamond, telling them that it would dry them all out and cook them, if they began complaining again. We had only two canoes. It was very difficult for us to get them to build others with the driftwood and the bark from the shore. These enchanted trees terrified their imagination. And then they said that this navigable sea, rich in fish on the coasts, must, at a certain distance, contain unknown monsters and treacherous whirlpools.
Their true object of horror was basically the fear that we would bear them away into the world of Europeans, which they assumed was situated in the neighbourhood of Cape Bellot, never to see their homeland again. My uncle, despite his prestige and his authority, could only persuade a dozen of them to follow us. We managed to equip six canoes and, forced to abandon all our equipment and all our chances of returning to the discontented troop, we set out and abandoned ourselves to destiny.
Although the weather was magnificent, a strong swell prevailed on that sea, where no vessel had yet ventured and will perhaps never venture again. Our own strength and our rowers’ was soon exhausted, and we had to abandon ourselves to a strong current which all at once carried us northwards with a terrifying swiftness.
We went round the Parry Mountains without being able to land, and, after three days of absolute desperation on the part of our men, who however lacked for nothing, did not suffer from the cold and took no blades on board their excellent canoes, at sun-up we saw a prodigiously high peak appear, which my uncle felt surpassed many of the summits in the Himalayas.
Our courage returned; but, when the night hid this giant of the world in its shadows, the fear of not being able to find it again and going past it in spite of ourselves was painful.
Only Nasias displayed no anxiety. Our canoes, tied together with ropes, were moving in convoy, but at the vagaries of chance, when the sky and the waters were filled with a light so bright that it was difficult to bear. It was the most magnificent aurora borealis our eyes had yet gazed upon, and for twelve hours its intensity did not weaken for a moment, although it presented infinitely varied phenomena of colour and shape, each more magical than the previous one. Only the famous crown, which is noticed in these palpitations of the polar moon, remained completely stable and entirely distinct, and we were able to convince ourselves that it emanated from the place where the peak was situated, for the peak had come back into sight and rose to a point in the very middle of the luminous circle, like a black needle in a gold ring.
Admiration and surprise had silenced fear. Impatient to reach this magical world, our Eskimos did their best to paddle, although the powerful current overtook their vain attempts. When daylight returned, they became discouraged again: the peak was as far off as the previous evening, and it even seemed to recede as we moved forward. We had to journey thus for several days and several nights; finally this terrifying summit seemed lower: this was a sure sign that we were getting closer. Little by little other, smaller mountains loomed up from the horizon. Behind them the principal peak was entirely masked, and a land of considerable extent was unfurled before our eyes. From that moment on, each hour we approached was an hour of growing certainty and joy. With the telescope, we made out forests, valleys, waterfalls, a land luxuriant with vegetation, and the heat became so real, that we had to take off our furs.
But how could we land there, in this promised land? When we were well within sight of it, we saw that it was surrounded by a vertical cliff two or three thousand metres high, plunging straight down into the tide, smooth as a rampart, black and shining like jade, and nowhere offering the slightest gap through which one might have hope of penetrating. Close up, it was much worse. What had seemed shiny to us in these black walls was indeed so, for this compact belt was made up of large crystals of tourmaline, some of which had attained the size of our largest towers; but, instead of in places presenting horizontal ledges where one might hope to find depressions arranged in natural steps, these bizarre rocks were planted like the quills of a porcupine, and their tips pointed towards the sea like the cannon-mouths of a fortress of giants.
These shining rocks, some black and opaque, others transparent and the colour of sea-water, were set into an impenetrable mountain, and very finely striated with delicate fluting. They offered a spectacle so strange and so rich, that I now thought of nothing but gazing at them, and yet we had already spent an entire day travelling along them, without being able to get through the furious waves which broke upon them, and without spotting the slightest sign of shelter on that impregnable coast.
Finally, towards evening, we entered for good or ill into a sort of channel, and we came to land at the narrow, rocky end of a small cove where our canoes were shattered like glass, and two of our men killed by the shock they received as they and their vessel beached on the ground.
This ominous landing was nonetheless hailed with shouts of joy, although the survivors were all wounded or bruised to some degree; but we were rendered almost insensible to the loss of our unfortunate companions by the terror of this prestigious voyage, the thirst which tortured us, our fresh water supplies having been exhausted thirty-six hours previously, the despair which had more or less gripped all of us, apart from just one, the indomitable Nasias, and finally by I know not what savage enthusiasm for the peril braved and vanquished.
Wet, broken, too tired to feel hunger, we threw ourselves onto the dark shore without asking ourselves if we were on a reef or on solid ground, and we spent more than an hour like this without speaking, without sleeping, without thinking of anything, occasionally laughing in a stupid manner, then falling back into a fearful silence beside the furious wave which covered us with sand and foam.
Nasias had disappeared, and I alone had noticed his absence; but suddenly the sea lit up with sparkling fires, and we saw the splendid boreal crown form at the zenith; we were inundated as if enveloped by its immense irradiation.
To your feet! shouted Nasias’s voice above our heads. Here! here! Come, climb up, accommodation and feasting await you!
We were suddenly brought back to life, and we slowly climbed a short ravine, which brought us into a narrow valley filled with unknown trees and grasses. A myriad birds flew around Nasias, who had found their nests on a rocky ledge and filled his robe with eggs of all sizes. They ranged from ones the size of a roc’s eggs to those the size of a goldcrest’s. To this feast were added samples of magnificent fruits, and, showing us the trees and the bushes where he had gathered them:
Go, he said, make your own harvest too. You may confidently eat this flavoursome produce, which I have already tested upon myself; there are no poisons here.
So saying, he bent down, tore up a handful of dried grasses with which he stuffed his pipe, and calmly began to smoke, spreading around us exquisitely scented puffs of smoke, while we were stilling our hunger and thirst by eating the most delicate eggs and the most agreeable fruits.
It would have been easy for us to feast on meat, as the birds were just as lacking in timidity as those on the Kennedy islet; but no one thought of that at first, so great was our initial hunger. When it was satisfied our Eskimos, who had learned foresight by dint of dangers and terrors, wanted to wring the necks of these poor birds, which reproached us with eloquent cries for the theft of their eggs. This time, Nasias was energetically opposed to the murder.
My friends, he said, here one does not kill; you must take that as read. The earth produces in abundance all that is necessary to man, and man has no enemies here, unless he makes the
m.
I do not know if our companions understood this admonition, which I judged excellent; overcome by sleep, they fell asleep on the ground, which was made up of a fine dusting of talc. I followed suit, for I did not have the superhuman strength of Nasias, who left us and did not reappear until daylight came.
IV
WHEN HE AWOKE ME, I was very surprised not to find any of my companions around me.
I no longer had need of them, he told me calmly, I sent them away.
Sent them away? I cried out, stunned. But where to? How? By what means?
What does it matter to you? he replied with a snigger; surely you cannot be interested in those coarse, voracious and stupid individuals?
Yes indeed, as much as and more, to be sure, than in faithful and submissive domestic animals. Those ten men and the two we lost when we landed here were the elite of our troop; they showed great courage and patience. I was beginning to understand their language, to become accustomed to their costumes, and even those of them who scarcely had human faces harboured truly human feelings. Tell me, Uncle, where have you sent them? This land is doubtless an Eden where they can wander with nothing to fear.
This land, replied Nasias, is an Eden that I am in no way planning to share with beings that are unworthy of possessing it. Those brutes would not have lived here three days without bringing us into conflict with all the animal forces of nature. I have sent them away; accept that you will never see them again, nor their canoes, their companions, their sledges and their dogs. Here and over all the sea that encloses us we are absolute monarchs. It falls to us alone to find a way of leaving when it so pleases us. There is no hurry, we are quite comfortable here. Get up, take a bath in this charming stream, which murmurs two paces from you, gather your meal from the first branch you find, and let us think about exploring our island, for it is indeed an island set apart from any visible continent and hollowed out like a cup, as I told you; only, there is a prodigiously tall volcano in the middle; but it is a natural beacon of electric light and nothing more.
All objections, all recriminations, were perfectly useless. I was alone in this unknown world with a man who was stronger, more intelligent, more implacable and more of a believer than I was. I must not fight him, but equal him, if that were possible for me to do.
I cast a last glance behind me, and, climbing up onto a promontory, I looked again at the place where we had landed. Either the sea had turned them to dust, or Nasias had saved and hidden them, but there was no trace of our vessels. As for the men, what had become of them? Even the imprint of their footsteps in the sand had been wiped away. I looked down at my feet, and saw light pools of blood; my hands were impregnated with it. I shivered and asked myself if, like my unfortunate companions from the Tantalus, I had not taken part in some frightful scene of delirium and carnage.
Nasias, who was watching me, began to laugh, and, picking a wild blackberry the size of a pomegranate, he squeezed out the juice before me.
What you see there, he told me, are the traces of your supper last night.
I wanted to question him further; he turned his back on me and refused to answer. I must indeed submit to him. As he had already explored the surrounding area, he had one goal, and he headed towards it. I followed him in silence, without weapons or munitions, and as if we had conquered a land where man has nothing left to conquer.
Nevertheless it was not long before we encountered beings that would have been infinitely formidable, had they shown any hostility towards us: these were bison, mouflon, reindeer, aurochs, and elands far larger than those known to us, and all belonging to species which had been entirely lost on the rest of the planet. There were even several that should not have been called by the names I have given them, unsure which one is appropriate for them, for almost all appeared to me to be intermediaries between types which had vanished and present-day fauna. We saw no reptiles there, nor carnivorous animals. As for these great herbivores, which moved in immense herds through the grassy or marshy regions, they were content to look at us with a touch of astonishment, but without fear or aversion. They scarcely bestirred themselves to let us pass, and we could have drawn them at our leisure, had we been armed with the necessary drawing equipment.
In any case, Nasias paid them scant attention and did not allow me to stop for very long. I followed him regretfully, for, now that we were in no danger of any kind, no one was waiting for us anywhere any more, and we belonged entirely to this new life into which we had resolutely thrown ourselves, I scarcely knew what we were looking for any more, and why my uncle, instead of being content with seeing his premonitions made real within the limits of the possible, still insisted on pursuing their chimerical aspect. I shared my reflections with him at my own risk and peril, for he had become imperious, feverish, wild, and I saw clearly that in the event of open resistance, he would not hesitate to rid himself of me. He scarcely answered me, or, when he deigned to explain, it was to reproach me bitterly for my lack of faith and the wilful dulling of my most precious faculties.
What struck me most in the region we were crossing, was not that we constantly encountered new species within all types of animals, plants and minerals: that was to be expected in these latitudes; it was seeing them grow in size as we walked northwards and this fact, which destroyed all my rational notions, could not be explained except by the rapid increase in the heat of the climate. Nevertheless we had not yet reached the region of humid heat and gigantic development.
We had reached the high plateaux supported by the tourmaline cliff. Once again the central peak appeared to us in all its splendour; but it was impossible for us to make out its base, which lay in a misty circle. I calculated that it was five or six good days’ walk away, assuming that we could reach it in a straight line; and, assuming again that it occupied the central part of the island, I calculated that in this direction this island was at least one hundred leagues in diameter.
After two days’ march, during which we continued to walk across hills that were easily climbed, we halted on a last high point, from where the entire island was laid out at our feet. It was a magnificent view of the place as a whole. This entire land had resulted from an immense movement of the earth, which took place in various different geological periods. I was able to make out the traces of great volcanic disturbances; but, in general, the primitive stages were laid bare, and the sedimentary lands occupied only a small surface area. Moreover, none had resisted violent dislocations or the continuous action of a general subsidence, increasingly marked by crumbling the more the eye inspected the central point, which now presented only a terrifying collection of confused ruins.
After three or four days we left the fertile regions inhabited by quadrupeds. The shady ravines and forests picturesquely spread over imposing rocks, the narrow ravines irrigated by lively waters and dotted with bright flowers, were succeeded by interminable slopes of peaty meadow so deeply waterlogged that the herbivores no longer ventured there, and it soon became impossible for us to go any further.
As these slopes—which were probably supported by a wall of tourmaline equivalent to that which extended on the other, maritime, side—overhung the bottom of the cirque, we could only assume there were considerable freshwater courses running along the lower part of our plateaux. The parts ahead of us seemed more arid; but the distance was too great for us to be certain.
Forced to halt and sustain ourselves with purslane and mosses, which moreover were extremely good, we were thinking about retracing our steps to seek an easier slope, when I was terrified by a roaring sound of such a peculiar nature that no comparison with the cries of animals we know can describe it. It was like the prolonged sound from a belfry, mixed with the purring of a steam-powered machine. As I was looking around on all sides, I heard this sound above my head and saw something so enormous fly over, that instinctively I ducked down so as not to be struck by this incomprehensible being as it passed by.
It came down close to us, and I recognised an i
ndividual that—apart from its unfeasible size—appeared to me to belong more or less to the genus megalosoma. It was the size of a buffalo, and it had, moreover, a buffalo’s flat horns and dark pelt. Although this monster caused me real terror, I could not prevent myself admiring it, for it was in all respects a fine animal. Its wing cases and its impenetrable cuirass were clad in a thick olive-green fur highlighted with gold, and from its back rose up that majestic, fork-shaped framework made of horn that is characteristic of the male. Only it appeared not to notice our presence, and began to browse around us as a tame animal might do; then it raised its powerful wing cases, opened up the folds of its broad, iridescent, gauzy wings, and, without rising more than two or three metres, set off and landed a few hundred feet further away.
That animal, which nothing astonished, must live on foliage, said Nasias, for it did not enjoy browsing on the low plants that grow here, and it disdained them. I would have thought that, having left the forested areas we have just crossed ourselves, it was going to go back up there, but it is descending towards the arid deserts. So the nooks and crannies of this great heap of shattered rocks must conceal leaf-bearing plants, and consequently a healthy soil. I regret now not having climbed on to the back of that coleoptera, whose heavy but steady flight would have spared us much futile walking.
That is a fantasy we can manage without, I replied, showing my uncle a dozen of those same scarab beetles, which were flying above us and seemed to be following the one which had served as their scout.
We must reach the place where they will land before they fly off again, for, if they do the same as the first one, they will not make long flights.