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The mysterious island. Abandoned, tr. by W.H.G. Kingston
The mysterious island Abandoned tr by WHG Kingston Author:Jules Verne Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. FIRST TRIAL OF THE CANOE—A WRECK ON THE COAST —TOWING—FLOTSAM POINT—INVENTORY OF THE CASE : TOOLS, WEAPONS, INSTRUMENTS, CLOTHES, BOOKS, UTENSILS—... more »WHAT PENCROFT MISSES—THE GOSPEL—A VERSE FROM THE SACRED BOOK. On the 9th of October the bark canoe was entirely finished. Pencroft had kept his promise, and a light boat, the shell of which was joined together by the flexible twigs of the crejimba, had been constructed in five days. A seat in the stern, a second seat in the middle to preserve the equilibrium, a third seat in the bows, rowlocks for the two oars, a scull to steer with, completed the little craft, which was twelve feet long, and did not weigh more than 200 pounds. The operation of launching it was extremely simple. The canoe was carried to the beach and laid on the sand before Granite House, and the rising tide floated it. Pen- croft, who leapt in directly, manoeuvred it with the sculland declared it to be just the thing for the purpose to which they wished to put it. " Hurrah !" cried the sailor, who did not disdain to celebrate thus his own triumph. "With this we could go round—" " The world ?" asked Gideon Spilett. " No, the island. Some stones for ballast, a mast and a sail, which the captain will make for us some day, and we shall go splendidly! Well, captain—and you, Mr. Spilett; and you, Herbert; and you, Neb—aren't you coming to try our new vessel ? Come along ! we must see if it will carry all five of us!" This was certainly a trial which ought to be made. Pen- croft soon brought the canoe to the shore by a narrow passage among the rocks, and it was agreed that they should make a trial of the boat that day by following the shore as far as the first point at which the rocks of the south ended. As they embarked, Neb cried,— " Bu...« less