Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 5.djvu/412

380 himself in fixing the orientation of the island, or, in other words, the precise spot where the sun rose. The day before he had noted exactly the hour when the sun disappeared beneath the horizon, making allowance for the refraction. This morning he noted, no less exactly, the hour at which it reappeared. Between this setting and rising twelve hours forty-four minutes passed. Then, six hours, twenty-two minutes after its rising, the sun on this day would exactly pass the meridian, and the point of the sky which it occupied at this moment would be the north.

At the said hour, Cyrus marked this point, and putting in a line with the sun two trees which would serve him for marks, he thus obtained an invariable meridian for his ulterior operations.

The settlers employed the two days before the oven was built in collecting fuel. Branches were cut in the glade, and they picked up all the fallen wood under the trees. They were also able to hunt with greater success, since Pencroft now possessed some dozen arrows armed with sharp points. It was Top who had furnished these points, by bringing in a porcupine, rather inferior eating, but of great value, thanks to the quills with which it bristled. These quills were fixed firmly at the ends of the arrows, the flight of which was made more certain by some cockatoos' feathers. The reporter and Herbert soon became very skillful archers. Game of all sorts in consequence abounded at the Chimneys, capybaras, pigeons, agoutis, grouse, etc. The greater part of these animals were killed in the part of the forest on the left bank of the Mercy, to which they gave the name of Jacamar Wood, in remembrance of the bird which Pencroft and Herbert had pursued when on their first exploration.

This game was eaten fresh, but they preserved some capybara hams, by smoking them above a fire of green wood, after having perfumed them with sweet-smelling leaves. This food, though very strengthening, was always roast upon roast, and the party would have been delighted to hear some soup bubbling on the hearth; but they must wait till a pot could be made, and, consequently, till the oven was built.

During their excursions, which were not extended far from the brick-field, the hunters discerned the recent