Adventures of a Young Naturalist
"Generally speaking, of sulphur, chromium, and earth. The phenomenon of
'shooting stars' is connected with that of meteors, and any substance
falling on the surface of the earth receives the name of _aerolite_."
"Do you wish to persuade me that stones rain down from the sky?" cried
l'Encuerado.
"Yes, certainly; and if I am not mistaken, it was in your country that
the largest known aerolite was found, for it weighed no less than fifty
hundred-weights. To-morrow morning we will search for the one we have
seen, which must have dropped at the end of the valley."
"Are these stones luminous?" rejoined the Indian.
"No; but they take fire, owing to their rapid flight."
"And whence did the meteor come which passed so close to us?"
"Either from the moon or the stars, or perhaps from the sun."
L'Encuerado half-closed his eyes, and burst out laughing at what he
considered a joke. He laughed, indeed, so heartily, that we could not
help joining him.
"Now what do you imagine the sun and moon really are?" asked Lucien.
"God's lanterns," replied the Indian, gravely.
Our young companion was well accustomed to the artless ignorance of his
friend, but still he always endeavored to contend against it; so he set
to work to teach him something about our planetary system. The
dimensions which he attributed to the heavenly bodies seemed to afford
great amusement to the Indian. At last, just when the young orator
fancied he had convinced his disciple, the latter embraced him,
exclaiming:
"What an amusing tale! Oh! how pleased I should be to be able to read
such pretty stories as that in a book!"
"Tales, indeed!" cried Lucien, quite indignant.
"Well, the very idea of saying that the earth is a ball, which moves
round and round, and that there are stars which are bigger! Many a night
have I spent looking at the stars, and I know they are nothing but
lanterns, and that's enough!"
"But if you have observed them so carefully," interposed Sumichrast,
"you must have observed that they are constantly shifting their places."
"Yes, but that is because the angels don't always light up the same
stars, and God has plenty of them in every direction--"
I now interrupted the conversation.
"Come, let us all go to rest!" I cried, cutting short a discussion which
I knew, by experience, must end in Lucien and Sumichrast getting the
worst of it.
The next morning there was nothing better to do than to go with my
companions to look after the aerolite. The ball of fire appeared to have
passed just over us, and I fancied that we should be certain to recover
some part of it. After an hour of useless wandering, we were compelled
to admit that our eyes must have been much mistaken as to distances.
L'Encuerado could not help smiling incredulously on hearing the
conjectures which I and Sumichrast made; but he was generous enough not
to take advantage of the superior astronomical knowledge which he
assumed he possessed.
On setting out I again crossed the valley, and then climbing the
mountain, I led my companions up to a plateau.
As far as was possible I followed the route I thought the meteor had
taken. L'Encuerado was just making his way into the forest when
Sumichrast noticed a broken tree, a little to the right. I leaped up on
the slope, and soon remarked that the ground, for a space of at least
twenty yards, was strewn with black or green stones, which had been in a
fused state, and evidently bore the appearance of iron _scoriae_. There
could be no doubt about it; the tree which had been struck had caused
the explosion of the meteor, and had broken under the shock.
"These, therefore, are the remains of some of your sky-lanterns," said
Lucien to l'Encuerado, who had just picked up some large stones, shining
like metal.
The Indian shook his head without answering. The fallen tree, the burned
and blackened trunk, the withered and even scorched grass, these
strange-looking stones--every thing visibly combined to upset his
theory. Each of us added to his load one of the aerolites; then, again
returning to the plateau, we plunged into the forest.
One shot that Sumichrast made rendered him happy for the whole day. He
had knocked down a green-colored crossbill, of a species still unknown
in Europe.
"What a queer bird!" cried Lucien. "How did it manage to eat with its
mouth all awry?"
"Its mouth," replied Sumichrast, smiling, "is well adapted to its food.
This bird--which we have here met with quite by chance, as it usually
frequents mountain-tops--feeds on roots, buds, and pine-cones. Owing to
its two mandibles being so strongly made and so curiously arranged it
can cut through, as if with a pair of scissors, branches which a bird
with a pointed beak could never penetrate."
"God is mindful of all His creatures," muttered l'Encuerado, who was
helping to skin the bird. "I had always fancied that these poor
creatures were deformed."
Towards midday the chances of our path brought us to the bottom of a
narrow valley in the midst of a clump of shrubs; this seemed a fit spot
for our bivouac. In the twinkling of an eye, the ground was cleared of
brush-wood and our hut constructed. We had scarcely sat down to take
breath when a slight rustling in the foliage attracted our attention,
and an animal with a bushy tail sprang down from a tree. Gringalet
darted at it, but an abominable smell, which almost suffocated us, at
once made him retreat. A skunk, which in shape and color somewhat
resembles a squirrel, had thus perfectly poisoned our bivouac.
Nothing was left for us but to decamp as quickly as possible, for the
stench rendered the place uninhabitable for several days. L'Encuerado
could not find enough bad names for abusing the animal, which, however,
had only availed itself of the means of defense with which nature has
endowed it. Each of us now resumed his burden, sadly enough, I must
confess, and not without throwing a disappointed glance at our hut.
Sumichrast led the way, and did not stop till we found ourselves
perfectly exhausted at the entrance to a deep and narrow gorge. We still
felt sickened by the horrible stench produced by the skunk, and, as we
did not wish to expose ourselves again to a similar misfortune, we
took care, before constructing a fresh hut, to search round the shrubs
and bushes. A few birds shot on the road rendered it unnecessary for us
to hunt any more, as we had an abundance of food, so we all set to work
to repair our wardrobes. Our shoes first required our attention, and
Sumichrast constituted himself head-cobbler. L'Encuerado's sandals gave
him a great advantage over us; for all he required was a sole and a
leathern strap, and then he was well shod. But, unfortunately, the
delicacy of our skin several times afforded Sumichrast cause for regret
that he had not been born an Indian.
L'Encuerado, full of ingenuity, managed to fix some pieces of fox-skin
on some old soles, and made for Lucien a pair of buskins as strong as
they were inelegant. He promised to make us some like them, and
Sumichrast, who succeeded only tolerably well in his cobbling, nominated
the Indian "sandal-maker in ordinary and extraordinary to our
majesties."
The next morning at daybreak we entered a narrow gorge in which it was
impossible for us to walk abreast. The whole morning was spent in
travelling along between two stone ramparts, hung with mosses, ferns,
and orchids. The moist soil rendered the temperature round us
sufficiently cool and agreeable; but the pass was so filled up with the
trunks of fallen trees as to render our progress very laborious.
The gorge extended to such a length that I began to be anxious about it,
and to fear lest we had entered into a _cul-de-sac_. The perpendicular
walls rendered any deviation in our path impossible; above us, the trees
crossed their branches and almost hid the sky. No bird enlivened the
solitude with its song, and ferns were so abundant that it seemed as if
we had lighted upon some corner of the primitive world; as if to render
the resemblance more complete, the reptiles scarcely fled at our
approach, and obliged us to use the greatest care.
Cutlass in hand, Lucien climbed nimbly over the fallen trees which
barred our progress. Ere long our feet sank into a quantity of liquid
mud, and I discovered a slender streamlet of limpid water oozing out
between two rocks. The pass between the rocks became narrower and
narrower, and if a wild beast had then met us we should have had to
dispute the path with it. As a rencontre of this kind was by no means
impossible, Lucien, to his displeasure, was ordered to follow in rear.
The way now widened a little, and became more clear of impediments, and
our little column advanced with rather more rapidity. We walked along
silently between these stern and imposing granite walls, with the
constant hope of seeing them separate and open out into a valley. Every
few yards some fresh turn frustrated our expectations; and if ever any
pass deserved the name of the "Devil's Gorge," it was the interminable
fissure through which we had been compelled to walk for so long a
distance. At various heights there were half-suspended rocks which
threatened to fall upon us; for several previously had fallen and now
blocked up the path. At last a sudden turn revealed a wide opening; but
our joy was of short duration; nothing but a perpendicular precipice lay
in front of us.
We looked at one another in consternation; we were prisoners! On our
right and left were perpendicular walls more than a hundred feet high,
and impossible to climb; before us there was a gulf with a vertical
precipice. What was to be done? Sumichrast lighted the pipe of council,
while l'Encuerado clung on to the rocks and tried to measure the abyss
with his eye.
We were seated near a plant with slender branches and heart-shaped
leaves tinged with red, concealing here and there a flower of a violet
blue. I recognized in it the shrub which produces jalap, and is called
by the Indians _tolonpatl_. I called Lucien's attention to it, who soon
dug up four or five tap-roots of a pear-like shape. Jalap, which has
taken its name from the town of Jalapa, whence it was once forwarded to
Vera Cruz, grows naturally on all the mountains of the _Terre-Temperee_.
Unfortunately, the Indians destroy the plant by taking away all its
turbercles, and the time is not far distant when this drug, so much used
in Europe, will, like quinine, become very scarce.
I drew close to the precipice, and perceived l'Encuerado more than
twenty feet below me crawling, with all the skill of a monkey, over an
almost smooth surface. I ordered him to come up to us again; but he did
not seem able to get back, and remained motionless in his dangerous
position. Sumichrast hastened to bring me a lasso, which I let down to
our daring companion. But instead of ascending, he slid down four or
five feet, and placing himself astride on the projecting trunk of a
tree, called out to us to let go the lasso; this he tied round a stout
branch, and disappeared down the abyss.
It was not long before we saw him again install himself on the tree
round which he had rolled the leather strap, when he called out to us
that we might descend without any great danger.
"How shall we fasten it?" asked Lucien; "there are no thick branches
just at the edge."
"The strap is a long one, and there is a bush not far off with pretty
strong branches."
"But then we shall lose the lasso, for none will be left to loosen it."
"Upon my word!" cried Sumichrast, "Master Sunbeam is right."
Then each of us tried to solve the problem, proposing expedients more or
less impracticable.
"I've found it out," cried I at last, with quite as much satisfaction as