Across the Zodiac | Page 6

At last, guided by the signs of ever-increasing devastation, I reached the point
whence the mischief had proceeded. I can give no idea in words of what I there found.
The earth had been torn open, rooted up as if by a gigantic explosion. In some places
sharp-pointed fragments of the coral rock, which at a depth of several feet formed the bed
of the island, were discernible far below the actual surface. At others, the surface itself
was raised several feet by dèbris of every kind. What I may call the crater--though it was
no actual hole, but rather a cavity torn and then filled up by falling fragments--was two or
three hundred feet in circumference; and in this space I found considerable masses of the
same metallic substance, attached generally to pieces of the cement. After examining and
puzzling myself over this strange scene for some time, my next care was to seek traces of
the ship and of her crew; and before long I saw just outside the coral reef what had been
her bowsprit, and presently, floating on the sea, one of her masts, with the sail attached.
There could be little doubt that the shock had extended to her, had driven her off the reef
where she had been fixed into the deep water outside, where she must have sunk
immediately, and had broken her spars. No traces of her crew were to be seen. They had
probably been stunned at the same time that they were thrown into deep water; and
before I came in sight of the point where she had perished, whatever animal bodies were
to be found must have been devoured by the sharks, which abounded in that
neighbourhood. Dismay, perplexity, and horror prevented my doing anything to solve my
doubts or relieve my astonishment before the sun went down; and during the night my
sleep was broken by snatches of horrible dreams and intervals of waking, during which I

marvelled over what I had seen, scarcely crediting my memory or my senses. In the
morning, I went back to the crater, and with some tools that had been left on shore
contrived to dig somewhat deeply among the debris with which it was filled. I found very
little that could enlighten me except pieces of glass, of various metals, of wood, some of
which seemed apparently to have been portions of furniture; and one damaged but still
entire relic, which I preserved and brought away with me."
Here the Colonel removed a newspaper which had covered a portion of his table, and
showed me a metallic case beaten out of all shape, but apparently of what had been a
silvery colour, very little rusted, though much soiled. This he opened, and I saw at once
that it was of enormous thickness and solidity, to which and to favouring circumstances it
owed its preservation in the general ruin he described. That it had undergone some severe
and violent shock there could be no question. Beside the box lay a less damaged though
still seriously injured object, in which I recognised the resemblance of a book of
considerable thickness, and bound in metal like that of the case. This I afterwards
ascertained beyond doubt to be a metalloid alloy whereof the principal ingredient was
aluminium, or some substance so closely resembling it as not to be distinguishable from
it by simple chemical tests. A friend to whom I submitted a small portion broken off from
the rest expressed no doubt that it was a kind of aluminium bronze, but inclined to
believe that it contained no inconsiderable proportion of a metal with which chemists are
as yet imperfectly acquainted; perhaps, he said, silicon; certainly something which had
given to the alloy a hardness and tenacity unknown to any familiar metallurgical
compound.
"This," said my friend, opening the volume, "is a manuscript which was contained in this
case when I took it from among the debris of the crater. I should have told you that I
found there what I believed to be fragments of human flesh and bone, but so crushed and
mangled that I could form no positive conclusion. My next care was to escape from the
island, which I felt sure lay far from the ordinary course of merchant vessels. A boat
which had brought me ashore--the smaller of the two belonging to the ship--had
fortunately been left on the end of the island furthest from that on which the vessel had
been driven, and had, owing to its remoteness, though damaged, not been fatally injured
by the shock. I repaired this, made and fixed a mast, and with no little difficulty contrived
to manufacture a sort of sail from strips of bark woven together. Knowing that, even if I
could