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not without danger, for they were infested with huge alligators from fifteen
to eighteen feet long.
Maston courageously menaced them with his steel hook, but he only succeeded in
frightening some pelicans and teal, while tall flamingos stared stupidly at
the party.
At length these denizens of the swamps disappeared in their turn; smaller
trees became thinly scattered among less dense thickets-- a few isolated
groups detached in the midst of endless plains over which ranged herds of
startled deer.
"At last," cried Barbicane, rising in his stirrups, "here we are at the region
of pines!"
"Yes! and of savages too," replied the major.
In fact, some Seminoles had just came in sight upon the horizon;
they rode violently backward and forward on their fleet horses, brandishing
their spears or discharging their guns with a dull report.
These hostile demonstrations, however, had no effect upon Barbicane and his
companions.
They were then occupying the center of a rocky plain, which the sun scorched
with its parching rays. This was formed by a considerable elevation of the
soil, which seemed to offer to the members of the Gun Club all the conditions
requisite for the construction of their Columbiad.
"Halt!" said Barbicane, reining up. "Has this place any local appellation?"
"It is called Stones Hill," replied one of the Floridans.
Barbicane, without saying a word, dismounted, seized his instruments, and
began to note his position with extreme exactness. The little band, drawn up
in the rear, watched his proceedings in profound silence.
At this moment the sun passed the meridian. Barbicane, after a few moments,
rapidly wrote down the result of his observations, and said:
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
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49
"This spot is situated eighteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, in
27@ 7' N. lat. and 5@ 7' W. long. of the meridian of Washington. It appears
to me by its rocky and barren character to offer all the conditions requisite
for our experiment. On that plain will be raised our magazines, workshops,
furnaces, and workmen's huts; and here, from this very spot," said he,
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stamping his foot on the summit of Stones Hill, "hence shall our projectile
take its flight into the regions of the Solar World."
CHAPTER XIV
PICKAXE AND TROWEL
The same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa
Town; and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the
Tampico for New Orleans. His object was to enlist an army of workmen, and to
collect together the greater part of the materials.
The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa Town, for the purpose of setting
on foot the preliminary works by the aid of the people of the country.
Eight days after its departure, the Tampico returned into the bay of Espiritu
Santo, with a whole flotilla of steamboats.
Murchison had succeeded in assembling together fifteen hundred artisans.
Attracted by the high pay and considerable bounties offered by the Gun Club,
he had enlisted a choice legion of stokers, iron-founders, lime-burners,
miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every trade, without distinction of
color. As many of these people brought their families with them, their
departure resembled a perfect emigration.
On the 31st of October, at ten o'clock in the morning, the troop disembarked
on the quays of Tampa Town; and one may imagine the activity which pervaded
that little town, whose population was thus doubled in a single day.
During the first few days they were busy discharging the cargo brought by the
flotilla, the machines, and the rations, as well as a large number of huts
constructed of iron plates, separately pieced and numbered. At the same
period Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles in length,
intended to unite Stones Hill with Tampa Town. On the first of November
Barbicane quitted Tampa Town with a detachment of workmen; and on the
following day the whole town of huts was erected round
Stones Hill. This they enclosed with palisades; and in respect of energy and
activity, it might have been mistaken for one of the great cities of the
Union. Everything was placed under a complete system of discipline, and the
works were commenced in most perfect order.
The nature of the soil having been carefully examined, by means
FROM EARTH TO THE MOON
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50
of repeated borings, the work of excavation was fixed for the
4th of November.
On that day Barbicane called together his foremen and addressed them as
follows: "You are well aware, my friends, of the object with which I have
assembled you together in this wild part of Florida. Our business is to
construct a cannon measuring nine feet in its interior diameter, six feet
thick, and with a stone revetment of nineteen and a half feet in thickness.
We have, therefore, a well of sixty feet in diameter to dig down to a depth of
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nine hundred feet. This great work must be completed within eight months, so
that you have 2,543,400 cubic feet of earth to excavate in 255 days; that is
to say, in round numbers, 2,000 cubic feet per day. That which would present
no difficulty to a thousand navvies working in open country will be of course
more troublesome in a comparatively confined space. However, the thing must
be done, and I reckon for its accomplishment upon your courage as much as upon
your skill."
At eight o'clock the next morning the first stroke of the pickaxe was struck
upon the soil of Florida; and from that moment that prince of tools was never
inactive for one moment in the hands of the excavators. The gangs relieved
each other every three hours.
On the 4th of November fifty workmen commenced digging, in the very center of
the enclosed space on the summit of Stones Hill, a circular hole sixty feet in
diameter. The pickaxe first struck upon a kind of black earth, six inches in
thickness, which was speedily disposed of. To this earth succeeded two feet [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]