第10章 The Rapid

During their stay at the Boschiesmen’s kraal,Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux had been almost complete strangers.The observations of latitude had been made without their help,and not having to meet in the interests of science,they had not met at all.On the eve of their departure Colonel Everest had only sent his card—P.P.C.—to the Russian astronomer,and had received in return that of Matthew Strux with the same formula.

On 19th May the whole caravan moved on northward.The angles at the base of the eighth triangle—whose apex had been formed,to the left of the meridian,by a stake driven into the ground—had been measured,and it only remained for them to reach their new station to recommence operations.

From 19th to 29th May two new triangles were constructed,and the operations were conducted as favourably as could be desired:the weather had been propitious,nor did the ground offer any obstacles which could not be easily obviated,though perhaps its extremely even surface hardly lent itself to the measurement of angles.It resembled a green desert intersected by rivulets flowing between ranges of karreehout,a tree resembling the willow in its foliage,whose branches are used by the boschjesmen in making their bows.This ground,strewn with fragments of decomposed rocks mixed with clay,sand,and ferruginous particles,showed signs of great aridity.In a few places all trace of moisture was absent,and the flora consisted only of mucilaginous plants capable of resisting the dryness.

But for miles this region did not offer any rise in the ground which could be chosen as a natural station.The geographers had therefore to raise signal pylons ten or twelve high to serve as sights,and this caused a considerable loss of time,which delayed the triangulation.

But on the whole this part of work was successfully accomplished.The crew of the steam launch,told off to help in it,carried out their task with care and promptitude.They would have deserved the high praise of all if questions of national amour propre had not caused dissensions among them;indeed,the inexcusable jealousy which reigned between their chiefs,Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux,sometimes broke out among the sailors.Michel Zorn and William Emery did all that prudence could suggest to counteract this evil tendency,but they were not always successful.Thence arose discussions which,among men but half-educated,could degenerate into open violence.

The Colonel and the Russian savant would then interfere,but in such a way as to make matters worse,each invariably taking sides with his own people,and supporting them right or wrong.From the subordinates the discussion reached their superiors,and increased‘in proportion to the mass,’as Michel Zorn put it.Two months after their departure from Lattakou these two young men alone had kept up the good understanding so necessary for the success of the undertaking.Even Sir John Murray and Nicolas Palander,absorbed as they were,the one in his hunting,and the other in his calculations,began to take part in these internal discussions.At last one day the dispute rose to such a height that Matthew Strux thought it necessary to say to Colonel Everest:

‘You take too much upon yourself,Sir,in the presence of astronomers belonging to the Observatory of Poulkowa,whose telescope is so powerful that it showed the disk of Uranus to be completely circular.’

To which Colonel Everest replied that he had a right to take still higher ground,for he had the honour to belong to the Observatory at Cambridge,whose powerful telescope had enabled them to classify the Great Nebula of.Andromeda among the irregular nebulae.

Here Matthew Strux pushed his personalities so far as to observe that the Poulkowa telescope,with its object-glass of fourteen inches,was able to show stars of the thirteenth dimension,and Colonel Everest asserted in reply that the Cambridge telescope had also an object-glass of fourteen inches,as well as his,and that during the night of January 31st,1862,it had at last discovered the mysterious satellite which caused the disturbance in Sirius.

When savants have recourse to personalities,it may be easily understood how impossible any reconciliation would be.The future of the triangulation was thus very likely to be compromised by this incurable rivalry of the leaders.

Very fortunately,discussion had hitherto been confined to trigonometrical questions.Sometimes there was a dispute over the measurements taken;but the only effect of this was to determine their accuracy more closely.As to the choice of stations,it had hitherto aroused no disagreement.

On 30th May the weather,which until then had been clear,and consequently favourable to their observations,suddenly changed.In any other region a storm might have been foretold,accompanied by torrential rain.The sky was covered with threatening clouds;occasional flashes of lightning,unaccompanied by thunder,pierced the mass of vapour.But there was no condensation in the higher layers of the atmosphere,and not a drop of rain fell on the thirsty soil.The only thing was that the sky remained overcast for several days,and this inopportune mist very much impeded their progress.The sights were not visible for more than a mile.

But as the Anglo-Russian Commission was anxious to lose no time,they decided to use night signals.The only thing was that,by the advice of the bushman,they took some precautions in the interests of the astronomers,for wild beasts,attracted by the electric lamps,would prowl around the stations.The astronomers could already hear the sharp bark of the jackals and the hoarse laugh of the hyaena,which sounded like that of a drunken negro.

During their first nocturnal observations,in the centre of a noisy circle of fierce animals,with an occasional roar announcing the presence of a lion,the astronomers found themselves a trifle distracted from their work.This was carried out a little less quickly if not less accurately.Flaming eyes glaring at them from the darkness somewhat embarrassed the savants.

In such circumstances,taking distances and measuring angles required a high degree of coolness and self-possession.But the members of the commission were not deficient in these qualities.In a few days they had recovered all their presence of mind,and carried on their operations in the midst of the wild beasts as coolly as if they had been seated comfortably in their own observatories.

At every station hunters were posted,armed with guns,and several hyaenas fell victims on such occasions to their own temerity.Needless to say Sir John Murray found this manner of conducting a triangulation quite‘adorable’.While his eye was fixed on the eye-piece of his telescope his hand grasped his rifle,and he often had a shot between a couple of observations.

So these geodesical operations were not interrupted by the inclemency of the weather,nor did their accuracy suffer in any way,and the measurement of the meridian went on advancing regularly towards the north.

No incident worthy of notice occurred between 30th May and 17th June.New triangles were marked by artificial stations,and before the end of the month,if no natural obstacle interfered with the progress of the operators,Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux might calculate on having measured a new degree of the twenty-fourth meridian.

On 17th June,a fairly large stream,one of the affluents of the Orange River,crossed their path.The members of the commission found no difficulty in crossing it themselves,for they had with them an india-rubber boat,made expressly for the purpose of crossing streams,or even lakes of a moderate width.But the wagons and materials could not be ferried across;they had to find a ford either further up-stream or down.

So it was settled,against the advice of Matthew Strux,that the Europeans and their instruments should cross in the boat,while the caravan,under Mokoum’s direction,went some miles lower down in search of a ford which the hunter thought he could hit upon.

This tributary of the Orange was about half-a-mile wide.The small fragile boat ran a certain risk,owing to the strength of the current and to the rocks and trunks of trees projecting above the surface.Matthew Strux had pointed this out,but as he was unwilling to recoil before a danger which his companions were about to incur,he fell in with their views.

Nicolas Palander was the only one who was to accompany the rest of the expedition in the detour lower down the stream.Not that the worthy calculator was at all afraid,but he was far too absorbed in abstruse calculations to suspect any danger whatever.

But his presence was not indispensible,and he could quit his campanions for a day or two without inconvenience.Besides,the boat was very small,and could hold only a limited number of passengers,and it was certainly better to make only the one trip with men,instruments,and provisions to the opposite shore.Skilful sailors were necessary to manage the india-rubber boat;so Nicolas Palander gave up his place to one of the English crew of the Queen and Czar,who would be much more useful than the Helsingfors astronomer could be.

Having agreed that they were to meet to the north of the rapid,the caravan set off down the left bank,guided by the hunter.The last waggons were soon out of sight in the distance,and the astronomers,with two sailors and a Boschjesman who was familar with river navigation,stayed on the bank of the Nosoub.Such was the name given by the natives to this stream,considerably swollen at this moment by the rivulets formed during the last rainy season.

‘A very pretty stream,’Michel Zorn told his friend William Emery,as the sailors were putting the boat together to convey them across.

‘Very picturesque indeed,but not so easy to cross,’replied Emery.‘These rapid streams of water have only a very brief existence,and they make the most of it.In a few weeks,during the dry season,perhaps there may not be sufficient water for a caravan in this riverbed,and now it’s almost an impassable torrent.It makes haste to flow away,and soon it will dry up.Such,my dear friend,is the physical and moral law of nature.But we have no time now for philosophical disquisitions.The boat’s ready,and I shan’t be sorry to see how it behaves in this rapid.’

In a few minutes the india-rubber boat was ready with all its fittings,and launched into the water.It awaited its passengers at the bottom of a steep bank cut into a gentle slope in a mass of pink granite.At this spot,because of the projection of the bank,there was a smooth stretch where the water was almost still,and they embarked without difficulty.The instruments were placed at the bottom of the boat on a layer of grass,to avoid any concussion.The passengers took their places so as not to inconvenience the rowers,and the native went aft to the rudder.

This boschjesman was the vorloper,or leader,of the caravan.The hunter had left him with them,as an experienced hand,well acquainted with African rapids.He understood a few words of English,and he advised the passengers to be silent while crossing the Nosoub.

The rope which held the boat to the bank was let go,and the oars soon carried it out of the smooth water into the current which,a hundred yards further on,became a rapid.The coxswain’s orders were at once obeyed by the oarsmen,who sometimes had to lift their oars out of the water to avoid some treestump just projecting above the surface of the water,sometimes to extract the boat from an eddy caused by the undertow.Then,as soon as they found the stream was too strong,the steersman let the boat run free,while keeping in the line of the current:steering-oar in hand,his eye alert,his head motionless,he avoided all the dangers of the crossing.

The Europeans watched him anxiously in this new and uneasy situation,as they felt themselves carried down this tumultuous stream as by an irresistible force.Colonel Everest and Matthew Strux looked at each other without moving their lips.The two young astronomers admired unconcernedly the banks that were flying past them with bewildering speed.Sir John Murray,his inseparable rifle between his knees,was watching the birds flying about them.

The frail boat had soon reached the rapid,which they wanted to cross obliquely.At a sign from the boschjesman the rowers bent to their oars with all their strength,yet in spite of their efforts the boat was irresistibly swept along parallel to the riverbanks by the force of the current:the rudder had no power over it,nor could the oars affect its course.Their situation was full of danger;for if it touched a rock or a tree-trunk,the boat was certain to capsize.

The passengers were well aware of their danger,but not one of them spoke a word.

The vorloper rose a little from his seat.He was looking out ahead,for now the speed of the water was as great as the boat,the rudder had no control.About two hundred yards ahead was a sort of an islet,a dangerous pile of stones and tree trunks rising in midstream.It was impossible to avoid it:in a few seconds the boat must reach it,and would at once be torn to pieces.

At that moment they felt a shock,but it was less violent than they had expected.The boat heeled over on her side,and shipped a little water;but the passengers managed to keep their places.They looked round-the black rock against which they had struck was moving,and seemed to be struggling in the turmoil of the water.

This rock was a monstrous hippopotamus,which the current had brought down to the islet,and which did not care to risk crossing the rapid to reach the other shore.When it felt the boat strike against it,it raised its head,and giving it a shake,it stared around with its dull little eyes.The enormous pachyderm was ten feet long,its skin brown and hairless,and its open jaw revealed extremely well-developed canine and incisor teeth.

It at once rushed at the boat,bit it furiously,and tried to crush its side in with its teeth.

But Sir John Murray was there.His coolness had not forsaken him.He quietly put his rifle to his shoulder and hit the animal with a bullet near the ear.The beast did not let go the boat,but shook it as a dog would a rabbit.The rifle had already been reloaded,and this time the bullet hit the animal in the head—the shot was fatal,for the immense mass of flesh sank immediately,after having in its death agonies thrust the boat clear of the island.

Before the passengers could see where they were,the boat swept sideways,began to spin like a top,and then was once more driven obliquely down the rapid.An abrupt turn in the bank a few hundred yards lower down directed the course of the current aside.The boat was carried to the shore in a few seconds,a violent shock stopped it and the passengers could leap safe and sound on to the bank,after having been carried two miles downstream from the point where they had embarked.