Lanterna Rally

Author: Louis Boussenard

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13: 9781230274676

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVII. THE sToCKADE. HE existence of the family of the Crusoes of Guiana was an entirely material one, if one can use the term, the concentration of all intellectual faculties being upon the work of living. This problem is difficult enough in a civilized country, where each man has his portion in the general labour, and where instruments and machines of all kinds are available. Robin, on the other hand, was deprived of everything--even of tools of the first necessity--and had to create all the necessaries of life. He would have to draw all the elements of existence direct from the productions of nature. A hat, a needle, a button, a sheet of paper, a knife, are all objects which one finds almost everywhere at a low price; but what almost insurmountable difficulties meet a man when he is obliged to make for himself trifles like these! Robin had in Nicholas a clever, intelligent, and zealous assistant. As to the negro, thanks to his old experience in the woods, he was a most valuable partner. The three men set themselves to work immediately after the departure of Angosso. Such is the immense fecundity of the equatorial soil, that a clearing abandoned for a few years to itself is soon invaded by an inextricable tangle of creepers, trees, and great plants. These parasitic vegetables become mixed up with the cultivated plants, and soon the whole grows into such a mass that a man placed in this sea of foliage, of fruit, and of flowers can neither advance a foot nor gather any fruit. It is necessary, then, to proceed with method, to chop, to cut down, to clear, to cleave not only the unproductive plants, but also to pick out among fhe useful ones the finest specimens, and to sacrifice the others, whose superabundance would exhaust the...