The Swiss Family Robinson - Full Audiobook : Chapter 22

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Swiss family Robinson by Johann David Wiss, Chapter twenty two.
I projected an excursion with my eldest son to explore
the limits of our country and satisfy ourselves that it
was an island and not a part of a continent.
We set out, ostensibly to bring the sledge we had

(00:22):
left the previous evening. I took turk in the ass
with us, and left Flora with my wife and children,
and with a bag of provisions. We left Falcon's nest
as soon as breakfast was over. In crossing a wood
of oaks covered with the sweet eatable acorn, we again
met with the sow. Our service to her in the

(00:43):
evening did not seem to be forgotten, for she appeared
tamer and did not run from us. A little farther
on we saw some beautiful birds. Fritz shot some among
which I recognized the large blue Virginian jay, and some
different kinds of parrots. As he was reloading his gun,
we heard at a distance a singular noise like a

(01:06):
muffled drum mingled with the sound made in sharpening a saw.
It might be savages, and we plunged into a thicket,
and there discovered the cause of the noise in a
brilliant green bird seated on the withered trunk of a tree.
It spread its wings and tail, and strutted about with
strange contortions, to the great delight of its mates, who

(01:28):
seemed lost in admiration of him. At the same time,
he made the sharp cry we heard, and striking his
wing against the tree, produced the drum like sound. I
knew this to be the ruffed grouse, one of the
greatest ornaments of the forests of America. My insatiable hunter
soon put an end to the scene. He fired at

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the bird, who fell dead, and his crowd of admirers,
with piercing cries, took to flight. I reprimanded my son
for so rash, killing everything we met with without consideration,
and for the mere love of destruction. He seemed sensible
of his error, and as the thing was done, I

(02:11):
thought it as well to make the best of it,
and sent him to pick up his game. What a creature,
said he as he brought it. How it would have
figured in our poultry yard if I had not been
in such a hurry. We went on to our sledge
in the gourd wood, and as the morning was not
far advanced. We determined to leave all here and proceed

(02:32):
in our projected excursion beyond the chain of rocks. But
we took the ass with us to carry our provisions
and any game or other object we should meet with
in the new country. We hoped to penetrate amongst gigantic
trees and through grass of a prodigious height. We traveled
with some labor, looking right and left to avoid danger

(02:55):
or to make discoveries. Turk Walke the first smelling the air.
Then came the donkey with his grave and careless step,
and we followed with our guns in readiness. We met
with plains of potatoes and of manioc, amongst the stalks
of which were sporting tribes of agouties, but we were
not tempted by such game. We now met with a

(03:19):
new kind of bush, covered with small white berries about
the size of a pea. On pressing these berries, which
adhered to my fingers, I discovered that this plant was
the Myrica cerifera, or candleberry, myrtle from which a wax
is obtained that may be made into candles. With great pleasure,
I gathered a bag of these berries, knowing how my

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wife would appreciate this acquisition, for she often lamented that
we were compelled to go to bed with the birds
as soon as the sun set. We forgot our fatigue
as we proceeded in contemplation of the wonders of nature,
flowers of marvelous beauty, butterflies of more dazzling colors than
the flowers, and birds graceful in form and brilliant in plumage.

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Fritz climbed a tree and succeeded in securing a young
green parrot, which he enveloped in his handkerchief, with the
intention of bringing it up and teaching it to speak.
And now we met with another wonder, a number of
birds who lived in a community in nests sheltered by
a common roof, in the formation of which they had

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probably laboured jointly. This roof was composed of straw and
dry sticks plastered with clay, which rendered it equally impenetrable
to sun or rain. Pressed as we were for time,
I could not help stopping to admire this feathered colony.
This leading us to speak of natural history as it

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relates to animals who live in societies. We recalled in
succession the ingenious labors of the beavers and the marmots,
the not less marvelous constructions of the bees, the wasps
had the ants, and I mentioned particularly those immense ant
hills of America, of which the masonry is finished with
such skill and solidity that they are sometimes used for ovens,

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to which they bear a resemblance. We had now reached
some trees, quite unknown to us. They were from forty
to sixty feet in height, and from the bark, which
was cracked in many places, issued small balls of a
thick gum. Fritz got one off with difficulty. It was
so hardened by the sun. He wished to soften it

(05:35):
with his hands, but found that heat only gave it
the power of extension, and that by pulling the two
extremities and then releasing them, it immediately resumed its first form.
Fritz ran to me, crying out, I have found some
India rubber. If that be true, said I, you have
made a most valuable discovery. He thought it was laughing

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at him, for we had no drawing to rub out here.
I told him this gum might be turned to many
useful purposes. Among the rest, we might make excellent shoes
of it. This interested him. How could we accomplish this?
The Kuchook said, I is the milky sap, which is
obtained from certain trees of the euphorbium kind by incisions

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made in the bark. It is collected in vessels, care
being taken to agitate them that the liquid may not
coagulate in this state. They cover little clay bottles with
successive layers of it till it attains they required thickness.
It is then dried in smoke, which gives it the
dark brown color. Before it is quite dry, it is

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ornamented by lines and flowers drawn with the knife. Finally,
they break the clay form and extract it from the mouth,
and there remains the India rubber bottle of commerce, soft
and flexible. This is my plan for shoemaking. We will
fill a stocking with sand, covered with repeated layers of

(07:06):
the gum till it is of the proper thickness. Then
empty out the sand, and if I do not deceive myself,
we shall have perfect boots or shoes comfortable in the
hope of new boots. We advanced through an interminable forest
of various trees. The monkeys on the coconut trees furnished
us with pleasant refreshment and a small store of nuts. Besides,

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among these trees, I saw some lower bushes whose leaves
were covered with a white dust. I opened the trunk
of one of these, which had been torn up by
the wind, and found in the interior a white farinaceous substance, which,
on tasting I knew to be the sago imported into Europe. This,

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as connected with our subsistence, was a most important affair,
and my son and I, with our hatchets, laid open
the tree obtained from it twenty five pounds of the
valuable sago. This occupied us an hour, and weary and hungry,
I thought it prudent not to push our discoveries farther
this day. We therefore returned to the gourd wood, placed

(08:15):
all our treasures on the sledge, and took our way home.
We arrived without more adventures, and were warmly greeted, and
our various offerings gratefully welcomed, especially the green parrot. We
talked of the kutchuok and new boots with great delight
during supper, and afterwards my wife looked with exceeding content

(08:37):
at her bag of candleberries, anticipating the time when we
should not have to go to bed as we did now,
as soon as the sun set end of chapter