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Off on a Comet-Part11_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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at a distance of two miles from land. There was good need

of this precaution, for so precipitous was the shore that a



vessel driven upon it must inevitably have gone to pieces;

it did not offer a single harbor of refuge, but, smooth and



perpendicular as the walls of a fortress, it rose to a height

of two hundred, and occasionally of three hundred feet.



The waves dashed violently against its base. Upon the general

substratum rested a massive conglomerate, the crystallizations



of which rose like a forest of gigantic pyramids and obelisks.

But what struck the explorers more than anything was the appearance



of singular newness that pervaded the whole of the region.

It all seemed so recent in its formation that the atmosphere had had no



opportunity of producing its wonted effect in softening the hardness

of its lines, in rounding the sharpness of its angles, or in modifying



the color of its surface; its outline was clearly marked against the sky,

and its substance, smooth and polished as though fresh from a founder's mold,



glittered with the metallic brilliancy that is characteristic of pyrites.

It seemed impossible to come to any other conclusion but that the land



before them, continent or island, had been upheaved by subterranean

forces above the surface of the sea, and that it was mainly composed



of the same metallic element as had characterized the dust so frequently

uplifted from the bottom.



The extreme nakedness of the entire tract was likewise very extraordinary.

Elsewhere, in various quarters of the globe, there may be sterile rocks,



but there are none so adamant as to be altogether unfurrowed by the filaments

engendered in the moist residuum of the condensed vapor; elsewhere there may



be barren steeps, but none so rigid as not to afford some hold to vegetation,

however low and elementary may be its type; but here all was bare, and blank,



and desolate--not a symptom of vitality was visible.

Such being the condition of the adjacent land, it could hardly be



a matter of surprise that all the sea-birds, the albatross, the gull,

the sea-mew, sought continualrefuge on the schooner; day and night



they perched fearlessly upon the yards, the report of a gun failing

to dislodge them, and when food of any sort was thrown upon the deck,



they would dart down and fight with eager voracity for the prize.

Their extreme avidity was recognized as a proof that any land where they



could obtain a sustenance must be far remote.

Onwards thus for several days the _Dobryna_ followed the contour of



the inhospitable coast, of which the features would occasionally change,

sometimes for two or three miles assuming the form of a simple arris,



sharply defined as though cut by a chisel, when suddenly the prismatic

lamellae soaring in ruggedconfusion would again recur; but all along



there was the same absence of beach or tract of sand to mark its base,

neither were there any of those shoals of rock that are ordinarily found



in shallow water. At rare intervals there were some narrow fissures, but not

a creek available for a ship to enter to replenish its supply of water;



and the wide roadsteads were unprotected and exposed to well-nigh every

point of the compass.



But after sailing two hundred and forty miles, the progress of the _Dobryna_

was suddenly arrested. Lieutenant Procope, who had sedulously inserted



the outline of the newly revealed shore upon the maps, announced that it

had ceased to run east and west, and had taken a turn due north,



thus forming a barrier to their continuing their previous direction.

It was, of course, impossible to conjecture how far this barrierextended;






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