Pencroft: Well, captain, where are we going to begin?
Cyrus Harding: At the beginning.
And in fact, the settlers were compelled to begin “at the very beginning.”
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Context: The colonists set out to build industry on the island with no tools at all.
Source: Part 1, Chapter 13
The engineer was to them a microcosm, a compound of every science, a possessor of all human knowledge. It was better to be with Cyrus in a desert island, than without him in the most flourishing town…
I have often thought of all these things, my friends, and I seriously believe that the aspect of our globe will some day be completely changed; that by the raising of new continents the sea will…
Pencroft: …we will make a little America of this island! We will build towns, we will establish railways, start telegraphs, and one fine day, when it is quite changed, quite put in order and quite…
Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish an inexhaustible source of heat and light…
“Are we rising again?” “No. On the contrary.” “Are we descending?” “Worse than that, captain! we are falling!”