Free The Floating Island by Jules Verne Page A

American coast.”
    “And is it necessary to have a
factory of such size for that purpose?”
    “I think so, considering what we
do with our electrical energy, and also our mental energy!” replied Munbar. “Believe
me, gentlemen, it required a pretty strong dose to found this incomparable city
without a rival in the world!”
    They could hear the dull rumbling
of the huge factory, the vigorous belchings of the steam, the clanking of the
machines, the thuds on the ground, bearing witness to a mechanical effort
greater than any in modern industry. Who could have imagined that such power
was necessary to move dynamos or charge accumulators?
    The tram passed, and a quarter of
a mile further on stopped at the harbour.
    The travellers alighted, and
their guide, still profuse in his praises of everything, took them along the
quays by the warehouses and docks. The harbour was oval in form, and large
enough to hold some twenty ships. It was more of a wet dock than a harbour
terminated by jetties; two piers, supported on iron piles, and lighted by two
lamps, facilitating the entry of vessels from the sea.
    On that day the wet dock
contained only half a dozen steamers, some destined for the transport of
petroleum, others for the transport of the goods needed for daily consumption,
and a few barques fitted with electrical apparatus employed in sea fishing.
    Frascolin noticed that the
entrance of the harbour faced the north, and concluded that it must be on the
north shore of one of those points which jut out from Lower California into the
Pacific. He also noticed that there was a current in the sea running eastward
at an appreciable speed, as it ran against the pierheads like the water along
the side of a ship when under way — an
effect due doubtless to the action of the rising tide, although the tide does
not run very strong on the western coast of America.
    “Where is the river we crossed
yesterday in the ferry boat?” asked Frascolin.
    “That is at the back of us,” the
Yankee was content to reply.
    But it would not do to delay if
they wished to return to the town in time to take the evening train to San
Diego.
    Zorn mentioned this to Munbar,
who answered, —
    “Never fear, my dear friends. We
have plenty of time. A tram will take us back to the town after we have
followed the shore, a little. You wished to have a bird’s-eye view of the
place, and in less than an hour you will get that from the top of the
observatory.”
    “You guarantee that?” said Zorn.
    “I guarantee that at sunrise
to-morrow you will no longer be where you are now.”
    This enigmatic reply had to be
accepted; although Frascolin’s curiosity, which was much greater than that of
his comrades, was excited to the utmost. He was impatient to find himself at
the summit of this tower, from which the American affirmed that the view
extended to a horizon of at least a hundred miles in circumference. After that,
if he could not fix the geographical position of this extraordinary city, he
would have to give up the problem for ever.
    At the head of the dock was a
second tram line running along the coast. There was a train of cars, six in
number, in which a number of passengers had already taken their seats. These
cars were drawn by an electric locomotive, with a capacity of two hundred ampères-ohms,
and their speed was from nine to twelve miles an hour.
    Calistus Munbar invited the
quartette to take their places in the tram, and it seemed as though it had only
been waiting for our Parisians. The country appeared to differ very little from
the park which lay between the town and the harbour. The same flat soil, and as
carefully looked after. Green fields and meadows instead of lawns, that was
all, fields of vegetables, not of cereals. At this moment artificial rain,
projected from subterranean conduits, was falling in a beneficent shower on the
long rectangles traced by line and square. The sky could not have distributed
it more mathematically or more