The Mysterious Island

Having made their way back to the Chimneys after their exploration and fact-finding mission, the company makes various tools for themselves to start bringing about their own civilization. They begin finding materials to fashion a kiln, knives, bows and arrows, and much more, even fashioning bricks out of a clay mixture they create.

Once the bricks have dried in the sun and been baked with fire, the crew builds a kiln to fire handmade pottery for their cooking, eating, and storing needs. By this time, they have been on the island for a number of weeks: Cyrus realizes that April 15 has arrived, and, thanks to the position of the stars, he should be able to calculate their location quite close to an exact estimate. Building a makeshift sextant, Cyrus gathers the various measurements and observations he will need to calculate their location.

The next morning is Easter Sunday. Harbert is eager for Cyrus to calculate their location. Using a few basic principles of geometry, and with the shadows cast on the ground serving to determine the precise moment the sun hits its zenith, he eventually determines that their location is far from any inhabited land: “the island lay at least 1,200 miles from Tahiti and the islands of the Pomotou archipelago, more than 1,800 miles from New Zealand, and more than 4,500 miles from the American coastline!” (159).