The Mysterious Island

While waiting for the others to return, Pencroff and Harbert try to make a fire. They discover that Pencroff has lost the box of matches. Scouring the beach turns up nothing, and by evening they abandon the search. As the sun sets, Harbert spies Neb and Gideon returning alone: They haven’t found Cyrus, and, fearing the worst, they assume Cyrus is dead.

Lamenting the great loss of their companion, Gideon discovers that he has one single match left tucked away in his garments. They carefully prepare a bundle of kindling, and after a brief scare of the match failing to light, the tinder catches and their fire is finally lit. Gathering a large number of eggs from the nearby pigeons, they cook the eggs in the hot ashes. Afterward, all fall asleep except Neb, who continues to wander the shore, inconsolable.

The next morning, they take stock, realizing that all they have with them are the clothes they are wearing. They decide to remain in position for a few days in order to rest, keep their fire going, eat what they can manage to find, and regain their strength. Neb continues to hope that Cyrus will be found.

It is now March 26. Pencroff and Harbert set off on a hunting expedition, sticking close to the river to stay oriented in the thick forest. They come across a variety of tropical and fantastic creatures that Harbert tries to identify; eventually, they startle a flock of Trogon birds, which they bring back to the Chimneys as food.

After returning to camp, the men discuss the fact that no trace of Cyrus or the dog Top has been found. Neb has gone out again to search, and the rest of the men worry because he has not yet returned. Harbert wants to search for him, but the rest urge him to wait for the morning, as a storm is approaching. The companions fall into troubled sleep. However, in the middle of the night, Pencroff awakens the crew, having heard a barking dog.

All of a sudden, Top bursts into the camp. Immediately, they set out on the search with Top sprinting ahead of them. Top eventually leads them six miles away, where they find Neb and the limp body of Cyrus Smith in the midst of a host of sand dunes.

It is now morning as they all crowd around Neb and Cyrus. Pencroff realizes that Cyrus’s heart is still faintly beating and announces that he is still alive. While they marvel that he is not dead, they are equally astonished at his apparently good physical condition: “They found no contusions, nor even abrasions, on his head, torso, or limbs—much to their surprise, for Cyrus’s body must have been tossed and dragged over any number of rugged stones. Not even his hands had been damaged” (75). Pushing their questions aside, they try to revive him.

Neb recounts crossing the coastline and venturing out into the sand dunes, eventually discovering a trail of footprints that he followed directly to the body of his master, with the dog barking at his side. On their way back to the Chimneys, the group manages to revive Cyrus, who immediately begins asking questions about their predicament. Cyrus cannot recall how he ended up where the crew found him. Concluding that Cyrus must have walked from the shore into the dunes without retaining any memory of the event, they forget the issue and return to the Chimneys. Upon returning, they discover that the storm has altered the structure of their camp: Incoming waves have flooded their camp, putting out their fire in the process.

With no fire, the men attempt to light one without a lighter, matches, or tinder and flint. Unsuccessful, they abandon the attempt and drift off to sleep. The next morning, Cyrus is further revived and determines to find a way to get a fire going again while still remaining fixed on determining the precise nature of their location: “‘So, my friends, you still don’t know whether fate has left us on an island or a continent?’ ‘No, Mr. Cyrus,’ answered the boy. ‘We’ll know tomorrow,’ the engineer went on” (90-91). Cyrus proclaims that they will soon make for the highest peak they can see and attempt to determine their precise location more accurately.

They split up for the day into two parties, one party off hunting and gathering wood and the other remaining behind to explore. Eventually, Top assists the hunting party in capturing a Capybara that they drag back to the camp, and as they approach the Chimneys, they are delighted to spot a wisp of smoke in the sky. Cyrus created a magnifying lens with the crystals he and Gideon had in their watches, leveraging the rays of the sun into sparking a fire.

The next day, the whole crew sets out for the mountain peak, discovering along the way that the peak is volcanic in nature. On the climb, they detect leftover footprints of large predators and, further up, even see flocks of climbing sheep and rams. Stopping near the top, they make camp for the night, but Cyrus remains unsatisfied. He and Harbert continue to trek up the mountain, and just before the last remaining light disappears, they reach the peak. Scanning the horizon, Cyrus realizes that they are stranded on an island.

The next morning, Cyrus leads the entire company up to view the same sight. Owing to the beautiful weather, they can see the strange shape of their little island, which the captain declares to be a similar size to Malta, with about 100 miles of coastline. The majority of the island is full of vegetation, but “[t]here remained one vital question, whose response would determine the castaways’ future. Was the island inhabited?” (116). Although there seems to be no trace of any other human life, there is still no way of knowing for certain.

Cyrus rouses the men to view their circumstances as both fortunate and full of promise and hope. The men all voice their unanimous faith in their captain. In the wake of this newfound positivity, the company decide to name their island and a number of other prominent features of the landscape after great figures and places of their home in the United States. They name the island Lincoln Island, after the current president to whom they all feel a strong allegiance.

After a night of sleep, the company treks down the mountainside and decides to take a different route, returning to view the lake and the nearby forest. On their way, they suspect there may be inhabitants thanks to the smell and sight of smoke, but they soon discover that they have simply detected a sulfur spring. Hiking back to the Chimneys, the company comes across many new species of animals, including small kangaroos, agoutis—small animals like rabbits—and a small lake filled with fish.