“Could an earthquake have changed Tsalal Island to such an extent?” asked Len Guy, musingly.
“Yes, captain, an earthquake has done this thing; it has destroyed every trace of all that Arthur Pym saw here.”
Hunt, who had drawn nigh to us, and was listening, nodded his head in approval of my words.
“Are not these countries of the southern seas volcanic?” I resumed. “If the Halbrane were to transport us to Victoria Land, we might find the Erebus and the Terror in the midst of an eruption.”
“And yet,” observed Martin Holt, “if there had been an eruption here, we should find lava beds.”
“I do not say that there has been an eruption,” I replied, “but I do say the soil has been convulsed by an earthquake.”
On reflection it will be seen that the explanation given by me deserved to be admitted. And then it came to my remembrance that according to Arthur Pym’s narrative, Tsalal belonged to a group of islands which extended towards the west. Unless the people of Tsalal had been destroyed, it was possible that they might have fled into one of the neighbouring islands. We should do well, then, to go and reconnoitre that archipelago, for Tsalal clearly had no resources whatever to offer after the cataclysm.
I spoke of this to the captain.
“Yes,” he replied, and tears stood in his eyes, “yes, it may be so. And yet, how could my brother and his unfortunate companions have found the means of escaping? Is it not far more probable that they all perished in the earthquake?”
Here Hunt made us a signal to follow him, and we did so.