Beyond were several winding valleys; trees of different kinds; and birds--partridges and bustards--in great numbers.

If the island was not inhabited it was habitable.

Robur might surely have landed on it; if he had not done so it was probably because the ground was uneven and did not offer a convenient spot to beach the aeronef.
While he was waiting for the sun the engineer began the repairs he reckoned on completing before the day was over.

The suspensory screws were undamaged and had worked admirably amid all the violence of the storm, which, as we have said, had considerably lightened their work.
At this moment half of them were in action, enough to keep the "Albatross" fixed to the shore by the taut cable.

But the two propellers had suffered, and more than Robur had thought.