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Re: Les Indes Noires

From: Ian Thompson <ithompson~at~geog.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 11:16:28 +0100
To: "Zvi Har'El" <rl~at~math.technion.ac.il>

Having only recently joined the Forum I have been trawling the archives and
read Brian Taves comments on Les Indes Noires posted about a year ago. Brian
queries the setting of the novel in Aberfoyle..."not a region known for
mining" For an author who prided himself on his geographical accuracy it
does seem bizarre for Verne to have chosen such an inappropriate site. Two
possibilities come to mind.
Aberfoyle does have a long history of mining, from early extraction of iron
ore and smelting by charcoal, to large scale quarrying of slate in the
nineteenth century. The slate quarries were above Aberfoyle on the Duke's
Pass and were sufficiently important to justify an inclined plane tramway
down to Aberfoyle and in 1882, to open a branch line to link with the
Stirling-Glasgow line. It is just possible that Verne knew of a connection
with mining and quarrying. It is virtually certain that Verne never visited
Aberfoyle. At the time of his journey through the Trossachs in 1859,
although the Duke of Montrose had improved the road over the Duke's Pass
from the Trossachs, it was essentially a private road.Aberfoyle would have
been very inaccessible and in any case had no railway to continue the
journey to Stirling. In fact the railway taken by Nell and her companions
had not been built when Verne published Les Indes Noires so he anticipated
its construction to facilitate his plot.
A more likely explanation for locating the novel in Aberfoyle is, as Brian
Taves suggests, that the fantastic events required a setting of mystery,myth
and romance, as provided by Loch Katrine and the Trossachs. Moreover, the
plot required the existence of a large lake to flood the mines and this was
provided by Loch Katrine.
Incidentally the naming of the mine is not entirely fictional. The "Dochart"
mine takes its name from Glen Dochart, some 18 miles to the north of
Aberfoyle and the "Yarrow" coal seam takes its name from Yarrow, a village
in the heart of the Walter Scott country near Selkirk and which was much
frequented by Verne's literary hero.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Tue 15 Apr 2003 - 14:10:50 IDT

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