Off on a Comet: Boy Defends Companion from Giant Birds, 1870s Engraving

A scene from Jules Verne's Hector Servadac (Off on a Comet), illustrated by Paul Philippoteaux. A young man raises his arm to fend off a flock of large attacking birds while shielding a crouching companion in a rocky, cave-like setting. The engraving's dense cross-hatching and dramatic diagonal composition convey the peril of the comet-stranded travelers, a recurring motif of survival against hostile creatures encountered on their strange, displaced world.