9072 lines
522 KiB
Plaintext
9072 lines
522 KiB
Plaintext
1864
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A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
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by Jules Verne
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CHAPTER_1
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CHAPTER 1
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My Uncle Makes a Discovery
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LOOKING back to all that has occurred to me since that eventful day,
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I am scarcely able to believe in the reality of my adventures. They
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were truly so wonderful that even now I am bewildered when I think
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of them.
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My uncle was a German, having married my mother's sister, an
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Englishwoman. Being very much attached to his fatherless nephew, he
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invited me to study under him in his home in the fatherland. This home
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was in a large town, and my uncle a professor of philosophy,
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chemistry, geology, mineralogy, and many other ologies.
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One day, after passing some hours in the laboratory- my uncle
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being absent at the time- I suddenly felt the necessity of
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renovating the tissues- i.e., I was hungry, and was about to rouse
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up our old French cook, when my uncle, Professor Von Hardwigg,
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suddenly opened the street door, and came rushing upstairs.
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Now Professor Hardwigg, my worthy uncle, is by no means a bad sort
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of man; he is, however, choleric and original. To bear with him
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means to obey; and scarcely had his heavy feet resounded within our
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joint domicile than he shouted for me to attend upon him.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 5}
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"Harry- Harry- Harry-"
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I hastened to obey, but before I could reach his room, jumping three
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steps at a time, he was stamping his right foot upon the landing.
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"Harry!" he cried, in a frantic tone, "are you coming up?"
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Now to tell the truth, at that moment I was far more interested in
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the question as to what was to constitute our dinner than in any
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problem of science; to me soup was more interesting than soda, an
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omelette more tempting than arithmetic, and an artichoke of ten
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times more value than any amount of asbestos.
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But my uncle was not a man to be kept waiting; so adjourning
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therefore all minor questions, I presented myself before him.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 10}
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He was a very learned man. Now most persons in this category
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supply themselves with information, as peddlers do with goods, for the
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benefit of others, and lay up stores in order to diffuse them abroad
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for the benefit of society in general. Not so my excellent uncle,
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Professor Hardwigg; he studied, he consumed the midnight oil, he pored
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over heavy tomes, and digested huge quartos and folios in order to
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keep the knowledge acquired to himself.
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There was a reason, and it may be regarded as a good one, why my
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uncle objected to display his learning more than was absolutely
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necessary: he stammered; and when intent upon explaining the phenomena
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of the heavens, was apt to find himself at fault, and allude in such a
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vague way to sun, moon, and stars that few were able to comprehend his
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meaning. To tell the honest truth, when the right word would not come,
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it was generally replaced by a very powerful adjective.
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In connection with the sciences there are many almost
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unpronounceable names- names very much resembling those of Welsh
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villages; and my uncle being very fond of using them, his habit of
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stammering was not thereby improved. In fact, there were periods in
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his discourse when he would finally give up and swallow his
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discomfiture- in a glass of water.
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As I said, my uncle, Professor Hardwigg, was a very learned man; and
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I now add a most kind relative. I was bound to him by the double
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ties of affection and interest. I took deep interest in all his
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doings, and hoped some day to be almost as learned myself. It was a
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rare thing for me to be absent from his lectures. Like him, I
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preferred mineralogy to all the other sciences. My anxiety was to gain
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real knowledge of the earth. Geology and mineralogy were to us the
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sole objects of life, and in connection with these studies many a fair
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specimen of stone, chalk, or metal did we break with our hammers.
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Steel rods, loadstones, glass pipes, and bottles of various acids
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were oftener before us than our meals. My uncle Hardwigg was once
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known to classify six hundred different geological specimens by
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their weight, hardness, fusibility, sound, taste, and smell.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 15}
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He corresponded with all the great, learned, and scientific men of
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the age. I was, therefore, in constant communication with, at all
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events the letters of, Sir Humphry Davy, Captain Franklin, and other
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great men.
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But before I state the subject on which my uncle wished to confer
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with me, I must say a word about his personal appearance. Alas! my
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readers will see a very different portrait of him at a future time,
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after he has gone through the fearful adventures yet to be related.
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My uncle was fifty years old; tall, thin, and wiry. Large spectacles
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hid, to a certain extent, his vast, round, and goggle eyes, while
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his nose was irreverently compared to a thin file. So much indeed
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did it resemble that useful article, that a compass was said in his
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presence to have made considerable N (Nasal) deviation.
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The truth being told, however, the only article really attracted
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to my uncle's nose was tobacco.
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Another peculiarity of his was, that he always stepped a yard at a
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time, clenched his fists as if he were going to hit you, and was, when
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in one of his peculiar humors, very far from a pleasant companion.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 20}
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It is further necessary to observe that he lived in a very nice
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house, in that very nice street, the Konigstrasse at Hamburg. Though
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lying in the center of a town, it was perfectly rural in its aspect-
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half wood, half bricks, with old-fashioned gables- one of the few
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old houses spared by the great fire of 1842.
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When I say a nice house, I mean a handsome house- old, tottering,
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and not exactly comfortable to English notions: a house a little off
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the perpendicular and inclined to fall into the neighboring canal;
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exactly the house for a wandering artist to depict; all the more
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that you could scarcely see it for ivy and a magnificent old tree
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which grew over the door.
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My uncle was rich; his house was his own property, while he had a
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considerable private income. To my notion the best part of his
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possessions was his god-daughter, Gretchen. And the old cook, the
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young lady, the Professor and I were the sole inhabitants.
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I loved mineralogy, I loved geology. To me there was nothing like
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pebbles- and if my uncle had been in a little less of a fury, we
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should have been the happiest of families. To prove the excellent
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Hardwigg's impatience, I solemnly declare that when the flowers in the
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drawing-room pots began to grow, he rose every morning at four o'clock
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to make them grow quicker by pulling the leaves!
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Having described my uncle, I will now give an account of our
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interview.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 25}
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He received me in his study; a perfect museum, containing every
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natural curiosity that can well be imagined- minerals, however,
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predominating. Every one was familiar to me, having been catalogued by
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my own hand. My uncle, apparently oblivious of the fact that he had
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summoned me to his presence, was absorbed in a book. He was
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particularly fond of early editions, tall copies, and unique works.
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"Wonderful!" he cried, tapping his forehead. "Wonderful- wonderful!"
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It was one of those yellow-leaved volumes now rarely found on
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stalls, and to me it appeared to possess but little value. My uncle,
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however, was in raptures.
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He admired its binding, the clearness of its characters, the ease
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with which it opened in his hand, and repeated aloud, half a dozen
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times, that it was very, very old.
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To my fancy he was making a great fuss about nothing, but it was not
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my province to say so. On the contrary, I professed considerable
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interest in the subject, and asked him what it was about.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 30}
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"It is the Heims-Kringla of Snorre Tarleson,"he said, "the
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celebrated Icelandic author of the twelfth century- it is a true and
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correct account of the Norwegian princes who reigned in Iceland."
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My next question related to the language in which it was written.
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I hoped at all events it was translated into German. My uncle was
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indignant at the very thought, and declared he wouldn't give a penny
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for a translation. His delight was to have found the original work
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in the Icelandic tongue, which he declared to be one of the most
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magnificent and yet simple idioms in the world- while at the same time
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its grammatical combinations were the most varied known to students.
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"About as easy as German? was my insidious remark.
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My uncle shrugged his shoulders.
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"The letters at all events," I said, "are rather difficult of
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comprehension."
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 35}
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"It is a Runic manuscript, the language of the original population
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of Iceland, invented by Odin himself," cried my uncle, angry at my
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ignorance.
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I was about to venture upon some misplaced joke on the subject, when
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a small scrap of parchment fell out of the leaves. Like a hungry man
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snatching at a morsel of bread the Professor seized it. It was about
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five inches by three and was scrawled over in the most extraordinary
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fashion.
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The lines shown here are an exact facsimile of what was written on
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the venerable piece of parchment-and have wonderful importance, as
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they induced my uncle to undertake the most wonderful series of
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adventures which ever fell to the lot of human beings. (See
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illustration.)
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My uncle looked keenly at the document for some moments and then
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declared that it was Runic. The letters were similar to those in the
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book, but then what did they mean? This was exactly what I wanted to
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know.
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Now as I had a strong conviction that the Runic alphabet and dialect
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were simply an invention to mystify poor human nature, I was delighted
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to find that my uncle knew as much about the matter as I did- which
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was nothing. At all events the tremulous motion of his fingers made me
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think so.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 40}
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"And yet," he muttered to himself, "it is old Icelandic, I am sure
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of it."
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And my uncle ought to have known, for he was a perfect polyglot
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dictionary in himself. He did not pretend, like a certain learned
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pundit, to speak the two thousand languages and four thousand idioms
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made use of in different parts of the globe, but he did know all the
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more important ones.
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It is a matter of great doubt to me now, to what violent measures my
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uncle's impetuosity might have led him, had not the clock struck
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two, and our old French cook called out to let us know that dinner was
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on the table.
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"Bother the dinner!" cried my uncle.
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But as I was hungry, I sallied forth to the dining room, where I
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took up my usual quarters. Out of politeness I waited three minutes,
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but no sign of my uncle, the Professor. I was surprised. He was not
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usually so blind to the pleasure of a good dinner. It was the acme
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of German luxury- parsley soup, a ham omelette with sorrel
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trimmings, an oyster of veal stewed with prunes, delicious fruit,
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and sparkling Moselle. For the sake of poring over this musty old
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piece of parchment, my uncle forbore to share our meal. To satisfy
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my conscience, I ate for both.
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{CHAPTER_1 ^paragraph 45}
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The old cook and housekeeper was nearly out of her mind. After
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taking so much trouble, to find her master not appear at dinner was to
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her a sad disappointment- which, as she occasionally watched the havoc
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I was making on the viands, became also alarm. If my uncle were to
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come to table after all?
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Suddenly, just as I had consumed the last apple and drunk the last
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glass of wine, a terrible voice was heard at no great distance. It was
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my uncle roaring for me to come to him. I made very nearly one leap of
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it- so loud, so fierce was his tone.
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CHAPTER_2
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CHAPTER 2
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The Mysterious Parchment
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"I DECLARE," cried my uncle, striking the table fiercely with his
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fist, "I declare to you it is Runic- and contains some wonderful
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secret, which I must get at, at any price."
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I was about to reply when he stopped me.
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"Sit down," he said, quite fiercely, "and write to my dictation."
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I obeyed.
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 5}
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"I will substitute," he said, "a letter of our alphabet for that
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of the Runic: we will then see what that will produce. Now, begin
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and make no mistakes."
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The dictation commenced with the following incomprehensible result:
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mm.rnlls esreuel seecJde
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sgtssmf unteief niedrke
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 10}
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kt,samn atrateS Saodrrn
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emtnaeI nuaect rrilSa
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Atvaar .nscrc ieaabs
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ccdrmi eeutul frantu
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dt,iac oseibo KediiY
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 15}
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Scarcely giving me time to finish, my uncle snatched the document
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from my hands and examined it with the most rapt and deep attention.
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"I should like to know what it means," he said, after a long period.
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I certainly could not tell him, nor did he expect me to- his
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conversation being uniformly answered by himself.
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"I declare it puts me in mind of a cryptograph," he cried,
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"unless, indeed, the letters have been written without any real
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meaning; and yet why take so much trouble? Who knows but I may be on
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the verge of some great discovery?"
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 20}
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My candid opinion was that it was all rubbish! But this opinion I
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kept carefully to myself, as my uncle's choler was not pleasant to
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bear. All this time he was comparing the book with the parchment.
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"The manuscript volume and the smaller document are written in
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different hands," he said, "the cryptograph is of much later date than
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the book; there is an undoubted proof of the correctness of my
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surmise. [An irrefragable proof I took it to be.] The first letter
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is a double M, which was only added to the Icelandic language in the
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twelfth century- this makes the parchment two hundred years
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posterior to the volume."
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The circumstances appeared very probable and very logical, but it
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was all surmise to me.
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"To me it appears probable that this sentence was written by some
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owner of the book. Now who was the owner, is the next important
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question. Perhaps by great good luck it may be written somewhere in
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the volume."
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With these words Professor Hardwigg took off his spectacles, and,
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taking a powerful magnifying glass, examined the book carefully.
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 25}
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On the fly leaf was what appeared to be a blot of ink, but on
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examination proved to be a line of writing almost effaced by time.
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This was what he sought; and, after some considerable time, he made
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out these letters:
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(See illustration.)
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"Arne Saknussemm!" he cried in a joyous and triumphant tone, "that
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is not only an Icelandic name, but of a learned professor of the
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sixteenth century, a celebrated alchemist."
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I bowed as a sign of respect.
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"These alchemists," he continued, "Avicenna, Bacon, Lully,
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Paracelsus, were the true, the only learned men of the day. They
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made surprising discoveries. May not this Saknussemm, nephew mine,
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have hidden on this bit of parchment some astounding invention? I
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believe the cryptograph to have a profound meaning- which I must
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make out."
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My uncle walked about the room in a state of excitement almost
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impossible to describe.
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 30}
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"It may be so, sir," I timidly observed, "but why conceal it from
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posterity, if it be a useful, a worthy discovery?"
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"Why- how should I know? Did not Galileo make a secret of his
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discoveries in connection with Saturn? But we shall see. Until I
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discover the meaning of this sentence I will neither eat nor sleep."
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"My dear uncle-" I began.
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"Nor you neither," he added.
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It was lucky I had taken double allowance that day.
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 35}
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"In the first place," he continued, "there must be a clue to the
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meaning. If we could find that, the rest would be easy enough."
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I began seriously to reflect. The prospect of going without food and
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sleep was not a promising one, so I determined to do my best to
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solve the mystery. My uncle, meanwhile, went on with his soliloquy.
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"The way to discover it is easy enough. In this document there are
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one hundred and thirty-two letters, giving seventy-nine consonants
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to fifty-three vowels. This is about the proportion found in most
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southern languages, the idioms of the north being much more rich in
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consonants. We may confidently predict, therefore, that we have to
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deal with a southern dialect."
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Nothing could be more logical.
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"Now said Professor Hardwigg, "to trace the particular language."
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 40}
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"As Shakespeare says, 'that is the question,"' was my rather
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satirical reply.
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"This man Saknussemm he continued, "was a very learned man: now as
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he did not write in the language of his birthplace, he probably,
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like most learned men of the sixteenth century, wrote in Latin. If,
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however, I prove wrong in this guess, we must try Spanish, French,
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Italian, Greek, and even Hebrew. My own opinion, though, is
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decidedly in favor of Latin."
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This proposition startled me. Latin was my favorite study, and it
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seemed sacrilege to believe this gibberish to belong to the country of
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Virgil.
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"Barbarous Latin, in all probability," continued my uncle, "but
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still Latin."
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"Very probably," I replied, not to contradict him.
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 45}
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"Let us see into the matter," continued my uncle; "here you see we
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have a series of one hundred and thirty-two letters, apparently thrown
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pell-mell upon paper, without method or organization. There are
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words which are composed wholly of consonants, such as mm.rnlls,
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others which are nearly all vowels, the fifth, for instance, which
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is unteief, and one of the last oseibo. This appears an
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extraordinary combination. Probably we shall find that the phrase is
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arranged according to some mathematical plan. No doubt a certain
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sentence has been written out and then jumbled up- some plan to
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which some figure is the clue. Now, Harry, to show your English wit-
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what is that figure?"
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I could give him no hint. My thoughts were indeed far away. While he
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was speaking I had caught sight of the portrait of my cousin Gretchen,
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and was wondering when she would return.
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We were affianced, and loved one another very sincerely.But my
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uncle, who never thought even of such sublunary matters, knew
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nothing of this. Without noticing my abstraction, the Professor
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began reading the puzzling cryptograph all sorts of ways, according to
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some theory of his own. Presently, rousing my wandering attention,
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he dictated one precious attempt to me.
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I mildly handed it over to him. It read as follows:
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 50}
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mmessunkaSenrA.icefdoK.segnittamurtn
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ecertserrette,rotaivsadua,ednecsedsadne
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lacartniiilrJsiratracSarbmutabiledmek
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meretarcsilucoYsleffenSnI
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{CHAPTER_2 ^paragraph 55}
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I could scarcely keep from laughing, while my uncle, on the
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contrary, got in a towering passion, struck the table with his fist,
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darted out of the room, out of the house, and then taking to his heels
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was presently lost to sight.
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CHAPTER_3
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CHAPTER 3
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An Astounding Discovery
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-
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WHAT is the matter?" cried the cook, entering the room; "when will
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master have his dinner?"
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"Never."
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"And, his supper?"
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"I don't know. He says he will eat no more, neither shall I. My
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uncle has determined to fast and make me fast until he makes out
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this abominable inscription," I replied.
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{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 5}
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"You will be starved to death," she said.
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I was very much of the same opinion, but not liking to say so,
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sent her away, and began some of my usual work of classification.
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But try as I might, nothing could keep me from thinking alternately of
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the stupid manuscript and of the pretty Gretchen.
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Several times I thought of going out, but my uncle would have been
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angry at my absence. At the end of an hour, my allotted task was done.
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How to pass the time? I began by lighting my pipe. Like all other
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students, I delighted in tobacco; and, seating myself in the great
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armchair, I began to think.
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Where was my uncle? I could easily imagine him tearing along some
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solitary road, gesticulating, talking to himself, cutting the air with
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his cane, and still thinking of the absurd bit of hieroglyphics. Would
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he hit upon some clue? Would he come home in better humor? While these
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thoughts were passing through my brain, I mechanically took up the
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execrable puzzle and tried every imaginable way of grouping the
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letters. I put them together by twos, by threes, fours, and fives-
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in vain. Nothing intelligible came out, except that the fourteenth,
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fifteenth, and sixteenth made ice in English; the eighty-fourth,
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eighty-fifth, and eighty-sixth, the word sir; then at last I seemed to
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find the Latin words rota, mutabile, ira, nec, atra.
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"Ha! there seems to be some truth in my uncle's notion, thought I.
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{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 10}
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Then again I seemed to find the word luco, which means sacred
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wood. Then in the third line I appeared to make out labiled, a perfect
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Hebrew word, and at the last the syllables mere, are, mer, which
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were French.
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It was enough to drive one mad. Four different idioms in this absurd
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phrase. What connection could there be between ice, sir, anger, cruel,
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sacred wood, changing, mother, are, and sea? The first and the last
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might, in a sentence connected with Iceland, mean sea of ice. But what
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of the rest of this monstrous cryptograph?
|
||
I was, in fact, fighting against an insurmountable difficulty; my
|
||
brain was almost on fire; my eyes were strained with staring at the
|
||
parchment; the whole absurd collection of letters appeared to dance
|
||
before my vision in a number of black little groups. My mind was
|
||
possessed with temporary hallucination- I was stifling. I wanted
|
||
air. Mechanically I fanned myself with the document, of which now I
|
||
saw the back and then the front.
|
||
Imagine my surprise when glancing at the back of the wearisome
|
||
puzzle, the ink having gone through, I clearly made out Latin words,
|
||
and among others craterem and terrestre.
|
||
I had discovered the secret!
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
It came upon me like a flash of lightning. I had got the clue. All
|
||
you had to do to understand the document was to read it backwards. All
|
||
the ingenious ideas of the Professor were realized; he had dictated it
|
||
rightly to me; by a mere accident I had discovered what he so much
|
||
desired.
|
||
My delight, my emotion may be imagined, my eyes were dazzled and I
|
||
trembled so that at first I could make nothing of it. One look,
|
||
however, would tell me all I wished to know.
|
||
"Let me read," I said to myself, after drawing a long breath.
|
||
I spread it before me on the table, I passed my finger over each
|
||
letter, I spelled it through; in my excitement I read it out.
|
||
What horror and stupefaction took possession of my soul. I was
|
||
like a man who had received a knock-down blow. Was it possible that
|
||
I really read the terrible secret, and it had really been
|
||
accomplished! A man had dared to do- what?
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
No living being should ever know.
|
||
"Never!" cried I, jumping up. "Never shall my uncle be made aware of
|
||
the dread secret. He would be quite capable of undertaking the
|
||
terrible journey. Nothing would check him, nothing stop him. Worse, he
|
||
would compel me to accompany him, and we should be lost forever. But
|
||
no; such folly and madness cannot be allowed."
|
||
I was almost beside myself with rage and fury.
|
||
"My worthy uncle is already nearly mad," I cried aloud. "This
|
||
would finish him. By some accident he may make the discovery; in which
|
||
case, we are both lost. Perish the fearful secret- let the flames
|
||
forever bury it in oblivion."
|
||
I snatched up book and parchment, and was about to cast them into
|
||
the fire, when the door opened and my uncle entered.
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
I had scarcely time to put down the wretched documents before my
|
||
uncle was by my side. He was profoundly absorbed. His thoughts were
|
||
evidently bent on the terrible parchment. Some new combination had
|
||
probably struck him while taking his walk.
|
||
He seated himself in his armchair, and with a pen began to make an
|
||
algebraical calculation. I watched him with anxious eyes. My flesh
|
||
crawled as it became probable that he would discover the secret.
|
||
His combinations I knew now were useless, I having discovered the
|
||
one only clue. For three mortal hours he continued without speaking
|
||
a word, without raising his head, scratching, rewriting, calculating
|
||
over and over again. I knew that in time he must hit upon the right
|
||
phrase. The letters of every alphabet have only a certain number of
|
||
combinations. But then years might elapse before he would arrive at
|
||
the correct solution.
|
||
Still time went on; night came, the sounds in the streets ceased-
|
||
and still my uncle went on, not even answering our worthy cook when
|
||
she called us to supper.
|
||
I did not dare to leave him, so waved her away, and at last fell
|
||
asleep on the sofa.
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
When I awoke my uncle was still at work. His red eyes, his pallid
|
||
countenance, his matted hair, his feverish hands, his hectically
|
||
flushed cheeks, showed how terrible had been his struggle with the
|
||
impossible, and what fearful fatigue he had undergone during that long
|
||
sleepless night. It made me quite ill to look at him. Though he was
|
||
rather severe with me, I loved him, and my heart ached at his
|
||
sufferings. He was so overcome by one idea that he could not even
|
||
get in a passion! All his energies were focused on one point. And I
|
||
knew that by speaking one little word all this suffering would
|
||
cease. I could not speak it.
|
||
My heart was, nevertheless, inclining towards him. Why, then, did
|
||
I remain silent? In the interest of my uncle himself.
|
||
"Nothing shall make me speak," I muttered. "He will want to follow
|
||
in the footsteps of the other! I know him well. His imagination is a
|
||
perfect volcano, and to make discoveries in the interests of geology
|
||
he would sacrifice his life. I will therefore be silent and strictly
|
||
keep the secret I have discovered. To reveal it would be suicidal.
|
||
He would not only rush, himself, to destruction, but drag me with
|
||
him."
|
||
I crossed my arms, looked another way and smoked- resolved never
|
||
to speak.
|
||
When our cook wanted to go out to market, or on any other errand,
|
||
she found the front door locked and the key taken away. Was this
|
||
done purposely or not? Surely Professor Hardwigg did not intend the
|
||
old woman and myself to become martyrs to his obstinate will. Were
|
||
we to be starved to death? A frightful recollection came to my mind.
|
||
Once we had fed on bits and scraps for a week while he sorted some
|
||
curiosities. It gave me the cramp even to think of it!
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
I wanted my breakfast, and I saw no way of getting it. Still my
|
||
resolution held good. I would starve rather than yield. But the cook
|
||
began to take me seriously to task. What was to be done? She could not
|
||
go out; and I dared not.
|
||
My uncle continued counting and writing; his imagination seemed to
|
||
have translated him to the skies. He neither thought of eating nor
|
||
drinking. In this way twelve o'clock came round. I was hungry, and
|
||
there was nothing in the house. The cook had eaten the last bit of
|
||
bread. This could not go on. It did, however, until two, when my
|
||
sensations were terrible. After all, I began to think the document
|
||
very absurd. Perhaps it might only be a gigantic hoax. Besides, some
|
||
means would surely be found to keep my uncle back from attempting
|
||
any such absurd expedition. On the other hand, if he did attempt
|
||
anything so quixotic, I should not be compelled to accompany him.
|
||
Another line of reasoning partially decided me. Very likely he would
|
||
make the discovery himself when I should have suffered starvation
|
||
for nothing. Under the influence of hunger this reasoning appeared
|
||
admirable. I determined to tell all.
|
||
The question now arose as to how it was to be done. I was still
|
||
dwelling on the thought, when he rose and put on his hat.
|
||
What! go out and lock us in? Never!
|
||
"Uncle," I began.
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
He did not appear even to hear me.
|
||
"Professor Hardwigg," I cried.
|
||
"What," he retorted, "did you speak?"
|
||
"How about the key?"
|
||
"What key- the key of the door?
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"No- of these horrible hieroglyphics?
|
||
He looked at me from under his spectacles, and started at the odd
|
||
expression of my face. Rushing forward, he clutched me by the arm
|
||
and keenly examined my countenance. His very look was an
|
||
interrogation.
|
||
I simply nodded.
|
||
With an incredulous shrug of the shoulders, he turned upon his heel.
|
||
Undoubtedly he thought I had gone mad.
|
||
"I have made a very important discovery."
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
His eyes flashed with excitement. His hand was lifted in a
|
||
menacing attitude. For a moment neither of us spoke. It is hard to say
|
||
which was most excited.
|
||
"You don't mean to say that you have any idea of the meaning of
|
||
the scrawl?"
|
||
"I do," was my desperate reply. "Look at the sentence as dictated by
|
||
you."
|
||
"Well," but it means nothing," was the angry answer.
|
||
"Nothing if you read from left to right, but mark, if from right
|
||
to left-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Backwards!" cried my uncle, in wild amazement. "Oh most cunning
|
||
Saknussemm; and I to be such a blockhead!"
|
||
He snatched up the document, gazed at it with haggard eye, and
|
||
read it out as I had done.
|
||
It read as follows:
|
||
-
|
||
In Sneffels Yoculis craterem kem delibat
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
umbra Scartaris Julii intra calendas descende,
|
||
audas viator, et terrestre centrum attinges.
|
||
Kod feci. Arne Saknussemm
|
||
-
|
||
Which dog Latin being translated, reads as follows:
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
-
|
||
Descend into the crater of Yocul of Sneffels, which the shade of
|
||
Scartaris caresses, before the kalends of July, audacious traveler,
|
||
and you will reach the center of the earth. I did it.
|
||
ARNE SAKNUSSEMM
|
||
-
|
||
My uncle leaped three feet from the ground with joy. He looked
|
||
radiant and handsome. He rushed about the room wild with delight and
|
||
satisfaction. He knocked over tables and chairs. He threw his books
|
||
about until at last, utterly exhausted, he fell into his armchair.
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
"What's o'clock?" he asked.
|
||
"About three."
|
||
"My dinner does not seem to have done me much good," he observed.
|
||
"Let me have something to eat. We can then start at once. Get my
|
||
portmanteau ready."
|
||
"What for?"
|
||
"And your own," he continued. "We start at once."
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
My horror may be conceived. I resolved however to show no fear.
|
||
Scientific reasons were the only ones likely to influence my uncle.
|
||
Now, there were many against this terrible journey. The very idea of
|
||
going down to the center of the earth was simply absurd. I
|
||
determined therefore to argue the point after dinner.
|
||
My uncle's rage was now directed against the cook for having no
|
||
dinner ready. My explanation however satisfied him, and having
|
||
gotten the key, she soon contrived to get sufficient to satisfy our
|
||
voracious appetites.
|
||
During the repast my uncle was rather gay than otherwise. He made
|
||
some of those peculiar jokes which belong exclusively to the
|
||
learned. As soon, however, as dessert was over, he called me to his
|
||
study. We each took a chair on opposite sides of the table.
|
||
"Henry," he said, in a soft and winning voice; "I have always
|
||
believed you ingenious, and you have rendered me a service never to be
|
||
forgotten. Without you, this great, this wondrous discovery would
|
||
never have been made. It is my duty, therefore, to insist on your
|
||
sharing the glory."
|
||
"He is in a good humor," thought I; "I'll soon let him know my
|
||
opinion of glory."
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 80}
|
||
"In the first place," he continued, "you must keep the whole
|
||
affair a profound secret. There is no more envious race of men than
|
||
scientific discoverers. Many would start on the same journey. At all
|
||
events, we will be the first in the field."
|
||
"I doubt your having many competitors," was my reply.
|
||
"A man of real scientific acquirements would be delighted at the
|
||
chance. We should find a perfect stream of pilgrims on the traces of
|
||
Arne Saknussemm, if this document were once made public."
|
||
"But, my dear sir, is not this paper very likely to be a hoax?" I
|
||
urged.
|
||
"The book in which we find it is sufficient proof of its
|
||
authenticity," he replied.
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 85}
|
||
"I thoroughly allow that the celebrated Professor wrote the lines,
|
||
but only, I believe, as a kind of mystification," was my answer.
|
||
Scarcely were the words out of my mouth, when I was sorry I had
|
||
uttered them. My uncle looked at me with a dark and gloomy scowl,
|
||
and I began to be alarmed for the results of our conversation. His
|
||
mood soon changed, however, and a smile took the place of a frown.
|
||
"We shall see," he remarked, with decisive emphasis.
|
||
"But see, what is all this about Yocul, and Sneffels, and this
|
||
Scartaris? I have never heard anything about them."
|
||
"The very point to which I am coming. I lately received from my
|
||
friend Augustus Peterman, of Leipzig, a map. Take down the third atlas
|
||
from the second shelf, series Z, plate 4."
|
||
{CHAPTER_3 ^paragraph 90}
|
||
I rose, went to the shelf, and presently returned with the volume
|
||
indicated.
|
||
"This," said my uncle, "is one of the best maps of Iceland. I
|
||
believe it will settle all your doubts, difficulties and objections."
|
||
With a grim hope to the contrary, I stooped over the map.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_4
|
||
CHAPTER 4
|
||
We Start on the Journey
|
||
-
|
||
YOU see, the whole island is composed of volcanoes," said the
|
||
Professor, "and remark carefully that they all bear the name of Yocul.
|
||
The word is Icelandic, and means a glacier. In most of the lofty
|
||
mountains of that region the volcanic eruptions come forth from
|
||
icebound caverns. Hence the name applied to every volcano on this
|
||
extraordinary island."
|
||
"But what does this word Sneffels mean?"
|
||
To this question I expected no rational answer. I was mistaken.
|
||
"Follow my finger to the western coast of Iceland, there you see
|
||
Reykjavik, its capital. Follow the direction of one of its innumerable
|
||
fjords or arms of the sea, and what do you see below the sixty-fifth
|
||
degree of latitude?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"A peninsula- very like a thighbone in shape.
|
||
"And in the center of it-?"
|
||
"A mountain."
|
||
"Well," that's Sneffels."
|
||
I had nothing to say.
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"That is Sneffels- a mountain about five thousand feet in height,
|
||
one of the most remarkable in the whole island, and certainly doomed
|
||
to be the most celebrated in the world, for through its crater we
|
||
shall reach the center of the earth."
|
||
"Impossible!" cried I, startled and shocked at the thought.
|
||
"Why impossible?" said Professor Hardwigg in his severest tones.
|
||
"Because its crater is choked with lava, by burning rocks- by
|
||
infinite dangers."
|
||
"But if it be extinct?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"That would make a difference."
|
||
"Of course it would. There are about three hundred volcanoes on
|
||
the whole surface of the globe- but the greater number are extinct. Of
|
||
these Sneffels is one. No eruption has occurred since 1219- in fact it
|
||
has ceased to be a volcano at all."
|
||
After this what more could I say? Yes,- I thought of another
|
||
objection.
|
||
"But what is all this about Scartaris and the kalends of July- ?"
|
||
My uncle reflected deeply. Presently he gave forth the result of his
|
||
reflections in a sententious tone. "What appears obscure to you, to me
|
||
is light. This very phrase shows how particular Saknussemm is in his
|
||
directions. The Sneffels mountain has many craters. He is careful
|
||
therefore to point the exact one which is the highway into the
|
||
Interior of the Earth. He lets us know, for this purpose, that about
|
||
the end of the month of June, the shadow of Mount Scartaris falls upon
|
||
the one crater. There can be no doubt about the matter."
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
My uncle had an answer for everything.
|
||
"I accept all your explanations"' I said "and Saknussemm is right.
|
||
He found out the entrance to the bowels of the earth, he has indicated
|
||
correctly, but that he or anyone else ever followed up the discovery
|
||
is madness to suppose."
|
||
"Why so, young man?"
|
||
"All scientific teaching, theoretical and practical, shows it to
|
||
be impossible."
|
||
"I care nothing for theories," retorted my uncle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"But is it not well-known that heat increases one degree for every
|
||
seventy feet you descend into the earth? Which gives a fine idea of
|
||
the central heat. All the matters which compose the globe are in a
|
||
state of incandescence; even gold, platinum, and the hardest rocks are
|
||
in a state of fusion. What would become of us?"
|
||
"Don't be alarmed at the heat, my boy."
|
||
"How so?"
|
||
"Neither you nor anybody else know anything about the real state
|
||
of the earth's interior. All modern experiments tend to explode the
|
||
older theories. Were any such heat to exist, the upper crust of the
|
||
earth would be shattered to atoms, and the world would be at an end."
|
||
A long, learned and not uninteresting discussion followed, which
|
||
ended in this wise:
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"I do not believe in the dangers and difficulties which you,
|
||
Henry, seem to multiply; and the only way to learn, is like Arne
|
||
Saknussemm, to go and see."
|
||
"Well," cried I, overcome at last, "let us go and see. Though how we
|
||
can do that in the dark is another mystery."
|
||
"Fear nothing. We shall overcome these, and many other difficulties.
|
||
Besides, as we approach the center, I expect to find it luminous-"
|
||
"Nothing is impossible."
|
||
"And now that we have come to a thorough understanding, not a word
|
||
to any living soul. Our success depends on secrecy and dispatch."
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
Thus ended our memorable conference, which roused a perfect fever in
|
||
me. Leaving my uncle, I went forth like one possessed. Reaching the
|
||
banks of the Elbe, I began to think. Was all I had heard really and
|
||
truly possible? Was my uncle in his sober senses, and could the
|
||
interior of the earth be reached? Was I the victim of a madman, or was
|
||
he a discoverer of rare courage and grandeur of conception?
|
||
To a certain extent I was anxious to be off. I was afraid my
|
||
enthusiasm would cool. I determined to pack up at once. At the end
|
||
of an hour, however, on my way home, I found that my feelings had very
|
||
much changed.
|
||
"I'm all abroad," I cried; "'tis a nightmare- I must have dreamed
|
||
it."
|
||
At this moment I came face to face with Gretchen, whom I warmly
|
||
embraced.
|
||
"So you have come to meet me," she said; "how good of you. But
|
||
what is the matter?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
Well, it was no use mincing the matter, I told her all. She listened
|
||
with awe, and for some minutes she could not speak.
|
||
"Well?" I at last said, rather anxiously.
|
||
"What a magnificent journey. If I were only a man! A journey
|
||
worthy of the nephew of Professor Hardwigg. I should look upon it as
|
||
an honor to accompany him."
|
||
"My dear Gretchen, I thought you would be the first to cry out
|
||
against this mad enterprise."
|
||
"No; on the contrary, I glory in it. It is magnificent, splendid- an
|
||
idea worthy of my father. Henry Lawson, I envy you."
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
This was, as it were, conclusive. The final blow of all.
|
||
When we entered the house we found my uncle surrounded by workmen
|
||
and porters, who were packing up. He was pulling and hauling at a
|
||
bell.
|
||
"Where have you been wasting your time? Your portmanteau is not
|
||
packed- my papers are not in order- the precious tailor has not
|
||
brought my clothes, nor my gaiters- the key of my carpet bag is gone!"
|
||
I looked at him stupefied. And still he tugged away at the bell.
|
||
"We are really off, then?" I said.
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Yes- of course, and yet you go out for a stroll, unfortunate boy!"
|
||
"And when do we go?
|
||
"The day after tomorrow, at daybreak."
|
||
I heard no more; but darted off to my little bedchamber and locked
|
||
myself in. There was no doubt about it now. My uncle had been hard
|
||
at work all the afternoon. The garden was full of ropes, rope ladders,
|
||
torches, gourds, iron clamps, crowbars, alpenstocks, and pickaxes-
|
||
enough to load ten men.
|
||
I passed a terrible night. I was called early the next day to
|
||
learn that the resolution of my uncle was unchanged and irrevocable. I
|
||
also found my cousin and affianced wife as warm on the subject as
|
||
was her father.
|
||
{CHAPTER_4 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
Next day, at five o'clock in the morning, the post chaise was at the
|
||
door. Gretchen and the old cook received the keys of the house; and,
|
||
scarcely pausing to wish anyone good-by, we started on our adventurous
|
||
journey into the center of the earth.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_5
|
||
CHAPTER 5
|
||
First Lessons in Climbing
|
||
-
|
||
AT Altona, a suburb of Hamburg, is the Chief Station of the Kiel
|
||
railway, which was to take us to the shores of the Belt. In twenty
|
||
minutes from the moment of our departure we were in Holstein, and
|
||
our carriage entered the station. Our heavy luggage was taken out,
|
||
weighed, labeled, and placed in a huge van. We then took our
|
||
tickets, and exactly at seven o'clock were seated opposite each
|
||
other in a firstclass railway carriage.
|
||
My uncle said nothing. He was too busy examining his papers, among
|
||
which of course was the famous parchment, and some letters of
|
||
introduction from the Danish consul which were to pave the way to an
|
||
introduction to the Governor of Iceland. My only amusement was looking
|
||
out of the window. But as we passed through a flat though fertile
|
||
country, this occupation was slightly monotonous. In three hours we
|
||
reached Kiel, and our baggage was at once transferred to the steamer.
|
||
We had now a day before us, a delay of about ten hours. Which fact
|
||
put my uncle in a towering passion. We had nothing to do but to walk
|
||
about the pretty town and bay. At length, however, we went on board,
|
||
and at half past ten were steaming down the Great Belt. It was a
|
||
dark night, with a strong breeze and a rough sea, nothing being
|
||
visible but the occasional fires on shore, with here and there a
|
||
lighthouse. At seven in the morning we left Korsor, a little town on
|
||
the western side of Seeland.
|
||
Here we took another railway, which in three hours brought us to the
|
||
capital, Copenhagen, where, scarcely taking time for refreshment, my
|
||
uncle hurried out to present one of his letters of introduction. It
|
||
was to the director of the Museum of Antiquities, who, having been
|
||
informed that we were tourists bound for Iceland, did all he could
|
||
to assist us. One wretched hope sustained me now. Perhaps no vessel
|
||
was bound for such distant parts.
|
||
{CHAPTER_5 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
Alas! a little Danish schooner, the Valkyrie, was to sail on the
|
||
second of June for Reykjavik. The captain, M. Bjarne, was on board,
|
||
and was rather surprised at the energy and cordiality with which his
|
||
future passenger shook him by the hand. To him a voyage to Iceland was
|
||
merely a matter of course. My uncle, on the other hand, considered the
|
||
event of sublime importance. The honest sailor took advantage of the
|
||
Professor's enthusiasm to double the fare.
|
||
"On Tuesday morning at seven o'clock be on board," said M. Bjarne,
|
||
handing us our receipts.
|
||
"Excellent! Capital! Glorious!" remarked my uncle as we sat down
|
||
to a late breakfast; "refresh yourself, my boy, and we will take a run
|
||
through the town."
|
||
Our meal concluded, we went to the Kongens-Nye-Torw; to the king's
|
||
magnificent palace; to the beautiful bridge over the canal near the
|
||
Museum; to the immense cenotaph of Thorwaldsen with its hideous
|
||
naval groups; to the castle of Rosenberg; and to all the other lions
|
||
of the place- none of which my uncle even saw, so absorbed was he in
|
||
his anticipated triumphs.
|
||
But one thing struck his fancy, and that was a certain singular
|
||
steeple situated on the Island of Amak, which is the southeast quarter
|
||
of the city of Copenhagen. My uncle at once ordered me to turn my
|
||
steps that way, and accordingly we went on board the steam ferry
|
||
boat which does duty on the canal, and very soon reached the noted
|
||
dockyard quay.
|
||
{CHAPTER_5 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
In the first instance we crossed some narrow streets, where we met
|
||
numerous groups of galley slaves, with particolored trousers, grey and
|
||
yellow, working under the orders and the sticks of severe taskmasters,
|
||
and finally reached the Vor-Frelser's-Kirk.
|
||
This church exhibited nothing remarkable in itself; in fact, the
|
||
worthy Professor had only been attracted to it by one circumstance,
|
||
which was, that its rather elevated steeple started from a circular
|
||
platform, after which there was an exterior staircase, which wound
|
||
round to the very summit.
|
||
"Let us ascend," said my uncle.
|
||
"But I never could climb church towers," I cried, "I am subject to
|
||
dizziness in my head."
|
||
"The very reason why you should go up. I want to cure you of a bad
|
||
habit."
|
||
{CHAPTER_5 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"But, my good sir-"
|
||
"I tell you to come. What is the use of wasting so much valuable
|
||
time?"
|
||
It was impossible to dispute the dictatorial commands of my uncle. I
|
||
yielded with a groan. On payment of a fee, a verger gave us the key.
|
||
He, for one, was not partial to the ascent. My uncle at once showed me
|
||
the way, running up the steps like a schoolboy. I followed as well
|
||
as I could, though no sooner was I outside the tower, than my head
|
||
began to swim. There was nothing of the eagle about me. The earth
|
||
was enough for me, and no ambitious desire to soar ever entered my
|
||
mind. Still things did not go badly until I had ascended 150 steps,
|
||
and was near the platform, when I began to feel the rush of cold
|
||
air. I could scarcely stand, when clutching the railings, I looked
|
||
upwards. The railing was frail enough, but nothing to those which
|
||
skirted the terrible winding staircase, that appeared, from where I
|
||
stood, to ascend to the skies.
|
||
"Now then, Henry."
|
||
"I can't do it!" I cried, in accents of despair.
|
||
{CHAPTER_5 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Are you, after all, a coward, sir?" said my uncle in a pitiless
|
||
tone. "Go up, I say!"
|
||
To this there was no reply possible. And yet the keen air acted
|
||
violently on my nervous system; sky, earth, all seemed to swim
|
||
round, while the steeple rocked like a ship. My legs gave way like
|
||
those of a drunken man. I crawled upon my hands and knees; I hauled
|
||
myself up slowly, crawling like a snake. Presently I closed my eyes,
|
||
and allowed myself to be dragged upwards.
|
||
"Look around you," said my uncle in a stern voice, "heaven knows
|
||
what profound abysses you may have to look down. This is excellent
|
||
practice."
|
||
Slowly, and shivering all the while with cold, I opened my eyes.
|
||
What then did I see? My first glance was upwards at the cold fleecy
|
||
clouds, which as by some optical delusion appeared to stand still,
|
||
while the steeple, the weathercock, and our two selves were carried
|
||
swiftly along. Far away on one side could be seen the grassy plain,
|
||
while on the other lay the sea bathed in translucent light. The
|
||
Sund, or Sound as we call it, could be discovered beyond the point
|
||
of Elsinore, crowded with white sails, which, at that distance
|
||
looked like the wings of seagulls; while to the east could be made out
|
||
the far-off coast of Sweden. The whole appeared a magic panorama.
|
||
But faint and bewildered as I was, there was no remedy for it.
|
||
Rise and stand up I must. Despite my protestations my first lesson
|
||
lasted quite an hour. When, nearly two hours later, I reached the
|
||
bosom of mother earth, I was like a rheumatic old man bent double with
|
||
pain.
|
||
{CHAPTER_5 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Enough for one day," said my uncle, rubbing his hands, "we will
|
||
begin again tomorrow."
|
||
There was no remedy. My lessons lasted five days, and at the end
|
||
of that period, I ascended blithely enough, and found myself able to
|
||
look down into the depths below without even winking, and with some
|
||
degree of pleasure.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_6
|
||
CHAPTER 6
|
||
Our Voyage to Iceland
|
||
-
|
||
THE hour of departure came at last. The night before, the worthy Mr.
|
||
Thompson brought us the most cordial letters of introduction for Baron
|
||
Trampe, Governor of Iceland, for M. Pictursson, coadjutor to the
|
||
bishop, and for M. Finsen, mayor of the town of Reykjavik. In
|
||
return, my uncle nearly crushed his hands, so warmly did he shake
|
||
them.
|
||
On the second of the month, at two in the morning, our precious
|
||
cargo of luggage was taken on board the good ship Valkyrie. We
|
||
followed, and were very politely introduced by the captain to a
|
||
small cabin with two standing bed places, neither very well ventilated
|
||
nor very comfortable. But in the cause of science men are expected
|
||
to suffer.
|
||
"Well," and have we a fair wind?" cried my uncle, in his most
|
||
mellifluous accents.
|
||
"An excellent wind!" replied Captain Bjarne; "we shall leave the
|
||
Sound, going free with all sails set."
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
A few minutes afterwards, the schooner started before the wind,
|
||
under all the canvas she could carry, and entered the channel. An hour
|
||
later, the capital of Denmark seemed to sink into the waves, and we
|
||
were at no great distance from the coast of Elsinore. My uncle was
|
||
delighted; for myself, moody and dissatisfied, I appeared almost to
|
||
expect a glimpse of the ghost of Hamlet.
|
||
"Sublime madman thought I, "you doubtless would approve our
|
||
proceedings. You might perhaps even follow us to the center of the
|
||
earth, there to resolve your eternal doubts."
|
||
But no ghost or anything else appeared upon the ancient walls. The
|
||
fact is, the castle is much later than the time of the heroic prince
|
||
of Denmark. It is now the residence of the keeper of the Strait of the
|
||
Sound, and through that Sound more than fifteen thousand vessels of
|
||
all nations pass every year.
|
||
The castle of Kronborg soon disappeared in the murky atmosphere,
|
||
as well as the tower of Helsinborg, which raises its head on the
|
||
Swedish Bank. And here the schooner began to feel in earnest the
|
||
breezes of the Kattegat. The Valkyrie was swift enough, but with all
|
||
sailing boats there is the same uncertainty. Her cargo was coal,
|
||
furniture, pottery, woolen clothing, and a load of corn. As usual, the
|
||
crew was small, five Danes doing the whole of the work.
|
||
"How long will the voyage last?" asked my uncle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Well," I should think about ten days," replied the skipper,
|
||
"unless, indeed, we meet with some northeast gales among the Faroe
|
||
Islands."
|
||
"At all events, there will be no very considerable delay," cried the
|
||
impatient Professor.
|
||
"No, Mr. Hardwigg," said the captain, "no fear of that. At all
|
||
events, we shall get there some day."
|
||
Towards evening the schooner doubled Cape Skagen, the northernmost
|
||
part of Denmark, crossed the Skagerrak during the night- skirted the
|
||
extreme point of Norway through the gut of Cape Lindesnes, and then
|
||
reached the Northern Seas. Two days later we were not far from the
|
||
coast of Scotland, somewhere near what Danish sailors call
|
||
Peterhead, and then the Valkyrie stretched out direct for the Faroe
|
||
Islands, between Orkney and Shetland. Our vessel now felt the full
|
||
force of the ocean waves, and the wind shifting, we with great
|
||
difficulty made the Faroe Isles. On the eighth day, the captain made
|
||
out Myganness, the westernmost of the isles, and from that moment
|
||
headed direct for Portland, a cape on the southern shores of the
|
||
singular island for which we were bound.
|
||
The voyage offered no incident worthy of record. I bore it very
|
||
well, but my uncle to his great annoyance, and even shame, was
|
||
remarkably seasick! This mal de mer troubled him the more that it
|
||
prevented him from questioning Captain Bjarne as to the subject of
|
||
Sneffels, as to the means of communication, and the facilities of
|
||
transport. All these explanations he had to adjourn to the period of
|
||
his arrival. His time, meanwhile, was spent lying in bed groaning, and
|
||
dwelling anxiously on the hoped-for termination of the voyage. I
|
||
didn't pity him.
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
On the eleventh day we sighted Cape Portland, over which towered
|
||
Mount Myrdals Yokul, which, the weather being clear, we made out
|
||
very readily. The cape itself is nothing but a huge mount of granite
|
||
standing naked and alone to meet the Atlantic waves. The Valkyrie kept
|
||
off the coast, steering to the westward. On all sides were to be
|
||
seen whole "schools" of whales and sharks. After some hours we came in
|
||
sight of a solitary rock in the ocean, forming a mighty vault, through
|
||
which the foaming waves poured with intense fury. The islets of
|
||
Westman appeared to leap from the ocean, being so low in the water
|
||
as scarcely to be seen until you were right upon them. From that
|
||
moment the schooner was steered to the westward in order to round Cape
|
||
Reykjanes, the western point of Iceland.
|
||
My uncle, to his great disgust, was unable even to crawl on deck, so
|
||
heavy a sea was on, and thus lost the first view of the Land of
|
||
Promise. Forty-eight hours later, after a storm which drove us far
|
||
to sea under bare poles, we came once more in sight of land, and
|
||
were boarded by a pilot, who, after three hours of dangerous
|
||
navigation, brought the schooner safely to an anchor in the bay of
|
||
Faxa before Reykjavik.
|
||
My uncle came out of his cabin pale, haggard, thin, but full of
|
||
enthusiasm, his eyes dilated with pleasure and satisfaction. Nearly
|
||
the whole population of the town was on foot to see us land. The
|
||
fact was, that scarcely any one of them but expected some goods by the
|
||
periodical vessel.
|
||
Professor Hardwigg was in haste to leave his prison, or rather as he
|
||
called it, his hospital; but before he attempted to do so, he caught
|
||
hold of my hand, led me to the quarterdeck of the schooner, took my
|
||
arm with his left hand, and pointed inland with his right, over the
|
||
northern part of the bay, to where rose a high two-peaked mountain-
|
||
a double cone covered with eternal snow.
|
||
"Behold he whispered in an awe-stricken voice, behold- Mount
|
||
Sneffels!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Then without further remark, he put his finger to his lips,
|
||
frowned darkly, and descended into the small boat which awaited us.
|
||
I followed, and in a few minutes we stood upon the soil of
|
||
mysterious Iceland!
|
||
Scarcely were we fairly on shore when there appeared before us a man
|
||
of excellent appearance, wearing the costume of a military officer. He
|
||
was, however, but a civil servant, a magistrate, the governor of the
|
||
island- Baron Trampe. The Professor knew whom he had to deal with.
|
||
He therefore handed him the letters from Copenhagen, and a brief
|
||
conversation in Danish followed, to which I of course was a
|
||
stranger, and for a very good reason, for I did not know the
|
||
language in which they conversed. I afterwards heard, however, that
|
||
Baron Trampe placed himself entirely at the beck and call of Professor
|
||
Hardwigg.
|
||
My uncle was most graciously received by M. Finsen, the mayor, who
|
||
as far as costume went, was quite as military as the governor, but
|
||
also from character and occupation quite as pacific. As for his
|
||
coadjutor, M. Pictursson, he was absent on an episcopal visit to the
|
||
northern portion of the diocese. We were therefore compelled to
|
||
defer the pleasure of being presented to him. His absence was,
|
||
however, more than compensated by the presence of M. Fridriksson,
|
||
professor of natural science in the college of Reykjavik, a man of
|
||
invaluable ability. This modest scholar spoke no languages save
|
||
Icelandic and Latin. When, therefore, he addressed himself to me in
|
||
the language of Horace, we at once came to understand one another.
|
||
He was, in fact, the only person that I did thoroughly understand
|
||
during the whole period of my residence in this benighted island.
|
||
Out of three rooms of which his house was composed, two were
|
||
placed at our service, and in a few hours we were installed with all
|
||
our baggage, the amount of which rather astonished the simple
|
||
inhabitants of Reykjavik.
|
||
"Now, Harry," said my uncle, rubbing his hands, "an goes well, the
|
||
worse difficulty is now over."
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"How the worse difficulty over?" I cried in fresh amazement.
|
||
"Doubtless. Here we are in Iceland. Nothing more remains but to
|
||
descend into the bowels of the earth."
|
||
"Well, sir, to a certain extent you are right. We have only to go
|
||
down- but, as far as I am concerned, that is not the question. I
|
||
want to know how we are to get up again."
|
||
"That is the least part of the business, and does not in any way
|
||
trouble me. In the meantime, there is not an hour to lose. I am
|
||
about to visit the public library. Very likely I may find there some
|
||
manuscripts from the hand of Saknussemm. I shall be glad to consult
|
||
them."
|
||
"In the meanwhile," I replied, "I will take a walk through the town.
|
||
Will you not likewise do so?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"I feel no interest in the subject," said my uncle. "What for me
|
||
is curious in this island, is not what is above the surface, but
|
||
what is below."
|
||
I bowed by way of reply, put on my hat and furred cloak, and went
|
||
out.
|
||
It was not an easy matter to lose oneself in the two streets of
|
||
Reykjavik; I had therefore no need to ask my way. The town lies on a
|
||
flat and marshy plain, between two hills. A vast field of lava
|
||
skirts it on one side, falling away in terraces towards the sea. On
|
||
the other hand is the large bay of Faxa, bordered on the north by
|
||
the enormous glacier of Sneffels, and in which bay the Valkyrie was
|
||
then the only vessel at anchor. Generally there were one or two
|
||
English or French gunboats, to watch and protect the fisheries in
|
||
the offing. They were now, however, absent on duty.
|
||
The longest of the streets of Reykjavik runs parallel to the
|
||
shore. In this street the merchants and traders live in wooden huts
|
||
made with beams of wood, painted red- mere log huts, such as you
|
||
find in the wilds of America. The other street, situated more to the
|
||
west, runs toward a little lake between the residences of the bishop
|
||
and the other personages not engaged in commerce.
|
||
I had soon seen all I wanted of these weary and dismal
|
||
thoroughfares. Here and there was a strip of discolored turf, like
|
||
an old worn-out bit of woolen carpet; and now and then a bit of
|
||
kitchen garden, in which grew potatoes, cabbage, and lettuce, almost
|
||
diminutive enough to suggest the idea of Lilliput.
|
||
{CHAPTER_6 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
In the center of the new commercial street, I found the public
|
||
cemetery, enclosed by an earthen wall. Though not very large, it
|
||
appeared not likely to be filled for centuries. From hence I went to
|
||
the house of the Governor- a mere hut in comparison with the Mansion
|
||
House of Hamburg- but a palace alongside the other Icelandic houses.
|
||
Between the little lake and the town was the church, built in simple
|
||
Protestant style, and composed of calcined stones, thrown up by
|
||
volcanic action. I have not the slightest doubt that in high winds its
|
||
red tiles were blown out, to the great annoyance of the pastor and
|
||
congregation. Upon an eminence close at hand was the national
|
||
school, in which were taught Hebrew, English, French, and Danish.
|
||
In three hours my tour was complete. The general impression upon
|
||
my mind was sadness. No trees, no vegetation, so to speak- on all
|
||
sides volcanic peaks- the huts of turf and earth- more like roofs than
|
||
houses. Thanks to the heat of these residences, grass grows on the
|
||
roof, which grass is carefully cut for hay. I saw but few
|
||
inhabitants during my excursion, but I met a crowd on the beach,
|
||
drying, salting and loading codfish, the principal article of
|
||
exportation. The men appeared robust but heavy; fair-haired like
|
||
Germans, but of pensive mien- exiles of a higher scale in the ladder
|
||
of humanity than the Eskimos, but, I thought, much more unhappy, since
|
||
with superior perceptions they are compelled to live within the limits
|
||
of the Polar Circle.
|
||
Sometimes they gave vent to a convulsive laugh, but by no chance did
|
||
they smile. Their costume consists of a coarse capote of black wool,
|
||
known in Scandinavian countries as the "vadmel," a broad-brimmed
|
||
hat, trousers of red serge, and a piece of leather tied with strings
|
||
for a shoe- a coarse kind of moccasin. The women, though sad-looking
|
||
and mournful, had rather agreeable features, without much
|
||
expression. They wear a bodice and petticoat of somber vadmel. When
|
||
unmarried they wear a little brown knitted cap over a crown of plaited
|
||
hair; but when married, they cover their heads with a colored
|
||
handkerchief, over which they tie a white scarf.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_7
|
||
CHAPTER 7
|
||
Conversation and Discovery
|
||
-
|
||
WHEN I returned, dinner was ready. This meal was devoured by my
|
||
worthy relative with avidity and voracity. His shipboard diet had
|
||
turned his interior into a perfect gulf. The repast, which was more
|
||
Danish than Icelandic, was in itself nothing, but the excessive
|
||
hospitality of our host made us enjoy it doubly.
|
||
The conversation turned upon scientific matters, and M.
|
||
Fridriksson asked my uncle what he thought of the public library.
|
||
"Library, sir?" cried my uncle; "it appears to me a collection of
|
||
useless odd volumes, and a beggarly amount of empty shelves."
|
||
"What!" cried M. Fridriksson; "why, we have eight thousand volumes
|
||
of most rare and valuable works- some in the Scandinavian language,
|
||
besides all the new publications from Copenhagen."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"Eight thousand volumes, my dear sir- why, where are they?" cried my
|
||
uncle.
|
||
"Scattered over the country, Professor Hardwigg. We are very
|
||
studious, my dear sir, though we do live in Iceland. Every farmer,
|
||
every laborer, every fisherman can both read and write- and we think
|
||
that books instead of being locked up in cupboards, far from the sight
|
||
of students, should be distributed as widely as possible. The books of
|
||
our library are therefore passed from hand to hand without returning
|
||
to the library shelves perhaps for years."
|
||
"Then when foreigners visit you, there is nothing for them to see?"
|
||
"Well," sir, foreigners have their own libraries, and our first
|
||
consideration is, that our humbler classes should be highly
|
||
educated. Fortunately, the love of study is innate in the Icelandic
|
||
people. In 1816 we founded a Literary Society and Mechanics'
|
||
Institute; many foreign scholars of eminence are honorary members;
|
||
we publish books destined to educate our people, and these books
|
||
have rendered valuable services to our country. Allow me to have the
|
||
honor, Professor Hardwigg, to enroll you as an honorary member?"
|
||
My uncle, who already belonged to nearly every literary and
|
||
scientific institution in Europe, immediately yielded to the amiable
|
||
wishes of good M. Fridriksson.
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"And now," he said, after many expressions of gratitude and good
|
||
will, "if you will tell me what books you expected to find, perhaps
|
||
I may be of some assistance to you."
|
||
I watched my uncle keenly. For a minute or two he hesitated, as if
|
||
unwilling to speak; to speak openly was, perhaps, to unveil his
|
||
projects. Nevertheless, after some reflection, he made up his mind.
|
||
"Well," M. Fridriksson," he said in an easy, unconcerned kind of
|
||
way, "I was desirous of ascertaining, if among other valuable works,
|
||
you had any of the learned Arne Saknussemm."
|
||
"Arne Saknussemm!" cried the Professor of Reykjavik; "you speak of
|
||
one of the most distinguished scholars of the sixteenth century, of
|
||
the great naturalist, the great alchemist, the great traveler."
|
||
"Exactly so."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"One of the most distinguished men connected with Icelandic
|
||
science and literature."
|
||
"As you say, sir-"
|
||
"A man illustrious above all."
|
||
"Yes, sir, all this is true, but his works?"
|
||
"We have none of them."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Not in Iceland?"
|
||
"There are none in Iceland or elsewhere," answered the other, sadly.
|
||
"Why so?"
|
||
"Because Arne Saknussemm was persecuted for heresy, and in 1573
|
||
his works were publicly burnt at Copenhagen, by the hands of the
|
||
common hangman."
|
||
"Very good! capital!" murmured my uncle, to the great astonishment
|
||
of the worthy Icelander.
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"You said, sir-"
|
||
"Yes, yes, all is clear, I see the link in the chain; everything
|
||
is explained, and I now understand why Arne Saknussemm, put out of
|
||
court, forced to hide his magnificent discoveries, was compelled to
|
||
conceal beneath the veil of an incomprehensible cryptograph, the
|
||
secret-"
|
||
"What secret?"
|
||
"A secret- which," stammered my uncle.
|
||
"Have you discovered some wonderful manuscript?" cried M.
|
||
Fridriksson.
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"No! no, I was carried away by my enthusiasm. A mere supposition."
|
||
"Very good, sir. But, really, to turn to another subject, I hope you
|
||
will not leave our island without examining into its mineralogical
|
||
riches."
|
||
"Well," the fact is, I am rather late. So many learned men have been
|
||
here before me."
|
||
"Yes, yes, but there is still much to be done," cried M.
|
||
Fridriksson.
|
||
"You think so," said my uncle, his eyes twinkling with hidden
|
||
satisfaction.
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Yes, you have no idea how many unknown mountains, glaciers,
|
||
volcanoes there are which remain to be studied. Without moving from
|
||
where we sit, I can show you one. Yonder on the edge of the horizon,
|
||
you see Sneffels."
|
||
"Oh yes, Sneffels," said my uncle.
|
||
"One of the most curious volcanoes in existence, the crater of which
|
||
has been rarely visited."
|
||
"Extinct?"
|
||
"Extinct, any time these five hundred years," was the ready reply.
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Well," said my uncle, who dug his nails into his flesh, and pressed
|
||
his knees tightly together to prevent himself leaping up with joy.
|
||
"I have a great mind to begin my studies with an examination of the
|
||
geological mysteries of this Mount Seffel- Feisel- what do you call
|
||
it?"
|
||
"Sneffels, my dear sir."
|
||
This portion of the conversation took place in Latin, and I
|
||
therefore understood all that had been said. I could scarcely keep
|
||
my countenance when I found my uncle so cunningly concealing his
|
||
delight and satisfaction. I must confess that his artful grimaces, put
|
||
on to conceal his happiness, made him look like a new Mephistopheles.
|
||
"Yes, yes," he continued, "your proposition delights me. I will
|
||
endeavor to climb to the summit of Sneffels, and, if possible, will
|
||
descend into its crater."
|
||
"I very much regret," continued M. Fridriksson, "that my
|
||
occupation will entirely preclude the possibility of my accompanying
|
||
you. It would have been both pleasurable and profitable if I could
|
||
have spared the time."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"No, no, a thousand times no," cried my uncle. "I do not wish to
|
||
disturb the serenity of any man. I thank you, however, with all my
|
||
heart. The presence of one so learned as yourself, would no doubt have
|
||
been most useful, but the duties of your office and profession
|
||
before everything."
|
||
In the innocence of his simple heart, our host did not perceive
|
||
the irony of these remarks.
|
||
"I entirely approve your project," continued the Icelander after
|
||
some further remarks. "It is a good idea to begin by examining this
|
||
volcano. You will make a harvest of curious observations. In the first
|
||
place, how do you propose to get to Sneffels?"
|
||
"By sea. I shall cross the bay. Of course that is the most rapid
|
||
route."
|
||
"Of course. But still it cannot be done."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Why?"
|
||
"We have not an available boat in all Reykjavik," replied the other.
|
||
"What is to be done?"
|
||
"You must go by land along the coast. It is longer, but much more
|
||
interesting."
|
||
"Then I must have a guide."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Of course; and I have your very man."
|
||
"Somebody on whom I can depend."
|
||
"Yes, an inhabitant of the peninsula on which Sneffels is
|
||
situated. He is a very shrewd and worthy man, with whom you will be
|
||
pleased. He speaks Danish like a Dane."
|
||
"When can I see him- today?"
|
||
"No, tomorrow; he will not be here before."
|
||
{CHAPTER_7 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
"Tomorrow be it," replied my uncle, with a deep sigh.
|
||
The conversation ended by compliments on both sides. During the
|
||
dinner my uncle had learned much as to the history of Arne Saknussemm,
|
||
the reasons for his mysterious and hieroglyphical document. He also
|
||
became aware that his host would not accompany him on his
|
||
adventurous expedition, and that next day we should have a guide.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_8
|
||
CHAPTER 8
|
||
Off at Last
|
||
-
|
||
THAT evening I took a brief walk on the shore near Reykjavik,
|
||
after which I returned to an early sleep on my bed of coarse planks,
|
||
where I slept the sleep of the just. When I awoke I heard my uncle
|
||
speaking loudly in the next room. I rose hastily and joined him. He
|
||
was talking in Danish with a man of tall stature, and of perfectly
|
||
Herculean build. This man appeared to be possessed of very great
|
||
strength. His eyes, which started rather prominently from a very large
|
||
head, the face belonging to which was simple and naive, appeared
|
||
very quick and intelligent. Very long hair, which even in England
|
||
would have been accounted exceedingly red, fell over his athletic
|
||
shoulders. This native of Iceland was active and supple in appearance,
|
||
though he scarcely moved his arms, being in fact one of those men
|
||
who despise the habit of gesticulation common to southern people.
|
||
Everything in this man's manner revealed a calm and phlegmatic
|
||
temperament. There was nothing indolent about him, but his
|
||
appearance spoke of tranquillity. He was one of those who never seemed
|
||
to expect anything from anybody, who liked to work when he thought
|
||
proper, and whose philosophy nothing could astonish or trouble.
|
||
I began to comprehend his character, simply from the way in which he
|
||
listened to the wild and impassioned verbiage of my worthy uncle.
|
||
While the excellent Professor spoke sentence after sentence, he
|
||
stood with folded arms, utterly still, motionless to all my uncle's
|
||
gesticulations. When he wanted to say No he moved his head from left
|
||
to right; when he acquiesced he nodded, so slightly that you could
|
||
scarcely see the undulation of his head. This economy of motion was
|
||
carried to the length of avarice.
|
||
Judging from his appearance I should have been a long time before
|
||
I had suspected him to be what he was, a mighty hunter. Certainly
|
||
his manner was not likely to frighten the game. How, then, did he
|
||
contrive to get at his prey?
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
My surprise was slightly modified when I knew that this tranquil and
|
||
solemn personage was only a hunter of the eider duck, the down of
|
||
which is, after all, the greatest source of the Icelanders' wealth.
|
||
In the early days of summer, the female of the eider, a pretty
|
||
sort of duck, builds its nest amid the rocks of the fjords- the name
|
||
given to all narrow gulfs in Scandinavian countries- with which
|
||
every part of the island is indented. No sooner has the eider duck
|
||
made her nest than she lines the inside of it with the softest down
|
||
from her breast. Then comes the hunter or trader, taking away the
|
||
nest, the poor bereaved female begins her task over again, and this
|
||
continues as long as any eider down is to be found.
|
||
When she can find no more the male bird sets to work to see what
|
||
he can do. As, however, his down is not so soft, and has therefore
|
||
no commercial value, the hunter does not take the trouble to rob him
|
||
of his nest lining. The nest is accordingly finished, the eggs are
|
||
laid, the little ones are born, and next year the harvest of eider
|
||
down is again collected.
|
||
Now, as the eider duck never selects steep rocks or aspects to build
|
||
its nest, but rather sloping and low cliffs near to the sea, the
|
||
Icelandic hunter can carry on his trade operations without much
|
||
difficulty. He is like a farmer who has neither to plow, to sow, nor
|
||
to harrow, only to collect his harvest.
|
||
This grave, sententious, silent person, as phlegmatic as an
|
||
Englishman on the French stage, was named Hans Bjelke. He had called
|
||
upon us in consequence of the recommendation of M. Fridriksson. He
|
||
was, in fact, our future guide. It struck me that had I sought the
|
||
world over, I could not have found a greater contradiction to my
|
||
impulsive uncle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
They, however, readily understood one another. Neither of them had
|
||
any thought about money; one was ready to take all that was offered
|
||
him, the other ready to offer anything that was asked. It may
|
||
readily be conceived, then, that an understanding was soon come to
|
||
between them.
|
||
Now, the understanding was, that he was to take us to the village of
|
||
Stapi, situated on the southern slope of the peninsula of Sneffels, at
|
||
the very foot of the volcano. Hans, the guide, told us the distance
|
||
was about twenty-two miles, a journey which my uncle supposed would
|
||
take about two days.
|
||
But when my uncle came to understand that they were Danish miles, of
|
||
eight thousand yards each, he was obliged to be more moderate in his
|
||
ideas, and, considering the horrible roads we had to follow, to
|
||
allow eight or ten days for the journey.
|
||
Four horses were prepared for us, two to carry the baggage, and
|
||
two to bear the important weight of myself and uncle. Hans declared
|
||
that nothing ever would make him climb on the back of any animal. He
|
||
knew every inch of that part of the coast, and promised to take us the
|
||
very shortest way.
|
||
His engagement with my uncle was by no means to cease with our
|
||
arrival at Stapi; he was further to remain in his service during the
|
||
whole time required for the completion of his scientific
|
||
investigations, at the fixed salary of three rix-dollars a week, being
|
||
exactly fourteen shillings and twopence, minus one farthing, English
|
||
currency. One stipulation, however, was made by the guide- the money
|
||
was to be paid to him every Saturday night, failing which, his
|
||
engagement was at an end.
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
The day of our departure was fixed. My uncle wished to hand the
|
||
eider-down hunter an advance, but he refused in one emphatic word-
|
||
"Efter."
|
||
Which being translated from Icelandic into plain English means-
|
||
"After."
|
||
The treaty concluded, our worthy guide retired without another word.
|
||
"A splendid fellow," said my uncle; "only he little suspects the
|
||
marvelous part he is about to play in the history of the world."
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"You mean, then," I cried in amazement, "that he should accompany
|
||
us?"
|
||
"To the interior of the earth, yes," replied my uncle. "Why not?"
|
||
There were yet forty-eight hours to elapse before we made our
|
||
final start. To my great regret, our whole time was taken up in making
|
||
preparations for our journey. All our industry and ability were
|
||
devoted to packing every object in the most advantageous manner- the
|
||
instruments on one side, the arms on the other, the tools here and the
|
||
provisions there. There were, in fact, four distinct groups.
|
||
The instruments were of course of the best manufacture:
|
||
1. A centigrade thermometer of Eigel, counting up to 150 degrees,
|
||
which to me did not appear half enough- or too much. Too hot by
|
||
half, if the degree of heat was to ascend so high- in which case we
|
||
should certainly be cooked- not enough, if we wanted to ascertain
|
||
the exact temperature of springs or metal in a state of fusion.
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
2. A manometer worked by compressed air, an instrument used to
|
||
ascertain the upper atmospheric pressure on the level of the ocean.
|
||
Perhaps a common barometer would not have done as well, the
|
||
atmospheric pressure being likely to increase in proportion as we
|
||
descended below the surface of the earth.
|
||
3. A first-class chronometer made by Boissonnas, of Geneva, set at
|
||
the meridian of Hamburg, from which Germans calculate, as the
|
||
English do from Greenwich, and the French from Paris.
|
||
4. Two compasses, one for horizontal guidance, the other to
|
||
ascertain the dip.
|
||
5. A night glass.
|
||
6. Two Ruhmkorff coils, which, by means of a current of electricity,
|
||
would ensure us a very excellent, easily carried, and certain means of
|
||
obtaining light.*
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
-
|
||
*The Ruhmkorff coil is used to obtain currents of induced
|
||
electricity of great intensity. It consists of a coil of copper
|
||
wire, insulated by being covered with silk, surrounded by another coil
|
||
of fine wire, also insulated, in which a momentary current is
|
||
induced when a current is passed through the inner coil from a voltaic
|
||
battery. When the apparatus is in action, the gas becomes luminous,
|
||
and produces a white and continued light. The battery and wire are
|
||
carried in a leather bag, which the traveler fastens by a strap to his
|
||
shoulders. The lantern is in front, and enables the benighted wanderer
|
||
to see in the most profound obscurity. He may venture without fear
|
||
of explosion into the midst of the most inflammable gases, and the
|
||
lantern will burn beneath the deepest waters. H. D. Ruhmkorff, an able
|
||
and learned chemist, discovered the induction coil. In 1864 he won the
|
||
quinquennial French prize of L2,000 for this ingenious application
|
||
of electricity. A voltaic battery, so called from Volta, its designed,
|
||
is an apparatus consisting of a series of metal plates arranged in
|
||
pairs and subjected to the action of saline solutions for producing
|
||
currents of electricity.
|
||
-
|
||
7. A voltaic battery on the newest principle.
|
||
Our arms consisted of two rifles, with two revolving six-shooters.
|
||
Why these arms were provided it was impossible for me to say. I had
|
||
every reason to believe that we had neither wild beasts nor savage
|
||
natives to fear. My uncle, on the other hand, was quite as devoted
|
||
to his arsenal as to his collection of instruments, and above all
|
||
was very careful with his provision of fulminating or gun cotton,
|
||
warranted to keep in any climate, and of which the expansive force was
|
||
known to be greater than that of ordinary gunpowder.
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
Our tools consisted of two pickaxes, two crowbars, a silken
|
||
ladder, three iron-shod Alpine poles, a hatchet, a hammer, a dozen
|
||
wedges, some pointed pieces of iron, and a quantity of strong rope.
|
||
You may conceive that the whole made a tolerable parcel, especially
|
||
when I mention that the ladder itself was three hundred feet long!
|
||
Then there came the important question of provisions. The hamper was
|
||
not very large but tolerably satisfactory, for I knew that in
|
||
concentrated essence of meat and biscuit there was enough to last
|
||
six months. The only liquid provided by my uncle was Schiedam. Of
|
||
water, not a drop. We had, however, an ample supply of gourds, and
|
||
my uncle counted on finding water, and enough to fill them, as soon as
|
||
we commenced our downward journey. My remarks as to the temperature,
|
||
the quality, and even as to the possibility of none being found,
|
||
remained wholly without effect.
|
||
To make up the exact list of our traveling gear- for the guidance of
|
||
future travelers- add, that we carried a medicine and surgical chest
|
||
with all apparatus necessary for wounds, fractures and blows; lint,
|
||
scissors, lancets- in fact, a perfect collection of horrible looking
|
||
instruments; a number of vials containing ammonia, alcohol, ether,
|
||
Goulard water, aromatic vinegar, in fact, every possible and
|
||
impossible drug- finally, all the materials for working the
|
||
Ruhmkorff coil!
|
||
My uncle had also been careful to lay in a goodly supply of tobacco,
|
||
several flasks of very fine gunpowder, boxes of tinder, besides a
|
||
large belt crammed full of notes and gold. Good boots rendered
|
||
watertight were to be found to the number of six in the tool box.
|
||
"My boy, with such clothing, with such boots, and such general
|
||
equipment," said my uncle, in a state of rapturous delight, "we may
|
||
hope to travel far."
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
It took a whole day to put all these matters in order. In the
|
||
evening we dined with Baron Trampe, in company with the Mayor of
|
||
Reykjavik, and Doctor Hyaltalin, the great medical man of Iceland.
|
||
M. Fridriksson was not present, and I was afterwards sorry to hear
|
||
that he and the governor did not agree on some matters connected
|
||
with the administration of the island. Unfortunately, the
|
||
consequence was, that I did not understand a word that was said at
|
||
dinner- a kind of semiofficial reception. One thing I can say, my
|
||
uncle never left off speaking.
|
||
The next day our labor came to an end. Our worthy host delighted
|
||
my uncle, Professor Hardwigg, by giving him a good map of Iceland, a
|
||
most important and precious document for a mineralogist.
|
||
Our last evening was spent in a long conversation with M.
|
||
Fridriksson, whom I liked very much- the more that I never expected to
|
||
see him or anyone else again. After this agreeable way of spending
|
||
an hour or so, I tried to sleep. In vain; with the exception of a
|
||
few dozes, my night was miserable.
|
||
At five o'clock in the morning I was awakened from the only real
|
||
half hour's sleep of the night by the loud neighing of horses under my
|
||
window. I hastily dressed myself and went down into the street. Hans
|
||
was engaged in putting the finishing stroke to our baggage, which he
|
||
did in a silent, quiet way that won my admiration, and yet he did it
|
||
admirably well. My uncle wasted a great deal of breath in giving him
|
||
directions, but worthy Hans took not the slightest notice of his
|
||
words.
|
||
At six o'clock all our preparations were completed, and M.
|
||
Fridriksson shook hands heartily with us. My uncle thanked him warmly,
|
||
in the Icelandic language, for his kind hospitality, speaking truly
|
||
from the heart.
|
||
{CHAPTER_8 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
As for myself I put together a few of my best Latin phrases and paid
|
||
him the highest compliments I could. This fraternal and friendly
|
||
duty performed, we sallied forth and mounted our horses.
|
||
As soon as we were quite ready, M. Fridriksson advanced, and by
|
||
way of farewell, called after me in the words of Virgil- words which
|
||
appeared to have been made for us, travelers starting for an uncertain
|
||
destination:
|
||
"Et quacunque viam dederit fortuna sequamur."
|
||
("And whichsoever way thou goest, may fortune follow!")
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_9
|
||
CHAPTER 9
|
||
We Meet with adventures
|
||
-
|
||
THE weather was overcast but settled, when we commenced our
|
||
adventurous and perilous journey. We had neither to fear fatiguing
|
||
heat nor drenching rain. It was, in fact, real tourist weather.
|
||
As there was nothing I liked better than horse exercise, the
|
||
pleasure of riding through an unknown country caused the early part of
|
||
our enterprise to be particularly agreeable to me.
|
||
I began to enjoy the exhilarating delight of traveling, a life of
|
||
desire, gratification and liberty. The truth is, that my spirits
|
||
rose so rapidly, that I began to be indifferent to what had once
|
||
appeared to be a terrible journey.
|
||
"After all," I said to myself, "what do I risk? Simply to take a
|
||
journey through a curious country, to climb a remarkable mountain, and
|
||
if the worst comes to the worst, to descend into the crater of an
|
||
extinct volcano."
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
There could be no doubt that this was all this terrible Saknussemm
|
||
had done. As to the existence of a gallery, or of subterraneous
|
||
passages leading into the interior of the earth, the idea was simply
|
||
absurd, the hallucination of a distempered imagination. All, then,
|
||
that may be required of me I will do cheerfully, and will create no
|
||
difficulty.
|
||
It was just before we left Reykjavik that I came to this decision.
|
||
Hans, our extraordinary guide, went first, walking with a steady,
|
||
rapid, unvarying step. Our two horses with the luggage followed of
|
||
their own accord, without requiring whip or spur. My uncle and I
|
||
came behind, cutting a very tolerable figure upon our small but
|
||
vigorous animals.
|
||
Iceland is one of the largest islands in Europe. It contains
|
||
thirty thousand square miles of surface, and has about seventy
|
||
thousand inhabitants. Geographers have divided it into four parts, and
|
||
we had to cross the southwest quarter which in the vernacular is
|
||
called Sudvestr Fjordungr.
|
||
Hans, on taking his departure from Reykjavik, had followed the
|
||
line of the sea. We took our way through poor and sparse meadows,
|
||
which made a desperate effort every year to show a little green.
|
||
They very rarely succeed in a good show of yellow.
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
The rugged summits of the rocky hills were dimly visible on the edge
|
||
of the horizon, through the misty fogs; every now and then some
|
||
heavy flakes of snow showed conspicuous in the morning light, while
|
||
certain lofty and pointed rocks were first lost in the grey low
|
||
clouds, their summits clearly visible above, like jagged reefs
|
||
rising from a troublous sea.
|
||
Every now and then a spur of rock came down through the arid ground,
|
||
leaving us scarcely room to pass. Our horses, however, appeared not
|
||
only well acquainted with the country, but by a kind of instinct, knew
|
||
which was the best road. My uncle had not even the satisfaction of
|
||
urging forward his steed by whip, spur, or voice. It was utterly
|
||
useless to show any signs of impatience. I could not help smiling to
|
||
see him look so big on his little horse; his long legs now and then
|
||
touching the ground made him look like a six-footed centaur.
|
||
"Good beast, good beast," he would cry. "I assure you, "Good
|
||
beast, good beast, Henry, that I begin to think no animal is more
|
||
intelligent than an Icelandic horse. Snow, tempest, impracticable
|
||
roads, rocks, icebergs- nothing stops him. He is brave; he is sober;
|
||
he is safe; he never makes a false step; never glides or slips from
|
||
his path. I dare to say that if any river, any fjord has to be
|
||
crossed- and I have no doubt there will be many- you will see him
|
||
enter the water without hesitation like an amphibious like an
|
||
amphibious animal, and reach the opposite side in safety. We must not,
|
||
however, attempt to hurry him; we must allow him to have his own
|
||
way, and I will undertake to say that between us we shall do our ten
|
||
leagues a day."
|
||
"We may do so," was my reply, "but what about our worthy guide?"
|
||
"I have not the slightest anxiety about him: that sort of people
|
||
go ahead without knowing even what they are about. Look at Hans. He
|
||
moves so little that it is impossible for him to become fatigued.
|
||
Besides, if he were to complain of weariness, he could have the loan
|
||
of my horse. I should have a violent attack of the cramp if I were not
|
||
to have some sort of exercise. My arms are right- but my legs are
|
||
getting a little stiff."
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
All this while we were advancing at a rapid pace. The country we had
|
||
reached was already nearly a desert. Here and there could be seen an
|
||
isolated farm, some solitary bur, or Icelandic house, built of wood,
|
||
earth, fragments of lava- looking like beggars on the highway of life.
|
||
These wretched and miserable huts excited in us such pity that we felt
|
||
half disposed to leave alms at every door. In this country there are
|
||
no roads, paths are nearly unknown, and vegetation, poor as it was,
|
||
slowly as it reached perfection, soon obliterated all traces of the
|
||
few travelers who passed from place to place.
|
||
Nevertheless, this division of the province, situated only a few
|
||
miles from the capital, is considered one of the best cultivated and
|
||
most thickly peopled in all Iceland. What, then, must be the state
|
||
of the less known and more distant parts of the island? After
|
||
traveling fully half a Danish mile, we had met neither a farmer at the
|
||
door of his hut, nor even a wandering shepherd with his wild and
|
||
savage flock.
|
||
A few stray cows and sheep were only seen occasionally. What,
|
||
then, must we expect when we come to the upheaved regions- to the
|
||
districts broken and roughened from volcanic eruptions and
|
||
subterraneous commotions?
|
||
We were to learn this all in good time. I saw, however, on
|
||
consulting the map, that we avoided a good deal of this rough country,
|
||
by following the winding and desolate shores of the sea. In reality,
|
||
the great volcanic movement of the island, and all its attendant
|
||
phenomena, are concentrated in the interior of the island; there,
|
||
horizontal layers or strata of rocks, piled one upon the other,
|
||
eruptions of basaltic origin, and streams of lava, have given this
|
||
country a kind of supernatural reputation.
|
||
Little did I expect, however, the spectacle which awaited us when we
|
||
reached the peninsula of Sneffels, where agglomerations of nature's
|
||
ruins form a kind of terrible chaos.
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Some two hours or more after we had left the city of Reykjavik, we
|
||
reached the little town called Aoalkirkja, or the principal church. It
|
||
consists simply of a few houses- not what in England or Germany we
|
||
should call a hamlet.
|
||
Hans stopped here one half hour. He shared our frugal breakfast,
|
||
answered Yes, and No to my uncle's questions as to the nature of the
|
||
road, and at last when asked where we were to pass the night was as
|
||
laconic as usual.
|
||
"Gardar!" was his one-worded reply.
|
||
I took occasion to consult the map, to see where Gardar was to be
|
||
found. After looking keenly I found a small town of that name on the
|
||
borders of the Hvalfjord, about four miles from Reykjavik. I pointed
|
||
this out to my uncle, who made a very energetic grimace.
|
||
"Only four miles out of twenty-two? Why it is only a little walk."
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
He was about to make some energetic observation to the guide, but
|
||
Hans, without taking the slightest notice of him, went in front of the
|
||
horses, and walked ahead with the same imperturbable phlegm he had
|
||
always exhibited.
|
||
Three hours later, still traveling over those apparently
|
||
interminable and sandy prairies, we were compelled to go round the
|
||
Kollafjord, an easier and shorter cut than crossing the gulfs. Shortly
|
||
after we entered a place of communal jurisdiction called Ejulberg, and
|
||
the clock of which would then have struck twelve, if any Icelandic
|
||
church had been rich enough to possess so valuable and useful an
|
||
article. These sacred edifices are, however, very much like these
|
||
people, who do without watches- and never miss them.
|
||
Here the horses were allowed to take some rest and refreshment, then
|
||
following a narrow strip of shore between high rocks and the sea, they
|
||
took us without further halt to the Aoalkirkja of Brantar, and after
|
||
another mile to Saurboer Annexia, a chapel of ease, situated on the
|
||
southern bank of the Hvalfjord.
|
||
It was four o'clock in the evening and we had traveled four Danish
|
||
miles, about equal to twenty English.
|
||
The fjord was in this place about half a mile in width. The sweeping
|
||
and broken waves came rolling in upon the pointed rocks; the gulf
|
||
was surrounded by rocky walls- a mighty cliff, three thousand feet
|
||
in height, remarkable for its brown strata, separated here and there
|
||
by beds of tufa of a reddish hue. Now, whatever may have been the
|
||
intelligence of our horses, I had not the slightest reliance upon
|
||
them, as a means of crossing a stormy arm of the sea. To ride over
|
||
salt water upon the back of a little horse seemed to me absurd.
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"If they are really intelligent," I said to myself, "they will
|
||
certainly not make the attempt. In any case, I shall trust rather to
|
||
my own intelligence than theirs."
|
||
But my uncle was in no humor to wait. He dug his heels into the
|
||
sides of his steed, and made for the shore. His horse went to the very
|
||
edge of the water, sniffed at the approaching wave and retreated.
|
||
My uncle, who was, sooth to say, quite as obstinate as the beast
|
||
he bestrode, insisted on his making the desired advance. This
|
||
attempt was followed by a new refusal on the part of the horse which
|
||
quietly shook his head. This demonstration of rebellion was followed
|
||
by a volley of words and a stout application of whipcord; also
|
||
followed by kicks on the part of the horse, which threw its head and
|
||
heels upwards and tried to throw his rider. At length the sturdy
|
||
little pony, spreading out his legs, in a stiff and ludicrous
|
||
attitude, got from under the Professor's legs, and left him
|
||
standing, with both feet on a separate stone, like the Colossus of
|
||
Rhodes.
|
||
"Wretched animal!" cried my uncle, suddenly transformed into a
|
||
foot passenger- and as angry and ashamed as a dismounted cavalry
|
||
officer on the field of battle.
|
||
"Farja," said the guide, tapping him familiarly on the shoulder.
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"What, a ferry boat!
|
||
"Der," answered Hans, pointing to where lay the boat in
|
||
question-"there."
|
||
"Well," I cried, quite delighted with the information; "so it is."
|
||
"Why did you not say so before," cried my uncle; "why not start at
|
||
once?"
|
||
"Tidvatten," said the guide.
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"What does he say?" I asked, considerably puzzled by the delay and
|
||
the dialogue.
|
||
"He says tide," replied my uncle, translating the Danish word for my
|
||
information.
|
||
"Of course I understand- we must wait till the tide serves."
|
||
"For bida?" asked my uncle.
|
||
"Ja," replied Hans.
|
||
{CHAPTER_9 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
My uncle frowned, stamped his feet and then followed the horses to
|
||
where the boat lay.
|
||
I thoroughly understood and appreciated the necessity for waiting,
|
||
before crossing the fjord, for that moment when the sea at its highest
|
||
point is in a state of slack water. As neither the ebb nor flow can
|
||
then be felt, the ferry boat was in no danger of being carried out
|
||
to sea, or dashed upon the rocky coast.
|
||
The favorable moment did not come until six o'clock in the
|
||
evening. Then my uncle, myself, and guide, two boatmen and the four
|
||
horses got into a very awkward flat-bottom boat. Accustomed as I had
|
||
been to the steam ferry boats of the Elbe, I found the long oars of
|
||
the boatmen but sorry means of locomotion. We were more than an hour
|
||
in crossing the fjord; but at length the passage was concluded without
|
||
accident.
|
||
Half an hour later we reached Gardar.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_10
|
||
CHAPTER 10
|
||
Traveling in Iceland
|
||
-
|
||
IT ought, one would have thought, to have been night, even in the
|
||
sixty-fifth parallel of latitude; but still the nocturnal illumination
|
||
did not surprise me. For in Iceland, during the months of June and
|
||
July, the sun never sets.
|
||
The temperature, however, was very much lower than I expected. I was
|
||
cold, but even that did not affect me so much as ravenous hunger.
|
||
Welcome indeed, therefore, was the hut which hospitably opened its
|
||
doors to us.
|
||
It was merely the house of a peasant, but in the matter of
|
||
hospitality, it was worthy of being the palace of a king. As we
|
||
alighted at the door the master of the house came forward, held out
|
||
his hand, and without any further ceremony, signaled to us to follow
|
||
him.
|
||
We followed him, for to accompany him was impossible. A long,
|
||
narrow, gloomy passage led into the interior of this habitation,
|
||
made from beams roughly squared by the ax. This passage gave ingress
|
||
to every room. The chambers were four in number- the kitchen, the
|
||
workshop, where the weaving was carried on, the general sleeping
|
||
chamber of the family, and the best room, to which strangers were
|
||
especially invited. My uncle, whose lofty stature had not been taken
|
||
into consideration when the house was built, contrived to knock his
|
||
head against the beams of the roof.
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
We were introduced into our chamber, a kind of large room with a
|
||
hard earthen floor, and lighted by a window, the panes of which were
|
||
made of a sort of parchment from the intestines of sheep- very far
|
||
from transparent.
|
||
The bedding was composed of dry hay thrown into two long red
|
||
wooden boxes, ornamented with sentences painted in Icelandic. I really
|
||
had no idea that we should be made so comfortable. There was one
|
||
objection to the house, and that was, the very powerful odor of
|
||
dried fish, of macerated meat, and of sour milk, which three
|
||
fragrances combined did not at all suit my olfactory nerves.
|
||
As soon as we had freed ourselves from our heavy traveling
|
||
costume, the voice of our host was heard calling to us to come into
|
||
the kitchen, the only room in which the Icelanders ever make any fire,
|
||
no matter how cold it may be.
|
||
My uncle, nothing loath, hastened to obey this hospitable and
|
||
friendly invitation. I followed.
|
||
The kitchen chimney was made on an antique model. A large stone
|
||
standing in the middle of the room was the fireplace; above, in the
|
||
roof, was a hole for the smoke to pass through. This apartment was
|
||
kitchen, parlor and dining room all in one.
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
On our entrance, our worthy host, as if he had not seen us before,
|
||
advanced ceremoniously, uttered a word which means "be happy," and
|
||
then kissed both of us on the cheek.
|
||
His wife followed, pronounced the same word, with the same
|
||
ceremonial, then the husband and wife, placing their right hands
|
||
upon their hearts, bowed profoundly.
|
||
This excellent Icelandic woman was the mother of nineteen
|
||
children, who, little and big, rolled, crawled, and walked about in
|
||
the midst of volumes of smoke arising from the angular fireplace in
|
||
the middle of the room. Every now and then I could see a fresh white
|
||
head, and a slightly melancholy expression of countenance, peering
|
||
at me through the vapor.
|
||
Both my uncle and myself, however, were very friendly with the whole
|
||
party, and before we were aware of it, there were three or four of
|
||
these little ones on our shoulders, as many on our boxes, and the rest
|
||
hanging about our legs. Those who could speak kept crying out
|
||
saellvertu in every possible and impossible key. Those who did not
|
||
speak only made all the more noise.
|
||
This concert was interrupted by the announcement of supper. At
|
||
this moment our worthy guide, the eider-duck hunter, came in after
|
||
seeing to the feeding and stabling of the horses- which consisted in
|
||
letting them loose to browse on the stunted green of the Icelandic
|
||
prairies. There was little for them to eat, but moss and some very dry
|
||
and innutritious grass; next day they were ready before the door, some
|
||
time before we were.
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"Welcome," said Hans.
|
||
Then tranquilly, with the air of an automaton, without any more
|
||
expression in one kiss than another, he embraced the host and
|
||
hostess and their nineteen children.
|
||
This ceremony concluded to the satisfaction of all parties, we all
|
||
sat down to table, that is twenty-four of us, somewhat crowded.
|
||
Those who were best off had only two juveniles on their knees.
|
||
As soon, however, as the inevitable soup was placed on the table,
|
||
the natural taciturnity, common even to Icelandic babies, prevailed
|
||
over all else. Our host filled our plates with a portion of lichen
|
||
soup of Iceland moss, of by no means disagreeable flavor, an
|
||
enormous lump of fish floating in sour butter. After that there came
|
||
some skyr, a kind of curds and whey, served with biscuits and
|
||
juniper-berry juice. To drink, we had blanda, skimmed milk with water.
|
||
I was hungry, so hungry, that by way of dessert I finished up with a
|
||
basin of thick oaten porridge.
|
||
As soon as the meal was over, the children disappeared, whilst the
|
||
grown people sat around the fireplace, on which was placed turf,
|
||
heather, cow dung and dried fish-bones. As soon as everybody was
|
||
sufficiently warm, a general dispersion took place, all retiring to
|
||
their respective couches. Our hostess offered to pull off our
|
||
stockings and trousers, according to the custom of the country, but as
|
||
we graciously declined to be so honored, she left us to our bed of dry
|
||
fodder.
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Next day, at five in the morning, we took our leave of these
|
||
hospitable peasants. My uncle had great difficulty in making them
|
||
accept a sufficient and proper remuneration.
|
||
Hans then gave the signal to start.
|
||
We had scarcely got a hundred yards from Gardar, when the
|
||
character of the country changed. The soil began to be marshy and
|
||
boggy, and less favorable to progress. To the right, the range of
|
||
mountains was prolonged indefinitely like a great system of natural
|
||
fortifications, of which we skirted the glacis. We met with numerous
|
||
streams and rivulets which it was necessary to ford, and that
|
||
without wetting our baggage. As we advanced, the deserted appearance
|
||
increased, and yet now and then we could see human shadows flitting in
|
||
the distance. When a sudden turn of the track brought us within easy
|
||
reach of one of these specters, I felt a sudden impulse of disgust
|
||
at the sight of a swollen head, with shining skin, utterly without
|
||
hair, and whose repulsive and revolting wounds could be seen through
|
||
his rags. The unhappy wretches never came forward to beg; on the
|
||
contrary, they ran away; not so quick, however, but that Hans was able
|
||
to salute them with the universal saellvertu.
|
||
"Spetelsk," said he.
|
||
"A leper," explained my uncle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
The very sound of such a word caused a feeling of repulsion. The
|
||
horrible affliction known as leprosy, which has almost vanished before
|
||
the effects of modern science, is common in Iceland. It is not
|
||
contagious but hereditary, so that marriage is strictly prohibited
|
||
to these unfortunate creatures.
|
||
These poor lepers did not tend to enliven our journey, the scene
|
||
of which was inexpressibly sad and lonely. The very last tufts of
|
||
grassy vegetation appeared to die at our feet. Not a tree was to be
|
||
seen, except a few stunted willows about as big as blackberry
|
||
bushes. Now and then we watched a falcon soaring in the grey and misty
|
||
air, taking his flight towards warmer and sunnier regions. I could not
|
||
help feeling a sense of melancholy come over me. I sighed for my own
|
||
Native Land, and wished to be back with Gretchen.
|
||
We were compelled to cross several little fjords, and at last came
|
||
to a real gulf. The tide was at its height, and we were able to go
|
||
over at once, and reach the hamlet of Alftanes, about a mile farther.
|
||
That evening, after fording the Alfa and the Heta, two rivers rich
|
||
in trout and pike, we were compelled to pass the night in a deserted
|
||
house, worthy of being haunted by all the fays of Scandinavian
|
||
mythology. The King of Cold had taken up his residence there, and made
|
||
us feel his presence all night.
|
||
The following day was remarkable by its lack of any particular
|
||
incidents. Always the same damp and swampy soil; the same dreary
|
||
uniformity; the same sad and monotonous aspect of scenery. In the
|
||
evening, having accomplished the half of our projected journey, we
|
||
slept at the Annexia of Krosolbt.
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
For a whole mile we had under our feet nothing but lava. This
|
||
disposition of the soil is called hraun: the crumbled lava on the
|
||
surface was in some instances like ship cables stretched out
|
||
horizontally, in others coiled up in heaps; an immense field of lava
|
||
came from the neighboring mountains, all extinct volcanoes, but
|
||
whose remains showed what once they had been. Here and there could
|
||
be made out the steam from hot water springs.
|
||
There was no time, however, for us to take more than a cursory
|
||
view of these phenomena. We had to go forward with what speed we
|
||
might. Soon the soft and swampy soil again appeared under the feet
|
||
of our horses, while at every hundred yards we came upon one or more
|
||
small lakes. Our journey was now in a westerly direction; we had, in
|
||
fact, swept round the great bay of Faxa, and the twin white summits of
|
||
Sneffels rose to the clouds at a distance of less than five miles.
|
||
The horses now advanced rapidly. The accidents and difficulties of
|
||
the soil no longer checked them. I confess that fatigue began to
|
||
tell severely upon me; but my uncle was as firm and as hard as he
|
||
had been on the first day. I could not help admiring both the
|
||
excellent Professor and the worthy guide; for they appeared to
|
||
regard this rugged expedition as a mere walk!
|
||
On Saturday, the 20th June, at six o'clock in the evening, we
|
||
reached Budir, a small town picturesquely situated on the shore of the
|
||
ocean; and here the guide asked for his money. My uncle settled with
|
||
him immediately. It was now the family of Hans himself, that is to
|
||
say, his uncles, his cousins-german, who offered us hospitality. We
|
||
were exceedingly well received, and without taking too much
|
||
advantage of the goodness of these worthy people, I should have
|
||
liked very much to have rested with them after the fatigues of the
|
||
journey. But my uncle, who did not require rest, had no idea of
|
||
anything of the kind; and despite the fact that next day was Sunday, I
|
||
was compelled once more to mount my steed.
|
||
The soil was again affected by the neighborhood of the mountains,
|
||
whose granite peered out of the ground like tops of an old oak. We
|
||
were skirting the enormous base of the mighty volcano. My uncle
|
||
never took his eyes from off it; he could not keep from gesticulating,
|
||
and looking at it with a kind of sullen defiance as much as to say
|
||
"That is the giant I have made up my mind to conquer."
|
||
{CHAPTER_10 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
After four hours of steady traveling, the horses stopped of
|
||
themselves before the door of the presbytery of Stapi.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_11
|
||
CHAPTER 11
|
||
We Reach Mount Sneffels
|
||
-
|
||
STAPI is a town consisting of thirty huts, built on a large plain of
|
||
lava, exposed to the rays of the sun, reflected from the volcano. It
|
||
stretches its humble tenements along the end of a little fjord,
|
||
surrounded by a basaltic wall of the most singular character.
|
||
Basalt is a brown rock of igneous origin. It assumes regular
|
||
forms, which astonish by their singular appearance. Here we found
|
||
Nature proceeding geometrically, and working quite after a human
|
||
fashion, as if she had employed the plummet line, the compass and
|
||
the rule. If elsewhere she produces grand artistic effects by piling
|
||
up huge masses without order or connection- if elsewhere we see
|
||
truncated cones, imperfect pyramids, with an odd succession of
|
||
lines; here, as if wishing to give a lesson in regularity, and
|
||
preceding the architects of the early ages, she has erected a severe
|
||
order of architecture, which neither the splendors of Babylon nor
|
||
the marvels of Greece ever surpassed.
|
||
I had often heard of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and of
|
||
Fingal's Cave in one of the Hebrides, but the grand spectacle of a
|
||
real basaltic formation had never yet come before my eyes.
|
||
This at Stapi gave us an idea of one in all its wonderful beauty and
|
||
grace.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
The wall of the fjord, like nearly the whole of the peninsula,
|
||
consisted of a series of vertical columns, in height about thirty
|
||
feet. These upright pillars of stone, of the finest proportions,
|
||
supported an archivault of horizontal columns which formed a kind of
|
||
half-vaulted roof above the sea. At certain intervals, and below
|
||
this natural basin, the eye was pleased and surprised by the sight
|
||
of oval openings through which the outward waves came thundering in
|
||
volleys of foam. Some banks of basalt, torn from their fastenings by
|
||
the fury of the waves, lay scattered on the ground like the ruins of
|
||
an ancient temple- ruins eternally young, over which the storms of
|
||
ages swept without producing any perceptible effect!
|
||
This was the last stage of our journey. Hans had brought us along
|
||
with fidelity and intelligence, and I began to feel somewhat more
|
||
comfortable when I reflected that he was to accompany us still farther
|
||
on our way.
|
||
When we halted before the house of the Rector, a small and
|
||
incommodious cabin, neither handsome nor more comfortable than those
|
||
of his neighbors, I saw a man in the act of shoeing a horse, a
|
||
hammer in his hand, and a leathern apron tied round his waist.
|
||
"Be happy," said the eider-down hunter, using his national
|
||
salutation in his own language.
|
||
"God dag- good day!" replied the former, in excellent Danish.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Kyrkoherde," cried Hans, turning round and introducing him to my
|
||
uncle.
|
||
"The Rector," repeated the worthy Professor; "it appears, my dear
|
||
Harry, that this worthy man is the Rector, and is not above doing
|
||
his own work."
|
||
During the speaking of these words the guide intimated to the
|
||
Kyrkoherde what was the true state of the case. The good man,
|
||
ceasing from his occupation, gave a kind of halloo, upon which a
|
||
tall woman, almost a giantess, came out of the hut. She was at least
|
||
six feet high, which in that region is something considerable.
|
||
My first impression was one of horror. I thought she had come to
|
||
give us the Icelandic kiss. I had, however, nothing to fear, for she
|
||
did not even show much inclination to receive us into her house.
|
||
The room devoted to strangers appeared to me to be by far the
|
||
worst in the presbytery; it was narrow, dirty and offensive. There
|
||
was, however, no choice about the matter. The Rector had no notion
|
||
of practicing the usual cordial and antique hospitality. Far from
|
||
it. Before the day was over, I found we had to deal with a blacksmith,
|
||
a fisherman, a hunter, a carpenter, anything but a clergyman. It
|
||
must be said in his favor that we had caught him on a weekday;
|
||
probably he appeared to greater advantage on the Sunday.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
These poor priests receive from the Danish Government a most
|
||
ridiculously inadequate salary, and collect one quarter of the tithe
|
||
of their parish- not more than sixty marks current, or about L3 10s.
|
||
sterling. Hence the necessity of working to live. In truth, we soon
|
||
found that our host did not count civility among the cardinal virtues.
|
||
My uncle soon became aware of the kind of man he had to deal with.
|
||
Instead of a worthy and learned scholar, he found a dull
|
||
ill-mannered peasant. He therefore resolved to start on his great
|
||
expedition as soon as possible. He did not care about fatigue, and
|
||
resolved to spend a few days in the mountains.
|
||
The preparations for our departure were made the very next day after
|
||
our arrival at Stapi; Hans now hired three Icelanders to take the
|
||
place of the horses- which could no longer carry our luggage. When,
|
||
however, these worthy islanders had reached the bottom of the
|
||
crater, they were to go back and leave us to ourselves. This point was
|
||
settled before they would agree to start.
|
||
On this occasion, my uncle partly confided in Hans, the eider-duck
|
||
hunter, and gave him to understand that it was his intention to
|
||
continue his exploration of the volcano to the last possible limits.
|
||
Hans listened calmly, and then nodded his head. To go there, or
|
||
elsewhere, to bury himself in the bowels of the earth, or to travel
|
||
over its summits, was all the same to him! As for me, amused and
|
||
occupied by the incidents of travel, I had begun to forget the
|
||
inevitable future; but now I was once more destined to realize the
|
||
actual state of affairs. What was to be done? Run away? But if I
|
||
really had intended to leave Professor Hardwigg to his fate, it should
|
||
have been at Hamburg and not at the foot of Sneffels.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
One idea, above all others, began to trouble me: a very terrible
|
||
idea, and one calculated to shake the nerves of a man even less
|
||
sensitive than myself.
|
||
"Let us consider the matter," I said to myself; "we are going to
|
||
ascend the Sneffels mountain. Well and good. We are about to pay a
|
||
visit to the very bottom of the crater. Good, still. Others have
|
||
done it and did not perish from that course.
|
||
"That, however, is not the whole matter to be considered. If a
|
||
road does really present itself by which to descend into the dark
|
||
and subterraneous bowels of Mother Earth, if this thrice unhappy
|
||
Saknussemm has really told the truth, we shall be most certainly
|
||
lost in the midst of the labyrinth of subterraneous galleries of the
|
||
volcano. Now, we have no evidence to prove that Sneffels is really
|
||
extinct. What proof have we that an eruption is not shortly about to
|
||
take place? Because the monster has slept soundly since 1219, does
|
||
it follow that he is never to wake?
|
||
"If he does wake what is to become of us?"
|
||
These were questions worth thinking about, and upon them I reflected
|
||
long and deeply. I could not lie down in search of sleep without
|
||
dreaming of eruptions. The more I thought, the more I objected to be
|
||
reduced to the state of dross and ashes.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
I could stand it no longer; so I determined at last to submit the
|
||
whole case to my uncle, in the most adroit manner possible, and
|
||
under the form of some totally irreconcilable hypothesis.
|
||
I sought him. I laid before him my fears, and then drew back in
|
||
order to let him get his passion over at his ease.
|
||
"I have been thinking about the matter," he said, in the quietest
|
||
tone in the world.
|
||
What did he mean? Was he at last about to listen to the voice of
|
||
reason? Did he think of suspending his projects? It was almost too
|
||
much happiness to be true.
|
||
I however made no remark. In fact, I was only too anxious not to
|
||
interrupt him, and allowed him to reflect at his leisure. After some
|
||
moments he spoke out.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"I have been thinking about the matter," he resumed. "Ever since
|
||
we have been at Stapi, my mind has been almost solely occupied with
|
||
the grave question which has been submitted to me by yourself- for
|
||
nothing would be unwiser and more inconsistent than to act with
|
||
imprudence."
|
||
"I heartily agree with you, my dear uncle," was my somewhat
|
||
hopeful rejoinder.
|
||
"It is now six hundred years since Sneffels has spoken, but though
|
||
now reduced to a state of utter silence, he may speak again. New
|
||
volcanic eruptions are always preceded by perfectly well-known
|
||
phenomena. I have closely examined the inhabitants of this region; I
|
||
have carefully studied the soil, and I beg to tell you emphatically,
|
||
my dear Harry, there will be no eruption at present."
|
||
As I listened to his positive affirmations, I was stupefied and
|
||
could say nothing.
|
||
"I see you doubt my word," said my uncle; "follow me."
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
I obeyed mechanically.
|
||
Leaving the presbytery, the Professor took a road through an opening
|
||
in the basaltic rock, which led far away from the sea. We were soon in
|
||
open country, if we could give such a name to a place all covered with
|
||
volcanic deposits. The whole land seemed crushed under the weight of
|
||
enormous stones- of trap, of basalt, of granite, of lava, and of all
|
||
other volcanic substances.
|
||
I could see many spouts of steam rising in the air. These white
|
||
vapors, called in the Icelandic language "reykir," come from hot water
|
||
fountains, and indicate by their violence the volcanic activity of the
|
||
soil. Now the sight of these appeared to justify my apprehension. I
|
||
was, therefore, all the more surprised and mortified when my uncle
|
||
thus addressed me.
|
||
"You see all this smoke, Harry, my boy?"
|
||
"Yes, sir."
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Well, as long as you see them thus, you have nothing to fear from
|
||
the volcano."
|
||
"How can that be?"
|
||
"Be careful to remember this," continued the Professor. "At the
|
||
approach of an eruption these spouts of vapor redouble their activity-
|
||
to disappear altogether during the period of volcanic eruption; for
|
||
the elastic fluids, no longer having the necessary tension, seek
|
||
refuge in the interior of the crater, instead of escaping through
|
||
the fissures of the earth. If, then, the steam remains in its normal
|
||
or habitual state, if their energy does not increase, and if you add
|
||
to this, the remark that the wind is not replaced by heavy atmospheric
|
||
pressure and dead calm, you may be quite sure that there is no fear of
|
||
any immediate eruption."
|
||
"But-"
|
||
"Enough, my boy. When science has sent forth her fiat- it is only to
|
||
hear and obey."
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
I came back to the house quite downcast and disappointed. My uncle
|
||
had completely defeated me with his scientific arguments.
|
||
Nevertheless, I had still one hope, and that was, when once we were at
|
||
the bottom of the crater, that it would be impossible in default of
|
||
a gallery or tunnel, to descend any deeper; and this, despite all
|
||
the learned Saknussemms in the world.
|
||
I passed the whole of the following night with a nightmare on my
|
||
chest! and, after unheard-of miseries and tortures, found myself in
|
||
the very depths of the earth, from which I was suddenly launched
|
||
into planetary space, under the form of an eruptive rock!
|
||
Next day, June 23d, Hans calmly awaited us outside the presbytery
|
||
with his three companions loaded with provisions, tools, and
|
||
instruments. Two iron-shod poles, two guns, and two large game bags,
|
||
were reserved for my uncle and myself. Hans, who was a man who never
|
||
forgot even the minutest precautions, had added to our baggage a large
|
||
skin full of water, as an addition to our gourds. This assured us
|
||
water for eight days.
|
||
It was nine o'clock in the morning when we were quite ready. The
|
||
rector and his huge wife or servant, I never knew which, stood at
|
||
the door to see us off. They appeared to be about to inflict on us the
|
||
usual final kiss of the Icelanders. To our supreme astonishment
|
||
their adieu took the shape of a formidable bill, in which they even
|
||
counted the use of the pastoral house, really and truly the most
|
||
abominable and dirty place I ever was in. The worthy couple cheated
|
||
and robbed us like a Swiss innkeeper, and made us feel, by the sum
|
||
we had to pay, the splendors of their hospitality.
|
||
My uncle, however, paid without bargaining. A man who had made up
|
||
his mind to undertake a voyage into the Interior of the Earth, is
|
||
not the man to haggle over a few miserable rix-dollars.
|
||
{CHAPTER_11 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
This important matter settled, Hans gave the signal for departure,
|
||
and some few moments later we had left Stapi.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_12
|
||
CHAPTER 12
|
||
The Ascent of Mount Sneffels
|
||
-
|
||
THE huge volcano which was the first stage of our daring
|
||
experiment is above five thousand feet high. Sneffels is the
|
||
termination of a long range of volcanic mountains, of a different
|
||
character to the system of the island itself. One of its peculiarities
|
||
is its two huge pointed summits. From whence we started it was
|
||
impossible to make out the real outlines of the peak against the
|
||
grey field of sky. All we could distinguish was a vast dome of
|
||
white, which fell downwards from the head of the giant.
|
||
The commencement of the great undertaking filled me with awe. Now
|
||
that we had actually started, I began to believe in the reality of the
|
||
undertaking!
|
||
Our party formed quite a procession. We walked in single file,
|
||
preceded by Hans, the imperturbable eider-duck hunter. He calmly led
|
||
us by narrow paths where two persons could by no possibility walk
|
||
abreast. Conversation was wholly impossible. We had all the more
|
||
opportunity to reflect and admire the awful grandeur of the scene
|
||
around.
|
||
Beyond the extraordinary basaltic wall of the fjord of Stapi we
|
||
found ourselves making our way through fibrous turf, over which grew a
|
||
scanty vegetation of grass, the residuum of the ancient vegetation
|
||
of the swampy peninsula. The vast mass of this combustible, the
|
||
field of which as yet is utterly unexplored, would suffice to warm
|
||
Iceland for a whole century. This mighty turf pit, measured from the
|
||
bottom of certain ravines, is often not less than seventy feet deep,
|
||
and presents to the eye the view of successive layers of black
|
||
burned-up rocky detritus, separated by thin streaks of porous
|
||
sandstone.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
The grandeur of the spectacle was undoubted, as well as its arid and
|
||
deserted air.
|
||
As a true nephew of the great Professor Hardwigg, and despite my
|
||
preoccupation and doleful fears of what was to come, I observed with
|
||
great interest the vast collection of mineralogical curiosities spread
|
||
out before me in this vast museum of natural history. Looking back
|
||
to my recent studies, I went over in thought the whole geological
|
||
history of Iceland.
|
||
This extraordinary and curious island must have made its
|
||
appearance from out of the great world of waters at a comparatively
|
||
recent date. Like the coral islands of the Pacific, it may, for
|
||
aught we know, be still rising by slow and imperceptible degrees.
|
||
If this really be the case, its origin can be attributed to only one
|
||
cause- that of the continued action of subterranean fires.
|
||
This was a happy thought.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
If so, if this were true, away with the theories of Sir Humphry
|
||
Davy; away with the authority of the parchment of Arne Saknussemm; the
|
||
wonderful pretensions to discovery on the part of my uncle- and to our
|
||
journey!
|
||
All must end in smoke.
|
||
Charmed with the idea, I began more carefully to look about me. A
|
||
serious study of the soil was necessary to negative or confirm my
|
||
hypothesis. I took in every item of what I saw, and I began to
|
||
comprehend the succession of phenomena which had preceded its
|
||
formation.
|
||
Iceland, being absolutely without sedimentary soil, is composed
|
||
exclusively of volcanic tufa; that is to say, of an agglomeration of
|
||
stones and of rocks of a porous texture. Long before the existence
|
||
of volcanoes, it was composed of a solid body of massive trap rock
|
||
lifted bodily and slowly out of the sea, by the action of the
|
||
centrifugal force at work in the earth.
|
||
The internal fires, however, had not as yet burst their bounds and
|
||
flooded the exterior cake of Mother Earth with hot and raging lava.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
My readers must excuse this brief and somewhat pedantic geological
|
||
lecture. But it is necessary to the complete understanding of what
|
||
follows.
|
||
At a later period in the world's history, a huge and mighty
|
||
fissure must, reasoning by analogy, have been dug diagonally from
|
||
the southwest to the northeast of the island, through which by degrees
|
||
flowed the volcanic crust. The great and wondrous phenomenon then went
|
||
on without violence- the outpouring was enormous, and the seething
|
||
fused matter, ejected from the bowels of the earth, spread slowly
|
||
and peacefully in the form of vast level plains, or what are called
|
||
mamelons or mounds.
|
||
It was at this epoch that the rocks called feldspars, syenites,
|
||
and porphyries appeared.
|
||
But as a natural consequence of this overflow, the depth of the
|
||
island increased. It can readily be believed what an enormous quantity
|
||
of elastic fluids were piled up within its center, when at last it
|
||
afforded no other openings, after the process of cooling the crust had
|
||
taken place.
|
||
At length a time came when despite the enormous thickness and weight
|
||
of the upper crust, the mechanical forces of the combustible gases
|
||
below became so great, that they actually upheaved the weighty back
|
||
and made for themselves huge and gigantic shafts. Hence the
|
||
volcanoes which suddenly arose through the upper crust, and next the
|
||
craters, which burst forth at the summit of these new creations.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
It will be seen that the first phenomena in connection with the
|
||
formation of the island were simply eruptive; to these, however,
|
||
shortly succeeded the volcanic phenomena.
|
||
Through the newly formed openings, escaped the marvelous mass of
|
||
basaltic stones with which the plain we were now crossing was covered.
|
||
We were trampling our way over heavy rocks of dark grey color,
|
||
which, while cooling, had been moulded into six-sided prisms. In the
|
||
"back distance" we could see a number of flattened cones, which
|
||
formerly were so many fire-vomiting mouths.
|
||
After the basaltic eruption was appeased and set at rest, the
|
||
volcano, the force of which increased with that of the extinct
|
||
craters, gave free passage to the fiery overflow of lava, and to the
|
||
mass of cinders and pumice stone, now scattered over the sides of
|
||
the mountain, like disheveled hair on the shoulders of a Bacchante.
|
||
Here, in a nutshell, I had the whole history of the phenomena from
|
||
which Iceland arose. All take their rise in the fierce action of
|
||
interior fires, and to believe that the central mass did not remain in
|
||
a state of liquid fire, white hot, was simply and purely madness.
|
||
This being satisfactorily proved (Q.E.D.), what insensate folly to
|
||
pretend to penetrate into the interior of the mighty earth!
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
This mental lecture delivered to myself while proceeding on a
|
||
journey, did me good. I was quite reassured as to the fate of our
|
||
enterprise; and therefore went, like a brave soldier mounting a
|
||
bristling battery, to the assault of old Sneffels.
|
||
As we advanced, the road became every moment more difficult. The
|
||
soil was broken and dangerous. The rocks broke and gave way under
|
||
our feet, and we had to be scrupulously careful in order to avoid
|
||
dangerous and constant falls.
|
||
Hans advanced as calmly as if he had been walking over Salisbury
|
||
Plain; sometimes he would disappear behind huge blocks of stone, and
|
||
we momentarily lost sight of him. There was a little period of anxiety
|
||
and then there was a shrill whistle, just to tell us where to look for
|
||
him.
|
||
Occasionally he would take it into his head to stop to pick up lumps
|
||
of rock, and silently pile them up into small heaps, in order that
|
||
we might not lose our way on our return.
|
||
He had no idea of the journey we were about to undertake.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
At all events, the precaution was a good one; though how utterly
|
||
useless and unnecessary- but I must not anticipate.
|
||
Three hours of terrible fatigue, walking incessantly, had only
|
||
brought us to the foot of the great mountain. This will give some
|
||
notion of what we had still to undergo.
|
||
Suddenly, however, Hans cried a halt- that is, he made signs to that
|
||
effect- and a summary kind of breakfast was laid out on the lava
|
||
before us. My uncle, who now was simply Professor Hardwigg, was so
|
||
eager to advance, that he bolted his food like a greedy clown. This
|
||
halt for refreshment was also a halt for repose. The Professor was
|
||
therefore compelled to wait the good pleasure of his imperturbable
|
||
guide, who did not give the signal for departure for a good hour.
|
||
The three Icelanders, who were as taciturn as their comrade, did not
|
||
say a word; but went on eating and drinking very quietly and soberly.
|
||
From this, our first real stage, we began to ascend the slopes of
|
||
the Sneffels volcano. Its magnificent snowy nightcap, as we began to
|
||
call it, by an optical delusion very common in mountains, appeared
|
||
to me to be close at hand; and yet how many long weary hours must
|
||
elapse before we reached its summit. What unheard-of fatigue must we
|
||
endure!
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
The stones on the mountain side, held together by no cement of soil,
|
||
bound together by no roots or creeping herbs, gave way continually
|
||
under our feet, and went rushing below into the plains, like a
|
||
series of small avalanches.
|
||
In certain places the sides of this stupendous mountain were at an
|
||
angle so steep that it was impossible to climb upwards, and we were
|
||
compelled to get round these obstacles as best we might.
|
||
Those who understand Alpine climbing will comprehend our
|
||
difficulties. Often we were obliged to help each other along by
|
||
means of our climbing poles.
|
||
I must say this for my uncle, that he stuck as close to me as
|
||
possible. He never lost sight of me, and on many occasions his arm
|
||
supplied me with firm and solid support. He was strong, wiry, and
|
||
apparently insensible to fatigue. Another great advantage with him was
|
||
that he had the innate sentiment of equilibrium- for he never
|
||
slipped or failed in his steps. The Icelanders, though heavily loaded,
|
||
climbed with the agility of mountaineers.
|
||
Looking up, every now and then, at the height of the great volcano
|
||
of Sneffels, it appeared to me wholly impossible to reach to the
|
||
summit on that side; at all events, if the angle of inclination did
|
||
not speedily change.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
Fortunately, after an hour of unheard-of fatigues, and of
|
||
gymnastic exercises that would have been trying to an acrobat, we came
|
||
to a vast field of ice, which wholly surrounded the bottom of the cone
|
||
of the volcano. The natives called it the tablecloth, probably from
|
||
some such reason as the dwellers in the Cape of Good Hope call their
|
||
mountain Table Mountain, and their roads Table Bay.
|
||
Here, to our mutual surprise, we found an actual flight of stone
|
||
steps, which wonderfully assisted our ascent. This singular flight
|
||
of stairs was, like everything else, volcanic. It had been formed by
|
||
one of those torrents of stones cast up by the eruptions, and of which
|
||
the Icelandic name is stina. If this singular torrent had not been
|
||
checked in its descent by the peculiar shape of the flanks of the
|
||
mountain, it would have swept into the sea, and would have formed
|
||
new islands.
|
||
Such as it was, it served us admirably. The abrupt character of
|
||
the slopes momentarily increased, but these remarkable stone steps,
|
||
a little less difficult than those of the Egyptian pyramids, were
|
||
the one simple natural means by which we were enabled to proceed.
|
||
About seven in the evening of that day, after having clambered up
|
||
two thousand of these rough steps, we found ourselves overlooking a
|
||
kind of spur or projection of the mountain- a sort of buttress upon
|
||
which the conelike crater, properly so called, leaned for support.
|
||
The ocean lay beneath us at a depth of more than three thousand
|
||
two hundred feet- a grand and mighty spectacle. We had reached the
|
||
region of eternal snows.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
The cold was keen, searching and intense. The wind blew with
|
||
extraordinary violence. I was utterly exhausted.
|
||
My worthy uncle, the Professor, saw clearly that my legs refused
|
||
further service, and that, in fact, I was utterly exhausted. Despite
|
||
his hot and feverish impatience, he decided, with a sigh, upon a halt.
|
||
He called the eider-duck hunter to his side. That worthy, however,
|
||
shook his head.
|
||
"Ofvanfor," was his sole spoken reply.
|
||
"It appears," says my uncle with a woebegone look, "that we must
|
||
go higher."
|
||
He then turned to Hans, and asked him to give some reason for this
|
||
decisive response.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Mistour," replied the guide.
|
||
"Ja, mistour- yes, the mistour," cried one of the Icelandic guides
|
||
in a terrified tone.
|
||
It was the first time he had spoken.
|
||
"What does this mysterious word signify?" I anxiously inquired.
|
||
"Look," said my uncle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
I looked down upon the plain below, and I saw a vast, a prodigious
|
||
volume of pulverized pumice stone, of sand, of dust, rising to the
|
||
heavens in the form of a mighty waterspout. It resembled the fearful
|
||
phenomenon of a similar character known to the travelers in the desert
|
||
of the great Sahara.
|
||
The wind was driving it directly towards that side of Sneffels on
|
||
which we were perched. This opaque veil standing up between us and the
|
||
sun projected a deep shadow on the flanks of the mountain. If this
|
||
sand spout broke over us, we must all be infallibly destroyed, crushed
|
||
in its fearful embraces. This extraordinary phenomenon, very common
|
||
when the wind shakes the glaciers, and sweeps over the arid plains, is
|
||
in the Icelandic tongue called "mistour."
|
||
"Hastigt, hastigt!" cried our guide.
|
||
Now I certainly knew nothing of Danish, but I thoroughly
|
||
understood that his gestures were meant to quicken us.
|
||
The guide turned rapidly in a direction which would take us to the
|
||
back of the crater, all the while ascending slightly.
|
||
{CHAPTER_12 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
We followed rapidly, despite our excessive fatigue.
|
||
A quarter of an hour later Hans paused to enable us to look back.
|
||
The mighty whirlwind of sand was spreading up the slope of the
|
||
mountain to the very spot where we had proposed to halt. Huge stones
|
||
were caught up, cast into the air, and thrown about as during an
|
||
eruption. We were happily a little out of the direction of the wind,
|
||
and therefore out of reach of danger. But for the precaution and
|
||
knowledge of our guide, our dislocated bodies, our crushed and
|
||
broken limbs, would have been cast to the wind, like dust from some
|
||
unknown meteor.
|
||
Hans, however, did not think it prudent to pass the night on the
|
||
bare side of the cone. We therefore continued our journey in a
|
||
zigzag direction. The fifteen hundred feet which remained to be
|
||
accomplished took us at least five hours. The turnings and windings,
|
||
the no-thoroughfares, the marches and marches, turned that
|
||
insignificant distance into at least three leagues. I never felt
|
||
such misery, fatigue and exhaustion in my life. I was ready to faint
|
||
from hunger and cold. The rarefied air at the same time painfully
|
||
acted upon my lungs.
|
||
At last, when I thought myself at my last gasp, about eleven at
|
||
night, it being in that region quite dark, we reached the summit of
|
||
Mount Sneffels! It was in an awful mood of mind, that despite my
|
||
fatigue, before I descended into the crater which was to shelter us
|
||
for the night, I paused to behold the sun rise at midnight on the very
|
||
day of its lowest declension, and enjoyed the spectacle of its ghastly
|
||
pale rays cast upon the isle which lay sleeping at our feet!
|
||
I no longer wondered at people traveling all the way from England to
|
||
Norway to behold this magical and wondrous spectacle.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_13
|
||
CHAPTER 13
|
||
The Shadow of Scartaris
|
||
-
|
||
OUR supper was eaten with ease and rapidity, after which everybody
|
||
did the best he could for himself within the hollow of the crater. The
|
||
bed was hard, the shelter unsatisfactory, the situation painful- lying
|
||
in the open air, five thousand feet above the level of the sea!
|
||
Nevertheless, it has seldom happened to me to sleep so well as I did
|
||
on that particular night. I did not even dream. So much for the
|
||
effects of what my uncle called "wholesome fatigue."
|
||
Next day, when we awoke under the rays of a bright and glorious sun,
|
||
we were nearly frozen by the keen air. I left my granite couch and
|
||
made one of the party to enjoy a view of the magnificent spectacle
|
||
which developed itself, panorama-like, at our feet.
|
||
I stood upon the lofty summit of Mount Sneffels' southern peak.
|
||
Thence I was able to obtain a view of the greater part of the
|
||
island. The optical delusion, common to all lofty heights, raised
|
||
the shores of the island, while the central portions appeared
|
||
depressed. It was by no means too great a flight of fancy to believe
|
||
that a giant picture was stretched out before me. I could see the deep
|
||
valleys that crossed each other in every direction. I could see
|
||
precipices looking like sides of wells, lakes that seemed to be
|
||
changed into ponds, ponds that looked like puddles, and rivers that
|
||
were transformed into petty brooks. To my right were glaciers upon
|
||
glaciers, and multiplied peaks, topped with light clouds of smoke.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
The undulation of these infinite numbers of mountains, whose snowy
|
||
summits make them look as if covered by foam, recalled to my
|
||
remembrance the surface of a storm-beaten ocean. If I looked towards
|
||
the west, the ocean lay before me in all its majestic grandeur, a
|
||
continuation as it were, of these fleecy hilltops.
|
||
Where the earth ended and the sea began it was impossible for the
|
||
eye to distinguish.
|
||
I soon felt that strange and mysterious sensation which is
|
||
awakened in the mind when looking down from lofty hilltops, and now
|
||
I was able to do so without any feeling of nervousness, having
|
||
fortunately hardened myself to that kind of sublime contemplation.
|
||
I wholly forgot who I was, and where I was. I became intoxicated
|
||
with a sense of lofty sublimity, without thought of the abysses into
|
||
which my daring was soon about to plunge me. I was presently, however,
|
||
brought back to the realities of life by the arrival of the
|
||
Professor and Hans, who joined me upon the lofty summit of the peak.
|
||
My uncle, turning in a westerly direction, pointed out to me a light
|
||
cloud of vapor, a kind of haze, with a faint outline of land rising
|
||
out of the waters.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Greenland!" said he.
|
||
"Greenland?" cried I in reply.
|
||
"Yes," continued my uncle, who always when explaining anything spoke
|
||
as if he were in a professor's chair; "we are not more than
|
||
thirty-five leagues distant from that wonderful land. When the great
|
||
annual breakup of the ice takes place, white bears come over to
|
||
Iceland, carried by the floating masses of ice from the north. This,
|
||
however, is a matter of little consequence. We are now on the summit
|
||
of the great, the transcendent Sneffels, and here are its two peaks,
|
||
north and south. Hans will tell you the name by which the people of
|
||
Iceland call that on which we stand."
|
||
My uncle turned to the imperturbable guide, who nodded, and spoke as
|
||
usual- one word.
|
||
"Scartaris."
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
My uncle looked at me with a proud and triumphant glance.
|
||
"A crater," he said, "you hear?"
|
||
I did hear, but I was totally unable to make reply.
|
||
The crater of Mount Sneffels represented an inverted cone, the
|
||
gaping orifice apparently half a mile across; the depth indefinite
|
||
feet. Conceive what this hole must have been like when full of flame
|
||
and thunder and lightning. The bottom of the funnel-shaped hollow
|
||
was about five hundred feet in circumference, by which it will be seen
|
||
that the slope from the summit to the bottom was very gradual, and
|
||
we were therefore clearly able to get there without much fatigue or
|
||
difficulty. Involuntarily, I compared this crater to an enormous
|
||
loaded cannon; and the comparison completely terrified me.
|
||
"To descend into the interior of a cannon," I thought to myself,
|
||
"when perhaps it is loaded, and will go off at the least shock, is the
|
||
act of a madman."
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
But there was no longer any opportunity for me to hesitate. Hans,
|
||
with a perfectly calm and indifferent air, took his usual post at
|
||
the head of the adventurous little band. I followed without uttering a
|
||
syllable.
|
||
I felt like the lamb led to the slaughter.
|
||
In order to render the descent less difficult, Hans took his way
|
||
down the interior of the cone in rather a zigzag fashion, making, as
|
||
the sailors say, long tracks to the eastward, followed by equally long
|
||
ones to the west. It was necessary to walk through the midst of
|
||
eruptive rocks, some of which, shaken in their balance, went rolling
|
||
down with thundering clamor to the bottom of the abyss. These
|
||
continual falls awoke echoes of singular power and effect.
|
||
Many portions of the cone consisted of inferior glaciers. Hans,
|
||
whenever he met with one of these obstacles, advanced with a great
|
||
show of precaution, sounding the soil with his long iron pole in order
|
||
to discover fissures and layers of deep soft snow. In many doubtful or
|
||
dangerous places, it became necessary for us to be tied together by
|
||
a long rope in order that should any one of us be unfortunate enough
|
||
to slip, he would be supported by his companions. This connecting link
|
||
was doubtless a prudent precaution, but not by any means unattended
|
||
with danger.
|
||
Nevertheless, and despite all the manifold difficulties of the
|
||
descent, along slopes with which our guide was wholly unacquainted, we
|
||
made considerable progress without accident. One of our great
|
||
parcels of rope slipped from one of the Iceland porters, and rushed by
|
||
a short cut to the bottom of the abyss.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
By midday we were at the end of our journey. I looked upwards, and
|
||
saw only the upper orifice of the cone, which served as a circular
|
||
frame to a very small portion of the sky- a portion which seemed to me
|
||
singularly beautiful. Should I ever again gaze on that lovely sunlit
|
||
sky!
|
||
The only exception to this extraordinary landscape, was the Peak
|
||
of Scartaris, which seemed lost in the great void of the heavens.
|
||
The bottom of the crater was composed of three separate shafts,
|
||
through which, during periods of eruption, when Sneffels was in
|
||
action, the great central furnace sent forth its burning lava and
|
||
poisonous vapors. Each of these chimneys or shafts gaped
|
||
open-mouthed in our path. I kept as far away from them as possible,
|
||
not even venturing to take the faintest peep downwards.
|
||
As for the Professor, after a rapid examination of their disposition
|
||
and characteristics, he became breathless and panting. He ran from one
|
||
to the other like a delighted schoolboy, gesticulating wildly, and
|
||
uttering incomprehensible and disjointed phrases in all sorts of
|
||
languages.
|
||
Hans, the guide, and his humbler companions seated themselves on
|
||
some piles of lava and looked silently on. They clearly took my
|
||
uncle for a lunatic; and- waited the result.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Suddenly the Professor uttered a wild, unearthly cry. At first I
|
||
imagined he had lost his footing, and was falling headlong into one of
|
||
the yawning gulfs. Nothing of the kind. I saw him, his arms spread out
|
||
to their widest extent, his legs stretched apart, standing upright
|
||
before an enormous pedestal, high enough and black enough to bear a
|
||
gigantic statue of Pluto. His attitude and mien were that of a man
|
||
utterly stupefied. But his stupefaction was speedily changed to the
|
||
wildest joy.
|
||
"Harry! Harry! come here!" he cried; "make haste- wonderful-
|
||
wonderful!"
|
||
Unable to understand what he meant, I turned to obey his commands.
|
||
Neither Hans nor the other Icelanders moved a step.
|
||
"Look!" said the Professor, in something of the manner of the French
|
||
general, pointing out the pyramids to his army.
|
||
And fully partaking his stupefaction, if not his joy, I read on
|
||
the eastern side of the huge block of stone, the same characters, half
|
||
eaten away by the corrosive action of time, the name, to me a thousand
|
||
times accursed-
|
||
|
||
(See illustration.)
|
||
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Arne Saknussemm!" cried my uncle, "now, unbeliever, do you begin to
|
||
have faith?"
|
||
It was totally impossible for me to answer a single word. I went
|
||
back to my pile of lava, in a state of silent awe. The evidence was
|
||
unanswerable, overwhelming!
|
||
In a few moments, however, my thoughts were far away, back in my
|
||
German home, with Gretchen and the old cook. What would I have given
|
||
for one of my cousin's smiles, for one of the ancient domestic's
|
||
omelettes, and for my own feather bed!
|
||
How long I remained in this state I know not. All I can say is, that
|
||
when at last I raised my head from between my hands, there remained at
|
||
the bottom of the crater only myself, my uncle and Hans. The Icelandic
|
||
porters had been dismissed and were now descending the exterior slopes
|
||
of Mount Sneffels, on their way to Stapi. How heartily did I wish
|
||
myself with them!
|
||
Hans slept tranquilly at the foot of a rock in a kind of rill of
|
||
lava, where he had made himself a rough and ready bed. MY uncle was
|
||
walking about the bottom of the crater like a wild beast in a cage.
|
||
I had no desire, neither had I the strength, to move from my recumbent
|
||
position. Taking example by the guide, I gave way to a kind of painful
|
||
somnolency, during which I seemed both to hear and feel continued
|
||
heavings and shudderings in the mountain.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
In this way we passed our first night in the interior of a crater.
|
||
Next morning, a grey, cloudy, heavy sky hung like a funereal pall
|
||
over the summit of the volcanic cone. I did not notice it so much from
|
||
the obscurity that reigned around us, as from the rage with which my
|
||
uncle was devoured.
|
||
I fully understood the reason, and again a glimpse of hope made my
|
||
heart leap with joy. I will briefly explain the cause.
|
||
Of the three openings which yawned beneath our steps, only one could
|
||
have been followed by the adventurous Saknussemm. According to the
|
||
words of the learned Icelander, it was only to be known by that one
|
||
particular mentioned in the cryptograph, that the shadow of
|
||
Scartaris fell upon it, just touching its mouth in the last days of
|
||
the month of June.
|
||
We were, in fact, to consider the pointed peak as the stylus of an
|
||
immense sun-dial, the shadow of which pointed on one given day, like
|
||
the inexorable finger of fate, to the yawning chasm which led into the
|
||
interior of the earth.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
Now, as often happens in these regions, should the sun fail to burst
|
||
through the clouds, no shadow. Consequently, no chance of
|
||
discovering the right aperture. We had already reached the 25th
|
||
June. If the kindly heavens would only remain densely clouded for
|
||
six more days, we should have to put off our voyage of discovery for
|
||
another year, when certainly there would be one person fewer in the
|
||
party. I already had sufficient of the mad and monstrous enterprise.
|
||
It would be utterly impossible to depict the impotent rage of
|
||
Professor Hardwigg. The day passed away, and not the faintest
|
||
outline of a shadow could be seen at the bottom of the crater. Hans
|
||
the guide never moved from his place. He must have been curious to
|
||
know what we were about, if indeed he could believe we were about
|
||
anything. As for my uncle, he never addressed a word to me. He was
|
||
nursing his wrath to keep it warm! His eyes fixed on the black and
|
||
foggy atmosphere, his complexion hideous with suppressed passion.
|
||
Never had his eyes appeared so fierce, his nose so aquiline, his mouth
|
||
so hard and firm.
|
||
On the 26th no change for the better. A mixture of rain and snow
|
||
fell during the whole day. Hans very quietly built himself a hut of
|
||
lava into which he retired like Diogenes into his tub. I took a
|
||
malicious delight in watching the thousand little cascades that flowed
|
||
down the side of the cone, carrying with them at times a stream of
|
||
stones into the "vasty deep" below.
|
||
My uncle was almost frantic: to be sure, it was enough to make
|
||
even a patient man angry. He had reached to a certain extent the
|
||
goal of his desires, and yet he was likely to be wrecked in port.
|
||
But if the heavens and the elements are capable of causing us much
|
||
pain and sorrow, there are two sides to a medal. And there was
|
||
reserved for Professor Hardwigg a brilliant and sudden surprise
|
||
which was to compensate him for all his sufferings.
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
Next day the sky was still overcast, but on Sunday, the 28th, the
|
||
last day but two of the month, with a sudden change of wind and a
|
||
new moon there came a change of weather. The sun poured its beaming
|
||
rays to the very bottom of the crater.
|
||
Each hillock, every rock, every stone, every asperity of the soil
|
||
had its share of the luminous effulgence, and its shadow fell
|
||
heavily on the soil. Among others, to his insane delight, the shadow
|
||
of Scartaris was marked and clear, and moved slowly with the radiant
|
||
start of day.
|
||
My uncle moved with it in a state of mental ecstasy.
|
||
At twelve o'clock exactly, when the sun had attained its highest
|
||
altitude for the day, the shadow fell upon the edge of the central
|
||
pit!
|
||
"Here it is," gasped the Professor in an agony of joy, "here it
|
||
is- we have found it. Forward, my friends, into the Interior of the
|
||
Earth."
|
||
{CHAPTER_13 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
I looked curiously at Hans to see what reply he would make to this
|
||
terrific announcement.
|
||
"Forut," said the guide tranquilly.
|
||
"Forward it is," answered my uncle, who was now in the seventh
|
||
heaven of delight.
|
||
When we were quite ready, our watches indicated thirteen minutes
|
||
past one!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_14
|
||
CHAPTER 14
|
||
The Real Journey Commences
|
||
-
|
||
OUR real journey had now commenced. Hitherto our courage and
|
||
determination had overcome all difficulties. We were fatigued at
|
||
times; and that was all. Now we were about to encounter unknown and
|
||
fearful dangers.
|
||
I had not as yet ventured to take a glimpse down the horrible
|
||
abyss into which in a few minutes more I was about to plunge. The
|
||
fatal moment had, however, at last arrived. I had still the option
|
||
of refusing or accepting a share in this foolish and audacious
|
||
enterprise. But I was ashamed to show more fear than the eider-duck
|
||
hunter. Hans seemed to accept the difficulties of the journey so
|
||
tranquilly, with such calm indifference, with such perfect
|
||
recklessness of all danger, that I actually blushed to appear less
|
||
of a man than he!
|
||
Had I been alone with my uncle, I should certainly have sat down and
|
||
argued the point fully; but in the presence of the guide I held my
|
||
tongue. I gave one moment to the thought of my charming cousin, and
|
||
then I advanced to the mouth of the central shaft.
|
||
It measured about a hundred feet in diameter, which made about three
|
||
hundred in circumference. I leaned over a rock which stood on its
|
||
edge, and looked down. My hair stood on end, my teeth chattered, my
|
||
limbs trembled. I seemed utterly to lose my center of gravity, while
|
||
my head was in a sort of whirl, like that of a drunken man. There is
|
||
nothing more powerful than this attraction towards an abyss. I was
|
||
about to fall headlong into the gaping well, when I was drawn back
|
||
by a firm and powerful hand. It was that of Hans. I had not taken
|
||
lessons enough at the Frelser's-Kirk of Copenhagen in the art of
|
||
looking down from lofty eminences without blinking!
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
However, few as the minutes were during which I gazed down this
|
||
tremendous and even wondrous shaft, I had a sufficient glimpse of it
|
||
to give me some idea of its physical conformation. Its sides, which
|
||
were almost as perpendicular as those of a well, presented numerous
|
||
projections which doubtless would assist our descent.
|
||
It was a sort of wild and savage staircase, without bannister or
|
||
fence. A rope fastened above, near the surface, would certainly
|
||
support our weight and enable us to reach the bottom, but how, when we
|
||
had arrived at its utmost depth, were we to loosen it above? This was,
|
||
I thought, a question of some importance.
|
||
My uncle, however, was one of those men who are nearly always
|
||
prepared with expedients. He hit upon a very simple method of
|
||
obviating this difficulty. He unrolled a cord about as thick as my
|
||
thumb, and at least four hundred feet in length. He allowed about half
|
||
of it to go down the pit and catch in a hitch over a great block of
|
||
lava which stood on the edge of the precipice. This done, he threw the
|
||
second half after the first.
|
||
Each of us could now descend by catching the two cords in one
|
||
hand. When about two hundred feet below, all the explorer had to do
|
||
was to let go one end and pull away at the other, when the cord
|
||
would come falling at his feet. In order to go down farther, all
|
||
that was necessary was to continue the same operation.
|
||
This was a very excellent proposition, and no doubt, a correct
|
||
one. Going down appeared to me easy enough; it was the coming up again
|
||
that now occupied my thoughts.
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Now," said my uncle, as soon as he had completed this important
|
||
preparation, "let us see about the baggage. It must be divided into
|
||
three separate parcels, and each of us must carry one on his back. I
|
||
allude to the more important and fragile articles."
|
||
My worthy and ingenious uncle did not appear to consider that we
|
||
came under the denomination.
|
||
"Hans," he continued, "you will take charge of the tools and some of
|
||
the provisions; you, Harry, must take possession of another third of
|
||
the provisions and of the arms. I will load myself with the rest of
|
||
the eatables, and with the more delicate instruments."
|
||
"But," I exclaimed, "our clothes, this mass of cord and ladders- who
|
||
will undertake to carry them down?
|
||
"They will go down of themselves."
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"And how so?" I asked.
|
||
"You shall see."
|
||
My uncle was not fond of half measures, nor did he like anything
|
||
in the way of hesitation. Giving his orders to Hans he had the whole
|
||
of the nonfragile articles made up into one bundle; and the packet,
|
||
firmly and solidly fastened, was simply pitched over the edge of the
|
||
gulf.
|
||
I heard the moaning of the suddenly displaced air, and the noise
|
||
of falling stones. My uncle leaning over the abyss followed the
|
||
descent of his luggage with a perfectly self-satisfied air, and did
|
||
not rise until it had completely disappeared from sight.
|
||
"Now then," he cried, "it is our turn."
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
I put it in good faith to any man of common sense- was it possible
|
||
to hear this energetic cry without a shudder?
|
||
The Professor fastened his case of instruments on his back. Hans
|
||
took charge of the tools, I of the arms. The descent then commenced in
|
||
the following order: Hans went first, my uncle followed, and I went
|
||
last. Our progress was made in profound silence- a silence only
|
||
troubled by the fall of pieces of rock, which breaking from the jagged
|
||
sides, fell with a roar into the depths below.
|
||
I allowed myself to slide, so to speak, holding frantically on the
|
||
double cord with one hand and with the other keeping myself off the
|
||
rocks by the assistance of my iron-shod pole. One idea was all the
|
||
time impressed upon my brain. I feared that the upper support would
|
||
fail me. The cord appeared to me far too fragile to bear the weight of
|
||
three such persons as we were, with our luggage. I made as little
|
||
use of it as possible, trusting to my own agility and doing miracles
|
||
in the way of feats of dexterity and strength upon the projecting
|
||
shelves and spurs of lava which my feet seemed to clutch as strongly
|
||
as my hands.
|
||
The guide went first, I have said, and when one of the slippery
|
||
and frail supports broke from under his feet he had recourse to his
|
||
usual monosyllabic way of speaking.
|
||
"Gif akt-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Attention- look out," repeated my uncle.
|
||
In about half an hour we reached a kind of small terrace formed by a
|
||
fragment of rock projecting some distance from the sides of the shaft.
|
||
Hans now began to haul upon the cord on one side only, the other
|
||
going as quietly upward as the other came down. It fell at last,
|
||
bringing with it a shower of small stones, lava and dust, a
|
||
disagreeable kind of rain or hail.
|
||
While we were seated on this extraordinary bench I ventured once
|
||
more to look downwards. With a sigh I discovered that the bottom was
|
||
still wholly invisible. Were we, then, going direct to the interior of
|
||
the earth?
|
||
The performance with the cord recommenced, and a quarter of an
|
||
hour later we had reached to the depth of another two hundred feet.
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
I have very strong doubts if the most determined geologist would,
|
||
during that descent, have studied the nature of the different layers
|
||
of earth around him. I did not trouble my head much about the
|
||
matter; whether we were among the combustible carbon, Silurians, or
|
||
primitive soil, I neither knew nor cared to know.
|
||
Not so the inveterate Professor. He must have taken notes all the
|
||
way down, for, at one of our halts, he began a brief lecture.
|
||
"The farther we advance," said he, "the greater is my confidence
|
||
in the result. The disposition of these volcanic strata absolutely
|
||
confirms the theories of Sir Humphry Davy. We are still within the
|
||
region of the primordial soil, the soil in which took place the
|
||
chemical operation of metals becoming inflamed by coming in contact
|
||
with the air and water. I at once regret the old and now forever
|
||
exploded theory of a central fire. At all events, we shall soon know
|
||
the truth."
|
||
Such was the everlasting conclusion to which he came. I, however,
|
||
was very far from being in humor to discuss the matter. I had
|
||
something else to think of. My silence was taken for consent; and
|
||
still we continued to go down.
|
||
At the expiration of three hours, we were, to all appearance, as far
|
||
off as ever from the bottom of the well. When I looked upwards,
|
||
however, I could see that the upper orifice was every minute
|
||
decreasing in size. The sides of the shaft were getting closer and
|
||
closer together, we were approaching the regions of eternal night!
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
And still we continued to descend!
|
||
At length, I noticed that when pieces of stone were detached from
|
||
the sides of this stupendous precipice, they were swallowed up with
|
||
less noise than before. The final sound was sooner heard. We were
|
||
approaching the bottom of the abyss!
|
||
As I had been very careful to keep account of an the changes of cord
|
||
which took place, I was able to tell exactly what was the depth we had
|
||
reached, as well as the time it had taken.
|
||
We had shifted the rope twenty-eight times, each operation taking
|
||
a quarter of an hour, which in all made seven hours. To this had to be
|
||
added twenty-eight pauses; in all ten hours and a half. We started
|
||
at one, it was now, therefore, about eleven o'clock at night.
|
||
It does not require great knowledge of arithmetic to know that
|
||
twenty-eight times two hundred feet makes five thousand six hundred
|
||
feet in all (more than an English mile).
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
While I was making this mental calculation a voice broke the
|
||
silence. It was the voice of Hans.
|
||
"Halt!" he cried.
|
||
I checked myself very suddenly, just at the moment when I was
|
||
about to kick my uncle on the head.
|
||
"We have reached the end of our journey," said the worthy
|
||
Professor in a satisfied tone.
|
||
"What, the interior of the earth?" said I, slipping down to his
|
||
side.
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"No, you stupid fellow! but we have reached the bottom of the well.
|
||
"And I suppose there is no farther progress to be made?" I hopefully
|
||
exclaimed.
|
||
"Oh, yes, I can dimly see a sort of tunnel, which turns off
|
||
obliquely to the right. At all events, we must see about that
|
||
tomorrow. Let us sup now, and seek slumber as best we may."
|
||
I thought it time, but made no observations on that point. I was
|
||
fairly launched on a desperate course, and all I had to do was to go
|
||
forward hopefully and trustingly.
|
||
It was not even now quite dark, the light filtering down in a most
|
||
extraordinary manner.
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
We opened the provision bag, ate a frugal supper, and each did his
|
||
best to find a bed amid the pile of stones, dirt, and lava which had
|
||
accumulated for ages at the bottom of the shaft.
|
||
I happened to grope out the pile of ropes, ladders, and clothes
|
||
which we had thrown down; and upon them I stretched myself. After such
|
||
a day's labor, my rough bed seemed as soft as down!
|
||
For a while I lay in a sort of pleasant trance.
|
||
Presently, after lying quietly for some minutes, I opened my eyes
|
||
and looked upwards. As I did so I made out a brilliant little dot,
|
||
at the extremity of this long, gigantic telescope.
|
||
It was a star without scintillating rays. According to my
|
||
calculation, it must be Beta in the constellation of the Little Bear.
|
||
{CHAPTER_14 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
After this little bit of astronomical recreation, I dropped into a
|
||
sound sleep.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_15
|
||
CHAPTER 15
|
||
We Continue Our Descent
|
||
-
|
||
AT eight o'clock the next morning, a faint kind of dawn of day awoke
|
||
us. The thousand and one prisms of the lava collected the light as
|
||
it passed and brought it to us like a shower of sparks.
|
||
We were able with ease to see objects around us.
|
||
"Well, Harry, my boy," cried the delighted Professor, rubbing his
|
||
hands together, "what say you now? Did you ever pass a more tranquil
|
||
night in our house in the Konigstrasse? No deafening sounds of cart
|
||
wheels, no cries of hawkers, no bad language from boatmen or watermen!
|
||
"Well, Uncle, we are quite at the bottom of this well- but to me
|
||
there is something terrible in this calm."
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"Why," said the Professor hotly, "one would say you were already
|
||
beginning to be afraid. How will you get on presently? Do you know,
|
||
that as yet, we have not penetrated one inch into the bowels of the
|
||
earth."
|
||
"What can you mean, sir?" was my bewildered and astonished reply.
|
||
"I mean to say that we have only just reached the soil of the island
|
||
itself. This long vertical tube, which ends at the bottom of the
|
||
crater of Sneffels, ceases here just about on a level with the sea."
|
||
"Are you sure, sir?"
|
||
"Quite sure. Consult the barometer."
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
It was quite true that the mercury, after rising gradually in the
|
||
instrument, as long as our descent was taking place, had stopped
|
||
precisely at twenty-nine degrees.
|
||
"You perceive," said the Professor, "we have as yet only to endure
|
||
the pressure of air. I am curious to replace the barometer by the
|
||
manometer."
|
||
The barometer, in fact, was about to become useless-as soon as the
|
||
weight of the air was greater than what was calculated as above the
|
||
level of the ocean.
|
||
"But," said I, "is it not very much to be feared that this
|
||
ever-increasing pressure may not in the end turn out very painful
|
||
and inconvenient?"
|
||
"No," said he. "We shall descend very slowly, and our lungs will
|
||
be gradually accustomed to breathe compressed air. It is well known
|
||
that aeronauts have gone so high as to be nearly without air at all-
|
||
why, then, should we not accustom ourselves to breathe when we have,
|
||
say, a little too much of it? For myself, I am certain I shall
|
||
prefer it. Let us not lose a moment. Where is the packet which
|
||
preceded us in our descent?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
I smilingly pointed it out to my uncle. Hans had not seen it, and
|
||
believed it caught somewhere above us: "Huppe" as he phrased it.
|
||
"Now," said my uncle, "let us breakfast, and break fast like
|
||
people who have a long day's work before them."
|
||
Biscuit and dried meat, washed down by some mouthfuls of water
|
||
flavored with Schiedam, was the material of our luxurious meal.
|
||
As soon as it was finished, my uncle took from his pocket a notebook
|
||
destined to be filled by memoranda of our travels. He had already
|
||
placed his instruments in order, and this is what he wrote:
|
||
-
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Monday, June 29th
|
||
Chronometer, 8h. 17m. morning.
|
||
Barometer, 29.6 inches.
|
||
Thermometer, 6 degrees [43 degrees Fahr.]
|
||
Direction, E.S.E.
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
-
|
||
This last observation referred to the obscure gallery, and was
|
||
indicated to us by the compass.
|
||
"Now, Harry," cried the Professor, in an enthusiastic tone of voice,
|
||
"we are truly about to take our first step into the Interior of the
|
||
Earth; never before visited by man since the first creation of the
|
||
world. You may consider, therefore, that at this precise moment our
|
||
travels really commence."
|
||
As my uncle made this remark, he took in one hand the Ruhmkorff coil
|
||
apparatus, which hung round his neck, and with the other he put the
|
||
electric current into communication with the worm of the lantern.
|
||
And a bright light at once illumined that dark and gloomy tunnel!
|
||
The effect was magical!
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Hans, who carried the second apparatus, had it also put into
|
||
operation. This ingenious application of electricity to practical
|
||
purposes enabled us to move along by the light of an artificial day,
|
||
amid even the flow of the most inflammable and combustible gases.
|
||
"Forward!" cried my uncle. Each took up his burden. Hans went first,
|
||
my uncle followed, and I going third, we entered the somber gallery!
|
||
Just as we were about to engulf ourselves in this dismal passage,
|
||
I lifted up my head, and through the tubelike shaft saw that Iceland
|
||
sky I was never to see again!
|
||
Was it the last I should ever see of any sky?
|
||
The stream of lava flowing from the bowels of the earth in 1219
|
||
had forced itself a passage through the tunnel. It lined the whole
|
||
of the inside with its thick and brilliant coating. The electric light
|
||
added very greatly to the brilliancy of the effect.
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
The great difficulty of our journey now began. How were we to
|
||
prevent ourselves from slipping down the steeply inclined plane?
|
||
Happily some cracks, abrasures of the soil, and other
|
||
irregularities, served the place of steps; and we descended slowly;
|
||
allowing our heavy luggage to slip on before, at the end of a long
|
||
cord.
|
||
But that which served as steps under our feet became in other places
|
||
stalactites. The lava, very porous in certain places, took the form of
|
||
little round blisters. Crystals of opaque quartz, adorned with
|
||
limpid drops of natural glass suspended to the roof like lusters,
|
||
seemed to take fire as we passed beneath them. One would have
|
||
fancied that the genii of romance were illuminating their
|
||
underground palaces to receive the sons of men.
|
||
"Magnificent, glorious!" I cried in a moment of involuntary
|
||
enthusiasm, "What a spectacle, Uncle! Do you not admire these
|
||
variegated shades of lava, which run through a whole series of colors,
|
||
from reddish brown to pale yellow- by the most insensible degrees? And
|
||
these crystals, they appear like luminous globes."
|
||
"You are beginning to see the charms of travel, Master Harry," cried
|
||
my uncle. "Wait a bit, until we advance farther. What we have as yet
|
||
discovered is nothing- onwards, my boy, onwards!
|
||
It would have been a far more correct and appropriate expression,
|
||
had he said, "let us slide," for we were going down an inclined
|
||
plane with perfect ease. The compass indicated that we were moving
|
||
in a southeasterly direction. The flow of lava had never turned to the
|
||
right or the left. It had the inflexibility of a straight line.
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
Nevertheless, to my surprise, we found no perceptible increase in
|
||
heat. This proved the theories of Humphry Davy to be founded on truth,
|
||
and more than once I found myself examining the thermometer in
|
||
silent astonishment.
|
||
Two hours after our departure it only marked fifty-four degrees
|
||
Fahrenheit. I had every reason to believe from this that our descent
|
||
was far more horizontal than vertical. As for discovering the exact
|
||
depth to which we had attained, nothing could be easier. The Professor
|
||
as he advanced measured the angles of deviation and inclination; but
|
||
he kept the result of his observations to himself.
|
||
About eight o'clock in the evening, my uncle gave the signal for
|
||
halting. Hans seated himself on the ground. The lamps were hung to
|
||
fissures in the lava rock. We were now in a large cavern where air was
|
||
not wanting. On the contrary, it abounded. What could be the cause
|
||
of this- to what atmospheric agitation could be ascribed this draught?
|
||
But this was a question which I did not care to discuss just then.
|
||
Fatigue and hunger made me incapable of reasoning. An unceasing
|
||
march of seven hours had not been kept up without great exhaustion.
|
||
I was really and truly worn out; and delighted enough I was to hear
|
||
the word Halt.
|
||
Hans laid out some provisions on a lump of lava, and we each
|
||
supped with keen relish. One thing, however, caused us great
|
||
uneasiness- our water reserve was already half exhausted. My uncle had
|
||
full confidence in finding subterranean resources, but hitherto we had
|
||
completely failed in so doing. I could not help calling my uncle's
|
||
attention to the circumstance.
|
||
"And you are surprised at this total absence of springs?" he said.
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Doubtless- I am very uneasy on the point. We have certainly not
|
||
enough water to last us five days."
|
||
"Be quite easy on that matter," continued my uncle. "I answer for it
|
||
we shall find plenty of water- in fact, far more than we shall want."
|
||
"But when?"
|
||
"When we once get through this crust of lava. How can you expect
|
||
springs to force their way through these solid stone walls?"
|
||
"But what is there to prove that this concrete mass of lava does not
|
||
extend to the center of the earth? I don't think we have as yet done
|
||
much in a vertical way."
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"What puts that into your head, my boy?" asked my uncle mildly.
|
||
"Well, it appears to me that if we had descended very far below
|
||
the level of the sea- we should find it rather hotter than we have."
|
||
"According to your system," said my uncle; "but what does the
|
||
thermometer say?"
|
||
"Scarcely fifteen degrees by Reaumur, which is only an increase of
|
||
nine since our departure."
|
||
"Well, and what conclusion does that bring you to?" inquired the
|
||
Professor.
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"The deduction I draw from this is very simple. According to the
|
||
most exact observations, the augmentation of the temperature of the
|
||
interior of the earth is one degree for every hundred feet. But
|
||
certain local causes may considerably modify this figure. Thus at
|
||
Yakoust in Siberia, it has been remarked that the heat increases a
|
||
degree every thirty-six feet. The difference evidently depends on
|
||
the conductibility of certain rocks. In the neighborhood of an extinct
|
||
volcano, it has been remarked that the elevation of temperature was
|
||
only one degree in every five-and-twenty feet. Let us, then, go upon
|
||
this calculation- which is the most favorable- and calculate.
|
||
"Calculate away, my boy."
|
||
"Nothing easier," said I, pulling out my notebook and pencil.
|
||
"Nine times one hundred and twenty-five feet make a depth of eleven
|
||
hundred and twenty-five feet."
|
||
"Archimedes could not have spoken more geometrically."
|
||
"Well?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_15 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
"Well, according to my observations, we are at least ten thousand
|
||
feet below the level of the sea."
|
||
"Can it be possible?"
|
||
"Either my calculation is correct, or there is no truth in figures."
|
||
The calculations of the Professor were perfectly correct. We were
|
||
already six thousand feet deeper down in the bowels of the earth
|
||
than anyone had ever been before. The lowest known depth to which
|
||
man had hitherto penetrated was in the mines of Kitzbuhel, in the
|
||
Tirol, and those of Wurttemberg.
|
||
The temperature, which should have been eighty-one, was in this
|
||
place only fifteen. This was a matter for serious consideration.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_16
|
||
CHAPTER 16
|
||
The Eastern Tunnel
|
||
-
|
||
THE next day was Tuesday, the 30th of June- and at six o'clock in
|
||
the morning we resumed our journey.
|
||
We still continued to follow the gallery of lava, a perfect
|
||
natural pathway, as easy of descent as some of those inclined planes
|
||
which, in very old German houses, serve the purpose of staircases.
|
||
This went on until seventeen minutes past twelve, the precise
|
||
instant at which we rejoined Hans, who, having been somewhat in
|
||
advance, had suddenly stopped.
|
||
"At last," cried my uncle, "we have reached the end of the shaft."
|
||
I looked wonderingly about me. We were in the center of four cross
|
||
paths- somber and narrow tunnels. The question now arose as to which
|
||
it was wise to take; and this of itself was no small difficulty.
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
My uncle, who did not wish to appear to have any hesitation about
|
||
the matter before myself or the guide, at once made up his mind. He
|
||
pointed quietly to the eastern tunnel; and, without delay, we
|
||
entered within its gloomy recesses.
|
||
Besides, had he entertained any feeling of hesitation it might
|
||
have been prolonged indefinitely, for there was no indication by which
|
||
to determine on a choice. It was absolutely necessary to trust to
|
||
chance and good fortune!
|
||
The descent of this obscure and narrow gallery was very gradual
|
||
and winding. Sometimes we gazed through a succession of arches, its
|
||
course very like the aisles of a Gothic cathedral. The great
|
||
artistic sculptors and builders of the Middle Ages might have here
|
||
completed their studies with advantage. Many most beautiful and
|
||
suggestive ideas of architectural beauty would have been discovered by
|
||
them. After passing through this phase of the cavernous way, we
|
||
suddenly came, about a mile farther on, upon a square system of
|
||
arch, adopted by the early Romans, projecting from the solid rock, and
|
||
keeping up the weight of the roof.
|
||
Suddenly we would come upon a series of low subterranean tunnels
|
||
which looked like beaver holes, or the work of foxes- through whose
|
||
narrow and winding ways we had literally to crawl!
|
||
The heat still remained at quite a supportable degree. With an
|
||
involuntary shudder, I reflected on what the heat must have been
|
||
when the volcano of Sneffels was pouring its smoke, flames, and
|
||
streams of boiling lava- all of which must have come up by the road we
|
||
were now following. I could imagine the torrents of hot seething stone
|
||
darting on, bubbling up with accompaniments of smoke, steam, and
|
||
sulphurous stench!
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Only to think of the consequences," I mused, "if the old volcano
|
||
were once more to set to work."
|
||
I did not communicate these rather unpleasant reflections to my
|
||
uncle. He not only would not have understood them, but would have been
|
||
intensely disgusted. His only idea was to go ahead. He walked, he
|
||
slid, he clambered over piles of fragments, he rolled down heaps of
|
||
broken lava, with an earnestness and conviction it was impossible
|
||
not to admire.
|
||
At six o'clock in the evening, after a very wearisome journey, but
|
||
one not so fatiguing as before, we had made six miles towards the
|
||
southward, but had not gone more than a mile downwards.
|
||
My uncle, as usual, gave the signal to halt. We ate our meal in
|
||
thoughtful silence, and then retired to sleep.
|
||
Our arrangements for the night were very primitive and simple. A
|
||
traveling rug, in which each rolled himself, was all our bedding. We
|
||
had no necessity to fear cold or any unpleasant visit. Travelers who
|
||
bury themselves in the wilds and depths of the African desert, who
|
||
seek profit and pleasure in the forests of the New World, are
|
||
compelled to take it in turn to watch during the hours of sleep; but
|
||
in this region of the earth absolute solitude and complete security
|
||
reigned supreme.
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
We had nothing to fear either from savages or from wild beasts.
|
||
After a night's sweet repose, we awoke fresh and ready for action.
|
||
There being nothing to detain us, we started on our journey. We
|
||
continued to burrow through the lava tunnel as before. It was
|
||
impossible to make out through what soil we were making way. The
|
||
tunnel, moreover, instead of going down into the bowels of the
|
||
earth, became absolutely horizontal.
|
||
I even thought, after some examination, that we were actually
|
||
tending upwards. About ten o'clock in the day this state of things
|
||
became so clear that, finding the change very fatiguing, I was obliged
|
||
to slacken my pace and finally come to a halt.
|
||
"Well," said the Professor quickly, "what is the matter?"
|
||
"The fact is, I am dreadfully tired," was my earnest reply.
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"What," cried my uncle, "tired after a three hours' walk, and by
|
||
so easy a road?"
|
||
"Easy enough, I dare say, but very fatiguing."
|
||
"But how can that be, when all we have to do is to go downwards."
|
||
"I beg your pardon, sir. For some time I have noticed that we are
|
||
going upwards."
|
||
"Upwards," cried my uncle, shrugging his shoulders, "how can that
|
||
be?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"There can be no doubt about it. For the last half hour the slopes
|
||
have been upward- and if we go on in this way much longer we shall
|
||
find ourselves back in Iceland."
|
||
My uncle shook his head with the air of a man who does not want to
|
||
be convinced. I tried to continue the conversation. He would not
|
||
answer me, but once more gave the signal for departure. His silence
|
||
I thought was only caused by concentrated ill-temper.
|
||
However this might be, I once more took up my load, and boldly and
|
||
resolutely followed Hans, who was now in advance of my uncle. I did
|
||
not like to be beaten or even distanced. I was naturally anxious not
|
||
to lose sight of my companions. The very idea of being left behind,
|
||
lost in that terrible labyrinth, made me shiver as with the ague.
|
||
Besides, if the ascending path was more arduous and painful to
|
||
clamber, I had one source of secret consolation and delight. It was to
|
||
all appearance taking us back to the surface of the earth. That of
|
||
itself was hopeful. Every step I took confirmed me in my belief, and I
|
||
began already to build castles in the air in relation to my marriage
|
||
with my pretty little cousin.
|
||
About twelve o'clock there was a great and sudden change in the
|
||
aspect of the rocky sides of the gallery. I first noticed it from
|
||
the diminution of the rays of light which cast back the reflection
|
||
of the lamp. From being coated with shining and resplendent lava, it
|
||
became living rock. The sides were sloping walls, which sometimes
|
||
became quite vertical.
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
We were now in what the geological professors call a state of
|
||
transition, in the period of Silurian stones, so called because this
|
||
specimen of early formation is very common in England in the
|
||
counties formerly inhabited by the Celtic nation known as Silures.
|
||
"I can see clearly now," I cried; "the sediment from the waters
|
||
which once covered the whole earth formed during the second period
|
||
of its existence these schists and these calcareous rocks. We are
|
||
turning our backs on the granite rocks, and are like people from
|
||
Hamburg who would go to Lubeck by way of Hanover."
|
||
I might just as well have kept my observations to myself. My
|
||
geological enthusiasm got the better, however, of my cooler
|
||
judgment, and Professor Hardwigg heard my observations.
|
||
"What is the matter now?" he said, in a tone of great gravity.
|
||
"Well," cried I, "do you not see these different layers of
|
||
calcareous rocks and the first indication of slate strata?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Well; what then?"
|
||
"We have arrived at that period of the world's existence when the
|
||
first plants and the first animals made their appearance."
|
||
"You think so?"
|
||
"Yes, look; examine and judge for yourself."
|
||
I induced the Professor with some difficulty to cast the light of
|
||
his lamp on the sides of the long winding gallery. I expected some
|
||
exclamation to burst from his lips. I was very much mistaken. The
|
||
worthy Professor never spoke a word.
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
It was impossible to say whether he understood me or not. Perhaps it
|
||
was possible that in his pride- my uncle and a learned professor- he
|
||
did not like to own that he was wrong in having chosen the eastern
|
||
tunnel, or was he determined at any price to go to the end of it? It
|
||
was quite evident we had left the region of lava, and that the road by
|
||
which we were going could not take us back to the great crater of
|
||
Mount Sneffels.
|
||
As we went along I could not help ruminating on the whole
|
||
question, and asked myself if I did not lay too great a stress on
|
||
these sudden and peculiar modifications of the earth's crust.
|
||
After all, I was very likely to be mistaken- and it was within the
|
||
range of probability and possibility that we were not making our way
|
||
through the strata of rocks which I believed I recognized piled on the
|
||
lower layer of granitic formation.
|
||
"At all events, if I am right," I thought to myself, "I must
|
||
certainly find some remains of primitive plants, and it will be
|
||
absolutely necessary to give way to such indubitable evidence. Let
|
||
us have a good search."
|
||
I accordingly lost no opportunity of searching, and had not gone
|
||
more than about a hundred yards, when the evidence I sought for
|
||
cropped up in the most incontestable manner before my eyes. It was
|
||
quite natural that I should expect to find these signs, for during the
|
||
Silurian period the seas contained no fewer than fifteen hundred
|
||
different animal and vegetable species. My feet, so long accustomed to
|
||
the hard and arid lava soil, suddenly found themselves treading on a
|
||
kind of soft dust, the remains of plants and shells.
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
Upon the walls themselves I could clearly make out the outline, as
|
||
plain as a sun picture, of the fucus and the lycopods. The worthy
|
||
and excellent Professor Hardwigg could not of course make any
|
||
mistake about the matter; but I believe he deliberately closed his
|
||
eyes, and continued on his way with a firm and unalterable step.
|
||
I began to think that he was carrying his obstinacy a great deal too
|
||
far. I could no longer act with prudence or composure. I stooped on
|
||
a sudden and picked up an almost perfect shell, which had
|
||
undoubtedly belonged to some animal very much resembling some of the
|
||
present day. Having secured the prize, I followed in the wake of my
|
||
uncle.
|
||
"Do you see this?" I said.
|
||
"Well, said the Professor, with the most imperturbable tranquillity,
|
||
"it is the shell of a crustaceous animal of the extinct order of the
|
||
trilobites; nothing more, I assure you."
|
||
"But, cried I, much troubled at his coolness, "do you draw no
|
||
conclusion from it?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Well, if I may ask, what conclusion do you draw from it yourself?"
|
||
"Well, I thought-"
|
||
"I know, my boy, what you would say, and you are right, perfectly
|
||
and incontestably right. We have finally abandoned the crust of lava
|
||
and the road by which the lava ascended. It is quite possible that I
|
||
may have been mistaken, but I shall be unable to discover my error
|
||
until I get to the end of this gallery."
|
||
"You are quite right as far as that is concerned"' I replied, "and I
|
||
should highly approve of your decision, if we had not to fear the
|
||
greatest of all dangers."
|
||
"And what is that?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_16 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Want of water."
|
||
"Well, my dear Henry, it can't be helped. We must put ourselves on
|
||
rations."
|
||
And on he went.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_17
|
||
CHAPTER 17
|
||
Deeper and Deeper
|
||
-
|
||
IN truth, we were compelled to put ourselves upon rations. Our
|
||
supply would certainly last not more than three days. I found this out
|
||
about supper time. The worst part of the matter was that, in what is
|
||
called the transition rocks, it was hardly to be expected we should
|
||
meet with water!
|
||
I had read of the horrors of thirst, and I knew that where we
|
||
were, a brief trial of its sufferings would put an end to our
|
||
adventures- and our lives! But it was utterly useless to discuss the
|
||
matter with my uncle. He would have answered by some axiom from Plato.
|
||
During the whole of next day we proceeded on our journey through
|
||
this interminable gallery, arch after arch, tunnel after tunnel. We
|
||
journeyed without exchanging a word. We had become as mute and
|
||
reticent as Hans, our guide.
|
||
The road had no longer an upward tendency; at all events, if it had,
|
||
it was not to be made out very clearly. Sometimes there could be no
|
||
doubt that we were going downwards. But this inclination was
|
||
scarcely to be distinguished, and was by no means reassuring to the
|
||
Professor, because the character of the strata was in no wise
|
||
modified, and the transition character of the rocks became more and
|
||
more marked.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
It was a glorious sight to see how the electric light brought out
|
||
the sparkles in the walls of the calcareous rocks, and the old red
|
||
sandstone. One might have fancied oneself in one of those deep
|
||
cuttings in Devonshire, which have given their name to this kind of
|
||
soil. Some magnificent specimens of marble projected from the sides of
|
||
the gallery: some of an agate grey with white veins of variegated
|
||
character, others of a yellow spotted color, with red veins; farther
|
||
off might be seen samples of color in which cherry-tinted seams were
|
||
to be found in all their brightest shades.
|
||
The greater number of these marbles were stamped with the marks of
|
||
primitive animals. Since the previous evening, nature and creation had
|
||
made considerable progress. Instead of the rudimentary trilobites, I
|
||
perceived the remains of a more perfect order. Among others, the
|
||
fish in which the eye of a geologist has been able to discover the
|
||
first form of the reptile.
|
||
The Devonian seas were inhabited by a vast number of animals of this
|
||
species, which were deposited in tens of thousands in the rocks of new
|
||
formation.
|
||
It was quite evident to me that we were ascending the scale of
|
||
animal life of which man forms the summit. My excellent uncle, the
|
||
Professor, appeared not to take notice of these warnings. He was
|
||
determined at any risk to proceed.
|
||
He must have been in expectation of one of two things; either that a
|
||
vertical well was about to open under his feet, and thus allow him
|
||
to continue his descent, or that some insurmountable obstacle would
|
||
compel us to stop and go back by the road we had so long traveled. But
|
||
evening came again, and, to my horror, neither hope was doomed to be
|
||
realized!
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
On Friday, after a night when I began to feel the gnawing agony of
|
||
thirst, and when in consequence appetite decreased, our little band
|
||
rose and once more followed the turnings and windings, the ascents and
|
||
descents, of this interminable gallery. All were silent and gloomy.
|
||
I could see that even my uncle had ventured too far.
|
||
After about ten hours of further progress- a progress dull and
|
||
monotonous to the last degree- I remarked that the reverberation,
|
||
and reflection of our lamps upon the sides of the tunnel, had
|
||
singularly diminished. The marble, the schist, the calcareous rocks,
|
||
the red sandstone, had disappeared, leaving in their places a dark and
|
||
gloomy wall, somber and without brightness. When we reached a
|
||
remarkably narrow part of the tunnel, I leaned my left hand against
|
||
the rock.
|
||
When I took my hand away, and happened to glance at it, it was quite
|
||
black. We had reached the coal strata of the Central Earth.
|
||
"A coal mine!" I cried.
|
||
"A coal mine without miners," responded my uncle, a little severely.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"How can we tell?"
|
||
"I can tell," replied my uncle, in a sharp and doctorial tone. "I am
|
||
perfectly certain that this gallery through successive layers of
|
||
coal was not cut by the hand of man. But whether it is the work of
|
||
nature or not is of little concern to us. The hour for our evening
|
||
meal has come- let us sup.
|
||
Hans, the guide, occupied himself in preparing food. I had come to
|
||
that point when I could no longer eat. All I cared about were the
|
||
few drops of water which fell to my share. What I suffered it is
|
||
useless to record. The guide's gourd, not quite half full, was all
|
||
that was left for us three!
|
||
Having finished their repast, my two companions laid themselves down
|
||
upon their rugs, and found in sleep a remedy for their fatigue and
|
||
sufferings. As for me, I could not sleep, I lay counting the hours
|
||
until morning.
|
||
The next morning, Saturday, at six o'clock, we started again. Twenty
|
||
minutes later we suddenly came upon a vast excavation. From its mighty
|
||
extent I saw at once that the hand of man could have had nothing to do
|
||
with this coal mine; the vault above would have fallen in; as it
|
||
was, it was only held together by some miracle of nature.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
This mighty natural cavern was about a hundred feet wide, by about a
|
||
hundred and fifty high. The earth had evidently been cast apart by
|
||
some violent subterranean commotion. The mass, giving way to some
|
||
prodigious upheaving of nature, had split in two, leaving the vast gap
|
||
into which we inhabitants of the earth had penetrated for the first
|
||
time.
|
||
The whole singular history of the coal period was written on those
|
||
dark and gloomy walls. A geologist would have been able easily to
|
||
follow the different phases of its formation. The seams of coal were
|
||
separated by strata of sandstone, a compact clay, which appeared to be
|
||
crushed down by the weight from above.
|
||
At that period of the world which preceded the secondary epoch,
|
||
the earth was covered by a coating of enormous and rich vegetation,
|
||
due to the double action of tropical heat and perpetual humidity. A
|
||
vast atmospheric cloud of vapor surrounded the earth on all sides,
|
||
preventing the rays of the sun from ever reaching it.
|
||
Hence the conclusion that these intense heats did not arise from
|
||
this new source of caloric.
|
||
Perhaps even the star of day was not quite ready for its brilliant
|
||
work- to illumine a universe. Climates did not as yet exist, and a
|
||
level heat pervaded the whole surface of the globe- the same heat
|
||
existing at the North Pole as at the equator.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Whence did it come? From the interior of the earth?
|
||
In spite of all the learned theories of Professor Hardwigg, a fierce
|
||
and vehement fire certainly burned within the entrails of the great
|
||
spheroid. Its action was felt even to the very topmost crust of the
|
||
earth; the plants then in existence, being deprived of the vivifying
|
||
rays of the sun, had neither buds, nor flowers, nor odor, but their
|
||
roots drew a strong and vigorous life from the burning earth of
|
||
early days.
|
||
There were but few of what may be called trees- only herbaceous
|
||
plants, immense turfs, briers, mosses, rare families, which,
|
||
however, in those days were counted by tens and tens of thousands.
|
||
It is entirely to this exuberant vegetation that coal owes its
|
||
origin. The crust of the vast globe still yielded under the
|
||
influence of the seething, boiling mass, which was forever at work
|
||
beneath. Hence arose numerous fissures, and continual falling in of
|
||
the upper earth. The dense mass of plants being beneath the waters,
|
||
soon formed themselves into vast agglomerations.
|
||
Then came about the action of natural chemistry; in the depths of
|
||
the ocean the vegetable mass at first became turf, then, thanks to the
|
||
influence of gases and subterranean fermentation, they underwent the
|
||
complete process of mineralization.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
In this manner, in early days, were formed those vast and prodigious
|
||
layers of coal, which an ever-increasing consumption must utterly
|
||
use up in about three centuries more, if people do not find some
|
||
more economic light than gas, and some cheaper motive power than
|
||
steam.
|
||
All these reflections, the memories of my school studies, came to my
|
||
mind while I gazed upon these mighty accumulations of coal, whose
|
||
riches, however, are scarcely likely to be ever utilized. The
|
||
working of these mines could only be carried out at an expense that
|
||
would never yield a profit.
|
||
The matter, however, is scarcely worthy consideration, when coal
|
||
is scattered over the whole surface of the globe, within a few yards
|
||
of the upper crust. As I looked at these untouched strata,
|
||
therefore, I knew they would remain as long as the world lasts.
|
||
While we still continued our journey, I alone forgot the length of
|
||
the road, by giving myself up wholly to these geological
|
||
considerations. The temperature continued to be very much the same
|
||
as while we were traveling amid the lava and the schists. On the other
|
||
hand my sense of smell was much affected by a very powerful odor. I
|
||
immediately knew that the gallery was filled to overflowing with
|
||
that dangerous gas the miners call fire damp, the explosion of which
|
||
has caused such fearful and terrible accidents, making a hundred
|
||
widows and hundreds of orphans in a single hour.
|
||
Happily, we were able to illumine our progress by means of the
|
||
Ruhmkorff apparatus. If we had been so rash and imprudent as to
|
||
explore this gallery, torch in hand, a terrible explosion would have
|
||
put an end to our travels, simply because no travelers would be left.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
Our excursion through this wondrous coal mine in the very bowels
|
||
of the earth lasted until evening. My uncle was scarcely able to
|
||
conceal his impatience and dissatisfaction at the road continuing
|
||
still to advance in a horizontal direction.
|
||
The darkness, dense and opaque a few yards in advance and in the
|
||
rear, rendered it impossible to make out what was the length of the
|
||
gallery. For myself, I began to believe that it was simply
|
||
interminable, and would go on in the same manner for months.
|
||
Suddenly, at six o'clock, we stood in front of a wall. To the right,
|
||
to the left above, below, nowhere was there any passage. We had
|
||
reached a spot where the rocks said in unmistakable accents- No
|
||
Thoroughfare.
|
||
I stood stupefied. The guide simply folded his arms. My uncle was
|
||
silent.
|
||
"Well, well, so much the better," cried my uncle, at last, "I now
|
||
know what we are about. We are decidedly not upon the road followed by
|
||
Saknussemm. All we have to do is to go back. Let us take one night's
|
||
good rest, and before three days are over, I promise you we shall have
|
||
regained the point where the galleries divided."
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Yes, we may, if our strength lasts as long," I cried, in a
|
||
lamentable voice.
|
||
"And why not?"
|
||
"Tomorrow, among us three, there will not be a drop of water. It
|
||
is just gone."
|
||
"And your courage with it," said my uncle, speaking in a severe
|
||
tone.
|
||
What could I say? I turned round on my side, and from sheer
|
||
exhaustion fell into a heavy sleep disturbed by dreams of water! And I
|
||
awoke unrefreshed.
|
||
{CHAPTER_17 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
I would have bartered a diamond mine for a glass of pure spring
|
||
water!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_18
|
||
CHAPTER 18
|
||
The Wrong Road!
|
||
-
|
||
NEXT day, our departure took place at a very early hour. There was
|
||
no time for the least delay. According to my account, we had five
|
||
days' hard work to get back to the place where the galleries divided.
|
||
I can never tell all the sufferings we endured upon our return. My
|
||
uncle bore them like a man who has been in the wrong- that is, with
|
||
concentrated and suppressed anger; Hans, with all the resignation of
|
||
his pacific character; and I- I confess that I did nothing but
|
||
complain, and despair. I had no heart for this bad fortune.
|
||
But there was one consolation. Defeat at the outset would probably
|
||
upset the whole journey!
|
||
As I had expected from the first, our supply of water gave
|
||
completely out on our first day's march. Our provision of liquids
|
||
was reduced to our supply of Schiedam; but this horrible- nay, I
|
||
will say it- this infernal liquor burnt the throat, and I could not
|
||
even bear the sight of it. I found the temperature to be stifling. I
|
||
was paralyzed with fatigue. More than once I was about to fall
|
||
insensible to the ground. The whole party then halted, and the
|
||
worthy Icelander and my excellent uncle did their best to console
|
||
and comfort me. I could, however, plainly see that my uncle was
|
||
contending painfully against the extreme fatigues of our journey,
|
||
and the awful torture generated by the absence of water.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
At length a time came when I ceased to recollect anything- when
|
||
all was one awfull hideous, fantastic dream!
|
||
At last, on Tuesday, the seventh of the month of July, after
|
||
crawling on our hands and knees for many hours, more dead than
|
||
alive, we reached the point of junction between the galleries. I lay
|
||
like a log, an inert mass of human flesh on the arid lava soil. It was
|
||
then ten in the morning.
|
||
Hans and my uncle, leaning against the wall, tried to nibble away at
|
||
some pieces of biscuit, while deep groans and sighs escaped from my
|
||
scorched and swollen lips. Then I fell off into a kind of deep
|
||
lethargy.
|
||
Presently I felt my uncle approach, and lift me up tenderly in his
|
||
arms.
|
||
"Poor boy," I heard him say in a tone of deep commiseration.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
I was profoundly touched by these words, being by no means
|
||
accustomed to signs of womanly weakness in the Professor. I caught his
|
||
trembling hands in mine and gave them a gentle pressure. He allowed me
|
||
to do so without resistance, looking at me kindly all the time. His
|
||
eyes were wet with tears.
|
||
I then saw him take the gourd which he wore at his side. To my
|
||
surprise, or rather to my stupefaction, he placed it to my lips.
|
||
"Drink, my boy," he said.
|
||
Was it possible my ears had not deceived me? Was my uncle mad? I
|
||
looked at him, with, I am sure, quite an idiotic expression. I could
|
||
not believe him. I too much feared the counteraction of
|
||
disappointment.
|
||
"Drink"' he said again.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
Had I heard aright? Before, however, I could ask myself the question
|
||
a second time, a mouthful of water cooled my parched lips and
|
||
throat- one mouthful, but I do believe it brought me back to life.
|
||
I thanked my uncle by clasping my hands. My heart was too full to
|
||
speak.
|
||
"Yes," said he, "one mouthful of water, the very last- do you
|
||
hear, my boy- the very last! I have taken care of it at the bottom
|
||
of my bottle as the apple of my eye. Twenty times, a hundred times,
|
||
I have resisted the fearful desire to drink it. But- no- no, Harry,
|
||
I saved it for you."
|
||
"My dear uncle," I exclaimed, and the big tears rolled down my hot
|
||
and feverish cheeks.
|
||
"Yes, my poor boy, I knew that when you reached this place, this
|
||
crossroad in the earth, you would fall down half dead, and I saved
|
||
my last drop of water in order to restore you.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Thanks," I cried; "thanks from my heart."
|
||
As little as my thirst was really quenched, I had nevertheless
|
||
partially recovered my strength. The contracted muscles of my throat
|
||
relaxed- and the inflammation of my lips in some measure subsided.
|
||
At all events, I was able to speak.
|
||
"Well," I said, "there can be no doubt now as to what we have to do.
|
||
Water has utterly failed us; our journey is therefore at an end. Let
|
||
us return."
|
||
While I spoke thus, my uncle evidently avoided my face: he held down
|
||
his head; his eyes were turned in every possible direction but the
|
||
right one.
|
||
"Yes," I continued, getting excited by my own words, we must go back
|
||
to Sneffels. May heaven give us strength to enable us once more to
|
||
revisit the light of day. Would that we now stood on the summit of the
|
||
crater."
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Go back," said my uncle, speaking to himself, "and must it be so?"
|
||
"Go back- yes, and without losing a single moment", I vehemently
|
||
cried.
|
||
For some moments there was silence under that dark and gloomy vault.
|
||
"So, my dear Harry," said the Professor in a very singular tone of
|
||
voice, "those few drops of water have not sufficed to restore your
|
||
energy and courage."
|
||
"Courage!" I cried.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"I see that you are quite as downcast as before- and still give
|
||
way to discouragement and despair."
|
||
What, then, was the man made of, and what other projects were
|
||
entering his fertile and audacious brain!
|
||
"You are not discouraged, sir?"
|
||
"What! Give up just as we are on the verge of success?" he cried.
|
||
"Never, never shall it be said that Professor Hardwigg retreated."
|
||
"Then we must make up our minds to perish," I cried with a
|
||
helpless sigh.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"No, Harry, my boy, certainly not. Go, leave me, I am very far
|
||
from desiring your death. Take Hans with you. I will go on alone."
|
||
"You ask us to leave you?"
|
||
"Leave me, I say. I have undertaken this dangerous and perilous
|
||
adventure. I will carry it to the end- or I will never return to the
|
||
surface of Mother Earth. Go, Harry- once more I say to you- go!"
|
||
My uncle as he spoke was terribly excited. His voice, which before
|
||
had been tender, almost womanly, became harsh and menacing. He
|
||
appeared to be struggling with desperate energy against the
|
||
impossible. I did not wish to abandon him at the bottom of that abyss,
|
||
while, on the other hand, the instinct of preservation told me to fly.
|
||
Meanwhile, our guide was looking on with profound calmness and
|
||
indifference. He appeared to be an unconcerned party, and yet he
|
||
perfectly well knew what was going on between us. Our gestures
|
||
sufficiently indicated the different roads each wished to follow-and
|
||
which each tried to influence the other to undertake. But Hans
|
||
appeared not to take the slightest interest in what was really a
|
||
question of life and death for us all, but waited quite ready to
|
||
obey the signal which should say go aloft, or to resume his
|
||
desperate journey into the interior of the earth.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
How then I wished with all my heart and soul that I could make him
|
||
understand my words. My representations, my sighs and groans, the
|
||
earnest accents in which I should have spoken would have convinced
|
||
that cold, hard nature. Those fearful dangers and perils of which
|
||
the stolid guide had no idea, I would have pointed them out to him-
|
||
I would have, as it were, made him see and feel. Between us, we
|
||
might have convinced the obstinate Professor. If the worst had come to
|
||
the worst, we could have compelled him to return to the summit of
|
||
Sneffels.
|
||
I quietly approached Hans. I caught his hand in mine. He never moved
|
||
a muscle. I indicated to him the road to the top of the crater. He
|
||
remained motionless. My panting form, my haggard countenance, must
|
||
have indicated the extent of my sufferings. The Icelander gently shook
|
||
his head and pointed to my uncle.
|
||
"Master," he said.
|
||
The word is Icelandic as well as English.
|
||
"The master!" I cried, beside myself with fury- "madman! no- I
|
||
tell you he is not the master of our lives; we must fly! we must
|
||
drag him with us! do you hear me? Do you understand me, I say?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
I have already explained that I held Hans by the arm. I tried to
|
||
make him rise from his seat. I struggled with him and tried to force
|
||
him away. My uncle now interposed.
|
||
"My good Henry, be calm," he said. "You will obtain nothing from
|
||
my devoted follower; therefore, listen to what I have to say."
|
||
I folded my arms, as well as I could, and looked my uncle full in
|
||
the face.
|
||
"This wretched want of water," he said, "is the sole obstacle to the
|
||
success of my project. In the entire gallery, made of lava, schist,
|
||
and coal, it is true we found not one liquid molecule. It is quite
|
||
possible that we may be more fortunate in the western tunnel."
|
||
My sole reply was to shake my head with an air of deep incredulity.
|
||
{CHAPTER_18 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Listen to me to the end," said the Professor in his well-known
|
||
lecturing voice. "While you lay yonder without life or motion, I
|
||
undertook a reconnoitering journey into the conformation of this other
|
||
gallery. I have discovered that it goes directly downwards into the
|
||
bowels of the earth, and in a few hours will take us to the old
|
||
granitic formation. In this we shall undoubtedly find innumerable
|
||
springs. The nature of the rock makes this a mathematical certainty,
|
||
and instinct agrees with logic to say that it is so. Now, this is
|
||
the serious proposition which I have to make to you. When
|
||
Christopher Columbus asked of his men three days to discover the
|
||
land of promise, his men ill, terrified, and hopeless, yet gave him
|
||
three days- and the New World was discovered. Now I, the Christopher
|
||
Columbus of this subterranean region, only ask of you one more day.
|
||
If, when that time is expired, I have not found the water of which
|
||
we are in search, I swear to you, I will give up my mighty
|
||
enterprise and return to the earth's surface."
|
||
Despite my irritation and despair, I knew how much it cost my
|
||
uncle to make this proposition, and to hold such conciliatory
|
||
language. Under the circumstances, what could I do but yield?
|
||
"Well," I cried, "let it be as you wish, and may heaven reward
|
||
your superhuman energy. But as, unless we discover water, our hours
|
||
are numbered, let us lose no time, but go ahead."
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_19
|
||
CHAPTER 19
|
||
A New Route
|
||
-
|
||
OUR descent was now resumed by means of the second gallery. Hans
|
||
took up his post in front as usual. We had not gone more than a
|
||
hundred yards when the Professor carefully examined the walls.
|
||
"This is the primitive formation- we are on the right road-
|
||
onwards is our hope!"
|
||
When the whole earth got cool in the first hours of the world's
|
||
morning, the diminution of the volume of the earth produced a state of
|
||
dislocation in its upper crust, followed by ruptures, crevasses and
|
||
fissures. The passage was a fissure of this kind, through which,
|
||
ages ago, had flowed the eruptive granite. The thousand windings and
|
||
turnings formed an inextricable labyrinth through the ancient soil.
|
||
As we descended, successions of layers composing the primitive
|
||
soil appeared with the utmost fidelity of detail. Geological science
|
||
considers this primitive soil as the base of the mineral crust, and it
|
||
has recognized that it is composed of three different strata or
|
||
layers, all resting on the immovable rock known as granite.
|
||
{CHAPTER_19 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
No mineralogists had even found themselves placed in such a
|
||
marvelous position to study nature in all her real and naked beauty.
|
||
The sounding rod, a mere machine, could not bring to the surface of
|
||
the earth the objects of value for the study of its internal
|
||
structure, which we were about to see with our own eyes, to touch with
|
||
our own hands.
|
||
Remember that I am writing this after the journey.
|
||
Across the streak of the rocks, colored by beautiful green tints,
|
||
wound metallic threads of copper, of manganese, with traces of
|
||
platinum and gold. I could not help gazing at these riches buried in
|
||
the entrails of Mother Earth, and of which no man would have the
|
||
enjoyment to the end of time! These treasures- mighty and
|
||
inexhaustible, were buried in the morning of the earth's history, at
|
||
such awful depths, that no crowbar or pickax will ever drag them
|
||
from their tomb!
|
||
The light of our Ruhmkorff's coil, increased tenfold by the myriad
|
||
of prismatic masses of rock, sent its jets of fire in every direction,
|
||
and I could fancy myself traveling through a huge hollow diamond,
|
||
the rays of which produced myriads of extraordinary effects.
|
||
Towards six o'clock, this festival of light began sensibly and
|
||
visibly to decrease, and soon almost ceased. The sides of the
|
||
gallery assumed a crystallized tint, with a somber hue; white mica
|
||
began to commingle more freely with feldspar and quartz, to form
|
||
what may be called the true rock- the stone which is hard above all,
|
||
that supports, without being crushed, the four stories of the
|
||
earth's soil.
|
||
{CHAPTER_19 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
We were walled by an immense prison of granite!
|
||
It was now eight o'clock, and still there was no sign of water.
|
||
The sufferings I endured were horrible. My uncle now kept at the
|
||
head of our little column. Nothing could induce him to stop. I,
|
||
meanwhile, had but one real thought. My ear was keenly on the watch to
|
||
catch the sound of a spring. But no pleasant sound of falling water
|
||
fell upon my listening ear.
|
||
But at last the time came when my limbs refused to carry me
|
||
longer. I contended heroically against the terrible tortures I
|
||
endured, because I did not wish to compel my uncle to halt. To him I
|
||
knew this would be the last fatal stroke.
|
||
Suddenly I felt a deadly faintness come over me. My eyes could no
|
||
longer see; my knees shook. I gave one despairing cry- and fell!
|
||
"Help, help, I am dying!
|
||
{CHAPTER_19 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
My uncle turned and slowly retraced his steps. He looked at me
|
||
with folded arms, and then allowed one sentence to escape, in hollow
|
||
accents, from his lips:
|
||
"All is over."
|
||
The last thing I saw was a face fearfully distorted with pain and
|
||
sorrow; and then my eyes closed.
|
||
-
|
||
When I again opened them, I saw my companions lying near me,
|
||
motionless, wrapped in their huge traveling rugs. Were they asleep
|
||
or dead? For myself, sleep was wholly out of the question. My fainting
|
||
fit over, I was wakeful as the lark. I suffered too much for sleep
|
||
to visit my eyelids- the more, that I thought myself sick unto
|
||
death- dying. The last words spoken by my uncle seemed to be buzzing
|
||
in my ears- all is over! And it was probable that he was right. In the
|
||
state of prostration to which I was reduced, it was madness to think
|
||
of ever again seeing the light of day.
|
||
{CHAPTER_19 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Above were miles upon miles of the earth's crust. As I thought of
|
||
it, I could fancy the whole weight resting on my shoulders. I was
|
||
crushed, annihilated! and exhausted myself in vain attempts to turn in
|
||
my granite bed.
|
||
Hours upon hours passed away. A profound and terrible silence
|
||
reigned around us- a silence of the tomb. Nothing could make itself
|
||
heard through these gigantic walls of granite. The very thought was
|
||
stupendous.
|
||
Presently, despite my apathy, despite the kind of deadly calm into
|
||
which I was cast, something aroused me. It was a slight but peculiar
|
||
noise. While I was watching intently, I observed that the tunnel was
|
||
becoming dark. Then gazing through the dim light that remained, I
|
||
thought I saw the Icelander taking his departure, lamp in hand.
|
||
Why had he acted thus? Did Hans the guide mean to abandon us? My
|
||
uncle lay fast asleep- or dead. I tried to cry out, and arouse him. My
|
||
voice, feebly issuing from my parched and fevered lips, found no
|
||
echo in that fearful place. My throat was dry, my tongue stuck to
|
||
the roof of my mouth. The obscurity had by this time become intense,
|
||
and at last even the faint sound of the guide's footsteps was lost
|
||
in the blank distance. My soul seemed filled with anguish, and death
|
||
appeared welcome, only let it come quickly.
|
||
"Hans is leaving us," I cried. "Hans- Hans, if you are a man, come
|
||
back."
|
||
{CHAPTER_19 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
These words were spoken to myself. They could not be heard aloud.
|
||
Nevertheless, after the first few moments of terror were over, I was
|
||
ashamed of my suspicions against a man who hitherto had behaved so
|
||
admirably. Nothing in his conduct or character justified suspicion.
|
||
Moreover, a moment's reflection reassured me. His departure could
|
||
not be a flight. Instead of ascending the gallery, he was going deeper
|
||
down into the gulf. Had he had any bad design, his way would have been
|
||
upwards.
|
||
This reasoning calmed me a little and I began to hope!
|
||
The good, and peaceful, and imperturbable Hans would certainly not
|
||
have arisen from his sleep without some serious and grave motive.
|
||
Was he bent on a voyage of discovery? During the deep, still silence
|
||
of the night had he at last heard that sweet murmur about which we
|
||
were all so anxious?
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_20
|
||
CHAPTER 20
|
||
A Bitter Disappointment
|
||
-
|
||
DURING a long, long, weary hour, there crossed my wildly delirious
|
||
brain all sorts of reasons as to what could have aroused our quiet and
|
||
faithful guide. The most absurd and ridiculous ideas passed through my
|
||
head, each more impossible than the other. I believe I was either half
|
||
or wholly mad.
|
||
Suddenly, however, there arose, as it were from the depths of the
|
||
earth, a voice of comfort. It was the sound of footsteps! Hans was
|
||
returning.
|
||
Presently the uncertain light began to shine upon the walls of the
|
||
passage, and then it came in view far down the sloping tunnel. At
|
||
length Hans himself appeared.
|
||
He approached my uncle, placed his hand upon his shoulder, and
|
||
gently awakened him. My uncle, as soon as he saw who it was, instantly
|
||
arose.
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"Well!" exclaimed the Professor.
|
||
"Vatten," said the hunter.
|
||
I did not know a single word of the Danish language, and yet by a
|
||
sort of mysterious instinct I understood what the guide had said.
|
||
"Water, water!" I cried, in a wild and frantic tone, clapping my
|
||
hands, and gesticulating like a madman.
|
||
"Water!" murmured my uncle, in a voice of deep emotion and
|
||
gratitude. "Hvar?" ("Where?)
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Nedat." ("Below.")
|
||
"Where? below!" I understood every word. I had caught the hunter
|
||
by the hands, and I shook them heartily, while he looked on with
|
||
perfect calmness.
|
||
The preparations for our departure did not take long, and we were
|
||
soon making a rapid descent into the tunnel.
|
||
An hour later we had advanced a thousand yards, and descended two
|
||
thousand feet.
|
||
At this moment I heard an accustomed and well-known sound running
|
||
along the floors of the granite rock- a kind of dull and sullen
|
||
roar, like that of a distant waterfall.
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
During the first half hour of our advance, not finding the
|
||
discovered spring, my feelings of intense suffering appeared to
|
||
return. Once more I began to lose all hope. My uncle, however,
|
||
observing how downhearted I was again becoming, took up the
|
||
conversation.
|
||
"Hans was right," he exclaimed enthusiastically; "that is the dull
|
||
roaring of a torrent."
|
||
"A torrent," I cried, delighted at even hearing the welcome words.
|
||
"There's not the slightest doubt about it he replied, "a
|
||
subterranean river is flowing beside us."
|
||
I made no reply, but hastened on, once more animated by hope. I
|
||
began not even to feel the deep fatigue which hitherto had overpowered
|
||
me. The very sound of this glorious murmuring water already
|
||
refreshed me. We could hear it increasing in volume every moment.
|
||
The torrent, which for a long time could be heard flowing over our
|
||
heads, now ran distinctly along the left wall, roaring, rushing,
|
||
spluttering, and still falling.
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Several times I passed my hand across the rock hoping to find some
|
||
trace of humidity- of the slightest percolation. Alas! in vain.
|
||
Again a half hour passed in the same weary toil. Again we advanced.
|
||
It now became evident that the hunter, during his absence, had not
|
||
been able to carry his researches any farther. Guided by an instinct
|
||
peculiar to the dwellers in mountain regions and water finders, he
|
||
"smelt" the living spring through the rock. Still he had not seen
|
||
the precious liquid. He had neither quenched his own thirst, nor
|
||
brought us one drop in his gourd.
|
||
Moreover, we soon made the disastrous discovery that, if our
|
||
progress continued, we should soon be moving away from the torrent,
|
||
the sound of which gradually diminished. We turned back. Hans halted
|
||
at the precise spot where the sound of the torrent appeared nearest.
|
||
I could bear the suspense and suffering no longer, and seated myself
|
||
against the wall, behind which I could hear the water seething and
|
||
effervescing not two feet away. But a solid wall of granite still
|
||
separated us from it!
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Hans looked keenly at me, and, strange enough, for once I thought
|
||
I saw a smile on his imperturbable face.
|
||
He rose from a stone on which be had been seated, and took up the
|
||
lamp. I could not help rising and following. He moved slowly along the
|
||
firm and solid granite wall. I watched him with mingled curiosity
|
||
and eagerness. Presently he halted and placed his ear against the
|
||
dry stone, moving slowly along and listening with the most extreme
|
||
care and attention. I understood at once that he was searching for the
|
||
exact spot where the torrent's roar was most plainly heard. This point
|
||
he soon found in the lateral wall on the left side, about three feet
|
||
above the level of the tunnel floor.
|
||
I was in a state of intense excitement. I scarcely dared believe
|
||
what the eider-duck hunter was about to do. It was, however,
|
||
impossible in a moment more not to both understand and applaud, and
|
||
even to smother him in my embraces, when I saw him raise the heavy
|
||
crowbar and commence an attack upon the rock itself.
|
||
"Saved!" I cried.
|
||
"Yes," cried my uncle, even more excited and delighted than
|
||
myself; "Hans is quite right. Oh, the worthy, excellent man! We should
|
||
never have thought of such an idea."
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
And nobody else, I think, would have done so. Such a process, simple
|
||
as it seemed, would most certainly not have entered our heads. Nothing
|
||
could be more dangerous than to begin to work with pickaxes in that
|
||
particular part of the globe. Supposing while he was at work a
|
||
break-up were to take place, and supposing the torrent once having
|
||
gained an inch were to take an ell, and come pouring bodily through
|
||
the broken rock!
|
||
Not one of these dangers was chimerical. They were only too real.
|
||
But at that moment no fear of falling in of the roof, or even of
|
||
inundation was capable of stopping us. Our thirst was so intense
|
||
that to quench it we would have dug below the bed of old Ocean itself.
|
||
Hans went quietly to work- a work which neither my uncle nor I would
|
||
have undertaken at any price. Our impatience was so great that if we
|
||
had once begun with pickax and crowbar, the rock would soon have split
|
||
into a hundred fragments. The guide, on the contrary, calm, ready,
|
||
moderate, wore away the hard rock by little steady blows of his
|
||
instrument, making no attempt at a larger hole than about six
|
||
inches. As I stood, I heard, or I thought I heard, the roar of the
|
||
torrent momentarily increasing in loudness, and at times I almost felt
|
||
the pleasant sensation of water upon my parched lips.
|
||
At the end of what appeared an age, Hans had made a hole which
|
||
enabled his crowbar to enter two feet into the solid rock. He had been
|
||
at work exactly an hour. It appeared a dozen. I was getting wild
|
||
with impatience. My uncle began to think of using more violent
|
||
measures. I had the greatest difficulty in checking him. He had indeed
|
||
just got hold of his crowbar when a loud and welcome hiss was heard.
|
||
Then a stream, or rather jet, of water burst through the wall and came
|
||
out with such force as to hit the opposite side!
|
||
Hans, the guide, who was half upset by the shock, was scarcely
|
||
able to keep down a cry of pain and grief. I understood his meaning
|
||
when, plunging my hands into the sparkling jet, I myself gave a wild
|
||
and frantic cry. The water was scalding hot!
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Boiling," I cried, in bitter disappointment.
|
||
"Well, never mind," said my uncle," it will soon get cool."
|
||
The tunnel began to be filled by clouds of vapor, while a small
|
||
stream ran away into the interior of the earth. In a short time we had
|
||
some sufficiently cool to drink. We swallowed it in huge mouthfuls.
|
||
Oh! what exalted delight- what rich and incomparable luxury! What
|
||
was this water, whence did it come? To us what was that? The simple
|
||
fact was- it was water; and, though still with a tingle of warmth
|
||
about it, it brought back to the heart, that life which, but for it,
|
||
must surely have faded away. I drank greedily, almost without
|
||
tasting it.
|
||
When, however, I had almost quenched my ravenous thirst, I made a
|
||
discovery.
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Why, it is chalybeate water!"
|
||
"A most excellent stomachic," replied my uncle, "and highly
|
||
mineralized. Here is a journey worth twenty to Spa."
|
||
"It's very good," I replied.
|
||
"I should think so. Water found six miles under ground. There is a
|
||
peculiarly inky flavor about it, which is by no means disagreeable.
|
||
Hans may congratulate himself on having made a rare discovery. What do
|
||
you say, nephew, according to the usual custom of travelers, to name
|
||
the stream after him?"
|
||
"Good," said I. And the name of "Hansbach" ("Hans Brook") was at
|
||
once agreed upon.
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
Hans was not a bit more proud after hearing our determination than
|
||
he was before. After having taken a very small modicum of the
|
||
welcome refreshment, he had seated himself in a corner with his
|
||
usual imperturbable gravity.
|
||
"Now," said I, "it is not worth while letting this water run to
|
||
waste."
|
||
"What is the use," replied my uncle, "the source from which this
|
||
river rises is inexhaustible."
|
||
"Never mind," I continued, "let us fill our goatskin and gourds, and
|
||
then try to stop the opening up."
|
||
My advice, after some hesitation, was followed or attempted to be
|
||
followed. Hans picked up all the broken pieces of granite he had
|
||
knocked out, and using some tow he happened to have about him, tried
|
||
to shut up the fissure he had made in the wall. All he did was to
|
||
scald his hands. The pressure was too great, and all our attempts were
|
||
utter failures.
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"It is evident," I remarked, "that the upper surface of these
|
||
springs is situated at a very great height above- as we may fairly
|
||
infer from the great pressure of the jet."
|
||
"That is by no means doubtful," replied my uncle, "if this column of
|
||
water is about thirty-two thousand feet high, the atmospheric pressure
|
||
must be something enormous. But a new idea has just struck me."
|
||
"And what is that?"
|
||
"Why be at so much trouble to close this aperture?"
|
||
"Because-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
I hesitated and stammered, having no real reason.
|
||
"When our water bottles are empty, we are not at all sure that we
|
||
shall be able to fill them," observed my uncle.
|
||
"I think that is very probable."
|
||
"Well, then, let this water run. It will, of course, naturally
|
||
follow in our track, and will serve to guide and refresh us."
|
||
"I think the idea a good one," I cried in reply, "and with this
|
||
rivulet as a companion, there is no further reason why we should not
|
||
succeed in our marvelous project."
|
||
{CHAPTER_20 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
"Ah, my boy," said the Professor, laughing, "after all, you are
|
||
coming round."
|
||
"More than that, I am now confident of ultimate success.
|
||
"One moment, nephew mine. Let us begin by taking some hours of
|
||
repose."
|
||
I had utterly forgotten that it was night. The chronometer, however,
|
||
informed me of the fact. Soon we were sufficiently restored and
|
||
refreshed, and had all fallen into a profound sleep.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_21
|
||
CHAPTER 21
|
||
Under the Ocean
|
||
-
|
||
BY the next day we had nearly forgotten our past sufferings. The
|
||
first sensation I experienced was surprise at not being thirsty, and I
|
||
actually asked myself the reason. The running stream, which flowed
|
||
in rippling wavelets at my feet, was the satisfactory reply.
|
||
We breakfasted with a good appetite, and then drank our fill of
|
||
the excellent water. I felt myself quite a new man, ready to go
|
||
anywhere my uncle chose to lead. I began to think. Why should not a
|
||
man as seriously convinced as my uncle, succeed, with so excellent a
|
||
guide as worthy Hans, and so devoted a nephew as myself? These were
|
||
the brilliant ideas which now invaded my brain. Had the proposition
|
||
now been made to go back to the summit of Mount Sneffels, I should
|
||
have declined the offer in a most indignant manner.
|
||
But fortunately there was no question of going up. We were about
|
||
to descend farther into the interior of the earth.
|
||
"Let us be moving," I cried, awakening the echoes of the old world.
|
||
{CHAPTER_21 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
We resumed our march on Thursday at eight o'clock in the morning.
|
||
The great granite tunnel, as it went round by sinuous and winding
|
||
ways, presented every now and then sharp turns, and in fact all the
|
||
appearance of a labyrinth. Its direction, however, was in general
|
||
towards the southwest. My uncle made several pauses in order to
|
||
consult his compass.
|
||
The gallery now began to trend downwards in a horizontal
|
||
direction, with about two inches of fall in every furlong. The
|
||
murmuring stream flowed quietly at our feet. I could not but compare
|
||
it to some familiar spirit, guiding us through the earth, and I
|
||
dabbled my fingers in its tepid water, which sang like a naiad as we
|
||
progressed. My good humor began to assume a mythological character.
|
||
As for my uncle he began to complain of the horizontal character
|
||
of the road. His route, he found, began to be indefinitely
|
||
prolonged, instead of "sliding down the celestial ray," according to
|
||
his expression.
|
||
But we had no choice; and as long as our road led towards the
|
||
center- however little progress we made, there was no reason to
|
||
complain.
|
||
Moreover, from time to time the slopes were much greater, the
|
||
naiad sang more loudly, and we began to dip downwards in earnest.
|
||
{CHAPTER_21 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
As yet, however, I felt no painful sensation. I had not got over the
|
||
excitement of the discovery of water.
|
||
That day and the next we did a considerable amount of horizontal,
|
||
and relatively very little vertical, traveling.
|
||
On Friday evening, the tenth of July, according to our estimation,
|
||
we ought to have been thirty leagues to the southeast of Reykjavik,
|
||
and about two leagues and a half deep. We now received a rather
|
||
startling surprise.
|
||
Under our feet there opened a horrible well. My uncle was so
|
||
delighted that he actually clapped his hands- as he saw how steep
|
||
and sharp was the descent.
|
||
"Ah, ah!" he cried, in rapturous delight; "this take us a long
|
||
way. Look at the projections of the rock. Hah!" he exclaimed, "it's
|
||
a fearful staircase!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_21 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
Hans, however, who in all our troubles had never given up the ropes,
|
||
took care so to dispose of them as to prevent any accidents. Our
|
||
descent then began. I dare not call it a perilous descent, for I was
|
||
already too familiar with that sort of work to look upon it as
|
||
anything but a very ordinary affair.
|
||
This well was a kind of narrow opening in the massive granite of the
|
||
kind known as a fissure. The contraction of the terrestrial
|
||
scaffolding, when it suddenly cooled, had been evidently the cause. If
|
||
it had ever served in former times as a kind of funnel through which
|
||
passed the eruptive masses vomited by Sneffels, I was at a loss to
|
||
explain how it had left no mark. We were, in fact, descending a
|
||
spiral, something like those winding staircases in use in modern
|
||
houses.
|
||
We were compelled every quarter of an hour or thereabouts to sit
|
||
down in order to rest our legs. Our calves ached. We then seated
|
||
ourselves on some projecting rock with our legs hanging over, and
|
||
gossiped while we ate a mouthful- drinking still from the pleasantly
|
||
warm running stream which had not deserted us.
|
||
It is scarcely necessary to say that in this curiously shaped
|
||
fissure the Hansbach had become a cascade to the detriment of its
|
||
size. It was still, however, sufficient, and more, for our wants.
|
||
Besides we knew that, as soon as the declivity ceased to be so abrupt,
|
||
the stream must resume its peaceful course. At this moment it reminded
|
||
me of my uncle, his impatience and rage, while when it flowed more
|
||
peacefully, I pictured to myself the placidity of the Icelandic guide.
|
||
During the whole of two days, the sixth and seventh of July, we
|
||
followed the extraordinary spiral staircase of the fissure,
|
||
penetrating two leagues farther into the crust of the earth, which put
|
||
us five leagues below the level of the sea. On the eighth, however, at
|
||
twelve o'clock in the day, the fissure suddenly assumed a much more
|
||
gentle slope still trending in a southeast direction.
|
||
{CHAPTER_21 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
The road now became comparatively easy, and at the same time
|
||
dreadfully monotonous. It would have been difficult for matters to
|
||
have turned out otherwise. Our peculiar journey had no chance of being
|
||
diversified by landscape and scenery. At all events, such was my idea.
|
||
At length, on Wednesday the fifteenth, we were actually seven
|
||
leagues (twenty-one miles) below the surface of the earth, and fifty
|
||
leagues distant from the mountain of Sneffels. Though, if the truth be
|
||
told, we were very tired, our health had resisted all suffering, and
|
||
was in a most satisfactory state. Our traveler's box of medicaments
|
||
had not even been opened.
|
||
My uncle was careful to note every hour the indications of the
|
||
compass, of the manometer, and of the thermometer, all which he
|
||
afterwards published in his elaborate philosophical and scientific
|
||
account of our remarkable voyage. He was therefore able to give an
|
||
exact relation of the situation. When, therefore, he informed me
|
||
that we were fifty leagues in a horizontal direction distant from
|
||
our starting point, I could not suppress a loud exclamation.
|
||
"What is the matter now?" cried my uncle.
|
||
"Nothing very important, only an idea has entered my head," was my
|
||
reply.
|
||
{CHAPTER_21 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Well, out with it, My boy."
|
||
"It is my opinion that if your calculations are correct we are no
|
||
longer under Iceland."
|
||
"Do you think so?"
|
||
"We can very easily find out," I replied, pulling out a map and
|
||
compasses.
|
||
"You see," I said, after careful measurement, "that I am not
|
||
mistaken. We are far beyond Cape Portland; and those fifty leagues
|
||
to the southeast will take us into the open sea."
|
||
{CHAPTER_21 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"Under the open sea," cried my uncle, rubbing his hands with a
|
||
delighted air.
|
||
"Yes," I cried, "no doubt old Ocean flows over our heads!"
|
||
"Well, my dear boy, what can be more natural! Do you not know that
|
||
in the neighborhood of Newcastle there are coal mines which have
|
||
been worked far out under the sea?"
|
||
Now my worthy uncle, the Professor, no doubt regarded this discovery
|
||
as a very simple fact, but to me the idea was by no means a pleasant
|
||
one. And yet when one came to think the matter over seriously, what
|
||
mattered it whether the plains and mountains of Iceland were suspended
|
||
over our devoted heads, or the mighty billows of the Atlantic Ocean?
|
||
The whole question rested on the solidity of the granite roof above
|
||
us. However, I soon got used to the ideal for the passage now level,
|
||
now running down, and still always to the southeast, kept going deeper
|
||
and deeper into the profound abysses of Mother Earth.
|
||
Three days later, on the eighteenth day of July, on a Saturday, we
|
||
reached a kind of vast grotto. My uncle here paid Hans his usual
|
||
six-dollars, and it was decided that the next day should be a day of
|
||
rest.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_22
|
||
CHAPTER 22
|
||
Sunday below Ground
|
||
-
|
||
I AWOKE on Sunday morning without any sense of hurry and bustle
|
||
attendant on an immediate departure. Though the day to be devoted to
|
||
repose and reflection was spent under such strange circumstances,
|
||
and in so wonderful a place, the idea was a pleasant one. Besides,
|
||
we all began to get used to this kind of existence. I had almost
|
||
ceased to think of the sun, of the moon, of the stars, of the trees,
|
||
houses, and towns; in fact, about any terrestrial necessities. In
|
||
our peculiar position we were far above such reflections.
|
||
The grotto was a vast and magnificent hall. Along its granitic
|
||
soil the stream flowed placidly and pleasantly. So great a distance
|
||
was it now from its fiery source that its water was scarcely lukewarm,
|
||
and could be drunk without delay or difficulty.
|
||
After a frugal breakfast, the Professor made up his mind to devote
|
||
some hours to putting his notes and calculations in order.
|
||
"In the first place," he said, "I have a good many to verify and
|
||
prove, in order that we may know our exact position. I wish to be able
|
||
on our return to the upper regions to make a map of our journey, a
|
||
kind of vertical section of the globe, which will be, as it were,
|
||
the profile of the expedition."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"That would indeed be a curious work, Uncle; but can you make your
|
||
observations with anything like certainty and precision?"
|
||
"I can. I have never on any occasion failed to note with great
|
||
care the angles and slopes. I am certain as to having made no mistake.
|
||
Take the compass and examine how she points."
|
||
I looked at the instrument with care.
|
||
"East one quarter southeast."
|
||
"Very good," resumed the Professor, noting the observation, and
|
||
going through some rapid calculations. "I make out that we have
|
||
journeyed two hundred and fifty miles from the point of our
|
||
departure."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Then the mighty waves of the Atlantic are rolling over our heads?"
|
||
"Certainly."
|
||
"And at this very moment it is possible that fierce tempests are
|
||
raging above, and that men and ships are battling against the angry
|
||
blasts just over our heads?"
|
||
"It is quite within the range of possibility," rejoined my uncle,
|
||
smiling.
|
||
"And that whales are playing in shoals, thrashing the bottom of
|
||
the sea, the roof of our adamantine prison?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"Be quite at rest on that point; there is no danger of their
|
||
breaking through. But to return to our calculations. We are to the
|
||
southeast, two hundred and fifty miles from the base of Sneffels, and,
|
||
according to my preceding notes, I think we have gone sixteen
|
||
leagues in a downward direction."
|
||
"Sixteen leagues- fifty miles!" I cried.
|
||
"I am sure of it."
|
||
"But that is the extreme limit allowed by science for the
|
||
thickness of the earth's crust," I replied, referring to my geological
|
||
studies.
|
||
"I do not contravene that assertion," was his quiet answer.
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"And at this stage of our journey, according to all known laws on
|
||
the increase of heat, there should be here a temperature of fifteen
|
||
hundred degrees of Reaumur."
|
||
"There should be- you say, my boy."
|
||
"In which case this granite would not exist, but be in a state of
|
||
fusion."
|
||
"But you perceive, my boy, that it is not so, and that facts, as
|
||
usual, are very stubborn things, overruling all theories."
|
||
"I am forced to yield to the evidence of my senses, but I am
|
||
nevertheless very much surprised."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"What heat does the thermometer really indicate?" continued the
|
||
philosopher.
|
||
"Twenty-seven six-tenths."
|
||
"So that science is wrong by fourteen hundred and seventy-four
|
||
degrees and four-tenths. According to which, it is demonstrated that
|
||
the proportional increase in temperature is an exploded error. Humphry
|
||
Davy here shines forth in all his glory. He is right, and I have acted
|
||
wisely to believe him. Have you any answer to make to this statement?"
|
||
Had I chosen to have spoken, I might have said a great deal. I in no
|
||
way admitted the theory of Humphry Davy- I still held out for the
|
||
theory of proportional increase of heat, though I did not feel it.
|
||
I was far more willing to allow that this chimney of an extinct
|
||
volcano was covered by lava of a kind refractory to heat- in fact a
|
||
bad conductor- which did not allow the great increase of temperature
|
||
to percolate through its sides. The hot water jet supported my view of
|
||
the matter.
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
But without entering on a long and useless discussion, or seeking
|
||
for new arguments to controvert my uncle, I contented myself with
|
||
taking up facts as they were.
|
||
"Well, sir, I take for granted that all your calculations are
|
||
correct, but allow me to draw from them a rigorous and definite
|
||
conclusion."
|
||
"Go on, my boy- have your say," cried my uncle goodhumoredly.
|
||
"At the place where we now are, under the latitude of Iceland, the
|
||
terrestrial depth is about fifteen hundred and eighty-three leagues."
|
||
"Fifteen hundred eighty-three and a quarter."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Well, suppose we say sixteen hundred in round numbers. Now, out
|
||
of a voyage of sixteen hundred leagues we have completed sixteen."
|
||
"As you say, what then?"
|
||
"At the expense of a diagonal journey of no less than eighty-five
|
||
leagues."
|
||
"Exactly."
|
||
"We have been twenty days about it."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Exactly twenty days."
|
||
"Now sixteen is the hundredth part of our contemplated expedition.
|
||
If we go on in this way we shall be two thousand days, that is about
|
||
five years and a half, going down."
|
||
The Professor folded his arms, listened, but did not speak.
|
||
"Without counting that if a vertical descent of sixteen leagues
|
||
costs us a horizontal of eighty-five, we shall have to go about
|
||
eight thousand leagues to the southeast, and we must therefore come
|
||
out somewhere in the circumference long before we can hope to reach
|
||
the center."
|
||
"Bother your calculations," cried my uncle in one of his old
|
||
rages. "On what basis do they rest? How do you know that this
|
||
passage does not take us direct to the end we require? Moreover, I
|
||
have in my favor, fortunately, a precedent. What I have undertaken
|
||
to do, another has done, and he having succeeded, why should I not
|
||
be equally successful?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"I hope, indeed, you will, but still, I suppose I may be allowed
|
||
to-"
|
||
"You are allowed to hold your tongue," cried Professor Hardwigg,
|
||
"when you talk so unreasonably as this."
|
||
I saw at once that the old doctorial Professor was still alive in my
|
||
uncle- and fearful to rouse his angry passions, I dropped the
|
||
unpleasant subject.
|
||
"Now, then," he explained, "consult the manometer. What does that
|
||
indicate?"
|
||
"A considerable amount of pressure."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Very good. You see, then, that by descending slowly, and by
|
||
gradually accustoming ourselves to the density of this lower
|
||
atmosphere, we shall not suffer."
|
||
"Well, I suppose not, except it may be a certain amount of pain in
|
||
the ears," was my rather grim reply.
|
||
"That, my dear boy, is nothing, and you will easily get rid of
|
||
that source of discomfort by bringing the exterior air in
|
||
communication with the air contained in your lungs."
|
||
"Perfectly," said I, for I had quite made up my mind in no wise to
|
||
contradict my uncle. "I should fancy almost that I should experience a
|
||
certain amount of satisfaction in making a plunge into this dense
|
||
atmosphere. Have you taken note of how wonderfully sound is
|
||
propagated?"
|
||
"Of course I have. There can be no doubt that a journey into the
|
||
interior of the earth would be an excellent cure for deafness."
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"But then, Uncle," I ventured mildly to observe, "this density
|
||
will continue to increase."
|
||
"Yes- according to a law which, however, is scarcely defined. It
|
||
is true that the intensity of weight will diminish just in
|
||
proportion to the depth to which we go. You know very well that it
|
||
is on the surface of the earth that its action is most powerfully
|
||
felt, while on the contrary, in the very center of the earth bodies
|
||
cease to have any weight at all."
|
||
"I know that is the case, but as we progress will not the atmosphere
|
||
finally assume the density of water?"
|
||
"I know it; when placed under the pressure of seven hundred and
|
||
ten atmospheres," cried my uncle with imperturbable gravity.
|
||
"And when we are still lower down?" I asked with natural anxiety.
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
"Well, lower down, the density will become even greater."
|
||
"Then how shall we be able to make our way through this
|
||
atmospheric fog?"
|
||
"Well, my worthy nephew, we must ballast ourselves by filling our
|
||
pockets with stones," said Professor Hardwigg.
|
||
"Faith, Uncle, you have an answer for everything," was my only
|
||
reply.
|
||
I began to feel that it was unwise of me to go any farther into
|
||
the wide field of hypotheses for I should certainly have revived
|
||
some difficulty, or rather impossibility, that would have enraged
|
||
the Professor.
|
||
{CHAPTER_22 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
It was evident, nevertheless, that the air under a pressure which
|
||
might be multiplied by thousands of atmospheres, would end by becoming
|
||
perfectly solid, and that then admitting our bodies resisted the
|
||
pressure, we should have to stop, in spite of all the reasonings in
|
||
the world. Facts overcome all arguments.
|
||
But I thought it best not to urge this argument. My uncle would
|
||
simply have quoted the example of Saknussemm. Supposing the learned
|
||
Icelander's journey ever really to have taken place- there was one
|
||
simple answer to be made:
|
||
In the sixteenth century neither the barometer nor the manometer had
|
||
been invented- how, then, could Saknussemm have been able to
|
||
discover when he did reach the center of the earth?
|
||
This unanswerable and learned objection I, however, kept to myself
|
||
and, bracing up my courage, awaited the course of events-little
|
||
aware of how adventurous yet were to be the incidents of our
|
||
remarkable journey.
|
||
The rest of this day of leisure and repose was spent in
|
||
calculation and conversation. I made it a point to agree with the
|
||
Professor in everything; but I envied the perfect indifference of
|
||
Hans, who, without taking any such trouble about the cause and effect,
|
||
went blindly onwards wherever destiny chose to lead him.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_23
|
||
CHAPTER 23
|
||
Alone
|
||
-
|
||
IT must in all truth be confessed, things as yet had gone on well,
|
||
and I should have acted in bad taste to have complained. If the true
|
||
medium of our difficulties did not increase, it was within the range
|
||
of possibility that we might ultimately reach the end of our
|
||
journey. Then what glory would be ours! I began in the newly aroused
|
||
ardor of my soul to speak enthusiastically to the Professor. Well, was
|
||
I serious? The whole state in which we existed was a mystery- and it
|
||
was impossible to know whether or not I was in earnest.
|
||
For several days after our memorable halt, the slopes became more
|
||
rapid- some were even of a most frightful character- almost
|
||
vertical, so that we were forever going down into the solid interior
|
||
mass. During some days, we actually descended a league and a half,
|
||
even two leagues towards the center of the earth. The descents were
|
||
sufficiently perilous, and while we were engaged in them we learned
|
||
fully to appreciate the marvelous coolness of our guide, Hans. Without
|
||
him we should have been wholly lost. The grave and impassible
|
||
Icelander devoted himself to us with the most incomprehensible
|
||
sang-froid and ease; and, thanks to him, many a dangerous pass was got
|
||
over, where, but for him, we should inevitably have stuck fast.
|
||
His silence increased every day. I think that we began to be
|
||
influenced by this peculiar trait in his character. It is certain that
|
||
the inanimate objects by which you are surrounded have a direct action
|
||
on the brain. It must be that a man who shuts himself up between
|
||
four walls must lose the faculty of associating ideas and words. How
|
||
many persons condemned to the horrors of solitary confinement have
|
||
gone mad- simply because the thinking faculties have lain dormant!
|
||
During the two weeks that followed our last interesting
|
||
conversation, there occurred nothing worthy of being especially
|
||
recorded.
|
||
{CHAPTER_23 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
I have, while writing these memoirs, taxed my memory in vain for one
|
||
incident of travel during this particular period.
|
||
But the next event to be related is terrible indeed. Its very
|
||
memory, even now, makes my soul shudder, and my blood run cold.
|
||
It was on the seventh of August. Our constant and successive
|
||
descents had taken us quite thirty leagues into the interior of the
|
||
earth, that is to say that there were above us thirty leagues,
|
||
nearly a hundred miles, of rocks, and oceans, and continents, and
|
||
towns, to say nothing of living inhabitants. We were in a
|
||
southeasterly direction, about two hundred leagues from Iceland.
|
||
On that memorable day the tunnel had begun to assume an almost
|
||
horizontal course.
|
||
I was on this occasion walking on in front. My uncle had charge of
|
||
one of the Ruhmkorff coils, I had possession of the other. By means of
|
||
its light I was busy examining the different layers of granite. I
|
||
was completely absorbed in my work.
|
||
{CHAPTER_23 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
Suddenly halting and turning round, I found that I was alone!
|
||
"Well," thought I to myself, "I have certainly been walking too
|
||
fast- or else Hans and my uncle have stopped to rest. The best thing I
|
||
can do is to go back and find them. Luckily, there is very little
|
||
ascent to tire me."
|
||
I accordingly retraced my steps and, while doing so, walked for at
|
||
least a quarter of an hour. Rather uneasy, I paused and looked eagerly
|
||
around. Not a living soul. I called aloud. No reply. My voice was lost
|
||
amid the myriad cavernous echoes it aroused!
|
||
I began for the first time to feel seriously uneasy. A cold shiver
|
||
shook my whole body, and perspiration, chill and terrible, burst
|
||
upon my skin.
|
||
"I must be calm," I said, speaking aloud, as boys whistle to drive
|
||
away fear. "There can be no doubt that I shall find my companions.
|
||
There cannot be two roads. It is certain that I was considerably
|
||
ahead; all I have to do is to go back."
|
||
{CHAPTER_23 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
Having come to this determination I ascended the tunnel for at least
|
||
half an hour, unable to decide if I had ever seen certain landmarks
|
||
before. Every now and then I paused to discover if any loud appeal was
|
||
made to me, well knowing that in that dense and intensified atmosphere
|
||
I should hear it a long way off. But no. The most extraordinary
|
||
silence reigned in this immense gallery. Only the echoes of my own
|
||
footsteps could be heard.
|
||
At last I stopped. I could scarcely realize the fact of my
|
||
isolation. I was quite willing to think that I had made a mistake, but
|
||
not that I was lost. If I had made a mistake, I might find my way;
|
||
if lost- I shuddered to think of it.
|
||
"Come, come," said I to myself, "since there is only one road, and
|
||
they must come by it, we shall at last meet. All I have to do is still
|
||
to go upwards. Perhaps, however, not seeing me, and forgetting I was
|
||
ahead, they may have gone back in search of me. Still, even in this
|
||
case, if I make haste, I shall get up to them. There can be no doubt
|
||
about the matter."
|
||
But as I spoke these last words aloud, it would have been quite
|
||
clear to any listener- had there been one- that I was by no means
|
||
convinced of the fact. Moreover in order to associate together these
|
||
simple ideas and to reunite them under the form of reasoning, required
|
||
some time. I could not all at once bring my brain to think.
|
||
Then another dread doubt fell upon my soul. After all, was I
|
||
ahead? Of course I was. Hans was no doubt following behind preceded by
|
||
my uncle. I perfectly recollected his having stopped for a moment to
|
||
strap his baggage on his shoulder. I now remembered this trifling
|
||
detail. It was, I believe, just at that very moment that I had
|
||
determined to continue My route.
|
||
{CHAPTER_23 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Again," thought I, reasoning as calmly as was possible, "there is
|
||
another sure means of not losing my way, a thread to guide me
|
||
through the labyrinthine subterraneous retreat- one which I had
|
||
forgotten- my faithful river."
|
||
This course of reasoning roused my drooping spirits, and I
|
||
resolved to resume my journey without further delay. No time was to be
|
||
lost.
|
||
It was at this moment that I had reason to bless the
|
||
thoughtfulness of my uncle, when he refused to allow the eider
|
||
hunter to close the orifices of the hot spring- that small fissure
|
||
in the great mass of granite. This beneficent spring after having
|
||
saved us from thirst during so many days would now enable me to regain
|
||
the right road.
|
||
Having come to this mental decision, I made up my mind, before I
|
||
started upwards, that ablution would certainly do me a great deal of
|
||
good.
|
||
I stopped to plunge my hands and forehead in the pleasant water of
|
||
the Hansbach stream, blessing its presence as a certain consolation.
|
||
{CHAPTER_23 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Conceive my horror and stupefaction!- I was treading a hard,
|
||
dusty, shingly road of granite. The stream on which I reckoned had
|
||
wholly disappeared!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_24
|
||
CHAPTER 24
|
||
Lost!
|
||
-
|
||
NO words in any human language can depict my utter despair. I was
|
||
literally buried alive; with no other expectation before me but to die
|
||
in all the slow horrible torture of hunger and thirst.
|
||
Mechanically I crawled about, feeling the dry and arid rock. Never
|
||
to my fancy had I ever felt anything so dry.
|
||
But, I frantically asked myself, how had I lost the course of the
|
||
flowing stream? There could be no doubt it had ceased to flow in the
|
||
gallery in which I now was. Now I began to understand the cause of the
|
||
strange silence which prevailed when last I tried if any appeal from
|
||
my companions might perchance reach my ear.
|
||
It so happened that when I first took an imprudent step in the wrong
|
||
direction, I did not perceive the absence of the all-important stream.
|
||
{CHAPTER_24 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
It was now quite evident that when we halted, another tunnel must
|
||
have received the waters of the little torrent, and that I had
|
||
unconsciously entered a different gallery. To what unknown depths
|
||
had my companions gone? Where was I?
|
||
How to get back! Clue or landmark there was absolutely none! My feet
|
||
left no signs on the granite and shingle. My brain throbbed with agony
|
||
as I tried to discover the solution of this terrible problem. My
|
||
situation, after all sophistry and reflection, had finally to be
|
||
summed up in three awful words-
|
||
Lost! Lost!! LOST!!!
|
||
Lost at a depth which, to my finite understanding, appeared to be
|
||
immeasurable.
|
||
These thirty leagues of the crust of the earth weighed upon my
|
||
shoulders like the globe on the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself
|
||
crushed by the awful weight. It was indeed a position to drive the
|
||
sanest man to madness!
|
||
{CHAPTER_24 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
I tried to bring my thoughts back to the things of the world so long
|
||
forgotten. It was with the greatest difficulty that I succeeded in
|
||
doing so. Hamburg, the house on the Konigstrasse, my dear cousin
|
||
Gretchen- all that world which had before vanished like a shadow
|
||
floated before my now vivid imagination.
|
||
There they were before me, but how unreal. Under the influence of
|
||
a terrible hallucination I saw all the incidents of our journey pass
|
||
before me like the scenes of a panorama. The ship and its inmates,
|
||
Iceland, M. Fridriksson, and the great summit of Mount Sneffels! I
|
||
said to myself that, if in my position I retained the most faint and
|
||
shadowy outline of a hope, it would be a sure sign of approaching
|
||
delirium. It were better to give way wholly to despair!
|
||
In fact, did I but reason with calmness and philosophy, what human
|
||
power was there in existence able to take me back to the surface of
|
||
the earth, and ready, too, to split asunder, to rend in twain those
|
||
huge and mighty vaults which stand above my head? Who could enable
|
||
me to find my road- and regain my companions?
|
||
Insensate folly and madness to entertain even a shadow of hope!
|
||
"Oh, Uncle!" was my despairing cry.
|
||
{CHAPTER_24 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
This was the only word of reproach which came to my lips; for I
|
||
thoroughly understood how deeply and sorrowfully the worthy
|
||
Professor would regret my loss, and how in his turn he would patiently
|
||
seek for me.
|
||
When I at last began to resign myself to the fact that no further
|
||
aid was to be expected from man, and knowing that I was utterly
|
||
powerless to do anything for my own salvation, I kneeled with
|
||
earnest fervor and asked assistance from Heaven. The remembrance of my
|
||
innocent childhood, the memory of my mother, known only in my infancy,
|
||
came welling forth from my heart. I had recourse to prayer. And little
|
||
as I had a right to be remembered by Him whom I had forgotten in the
|
||
hour of prosperity, and whom I so tardily invoked, I prayed
|
||
earnestly and sincerely.
|
||
This renewal of my youthful faith brought about a much greater
|
||
amount of calm, and I was enabled to concentrate all my strength and
|
||
intelligence on the terrible realities of my unprecedented situation.
|
||
I had about me that which I had at first wholly forgotten- three
|
||
days' provisions. Moreover, my water bottle was quite full.
|
||
Nevertheless, the one thing which it was impossible to do was to
|
||
remain alone. Try to find my companions I must, at any price. But
|
||
which course should I take? Should I go upwards, or again descend?
|
||
Doubtless it was right to retrace my steps in an upward direction.
|
||
By doing this with care and coolness, I must reach the point where I
|
||
had turned away from the rippling stream. I must find the fatal
|
||
bifurcation or fork. Once at this spot, once the river at my feet, I
|
||
could, at all events, regain the awful crater of Mount Sneffels. Why
|
||
had I not thought of this before? This, at last, was a reasonable hope
|
||
of safety. The most important thing, then, to be done was to
|
||
discover the bed of the Hansbach.
|
||
{CHAPTER_24 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
After a slight meal and a draught of water, I rose like a giant
|
||
refreshed. Leaning heavily on my pole, I began the ascent of the
|
||
gallery. The slope was very rapid and rather difficult. But I advanced
|
||
hopefully and carefully, like a man who at last is making his way
|
||
out of a forest, and knows there is only one road to follow.
|
||
During one whole hour nothing happened to check my progress. As I
|
||
advanced, I tried to recollect the shape of the tunnel- to recall to
|
||
my memory certain projections of rocks- to persuade myself that I
|
||
had followed certain winding routes before. But no one particular sign
|
||
could I bring to mind, and I was soon forced to allow that this
|
||
gallery would never take me back to the point at which I had separated
|
||
myself from my companions. It was absolutely without issue- a mere
|
||
blind alley in the earth.
|
||
The moment at length came when, facing the solid rock, I knew my
|
||
fate, and fell inanimate on the arid floor!
|
||
To describe the horrible state of despair and fear into which I then
|
||
fell would now be vain and impossible. My last hope, the courage which
|
||
had sustained me, drooped before the sight of this pitiless granite
|
||
rock!
|
||
Lost in a vast labyrinth, the sinuosities of which spread in every
|
||
direction, without guide, clue or compass, I knew it was a vain and
|
||
useless task to attempt flight. All that remained to me was to lie
|
||
down and die. To lie down and die the most cruel and horrible of
|
||
deaths!
|
||
{CHAPTER_24 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
In my state of mind, the idea came into my head that one day
|
||
perhaps, when my fossil bones were found, their discovery so far below
|
||
the level of the earth might give rise to solemn and interesting
|
||
scientific discussions.
|
||
I tried to cry aloud, but hoarse, hollow, and inarticulate sounds
|
||
alone could make themselves heard through my parched lips. I literally
|
||
panted for breath.
|
||
In the midst of all these horrible sources of anguish and despair, a
|
||
new horror took possession of my soul. My lamp, by falling down, had
|
||
got out of order. I had no means of repairing it. Its light was
|
||
already becoming paler and paler, and soon would expire.
|
||
With a strange sense of resignation and despair, I watched the
|
||
luminous current in the coil getting less and less. A procession of
|
||
shadows moved flashing along the granite wall. I scarcely dared to
|
||
lower my eyelids, fearing to lose the last spark of this fugitive
|
||
light. Every instant it seemed to me that it was about to vanish and
|
||
to leave me forever- in utter darkness!
|
||
At last, one final trembling flame remained in the lamp; I
|
||
followed it with all my power of vision; I gasped for breath; I
|
||
concentrated upon it all the power of my soul, as upon the last
|
||
scintillation of light I was ever destined to see: and then I was to
|
||
be lost forever in Cimmerian and tenebrous shades.
|
||
{CHAPTER_24 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
A wild and plaintive cry escaped my lips. On earth during the most
|
||
profound and comparatively complete darkness, light never allows a
|
||
complete destruction and extinction of its power. Light is so diffuse,
|
||
so subtle, that it permeates everywhere, and whatever little may
|
||
remain, the retina of the eye will succeed in finding it. In this
|
||
place nothing- the absolute obscurity made me blind in every sense.
|
||
My head was now wholly lost. I raised my arms, trying the effects of
|
||
the feeling in getting against the cold stone wall. It was painful
|
||
in the extreme. Madness must have taken possession of me. I knew not
|
||
what I did. I began to run, to fly, rushing at haphazard in this
|
||
inextricable labyrinth, always going downwards, running wildly
|
||
underneath the terrestrial crust, like an inhabitant of the
|
||
subterranean furnaces, screaming, roaring, howling, until bruised by
|
||
the pointed rocks, falling and picking myself up all covered with
|
||
blood, seeking madly to drink the blood which dripped from my torn
|
||
features, mad because this blood only trickled over my face, and
|
||
watching always for this horrid wall which ever presented to me the
|
||
fearful obstacle against which I could not dash my head.
|
||
Where was I going? It was impossible to say. I was perfectly
|
||
ignorant of the matter.
|
||
Several hours passed in this way. After a long time, having
|
||
utterly exhausted my strength, I fell a heavy inert mass along the
|
||
side of the tunnel, and lost consciousness.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_25
|
||
CHAPTER 25
|
||
The Whispering Gallery
|
||
-
|
||
WHEN at last I came back to a sense of life and being, my face was
|
||
wet, but wet, as I soon knew, with tears. How long this state of
|
||
insensibility lasted, it is quite impossible for me now to say. I
|
||
had no means left to me of taking any account of time. Never since the
|
||
creation of the world had such a solitude as mine existed. I was
|
||
completely abandoned.
|
||
After my fall I lost much blood. I felt myself flooded with the
|
||
life-giving liquid. My first sensation was perhaps a natural one.
|
||
Why was I not dead? Because I was alive, there was something left to
|
||
do. I tried to make up my mind to think no longer. As far as I was
|
||
able, I drove away all ideas, and utterly overcome by pain and
|
||
grief, I crouched against the granite wall.
|
||
I just commenced to feel the fainting coming on again, and the
|
||
sensation that this was the last struggle before complete
|
||
annihilation- when, on a sudden, a violent uproar reached my ears.
|
||
It had some resemblance to the prolonged rumbling voice of thunder,
|
||
and I clearly distinguished sonorous voices, lost one after the other,
|
||
in the distant depths of the gulf.
|
||
Whence came this noise? Naturally, it was to be supposed from new
|
||
phenomena which were taking place in the bosom of the solid mass of
|
||
Mother Earth! The explosion of some gaseous vapors, or the fall of
|
||
some solid, of the granitic or other rock.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
Again I listened with deep attention. I was extremely anxious to
|
||
hear if this strange and inexplicable sound was likely to be
|
||
renewed! A whole quarter of an hour elapsed in painful expectation.
|
||
Deep and solemn silence reigned in the tunnel. So still that I could
|
||
hear the beatings of my own heart! I waited, waited with a strange
|
||
kind of hopefulness.
|
||
Suddenly my ear, which leaned accidentally against the wall,
|
||
appeared to catch, as it were, the faintest echo of a sound. I thought
|
||
that I heard vague, incoherent and distant voices. I quivered all over
|
||
with excitement and hope!
|
||
"It must be hallucination," I cried. "It cannot be! it is not true!"
|
||
But no! By listening more attentively, I really did convince
|
||
myself that what I heard was truly the sound of human voices. To
|
||
make any meaning out of the sound, however, was beyond my power. I was
|
||
too weak even to hear distinctly. Still it was a positive fact that
|
||
someone was speaking. Of that I was quite certain.
|
||
There was a moment of fear. A dread fell upon my soul that it
|
||
might be my own words brought back to me by a distant echo. Perhaps
|
||
without knowing it, I might have been crying aloud. I resolutely
|
||
closed my lips, and once more placed my ear to the huge granite wall.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
Yes, for certain. It was in truth the sound of human voices.
|
||
I now by the exercise of great determination dragged myself along
|
||
the sides of the cavern, until I reached a point where I could hear
|
||
more distinctly. But though I could detect the sound, I could only
|
||
make out uncertain, strange, and incomprehensible words. They
|
||
reached my ear as if they had been spoken in a low tone- murmured,
|
||
as it were, afar off.
|
||
At last, I made out the word forlorad repeated several times in a
|
||
tone betokening great mental anguish and sorrow.
|
||
What could this word mean, and who was speaking it? It must be
|
||
either my uncle or the guide Hans! If, therefore, I could hear them,
|
||
they must surely be able to hear me.
|
||
"Help," I cried at the top of my voice; "help, I am dying!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
I then listened with scarcely a breath; I panted for the slightest
|
||
sound in the darkness- a cry, a sigh, a question! But silence
|
||
reigned supreme. No answer came! In this way some minutes passed. A
|
||
whole flood of ideas flashed through my mind. I began to fear that
|
||
my voice, weakened by sickness and suffering, could not reach my
|
||
companions who were in search of me.
|
||
"It must be they," I cried; "who else could by any possibility be
|
||
buried a hundred miles below the level of the earth?" The mere
|
||
supposition was preposterous.
|
||
I began, therefore, to listen again with the most breathless
|
||
attention. As I moved my ears along the side of the place I was in,
|
||
I found a mathematical point as it were, where the voices appeared
|
||
to attain their maximum of intensity. The word forlorad again
|
||
distinctly reached my ear. Then came again that rolling noise like
|
||
thunder which had awakened me out of torpor.
|
||
"I begin to understand," I said to myself after some little time
|
||
devoted to reflection; "it is not through the solid mass that the
|
||
sound reaches my ears. The walls of my cavernous retreat are of
|
||
solid granite, and the most fearful explosion would not make uproar
|
||
enough to penetrate them. The sound must come along the gallery
|
||
itself. The place I was in must possess some peculiar acoustic
|
||
properties of its own."
|
||
Again I listened; and this time- yes, this time- I heard my name
|
||
distinctly pronounced: cast as it were into space.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
It was my uncle, the Professor, who was speaking. He was in
|
||
conversation with the guide, and the word which had so often reached
|
||
my ears, forlorad, was a Danish expression.
|
||
Then I understood it all. In order to make myself heard, I too
|
||
must speak as it were along the side of the gallery, which would carry
|
||
the sound of my voice just as the wire carries the electric fluid from
|
||
point to point.
|
||
But there was no time to lose. If my companions were only to
|
||
remove a few feet from where they stood, the acoustic effect would
|
||
be over, my Whispering Gallery would be destroyed. I again therefore
|
||
crawled towards the wall, and said as clearly and distinctly as I
|
||
could:
|
||
"Uncle Hardwigg."
|
||
I then awaited a reply.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Sound does not possess the property of traveling with such extreme
|
||
rapidity. Besides the density of the air at that depth from light
|
||
and motion was very far from adding to the rapidity of circulation.
|
||
Several seconds elapsed, which to my excited imagination, appeared
|
||
ages; and these words reached my eager ears, and moved my wildly
|
||
beating heart:
|
||
"Harry, my boy, is that you?"
|
||
A short delay between question and answer.
|
||
"Yes- yes."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"Where are you?"
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Lost!"
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"And your lamp?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Out."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"But the guiding stream?"
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Is lost!"
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Keep your courage, Harry. We will do our best."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"One moment, my uncle," I cried; "I have no longer strength to
|
||
answer your questions. But- for heaven's sake- do you- continue- to
|
||
speak- to me!" Absolute silence, I felt, would be annihilation.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Keep up your courage," said my uncle. "As you are so weak, do not
|
||
speak. We have been searching for you in all directions, both by going
|
||
upwards and downwards in the gallery. My dear boy, I had begun to give
|
||
over all hope- and you can never know what bitter tears of sorrow
|
||
and regret I have shed. At last, supposing you to be still on the road
|
||
beside the Hansbach, we again descended, firing off guns as signals.
|
||
Now, however, that we have found you, and that our voices reach each
|
||
other, it may be a long time before we actually meet. We are
|
||
conversing by means of some extraordinary acoustic arrangement of
|
||
the labyrinth. But do not despair, my dear boy. It is something gained
|
||
even to hear each other."
|
||
While he was speaking, my brain was at work reflecting. A certain
|
||
undefined hope, vague and shapeless as yet, made my heart beat wildly.
|
||
In the first place, it was absolutely necessary for me to know one
|
||
thing. I once more, therefore, leaned my head against the wall,
|
||
which I almost touched with my lips, and again spoke.
|
||
"Uncle."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"My boy?" was his answer after a few moments.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"It is of the utmost consequence that we should know how far we
|
||
are asunder."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"That is not difficult."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"You have your chronometer at hand?" I asked.
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Certainly."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Well, take it into your hand. Pronounce my name, noting exactly the
|
||
second at which you speak. I will reply as soon as I hear your
|
||
words-and you will then note exactly the moment at which my reply
|
||
reaches you."
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Very good; and the mean time between my question and your answer
|
||
will be the time occupied by my voice in reaching you."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"That is exactly what I mean, Uncle," was my eager reply.
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
"Are you ready?"
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Yes."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Well, make ready, I am about to pronounce your name," said the
|
||
Professor.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
I applied my ear close to the sides of the cavernous gallery, and as
|
||
soon as the word "Harry" reached my ear, I turned round and, placing
|
||
my lips to the wall, repeated the sound.
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Forty seconds," said my uncle. "There has elapsed forty seconds
|
||
between the two words. The sound, therefore, takes twenty seconds to
|
||
ascend. Now, allowing a thousand and twenty feet for every second-
|
||
we have twenty thousand four hundred feet- a league and a half and
|
||
one-eighth."
|
||
These words fell on my soul like a kind of death knell.
|
||
"A league and a half," I muttered in a low and despairing voice.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"It shall be got over, my boy," cried my uncle in a cheery tone;
|
||
"depend on us."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"But do you know whether to ascend or descend?" I asked faintly
|
||
enough.
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 80}
|
||
"We have to descend, and I will tell you why. You have reached a
|
||
vast open space, a kind of bare crossroad, from which galleries
|
||
diverge in every direction. That in which you are now lying must
|
||
necessarily bring you to this point, for it appears that all these
|
||
mighty fissures, these fractures of the globe's interior, radiate from
|
||
the vast cavern which we at this moment occupy. Rouse yourself,
|
||
then, have courage and continue your route. Walk if you can, if not
|
||
drag yourself along- slide, if nothing else is possible. The slope
|
||
must be rather rapid- and you will find strong arms to receive you
|
||
at the end of your journey. Make a start, like a good fellow."
|
||
These words served to rouse some kind of courage in my sinking
|
||
frame.
|
||
"Farewell for the present, good uncle, I am about to take my
|
||
departure. As soon as I start, our voices will cease to commingle.
|
||
Farewell, then, until we meet again."
|
||
. . . . . . . . . .
|
||
"Adieu, Harry- until we say Welcome." Such were the last words which
|
||
reached my anxious ears before I commenced my weary and almost
|
||
hopeless journey.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 85}
|
||
This wonderful and surprising conversation which took place
|
||
through the vast mass of the earth's labyrinth, these words exchanged,
|
||
the speakers being about five miles apart- ended with hopeful and
|
||
pleasant expressions. I breathed one more prayer to Heaven, I sent
|
||
up words of thanksgiving- believing in my inmost heart that He had led
|
||
me to the only place where the voices of my friends could reach my
|
||
ears.
|
||
This apparently astounding acoustic mystery is easily explainable by
|
||
simple natural laws; it arose from the conductibility of the rock.
|
||
There are many instances of this singular propagation of sound which
|
||
are not perceptible in its less mediate positions. In the interior
|
||
gallery of St. Paul's, and amid the curious caverns in Sicily, these
|
||
phenomena are observable. The most marvelous of them all is known as
|
||
the Ear of Dionysius.
|
||
These memories of the past, of my early reading and studies, came
|
||
fresh to my thoughts. Moreover, I began to reason that if my uncle and
|
||
I could communicate at so great a distance, no serious obstacle
|
||
could exist between us. All I had to do was to follow the direction
|
||
whence the sound had reached me; and logically putting it, I must
|
||
reach him if my strength did not fail.
|
||
I accordingly rose to my feet. I soon found, however, that I could
|
||
not walk; that I must drag myself along. The slope as I expected was
|
||
very rapid; but I allowed myself to slip down.
|
||
Soon the rapidity of the descent began to assume frightful
|
||
proportions; and menaced a fearful fall. I clutched at the sides; I
|
||
grasped at projections of rocks; I threw myself backwards. All in
|
||
vain. My weakness was so great I could do nothing to save myself.
|
||
{CHAPTER_25 ^paragraph 90}
|
||
Suddenly earth failed me.
|
||
I was first launched into a dark and gloomy void. I then struck
|
||
against the projecting asperities of a vertical gallery, a perfect
|
||
well. My head bounded against a pointed rock, and I lost all knowledge
|
||
of existence. As far as I was concerned, death had claimed me for
|
||
his own.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_26
|
||
CHAPTER 26
|
||
A Rapid Recovery
|
||
-
|
||
WHEN I returned to the consciousness of existence, I found myself
|
||
surrounded by a kind of semiobscurity, lying on some thick and soft
|
||
coverlets. My uncle was watching- his eyes fixed intently on my
|
||
countenance, a grave expression on his face, a tear in his eye. At the
|
||
first sigh which struggled from my bosom, he took hold of my hand.
|
||
When he saw my eyes open and fix themselves upon his, he uttered a
|
||
loud cry of loud cry of joy. "He lives! he lives!"
|
||
"Yes, my good uncle," I whispered.
|
||
"My dear boy," continued the grim Professor, clasping me to his
|
||
heart, "you are saved!"
|
||
I was deeply and unaffectedly touched by the tone in which these
|
||
words were uttered, and even more by the kindly care which accompanied
|
||
them. The Professor, however, was one of those men who must be
|
||
severely tried in order to induce any display of affection or gentle
|
||
emotion. At this moment our friend Hans, the guide, joined us. He
|
||
saw my hand in that of my uncle, and I venture to say that, taciturn
|
||
as he was, his eyes beamed with lively satisfaction.
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"God dag," he said.
|
||
"Good day, Hans, good day," I replied, in as hearty a tone as I
|
||
could assume, "and now, Uncle, that we are together, tell me where
|
||
we are. I have lost all idea of our position, as of everything else."
|
||
"Tomorrow, Harry, tomorrow," he replied. "Today you are far too
|
||
weak. Your head is surrounded with bandages and poultices that must
|
||
not be touched. Sleep, my boy, sleep, and tomorrow you will know all
|
||
that you require."
|
||
"But," I cried, let me know what o'clock it is- what day it is?"
|
||
"It is now eleven o'clock at night, and this is once more Sunday. It
|
||
is now the ninth of the month of August. And I distinctly prohibit you
|
||
from asking any more questions until the tenth of the same."
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
I was, if the truth were told, very weak indeed, and my eyes soon
|
||
closed involuntarily. I did require a good night's rest, and I went
|
||
off reflecting at the last moment that my perilous adventure in the
|
||
interior of the earth, in total darkness, had lasted four days!
|
||
On the morning of the next day, at my awakening, I began to look
|
||
around me. My sleeping place, made of all our traveling bedding, was
|
||
in a charming grotto, adorned with magnificent stalagmites, glittering
|
||
in all the colors of the rainbow, the floor of soft and silvery sand.
|
||
A dim obscurity prevailed. No torch, no lamp was lighted, and yet
|
||
certain unexplained beams of light penetrated from without, and made
|
||
their way through the opening of the beautiful grotto.
|
||
I, moreover, heard a vague and indefinite murmur, like the ebb and
|
||
flow of waves upon a strand, and sometimes I verily believed I could
|
||
hear the sighing of the wind.
|
||
I began to believe that, instead of being awake, I must be dreaming.
|
||
Surely my brain had not been affected by my fall, and all that
|
||
occurred during the last twenty-four hours was not the frenzied
|
||
visions of madness? And yet after some reflection, a trial of my
|
||
faculties, I came to the conclusion that I could not be mistaken. Eyes
|
||
and ears could not surely both deceive me.
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"It is a ray of the blessed daylight," I said to myself, "which
|
||
has penetrated through some mighty fissure in the rocks. But what is
|
||
the meaning of this murmur of waves, this unmistakable moaning of
|
||
the salt-sea billows? I can hear, too, plainly enough, the whistling
|
||
of the wind. But can I be altogether mistaken? If my uncle, during
|
||
my illness, has but carried me back to the surface of the earth! Has
|
||
he, on my account, given up his wondrous expedition, or in some
|
||
strange manner has it come to an end?"
|
||
I was puzzling my brain over these and other questions, when the
|
||
Professor joined me.
|
||
"Good day, Harry," he cried in a joyous tone. "I fancy you are quite
|
||
well."
|
||
"I am very much better," I replied, actually sitting up in my bed.
|
||
"I knew that would be the end of it, as you slept both soundly and
|
||
tranquilly. Hans and I have each taken turn to watch, and every hour
|
||
we have seen visible signs of amelioration."
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"You must be right, Uncle," was my reply, "for I feel as if I
|
||
could do justice to any meal you could put before me."
|
||
"You shall eat, my boy, you shall eat. The fever has left you. Our
|
||
excellent friend Hans has rubbed your wounds and bruises with I know
|
||
not what ointment, of which the Icelanders alone possess the secret.
|
||
And they have healed your bruises in the most marvelous manner. Ah,
|
||
he's a wise fellow is Master Hans."
|
||
While he was speaking, my uncle was placing before me several
|
||
articles of food, which, despite his earnest injunctions, I readily
|
||
devoured. As soon as the first rage of hunger was appeased, I
|
||
overwhelmed him with questions, to which he now no longer hesitated to
|
||
give answers.
|
||
I then learned, for the first time, that my providential fall had
|
||
brought me to the bottom of an almost perpendicular gallery. As I came
|
||
down, amidst a perfect shower of stones, the least of which falling on
|
||
me would have crushed me to death, they came to the conclusion that
|
||
I had carried with me an entire dislocated rock. Riding as it were
|
||
on this terrible chariot, I was cast headlong into my uncle's arms.
|
||
And into them I fell, insensible and covered with blood.
|
||
"It is indeed a miracle," was the Professor's final remark, "that
|
||
you were not killed a thousand times over. But let us take care
|
||
never to separate; for surely we should risk never meeting again."
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Let us take care never again to separate."
|
||
These words fell with a sort of chill upon my heart. The journey,
|
||
then, was not over. I looked at my uncle with surprise and
|
||
astonishment. My uncle, after an instant's examination of my
|
||
countenance, said: "What is the matter, Harry?"
|
||
"I want to ask you a very serious question. You say that I am all
|
||
right in health?"
|
||
"Certainly you are."
|
||
"And all my limbs are sound and capable of new exertion?" I asked.
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"Most undoubtedly."
|
||
"But what about my head?" was my next anxious question.
|
||
"Well, your head, except that you have one or two contusions, is
|
||
exactly where it ought to be- on your shoulders," said my uncle,
|
||
laughing.
|
||
"Well, my own opinion is that my head is not exactly right. In fact,
|
||
I believe myself slightly delirious."
|
||
"What makes you think so?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"I will explain why I fancy I have lost my senses," I cried. "Have
|
||
we not returned to the surface of Mother Earth?"
|
||
"Certainly not."
|
||
"Then truly I must be mad, for do I not see the light of day? do I
|
||
not hear the whistling of the wind? and can I not distinguish the wash
|
||
of a great sea?"
|
||
"And that is all that makes you uneasy?" said my uncle, with a
|
||
smile.
|
||
"Can you explain?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"I will not make any attempt to explain; for the whole matter is
|
||
utterly inexplicable. But you shall see and judge for yourself. You
|
||
will then find that geological science is as yet in its infancy- and
|
||
that we are doomed to enlighten the world."
|
||
"Let us advance, then," I cried eagerly, no longer able to
|
||
restrain my curiosity.
|
||
"Wait a moment, my dear Harry," he responded; "you must take
|
||
precautions after your illness before going into the open air."
|
||
"The open air?"
|
||
"Yes, my boy. I have to warn you that the wind is rather violent-
|
||
and I have no wish for you to expose yourself without necessary
|
||
precautions."
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"But I beg to assure you that I am perfectly recovered from my
|
||
illness."
|
||
"Have just a little patience, my boy. A relapse would be
|
||
inconvenient to all parties. We have no time to lose- as our
|
||
approaching sea voyage may be of long duration."
|
||
"Sea voyage?" I cried, more bewildered than ever.
|
||
"Yes. You must take another day's rest, and we shall be ready to
|
||
go on board by tomorrow," replied my uncle, with a peculiar smile.
|
||
"Go on board!" The words utterly astonished me.
|
||
{CHAPTER_26 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
Go on board- what and how? Had we come upon a river, a lake, had
|
||
we discovered some inland sea? Was a vessel lying at anchor in some
|
||
part of the interior of the earth?
|
||
My curiosity was worked up to the very highest pitch. My uncle
|
||
made vain attempts to restrain me. When at last, however, he
|
||
discovered that my feverish impatience would do more harm than good-
|
||
and that the satisfaction of my wishes could alone restore me to a
|
||
calm state of mind- he gave way.
|
||
I dressed myself rapidly- and then taking the precaution to please
|
||
my uncle, of wrapping myself in one of the coverlets, I rushed out
|
||
of the grotto.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_27
|
||
CHAPTER 27
|
||
The Central Sea
|
||
-
|
||
AT first I saw absolutely nothing. My eyes, wholly unused to the
|
||
effulgence of light, could not bear the sudden brightness; and I was
|
||
compelled to close them. When I was able to reopen them, I stood
|
||
still, far more stupefied than astonished. Not all the wildest effects
|
||
of imagination could have conjured up such a scene! "The sea- the
|
||
sea," I cried.
|
||
"Yes," replied my uncle, in a tone of pardonable pride; "the Central
|
||
Sea. No future navigator will deny the fact of my having discovered
|
||
it; and hence of acquiring a right of giving it a name."
|
||
It was quite true. A vast, limitless expanse of water, the end of
|
||
a lake if not of an ocean, spread before us, until it was lost in
|
||
the distance. The shore, which was very much indented, consisted of
|
||
a beautiful soft golden sand, mixed with small shells, the
|
||
long-deserted home of some of the creatures of a past age. The waves
|
||
broke incessantly- and with a peculiarly sonorous murmur, to be
|
||
found in underground localities. A slight frothy flake arose as the
|
||
wind blew along the pellucid waters; and many a dash of spray was
|
||
blown into my face. The mighty superstructure of rock which rose above
|
||
to an inconceivable height left only a narrow opening- but where we
|
||
stood, there was a large margin of strand. On all sides were capes and
|
||
promontories and enormous cliffs, partially worn by the eternal
|
||
breaking of the waves, through countless ages! And as I gazed from
|
||
side to side, the mighty rocks faded away like a fleecy film of cloud.
|
||
It was in reality an ocean, with an the usual characteristics of
|
||
an inland sea, only horribly wild- so rigid, cold and savage.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
One thing startled and puzzled me greatly. How was it that I was
|
||
able to look upon that vast sheet of water instead of being plunged in
|
||
utter darkness? The vast landscape before me was lit up like day.
|
||
But there was wanting the dazzling brilliancy, the splendid
|
||
irradiation of the sun; the pale cold illumination of the moon; the
|
||
brightness of the stars. The illuminating power in this subterranean
|
||
region, from its trembling and Rickering character, its clear dry
|
||
whiteness, the very slight elevation of its temperature, its great
|
||
superiority to that of the moon, was evidently electric; something
|
||
in the nature of the aurora borealis, only that its phenomena were
|
||
constant, and able to light up the whole of the ocean cavern.
|
||
The tremendous vault above our heads, the sky, so to speak, appeared
|
||
to be composed of a conglomeration of nebulous vapors, in constant
|
||
motion. I should originally have supposed that, under such an
|
||
atmospheric pressure as must exist in that place, the evaporation of
|
||
water could not really take place, and yet from the action of some
|
||
physical law, which escaped my memory, there were heavy and dense
|
||
clouds rolling along that mighty vault, partially concealing the roof.
|
||
Electric currents produced astonishing play of light and shade in
|
||
the distance, especially around the heavier clouds. Deep shadows
|
||
were cast beneath, and then suddenly, between two clouds, there
|
||
would come a ray of unusual beauty, and remarkable intensity. And
|
||
yet it was not like the sun, for it gave no heat.
|
||
The effect was sad and excruciatingly melancholy. Instead of a noble
|
||
firmament of blue, studded with stars, there was above me a heavy roof
|
||
of granite, which seemed to crush me.
|
||
Gazing around, I began to think of the theory of the English captain
|
||
who compared the earth to a vast hollow sphere in the interior of
|
||
which the air is retained in a luminous state by means of
|
||
atmospheric pressure, while two stars, Pluto and Proserpine, circled
|
||
there in their mysterious orbits. After all, suppose the old fellow
|
||
was right!
|
||
In truth, we were imprisoned- bound as it were, in a vast
|
||
excavation. Its width it was impossible to make out; the shore, on
|
||
either hand, widening rapidly until lost to sight; while its length
|
||
was equally uncertain. A haze on the distant horizon bounded our view.
|
||
As to its height, we could see that it must be many miles to the roof.
|
||
Looking upward, it was impossible to discover where the stupendous
|
||
roof began. The lowest of the clouds must have been floating at an
|
||
elevation of two thousand yards, a height greater than that of
|
||
terrestrial vapors, which circumstance was doubtless owing to the
|
||
extreme density of the air.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
I use the word "cavern" in order to give an idea of the place. I
|
||
cannot describe its awful grandeur; human language fails to convey
|
||
an idea of its savage sublimity. Whether this singular vacuum had or
|
||
had not been caused by the sudden cooling of the earth when in a state
|
||
of fusion, I could not say. I had read of most wonderful and
|
||
gigantic caverns- but, none in any way like this.
|
||
The great grotto of Guachara, in Colombia, visited by the learned
|
||
Humboldt; the vast and partially explored Mammoth Cave in Kentucky-
|
||
what were these holes in the earth to that in which I stood in
|
||
speechless admiration! with its vapory clouds, its electric light, and
|
||
the mighty ocean slumbering in its bosom! Imagination, not
|
||
description, can alone give an idea of the splendor and vastness of
|
||
the cave.
|
||
I gazed at these marvels in profound silence. Words were utterly
|
||
wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced. I
|
||
seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as if I were some
|
||
wandering inhabitant of a distant planet, present for the first time
|
||
at the spectacle of some terrestrial phenomena belonging to another
|
||
existence. To give body and existence to such new sensations would
|
||
have required the coinage of new words- and here my feeble brain found
|
||
itself wholly at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I
|
||
admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with
|
||
fear!
|
||
The unexpected spectacle restored some color to my pallid cheeks.
|
||
I seemed to be actually getting better under the influence of this
|
||
novelty. Moreover, the vivacity of the dense atmosphere reanimated
|
||
my body by inflating my lungs with unaccustomed oxygen.
|
||
It will be readily conceived that after an imprisonment of
|
||
forty-seven days, in a dark and miserable tunnel it was with
|
||
infinite delight that I breathed this saline air. It was like the
|
||
genial, reviving influence of the salt sea waves.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
My uncle had already got over the first surprise.
|
||
With the Latin poet Horace his idea was that-
|
||
-
|
||
Not to admire is all the art I know,
|
||
To make man happy and to keep him so.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
-
|
||
"Well," he said, after giving me time thoroughly to appreciate the
|
||
marvels of this underground sea, "do you feel strong enough to walk up
|
||
and down?"
|
||
"Certainly," was my ready answer, "nothing would give me greater
|
||
pleasure."
|
||
"Well then, my boy," he said, lean on my arm, and we will stroll
|
||
along the beach."
|
||
I accepted his offer eagerly, and we began to walk along the
|
||
shores of this extraordinary lake. To our left were abrupt rocks,
|
||
piled one upon the other- a stupendous titanic pile; down their
|
||
sides leaped innumerable cascades, which at last, becoming limpid
|
||
and murmuring streams, were lost in the waters of the lake. Light
|
||
vapors, which rose here and there, and floated in fleecy clouds from
|
||
rock to rock, indicated hot springs, which also poured their
|
||
superfluity into the vast reservoir at our feet.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Among them I recognized our old and faithful stream, the Hansbach,
|
||
which, lost in that wild basin, seemed as if it had been flowing since
|
||
the creation of the world.
|
||
"We shall miss our excellent friend I remarked, with a deep sigh.
|
||
"Bah!" said my uncle testily, "what matters it? That or another,
|
||
it is all the same."
|
||
I thought the remark ungrateful, and felt almost inclined to say so;
|
||
but I forbore.
|
||
At this moment my attention was attracted by an unexpected
|
||
spectacle. After we had gone about five hundred yards, we suddenly
|
||
turned a steep promontory, and found ourselves close to a lofty
|
||
forest! It consisted of straight trunks with tufted tops, in shape
|
||
like parasols. The air seemed to have no effect upon these trees-
|
||
which in spite of a tolerable breeze remained as still and
|
||
motionless as if they had been petrified.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
I hastened forward. I could find no name for these singular
|
||
formations. Did they not belong to the two thousand and more known
|
||
trees- or were we to make the discovery of a new growth? By no
|
||
means. When we at last reached the forest, and stood beneath the
|
||
trees, my surprise gave way to admiration.
|
||
In truth, I was simply in the presence of a very ordinary product of
|
||
the earth, of singular and gigantic proportions. My uncle
|
||
unhesitatingly called them by their real names.
|
||
"It is only," he said, in his coolest manner, "a forest of
|
||
mushrooms."
|
||
On close examination I found that he was not mistaken. Judge of
|
||
the development attained by this product of damp hot soils. I had
|
||
heard that the Lycoperdon giganteum reaches nine feet in
|
||
circumference, but here were white mushrooms, nearly forty feet
|
||
high, and with tops of equal dimensions. They grew in countless
|
||
thousands- the light could not make its way through their massive
|
||
substance, and beneath them reigned a gloomy and mystic darkness.
|
||
Still I wished to go forward. The cold in the shades of this
|
||
singular forest was intense. For nearly an hour we wandered about in
|
||
this visible darkness. At length I left the spot, and once more
|
||
returned to the shores of the lake, to light and comparative warmth.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
But the amazing vegetation of subterraneous land was not confined to
|
||
gigantic mushrooms. New wonders awaited us at every step. We had not
|
||
gone many hundred yards, when we came upon a mighty group of other
|
||
trees with discolored leaves- the common humble trees of Mother Earth,
|
||
of an exorbitant and phenomenal size: lycopods a hundred feet high;
|
||
flowering ferns as tall as pines; gigantic grasses!
|
||
"Astonishing, magnificent, splendid!" cried my uncle; "here we
|
||
have before us the whole flora of the second period of the world, that
|
||
of transition. Behold the humble plants of our gardens, which in the
|
||
first ages of the world were mighty trees. Look around you, my dear
|
||
Harry. No botanist ever before gazed on such a sight!"
|
||
My uncle's enthusiasm, always a little more than was required, was
|
||
now excusable.
|
||
"You are right, Uncle," I remarked. "Providence appears to have
|
||
designed the preservation in this vast and mysterious hothouse of
|
||
antediluvian plants, to prove the sagacity of learned men in
|
||
figuring them so marvelously on paper."
|
||
"Well said, my boy- very well said; it is indeed a mighty
|
||
hothouse. But you would also be within the bounds of reason and common
|
||
sense, if you added that it is also a vast menagerie."
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
I looked rather anxiously around. If the animals were as exaggerated
|
||
as the plants, the matter would certainly be serious.
|
||
"A menagerie?"
|
||
"Doubtless. Look at the dust we are treading under foot- behold
|
||
the bones with which the whole soil of the seashore is covered-"
|
||
"Bones," I replied, "yes, certainly, the bones of antediluvian
|
||
animals."
|
||
I stooped down as I spoke, and picked up one or two singular
|
||
remains, relics of a bygone age. It was easy to give a name to these
|
||
gigantic bones, in some instances as big as trunks of trees.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Here is, clearly, the lower jawbone of a mastodon," I cried, almost
|
||
as warmly and enthusiastically as my uncle; "here are the molars of
|
||
the Dinotherium; here is a leg bone which belonged to the Megatherium.
|
||
You are right, Uncle, it is indeed a menagerie; for the mighty animals
|
||
to which these bones once belonged, have lived and died on the
|
||
shores of this subterranean sea, under the shadow of these plants.
|
||
Look, yonder are whole skeletons- and yet-"
|
||
"And yet, nephew?" said my uncle, noticing that I suddenly came to a
|
||
full stop.
|
||
"I do not understand the presence of such beasts in granite caverns,
|
||
however vast and prodigious," was my reply.
|
||
"Why not?" said my uncle, with very much of his old professional
|
||
impatience.
|
||
"Because it is well known that animal life only existed on earth
|
||
during the secondary period, when the sedimentary soil was formed by
|
||
the alluviums, and thus replaced the hot and burning rocks of the
|
||
primitive age."
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"I have listened to you earnestly and with patience, Harry, and I
|
||
have a simple and clear answer to your objections: and that is, that
|
||
this itself is a sedimentary soil."
|
||
"How can that be at such enormous depth from the surface of the
|
||
earth?"
|
||
"The fact can be explained both simply and geologically. At a
|
||
certain period, the earth consisted only of an elastic crust, liable
|
||
to alternative upward and downward movements in virtue of the law of
|
||
attraction. It is very probable that many a landslip took place in
|
||
those days, and that large portions of sedimentary soil were cast into
|
||
huge and mighty chasms."
|
||
"Quite possible," I dryly remarked. "But, Uncle, if these
|
||
antediluvian animals formerly lived in these subterranean regions,
|
||
what more likely than that one of these monsters may at this moment be
|
||
concealed behind one of yonder mighty rocks."
|
||
As I spoke, I looked keenly around, examining with care every
|
||
point of the horizon; but nothing alive appeared to exist on these
|
||
deserted shores.
|
||
{CHAPTER_27 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
I now felt rather fatigued, and told my uncle so. The walk and
|
||
excitement were too much for me in my weak state. I therefore seated
|
||
myself at the end of a promontory, at the foot of which the waves
|
||
broke in incessant rolls. I looked round a bay formed by projections
|
||
of vast granitic rocks. At the extreme end was a little port protected
|
||
by huge pyramids of stones. A brig and three or four schooners might
|
||
have lain there with perfect ease. So natural did it seem, that
|
||
every minute my imagination induced me to expect a vessel coming out
|
||
under all sail and making for the open sea under the influence of a
|
||
warm southerly breeze.
|
||
But the fantastic illusion never lasted more than a minute. We
|
||
were the only living creatures in this subterranean world!
|
||
During certain periods there was an utter cessation of wind, when
|
||
a silence deeper, more terrible than the silence of the desert fell
|
||
upon these solitary and arid rocks- and seemed to hang like a leaden
|
||
weight upon the waters of this singular ocean. I sought, amid the
|
||
awful stillness, to penetrate through the distant fog, to tear down
|
||
the veil which concealed the mysterious distance. What unspoken
|
||
words were murmured by my trembling lips- what questions did I wish to
|
||
ask and did not! Where did this sea end- to what did it lead? Should
|
||
we ever be able to examine its distant shores?
|
||
But my uncle had no doubts about the matter. He was convinced that
|
||
our enterprise would in the end be successful. For my part, I was in a
|
||
state of painful indecision- I desired to embark on the journey and to
|
||
succeed, and still I feared the result.
|
||
After we had passed an hour or more in silent contemplation of the
|
||
wondrous spectacle, we rose and went down towards the bank on our
|
||
way to the grotto, which I was not sorry to gain. After a slight
|
||
repast, I sought refuge in slumber, and at length, after many and
|
||
tedious struggles, sleep came over my weary eyes.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_28
|
||
CHAPTER 28
|
||
Launching the Raft
|
||
-
|
||
ON the morning of the next day, to my great surprise, I awoke
|
||
completely restored. I thought a bath would be delightful after my
|
||
long illness and sufferings. So, soon after rising, I went and plunged
|
||
into the waters of this new Mediterranean. The bath was cool, fresh
|
||
and invigorating.
|
||
I came back to breakfast with an excellent appetite. Hans, our
|
||
worthy guide, thoroughly understood how to cook such eatables as we
|
||
were able to provide; he had both fire and water at discretion, so
|
||
that he was enabled slightly to vary the weary monotony of our
|
||
ordinary repast.
|
||
Our morning meal was like a capital English breakfast, with coffee
|
||
by way of a windup. And never had this delicious beverage been so
|
||
welcome and refreshing.
|
||
My uncle had sufficient regard for my state of health not to
|
||
interrupt me in the enjoyment of the meal, but he was evidently
|
||
delighted when I had finished.
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"Now then," said he, "come with me. It is the height of the tide,
|
||
and I am anxious to study its curious phenomena."
|
||
"What"' I cried, rising in astonishment, "did you say the tide,
|
||
Uncle?"
|
||
"Certainly I did."
|
||
"You do not mean to say," I replied, in a tone of respectful
|
||
doubt, "that the influence of the sun and moon is felt here below."
|
||
"And pray why not? Are not all bodies influenced by the law of
|
||
universal attraction? Why should this vast underground sea be exempt
|
||
from the general law, the rule of the universe? Besides, there is
|
||
nothing like that which is proved and demonstrated. Despite the
|
||
great atmospheric pressure down here, you will notice that this inland
|
||
sea rises and falls with as much regularity as the Atlantic itself."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
As my uncle spoke, we reached the sandy shore, and saw and heard the
|
||
waves breaking monotonously on the beach. They were evidently rising.
|
||
"This is truly the flood," I cried, looking at the water at my feet.
|
||
"Yes, my excellent nephew," replied my uncle, rubbing his hands with
|
||
the gusto of a philosopher, "and you see by these several streaks of
|
||
foam that the tide rises at least ten or twelve feet."
|
||
"It is indeed marvelous."
|
||
"By no means," he responded; "on the contrary, it is quite natural."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"It may appear so in your eyes, my dear uncle," was my reply, "but
|
||
all the phenomena of the place appear to me to partake of the
|
||
marvelous. It is almost impossible to believe that which I see. Who in
|
||
his wildest dreams could have imagined that, beneath the crust of
|
||
our earth, there could exist a real ocean, with ebbing and flowing
|
||
tides, with its changes of winds, and even its storms! I for one
|
||
should have laughed the suggestion to scorn."
|
||
"But, Harry, my boy, why not?" inquired my uncle, with a pitying
|
||
smile; "is there any physical reason in opposition to it?
|
||
"Well, if we give up the great theory of the central heat of the
|
||
earth, I certainly can offer no reasons why anything should be
|
||
looked upon as impossible."
|
||
"Then you will own," he added, "that the system of Sir Humphry
|
||
Davy is wholly justified by what we have seen?"
|
||
"I allow that it is- and that point once granted, I certainly can
|
||
see no reason for doubting the existence of seas and other wonders,
|
||
even countries, in the interior of the globe."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"That is so- but of course these varied countries are uninhabited?"
|
||
"Well, I grant that it is more likely than not: still, I do not
|
||
see why this sea should not have given shelter to some species of
|
||
unknown fish."
|
||
"Hitherto we have not discovered any, and the probabilities are
|
||
rather against our ever doing so," observed the Professor.
|
||
I was losing my skepticism in the presence of these wonders.
|
||
"Well, I am determined to solve the question. It is my intention
|
||
to try my luck with my fishing line and hook."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Certainly; make the experiment," said my uncle, pleased with my
|
||
enthusiasm. "While we are about it, it will certainly be only proper
|
||
to discover all the secrets of this extraordinary region."
|
||
"But, after all, where are we now?" I asked; "all this time I have
|
||
quite forgotten to ask you a question, which, doubtless, your
|
||
philosophical instruments have long since answered."
|
||
"Well," replied the Professor, "examining the situation from only
|
||
one point of view, we are now distant three hundred and fifty
|
||
leagues from Iceland."
|
||
"So much?" was my exclamation.
|
||
"I have gone over the matter several times, and am sure not to
|
||
have made a mistake of five hundred yards," replied my uncle
|
||
positively.
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"And as to the direction- are we still going to the southeast?"
|
||
"Yes, with a western declination* of nineteen degrees, forty-two
|
||
minutes, just as it is above. As for the inclination** I have
|
||
discovered a very curious fact."
|
||
-
|
||
*The declination is the variation of the needle from the true
|
||
meridian of a place.
|
||
**Inclination is the dip of the magnetic needle with a tendency to
|
||
incline towards the earth.
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
-
|
||
"What may that be, Uncle? Your information interests me."
|
||
"Why, that the needle instead of dipping towards the pole as it does
|
||
on earth, in the northern hemisphere, has an upward tendency."
|
||
"This proves," I cried, "that the great point of magnetic attraction
|
||
lies somewhere between the surface of the earth and the spot we have
|
||
succeeded in reaching."
|
||
"Exactly, my observant nephew," exclaimed my uncle, elated and
|
||
delighted, "and it is quite probable that if we succeed in getting
|
||
toward the polar regions- somewhere near the seventy-third degree of
|
||
latitude, where Sir James Ross discovered the magnetic pole, we
|
||
shall behold the needle point directly upward. We have therefore
|
||
discovered by analogy, that this great center of attraction is not
|
||
situated at a very great depth."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Well," said I, rather surprised, "this discovery will astonish
|
||
experimental philosophers. It was never suspected."
|
||
"Science, great, mighty and in the end unerring," replied my uncle
|
||
dogmatically, "science has fallen into many errors- errors which
|
||
have been fortunate and useful rather than otherwise, for they have
|
||
been the steppingstones to truth."
|
||
After some further discussion, I turned to another matter.
|
||
"Have you any idea of the depth we have reached?"
|
||
"We are now," continued the Professor, "exactly thirty-five leagues-
|
||
above a hundred miles- down into the interior of the earth."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"So," said I, after measuring the distance on the map, "we are now
|
||
beneath the Scottish Highlands, and have over our heads the lofty
|
||
Grampian Hills."
|
||
"You are quite right," said the Professor, laughing; "it sounds very
|
||
alarming, the weight being heavy- but the vault which supports this
|
||
vast mass of earth and rock is solid and safe; the mighty Architect of
|
||
the Universe has constructed it of solid materials. Man, even in his
|
||
highest flights of vivid and poetic imagination, never thought of such
|
||
things! What are the finest arches of our bridges, what the vaulted
|
||
roofs of our cathedrals, to that mighty dome above us, and beneath
|
||
which floats an ocean with its storms and calms and tides!"
|
||
"I admire it all as much as you can, Uncle, and have no fear that
|
||
our granite sky will fall upon our heads. But now that we have
|
||
discussed matters of science and discovery, what are your future
|
||
intentions? Are you not thinking of getting back to the surface of our
|
||
beautiful earth?"
|
||
This was said more as a feeler than with any hope of success.
|
||
"Go back, nephew," cried my uncle in a tone of alarm, "you are not
|
||
surely thinking of anything so absurd or cowardly. No, my intention is
|
||
to advance and continue our journey. We have as yet been singularly
|
||
fortunate, and henceforth I hope we shall be more so."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"But," said I, "how are we to cross yonder liquid plain?"
|
||
"It is not my intention to leap into it head foremost, or even to
|
||
swim across it, like Leander over the Hellespont. But as oceans are,
|
||
after all, only great lakes, inasmuch as they are surrounded by
|
||
land, so does it stand to reason, that this central sea is
|
||
circumscribed by granite surroundings."
|
||
"Doubtless," was my natural reply.
|
||
"Well, then, do you not think that when once we reach the other end,
|
||
we shall find some means of continuing our journey?"
|
||
"Probably, but what extent do you allow to this internal ocean?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Well, I should fancy it to extend about forty or fifty leagues-
|
||
more or less."
|
||
"But even supposing this approximation to be a correct one- what
|
||
then?" I asked.
|
||
"My dear boy, we have no time for further discussion. We shall
|
||
embark tomorrow."
|
||
I looked around with surprise and incredulity. I could see nothing
|
||
in the shape of boat or vessel.
|
||
"What!" I cried, "we are about to launch out upon an unknown sea;
|
||
and where, if I may ask, is the vessel to carry us?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
"Well, my dear boy, it will not be exactly what you would call a
|
||
vessel. For the present we must be content with a good and solid
|
||
raft."
|
||
"A raft," I cried, incredulously, "but down here a raft is as
|
||
impossible of construction as a vessel- and I am at a loss to
|
||
imagine-"
|
||
"My good Harry- if you were to listen instead of talking so much,
|
||
you would hear," said my uncle, waxing a little impatient.
|
||
"I should hear?"
|
||
"Yes- certain knocks with the hammer, which Hans is now employing to
|
||
make the raft. He has been at work for many hours."
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
"Making a raft?"
|
||
"Yes."
|
||
"But where has he found trees suitable for such a construction?"
|
||
"He found the trees all ready to his hand. Come, and you shall see
|
||
our excellent guide at work."
|
||
More and more amazed at what I heard and saw, I followed my uncle
|
||
like one in a dream.
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
After a walk of about a quarter of an hour, I saw Hans at work on
|
||
the other side of the promontory which formed our natural port. A
|
||
few minutes more and I was beside him. To my great surprise, on the
|
||
sandy shore lay a half-finished raft. It was made from beams of a very
|
||
peculiar wood, and a great number of limbs, joints, boughs, and pieces
|
||
lay about, sufficient to have constructed a fleet of ships and boats.
|
||
I turned to my uncle, silent with astonishment and awe.
|
||
"Where did all this wood come from?" I cried; "what wood is it?"
|
||
"Well, there is pinewood, fir, and the palms of the northern
|
||
regions, mineralized by the action of the sea," he replied,
|
||
sententiously.
|
||
"Can it be possible?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
"Yes," said the learned Professor, "what you see is called fossil
|
||
wood."
|
||
"But then," cried I, after reflecting for a moment, "like the
|
||
lignites, it must be as hard and as heavy as iron, and therefore
|
||
will certainly not float."
|
||
"Sometimes that is the case. Many of these woods have become true
|
||
anthracites, but others again, like those you see before you, have
|
||
only undergone one phase of fossil transformation. But there is no
|
||
proof like demonstration," added my uncle, picking one or two of these
|
||
precious waifs and casting them into the sea.
|
||
The piece of wood, after having disappeared for a moment, came to
|
||
the surface, and floated about with the oscillation produced by wind
|
||
and tide.
|
||
"Are you convinced?" said my uncle, with a self-satisfied smile.
|
||
{CHAPTER_28 ^paragraph 80}
|
||
"I am convinced," I cried, "that what I see is incredible."
|
||
The fact was that my journey into the interior of the earth was
|
||
rapidly changing all preconceived notions, and day by day preparing me
|
||
for the marvelous.
|
||
I should not have been surprised to have seen a fleet of native
|
||
canoes afloat upon that silent sea.
|
||
The very next evening, thanks to the industry and ability of Hans,
|
||
the raft was finished. It was about ten feet long and five feet
|
||
wide. The beams bound together with stout ropes, were solid and
|
||
firm, and once launched by our united efforts, the improvised vessel
|
||
floated tranquilly upon the waters of what the Professor had well
|
||
named the Central Sea.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_29
|
||
CHAPTER 29
|
||
On the Waters - A Raft Voyage
|
||
-
|
||
ON the thirteenth of August we were up betimes. There was no time to
|
||
be lost. We now had to inaugurate a new kind of locomotion, which
|
||
would have the advantage of being rapid and not fatiguing.
|
||
A mast, made of two pieces of wood fastened together, to give
|
||
additional strength, a yard made from another one, the sail a linen
|
||
sheet from our bed. We were fortunately in no want of cordage, and the
|
||
whole on trial appeared solid and seaworthy.
|
||
At six o'clock in the morning, when the eager and enthusiastic
|
||
Professor gave the signal to embark, the victuals, the luggage, all
|
||
our instruments, our weapons, and a goodly supply of sweet water,
|
||
which we had collected from springs in the rocks, were placed on the
|
||
raft.
|
||
Hans had, with considerable ingenuity, contrived a rudder, which
|
||
enabled him to guide the floating apparatus with ease. He took the
|
||
tiller, as a matter of course. The worthy man was as good a sailor
|
||
as he was a guide and duck hunter. I then let go the painter which
|
||
held us to the shore, the sail was brought to the wind, and we made
|
||
a rapid offing.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
Our sea voyage had at length commenced; and once more we were making
|
||
for distant and unknown regions.
|
||
Just as we were about to leave the little port where the raft had
|
||
been constructed, my uncle, who was very strong as to geographic
|
||
nomenclature, wanted to give it a name, and among others, suggested
|
||
mine.
|
||
"Well," said I, "before you decide I have another to propose."
|
||
"Well; out with it."
|
||
"I should like to call it Gretchen. Port Gretchen will sound very
|
||
well on our future map."
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Well then, Port Gretchen let it be," said the Professor.
|
||
And thus it was that the memory of my dear girl was attached to
|
||
our adventurous and memorable expedition.
|
||
When we left the shore the wind was blowing from the northward and
|
||
eastward. We went directly before the wind at a much greater speed
|
||
than might have been expected from a raft. The dense layers of
|
||
atmosphere at that depth had great propelling power and acted upon the
|
||
sail with considerable force.
|
||
At the end of an hour, my uncle, who had been taking careful
|
||
observations, was enabled to judge of the rapidity with which we
|
||
moved. It was far beyond anything seen in the upper world.
|
||
"If," he said, "we continue to advance at our present rate, we shall
|
||
have traveled at least thirty leagues in twenty-four hours. With a
|
||
mere raft this is an almost incredible velocity."
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
I certainly was surprised, and without making any reply went forward
|
||
upon the raft. Already the northern shore was fading away on the
|
||
edge of the horizon. The two shores appeared to separate more and
|
||
more, leaving a wide and open space for our departure. Before me I
|
||
could see nothing but the vast and apparently limitless sea- upon
|
||
which we floated- the only living objects in sight.
|
||
Huge and dark clouds cast their grey shadows below- shadows which
|
||
seemed to crush that colorless and sullen water by their weight.
|
||
Anything more suggestive of gloom and of regions of nether darkness
|
||
I never beheld. Silvery rays of electric light, reflected here and
|
||
there upon some small spots of water, brought up luminous sparkles
|
||
in the long wake of our cumbrous bark. Presently we were wholly out of
|
||
sight of land; not a vestige could be seen, nor any indication of
|
||
where we were going. So still and motionless did we seem without any
|
||
distant point to fix our eyes on that but for the phosphoric light
|
||
at the wake of the raft I should have fancied that we were still and
|
||
motionless.
|
||
But I knew that we were advancing at a very rapid rate.
|
||
About twelve o'clock in the day, vast collections of seaweed were
|
||
discovered surrounding us on all sides. I was aware of the
|
||
extraordinary vegetative power of these plants, which have been
|
||
known to creep along the bottom of the great ocean, and stop the
|
||
advance of large ships. But never were seaweeds ever seen, so gigantic
|
||
and wonderful as those of the Central Sea. I could well imagine how,
|
||
seen at a distance, tossing and heaving on the summit of the
|
||
billows, the long lines of algae have been taken for living things,
|
||
and thus have been fertile sources of the belief in sea serpents.
|
||
Our raft swept past great specimens of fucus or seawrack, from three
|
||
to four thousand feet in length, immense, incredibly long, looking
|
||
like snakes that stretched out far beyond our horizon. It afforded
|
||
me great amusement to gaze on their variegated ribbon-like endless
|
||
lengths. Hour after hour passed without our coming to the
|
||
termination of these floating weeds. If my astonishment increased,
|
||
my patience was well-nigh exhausted.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
What natural force could possibly have produced such abnormal and
|
||
extraordinary plants? What must have been the aspect of the globe,
|
||
during the first centuries of its formation, when under the combined
|
||
action of heat and humidity, the vegetable kingdom occupied its vast
|
||
surface to the exclusion of everything else?
|
||
These were considerations of never-ending interest for the geologist
|
||
and the philosopher.
|
||
All this while we were advancing on our journey; and at length night
|
||
came; but as I had remarked the evening before, the luminous state
|
||
of the atmosphere was in nothing diminished. Whatever was the cause,
|
||
it was a phenomenon upon the duration of which we could calculate with
|
||
certainty.
|
||
As soon as our supper had been disposed of, and some little
|
||
speculative conversation indulged in, I stretched myself at the foot
|
||
of the mast, and presently went to sleep.
|
||
Hans remained motionless at the tiller, allowing the raft to rise
|
||
and fall on the waves. The wind being aft, and the sail square, all he
|
||
had to do was to keep his oar in the center.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Ever since we had taken our departure from the newly named Port
|
||
Gretchen, my worthy uncle had directed me to keep a regular log of our
|
||
day's navigation, with instructions to put down even the most minute
|
||
particulars, every interesting and curious phenomenon, the direction
|
||
of the wind, our rate of sailing, the distance we went; in a word,
|
||
every incident of our extraordinary voyage.
|
||
From our log, therefore, I tell the story of our voyage on the
|
||
Central Sea.
|
||
-
|
||
Friday, August 14th. A steady breeze from the northwest. Raft
|
||
progressing with extreme rapidity, and going perfectly straight. Coast
|
||
still dimly visible about thirty leagues to leeward. Nothing to be
|
||
seen beyond the horizon in front. The extraordinary intensity of the
|
||
light neither increases nor diminishes. It is singularly stationary.
|
||
The weather remarkably fine; that is to say, the clouds have
|
||
ascended very high, and are light and fleecy, and surrounded by an
|
||
atmosphere resembling silver in fusion.
|
||
Thermometer, +32 degrees centigrade.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
About twelve o'clock in the day our guide Hans having prepared and
|
||
baited a hook, cast his line into the subterranean waters. The bait he
|
||
used was a small piece of meat, by means of which he concealed his
|
||
hook. Anxious as I was, I was for a long time doomed to
|
||
disappointment. Were these waters supplied with fish or not? That
|
||
was the important question. No- was my decided answer. Then there came
|
||
a sudden and rather hard tug. Hans coolly drew it in, and with it a
|
||
fish, which struggled violently to escape.
|
||
"A fish!" cried my uncle.
|
||
"It is a sturgeon!" I cried, "certainly a small sturgeon."
|
||
The Professor examined the fish carefully, noting every
|
||
characteristic; and he did not coincide in my opinion. The fish had
|
||
a flat head, round body, and the lower extremities covered with bony
|
||
scales; its mouth was wholly without teeth, the pectoral fins, which
|
||
were highly developed, sprouted direct from the body, which properly
|
||
speaking had no tail. The animal certainly belonged to the order in
|
||
which naturalists class the sturgeon, but it differed from that fish
|
||
in many essential particulars.
|
||
My uncle, after all, was not mistaken. After a long and patient
|
||
examination, he said:
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"This fish, my dear boy, belongs to a family which has been
|
||
extinct for ages, and of which no trace has ever been found on
|
||
earth, except fossil remains in the Devonian strata."
|
||
"You do not mean to say," I cried, "that we have captured a live
|
||
specimen of a fish belonging to the primitive stock that existed
|
||
before the deluge?"
|
||
"We have," said the Professor, who all this time was continuing
|
||
his observations, "and you may see by careful examination that these
|
||
fossil fish have no identity with existing species. To hold in one's
|
||
hand, therefore, a living specimen of the order, is enough to make a
|
||
naturalist happy for life."
|
||
"But," cried I, "to what family does it belong?"
|
||
"To the order of Ganoides- an order of fish having angular scales,
|
||
covered with bright enamel- forming one of the family of the
|
||
Cephalaspides, of the genus-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Well, sir," I remarked, as I noticed my uncle hesitated to
|
||
conclude.
|
||
"To the genus Pterychtis- yes, I am certain of it. Still, though I
|
||
am confident of the correctness of my surmise, this fish offers to our
|
||
notice a remarkable peculiarity, never known to exist in any other
|
||
fish but those which are the natives of subterranean waters, wells,
|
||
lakes, in caverns, and suchlike hidden pools."
|
||
"And what may that be?"
|
||
"It is blind."
|
||
"Blind!" I cried, much surprised.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Not only blind," continued the Professor, "but absolutely without
|
||
organs of sight."
|
||
I now examined our discovery for myself. It was singular, to be
|
||
sure, but it was really a fact. This, however, might be a solitary
|
||
instance, I suggested. The hook was baited again and once more
|
||
thrown into the water. This subterranean ocean must have been
|
||
tolerably well supplied with fish, for in two hours we took a large
|
||
number of Pterychtis, as well as other fish belonging to another
|
||
supposed extinct family- the Dipterides (a genus of fish, furnished
|
||
with two fins only, whence the name), though my uncle could not
|
||
class it exactly. All, without exception, however, were blind. This
|
||
unexpected capture enabled us to renew our stock of provisions in a
|
||
very satisfactory way.
|
||
We were now convinced that this subterranean sea contained only fish
|
||
known to us as fossil specimens- and fish and reptiles alike were
|
||
all the more perfect the farther back they dated their origin.
|
||
We began to hope that we should find some of those saurians which
|
||
science has succeeded in reconstructing from bits of bone or
|
||
cartilage.
|
||
I took up the telescope and carefully examined the horizon- looked
|
||
over the whole sea; it was utterly and entirely deserted. Doubtless we
|
||
were still too near the coast.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
After an examination of the ocean, I looked upward, towards the
|
||
strange and mysterious sky. Why should not one of the birds
|
||
reconstructed by the immortal Cuvier flap his stupendous wings aloft
|
||
in the dull strata of subterranean air? It would, of course, find
|
||
quite sufficient food from the fish in the sea. I gazed for some
|
||
time upon the void above. It was as silent and as deserted as the
|
||
shores we had but lately left.
|
||
Nevertheless, though I could neither see nor discover anything, my
|
||
imagination carried me away into wild hypotheses. I was in a kind of
|
||
waking dream. I thought I saw on the surface of the water those
|
||
enormous antediluvian turtles as big as floating islands. Upon those
|
||
dull and somber shores passed a spectral row of the mammifers of early
|
||
days, the great Liptotherium found in the cavernous hollow of the
|
||
Brazilian hills, the Mesicotherium, a native of the glacial regions of
|
||
Siberia.
|
||
Farther on, the pachydermatous Lophrodon, that gigantic tapir, which
|
||
concealed itself behind rocks, ready to do battle for its prey with
|
||
the Anoplotherium, a singular animal partaking of the nature of the
|
||
rhinoceros, the horse, the hippopotamus and the camel.
|
||
There was the giant Mastodon, twisting and turning his horrid trunk,
|
||
with which he crushed the rocks of the shore to powder, while the
|
||
Megatherium- his back raised like a cat in a passion, his enormous
|
||
claws stretched out, dug into the earth for food, at the same time
|
||
that he awoke the sonorous echoes of the whole place with his terrible
|
||
roar.
|
||
Higher up still, the first monkey ever seen on the face of the globe
|
||
clambered, gamboling and playing up the granite hills. Still farther
|
||
away, ran the Pterodactyl, with the winged hand, gliding or rather
|
||
sailing through the dense and compressed air like a huge bat.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
Above all, near the leaden granitic sky, were immense birds, more
|
||
powerful than the cassowary and the ostrich, which spread their mighty
|
||
wings and fluttered against the huge stone vault of the inland sea.
|
||
I thought, such was the effect of my imagination, that I saw this
|
||
whole tribe of antediluvian creatures. I carried myself back to far
|
||
ages, long before man existed- when, in fact, the earth was in too
|
||
imperfect a state for him to live upon it.
|
||
My dream was of countless ages before the existence of man. The
|
||
mammifers first disappeared, then the mighty birds, then the
|
||
reptiles of the secondary period, presently the fish, the crustacea,
|
||
the mollusks, and finally the vertebrata. The zoophytes of the
|
||
period of transition in their turn sank into annihilation.
|
||
The whole panorama of the world's life before the historic period,
|
||
seemed to be born over again, and mine was the only human heart that
|
||
beat in this unpeopled world! There were no more seasons; there were
|
||
no more climates; the natural heat of the world increased unceasingly,
|
||
and neutralized that of the great radiant Sun.
|
||
Vegetation was exaggerated in an extraordinary manner. I passed like
|
||
a shadow in the midst of brushwood as lofty as the giant trees of
|
||
California, and trod underfoot the moist and humid soil, reeking
|
||
with a rank and varied vegetation.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
I leaned against the huge column-like trunks of giant trees, to
|
||
which those of Canada were as ferns. Whole ages passed, hundreds
|
||
upon hundreds of years were concentrated into a single day.
|
||
Next, unrolled before me like a panorama, came the great and
|
||
wondrous series of terrestrial transformations. Plants disappeared;
|
||
the granitic rocks lost all trace of solidity; the liquid state was
|
||
suddenly substituted for that which had before existed. This was
|
||
caused by intense heat acting on the organic matter of the earth.
|
||
The waters flowed over the whole surface of the globe; they boiled;
|
||
they were volatilized, or turned into vapor; a kind of steam cloud
|
||
wrapped the whole earth, the globe itself becoming at last nothing but
|
||
one huge sphere of gas, indescribable in color, between white heat and
|
||
red, as big and as brilliant as the sun.
|
||
In the very center of this prodigious mass, fourteen hundred
|
||
thousand times as large as our globe, I was whirled round in space,
|
||
and brought into close conjunction with the planets. My body was
|
||
subtilized, or rather became volatile, and commingled in a state of
|
||
atomic vapor, with the prodigious clouds, which rushed forward like
|
||
a mighty comet into infinite space!
|
||
What an extraordinary dream! Where would it finally take me? My
|
||
feverish hand began to write down the marvelous details- details
|
||
more like the imaginings of a lunatic than anything sober and real.
|
||
I had during this period of hallucination forgotten everything- the
|
||
Professor, the guide, and the raft on which we were floating. My
|
||
mind was in a state of semioblivion.
|
||
"What is the matter, Harry?" said my uncle suddenly.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
My eyes, which were wide opened like those of a somnambulist, were
|
||
fixed upon him, but I did not see him, nor could I clearly make out
|
||
anything around me.
|
||
"Take care, my boy," again cried my uncle, "you will fall into the
|
||
sea."
|
||
As he uttered these words, I felt myself seized on the other side by
|
||
the firm hand of our devoted guide. Had it not been for the presence
|
||
of mind of Hans, I must infallibly have fallen into the waves and been
|
||
drowned.
|
||
"Have you gone mad?" cried my uncle, shaking me on the other side.
|
||
"What- what is the matter?" I said at last, coming to myself.
|
||
{CHAPTER_29 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
"Are you ill, Henry?" continued the Professor in an anxious tone.
|
||
"No- no; but I have had an extraordinary dream. It, however, has
|
||
passed away. All now seems well"' I added, looking around me with
|
||
strangely puzzled eyes.
|
||
"All right," said my uncle; "a beautiful breeze, a splendid sea.
|
||
We are going along at a rapid rate, and if I am not out in my
|
||
calculations we shall soon see land. I shall not be sorry to
|
||
exchange the narrow limits of our raft for the mysterious strand of
|
||
the subterranean ocean."
|
||
As my uncle uttered these words, I rose and carefully scanned the
|
||
horizon. But the line of water was still confounded with the
|
||
lowering clouds that hung aloft, and in the distance appeared to touch
|
||
the edge of the water.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_30
|
||
CHAPTER 30
|
||
Terrific Saurian Combat
|
||
-
|
||
SATURDAY, August 15th. The sea still retains its uniform monotony.
|
||
The same leaden hue, the same eternal glare from above. No
|
||
indication of land being in sight. The horizon appears to retreat
|
||
before us, more and more as we advance.
|
||
My head, still dull and heavy from the effects of my extraordinary
|
||
dream, which I cannot as yet banish from my mind.
|
||
The Professor, who has not dreamed, is, however, in one of his
|
||
morose and unaccountable humors. Spends his time in scanning the
|
||
horizon, at every point of the compass. His telescope is raised
|
||
every moment to his eyes, and when he finds nothing to give any clue
|
||
to our whereabouts, he assumes a Napoleonic attitude and walks
|
||
anxiously.
|
||
I remarked that my uncle, the Professor, had a strong tendency to
|
||
resume his old impatient character, and I could not but make a note of
|
||
this disagreeable circumstance in my journal. I saw clearly that it
|
||
had required all the influence of my danger and suffering, to
|
||
extract from him one scintillation of humane feeling. Now that I was
|
||
quite recovered, his original nature had conquered and obtained the
|
||
upper hand.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
And, after all, what had he to be angry and annoyed about, now
|
||
more than at any other time? Was not the journey being accomplished
|
||
under the most favorable circumstances? Was not the raft progressing
|
||
with the most marvelous rapidity?
|
||
What, then, could be the matter? After one or two preliminary
|
||
hems, I determined to inquire.
|
||
"You seem uneasy, Uncle," said I, when for about the hundredth
|
||
time he put down his telescope and walked up and down, muttering to
|
||
himself.
|
||
"No, I am not uneasy," he replied in a dry harsh tone, "by no
|
||
means."
|
||
"Perhaps I should have said impatient," I replied, softening the
|
||
force of my remark.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Enough to make me so, I think."
|
||
"And yet we are advancing at a rate seldom attained by a raft," I
|
||
remarked.
|
||
"What matters that?" cried my uncle. "I am not vexed at the rate
|
||
we go at, but I am annoyed to find the sea so much vaster than I
|
||
expected."
|
||
I then recollected that the Professor, before our departure, had
|
||
estimated the length of this subterranean ocean as at most about
|
||
thirty leagues. Now we had traveled at least over thrice that distance
|
||
without discovering any trace of the distant shore. I began to
|
||
understand my uncle's anger.
|
||
"We are not going down," suddenly exclaimed the Professor. "We are
|
||
not progressing with our great discoveries. All this is utter loss
|
||
of time. After all, I did not come from home to undertake a party of
|
||
pleasure. This voyage on a raft over a pond annoys and wearies me."
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
He called this adventurous journey a party of pleasure, and this
|
||
great inland sea a pond!
|
||
"But," argued I, "if we have followed the route indicated by the
|
||
great Saknussemm, we cannot be going far wrong."
|
||
"'That is the question,' as the great, the immortal Shakespeare, has
|
||
it. Are we following the route indicated by that wondrous sage? Did
|
||
Saknussemm ever fall in with this great sheet of water? If he did, did
|
||
he cross it? I begin to fear that the rivulet we adopted for a guide
|
||
has led us wrong."
|
||
"In any case, we can never regret having come thus far. It is
|
||
worth the whole journey to have enjoyed this magnificent spectacle- it
|
||
is something to have seen."
|
||
"I care nothing about seeing, nor about magnificent spectacles. I
|
||
came down into the interior of the earth with an object, and that
|
||
object I mean to attain. Don't talk to me about admiring scenery, or
|
||
any other sentimental trash."
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
After this I thought it well to hold my tongue, and allow the
|
||
Professor to bite his lips until the blood came, without further
|
||
remark.
|
||
At six o'clock in the evening, our matter-of-fact guide, Hans, asked
|
||
for his week's salary, and receiving his three rix-dollars, put them
|
||
carefully in his pocket. He was perfectly contented and satisfied.
|
||
-
|
||
Sunday, August 16th. Nothing new to record. The same weather as
|
||
before. The wind has a slight tendency to freshen up, with signs of an
|
||
approaching gale. When I awoke, My first observation was in regard
|
||
to the intensity of the light. I keep on fearing, day after day,
|
||
that the extraordinary electric phenomenon should become first
|
||
obscured, and then go wholly out, leaving us in total darkness.
|
||
Nothing, however, of the kind occurs. The shadow of the raft, its mast
|
||
and sails, is clearly distinguished on the surface of the water.
|
||
This wondrous sea is, after all, infinite in its extent. It must
|
||
be quite as wide as the Mediterranean- or perhaps even as the great
|
||
Atlantic Ocean. Why, after all, should it not be so?
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
My uncle has on more than one occasion, tried deep-sea soundings. He
|
||
tied the cross of one of our heaviest crowbars to the extremity of a
|
||
cord, which he allowed to run out to the extent of two hundred
|
||
fathoms. We had the greatest difficulty in hoisting in our novel
|
||
kind of lead.
|
||
When the crowbar was finally dragged on board, Hans called my
|
||
attention to some singular marks upon its surface. The piece of
|
||
iron looked as if it had been crushed between two very hard
|
||
substances.
|
||
I looked at our worthy guide with an inquiring glance.
|
||
"Tander," said he.
|
||
Of course I was at a loss to understand. I turned round towards my
|
||
uncle, absorbed in gloomy reflections. I had little wish to disturb
|
||
him from his reverie. I accordingly turned once more towards our
|
||
worthy Icelander.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Hans very quietly and significantly opened his mouth once or
|
||
twice, as if in the act of biting, and in this way made me
|
||
understand his meaning.
|
||
"Teeth!" cried I, with stupefaction, as I examined the bar of iron
|
||
with more attention.
|
||
Yes. There can be no doubt about the matter. The indentations on the
|
||
bar of iron are the marks of teeth! What jaws must the owner of such
|
||
molars be possessed of! Have well then, come upon a monster of
|
||
unknown species, which still exists within the vast waste of waters- a
|
||
monster more voracious than a shark, more terrible and bulky than
|
||
the whale? I am unable to withdraw my eyes from the bar of iron,
|
||
actually half crushed!
|
||
Is, then, my dream about to come true- a dread and terrible reality?
|
||
All day my thoughts were bent upon these speculations, and my
|
||
imagination scarcely regained a degree of calmness and power of
|
||
reflection until after a sleep of many hours.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
This day, as on other Sundays, we observed as a day of rest and
|
||
pious meditation.
|
||
-
|
||
Monday, August 17th. I have been trying to realize from memory the
|
||
particular instincts of those antediluvian animals of the secondary
|
||
period, which succeeding to the mollusca, to the crustacea, and to the
|
||
fish, preceded the appearance of the race of mammifers. The generation
|
||
of reptiles then reigned supreme upon the earth. These hideous
|
||
monsters ruled everything in the seas of the secondary period, which
|
||
formed the strata of which the Jura mountains are composed. Nature had
|
||
endowed them with perfect organization. What a gigantic structure
|
||
was theirs; what vast and prodigious strength they possessed!
|
||
The existing saurians, which include all such reptiles as lizards,
|
||
crocodiles, and alligators, even the largest and most formidable of
|
||
their class, are but feeble imitations of their mighty sires, the
|
||
animals of ages long ago. If there were giants in the days of old,
|
||
there were also gigantic animals.
|
||
I shuddered as I evolved from my mind the idea and recollection of
|
||
these awful monsters. No eye of man had seen them in the flesh. They
|
||
took their walks abroad upon the face of the earth thousands of ages
|
||
before man came into existence, and their fossil bones, discovered
|
||
in the limestone, have allowed us to reconstruct them anatomically,
|
||
and thus to get some faint idea of their colossal formation.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
I recollect once seeing in the great Museum of Hamburg the
|
||
skeleton of one of these wonderful saurians. It measured no less
|
||
than thirty feet from the nose to the tail. Am I, then, an
|
||
inhabitant of the earth of the present day, destined to find myself
|
||
face to face with a representative of this antediluvian family? I
|
||
can scarcely believe it possible; I can hardly believe it true. And
|
||
yet these marks of powerful teeth upon the bar of iron! Can there be a
|
||
doubt from their shape that the bite is the bite of a crocodile?
|
||
My eyes stare wildly and with terror upon the subterranean sea.
|
||
Every moment I expect one of these monsters to rise from its vast
|
||
cavernous depths.
|
||
I fancy that the worthy Professor in some measure shares my notions,
|
||
if not my fears, for, after an attentive examination of the crowbar,
|
||
he cast his eyes rapidly over the mighty and mysterious ocean.
|
||
"What could possess him to leave the land," I thought, "as if the
|
||
depth of this water was of any importance to us. No doubt he has
|
||
disturbed some terrible monster in his watery home, and perhaps we may
|
||
pay dearly for our temerity."
|
||
Anxious to be prepared for the worst, I examined our weapons, and
|
||
saw that they were in a fit state for use. My uncle looked on at me
|
||
and nodded his head approvingly. He, too, has noticed what we have
|
||
to fear.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
Already the uplifting of the waters on the surface indicates that
|
||
something is in motion below. The danger approaches. It comes nearer
|
||
and nearer. It behooves us to be on the watch.
|
||
-
|
||
Tuesday, August 18th. Evening came at last, the hour when the desire
|
||
for sleep caused our eyelids to be heavy. Night there is not, properly
|
||
speaking, in this place, any more than there is in summer in the
|
||
arctic regions. Hans, however, is immovable at the rudder. When he
|
||
snatches a moment of rest I really cannot say. I take advantage of his
|
||
vigilance to take some little repose.
|
||
But two hours after I was awakened from a heavy sleep by an awful
|
||
shock. The raft appeared to have struck upon a sunken rock. It was
|
||
lifted right out of the water by some wondrous and mysterious power,
|
||
and then started off twenty fathoms distant.
|
||
"Eh, what is it?" cried my uncle starting up. "Are we shipwrecked,
|
||
or what?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
Hans raised his hand and pointed to where, about two hundred yards
|
||
off, a large black mass was moving up and down.
|
||
I looked with awe. My worst fears were realized.
|
||
"It is a colossal monster!" I cried, clasping my hands.
|
||
"Yes," cried the agitated Professor, "and there yonder is a huge sea
|
||
lizard of terrible size and shape."
|
||
"And farther on behold a prodigious crocodile. Look at his hideous
|
||
jaws, and that row of monstrous teeth. Ha! he has gone."
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"A whale! a whale!" shouted the Professor, "I can see her enormous
|
||
fins. See, see, how she blows air and water!"
|
||
Two liquid columns rose to a vast height above the level of the sea,
|
||
into which they fell with a terrific crash, waking up the echoes of
|
||
that awful place. We stood still- surprised, stupefied,
|
||
terror-stricken at the sight of this group of fearful marine monsters,
|
||
more hideous in the reality than in my dream. They were of
|
||
supernatural dimensions; the very smallest of the whole party could
|
||
with ease have crushed our raft and ourselves with a single bite.
|
||
Hans, seizing the rudder which had flown out of his hand, puts it
|
||
hard aweather in order to escape from such dangerous vicinity; but
|
||
no sooner does he do so, than he finds he is flying from Scylla to
|
||
Charybdis. To leeward is a turtle about forty feet wide, and a serpent
|
||
quite as long, with an enormous and hideous head peering from out
|
||
the waters.
|
||
Look which way we will, it is impossible for us to fly. The
|
||
fearful reptiles advanced upon us; they turned and twisted about the
|
||
raft with awful rapidity. They formed around our devoted vessel a
|
||
series of concentric circles. I took up my rifle in desperation. But
|
||
what effect can a rifle ball produce upon the armor scales with
|
||
which the bodies of these horrid monsters are covered?
|
||
We remain still and dumb from utter horror. They advance upon us,
|
||
nearer and nearer. Our fate appears certain, fearful and terrible.
|
||
On one side the mighty crocodile, on the other the great sea
|
||
serpent. The rest of the fearful crowd of marine prodigies have
|
||
plunged beneath the briny waves and disappeared!
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
I am about to fire at any risk and try the effect of a shot. Hans,
|
||
the guide, however, interfered by a sign to check me. The two
|
||
hideous and ravenous monsters passed within fifty fathoms of the raft,
|
||
and then made a rush at one another- their fury and rage preventing
|
||
them from seeing us.
|
||
The combat commenced. We distinctly made out every action of the two
|
||
hideous monsters.
|
||
But to my excited imagination the other animals appeared about to
|
||
take part in the fierce and deadly struggle- the monster, the whale,
|
||
the lizard, and the turtle. I distinctly saw them every moment. I
|
||
pointed them out to the Icelander. But he only shook his head.
|
||
"Tva," he said.
|
||
"What- two only does he say. Surely he is mistaken, "I cried in a
|
||
tone of wonder.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
"He is quite right," replied my uncle coolly and philosophically,
|
||
examining the terrible duel with his telescope and speaking as if he
|
||
were in a lecture room.
|
||
"How can that be?"
|
||
"Yes, it is so. The first of these hideous monsters has the snout of
|
||
a porpoise, the head of a lizard, the teeth of a crocodile; and it
|
||
is this that has deceived us. It is the most fearful of all
|
||
antediluvian reptiles, the world-renowned Ichthyosaurus or great
|
||
fish lizard."
|
||
"And the other?"
|
||
"The other is a monstrous serpent, concealed under the hard
|
||
vaulted shell of the turtle, the terrible enemy of its fearful
|
||
rival, the Plesiosaurus, or sea crocodile."
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
Hans was quite right. The two monsters only, disturbed the surface
|
||
of the sea!
|
||
At last have mortal eyes gazed upon two reptiles of the great
|
||
primitive ocean! I see the flaming red eyes of the Ichthyosaurus, each
|
||
as big, or bigger than a man's head. Nature in its infinite wisdom had
|
||
gifted this wondrous marine animal with an optical apparatus of
|
||
extreme power, capable of resisting the pressure of the heavy layers
|
||
of water which rolled over him in the depths of the ocean where he
|
||
usually fed. It has by some authors truly been called the whale of the
|
||
saurian race, for it is as big and quick in its motions as our king of
|
||
the seas. This one measures not less than a hundred feet in length,
|
||
and I can form some idea of his girth when I see him lift his
|
||
prodigious tail out of the waters. His jaw is of awful size and
|
||
strength, and according to the best-informed naturalists, it does
|
||
not contain less than a hundred and eighty-two teeth.
|
||
The other was the mighty Plesiosaurus, a serpent with a
|
||
cylindrical trunk, with a short stumpy tail, with fins like a bank
|
||
of oars in a Roman galley.
|
||
Its whole body covered by a carapace or shell, and its neck, as
|
||
flexible as that of a swan, rose more than thirty feet above the
|
||
waves, a tower of animated flesh!
|
||
These animals attacked one another with inconceivable fury. Such a
|
||
combat was never seen before by mortal eyes, and to us who did see it,
|
||
it appeared more like the phantasmagoric creation of a dream than
|
||
anything else. They raised mountains of water, which dashed in spray
|
||
over the raft, already tossed to and fro by the waves. Twenty times we
|
||
seemed on the point of being upset and hurled headlong into the waves.
|
||
Hideous hisses appeared to shake the gloomy granite roof of that
|
||
mighty cavern- hisses which carried terror to our hearts. The awful
|
||
combatants held each other in a tight embrace. I could not make out
|
||
one from the other. Still the combat could not last forever; and woe
|
||
unto us, whichsoever became the victor.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
One hour, two hours, three hours passed away, without any decisive
|
||
result. The struggle continued with the same deadly tenacity, but
|
||
without apparent result. The deadly opponents now approached, now drew
|
||
away from the raft. Once or twice we fancied they were about to
|
||
leave us altogether, but instead of that, they came nearer and nearer.
|
||
We crouched on the raft ready to fire at them at a moment's
|
||
notice, poor as the prospect of hurting or terrifying them was.
|
||
Still we were determined not to perish without a struggle.
|
||
Suddenly the Ichthyosaurus and the Plesiosaurus disappeared
|
||
beneath the waves, leaving behind them a maelstrom in the midst of the
|
||
sea. We were nearly drawn down by the indraft of the water!
|
||
Several minutes elapsed before anything was again seen. Was this
|
||
wonderful combat to end in the depths of the ocean? Was the last act
|
||
of this terrible drama to take place without spectators?
|
||
It was impossible for us to say.
|
||
{CHAPTER_30 ^paragraph 80}
|
||
Suddenly, at no great distance from us, an enormous mass rises out
|
||
of the waters- the head of the great Plesiosaurus. The terrible
|
||
monster is now wounded unto death. I can see nothing now of his
|
||
enormous body. All that could be distinguished was his serpent-like
|
||
neck, which he twisted and curled in all the agonies of death. Now
|
||
he struck the waters with it as if it had been a gigantic whip, and
|
||
then again wriggled like a worm cut in two. The water was spurted up
|
||
to a great distance in all directions. A great portion of it swept
|
||
over our raft and nearly blinded us. But soon the end of the beast
|
||
approached nearer and nearer; his movements slackened visibly; his
|
||
contortions almost ceased; and at last the body of the mighty snake
|
||
lay an inert, dead mass on the surface of the now calm and placid
|
||
waters.
|
||
As for the Ichthyosaurus, has he gone down to his mighty cavern
|
||
under the sea to rest, or will he reappear to destroy us?
|
||
This question remained unanswered. And we had breathing time.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_31
|
||
CHAPTER 31
|
||
The Sea Monster
|
||
-
|
||
WEDNESDAY, August 19th. Fortunately the wind, which for the
|
||
present blows with some violence, has allowed us to escape from the
|
||
scene of the unparalleled and extraordinary struggle. Hans with his
|
||
usual imperturbable calm remained at the helm. My uncle, who for a
|
||
short time had been withdrawn from his absorbing reveries by the novel
|
||
incidents of this sea fight, fell back again apparently into a brown
|
||
study. His eyes were fixed impatiently on the widespread ocean.
|
||
Our voyage now became monotonous and uniform. Dull as it has become,
|
||
I have no desire to have it broken by any repetition of the perils and
|
||
adventures of yesterday.
|
||
-
|
||
Thursday, August 20th. The wind is now N. N. E., and blows very
|
||
irregularly. It has changed to fitful gusts. The temperature is
|
||
exceedingly high. We are now progressing at the average rate of
|
||
about ten miles and a half per hour.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
About twelve o'clock a distant sound as of thunder fell upon our
|
||
ears. I make a note of the fact without even venturing a suggestion as
|
||
to its cause. It was one continued roar as of a sea falling over
|
||
mighty rocks.
|
||
"Far off in the distance," said the Professor dogmatically, "there
|
||
is some rock or some island against which the seal lashed to fury by
|
||
the wind, is breaking violently."
|
||
Hans, without saying a word, clambered to the top of the mast, but
|
||
could make out nothing. The ocean was level in every direction as
|
||
far as the eye could reach.
|
||
Three hours passed away without any sign to indicate what might be
|
||
before us. The sound began to assume that of a mighty cataract.
|
||
I expressed my opinion on this point strongly to my uncle. He merely
|
||
shook his head. I, however, am strongly impressed by a conviction that
|
||
I am not wrong. Are we advancing towards some mighty waterfall which
|
||
shall cast us into the abyss? Probably this mode of descending into
|
||
the abyss may be agreeable to the Professor, because it would be
|
||
something like the vertical descent he is so eager to make. I
|
||
entertain a very different opinion.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
Whatever be the truth, it is certain that not many leagues distant
|
||
there must be some very extraordinary phenomenon, for as we advance
|
||
the roar becomes something mighty and stupendous. Is it in the
|
||
water, or in the air?
|
||
I cast hasty glances aloft at the suspended vapors, and I seek to
|
||
penetrate their mighty depths. But the vault above is tranquil. The
|
||
clouds, which are now elevated to the very summit, appear utterly
|
||
still and motionless, and completely lost in the irradiation of
|
||
electric light. It is necessary, therefore, to seek for the cause of
|
||
this phenomenon elsewhere.
|
||
I examine the horizon, now perfectly calm, pure, and free from all
|
||
haze. Its aspect still remains unchanged. But if this awful noise
|
||
proceeds from a cataract- if, so to speak in plain English, this
|
||
vast interior ocean is precipitated into a lower basin- if these
|
||
tremendous roars are produced by the noise of falling waters, the
|
||
current would increase in activity, and its increasing swiftness would
|
||
give me some idea of the extent of the peril with which we are
|
||
menaced. I consult the current. It simply does not exist: there is
|
||
no such thing. An empty bottle cast into the water lies to leeward
|
||
without motion.
|
||
About four o'clock Hans rises, clambers up the mast, and reaches the
|
||
truck itself. From this elevated position his looks are cast around.
|
||
They take in a vast circumference of the ocean. At last, his eyes
|
||
remain fixed. His face expresses no astonishment, but his eyes
|
||
slightly dilate.
|
||
"He has seen something at last," cried my uncle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"I think so", I replied.
|
||
Hans came down, stood beside us, and pointed with his right hand
|
||
to the south.
|
||
"Der nere," he said.
|
||
"There," replied my uncle.
|
||
And seizing his telescope, he looked at it with great attention
|
||
for about a minute, which to me appeared an age. I knew not what to
|
||
think or expect.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Yes, yes," he cried in a tone of considerable surprise, "there it
|
||
is."
|
||
"What?" I asked.
|
||
"A tremendous spurt of water rising out of the waves."
|
||
"Some other marine monster, I cried, already alarmed.
|
||
"Perhaps."
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Then let us steer more to the westward, for we know what we have to
|
||
expect from antediluvian animals," was my eager reply.
|
||
"Go ahead," said my uncle.
|
||
I turned towards Hans. Hans was at the tiller steering with his
|
||
usual imperturbable calm.
|
||
Nevertheless, if from the distance which separated us from this
|
||
creature, a distance which must be estimated at not less than a
|
||
dozen leagues, one could see the column of water spurting from the
|
||
blow-hole of the great animal, his dimensions must be something
|
||
preternatural. To fly is, therefore, the course to be suggested by
|
||
ordinary prudence. But we have not come into that part of the world to
|
||
be prudent. Such is my uncle's determination.
|
||
We, accordingly, continued to advance. The nearer we come, the
|
||
loftier is the spouting water. What monster can fill himself with such
|
||
huge volumes of water, and then unceasingly spout them out in such
|
||
lofty jets?
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
At eight o'clock in the evening, reckoning as above ground, where
|
||
there is day and night, we are not more than two leagues from the
|
||
mighty beast. Its long, black, enormous, mountainous body, lies on the
|
||
top of the water like an island. But then sailors have been said to
|
||
have gone ashore on sleeping whales, mistaking them for land. Is it
|
||
illusion, or is it fear? Its length cannot be less than a thousand
|
||
fathoms. What, then, is this cetaceous monster of which no Cuvier ever
|
||
thought?
|
||
It is quite motionless and presents the appearance of sleep. The sea
|
||
seems unable to lift him upwards; it is rather the waves which break
|
||
on his huge and gigantic frame. The waterspout, rising to a height
|
||
of five hundred feet, breaks in spray with a dull, sullen roar.
|
||
We advance, like senseless lunatics, towards this mighty mass.
|
||
I honestly confess that I was abjectly afraid. I declared that I
|
||
would go no farther. I threatened in my terror to cut the sheet of the
|
||
sail. I attacked the Professor with considerable acrimony, calling him
|
||
foolhardy, mad, I know not what. He made no answer.
|
||
Suddenly the imperturbable Hans once more pointed his finger to
|
||
the menacing object: "Holme!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"An island!" cried my uncle.
|
||
"An island?" I replied, shrugging my shoulders at this poor
|
||
attempt at deception.
|
||
"Of course it is," cried my uncle, bursting into a loud and joyous
|
||
laugh.
|
||
"But the waterspout?"
|
||
"Geyser," said Hans.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Yes, of course- a geyser," replied my uncle, still laughing, "a
|
||
geyser like those common in Iceland. Jets like this are the great
|
||
wonders of the country."
|
||
At first I would not allow that I had been so grossly deceived. What
|
||
could be more ridiculous than to have taken an island for a marine
|
||
monster? But kick as one may, one must yield to evidence, and I was
|
||
finally convinced of my error. It was nothing, after all, but a
|
||
natural phenomenon.
|
||
As we approached nearer and nearer, the dimensions of the liquid
|
||
sheaf of waters became truly grand and stupendous. The island had,
|
||
at a distance, presented the appearance of an enormous whale, whose
|
||
head rose high above the waters. The geyser, a word the Icelanders
|
||
pronounce geysir, and which signifies fury, rose majestically from its
|
||
summit. Dull detonations are heard every now and then, and the
|
||
enormous jet, taken as it were with sudden fury, shakes its plume of
|
||
vapor, and bounds into the first layer of the clouds. It is alone.
|
||
Neither spurts of vapor nor hot springs surround it, and the whole
|
||
volcanic power of that region is concentrated in one sublime column.
|
||
The rays of electric light mix with this dazzling sheaf, every drop as
|
||
it falls assuming the prismatic colors of the rainbow.
|
||
"Let us go on shore," said the Professor, after some minutes of
|
||
silence.
|
||
It is necessary, however, to take great precaution, in order to
|
||
avoid the weight of falling waters, which would cause the raft to
|
||
founder in an instant. Hans, however, steers admirably, and brings
|
||
us to the other extremity of the island.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
I was the first to leap on the rock. My uncle followed, while the
|
||
eider-duck hunter remained still, like a man above any childish
|
||
sources of astonishment. We were now walking on granite mixed with
|
||
siliceous sandstone; the soil shivered under our feet like the sides
|
||
of boilers in which over-heated steam is forcibly confined. It is
|
||
burning. We soon came in sight of the little central basin from
|
||
which rose the geyser. I plunged a thermometer into the water which
|
||
ran bubbling from the center, and it marked a heat of a hundred and
|
||
sixty-three degrees!
|
||
This water, therefore, came from some place where the heat was
|
||
intense. This was singularly in contradiction with the theories of
|
||
Professor Hardwigg. I could not help telling him my opinion on the
|
||
subject.
|
||
"Well," said he sharply, "and what does this prove against my
|
||
doctrine?
|
||
"Nothing," replied I dryly, seeing that I was running my head
|
||
against a foregone conclusion.
|
||
Nevertheless, I am compelled to confess that until now we have
|
||
been most remarkably fortunate, and that this voyage is being
|
||
accomplished in most favorable conditions of temperature; but it
|
||
appears evident, in fact, certain, that we shall sooner or later
|
||
arrive at one of those regions where the central heat will reach its
|
||
utmost limits, and will go far beyond all the possible gradations of
|
||
thermometers.
|
||
{CHAPTER_31 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
Visions of the Hades of the ancients, believed to be in the center
|
||
of the earth, floated through my imagination.
|
||
We shall, however, see what we shall see. That is the Professor's
|
||
favorite phrase now. Having christened the volcanic island by the name
|
||
of his nephew, the leader of the expedition turned away and gave the
|
||
signal for embarkation.
|
||
I stood still, however, for some minutes, gazing upon the
|
||
magnificent geyser. I soon was able to perceive that the upward
|
||
tendency of the water was irregular; now it diminished in intensity,
|
||
and then, suddenly, it regained new vigor, which I attributed to the
|
||
variation of the pressure of the accumulated vapors in its reservoir.
|
||
At last we took our departure, going carefully round the projecting,
|
||
and rather dangerous, rocks of the southern side. Hans had taken
|
||
advantage of this brief halt to repair the raft.
|
||
Before we took our final departure from the island, however, I
|
||
made some observations to calculate the distance we had gone over, and
|
||
I put them down in my journal. Since we left Port Gretchen, we had
|
||
traveled two hundred and seventy leagues- more than eight hundred
|
||
miles- on this great inland sea; we were, therefore, six hundred and
|
||
twenty leagues from Iceland, and exactly under England.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_32
|
||
CHAPTER 32
|
||
The Battle of the Elements
|
||
-
|
||
FRIDAY, August 21st. This morning the magnificent geyser had
|
||
wholly disappeared. The wind had freshened up, and we were fast
|
||
leaving the neighborhood of Henry's Island. Even the roaring sound
|
||
of the mighty column was lost to the ear.
|
||
The weather, if, under the circumstances, we may use such an
|
||
expression, is about to change very suddenly. The atmosphere is
|
||
being gradually loaded with vapors, which carry with them the
|
||
electricity formed by the constant evaporation of the saline waters;
|
||
the clouds are slowly but sensibly falling towards the sea, and are
|
||
assuming a dark-olive texture; the electric rays can scarcely pierce
|
||
through the opaque curtain which has fallen like a drop scene before
|
||
this wondrous theater, on the stage of which another and terrible
|
||
drama is soon to be enacted. This time it is no fight of animals; it
|
||
is the fearful battle of the elements.
|
||
I feel that I am very peculiarly influenced, as all creatures are on
|
||
land when a deluge is about to take place.
|
||
The cumuli, a perfectly oval kind of cloud, piled upon the south,
|
||
presented a most awful and sinister appearance, with the pitiless
|
||
aspect often seen before a storm. The air is extremely heavy; the
|
||
sea is comparatively calm.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
In the distance, the clouds have assumed the appearance of
|
||
enormous balls of cotton, or rather pods, piled one above the other in
|
||
picturesque confusion. By degrees, they appear to swell out, break,
|
||
and gain in number what they lose in grandeur; their heaviness is so
|
||
great that they are unable to lift themselves from the horizon; but
|
||
under the influence of the upper currents of air, they are gradually
|
||
broken up, become much darker, and then present the appearance of
|
||
one single layer of a formidable character; now and then a lighter
|
||
cloud, still lit up from above, rebounds upon this grey carpet, and is
|
||
lost in the opaque mass.
|
||
There can be no doubt that the entire atmosphere is saturated with
|
||
electric fluid; I am myself wholly impregnated; my hairs literally
|
||
stand on end as if under the influence of a galvanic battery. If one
|
||
of my companions ventured to touch me, I think he would receive rather
|
||
a violent and unpleasant shock.
|
||
About ten o'clock in the morning, the symptoms of the storm became
|
||
more thorough and decisive; the wind appeared to soften down as if
|
||
to take breath for a renewed attack; the vast funereal pall above us
|
||
looked like a huge bag- like the cave of AEolus, in which the storm
|
||
was collecting its forces for the attack.
|
||
I tried all I could not to believe in the menacing signs of the sky,
|
||
and yet I could not avoid saying, as it were involuntarily:
|
||
"I believe we are going to have bad weather."
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
The Professor made me no answer. He was in a horrible, in a
|
||
detestable humor- to see the ocean stretching interminably before
|
||
his eyes. On hearing my words he simply shrugged his shoulders.
|
||
"We shall have a tremendous storm," I said again, pointing to the
|
||
horizon. "These clouds are falling lower and lower upon the sea, as if
|
||
to crush it."
|
||
A great silence prevailed. The wind wholly ceased. Nature assumed
|
||
a dead calm, and ceased to breathe. Upon the mast, where I noticed a
|
||
sort of slight ignis fatuus, the sail hangs in loose heavy folds.
|
||
The raft is motionless in the midst of a dark heavy sea- without
|
||
undulation, without motion. It is as still as glass. But as we are
|
||
making no progress, what is the use of keeping up the sail, which
|
||
may be the cause of our perdition if the tempest should suddenly
|
||
strike us without warning.
|
||
"Let us lower the sail," I said, "it is only an act of common
|
||
prudence."
|
||
"No- no," cried my uncle, in an exasperated tone, "a hundred
|
||
times, no. Let the wind strike us and do its worst, let the storm
|
||
sweep us away where it will- only let me see the glimmer of some
|
||
coast- of some rocky cliffs, even if they dash our raft into a
|
||
thousand pieces. No! keep up the sail- no matter what happens."
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
These words were scarcely uttered when the southern horizon
|
||
underwent a sudden and violent change. The long accumulated vapors
|
||
were resolved into water, and the air required to fill up the void
|
||
produced became a wild and raging tempest.
|
||
It came from the most distant corners of the mighty cavern. It raged
|
||
from every point of the compass. It roared; it yelled; it shrieked
|
||
with glee as of demons let loose. The darkness increased and became
|
||
indeed darkness visible.
|
||
The raft rose and fell with the storm, and bounded over the waves.
|
||
My uncle was cast headlong upon the deck. I with great difficulty
|
||
dragged myself towards him. He was holding on with might and main to
|
||
the end of a cable, and appeared to gaze with pleasure and delight
|
||
at the spectacle of the unchained elements.
|
||
Hans never moved a muscle. His long hair driven hither and thither
|
||
by the tempest and scattered wildly over his motionless face, gave him
|
||
a most extraordinary appearance- for every single hair was illuminated
|
||
by little sparkling sprigs.
|
||
His countenance presents the extraordinary appearance of an
|
||
antediluvian man, a true contemporary of the Megatherium.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Still the mast holds good against the storm. The sail spreads out
|
||
and fills like a soap bubble about to burst. The raft rushes on at a
|
||
pace impossible to estimate, but still less swiftly than the body of
|
||
water displaced beneath it, the rapidity of which may be seen by the
|
||
lines which fly right and left in the wake.
|
||
"The sail, the sail!" I cried, making a trumpet of my hands, and
|
||
then endeavoring to lower it.
|
||
"Let it alone!" said my uncle, more exasperated than ever.
|
||
"Nej," said Hans, gently shaking his head.
|
||
Nevertheless, the rain formed a roaring cataract before this horizon
|
||
of which we were in search, and to which we were rushing like madmen.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
But before this wilderness of waters reached us, the mighty veil
|
||
of cloud was torn in twain; the sea began to foam wildly; and the
|
||
electricity, produced by some vast and extraordinary chemical action
|
||
in the upper layer of cloud, is brought into play. To the fearful
|
||
claps of thunder are added dazzling flashes of lightning, such as I
|
||
had never seen. The flashes crossed one another, hurled from every
|
||
side; while the thunder came pealing like an echo. The mass of vapor
|
||
becomes incandescent; the hailstones which strike the metal of our
|
||
boots and our weapons are actually luminous; the waves as they rise
|
||
appear to be fire-eating monsters, beneath which seethes an intense
|
||
fire, their crests surmounted by combs of flame.
|
||
My eyes are dazzled, blinded by the intensity of light, my ears
|
||
are deafened by the awful roar of the elements. I am compelled to hold
|
||
onto the mast, which bends like a reed beneath the violence of the
|
||
storm, to which none ever before seen by mariners bore any
|
||
resemblance.
|
||
-
|
||
Here my traveling notes become very incomplete, loose and vague. I
|
||
have only been able to make out one or two fugitive observations,
|
||
jotted down in a mere mechanical way. But even their brevity, even
|
||
their obscurity, show the emotions which overcame me.
|
||
-
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Sunday, August 23rd. Where have we got to? In what region are we
|
||
wandering? We are still carried forward with inconceivable rapidity.
|
||
The night has been fearful, something not to be described. The storm
|
||
shows no signs of cessation. We exist in the midst of an uproar
|
||
which has no name. The detonations as of artillery are incessant.
|
||
Our ears literally bleed. We are unable to exchange a word, or hear
|
||
each other speak.
|
||
The lightning never ceases to flash for a single instant. I can
|
||
see the zigzags after a rapid dart strike the arched roof of this
|
||
mightiest of mighty vaults. If it were to give way and fall upon us!
|
||
Other lightnings plunge their forked streaks in every direction, and
|
||
take the form of globes of fire, which explode like bombshells over
|
||
a beleaguered city. The general crash and roar do not apparently
|
||
increase; it has already gone far beyond what human ear can
|
||
appreciate. If all the powder magazines in the world were to explode
|
||
together, it would be impossible for us to hear worse noise.
|
||
There is a constant emission of light from the storm clouds; the
|
||
electric matter is incessantly released; evidently the gaseous
|
||
principles of the air are out of order; innumerable columns of water
|
||
rush up like waterspouts, and fall back upon the surface of the
|
||
ocean in foam.
|
||
Whither are we going? My uncle still lies at full length upon the
|
||
raft, without speaking- without taking any note of time.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
The heat increases. I look at the thermometer, to my surprise it
|
||
indicates- The exact figure is here rubbed out in my manuscript.
|
||
-
|
||
Monday, August 24th. This terrible storm will never end. Why
|
||
should not this state of the atmosphere, so dense and murky, once
|
||
modified, again remain definitive?
|
||
We are utterly broken and harassed by fatigue. Hans remains just
|
||
as usual. The raft runs to the southeast invariably. We have now
|
||
already run two hundred leagues from the newly discovered island.
|
||
About twelve o'clock the storm became worse than ever. We are
|
||
obliged now to fasten every bit of cargo tightly on the deck of the
|
||
raft, or everything would be swept away. We make ourselves fast,
|
||
too, each man lashing the other. The waves drive over us, so that
|
||
several times we are actually under water.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
We had been under the painful necessity of abstaining from speech
|
||
for three days and three nights. We opened our mouths, we moved our
|
||
lips, but no sound came. Even when we placed our mouths to each
|
||
other's ears it was the same.
|
||
The wind carried the voice away.
|
||
My uncle once contrived to get his head close to mine after
|
||
several almost vain endeavors. He appeared to my nearly exhausted
|
||
senses to articulate some word. I had a notion, more from intuition
|
||
than anything else, that he said to me, "We are lost."
|
||
I took out my notebook, from which under the most desperate
|
||
circumstances I never parted, and wrote a few words as legibly as I
|
||
could:
|
||
"Take in sail."
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
With a deep sigh he nodded his head and acquiesced.
|
||
His head had scarcely time to fall back in the position from which
|
||
he had momentarily raised it than a disk or ball of fire appeared on
|
||
the very edge of the raft- our devoted, our doomed craft. The mast and
|
||
sail are carried away bodily, and I see them swept away to a
|
||
prodigious height like a kite.
|
||
We were frozen, actually shivered with terror. The ball of fire,
|
||
half white, half azure-colored, about the size of a ten-inch
|
||
bombshell, moved along, turning with prodigious rapidity to leeward of
|
||
the storm. It ran about here, there, and everywhere, it clambered up
|
||
one of the bulwarks of the raft, it leaped upon the sack of
|
||
provisions, and then finally descended lightly, fell like a football
|
||
and landed on our powder barrel.
|
||
Horrible situation. An explosion of course was now inevitable.
|
||
By heaven's mercy, it was not so.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
The dazzling disk moved on one side, it approached Hans, who
|
||
looked at it with singular fixity; then it approached my uncle, who
|
||
cast himself on his knees to avoid it; it came towards me, as I
|
||
stood pale and shuddering in the dazzling light and heat; it
|
||
pirouetted round my feet, which I endeavored to withdraw.
|
||
An odor of nitrous gas filled the whole air; it penetrated to the
|
||
throat, to the lungs. I felt ready to choke.
|
||
Why is it that I cannot withdraw my feet? Are they riveted to the
|
||
flooring of the raft?
|
||
No.
|
||
The fall of the electric globe has turned all the iron on board into
|
||
loadstones- the instruments, the tools, the arms are clanging together
|
||
with awful and horrible noise; the nails of my heavy boots adhere
|
||
closely to the plate of iron incrustated in the wood. I cannot
|
||
withdraw my foot.
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
It is the old story again of the mountain of adamant.
|
||
At last, by a violent and almost superhuman effort, I tear it away
|
||
just as the ball which is still executing its gyratory motions is
|
||
about to run round it and drag me with it- if-
|
||
Oh, what intense stupendous light! The globe of fire bursts- we
|
||
are enveloped in cascades of living fire, which flood the space around
|
||
with luminous matter.
|
||
Then all went out and darkness once more fell upon the deep! I had
|
||
just time to see my uncle once more cast apparently senseless on the
|
||
flooring of the raft, Hans at the helm, "spitting fire" under the
|
||
influence of the electricity which seemed to have gone through him.
|
||
Whither are we going, I ask? and echo answers, Whither?
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
|
||
Tuesday, August 25th. I have just come out of a long fainting fit.
|
||
The awful and hideous storm still continues; the lightning has
|
||
increased in vividness, and pours out its fiery wrath like a brood
|
||
of serpents let loose in the atmosphere.
|
||
Are we still upon the sea? Yes, and being carried along with
|
||
incredible velocity.
|
||
We have passed under England, under the Channel, under France,
|
||
probably under the whole extent of Europe.
|
||
Another awful clamor in the distance. This time it is certain that
|
||
the sea is breaking upon the rocks at no great distance. Then-
|
||
{CHAPTER_32 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
|
||
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_33
|
||
CHAPTER 33
|
||
Our Route Reversed
|
||
-
|
||
HERE ends what I call "My Journal" of our voyage on board the
|
||
raft, which journal was happily saved from the wreck. I proceed with
|
||
my narrative as I did before I commenced my daily notes.
|
||
What happened when the terrible shock took place, when the raft
|
||
was cast upon the rocky shore, it would be impossible for me now to
|
||
say. I felt myself precipitated violently into the boiling waves,
|
||
and if I escaped from a certain and cruel death, it was wholly owing
|
||
to the determination of the faithful Hans, who, clutching me by the
|
||
arm, saved me from the yawning abyss.
|
||
The courageous Icelander then carried me in his powerful arms, far
|
||
out of the reach of the waves, and laid me down upon a burning expanse
|
||
of sand, where I found myself some time afterwards in the company of
|
||
my uncle, the Professor.
|
||
Then he quietly returned towards the fatal rocks, against which
|
||
the furious waves were beating, in order to save any stray waifs
|
||
from the wreck. This man was always practical and thoughtful. I
|
||
could not utter a word; I was quite overcome with emotion; my whole
|
||
body was broken and bruised with fatigue; it took hours before I was
|
||
anything like myself.
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
Meanwhile, there fell a fearful deluge of rain, drenching us to
|
||
the skin. Its very violence, however, proclaimed the approaching end
|
||
of the storm. Some overhanging rocks afforded us a slight protection
|
||
from the torrents.
|
||
Under this shelter, Hans prepared some food, which, however, I was
|
||
unable to touch; and, exhausted by the three weary days and nights
|
||
of watching, we fell into a deep and painful sleep. My dreams were
|
||
fearful, but at last exhausted nature asserted her supremacy, and I
|
||
slumbered.
|
||
Next day when I awoke the change was magical. The weather was
|
||
magnificent. Air and sea, as if by mutual consent, had regained
|
||
their serenity. Every trace of the storm, even the faintest, had
|
||
disappeared. I was saluted on my awakening by the first joyous tones I
|
||
had heard from the Professor for many a day. His gaiety, indeed, was
|
||
something terrible.
|
||
"Well, my lad," he cried, rubbing his hands together, "have you
|
||
slept soundly?
|
||
Might it not have been supposed that we were in the old house on the
|
||
Konigstrasse; that I had just come down quietly to my breakfast; and
|
||
that my marriage with Gretchen was to take place that very day? My
|
||
uncle's coolness was exasperating.
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
Alas, considering how the tempest had driven us in an easterly
|
||
direction, we had passed under the whole of Germany, under the city of
|
||
Hamburg where I had been so happy, under the very street which
|
||
contained all I loved and cared for in the world.
|
||
It was a positive fact that I was only separated from her by a
|
||
distance of forty leagues. But these forty leagues were of hard,
|
||
impenetrable granite!
|
||
All these dreary and miserable reflections passed through my mind,
|
||
before I attempted to answer my uncle's question.
|
||
"Why, what is the matter?" he cried. "Cannot you say whether you
|
||
have slept well or not?"
|
||
"I have slept very well," was my reply, "but every bone in my body
|
||
aches. I suppose that will lead to nothing."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"Nothing at all, my boy. It is only the result of the fatigue of the
|
||
last few days- that is all.
|
||
"You appear- if I may be allowed to say so- to be very jolly this
|
||
morning," I said.
|
||
"Delighted, my dear boy, delighted. Was never happier in my life. We
|
||
have at last reached the wished-for port."
|
||
"The end of our expedition?" cried I, in a tone of considerable
|
||
surprise.
|
||
"No; but to the confines of that sea which I began to fear would
|
||
never end, but go round the whole world. We will now tranquilly resume
|
||
our journey by land, and once again endeavor to dive into the center
|
||
of the earth."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"My dear uncle," I began, in a hesitating kind of way, "allow me
|
||
to ask you one question."
|
||
"Certainly, Harry; a dozen if you think proper."
|
||
"One will suffice. How about getting back?" I asked.
|
||
"How about getting back? What a question to ask. We have not as
|
||
yet reached the end of our journey."
|
||
"I know that. All I want to know is how you propose we shall
|
||
manage the return voyage?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"In the most simple manner in the world," said the imperturbable
|
||
Professor. "Once we reach the exact center of this sphere, either we
|
||
shall find a new road by which to ascend to the surface, or we shall
|
||
simply turn round and go back by the way we came. I have every
|
||
reason to believe that while we are traveling forward, it will not
|
||
close behind us."
|
||
"Then one of the first matters to see to will be to repair the
|
||
raft," was my rather melancholy response.
|
||
"Of course. We must attend to that above all things," continued
|
||
the Professor.
|
||
"Then comes the all-important question of provisions," I urged.
|
||
"Have we anything like enough left to enable us to accomplish such
|
||
great, such amazing, designs as you contemplate carrying out?"
|
||
"I have seen into the matter, and my answer is in the affirmative.
|
||
Hans is a very clever fellow, and I have reason to believe that he has
|
||
saved the greater part of the cargo. But the best way to satisfy
|
||
your scruples is to come and judge for yourself."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Saying which, he led the way out of the kind of open grotto in which
|
||
we had taken shelter. I had almost begun to hope that which I should
|
||
rather have feared, and this was the impossibility of such a shipwreck
|
||
leaving even the slightest signs of what it had carried as freight.
|
||
I was, however, thoroughly mistaken.
|
||
As soon as I reached the shores of this inland sea, I found Hans
|
||
standing gravely in the midst of a large number of things laid out
|
||
in complete order. My uncle wrung his hands with deep and silent
|
||
gratitude. His heart was too full for speech.
|
||
This man, whose superhuman devotion to his employers I not only
|
||
never saw surpassed, nor even equaled, had been hard at work all the
|
||
time we slept, and at the risk of his life had succeeded in saving the
|
||
most precious articles of our cargo.
|
||
Of course, under the circumstances, we necessarily experienced
|
||
several severe losses. Our weapons had wholly vanished. But experience
|
||
had taught us to do without them. The provision of powder had,
|
||
however, remained intact, after having narrowly escaped blowing us all
|
||
to atoms in the storm.
|
||
"Well," said the Professor, who was now ready to make the best of
|
||
everything, "as we have no guns, all we have to do is to give up all
|
||
idea of hunting."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Yes, my dear sir, we can do without them, but what about all our
|
||
instruments?"
|
||
"Here is the manometer, the most useful of all, and which I gladly
|
||
accept in lieu of the rest. With it alone I can calculate the depth as
|
||
we proceed; by its means alone I shall be able to decide when we
|
||
have reached the center of the earth. Ha, ha! but for this little
|
||
instrument we might make a mistake, and run the risk of coming out
|
||
at the antipodes!"
|
||
All this was said amid bursts of unnatural laughter.
|
||
"But the compass," I cried, "without that what can we do?"
|
||
"Here it is, safe and sound!" he cried, with real joy, "ah, ah,
|
||
and here we have the chronometer and the thermometers. Hans the hunter
|
||
is indeed an invaluable man!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
It was impossible to deny this fact. As far as the nautical and
|
||
other instruments were concerned, nothing was wanting. Then on further
|
||
examination, I found ladders, cords, pickaxes, crowbars, and
|
||
shovels, all scattered about on the shore.
|
||
There was, however, finally the most important question of all,
|
||
and that was, provisions.
|
||
"But what are we to do for food?" I asked.
|
||
"Let us see to the commissariat department", replied my uncle
|
||
gravely.
|
||
The boxes which contained our supply of food for the voyage were
|
||
placed in a row along the strand, and were in a capital state of
|
||
preservation; the sea had in every case respected their contents,
|
||
and to sum up in one sentence, taking into consideration, biscuits,
|
||
salt meat, Schiedam and dried fish, we could still calculate on having
|
||
about four months' supply, if used with prudence and caution.
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Four months," cried the sanguine Professor in high glee. "Then we
|
||
shall have plenty of time both to go and to come, and with what
|
||
remains I undertake to give a grand dinner to my colleagues of the
|
||
Johanneum."
|
||
I sighed. I should by this time have become used to the
|
||
temperament of my uncle, and yet this man astonished me more and
|
||
more every day. He was the greatest human enigma I ever had known.
|
||
"Now," he, "before we do anything else, we must lay in a stock of
|
||
fresh water. The rain has fallen in abundance, and filled the
|
||
hollows of the granite. There is a rich supply of water, and we have
|
||
no fear of suffering from thirst, which in our circumstances is of the
|
||
last importance. As for the raft, I shall recommend Hans to repair
|
||
it to the best of his abilities; though I have every reason to believe
|
||
we shall not require it again."
|
||
"How is that?" I cried, more amazed than ever at my uncle's style of
|
||
reasoning.
|
||
"I have an idea, my dear boy; it is none other than this simple
|
||
fact; we shall not come out by the same opening as that by which we
|
||
entered."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
I began to look at my uncle with vague suspicion. An idea had more
|
||
than once taken possession of me; and this was, that he was going mad.
|
||
And yet, little did I think how true and prophetic his words were
|
||
doomed to be.
|
||
"And now," he said, "having seen to all these matters of detail,
|
||
to breakfast."
|
||
I followed him to a sort of projecting cape, after he had given
|
||
his last instructions to our guide. In this original position, with
|
||
dried meat, biscuit, and a delicious cup of tea, we made a
|
||
satisfactory meal- I may say one of the most welcome and pleasant I
|
||
ever remember. Exhaustion, the keen atmosphere, the state of calm
|
||
after so much agitation, all contributed to give me an excellent
|
||
appetite. Indeed, it contributed very much to producing a pleasant and
|
||
cheerful state of mind.
|
||
While breakfast was in hand, and between the sips of warm tea, I
|
||
asked my uncle if he had any idea of how we now stood in relation to
|
||
the world above.
|
||
"For my part," I added, "I think it will be rather difficult to
|
||
determine."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Well, if we were compelled to fix the exact spot," said my uncle,
|
||
it might be difficult, since during the three days of that awful
|
||
tempest I could keep no account either of the quickness of our pace,
|
||
or of the direction in which the raft was going. Still, we will
|
||
endeavor to approximate to the truth. We shall not, I believe, be so
|
||
very far out."
|
||
"Well, if I recollect rightly," I replied, "our last observation was
|
||
made at the geyser island."
|
||
"Harry's Island, my boy! Harry's Island. Do not decline the honor of
|
||
having named it; given your name to an island discovered by us, the
|
||
first human beings who trod it since the creation of the world!"
|
||
"Let it be so, then. At Harry's Island we had already gone over
|
||
two hundred and seventy leagues of sea, and we were, I believe,
|
||
about six hundred leagues, more or less, from Iceland."
|
||
"Good. I am glad to see that you remember so well. Let us start from
|
||
that point, and let us count four days of storm, during which our rate
|
||
of traveling must have been very great. I should say that our velocity
|
||
must have been about eighty leagues to the twenty-four hours."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
I agreed that I thought this a fair calculation. There were then
|
||
three hundred leagues to be added to the grand total.
|
||
"Yes, and the Central Sea must extend at least six hundred leagues
|
||
from side to side. Do you know, my boy, Harry, that we have discovered
|
||
an inland lake larger than the Mediterranean?"
|
||
"Certainly, and we only know of its extent in one way. It may be
|
||
hundreds of miles in length."
|
||
"Very likely."
|
||
"Then," said I, after calculating for some for some minutes, "if
|
||
your previsions are right, we are at this moment exactly under the
|
||
Mediterranean itself."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
"Do you think so?"
|
||
"Yes, I am almost certain of it. Are we not nine hundred leagues
|
||
distant from Reykjavik?"
|
||
"That is perfectly true, and a famous bit of road we have
|
||
traveled, my boy. But why we should be under the Mediterranean more
|
||
than under Turkey or the Atlantic Ocean can only be known when we
|
||
are sure of not having deviated from our course; and of this we know
|
||
nothing."
|
||
"I do not think we were driven very far from our course; the wind
|
||
appears to me to have been always about the same. My opinion is that
|
||
this shore must be situated to the southeast of Port Gretchen."
|
||
"Good- I hope so. It will, however, be easy to decide the matter
|
||
by taking the bearings from our departure by means of the compass.
|
||
Come along, and we will consult that invaluable invention."
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
The Professor now walked eagerly in the direction of the rock
|
||
where the indefatigable Hans had placed the instruments in safety.
|
||
My uncle was gay and lighthearted; he rubbed his hands, and assumed
|
||
all sorts of attitudes. He was to all appearance once more a young
|
||
man. Since I had known him, never had he been so amiable and pleasant.
|
||
I followed him, rather curious to know whether I had made any
|
||
mistake in my estimation of our position.
|
||
As soon as we had reached the rock, my uncle took the compass,
|
||
placed it horizontally before him, and looked keenly at the needle.
|
||
As he had at first shaken it to give it vivacity, it oscillated
|
||
considerably, and then slowly assumed its right position under the
|
||
influence of the magnetic power.
|
||
The Professor bent his eyes curiously over the wondrous
|
||
instrument. A violent start immediately showed the extent of his
|
||
emotion.
|
||
He closed his eyes, rubbed them, and took another and a keener
|
||
survey.
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
Then he turned slowly round to me, stupefaction depicted on his
|
||
countenance.
|
||
"What is the matter?" said I, beginning to be alarmed.
|
||
He could not speak. He was too overwhelmed for words. He simply
|
||
pointed to the instrument.
|
||
I examined it eagerly according to his mute directions, and a loud
|
||
cry of surprise escaped my lips. The needle of the compass pointed due
|
||
north- in the direction we expected was the south!
|
||
It pointed to the shore instead of to the high seas.
|
||
{CHAPTER_33 ^paragraph 80}
|
||
I shook the compass; I examined it with a curious and anxious eye.
|
||
It was in a state of perfection. No blemish in any way explained the
|
||
phenomenon. Whatever position we forced the needle into, it returned
|
||
invariably to the same unexpected point.
|
||
It was useless attempting to conceal from ourselves the fatal truth.
|
||
There could be no doubt about it, unwelcome as was the fact, that
|
||
during the tempest, there had been a sudden slant of wind, of which we
|
||
had been unable to take any account, and thus the raft had carried
|
||
us back to the shores we had left, apparently forever, so many days
|
||
before!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_34
|
||
CHAPTER 34
|
||
A Voyage of Discovery
|
||
-
|
||
IT would be altogether impossible for me to give any idea of the
|
||
utter astonishment which overcame the Professor on making this
|
||
extraordinary discovery. Amazement, incredulity, and rage were blended
|
||
in such a way as to alarm me.
|
||
During the whole course of my Life I had never seen a man at first
|
||
so chapfallen; and then so furiously indignant.
|
||
The terrible fatigues of our sea voyage, the fearful dangers we
|
||
had passed through, had all, all, gone for nothing. We had to begin
|
||
them all over again.
|
||
Instead of progressing, as we fondly expected, during a voyage of so
|
||
many days, we had retreated. Every hour of our expedition on the
|
||
raft had been so much lost time!
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
Presently, however, the indomitable energy of my uncle overcame
|
||
every other consideration.
|
||
"So," he said, between his set teeth, "fatality will play me these
|
||
terrible tricks. The elements themselves conspire to overwhelm me with
|
||
mortification. Air, fire, and water combine their united efforts to
|
||
oppose my passage. Well, they shall see what the earnest will of a
|
||
determined man can do. I will not yield, I will not retreat even one
|
||
inch; and we shall see who shall triumph in this great contest- man or
|
||
nature."
|
||
Standing upright on a rock, irritated and menacing, Professor
|
||
Hardwigg, like the ferocious Ajax, seemed to defy the fates. I,
|
||
however, took upon myself to interfere, and to impose some sort of
|
||
check upon such insensate enthusiasm.
|
||
"Listen to me, Uncle," I said, in a firm but temperate tone of
|
||
voice, "there must be some limit to ambition here below. It is utterly
|
||
useless to struggle against the impossible. Pray listen to reason.
|
||
We are utterly unprepared for a sea voyage; it is simply madness to
|
||
think of performing a journey of five hundred leagues upon a
|
||
wretched pile of beams, with a counterpane for a sail, a paltry
|
||
stick for a mast, and a tempest to contend with. As we are totally
|
||
incapable of steering our frail craft, we shall become the mere
|
||
plaything of the storm, and it is acting the part of madmen if we, a
|
||
second time, run any risk upon this dangerous and treacherous
|
||
Central Sea."
|
||
These are only a few of the reasons and arguments I put together-
|
||
reasons and arguments which to me appeared unanswerable. I was allowed
|
||
to go on without interruption for about ten minutes. The explanation
|
||
to this I soon discovered. The Professor was not even listening, and
|
||
did not hear a word of all my eloquence.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"To the raft!" he cried in a hoarse voice, when I paused for a
|
||
reply.
|
||
Such was the result of my strenuous effort to resist his iron
|
||
will. I tried again; I begged and implored him; I got into a
|
||
passion; but I had to deal with a will more determined than my own.
|
||
I seemed to feel like the waves which fought and battled against the
|
||
huge mass of granite at our feet, which had smiled grimly for so
|
||
many ages at their puny efforts.
|
||
Hans, meanwhile, without taking part in our discussion, had been
|
||
repairing the raft. One would have supposed that he instinctively
|
||
guessed at the further projects of my uncle.
|
||
By means of some fragments of cordage, he had again made the raft
|
||
seaworthy.
|
||
While I had been speaking, he had hoisted a new mast and sail, the
|
||
latter already fluttering and waving in the breeze.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
The worthy Professor spoke a few words to our imperturbable guide,
|
||
who immediately began to put our baggage on board and to prepare for
|
||
our departure. The atmosphere was now tolerably clear and pure, and
|
||
the northeast wind blew steadily and serenely. It appeared likely to
|
||
last for some time.
|
||
What, then, could I do? Could I undertake to resist the iron will of
|
||
two men? It was simply impossible if even I could have hoped for the
|
||
support of Hans. This, however, was out of the question. It appeared
|
||
to me that the Icelander had set aside all personal will and identity.
|
||
He was a picture of abnegation.
|
||
I could hope for nothing from one so infatuated with and devoted
|
||
to his master. All I could do, therefore, was to swim with the stream.
|
||
In a mood of stolid and sullen resignation, I was about to take my
|
||
accustomed place on the raft when my uncle placed his hand upon my
|
||
shoulder.
|
||
"There is no hurry, my boy," he said, "we shall not start until
|
||
tomorrow."
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
I looked the picture of resignation to the dire will of fate.
|
||
"Under the circumstances," he said, "I ought to neglect no
|
||
precautions. As fate has cast me upon these shores, I shall not
|
||
leave without having completely examined them."
|
||
In order to understand this remark, I must explain that though we
|
||
had been driven back to the northern shore, we had landed at a very
|
||
different spot from that which had been our starting point.
|
||
Port Gretchen must, we calculated, be very much to the westward.
|
||
Nothing, therefore, was more natural and reasonable than that we
|
||
should reconnoiter this new shore upon which we had so unexpectedly
|
||
landed.
|
||
"Let us go on a journey of discovery," I cried.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
And leaving Hans to his important operation, we started on our
|
||
expedition. The distance between the foreshore at high water and the
|
||
foot of the rocks was considerable. It would take about half an hour's
|
||
walking to get from one to the other.
|
||
As we trudged along, our feet crushed innumerable shells of every
|
||
shape and size- once the dwelling place of animals of every period
|
||
of creation.
|
||
I particularly noticed some enormous shells- carapaces (turtle and
|
||
tortoise species) the diameter of which exceeded fifteen feet.
|
||
They had in past ages belonged to those gigantic Glyptodons of the
|
||
Pliocene period, of which the modern turtle is but a minute
|
||
specimen. In addition, the whole soil was covered by a vast quantity
|
||
of stony relics, having the appearance of flints worn by the action of
|
||
the waves, and lying in successive layers one above the other. I
|
||
came to the conclusion that in past ages the sea must have covered the
|
||
whole district. Upon the scattered rocks, now lying far beyond its
|
||
reach, the mighty waves of ages had left evident marks of their
|
||
passage.
|
||
On reflection, this appeared to me partially to explain the
|
||
existence of this remarkable ocean, forty leagues below the surface of
|
||
the earth's crust. According to my new, and perhaps fanciful,
|
||
theory, this liquid mass must be gradually lost in the deep bowels
|
||
of the earth. I had also no doubt that this mysterious sea was fed
|
||
by infiltration of the ocean above, through imperceptible fissures.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Nevertheless, it was impossible not to admit that these fissures
|
||
must now be nearly choked up, for if not, the cavern, or rather the
|
||
immense and stupendous reservoir, would have been completely filled in
|
||
a short space of time. Perhaps even this water, having to contend
|
||
against the accumulated subterraneous fires of the interior of the
|
||
earth, had become partially vaporized. Hence the explanation of
|
||
those heavy clouds suspended over our heads, and the superabundant
|
||
display of that electricity which occasioned such terrible storms in
|
||
this deep and cavernous sea.
|
||
This lucid explanation of the phenomena we had witnessed appeared to
|
||
me quite satisfactory. However great and mighty the marvels of
|
||
nature may seem to us, they are always to be explained by physical
|
||
reasons. Everything is subordinate to some great law of nature.
|
||
It now appeared clear that we were walking upon a kind of
|
||
sedimentary soil, formed like all the soils of that period, so
|
||
frequent on the surface of the globe, by the subsidence of the waters.
|
||
The Professor, who was now in his element, carefully examined every
|
||
rocky fissure. Let him only find an opening and it directly became
|
||
important to him to examine its depth.
|
||
For a whole mile we followed the windings of the Central Sea, when
|
||
suddenly an important change took place in the aspect of the soil.
|
||
It seemed to have been rudely cast up, convulsionized, as it were,
|
||
by a violent upheaving of the lower strata. In many places, hollows
|
||
here and hillocks there attested great dislocations at some other
|
||
period of the terrestrial mass.
|
||
We advanced with great difficulty over the broken masses of
|
||
granite mixed with flint, quartz, and alluvial deposits, when a
|
||
large field, more even than a field, a plain of bones, appeared
|
||
suddenly before our eyes! It looked like an immense cemetery, where
|
||
generation after generation had mingled their mortal dust.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
Lofty barrows of early remains rose at intervals. They undulated
|
||
away to the limits of the distant horizon and were lost in a thick and
|
||
brown fog.
|
||
On that spot, some three square miles in extent, was accumulated the
|
||
whole history of animal life- scarcely one creature upon the
|
||
comparatively modern soil of the upper and inhabited world had not
|
||
there existed.
|
||
Nevertheless, we were drawn forward by an all-absorbing and
|
||
impatient curiosity. Our feet crushed with a dry and crackling sound
|
||
the remains of those prehistoric fossils, for which the museums of
|
||
great cities quarrel, even when they obtain only rare and curious
|
||
morsels. A thousand such naturalists as Cuvier would not have sufficed
|
||
to recompose the skeletons of the organic beings which lay in this
|
||
magnificent osseous collection.
|
||
I was utterly confounded. My uncle stood for some minutes with his
|
||
arms raised on high towards the thick granite vault which served us
|
||
for a sky. His mouth was wide open; his eyes sparkled wildly behind
|
||
his spectacles (which he had fortunately saved), his head bobbed up
|
||
and down and from side to side, while his whole attitude and mien
|
||
expressed unbounded astonishment.
|
||
He stood in the presence of an endless, wondrous, and
|
||
inexhaustibly rich collection of antediluvian monsters, piled up for
|
||
his own private and peculiar satisfaction.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
Fancy an enthusiastic lover of books carried suddenly into the
|
||
very midst of the famous library of Alexandria burned by the
|
||
sacrilegious Omar, and which some miracle had restored to its pristine
|
||
splendor! Such was something of the state of mind in which Uncle
|
||
Hardwigg was now placed.
|
||
For some time he stood thus, literally aghast at the magnitude of
|
||
his discovery.
|
||
But it was even a greater excitement when, darting wildly over
|
||
this mass of organic dust, he caught up a naked skull and addressed me
|
||
in a quivering voice:
|
||
"Harry, my boy- Harry- this is a human head!"
|
||
"A human head, Uncle!" I said, no less amazed and stupefied than
|
||
himself.
|
||
{CHAPTER_34 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Yes, nephew. Ah! Mr. Milne- Edwards- ah! Mr. De Quatrefages- why
|
||
are you not here where I am- I, Professor Hardwigg!"
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_35
|
||
CHAPTER 35
|
||
Discovery upon Discovery
|
||
-
|
||
IN order fully to understand the exclamation made by my uncle, and
|
||
his allusions to these illustrious and learned men, it will be
|
||
necessary to enter into certain explanations in regard to a
|
||
circumstance of the highest importance to paleontology, or the science
|
||
of fossil life, which had taken place a short time before our
|
||
departure from the upper regions of the earth.
|
||
On the 28th of March, 1863, some navigators under the direction of
|
||
M. Boucher de Perthes, were at work in the great quarries of
|
||
Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, in the department of the Somme, in
|
||
France. While at work, they unexpectedly came upon a human jawbone
|
||
buried fourteen feet below the surface of the soil. It was the first
|
||
fossil of the kind that had ever been brought to the light of day.
|
||
Near this unexpected human relic were found stone hatchets and
|
||
carved flints, colored and clothed by time in one uniform brilliant
|
||
tint of verdigris.
|
||
The report of this extraordinary and unexpected discovery spread not
|
||
only all over France, but over England and Germany. Many learned men
|
||
belonging to various scientific bodies, and noteworthy among others,
|
||
Messrs. Milne-Edwards and De Quatrefages, took the affair very much to
|
||
heart, demonstrated the incontestable authenticity of the bone in
|
||
question, and became- to use the phrase then recognized in England-
|
||
the most ardent supporters of the "jawbone question."
|
||
To the eminent geologists of the United Kingdom who looked upon
|
||
the fact as certain- Messrs. Falconer, Buck, Carpenter, and others-
|
||
were soon united the learned men of Germany, and among those in the
|
||
first rank, the most eager, the most enthusiastic, was my worthy
|
||
uncle, Professor Hardwigg.
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
The authenticity of a human fossil of the Quaternary period seemed
|
||
then to be incontestably demonstrated, and even to be admitted by
|
||
the most skeptical.
|
||
This system or theory, call it what you will, had, it is true, a
|
||
bitter adversary in M. Elie de Beaumont. This learned man, who holds
|
||
such a high place in the scientific world, holds that the soil of
|
||
Moulin-Quignon does not belong to the diluvium but to a much less
|
||
ancient stratum, and, in accordance with Cuvier in this respect, he
|
||
would by no means admit that the human species was contemporary with
|
||
the animals of the Quaternary epoch. My worthy uncle, Professor
|
||
Hardwigg, in concert with the great majority of geologists, had held
|
||
firm, had disputed, discussed, and finally, after considerable talking
|
||
and writing, M. Elie de Beaumont had been pretty well left alone in
|
||
his opinions.
|
||
We were familiar with all the details of this discussion, but were
|
||
far from being aware then that since our departure the matter had
|
||
entered upon a new phase. Other similar jawbones, though belonging
|
||
to individuals of varied types and very different natures, had been
|
||
found in the movable grey sands of certain grottoes in France,
|
||
Switzerland, and Belgium; together with arms, utensils, tools, bones
|
||
of children, of men in the prime of life, and of old men. The
|
||
existence of men in the Quaternary period became, therefore, more
|
||
positive every day.
|
||
But this was far from being all. New remains, dug up from the
|
||
Pliocene or Tertiary deposits, had enabled the more far-seeing or
|
||
audacious among learned men to assign even a far greater degree of
|
||
antiquity to the human race. These remains, it is true, were not those
|
||
of men; that is, were not the bones of men, but objects decidedly
|
||
having served the human race: shinbones, thighbones of fossil animals,
|
||
regularly scooped out, and in fact sculptured- bearing the
|
||
unmistakable signs of human handiwork.
|
||
By means of these wondrous and unexpected discoveries, man
|
||
ascended endless centuries in the scale of time; he, in fact, preceded
|
||
the mastodon; became the contemporary of the Elephas meridionalis- the
|
||
southern elephant; acquired an antiquity of over a hundred thousand
|
||
years, since that is the date given by the most eminent geologists
|
||
to the Pliocene period of the earth. Such was then the state of
|
||
paleontologic science, and what we moreover knew sufficed to explain
|
||
our attitude before this great cemetery of the plains of the
|
||
Hardwigg Ocean.
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
It will now be easy to understand the Professor's mingled
|
||
astonishment and joy when, on advancing about twenty yards, he found
|
||
himself in the presence of, I may say face to face with, a specimen of
|
||
the human race actually belonging to the Quaternary period!
|
||
It was indeed a human skull, perfectly recognizable. Had a soil of
|
||
very peculiar nature, like that of the cemetery of St. Michel at
|
||
Bordeaux, preserved it during countless ages? This was the question
|
||
I asked myself, but which I was wholly unable to answer. But this head
|
||
with stretched and parchmenty skin, with the teeth whole, the hair
|
||
abundant, was before our eyes as in life!
|
||
I stood mute, almost paralyzed with wonder and awe before this dread
|
||
apparition of another age. My uncle, who on almost every occasion
|
||
was a great talker, remained for a time completely dumfounded. He
|
||
was too full of emotion for speech to be possible. After a while,
|
||
however, we raised up the body to which the skull belonged. We stood
|
||
it on end. It seemed, to our excited imaginations, to look at us
|
||
with its terrible hollow eyes.
|
||
After some minutes of silence, the man was vanquished by the
|
||
Professor. Human instincts succumbed to scientific pride and
|
||
exultation. Professor Hardwigg, carried away by his enthusiasm, forgot
|
||
all the circumstances of our journey, the extraordinary position in
|
||
which we were placed, the immense cavern which stretched far away over
|
||
our heads. There can be no doubt that he thought himself at the
|
||
Institution addressing his attentive pupils, for he put on his most
|
||
doctorial style, waved his hand, and began:
|
||
"Gentlemen, I have the honor on this auspicious occasion to
|
||
present to you a man of the Quaternary period of our globe. Many
|
||
learned men have denied his very existence, while other able
|
||
persons, perhaps of even higher authority, have affirmed their
|
||
belief in the reality of his life. If the St. Thomases of paleontology
|
||
were present, they would reverentially touch him with their fingers
|
||
and believe in his existence, thus acknowledging their obstinate
|
||
heresy. I know that science should be careful in relation to all
|
||
discoveries of this nature. I am not without having heard of the
|
||
many Barnums and other quacks who have made a trade of suchlike
|
||
pretended discoveries. I have, of course, heard of the discovery of
|
||
the kneebones of Ajax, of the pretended finding of the body of Orestes
|
||
by the Spartiates, and of the body of Asterius, ten spans long,
|
||
fifteen feet- of which we read in Pausanias.
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"I have read everything in relation to the skeleton of Trapani,
|
||
discovered in the fourteenth century, and which many persons chose
|
||
to regard as that of Polyphemus, and the history of the giant dug up
|
||
during the sixteenth century in the environs of Palmyra. You are
|
||
well aware as I am, gentlemen, of the existence of the celebrated
|
||
analysis made near Lucerne, in 1577, of the great bones which the
|
||
celebrated Doctor Felix Plater declared belonged to a giant about
|
||
nineteen feet high. I have devoured all the treatises of Cassanion,
|
||
and all those memoirs, pamphlets, speeches, and replies published in
|
||
reference to the skeleton of Teutobochus, king of the Cimbri, the
|
||
invader of Gaul, dug out of a gravel pit in Dauphine, in 1613. In
|
||
the eighteenth century I should have denied, with Peter Campet, the
|
||
existence of the preadamites of Scheuchzer. I have had in my hands the
|
||
writing called Gigans-"
|
||
Here my uncle was afflicted by the natural infirmity which prevented
|
||
him from pronouncing difficult words in public. It was not exactly
|
||
stuttering, but a strange sort of constitutional hesitation.
|
||
"The writing named Gigans-" he repeated.
|
||
He, however, could get no further.
|
||
"Giganteo-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Impossible! The unfortunate word would not come out. There would
|
||
have been great laughter at the Institution, had the mistake
|
||
happened there.
|
||
"Gigantosteology!" at last exclaimed Professor Hardwigg between
|
||
two savage growls.
|
||
Having got over our difficulty, and getting more and more excited-
|
||
"Yes, gentlemen, I am well acquainted with all these matters, and
|
||
know, also, that Cuvier and Blumenbach fully recognized in these bones
|
||
the undeniable remains of mammoths of the Quaternary period. But after
|
||
what we now see, to allow a doubt is to insult scientific inquiry.
|
||
There is the body; you can see it; you can touch it. It is not a
|
||
skeleton, it is a complete and uninjured body, preserved with an
|
||
anthropological object."
|
||
I did not attempt to controvert this singular and astounding
|
||
assertion.
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"If I could but wash this corpse in a solution of sulphuric acid,"
|
||
continued my uncle, "I would undertake to remove all the earthy
|
||
particles, and these resplendent shells, which are incrusted all
|
||
over this body. But I am without this precious dissolving medium.
|
||
Nevertheless, such as it is, this body will tell its own history."
|
||
Here the Professor held up the fossil body, and exhibited it with
|
||
rare dexterity. No professional showman could have shown more
|
||
activity.
|
||
"As on examination you will see," my uncle continued, "it is only
|
||
about six feet in length, which is a long way from the pretended
|
||
giants of early days. As to the particular race to which it
|
||
belonged, it is incontestably Caucasian. It is of the white race, that
|
||
is, of our own. The skull of this fossil being is a perfect ovoid
|
||
without any remarkable or prominent development of the cheekbones, and
|
||
without any projection of the jaw. It presents no indication of the
|
||
prognathism which modifies the facial angle.* Measure the angle for
|
||
yourselves, and you will find that it is just ninety degrees. But I
|
||
will advance still farther on the road of inquiry and deduction, and I
|
||
dare venture to say that this human sample or specimen belongs to
|
||
the Japhetic family, which spread over the world from India to the
|
||
uttermost limits of western Europe. There is no occasion, gentlemen,
|
||
to smile at my remarks."
|
||
-
|
||
*The facial angle is formed by two planes- one more or less vertical
|
||
which is in a straight line with the forehead and the incisors; the
|
||
other, horizontal, which passes through the organs of hearing, and the
|
||
lower nasal bone. Prognathism, in anthropological language, means that
|
||
particular projection of the jaw which modifies the facial angle.
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
-
|
||
Of course nobody smiled. But the excellent Professor was so
|
||
accustomed to beaming countenances at his lectures, that he believed
|
||
he saw all his audience laughing during the delivery of his learned
|
||
dissertation.
|
||
"Yes," he continued, with renewed animation, "this is a fossil
|
||
man, a contemporary of the mastodons, with the bones of which this
|
||
whole amphitheater is covered. But if I am called on to explain how he
|
||
came to this place, how these various strata by which he is covered
|
||
have fallen into this vast cavity, I can undertake to give you no
|
||
explanation. Doubtless, if we carry ourselves back to the Quaternary
|
||
epoch, we shall find that great and mighty convulsions took place in
|
||
the crust of the earth; the continually cooling operation, through
|
||
which the earth had to pass, produced fissures, landslips, and chasms,
|
||
through which a large portion of the earth made its way. I come to
|
||
no absolute conclusion, but there is the man, surrounded by the
|
||
works of his hands, his hatchets and his carved flints, which belong
|
||
to the stony period; and the only rational supposition is, that,
|
||
like myself, he visited the center of the earth as a traveling
|
||
tourist, a pioneer of science. At all events, there can be no doubt of
|
||
his great age, and of his being one of the oldest race of human
|
||
beings."
|
||
The Professor with these words ceased his oration, and I burst forth
|
||
into loud and "unanimous" applause. Besides, after all, my uncle was
|
||
right. Much more learned men than his nephew would have found it
|
||
rather hard to refute his facts and arguments.
|
||
Another circumstance soon presented itself. This fossilized body was
|
||
not the only one in this vast plain of bones- the cemetery of an
|
||
extinct world. Other bodies were found, as we trod the dusty plain,
|
||
and my uncle was able to choose the most marvelous of these
|
||
specimens in order to convince the most incredulous.
|
||
{CHAPTER_35 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
In truth, it was a surprising spectacle, the successive remains of
|
||
generations and generations of men and animals confounded together
|
||
in one vast cemetery. But a great question now presented itself to our
|
||
notice, and one we were actually afraid to contemplate in all its
|
||
bearings.
|
||
Had these once animated beings been buried so far beneath the soil
|
||
by some tremendous convulsion of nature, after they had been earth
|
||
to earth and ashes to ashes, or had they lived here below, in this
|
||
subterranean world, under this factitious sky, borne, married, and
|
||
given in marriage, and died at last, just like ordinary inhabitants of
|
||
the earth?
|
||
Up to the present moment, marine monsters, fish, and suchlike
|
||
animals had alone been seen alive!
|
||
The question which rendered us rather uneasy, was a pertinent one.
|
||
Were any of these men of the abyss wandering about the deserted shores
|
||
of this wondrous sea of the center of the earth?
|
||
This was a question which rendered me very uneasy and uncomfortable.
|
||
How, should they really be in existence, would they receive us men
|
||
from above?
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_36
|
||
CHAPTER 36
|
||
What Is It?
|
||
-
|
||
FOR a long and weary hour we tramped over this great bed of bones.
|
||
We advanced regardless of everything, drawn on by ardent curiosity.
|
||
What other marvels did this great cavern contain- what other
|
||
wondrous treasures for the scientific man? My eyes were quite prepared
|
||
for any number of surprises, my imagination lived in expectation of
|
||
something new and wonderful.
|
||
The borders of the great Central Ocean had for some time disappeared
|
||
behind the hills that were scattered over the ground occupied by the
|
||
plain of bones. The imprudent and enthusiastic Professor, who did
|
||
not care whether he lost himself or not, hurried me forward. We
|
||
advanced silently, bathed in waves of electric fluid.
|
||
By reason of a phenomenon which I cannot explain, and thanks to
|
||
its extreme diffusion, now complete, the light illumined equally the
|
||
sides of every hill and rock. Its seat appeared to be nowhere, in no
|
||
determined force, and produced no shade whatever.
|
||
The appearance presented was that of a tropical country at midday in
|
||
summer- in the midst of the equatorial regions and under the
|
||
vertical rays of the sun.
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
All signs of vapor had disappeared. The rocks, the distant
|
||
mountains, some confused masses of far-off forests, assumed a weird
|
||
and mysterious aspect under this equal distribution of the luminous
|
||
fluid!
|
||
We resembled, to a certain extent, the mysterious personage in one
|
||
of Hoffmann's fantastic tales-the man who lost his shadow.
|
||
After we had walked about a mile farther, we came to the edge of a
|
||
vast forest not, however, one of the vast mushroom forests we had
|
||
discovered near Port Gretchen.
|
||
It was the glorious and wild vegetation of the Tertiary period, in
|
||
all its superb magnificence. Huge palms, of a species now unknown,
|
||
superb palmacites- a genus of fossil palms from the coal formation-
|
||
pines, yews, cypress, and conifers or cone-bearing trees, the whole
|
||
bound together by an inextricable and complicated mass of creeping
|
||
plants.
|
||
A beautiful carpet of mosses and ferns grew beneath the trees.
|
||
Pleasant brooks murmured beneath umbrageous boughs, little worthy of
|
||
this name, for no shade did they give. Upon their borders grew small
|
||
treelike shrubs, such as are seen in the hot countries on our own
|
||
inhabited globe.
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
The one thing wanting in these plants, these shrubs, these trees-
|
||
was color! Forever deprived of the vivifying warmth of the sun, they
|
||
were vapid and colorless. All shade was lost in one uniform tint, of a
|
||
brown and faded character. The leaves were wholly devoid of verdure,
|
||
and the flowers, so numerous during the Tertiary period which gave
|
||
them birth, were without color and without perfume, something like
|
||
paper discolored by long exposure to the atmosphere.
|
||
My uncle ventured beneath the gigantic groves. I followed him,
|
||
though not without a certain amount of apprehension. Since nature
|
||
had shown herself capable of producing such stupendous vegetable
|
||
supplies, why might we not meet with mammals just as large, and
|
||
therefore dangerous?
|
||
I particularly remarked, in the clearings left by trees that had
|
||
fallen and been partially consumed by time, many leguminous (beanlike)
|
||
shrubs, such as the maple and other eatable trees, dear to
|
||
ruminating animals. Then there appeared confounded together and
|
||
intermixed, the trees of such varied lands, specimens of the
|
||
vegetation of every part of the globe; there was the oak near the palm
|
||
tree, the Australian eucalyptus, an interesting class of the order
|
||
Myrtaceae- leaning against the tall Norwegian pine, the poplar of
|
||
the north, mixing its branches with those of the New Zealand kauris.
|
||
It was enough to drive the most ingenious classifier of the upper
|
||
regions out of his mind, and to upset all his received ideas about
|
||
botany.
|
||
Suddenly I stopped short and restrained my uncle.
|
||
The extreme diffuseness of the light enabled me to see the
|
||
smallest objects in the distant copses. I thought I saw- no, I
|
||
really did see with my own eyes- immense, gigantic animals moving
|
||
about under the mighty trees. Yes, they were truly gigantic animals, a
|
||
whole herd of mastodons, not fossils, but living, and exactly like
|
||
those discovered in 1801, on the marshy banks of the great Ohio, in
|
||
North America.
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
Yes, I could see these enormous elephants, whose trunks were tearing
|
||
down large boughs, and working in and out the trees like a legion of
|
||
serpents. I could hear the sounds of the mighty tusks uprooting huge
|
||
trees!
|
||
The boughs crackled, and the whole masses of leaves and green
|
||
branches went down the capacious throats of these terrible monsters!
|
||
That wondrous dream, when I saw the antehistorical times revivified,
|
||
when the Tertiary and Quaternary periods passed before me, was now
|
||
realized!
|
||
And there we were alone, far down in the bowels of the earth, at the
|
||
mercy of its ferocious inhabitants!
|
||
My uncle paused, full of wonder and astonishment.
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Come!" he said at last, when his first surprise was over, "Come
|
||
along, my boy, and let us see them nearer."
|
||
"No," replied I, restraining his efforts to drag me forward, "we are
|
||
wholly without arms. What should we do in the midst of that flock of
|
||
gigantic quadrupeds? Come away, Uncle, I implore you. No human
|
||
creature can with impunity brave the ferocious anger of these
|
||
monsters."
|
||
"No human creature," said my uncle, suddenly lowering his voice to a
|
||
mysterious whisper, "you are mistaken, my dear Henry. Look! look
|
||
yonder! It seems to me that I behold a human being- a being like
|
||
ourselves- a man!"
|
||
I looked, shrugging my shoulders, decided to push incredulity to its
|
||
very last limits. But whatever might have been my wish, I was
|
||
compelled to yield to the weight of ocular demonstration.
|
||
Yes- not more than a quarter of a mile off, leaning against the
|
||
trunk of an enormous tree, was a human being- a Proteus of these
|
||
subterranean regions, a new son of Neptune keeping this innumerable
|
||
herd of mastodons.
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
-
|
||
Immanis pecoris custos, immanior ipse!*
|
||
-
|
||
*The keeper of gigantic cattle, himself still more gigantic!
|
||
-
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Yes- it was no longer a fossil whose corpse we had raised from the
|
||
ground in the great cemetery, but a giant capable of guiding and
|
||
driving these prodigious monsters. His height was above twelve feet.
|
||
His head, as big as the head of a buffalo, was lost in a mane of
|
||
matted hair. It was indeed a huge mane, like those which belonged to
|
||
the elephants of the earlier ages of the world.
|
||
In his hand was a branch of a tree, which served as a crook for this
|
||
antediluvian shepherd.
|
||
We remained profoundly still, speechless with surprise.
|
||
But we might at any moment be seen by him. Nothing remained for us
|
||
but instant flight.
|
||
"Come, come!" I cried, dragging my uncle along; and, for the first
|
||
time, he made no resistance to my wishes.
|
||
{CHAPTER_36 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
A quarter of an hour later we were far away from that terrible
|
||
monster!
|
||
Now that I think of the matter calmly, and that I reflect upon it
|
||
dispassionately; now that months, years, have passed since this
|
||
strange and unnatural adventure befell us- what am I to think, what am
|
||
I to believe?
|
||
No, it is utterly impossible! Our ears must have deceived us, and
|
||
our eyes have cheated us! we have not seen what we believed we had
|
||
seen. No human being could by any possibility have existed in that
|
||
subterranean world! No generation of men could inhabit the lower
|
||
caverns of the globe without taking note of those who peopled the
|
||
surface, without communication with them. It was folly, folly,
|
||
folly! nothing else!
|
||
I am rather inclined to admit the existence of some animal
|
||
resembling in structure the human race- of some monkey of the first
|
||
geological epochs, like that discovered by M. Lartet in the ossiferous
|
||
deposit of Sansan.
|
||
But this animal, or being, whichsoever it was, surpassed in height
|
||
all things known to modern science. Never mind. However unlikely it
|
||
may be, it might have been a monkey- but a man, a living man, and with
|
||
him a whole generation of gigantic animals, buried in the entrails
|
||
of the earth- it was too monstrous to be believed!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_37
|
||
CHAPTER 37
|
||
The Mysterious Dagger
|
||
-
|
||
DURING this time, we had left the bright and transparent forest
|
||
far behind us. We were mute with astonishment, overcome by a kind of
|
||
feeling which was next door to apathy. We kept running in spite of
|
||
ourselves. It was a perfect Right, which resembled one of those
|
||
horrible sensations we sometimes meet with in our dreams.
|
||
Instinctively we made our way towards the Central Sea, and I
|
||
cannot now tell what wild thoughts passed through my mind, nor of what
|
||
follies I might have been guilty, but for a very serious preoccupation
|
||
which brought me back to practical life.
|
||
Though I was aware that we were treading on a soil quite new to
|
||
us, I, however, every now and then noticed certain aggregations of
|
||
rock, the shape of which forcibly reminded me of those near Port
|
||
Gretchen.
|
||
This confirmed, moreover, the indications of the compass and our
|
||
extraordinary and unlooked-for, as well as involuntary, return to
|
||
the north of this great Central Sea. It was so like our starting
|
||
point, that I could scarcely doubt the reality of our position.
|
||
Streams and cascades fell in hundreds over the numerous projections of
|
||
the rocks.
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
I actually thought I could see our faithful and monotonous Hans
|
||
and the wonderful grotto in which I had come back to life after my
|
||
tremendous fall.
|
||
Then, as we advanced still farther, the position of the cliffs,
|
||
the appearance of a stream, the unexpected profile of a rock, threw me
|
||
again into a state of bewildering doubt.
|
||
After some time, I explained my state of mental indecision to my
|
||
uncle. He confessed to a similar feeling of hesitation. He was totally
|
||
unable to make up his mind in the midst of this extraordinary but
|
||
uniform panorama.
|
||
"There can be no doubt," I insisted, "that we have not landed
|
||
exactly at the place whence we first took our departure; but the
|
||
tempest has brought us above our starting point. I think, therefore,
|
||
that if we follow the coast we shall once more find Port Gretchen."
|
||
"In that case," cried my uncle, "it is useless to continue our
|
||
exploration. The very best thing we can do is to make our way back
|
||
to the raft. Are you quite sure, Harry, that you are not mistaken?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"It is difficult," was my reply, "to come to any decision, for all
|
||
these rocks are exactly alike. There is no marked difference between
|
||
them. At the same time, the impression on my mind is that I
|
||
recognize the promontory at the foot of which our worthy Hans
|
||
constructed the raft. We are, I am nearly convinced, near the little
|
||
port: if this be not it," I added, carefully examining a creek which
|
||
appeared singularly familiar to my mind.
|
||
"My dear Harry- if this were the case, we should find traces of
|
||
our own footsteps, some signs of our passage; and I can really see
|
||
nothing to indicate our having passed this way."
|
||
"But I see something," I cried, in an impetuous tone of voice, as
|
||
I rushed forward and eagerly picked up something which shone in the
|
||
sand under my feet.
|
||
"What is it?" cried the astonished and bewildered Professor.
|
||
"This," was my reply.
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
And I handed to my startled relative a rusty dagger, of singular
|
||
shape.
|
||
"What made you bring with you so useless a weapon?" he exclaimed.
|
||
"It was needlessly hampering yourself."
|
||
"I bring it? It is quite new to me. I never saw it before- are you
|
||
sure it is not out of your collection?"
|
||
"Not that I know of," said the Professor, puzzled. "I have no
|
||
recollection of the circumstance. It was never my property."
|
||
"This is very extraordinary," I said, musing over the novel and
|
||
singular incident.
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Not at all. There is a very simple explanation, Harry. The
|
||
Icelanders are known to keep up the use of these antiquated weapons,
|
||
and this must have belonged to Hans, who has let it fall without
|
||
knowing it."
|
||
I shook my head. That dagger had never been in the possession of the
|
||
pacific and taciturn Hans. I knew him and his habits too well.
|
||
"Then what can it be- unless it be the weapon of some antediluvian
|
||
warrior," I continued, "of some living man, a contemporary of that
|
||
mighty shepherd from whom we have just escaped? But no- mystery upon
|
||
mystery- this is no weapon of the stony epoch, nor even of the
|
||
bronze period. It is made of excellent steel-"
|
||
Ere I could finish my sentence, my uncle stopped me short from
|
||
entering upon a whole train of theories, and spoke in his most cold
|
||
and decided tone of voice.
|
||
"Calm yourself, my dear boy, and endeavor to use your reason. This
|
||
weapon, upon which we have fallen so unexpectedly, is a true dague,
|
||
one of those worn by gentlemen in their belts during the sixteenth
|
||
century. Its use was to give the coup de grace, the final blow, to the
|
||
foe who would not surrender. It is clearly of Spanish workmanship.
|
||
It belongs neither to you, nor to me, nor the eider-down hunter, nor
|
||
to any of the living beings who may still exist so marvelously in
|
||
the interior of the earth."
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"What can you mean, Uncle?" I said, now lost in a host of surmises.
|
||
"Look closely at it," he continued; "these jagged edges were never
|
||
made by the resistance of human blood and bone. The blade is covered
|
||
with a regular coating of iron mold and rust, which is not a day
|
||
old, not a year old, not a century old, but much more-"
|
||
The Professor began to get quite excited, according to custom, and
|
||
was allowing himself to be carried away by his fertile imagination.
|
||
I could have said something. He stopped me.
|
||
"Harry," he cried, "we are now on the verge of a great discovery.
|
||
This blade of a dagger you have so marvelously discovered, after being
|
||
abandoned upon the sand for more than a hundred, two hundred, even
|
||
three hundred years, has been indented by someone endeavoring to carve
|
||
an inscription on these rocks."
|
||
"But this poniard never got here of itself," I exclaimed, "it
|
||
could not have twisted itself. Someone, therefore, must have
|
||
preceded us upon the shores of this extraordinary sea."
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
"Yes, a man."
|
||
"But what man has been sufficiently desperate to do such a thing?"
|
||
"A man who has somewhere written his name with this very dagger- a
|
||
man who has endeavored once more to indicate the right road to the
|
||
interior of the earth. Let us look around, my boy. You know not the
|
||
importance of your singular and happy discovery."
|
||
Prodigiously interested, we walked along the wall of rock, examining
|
||
the smallest fissures, which might finally expand into the much
|
||
wished-for gully or shaft.
|
||
We at last reached a spot where the shore became extremely narrow.
|
||
The sea almost bathed the foot of the rocks, which were here very
|
||
lofty and steep. There was scarcely a path wider than two yards at any
|
||
point. At last, under a huge over-hanging rock, we discovered the
|
||
entrance of a dark and gloomy tunnel.
|
||
{CHAPTER_37 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
There, on a square tablet of granite, which had been smoothed by
|
||
rubbing it with another stone, we could see two mysterious, and much
|
||
worn letters, the two initials of the bold and extraordinary
|
||
traveler who had preceded us on our adventurous journey.
|
||
"A. S.!" cried my uncle. "You see, I was right. Arne Saknussemm,
|
||
always Arne Saknussemm!"
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_38
|
||
CHAPTER 38
|
||
No Outlet - Blasting the Rock
|
||
-
|
||
EVER since the commencement of our marvelous journey, I had
|
||
experienced many surprises, had suffered from many illusions. I
|
||
thought that I was case-hardened against all surprises and could
|
||
neither see nor hear anything to amaze me again.
|
||
I was like a many who, having been round the world, finds himself
|
||
wholly blase and proof against the marvelous.
|
||
When, however, I saw these two letters, which had been engraven
|
||
three hundred years before, I stood fixed in an attitude of mute
|
||
surprise.
|
||
Not only was there the signature of the learned and enterprising
|
||
alchemist written in the rock, but I held in my hand the very
|
||
identical instrument with which he had laboriously engraved it.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
It was impossible, without showing an amount of incredulity scarcely
|
||
becoming a sane man, to deny the existence of the traveler, and the
|
||
reality of that voyage which I believed all along to have been a myth-
|
||
the mystification of some fertile brain.
|
||
While these reflections were passing through my mind, my uncle,
|
||
the Professor, gave way to an access of feverish and poetical
|
||
excitement.
|
||
"Wonderful and glorious genius, great Saknussemm", he cried, "you
|
||
have left no stone unturned, no resource omitted, to show to other
|
||
mortals the way into the interior of our mighty globe, and your fellow
|
||
creatures can find the trail left by your illustrious footsteps, three
|
||
hundred years ago, at the bottom of these obscure subterranean abodes.
|
||
You have been careful to secure for others the contemplation of
|
||
these wonders and marvels of creation. Your name engraved at every
|
||
important stage of your glorious journey leads the hopeful traveler
|
||
direct to the great and mighty discovery to which you devoted such
|
||
energy and courage. The audacious traveler, who shall follow your
|
||
footsteps to the last, will doubtless find your initials engraved with
|
||
your own hand upon the center of the earth. I will be that audacious
|
||
traveler- I, too, will sign my name upon the very same spot, upon
|
||
the central granite stone of this wondrous work of the Creator. But in
|
||
justice to your devotion, to your courage, and to your being the first
|
||
to indicate the road, let this cape, seen by you upon the shores of
|
||
this sea discovered by you, be called, of all time, Cape Saknussemm."
|
||
This is what I heard, and I began to be roused to the pitch of
|
||
enthusiasm indicated by those words. A fierce excitement roused me.
|
||
I forgot everything. The dangers of the voyage and the perils of the
|
||
return journey were now as nothing!
|
||
What another man had done in ages past could, I felt, be done again;
|
||
I was determined to do it myself, and now nothing that man had
|
||
accomplished appeared to me impossible.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Forward- forward," I cried in a burst of genuine and hearty
|
||
enthusiasm.
|
||
I had already started in the direction of the somber and gloomy
|
||
gallery when the Professor stopped me; he, the man so rash and
|
||
hasty, he, the man so easily roused to the highest pitch of
|
||
enthusiasm, checked me, and asked me to be patient and show more calm.
|
||
"Let us return to our good friend, Hans," he said; "we will then
|
||
bring the raft down to this place."
|
||
I must say that though I at once yielded to my uncle's request, it
|
||
was not without dissatisfaction, and I hastened along the rocks of
|
||
that wonderful coast.
|
||
"Do you know, my dear uncle," I said, as we walked along, "that we
|
||
have been singularly helped by a concurrence of circumstances, right
|
||
up to this very moment."
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"So you begin to see it, do you, Harry?" said the Professor with a
|
||
smile.
|
||
"Doubtless," I responded, "and strangely enough, even the tempest
|
||
has been the means of putting us on the right road. Blessings on the
|
||
tempest! It brought us safely back to the very spot from which fine
|
||
weather would have driven us forever. Supposing we had succeeded in
|
||
reaching the southern and distant shores of this extraordinary sea,
|
||
what would have become of us? The name of Saknussemm would never
|
||
have appeared to us, and at this moment we should have been cast
|
||
away upon an inhospitable coast, probably without an outlet."
|
||
"Yes, Harry, my boy, there is certainly something providential in
|
||
that wandering at the mercy of wind and waves towards the south: we
|
||
have come back exactly north; and what is better still, we fall upon
|
||
this great discovery of Cape Saknussemm. I mean to say, that it is
|
||
more than surprising; there is something in it which is far beyond
|
||
my comprehension. The coincidence is unheard of, marvelous!"
|
||
"What matter! It is not our duty to explain facts, but to make the
|
||
best possible use of them."
|
||
"Doubtless, my boy; but if you will allow me-" said the really
|
||
delighted Professor.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Excuse me, sir, but I see exactly how it will be; we shall take the
|
||
northern route; we shall pass under the northern regions of Europe,
|
||
under Sweden, under Russia, under Siberia, and who knows where-
|
||
instead of burying ourselves under the burning plains and deserts of
|
||
Africa, or beneath the mighty waves of the ocean; and that is all,
|
||
at this stage of our journey, that I care to know. Let us advance, and
|
||
Heaven will be our guide!"
|
||
"Yes, Harry, you are right, quite right; all is for the best. Let us
|
||
abandon this horizontal sea, which could never have led to anything
|
||
satisfactory. We shall descend, descend, and everlastingly descend. Do
|
||
you know, my dear boy, that to reach the interior of the earth we have
|
||
only five thousand miles to travel!"
|
||
"Bah!" I cried, carried away by a burst of enthusiasm, "the distance
|
||
is scarcely worth speaking about. The thing is to make a start."
|
||
My wild, mad, and incoherent speeches continued until we rejoined
|
||
our patient and phlegmatic guide. All was, we found, prepared for an
|
||
immediate departure. There was not a single parcel but what was in its
|
||
proper place. We all took up our posts on the raft, and the sail being
|
||
hoisted, Hans received his directions, and guided the frail bark
|
||
towards Cape Saknussemm, as we had definitely named it.
|
||
The wind was very unfavorable to a craft that was unable to sail
|
||
close to the wind. It was constructed to go before the blast. We
|
||
were continually reduced to pushing ourselves forward by means of
|
||
poles. On several occasions the rocks ran far out into deep water
|
||
and we were compelled to make a long round. At last, after three
|
||
long and weary hours of navigation, that is to say, about six
|
||
o'clock in the evening, we found a place at which we could land.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
I jumped on shore first. In my present state of excitement and
|
||
enthusiasm, I was always first. My uncle and the Icelander followed.
|
||
The voyage from the port to this point of the sea had by no means
|
||
calmed me. It had rather produced the opposite effect. I even proposed
|
||
to burn our vessel, that is, to destroy our raft, in order to
|
||
completely cut off our retreat. But my uncle sternly opposed this wild
|
||
project. I began to think him particularly lukewarm and
|
||
unenthusiastic.
|
||
"At any rate, my dear uncle," I said, "let us start without delay."
|
||
"Yes, my boy, I am quite as eager to do so as you can be. But, in
|
||
the first place, let us examine this mysterious gallery, in order to
|
||
find if we shall need to prepare and mend our ladders."
|
||
My uncle now began to see to the efficiency of our Ruhmkorff coil,
|
||
which would doubtless soon be needed; the raft, securely fastened to a
|
||
rock, was left alone. Moreover, the opening into the new gallery was
|
||
not twenty paces distant from the spot. Our little troop, with
|
||
myself at the head, advanced.
|
||
The orifice, which was almost circular, presented a diameter of
|
||
about five feet; the somber tunnel was cut in the living rock, and
|
||
coated on the inside by the different material which had once passed
|
||
through it in a state of fusion. The lower part was about level with
|
||
the water, so that we were able to penetrate to the interior without
|
||
difficulty.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
We followed an almost horizontal direction; when, at the end of
|
||
about a dozen paces, our further advance was checked by the
|
||
interposition of an enormous block of granite rock.
|
||
"Accursed stone!" I cried furiously, on perceiving that we were
|
||
stopped by what seemed an insurmountable obstacle.
|
||
In vain we looked to the right, in vain we looked to the left; in
|
||
vain examined it above and below. There existed no passage, no sign of
|
||
any other tunnel. I experienced the most bitter and painful
|
||
disappointment. So enraged was I that I would not admit the reality of
|
||
any obstacle. I stooped to my knees; I looked under the mass of stone.
|
||
No hole, no interstice. I then looked above. The same barrier of
|
||
granite! Hans, with the lamp, examined the sides of the tunnel in
|
||
every direction.
|
||
But all in vain! It was necessary to renounce all hope of passing
|
||
through.
|
||
I had seated myself upon the ground. My uncle walked angrily and
|
||
hopelessly up and down. He was evidently desperate.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"But," I cried, after some moments' thought, "what about Arne
|
||
Saknussemm?"
|
||
"You are right," replied my uncle, "he can never have been checked
|
||
by a lump of rock."
|
||
"No- ten thousand times no," I cried, with extreme vivacity. "This
|
||
huge lump of rock, in consequence of some singular concussion, or
|
||
process, one of those magnetic phenomena which have so often shaken
|
||
the terrestrial crust, has in some unexpected way closed up the
|
||
passage. Many and many years have passed away since the return of
|
||
Saknussemm, and the fall of this huge block of granite. Is it not
|
||
quite evident that this gallery was formerly the outlet for the
|
||
pent-up lava in the interior of the earth, and that these eruptive
|
||
matters then circulated freely? Look at these recent fissures in the
|
||
granite roof; it is evidently formed of pieces of enormous stone,
|
||
placed here as if by the hand of a giant, who had worked to make a
|
||
strong and substantial arch. One day, after an unusually strong shock,
|
||
the vast rock which stands in our way, and which was doubtless the key
|
||
of a kind of arch, fell through to a level with the soil and has
|
||
barred our further progress. We are right, then, in thinking that this
|
||
is an unexpected obstacle, with which Saknussemm did not meet; and
|
||
if we do not upset it in some way, we are unworthy of following in the
|
||
footsteps of the great discoverer; and incapable of finding our way to
|
||
the center of the earth!"
|
||
In this wild way I addressed my uncle. The zeal of the Professor,
|
||
his earnest longing for success, had become part and parcel of my
|
||
being. I wholly forgot the past; I utterly despised the future.
|
||
Nothing existed for me upon the surface of this spheroid in the
|
||
bosom of which I was engulfed, no towns, no country, no Hamburg, no
|
||
Koenigstrasse, not even my poor Gretchen, who by this time would
|
||
believe me utterly lost in the interior of the earth!
|
||
"Well," cried my uncle, roused to enthusiasm by my words, "Let us go
|
||
to work with pickaxes, with crowbars, with anything that comes to
|
||
hand- but down with these terrible walls."
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"It is far too tough and too big to be destroyed by a pickax or
|
||
crowbar," I replied.
|
||
"What then?"
|
||
"As I said, it is useless to think of overcoming such a difficulty
|
||
by means of ordinary tools."
|
||
"What then?"
|
||
"What else but gunpowder, a subterranean mine? Let us blow up the
|
||
obstacle that stands in our way."
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Gunpowder!"
|
||
"Yes; all we have to do is to get rid of this paltry obstacle."
|
||
"To work, Hans, to work!" cried the Professor.
|
||
The Icelander went back to the raft, and soon returned with a huge
|
||
crowbar, with which he began to dig a hole in the rock, which was to
|
||
serve as a mine. It was by no means a slight task. It was necessary
|
||
for our purpose to make a cavity large enough to hold fifty pounds
|
||
of fulminating gun cotton, the expansive power of which is four
|
||
times as great as that of ordinary gunpowder.
|
||
I had now roused myself to an almost miraculous state of excitement.
|
||
While Hans was at work, I actively assisted my uncle to prepare a long
|
||
wick, made from damp gunpowder, the mass of which we finally
|
||
enclosed in a bag of linen.
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"We are bound to go through," I cried, enthusiastically.
|
||
"We are bound to go through," responded the Professor, tapping me on
|
||
the back.
|
||
At midnight, our work as miners was completely finished; the
|
||
charge of fulminating cotton was thrust into the hollow, and the
|
||
match, which we had made of considerable length, was ready.
|
||
A spark was now sufficient to ignite this formidable engine, and
|
||
to blow the rock to atoms!
|
||
"We will now rest until tomorrow."
|
||
{CHAPTER_38 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
It was absolutely necessary to resign myself to my fate, and to
|
||
consent to wait for the explosion for six weary hours!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER 39
|
||
CHAPTER 39
|
||
The Explosion and Its Results
|
||
-
|
||
THE next day, which was the twenty-seventh of August, was a date
|
||
celebrated in our wondrous subterranean journey. I never think of it
|
||
even now, but I shudder with horror. My heart beats wildly at the very
|
||
memory of that awful day.
|
||
From this time forward, our reason, our judgment, our human
|
||
ingenuity, have nothing to do with the course of events. We are
|
||
about to become the plaything of the great phenomena of the earth!
|
||
At six o'clock we were all up and ready. The dreaded moment was
|
||
arriving when we were about to seek an opening into the interior of
|
||
the earth by means of gunpowder. What would be the consequences of
|
||
breaking through the crust of the earth?
|
||
I begged that it might be my duty to set fire to the mine. I
|
||
looked upon it as an honor. This task once performed, I could rejoin
|
||
my friends upon the raft, which had not been unloaded. As soon as we
|
||
were all ready, we were to sail away to some distance to avoid the
|
||
consequences of the explosion, the effects of which would certainly
|
||
not be concentrated in the interior of the earth.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
The slow match we calculated to burn for about ten minutes, more
|
||
or less, before it reached the chamber in which the great body of
|
||
powder was confined. I should therefore have plenty of time to reach
|
||
the raft and put off to a safe distance.
|
||
I prepared to execute my self-allotted task- not, it must be
|
||
confessed, without considerable emotion.
|
||
After a hearty repast, my uncle and the hunter-guide embarked on
|
||
board the raft, while I remained alone upon the desolate shore.
|
||
I was provided with a lantern which was to enable me to set fire
|
||
to the wick of the infernal machine.
|
||
"Go, my boy," said my uncle, "and Heaven be with you. But come
|
||
back as soon as you can. I shall be all impatience."
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
"Be easy on that matter," I replied, "there is no fear of my
|
||
delaying on the road."
|
||
Having said this, I advanced toward the opening of the somber
|
||
gallery. My heart beat wildly. I opened my lantern and seized the
|
||
extremity of the wick.
|
||
The Professor, who was looking on, held his chronometer in his hand.
|
||
"Are you ready?" cried he.
|
||
"Quite ready."
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"Well, then, fire away!"
|
||
I hastened to put the light to the wick, which crackled and
|
||
sparkled, hissing and spitting like a serpent; then, running as fast
|
||
as I could, I returned to the shore.
|
||
"Get on board, my lad, and you, Hans, shove off," cried my uncle.
|
||
By a vigorous application of his pole Hans sent us flying over the
|
||
water. The raft was quite twenty fathoms distant.
|
||
It was a moment of palpitating interest, of deep anxiety. My
|
||
uncle, the Professor, never took his eyes off the chronometer.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
"Only five minutes more," he said in a low tone, "only four, only
|
||
three."
|
||
My pulse went a hundred to the minute. I could hear my heart
|
||
beating.
|
||
"Only two, one! Now, then, mountains of granite, crumble beneath the
|
||
power of man!"
|
||
What happened after that? As to the terrific roar of the
|
||
explosion, I do not think I heard it. But the form of the rocks
|
||
completely changed in my eyes- they seemed to be drawn aside like a
|
||
curtain. I saw a fathomless, a bottomless abyss, which yawned
|
||
beneath the turgid waves. The sea, which seemed suddenly to have
|
||
gone mad, then became one great mountainous mass, upon the top of
|
||
which the raft rose perpendicularly.
|
||
We were all thrown down. In less than a second the light gave
|
||
place to the most profound obscurity. Then I felt all solid support
|
||
give way not to my feet, but to the raft itself. I thought it was
|
||
going bodily down a tremendous well. I tried to speak, to question
|
||
my uncle. Nothing could be heard but the roaring of the mighty
|
||
waves. We clung together in utter silence.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Despite the awful darkness, despite the noise, the surprise, the
|
||
emotion, I thoroughly understood what had happened.
|
||
Beyond the rock which had been blown up, there existed a mighty
|
||
abyss. The explosion had caused a kind of earthquake in this soil,
|
||
broken by fissures and rents. The gulf, thus suddenly thrown open, was
|
||
about to swallow the inland seal which, transformed into a mighty
|
||
torrent, was dragging us with it.
|
||
Only one idea filled my mind. We were utterly and completely lost!
|
||
One hour, two hours- what more I cannot say, passed in this
|
||
manner. We sat close together, elbow touching elbow, knee touching
|
||
knee! We held one another's hands not to be thrown off the raft. We
|
||
were subjected to the most violent shocks, whenever our sole
|
||
dependence, a frail wooden raft, struck against the rocky sides of the
|
||
channel. Fortunately for us, these concussions became less and less
|
||
frequent, which made me fancy that the gallery was getting wider and
|
||
wider. There could be now no doubt that we had chanced upon the road
|
||
once followed by Saknussemm, but instead of going down in a proper
|
||
manner, we had, through our own imprudence, drawn a whole sea with us!
|
||
These ideas presented themselves to my mind in a very vague and
|
||
obscure manner. I felt rather than reasoned. I put my ideas together
|
||
only confusedly, while spinning along like a man going down a
|
||
waterfall. To judge by the air which, as it were, whipped my face,
|
||
we must have been rushing at a perfectly lightning rate.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
To attempt under these circumstances to light a torch was simply
|
||
impossible, and the last remains of our electric machine, of our
|
||
Ruhmkorff coil, had been destroyed during the fearful explosion.
|
||
I was therefore very much confused to see at last a bright light
|
||
shining close to me. The calm countenance of the guide seemed to gleam
|
||
upon me. The clever and patient hunter had succeeded in lighting the
|
||
lantern; and though, in the keen and thorough draft, the flame
|
||
Flickered and vacillated and was nearly put out, it served partially
|
||
to dissipate the awful obscurity.
|
||
The gallery into which we had entered was very wide. I was,
|
||
therefore, quite right in that part of my conjecture. The insufficient
|
||
light did not allow us to see both of the walls at the same time.
|
||
The slope of waters, which was carrying us away, was far greater
|
||
than that of the most rapid river of America. The whole surface of the
|
||
stream seemed to be composed of liquid arrows, darted forward with
|
||
extreme violence and power. I can give no idea of the impression it
|
||
made upon me.
|
||
The raft, at times, caught in certain whirlpools, and rushed
|
||
forward, yet turned on itself all the time. How it did not upset I
|
||
shall never be able to understand. When it approached the sides of the
|
||
gallery, I took care to throw upon them the light of the lantern,
|
||
and I was able to judge of the rapidity of motion by looking at the
|
||
projecting masses of rock, which as soon as seen were again invisible.
|
||
So rapid was our progress that points of rock at a considerable
|
||
distance one from the other appeared like portions of transverse
|
||
lines, which enclosed us in a kind of net, like that of a line of
|
||
telegraphic wires.
|
||
I believe we were now going at a rate of not less than a hundred
|
||
miles an hour.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
My uncle and I looked at one another with wild and haggard eyes;
|
||
we clung convulsively to the stump of the mast, which, at the moment
|
||
when the catastrophe took place, had snapped short off. We turned
|
||
our backs as much as possible to the wind, in order not to be
|
||
stifled by a rapidity of motion which nothing human could face and
|
||
live.
|
||
And still the long monotonous hours went on. The situation did not
|
||
change in the least, though a discovery I suddenly made seemed to
|
||
complicate it very much.
|
||
When we had slightly recovered our equilibrium, I proceeded to
|
||
examine our cargo. I then made the unsatisfactory discovery that the
|
||
greater part of it had utterly disappeared.
|
||
I became alarmed, and determined to discover what were our
|
||
resources. My heart beat at the idea, but it was absolutely
|
||
necessary to know on what we had to depend. With this view, I took the
|
||
lantern and looked around.
|
||
Of all our former collection of nautical and philosophical
|
||
instruments, there remained only the chronometer and the compass.
|
||
The ladders and ropes were reduced to a small piece of rope fastened
|
||
to the stump of the mast. Not a pickax, not a crowbar, not a hammer,
|
||
and, far worse than all, no food- not enough for one day!
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
This discovery was a prelude to a certain and horrible death.
|
||
Seated gloomily on the raft, clasping the stump of the mast
|
||
mechanically, I thought of all I had read as to sufferings from
|
||
starvation.
|
||
I remembered everything that history had taught me on the subject,
|
||
and I shuddered at the remembrance of the agonies to be endured.
|
||
Maddened at the prospects of enduring the miseries of starvation,
|
||
I persuaded myself that I must be mistaken. I examined the cracks in
|
||
the raft; I poked between the joints and beams; I examined every
|
||
possible hole and corner. The result was- simply nothing!
|
||
Our stock of provisions consisted of nothing but a piece of dry meat
|
||
and some soaked and half-moldy biscuits.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
I gazed around me scared and frightened. I could not understand
|
||
the awful truth. And yet of what consequence was it in regard to any
|
||
new danger? Supposing that we had had provisions for months, and
|
||
even for years, how could we ever get out of the awful abyss into
|
||
which we were being hurled by the irresistible torrent we had let
|
||
loose?
|
||
Why should we trouble ourselves about the sufferings and tortures to
|
||
be endured from hunger when death stared us in the face under so
|
||
many other swifter and perhaps even more horrid forms?
|
||
It was very doubtful, under the circumstances in which we were
|
||
placed, if we should have time to die of inanition.
|
||
But the human frame is singularly constituted.
|
||
I know not how it was; but, from some singular hallucination of
|
||
the mind, I forgot the real, serious, and immediate danger to which we
|
||
were exposed, to think of the menaces of the future, which appeared
|
||
before us in all their naked terror. Besides, after all, suggested
|
||
Hope, perhaps we might finally escape the fury of the raging
|
||
torrent, and once more revisit the glimpses of the moon, on the
|
||
surface of our beautiful Mother Earth.
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
How was it to be done? I had not the remotest idea. Where were we to
|
||
come out? No matter, so that we did.
|
||
One chance in a thousand is always a chance, while death from hunger
|
||
gave us not even the faintest glimpse of hope. It left to the
|
||
imagination nothing but blank horror, without the faintest chance of
|
||
escape!
|
||
I had the greatest mind to reveal all to my uncle, to explain to him
|
||
the extraordinary and wretched position to which we were reduced, in
|
||
order that, between the two, we might make a calculation as to the
|
||
exact space of time which remained for us to live.
|
||
It was, it appeared to me, the only thing to be done. But I had
|
||
the courage to hold my tongue, to gnaw at my entrails like the Spartan
|
||
boy. I wished to leave him all his coolness.
|
||
At this moment, the light of the lantern slowly fell, and at last
|
||
went out!
|
||
{CHAPTER 39 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
The wick had wholly burnt to an end. The obscurity became
|
||
absolute. It was no longer possible to see through the impenetrable
|
||
darkness! There was one torch left, but it was impossible to keep it
|
||
alight. Then, like a child, I shut my eyes, that I might not see the
|
||
darkness.
|
||
After a great lapse of time, the rapidity of our journey
|
||
increased. I could feel it by the rush of air upon my face. The
|
||
slope of the waters was excessive. I began to feel that we were no
|
||
longer going down a slope; we were falling. I felt as one does in a
|
||
dream, going down bodily- falling; falling; falling!
|
||
I felt that the hands of my uncle and Hans were vigorously
|
||
clasping my arms.
|
||
Suddenly, after a lapse of time scarcely appreciable, I felt
|
||
something like a shock. The raft had not struck a hard body, but had
|
||
suddenly been checked in its course. A waterspout, a liquid column
|
||
of water, fell upon us. I felt suffocating. I was being drowned.
|
||
Still the sudden inundation did not last. In a few seconds I felt
|
||
myself once more able to breathe. My uncle and Hans pressed my arms,
|
||
and the raft carried us all three away.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_40
|
||
CHAPTER 40
|
||
The Ape Gigans
|
||
-
|
||
IT is difficult for me to determine what was the real time, but I
|
||
should suppose, by after calculation, that it must have been ten at
|
||
night.
|
||
I lay in a stupor, a half dream, during which I saw visions of
|
||
astounding character. Monsters of the deep were side by side with
|
||
the mighty elephantine shepherd. Gigantic fish and animals seemed to
|
||
form strange conjunctions.
|
||
The raft took a sudden turn, whirled round, entered another
|
||
tunnel- this time illumined in a most singular manner. The roof was
|
||
formed of porous stalactite, through which a moonlit vapor appeared to
|
||
pass, casting its brilliant light upon our gaunt and haggard
|
||
figures. The light increased as we advanced, while the roof
|
||
ascended; until at last, we were once more in a kind of water
|
||
cavern, the lofty dome of which disappeared in a luminous cloud!
|
||
A rugged cavern of small extent appeared to offer a halting place to
|
||
our weary bodies.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
My uncle and the guide moved as men in a dream. I was afraid to
|
||
waken them, knowing the danger of such a sudden start. I seated myself
|
||
beside them to watch.
|
||
As I did so, I became aware of something moving in the distance,
|
||
which at once fascinated my eyes. It was floating, apparently, upon
|
||
the surface of the water, advancing by means of what at first appeared
|
||
paddles. I looked with glaring eyes. One glance told me that it was
|
||
something monstrous.
|
||
But what?
|
||
It was the great "shark-crocodile" of the early writers on
|
||
geology. About the size of an ordinary whale, with hideous jaws and
|
||
two gigantic eyes, it advanced. Its eyes fixed on me with terrible
|
||
sternness. Some indefinite warning told me that it had marked me for
|
||
its own.
|
||
I attempted to rise- to escape, no matter where, but my knees
|
||
shook under me; my limbs trembled violently; I almost lost my
|
||
senses. And still the mighty monster advanced. My uncle and the
|
||
guide made no effort to save themselves.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
With a strange noise, like none other I had ever heard, the beast
|
||
came on. His jaws were at least seven feet apart, and his distended
|
||
mouth looked large enough to have swallowed a boatful of men.
|
||
We were about ten feet distant when I discovered that much as his
|
||
body resembled that of a crocodile, his mouth was wholly that of a
|
||
shark.
|
||
His twofold nature now became apparent. To snatch us up at a
|
||
mouthful it was necessary for him to turn on his back, which motion
|
||
necessarily caused his legs to kick up helplessly in the air.
|
||
I actually laughed even in the very jaws of death!
|
||
But next minute, with a wild cry, I darted away into the interior of
|
||
the cave, leaving my unhappy comrades to their fate! This cavern was
|
||
deep and dreary. After about a hundred yards, I paused and looked
|
||
around.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
The whole floor, composed of sand and malachite, was strewn with
|
||
bones, freshly gnawed bones of reptiles and fish, with a mixture of
|
||
mammalia. My very soul grew sick as my body shuddered with horror. I
|
||
had truly, according to the old proverb, fallen out of the frying
|
||
pan into the fire. Some beast larger and more ferocious even than
|
||
the shark-crocodile inhabited this den.
|
||
What could I do? The mouth of the cave was guarded by one
|
||
ferocious monster, the interior was inhabited by something too hideous
|
||
to contemplate. Flight was impossible!
|
||
Only one resource remained, and that was to find some small hiding
|
||
place to which the fearful denizens of the cavern could not penetrate.
|
||
I gazed wildly around, and at last discovered a fissure in the rock,
|
||
to which I rushed in the hope of recovering my scattered senses.
|
||
Crouching down, I waited shivering as in an ague fit. No man is
|
||
brave in presence of an earthquake, or a bursting boiler, or an
|
||
exploding torpedo. I could not be expected to feel much courage in
|
||
presence of the fearful fate that appeared to await me.
|
||
An hour passed. I heard all the time a strange rumbling outside
|
||
the cave.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
What was the fate of my unhappy companions? It was impossible for me
|
||
to pause to inquire. My own wretched existence was all I could think
|
||
of.
|
||
Suddenly a groaning, as of fifty bears in a fight, fell upon my
|
||
ears- hisses, spitting, moaning, hideous to hear- and then I saw-
|
||
Never, were ages to pass over my head, shall I forget the horrible
|
||
apparition.
|
||
It was the Ape Gigans!
|
||
Fourteen feet high, covered with coarse hair, of a blackish brown,
|
||
the hair on the arms, from the shoulder to the elbow joints,
|
||
pointing downwards, while that from the wrist to the elbow pointed
|
||
upwards, it advanced. Its arms were as long as its body, while its
|
||
legs were prodigious. It had thick, long, and sharply pointed teeth-
|
||
like a mammoth saw.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
It struck its breast as it came on smelling and sniffing,
|
||
reminding me of the stories we read in our early childhood of giants
|
||
who ate the Flesh of men and little boys!
|
||
Suddenly it stopped. My heart beat wildly, for I was conscious that,
|
||
somehow or other, the fearful monster had smelled me out and was
|
||
peering about with his hideous eyes to try and discover my
|
||
whereabouts.
|
||
My reading, which as a rule is a blessing, but which on this
|
||
occasion, seemed momentarily to prove a curse, told me the real truth.
|
||
It was the Ape Gigans, the antediluvian gorilla.
|
||
Yes! This awful monster, confined by good fortune to the interior of
|
||
the earth, was the progenitor of the hideous monster of Africa.
|
||
He glared wildly about, seeking something- doubtless myself. I
|
||
gave myself up for lost. No hope of safety or escape seemed to remain.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
At this moment, just as my eyes appeared to close in death, there
|
||
came a strange noise from the entrance of the cave; and turning, the
|
||
gorilla evidently recognized some enemy more worthy his prodigious
|
||
size and strength. It was the huge shark-crocodile, which perhaps
|
||
having disposed of my friends, was coming in search of further prey.
|
||
The gorilla placed himself on the defensive, and clutching a bone
|
||
some seven or eight feet in length, a perfect club, aimed a deadly
|
||
blow at the hideous beast, which reared upwards and fell with all
|
||
its weight upon its adversary.
|
||
A terrible combat, the details of which it is impossible to give,
|
||
now ensued. The struggle was awful and ferocious, I, however, did
|
||
not wait to witness the result. Regarding myself as the object of
|
||
contention, I determined to remove from the presence of the victor.
|
||
I slid down from my hiding place, reached the ground, and gliding
|
||
against the wall, strove to gain the open mouth of the cavern.
|
||
But I had not taken many steps when the fearful clamor ceased, to be
|
||
followed by a mumbling and groaning which appeared to be indicative of
|
||
victory.
|
||
I looked back and saw the huge ape, gory with blood, coming after me
|
||
with glaring eyes, with dilated nostrils that gave forth two columns
|
||
of heated vapor. I could feel his hot and fetid breath on my neck; and
|
||
with a horrid jump- awoke from my nightmare sleep.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
Yes- it was all a dream. I was still on the raft with my uncle and
|
||
the guide.
|
||
The relief was not instantaneous, for under the influence of the
|
||
hideous nightmare my senses had become numbed. After a while, however,
|
||
my feelings were tranquilized. The first of my perceptions which
|
||
returned in full force was that of hearing. I listened with acute
|
||
and attentive ears. All was still as death. All I comprehended was
|
||
silence. To the roaring of the waters, which had filled the gallery
|
||
with awful reverberations, succeeded perfect peace.
|
||
After some little time my uncle spoke, in a low and scarcely audible
|
||
tone: "Harry, boy, where are you?"
|
||
"I am here," was my faint rejoinder.
|
||
"Well, don't you see what has happened? We are going upwards."
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"My dear uncle, what can you mean?" was my half-delirious reply.
|
||
"Yes, I tell you we are ascending rapidly. Our downward journey is
|
||
quite checked."
|
||
I held out my hand, and, after some little difficulty, succeeded
|
||
in touching the wall. My hand was in an instant covered with blood.
|
||
The skin was torn from the flesh. We were ascending with extraordinary
|
||
rapidity.
|
||
"The torch- the torch!" cried the Professor, wildly; "it must be
|
||
lighted."
|
||
Hans, the guide, after many vain efforts, at last succeeded in
|
||
lighting it, and the flame, having now nothing to prevent its burning,
|
||
shed a tolerably clear light. We were enabled to form an approximate
|
||
idea of the truth.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"It is just as I thought," said my uncle, after a moment or two of
|
||
silent attention. "We are in a narrow well about four fathoms
|
||
square. The waters of the great inland sea, having reached the
|
||
bottom of the gulf are now forcing themselves up the mighty shaft.
|
||
As a natural consequence, we are being cast upon the summit of the
|
||
waters."
|
||
"That I can see," was my lugubrious reply; "but where will this
|
||
shaft end, and to what fall are we likely to be exposed?"
|
||
"Of that I am as ignorant as yourself. All I know is, that we should
|
||
be prepared for the worst. We are going up at a fearfully rapid
|
||
rate. As far as I can judge, we are ascending at the rate of two
|
||
fathoms a second, of a hundred and twenty fathoms a minute, or
|
||
rather more than three and a half leagues an hour. At this rate, our
|
||
fate will soon be a matter of certainty."
|
||
"No doubt of it," was my reply. "The great concern I have now,
|
||
however, is to know whether this shaft has any issue. It may end in
|
||
a granite roof- in which case we shall be suffocated by compressed
|
||
air, or dashed to atoms against the top. I fancy, already, that the
|
||
air is beginning to be close and condensed. I have a difficulty in
|
||
breathing."
|
||
This might be fancy, or it might be the effect of our rapid
|
||
motion, but I certainly felt a great oppression of the chest.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"Henry," said the Professor, "I do believe that the situation is
|
||
to a certain extent desperate. There remain, however, many chances
|
||
of ultimate safety, and I have, in my own mind, been revolving them
|
||
over, during your heavy but agitated sleep. I have come to this
|
||
logical conclusion- whereas we may at any moment perish, so at any
|
||
moment we may be saved! We need, therefore, prepare ourselves for
|
||
whatever may turn up in the great chapter of accidents."
|
||
"But what would you have us do?" I cried. "Are we not utterly
|
||
helpless?"
|
||
"No! While there is life there is hope. At all events, there is
|
||
one thing we can do- eat, and thus obtain strength to face victory
|
||
or death."
|
||
As he spoke, I looked at my uncle with a haggard glance. I had put
|
||
off the fatal communication as long as possible. It was now forced
|
||
upon me, and I must tell him the truth.
|
||
Still I hesitated.
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Eat," I said, in a deprecating tone as if there were no hurry.
|
||
"Yes, and at once. I feel like a starving prisoner," he said,
|
||
rubbing his yellow and shivering hands together.
|
||
And, turning round to the guide, he spoke some hearty, cheering
|
||
words, as I judged from his tone, in Danish. Hans shook his head in
|
||
a terribly significant manner. I tried to look unconcerned.
|
||
"What!" cried the Professor, "you do not mean to say that all our
|
||
provisions are lost?"
|
||
"Yes," was my lowly spoken reply, as I held out something in my
|
||
hand, "this morsel of dried meat is all that remains for us three."
|
||
{CHAPTER_40 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
My uncle gazed at me as if he could not fully appreciate the meaning
|
||
of my words. The blow seemed to stun him by its severity. I allowed
|
||
him to reflect for some moments.
|
||
"Well, said I, after a short pause, "what do you think now? Is there
|
||
any chance of our escaping from our horrible subterranean dangers? Are
|
||
we not doomed to perish in the great hollows of the center of the
|
||
earth?"
|
||
But my pertinent questions brought no answer. My uncle either
|
||
heard me not, or appeared not to do so.
|
||
And in this way a whole hour passed. Neither of us cared to speak.
|
||
For myself, I began to feel the most fearful and devouring hunger.
|
||
My companions, doubtless, felt the same horrible tortures, but neither
|
||
of them would touch the wretched morsel of meat that remained. It
|
||
lay there, a last remnant of all our great preparations for the mad
|
||
and senseless journey!
|
||
I looked back, with wonderment, to my own folly. Fully was I aware
|
||
that, despite his enthusiasm, and the ever-to-be-hated scroll of
|
||
Saknussemm, my uncle should never have started on his perilous voyage.
|
||
What memories of the happy past, what previsions of the horrible
|
||
future, now filled my brain!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_41
|
||
CHAPTER 41
|
||
Hunger
|
||
-
|
||
HUNGER, prolonged, is temporary madness! The brain is at work
|
||
without its required food, and the most fantastic notions fill the
|
||
mind. Hitherto I had never known what hunger really meant. I was
|
||
likely to understand it now.
|
||
And yet, three months before I could tell my terrible story of
|
||
starvation, as I thought it. As a boy I used to make frequent
|
||
excursions in the neighborhood of the Professor's house.
|
||
My uncle always acted on system, and he believed that, in addition
|
||
to the day of rest and worship, there should be a day of recreation.
|
||
In consequence, I was always free to do as I liked on a Wednesday.
|
||
Now, as I had a notion to combine the useful and the agreeable, my
|
||
favorite pastime was birds' nesting. I had one of the best collections
|
||
of eggs in all the town. They were classified, and under glass cases.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
There was a certain wood, which, by rising at early morn, and taking
|
||
the cheap train, I could reach at eleven in the morning. Here I
|
||
would botanize or geologize at my will. My uncle was always glad of
|
||
specimens for his herbarium, and stones to examine. When I had
|
||
filled my wallet, I proceeded to search for nests.
|
||
After about two hours of hard work, I, one day, sat down by a stream
|
||
to eat my humble but copious lunch. How the remembrance of the
|
||
spiced sausage, the wheaten loaf, and the beer, made my mouth water
|
||
now! I would have given every prospect of worldly wealth for such a
|
||
meal. But to my story.
|
||
While seated thus at my leisure, I looked up at the ruins of an
|
||
old castle, at no great distance. It was the remains of an
|
||
historical dwelling, ivy-clad, and now falling to pieces.
|
||
While looking, I saw two eagles circling about the summit of a lofty
|
||
tower. I soon became satisfied that there was a nest. Now, in all my
|
||
collection, I lacked eggs of the native eagle and the large owl.
|
||
My mind was made up. I would reach the summit of that tower, or
|
||
perish in the attempt. I went nearer, and surveyed the ruins. The
|
||
old staircase, years before, had fallen in. The outer walls were,
|
||
however, intact. There was no chance that way, unless I looked to
|
||
the ivy solely for support. This was, as I soon found out, futile.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
There remained the chimney, which still went up to the top, and
|
||
had once served to carry off the smoke from every story of the tower.
|
||
Up this I determined to venture. It was narrow, rough, and therefore
|
||
the more easily climbed. I took off my coat and crept into the
|
||
chimney. Looking up, I saw a small, light opening, proclaiming the
|
||
summit of the chimney.
|
||
Up- up I went, for some time using my hands and knees, after the
|
||
fashion of a chimney sweep. It was slow work, but, there being
|
||
continual projections, the task was comparatively easy. In this way, I
|
||
reached halfway. The chimney now became narrower. The atmosphere was
|
||
close, and, at last, to end the matter, I stuck fast. I could ascend
|
||
no higher.
|
||
There could be no doubt of this, and there remained no resource
|
||
but to descend, and give up my glorious prey in despair. I yielded
|
||
to fate and endeavored to descend. But I could not move. Some unseen
|
||
and mysterious obstacle intervened and stopped me. In an instant the
|
||
full horror of my situation seized me.
|
||
I was unable to move either way, and was doomed to a terrible and
|
||
horrible death, that of starvation. In a boy's mind, however, there is
|
||
an extraordinary amount of elasticity and hope, and I began to think
|
||
of all sorts of plans to escape my gloomy fate.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
In the first place, I required no food just at present, having had
|
||
an excellent meal, and was therefore allowed time for reflection. My
|
||
first thought was to try and move the mortar with my hand. Had I
|
||
possessed a knife, something might have been done, but that useful
|
||
instrument I had left in my coat pocket.
|
||
I soon found that all efforts of this kind were vain and useless,
|
||
and that all I could hope to do was to wriggle downwards.
|
||
But though I jerked and struggled, and strove to turn, it was all in
|
||
vain. I could not move an inch, one way or the other. And time flew
|
||
rapidly. My early rising probably contributed to the fact that I
|
||
felt sleepy, and gradually gave way to the sensation of drowsiness.
|
||
I slept, and awoke in darkness, ravenously hungry.
|
||
Night had come, and still I could not move. I was tight bound, and
|
||
did not succeed in changing my position an inch. I groaned aloud.
|
||
Never since the days of my happy childhood, when it was a hardship
|
||
to go from meal to meal without eating, had I really experienced
|
||
hunger. The sensation was as novel as it was painful. I began now to
|
||
lose my head and to scream and cry out in my agony. Something
|
||
appeared, startled by my noise. It was a harmless lizard, but it
|
||
appeared to me a loathsome reptile. Again I made the old ruins resound
|
||
with my cries, and finally so exhausted myself that I fainted.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
How long I lay in a kind of trance or sleep I cannot say, but when
|
||
again I recovered consciousness it was day. How ill I felt, how hunger
|
||
still gnawed at me, it would be hard to say. I was too weak to
|
||
scream now, far too weak to struggle.
|
||
Suddenly I was startled by a roar.
|
||
"Are you there, Henry?" said the voice of my uncle; "are you
|
||
there, my boy?"
|
||
I could only faintly respond, but I also made a desperate effort
|
||
to turn. Some mortar fell. To this I owed my being discovered. When
|
||
the search took place, it was easily seen that mortar and small pieces
|
||
of stone had recently fallen from above. Hence my uncle's cry.
|
||
"Be calm, "he cried, "if we pull down the whole ruin, you shall be
|
||
saved."
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
They were delicious words, but I had little hope.
|
||
Soon however, about a quarter of an hour later I heard a voice above
|
||
me, at one of the upper fireplaces.
|
||
"Are you below or above?"
|
||
"Below," was my reply.
|
||
In an instant a basket was lowered with milk, a biscuit, and an egg.
|
||
My uncle was fearful to be too ready with his supply of food. I
|
||
drank the milk first, for thirst had nearly deadened hunger. I then,
|
||
much refreshed, ate my bread and hard egg.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
They were now at work at the wall. I could hear a pickax. Wishing to
|
||
escape all danger from this terrible weapon I made a desperate
|
||
struggle, and the belt, which surrounded my waist and which had been
|
||
hitched on a stone, gave way. I was free, and only escaped falling
|
||
down by a rapid motion of my hands and knees.
|
||
In ten minutes more I was in my uncle's arms, after being two days
|
||
and nights in that horrible prison. My occasional delirium prevented
|
||
me from counting time.
|
||
I was weeks recovering from that awful starvation adventure; and yet
|
||
what was that to the hideous sufferings I now endured?
|
||
After dreaming for some time, and thinking of this and other
|
||
matters, I once more looked around me. We were still ascending with
|
||
fearful rapidity. Every now and then the air appeared to check our
|
||
respiration as it does that of aeronauts when the ascension of the
|
||
balloon is too rapid. But if they feel a degree of cold in
|
||
proportion to the elevation they attain in the atmosphere, we
|
||
experienced quite a contrary effect. The heat began to increase in a
|
||
most threatening and exceptional manner. I cannot tell exactly the
|
||
mean, but I think it must have reached one hundred twenty-two
|
||
degrees Fahrenheit.
|
||
What was the meaning of this extraordinary change in the
|
||
temperature? As far as we had hitherto gone, facts had proved the
|
||
theories of Davy and of Lidenbrock to be correct. Until now, all the
|
||
peculiar conditions of refractory rocks, of electricity, of magnetism,
|
||
had modified the general laws of nature, and had created for us a
|
||
moderate temperature; for the theory of the central fire, remained, in
|
||
my eyes, the only explainable one.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
Were we, then, going to reach a position in which these phenomena
|
||
were to be carried out in all their rigor, and in which the heat would
|
||
reduce the rocks to a state of fusion?
|
||
Such was my not unnatural fear, and I did not conceal the fact
|
||
from my uncle. My way of doing so might be cold and heartless, but I
|
||
could not help it.
|
||
"If we are not drowned, or smashed into pancakes, and if we do not
|
||
die of starvation, we have the satisfaction of knowing that we must be
|
||
burned alive."
|
||
My uncle, in presence of this brusque attack, simply shrugged his
|
||
shoulders, and resumed his reflections- whatever they might be.
|
||
An hour passed away, and except that there was a slight increase
|
||
in the temperature no incident modified the situation.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
My uncle at last, of his own accord, broke silence.
|
||
"Well, Henry, my boy," he said, in a cheerful way, "we must make
|
||
up our minds."
|
||
"Make up our minds to what?" I asked, in considerable surprise.
|
||
"Well- to something. We must at whatever risk recruit our physical
|
||
strength. If we make the fatal mistake of husbanding our little
|
||
remnant of food, we may probably prolong our wretched existence a
|
||
few hours- but we shall remain weak to the end."
|
||
"Yes," I growled, "to the end. That, however, will not keep us
|
||
long waiting."
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
"Well, only let a chance of safety present itself- only allow that a
|
||
moment of action be necessary- where shall we find the means of action
|
||
if we allow ourselves to be reduced to physical weakness by
|
||
inanition?"
|
||
"When this piece of meat is devoured, Uncle, what hope will there
|
||
remain unto us?"
|
||
"None, my dear Henry, none. But will it do you any good to devour it
|
||
with your eyes? You appear to me to reason like one without will or
|
||
decision, like a being without energy."
|
||
"Then," cried I, exasperated to a degree which is scarcely to be
|
||
explained, "you do not mean to tell me- that you- that you- have not
|
||
lost all hope.
|
||
"Certainly not," replied the Professor with consummate coolness.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"You mean to tell me, Uncle, that we shall get out of this monstrous
|
||
subterranean shaft?"
|
||
"While there is life there is hope. I beg to assert, Henry, that
|
||
as long as a man's heart beats, as long as a man's flesh quivers, I do
|
||
not allow that a being gifted with thought and will can allow
|
||
himself to despair."
|
||
What a nerve! The man placed in a position like that we occupied
|
||
must have been very brave to speak like this.
|
||
"Well," I cried, "what do you mean to do?"
|
||
"Eat what remains of the food we have in our hands; let us swallow
|
||
the last crumb. It will bel Heaven willing, our last repast. Well,
|
||
never mind- instead of being exhausted skeletons, we shall be men."
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"True," muttered I in a despairing tone, "let us take our fill."
|
||
"We must, replied my uncle, with a deep sigh, "call it what you
|
||
will."
|
||
My uncle took a piece of the meat that remained, and some crusts
|
||
of biscuit which had escaped the wreck. He divided the whole into
|
||
three parts.
|
||
Each had one pound of food to last him as long as he remained in the
|
||
interior of the earth.
|
||
Each now acted in accordance with his own private character.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
My uncle, the Professor, ate greedily, but evidently without
|
||
appetite, eating simply from some mechanical motion. I put the food
|
||
inside my lips, and hungry as I was, chewed my morsel without
|
||
pleasure, and without satisfaction.
|
||
Hans, the guide, just as if he had been eider-down hunting,
|
||
swallowed every mouthful, as though it were a usual affair. He
|
||
looked like a man equally prepared to enjoy superfluity or total want.
|
||
Hans, in all probability, was no more used to starvation than
|
||
ourselves, but his hardy Icelandic nature had prepared him for many
|
||
sufferings. As long as he received his three rix-dollars every
|
||
Saturday night, he was prepared for anything.
|
||
The fact was, Hans never troubled himself about much except his
|
||
money. He had undertaken to serve a certain man at so much per week,
|
||
and no matter what evils befell his employer or himself, he never
|
||
found fault or grumbled, so long as his wages were duly paid.
|
||
Suddenly my uncle roused himself. He had seen a smile on the face of
|
||
our guide. I could not make it out.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
"What is the matter?" said my uncle.
|
||
"Schiedam," said the guide, producing a bottle of this precious
|
||
fluid.
|
||
We drank. My uncle and myself will own to our dying day that hence
|
||
we derived strength to exist until the last bitter moment. That
|
||
precious bottle of Hollands was in reality only half full; but,
|
||
under the circumstances, it was nectar.
|
||
It took some minutes for myself and my uncle to form a decided
|
||
opinion on the subject. The worthy Professor swallowed about half a
|
||
pint and did not seem able to drink any more.
|
||
"Fortrafflig," said Hans, swallowing nearly all that was left.
|
||
{CHAPTER_41 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
"Excellent- very good," said my uncle, with as much gusto as if he
|
||
had just left the steps of the club at Hamburg.
|
||
I had begun to feel as if there had been one gleam of hope. Now
|
||
all thought of the future vanished!
|
||
We had consumed our last ounce of food, and it was five o'clock in
|
||
the morning!
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_42
|
||
CHAPTER 42
|
||
The Volcanic Shaft
|
||
-
|
||
MAN'S constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a
|
||
negative matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it
|
||
becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is
|
||
only when you suffer that you really understand.
|
||
As to anyone who has not endured privation having any notion of
|
||
the matter, it is simply absurd.
|
||
With us, after a long fast, some mouthfuls of bread and meat, a
|
||
little moldy biscuit and salt beef triumphed over all our previous
|
||
gloomy and saturnine thoughts.
|
||
Nevertheless, after this repast each gave way to his own
|
||
reflections. I wondered what were those of Hans- the man of the
|
||
extreme north, who was yet gifted with the fatalistic resignation of
|
||
Oriental character. But the utmost stretch of the imagination would
|
||
not allow me to realize the truth. As for my individual self, my
|
||
thoughts had ceased to be anything but memories of the past, and
|
||
were all connected with that upper world which I never should have
|
||
left. I saw it all now, the beautiful house in the Konigstrasse, my
|
||
poor Gretchen, the good Martha; they all passed before my mind like
|
||
visions of the past. Every time any of the lugubrious groanings
|
||
which were to be distinguished in the hollows around fell upon my
|
||
ears, I fancied I heard the distant murmur of the great cities above
|
||
my head.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
As for my uncle, always thinking of his science, he examined the
|
||
nature of the shaft by means of a torch. He closely examined the
|
||
different strata one above the other, in order to recognize his
|
||
situation by geological theory. This calculation, or rather this
|
||
estimation, could by no means be anything but approximate. But a
|
||
learned man, a philosopher, is nothing if not a philosopher, when he
|
||
keeps his ideas calm and collected; and certainly the Professor
|
||
possessed this quality to perfection.
|
||
I heard him, as I sat in silence, murmuring words of geological
|
||
science. As I understood his object and his meaning, I could not but
|
||
interest myself despite my preoccupation in that terrible hour.
|
||
"Eruptive granite," he said to himself, "we are still in the
|
||
primitive epoch. But we are going up- going up, still going up. But
|
||
who knows? Who knows?"
|
||
Then he still hoped. He felt along the vertical sides of the shaft
|
||
with his hand, and some few minutes later, he would go on again in the
|
||
following style:
|
||
"This is gneiss. This is mica schist- siliceous mineral. Good again;
|
||
this is the epoch of transition, at all events, we are close to
|
||
them- and then, and then-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
What could the Professor mean? Could he, by any conceivable means,
|
||
measure the thickness of the crust of the earth suspended above our
|
||
heads? Did he possess any possible means of making any approximation
|
||
to this calculation? No.
|
||
The manometer was wanting, and no summary estimation could take
|
||
the place of it.
|
||
And yet, as we progressed, the temperature increased in the most
|
||
extraordinary degree, and I began to feel as if I were bathed in a hot
|
||
and burning atmosphere. Never before had I felt anything like it. I
|
||
could only compare it to the hot vapor from an iron foundry, when
|
||
the liquid iron is in a state of ebullition and runs over. By degrees,
|
||
and one after the other, Hans, my uncle, and myself had taken off
|
||
our coats and waistcoats. They were unbearable. Even the slightest
|
||
garment was not only uncomfortable, but the cause of extreme
|
||
suffering.
|
||
"Are we ascending to a living fire?" I cried; when, to my horror and
|
||
astonishment, the heat became greater than before.
|
||
"No, no," said my uncle, "it is simply impossible, quite
|
||
impossible."
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"And yet," said I, touching the side of the shaft with my naked
|
||
hand, "this wall is literally burning."
|
||
At this moment, feeling as I did that the sides of this
|
||
extraordinary wall were red hot, I plunged my hands into the water
|
||
to cool them. I drew them back with a cry of despair.
|
||
"The water is boiling!" I cried.
|
||
My uncle, the Professor, made no reply other than a gesture of
|
||
rage and despair.
|
||
Something very like the truth had probably struck his imagination.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
But I could take no share in either what was going on, or in his
|
||
speculations. An invincible dread had taken possession of my brain and
|
||
soul. I could only look forward to an immediate catastrophe, such a
|
||
catastrophe as not even the most vivid imagination could have
|
||
thought of. An idea, at first vague and uncertain, was gradually being
|
||
changed into certainty.
|
||
I tremulously rejected it at first, but it forced itself upon me
|
||
by degrees with extreme obstinacy. It was so terrible an idea that I
|
||
scarcely dared to whisper it to myself.
|
||
And yet all the while certain, and as it were, involuntary
|
||
observations determined my convictions. By the doubtful glare of the
|
||
torch, I could make out some singular changes in the granitic
|
||
strata; a strange and terrible phenomenon was about to be produced, in
|
||
which electricity played a part.
|
||
Then this boiling water, this terrible and excessive heat? I
|
||
determined as a last resource to examine the compass.
|
||
The compass had gone mad!
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Yes, wholly stark staring mad. The needle jumped from pole to pole
|
||
with sudden and surprising jerks, ran round, or as it is said, boxed
|
||
the compass, and then ran suddenly back again as if it had the
|
||
vertigo.
|
||
I was aware that, according to the best acknowledged theories, it
|
||
was a received notion that the mineral crust of the globe is never,
|
||
and never has been, in a state of complete repose.
|
||
It is perpetually undergoing the modifications caused by the
|
||
decomposition of internal matter, the agitation consequent on the
|
||
flowing of extensive liquid currents, the excessive action of
|
||
magnetism which tends to shake it incessantly, at a time when even the
|
||
multitudinous beings on its surface do not suspect the seething
|
||
process to be going on.
|
||
Still this phenomenon would not have alarmed me alone; it would
|
||
not have aroused in my mind a terrible, an awful idea.
|
||
But other facts could not allow my self-delusion to last.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Terrible detonations, like Heaven's artillery, began to multiply
|
||
themselves with fearful intensity. I could only compare them with
|
||
the noise made by hundreds of heavily laden chariots being madly
|
||
driven over a stone pavement. It was a continuous roll of heavy
|
||
thunder.
|
||
And then the mad compass, shaken by the wild electric phenomena,
|
||
confirmed me in my rapidly formed opinion. The mineral crust was about
|
||
to burst, the heavy granite masses were about to rejoin, the fissure
|
||
was about to close, the void was about to be filled up, and we poor
|
||
atoms to be crushed in its awful embrace!
|
||
"Uncle, Uncle!" I cried, "we are wholly, irretrievably lost!"
|
||
"What, then, my young friend, is your new cause of terror and
|
||
alarm?" he said in his calmest manner. "What fear you now?"
|
||
"What do I fear now!" I cried in fierce and angry tones. "Do you not
|
||
see that the walls of the shaft are in motion? Do you not see that the
|
||
solid granite masses are cracking? Do you not feel the terrible,
|
||
torrid heat? Do you not observe the awful boiling water on which we
|
||
float? Do you not remark this mad needle? Every sign and portent of an
|
||
awful earthquake!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
My uncle coolly shook his head.
|
||
"An earthquake," he replied in the most calm and provoking tone.
|
||
"Yes."
|
||
"My nephew, I tell you that you are utterly mistaken," he continued.
|
||
"Do you not, can you not, recognize all the well-known symtons-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"Of an earthquake? By no means. I am expecting something far more
|
||
important."
|
||
"My brain is strained beyond endurance- what, what do you mean?" I
|
||
cried.
|
||
"An eruption, Harry."
|
||
"An eruption," I gasped. "We are, then, in the volcanic shaft of a
|
||
crater in full action and vigor."
|
||
"I have every reason to think so," said the Professor in a smiling
|
||
tone, "and I beg to tell you that it is the most fortunate thing
|
||
that could happen to us."
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
The most fortunate thing! Had my uncle really and truly gone mad?
|
||
What did he mean by these awful words- what did he mean by this
|
||
terrible calm, this solemn smile?
|
||
"What!" cried I, in the height of my exasperation, "we are on the
|
||
way to an eruption, are we? Fatality has cast us into a well of
|
||
burning and boiling lava, of rocks on fire, of boiling water, in a
|
||
word, filled with every kind of eruptive matter? We are about to be
|
||
expelled, thrown up, vomited, spit out of the interior of the earth,
|
||
in common with huge blocks of granite, with showers of cinders and
|
||
scoriae, in a wild whirlwind of flame, and you say- the most fortunate
|
||
thing which could happen to us."
|
||
"Yes, replied the Professor, looking at me calmly from under his
|
||
spectacles, "it is the only chance which remains to us of ever
|
||
escaping from the interior of the earth to the light of day."
|
||
It is quite impossible that I can put on paper the thousand strange,
|
||
wild thoughts which followed this extraordinary announcement.
|
||
But my uncle was right, quite right, and never had he appeared to me
|
||
so audacious and so convinced as when he looked me calmly in the
|
||
face and spoke of the chances of an eruption- of our being cast upon
|
||
Mother Earth once more through the gaping crater of a volcano!
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
Nevertheless, while we were speaking we were still ascending; we
|
||
passed the whole night going up, or to speak more scientifically, in
|
||
an ascensional motion. The fearful noise redoubled; I was ready to
|
||
suffocate. I seriously believed that my last hour was approaching, and
|
||
yet, so strange is imagination, all I thought of was some childish
|
||
hypothesis or other. In such circumstances you do not choose your
|
||
own thoughts. They overcome you.
|
||
It was quite evident that we were being cast upwards by eruptive
|
||
matter; under the raft there was a mass of boiling water, and under
|
||
this was a heavier mass of lava, and an aggregate of rocks which, on
|
||
reaching the summit of the water, would be dispersed in every
|
||
direction.
|
||
That we were inside the chimney of a volcano there could no longer
|
||
be the shadow of a doubt. Nothing more terrible could be conceived!
|
||
But on this occasion, instead of Sneffels, an old and extinct
|
||
volcano, we were inside a mountain of fire in full activity. Several
|
||
times I found myself asking, what mountain was it, and on what part of
|
||
the world we should be shot out. As if it were of any consequence!
|
||
In the northern regions, there could be no reasonable doubt about
|
||
that. Before it went decidedly mad, the compass had never made the
|
||
slightest mistake. From the cape of Saknussemm, we had been swept away
|
||
to the northward many hundreds of leagues. Now the question was,
|
||
were we once more under Iceland- should we be belched forth on to
|
||
the earth through the crater of Mount Hecla, or should we reappear
|
||
through one of the other seven fire funnels of the island? Taking in
|
||
my mental vision a radius of five hundred leagues to the westward, I
|
||
could see under this parallel only the little-known volcanoes of the
|
||
northwest coast of America.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
To the east one only existed somewhere about the eightieth degree of
|
||
latitude, the Esk, upon the island of Jan Mayen, not far from the
|
||
frozen regions of Spitsbergen.
|
||
It was not craters that were wanting, and many of them were big
|
||
enough to vomit a whole army; all I wished to know was the
|
||
particular one towards which we were making with such fearful
|
||
velocity.
|
||
I often think now of my folly: as if I should ever have expected
|
||
to escape!
|
||
Towards morning, the ascending motion became greater and greater. If
|
||
the degree of heat increased instead of decreasing, as we approached
|
||
the surface of the earth, it was simply because the causes were
|
||
local and wholly due to volcanic influence. Our very style of
|
||
locomotion left in my mind no doubt upon the subject. An enormous
|
||
force, a force of several hundreds of atmospheres produced by the
|
||
vapors accumulated and long compressed in the interior of the earth,
|
||
was hoisting us upwards with irresistible power.
|
||
But though we were approaching the light of day, to what fearful
|
||
dangers were we about to be exposed?
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
Instant death appeared the only fate which we could expect or
|
||
contemplate.
|
||
Soon a dim, sepulchral light penetrated the vertical gallery,
|
||
which became wider and wider. I could make out to the right and left
|
||
long dark corridors like immense tunnels, from which awful and
|
||
horrid vapors poured out. Tongues of fire, sparkling and crackling,
|
||
appeared about to lick us up.
|
||
The hour had come!
|
||
"Look, Uncle, look!" I cried.
|
||
"Well, what you see are the great sulphurous flames. Nothing more
|
||
common in connection with an eruption."
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
"But if they lap us round!" I angrily replied.
|
||
"They will not lap us round," was his quiet and serene answer.
|
||
"But it will be all the same in the end if they stifle us," I cried.
|
||
"We shall not be stifled. The gallery is rapidly becoming wider
|
||
and wider, and if it be necessary, we will presently leave the raft
|
||
and take refuge in some fissure in the rock."
|
||
"But the water, the water, which is continually ascending?" I
|
||
despairingly replied.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
"There is no longer any water, Harry," he answered, "but a kind of
|
||
lava paste, which is heaving us up, in company with itself, to the
|
||
mouth of the crater."
|
||
In truth, the liquid column of water had wholly disappeared to
|
||
give place to dense masses of boiling eruptive matter. The temperature
|
||
was becoming utterly insupportable, and a thermometer exposed to
|
||
this atmosphere would have marked between one hundred and
|
||
eighty-nine and one hundred ninety degrees Fahrenheit.
|
||
Perspiration rushed from every pore. But for the extraordinary
|
||
rapidity of our ascent we should have been stifled.
|
||
Nevertheless, the Professor did not carry out his proposition of
|
||
abandoning the raft; and he did quite wisely. Those few ill-joined
|
||
beams offered, anyway, a solid surface- a support which elsewhere must
|
||
have utterly failed us.
|
||
Towards eight o'clock in the morning a new incident startled us. The
|
||
ascensional movement suddenly ceased. The raft became still and
|
||
motionless.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
"What is the matter now?" I said, querulously, very much startled by
|
||
this change.
|
||
"A simple halt," replied my uncle.
|
||
"Is the eruption about to fail?" I asked.
|
||
"I hope not."
|
||
Without making any reply, I rose. I tried to look around me. Perhaps
|
||
the raft, checked by some projecting rock, opposed a momentary
|
||
resistance to the eruptive mass. In this case, it was absolutely
|
||
necessary to release it as quickly as possible.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 80}
|
||
Nothing of the kind had occurred. The column of cinders, of scoriae,
|
||
of broken rocks and earth, had wholly ceased to ascend.
|
||
"I tell you, Uncle, that the eruption has stopped," was my
|
||
oracular decision.
|
||
"Ah," said my uncle, "you think so, my boy. You are wrong. Do not be
|
||
in the least alarmed; this sudden moment of calm will not last long,
|
||
be assured. It has already endured five minutes, and before we are
|
||
many minutes older we shall be continuing our journey to the mouth
|
||
of the crater."
|
||
All the time he was speaking the Professor continued to consult
|
||
his chronometer, and he was probably right in his prognostics. Soon
|
||
the raft resumed its motion, in a very rapid and disorderly way, which
|
||
lasted two minutes or thereabout; and then again it stopped as
|
||
suddenly as before.
|
||
"Good," said my uncle, observing the hour, "in ten we shall start
|
||
again."
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 85}
|
||
"In ten minutes?"
|
||
"Yes- precisely. We have to do with a volcano, the eruption of which
|
||
is intermittent. We are compelled to breathe just as it does."
|
||
Nothing could be more true. At the exact minute he had indicated, we
|
||
were again launched on high with extreme rapidity. Not to be cast
|
||
off the raft, it was necessary to hold on to the beams. Then the hoist
|
||
again ceased.
|
||
Many times since have I thought of this singular phenomenon
|
||
without being able to find for it any satisfactory explanation.
|
||
Nevertheless, it appeared quite clear to me, that we were not in the
|
||
principal chimney of the volcano, but in an accessory conduit, where
|
||
we felt the counter shock of the great and principal tunnel filled
|
||
by burning lava.
|
||
It is impossible for me to say how many times this maneuver was
|
||
repeated. All that I can remember is, that on every ascensional
|
||
motion, we were hoisted up with ever increasing velocity, as if we had
|
||
been launched from a huge projectile. During the sudden halts we
|
||
were nearly stifled; during the moments of projection the hot air took
|
||
away our breath.
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 90}
|
||
I thought for a moment of the voluptuous joy of suddenly finding
|
||
myself in the hyperborean regions with the cold thirty degrees below
|
||
zero!
|
||
My exalted imagination pictured to itself the vast snowy plains of
|
||
the arctic regions, and I was impatient to roll myself on the icy
|
||
carpet of the North Pole.
|
||
By degrees my head, utterly overcome by a series of violent
|
||
emotions, began to give way to hallucination. I was delirious. Had
|
||
it not been for the powerful arms of Hans, the guide, I should have
|
||
broken my head against the granite masses of the shaft.
|
||
I have, in consequence, kept no account of what followed for many
|
||
hours. I have a vague and confused remembrance of continual
|
||
detonations, of the shaking of the huge granitic mass, and of the raft
|
||
going round like a spinning top. It floated on the stream of hot lava,
|
||
amidst a falling cloud of cinders. The huge flames roaring, wrapped us
|
||
around.
|
||
A storm of wind which appeared to be cast forth from an immense
|
||
ventilator roused up the interior fires of the earth. It was a hot,
|
||
incandescent blast!
|
||
{CHAPTER_42 ^paragraph 95}
|
||
At last I saw the figure of Hans as if enveloped in the huge halo of
|
||
burning blaze, and no other sense remained to me but that sinister
|
||
dread which the condemned victim may be supposed to feel when led to
|
||
the mouth of a cannon, at the supreme moment when the shot is fired
|
||
and his limbs are dispersed into empty space.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_43
|
||
CHAPTER 43
|
||
Daylight at Last
|
||
-
|
||
WHEN I opened my eyes I felt the hand of the guide clutching me
|
||
firmly by the belt. With his other hand he supported my uncle. I was
|
||
not grievously wounded, but bruised all over in the most remarkable
|
||
manner.
|
||
After a moment I looked around, and found that I was lying down on
|
||
the slope of a mountain not two yards from a yawning gulf into which I
|
||
should have fallen had I made the slightest false step. Hans had saved
|
||
me from death, while I rolled insensible on the flanks of the crater.
|
||
"Where are we?" dreamily asked my uncle, who literally appeared to
|
||
be disgusted at having returned to earth.
|
||
The eider-down hunter simply shrugged his shoulders as a mark of
|
||
total ignorance.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"In Iceland?" said I, not positively but interrogatively.
|
||
"Nej," said Hans.
|
||
"How do you mean?" cried the Professor; "no- what are your reasons?"
|
||
"Hans is wrong," said I, rising.
|
||
After all the innumerable surprises of this journey, a yet more
|
||
singular one was reserved to us. I expected to see a cone covered by
|
||
snow, by extensive and widespread glaciers, in the midst of the arid
|
||
deserts of the extreme northern regions, beneath the full rays of a
|
||
polar sky, beyond the highest latitudes.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
But contrary to all our expectations, I, my uncle, and the
|
||
Icelander, were cast upon the slope of a mountain calcined by the
|
||
burning rays of a sun which was literally baking us with its fires.
|
||
I could not believe my eyes, but the actual heat which affected my
|
||
body allowed me no chance of doubting. We came out of the crater
|
||
half naked, and the radiant star from which we had asked nothing for
|
||
two months, was good enough to be prodigal to us of light and
|
||
warmth- a light and warmth we could easily have dispensed with.
|
||
When our eyes were accustomed to the light we had lost sight of so
|
||
long, I used them to rectify the errors of my imagination. Whatever
|
||
happened, we should have been at Spitsbergen, and I was in no humor to
|
||
yield to anything but the most absolute proof.
|
||
After some delay, the Professor spoke.
|
||
"Hem!" he said, in a hesitating kind of way, "it really does not
|
||
look like Iceland."
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
"But supposing it were the island of Jan Mayen?" I ventured to
|
||
observe.
|
||
"Not in the least, my boy. This is not one of the volcanoes of the
|
||
north, with its hills of granite and its crown of snow."
|
||
"Nevertheless-
|
||
"Look, look, my boy," said the Professor, as dogmatically as usual.
|
||
Right above our heads, at a great height, opened the crater of a
|
||
volcano from which escaped, from one quarter of an hour to the
|
||
other, with a very loud explosion, a lofty jet of flame mingled with
|
||
pumice stone, cinders, and lava. I could feel the convulsions of
|
||
nature in the mountain, which breathed like a huge whale, throwing
|
||
up from time to time fire and air through its enormous vents.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
Below, and floating along a slope of considerable angularity, the
|
||
stream of eruptive matter spread away to a depth which did not give
|
||
the volcano a height of three hundred fathoms.
|
||
Its base disappeared in a perfect forest of green trees, among which
|
||
I perceived olives, fig trees, and vines loaded with rich grapes.
|
||
Certainly this was not the ordinary aspect of the arctic regions.
|
||
About that there could not be the slightest doubt.
|
||
When the eye was satisfied at its glimpse of this verdant expanse,
|
||
it fell upon the waters of a lovely sea or beautiful lake, which
|
||
made of this enchanted land an island of not many leagues in extent.
|
||
On the side of the rising sun was to be seen a little port,
|
||
crowded with houses, and near which the boats and vessels of
|
||
peculiar build were floating upon azure waves.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
Beyond, groups of islands rose above the liquid plain, so numerous
|
||
and close together as to resemble a vast beehive.
|
||
Towards the setting sun, some distant shores were to be made out
|
||
on the edge of the horizon. Some presented the appearance of blue
|
||
mountains of harmonious conformation; upon others, much more
|
||
distant, there appeared a prodigiously lofty cone, above the summit of
|
||
which hung dark and heavy clouds.
|
||
Towards the north, an immense expanse of water sparkled beneath
|
||
the solar rays, occasionally allowing the extremity of a mast or the
|
||
convexity of a sail bellying to the wind, to be seen.
|
||
The unexpected character of such a scene added a hundredfold to
|
||
its marvelous beauties.
|
||
"Where can we be?" I asked, speaking in a low and solemn voice.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
Hans shut his eyes with an air of indifference, and my uncle
|
||
looked on without clearly understanding.
|
||
"Whatever this mountain may be," he said, at last, "I must confess
|
||
it is rather warm. The explosions do not leave off, and I do not think
|
||
it is worthwhile to have left the interior of a volcano and remain
|
||
here to receive a huge piece of rock upon one's head. Let us carefully
|
||
descend the mountain and discover the real state of the case. To
|
||
confess the truth, I am dying of hunger and thirst."
|
||
Decidedly the Professor was no longer a truly reflective
|
||
character. For myself, forgetting all my necessities, ignoring my
|
||
fatigues and sufferings, I should have remained still for several
|
||
hours longer- but it was necessary to follow my companions.
|
||
The slope of the volcano was very steep and slippery; we slid over
|
||
piles of ashes, avoiding the streams of hot lava which glided about
|
||
like fiery serpents. Still, while we were advancing, I spoke with
|
||
extreme volubility, for my imagination was too full not to explode
|
||
in words.
|
||
"We are in Asia!" I exclaimed; "we are on the coast of India, in the
|
||
great Malay islands, in the center of Oceania. We have crossed the one
|
||
half of the globe to come out right at the antipodes of Europe!"
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"But the compass!" exclaimed my uncle; "explain that to me!"
|
||
"Yes- the compass," I said with considerable hesitation. "I grant
|
||
that is a difficulty. According to it, we have always been going
|
||
northward."
|
||
"Then it lied."
|
||
"Hem- to say it lied is rather a harsh word," was my answer.
|
||
"Then we are at the North Pole-"
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
"The Pole- no- well- well I give it up," was my reply.
|
||
The plain truth was, that there was no explanation possible. I could
|
||
make nothing of it.
|
||
And all the while we were approaching this beautiful verdure, hunger
|
||
and thirst tormented me fearfully. Happily, after two long hours'
|
||
march, a beautiful country spread out before us, covered by olives,
|
||
pomegranates, and vines, which appeared to belong to anybody and
|
||
everybody. In any event, in the state of destitution into which we had
|
||
fallen, we were not in a mood to ponder too scrupulously.
|
||
What delight it was to press these delicious fruits to our lips, and
|
||
to bite at grapes and pomegranates fresh from the vine.
|
||
Not far off, near some fresh and mossy grass, under the delicious
|
||
shade of some trees, I discovered a spring of fresh water, in which we
|
||
voluptuously laved our faces, hands, and feet.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 45}
|
||
While we were all giving way to the delights of new-found pleasures,
|
||
a little child appeared between two tufted olive trees.
|
||
"Ah," cried I, "an inhabitant of this happy country."
|
||
The little fellow was poorly dressed, weak, and suffering, and
|
||
appeared terribly alarmed at our appearance. Half-naked, with tangled,
|
||
matted and ragged beards, we did look supremely ill-favored; and
|
||
unless the country was a bandit land, we were not likely to alarm
|
||
the inhabitants!
|
||
Just as the boy was about to take to his heels, Hans ran after
|
||
him, and brought him back, despite his cries and kicks.
|
||
My uncle tried to look as gentle as possible, and then spoke in
|
||
German.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 50}
|
||
"What is the name of this mountain, my friend?"
|
||
The child made no reply.
|
||
"Good," said my uncle, with a very positive air of conviction, "we
|
||
are not in Germany."
|
||
He then made the same demand in English, of which language he was an
|
||
excellent scholar.
|
||
The child shook its head and made no reply. I began to be
|
||
considerably puzzled.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 55}
|
||
"Is he dumb?" cried the Professor, who was rather proud of his
|
||
polyglot knowledge of languages, and made the same demand in French.
|
||
The boy only stared in his face.
|
||
"I must perforce try him in Italian," said my uncle, with a shrug.
|
||
"Dove noi siamo?"
|
||
"Yes, tell me where we are?" I added impatiently and eagerly.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 60}
|
||
Again the boy remained silent.
|
||
"My fine fellow, do you or do you not mean to speak?" cried my
|
||
uncle, who began to get angry. He shook him, and spoke another dialect
|
||
of the Italian language.
|
||
"Come si noma questa isola?"- "What is the name of this island?"
|
||
"Stromboli," replied the rickety little shepherd, dashing away
|
||
from Hans and disappearing in the olive groves.
|
||
We thought little enough about him.
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 65}
|
||
Stromboli! What effect on the imagination did these few words
|
||
produce! We were in the center of the Mediterranean, amidst the
|
||
eastern archipelago of mythological memory, in the ancient Strongylos,
|
||
where AEolus kept the wind and the tempest chained up. And those
|
||
blue mountains, which rose towards the rising sun, were the
|
||
mountains of Calabria.
|
||
And that mighty volcano which rose on the southern horizon was Etna,
|
||
the fierce and celebrated Etna!
|
||
"Stromboli! Stromboli!" I repeated to myself.
|
||
My uncle played a regular accompaniment to my gestures and words. We
|
||
were singing together like an ancient chorus.
|
||
Ah- what a journey- what a marvelous and extraordinary journey! Here
|
||
we had entered the earth by one volcano, and we had come out by
|
||
another. And this other was situated more than twelve hundred
|
||
leagues from Sneffels from that drear country of Iceland cast away
|
||
on the confines of the earth. The wondrous changes of this
|
||
expedition had transported us to the most harmonious and beautiful
|
||
of earthly lands. We had abandoned the region of eternal snows for
|
||
that of infinite verdure, and had left over our heads the gray fog
|
||
of the icy regions to come back to the azure sky of Sicily!
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 70}
|
||
After a delicious repast of fruits and fresh water, we again
|
||
continued our journey in order to reach the port of Stromboli. To
|
||
say how we had reached the island would scarcely have been prudent.
|
||
The superstitious character of the Italians would have been at work,
|
||
and we should have been called demons vomited from the infernal
|
||
regions. It was therefore necessary to pass for humble and unfortunate
|
||
shipwrecked travelers. It was certainly less striking and romantic,
|
||
but it was decidedly safer.
|
||
As we advanced, I could hear my worthy uncle muttering to himself:
|
||
"But the compass. The compass most certainly marked north. This is a
|
||
fact I cannot explain in any way."
|
||
"Well, the fact is," said I, with an air of disdain, "we must not
|
||
explain anything. It will be much more easy."
|
||
"I should like to see a professor of the Johanneum Institution who
|
||
is unable to explain a cosmic phenomenon- it would indeed be strange."
|
||
{CHAPTER_43 ^paragraph 75}
|
||
And speaking thus, my uncle, half-naked, his leathern purse round
|
||
his loins, and his spectacles upon his nose, became once more the
|
||
terrible Professor of Mineralogy.
|
||
An hour after leaving the wood of olives, we reached the fort of San
|
||
Vicenza, where Hans demanded the price of his thirteenth week of
|
||
service. My uncle paid him, with very many warm shakes of the hand.
|
||
At that moment, if he did not indeed quite share our natural
|
||
emotion, he allowed his feelings so far to give way as to indulge in
|
||
an extraordinary expression for him.
|
||
With the tips of two fingers he gently pressed our hands and smiled.
|
||
|
||
CHAPTER_44
|
||
CHAPTER 44
|
||
The Journey Ended
|
||
-
|
||
THIS is the final conclusion of a narrative which will be probably
|
||
disbelieved even by people who are astonished at nothing. I am,
|
||
however, armed at all points against human incredulity.
|
||
We were kindly received by the Strombolite fishermen, who treated us
|
||
as shipwrecked travelers. They gave us clothes and food. After a delay
|
||
of forty-eight hours, on the 30th of September a little vessel took us
|
||
to Messina, where a few days of delightful and complete repose
|
||
restored us to ourselves.
|
||
On Friday, the 4th of October, we embarked in the Volturne, one of
|
||
the postal packets of the Imperial Messageries of France; and three
|
||
days later we landed at Marseilles, having no other care on our
|
||
minds but that of our precious but erratic compass. This
|
||
inexplicable circumstance tormented me terribly. On the 9th of
|
||
October, in the evening, we reached Hamburg.
|
||
What was the astonishment of Martha, what the joy of Gretchen! I
|
||
will not attempt to define it.
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 5}
|
||
"Now then, Harry, that you really are a hero," she said, "there is
|
||
no reason why you should ever leave me again."
|
||
I looked at her. She was weeping tears of joy.
|
||
I leave it to be imagined if the return of Professor Hardwigg made
|
||
or did not make a sensation in Hamburg. Thanks to the indiscretion
|
||
of Martha, the news of his departure for the interior of the earth had
|
||
been spread over the whole world.
|
||
No one would believe it- and when they saw him come back in safety
|
||
they believed it all the less.
|
||
But the presence of Hans and many stray scraps of information by
|
||
degrees modified public opinion.
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 10}
|
||
Then my uncle became a great man and I the nephew of a great man,
|
||
which, at all events, is something. Hamburg gave a festival in our
|
||
honor. A public meeting of the Johanneum Institution was held, at
|
||
which the Professor related the whole story of his adventures,
|
||
omitting only the facts in connection with the compass.
|
||
That same day he deposited in the archives of the town the
|
||
document he had found written by Saknussemm, and he expressed his
|
||
great regret that circumstances, stronger than his will, did not allow
|
||
him to follow the Icelandic traveler's track into the very center of
|
||
the earth. He was modest in his glory, but his reputation only
|
||
increased.
|
||
So much honor necessarily created for him many envious enemies. Of
|
||
course they existed, and as his theories, supported by certain
|
||
facts, contradicted the system of science upon the question of central
|
||
heat, he maintained his own views both with pen and speech against the
|
||
learned of every country. Although I still believe in the theory of
|
||
central heat, I confess that certain circumstances, hitherto very
|
||
ill defined, may modify the laws of such natural phenomena.
|
||
At the moment when these questions were being discussed with
|
||
interest, my uncle received a rude shock-one that he felt very much.
|
||
Hans, despite everything he could say to the contrary, quitted
|
||
Hamburg; the man to whom we owed so much would not allow us to pay our
|
||
deep debt of gratitude. He was taken with nostalgia; a love for his
|
||
Icelandic home.
|
||
"Farval," said he, one day, and with this one short word of adieu,
|
||
he started for Reykjavik, which he soon reached in safety.
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 15}
|
||
We were deeply attached to our brave eider-duck hunter. His
|
||
absence will never cause him to be forgotten by those whose lives he
|
||
saved, and I hope, at some not distant day, to see him again.
|
||
To conclude, I may say that our journey into the interior of the
|
||
earth created an enormous sensation throughout the civilized world. It
|
||
was translated and printed in many languages. All the leading journals
|
||
published extracts from it, which were commentated, discussed,
|
||
attacked, and supported with equal animation by those who believed
|
||
in its episodes, and by those who were utterly incredulous.
|
||
Wonderful! My uncle enjoyed during his lifetime all the glory he
|
||
deserved; and he was even offered a large sum of money, by Mr. Barnum,
|
||
to exhibit himself in the United States; while I am credibly
|
||
informed by a traveler that he is to be seen in waxwork at Madame
|
||
Tussaud's!
|
||
But one care preyed upon his mind, a care which rendered him very
|
||
unhappy. One fact remained inexplicable- that of the compass. For a
|
||
learned man to be baffled by such an inexplicable phenomenon was
|
||
very aggravating. But Heaven was merciful, and in the end my uncle was
|
||
happy.
|
||
One day, while he put some minerals belonging to his collection in
|
||
order, I fell upon the famous compass and examined it keenly.
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 20}
|
||
For six months it had lain unnoticed and untouched.
|
||
I looked at it with curiosity, which soon became surprise. I gave
|
||
a loud cry. The Professor, who was at hand, soon joined me.
|
||
"What is the matter?" he cried.
|
||
"The compass!
|
||
"What then?"
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 25}
|
||
"Why its needle points to the south and not to the north."
|
||
"My dear boy, you must be dreaming."
|
||
"I am not dreaming. See- the poles are changed."
|
||
"Changed!"
|
||
My uncle put on his spectacles, examined the instrument, and
|
||
leaped with joy, shaking the whole house.
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 30}
|
||
A clear light fell upon our minds.
|
||
"Here it is!" he cried, as soon as he had recovered the use of his
|
||
speech, "after we had once passed Cape Saknussemm, the needle of
|
||
this compass pointed to the southward instead of the northward."
|
||
"Evidently."
|
||
"Our error is now easily explained. But to what phenomenon do we owe
|
||
this alteration in the needle?"
|
||
"Nothing more simple."
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 35}
|
||
"Explain yourself, my boy. I am on thorns."
|
||
"During the storm, upon the Central Sea, the ball of fire which made
|
||
a magnet of the iron in our raft, turned our compass topsy-turvy."
|
||
"Ah!" cried the Professor, with a loud and ringing laugh, "it was
|
||
a trick of that inexplicable electricity."
|
||
From that hour my uncle was the happiest of learned men, and I the
|
||
happiest of ordinary mortals. For my pretty Virland girl, abdicating
|
||
her position as ward, took her place in the house in the
|
||
Konigstrasse in the double quality of niece and wife.
|
||
We need scarcely mention that her uncle was the illustrious
|
||
Professor Hardwigg, corresponding member of all the scientific,
|
||
geographical, mineralogical, and geological societies of the five
|
||
parts of the globe.
|
||
{CHAPTER_44 ^paragraph 40}
|
||
-
|
||
-
|
||
-THE END-
|
||
|
||
|
||
|