Latest / Classic Science Fiction Books / 15 - We Continue Our Descent - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

Transcript

15 - We Continue Our Descent - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

• 0:00
  Chapter fifteen, we continue our descent. At eight o'clock the next morning,
• 0:06
  a faint kind of dawn of day awoke us. The thousand and one prisms
• 0:10
  of the lava collected the light as it passed, and brought it to us
• 0:13
  like a shower of sparks. We were able with ease to see objects around
• 0:17
  us. Well, Harry, my boy, cried the delighted professor, rubbing
• 0:21
  his hands together. What say you now? Did you ever pass a more
• 0:25
  tranquil night in our house in the Kernigstrasa, No deafening sounds of cart wheels,
• 0:30
  no cries of hawkers, no bad language from boatmen or watermen. Well,
• 0:36
  uncle, we are quite at the bottom of this well. But to
• 0:38
  me there is something terrible in this calm. Why, said the professor hotly,
• 0:44
  one would say you were already beginning to be afraid. How will you
• 0:47
  get on presently? Do you know that, as yet we have not penetrated
• 0:51
  one inch into the bowels of the earth. What can you mean, sir,
• 0:55
  was my bewildered and astonished reply. I mean to say that we have
• 1:00
  just reached the soil of the island itself. This long vertical tube which ends
• 1:03
  at the bottom of the crater of Sneffels ceases here just about on a level
• 1:08
  with the sea. Are you sure, sir? Quite sure? Consult the
• 1:12
  barometer. It was quite true that the mercury, after rising gradually in the
• 1:18
  instrument as long as our descent was taking place, had stopped precisely at twenty
• 1:22
  nine degrees. You'll perceive, said the professor, we have as yet only
• 1:26
  to endure the pressure of air. I am curious to replace the barometer by
• 1:32
  the manometer. The barometer, in fact, was about to become useless as
• 1:37
  soon as the weight of the air was greater than rot was calculated as above
• 1:40
  the level of the ocean. But said I, is it not very much
• 1:45
  to be feared that this ever increasing pressure may not, in the end turn
• 1:48
  out very painful and inconvenient? No, said he. We shall descend very
• 1:53
  slowly, and our lungs will be gradually accustomed to breathe compressed air. It
• 1:59
  is well known that air naughts have gone so high as to be nearly without
• 2:02
  air at all. Why then, should we not accustom ourselves to breathe when
• 2:07
  we have, say a little too much of it? For myself, I
• 2:09
  am certain I shall prefer it. Let us not lose a moment. Where
• 2:15
  is the packet which preceded us in our descent? I smilingly pointed it out
• 2:19
  to my uncle. Hans had not seen it and believed it caught somewhere above
• 2:23
  us. Up as he phrased it, Now, said my uncle, let
• 2:28
  us breakfast, and break fast like people who have a long day's work before
• 2:31
  them. Biscuit and dried meat, washed down by some mouthfuls of water flavored
• 2:37
  with sheedam was the material of our luxurious meal. As soon as it was
• 2:42
  finished, my uncle took from his pocket a note book destined to be filled
• 2:46
  by memoranda of our travels. He had already placed his instruments in order,
• 2:50
  and this is what he wrote. Monday, June twenty ninth. Chronometer eight
• 2:55
  hours, seventeen minutes morning barometer twenty nine point six inches thermomesa six degrees bracket's
• 3:05
  forty three degrees fahrenheit, direction east southeast. This last observation referred to the
• 3:12
  obscure gallery and was indicated to us by the compass. Now, Harry,
• 3:17
  cried the professor, in an enthusiastic tone of voice. We are truly about
• 3:22
  to take our first step. Into the interior of the earth, never before
• 3:24
  visited by man since the first creation of the world. You may consider,
• 3:29
  therefore, that at this precise moment our travels really commence. As my uncle
• 3:35
  made this remark, he took in one hand the Ruhmkorff coil apparatus, which
• 3:38
  hung around his neck, and with the other he put the electric current into
• 3:43
  communication with the worm of the lantern, and a bright light at once illomed
• 3:47
  that dark and gloomy tunnel. The effect was magical. Hans, who carried
• 3:53
  the second apparatus, had it also put into operation. This ingenious application of
• 3:58
  electricity to practic purposes enabled us to move along by the light of an artificial
• 4:02
  day, amid even the flow of the most inflammable and combustible gases. Forward,
• 4:09
  cried my uncle. Each took up his burden. Hands went first,
• 4:13
  My uncle followed, an I going third. We entered the somber gallery.
• 4:17
  Just as we were about to engulf ourselves in this dismal passage, I lifted
• 4:21
  up my head and through the tube like shaft, saw that Iceland sky I
• 4:26
  was never to see again. Was it the last I should ever see of
• 4:30
  any sky? The stream of lava flowing from the bowels of the earth in
• 4:33
  twelve nineteen had forced itself a passage through the tunnel. It lined the whole
• 4:40
  of the inside with its thick and brilliant coating. The electric light added very
• 4:44
  greatly to the brilliancy of the effect. The great difficulty of our journey now
• 4:48
  began. How were we to prevent ourselves from slipping down the steeply inclined plane.
• 4:55
  Happily, some cracks, abrasures of the soil, and other irregularities served
• 5:00
  the place of steps, and we descended slowly, allowing our heavy luggage to
• 5:03
  slip on before at the end of a long cord. But that which served
• 5:08
  us steps under our feet became in other places stalactites. The lava very poorous
• 5:14
  in certain places took the form of little round blisters, crystals of a paque
• 5:18
  quartz, adorned with limpid drops of natural glass, suspended to the roof like
• 5:23
  lusters, seemed to take fire as we passed beneath them. One would have
• 5:27
  fancied that the Genii of Romance were illuminating their underground palaces to receive the sons
• 5:31
  of men magnificent, glorious. I cried, in a moment of involuntary enthusiasm.
• 5:39
  What a spectacle, Uncle, do you not admire these variegated shades of
• 5:43
  lava which run through a whole series of colors, from reddish brown to pale
• 5:46
  yellow by the most insensible degrees, and these crystals, they appear like luminous
• 5:53
  globes. You are beginning to see the charms of travel. Master, Harry,
• 5:57
  cried, my uncle, wait a bit until we advanced. Father.
• 6:00
  What we have as yet discovered is nothing. Onwards, my boy, onwards.
• 6:05
  It would have been a far more correct and appropriate expression had he said,
• 6:10
  let us slide, for we were going down an inclined plane with perfect
• 6:14
  ease. The compass indicated that we were moving in a southeasterly direction. The
• 6:18
  flow of lava had never turned to the right or to the left. It
• 6:21
  had the inflexibility of a straight line. Nevertheless, to my surprise, we
• 6:27
  found no perceptible increase in heat. This proved the theories of Humphrey David to
• 6:31
  be founded on truth. And more than once, I found myself examining the
• 6:35
  thermometer in silent astonishment. Two hours after our departure, it only marked fifty
• 6:41
  four degrees fahrenheit. I had every reason to believe from this that our descent
• 6:46
  was far more horizontal than vertical. As for discovering the exact depth to which
• 6:50
  we had attained, nothing could be easier. The professor, as he advanced,
• 6:55
  measured the angles of deviation and inclination, but he kept the result of
• 6:59
  his own observations to himself. About eight o'clock in the evening, my uncle
• 7:03
  gave the signal for halting. Hans seated himself on the ground. The lamps
• 7:09
  were hung to fishes in the lava rock. We were now in a large
• 7:12
  cavern where air was not wanting. On the contrary, it abounded what could
• 7:17
  be the course of this to what atmospheric agitation could be ascribed this draft?
• 7:23
  But this was a question which I did not care to discuss. Just then,
• 7:26
  fatigue and hunger made me incapable of reasoning. An unceasing march of seven
• 7:31
  hours had not been kept up without great exhaustion. I was really and truly
• 7:35
  worn out and delighted enough I was to hear the word halt. Hans laid
• 7:41
  out some provisions on a lump of lava, and we each supped with keen
• 7:45
  relish. One thing, however, caused us great uneasiness. Our water reserve
• 7:49
  was already half exhausted. My uncle had full confidence in finding subterranean resources,
• 7:56
  but hitherto we had completely failed in so doing. I could not help call
• 8:00
  my uncle's attention to the circumstance. And you are surprised at this total absence
• 8:05
  of springs, he said, doubtless, I am very uneasy on the point.
• 8:09
  We have certainly not enough water to last us five days. Be quite
• 8:13
  easy on that matter, continued my uncle. I answer for it. We
• 8:18
  shall find plenty of water, in fact, far more than we shall want.
• 8:22
  But when when we once get through this crust of lava, how can
• 8:26
  you expect springs to force their way through these solid stone walls. But what
• 8:31
  is there to prove that this concrete mass of lava does not extend to the
• 8:35
  center of the earth. I don't think we have as yet done much in
• 8:37
  a vertical way. What puts that into your head, my boy, asked
• 8:41
  my uncle mildly. Well, it appears to me that if we had descended
• 8:46
  very far below the level of the sea, we should find it rather hotter
• 8:48
  than we have, according to your system, said my uncle. But what
• 8:54
  does the thermommyter say, scarcely fifteen degrees by Raema, which is only an
• 8:58
  increase of nine since our departure. Well, and what conclusion does that bring
• 9:03
  you to, inquired the professor. The de duttion I draw from this is
• 9:07
  very simple. According to the most exact observations, the augmentation of the temperature
• 9:13
  of the interior of the Earth is one degree for every hundred feet, but
• 9:18
  certain local causes may considerably modify this figure. Thus, at yakust In,
• 9:22
  Siberia, it has been remarked that the heat increases a degree every thirty six
• 9:26
  feet. The difference evidently depends on the conductibility of certain rocks. In the
• 9:33
  neighborhood of an extinct volcano, it has been remarked that the elevation of temperature
• 9:37
  was only one degree in every five and twenty feet. Let us then go
• 9:43
  upon this calculation, which is the most favorable, and calculate. Calculate away,
• 9:48
  my boy, nothing easier, said I, pulling out my notebook and
• 9:50
  pencil. Nine times one hundred and twenty five feet makes a depth of eleven
• 9:54
  hundred and twenty five feet. Archimedes could not have spoken more u geometrically well,
• 10:03
  well, according to my observations, we are at least ten thousand feet
• 10:07
  below the level of the sea. Can it be possible either my calculation is
• 10:11
  correct or there is no truth in figures? The calculations of the Professor were
• 10:16
  perfectly correct. We were already six thousand feet deeper down in the bowels of
• 10:20
  the earth than any one had ever been before. The lowest known depth to
• 10:24
  which man had hitherto penetrated was in the minds of Kittspool in the Tyrrel and
• 10:28
  those of Wurttemberg. The temperature which should have been eighty one, was in
• 10:33
  this place only fifteen. This was a matter for serious consideration. End of
• 10:39
  Chapter fifteen.