Latest / Science Fiction Books / 12 - The Ascent of Mount Sneffels - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

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12 - The Ascent of Mount Sneffels - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twelve. The huge volcano, which was the first stage
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  Speaker 1: for our daring experiment, is above five thousand feet high.
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  Speaker 1: Sneffels is the termination of a long range of volcanic
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  Speaker 1: mountains of a different character to the system of the
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  Speaker 1: island itself. One of its peculiarities is its two huge
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  Speaker 1: pointed summits. From whence we started, it was impossible to
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  Speaker 1: make out the real outlines of the peak against the
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  Speaker 1: gray field of sky. All we could distinguish was a
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  Speaker 1: vast dome of white which fell downwards from the head
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  Speaker 1: of the giant. The commencement of the great undertaking filled
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  Speaker 1: me with awe. Now that we had actually started, I
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  Speaker 1: began to believe in the reality of the undertaking. Our
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  Speaker 1: party formed quite a procession. We walked in single file,
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  Speaker 1: preceded by hands the imperturbable Eider duck Hunter. He only
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  Speaker 1: led us by narrow path where two persons could by
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  Speaker 1: no possibility walk abreast. Conversation was wholly impossible. We had
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  Speaker 1: all the more opportunity to reflect and admire the awful
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  Speaker 1: grandeur of the scene around. Beyond the extraordinary basaltic wall
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  Speaker 1: of the Fiord of Stappi, we found ourselves making our
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  Speaker 1: way through fibrous turf, over which grew a scanty vegetation
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  Speaker 1: of grass, the residum of the ancient vegetation of the
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  Speaker 1: swampy peninsula. The vast mass of this combustible, the field
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  Speaker 1: of which, as yet as utterly unexplored, would suffice to
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  Speaker 1: warm Iceland for a whole century. This mighty turf pit,
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  Speaker 1: measured from the bottom of certain ravines, is often not
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  Speaker 1: less than seventy feet deep, and presents to the eye
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  Speaker 1: the view of successive layers of black, burned up rocky deastus,
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  Speaker 1: separated by thin streaks of porous sandstone. The grandeur of
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  Speaker 1: the spectacle was undoubted, as well as its arid and
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  Speaker 1: deserted air. As a true nephew of the great Professor Hardwig,
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  Speaker 1: and despite my preoccupation and doleful fears of what was
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  Speaker 1: to come, I observed with great interest the vast collection
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  Speaker 1: of mineralogical curiosities spread out before me in this vast
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  Speaker 1: museum of natural history. Looking back to my recent studies,
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  Speaker 1: I went over and thought the whole geological history of Iceland,
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  Speaker 1: this extraordinary and curious island, must have made its appearance
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  Speaker 1: from out of the great world of waters at a
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  Speaker 1: comparatively recent date. Like the Coral islands of the Pacific,
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  Speaker 1: it may, for aught, we know, be still rising by
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  Speaker 1: slow and imperceptible degrees. If this really be the case,
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  Speaker 1: its origin can be attributed to only one cause, that
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  Speaker 1: of the continued action of subterranean fires. This was a
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  Speaker 1: happy thought. If so, if this were true, away with
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  Speaker 1: theories of Sir Humphrey Davy, Away with the authority of
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  Speaker 1: the parchment of arn sacmicin the wonderful pretenses to discover
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  Speaker 1: on the part of my uncle, and to our journey
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  Speaker 1: all must end in smoke. Charmed with the idea, I
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  Speaker 1: began more carefully to look about me. A serious study
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  Speaker 1: of the soil was necessary to negative or confirm my hypothesis.
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  Speaker 1: I took in every item of what I saw, and
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  Speaker 1: I began to comprehend the succession of phenomena which had
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  Speaker 1: preceded its formation. Iceland, being absolutely without sedimentary soil, is
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  Speaker 1: composed of exclusively of volcanic tufa, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: of an agglomeration of stones and of rocks of a
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  Speaker 1: porous texture. Long before the existence of volcanoes, it was
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  Speaker 1: composed of a solid body of massive trap rock lifted
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  Speaker 1: bodily and slowly out of the sea by the action
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  Speaker 1: of the centrifugal force at work in the earth. The
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  Speaker 1: internal fires, however, had not as yet burst their bounds
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  Speaker 1: and flooded the exterior cake of Mother Earth with hot
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  Speaker 1: and raging lava. My readers must excuse this brief and
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  Speaker 1: somewhat pedantic geological lecture, but it is necessary to the
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  Speaker 1: complete understanding of what follows. At a later period in
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  Speaker 1: the world's history, a huge and mighty fissure must, reasoning
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  Speaker 1: by analogy, have been dug diagonally from the southwest to
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  Speaker 1: the northeast of the island, through which by degrees flowed
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  Speaker 1: the volcanic crust. The great and wondrous phenomenon then went
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  Speaker 1: on without violence. The outpouring was enormous, and the seething
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  Speaker 1: fused matter ejected from the bowels of the earth spread
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  Speaker 1: slowly and peacefully in the form of vast level plains
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  Speaker 1: or what are called mamlons or mounds. It was at
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  Speaker 1: this epoch that the rocks called deldspars, cyanides, and porphyries appeared.
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  Speaker 1: But as a natural consequence of this overflow, the depth
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  Speaker 1: of the island increased. It can readily be believed what an
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  Speaker 1: enormous quantity of elastic fluids were piled up within its center,
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  Speaker 1: when at last it afforded no other openings. After the
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  Speaker 1: process of cooling the crust had taken place at length,
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  Speaker 1: a time came when, despite the enormous thickness and weight
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  Speaker 1: of the upper crust, the mechanical forces of the combustible
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  Speaker 1: gases below became so great that they actually upheaved the
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  Speaker 1: weighty back and made for themselves huge and gigantic shafts.
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  Speaker 1: Hence the volcanoes which suddenly arose through the upper crust,
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  Speaker 1: and next the craters which burst forth at the summit
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  Speaker 1: of these new creations. It will be seen that the
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  Speaker 1: first phenomena in connection with the formation of the island
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  Speaker 1: were simply eruptive. To these, however, shortly succeeded the volcanic phenomena.
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  Speaker 1: Through the newly formed openings escaped the marvelous mass of
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  Speaker 1: basaltic stones with which the plain we were now crossing
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  Speaker 1: was covered. We were trampling our way over heavy rocks
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  Speaker 1: of dark gray color, which, while cooling, had been molded
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  Speaker 1: into six sided prisms. In the back distance, we could
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  Speaker 1: see a number of flattened cones, which formerly were so
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  Speaker 1: many fire vomiting mouths. After the basaltic eruption was appeased
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  Speaker 1: and set at rest, the volcano, the force of which
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  Speaker 1: increased with that of the extinct craters, gave free passage
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  Speaker 1: to the fiery overflow of lava and to the mass
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  Speaker 1: of cinders and pumice rural stone, now scattered over the
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  Speaker 1: sides of the mountain like disheveled hair on the shoulders
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  Speaker 1: of a bauschante. Here in a nutshell, I had the
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  Speaker 1: whole history of the phenomena from which Iceland arose, all
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  Speaker 1: take their rise in the fierce action of interior fires.
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  Speaker 1: And to believe that the central mass did not remain
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  Speaker 1: in a state of liquid fire white hot, was simply
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  Speaker 1: and purely madness. This being satisfactorily proved. Qed what incense
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  Speaker 1: its folly to pretend to penetrate into the interior the
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  Speaker 1: mighty earth. His mental lecture delivered to myself while proceeding
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  Speaker 1: on a journey, did me good. I was quite reassured
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  Speaker 1: as to the fate of our enterprise, and therefore went,
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  Speaker 1: like a brave soldier mounting a bristling battery, to the
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  Speaker 1: assault of old sneffels. As we advanced, the road became
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  Speaker 1: every moment more difficult. The soil was broken and dangerous,
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  Speaker 1: The rocks broke and gave way under our feet, and
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  Speaker 1: we had to be scrupulously careful in order to avoid
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  Speaker 1: dangerous and constant falls. Hans advanced as calmly as if
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  Speaker 1: he had been walking over Salisbury Plain. Sometimes he would
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  Speaker 1: disappear behind huge blocks of stone, and we momentarily lost
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  Speaker 1: sight of him. There was a little period of anxiety,
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  Speaker 1: and then there was a shrill whistle, just to tell
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  Speaker 1: us where to look for him. Occasionally he would take
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  Speaker 1: it into his head to stop, to pick up long
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  Speaker 1: rock and silently pile them up into small heaps, in
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  Speaker 1: order that we might not lose our way on our return.
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  Speaker 1: He had no idea of the journey we were about
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  Speaker 1: to undertake. At all events. The precaution was a good one,
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  Speaker 1: though how utterly useless and unnecessary. But I must not
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  Speaker 1: anticipate three hours of terrible fatigue. Walking incessantly had only
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  Speaker 1: brought us to the foot of the great mountain. This
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  Speaker 1: will give some notion of what we had still to undergo. Suddenly, however,
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  Speaker 1: Hans cried a halt. That is, he made signs to
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  Speaker 1: that effect, and a summary kind of breakfast was laid
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  Speaker 1: out on the lava before us. My uncle, who now
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  Speaker 1: was simply Professor Hardwig, was so eager to advance that
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  Speaker 1: he bolted his food like a greedy clown. This halt
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  Speaker 1: for refreshment was also a halt for repose. The Professor
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  Speaker 1: was therefore compelled to wait the good pleasure of his
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  Speaker 1: imperturbable guide, who did not give the signal for departure
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  Speaker 1: for a good hour. The three Icelanders, who were as
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  Speaker 1: taciturn as their comrade, did not say a word, but
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  Speaker 1: went on eating and drinking, very quietly and soberly. From
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  Speaker 1: this our first real stage, we began to ascend the
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  Speaker 1: slopes of the Sneffel's Volcano, Its magnificent snowy nightcap, as
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  Speaker 1: we began to call it, by an optical delusion very
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  Speaker 1: common in mountains, appeared to me to be close at hand.
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  Speaker 1: And yet how many long, weary hours must elapse before
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  Speaker 1: he reached the summit? What unheard of fatigue must we endure?
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  Speaker 1: The stones on the mountain side, held together by no
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  Speaker 1: cement of soil, bound together by no roots or creeping
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  Speaker 1: herbs gave way continually under our feet and went rushing
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  Speaker 1: below into the plains like a series of small avalanches.
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  Speaker 1: In certain places, the sides of this stupendous mountain were
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  Speaker 1: at an angle so steep that it was impossible to
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  Speaker 1: climb upwards, and we were compelled to get around these
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  Speaker 1: obstacles as best we might. Those who understand alpine climbing
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  Speaker 1: will comprehend our difficulties. Often we were obliged to help
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  Speaker 1: each other along by means of our climbing poles. I
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  Speaker 1: must say this for my uncle, that he stuck as
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  Speaker 1: close to me as possible. He never lost sight of me,
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  Speaker 1: and on many occasions his arm supplied me with firm
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  Speaker 1: and solid support. He was strong, wiry, and apparently insensible
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  Speaker 1: to fatigue. Another great advantage with him was that he
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  Speaker 1: had the innate sentiment of equilibrium, for he never slipped
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  Speaker 1: or failed in his steps. The Icelanders, though heavily loaded,
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  Speaker 1: climbed with the agility of mountaineers. Looking up every now
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  Speaker 1: and then at the height of the great volcano of Sneffels,
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  Speaker 1: it appeared to me wholly impossible to reach to the
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  Speaker 1: summit on that side. At all events, if the angle
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  Speaker 1: of the inclination did not speedily change. Fortunately, after an
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  Speaker 1: hour of unheard of fatigues and of gymnastic exercises that
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  Speaker 1: would have been trying to an acrobat, we came to
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  Speaker 1: a vast field of ice which wholly surrounded the bottom
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  Speaker 1: of the cone of the volcano. The natives called it
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  Speaker 1: the table cloth, probably from some such reason as the
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  Speaker 1: dwellers in the Cape of Good Hope called their mountain
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  Speaker 1: table mountain, and their roads table bay. Here, to our
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  Speaker 1: mutual surprise, we found an actual flight of stone steps,
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  Speaker 1: which wonderfully assisted our ascent. This singular flight of steps
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  Speaker 1: was like everything else volcanic. It had been formed by
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  Speaker 1: one of those torrents of stones cast up by the
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  Speaker 1: eruptions of which the Icelandic name is Stina. If this
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  Speaker 1: singular torrent had not been checked in its descent by
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  Speaker 1: the peculiar shape of the flanks of the mountain, it
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  Speaker 1: would have swept into the sea and would have formed
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  Speaker 1: new islands. Such as it was, it served us admirably.
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  Speaker 1: The abrupt character of the slopes momentarily increased. But these
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  Speaker 1: remarkable stone steps a little less difficult than those of
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  Speaker 1: the Egyptian pyramids were the one simple natural means by
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  Speaker 1: which we were enabled to proceed. About seven in the
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  Speaker 1: morning of that day, after having clambered up two thousand
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  Speaker 1: of these rough steps, we found ourselves overlooking a kind
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  Speaker 1: of spur of projection of the mountain, a sort of
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  Speaker 1: buttress upon which the cone like crater properly so called
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  Speaker 1: leaned for support. The ocean lay beneath us at a
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  Speaker 1: depth of more than three thousand, two hundred feet, a
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  Speaker 1: grand and mighty spectacle. We had reached the region of
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  Speaker 1: eternal snows. The cold was keen, searching and intense. The
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  Speaker 1: wind blew with extraordinary violence. I was utterly exhausted. My
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  Speaker 1: worthy uncle, the Professor, saw clearly that my legs refused
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  Speaker 1: further service, and that in fact I was utterly exhausted.
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  Speaker 1: Despite his hot and feverish impatience, he decided with a
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  Speaker 1: sigh upon a halt, he called the eider duck hunter
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  Speaker 1: to his side. That Worthy, however, shook his head often
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  Speaker 1: for was his sole spoken reply. It appears, says my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: with a woe begone look, that we must go higher.
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  Speaker 1: He then turned Hans and asked him to give him
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  Speaker 1: some reason for this decisive response, mistour replied the guide. Jia, mistour. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the mistour, cried one of the Icelandic guides in a
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  Speaker 1: terrified tone. It was the first time he had spoken.
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  Speaker 1: What does this mysterious words signify, I anxiously inquired look,
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  Speaker 1: said my uncle. I looked down upon the plain below,
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  Speaker 1: and I saw a vast, prodigious volume of pulverized pumice, stone,
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  Speaker 1: of sand, of dust rising to the heavens in the
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  Speaker 1: form of a mighty water spout. It resembled the fearful
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  Speaker 1: phenomenon of a similar character known to the travelers in
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  Speaker 1: the desert of the Great Sahara. The wind was driving
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  Speaker 1: it directly upwards that side of Sneffels of which we
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  Speaker 1: were perched. This opaque veil, standing up between us and
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  Speaker 1: the sun, project a deep shadow on the flanks of
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  Speaker 1: the mountain. If this sand spout broke over us, we
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  Speaker 1: must all be infallibly destroyed, crushed in its fearful embraces.
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  Speaker 1: This extraordinary phenomenon, very common when the wind shakes the
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  Speaker 1: glaciers and sweeps over the arid plains, is in the
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  Speaker 1: Icelandic tongue called mistour hastigt hastigt cried our guide. Now
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  Speaker 1: I certainly knew nothing of Danish, but I thoroughly understood
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  Speaker 1: that his gestures were meant to quicken us. The guide
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  Speaker 1: turned rapidly in a direction which would take us to
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  Speaker 1: the back of the crater, all the while ascending slightly.
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  Speaker 1: We followed rapidly, despite our excessive fatigue. A quarter of
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  Speaker 1: an hour later, Hans paused to enable us to look back.
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  Speaker 1: The mighty whirlwind of sand was spreading up the slope
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  Speaker 1: of the mountain to the very spot where we had
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  Speaker 1: proposed to halt. Huge stones were caught up, cast into
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  Speaker 1: the air, and thrown about as during an eruption. We
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  Speaker 1: were happily a little out of the direction of the
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  Speaker 1: wind and therefore out of reach of danger. But for
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  Speaker 1: the precaution and knowledge of our guide, our dislocated bodies
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  Speaker 1: are crushed and broken limbs would have been cast to
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  Speaker 1: the wind like dust from some unknown meteor. Hans, however,
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  Speaker 1: did not think it prudent to pass the night on
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  Speaker 1: the bare side of the cone. We therefore continued our
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  Speaker 1: journey in a zigzag direction. The fifteen hundred feet which
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  Speaker 1: remained to be accompanied took us at least five hours.
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  Speaker 1: The turnings and windings, the no thoroughfares, the marches and
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  Speaker 1: marches turned that insignificant distance into at least three leagues.
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  Speaker 1: I never felt such misery, fatigue, and exhaustion in my life.
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  Speaker 1: I was ready to faint from hunger and cold. The
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  Speaker 1: rarefied air, at the same time painfully acted upon my lungs.
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  Speaker 1: At last, when I thought myself at my last gasp,
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  Speaker 1: about eleven at night, it being in that region quite dark,
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  Speaker 1: we reached the summit of Mount Sneifels. It was in
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  Speaker 1: an awful mood of mind that, despite my fatigue, before
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  Speaker 1: I descended into the crater which was to shelter us
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  Speaker 1: for the night, I paused to behold the sun rise
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  Speaker 1: at midnight, on the very day of its lowest declination,
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  Speaker 1: and enjoyed the spectacle of its ghastly pale rays cast
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  Speaker 1: upon the aisle which lay sleeping at our feet. I
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  Speaker 1: no longer wondered at people traveling all the way from
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  Speaker 1: England to Norway to behold this magical and wondrous spectacle.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twelve