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31 - The Sea Monster - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty one, The Sea Monster, Wednesday, August nineteenth. Fortunately,
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  Speaker 1: the wind, which for the present blows with some violence,
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  Speaker 1: has allowed us to escape from the scene of the
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  Speaker 1: unparalleled and extraordinary struggle. Hence, with its usual imperturbable calm,
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  Speaker 1: remained at the helm. My uncle, who for a short
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  Speaker 1: time had been withdrawn from his absorbing reveries by the
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  Speaker 1: novel incidents of this sea fight, fell back again, apparently
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  Speaker 1: into a brown study. His eyes were fixed impatiently on
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  Speaker 1: the widespread ocean. Our voyage now became monotonous and uniform dull.
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  Speaker 1: As it has become, I have no desire to have
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  Speaker 1: it broken by any repetition of the perils and adventures
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  Speaker 1: of yesterday. Thursday, August the twentieth. The wind is now
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  Speaker 1: north northeast and blows very irregularly. It has changed to
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  Speaker 1: fitful gusts. The temperature is exceedingly high. We are now
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  Speaker 1: progressing at the average rate of about ten miles and
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  Speaker 1: a half per hour. About twelve o'clock, a distant sound
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  Speaker 1: as of thunder fell upon our ears. I make a
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  Speaker 1: note of the fact, without even venturing a suggestion as
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  Speaker 1: to its course. It was one continued roar as of
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  Speaker 1: a sea falling over mighty rocks. Far off in the distance,
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  Speaker 1: said the professor dogmatically. There is some rock or some
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  Speaker 1: island against which the sea, lashed to fury by the wind,
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  Speaker 1: is breaking violently. Hence, without saying a word, clambered to
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  Speaker 1: the top of the mast, but could make out nothing.
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  Speaker 1: The ocean was level in every direction as far as
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  Speaker 1: the eye could reach. Three hours passed away without any
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  Speaker 1: sign to indicate what might be before us. The sound began
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  Speaker 1: to assume that of a mighty cataract. I expressed my
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  Speaker 1: opinion on this point strongly to my uncle. He merely
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  Speaker 1: shook his head. I, however, am strongly impressed by a
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  Speaker 1: conviction that I am not wrong. Are we advancing towards
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  Speaker 1: some mighty waterfall which shall cast us into the Abyss.
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  Speaker 1: Probably this mode of descending into the Abyss may be
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  Speaker 1: agreeable to the professor, because it would be something like
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  Speaker 1: the vertical descent. He is so eager to make I
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  Speaker 1: entertain a very different opinion. Whatever be the truth, it
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  Speaker 1: is certain that not many leagues distant, there must be
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  Speaker 1: some very extraordinary phenomenon. For as we advanced, the roar
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  Speaker 1: becomes something mighty and stupendous is it in the water
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  Speaker 1: or in the air? I cast hasty glances aloft at
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  Speaker 1: the suspended vapors, and I seek to penetrate their mighty depths.
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  Speaker 1: But the vault above is tranquil. The clouds, which are
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  Speaker 1: now elevated to the very summit appear utterly still and motionless,
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  Speaker 1: and completely lost in the irradiation of electric light. It
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  Speaker 1: is necessary therefore to seek for the cause of this
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  Speaker 1: phenomenon elsewhere. I examine the horizon, now perfectly calm, pure
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  Speaker 1: and free from all haze. Its aspect still remains unchanged.
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  Speaker 1: But if this awful noise proceeds from a cataract, if
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  Speaker 1: so to speak in plain English, this vast interior ocean
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  Speaker 1: is precipitated into a lower basin. If these tremendous roars
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  Speaker 1: are produced by the noise of falling waters, the current
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  Speaker 1: would increase in activity, and its increasing swiftness would give
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  Speaker 1: me some idea of the extent of the perilel with
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  Speaker 1: which we are menaced. I consult the current. It simply
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  Speaker 1: does not exist. There is no such thing. An empty
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  Speaker 1: bottle cast into the water lies to leeward without motion
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  Speaker 1: about four o'clock. Hans rises, clambers up the mast, and
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  Speaker 1: reaches the truck itself. From this elevated position, his looks
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  Speaker 1: are cast around. They take in a vast circumference of
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  Speaker 1: the ocean. At last, his eyes remain fixed. His face
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  Speaker 1: expresses no astonishment, but his eyes slightly dilate. He has
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  Speaker 1: seen something, at last, cried my uncle. I think so,
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  Speaker 1: I replied. Hans came down, stood beside us, and pointed
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  Speaker 1: with his right hand to the south. There nearer, he said, There,
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  Speaker 1: replied my uncle, and seizing his telescope, he looked at
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  Speaker 1: it with great attention for about a minute, which to
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  Speaker 1: me appeared an age. I knew not what to think
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  Speaker 1: or expect. Yes, yes, he cried, in a tone of
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  Speaker 1: considerable surprise. There it is, what I asked, A tremendous
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  Speaker 1: spurt of water rising out of the waves, some other
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  Speaker 1: marine monster, I cried, already alarm. Perhaps, then let us
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  Speaker 1: steer more to the westward, for we know what we
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  Speaker 1: have to expect from antediluvian animals, was my eager reply.
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  Speaker 1: Go ahead, said my uncle. I turned towards Hans. Hans
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  Speaker 1: was at the tiller, staring with his usual imperturbable calm. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: it from the distance which separated us from this creature,
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  Speaker 1: a distance which must be estimated, had no less than
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  Speaker 1: a dozen leagues, one could see the column of water
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  Speaker 1: spurting from the blowhole of the great animal. His dimensions
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  Speaker 1: must be something preternatural. To fly is, therefore the core
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  Speaker 1: be suggested by ordinary prudence. But we have not come
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  Speaker 1: into that part of the world to be prudent. Such
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  Speaker 1: is my uncle's determination. We accordingly continued to advance. The
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  Speaker 1: nearer we come. The loftier is the spouting water. What
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  Speaker 1: monster can fill himself with such huge volumes of water
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  Speaker 1: and then unceasingly spout them out in such lofty jets.
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  Speaker 1: At eight o'clock in the evening, reckoning as above ground,
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  Speaker 1: where there is day and night, we are not more
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  Speaker 1: than two leagues from the mighty beast. Its long, black, enormous,
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  Speaker 1: mountainous body lies on the top of the water like
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  Speaker 1: an island. But then sailors have been said to have
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  Speaker 1: gone ashore on sleeping whales, mistaking them for land. Is
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  Speaker 1: it illusion or is it fair? Its length cannot be
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  Speaker 1: less than a thousand fathoms. What then, is this critatious monster,
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  Speaker 1: of which no Couvier ever thought? It is quite motionless,
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  Speaker 1: and presents the appearance of sleep. The sea seems unable
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  Speaker 1: to lift him upwards. It is rather the waves which
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  Speaker 1: break on his huge and gigantic frame. The water spot,
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  Speaker 1: rising to a height of five hundred feet, breaks in
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  Speaker 1: spray with a dull, sullen roar. We advance, like senseless
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  Speaker 1: lunatics towards this mighty mass. I honestly confess that I
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  Speaker 1: was abjectly afraid. I declare that I would go no farther.
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  Speaker 1: I threatened, in my terror, to cut the sheet of
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  Speaker 1: the sail. I attacked the professor with considerable acrimony, calling
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  Speaker 1: him foolhardy mad. I know not what he made no answer. Suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: the imperturbable hands once more pointed his finger to the
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  Speaker 1: menacing object. Holmeer an island, cried my uncle, an Island,
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  Speaker 1: I replied, shrugging my shoulders at this poor attempt at deception.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, it is, cried my uncle, bursting into a
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  Speaker 1: loud and joyous laugh. But the water spout gaze, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: said Hans, Yes, of course, a gayzer, replied my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: still laughing, a gazer like those common in Iceland. Yet
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  Speaker 1: like this are the great wonders of the country. At first,
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  Speaker 1: I would not allow that I had been so grossly deceived.
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  Speaker 1: What could be more ridiculous than to have taken an
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  Speaker 1: island for a marine monster. But kick as one may,
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  Speaker 1: one must yield to evidence, and I was finally convinced
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  Speaker 1: of my error. It was nothing, after all, but a
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  Speaker 1: natural phenomenon. As we approached nearer and nearer, the dimensions
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  Speaker 1: of the liquid sheaf of waters became truly grand and stupendous.
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  Speaker 1: The island had, at a distance presented the appearance of
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  Speaker 1: an enormous whale, whose head grows high above the waters.
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  Speaker 1: The Gazer Award the Icelanders pronounced Gazer and which signifies fury,
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  Speaker 1: rose majestically from its summit. Dull detonations are heard every
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  Speaker 1: now and then, and the enormous jet, taken as it
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  Speaker 1: were with sudden fury, shakes its plume of vapor and
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  Speaker 1: bounds into the first layer of the clouds. It is alone.
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  Speaker 1: Neither spurts of vapor nor hot spring surround it, and
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  Speaker 1: the whole volcanic power of that region is concentrated in
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  Speaker 1: one sublime column. The rays of electric light mixed with
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  Speaker 1: this dazzling sheath. Every drop as it falls, assuming the
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  Speaker 1: prismatic colors of the rainbow. Let us go on shore,
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  Speaker 1: said the professor, after some minutes of silence. It is necessary, however,
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  Speaker 1: to take great precaution in order to avoid the weight
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  Speaker 1: of falling waters, which would cause the raft to founder
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  Speaker 1: in an instant. Hans, however, steers admirably and brings us
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  Speaker 1: to the other extremity of the island. I was the
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  Speaker 1: first to leap on the rock. My uncle followed, while
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  Speaker 1: the aider duck hunter remained still, like a man above
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  Speaker 1: any childish sources of astonishment. We were now walking on
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  Speaker 1: granite mixed with silicious sandstone. The soil shivered under our feet,
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  Speaker 1: like the sides of boilers, in which overheated steam is
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  Speaker 1: forcibly confined. It is burning. We soon came in sight
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  Speaker 1: of the little central basin from which rose the gazer.
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  Speaker 1: I plunged a thermometer into the water, which ran bubbling
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  Speaker 1: from the center, and it marked a heat of a
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  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three degrees. This water, therefore, came from
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  Speaker 1: some place where the heat was intense. This was singularly
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  Speaker 1: in contradiction with the theories of Professor Hartwig. I could
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  Speaker 1: not help telling him my opinion on the subject, well,
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  Speaker 1: said he sharply, And what does this prove against my doctrine? Nothing,
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  Speaker 1: replied I, dryly, seeing that I was running my head
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  Speaker 1: against a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, I am compelled to confess
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  Speaker 1: that until now we had been most remarkably fortunate, and
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  Speaker 1: that this voyage is being accomplished in most favorable conditions
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  Speaker 1: of temperature. But it appears evident, in fact, certain, that
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  Speaker 1: we shall sooner or later arrive at one of those
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  Speaker 1: regions where the central heat will reach its utmost limits,
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  Speaker 1: and will go far beyond all the possible gradations of thermometers.
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  Speaker 1: Visions of the hades of the ancients, believed to be
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  Speaker 1: in the center of the earth, floated through my imagination.
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  Speaker 1: We shall, however, see what we shall see, that is
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  Speaker 1: the Professor's favorite phrase. Now having christened the Volcanic island
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  Speaker 1: by the name of his nephew, the leader of the
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  Speaker 1: expedition turned away and gave the signal for embarkation. I
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  Speaker 1: stood still, however, for some minutes, gazing upon the magnificent gaser.
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  Speaker 1: I soon was able to perceive that the upward tendency
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  Speaker 1: of the water was irregular. Now it diminished in intensity,
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  Speaker 1: and then suddenly regained new vigor, which I attributed to
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  Speaker 1: the variation of the pressure of the accumulated vapors in
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  Speaker 1: its reservoir. At last, we took our departure, going carefully
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  Speaker 1: round the protecting and rather dangerous rocks of the southern side.
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  Speaker 1: Hans had taken advantage of this brief halt to repair
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  Speaker 1: the raft before we took our final departure from the island. However,
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  Speaker 1: I made some observations to calculate the distance we had
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  Speaker 1: gone over, and I put them down in my journal.
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  Speaker 1: Since we left Port Gretchen, we had traveled two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and seventy leagues more than eight hundred miles on this
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  Speaker 1: great Indian Sea. We were therefore six hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 1: leagues from Iceland and exactly under England. End of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: thirty one