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17 - Deeper and Deeper - The Coal Mine - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Daily Sci-Fi Books

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Speaker 3: Chapter seventeen, Deeper and Deeper the coal Mine. In truth,
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Speaker 3: we were compelled to put ourselves upon rations. Our supply
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Speaker 3: would certainly last no more than three days. I found
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Speaker 3: this out about supper time. The worst part of the
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Speaker 3: matter was that in what is called the transition rocks,
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Speaker 3: it was hardly to be expected we should meet with water.
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Speaker 3: I had read of the horrors of thirst, and I
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Speaker 3: knew that where we were a brief trial of its
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Speaker 3: sufferings would put an end to our adventures and our lives.
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Speaker 3: But it was utterly useless to discuss the matter with
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Speaker 3: my uncle. He would have answered by some maxiom from Plato.
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Speaker 3: During the whole of next day we proceeded on our
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Speaker 3: journey through this interminable gallery, arch after arch tunnel of
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Speaker 3: the tunnel, we journeyed without exchanging a word. We had
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Speaker 3: become as mute and reticent as Hans, our guide. The
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Speaker 3: road had no longer an upward tendency at all events.
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Speaker 3: If it had, it was not to be made out
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Speaker 3: very clearly. Sometimes there could be no doubt that we
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Speaker 3: were going downwards. But this inclination was scarcely to be distinguished,
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Speaker 3: and was by no means reassuring to the professor, because
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Speaker 3: the character of the strata was in no wise modified,
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Speaker 3: and the transition character of the rocks became more and
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Speaker 3: more marked. It was a glorious sight to see how
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Speaker 3: the electric light brought out the sparkles in the walls
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Speaker 3: of the calcerous rocks and the old red sandstone. One
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Speaker 3: might have fancied oneself in one of those deep cuttings
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Speaker 3: in Devonshire which have given their name to this kind
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Speaker 3: of soil. Some magnificent specimens of marble projected from the
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Speaker 3: sides of the gallery, some of an agate gray with
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Speaker 3: white veins of variegated cat character, others of a yellow
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Speaker 3: spotted color with red veins. Farther off might be seen
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Speaker 3: samples of color in which charity hinted seams were to
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Speaker 3: be found in all their brightest shades. The greater number
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Speaker 3: of these marbles were stamped with the marks of primitive animals.
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Speaker 3: Since the previous evening, nature and creation had made considerable progress.
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Speaker 3: Instead of the rudimentary trilobites, I perceived the remains of
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Speaker 3: a more perfect order, among others, the fish in which
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Speaker 3: the eye of a geologist has been able to discover
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Speaker 3: the first form of the reptile. The Devonian seas were
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Speaker 3: inhabited by a vast number of animals of this species,
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Speaker 3: which were deposited in tens of thousands in the rocks
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Speaker 3: of New Formation. It was quite evident to me that
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Speaker 3: we were ascending the scale of animal life of which
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Speaker 3: man forms the summit. My excellent uncle, the Professor, appeared
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Speaker 3: not to take notice of these warnings. He was determined,
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Speaker 3: at any risk to proceed. He must have been in
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Speaker 3: expectation a one of two things, either that a vertical
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Speaker 3: well was about to open under his feet and thus
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Speaker 3: allow him to continue his descent, or that some insurmountable
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Speaker 3: obstacle would compel us to stop and go back by
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Speaker 3: the road we had so long traveled. But evening came again,
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Speaker 3: and to my horror, neither hope was doomed to be realized.
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Speaker 3: On Friday after night, when I began to feel the
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Speaker 3: gnawing agony of thirst, and when in consequence appetite decreased,
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Speaker 3: our little band rose and once more followed the turnings
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Speaker 3: and windings, the ascents and descents of this interminable gallery.
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Speaker 3: All were silent and gloomy. I could see that even
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Speaker 3: my uncle had ventured too far. After about ten hours
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Speaker 3: of further progress, a progress dull and monotonous to the
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Speaker 3: last degree, I remarked that the reverberation and reflection of
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Speaker 3: our lamps upon the sides of the tunnel had singularly diminished.
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Speaker 3: The marble, the skissed, the caulcerous rocks, the red sandstone
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Speaker 3: had disappeared, leaving in their places a dark and gloomy wall,
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Speaker 3: somber and without brightness. When we reached a remarkably narrow
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Speaker 3: part of the tunnel, I leaned my left hand against
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Speaker 3: the rock. When I took my hand away and happened
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Speaker 3: to glance at it, it was quite black. We had
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Speaker 3: reached the coal strata of the central earth. A coal mine,
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Speaker 3: I cried, A coal mine without miners, responded my uncle
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Speaker 3: a little severely. How can we tell? I can tell?
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Speaker 3: Replied my uncle, in a sharp and doctoral tone. I
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Speaker 3: am perfectly certain that this gallery, through successive layers of coal,
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Speaker 3: was not cut by the hand of man. But whether
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Speaker 3: it is the work of nature or not is of
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Speaker 3: little concern to us. The hour for our evening meal
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Speaker 3: has come. Let us up. Hence the Guide occupied himself
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Speaker 3: in preparing food. I had come to that point when
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Speaker 3: I could no longer eat. All I cared about were
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Speaker 3: the few drops of water which fell to my share.
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Speaker 3: What I suffered, it is useless to record. The guide
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Speaker 3: scored not quite half full. Was all that was left
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Speaker 3: for us three. Having finished their repast, my two companions
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Speaker 3: laid themselves down upon their rugs and found in sleep
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Speaker 3: a remedy for their fatigue and sufferings. As for me,
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Speaker 3: I could not sleep. I lay counting the hours until morning.
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Speaker 3: The next morning, Saturday, at six o'clock we started again.
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Speaker 3: Twenty minutes later we suddenly came upon a vast excavation.
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Speaker 3: From its mighty extent, I saw at once that the
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Speaker 3: hand of man could have had nothing to do with
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Speaker 3: his coal mine. The vault above would have fallen in
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Speaker 3: as it was, It was only held together by some
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Speaker 3: miracle of nature. This mighty natural cavern was about a
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Speaker 3: hundred feet wide by about a hundred and fifty high.
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Speaker 3: The earth had evidently been cast apart by some violent
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Speaker 3: subterranean commotion, the mass giving way to some prodigious upheaving
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Speaker 3: of nature had split in two, leaving the vast gap
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Speaker 3: into which we inhabitants of the Earth had penetrated for
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Speaker 3: the first time. The whole singular history of the Cold
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Speaker 3: Period was written on those dark and gloomy walls. A
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Speaker 3: geologist would have been able easily to follow the different
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Speaker 3: phases of its formation. The seams of coal were separated
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Speaker 3: by strata of sandstone, a compact clay which appeared to
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Speaker 3: be crushed down by the weight from above. At that
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Speaker 3: period of the world, which preceded the Secondary Epoch, the
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Speaker 3: Earth was covered by a coating of enormous and rich vegetation.
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Speaker 3: Due to the double action of tropical heat and perpetual humidity.
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Speaker 3: A vast atmospheric cloud of vapor surrounded the Earth on
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Speaker 3: all sides, preventing the rays of the Sun from ever
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Speaker 3: reaching it. Hence the conclusion that these intense heats did
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Speaker 3: not arise from this new source of calorie. Perhaps even
8:48
Speaker 3: the Star of Day was not quite ready for its
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Speaker 3: brilliant work to illumine a universe. Climates did not as
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Speaker 3: yet exist, and a level heat pervaded the whole surface
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Speaker 3: of the globe, the same heat existing at the north
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Speaker 3: pole as at the equator. Whence did it come from
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Speaker 3: the interior of the earth. In spite of all the
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Speaker 3: learned theories of Professor Hartwig, A fierce and vehement fire
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Speaker 3: certainly burned within the entrails of the great spheroid. Its
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Speaker 3: action was felt even to the very topmost crust of
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Speaker 3: the earth. The plants then in existence, being deprived of
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Speaker 3: the vivifying grays of the sun, had neither buds, nor flowers,
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Speaker 3: nor odor, But the roots drew a strong and vigorous
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Speaker 3: life from the burning earth. Of early days, there were
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Speaker 3: but few of what may be called trees, only herbaceous plants,
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Speaker 3: immense turfs, brears, mosses, rare families, which, however, in those days,
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Speaker 3: were counted by tens and tens of thousands. It leise
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Speaker 3: entirely to this exurberant vegetation that coal owes its origin.
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Speaker 3: The crust of the vast globe still yielded under the
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Speaker 3: influence of the seething, boiling mass, which was forever at
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Speaker 3: work beneath. Hence arose numerous fistures and continual falling in
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Speaker 3: of the upper Earth, The dense morth of plants being
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Speaker 3: beneath the waters soon formed themselves into vast agglomerations. Then
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Speaker 3: came about the action of natural chemistry in the depths
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Speaker 3: of the ocean. The vegetable mass had first became turf. Then,
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Speaker 3: thanks to the influence of gases and subterranean fermentation, they
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Speaker 3: underwent the complete process of mineralization. In this manner. In
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Speaker 3: early days were formed those vast and prodigious layers of coal,
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Speaker 3: which an ever increasing consumption must utterly use up in
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Speaker 3: about three centuries more if people do not find some
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Speaker 3: more economic light than gas and some cheaper multi power
11:05
Speaker 3: than steam. All these reflections the memories of my school
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Speaker 3: studies came to my mind while I gazed upon these
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Speaker 3: mighty accumulations of coal, whose riches, however, are scarcely likely
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Speaker 3: to be ever utilized. The working of these mines could
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Speaker 3: only be carried out at an expense that would never
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Speaker 3: yield a profit. The matter, however, is scarcely worthy consideration
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Speaker 3: when coal is scattered over the whole surface of the globe,
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Speaker 3: within a few yards of the upper crust. As I
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Speaker 3: looked at this untouched strata, therefore, I knew they would
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Speaker 3: remain as long as the world lasts. While we still
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Speaker 3: continued our journey. I alone forgot the length of the
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Speaker 3: road by giving myself up folly to these geological considerations.
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Speaker 3: The temperature continued to be very much the same as
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Speaker 3: while we were traveling amid the lava and the skists.
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Speaker 3: On the other hand, my sense of smell was much
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Speaker 3: affected by a very powerful odor. I immediately knew that the
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Speaker 3: gallery was filled to overflowing with that dangerous gas the
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Speaker 3: miners called fire damp, the explosion of which has caused
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Speaker 3: such fearful and terrible accidents, making a hundred widows and
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Speaker 3: hundreds of orphans in a single hour. Happily, we were
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Speaker 3: able to illumine our progress by means of the Ruhmkorff apparatus.
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Speaker 3: If we had been so rush and imprudent as to
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Speaker 3: explore this gallery torch in hand, a terrible explosion would
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Speaker 3: have put an end to our travels, simply because no
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Speaker 3: travelers would be left. Our excursion through this wondrous coal
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Speaker 3: mine in the very bowels of the earth last did
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Speaker 3: until evening. My uncle was scarcely able to conceal his
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Speaker 3: impatience and dissatisfaction at the road continuing still to advance
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Speaker 3: in a horizontal direction. The darkness dense, and a park
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Speaker 3: a few yards in advance and in the rear, rendered
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Speaker 3: it impossible to make out what was the length of
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Speaker 3: the gallery. For myself, I began to believe that it
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Speaker 3: was simply interminable, and would go on in the same
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Speaker 3: manner for months. Suddenly, at six o'clock we stood in
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Speaker 3: front of a wall to the right, to the left,
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Speaker 3: above below. Nowhere was there any passage. We had reached
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Speaker 3: a spot where the rocks said, in unmistakable accents, no thoroughfare.
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Speaker 3: I stood stupefied. The guide simply folded his arms. My
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Speaker 3: uncle was silent. Well, well, so much the better, cried
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Speaker 3: my uncle. At last, I now know what we are about.
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Speaker 3: We are decidedly not upon the road followed by Sugnusom.
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Speaker 3: All we have to do is to go back. Let
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Speaker 3: us take one night's good rest, and before three days
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Speaker 3: are over, I promise you we shall have regained the
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Speaker 3: point where the gallery is divided. Yes we may, if
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Speaker 3: our strength lasts as long, I cried in a lamentable voice.
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Speaker 3: And why not to morrow among us three there will
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Speaker 3: not be a drop of water. It is just gone,
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Speaker 3: and your courage with it, said my uncle, speaking in
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Speaker 3: a severe tone. What could I say? I turned round
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Speaker 3: on my side, and from sheer exhaustion, fell into a
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Speaker 3: heavy sleep, disturbed by dreams of water, and I awoke unrefreshed.
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Speaker 3: I would have bartered a diamond mine for a glass
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Speaker 3: pure spring water. End of Chapter seventeen.
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