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29 - On the Waters - A Raft Voyage - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine, On the waters a raft voyage on
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  Speaker 1: the thirteenth of August. We were up betimes. There was
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  Speaker 1: no time to be lost. We now had to inaugurate
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  Speaker 1: a new kind of lock of motion, which would have
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  Speaker 1: the advantage of being rapid and not fatiguing. A mast
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  Speaker 1: made of two pieces of wood fastened together to give
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  Speaker 1: additional strength, a yard made from another one, the sail,
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  Speaker 1: a linen sheet from our bed. We were fortunately in
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  Speaker 1: a want of cordage, and the whole on trial appeared
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  Speaker 1: solid and seaworthy. At six o'clock in the morning, when
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  Speaker 1: the eager and enthusiastic Professor gave the signal to embark
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  Speaker 1: the victors. The luggage, all our instruments, our weapons, and
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  Speaker 1: a goodly supply of sweet water which we had collected
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  Speaker 1: from springs in the rocks were placed on the raft.
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  Speaker 1: Hans had, with considerable ingenus, t contrieved a rudder which
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  Speaker 1: enabled him to guide the floating apparatus with ease. He
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  Speaker 1: took the tiller as a matter of course the worthy
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  Speaker 1: man was as good a sailor as he was a
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  Speaker 1: guide and duck hunter, and then let go the painter,
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  Speaker 1: which held us to the shore. The sail was brought
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  Speaker 1: to the wind, and we made a rapid offing. Our
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  Speaker 1: sea voyage had at length commenced, and once more we
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  Speaker 1: were making for distant and unknown regions. Just as we
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  Speaker 1: were about to leave the little port where the raft
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  Speaker 1: had been constructed, my uncle, who was very strong as
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  Speaker 1: to geographic domenclature, wanted to give it a name, and,
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  Speaker 1: among others, suggested mine. Well, said I, before you decide,
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  Speaker 1: I have another to propose. Well out with it, I
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  Speaker 1: should like to call it Gretchen. Port Gretchen will sound
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  Speaker 1: very well on our future map. Well, then, Port Gretchen,
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  Speaker 1: let it be, said the professor. And thus it was
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  Speaker 1: that the memory of my dear girl was attached to
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  Speaker 1: our adventurous and memorable expedition. When we left the shore,
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  Speaker 1: the wind was blowing from the northward and eastward. We
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  Speaker 1: went directly before the wind, at a much greater speed
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  Speaker 1: than might have been expected from a raft. The dense
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  Speaker 1: layers of atmosphere at that depth had great propelling power
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  Speaker 1: and acted upon the sail with considerable force. At the
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  Speaker 1: end of an hour, my uncle, who had been taking
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  Speaker 1: careful observations, was enabled to judge of the rapidity with
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  Speaker 1: which we moved. It was far beyond anything seen in
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  Speaker 1: the upper world. If he said, we continue to advance
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  Speaker 1: at our present rate, we shall have traveled at least
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  Speaker 1: thirty leagues in twenty four hours with a mere raft.
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  Speaker 1: This is an almost incredible velocity. I certainly was surprised,
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  Speaker 1: and without making any reply, went forward upon the raft.
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  Speaker 1: Already the northern shore was fading away. On the edge
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  Speaker 1: of the horizon. The two shores appeared to separate more
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  Speaker 1: and more, leaving a wide and open space for our departure.
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  Speaker 1: Before me, I could see nothing but the vast and
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  Speaker 1: apparently limitless sea upon which we floated. The only living
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  Speaker 1: objects in sight deute and dark clouds cast their gray
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  Speaker 1: shadows below, shadows which seemed to crush that colorless and
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  Speaker 1: sullen water by their weight. Anything more suggestive of gloom
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  Speaker 1: and of regions of nether darkness. I never beheld silvery
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  Speaker 1: raids of electric light reflected here and there upon some
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  Speaker 1: small spots of water brought up luminous sparkles in the
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  Speaker 1: long wake of our cumbrous park. Presently we were folly
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  Speaker 1: out of sight of land. Not a vestiag could be seen,
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  Speaker 1: nor any indication of where we were going so still,
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  Speaker 1: ill and motionless, did we seem without any distant point
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  Speaker 1: to fix our eyes on that? But for the phosphoric
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  Speaker 1: light at the wake of the raft, I should have
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  Speaker 1: fancied that we were still and motionless. But I knew
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  Speaker 1: that we were advancing at a very rapid rate. About
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  Speaker 1: twelve o'clock in the day, vast collections of seaweed were
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  Speaker 1: discovered surrounding us on all sides. I was aware of
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  Speaker 1: the extraordinary vegetive power of these plants, which have been
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  Speaker 1: known to creep along the bottom of the Great Ocean
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  Speaker 1: and stop the advance of large ships. But never were
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  Speaker 1: seaweeds ever seen so gigantic and wonderful as those of
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  Speaker 1: the Central Sea. I could well imagine how seen at
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  Speaker 1: a distance, tossing and heaving on the summit of the billows,
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  Speaker 1: the long lines of algae have been taken for living things,
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  Speaker 1: and thus have been fertile sources of the beliefs in
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  Speaker 1: sea serpents. Our rafts were past great specimen of fucus
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  Speaker 1: and sea wrack, from three to four thousand feet in length,
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  Speaker 1: immense incredibly long, looking like snakes that stretched out far
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  Speaker 1: beyond our horizon. It afforded me great amusement to gaze
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  Speaker 1: on their variegated ribbon like endless lengths. Hour after our
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  Speaker 1: passed without our coming to the termination of these floating weeds.
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  Speaker 1: If my astonishment increased, my patience was well nigh exhausted.
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  Speaker 1: What natural force could possibly have produced such abnormal and
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary plants. What must have been the aspect of the
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  Speaker 1: globe during the first centuries of its formation, when under
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  Speaker 1: the combined action of heat and humidity, the vegetable kingdom
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  Speaker 1: occupied its vast surface to the exclusion of everything else.
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  Speaker 1: These were considerations of never ending interest for the geologist
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  Speaker 1: and the philosopher. All this while we were lancing on
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  Speaker 1: our journey, and at length night came. But as I
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  Speaker 1: had remarked the evening before, the luminous state of the
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  Speaker 1: atmosphere was in nothing diminished. Whatever was the cause, it
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  Speaker 1: was a phenomenon upon the duration of which we could
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  Speaker 1: calculate with certainty. As soon as our supper had been
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  Speaker 1: disposed of, and some little speculative conversation indulged in, I
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  Speaker 1: stretched myself at the foot of the mast and presently
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  Speaker 1: went to sleep. Hans remained motionless at the tiller, allowing
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  Speaker 1: the raft to rise and fall on the waves, the
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  Speaker 1: wind being aft, and the sail square. All he had
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  Speaker 1: to do was to keep his oar in the center.
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  Speaker 1: Ever since we had taken our departure from the newly
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  Speaker 1: named Port Gretchen, my worthy uncle had directed me to
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  Speaker 1: keep a regular log of our day's navigation, with instructions
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  Speaker 1: to put down even the most minute particulars, every interesting
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  Speaker 1: and curious phenomenon, the direction of the wind, our rate
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  Speaker 1: of sailing, the distance we went, in a word, every
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  Speaker 1: incident of our extraordinary voyage from our log. Therefore I
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  Speaker 1: tell the story of our voyage on the Central Sea Friday,
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  Speaker 1: August fourteenth, a steady breeze from the northwest, raft progressing
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  Speaker 1: with extreme rapidity and going perfectly straight. Coasts still dimly
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  Speaker 1: visible about thirty leagues to leeward, nothing to be seen
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  Speaker 1: beyond the horizon in front. The extraordinary intensity of the
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  Speaker 1: light neither increases nor diminishes. It is singularly stationary. The
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  Speaker 1: weather remarkably fine. That is to say, the clouds have
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  Speaker 1: ascended very high and are light and fleecy, and surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by an atmosphere resembling silver infusion thermometer plus thirty two
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  Speaker 1: degrees centigrade about twelve o'clock in the day. Our guide hands,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: having prepared and baited a hawk, cast his line into
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  Speaker 1: the subterranean waters. The bait he used was a small
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  Speaker 1: piece of meat, by means of which she concealed his hawk.
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  Speaker 1: Anxious as I was, I was for a long time
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  Speaker 1: doomed to disappointment. Were these waters supplied with fish or not?
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  Speaker 1: That was the important question. No, was my decided answer.
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  Speaker 1: Then there came a sudden and rather hard hug. Hans
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  Speaker 1: coolly drew it in, and with it a fish, which
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  Speaker 1: struggled violently to escape. A fish cried, my uncle, it's
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  Speaker 1: a sturgeon, I cried, certainly a small sturgeon. The professor
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  Speaker 1: examined the fish carefully, noting every characteristic and he did
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  Speaker 1: not coincide in my opinion. The fish had a flat head,
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  Speaker 1: round body, and the lower extreme discovered with bony scales.
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  Speaker 1: Its mouth was fully with our teeth. The pectoral fins,
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  Speaker 1: which were highly developed, sprouted direct from the body, which
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  Speaker 1: properly speaking, had no tail. The animals certainly belonged to
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  Speaker 1: the order in which naturalists classed the sturgeon, but it
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  Speaker 1: differed from that fish in many essential particulars. My uncle,
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  Speaker 1: after all, was not mistaken. After a long and patient examination,
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  Speaker 1: he said, this fish, my dear boy, belongs to a
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  Speaker 1: family which has been extinct for ages, and of which
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  Speaker 1: no trace has ever been found on Earth, except fossil
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  Speaker 1: remains in the Devonian strata. You do not mean to say,
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  Speaker 1: I cried, that we have captured a live specimen of
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  Speaker 1: a fish belonging to the primitive stock that existed before
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  Speaker 1: the deluge. We have, said the professor, who all this
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  Speaker 1: time was continuing his observations, And you may see by
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  Speaker 1: careful examination that these fossils fish have no identity with
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  Speaker 1: existing species to hold in one's hand. Therefore, a living
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  Speaker 1: specimen of the order is enough to make a naturalist
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  Speaker 1: happy for life. But cried I, to what family does
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  Speaker 1: it belong to? The order of ganoids, an order of
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  Speaker 1: fish having angular scales covered with bright animal forming one
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  Speaker 1: of the family of the cephaluspides, of the genus Sir Well, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: I remarked, as I noticed my uncle hesitated to conclude,
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  Speaker 1: to the genus Derychtis. Yes, I'm certain of it. Still,
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  Speaker 1: though I'm confident of the correctness of my surmise, these
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  Speaker 1: fish offers star notice a remarkable peculiarity never known to
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  Speaker 1: exist in any other fish, but those which are the
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  Speaker 1: natives of subterranean waters, wells, lakes, in caverns and such
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  Speaker 1: like hidden poles. And what may that be? It is
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  Speaker 1: blind blind, I cried, much surprised. Not only blind, continued
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  Speaker 1: the professor, but absolutely without organs of sight. I now
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  Speaker 1: examined our discovery for myself. It was singular, to be sure,
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  Speaker 1: but it was really a fact. This, however, might be
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  Speaker 1: a solitary instance. I suggested. The hook was painted again
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  Speaker 1: and once more thrown into the water. This subterranean ocean
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  Speaker 1: must have been tolerably well supplied with fish, for in
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  Speaker 1: two hours we took a large number of pterichtys, as
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  Speaker 1: well as other fish belonging to another supposed extinct family,
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  Speaker 1: the Dipteridis, a genius of fish furnished with two fins only,
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  Speaker 1: whence the name. Though my uncle could not class it exactly,
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  Speaker 1: all without exception, however, were blind. This unexpected capture enabled
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  Speaker 1: us to renew our stock of provisions in a very
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  Speaker 1: satisfactory way. We were now convinced that this subterranean sea
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  Speaker 1: contained only fish known to us as fossil specimens, and
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  Speaker 1: fish and reptiles alike were all the more perfect the
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  Speaker 1: farther back they dated their origin. We began to hope
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  Speaker 1: that we should find some of those saurians which science
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  Speaker 1: has succeeded in reconstructing from bits of bone and cartilage.
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  Speaker 1: I took up the telescope and carefully examined the horizon.
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  Speaker 1: Looked over the whole sea. It was utterly and entirely deserted. Doubtless,
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  Speaker 1: we were still too near the coast. After an examination
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  Speaker 1: of the ocean, I looked upward towards the strange and
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  Speaker 1: mysterious sky. Why should not one of the birds reconstructed
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  Speaker 1: by the immortal Cuvier, flappy stupendous wings aloft in the
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  Speaker 1: dull strata of subterranean air. It would, of course find
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  Speaker 1: quite sufficient food from the fish in the sea. I
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  Speaker 1: gazed for some time upon the void a bow. It
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  Speaker 1: was as silent and as deserted as the shores we
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  Speaker 1: had but lately left. Nevertheless, though I could neither see
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  Speaker 1: nor discover anything, my imagination carried me away into wild hypothesis.
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  Speaker 1: I was in a kind of waking dream. I thought
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  Speaker 1: I saw on the surface of the water, those enormous
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  Speaker 1: antediluvian turtles as big as floating islands. Upon those dull
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  Speaker 1: and somber shores, passed the spectral row of the mammiferes
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  Speaker 1: of early days, the great Liptotherium found in the cavernous
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  Speaker 1: hollow of the Brazilian Hills, the Mesicotherium, a native of
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  Speaker 1: the glacial regions of Siberia. Farther on, the pachydermatus Lofrodon,
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  Speaker 1: the gigantic tapir, which conceal it selt behind rocks, ready
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  Speaker 1: to do battle for each spray, with the Anuplotherium, a
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  Speaker 1: singular animal partaking of the nature of the rhanochrous, the horse,
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  Speaker 1: the hippopotamus, and the camel. There was the giant mastodon,
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  Speaker 1: twisting and turning his horrid trunk with which he crushed
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  Speaker 1: the rocks of the shore to powder, while the megatherium
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  Speaker 1: his back raised like a cat in a passion, his
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  Speaker 1: enormous claw stretched out dug into the earth for food,
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  Speaker 1: at the same time that he awoke the sonorous echos
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  Speaker 1: of the whole place with its terrible roar. Higher up still,
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  Speaker 1: the first monkey ever seen on the face of the
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  Speaker 1: globe clambered gamboling and playing up the granite hills. Still
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  Speaker 1: farther away ran the pterodactyl with the winged hand, gliding
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  Speaker 1: or rather sailing through the dense and compressed air like
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  Speaker 1: a huge pat Above all, near the leaden granitic sky
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  Speaker 1: were immense birds, more powerful than the cassowari and the ostrich,
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  Speaker 1: which spread their mighty wings and fluttered against the huge
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  Speaker 1: stone vault of the inland sea. I thought, such was
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  Speaker 1: the effect of my imagination that I saw this whole
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  Speaker 1: tribe of antediluvian creatures. I carried myself back to far
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  Speaker 1: ages long before man existed, when in fact the earth
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  Speaker 1: was in too imperfect a state for him to live
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  Speaker 1: upon it. My dream was of countless ages before the
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  Speaker 1: existence of man. The mammifers first disappeared, then the mighty birds,
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  Speaker 1: then the reptiles of the Secondary period, presently the fish,
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  Speaker 1: the crustas, here the mollusks, and finally the vertebratar the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: sophiths of the period of Transition, in their turn, sank
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  Speaker 1: into annihilation. The whole panorama of the world, world's life
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  Speaker 1: before the historic period seemed to be borne over again,
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  Speaker 1: And mine was the only human heart that beat in
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  Speaker 1: this unpeopled world. There were no more seasons, there were
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  Speaker 1: no more climates. The natural heat of the world increased
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  Speaker 1: unceasingly and neutralized that of the great radiant Sun. Vegetation
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  Speaker 1: was exaggerated in an extraordinary manner. I passed like a
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: shadow in the midst of brushwood as lofty as the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: giant trees of California, and trod underfoot the moist and
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  Speaker 1: humid soil, reeking with the rank and varied vegetation. I
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: leaned against the huge column like trunks of giant trees,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to which those of Canada were as ferns. Whole ages passed,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: hundreds upon hundreds of years were concentrated into a single day. Next,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: unrolled before me like a panorama, came the great and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: wondrous series of terrestrial transformations. Plants disappeared, the granity, rocks
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: lost all trace of solidity. The liquid state was suddenly
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: substituted for that which had before existed. This was caused
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: by intense heat acting on the organic matter of the Earth.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: The waters flowed over the whole surface of the globe.
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  Speaker 1: They boiled, they were volatilized, or turned into vapor. A
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: kind of steam cloud wrapped the whole Earth, the globe
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: itself becoming at last nothing but one huge sware of gas,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: indescribable in color between white, heat and red, as big
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  Speaker 1: and as brilliant as the sun. In the very center
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  Speaker 1: of this prodigious mass fourteen hundred thousand times as large
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  Speaker 1: as our globe, I was whirled round in space and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: brought in the close conjunction with the planets. My body
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: was subtilized, or rather become volatile and commingled in a
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: state of atomic vapor with the prodigious clouds, which rushed
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: forward like a mighty comet into infinite space. What an
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: extraordinary dream? Where would it finally take me? My feverish
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: hand began to write down the marvelous details, details more
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: like the imaginings of a lunatic than anything sober and real.
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  Speaker 1: I had during this period of hallucination, forgotten everything, the professor,
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  Speaker 1: the guide, and the raft on which we were floating.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: My mind was in a state of semi oblivion. What
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: is the murder? Hurry said my uncle. Suddenly my eyes,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: which were wide opened like those of a somnambulist, were
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: fixed upon him, But I did not see him, nor
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: could I clearly make out anything around me. Take care,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: my boy, again, cried my uncle. You will fall into
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the sea. Has he uttered these words, I felt myself
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: seized on the other side by the firm hand of
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: our devoted guide. Had it not been for the presence
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: of mind of Hans, I must infallibly have fallen into
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: the waves and been drowned. Have you gone mad? Cried
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: my uncle, shaking me on the other side. What what
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: is the matter? I said, at last, coming to myself.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Are you ill, henry, continued the professor in an anxious tone. No, no,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: but I have had an extraordinary dream. It, however, has
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: passed away all now since, while, I added, looking around
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: me with the strangely puzzled eyes. All right, said my uncle,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: A beautiful breeze, a splendid sea. We are going along
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  Speaker 1: at a rapid rate, and if I am not out
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: in my calculations, we shall soon see land. I shall
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: not be sorry to exchange the narrow limits of our
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: raft for the mysterious strand of the subterranean ocean. As
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: my uncle uttered these words, I rose and carefully scanned
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the horizon. But the line of water was still confounded
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: with the lowering clouds that hang aloft and in the
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: distance appeared to touch the edge of the water. End
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty nine,