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10 - Traveling in Iceland - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. Traveling in Iceland, it ought one would have
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  Speaker 1: thought to have been night, even in the sixty fifth
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  Speaker 1: parallel of latitude. But still the nocturnal illumination did not
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  Speaker 1: surprise me, for in Iceland, during the months of June
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  Speaker 1: and July, the sun never sets. The temperature, however, was
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  Speaker 1: very much lower than I expected. I was cold, but
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  Speaker 1: even that did not affect me so much as ravenous hunger. Welcome, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: therefore was the hut which hospitably opened its doors to us.
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  Speaker 1: It was merely the house of a peasant, but in
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  Speaker 1: the matter of hospitality, it was worthy of being the
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  Speaker 1: palace of a king. As we alighted at the door,
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  Speaker 1: the master of the house came forward, held out his hand,
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  Speaker 1: and without any further ceremony, signaled us to follow him.
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  Speaker 1: We followed him, for to accompany him was impossible. A long, narrow,
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  Speaker 1: gloomy passage led to the interior of this habitation, Made
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  Speaker 1: from beams roughly squared by the axe. This passage gave
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  Speaker 1: ingress to every room. The chambers were four in number,
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  Speaker 1: the kitchen, the workshop where the weaving was carried on,
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  Speaker 1: the general sleeping chamber of the family, and the best
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  Speaker 1: room to which strangers were especially invited. My uncle, whose
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  Speaker 1: lofty stature had not been taken into consideration when the
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  Speaker 1: house was built, contrived to knock his head against the
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  Speaker 1: beams of the roof. We were introduced into our chamber,
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  Speaker 1: a kind of large room with a hard earthen floor
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  Speaker 1: and lighted by a window, the panes of which were
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  Speaker 1: made of a sort of parchment from the intestines of sheep,
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  Speaker 1: very far from transparent. The bedding was composed of dry
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  Speaker 1: hay thrown into two long red wooden boxes ornamented with
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  Speaker 1: sentences painted in icelandic I really had no idea that
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  Speaker 1: we should be made so comfortable. There was one objection
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  Speaker 1: to the house, and that was the very powerful odor
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  Speaker 1: of dried fish, of macerated meat, and of sour milk,
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  Speaker 1: which three fragrances combined did not at all suit my
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  Speaker 1: olfactory nerves. As soon as we had freed ourselves from
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  Speaker 1: our heavy traveling costume, the voice of our host was
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  Speaker 1: heard calling to us to come into the kitchen, the
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  Speaker 1: only room in which the Icelanders ever make any fire,
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  Speaker 1: no matter how cold it may be. My uncle, nothing
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  Speaker 1: loath hastened to obey this hospitable and friendly invitation. I followed.
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  Speaker 1: The kitchen chimney was made on an antique model. A
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  Speaker 1: large stone standing in the middle of the room was
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  Speaker 1: the fireplace above, and the roof was a hole for
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  Speaker 1: the smoke to pass through. This apartment was kitchen, parlor
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  Speaker 1: and dining room all in one. On our entrance, our
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  Speaker 1: worthy host, as if he had not seen us before, advanced,
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  Speaker 1: ceremoniously uttered a word which means be happy, and then
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  Speaker 1: kissed both of us on the cheek. His wife followed
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  Speaker 1: pronounced the same word with the same ceremonial. Then the
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  Speaker 1: husband and wife, placing their right hands upon their hearts,
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  Speaker 1: bowed profoundly. This excellent Icelandic woman was the mother of
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  Speaker 1: nineteen children, who little and big, rolled, crawled, and walked
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  Speaker 1: about in the midst of volumes of smoke arising from
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  Speaker 1: the angular fireplace in the middle of the room. Every
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  Speaker 1: now and then I could see a fresh white head
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  Speaker 1: and a slightly melancholy expression of countenance peering at me
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  Speaker 1: through the vapor. Both my uncle and myself, however, were
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  Speaker 1: very friendly with the whole party, and before we were
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  Speaker 1: aware of it, there were three or four of the
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  Speaker 1: little ones on our shoulders, as many on our boxes,
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  Speaker 1: and the rest hanging about our legs. Those who could
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  Speaker 1: speak kept crying out seal verto in every possible and
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  Speaker 1: impossible key. Those who did not speak only made all
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  Speaker 1: the more noise. This concert was interrupted by the announcement
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  Speaker 1: of supper. At this moment our worthy guide, the eider
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  Speaker 1: duck hunter, came in. After seeing to the feeding and
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  Speaker 1: stabling of the horses, which consisted in letting them loose
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  Speaker 1: to browse on the stunted green of the Icelandic prairies.
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  Speaker 1: There was little for them to eat but moss and
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  Speaker 1: some very dry and innutrious grass. Next day they were
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  Speaker 1: ready before the door some time before. We were welcome,
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  Speaker 1: said Hans. Then, tranquility, with the air of an automaton,
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  Speaker 1: without any more expression in one kiss than another, he
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  Speaker 1: embraced the host and hostess and their nineteen children. This
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  Speaker 1: ceremony concluded to the satisfaction of all parties. We all
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  Speaker 1: sat down to table, that is, twenty four of us,
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  Speaker 1: somewhat crowded. Those who were best off had only two
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  Speaker 1: juveniles on their knees. As soon, however, as the inevitable
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  Speaker 1: soup was placed on the table, the natural taciturnity, common
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  Speaker 1: even to Icelandic babies, prevailed over all else. Our hosts
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  Speaker 1: filled our plates with a portion of lichened soup of
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  Speaker 1: Iceland moss, and, by no means of disagreeable flavor, an
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  Speaker 1: enormous lump of fish floating in sour butter. After that
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  Speaker 1: there came some skare, a kind of curds and whey,
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  Speaker 1: served with biscuits and juniper berry juice. To drink, we
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  Speaker 1: had blond dust skimmed milk with water. I was hungry,
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  Speaker 1: so hungry that by way of dessert, I finished up
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  Speaker 1: with a basin of thick oatn porridge. As soon as
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  Speaker 1: the meal was over, the children disappeared, whilst the grown
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  Speaker 1: up people sat around the fireplace, on which was placed turf, heather,
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  Speaker 1: cow dung and dried fishbones. As soon as everybody was
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  Speaker 1: sufficiently warm, a general dispersion took place, all retiring to
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  Speaker 1: their respective couches. Our hostess offered to pull off our
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  Speaker 1: stockings and trousers, according to the custom of the country,
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  Speaker 1: but as we graciously declined to be so honoured, she
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  Speaker 1: left us to our bed of dry fodder. Next day,
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  Speaker 1: at five in the morning, we took our leave of
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  Speaker 1: these hospitable peasants. My uncle had great difficulty in making
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  Speaker 1: them accept a sufficient and proper remuneration. Hans then gave
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  Speaker 1: the signal to start. We had scarcely got one hundred
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  Speaker 1: yards from Gardar when the character of the country changed.
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  Speaker 1: The soil began to be marshy and boggy, and less
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  Speaker 1: favorable to progress to the right. The range of mountains
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  Speaker 1: was prolonged indefinitely, like a great system of natural fortifications
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  Speaker 1: of which we skirted. The glasses we met with numerous
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  Speaker 1: streams and rivulets, which it was necessary to ford, and
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  Speaker 1: that without wetting our baggage. As we advanced, the deserted
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  Speaker 1: appearance increased, and yet now and then we could see
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  Speaker 1: human shadows flitting in the distance. When a turn of
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  Speaker 1: the track brought us with an easy reach of one
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  Speaker 1: of these specters, I felt a sudden impulse of disgust
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  Speaker 1: at the sight of a swollen head with shining skin,
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  Speaker 1: utterly without hair, and whose repulsive and revolting wounds could
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  Speaker 1: be seen through his rags. The unhappy wretches never came
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  Speaker 1: forward to beg On the contrary, they ran away not
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  Speaker 1: so quick, however, but that Hans was able to salute
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  Speaker 1: them with the universal salver. Too spedusk, he said a leper, explained,
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  Speaker 1: my uncle. The very sound of such a word caused
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  Speaker 1: a feeling of repulsion. The horrible affliction known as leprosy,
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  Speaker 1: which has almost vanished before the effects of modern science,
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  Speaker 1: is common in Iceland. It is not contagious, but hereditary,
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  Speaker 1: so that marriage is strictly prohibited to these unfortunate creatures.
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  Speaker 1: These poor lepers did not tend to enliven our journey,
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  Speaker 1: the scene of which was inexpressibly sad and lonely. The
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  Speaker 1: very last tufts of grassy vegetation appeared to die at
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  Speaker 1: our feet. Not a tree was to be seen, except
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  Speaker 1: a few stunted willows about as big as BlackBerry bushes.
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  Speaker 1: Now and then we watched a falcon soaring in the
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  Speaker 1: gray and misty air, taking his flight toward warmer and
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  Speaker 1: sunnier regions. I could not help feeling a sense of
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  Speaker 1: melancholy come over me. I sighed for my own native
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  Speaker 1: land and wished to be back with Gretchen. We were
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  Speaker 1: compelled to cross several little fiords, and at last came
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  Speaker 1: to a real gulf. The tide was at its height
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  Speaker 1: and we were able to get over at once and
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  Speaker 1: reach the hamlet of Ofteness, about a mile farther. That evening,
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  Speaker 1: after fording the Alpha and the Hetta, two rivers rich
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  Speaker 1: in trout and pike, we were compelled to pass the
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  Speaker 1: night in a deserted house worthy of being haunted by
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  Speaker 1: all the phase of Scandinavian mythology. The king of Cold
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  Speaker 1: had taken up his residence there and made us feel
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  Speaker 1: his presence all night. The following day was remarkable by
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  Speaker 1: its lack of any particular incidents. Always the same damp
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  Speaker 1: and swampy soil, the same dreary uniformity, the same sad,
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  Speaker 1: monotonous aspect of scenery. In the evening, having accomplished the
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  Speaker 1: half of our projected journey, we slept at the annexia
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  Speaker 1: of the Crossol. For a whole mile we had under
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  Speaker 1: our feet nothing but lava. This disposition of the soil
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  Speaker 1: is called hron. The crumbled lava on the surface was,
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  Speaker 1: in some instances like ship cables, stretched out horizontally, in
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  Speaker 1: others coiled up in heaps. An immense field of lava
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  Speaker 1: came from the neighboring mountains, all extinct volcanoes, but whose
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  Speaker 1: remains showed what they had once been here, and there
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  Speaker 1: could be made out the steam from hot water springs.
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  Speaker 1: There was no time, however, for us to take more
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  Speaker 1: than a cursory view of these phenomena. We had to
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  Speaker 1: go forward with what speed we might. Soon the soft
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  Speaker 1: and swampy soil again appeared under the feet of our horses,
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  Speaker 1: while at every hundred yards we came upon one or
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  Speaker 1: more small lakes. Our journey was now in a westerly direction,
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  Speaker 1: and we had in fact swept round the great Bay
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  Speaker 1: of Foxa, and the twin white summits of Sneffels rose
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  Speaker 1: to the clouds at a distance of less than five miles.
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  Speaker 1: The horses now advanced rapidly, the accidents and difficulties of
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  Speaker 1: the soil no longer checked them. I confess that fatigue
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  Speaker 1: began to tell severely upon me, but my uncle was
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  Speaker 1: as firm and as hard as he had been on
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  Speaker 1: the first day. I could not help admiring both the
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  Speaker 1: excellent professor and the worthy guide, for they both appeared
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  Speaker 1: to regard this rugged expedition as a mere walk. On Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: the twentieth June, at six o'clock in the evening, we
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  Speaker 1: reached bootier, a small town, picturesquely situated on the shore
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  Speaker 1: of the ocean, and here the guide asked for his money.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle settled with him immediately. It was now the
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  Speaker 1: family of Hans himself, that is to say, his uncle's
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  Speaker 1: his cousins German, who offered us hospitality. We were exceedingly
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  Speaker 1: well received, and without taking too much advantage of the
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  Speaker 1: goodness of these worthy people, I should have liked very
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  Speaker 1: much to have rested with them after the fatigues of
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  Speaker 1: the journey. But my uncle, who did not require rest,
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  Speaker 1: had no idea of anything of the kind. And despite
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the next day was Sunday, I was
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  Speaker 1: compelled once more to mount my steed. The soil was
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  Speaker 1: again effected by the neighborhood of the mountains, whose granite
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  Speaker 1: peered out of the ground like tops of an old oa. Ok.
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  Speaker 1: We were skirting the enormous bass of the mighty volcano.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle never took his eyes from off it. He
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  Speaker 1: could not keep from gesticulating and looking at it with
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  Speaker 1: a kind of sullen defiance, as much to say, that
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  Speaker 1: is the giant I have made up my mind to conquer.
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  Speaker 1: After four hours steady traveling, the horses stopped at themselves
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  Speaker 1: before the door of the Presbytery of Stoppe. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten,