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35 - Discovery Upon Discovery - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty five, Discovery upon Discovery. In order to fully
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  Speaker 1: understand the exclamation made by my uncle and his allusions
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  Speaker 1: to these illustrious and learned men, it will be necessary
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  Speaker 1: to enter into certain explanations in regard to a circumstance
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  Speaker 1: of the highest importance to paliontology or the science of
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  Speaker 1: fossil life, which had taken place a short time before
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  Speaker 1: our departure from the upper regions of the Earth. On
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  Speaker 1: the twenty eight of March eighteen sixty three, some navigators,
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  Speaker 1: under the direction of Monsieur Bouchet de Parties, were at
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  Speaker 1: work in the great quarries of Molencoignon, near Abeville, in
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  Speaker 1: the department of Somme in France. While at work, they
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  Speaker 1: unexpectedly came upon a human yaw bone buried fourteen feet
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  Speaker 1: below the surface of the soil. It was the first
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  Speaker 1: fossil of the kind that had ever been brought to
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  Speaker 1: light of day. Near this unexpected human relic were found stone,
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  Speaker 1: hatchets and card flints, colored and clothed by time in
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  Speaker 1: one uniform, brilliant tint of their degree. The report of
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  Speaker 1: this extraordinary and unexpected discovery spread not only all over France,
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  Speaker 1: but over England and Germany, many learned men, belonging to
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  Speaker 1: very scientific bodies, and noteworthy among others, Messov Milne, Edwards
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  Speaker 1: and de Catrefarts took the affair very much to heart,
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  Speaker 1: demonstrated the incontestable authenticity of the bone in question, and
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  Speaker 1: became to use the phrase then recognized in England the
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  Speaker 1: most ardent supporters of the jaw bone question. To the
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  Speaker 1: eminent geologists of the United Kingdom, who looked upon the
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  Speaker 1: fact as certain Messrs Falconer, Buck, Carpenter and others, were
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  Speaker 1: soon united the learned men of Germany, and among those
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  Speaker 1: in the first rank, the most eager, the most enthusiastic,
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  Speaker 1: was my worthy uncle, Professor Hartwig. The authenticity of a
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  Speaker 1: human fossil of the Quaternary period seemed then to be
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  Speaker 1: incontestably demonstrated, and even to be admitted by the most
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  Speaker 1: skeptical This system or theory, call it what you will,
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  Speaker 1: had it is true a bitter adversary in Monsieur Elie
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  Speaker 1: de Beaumont. This learned man, who holds such a high
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  Speaker 1: place in the scientific world, holds that the soil of
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  Speaker 1: Molanquignon does not belong to the diluvium, but to a
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  Speaker 1: much less ancient stratum, and in accordance with Cuvier. In
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  Speaker 1: this respect, he would by no means admit that the
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  Speaker 1: human species was contemporary with the animals of the Quaternary epoch.
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  Speaker 1: My worthy uncle, Professor Hartwig, in concert with the great
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  Speaker 1: majority of geologists, had held firm a dispute, uted, discussed,
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  Speaker 1: and finally, after considerable talking and writing, Monsieur le de
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  Speaker 1: Beaumont had been pretty well left alone in his opinions.
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  Speaker 1: We were familiar with all the details of this discussion,
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  Speaker 1: but were far from being aware then that since our departure,
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  Speaker 1: the matter had entered upon a new face. Other similar jawbones,
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  Speaker 1: though belonging to individuals of very types and very different natures,
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  Speaker 1: had been found in the movable gray sands of certain
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  Speaker 1: grottos in France, Switzerland and Belgium, together with arms, utensils, tools,
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  Speaker 1: bones of children, of men in the prime of life
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  Speaker 1: and of old men. The existence of men in the
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  Speaker 1: Quaternary period became therefore more positive every day, But this
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  Speaker 1: was far from being all. New remains dug up from
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  Speaker 1: the Pliocene or Tertiary deposits had enabled the more far
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  Speaker 1: seeing or audacious among learned men, to sign even a
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  Speaker 1: far greater degree of antiquity to the human race. These remains,
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  Speaker 1: it is true, were not those of men, that is,
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  Speaker 1: were not the bones of men, but objects decidedly having
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  Speaker 1: served the human race, shin bones, thigh bones of fossil animals,
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  Speaker 1: regularly scooped out and in fact sculptured, bearing the unmistakable
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  Speaker 1: signs of human handiwork. By means of these wondrous and
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  Speaker 1: unexpected discoveries, Man ascended endless centuries in the scale of time.
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  Speaker 1: He in fact preceded the mastodon, became the contemporary of
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  Speaker 1: the elephas. Meridionalis the southern elephant acquired an antiquity of
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  Speaker 1: over a hundred thousand years, since that is the date
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  Speaker 1: given by the most eminent geologists to the Pliocine period
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  Speaker 1: of the Earth. Such were then the state of palaeontologic science.
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  Speaker 1: And what we moreover new sufficed to explain our attitude
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  Speaker 1: before this great cemetery of the plains of the Hartwig Ocean.
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  Speaker 1: It will now be easy to understand the professor's mingled
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  Speaker 1: astonishment and joy when, on advancing about twenty yards, he
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  Speaker 1: found himself in the presence of I may say, face
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  Speaker 1: to face with a specimen of the human race actually
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  Speaker 1: belonging to the Quaternary period. It was, indeed a human skull,
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  Speaker 1: perfectly recognizable, had a soil of very peculiar nature, like
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  Speaker 1: that of the cemetery of Saint Michael at Bordou preserd
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  Speaker 1: It during countless ages. This was the question I asked myself,
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  Speaker 1: but which I was fully unable to answer. But this head,
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  Speaker 1: with stretched and parchment in skin, with the teeth whole,
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  Speaker 1: the hair abundant, was before our eyes. As in life.
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  Speaker 1: I stood new, almost paralyzed with wonder and abe before
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  Speaker 1: this streed apparition of another age. My uncle, who on
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  Speaker 1: almost every occasion was a great talker, remained for a
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  Speaker 1: time completely dumbfounded. He was too full of emotion for
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  Speaker 1: speech to be possible. After a while, however, we raised
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  Speaker 1: up the body to which the skull belonged. We stood
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  Speaker 1: it on end. It seemed to our excited imaginations to
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  Speaker 1: look at us with its terrible hollow eyes. After some
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  Speaker 1: minutes of silence, the man was vanquished by the Professor.
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  Speaker 1: Human instincts succumbed to scientific pride and exultation. Professor Hartwick
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  Speaker 1: carried away by his enthusiasts, forgot all the circumstances of
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  Speaker 1: our journey, the extraordinary position in which we were placed,
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  Speaker 1: the immense cavern which stretched far away over our heads.
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  Speaker 1: There can be no doubt that he thought himself at
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  Speaker 1: the institution addressing his attentive pupils, for he put on
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  Speaker 1: his most doctorial style, weighed his hand, and began, gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: I have the honor, on this suspicious occasion to present
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  Speaker 1: to you a man of the quaternary period of our globe.
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  Speaker 1: Many learned men have denied his very existence, while other
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  Speaker 1: able persons, perhaps of even higher authority, have affirmed their
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  Speaker 1: belief in the reality of his life. If these sanctomasis
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  Speaker 1: of paleontology were present, they would reverently touch him with
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  Speaker 1: their fingers and believe in his existence, thus acknowledging their
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  Speaker 1: obstinate heresy. I know that science should be careful in
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  Speaker 1: relation to all discoveries of this nature. I am not
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  Speaker 1: without having heard of the many barnums and other quacks
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  Speaker 1: who have made a trade of such like pretended discoveries.
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  Speaker 1: I have a course heard of the discovery of the
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  Speaker 1: kneebons of ayaks, or the pretended finding of the body
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  Speaker 1: of Orestes by the Spartiats, and of the body of
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  Speaker 1: Austerius ten spans long fifteen feet, of which we read
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  Speaker 1: in Pausanias. I have read everything in relation to the
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  Speaker 1: skeleton of Trapani, discovered in the fourteenth century, and which
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  Speaker 1: many persons chose to regard as that of Polyphemus, and
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  Speaker 1: the history of the giant dug up during the sixteenth
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  Speaker 1: century in the environs of Palmyra. You are well aware,
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  Speaker 1: as I am, gentlemen, of the existence of the celebrated
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  Speaker 1: analysis made near Lucerne in fifteen seventy seven of the
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  Speaker 1: great bones, which the celebrated doctor Felix Platter declared belonged
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  Speaker 1: to a giant about nineteen feet high. I have devoured
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  Speaker 1: all the treatises of Casanyon, and all those memoirs, pamphlets,
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  Speaker 1: speeches and replies published in reference to the skeleton of
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  Speaker 1: Theepto Borcus, king of the Kimbrim, the invader of Gaul
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  Speaker 1: dug out of a gravel pitt Endophin in sixteen thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: In the eighteenth century, I should have denied with Peter
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  Speaker 1: Campett the existence of the Preadamites of shoist Sir. I
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  Speaker 1: have heard in my hands the writing called geigans. Here
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  Speaker 1: my uncle was afflicted by the natural infirmity which prevented
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  Speaker 1: him from pronouncing difficult words in public. It was not
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  Speaker 1: exactly stuttering, but a strange sort of constitutional hesitation. The
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  Speaker 1: writing named gigans, he repeated. He, however, could get no
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  Speaker 1: further gigantio impossible. The unfortunate word would not come out.
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  Speaker 1: There would have been great laughter at the institution had
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  Speaker 1: the mistake happened there guy gan tos theology at last,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed Professor Hartwick, between two savage growls, having got over
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  Speaker 1: our difficulty, and getting more and more excited. Just, gentlemen,
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  Speaker 1: I am well acquainted with all these matters, and know
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  Speaker 1: also that Kavier and Blumenbach fully recognized in these bones
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  Speaker 1: the undeniable remains of mammost of the Quaternary period. But
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  Speaker 1: after what we now see. To allow a doubt is
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  Speaker 1: to insult scientific inquiry. There is the body. You can
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  Speaker 1: see it, you can touch it. It is not a skeleton.
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  Speaker 1: It is a complete and uninjured body preserved with an
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  Speaker 1: anthropological object. I did not attempt to controvert this singular
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  Speaker 1: and astounding assertion. If I could but wash this corpse
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  Speaker 1: in a solution of sulfric acid. Continued my uncle, I
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  Speaker 1: would undertake to remove all the earthy particles and these
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  Speaker 1: resplendent shells which are encrusted all over this body. But
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  Speaker 1: I am without this precious dissolving medium. Nevertheless, such as
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  Speaker 1: it is, this body will tell its own history. Here
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  Speaker 1: the professor held up the fossil body and exhibited it
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  Speaker 1: with rare dexterity. No professional showman could have shown more activity.
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  Speaker 1: As on examination you will see, my uncle continued, it
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  Speaker 1: is only about six feet in length, which is a
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  Speaker 1: long way from the pretended giants of early days. As
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  Speaker 1: to the particular race to which it belonged, it is
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  Speaker 1: incontestably Caucasian. It is of the white race, that is
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  Speaker 1: of our own. The skull of this fossil being is
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  Speaker 1: a perfect ovid, without any remarkable or prominent development of
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  Speaker 1: the cheek bones, and without any production of the jaw.
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  Speaker 1: It presents no indication of the prognathism which modifies the
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  Speaker 1: facial angle. Note the facial angle is formed by two planes,
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  Speaker 1: one more or less vertical, which is in a straight
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  Speaker 1: line with the forehead and the incissors, the other horizontal,
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  Speaker 1: which passes through the organs of hearing and the lower
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  Speaker 1: nasal bone. Prognathism in anthropological language means that particular protection
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  Speaker 1: of the jaw which modifies the facial angle. End of note.
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  Speaker 1: Measure the angle for yourselves, and you will find that
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  Speaker 1: it is just ninety degrees. But I will advance still
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  Speaker 1: farther on the road of inquiry and deduction, and I
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  Speaker 1: dare venture to say that this human sample or specimen
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  Speaker 1: belongs to the eaphetic family, which spread over the world,
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  Speaker 1: from India to the uttermost limits of western Europe. There
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  Speaker 1: is no occasion, gentleman, to smile at my remarks. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: nobody smiled. But the excellent professor was so accustomed to
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  Speaker 1: beaming countenances at his lectures that he believed he saw
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  Speaker 1: all his audience laughing during the delivery of his learned dissertation. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: he continued with renewed animation. This is a fossil man,
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  Speaker 1: a contemporary of the mastodons, with the bones of which
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  Speaker 1: this whole amphitheater is covered. But if I am called
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  Speaker 1: on to explain how he came to this place, how
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  Speaker 1: these various strata by which he is covered have fallen
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  Speaker 1: into this vast cavity I can undertake to give you
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  Speaker 1: no explanation. Doubtless, if we carry ourselves back to the
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  Speaker 1: Quaternary epoch, we shall find that great and mighty convulsions
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  Speaker 1: took place in the crust of the earth. The continually
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  Speaker 1: cooling operation through which the earth had to pass produced fissures, landslips,
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  Speaker 1: and chass, through which a large portion of the earth
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  Speaker 1: made its way. I come to no absolute conclusion. But
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  Speaker 1: there is the man surrounded by the word of his hands,
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  Speaker 1: his hatchets, and his card flints, which belonged to the
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  Speaker 1: stony period. And the only rational supposition is that, like myself,
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  Speaker 1: he visited the center of the earth as a traveling tourist,
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  Speaker 1: a pioneer of science. At all events, there can be
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  Speaker 1: no doubt of his great age and of his being
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  Speaker 1: one of the oldest race of human beings. The professor,
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  Speaker 1: with these words ceased his oration, and I burst forth
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  Speaker 1: into loud and unanimous applause. Besides, after all, my uncle
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  Speaker 1: was right. Much more learned men than his nephew would
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  Speaker 1: have found it rather hard to refute his facts and arguments.
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  Speaker 1: Another circumstance soon presented itself. This fossilized body was not
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  Speaker 1: the only one in this vast plain of bones, the
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  Speaker 1: cemetery of an extinct world. Other bodies were found as
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  Speaker 1: we trod the dusty plane, and my uncle was able
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  Speaker 1: to choose the most marvelous of these specimens in order
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  Speaker 1: to convince the most incredulous. In truth. It was a
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  Speaker 1: surprising spectacle, the successive remains of generations and generations of
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  Speaker 1: men and animals confounded together in one vast cemetery. But
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  Speaker 1: a great question now presented itself to our notice, and
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  Speaker 1: one we were actually fraid to contemplate in all its bearings.
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  Speaker 1: Had these once animated beings been buried so far beneath
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  Speaker 1: the soil by some tremendous convulsion of nature after they
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  Speaker 1: had been earth to earth and ashes to ashes, Or
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  Speaker 1: had they lived here below, in this subterranean world under
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  Speaker 1: this factitious sky born, married and given in marriage, and
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  Speaker 1: died at last, just like ordinary inhabitants of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: Up to the present moment, my green monsters, fish, and
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  Speaker 1: suchlike animals had alone been seen alive. The question, which
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  Speaker 1: render us rather uneasy, was a pertinent one. Were any
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  Speaker 1: of these men of the abyss wandering about the deserted
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  Speaker 1: shores of this wondrous sea of the center of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: This was a question which rendered me very uneasy and uncomfortable.
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  Speaker 1: How should they really be in existence? Would they receive
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  Speaker 1: us men from above? End of Chapter thirty five.