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43 - Daylight at Last - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter forty three. Daylight at last, When I opened my eyes,
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  Speaker 1: I felt the hand of the guide clutching me firmly
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  Speaker 1: by the belt. With his other hand he supported my uncle.
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  Speaker 1: I was not grievously wounded, but bruised all over in
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  Speaker 1: the most remarkable manner. After a moment, I looked round
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  Speaker 1: and found that I was lying down on the slope
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  Speaker 1: of a mountain, not two yards from a yawning gulf
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  Speaker 1: into which I should have fallen had I made the
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  Speaker 1: slightest false step. Hans had saved me from death while
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  Speaker 1: I rolled insensible on the flanks of the crater. Where
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  Speaker 1: are we, dreamily asked my uncle, who literally appeared to
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  Speaker 1: be disgusted at having returned to Earth. The either down
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  Speaker 1: hunter seemed to shrug his shoulders as a mark of
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  Speaker 1: total ignorance. In Iceland, said I, not positively, but interrogatively. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: said Hans, How do you mean, cried the professor. No,
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  Speaker 1: what are your reasons? Hans is wrong, said I rising.
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  Speaker 1: After all the innumerable surprises of this journey, a yet
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  Speaker 1: more singular one was reserved to us. I expected to
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  Speaker 1: see a cone covered by snow, by extensive and widespread glaciers,
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of the arid deserts of the extreme
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  Speaker 1: northern regions, beneath the full rays of a polar sky
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  Speaker 1: beyond the highest latitudes. But contrary to all our expectations, I,
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  Speaker 1: my uncle, and the Icelander were cast upon the slope
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  Speaker 1: of a mountain, calcined by the burning rays of the sun,
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  Speaker 1: which was literally baking us with its fires. I could
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  Speaker 1: not believe my eyes, but the actual heat which affected
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  Speaker 1: my body allowed me no chance of doubting. We came
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  Speaker 1: out of the crater half naked, and the radiant star
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  Speaker 1: from which we had asked nothing for two months, was
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  Speaker 1: good enough to be prodigal to us of light and warmth.
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  Speaker 1: A light and warmth we could easily have dispensed with
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  Speaker 1: when our eyes were accustomed to the light we had
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  Speaker 1: lost sight of so long. I used them to rectify
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  Speaker 1: the errors of my imagination. Whatever happened, we should have
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  Speaker 1: been at Spitzbergen, and I was in no humor to
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  Speaker 1: yield to anything but the most absolute proof. After some delay,
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  Speaker 1: the professor spoke hum He said, in a hesitating kind
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  Speaker 1: of way, it really does not look like Iceland. But
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  Speaker 1: supposing it were the island of John mayen, I ventured
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  Speaker 1: to observe. Not in the least, my boy, this is
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  Speaker 1: not one of the volcanoes of the North, with its
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  Speaker 1: sills of granite and its crown of snow. Nevertheless, look
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  Speaker 1: lo oak, my boy, said the professor, as dogmatically as usual.
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  Speaker 1: Right above our heads sat a great height opened the
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  Speaker 1: crater of a volcano, from which escaped, from one quarter
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  Speaker 1: of an hour to the other with a very loud explosion,
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  Speaker 1: a lofty jet of flame mingled with pumice, stone, cinders
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  Speaker 1: and lava. I could feel the convulsions of nature in
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  Speaker 1: the mountain, which breathed like a jewge whale, throwing up
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  Speaker 1: from time to time fire and air through its enormous
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  Speaker 1: vents below, and floating along a slope of considerable angularity.
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  Speaker 1: The stream of eruptive matter spread away to a depth
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  Speaker 1: which did not give the volcano a height of three
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  Speaker 1: hundred fathoms. Its space disappeared in a perfect forest of
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  Speaker 1: green trees, among which I perceived olives, fig trees, and
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  Speaker 1: vines loaded with rich grapes. Certainly, this was not the
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  Speaker 1: ordinary aspect of the Arctic regions. About that there could
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  Speaker 1: not be the slightest doubt when the eye was satisfied
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  Speaker 1: at its glimpse of this verdant expanse. It fell upon
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  Speaker 1: the waters of a lovely sea or beautiful lake, which
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  Speaker 1: made of this enchanted land and island of not many
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  Speaker 1: leagues in extent. On the side of the rising sun
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  Speaker 1: was to be seen a little port crowded with houses,
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  Speaker 1: and near which the boats and vessels of peculiar build
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  Speaker 1: were floating upon us or waves. Beyond. Groups of islands
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  Speaker 1: rose above the liquid plain, so numerous and close together
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  Speaker 1: as to resemble a vast bee hive. Towards the setting sun,
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  Speaker 1: some distant shores were to be made out on the
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  Speaker 1: edge of the horizon. Some presented the appearance of blue
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  Speaker 1: mountains of harmonious conformation, upon others much more more distant.
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  Speaker 1: There appeared a prodigiously lofty cone, about the summit of
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  Speaker 1: which hung dark and heavy clouds. To watch the north,
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  Speaker 1: An immense expanse of water sparkled beneath the solar race,
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  Speaker 1: occasionally allowing the extremity of a mast or the convexity
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  Speaker 1: of a sail bellying to the wind to be seen.
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  Speaker 1: The unexpected character of such a scene added a hundredfold
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  Speaker 1: to its marvelous beauties, Where can we be, I asked,
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  Speaker 1: speaking in a low and solemn voice. Hans shut his
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  Speaker 1: eyes with an air of indifference, and my uncle looked
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  Speaker 1: on without clearly understanding whatever this mountain may be. He said,
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  Speaker 1: at last, I must confess it is rather warm. The
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  Speaker 1: explosions do not leave off, and I do not think
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  Speaker 1: it is worth while to have left the interior of
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  Speaker 1: a volcano and remain here to receive a huge piece
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  Speaker 1: of rock upon one's head. Let us carefully descend the
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  Speaker 1: mountain and discover the real state of the case. To
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  Speaker 1: confess the truth, I am dying of hunger and thirst. Decidedly,
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  Speaker 1: the professor was no longer a truly reflective character for myself,
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  Speaker 1: forgetting all my necessities, ignoring my fatigues and sufferings. I
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  Speaker 1: should have remained still for several hours longer, but it
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  Speaker 1: was necessary to follow my companions. The slope of the
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  Speaker 1: volcano was very steep and slippery. We slid over piles
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  Speaker 1: of ashes, avoiding the streams of hot lava, which glided
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  Speaker 1: about like fiery serpents. Still, while we were advancing, I
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  Speaker 1: spoke with extreme volubility, for my imagination was too full
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  Speaker 1: not to explode. In words. We are in Asia, I exclaimed.
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  Speaker 1: We are on the coast of India, in the great
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  Speaker 1: Malay Islands, in the center of Ossianya. We have crossed
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  Speaker 1: the one half of the globe to come out right
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  Speaker 1: at the antipodes of Europe. But the compass, exclaimed my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: explain that to me. Yes, the compass, I said, with
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  Speaker 1: considerable hesitation, I grant that is a difficulty. According to it,
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  Speaker 1: we have always been going northward. Then it lied. Hum
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  Speaker 1: to say that it lied is rather a harsh word,
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  Speaker 1: was my answer. Then we are at the north pole
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  Speaker 1: the pole. No, well, well, I give it up, was
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  Speaker 1: my reply. The plain truth was that there was no
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  Speaker 1: explanation possible. I could make nothing of it. And all
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  Speaker 1: the while we were approaching this beautiful verdure, hunger and
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  Speaker 1: thirst tormented me fearfully Happily, after two long hours march,
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful country spread out before us, covered by olives,
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  Speaker 1: pomegranates and vines, which appeared to belong to any body
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  Speaker 1: and everybody. In any event, In the state of destitution
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  Speaker 1: into which we had fallen, we were not in a
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  Speaker 1: mood to ponder too scrupulously what delight it was to
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  Speaker 1: press these delicious fruits to our lips, and to bite
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  Speaker 1: at grapes and pomegranates fresh from the vine. Not far off,
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  Speaker 1: near some fresh and mossy grass, under the delicious shade
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  Speaker 1: of some trees, I discovered a spring of fresh water
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  Speaker 1: in which we wiluptiously laid our faces, hands and feet.
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  Speaker 1: While we were all giving way to the delights of
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  Speaker 1: new found pleasures, a little child appeared between two tufted
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  Speaker 1: olive trees. Ah, cried, I an inhabitant of this happy country.
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  Speaker 1: The little fellow was poorly dressed, weak and suffering, and
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  Speaker 1: appeared terribly alarmed at our appearance. Half naked, with tangled,
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  Speaker 1: matted and ragged beards. We did look supremely ill favored,
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  Speaker 1: and unless the country was a bandit land, we were
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  Speaker 1: not likely to alarm the inhabitants. Just as the boy
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  Speaker 1: was about to take to his heels, Hans ran after
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  Speaker 1: him and brought him back, despite his cries and kicks.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle tried to look as gentle as possible, and
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  Speaker 1: then spoke in German, what is the name of this mountain?
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  Speaker 1: My friend? The child made no reply. Good, said my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: with a very positive air of conviction. We are not
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  Speaker 1: in Germany. He then made the same demand in English,
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  Speaker 1: of which language he was an excellent scholar. The child
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  Speaker 1: shook its head and made no reply. I began to
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  Speaker 1: be considerably puzzled. Is he dumb? Cried the professor, who
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  Speaker 1: was rather proud of his polyglot knowledge of languages, and
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  Speaker 1: made the same demand in French. The boy only, he
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  Speaker 1: stared in his face. I must perforce try him in Italian,
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  Speaker 1: said my uncle, with a shrug. Dorg neusiamo, yes, tell
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  Speaker 1: me where we are, I added, impatiently and eagerly. Again,
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  Speaker 1: the boy remained silent. My fine fellow, do you or
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  Speaker 1: do you not mean to speak? Cried my uncle, who
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  Speaker 1: began to get angry. He shook him and spoke another
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  Speaker 1: dialect of the Italian language. Comesinoma questa isola. What is
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  Speaker 1: the name of this island? Stromboi replied the rickety little shepherd,
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  Speaker 1: dashing away from Hans and disappearing in the olive groves.
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  Speaker 1: We thought little enough about him, Strombly, what effect on
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  Speaker 1: the imagination did these few words produce? We were in
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  Speaker 1: the center of the Mediterranean, amidst the eastern archipelago of
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  Speaker 1: mythological memory, in the ancient Strongloss where Eolus kept the
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  Speaker 1: wind the temp is chained up. And those blue mountains
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  Speaker 1: which rose towards the rising sun were the mountains of Calabria.
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  Speaker 1: And that mighty volcano which rose on the southern horizon
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  Speaker 1: was Etna, the fierce and celebrated Etna Strombui STROMBULLI, I
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  Speaker 1: repeated to myself. My uncle played a regular accompaniment to
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  Speaker 1: my gestures and words. We were singing together like an
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  Speaker 1: ancient chorus. Ah, what a journey, What a marvelous and
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary journey. Here we had entered the Earth by one volcano,
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  Speaker 1: and we had come out by another. And this other
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  Speaker 1: was situated more than twelve hundred leagues from Sneffels, from
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  Speaker 1: that drear country of Iceland, cast away on the confines
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  Speaker 1: of the Earth. The wondrous changes of this expedition had
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  Speaker 1: transported us to the most harmonious and beautiful of earthly lands.
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  Speaker 1: We had abandoned the region of eternal snows for that
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  Speaker 1: of infinite verdure, and had left over our heads the
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  Speaker 1: gray fog of the icy regions to come back to
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  Speaker 1: the user sky of Sicily. After a delicious repast of
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  Speaker 1: fruits and fresh water, we again continued our journey in
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  Speaker 1: order to reach the port of Strombolie. To say how
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  Speaker 1: we had reached the island would scarcely have been prudent.
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  Speaker 1: The superstitious character of the Italians would have been at work,
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  Speaker 1: and we should have been called demons vomited from the
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  Speaker 1: infernal regions. It was therefore necessary to pass for humble
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  Speaker 1: and unfortunate shipwrecked travelers. It was certainly less striking and romantic,
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  Speaker 1: but it was decidedly safer as we advanced. I could
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  Speaker 1: hear my worthy uncle muttering to himself, But the compass,
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  Speaker 1: the compass most certainly marked north. This is a fact
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  Speaker 1: I cannot explain in any way. Well, the fact is
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  Speaker 1: said I, with an air of disdain. We must not
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  Speaker 1: explain anything. It will be much more easy. I should
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  Speaker 1: like to see a professor of the Johanneum institution who
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  Speaker 1: is unable to explain a cosmic phenomenon. It would indeed
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  Speaker 1: be strange and speaking. Thus, my uncle, half naked, his
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  Speaker 1: leathern pursed round his loins, and his spectacles upon his nose,
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  Speaker 1: became once more the terrible professor of mineralogy. An hour
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  Speaker 1: after leaving the Wood of Olives, we reached the fort
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  Speaker 1: of San Victensa, where Hans demanded the price of his
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  Speaker 1: thirteen week of service. My uncle paid him with very
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  Speaker 1: many warm shakes of the hand. At that moment, if
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  Speaker 1: he did not indeed quite share our natural emotion, he
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  Speaker 1: loudest feelings so far to give way as to indulge
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  Speaker 1: in an extraordinary expression for him. With the tips of
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  Speaker 1: two fingers, he gently pressed our hands and smiled. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter forty three.