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38 - No Outlet - Blasting the Rock - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight, no outlet blasting the rock. Ever since
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  Speaker 1: the commencement of our marvelous journey, I had experienced many surprises,
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  Speaker 1: had suffered from many illusions. I thought that I was
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  Speaker 1: case hardened against all surprises, and could neither see nor
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  Speaker 1: hear anything to amaze me again. I was like a
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  Speaker 1: man who, having been round the world, finds himself folly, blassy,
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  Speaker 1: and proof against the marvelous. When, however, I saw these
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  Speaker 1: two letters, which have been engraven three hundred years before,
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  Speaker 1: I stood fixed in an attitude of mute surprise. Not
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  Speaker 1: only was there the signature of the learned and enterprising
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  Speaker 1: alchemists written in the rock, but I held in my
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  Speaker 1: hand the very identical instrument with which he had laboriously
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  Speaker 1: engrayed it. It was impossible, without showing an amount of incredulities,
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  Speaker 1: scarcely becoming a sane man, to deny the existence of
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  Speaker 1: the traveler and the reality of that voyage, which I
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  Speaker 1: believed all along to have been a myth, the mystification
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  Speaker 1: of some fertile brain. While these reflections were passing through
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  Speaker 1: my mind, my uncle the Professor, gave way to an
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  Speaker 1: excess of feverish and poetical excitement, wonderful and glorious genius,
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  Speaker 1: Great Sacknossem, he cried, You have left no stone unturned,
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  Speaker 1: no resource omitted, to show to other mortals the way
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  Speaker 1: into the interior of our mighty globe. And your fellow
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  Speaker 1: creatures can find the trail left by your illustrious footsteps
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  Speaker 1: three hundred years ago at the bottom of these obscure
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  Speaker 1: subterranean abodes. You have been careful to secure for others
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  Speaker 1: the contemplation of these wonders and marvels of creation. Your name,
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  Speaker 1: engraved at every important stage of our glorious journey, leads
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  Speaker 1: the hopeful traveler direct to the great and mighty discovery
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  Speaker 1: to which you devoted such energy and courage. The audashous traveler,
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  Speaker 1: who shall follow your footsteps to the last, will doubtless
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  Speaker 1: find your initials ingrade with your own hand upon the
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  Speaker 1: center of the earth. I will be that udashus traveler.
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  Speaker 1: I too will sign my name upon the very same
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  Speaker 1: spot upon the central granite stone of this wondrous work
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  Speaker 1: of the Creator. But in justice to your devotion, to
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  Speaker 1: your courage, and to your being the first to indicate
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  Speaker 1: the road, let this cape seen by you upon the
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  Speaker 1: shores of the sea discover'd by you be called of
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  Speaker 1: all time Cape Sacnossem. This is what I heard word,
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  Speaker 1: and I began to be roused to the pitch of
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  Speaker 1: enthusiasm indicated by those words, A fierce excitement roused me.
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  Speaker 1: I forgot everything. The dangers of the voyage and the
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  Speaker 1: perils of the return journey were now as nothing what
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  Speaker 1: another man had done in ages past could, I felt
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  Speaker 1: be done again. I was determined to do it myself,
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  Speaker 1: and now nothing that man had accomplished appeared to me impossible.
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  Speaker 1: Forward Forward, I cried, in a burst of genuine and
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  Speaker 1: hearty enthusiasm. I had already started in the direction of
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  Speaker 1: the somber and gloomy gallery when the professor stopped me.
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  Speaker 1: He the man so rash and hasty, He, the man
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  Speaker 1: so easily roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, checked
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  Speaker 1: me and asked me to be patient and show more calm.
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  Speaker 1: Let us return on our good friend Hans, He said,
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  Speaker 1: we will then bring the raft down to this place.
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  Speaker 1: I must say that though I at once yielded to
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  Speaker 1: my uncle's request, it was not without dissatisfaction. And I
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  Speaker 1: hastened along the rocks of that wonderful coast. Do you know,
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  Speaker 1: my dear uncle, I said, as we walked along, that
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  Speaker 1: we have been singularly helped by a concurrence of circumstances
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  Speaker 1: right up to this very moment. So you begin to
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  Speaker 1: see it, do you? Hurrym said the professor with a smile. Doubtless,
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  Speaker 1: I responded, And strangely enough, even the tempest has been
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  Speaker 1: the means of putting us on the right road. Blessings
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  Speaker 1: on the tempest. It brought us safely back to the
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  Speaker 1: very spot from which fine weather would have driven us forever.
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  Speaker 1: Supposing we had succeeded in reaching the southern and distant
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  Speaker 1: shores of this extraordinary sea, what would have become of us?
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  Speaker 1: The name of Sagnussem would never have appeared to us,
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  Speaker 1: And at this moment we should have been cast away
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  Speaker 1: upon an inhospitable coast, probably without an outlet. Yes, hurry,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, there is certainly something providential in that. Wondering
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  Speaker 1: at the mercy of wind and waves towards the south,
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  Speaker 1: we have come back exactly north. And what is better still,
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  Speaker 1: we fall upon this great discovery of Cape Sagnussem. I
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  Speaker 1: mean to say that it is more than surprising there
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  Speaker 1: is something in it which is far beyond my comprehension.
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  Speaker 1: The coincidence is unheard of, marvelous. What matter, it is
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  Speaker 1: not our duty to explain facts, but to make the
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  Speaker 1: best possible use of them, doubtless, my boy. But if
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  Speaker 1: you will allow me, said the really delighted professor. Excuse me, sir,
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  Speaker 1: but I see exactly how it will be. We shall
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  Speaker 1: take the northern route. We shall pass under the northern
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  Speaker 1: regions of Europe, under Sweden, under Russia, under Siberia, and
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  Speaker 1: who knows where, instead of burying ourselves under the burning
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  Speaker 1: plains and deserts of Africa, or beneath the mighty waves
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  Speaker 1: of the ocean. And that is all at this stage
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  Speaker 1: of our journey that I care to know. Let us advance,
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  Speaker 1: and Heaven will be our guide. Yes, hurry, you are right,
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  Speaker 1: quite right, All is for the best. Let us abandon
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  Speaker 1: this horizontal sea, which could never have led to anything satisfactory.
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  Speaker 1: We shall descend, descend, and everlastingly descend. Do you know,
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  Speaker 1: my dear boy, that to reach the interior of the Earth,
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  Speaker 1: we have only five thousand miles to travel? Bah, I cried,
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  Speaker 1: carried away by burst of enthusiasms, that as is scarcely
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  Speaker 1: worth speaking about the thing is to make a start.
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  Speaker 1: My wild, mad and incoherent speeches continued until we rejoined
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  Speaker 1: our patient and phlegmatic guide. All was we found prepared
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  Speaker 1: for an immediate departure. There was not a single parcel,
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  Speaker 1: but what was in its proper place. We all took
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  Speaker 1: up our posts on the raft, and the sail being
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  Speaker 1: hoisted Hans received its directions and guided the frail bark
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  Speaker 1: towards Cape Sagnussen, as we had definitely named it. The
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  Speaker 1: wind was very unfavorable to a craft that was unable
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  Speaker 1: to sail close to the wind. It was constructed to
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  Speaker 1: go before the blast. We were continually reduced to pushing
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  Speaker 1: ourselves forward by means of poles. On several occasions the
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  Speaker 1: rocks ran far out into deep water, and we were
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  Speaker 1: compelled to make a long round. At last, after three
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  Speaker 1: long and weary hour some navigation, that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: about six o'clock in the evening, we found a place
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  Speaker 1: at which we could land. I jumped on shore first,
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  Speaker 1: in my present state of excitement and enthusiast, I was
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  Speaker 1: always first. My uncle and the icelander followed the voyage
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  Speaker 1: from the port to this point of the sea had
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  Speaker 1: by no means calmed me. It had rather produced the
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  Speaker 1: opposite effect. I even proposed to burn our vessel, that is,
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  Speaker 1: to destroy a raft, in order to completely cut off
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  Speaker 1: our retreat. But my uncle sternly opposed this wild project.
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  Speaker 1: I began to think in particularly lukewarm and unenthusiastic. At
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  Speaker 1: any rate, my dear uncle, I said, let us start
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  Speaker 1: without delay. Yes, my boy, I am quite as eager
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  Speaker 1: to do so as you can be. But in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, let us examine this mysterious gallery in order
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  Speaker 1: to find if we shall need to prepare and mend
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  Speaker 1: our ladders. My uncle now began to see the efficiency
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  Speaker 1: of our rumkorff coil, which would doubtless soon be needed.
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  Speaker 1: The raft, securely fastened to a rock, was left alone. Moreover,
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  Speaker 1: the opening into the new gallery was not twenty paces
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  Speaker 1: distant from the spot. Our little troop, with myself at
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  Speaker 1: the head, advanced The orifice, which was almost circular, presented
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  Speaker 1: a diameter of about five feet. The somber tunnel was
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  Speaker 1: cut in the living rock and coated on the inside
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  Speaker 1: by the different materials which had once passed through it
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  Speaker 1: in a state of fusion. The lower part was about
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  Speaker 1: level with the water, so that we were able to
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  Speaker 1: penetrate to the interior without difficulty, which followed an almost
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  Speaker 1: horizontal direction. When at the end of about a dozen paces,
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  Speaker 1: our further advance was checked by the interposition of an
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  Speaker 1: enormous block of granite rock, a cursed stone. I cried
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  Speaker 1: furiously on perceiving that we were stopped by what seemed
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  Speaker 1: an insurmountable obstacle. In vain, we looked to the right.
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  Speaker 1: In vain, we looked to the left. In vain, examined
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  Speaker 1: it above and below. There existed no passage, no sign
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  Speaker 1: of any other tunnel. I experienced the most bitter and
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  Speaker 1: painful disappointment. So enraged was I that I would not
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  Speaker 1: admit the reality of any obstacle. I stooped to my knees.
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  Speaker 1: I looked under the mass of stone, no hole, no interstice.
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  Speaker 1: I then looked about the same barrier of granite. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: with the lamp, examined the sides of the tunnel in
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  Speaker 1: every direction, but all in vain. It was necessary to
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  Speaker 1: renounce all hope of passing through. I had seated myself
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  Speaker 1: upon the ground. My uncle walked angrily and hopelessly up
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  Speaker 1: and down. He was evidently desperate. But I cried, after
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  Speaker 1: some moments, thought, what about honor Sacknossem. You are right,
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  Speaker 1: replied my uncle. He can never have been checked by
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  Speaker 1: a lump of rock. No. Ten thousand times no, I
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  Speaker 1: cried with extreme vivacity. This huge lump of rock, in
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  Speaker 1: consequence of some singular concussion or process, one of those
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  Speaker 1: magnetic phenomena which have so often shaken the terrestrial crust,
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  Speaker 1: has in some unexpected way closed up the passage. Many
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  Speaker 1: and many years have passed away since the return of
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  Speaker 1: Sacknussm and the fall of this huge block of granite.
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  Speaker 1: Is it not quite evident that this gallery was formerly
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  Speaker 1: the outlet for the pent up lava in the interior
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, and that these eruptive matters then circulated freely.
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  Speaker 1: Look at these recent fissures in the granite roof. It
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  Speaker 1: is evidently formed of pieces of enormous stone, placed here
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  Speaker 1: as if by the hand of a giant who had
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  Speaker 1: worked to make a strong and substantial arch. One day,
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  Speaker 1: after an unusually strong shock, the vast rock which stands
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  Speaker 1: in our way, and which was doubtless the key of
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  Speaker 1: a kind of arch, fell through to a level with
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  Speaker 1: the soil, and has barred our further progress. We are right, then,
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  Speaker 1: in thinking that this is an unexpected obstacle with which
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  Speaker 1: Sacnosm did not meet, and if we do not upset
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  Speaker 1: it in some way, we are unworthy of following in
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  Speaker 1: the footsteps of the great discoverer, and incapable of finding
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  Speaker 1: our way to the center of the earth. In this
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  Speaker 1: wild way, I addressed my uncle the seal of the Professor.
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  Speaker 1: His earnest longing for success had become part and parcel
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  Speaker 1: on my being. I fully forgot the past, I utterly
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  Speaker 1: despised the future. Nothing existed for me upon the surface
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  Speaker 1: of this fair wied in the bosom of which I
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  Speaker 1: was engulfed, No towns, no country, no Hamburg, no Kernigstrasse,
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  Speaker 1: not even my poor Gretchen, who by this time would
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  Speaker 1: believe me utterly lost in the interior of the earth. Well,
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  Speaker 1: cried my uncle, roused to enthusiasm by my words. Let
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  Speaker 1: us go to work with pickaxes, with crowbars, with anything
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  Speaker 1: that comes to hand. But down with these terrible walls,
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  Speaker 1: it is far too tough and too big to be
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  Speaker 1: destroyed by a pickaxe or crow bar. I replied, what then,
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  Speaker 1: as I said, it is use less to think of
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  Speaker 1: overcoming such a difficulty by means of ordinary tools. What then,
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  Speaker 1: what else but gunpowder a subterranean mine. Let us blow
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  Speaker 1: up the obstacle that stands in our way gunpowder. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: all we have to do is to get rid of
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  Speaker 1: this paltry obstacle. To work, hands, to work, cried the professor.
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  Speaker 1: The icelander went back to the raft, and soon returned
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  Speaker 1: with a huge crowbar, with which she began to dig
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  Speaker 1: a hole in the rock which was to serve as
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  Speaker 1: a mine. It was, by no means a slight task.
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  Speaker 1: It was necessary for our purpose to make a cavity
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  Speaker 1: large enough to hold fifty pounds of fulminating gun cotton,
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  Speaker 1: the expansive power of which is four times as great
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  Speaker 1: as that of ordinary gunpowder. I had now roused myself
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  Speaker 1: to an almost miraculous state of excitement. While Hans was
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  Speaker 1: at work, I act assisted my uncle to prepare a
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  Speaker 1: long week made from damp gunpowder, the mass of which
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  Speaker 1: we finally enclosed in a bag of linen. We are
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  Speaker 1: bound to go through, I cried, enthusiastically. We are bound
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  Speaker 1: to go through, responded the professor, tapping me on the back.
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  Speaker 1: At midnight, our work as miners was completely finished. The
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  Speaker 1: charge of fulminating cotton was thrust into the hollow, and
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  Speaker 1: the match which we had made of considerable length was ready.
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  Speaker 1: A spark was now sufficient to ignite this formidable engine
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  Speaker 1: and to blow the rock to atoms. We will now
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  Speaker 1: rest until to morrow. It was absolutely necessary to resign
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  Speaker 1: myself to my fate, and to consent to wait for
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  Speaker 1: the explosion for six weary hours. End of Chapter thirty
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  Speaker 1: eight eight