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32 - The Battle of the Elements - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Daily Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two, The Battle of the Elements, Friday, August
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  Speaker 1: twenty first. This morning, the Magnificent Gazer had fully disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: the wind had freshened up, and we were fast leaving
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  Speaker 1: the neighborhood of Henry's Island. Even the roaring sound of
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  Speaker 1: the Mighty Column was lost to the air. The weather,
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  Speaker 1: if under the circumstances we may use such an expression,
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  Speaker 1: is about to change very suddenly. The atmospher is being
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  Speaker 1: gradually loaded with vapors, which carry with them the electricity
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  Speaker 1: formed by the constant evaporation of the sellin waters. The
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  Speaker 1: clouds are slowly but sensibly falling towards the sea, and
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  Speaker 1: are assuming a dark olive texture. The electric race can
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  Speaker 1: scarcely pierce through the opaque curtain, which has fallen like
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  Speaker 1: a drop. Seen before this wondrous theater, on the stage
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  Speaker 1: of which another and terrible drama is soon to be enacted.
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  Speaker 1: This time it is no fight of animals. It is
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  Speaker 1: the fearful Battle of the Elements. I feel that I
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  Speaker 1: am very peculiarly influenced, as all creatures are on land.
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  Speaker 1: When a deluge is about to take place, the cumuli
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  Speaker 1: a perfectly oval kind of cloud piled upon the south
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  Speaker 1: presented a most awful and sinister appearance, with a pitiless suspect,
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  Speaker 1: often seen before a storm. The air is extremely heavy,
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  Speaker 1: the sea is comparatively calm. In the distance, the clouds
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  Speaker 1: have assumed the appearance of enormous balls of cotton, or
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  Speaker 1: rather pods, piled one above the other in picturesque confusion.
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  Speaker 1: By degrees. They appear to swell out break, and gain
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  Speaker 1: in number what they lose in grandeur. Their heaveness is
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  Speaker 1: so great that they are unable to lift themselves from
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  Speaker 1: the horizon. But under the influence of the upper currents
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  Speaker 1: of air, they are gradually broken up, become much darker,
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  Speaker 1: and then present the appearance of one single layer of
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  Speaker 1: a formidable character. Now and then a lighter cloud, still
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  Speaker 1: lit up from above, rebounds upon this gray carpet, and
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  Speaker 1: is lost in the opaque mass. There can be no
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  Speaker 1: doubt that the entire atmosphere is saturated with electric fluid.
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  Speaker 1: I myself fully impregnated. My hairs literally stand on end,
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  Speaker 1: as if under the influence of a galvanic battery. If
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  Speaker 1: one of my companions ventured to touch me, I think he
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  Speaker 1: would receive rather a violent and unpleasant shock. About ten
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  Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, the symptoms of the storm became
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  Speaker 1: more thorough and decisive. The wind appeared to soften down,
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  Speaker 1: as if to take breath for a renewed attack. The
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  Speaker 1: vast funeral pall above us looked like a huge like
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  Speaker 1: the cave of Aeolus, in which the storm was collecting
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  Speaker 1: its forces for the attack. I tried all, I could
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  Speaker 1: not to believe in the menacing signs of the sky,
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  Speaker 1: and yet I could not avoid saying, as it were, involuntarily,
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  Speaker 1: I believe we are going to have bad weather. The
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  Speaker 1: professor made me no answer. He was in a horrible
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  Speaker 1: in a detestable humor to see the ocean stretching interminably
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  Speaker 1: before his eyes. On hearing my words, he simply shrugged
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  Speaker 1: his shoulders. We shall have a tremendous storm, I said again,
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  Speaker 1: pointing to the horizon. These clouds are falling lower and
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  Speaker 1: lower upon the sea, as if to crush it. Her
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  Speaker 1: great silence prevailed. The wind fully ceased. Nature assumed a
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  Speaker 1: dead calm, and ceased to breathe. Upon the mast, where
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  Speaker 1: I noticed a sort of slight ignis fatus. The sail
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  Speaker 1: hangs in loose, heavy fall. The raft is motionless in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of a dark, heavy sea, without undulation, without motion,
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  Speaker 1: it is as still as glass. But as we are
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  Speaker 1: making no progress, what is the use of keeping up
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  Speaker 1: the sail, which may be the cause of our perdition?
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  Speaker 1: If the tempest should suddenly strike us without warning, let
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  Speaker 1: us lower the sail, I said, It is only an
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  Speaker 1: act of common prudence. No, no, cried my uncle in
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  Speaker 1: an exasperated tone. A hundred times. Now, let the wind
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  Speaker 1: strike us and do its worst. Let the storm sweep
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  Speaker 1: us away where it will only let me see the
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  Speaker 1: glimmer of some coast, of some rocky cliffs, even if
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  Speaker 1: they dash our raft into a thousand pieces. No, keep
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  Speaker 1: up the sail, no matter what happens. These words were
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  Speaker 1: scarcely uttered when the southern horizon underwent a sudden and
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  Speaker 1: violent change. The long accumulated vapors were resolved into water,
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  Speaker 1: and the air required to fill up the void produced
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  Speaker 1: became a wild and raging tempest. It came from the
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  Speaker 1: most distant corners of the mighty cavern. It ranged from
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  Speaker 1: every point of the compass. It roared, the yell did,
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  Speaker 1: shrieked with glee as of demons. Let loose. The darkness
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  Speaker 1: increased and became indeed darkness visible. The raft rose and
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  Speaker 1: fell with a storm, and bounded over the waves. My
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  Speaker 1: uncle was cast headlong upon the deck. I, with great difficulty,
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  Speaker 1: dragged myself towards him. He was holding on with might
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  Speaker 1: and maine to the end of a cable, and appeared
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  Speaker 1: to gaze with pleasure and delight at the spectacle of
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  Speaker 1: the unchained elements. Hans never moved a muscle. His long head,
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  Speaker 1: driven hither and thither by the tempest, and scattered wildly
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  Speaker 1: over His motionless face gave him a most extraordinary appearance,
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  Speaker 1: for every single hair was illuminated by little sparkling spriggs.
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  Speaker 1: His countenance presents the extraordinary appearance of an antediluvian man,
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  Speaker 1: a true contemporary of the megatharium. Still, the mast holds
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  Speaker 1: good against the storm. The sail spreads out and feels
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  Speaker 1: like a soap bubble about to birds. The raft rushes
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  Speaker 1: on at a pace impossible to estimate, but still less
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  Speaker 1: swiftly than the body of water displaced beneath it, the
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  Speaker 1: rapidity of which may be seen by the lines which
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  Speaker 1: fly right and left in the wake the sail. The
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  Speaker 1: sail I cried, making a trumpet on my hands, and
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  Speaker 1: then endeavoring to lower it. Let it alone, said my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: more exasperated than ever. Nay, said Hans, gently shaking his head. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: the rain formed a roaring cataract before this horizon of
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  Speaker 1: which we were in search, and to which we were
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  Speaker 1: rushing like madmen. But before this wilderness of waters reached us,
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  Speaker 1: the mighty veil of cloud was torn in twain. The
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  Speaker 1: sea began to foam wildly, and the electricity produced by
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  Speaker 1: some vast and extraordinary chemical action in the upper layer
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  Speaker 1: of cloud is brought into play. To the fearful claps
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  Speaker 1: of thunder are added dazzling flashes of lightning, such as
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  Speaker 1: I had never seen. The flashes crossed one another, hurled
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  Speaker 1: from every side, while the thunder came peeling like an echo.
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  Speaker 1: The mass of vapor becomes incandescent. The hailstones, which strike
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  Speaker 1: the metal of our boots and our weapons, are actually luminous.
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  Speaker 1: The waves, as they rise appear to be fire eating
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  Speaker 1: monsters beneath which sees an intense fire, their crests surmounted
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  Speaker 1: by combs of flame. My eyes are dazzled, blinded by
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  Speaker 1: the intensity of light. My ears are deafened by the
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  Speaker 1: awful roar of the elements. I am compelled to hold
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  Speaker 1: on to the mast, which bends like a reed beneath
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  Speaker 1: the violence of the storm, to which none ever before
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  Speaker 1: seen by mariners bore any resemblance. Here my traveling notes
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  Speaker 1: become very incomplete, loose and vague. I have only been
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  Speaker 1: able to make out one or two fugitive observations, dotted
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  Speaker 1: down in a mere mechanical way. But even their brevity,
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  Speaker 1: even their obscurity, showed the emotions which overcame me. Sunday,
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  Speaker 1: August twenty third. Where have we got to? In what
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  Speaker 1: region are we wandering? We are still carried forward with
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  Speaker 1: inconceivable rapidity. The night has been fearful, something not to
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  Speaker 1: be described. The storm shows no signs of cessation. We
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  Speaker 1: exist in the midst of an uproar which has no name.
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  Speaker 1: The detonations as of artillery, are incessant. Our ears literally bleed.
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  Speaker 1: We are unable to exchange a word or hear each
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  Speaker 1: other speak. The lightning never ceases to flash for a
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  Speaker 1: single instant. I can see the sick sax after a
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  Speaker 1: rapid dart strike, the arched roof of the mightiest of
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  Speaker 1: mighty walls. If it were to give way and fall
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  Speaker 1: upon us, other lightnings plunge their forked streaks in every
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  Speaker 1: direction and take the form of globes of fire, which
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  Speaker 1: explode like bomb shells over a beleaguered city. The general
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  Speaker 1: crash and roar do not apparently increase. It has already
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  Speaker 1: gone far beyond what human air can appreciate. If all
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  Speaker 1: the how the magazines in the world were to explode together,
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  Speaker 1: it would be impossible for us to hear worse noise.
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  Speaker 1: There is a constant emission of light from the storm clouds.
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  Speaker 1: The electric matter is incessantly released. Evidently the gaseous principles
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  Speaker 1: of the air are out of order. Innumerable columns of
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  Speaker 1: water rush up like water spots, and fall back upon
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  Speaker 1: the surface of the ocean in foam. Whither are we going?
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  Speaker 1: My uncle still lies at full length upon the raft,
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  Speaker 1: without speaking, without taking any note of time. The heat increases.
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  Speaker 1: I look at the thermometer. To my surprise, it indicates
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  Speaker 1: the exact figure is here rubbed out in my manuscript Monday,
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  Speaker 1: August twenty fourth. This terrible storm will never end. Why
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  Speaker 1: should not this state of the atmosphere so dense A murky,
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  Speaker 1: once modified again remained definitive. We are utterly broken and
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  Speaker 1: harassed by fatigue. Hans remains just as usual. The raft
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  Speaker 1: runs to the southeast invariably. We have now already run
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  Speaker 1: two hundred leagues from the newly discovered island. About twelve
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  Speaker 1: o'clock the storm became worse than ever. We are obliged
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  Speaker 1: now to fasten every bit of cargo tightly on the
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  Speaker 1: deck of the raft, or everything would be swept away.
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  Speaker 1: We make ourselves fast too, each man lashing the other.
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  Speaker 1: The waves drive over us, so that several times we
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  Speaker 1: are actually under water. We had been under the painful
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  Speaker 1: necessity of abstaining from speech for three days and three nights.
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  Speaker 1: We opened our mouths, we moved our lips, but no
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  Speaker 1: sound came. Even when we placed our mouths to each
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  Speaker 1: other's ears, it was the same. The wind carried the
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  Speaker 1: voice away. My uncle once contrived to get his head
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  Speaker 1: close to mine. After several almost vain endeavors, he appeared
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  Speaker 1: to my nearly exhausted senses to articulate some word. I
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  Speaker 1: had a notion, more from intuition than anything else, that
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  Speaker 1: he said to me, we are lost. I took out
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  Speaker 1: my note book from which, under the most desperate circumstances,
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  Speaker 1: I never parted, and wrote a few words as legibly
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  Speaker 1: as I could take in sail. With a deep sigh.
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  Speaker 1: He nodded his head and acquiesced. His head had scarcely
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  Speaker 1: time to fall back in the position from which he
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  Speaker 1: had momentarily raised it than a disk or ball of
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  Speaker 1: fire appeared on the very edge of the raft, our devoted,
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  Speaker 1: our doomed craft. The mast and sail are carried away bodily,
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  Speaker 1: and I see them swept away to a prodigious height
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  Speaker 1: like a kite. We were actually shivered with terror. The
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  Speaker 1: ball of fire, half white, half azre, colored about the
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  Speaker 1: size of a ten inch bomb shell, moved along, turning
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  Speaker 1: with prodigious rapidity to leeward of the storm. It ran
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  Speaker 1: about here, there, and everywhere. It clambered up one of
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  Speaker 1: the bulwarks of the raft. It leaped upon the sack
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  Speaker 1: of provisions, and then finally descended lightly, fell like a football,
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  Speaker 1: and landed on our powder barrel. Horrible situation. An explosion,
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  Speaker 1: of course, was now inevitable. By Heaven's mercy, it was
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  Speaker 1: not so. The dazzling disc moved on one side. It
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  Speaker 1: approached Hans, who looked at it with singular fixity. Then
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  Speaker 1: it approached my uncle, who cast himself on his knees
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  Speaker 1: to avoid it. It came towards me as I stood
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  Speaker 1: pale and shuddering in the dazzling light and heat. It
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  Speaker 1: pirouetted round my feet, which I endeavored to withdraw. An
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  Speaker 1: odor of nitrous gas filled the whole air. It penetrated
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  Speaker 1: to the throat, to the lungs. I felt ready to choke.
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  Speaker 1: Why is it that I cannot withdraw my feet? Are
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  Speaker 1: they riveted to the flooring of the raft? No, the
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  Speaker 1: fall of the electric globe has turned all the iron
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  Speaker 1: on board into loadstones. The instruments, the tools, the arms
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  Speaker 1: are clanging together with awful and horrible noise. The nails
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  Speaker 1: of my heavy boots adure closely to the plate of
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  Speaker 1: iron incrustated in the wood. I cannot withdraw my foot.
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  Speaker 1: It is the old store again of the mountain of Adamant.
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  Speaker 1: At last, by a violent and almost superhuman effort, I
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  Speaker 1: tear it away, just as the ball, which is still
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  Speaker 1: executing its garritory emotions, is about to run round it
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  Speaker 1: and me with it. If Oh, what intense stupendeous light
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  Speaker 1: the globe of fire bursts. We are enveloped in cascades
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  Speaker 1: of living fire, which flood the space around with luminous matter.
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  Speaker 1: Then all went out, and darkness once more fell upon
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  Speaker 1: the deep. I had just time to see my uncle,
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  Speaker 1: once more cast, apparently senseless, on the flooring of the raft,
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  Speaker 1: hands at the helm, spitting fire, under the influence of
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  Speaker 1: the electricity which seemed to have gone through him. Whither
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  Speaker 1: are we going? I ask, and echo answers, Whither Thursday,
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  Speaker 1: August twenty fifth, I have just come out of a
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  Speaker 1: long fainting fit. The awful and hideous storm still continues.
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  Speaker 1: The lightning has increased in vividness and pours out its
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  Speaker 1: fiery wrath like a brood of serpents let loose in
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  Speaker 1: the atmosphere. Are we still upon the sea? Yes, and
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  Speaker 1: being carried along with incredible velocity. We have passed under England,
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  Speaker 1: under the Channel, under France, probably under the whole extent
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  Speaker 1: of Europe. Another awful clamor in the distance. This time
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  Speaker 1: it is certain that the sea is breaking upon the
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  Speaker 1: rocks at no great distance. Then end of chapter thirty
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  Speaker 1: two