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

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight, no outlet blasting the rock. Ever since
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the commencement of our marvelous journey, I had experienced many surprises,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: had suffered from many illusions. I thought that I was
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: case hardened against all surprises, and could neither see nor
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: hear anything to amaze me again. I was like a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: man who, having been round the world, finds himself folly, blassy,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and proof against the marvelous. When, however, I saw these
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: two letters, which have been engraven three hundred years before,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I stood fixed in an attitude of mute surprise. Not
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: only was there the signature of the learned and enterprising
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: alchemists written in the rock, but I held in my
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: hand the very identical instrument with which he had laboriously
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: engrayed it. It was impossible, without showing an amount of incredulities,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: scarcely becoming a sane man, to deny the existence of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the traveler and the reality of that voyage, which I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: believed all along to have been a myth, the mystification
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of some fertile brain. While these reflections were passing through
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: my mind, my uncle the Professor, gave way to an
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: excess of feverish and poetical excitement, wonderful and glorious genius,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Great Sacknossem, he cried, You have left no stone unturned,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: no resource omitted, to show to other mortals the way
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: into the interior of our mighty globe. And your fellow
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: creatures can find the trail left by your illustrious footsteps
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: three hundred years ago at the bottom of these obscure
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: subterranean abodes. You have been careful to secure for others
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the contemplation of these wonders and marvels of creation. Your name,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: engraved at every important stage of our glorious journey, leads
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the hopeful traveler direct to the great and mighty discovery
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: to which you devoted such energy and courage. The audashous traveler,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: who shall follow your footsteps to the last, will doubtless
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: find your initials ingrade with your own hand upon the
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: center of the earth. I will be that udashus traveler.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I too will sign my name upon the very same
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: spot upon the central granite stone of this wondrous work
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: of the Creator. But in justice to your devotion, to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: your courage, and to your being the first to indicate
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the road, let this cape seen by you upon the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: shores of the sea discover'd by you be called of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: all time Cape Sacnossem. This is what I heard word,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and I began to be roused to the pitch of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: enthusiasm indicated by those words, A fierce excitement roused me.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I forgot everything. The dangers of the voyage and the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: perils of the return journey were now as nothing what
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: another man had done in ages past could, I felt
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: be done again. I was determined to do it myself,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and now nothing that man had accomplished appeared to me impossible.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Forward Forward, I cried, in a burst of genuine and
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: hearty enthusiasm. I had already started in the direction of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the somber and gloomy gallery when the professor stopped me.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: He the man so rash and hasty, He, the man
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: so easily roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, checked
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: me and asked me to be patient and show more calm.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Let us return on our good friend Hans, He said,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: we will then bring the raft down to this place.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I must say that though I at once yielded to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: my uncle's request, it was not without dissatisfaction. And I
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: hastened along the rocks of that wonderful coast. Do you know,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: my dear uncle, I said, as we walked along, that
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: we have been singularly helped by a concurrence of circumstances
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: right up to this very moment. So you begin to
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: see it, do you? Hurrym said the professor with a smile. Doubtless,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I responded, And strangely enough, even the tempest has been
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the means of putting us on the right road. Blessings
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: on the tempest. It brought us safely back to the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: very spot from which fine weather would have driven us forever.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Supposing we had succeeded in reaching the southern and distant
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: shores of this extraordinary sea, what would have become of us?
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: The name of Sagnussem would never have appeared to us,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: And at this moment we should have been cast away
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: upon an inhospitable coast, probably without an outlet. Yes, hurry,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: my boy, there is certainly something providential in that. Wondering
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: at the mercy of wind and waves towards the south,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: we have come back exactly north. And what is better still,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: we fall upon this great discovery of Cape Sagnussem. I
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: mean to say that it is more than surprising there
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: is something in it which is far beyond my comprehension.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: The coincidence is unheard of, marvelous. What matter, it is
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: not our duty to explain facts, but to make the
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: best possible use of them, doubtless, my boy. But if
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you will allow me, said the really delighted professor. Excuse me, sir,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: but I see exactly how it will be. We shall
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: take the northern route. We shall pass under the northern
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: regions of Europe, under Sweden, under Russia, under Siberia, and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: who knows where, instead of burying ourselves under the burning
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: plains and deserts of Africa, or beneath the mighty waves
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of the ocean. And that is all at this stage
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: of our journey that I care to know. Let us advance,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and Heaven will be our guide. Yes, hurry, you are right,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: quite right, All is for the best. Let us abandon
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: this horizontal sea, which could never have led to anything satisfactory.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: We shall descend, descend, and everlastingly descend. Do you know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: my dear boy, that to reach the interior of the Earth,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: we have only five thousand miles to travel? Bah, I cried,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: carried away by burst of enthusiasms, that as is scarcely
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: worth speaking about the thing is to make a start.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: My wild, mad and incoherent speeches continued until we rejoined
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: our patient and phlegmatic guide. All was we found prepared
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: for an immediate departure. There was not a single parcel,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: but what was in its proper place. We all took
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: up our posts on the raft, and the sail being
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: hoisted Hans received its directions and guided the frail bark
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: towards Cape Sagnussen, as we had definitely named it. The
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: wind was very unfavorable to a craft that was unable
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to sail close to the wind. It was constructed to
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: go before the blast. We were continually reduced to pushing
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: ourselves forward by means of poles. On several occasions the
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: rocks ran far out into deep water, and we were
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: compelled to make a long round. At last, after three
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: long and weary hour some navigation, that is to say,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: about six o'clock in the evening, we found a place
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: at which we could land. I jumped on shore first,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: in my present state of excitement and enthusiast, I was
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: always first. My uncle and the icelander followed the voyage
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: from the port to this point of the sea had
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: by no means calmed me. It had rather produced the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: opposite effect. I even proposed to burn our vessel, that is,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to destroy a raft, in order to completely cut off
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: our retreat. But my uncle sternly opposed this wild project.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I began to think in particularly lukewarm and unenthusiastic. At
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: any rate, my dear uncle, I said, let us start
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: without delay. Yes, my boy, I am quite as eager
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: to do so as you can be. But in the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: first place, let us examine this mysterious gallery in order
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: to find if we shall need to prepare and mend
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: our ladders. My uncle now began to see the efficiency
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: of our rumkorff coil, which would doubtless soon be needed.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: The raft, securely fastened to a rock, was left alone. Moreover,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the opening into the new gallery was not twenty paces
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: distant from the spot. Our little troop, with myself at
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the head, advanced The orifice, which was almost circular, presented
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: a diameter of about five feet. The somber tunnel was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: cut in the living rock and coated on the inside
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: by the different materials which had once passed through it
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: in a state of fusion. The lower part was about
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: level with the water, so that we were able to
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: penetrate to the interior without difficulty, which followed an almost
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: horizontal direction. When at the end of about a dozen paces,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: our further advance was checked by the interposition of an
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: enormous block of granite rock, a cursed stone. I cried
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: furiously on perceiving that we were stopped by what seemed
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: an insurmountable obstacle. In vain, we looked to the right.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: In vain, we looked to the left. In vain, examined
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: it above and below. There existed no passage, no sign
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of any other tunnel. I experienced the most bitter and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: painful disappointment. So enraged was I that I would not
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: admit the reality of any obstacle. I stooped to my knees.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I looked under the mass of stone, no hole, no interstice.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I then looked about the same barrier of granite. Hence,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: with the lamp, examined the sides of the tunnel in
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: every direction, but all in vain. It was necessary to
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: renounce all hope of passing through. I had seated myself
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: upon the ground. My uncle walked angrily and hopelessly up
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and down. He was evidently desperate. But I cried, after
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: some moments, thought, what about honor Sacknossem. You are right,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: replied my uncle. He can never have been checked by
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a lump of rock. No. Ten thousand times no, I
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: cried with extreme vivacity. This huge lump of rock, in
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: consequence of some singular concussion or process, one of those
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: magnetic phenomena which have so often shaken the terrestrial crust,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: has in some unexpected way closed up the passage. Many
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and many years have passed away since the return of
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Sacknussm and the fall of this huge block of granite.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Is it not quite evident that this gallery was formerly
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the outlet for the pent up lava in the interior
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: of the earth, and that these eruptive matters then circulated freely.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Look at these recent fissures in the granite roof. It
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: is evidently formed of pieces of enormous stone, placed here
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: as if by the hand of a giant who had
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: worked to make a strong and substantial arch. One day,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: after an unusually strong shock, the vast rock which stands
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: in our way, and which was doubtless the key of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: a kind of arch, fell through to a level with
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the soil, and has barred our further progress. We are right, then,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: in thinking that this is an unexpected obstacle with which
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: Sacnosm did not meet, and if we do not upset
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: it in some way, we are unworthy of following in
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the footsteps of the great discoverer, and incapable of finding
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: our way to the center of the earth. In this
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: wild way, I addressed my uncle the seal of the Professor.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: His earnest longing for success had become part and parcel
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: on my being. I fully forgot the past, I utterly
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: despised the future. Nothing existed for me upon the surface
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: of this fair wied in the bosom of which I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: was engulfed, No towns, no country, no Hamburg, no Kernigstrasse,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: not even my poor Gretchen, who by this time would
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: believe me utterly lost in the interior of the earth. Well,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: cried my uncle, roused to enthusiasm by my words. Let
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: us go to work with pickaxes, with crowbars, with anything
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: that comes to hand. But down with these terrible walls,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: it is far too tough and too big to be
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: destroyed by a pickaxe or crow bar. I replied, what then,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: as I said, it is use less to think of
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: overcoming such a difficulty by means of ordinary tools. What then,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: what else but gunpowder a subterranean mine. Let us blow
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: up the obstacle that stands in our way gunpowder. Yes,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: all we have to do is to get rid of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: this paltry obstacle. To work, hands, to work, cried the professor.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: The icelander went back to the raft, and soon returned
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: with a huge crowbar, with which she began to dig
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: a hole in the rock which was to serve as
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a mine. It was, by no means a slight task.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: It was necessary for our purpose to make a cavity
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: large enough to hold fifty pounds of fulminating gun cotton,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the expansive power of which is four times as great
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: as that of ordinary gunpowder. I had now roused myself
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: to an almost miraculous state of excitement. While Hans was
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: at work, I act assisted my uncle to prepare a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: long week made from damp gunpowder, the mass of which
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: we finally enclosed in a bag of linen. We are
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: bound to go through, I cried, enthusiastically. We are bound
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to go through, responded the professor, tapping me on the back.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: At midnight, our work as miners was completely finished. The
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: charge of fulminating cotton was thrust into the hollow, and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the match which we had made of considerable length was ready.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: A spark was now sufficient to ignite this formidable engine
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and to blow the rock to atoms. We will now
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: rest until to morrow. It was absolutely necessary to resign
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: myself to my fate, and to consent to wait for
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the explosion for six weary hours. End of Chapter thirty
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: eight eight