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27 - The Central Sea - Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven, The Central Sea. At first I saw
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  Speaker 1: absolutely nothing. My eyes, fully unused to the effulgence of light,
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  Speaker 1: could not bear the sudden brightness, and I was compelled
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  Speaker 1: to close them. When I was able to reopen them,
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  Speaker 1: I stood still, far more stupefied than astonished. Not all
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  Speaker 1: the wildest effects of imagination could have conjured up such
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  Speaker 1: a scene. The sea, The Sea, I cried, yes, replied
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  Speaker 1: my uncle, in a tone of pardonable pride, the Central Sea.
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  Speaker 1: No future navigator will deny the fact of my having
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  Speaker 1: discovered it, and hence of acquiring a right of giving
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  Speaker 1: it a name. It was quite true. A vast, limitless
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  Speaker 1: expanse of water, the end of a lake, if not
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  Speaker 1: of an ocean, spread before us until it was lost
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  Speaker 1: in the distance. The shore, which was very much indented,
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  Speaker 1: consisted of a beautiful, so golden sand mixed with small shells,
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  Speaker 1: the long deserted home of some of the creatures of
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  Speaker 1: a past age. The waves broke incessantly, and with a
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  Speaker 1: peculiarly sonorous murmur to be found in underground localities. A slight,
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  Speaker 1: frothy flake arose as the wind blew along the pellucid waters,
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  Speaker 1: and many a dash of spray was blown into my face.
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  Speaker 1: The mighty superstructure of rock, which rose about to an
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  Speaker 1: inconceivable height, left only a narrow opening. But where we
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  Speaker 1: stood there was a large margin of strand. On all
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  Speaker 1: sides were caves of promontories and enormous cliffs, partially worn
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  Speaker 1: by the eternal breaking of the waves through countless ages.
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  Speaker 1: And as I gazed from side to side, the mighty
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  Speaker 1: rocks faded away like a fleecy film of cloud. It
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  Speaker 1: was in reality and ocean with the usual characteristic of
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  Speaker 1: an inland sea, only horribly wild, so rigid, cold and savage.
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  Speaker 1: One thing startled and puzzled me greatly. How was it
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  Speaker 1: that I was able to look upon that vast sheet
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  Speaker 1: of water instead of being plunged into utter darkness. The
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  Speaker 1: vast landscape before me was lit up like day, But
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  Speaker 1: there was wanting, the dazzling brilliancy, the splendid irradiation of
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  Speaker 1: the sun, the pale, cold illumination of the moon, the
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  Speaker 1: brightness of the stars, the illuminating power in the subterranean region.
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  Speaker 1: From its trembling and rickering character is clear dry whiteness,
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  Speaker 1: the very slight elevation of its temperature, its great superiority
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  Speaker 1: to that of the moon. Was evidently electric, something in
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  Speaker 1: the nature of the Aurora borealis, only that its phenomena
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  Speaker 1: were constant and able to light up the whole of
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  Speaker 1: the ocean cavern. The tremendous vault above our heads, the sky,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, appeared to be composed of a conglomeration
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  Speaker 1: of nebulous vapors in constant motion. I should originally have
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  Speaker 1: supposed that under such an atmospheric pressure as must exist
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  Speaker 1: in that place, the evaporation of water could not really
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  Speaker 1: take place. And yet, from the action of some physical
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  Speaker 1: law which escaped my memory, there were heavy and dense
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  Speaker 1: clouds rolling along that mighty vault, partially concealing the roof
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  Speaker 1: electric currents produced astonishing play of light and shade in
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  Speaker 1: the distance, especially around the heavier clouds. Deep shadows were
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  Speaker 1: cast beneath, and then suddenly between two clouds there would
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  Speaker 1: come a ray of unusual beauty and remarkable intensity. And
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  Speaker 1: yet it was not like the sun, for it game
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  Speaker 1: no heat. The effect was sad and excruciatingly melancholy. Instead
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  Speaker 1: of a noble firmament of blue studded with stars, there
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  Speaker 1: was about me a heavy ruful granite, which seemed to
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  Speaker 1: crush me. Gazing around, I began to think of the
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  Speaker 1: theory of the English captain who compared the Earth to
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  Speaker 1: vast hollows swear in the interior of which the air
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  Speaker 1: is retained in a luminous state by means of atmospheric pressure,
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  Speaker 1: while two stars Pluto and Proserpine, circled there in their
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  Speaker 1: mysterious orbits. After all, suppose the old fellow was right
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  Speaker 1: in truth, we were imprisoned, bound as it were, in
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  Speaker 1: a vast excavation. Its width it was impossible to make
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  Speaker 1: out the shore on either hand, Widening rapidly UNTI lost
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  Speaker 1: to sight, while its length was equally uncertain. A haze
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  Speaker 1: on the distant horizon bounded out view. As to its height,
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  Speaker 1: we could see that it must be many miles to
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  Speaker 1: the roof. Looking upward, it was impossible to discover where
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  Speaker 1: the stupendous roof began. The lowest of the clouds must
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  Speaker 1: have been floating at an elevation of two thousand yards,
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  Speaker 1: a height greater than that of terrestrial vapors, which circumstance
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  Speaker 1: was doubtless owing to the extreme density of the air.
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  Speaker 1: I used the word cavern in order to give an
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  Speaker 1: idea of the place, I cannot describe its awful grandeur.
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  Speaker 1: Human languish fails to convey an idea of its savage sublimity.
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  Speaker 1: Whether this singular vacuum had or had not been caused
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  Speaker 1: by the sudden cooling of the earth. When in a
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  Speaker 1: state of fusion, I could not say. I had read
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  Speaker 1: of most wonderful and gigantic caverns, but none in any
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  Speaker 1: way like this, the great Grotti of Guachara in Columbia,
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  Speaker 1: visited by the learned Humboldt, The vast and partially ex
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  Speaker 1: lord Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. What were these holes in
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  Speaker 1: the earth to that in which I stood in speechless admiration,
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  Speaker 1: with its vapory clouds, its electric light, and the mighty
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  Speaker 1: ocean slumbering in its bosom imagination? Not description can alone
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  Speaker 1: give an idea of the splendor and vastness of the cave.
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  Speaker 1: I gazed at these marvels in profound silence. Words were
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  Speaker 1: utterly wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced.
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  Speaker 1: I seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as
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  Speaker 1: if I were some wandering inhabitant of a distant planet,
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  Speaker 1: present for the first time at the spectacle of some
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  Speaker 1: terrestrial phenomena belonging to another existence. To give body an
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  Speaker 1: existence to such new sensations would have required the coinage
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  Speaker 1: of new words, And here my feeble brain found itself
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  Speaker 1: fully at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected,
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  Speaker 1: I admired in a state of stupefaction, not altogether unmingled
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  Speaker 1: with fear. The unexpected spectacle restored some color to my
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  Speaker 1: pallid cheeks. I seemed to be actually getting better under
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  Speaker 1: the influence of this novelty. Moreover, the vivacity of the
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  Speaker 1: dense atmosphere reanimated my body by inflating my lungs with
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  Speaker 1: unaccustomed oxygen. It will be readily conceived that, after an
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  Speaker 1: imprisonment of forty seven days in a dark and miserable tunnel,
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  Speaker 1: it was with infinite delight that I breathed this selling air.
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  Speaker 1: It was like the genial, reviving influence of the salt
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  Speaker 1: sea waves. My uncle had already got over the first surprise.
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  Speaker 1: With the Latin poet Horrace. His idea was that not
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  Speaker 1: to admire is all the art I know to make
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  Speaker 1: man happy and to keep him so well, he said,
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  Speaker 1: after giving me time thoroughly to appreciate the marks of
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  Speaker 1: this underground sea, Do you feel strong enough to walk
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  Speaker 1: up and down? Certainly was my ready answer. Nothing would
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  Speaker 1: give me greater pleasure. Well, then, my boy, he said,
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  Speaker 1: lean on my arm, and we will stroll along the beach.
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  Speaker 1: I accepted his offer eagerly, and we began to walk
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  Speaker 1: along the shores of this extraordinary lake. To our left,
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  Speaker 1: where abrupt rocks piled one upon the other, a stupendous
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  Speaker 1: titanic pile down their side sleeped the innumerable cascades, which,
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  Speaker 1: at last, becoming limpid and murmuring streams, were lost in
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  Speaker 1: the waters of the lake. Light vapors, which rose here
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  Speaker 1: and there and floated in fleecy clouds from rock to rock,
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  Speaker 1: indicated hot springs, which also poured their superfluity into the
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  Speaker 1: vast reservoir at our feet. Among them, I reckonedognized our
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  Speaker 1: old and faithful stream, the Hansbach, which lost in that
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  Speaker 1: wild basin, seemed as if it had been flowing since
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  Speaker 1: the creation of the world. We shall miss our excellent friend,
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  Speaker 1: I remarked, with a deep sigh. Bah said my uncle testily,
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  Speaker 1: what matters it that or another. It is all the same.
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  Speaker 1: I thought the remark ungrateful, and felt almost inclined to
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  Speaker 1: say so. But I forebore At this moment my attension
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  Speaker 1: was attracted by an unexpected spectacle. After we had gone
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  Speaker 1: about five hundred yards, we suddenly turned a steep promontory
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  Speaker 1: and found ourselves close to a lofty forest. It consisted
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  Speaker 1: of straight trunks with tufty tops, in shapes like parasols.
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  Speaker 1: The air seemed to have no effect upon these trees, which,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of a tolerable breeze, remained as still and
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  Speaker 1: motionless as if they had been petrified. I hasten forward.
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  Speaker 1: I could find no name for these singular formations. Did
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  Speaker 1: they not belong to the two thousand and more known trees?
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  Speaker 1: Or were we to make the discovery of a new
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  Speaker 1: growth by no means. When we at last reached the
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  Speaker 1: forest and stood beneath the trees, my surprise gave way
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  Speaker 1: to admiration. In truth, I was simply in the presence
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  Speaker 1: of very ordinary product of the earth, of singular and
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  Speaker 1: gigantic proportions. My uncle unhesitatingly called them by their real names.
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  Speaker 1: It is only, he said, in his coolest manner, a
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  Speaker 1: forest of mushrooms. On close examination, I found that he
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  Speaker 1: was not mistaken judge of the development attained by the
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  Speaker 1: product of damp hot soils. I had heard that the
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  Speaker 1: Lecoperdon giganteum reaches nine feet in circumference. But here were
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  Speaker 1: white mushrooms near only forty feet high, and with tops
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  Speaker 1: of equal dimensions. They grew in countless thousands. The light
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  Speaker 1: could not make its way through their massive substance, and
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  Speaker 1: beneath them grained a gloomy and mystic darkness. Still I
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  Speaker 1: wished to go forward. The cold in the shades of
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  Speaker 1: this singular forest was intense. For nearly an hour we
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  Speaker 1: wandered about in this visible darkness. At length I left
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  Speaker 1: the spot and once more returned to the shores of
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  Speaker 1: the lake to light and comparative warmth. But the amazing
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  Speaker 1: vegetation of subterraneous land was not confined to gigantic mushrooms.
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  Speaker 1: New wonders awaited us at every step. We had not
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  Speaker 1: gone many hundred yards when we came upon a mighty
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  Speaker 1: group of other trees with discolored leaves, the common humble
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  Speaker 1: trees of mother earths of an exorbitant and phenomenal size,
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  Speaker 1: licopods a hundred feet high, flowering ferns as tall as pines,
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  Speaker 1: gigantic grasses, astonishing, magnificent, splendid, cried my uncle. Here we
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  Speaker 1: have before us the whole flora of the second period
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  Speaker 1: of the world, that of transition. Behold the humble plants
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  Speaker 1: of our gardens, which in the first ages of the
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  Speaker 1: world were mighty trees. Look round you, my dear Harry,
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  Speaker 1: no boat onest ever before gazed on such a sight.
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  Speaker 1: My uncle's enthusiasm, always a little more than was required,
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  Speaker 1: was now excusable. Your right uncle, I remarked, Providence appears
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  Speaker 1: to have designed the preservation in this vast and mysterious
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  Speaker 1: hothouse of antediluvian plants, to prove the sagacity of learned
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  Speaker 1: men in figuring them so marvelously on paper. Well, said,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, very well said, it is indeed a mighty hothouse.
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  Speaker 1: But you would also be within the bounds of reason
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  Speaker 1: and common sense if you added that it is also
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  Speaker 1: a vast menagerie. I looked rather anxiously around. If the
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  Speaker 1: animals were as exaggerated as the plants, the matter would
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  Speaker 1: certainly be serious. A menagerie, doubtless, Look at the dust.
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  Speaker 1: We are treading underfoot. Behold the bones with which the
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  Speaker 1: whole soil of the sea shore is covered. Bones, I replied, yes,
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  Speaker 1: certainly the bones of antediluvian animals. I stooped down as
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  Speaker 1: I spoke, and picked up one or two singular remains,
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  Speaker 1: relics of a bygone age. It was easy to give
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  Speaker 1: a name to these gigantic bones, in some instances, as
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  Speaker 1: big as trunks of trees. Here is clearly the lower
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  Speaker 1: jawbone of a mastodon. I cried, almost as warmly and
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  Speaker 1: enthusiastically as my uncle. Here are the molars of the dinotherium.
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  Speaker 1: Here is a leg bone which belonged to the megatherium.
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  Speaker 1: You are right, uncle, It is indeed a menagerie for
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  Speaker 1: the mighty animals to which these bones once belonged, have
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  Speaker 1: lived and died on the shores of this subterranean sea
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  Speaker 1: under the shadow of these plants. Look yonder are old skeletons.
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  Speaker 1: And yet, and yet, nephew, said my uncle, noticing that
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  Speaker 1: I suddenly came to a full stop. I do not
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  Speaker 1: understand the presence of such beasts in granite caverns. However,
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  Speaker 1: vast and prodigious, was my reply. Why not, said my
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  Speaker 1: uncle with very much of his old professional impatience, because
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  Speaker 1: it is well known that animal life only existed on
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  Speaker 1: Earth during the secondary period, when the sedimentary soil was
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  Speaker 1: formed by the alluviums and thus replaced the hot and
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  Speaker 1: burning rocks of the primitive age. I have listened to
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  Speaker 1: you earnestly and with patience, Harry, and I have a
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  Speaker 1: simple and clear answer to your objections, and that is
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  Speaker 1: that this itself is a sedimentary soil. How can that
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  Speaker 1: be at such enormous depths from the surface of the Earth.
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  Speaker 1: The fact can be explained both simply and geologically. At
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  Speaker 1: a certain period, the Earth consisted only of an elastic
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  Speaker 1: crust liable to alternative upward and downward movements in virtue
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  Speaker 1: of the law of attraction. It is very probable that
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  Speaker 1: many a landslip took place in those days, and that
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  Speaker 1: large portions of sedimentary soil were cast into huge and
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  Speaker 1: mighty chasps. Quite possible, I dryly remarked, But Uncle, if
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  Speaker 1: these antediluvian animals formerly lived in these subterranean regions, what
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  Speaker 1: more likely than that one of these monsters may at
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  Speaker 1: this moment be concealed behind one of yonder mighty rocks.
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  Speaker 1: As I spoke, I looked keenly around, examining with care
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  Speaker 1: every point of the horizon. But nothing alive appeared to
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  Speaker 1: exist on these deserted shores. I now felt rather fatitude,
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  Speaker 1: and told my uncle so the walk and excitement were
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  Speaker 1: too much for me in my weak state. I therefore
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  Speaker 1: seated myself at the end of a promontory, at the
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  Speaker 1: foot of which the waves broke in incessant rolls. I
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  Speaker 1: looked round a bay formed by projections of vast granity crocks.
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  Speaker 1: At the extreme end was a little port protected by
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  Speaker 1: huge pyramids of stones. A brig or three or four
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  Speaker 1: schooners might have lain there with perfect ease. So natural
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  Speaker 1: did it seem that every minute my imagination induced me
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  Speaker 1: to expect a vessel coming out under all sail and
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  Speaker 1: making for the open sea under the influence of a
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  Speaker 1: warm southerly breeze. But the fantastic illusion never lasted more
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  Speaker 1: than a minute. We were the only living creatures in
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  Speaker 1: this subterranean world. During certain periods, there was an utter
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  Speaker 1: cessation a wind, when a silence deeper, more terrible than
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  Speaker 1: the silence of the desert, fell upon these solitary and
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  Speaker 1: arid rocks, and seemed to hang like a leaden weight
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  Speaker 1: upon the waters of this singular ocean. I sought, amid
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  Speaker 1: the awful stillness, to penetrate through the distant fog, to
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  Speaker 1: tear down the veil which concealed the mysterious distance. What
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  Speaker 1: unspoken words were murmured by my trembling lips. What questions
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  Speaker 1: did I wish to ask? And did not? Where did
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  Speaker 1: this sea end to? What did it lead? Should we
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  Speaker 1: ever be able to examine its distant shores? But my
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  Speaker 1: uncle had no doubts about the matter. He was convinced
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  Speaker 1: that our enterprise would, in the end be successful. For
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  Speaker 1: my part, I was in a state of painful indeciy.
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  Speaker 1: I desired to embark on the journey and to succeed,
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  Speaker 1: and still I feared the result. After we had passed
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  Speaker 1: an hour or more in silent contemplation of the wonder spectacle,
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  Speaker 1: we rose and went down to watch the bank on
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  Speaker 1: our way to the grotto, which I was not sorry
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  Speaker 1: to gain. After a slight repast, I sought refuge in slumber,
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  Speaker 1: and at length, after many antedious struggles, sleep came over
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  Speaker 1: my weary eyes. End of Chapter twenty seven