Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne [easy readers TXT] 📗

the open sea under the southern breeze.

But this illusion lasted a very short time. We were the only living creatures in this subterranean world. When the wind lulled, a deeper silence than that of the deserts fell upon the arid, naked rocks, and weighed upon the surface of the ocean. I then desired to pierce the distant haze, and to rend asunder the mysterious curtain that hung across the horizon. Anxious queries arose to my lips. Where did that sea terminate? Where did it lead to? Should we ever know anything about its opposite shores?

My uncle made no doubt about it at all; I both desired and feared.

After spending an hour in the contemplation of this marvellous spectacle, we returned to the shore to regain the grotto, and I fell asleep in the midst of the strangest thoughts.

XXXI Preparations for a Voyage of Discovery

The next morning I awoke feeling perfectly well. I thought a bath would do me good, and I went to plunge for a few minutes into the waters of this mediterranean sea, for assuredly it better deserved this name than any other sea.

I came back to breakfast with a good appetite. Hans was a good caterer for our little household; he had water and fire at his disposal, so that he was able to vary our bill of fare now and then. For dessert he gave us a few cups of coffee, and never was coffee so delicious.

“Now,” said my uncle, “now is the time for high tide, and we must not lose the opportunity to study this phenomenon.”

“What! the tide!” I cried. “Can the influence of the sun and moon be felt down here?”

“Why not? Are not all bodies subject throughout their mass to the power of universal attraction? This mass of water cannot escape the general law. And in spite of the heavy atmospheric pressure on the surface, you will see it rise like the Atlantic itself.”

At the same moment we reached the sand on the shore, and the waves were by slow degrees encroaching on the shore.

“Here is the tide rising,” I cried.

“Yes, Axel; and judging by these ridges of foam, you may observe that the sea will rise about twelve feet.”

“This is wonderful,” I said.

“No; it is quite natural.”

“You may say so, uncle; but to me it is most extraordinary, and I can hardly believe my eyes. Who would ever have imagined, under this terrestrial crust, an ocean with ebbing and flowing tides, with winds and storms?”

“Well,” replied my uncle, “is there any scientific reason against it?”

“No; I see none, as soon as the theory of central heat is given up.”

“So then, thus far,” he answered, “the theory of Sir Humphry Davy is confirmed.”

“Evidently it is; and now there is no reason why there should not be seas and continents in the interior of the earth.”

“No doubt,” said my uncle; “and inhabited too.”

“To be sure,” said I; “and why should not these waters yield to us fishes of unknown species?”

“At any rate,” he replied, “we have not seen any yet.”

“Well, let us make some lines, and see if the bait will draw here as it does in sublunary regions.”

“We will try, Axel, for we must penetrate all secrets of these newly discovered regions.”

“But where are we, uncle? for I have not yet asked you that question, and your instruments must be able to furnish the answer.”

“Horizontally, three hundred and fifty leagues from Iceland.”

“So much as that?”

“I am sure of not being a mile out of my reckoning.”

“And does the compass still show southeast?”

“Yes; with a westerly deviation of nineteen degrees forty-five minutes, just as above ground. As for its dip, a curious fact is coming to light, which I have observed carefully: that the needle, instead of dipping towards the pole as in the northern hemisphere, on the contrary, rises from it.”

“Would you then conclude,” I said, “that the magnetic pole is somewhere between the surface of the globe and the point where we are?”

“Exactly so; and it is likely enough that if we were to reach the spot beneath the polar regions, about that seventy-first degree where Sir James Ross has discovered the magnetic pole to be situated, we should see the needle point straight up. Therefore that mysterious centre of attraction is at no great depth.”

I remarked: “It is so; and here is a fact which science has scarcely suspected.”

“Science, my lad, has been built upon many errors; but they are errors which it was good to fall into, for they led to the truth.”

“What depth have we now reached?”

“We are thirty-five leagues below the surface.”

“So,” I said, examining the map, “the Highlands of Scotland are over our heads, and the Grampians are raising their rugged summits above us.”

“Yes,” answered the Professor laughing. “It is rather a heavy weight to bear, but a solid arch spans over our heads. The great Architect has built it of the best materials; and never could man have given it so wide a stretch. What are the finest arches of bridges and the arcades of cathedrals, compared with this far reaching vault, with a radius of three leagues, beneath which a wide and tempest-tossed ocean may flow at its ease?”

“Oh, I am not afraid that it will fall down upon my head. But now what are your plans? Are you not thinking of returning to the surface now?”

“Return! no, indeed! We will continue our journey, everything having gone on well so far.”

“But how are we to get down below this liquid surface?”

“Oh, I am not going to dive head foremost. But if all oceans are properly speaking but lakes, since they are encompassed by land, of course this internal sea will be surrounded by a coast of granite, and on the opposite shores we shall find fresh passages opening.”

“How long do you suppose this sea to be?”

“Thirty or forty leagues; so that we have no time to lose, and we shall set sail tomorrow.”

I looked about for a ship.

“Set