Chapter 17 - Page 2

mass of ladders and ropes, whatis to become of them?"

"They will go down by themselves."

"How so?" I asked.

"You will see presently."

My uncle was always willing to employ magnificent resources. Obeyingorders, Hans tied all the non-fragile articles in one bundle, cordedthem firmly, and sent them bodily down the gulf before us.

I listened to the dull thuds of the descending bale. My uncle,leaning over the abyss, followed the descent of the luggage with asatisfied nod, and only rose erect when he had quite lost sight of it.

"Very well, now it is our turn."

Now I ask any sensible man if it was possible to hear those wordswithout a shudder.

The Professor fastened his package of instruments upon his shoulders;Hans took the tools; I took the arms: and the descent commenced inthe following order; Hans, my uncle, and myself. It was effected inprofound silence, broken only by the descent of loosened stones downthe dark gulf.

I dropped as it were, frantically clutching the double cord with onehand and buttressing myself from the wall with the other by means ofmy stick. One idea overpowered me almost, fear lest the rock shouldgive way from which I was hanging. This cord seemed a fragile thingfor three persons to be suspended from. I made as little use of it aspossible, performing wonderful feats of equilibrium upon the lavaprojections which my foot seemed to catch hold of like a hand.

When one of these slippery steps shook under the heavier form ofHans, he said in his tranquil voice:

"_Gif akt!_ "

"Attention!" repeated my uncle.

In half an hour we were standing upon the surface of a rock jammed inacross the chimney from one side to the other.

Hans pulled the rope by one of its ends, the other rose in the air;after passing the higher rock it came down again, bringing with it arather dangerous shower of bits of stone and lava.

Leaning over the edge of our narrow standing ground, I observed thatthe bottom of the hole was still invisible.

The same manœuvre was repeated with the cord, and half an hour afterwe had descended another two hundred feet.

I don't suppose the maddest geologist under such circumstances wouldhave studied the nature of the rocks that we were passing. I am sureI did trouble my head about them. Pliocene, miocene, eocene,cretaceous, jurassic, triassic, permian, carboniferous, devonian,silurian, or primitive was all one to me. But the Professor, nodoubt, was pursuing his observations or taking notes, for in one ofour halts he said to me:

"The farther I go the more confidence I feel. The order of thesevolcanic formations affords the strongest confirmation to thetheories of Davy. We are now among the primitive rocks, upon whichthe chemical operations took place which are produced by the contactof elementary bases of metals with water. I