Chapter 18

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE WONDERS OF TERRESTRIAL DEPTHS

At eight in the morning a ray of daylight came to wake us up. Thethousand shining surfaces of lava on the walls received it on itspassage, and scattered it like a shower of sparks.

There was light enough to distinguish surrounding objects.

"Well, Axel, what do you say to it?" cried my uncle, rubbing hishands. "Did you ever spend a quieter night in our little house atKönigsberg? No noise of cart wheels, no cries of basket women, noboatmen shouting!"

"No doubt it is very quiet at the bottom of this well, but there issomething alarming in the quietness itself."

"Now come!" my uncle cried; "if you are frightened already, what willyou be by and by? We have not gone a single inch yet into the bowelsof the earth."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that we have only reached the level of the island. longvertical tube, which terminates at the mouth of the crater, has itslower end only at the level of the sea."

"Are you sure of that?"

"Quite sure. Consult the barometer."

In fact, the mercury, which had risen in the instrument as fast as wedescended, had stopped at twenty-nine inches.

"You see," said the Professor, "we have now only the pressure of ouratmosphere, and I shall be glad when the aneroid takes the place ofthe barometer."

And in truth this instrument would become useless as soon as theweight of the atmosphere should exceed the pressure ascertained atthe level of the sea.

"But," I said, "is there not reason to fear that this ever-increasingpressure will become at last very painful to bear?"

"No; we shall descend at a slow rate, and our lungs will becomeinured to a denser atmosphere. Aeronauts find the want of air as theyrise to high elevations, but we shall perhaps have too much: of thetwo, this is what I should prefer. Don't let us lose a moment. Whereis the bundle we sent down before us?"

I then remembered that we had searched for it in vain the eveningbefore. My uncle questioned Hans, who, after having examinedattentively with the eye of a huntsman, replied:

"_Der huppe!_"

"Up there."

And so it was. The bundle had been caught by a projection a hundredfeet above us. Immediately the Icelander climbed up like a cat, andin a few minutes the package was in our possession.

"Now," said my uncle, "let us breakfast; but we must lay in a goodstock, for we don't know how long we may have to go on."

The biscuit and extract of meat were washed down with a draught ofwater mingled with a little gin.

Breakfast over, my uncle drew from his pocket a small notebook,intended for scientific observations. He consulted his instruments,and recorded:

"Monday, July 1.

"Chronometer, 8.17 a.m.; barometer, 297 in.; thermometer, 6° (43°F.). Direction, E.S.E."