Chapter 25

CHAPTER XXV.

DE PROFUNDIS

I therefore awoke next day relieved from the preoccupation of animmediate start. Although we were in the very deepest of knowndepths, there was something not unpleasant about it. And, besides, wewere beginning to get accustomed to this troglodyte [l] life. I nolonger thought of sun, moon, and stars, trees, houses, and towns, norof any of those terrestrial superfluities which are necessaries ofmen who live upon the earth's surface. Being fossils, we looked uponall those things as mere jokes.

The grotto was an immense apartment. Along its granite floor ran ourfaithful stream. At this distance from its spring the water wasscarcely tepid, and we drank of it with pleasure.

After breakfast the Professor gave a few hours to the arrangement ofhis daily notes.

"First," said he, "I will make a calculation to ascertain our exactposition. I hope, after our return, to draw a map of our journey,which will be in reality a vertical section of the globe, containingthe track of our expedition."

"That will be curious, uncle; but are your observations sufficientlyaccurate to enable you to do this correctly?"

"Yes; I have everywhere observed the angles and the inclines. I amsure there is no error. Let us see where we are now. Take yourcompass, and note the direction."

I looked, and replied carefully:

[1] tpwgln, a hole; dnw, to creep into. The name of an Ethiopiantribe who lived in caves and holes. ??????, a hole, and ???, to creepinto.

"South-east by east."

"Well," answered the Professor, after a rapid calculation, "I inferthat we have gone eighty-five leagues since we started.!

"Therefore we are under mid-Atlantic?"

"To be sure we are."

"And perhaps at this very moment there is a storm above, and shipsover our heads are being rudely tossed by the tempest."

"Quite probable."

"And whales are lashing the roof of our prison with their tails?"

"It may be, Axel, but they won't shake us here. But let us go back toour calculation. Here we are eighty-five leagues south-east ofSnæfell, and I reckon that we are at a depth of sixteen leagues."

"Sixteen leagues?" I cried.

"No doubt."

"Why, this is the very limit assigned by science to the thickness ofthe crust of the earth."

"I don't deny it."

"And here, according to the law of increasing temperature, thereought to be a heat of 2,732° Fahr.!"

"So there should, my lad."

"And all this solid granite ought to be running in fusion."

"You see that it is not so, and that, as so often happens, facts cometo overthrow theories."

"I am obliged to agree; but, after all, it is surprising."

"What does the thermometer say?"

"Twenty-seven, six tenths (82° Fahr.)."

"Therefore the savants are