Chapter 33 - Page 2

long rope which he let down two hundred fathoms. Nobottom yet; and we had some difficulty in hauling up our plummet.

But when the pick was shipped again, Hans pointed out on its surfacedeep prints as if it had been violently compressed between two hardbodies.

I looked at the hunter.

"_Tänder,_" said he.

I could not understand him, and turned to my uncle who was entirelyabsorbed in his calculations. I had rather not disturb him while heis quiet. I return to the Icelander. He by a snapping motion of hisjaws conveys his ideas to me.

"Teeth!" I cried, considering the iron bar with more attention.

Yes, indeed, those are the marks of teeth imprinted upon the metal!The jaws which they arm must be possessed of amazing strength. Isthere some monster beneath us belonging to the extinct races, morevoracious than the shark, more fearful in vastness than the whale? Icould not take my eyes off this indented iron bar. Surely will mylast night's dream be realised?

These thoughts agitated me all day, and my imagination scarcelycalmed down after several hours' sleep.

_Monday, August 17. -_ I am trying to recall the peculiar instinctsof the monsters of the preadamite world, who, coming next insuccession after the molluscs, the crustaceans and le fishes,preceded the animals of mammalian race upon the earth. The world thenbelonged to reptiles. Those monsters held the mastery in the seas ofthe secondary period. They possessed a perfect organisation, giganticproportions, prodigious strength. The saurians of our day, thealligators and the crocodiles, are but feeble reproductions of theirforefathers of primitive ages.

I shudder as I recall these monsters to my remembrance. No human eyehas ever beheld them living. They burdened this earth a thousand agesbefore man appeared, but their fossil remains, found in theargillaceous limestone called by the English the lias, have enabledtheir colossal structure to be perfectly built up again andanatomically ascertained.

I saw at the Hamburg museum the skeleton of one of these creaturesthirty feet in length. Am I then fated - I, a denizen of earth - tobe placed face to face with these representatives of long extinctfamilies? No; surely it cannot be! Yet the deep marks of conicalteeth upon the iron pick are certainly those of the crocodile.

My eyes are fearfully bent upon the sea. I dread to see one of thesemonsters darting forth from its submarine caverns. I supposeProfessor Liedenbrock was of my opinion too, and even shared myfears, for after having examined the pick, his eyes traversed theocean from side to side. What a very bad notion that was of his, Ithought to myself, to take soundings just here! He has disturbed somemonstrous beast in its remote den, and if we are not attacked on ourvoyage -

I look at our guns and see that they are all right. My uncle noticesit, and looks on approvingly.