Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen Thousand Feet Below the Sea

Waking up at eight o'clock in the morning, I saw a ray of sunlight reflected by thousands of facets in the lava wall above, giving off a bright light.It was bright enough for me to see what was around me. "Hey, Aksai, what do you have to say now?" said the uncle, rubbing his hands together. "Have you ever had a more peaceful night at home than here? No traffic, no shouting in the street, no boatman scream!" .Of course it's quiet enough down here; it's terribly quiet! " "Come," said the uncle, "we haven't penetrated an inch into the earth yet!"

"What do you mean by that?" "We're at sea level right now." "Are you sure?" "Very sure, look at the barometer yourself." The mercury, which had been rising as we descended, has now indeed stopped above 72.5 cm. "You know," said the uncle, "we have only one atmospheric pressure; I'm waiting for the time when we can replace the barometer with a fluid manometer." The instrument is really about to lose its usefulness to us, because the weight of the air is almost beyond the range it can calculate. "But," I said, "will this increased pressure overwhelm us?"

"No, let's go down slowly, so that we'll get used to breathing the denser air. We're probably the opposite of the pilots who go aloft and feel the lack of air. I'd rather be in our situation. Well, don't waste time, let's go. Where's the package we dropped earlier?" When he mentioned it, I remembered that we had looked for it last night, but we couldn't find it.Now the uncle asked Hannes again, and Hannes, after searching carefully with hunter-like eyes, replied: "Up there." The package was hooked to a ledge about a hundred feet above our heads.The spirited Icelander climbed up like a cat, and within minutes our luggage was back with us.

"Now," said the uncle, "let us have breakfast, and remember we have a long way to go!" We had a portion of biscuits, meat, and a few sips of water with a dash of gin. After eating, my uncle took out a notebook from his pocket, picked up his various instruments one by one, and made the following record: Monday 29 June Timetable: 8:17 in the morning Barometer: 73.9 cm Thermometer: six degrees Direction: East by Southeast The last observation from the compass indicated the dark tunnel into which we were about to enter. "Now, Aksai, our journey has really begun!" said the uncle in an excited tone.

After speaking, he picked up the Lumkoff wire hanging around his neck with one hand; he connected it to the filament with the other hand, and a bright light penetrated the darkness of the tunnel. Hannes picked up another Lumkoff wire, which was also already lit.This ingenious contraption enables us to walk in artificial light for a long time, even in the most luminous gases around us. "Go on!" he shouted.Each of us picked up our own things; Hannes was second, pushing the rope and the parcel of clothing ahead, and I was third, through this great pipe, upwards towards what I could never again See the Icelandic sky and take a look.

The last explosion, the one in 1229, sent lava through the tunnel.It gives the inside a smooth and smooth layer that shines even brighter when it meets the light. Our whole difficulty consisted in not being able to slide down very quickly on a slope of about forty-five degrees; luckily some uneven rocks served us as steps, and we were obliged to continue sliding down with our luggage hanging on a long rope. . The things that form the steps under our feet are stalactites on the lava wall; some porous lava forms small and round bubbles; opaque quartz crystals are mixed with some smaller and transparent quartz crystals hanging from the top, like many lampstands , the crystals seemed to glow as we walked by.It can be said that the monsters inside are lighting up their palace to welcome guests from the ground.

"Great!" I couldn't help exclaiming, "how beautiful, Uncle! How beautiful are these lavas, which gradually change from reddish brown to light yellow, and crystal stones like transparent balls!" "Ah, here you come, Aksai!" replied the uncle, "you said it was beautiful. I hope we shall see something better. Go on! Go on!" He might have said more properly, "Slippery!" for we are making ourselves effortless on this comfortable slope - as Virgil puts it - "rapidly descending into hell".The compass pointed motionlessly to the southeast—the tunnels formed a straight line.

The temperature did not increase greatly; this fact confirmed Dawe's hypothesis.I continued to watch the thermometer; two hours after departure, it had only reached ten degrees, an increase of four degrees.It makes me feel that we are not so much going down as we are going forward.As for how much it has fallen, it is easy to know, because the professor has been accurately calculating the slope of the road, but he has never told us the result of his observation. At eight o'clock in the afternoon, my uncle said to stop.Hans sat down immediately, and we stuck our lamps on the jutting lava.It was as if we were in a cave, where there was no lack of air, but a slight breeze.Where do they come from?I don't want to seek an answer to this question now, because hunger and fatigue have made me unable to think.It is impossible to walk down for seven hours without exhausting a lot of physical strength.I am exhausted.So when I heard the words "stop," I was so happy.Hannes put some grain on top of a piece of lava, and we all ate a lot.One thing worries me, we are almost half done with water, and so far we haven't seen the underground springs.I had to call my uncle's attention to this problem.

"Does not having a fountain frighten you?" he said. "Yes, it makes me anxious; we only have enough water for five days!" "Don't worry, Aksai, I can answer that we will find water, and more than we need." "When can we find out?" "When we walk through this layer of lava. How can springs fly out of these rock walls?!" "But perhaps the lava still grows down there, and it seems to me that we haven't descended very far." "Why do you think that?" "Because if we were inside the formation, it would be much hotter."

"According to your theory, what's the temperature on the thermometer now?" "It's only fifteen degrees, that is, it's only increased by nine degrees since we set off." "Then what is your conclusion?" "I believe that, generally speaking, the temperature rises by one degree for every one hundred feet below. But there are variations, and elsewhere near extinct volcanoes the rise may be as little as one degree for every one hundred and twenty-five feet. We follow this most favorable Let’s calculate it.” "Quick count, kid." "Nothing could be easier," I said, jotting down all the figures in my notebook. "Nine times one hundred and twenty-five equals one thousand to one hundred and twenty-five feet deep."

"Your calculation is exactly right." "Then?" "Then, according to my instruments, we have reached - ten thousand feet below the surface of the sea." "real?" "Of course, unless the numbers themselves are useless!" The professor's observation is irrefutable, we have been in mines such as Tyrol and Bohemia six thousand feet below, the temperature should be eighty-one degrees, and our thermometer is only fifteen degrees.This is a question worth pondering.