Chapter 39 Chapter 39 Is this a human?

In eager curiosity we walked on the bones for another half hour.What strange things and scientific treasures are there in this cave? Long ago, the coast was behind this mountain of bones.The cautious professor was not afraid of getting lost, and led me forward and forward again.We moved forward quietly, bathed in electric lights.I still cannot explain the fact that the electric light is so evenly distributed that it shines equally on all sides of everything.The lightning does not come from a fixed point, and there are no shadows.All water vapour had disappeared; it seemed as if it were noon on the equator, and we seemed strange characters in a novel who had lost their shadows.

After walking a mile we came upon the edge of a large forest, not like the mushroom forests near Grauban. This shows the grandeur of the Tertiary plants.I don't know what kind of tall palm trees, pines, water pine, cypresses, and podocarpines are here, and these trees are connected by a large dense vine.The ground is full of moss and ground money.Under the shade of the trees—if collectively referred to as the shade—the stream gurgled, and on both sides of the stream grew the same (木沙) (木罗) that grew in our greenhouse.Yet the trees, the jungles, and the plants seemed to lack color because of the darkness.They were all a faded brown in color.The leaves were not green; the flowers, so many for the first time in this Tertiary Age, were colorless and scentless, as if made of bleached paper.

Uncle ventured into this huge jungle, and I followed, not without feeling a little scared.Since nature has left such a large edible plant here, can't there be some huge mammals here? In this vast expanse of Berlin decayed with age, I saw viburnums, maples, rubiaceae, and a thousand cherished young trees.Then there appeared a large variety of different trees, which are distributed in different regions on the earth, such as banana trees, Australian caribou, Norwegian pine, northern maple and New Zealand incense tree.This is where even the best plant taxonomist on earth would get confused.

I stopped suddenly and pulled my uncle back.The emitted light can distinguish various things in the depths of the forest.I think I saw -- no, I did see something huge moving under the trees, it was a herd of mastodons, not fossils anymore, they were alive, and they were found in the swamps of Ohio in 1801 those animals!I saw the trunks of these elephants curled up under the trees like a lot of boa constrictors.I heard the sound of their teeth tearing the bark of these ancient trees.Branches snapped off, and masses of leaves were torn off and disappeared into the giant's massive throat. Those fantasies I had about prehistoric times a few days ago have now become reality!The three of us are all alone in this cave, and our lives are in the hands of these beasts!

Uncle watched.Suddenly he grabbed me by the arm and shouted, "Come on! Go forward!" "No," I replied, "no! We have no weapons! How can we stand against these gigantic quadrupeds? No one dares to challenge them!" "No one dares?" said the uncle, lowering his voice. "You are wrong, Aksai! Look, look, there! I seem to see a living—living like us—people!" As I watched, I shrugged and decided not to believe it easily.But despite my disbelief, the evidence is overwhelming.Not a quarter of a mile away, leaning against a tall kauri tree, a single man was keeping watch over a herd of mastodons!

The man who watches over the beast is himself greater than the beast! indeed!bigger!It wasn't like the fossilized animals whose bodies we found in the bones; he was a giant who commanded these giants.He was over twenty feet tall.His head, the size of a buffalo, is half-hidden in his shaggy hair—a veritable mane, the same as that of an ancient elephant.In his hand he waved a gigantic twig--for this ancient shepherd, a veritable staff! We stood motionless.But we may be perceived.We must run away immediately. "Come, come!" I shouted, dragging my uncle, who for the first time expressed his submission in front of me!

A quarter of an hour later we lost sight of this terrible enemy. Now months after these things happened, I quietly wonder, is it human?No, it's impossible!No one can survive in this underground world and have no contact with people on the ground!Will not!This is an absurd idea, absolutely absurd! If it is said that this is an animal similar in shape to a human being, an ancient ape, then I believe it.But in the records of paleontology, there is no ape with such a large body!No matter how impossible it is, it is an ape anyway, an ape, I tell you, it is definitely not a person!There is never anyone here!

At last we came out of the bright and dead wood in a state of extreme panic.We couldn't help running.Like that horrible run in a nightmare.Involuntarily we ran again towards the Liedenbroek Sea.My nerves were too flustered to consider calmly what more realistic steps we should take. Although I know very well that we are walking in a land that has never been visited, I often see piles of rocks similar in shape to the Grauban port.Sometimes it's just hard to tell.Springs and waterfalls flowed from certain ledges, and it all seemed to me to see again our Hanns' Brook, and the cave in which I had awoken from my stupor.As we advanced a few steps further, the shape of the face, a newly-emerged spring, and the silhouette of an attractive rock increased my suspicions.

The professor was as puzzled as I was.He was muttering something in his mouth, and I knew he couldn't figure out where it was. "Obviously," I said to my uncle, "we have no intention of going back to where we left off, but if we head towards the coast we will undoubtedly reach the port of Grauban." "In that case," said the uncle, "you'd better go back to the raft. But are you mistaken, Aksai!" "It's hard to be sure that these rocks are all so alike. But it seems to me that it's the cape on which Hannes built his board. If it's not the little port, it's at least very close to it." ’” I said, observing a cove I thought I had seen before.

"Well, then, Aksai, we should see some of our tracks, I don't see anything—" "But I see it!" I exclaimed, jumping towards something glowing in the sand. "So what is this?" "There!" I answered, showing my uncle a dagger I had just picked up. "Isn't it!" he said. "You took it?" "No, I didn't. I suppose you did?" "As far as I know, I don't have it, I never carry such things." "I won't take it anymore, uncle." "That's weird." "No, it's very simple; the Icelanders use it all the time, and Hannes must be the owner of it, and he must have dropped it on this beach."

"Hans!" said the uncle, shaking his head. Then he looked at the weapon carefully, and said solemnly: "Axel, this dagger is from Spain in the sixteenth century. It doesn't belong to you, it doesn't belong to me, and it doesn't belong to our guide." "Did you say—" "Look, there is a layer of rust on the edge of the knife, not a day, a year, but centuries of rust!" The Professor was as animated as ever, and his imagination seemed to leave him. "Axel," he went on, "we're about to discover something important! This knife has been on this beach for a—two—three hundred years, and it's been used on the rocks in the subsea. A notch is formed!" "But it won't come here by itself!" I cried. "Someone must have been here before us!" "Yes, there must be someone who came first." "Which person—?" "The man carved his name with this dagger. He also wanted to show the way to the center of the earth. Come, let's find it!" With great interest we inspected the mountain, looking for the smallest chasm that might lead to a tunnel. We soon came to a point where the shore narrowed; the sea rose up to the foot of the buttresses, but about six feet in between.In the middle of this protruding rock, there is an entrance to a dark tunnel. There, on a granite slab, were two mysterious letters, half worn away—the initials of the brave and whimsical traveler— "A.S." cried the uncle, "Arn Sacknusan! Arne Sacknusan again!"

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