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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Chapter 28. LAUNCHING THE RAFT
On the morning of the next day, to my great surprise, I awoke completely restored.
I thought a bath would be delightful after my long illness and sufferings.
So, soon after rising, I went and plunged into the waters of this new Mediterranean.
The bath was cool, fresh and invigorating.
I came back to breakfast with an excellent appetite.
Hans, our worthy guide, thoroughly understood how to cook such eatables as we were able to provide.
He had both fire and water at hand, so he was able to vary the weary monotony of our usual meal.
Our morning meal was like a good English breakfast, with coffee to finish.
And never had this delicious drink been so welcome and refreshing.
My uncle cared enough about my health not to interrupt me while I ate, but he was clearly delighted when I had finished.
"Now then," he said, "come with me. It's the height of the tide, and I'm anxious to study its curious phenomena."
"What!" I cried, rising in astonishment, "did you say the tide, Uncle?"
"Certainly I did."
"You don't mean to say," I said with respectful doubt, "that the influence of the sun and moon is felt down here."
"And pray why not?" he asked.
"Aren't all bodies affected by the law of universal attraction?"
"Why should this vast underground sea be exempt from the general rule of the universe?"
"Besides, there's nothing like that which is proved and demonstrated."
"Despite the great atmospheric pressure down here, you'll notice that this inland sea rises and falls with as much regularity as the Atlantic itself."
As my uncle spoke, we reached the sandy shore, and saw and heard the waves breaking monotonously on the beach.
They were clearly rising, the small waves climbing the sandy shore steadily.
"This is truly the flood," I cried, looking at the water at my feet.
"Yes, my excellent nephew,"
"My uncle replied, rubbing his hands with the pleasure of a philosopher."
"And you see by these streaks of foam that the tide rises at least ten or twelve feet".
"It's indeed marvelous."
"By no means," he said.
"On the contrary, it's quite natural."
"It may seem so to you, my dear uncle,"
I answered, "but all the phenomena of this place appear to me to be marvelous."
"It's almost impossible to believe what I see."
"Who in his wildest dream could have imagined a real ocean beneath the earth's crust, with tides, winds, storms. I would have laughed".
"But, Harry, my boy, why not?" my uncle asked with a pitying smile.
"Is there any physical reason against it?"
"Well, if we give up the great theory of the earth's central heat, I certainly can offer no reason why anything should be called impossible."
"Then you'll admit," he added, "that Sir Humphry Davy's system is fully justified by what we've seen?"
"I allow that it's,"
"I said, "If that point is granted, I see no reason to doubt seas and other wonders, even lands, inside the globe.
"That's so," he said, "but of course those varied lands are uninhabited?"
"Well, I agree that's more likely than not. Still, I don't see why this sea shouldn't have given shelter to some species of unknown fish."
"Hitherto we haven't discovered any, and the chances are rather against our ever doing so," observed the Professor.
I was losing my skepticism in the face of these wonders.
"Well, I'm determined to solve the question. I intend to try my luck with my fishing line and hook."
"Certainly, make the experiment," my uncle said, pleased with my enthusiasm.
"While we're about it, it'll certainly be proper to discover all the secrets of this extraordinary region."
"But, after all, where are we now?" I asked.
"All this time I have quite forgotten to ask you a question which, doubtless, your instruments have long since answered."
"Well," replied the Professor, "examining the situation from only one point of view, we're now distant three hundred and fifty leagues from Iceland."
"So much?" I exclaimed.
"I have gone over the matter several times, and am sure I haven't made a mistake of five hundred yards," my uncle replied positively.
"And as to the direction, are we still going to the southeast?"
"Yes, with a western declination of nineteen degrees, forty-two minutes, just as it's above. As for the inclination I have discovered a very curious fact."
"What may that be, Uncle? Your information interests me."
"Why, that the needle instead of dipping towards the pole as it does on earth, in the northern hemisphere, has an upward tendency."
"This proves," I cried, "that the great point of magnetic attraction lies somewhere between the surface of the earth and the spot we have reached."
"Exactly, my observant nephew," my uncle exclaimed, elated and delighted.
"It's quite likely that if we succeed in getting toward the polar regions".
Somewhere near the seventy-third degree of latitude, where Sir James Ross found the magnetic pole, we'll see the needle point directly upward.
" We have therefore discovered by analogy that this great center of attraction isn't at a very great depth."
"Well," I said, rather surprised, "this discovery will astonish experimental philosophers. It was never suspected."
"Science, great, mighty and in the end unerring,"
My uncle said firmly, "science has fallen into many errors. Those errors have often been fortunate and useful, for they have been steppingstones to truth."
After some further discussion, I turned to another matter.
"Have you any idea of the depth we have reached?"
"We're now," continued the Professor, "exactly thirty-five leagues above a hundred miles down into the interior of the earth."
"So," I said, after measuring the distance on the map, "we're now beneath the Scottish Highlands, and have over our heads the lofty Grampian Hills."
"You're quite right," the Professor said, laughing.
"It sounds very alarming that the weight is heavy, but the vault which supports this vast mass of earth and rock is solid and safe."
"The mighty Architect of the Universe has built it of solid materials."
"Man, even in his wildest flights of imagination, never thought of such things."
What are the arches of bridges or vaulted roofs of cathedrals to that mighty dome above us, beneath which floats an ocean with its storms and tides!
"I admire it all as much as you can, Uncle, and have no fear that our granite sky will fall on our heads."
"But now that we have discussed science and discovery, what are your plans for the future?"
"Are you not thinking of getting back to the surface of our beautiful earth?"
This was said more as a feeler than with any hope.
"Go back, nephew," cried my uncle in alarm.
"You aren't surely thinking of anything so absurd or cowardly."
"No, my intention is to advance and continue our journey."
"We have so far been singularly fortunate, and I hope we'll be more so."
"But," I said, "how are we to cross that liquid plain?"
"It isn't my intention to leap into it head first, or even to swim across it like Leander over the Hellespont."
"But as oceans are, after all, only great lakes, inasmuch as they're surrounded by land, it stands to reason that this central sea is surrounded by granite."
"Doubtless," I replied.
"Well, then, don't you think that when we reach the other side, we'll find some means of continuing our journey?"
"Probably, but what size do you think this internal ocean is?"
"Well, I should guess it extends about forty or fifty leagues, more or less."
"But even if that estimate is correct, what then?" I asked.
"My dear boy, we have no time for more discussion. We'll embark tomorrow."
I looked around with surprise and disbelief.
I could see nothing like a boat or vessel.
"What!" I cried, "we're about to go out on an unknown sea, and where, may I ask, is the vessel to carry us?"
"Well, my dear boy, it won't be exactly what you'd call a vessel. For now we must be content with a good and solid raft."
"A raft," I cried, incredulously, "but down here a raft is as impossible to build as a vessel, and I'm at a loss to imagine how, "
"My good Harry, if you'd listen instead of talking so much, you'd hear," my uncle said, growing a little impatient.
"I should hear?"
"Yes, certain knocks with a hammer, which Hans is now using to make the raft. He has been at work for many hours."
"Making a raft?"
"Yes."
"But where has he found trees suitable for such a construction?"
"He found the trees ready to his hand. Come, and you shall see our excellent guide at work."
More and more amazed at what I heard and saw, I followed my uncle like one in a dream.
After a quarter-hour's walk, I saw Hans at work on the other side of the promontory that formed our natural port.
A few minutes more and I was beside him.
To my great surprise, on the sandy shore lay a half finished raft.
It was made from beams of a very strange wood.
A great number of limbs, joints, boughs and pieces lay about, enough to have built a small fleet of ships and boats.
I turned to my uncle, silent with astonishment and awe.
"Where did all this wood come from?" I cried.
"What wood is it?"
"Well, there's pinewood, fir and the palms of the northern regions, mineralized by the action of the sea," he replied gravely.
"Can it be possible?"
"Yes," said the learned Professor, "what you see is called fossil wood."
"But then," I said after thinking for a moment, "like the lignites, it must be as hard and as heavy as iron, and therefore will certainly not float."
"Sometimes that's the case."
"Many of these woods have become true anthracites, but others, like those you see before you, have only gone through one stage of fossil change."
"But there's no proof like demonstration," Added my uncle, picking up one or two of these precious pieces and casting them into the sea.
The piece of wood, after disappearing for a moment, came to the surface and floated about with the motion made by wind and tide.
"Are you convinced?" said my uncle with a satisfied smile.
"I'm convinced," I cried, "that what I see is incredible."
My journey into the earth was rapidly changing my ideas and daily preparing me for the marvelous.
I wouldn't have been surprised to see a fleet of native canoes afloat upon that silent sea.
The very next evening, thanks to the industry and skill of Hans, the raft was finished.
It was about ten feet long and five feet wide.
The beams bound together with strong ropes were solid and firm.
Once launched by our combined efforts, the improvised vessel floated calmly upon the waters of what the Professor had rightly named the Central Sea.