Read the chapter
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Chapter 40. THE APE GIGANS
It's hard for me to say what the real time was.
But I think, after figuring it out, that it must have been ten at night.
I lay in a stupor, half asleep, and I saw strange visions.
Monsters of the deep were next to the great elephantine shepherd.
Giant fish and animals seemed to join together in odd ways.
The raft made a sudden turn, spun round, and entered another tunnel.
This time it was lit in a very unusual way.
The roof was made of porous stalactite, and a moonlit vapor seemed to pass through it, casting bright light on our thin and tired faces.
The light grew as we moved on and the roof rose.
Finally we were in a water cavern whose high dome faded into a glowing cloud.
A rough cavern of small size seemed to offer a place for our tired bodies to stop.
My uncle and the guide moved like men in a dream.
I was afraid to wake them, knowing how dangerous a sudden start could be.
I sat down beside them to watch.
As I did so, I saw something moving in the distance that held my eyes.
It seemed to float on the water, moving with what at first looked like paddles.
I stared, One look told me it was something monstrous.
But what in the world could it be, coming toward us like that?
It was the great "shark-crocodile" from old geology books.
About the size of an ordinary whale, with horrible jaws and two huge eyes, it came forward.
Its eyes fixed on me with terrible sternness.
Some vague feeling told me it had chosen me for its prey.
I tried to get up and escape, anywhere, but my knees shook under me.
My limbs trembled badly and I almost lost my senses.
Still the great monster kept coming, My uncle and the guide didn't try to save themselves.
With a strange noise, like nothing I had heard before, the beast came on.
Its jaws were at least seven feet apart, and its open mouth looked large enough to swallow a boat of men.
We were about ten feet away when I saw that though its body looked like a crocodile, its mouth was entirely that of a shark.
Its double nature became clear to me as I watched its mixed shark-crocodile features.
To take us in a single bite it had to turn on its back, and that motion made its legs kick helplessly in the air.
I actually laughed even in the very jaws of death.
But the next minute, with a wild cry, I ran into the cave, leaving my unhappy companions to their fate.
This cavern was deep and gloomy, After about a hundred yards I stopped and looked around.
The whole floor, made of sand and malachite, was covered with bones, freshly gnawed bones of reptiles and fish, mixed with those of mammals.
My soul grew sick and my body shuddered with horror.
I had, as the old saying goes, fallen out of the frying pan into the fire.
Some beast larger and more fierce than the shark-crocodile lived in this den.
What could I do now but wait, powerless and afraid, cut off from escape?
The mouth of the cave was guarded by one fierce monster, and inside was something too horrible to think of, Flight was impossible.
Only one option was left, to find some small hiding place where the terrible creatures couldn't reach me.
I looked wildly around and at last found a crack in the rock.
And I rushed into it hoping to recover my scattered senses.
Crouching down I waited, shaking as if with fever.
No one is brave in an earthquake, or near a bursting boiler, or a sudden explosion.
I couldn't be expected to feel much courage facing the terrible fate that seemed to await me.
An hour passed, I heard a strange rumbling outside the cave the whole time.
What had happened to my unhappy companions?
I couldn't stop to ask, My own miserable life was all I could think of.
Suddenly a groaning noise, like fifty bears fighting, fell on my ears.
Hisses, spitting, and moaning followed, horrible to hear.
Then I saw, Never, though ages pass over my head, will I forget that terrible sight.
It was the Ape Gigans, a towering, terrible creature that filled me with dread.
Fourteen feet tall and covered with coarse blackish brown hair, the Ape Gigans advanced.
The hair on its arms pointed down from shoulder to elbow while hair from wrist to elbow pointed up as it came forward.
Its arms were as long as its body and its legs were enormous.
It had thick, long, sharply pointed teeth like a mammoth saw.
It beat its chest as it came, smelling and sniffing, reminding me of childhood tales of giants who ate men's and boys' flesh.
Suddenly it stopped, freezing in place as if listening to some distant sound.
My heart beat wildly because I knew the monster had scented me and was looking with its horrible eyes to find me.
My reading, which is usually a blessing but which in this case was almost a curse, told me the truth.
It was the Ape Gigans, the ancient gorilla.
Yes, this dreadful creature, kept by luck inside the earth, was the ancestor of the terrible monster of Africa.
It looked about wildly, searching for something, no doubt me.
I gave myself up for lost, No hope of safety or escape seemed to remain.
At that moment, just as my eyes were closing in death, I heard a strange noise from the cave entrance.
Turning, the gorilla clearly saw an enemy more worthy of its size and strength.
It was the huge shark-crocodile, which had perhaps finished my friends and was coming for more prey.
The gorilla took a defensive stance, planting its feet, raising the bone as a shield.
Grabbing a bone seven or eight feet long, a perfect club, it aimed a deadly blow at the hideous beast.
The beast rose and fell with all its weight on its opponent.
A terrible fight, too full of detail to give, now began.
The struggle was horrible and savage, I, however, didn't wait to see the end.
I thought I might be the prize, so I decided to leave the victor's presence.
I slid down from my hiding place, reached the ground, and creeping along the wall tried to reach the open mouth of the cavern.
But I hadn't gone many steps when the fearful noise stopped, to be followed by mumbling and groaning that sounded like victory.
I looked back and saw the huge, blood-covered ape pursuing me with glaring eyes and nostrils spewing two columns of vapor.
I could feel its hot, foul breath on my neck and with a horrible jump I woke from my nightmare sleep.
Yes, it was all a dream, I was still on the raft with my uncle and the guide.
The relief wasn't immediate, for the awful dream had dulled my senses.
After a while my feelings calmed, the first sense to come back fully was hearing.
I listened with sharp ears, All was still as death.
The roar of the waters, which had filled the gallery with loud echoes, was replaced by perfect silence.
After some time my uncle spoke in a low and hardly audible voice.
"Harry, boy, where are you?"
"I'm here," was my faint answer.
"Well, don't you see what has happened? We're going upwards."
"My dear uncle, what can you mean?" was my half-delirious reply.
"Yes, I tell you we're rising fast. Our downward journey is quite stopped."
I reached out my hand and after some difficulty managed to touch the wall.
My hand was instantly covered with blood.
The skin had been torn from my flesh, we were rising with extraordinary speed.
"The torch the torch!" cried the Professor wildly.
"It must be lit."
Hans, the guide, after many tries, at last managed to light it, and the flame, with nothing to stop it, gave clear light.
We could form a rough idea of the truth.
"It's just as I thought," said my uncle after a moment of silent attention.
"We're in a narrow well about four fathoms square."
"The waters of the great inland sea, having reached the bottom of the gulf, are now forcing themselves up the mighty shaft."
"As a result we're being thrown onto the top of the waters."
"That I can see," was my gloomy reply, "but where will this shaft end, and what fall are we likely to face?"
"Of that I'm as ignorant as you're."
"All I know is we should be ready for the worst."
"We're going up at a terribly fast rate."
We're rising at two fathoms a second, a hundred and twenty fathoms a minute, and rather more than three and a half leagues an hour.
"At that speed our fate will soon be sure."
"No doubt about it," I said.
"My main worry now is whether this shaft has any exit."
"It may end in a granite roof in which case we'll be suffocated by compressed air or smashed against the top."
"I already feel the air getting close and heavy."
"I'm finding it hard to breathe."
This might be imagination or the effect of our rapid motion, but I certainly felt heavy pressure on my chest.
"Henry," said the Professor.
"I do think the situation is to some degree desperate."
"There are, however, many chances of safety, and I've been thinking about them while you slept."
"I've come to this logical conclusion."
"While we may at any moment die we may at any moment be saved."
"We must therefore be ready for whatever may happen in the great chapter of accidents."
"But what do you want us to do?" I cried.
"Are we not completely helpless?"
"No. While there's life there's hope. At least we can do one thing. We can eat and so get strength to face victory or death."
As he spoke I looked at my uncle with a haggard stare.
I had delayed the fatal news as long as possible.
It was now forced on me and I had to tell him the truth.
Still I hesitated, uncertain how to tell him the dreadful truth.
"Eat," I said in a pleading tone as if there was no hurry.
"Yes and at once. I feel like a starving prisoner," he said rubbing his yellow and shivering hands together.
Turning to the guide he said some hearty, cheering words in Danish, as I judged from his tone.
Hans shook his head in a terribly meaningful way, I tried to look calm.
"What!" cried the Professor.
"You don't mean to say that all our provisions are lost?"
"Yes," was my softly spoken reply as I held out something in my hand, "this morsel of dried meat is all that remains for the three of us."
My uncle stared at me as if he couldn't fully grasp the meaning of my words.
The blow seemed to strike him dumb.
I let him think for a few moments.
"Well," I said after a short pause, "what do you think now?"
"Is there any chance of escaping our horrible underground dangers? Are we not doomed to die in the great hollows at the centre of the earth"?
But my direct questions got no answer.
My uncle either didn't hear me or pretended not to.
And so a whole hour passed, None of us wanted to speak.
For my part I began to feel the most terrible and eating hunger.
My companions no doubt felt the same horrible pain, but neither of them would touch the poor scrap of meat that was left.
It lay there, the last piece of all our great preparations for this mad and senseless journey.
I looked back with wonder at my own foolishness.
I knew that, despite his enthusiasm and the hated scroll of Saknussemm, my uncle should never have begun this dangerous voyage.
What memories of the happy past and what visions of the dreadful future now filled my mind.