I thought it time, but made no observations on that point. I was fairly launched on a desperate course, and all I had to do was to go forward hopefully and trustingly.
It was not even now quite dark, the light filtering down in a most extraordinary manner.
We opened the provision bag, ate a frugal supper, and each did his best to find a bed amid the pile of stones, dirt, and lava which had accumulated for ages at the bottom of the shaft.
I happened to grope out the pile of ropes, ladders, and clothes which we had thrown down; and upon them I stretched myself. After such a day’s labor, my rough bed seemed as soft as down!
For a while I lay in a sort of pleasant trance.
Presently, after lying quietly for some minutes, I opened my eyes and looked upward. As I did so I made out a brilliant little dot, at the extremity of this long, gigantic telescope.
It was a star without scintillating rays. According to my calculation, must be in the constellation of the Little Bear.
After this little bit of astronomical recreation, I dropped into a sound sleep.
XV
We Continue Our Descent
At eight o’clock the next morning, a faint kind of dawn of day awoke us. The thousand and one prisms of the lava, collected the light as it passed and brought it to us like a shower of sparks.
We were able with ease to see objects around us.
“Well, Harry, my boy,” cried the delighted Professor, rubbing his hands together, “what say you now? Did you ever pass a more tranquil night in our house in the Königstrasse? No deafening sounds of cart wheels, no cries of hawkers, no bad language from boatmen or watermen!”
“Well, Uncle, we are quiet at the bottom of this well—but to me there is something terrible in this calm.”
“Why,” said the Professor hotly, “one would say you were already beginning to be afraid. How will you get on presently? Do you know, that as yet, we have not penetrated one inch into the bowels of the earth.”
“What can you mean, sir?” was my bewildered and astonished reply.
“I mean to say that we have only just reached the soil of the island itself. This long vertical tube, which ends at the bottom of the crater of Sneffels, ceases here just about on a level with the sea.”
“Are you sure, sir?”
“Quite sure. Consult the barometer.”
It was quite true that the mercury, after rising gradually in the instrument, as long as our descent was taking place, had stopped precisely at twenty-nine degrees.
“You perceive,” said the Professor, “we have as yet only to endure the pressure of air. I am curious to replace the barometer by the manometer.”
The barometer, in fact, was about to become useless—as soon as the weight of the air was greater than what was calculated as above the level of the ocean.
“But,” said I, “is it not very much to be feared that this ever-increasing pressure may not in the end turn out very painful and inconvenient?”
“No,” said he. “We shall descend very slowly, and our lungs will be gradually accustomed to breathe compressed air. It is well known that aeronauts have gone so high as to be nearly without air at all—why, then, should we not accustom ourselves to breathe when we have, say, a little too much of it? For myself, I am certain I shall prefer it. Let us not lose a moment. Where is the packet which preceded us in our descent?”
I smilingly pointed it out to my uncle. Hans had not seen it, and believed it caught somewhere above us: “Huppe,” as he phrased it.
“Now,” said my uncle, “let us breakfast, and break fast like people who have a long day’s work before them.”
Biscuit and dried meat, washed down by some mouthfuls of water flavored with Schiedam, was the material of our luxurious meal.
As soon as it was finished, my uncle took from his pocket a notebook destined to be filled by memoranda of our travels. He had already placed his instruments in order, and this is what he wrote: