"Yes," replied my uncle, in a tone of pardonable pride; "the Central Sea. No future navigator will deny the fact of my having discovered it; and hence of acquiring a right of giving it a name."
It was quite true. A vast, limitless expanse of water, the end of a lake if not of an ocean, spread before us, until it was lost in the distance. The shore, which was very much indented3, consisted of a beautiful soft golden sand, mixed with small shells, the long-deserted4 home of some of the creatures of a past age. The waves broke incessantly—and with a peculiarly sonorous6 murmur7, to be found in underground localities. A slight frothy flake8 arose as the wind blew along the pellucid9 waters; and many a dash of spray was blown into my face. The mighty10 superstructure of rock which rose above to an inconceivable height left only a narrow opening—but where we stood, there was a large margin11 of strand12. On all sides were capes13 and promontories14 and enormous cliffs, partially15 worn by the eternal breaking of the waves, through countless16 ages! And as I gazed from side to side, the mighty rocks faded away like a fleecy film of cloud.
It was in reality an ocean, with all the usual characteristics of an inland sea, only horribly wild—so rigid17, cold and savage18.
One thing startled and puzzled me greatly. How was it that I was able to look upon that vast sheet of water instead of being plunged19 in utter darkness? The vast landscape before me was lit up like day. But there was wanting the dazzling brilliancy, the splendid irradiation of the sun; the pale cold illumination of the moon; the brightness of the stars. The illuminating20 power in this subterranean21 region, from its trembling and Rickering character, its clear dry whiteness, the very slight elevation22 of its temperature, its great superiority to that of the moon, was evidently electric; something in the nature of the aurora23 borealis, only that its phenomena24 were constant, and able to light up the whole of the ocean cavern25.
The tremendous vault26 above our heads, the sky, so to speak, appeared to be composed of a conglomeration27 of nebulous vapors28, in constant motion. I should originally have supposed that, under such an atmospheric29 pressure as must exist in that place, the evaporation30 of water could not really take place, and yet from the action of some physical law, which escaped my memory, there were heavy and dense31 clouds rolling along that mighty vault, partially concealing32 the roof. Electric currents produced astonishing play of light and shade in the distance, especially around the heavier clouds. Deep shadows were cast beneath, and then suddenly, between two clouds, there would come a ray of unusual beauty, and remarkable33 intensity34. And yet it was not like the sun, for it gave no heat.
The effect was sad and excruciatingly melancholy35. Instead of a noble firmament36 of blue, studded with stars, there was above me a heavy roof of granite37, which seemed to crush me.
Gazing around, I began to think of the theory of the English captain who compared the earth to a vast hollow sphere in the interior of which the air is retained in a luminous38 state by means of atmospheric pressure, while two stars, Pluto39 and Proserpine, circled there in their mysterious orbits. After all, suppose the old fellow was right!
In truth, we were imprisoned—bound as it were, in a vast excavation40. Its width it was impossible to make out; the shore, on either hand, widening rapidly until lost to sight; while its length was equally uncertain. A haze41 on the distant horizon bounded our view. As to its height, we could see that it must be many miles to the roof. Looking upward, it was impossible to discover where the stupendous roof began. The lowest of the clouds must have been floating at an elevation of two thousand yards, a height greater than that of terrestrial vapors, which circumstance was doubtless owing to the extreme density42 of the air.
I use the word "cavern" in order to give an idea of the place. I cannot describe its awful grandeur43; human language fails to convey an idea of its savage sublimity44. Whether this singular vacuum had or had not been caused by the sudden cooling of the earth when in a state of fusion45, I could not say. I had read of most wonderful and gigantic caverns46—but, none in any way like this.
The great grotto47 of Guachara, in Colombia, visited by the learned Humboldt; the vast and partially explored Mammoth48 Cave in Kentucky—what were these holes in the earth to that in which I stood in speechless admiration49! with its vapory clouds, its electric light, and the mighty ocean slumbering51 in its bosom52! Imagination, not description, can alone give an idea of the splendor53 and vastness of the cave.
I gazed at these marvels54 in profound silence. Words were utterly55 wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced. I seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as if I were some wandering inhabitant of a distant planet, present for the first time at the spectacle of some terrestrial phenomena belonging to another existence. To give body and existence to such new sensations would have required the coinage of new words—and here my feeble brain found itself wholly at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear!
The unexpected spectacle restored some color to my pallid56 cheeks. I seemed to be actually getting better under the influence of this novelty. Moreover, the vivacity57 of the dense atmosphere reanimated my body by inflating58 my lungs with unaccustomed oxygen.
It will be readily conceived that after an imprisonment59 of forty-seven days, in a dark and miserable60 tunnel it was with infinite delight that I breathed this saline air. It was like the genial61, reviving influence of the salt sea waves.
My uncle had already got over the first surprise.
With the Latin poet Horace his idea was that—
Not to admire is all the art I know,
To make man happy and to keep him so.
"Well," he said, after giving me time thoroughly62 to appreciate the marvels of this underground sea, "do you feel strong enough to walk up and down?"
"Certainly," was my ready answer, "nothing would give me greater pleasure."
"Well then, my boy," he said, "lean on my arm, and we will stroll along the beach."
I accepted his offer eagerly, and we began to walk along the shores of this extraordinary lake. To our left were abrupt63 rocks, piled one upon the other—a stupendous titanic64 pile; down their sides leaped innumerable cascades65, which at last, becoming limpid66 and murmuring streams, were lost in the waters of the lake. Light vapors, which rose here and there, and floated in fleecy clouds from rock to rock, indicated hot springs, which also poured their superfluity into the vast reservoir at our feet.
Among them I recognized our old and faithful stream, the Hansbach, which, lost in that wild basin, seemed as if it had been flowing since the creation of the world.
"We shall miss our excellent friend," I remarked, with a deep sigh.
I thought the remark ungrateful, and felt almost inclined to say so; but I forbore.
At this moment my attention was attracted by an unexpected spectacle. After we had gone about five hundred yards, we suddenly turned a steep promontory68, and found ourselves close to a lofty forest! It consisted of straight trunks with tufted tops, in shape like parasols. The air seemed to have no effect upon these trees—which in spite of a tolerable breeze remained as still and motionless as if they had been petrified69.
I hastened forward. I could find no name for these singular formations. Did they not belong to the two thousand and more known trees—or were we to make the discovery of a new growth? By no means. When we at last reached the forest, and stood beneath the trees, my surprise gave way to admiration.
In truth, I was simply in the presence of a very ordinary product of the earth, of singular and gigantic proportions. My uncle unhesitatingly called them by their real names.
"It is only," he said, in his coolest manner, "a forest of mushrooms."
On close examination I found that he was not mistaken. Judge of the development attained70 by this product of damp hot soils. I had heard that the Lycoperdon giganteum reaches nine feet in circumference71, but here were white mushrooms, nearly forty feet high, and with tops of equal dimensions. They grew in countless thousands—the light could not make its way through their massive substance, and beneath them reigned72 a gloomy and mystic darkness.
Still I wished to go forward. The cold in the shades of this singular forest was intense. For nearly an hour we wandered about in this visible darkness. At length I left the spot, and once more returned to the shores of the lake, to light and comparative warmth.
But the amazing vegetation of subterraneous land was not confined to gigantic mushrooms. New wonders awaited us at every step. We had not gone many hundred yards, when we came upon a mighty group of other trees with discolored leaves—the common humble73 trees of Mother Earth, of an exorbitant74 and phenomenal size: lycopods a hundred feet high; flowering ferns as tall as pines; gigantic grasses!
"Astonishing, magnificent, splendid!" cried my uncle; "here we have before us the whole flora75 of the second period of the world, that of transition. Behold76 the humble plants of our gardens, which in the first ages of the world were mighty trees. Look around you, my dear Harry77. No botanist78 ever before gazed on such a sight!"
My uncle's enthusiasm, always a little more than was required, was now excusable.
"You are right, Uncle," I remarked. "Providence79 appears to have designed the preservation80 in this vast and mysterious hothouse of antediluvian81 plants, to prove the sagacity of learned men in figuring them so marvelously on paper."
"Well said, my boy—very well said; it is indeed a mighty hothouse. But you would also be within the bounds of reason and common sense, if you added that it is also a vast menagerie."
I looked rather anxiously around. If the animals were as exaggerated as the plants, the matter would certainly be serious.
"A menagerie?"
"Doubtless. Look at the dust we are treading under foot—behold the bones with which the whole soil of the seashore is covered—"
"Bones," I replied, "yes, certainly, the bones of antediluvian animals."
I stooped down as I spoke82, and picked up one or two singular remains83, relics84 of a bygone age. It was easy to give a name to these gigantic bones, in some instances as big as trunks of trees.
"Here is, clearly, the lower jawbone of a mastodon," I cried, almost as warmly and enthusiastically as my uncle; "here are the molars of the Dinotherium; here is a leg bone which belonged to the Megatherium. You are right, Uncle, it is indeed a menagerie; for the mighty animals to which these bones once belonged, have lived and died on the shores of this subterranean sea, under the shadow of these plants. Look, yonder are whole skeletons—and yet—"
"And yet, nephew?" said my uncle, noticing that I suddenly came to a full stop.
"I do not understand the presence of such beasts in granite caverns, however vast and prodigious," was my reply.
"Why not?" said my uncle, with very much of his old professional impatience85.
"Because it is well known that animal life only existed on earth during the secondary period, when the sedimentary soil was formed by the alluviums, and thus replaced the hot and burning rocks of the primitive86 age."
"I have listened to you earnestly and with patience, Harry, and I have a simple and clear answer to your objections: and that is, that this itself is a sedimentary soil."
"How can that be at such enormous depth from the surface of the earth?"
"The fact can be explained both simply and geologically. At a certain period, the earth consisted only of an elastic87 crust, liable to alternative upward and downward movements in virtue88 of the law of attraction. It is very probable that many a landslip took place in those days, and that large portions of sedimentary soil were cast into huge and mighty chasms89."
"Quite possible," I dryly remarked. "But, Uncle, if these antediluvian animals formerly90 lived in these subterranean regions, what more likely than that one of these monsters may at this moment be concealed91 behind one of yonder mighty rocks."
As I spoke, I looked keenly around, examining with care every point of the horizon; but nothing alive appeared to exist on these deserted shores.
I now felt rather fatigued92, and told my uncle so. The walk and excitement were too much for me in my weak state. I therefore seated myself at the end of a promontory, at the foot of which the waves broke in incessant5 rolls. I looked round a bay formed by projections93 of vast granitic94 rocks. At the extreme end was a little port protected by huge pyramids of stones. A brig and three or four schooners95 might have lain there with perfect ease. So natural did it seem, that every minute my imagination induced me to expect a vessel96 coming out under all sail and making for the open sea under the influence of a warm southerly breeze.
But the fantastic illusion never lasted more than a minute. We were the only living creatures in this subterranean world!
During certain periods there was an utter cessation of wind, when a silence deeper, more terrible than the silence of the desert fell upon these solitary97 and arid98 rocks—and seemed to hang like a leaden weight upon the waters of this singular ocean. I sought, amid the awful stillness, to penetrate99 through the distant fog, to tear down the veil which concealed the mysterious distance. What unspoken words were murmured by my trembling lips—what questions did I wish to ask and did not! Where did this sea end—to what did it lead? Should we ever be able to examine its distant shores?
But my uncle had no doubts about the matter. He was convinced that our enterprise would in the end be successful. For my part, I was in a state of painful indecision—I desired to embark100 on the journey and to succeed, and still I feared the result.
After we had passed an hour or more in silent contemplation of the wondrous101 spectacle, we rose and went down towards the bank on our way to the grotto, which I was not sorry to gain. After a slight repast, I sought refuge in slumber50, and at length, after many and tedious struggles, sleep came over my weary eyes.
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1
effulgence
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| n.光辉 | |
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conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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indented
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| adj.锯齿状的，高低不平的；缩进排版 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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sonorous
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| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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7
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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flake
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| v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片 | |
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pellucid
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| adj.透明的，简单的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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capes
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| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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promontories
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| n.岬，隆起，海角( promontory的名词复数 ) | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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illuminating
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| a.富于启发性的，有助阐明的 | |
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subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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aurora
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| n.极光 | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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conglomeration
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| n.团块，聚集，混合物 | |
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vapors
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| n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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evaporation
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| n.蒸发，消失 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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Pluto
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| n.冥王星 | |
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excavation
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| n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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density
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| n.密集，密度，浓度 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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sublimity
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| 崇高，庄严，气质高尚 | |
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fusion
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| n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接 | |
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caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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grotto
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| n.洞穴 | |
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48
mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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marvels
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| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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vivacity
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| n.快活，活泼，精神充沛 | |
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inflating
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| v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的现在分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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titanic
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| adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的 | |
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cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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testily
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| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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promontory
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| n.海角；岬 | |
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petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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botanist
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| n.植物学家 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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antediluvian
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| adj.史前的，陈旧的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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chasms
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| 裂缝( chasm的名词复数 )； 裂口； 分歧； 差别 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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projections
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| 预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物 | |
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granitic
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| 花岗石的，由花岗岩形成的 | |
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schooners
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| n.（有两个以上桅杆的）纵帆船( schooner的名词复数 ) | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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