by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XVII.
VERTICAL DESCENT
Now began our real journey. Hitherto our toil had overcome alldifficulties, now difficulties would spring up at every step.
I had not yet ventured to look down the bottomless pit into which Iwas about to take a plunge. The supreme hour had come. I might noweither share in the enterprise or refuse to move forward. But I wasashamed to recoil in the presence of the hunter. Hans accepted theenterprise with such calmness, such indifference, such perfectdisregard of any possible danger that I blushed at the idea of beingless brave than he. If I had been alone I might have once more triedthe effect of argument; but in the presence of the guide I held mypeace; my heart flew back to my sweet Virlandaise, and I approachedthe central chimney.
I have already mentioned that it was a hundred feet in diameter, andthree hundred feet round. I bent over a projecting rock and gazeddown. My hair stood on end with terror. The bewildering feeling ofvacuity laid hold upon me. I felt my centre of gravity shifting itsplace, and giddiness mounting into my brain like drunkenness. Thereis nothing more treacherous than this attraction down deep abysses. Iwas just about to drop down, when a hand laid hold of me. It was thatof Hans. I suppose I had not taken as many lessons on gulfexploration as I ought to have done in the Frelsers Kirk atCopenhagen.
But, however short was my examination of this well, I had taken someaccount of its conformation. Its almost perpendicular walls werebristling with innumerable projections which would facilitate thedescent. But if there was no want of steps, still there was no rail.A rope fastened to the edge of the aperture might have helped usdown. But how were we to unfasten it, when arrived at the other end?
My uncle employed a very simple expedient to obviate this difficulty.He uncoiled a cord of the thickness of a finger, and four hundredfeet long; first he dropped half of it down, then he passed it rounda lava block that projected conveniently, and threw the other halfdown the chimney. Each of us could then descend by holding with thehand both halves of the rope, which would not be able to unrollitself from its hold; when two hundred feet down, it would be easy toget possession of the whole of the rope by letting one end go andpulling down by the other. Then the exercise would go on again _adinfinitum_.
"Now," said my uncle, after having completed these preparations, "nowlet us look to our loads. I will divide them into three lots; each ofus will strap one upon his back. I mean only fragile articles."
Of course, we were not included under that head.
"Hans," said he, "will take charge of the tools and a portion of theprovisions; you, Axel, will take another third of the provisions, andthe arms; and I will take the rest of the provisions and the delicateinstruments."
"But," said I, "the clothes, and that mass of ladders and ropes, whatis to become of them?"
"They will go down by themselves."
"How so?" I asked.
"You will see presently."
My uncle was always willing to employ magnificent resources. Obeyingorders, Hans tied all the non-fragile articles in one bundle, cordedthem firmly, and sent them bodily down the gulf before us.
I listened to the dull thuds of the descending bale. My uncle,leaning over the abyss, followed the descent of the luggage with asatisfied nod, and only rose erect when he had quite lost sight of it.
"Very well, now it is our turn."
Now I ask any sensible man if it was possible to hear those wordswithout a shudder.
The Professor fastened his package of instruments upon his shoulders;Hans took the tools; I took the arms: and the descent commenced inthe following order; Hans, my uncle, and myself. It was effected inprofound silence, broken only by the descent of loosened stones downthe dark gulf.
I dropped as it were, frantically clutching the double cord with onehand and buttressing myself from the wall with the other by means ofmy stick. One idea overpowered me almost, fear lest the rock shouldgive way from which I was hanging. This cord seemed a fragile thingfor three persons to be suspended from. I made as little use of it aspossible, performing wonderful feats of equilibrium upon the lavaprojections which my foot seemed to catch hold of like a hand.
When one of these slippery steps shook under the heavier form ofHans, he said in his tranquil voice:
"_Gif akt!_"
"Attention!" repeated my uncle.
In half an hour we were standing upon the surface of a rock jammed inacross the chimney from one side to the other.
Hans pulled the rope by one of its ends, the other rose in the air;after passing the higher rock it came down again, bringing with it arather dangerous shower of bits of stone and lava.
Leaning over the edge of our narrow standing ground, I observed thatthe bottom of the hole was still invisible.
The same manoeuvre was repeated with the cord, and half an hour afterwe had descended another two hundred feet.
I don't suppose the maddest geologist under such circumstances wouldhave studied the nature of the rocks that we were passing. I am sureI did trouble my head about them. Pliocene, miocene, eocene,cretaceous, jurassic, triassic, permian, carboniferous, devonian,silurian, or primitive was all one to me. But the Professor, nodoubt, was pursuing his observations or taking notes, for in one ofour halts he said to me:
"The farther I go the more confidence I feel. The order of thesevolcanic formations affords the strongest confirmation to thetheories of Davy. We are now among the primitive rocks, upon whichthe chemical operations took place which are produced by the contactof elementary bases of metals with water. I repudiate the notion ofcentral heat altogether. We shall see further proof of that verysoon."
No variation, always the same conclusion. Of course, I was notinclined to argue. My silence was taken for consent and the descentwent on.
Another three hours, and I saw no bottom to the chimney yet. When Ilifted my head I perceived the gradual contraction of its aperture.Its walls, by a gentle incline, were drawing closer to each other,and it was beginning to grow darker.
Still we kept descending. It seemed to me that the falling stoneswere meeting with an earlier resistance, and that the concussion gavea more abrupt and deadened sound.
As I had taken care to keep an exact account of our manoeuvres withthe rope, which I knew that we had repeated fourteen times, eachdescent occupying half an hour, the conclusion was easy that we hadbeen seven hours, plus fourteen quarters of rest, making ten hoursand a half. We had started at one, it must therefore now be eleveno'clock; and the depth to which we had descended was fourteen times200 feet, or 2,800 feet.
At this moment I heard the voice of Hans.
"Halt!" he cried.
I stopped short just as I was going to place my feet upon my uncle'shead.
"We are there," he cried.
"Where?" said I, stepping near to him.
"At the bottom of the perpendicular chimney," he answered.
"Is there no way farther?"
"Yes; there is a sort of passage which inclines to the right. We willsee about that to-morrow. Let us have our supper, and go to sleep."
The darkness was not yet complete. The provision case was opened; werefreshed ourselves, and went to sleep as well as we could upon a bedof stones and lava fragments.
When lying on my back, I opened my eyes and saw a bright sparklingpoint of light at the extremity of the gigantic tube 3,000 feet long,now a vast telescope.
It was a star which, seen from this depth, had lost allscintillation, and which by my computation should be 46; _Ursaminor._ Then I fell fast asleep.
