Voyage au centre de la terre. English Read online

  CHAPTER XIV.

  BUT ARCTICS CAN BE INHOSPITABLE, TOO

  Stapi is a village consisting of about thirty huts, built of lava, atthe south side of the base of the volcano. It extends along the inneredge of a small fiord, inclosed between basaltic walls of thestrangest construction.

  Basalt is a brownish rock of igneous origin. It assumes regularforms, the arrangement of which is often very surprising. Here naturehad done her work geometrically, with square and compass and plummet.Everywhere else her art consists alone in throwing down huge massestogether in disorder. You see cones imperfectly formed, irregularpyramids, with a fantastic disarrangement of lines; but here, as ifto exhibit an example of regularity, though in advance of the veryearliest architects, she has created a severely simple order ofarchitecture, never surpassed either by the splendours of Babylon orthe wonders of Greece.

  I had heard of the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and Fingal's Cave inStaffa, one of the Hebrides; but I had never yet seen a basalticformation.

  At Stapi I beheld this phenomenon in all its beauty.

  The wall that confined the fiord, like all the coast of thepeninsula, was composed of a series of vertical columns thirty feethigh. These straight shafts, of fair proportions, supported anarchitrave of horizontal slabs, the overhanging portion of whichformed a semi-arch over the sea. At intervals, under this naturalshelter, there spread out vaulted entrances in beautiful curves, intowhich the waves came dashing with foam and spray. A few shafts ofbasalt, torn from their hold by the fury of tempests, lay along thesoil like remains of an ancient temple, in ruins for ever fresh, andover which centuries passed without leaving a trace of age upon them.

  This was our last stage upon the earth. Hans had exhibited greatintelligence, and it gave me some little comfort to think then thathe was not going to leave us.

  On arriving at the door of the rector's house, which was notdifferent from the others, I saw a man shoeing a horse, hammer inhand, and with a leathern apron on.

  "_Saellvertu,_" said the hunter.

  "_God dag,_" said the blacksmith in good Danish.

  "_Kyrkoherde,_" said Hans, turning round to my uncle.

  "The rector," repeated the Professor. "It seems, Axel, that this goodman is the rector."

  Our guide in the meanwhile was making the 'kyrkoherde' aware of theposition of things; when the latter, suspending his labours for amoment, uttered a sound no doubt understood between horses andfarriers, and immediately a tall and ugly hag appeared from the hut.She must have been six feet at the least. I was in great alarm lestshe should treat me to the Icelandic kiss; but there was no occasionto fear, nor did she do the honours at all too gracefully.

  The visitors' room seemed to me the worst in the whole cabin. It wasclose, dirty, and evil smelling. But we had to be content. The rectordid not to go in for antique hospitality. Very far from it. Beforethe day was over I saw that we had to do with a blacksmith, afisherman, a hunter, a joiner, but not at all with a minister of theGospel. To be sure, it was a week-day; perhaps on a Sunday he madeamends.

  I don't mean to say anything against these poor priests, who afterall are very wretched. They receive from the Danish Government aridiculously small pittance, and they get from the parish the fourthpart of the tithe, which does not come to sixty marks a year (aboutL4). Hence the necessity to work for their livelihood; but afterfishing, hunting, and shoeing horses for any length of time, one soongets into the ways and manners of fishermen, hunters, and farriers,and other rather rude and uncultivated people; and that evening Ifound out that temperance was not among the virtues thatdistinguished my host.

  My uncle soon discovered what sort of a man he had to do with;instead of a good and learned man he found a rude and coarse peasant.He therefore resolved to commence the grand expedition at once, andto leave this inhospitable parsonage. He cared nothing about fatigue,and resolved to spend some days upon the mountain.

  The preparations for our departure were therefore made the very dayafter our arrival at Stapi. Hans hired the services of threeIcelanders to do the duty of the horses in the transport of theburdens; but as soon as we had arrived at the crater these nativeswere to turn back and leave us to our own devices. This was to beclearly understood.

  My uncle now took the opportunity to explain to Hans that it was hisintention to explore the interior of the volcano to its farthestlimits.

  Hans merely nodded. There or elsewhere, down in the bowels of theearth, or anywhere on the surface, all was alike to him. For my ownpart the incidents of the journey had hitherto kept me amused, andmade me forgetful of coming evils; but now my fears again werebeginning to get the better of me. But what could I do? The place toresist the Professor would have been Hamburg, not the foot of Snaefell.

  One thought, above all others, harassed and alarmed me; it was onecalculated to shake firmer nerves than mine.

  Now, thought I, here we are, about to climb Snaefell. Very good. Wewill explore the crater. Very good, too, others have done as muchwithout dying for it. But that is not all. If there is a way topenetrate into the very bowels of the island, if that ill-advisedSaknussemm has told a true tale, we shall lose our way amidst thedeep subterranean passages of this volcano. Now, there is no proofthat Snaefell is extinct. Who can assure us that an eruption is notbrewing at this very moment? Does it follow that because the monsterhas slept since 1229 he must therefore never awake again? And if hewakes up presently, where shall we be?

  It was worth while debating this question, and I did debate it. Icould not sleep for dreaming about eruptions. Now, the part ofejected scoriae and ashes seemed to my mind a very rough one to act.

  So, at last, when I could hold out no longer, I resolved to lay thecase before my uncle, as prudently and as cautiously as possible,just under the form of an almost impossible hypothesis.

  I went to him. I communicated my fears to him, and drew back a stepto give him room for the explosion which I knew must follow. But Iwas mistaken.

  "I was thinking of that," he replied with great simplicity.

  What could those words mean?--Was he actually going to listen toreason? Was he contemplating the abandonment of his plans? This wastoo good to be true.

  After a few moments' silence, during which I dared not question him,he resumed:

  "I was thinking of that. Ever since we arrived at Stapi I have beenoccupied with the important question you have just opened, for wemust not be guilty of imprudence."

  "No, indeed!" I replied with forcible emphasis.

  "For six hundred years Snaefell has been dumb; but he may speak again.Now, eruptions are always preceded by certain well-known phenomena. Ihave therefore examined the natives, I have studied externalappearances, and I can assure you, Axel, that there will be noeruption."

  At this positive affirmation I stood amazed and speechless.

  "You don't doubt my word?" said my uncle. "Well, follow me."

  I obeyed like an automaton. Coming out from the priest's house, theProfessor took a straight road, which, through an opening in thebasaltic wall, led away from the sea. We were soon in the opencountry, if one may give that name to a vast extent of mounds ofvolcanic products. This tract seemed crushed under a rain of enormousejected rocks of trap, basalt, granite, and all kinds of igneousrocks.

  Here and there I could see puffs and jets of steam curling up intothe air, called in Icelandic 'reykir,' issuing from thermal springs,and indicating by their motion the volcanic energy underneath. Thisseemed to justify my fears: But I fell from the height of my new-bornhopes when my uncle said:

  "You see all these volumes of steam, Axel; well, they demonstratethat we have nothing to fear from the fury of a volcanic eruption."

  "Am I to believe that?" I cried.

  "Understand this clearly," added the Professor. "At the approach ofan eruption these jets would redouble their activity, but disappearaltogether during the period of the eruption. For the elastic fluids,being no longer under pressure, go off by way of the crater insteadof escaping
by their usual passages through the fissures in the soil.Therefore, if these vapours remain in their usual condition, if theydisplay no augmentation of force, and if you add to this theobservation that the wind and rain are not ceasing and being replacedby a still and heavy atmosphere, then you may affirm that no eruptionis preparing."

  "But--"

  'No more; that is sufficient. When science has uttered her voice, letbabblers hold their peace.'

  I returned to the parsonage, very crestfallen. My uncle had beaten mewith the weapons of science. Still I had one hope left, and this was,that when we had reached the bottom of the crater it would beimpossible, for want of a passage, to go deeper, in spite of all theSaknussemm's in Iceland.

  I spent that whole night in one constant nightmare; in the heart of avolcano, and from the deepest depths of the earth I saw myself tossedup amongst the interplanetary spaces under the form of an eruptiverock.

  The next day, June 23, Hans was awaiting us with his companionscarrying provisions, tools, and instruments; two iron pointed sticks,two rifles, and two shot belts were for my uncle and myself. Hans, asa cautious man, had added to our luggage a leathern bottle full ofwater, which, with that in our flasks, would ensure us a supply ofwater for eight days.

  It was nine in the morning. The priest and his tall Megaera wereawaiting us at the door. We supposed they were standing there to bidus a kind farewell. But the farewell was put in the unexpected formof a heavy bill, in which everything was charged, even to the veryair we breathed in the pastoral house, infected as it was. Thisworthy couple were fleecing us just as a Swiss innkeeper might havedone, and estimated their imperfect hospitality at the highest price.

  My uncle paid without a remark: a man who is starting for the centreof the earth need not be particular about a few rix dollars.

  This point being settled, Hans gave the signal, and we soon leftStapi behind us.