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The Blog of Axel Lidenbrock : June 19th 1863

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:04:13 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

BlankWhen I was asked by Doctor Smith to keep a record of my days, I
understood him to mean anything of interest, and as yesterday nothing of
interest happened (which according to my uncle is normal in the western part
of Iceland) it hardly seemed worth writing about it. Today though something
interesting did happen. We encountered something that was to be all too
familar over the next fortnight or so.

That something came after walking for a mile (Danish of course) over
hardened lava or as Hans helpfully told us, "hraun" as the locals call it.
Now "hraun" is quite simply what happens when lava cools down after being
erupted out of a volcano, and I had heard about it through my uncle but to
actually see these twisted cables, for want of a better term, sometimes
stretched in length, sometimes contorted together which used to be an
immense torrent of molten lava run from the nearest mountains gave me an
idea of the violence of the past eruptions. And we even spotted a few
geysirs just for good measure as well.

Whilst I was appreciating the view and my uncle busy mumuring to himself
about all the geology, I started to think about what Hans must be thinking
and so when we stopped for a bite I asked him (in my best Icelandic) how he
was feeling? Clearly, though my Icelandic leaves a lot to be desired as
instead of him answering "Saellvertu" which I had expected, he looked at me
in a very odd manner, then without saying a word, got up, and walked to a
rock that was nearly as big as him, walked around it, then squatted down and
picked the rock up. I tapped my uncle on the shoulder and explained what I
had said and he smiled. It turned out instead of asking "How are you
feeling?", I had infact asked "How are you strengthening?" and Hans was
demonstrating that his strength as as good as ever. In fact this box noted
that when Hans was at "full squat" as it labelled it, his legs were
withstanding a force of just under 1,600 Newtons. I shouted "STOP" at the
top of my voice and Hans consented. Clearly I am going to have to be more
careful in future when addressing Hans after all I don't want him diving
headlong into a volcano when all I wanted to know was the time!

And speaking of volcanoes, guess what I am looking at right now? That's
right, Snefells. We have pitched camp on the shores of the Bay of Faxa and
there in the distance are the twin peaks of the volcano that in twelve days
time will show us which way to go. I suspect I am going to have another bad
night.

Received on Thu 19 Jun 2008 - 20:07:29 IDT

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