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The Blog of Axel Lidenbrock : August 21st 1863

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:52:44 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

BlankI was going to mention about the fact that we can still hear that
geyser even though we are at least half a day's sailing away from it, but I
have just felt what I can only assume was a spot of rain which considering
we are underground is simply impossible. I looked at Hans with a stare as if
to say "Are you splashing me?" to which he replied with a shake of the head
and with my uncle deep in his books he couldn't have done it either.

Now he's asking who's splashing him with water as well. All of which
suggests that it's about to rain, but how? For rain to happen you need
clouds and I have not seen a cloud the whole time... Mein Gut, have you seen
what passes for a sky here? In the distance the clouds resemble great bales
of cotton, piled up in picturesque disorder. By degrees they dilate, and
gain in huge size what they lose in number. Such is their ponderous weight
that they cannot rise from the horizon; but, obeying an impulse from higher
currents, their dense consistency slowly yields. The gloom upon them
deepens; and they soon present to our view a ponderous mass of almost level
surface. From time to time a fleecy tuft of mist, with yet some gleaming
light left upon it, drops down upon the dense floor of grey, and loses
itself in the opaque and impenetrable mass. I do not like how this is going.

Ouch! Someone just pinched me. Hans? No? Ouch, Uncle will you stop pinching
me? Well, if it wasn't you and it wasn't Hans then who was it? Sorry, what
was that uncle? I'm charged? Well of course I am, someone keeps pinching me.
What? Oh, electrically charged and these pinches are the charge going into
the raft? I don't believe you. Shake Hans by the hand? Okay, but I don't see
OUCH! Oh, that hurt. Goodness, you're right we did get a shock, but hang on,
if we are all charged then that can only mean one thing, a thunderstorm

A deep silence falls on all around. The lately roaring winds are hushed into
a dead calm; nature seems to breathe no more, and to be sinking into the
stillness of death. On the mast already I see the light play of a lambent
St. Elmo's fire; the outstretched sail catches not a breath of wind, and
hangs like a sheet of lead. The rudder stands motionless in a sluggish,
waveless sea. But if we have now ceased to advance why do we yet leave that
sail loose, which at
the first shock of the tempest may capsize us in a moment? This is not very
promising I can tell you.

The piled-up vapours condense into water; and the air, put into violent
action to supply the vacuum left by the condensation of the mists, rouses
itself into a whirlwind. It rushes on from the farthest recesses of the vast
cavern. The helm makes a bound. My uncle falls full length; I creep close to
him. He has laid a firm hold upon a rope, and appears to watch with grim
satisfaction this awful display of elemental strife. But now the rain forms
a rushing cataract in front of that horizon toward which we are running with
such maddening speed. But before it has reached us the rain cloud parts
asunder, the sea boils, and the electric fires are brought into violent
action by a mighty chemical power that descends from the higher regions. The
most vivid flashes of lightning are mingled with the violent crash of
continuous thunder. Ceaseless fiery arrows dart in and out amongst the
flying thunder-clouds; the vaporous mass soon glows with incandescent heat;
hailstones rattle fiercely down, and as they dash upon our iron tools they
too emit gleams and flashes of lurid light. The heaving waves resemble fiery
volcanic hills, each belching forth its own interior flames, and every crest
is plumed with dancing fire.

EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN

Received on Thu 21 Aug 2008 - 14:53:01 IDT

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