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Off on a Comet-Part16_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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and after a fruitless search for Hyeres, the peninsula of St. Tropez,

the Lerius Islands, and the gulfs of Cannes and Jouar, the _Dobryna_ arrived



upon the site of the Cape of Antibes.

Here, quite unexpectedly, the explorers made the discovery that the massive



wall of cliff had been rent from the top to the bottom by a narrow rift,

like the dry bed of a mountain torrent, and at the base of the opening,



level with the sea, was a little strand upon which there was just space

enough for their boat to be hauled up.



"Joy! joy!" shouted Servadac, half beside himself with ecstasy;

"we can land at last!"



Count Timascheff and the lieutenant were scarcely less impatient than

the captain, and little needed his urgent and repeated solicitations:



"Come on! Quick! Come on! no time to lose!"

It was half-past seven in the morning, when they set their foot upon



this untried land. The bit of strand was only a few square yards

in area, quite a narrow strip. Upon it might have been recognized



some fragments of that agglutination of yellow limestone which is

characteristic of the coast of Provence. But the whole party was far



too eager to wait and examine these remnants of the ancient shore;

they hurried on to scale the heights.



The narrow ravine was not only perfectly dry, but manifestly had never been

the bed of any mountain torrent. The rocks that rested at the bottom--



just as those which formed its sides--were of the same lamellous formation

as the entire coast, and had not hitherto been subject to the disaggregation



which the lapse of time never fails to work. A skilled geologist would

probably have been able to assign them their proper scientific classification,



but neither Servadac, Timascheff, nor the lieutenant could pretend to any

acquaintance with their specific character.



Although, however, the bottom of the chasm had never as yet been the channel

of a stream, indications were not wanting that at some future time it would



be the natural outlet of accumulated waters; for already, in many places,

thin layers of snow were glittering upon the surface of the fractured rocks,



and the higher the elevation that was gained, the more these layers were found

to increase in area and in depth.



"Here is a trace of fresh water, the first that Gallia has exhibited,"

said the count to his companions, as they toiled up the precipitous path.



"And probably," replied the lieutenant, "as we ascend we shall find not

only snow but ice. We must suppose this Gallia of ours to be a sphere,



and if it is so, we must now be very close to her Arctic regions;

it is true that her axis is not so much inclined as to prolong day



and night as at the poles of the earth, but the rays of the sun must

reach us here only very obliquely, and the cold, in all likelihood,



will be intense."

"So cold, do you think," asked Servadac, "that animal life must be extinct?"



"I do not say that, captain," answered the lieutenant;

"for, however far our little world may be removed from the sun,



I do not see why its temperature should fall below what prevails in

those outlying regions beyond our system where sky and air are not."



"And what temperature may that be?" inquired the captain

with a shudder.



"Fourier estimates that even in those vast unfathomable tracts,

the temperature never descends lower than 60 degrees," said Procope.



"Sixty! Sixty degrees below zero!" cried the count.

"Why, there's not a Russian could endure it!"



"I beg your pardon, count. It is placed on record that the English _have_

survived it, or something quite approximate, upon their Arctic expeditions.



When Captain Parry was on Melville Island, he knew the thermometer to fall

to 56 degrees," said Procope.



As the explorers advanced, they seemed glad to pause from time to time,

that they might recover their breath; for the air, becoming more and



more rarefied, made respiration somewhat difficult and the ascent fatiguing.




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