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Off on a Comet-Part21_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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of the cold that must be expected; the stock of fuel was too limited

to keep up a permanent supply of heat in their present quarters,



and consequently they must be driven to seek some other refuge,

the internal temperature of which would at least be bearable.



The plan that seemed to commend itself most to their consideration was,

that they should dig out for themselves some subterraneous pits similar



to "silos," such as are used as receptacles for grain. They presumed

that when the surface of Gallia should be covered by a thick layer of ice,



which is a bad conductor of heat, a sufficient amount of warmth for

animal vitality might still be retained in excavations of this kind.



After a long consultation they failed to devise any better expedient,

and were forced to resign themselves to this species of troglodyte existence.



In one respect they congratulated themselves that they should be better

off than many of the whalers in the polar seas, for as it is impossible



to get below the surface of a frozen ocean, these adventurers have

to seek refuge in huts of wood and snow erected on their ships,



which at best can give but slight protection from extreme cold;

but here, with a solid subsoil, the Gallians might hope to dig down



a hundred feet or so and secure for themselves a shelter that would

enable them to brave the hardest severity of climate.



The order, then, was at once given. The work was commenced.

A stock of shovels, mattocks, and pick-axes was brought from



the gourbi, and with Ben Zoof as overseer, both Spanish majos

and Russian sailors set to work with a will.



It was not long, however, before a discovery, more unexpected than agreeable,

suddenly arrested their labors. The spot chosen for the excavation was



a little to the right of the gourbi, on a slight elevation of the soil.

For the first day everything went on prosperously enough; but at a depth of



eight feet below the surface, the navvies came in contact with a hard surface,

upon which all their tools failed to make the slightest impression.



Servadac and the count were at once apprised of the fact, and had little

difficulty in recognizing the substance that had revealed itself as the very



same which composed the shores as well as the subsoil of the Gallian sea.

It evidently formed the universal substructure of the new asteroid.



Means for hollowing it failed them utterly. Harder and more resisting

than granite, it could not be blasted by ordinary powder; dynamite alone



could suffice to rend it.

The disappointment was very great. Unless some means of protection



were speedilydevised, death seemed to be staring them in the face.

Were the figures in the mysterious documents correct? If so, Gallia must



now be a hundred millions of leagues from the sun, nearly three times

the distance of the earth at the remotest section of her orbit.



The intensity of the solar light and heat, too, was very seriously

diminishing, although Gourbi Island (being on the equator of an orb



which had its axes always perpendicular to the plane in which it revolved)

enjoyed a position that gave it a permanent summer. But no advantage



of this kind could compensate for the remoteness of the sun.

The temperature fell steadily; already, to the discomfiture of the



little Italian girl, nurtured in sunshine, ice was beginning to form

in the crevices of the rocks, and manifestly the time was impending



when the sea itself would freeze.

Some shelter must be found before the temperature should fall to 60 degrees



below zero. Otherwise death was inevitable. Hitherto, for the last few days,

the thermometer had been registering an average of about 6 degrees



below zero, and it had become matter of experience that the stove,

although replenished with all the wood that was available, was altogether



inadequate to effect any sensible mitigation of the severity of the cold.

Nor could any amount of fuel be enough. It was certain that ere long



the very mercury and spirit in the thermometers would be congealed.

Some other resort must assuredly be soon found, or they must perish.






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