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Off on a Comet-Part24_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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Under the old condition of terrestrial things, the ascent of this

steep acclivity would have been attended with much fatigue,



but as the effect of the altered condition of the law of gravity,

the travelers performed perpetual prodigies in the way of agility,



and in little over an hour reached the edge of the crater,

without more sense of exertion than if they had traversed



a couple of miles on level ground. Gallia had its drawbacks,

but it had some compensating advantages.



Telescopes in hand, the explorers from the summit scanned the

surrounding view. Their anticipations had already realized what they saw.



Just as they expected, on the north, east, and west lay the Gallian Sea,

smooth and motionless as a sheet of glass, the cold having, as it were,



congealed the atmosphere so that there was not a breath of wind.

Towards the south there seemed no limit to the land, and the volcano formed



the apex of a triangle, of which the base was beyond the reach of vision.

Viewed even from this height, whence distance would do much to soften



the general asperity, the surface nevertheless seemed to be bristling

with its myriads of hexagonal lamellae, and to present difficulties which,



to an ordinary pedestrian, would be insurmountable.

"Oh for some wings, or else a balloon!" cried Servadac,



as he gazed around him; and then, looking down to the rock

upon which they were standing, he added, "We seem to have been



transplanted to a soil strange enough in its chemicalcharacter

to bewilder the _savants_ at a museum."



"And do you observe, captain," asked the count, "how the convexity

of our little world curtails our view? See, how circumscribed



is the horizon!"

Servadac replied that he had noticed the same circumstance from the top



of the cliffs of Gourbi Island.

"Yes," said the count; "it becomes more and more obvious that ours



is a very tiny world, and that Gourbi Island is the sole productive

spot upon its surface. We have had a short summer, and who knows



whether we are not entering upon a winter that may last for years,

perhaps for centuries?"



"But we must not mind, count," said Servadac, smiling. "We have agreed,

you know, that, come what may, we are to be philosophers."



"Ay, true, my friend," rejoined the count; "we must be philosophers

and something more; we must be grateful to the good Protector who has



hitherto befriended us, and we must trust His mercy to the end."

For a few moments they both stood in silence, and contemplated



land and sea; then, having given a last glance over

the dreary panorama, they prepared to wend their way down



the mountain. Before, however, they commenced their descent,

they resolved to make a closer examination of the crater.



They were particularly struck by what seemed to them almost

the mysteriouscalmness with which the eruption was effected.



There was none of the wild disorder and deafening tumult

that usually accompany the discharge of volcanic matter,



but the heated lava, rising with a uniform gentleness,

quietly overran the limits of the crater, like the flow of water



from the bosom of a peaceful lake. Instead of a boiler exposed

to the action of an angry fire, the crater rather resembled



a brimming basin, of which the contents were noiselessly escaping.

Nor were there any igneous stones or red-hot cinders mingled



with the smoke that crowned the summit; a circumstance that quite

accorded with the absence of the pumice-stones, obsidians,



and other minerals of volcanicorigin with which the base




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