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Off on a Comet-Part40_JULES VERNE(1828-1905)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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On the 4th of January, by persevering industry, the process

of boring was completed, and the lieutenant could hear that



fragments of the blasted rock, as the sailors cleared them away

with their spades, were rolling into the funnel of the crater.



He noticed, too, that they did not fall perpendicularly,

but seemed to slide along, from which he inferred that the sides



of the crater were sloping; he had therefore reason to hope

that a descent would be found practicable.



Larger and larger grew the orifice; at length it would admit a man's body,

and Ben Zoof, carrying a torch, pushed himself through it, followed by



the lieutenant and Servadac. Procope's conjecture proved correct.

On entering the crater, they found that the sides slanted at the angle



of about 4 degrees ; moreover, the eruption had evidently been of

recent origin, dating probably only from the shock which had invested



Gallia with a proportion of the atmosphere of the earth, and beneath

the coating of ashes with which they were covered, there were various



irregularities in the rock, not yet worn away by the action of the lava,

and these afforded a tolerably safe footing.



"Rather a bad staircase!" said Ben Zoof, as they began to make

their way down.



In about half an hour, proceeding in a southerly direction,

they had descended nearly five hundred feet. From time



to time they came upon large excavations that at first sight

had all the appearance of galleries, but by waving his torch,



Ben Zoof could always see their extreme limits, and it was

evident that the lower strata of the mountain did not present



the same system of ramification that rendered the Hive above

so commodious a residence.



It was not a time to be fastidious; they must be satisfied

with such accommodation as they could get, provided it was warm.



Captain Servadac was only too glad to find that his hopes

about the temperature were to a certain extent realized.



The lower they went, the greater was the diminution in the cold,

a diminution that was far more rapid than that which is



experienced in making the descent of terrestrial mines.

In this case it was a volcano, not a colliery, that was



the object of exploration, and thankful enough they were

to find that it had not become extinct. Although the lava,



from some unknown cause, had ceased to rise in the crater,

yet plainly it existed somewhere in an incandescent state,



and was still transmitting considerable heat to inferior strata.

Lieutenant Procope had brought in his hand a mercurial thermometer,



and Servadac carried an aneroid barometer, by means of which he could estimate

the depth of their descent below the level of the Gallian Sea. When they



were six hundred feet below the orifice the mercury registered a temperature

of 6 degrees below zero.



"Six degrees!" said Servadac; "that will not suit us.

At this low temperature we could not survive the winter.



We must try deeper down. I only hope the ventilation

will hold out."



There was, however, nothing to fear on the score of ventilation.

The great current of air that rushed into the aperturepenetrated everywhere,



and made respirationperfectly easy.

The descent was continued for about another three hundred feet,



which brought the explorers to a total depth of nine hundred feet from

their old quarters. Here the thermometer registered 12 degrees above zero--



a temperature which, if only it were permanent, was all they wanted.

There was no advantage in proceeding any further along the lava-course;



they could already hear the dull rumblings that indicated that they

were at no great distance from the central focus.



"Quite near enough for me!" exclaimed Ben Zoof. "Those who




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