CHAPTER NINE

The day of departure came. On June 2, at six in the morning, we boarded the ship.

"How long will we be at sea?" my uncle asked the captain of the ship.

"About ten days, if we don't have weather problems."

"But don't you sometimes have long delays?"

"No, Mr Lidenbrock, don't worry, we'll get there."

There were no problems during the voyage, although my uncle was quite upset and ashamed that he became sea sick during the entire ship ride. He was, therefore, unable to talk with the captain about Sneffels. He spent his time lying down. I must admit that he deserved this.

On June 13, we arrived in Reykjavik. The professor came out of his room, a little pale, still ill, but looking excited, with a look of satisfaction.

He called me to him, and pointed to a mountain in the distance. "There's Sneffels!" he cried. "Sneffels!"

We stepped off the ship and were met by an Icelandic scientist and the mayor of the town, who spoke to my uncle in Danish. I, of course, did not understand a word of their conversation. The Icelandic scientist was also a teacher of natural science at the Reykjavik school. He insisted that we stay with him in his home. After arriving and getting settled, my uncle seemed quite content.

"Well, Axel," he said to me, "things are going well and the hardest part is over."

"The hardest part?"

"Of course. Now all we have to do is go down."

"I suppose, but after we've gone down, we'll have to come back up, won't we?"

"Oh, I'm not worried about that. We have very little time now, so I'm going to the library. There may be documents there written by Saknussemm, and if so, I'll be very glad to read them."

"In the meantime, I'm going to walk around the town. Aren't you going to do that, too?"

"It doesn't really interest me," my uncle said. "What's interesting here in Iceland is under the ground, not above it."

It was not difficult to walk around Reykjavik, as the capital city only had two streets. Within three hours, I had seen the entire town. There were no trees and very little plant life at all. The Icelanders' small homes were made of earth and leaves.

When I returned to the scientist's home, I found my uncle already there, sitting with our host, the Icelandic scientist.

(end of section)