CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I woke up on Sunday morning without getting ready quickly, and felt quite content. I had become used to living under the Earth; I rarely thought of the sun, the stars, the moon, trees, houses, cities. I was now living in the ancient past, seeing animals and rocks of thousands of years ago.

After breakfast, the professor decided to organize his notes from the journey.

"First," he said, "I'm going to calculate where we are exactly. When we return to the surface, I want to be able to draw a map of our journey into the Earth."

"That will be very interesting, uncle, but are your calculations correct, so you will be able to draw a map?"

"Yes, I've carefully noted every change in the passageways we've taken. I'm sure I haven't made a mistake." After many calculations, he announced, "We've come two hundred and twelve miles from Sneffels."

"So we're traveling under the ocean?"

"That's right," my uncle said confidently.

"So there may be terrible storms above us now?"

"Perhaps, but don't worry, Axel, those storms can't harm us down here. We're forty miles under the surface of the Earth."

"Forty miles!" I exclaimed.

"Yes."

"But many scientists believe that forty miles is the thickness of the Earth! And many still believe that at this depth, the temperature should be nearly three thousand degrees!"

"Should be, but we both know it is not. The temperature is still only eighty-one point one degrees."

"So the scientists are wrong by almost three thousand degrees. But, uncle, I have a question. The distance between the surface and the center of the Earth is nearly thirty-nine hundred and fifty-eight miles, or almost four thousand miles, but we've only gone forty miles down and two hundred and twelve miles horizontally, in about twenty days."

"Yes, in twenty days."

"Since forty miles is one hundredth (1/100) of the distance to the center of the Earth, it will take us about two thousand days, or nearly five and a half years to reach the center!"

The professor was silent.

"Besides," I continued, "if we continue to go two hundred miles horizontally for every forty miles we go down, we'll end our journey at the surface of the Earth long before we get to the center."

"Your calculations are foolish!" my uncle said to me angrily. "How do you know this passage doesn't go straight to the center? Someone else, Arne Saknussemm, has already done this, and I'll succeed, just as he did."

"I hope so, but ... "

"You should be quiet, Axel! Stop talking like a fool."

I was silent.

The rest of the day was spent in calculations and conversation. I agreed with Professor Lidenbrock on everything else he said that day, and I envied Hans for his unchanging calm.

(end of section)