CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

On the morning of August 13, we woke up early. It was time to begin our sea voyage. Hans had built a sail on the raft to guide us across the great sea.

At six o'clock, the professor decided we should go. As we were leaving the harbor, my uncle decided that we should name it. He suggested giving it my name.

"I suggest that we name the harbor Grauben. Port Grauben—that will look good on a map."

"All right, then, it's Port Grauben."

And that was how the memory of my darling Grauben became a part of our adventure.

The wind was blowing strongly, which pushed us through the sea quickly.

"If we continue like this," he said, "we'll go seventy-five miles in twenty-four hours, and we'll reach the opposite side of the sea very quickly."

I said nothing, as I doubted that the sea was so small. Soon enough, we no longer saw land behind us, but rather saw the sea in every direction. At noon, we began to see seaweed, some were longer than three or four hundred feet long, which grew quite well under such pressure inside the Earth. In the distance, we saw large snakes going quickly through the water. Evening came, but the electric light was still all around us. Soon after dinner, I lay down and went to sleep.

Soon after we left Port Grauben, my uncle had told me to begin taking notes of our trip, about the direction we were going in, the speed of the raft, and the distance we went. Here are those notes I took.

Friday, August 14

There is a wind from the northwest. We are sailing fast and straight. The weather is fair; the clouds are thin and white. Temperature: 89 degrees.

At noon, Hans started to fish for something for us to eat. For two hours, he caught nothing, but then caught a large fish with great strength.

"A fish!" cried my uncle. He then examined the fish carefully before announcing that such a type of fish had not lived on the surface of the Earth for thousands of years.

"What!" I exclaimed. "Do you mean we've found a kind of fish that lived even before humans?"

"Yes," my uncle answered, as he continued examining the fish. We continued fishing for the next two hours, and caught a great deal more of those ancient fish.

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