Page "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" Paragraph 8

Professor Lidenbrock is a man of astonishing impatience, and departs for Iceland immediately, taking his reluctant nephew with him.

Axel, who, in comparison, is cowardly and anti-adventurous, repeatedly tries to reason with him, explaining his fears of descending into a volcano and putting forward various scientific theories as to why the journey is impossible, but Professor Lidenbrock repeatedly keeps himself blinded against Axel's point of view.

After a rapid journey via Lübeck and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík, where the two procure the services of Hans Bjelke ( a Danish-speaking Icelander eiderdown hunter ) as their guide, and travel overland to the base of the volcano.

In late June they reach the volcano, which has three craters.

According to Saknussemm's message, the passage to the centre of the Earth is through the one crater that is touched by the shadow of a nearby mountain peak at noon.

However, the text also states that this is only true during the last days of June.

During the next few days, with July rapidly approaching, the weather is too cloudy for any shadows.

Axel silently rejoices, hoping this will force his uncle – who has repeatedly tried to impart courage to him only to succeed in making him even more cowardly still – to give up the project and return home.

Alas for Axel, however, on the last day, the sun comes out and the mountain peak shows the correct crater to take.

After descending into this crater, the three travelers set off into the bowels of the Earth, encountering many strange phenomena and great dangers, including a chamber filled with combustible gas, and steep-sided wells around the " path.

" After taking a wrong turn, they run out of water and Axel almost dies, but Hans taps into a neighboring subterranean river.

Lidenbrock and Axel name the resulting stream the " Hansbach " in his honor and the three are saved.

At another point, Axel becomes separated from the others and is lost several miles from them.

Luckily, a strange acoustic phenomenon allows him to communicate with them from some miles away, and they are soon reunited.

After descending many miles, following the course of the Hansbach, they reach an unimaginably vast cavern.

This underground world is lit by electrically charged gas at the ceiling, and is filled with a very deep subterranean ocean, surrounded by a rocky coastline covered in petrified trees and giant mushrooms.

The travelers build a raft out of trees and set sail.

The Professor names this sea as the Lidenbrock Sea.

Whilst on the water, they see several prehistoric creatures such as a giant Ichthyosaurus, which fights with a Plesiosaurus and wins.

After the battle between the monsters, the party comes across an island with a huge geyser, which Lidenbrock names " Axel's Island.

" A lightning storm again threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead throws them onto the coastline.

This part of the coast, Axel discovers, is alive with prehistoric plant and animal life forms, including giant insects and a herd of mastodons.

On a beach covered with bones, Axel discovers an oversized human skull.

Axel and Lidenbrock venture some way into the prehistoric forest, where Professor Lidenbrock points out, in a shaky voice, a prehistoric human, more than twelve feet in height, leaning against a tree and watching a herd of mastodons.

Axel cannot be sure if he has really seen the man or not, and he and Professor Lidenbrock debate whether or not a proto-human civilization actually exists so far underground.