“That’s nothing, and you may get rid of even that by quick breathing whenever you feel the pain.”
“Exactly so,” I said, determined not to say a word that might cross my uncle’s prejudices. “There is even positive pleasure in living in this dense atmosphere. Have you observed how intense sound is down here?”
“No doubt it is. A deaf man would soon learn to hear perfectly.”
“But won’t this density augment?”
“Yes; according to a rather obscure law. It is well known that the weight of bodies diminishes as fast as we descend. You know that it is at the surface of the globe that weight is most sensibly felt, and that at the centre there is no weight at all.”
“I am aware of that; but, tell me, will not air at last acquire the density of water?”
“Of course, under a pressure of seven hundred and ten atmospheres.”
“And how, lower down still?”
“Lower down the density will still increase.”
“But how shall we go down then.”
“Why, we must fill our pockets with stones.”
“Well, indeed, my worthy uncle, you are never at a loss for an answer.”
I dared venture no farther into the region of probabilities, for I might presently have stumbled upon an impossibility, which would have brought the Professor on the scene when he was not wanted.
Still, it was evident that the air, under a pressure which might reach that of thousands of atmospheres, would at last reach the solid state, and