it of the best materials; and never could man have given it so wide a stretch. What are the finest arches of bridges and the arcades of cathedrals, compared with this far reaching vault, with a radius of three leagues, beneath which a wide and tempest-tossed ocean may flow at its ease?”
“Oh, I am not afraid that it will fall down upon my head. But now what are your plans? Are you not thinking of returning to the surface now?”
“Return! no, indeed! We will continue our journey, everything having gone on well so far.”
“But how are we to get down below this liquid surface?”
“Oh, I am not going to dive head foremost. But if all oceans are properly speaking but lakes, since they are encompassed by land, of course this internal sea will be surrounded by a coast of granite, and on the opposite shores we shall find fresh passages opening.”
“How long do you suppose this sea to be?”
“Thirty or forty leagues; so that we have no time to lose, and we shall set sail tomorrow.”
I looked about for a ship.
“Set sail, shall we? But I should like to see my boat first.”
“It will not be a boat at all, but a good, well-made raft.”
“Why,” I said, “a raft would be just as hard to make as a boat, and I don’t see—”
“I know you don’t see; but you might hear if you would listen. Don’t you hear the hammer at work? Hans is already busy at it.”