“Very well, we shall see,” I replied, feeling myself carried off by his contagious enthusiasm. “Yes, we shall see; that is, if it is possible to see anything there.”

“And why not? May we not depend upon electric phenomena to give us light? May we not even expect light from the atmosphere, the pressure of which may render it luminous as we approach the centre?”

“Yes, yes,” said I; “that is possible, too.”

“It is certain,” exclaimed my uncle in a tone of triumph. “But silence, do you hear me? Silence upon the whole subject; and let no one get before us in this design of discovering the centre of the earth.”