on has stopped," was my oracular
decision.

"Ah," said my uncle, "you think so, my boy. You are wrong. Do not be in
the least alarmed; this sudden moment of calm will not last long, be
assured. It has already endured five minutes, and before we are many
minutes older we shall be continuing our journey to the mouth of the
crater."

All the time he was speaking the Professor continued to consult his
chronometer, and he was probably right in his prognostics. Soon the raft
resumed its motion, in a very rapid and disorderly way, which lasted two
minutes or thereabout; and then again it stopped as suddenly as before.

"Good," said my uncle, observing the hour, "in ten we shall start
again."

"In ten minutes?"

"Yes--precisely. We have to do with a volcano, the eruption of which is
intermittent. We are compelled to breathe just as it does."

Nothing could be more true. At the exact minute he had indicated, we
were again launched on high with extreme rapidity. Not to be cast off
the raft, it was necessary to hold on to the beams. Then the hoist again
ceased.

Many times since have I thought of this singular phenomenon without
being able to find for it any satisfactory explanation. Nevertheless, it
appeared quite clear to me, that we were not in the principal chimney of
the volcano, but in an accessory conduit, where we felt the counter
shock of the great and principal tunnel filled by burning lava.

It is impossible for me to say how many times this maneuver was
repeated. All that I can remember is, that on every ascensional motion,
we were hoisted up with ever increasing velocity, as if we had been
launched from a huge projectile. During the sudden halts we were nearly
stifled; during the moments of projection the hot air took away our
breath.

I thought for a moment of the voluptuous joy of suddenly finding myself
in the hyperborean regions with the cold thirty degrees below zero!

My exalted imagination pictured to itself the vast snowy plains of the
arctic regions, and I was impatient to roll myself on the icy carpet of
the North Pole.

By degrees my head, utterly overcome by a series of violent emotions,
began to give way to hallucination. I was delirious. Had it not been for
the powerful arms of Hans, the guide, I should have broken my head
against the granite masses of the shaft.

I have, in consequence, kept no account of what followed for many hours.
I have a vague and confused remembrance of continual