detonations, of the
shaking of the huge granitic mass, and of the raft going round like a
spinning top. It floated on the stream of hot lava, amidst a falling
cloud of cinders. The huge flames roaring, wrapped us around.

A storm of wind which appeared to be cast forth from an immense
ventilator roused up the interior fires of the earth. It was a hot,
incandescent blast!

At last I saw the figure of Hans as if enveloped in the huge halo of
burning blaze, and no other sense remained to me but that sinister dread
which the condemned victim may be supposed to feel when led to the mouth
of a cannon, at the supreme moment when the shot is fired and his limbs
are dispersed into empty space.

CHAPTER 43

DAYLIGHT AT LAST

When I opened my eyes I felt the hand of the guide clutching me firmly
by the belt. With his other hand he supported my uncle. I was not
grievously wounded, but bruised all over in the most remarkable manner.

After a moment I looked around, and found that I was lying down on the
slope of a mountain not two yards from a yawning gulf into which I
should have fallen had I made the slightest false step. Hans had saved
me from death, while I rolled insensible on the flanks of the crater.

"Where are we?" dreamily asked my uncle, who literally appeared to be
disgusted at having returned to earth.

The eider-down hunter simply shrugged his shoulders as a mark of total
ignorance.

"In Iceland?" said I, not positively but interrogatively.

"Nej," said Hans.

"How do you mean?" cried the Professor; "no--what are your reasons?"

"Hans is wrong," said I, rising.

After all the innumerable surprises of this journey, a yet more singular
one was reserved to us. I expected to see a cone covered by snow, by
extensive and widespread glaciers, in the midst of the arid deserts of
the extreme northern regions, beneath the full rays of a polar sky,
beyond the highest latitudes.

But contrary to all our expectations, I, my uncle, and the Icelander,
were cast upon the slope of a mountain calcined by the burning rays of a
sun which was literally baking us with its fires.

I could not believe my eyes, but the actual heat which affected my body
allowed me no chance of doubting. We came out of the crater half naked,
and the radiant star from which we had asked nothing for two months, was
good enough to be prodigal to us of light and warmth--a light and warmth
we could easily have dispensed with.

When our e