arly all that was left.

"Excellent--very good," said my uncle, with as much gusto as if he had
just left the steps of the club at Hamburg.

I had begun to feel as if there had been one gleam of hope. Now all
thought of the future vanished!

We had consumed our last ounce of food, and it was five o'clock in the
morning!

CHAPTER 42

THE VOLCANIC SHAFT

Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative
matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes
difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you
suffer that you really understand.

As to anyone who has not endured privation having any notion of the
matter, it is simply absurd.

With us, after a long fast, some mouthfuls of bread and meat, a little
moldy biscuit and salt beef triumphed over all our previous gloomy and
saturnine thoughts.

Nevertheless, after this repast each gave way to his own reflections. I
wondered what were those of Hans--the man of the extreme north, who was
yet gifted with the fatalistic resignation of Oriental character. But
the utmost stretch of the imagination would not allow me to realize the
truth. As for my individual self, my thoughts had ceased to be anything
but memories of the past, and were all connected with that upper world
which I never should have left. I saw it all now, the beautiful house in
the Konigstrasse, my poor Gretchen, the good Martha; they all passed
before my mind like visions of the past. Every time any of the
lugubrious groanings which were to be distinguished in the hollows
around fell upon my ears, I fancied I heard the distant murmur of the
great cities above my head.

As for my uncle, always thinking of his science, he examined the nature
of the shaft by means of a torch. He closely examined the different
strata one above the other, in order to recognize his situation by
geological theory. This calculation, or rather this estimation, could by
no means be anything but approximate. But a learned man, a philosopher,
is nothing if not a philosopher, when he keeps his ideas calm and
collected; and certainly the Professor possessed this quality to
perfection.

I heard him, as I sat in silence, murmuring words of geological science.
As I understood his object and his meaning, I could not but interest
myself despite my preoccupation in that terrible hour.

"Eruptive granite," he said to himself, "we are still in the primitive
epoch. But we