Dumb with astonishment and amazement,
which bordered on stupification,
they fled the forest. Instinctively
they made toward the Lidenbrock Sea.
Discovering a rusty dagger on the beach and the
carved initials of the explorer before them on a slab
of granite, they realised that they were once again
treading the route of Arne Saknussemm.
Following a short sea journey around the cape,
they came ashore where a dark
tunnel plunged deep into rock.
Venturing down, their progress was halted
by a piece of rock blocking their way.
After deciding to blow their way
through and setting the charge,
they put out to sea for safety.
With the explotion, the rocks before
them opened like a curtain and a
bottomless pit appeared in the shore.
The explotion had caused an earthquake.
The abyss had opened up, and the sea
was pouring into it. Down and down
they plunged into the huge gallery,
but, on regaining their senses found their
raft rising at tremendous speed.
Trapped in the shaft of an active volcano they rose
through the ages og man, to be finally expelled out
of the mountainside riddled with tiny lava streams.
Their journey was completed, and they
fond themselves three thousand miles
from their original starting point in Iceland.
They had entered by one volcano,
and they had come out by another.
With the blue mountains of Calabria in the east,
they walked away from the mountain that had
returned them.
The frightening Mount Etna.