November 1, 2025 • 15 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twenty four lost. No words in any human language
can depict my utter despair. I was literally buried alive,
with no other expectation before me but to live in
all the slow, horrible torture of hunger and thirst. Mechanically,
(00:24):
I crawled about feeling the dry, arid rock. Never, to
my fancy, had I ever felt anything so dry. But
I frantically asked myself, how had I lost the course
of the flowing stream. There could be no doubt it
(00:45):
had ceased to flow in the gallery in which I
now was. Now I began to understand the cause of
the strange silence which prevailed when last I tried if
any appeal from my companions might perchance reach my ear.
(01:07):
It so happened that when I first took an imprudent
step in the wrong direction, I did not perceive the
absence of the all important stream. It was now quite
evident that when we halted, another tunnel must have received
(01:28):
the waters of the little Torrent, and that I had
unconsciously entered a different gallery. To what unknown depths had
my companions gone? Where was I how to get back?
Clue or landmark? There was absolutely none. My feet left,
(01:53):
no signs on the granite and shingle. My brain throbbed
with agony as I tried to discover the solution of
this terrible problem. My situation, after all sophistry and reflection,
had finally to be summed up in three awful words.
(02:18):
Lost lost, lost, lost. At a depth which, to my
finite understanding appeared to be immeasurable, these thirty leagues of
the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like
the globe of the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself
(02:42):
crushed by the awful weight. It was indeed a position
to drive the sanest man to madness. I tried to
bring my thoughts back to the things of the world
so long forgotten. It was with the greatest death difficulty
that I succeeded in doing so. Hamburg, the house on
(03:06):
the Cornistrasse, my dear cousin Gretchen, All that world which
had before vanished like a shadow, floated before my now
vivid imagination. There they were before me, but how unreal.
Under the influence of a terrible hallucination, I saw all
(03:31):
the incidents of our journey passed before me like the
scenes of a panorama. The ship and its inmates, Iceland, m.
Friedrichson and the great summit of Mount Sneffels. I said
to myself that if in my position I retain the
(03:55):
most faint and shadowy outline of a hope, it would
be a sure sign of approaching delirium. It were better
to give way wholly to despair. In fact, did I
but reason, with calmness and philosophy. What human power was
(04:17):
there in existence able to take me back to the
surface of the earth, and ready to to split asunder,
to rend in twain those huge and mighty vaults which
stand above my head? Who could enable me to find
my road and regain my companions. In sensate folly and
(04:42):
madness to entertain even a shadow of hope, Oh Uncle,
was my despairing cry. This was the only word of
reproach which came to my lips. For I thoroughly understood
how deeply and sorrowfully the worthy Professor would regret my loss,
(05:06):
and how in his turn he would patiently seek for me.
When I at last began to resign myself to the
fact that no further aid was to be expected from man,
and knowing that I was utterly powerless to do anything,
(05:28):
for my own salvation. I kneeled with earnest fervor and
asked assistance from heaven. The remembrance of my innocent childhood,
the memory of my mother, known only in my infancy,
came welling forth from my heart. I had no recourse
(05:51):
to prayer, and little as I had a right to
be remembered by him whom I had forgotten in the
hour of prosperity, and whom I so tardily invoked, I
prayed earnestly and sincerely. This renewal of my youthful faith
(06:11):
brought about a much greater amount of calm, and I
was enabled to concentrate all my strength and intelligence on
the terrible realities of my unprecedented situation. I had about
me that which I had at first wholly forgotten three
(06:36):
days' provisions. Moreover, my water bottle was quite full. Nevertheless,
the one thing which it was impossible to do was
to remain alone. Try to find my companions. I must
at any price. But which course should I take? Should
(06:57):
I go upwards again descend? Doubtless it was right to
retrace my steps in an upward direction. By doing this
with care and coolness, I must reach the point where
I had turned away from the rippling stream. I must
(07:19):
find the fatal bifurcation or fork. Once at this spot,
once the river at my feet, I could at all
events regain the awful crater of Mount Sneffels. Why had
I not thought of this before? This, at last was
(07:42):
a reasonable hope of safety. The most important thing then
to be done was to discover the bed of the Hansbach.
After a slight meal and a draft of water, I
rose like a giant, refreshed, Leaning heavily on my pole,
(08:03):
I began the ascent of the gallery. The slope was
very rapid and rather difficult, but I advanced hopefully and carefully,
like a man who at last is making his way
out of a forest and knows there is only one
road to follow. During one whole hour, nothing happened to
(08:30):
check my progress. As I advanced, I tried to recollect
the shape of the tunnel, to recall to my memory
certain projections of rocks, to persuade myself that I had
followed certain winding routes before. But no one particular sign
(08:52):
could I bring to mind, and I was soon forced
to allow that this gallery would never take me back
to the point at which I had separated myself from
my companions. It was absolutely without issue, a mere blind
(09:13):
alley in the earth. The moment at length came, when
facing the solid rock, I knew my fate and fell
inanimate on the arid floor. To describe the horrible state
of despair and fear into which I then fell would
(09:33):
now be vain and impossible. My last hope. The courage
which had sustained me, drooped before the sight of this
pitiless granite rock. Lost in a vast labyrinth, the sinuosities
of which spread in every direction without guide, clew, or compass,
(09:58):
I knew it was a vain and useless task to
attempt flight. All that remained to me was to lie
down and die. To lie down and die, the most
cruel and horrible of deaths. In my state of mind,
(10:22):
the idea came into my head that one day, perhaps
when my fossil bones were found, their discovery so far
below the level of the earth, might give rise to
solemn and interesting scientific discussions. I tried to cry aloud,
(10:44):
but hoarse, hollow and inarticulate sounds alone could make themselves
heard through my parched lips. I literally panted for breath.
In the midst of all these horrible sources of anguish
and despair, a new horror took possession of my soul.
(11:07):
My lamp, by falling down, had got out of order.
I had no means of repairing it. Its light was
already becoming paler and paler, and soon would expire. With
a strange sense of resignation and despair, I watched the
(11:30):
luminous current in the coil getting less and less. A
procession of shadows moved, flashing along the granite wall. I
scarcely dared to lower my eyelids, fearing to lose the
last spark of this fugitive light. Every instant it seemed
(11:53):
to me that it was about to vanish, and to
leave me forever in utter darkness. At last, one final
trembling flame remained in the lamp. I followed it with
all my power of vision. I gasped for breath. I
(12:14):
concentrated upon it all the power of my soul. As
upon the last scintillation of light I was ever destined
to see, and then I was to be lost forever
in sumerian and tenebrous shadows. A wild and plaintive cry
(12:37):
escaped my lips on Earth during the most profound and
comparatively complete darkness. Light never allows a complete destruction and
extinction of its power. Light is so diffuse, so subtle,
that it permeates everywhere, and whatever little may remain the
(13:02):
retina of the eye will succeed in finding it. In
this place nothing, the absolute obscurity made me blind in
every sense. My head was now wholly lost. I've raised
my arms trying the effects of the feeling in getting
(13:26):
against the cold stone wall. It was painful. In the
extreme madness must have taken possession of me. I knew
not what I did. I began to run, to fly,
rushing at haphazard in this inextricable labyrinth, always going downwards,
(13:52):
running wildly underneath the terrestrial crust, like an inhabitant of
the subterranean furnace. Is screaming, roaring, howling until bruised by
the pointed rocks, falling and picking myself up, all covered
with blood, seeking madly to drink the blood which dripped
(14:14):
from my torn features, mad because this blood only trickled
over my face, and watching always for this horrid wall
which were presented to me, the fearful obstacle against which
I could not dash my head. Where was I going?
(14:37):
It was impossible to say I was perfectly ignorant of
the matter. Several hours passed in this way. After a
long time, having utterly exhausted my strength, I fell a
heavy inert mass along the side of the tunnel and
(14:59):
lost conscious business. End of Chapter twenty four.
Chapter twenty four lost. No words in any human language
can depict my utter despair. I was literally buried alive,
with no other expectation before me but to live in
all the slow, horrible torture of hunger and thirst. Mechanically,
(00:24):
I crawled about feeling the dry, arid rock. Never, to
my fancy, had I ever felt anything so dry. But
I frantically asked myself, how had I lost the course
of the flowing stream. There could be no doubt it
(00:45):
had ceased to flow in the gallery in which I
now was. Now I began to understand the cause of
the strange silence which prevailed when last I tried if
any appeal from my companions might perchance reach my ear.
(01:07):
It so happened that when I first took an imprudent
step in the wrong direction, I did not perceive the
absence of the all important stream. It was now quite
evident that when we halted, another tunnel must have received
(01:28):
the waters of the little Torrent, and that I had
unconsciously entered a different gallery. To what unknown depths had
my companions gone? Where was I how to get back?
Clue or landmark? There was absolutely none. My feet left,
(01:53):
no signs on the granite and shingle. My brain throbbed
with agony as I tried to discover the solution of
this terrible problem. My situation, after all sophistry and reflection,
had finally to be summed up in three awful words.
(02:18):
Lost lost, lost, lost. At a depth which, to my
finite understanding appeared to be immeasurable, these thirty leagues of
the crust of the earth weighed upon my shoulders like
the globe of the shoulders of Atlas. I felt myself
(02:42):
crushed by the awful weight. It was indeed a position
to drive the sanest man to madness. I tried to
bring my thoughts back to the things of the world
so long forgotten. It was with the greatest death difficulty
that I succeeded in doing so. Hamburg, the house on
(03:06):
the Cornistrasse, my dear cousin Gretchen, All that world which
had before vanished like a shadow, floated before my now
vivid imagination. There they were before me, but how unreal.
Under the influence of a terrible hallucination, I saw all
(03:31):
the incidents of our journey passed before me like the
scenes of a panorama. The ship and its inmates, Iceland, m.
Friedrichson and the great summit of Mount Sneffels. I said
to myself that if in my position I retain the
(03:55):
most faint and shadowy outline of a hope, it would
be a sure sign of approaching delirium. It were better
to give way wholly to despair. In fact, did I
but reason, with calmness and philosophy. What human power was
(04:17):
there in existence able to take me back to the
surface of the earth, and ready to to split asunder,
to rend in twain those huge and mighty vaults which
stand above my head? Who could enable me to find
my road and regain my companions. In sensate folly and
(04:42):
madness to entertain even a shadow of hope, Oh Uncle,
was my despairing cry. This was the only word of
reproach which came to my lips. For I thoroughly understood
how deeply and sorrowfully the worthy Professor would regret my loss,
(05:06):
and how in his turn he would patiently seek for me.
When I at last began to resign myself to the
fact that no further aid was to be expected from man,
and knowing that I was utterly powerless to do anything,
(05:28):
for my own salvation. I kneeled with earnest fervor and
asked assistance from heaven. The remembrance of my innocent childhood,
the memory of my mother, known only in my infancy,
came welling forth from my heart. I had no recourse
(05:51):
to prayer, and little as I had a right to
be remembered by him whom I had forgotten in the
hour of prosperity, and whom I so tardily invoked, I
prayed earnestly and sincerely. This renewal of my youthful faith
(06:11):
brought about a much greater amount of calm, and I
was enabled to concentrate all my strength and intelligence on
the terrible realities of my unprecedented situation. I had about
me that which I had at first wholly forgotten three
(06:36):
days' provisions. Moreover, my water bottle was quite full. Nevertheless,
the one thing which it was impossible to do was
to remain alone. Try to find my companions. I must
at any price. But which course should I take? Should
(06:57):
I go upwards again descend? Doubtless it was right to
retrace my steps in an upward direction. By doing this
with care and coolness, I must reach the point where
I had turned away from the rippling stream. I must
(07:19):
find the fatal bifurcation or fork. Once at this spot,
once the river at my feet, I could at all
events regain the awful crater of Mount Sneffels. Why had
I not thought of this before? This, at last was
(07:42):
a reasonable hope of safety. The most important thing then
to be done was to discover the bed of the Hansbach.
After a slight meal and a draft of water, I
rose like a giant, refreshed, Leaning heavily on my pole,
(08:03):
I began the ascent of the gallery. The slope was
very rapid and rather difficult, but I advanced hopefully and carefully,
like a man who at last is making his way
out of a forest and knows there is only one
road to follow. During one whole hour, nothing happened to
(08:30):
check my progress. As I advanced, I tried to recollect
the shape of the tunnel, to recall to my memory
certain projections of rocks, to persuade myself that I had
followed certain winding routes before. But no one particular sign
(08:52):
could I bring to mind, and I was soon forced
to allow that this gallery would never take me back
to the point at which I had separated myself from
my companions. It was absolutely without issue, a mere blind
(09:13):
alley in the earth. The moment at length came, when
facing the solid rock, I knew my fate and fell
inanimate on the arid floor. To describe the horrible state
of despair and fear into which I then fell would
(09:33):
now be vain and impossible. My last hope. The courage
which had sustained me, drooped before the sight of this
pitiless granite rock. Lost in a vast labyrinth, the sinuosities
of which spread in every direction without guide, clew, or compass,
(09:58):
I knew it was a vain and useless task to
attempt flight. All that remained to me was to lie
down and die. To lie down and die, the most
cruel and horrible of deaths. In my state of mind,
(10:22):
the idea came into my head that one day, perhaps
when my fossil bones were found, their discovery so far
below the level of the earth, might give rise to
solemn and interesting scientific discussions. I tried to cry aloud,
(10:44):
but hoarse, hollow and inarticulate sounds alone could make themselves
heard through my parched lips. I literally panted for breath.
In the midst of all these horrible sources of anguish
and despair, a new horror took possession of my soul.
(11:07):
My lamp, by falling down, had got out of order.
I had no means of repairing it. Its light was
already becoming paler and paler, and soon would expire. With
a strange sense of resignation and despair, I watched the
(11:30):
luminous current in the coil getting less and less. A
procession of shadows moved, flashing along the granite wall. I
scarcely dared to lower my eyelids, fearing to lose the
last spark of this fugitive light. Every instant it seemed
(11:53):
to me that it was about to vanish, and to
leave me forever in utter darkness. At last, one final
trembling flame remained in the lamp. I followed it with
all my power of vision. I gasped for breath. I
(12:14):
concentrated upon it all the power of my soul. As
upon the last scintillation of light I was ever destined
to see, and then I was to be lost forever
in sumerian and tenebrous shadows. A wild and plaintive cry
(12:37):
escaped my lips on Earth during the most profound and
comparatively complete darkness. Light never allows a complete destruction and
extinction of its power. Light is so diffuse, so subtle,
that it permeates everywhere, and whatever little may remain the
(13:02):
retina of the eye will succeed in finding it. In
this place nothing, the absolute obscurity made me blind in
every sense. My head was now wholly lost. I've raised
my arms trying the effects of the feeling in getting
(13:26):
against the cold stone wall. It was painful. In the
extreme madness must have taken possession of me. I knew
not what I did. I began to run, to fly,
rushing at haphazard in this inextricable labyrinth, always going downwards,
(13:52):
running wildly underneath the terrestrial crust, like an inhabitant of
the subterranean furnace. Is screaming, roaring, howling until bruised by
the pointed rocks, falling and picking myself up, all covered
with blood, seeking madly to drink the blood which dripped
(14:14):
from my torn features, mad because this blood only trickled
over my face, and watching always for this horrid wall
which were presented to me, the fearful obstacle against which
I could not dash my head. Where was I going?
(14:37):
It was impossible to say I was perfectly ignorant of
the matter. Several hours passed in this way. After a
long time, having utterly exhausted my strength, I fell a
heavy inert mass along the side of the tunnel and
(14:59):
lost conscious business. End of Chapter twenty four.
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