Saturday, March 29, 2014

Terror from the Deep

'Journey to the Center of the Earth' by Édouard Riou 03

Image from Wikimedia Commons

The image portrays two per-historic creatures battling to the death. According to Verne the battle is between an Ichthyosaurus or great fish lizard and an ancient sea crocodile or Plesiosaurus. One of the creatures had swept under our adventurers raft and nearly swamped their craft.

“We remain still and dumb from utter horror. They advance upon us, nearer and nearer. Our fate appears certain, fearful and terrible. On one side the mighty crocodile, on the other the great sea serpent. The rest of the fearful crowd of marine prodigies have plunged beneath the briny waves and disappeared!”

“Two liquid columns rose to a vast height above the level of the sea, into which they fell with a terrific crash, waking up the echoes of that awful place. We stood still—surprised, stupefied, terror-stricken at the sight of this group of fearful marine monsters, more hideous in the reality than in my dream. They were of supernatural dimensions; the very smallest of the whole party could with ease have crushed our raft and ourselves with a single bite.”

I am sure there are more adventures and discovery’s to be made in the upcoming chapters.

Quotes from Chapter 30: Terrific Saurian Combat-A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne

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