"Jules Verne. Off on a Comet. WORKS" - читать интересную книгу автора

Whence came it that the elements united in one deafening crash;
that the earth groaned as though the whole framework of the globe
were ruptured; that the waters roared from their innermost depths;
that the air shrieked with all the fury of a cyclone?

Whence came it that a radiance, intenser than the effulgence
of the Northern Lights, overspread the firmament, and momentarily
dimmed the splendor of the brightest stars?

Whence came it that the Mediterranean, one instant emptied of its waters,
was the next flooded with a foaming surge?

Whence came it that in the space of a few seconds the moon's disc reached
a magnitude as though it were but a tenth part of its ordinary distance
from the earth?

Whence came it that a new blazing spheroid, hitherto unknown to astronomy,
now appeared suddenly in the firmament, though it were but to lose itself
immediately behind masses of accumulated cloud?

What phenomenon was this that had produced a cataclysm so tremendous
in effect upon earth, sky, and sea?

Was it possible that a single human being could have survived
the convulsion? and if so, could he explain its mystery?



CHAPTER V

A MYSTERIOUS SEA


Violent as the commotion had been, that portion of the Algerian coast
which is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, and on the west
by the right bank of the Shelif, appeared to have suffered little change.
It is true that indentations were perceptible in the fertile plain,
and the surface of the sea was ruffled with an agitation that was
quite unusual; but the rugged outline of the cliff was the same
as heretofore, and the aspect of the entire scene appeared unaltered.
The stone hostelry, with the exception of some deep clefts in its walls,
had sustained little injury; but the gourbi, like a house of cards
destroyed by an infant's breath, had completely subsided, and its two
inmates lay motionless, buried under the sunken thatch.

It was two hours after the catastrophe that Captain Servadac
regained consciousness; he had some trouble to collect his thoughts,
and the first sounds that escaped his lips were the concluding
words of the rondo which had been so ruthlessly interrupted;