Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 21, 2025
There, on a square tablet of granite, which had been smoothed by rubbing it with another stone, we could see two mysterious, and much worn letters, the two initials of the bold and extraordinary traveler who had preceded us on our adventurous journey. "A. S.!" cried my uncle. "You see, I was right. Arne Saknussemm, always Arne Saknussemm!"
Every bit of cordage was put on board. We took our places, and with our sail set, Hans steered us along the coast to Cape Saknussemm. The wind was unfavourable to a species of launch not calculated for shallow water. In many places we were obliged to push ourselves along with iron-pointed sticks. Often the sunken rocks just beneath the surface obliged us to deviate from our straight course.
This was a happy thought. If so, if this were true, away with the theories of Sir Humphry Davy; away with the authority of the parchment of Arne Saknussemm; the wonderful pretensions to discovery on the part of my uncle and to our journey! All must end in smoke. Charmed with the idea, I began more carefully to look about me.
"Here it is!" he cried, as soon as he had recovered the use of his speech, "after we had once passed Cape Saknussemm, the needle of this compass pointed to the southward instead of the northward." "Evidently." "Our error is now easily explained. But to what phenomenon do we owe this alteration in the needle?" "Nothing more simple." "Explain yourself, my boy. I am on thorns."
This momentous conversation ended in a few minutes with warm acknowledgments paid by the German to the Icelandic Professor. At this dinner my uncle had just elicited important facts, amongst others, the history of Saknussemm, the reason of the mysterious document, that his host would not accompany him in his expedition, and that the very next day a guide would be waiting upon him.
"But," argued I, "if we have followed the route indicated by the great Saknussemm, we cannot be going far wrong." "'That is the question, as the great, the immortal Shakespeare, has it. Are we following the route indicated by that wondrous sage? Did Saknussemm ever fall in with this great sheet of water? If he did, did he cross it?
But all in vain! It was necessary to renounce all hope of passing through. I had seated myself upon the ground. My uncle walked angrily and hopelessly up and down. He was evidently desperate. "But," I cried, after some moments' thought, "what about Arne Saknussemm?" "You are right," replied my uncle, "he can never have been checked by a lump of rock."
If that document were divulged, a whole army of geologists would be ready to rush into the footsteps of Arne Saknussemm." "I don't feel so very sure of that, uncle," I replied; "for we have no proof of the authenticity of this document." "What! not of the book, inside which we have discovered it?" "Granted. I admit that Saknussemm may have written these lines.
Between two boldly projecting rocks appeared the mouth of a dark tunnel. There, upon a granite slab, appeared two mysterious graven letters, half eaten away by time. "A. S.," shouted my uncle. "Arne Saknussemm! Arne Saknussemm everywhere!"
May not this Saknussemm, nephew mine, have hidden on this bit of parchment some astounding invention? I believe the cryptograph to have a profound meaning which I must make out." My uncle walked about the room in a state of excitement almost impossible to describe. "It may be so, sir," I timidly observed, "but why conceal it from posterity, if it be a useful, a worthy discovery?"
Word Of The Day
Others Looking