"What does the thermometer say?"
"Twenty-seven, six tenths (82° Fahr.)."
"Therefore the savants are wrong by 2,705°, and the proportional increase is a mistake. Therefore Humphry Davy was right, and I am not wrong in following him. What do you say now?"
"Nothing."
In truth, I had a good deal to say. I gave way in no respect to Davy's theory. I still held to the central heat, although I did not feel its effects. I preferred to admit in truth, that this chimney of an extinct volcano, lined with lavas, which are non-conductors of heat, did not suffer the heat to pass through its walls.
But without stopping to look up new arguments I simply took up our situation such as it was.
"Well, admitting all your calculations to be quite correct, you must allow me to draw one rigid result therefrom."
"What is it. Speak freely."
"At the latitude of Iceland, where we now are, the radius of the earth, the distance from the centre to the surface is about 1,583 leagues; let us say in round numbers 1,600 leagues, or 4,800 miles. Out of 1,600 leagues we have gone twelve!"
"So you say."