Descend into the crater of Sneffels Yokul,
Over which the shadow of Scartaris falls
Before the kalend of July, bold traveler,
And you will reach the center of the earth.
I have done this. Arne Saknussemm.
'But what is Sneffels?'
'Follow my finger along the west coast of
'A sort of peninsula that looks like a bone with a huge knee-cap at the end of it.'
'Quite a good comparison, my boy. Now can you see anything on that knee-cap?'
'Yes, a mountain which looks as if it has grown out of the sea.'
'Good. Well, that is Sneffels,'
'Yes, that. It's a mountain five thousand feet high, one of the most remarkable on the island, and undoubtedly destined to be the most famous in the world if its crater leads to the center of the globe.'
…bent over the map,
'You can see that there are volcanoes all over the island,' said the
Professor, 'and you will notice that they all bear the name Yokul, That word means 'glacier' in Icelandic, and at that high latitude
most eruptions take place through layers of ice. Hence the term Yokul
which is applied to all the volcanic mountains in
'…Sneffels has several craters, and it was therefore necessary to indicate the one which leads to the center of the earth. What did the learned Icelander do? He observed that at the approach of the calends of July, in other words towards the end of June, one of he peaks of the mountain a peak called Sartaris, cast is shadow as far as the mouth of the crater in question, and he recorded the fact in his document. Nothing could be more precise, and when we reach the summit of Sneffels we shall have no hesitation as to which way to go.'
'The legendary stories tell us that the crater leads to the center of the earth.'
-Jules Verne (1864)