The Discovery of Saknussemm's Inscription in the Crater

The discovery of Arne Saknussemm’s inscription in the crater is the expedition’s decisive moment of recognition: a name carved into an immense stone monument confirms that the earlier claim of a route into the Earth’s interior rests on a predecessor’s actual passage. For Professor Hardwigg, the inscription vindicates the journey; for Henry, its force is overwhelming but offers no immediate comfort.

The monument in the crater

The discovery comes after Professor Hardwigg has examined the formations around him with mounting excitement. He runs from one to another, gesticulating and speaking in disjointed phrases, while Hans and the Icelandic guides sit on piles of lava and watch in silence. They appear to take the Professor for a lunatic and wait to see what he will do. That contrast makes the recognition a sudden change in the scene: the guides remain still, but the Professor stops before an enormous, black stone pedestal, its size sufficient, Henry observes, to support a gigantic statue of Pluto.

At first Henry mistakes the Professor’s cry and outstretched stance for the signs of a fall. Instead, Hardwigg stands upright before the monument, arms spread and legs apart, stunned by what he has found. His astonishment quickly gives way to joy. The setting does not offer a small or easily overlooked clue: the object is a massive block of stone, and the inscription appears on its eastern side.

Reading Saknussemm’s name

Hardwigg calls Henry over in haste, insisting that something wonderful has happened. Henry does not yet understand the summons, but turns to obey. The Professor then points toward the stone as if presenting a discovery to an audience and directs Henry to look. On the eastern face of the block, Henry makes out the same characters he has encountered before: the name Arne Saknussemm, partly eaten away by time’s corrosive action.

The weathering matters to the discovery’s form. Saknussemm’s name is not presented as a fresh mark or a message just made for the expedition; it survives on the ancient-looking stone, damaged but still legible. The material trace supplies the confirmation that argument alone could not provide. Hardwigg addresses Henry as an unbeliever and asks whether he now has faith. His challenge turns the inscription into more than an archaeological find: it is a direct test of Henry’s skepticism and of the premise on which the expedition has proceeded.

Proof, reaction, and the departure of the guides

Henry cannot answer. He returns to his pile of lava in silent awe, describing the evidence as unanswerable and overwhelming. The scene thus shifts the expedition’s central question from whether Saknussemm’s account can be trusted to the consequences of accepting that it is true. Hardwigg receives the inscription as joyful vindication; Henry recognizes its force but does not respond with matching celebration.

His attention soon leaves the crater and travels in thought to his German home, where Gretchen and the old cook represent the comforts now absent from the expedition: a smile, an omelette, and his own feather bed. The contrast between the enormous proof before him and these ordinary domestic longings gives his reaction a second register. Recognition establishes the expedition’s historical and practical precedent, but it does not erase the hardships of being far from home.

When Henry eventually raises his head, the Icelandic porters have gone. They have been dismissed and are descending the exterior slopes of Mount Sneffels on their way to Stapi; only Henry, Professor Hardwigg, and Hans remain at the bottom of the crater. Henry wishes he were with the departing guides. The inscription therefore closes one uncertainty while leaving the travelers more visibly committed to the journey: the discovery confirms Saknussemm’s presence, but the immediate consequence is a smaller, more isolated expedition, with Henry’s awe already shadowed by homesickness.