Cape Saknussemm

Cape Saknussemm is a cape on the shore of the subterranean sea, named by Professor Hardwigg in honor of Arne Saknussemm, the earlier traveler whose initials the expedition finds nearby. The place is more than a landmark: its discovery joins material evidence to the Professor’s ambition, and makes the unknown shore part of a route that can be followed, named, and claimed by later explorers.

Setting and Discovery

The expedition reaches the cape while searching along the rocky coast for a passage onward. After finding Arne Saknussemm’s dagger, Professor Hardwigg argues that its owner had tried once more to indicate the right road into the Earth. The party examines the rock wall closely, looking for fissures that might open into a gully or shaft. The search takes them to a narrowing strip of shore, where the sea nearly reaches the foot of steep cliffs and the path is scarcely more than two yards wide.

Beneath an enormous overhanging rock, they find the mouth of a dark tunnel. Beside it, a square granite tablet has been smoothed by rubbing it with another stone. Two worn initials, “A. S.,” remain visible on its surface. The tablet links the tunnel to the traveler whose dagger has already sharpened the Professor’s expectations: the marks turn a difficult coastal search into evidence that Saknussemm had reached this point and left a sign for those who might follow.

Naming the Cape

Professor Hardwigg recognizes the initials as Saknussemm’s and treats the discovery as confirmation of his belief that the traveler had marked important stages of his journey. In an outburst of excitement, he praises Saknussemm for leaving no stone unturned in showing later travelers a way into the Earth. He imagines that the earlier explorer’s initials may even be found at the center of the globe, and declares his own intention to reach that spot and add his name beside them.

Before continuing, the Professor names the cape Cape Saknussemm. The act commemorates Saknussemm’s courage and his role in indicating the route, while attaching his name to the shore where the expedition has found his initials. The naming also reveals how the explorers make the subterranean landscape legible to themselves: a mark on stone becomes proof of a prior passage, and a feature of the coast becomes a point in a humanly recorded geography.

Effect on the Expedition

The discovery changes Henry’s response to the dangers ahead. Listening to his uncle’s tribute, he is caught up in the same fervor and momentarily forgets the perils of the voyage and the hazards of the return. Saknussemm’s apparent achievement becomes a precedent: if one traveler had come this far, Henry believes the journey can be repeated. The cape therefore marks a transition from searching for clues to committing themselves to the route those clues seem to disclose.

The name preserves that transition in the expedition’s account, but the evidence at the cape remains specific and limited. The party finds a tunnel entrance and Saknussemm’s worn initials on a granite tablet; Professor Hardwigg interprets them as part of a deliberate guide to the interior. Cape Saknussemm stands at once as a physical point on the shore, a memorial to the earlier traveler, and a spur to the explorers’ renewed determination.