Jules Verne

“ Every day she helped me to arrange my uncle's precious specimens; she and I labelled them together. Mademoiselle Gräuben was an accomplished mineralogist; she could have taught a few things to a savant. She was fond of investigating abstruse scientific questions. What pleasant hours we have spent in study ”

“ My Latin memories rose in revolt against the notion that these barbarous words could belong to the sweet language of Virgil.
"Yes, it is Latin," my uncle went on; "but it is Latin confused and in disorder; "pertubata seu inordinata," as Euclid has it."
"Very well," thought I, "if you can bring order out of that confusion, my dear uncle, you are a clever man."
"Let us examine carefully," said he again, taking up the leaf upon which I had written. "Here is a series of one hundred and thirty-two letters in apparent disorder. There are words consisting of consonants only, as nrrlls ”

“ A violent gesture finished the sentence.
"Sit there," he added, holding out his fist towards the table. "Sit there, and write."
I was seated in a trice.
"Now I will dictate to you every letter of our alphabet which corresponds with each of these Icelandic characters. We will see what that will give us. But, by St. ”