The Coming Race · Chapter
I explained
The narrator introduces himself as an American of English descent, well-traveled and adventurous.
What happens
The narrator introduces himself as an American of English descent, well-traveled and adventurous. While visiting a mine with an engineer friend, they discover a mysterious chasm. The engineer descends and reports seeing a broad, illuminated road and hearing human voices deep underground, suggesting an unknown civilization. The narrator resolves to descend with him.
Themes in this chapter
Technology and Power
The engineer's use of mining technology (cage, safety-lamp) and the discovery of artificial lighting and a road underground hint at a technologically advanced subterranean civilization.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Introduced as the first-person narrator, an American traveler and adventurer who accompanies the engineer into the mine.
Key passages
“I am a native of ⸻, in the United States of America. My ancestors migrated from England in the reign of Charles II ; and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of Independence.”
The narrator is American, with English ancestry dating back to the 1600s, and his grandfather fought in the American Revolution.
Establishes the narrator's background and heritage.
“Down this chasm my friend caused himself to be lowered in a 'cage,' having first tested the atmosphere by the safety-lamp. He remained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he returned he was very pale, and with an anxious, thoughtful expression of face...”
The engineer descended into the chasm using a mining cage and safety lamp, staying for about an hour, and returned looking pale and troubled.
Describes the engineer's first descent and his reaction.
“I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level road at the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye could reach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at regular intervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heard confusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices.”
The engineer saw a wide, lit road and heard distant voices, suggesting an underground city.
Reveals the discovery of an underground civilization.