"JIRKA" " Vladimír Bejval" "TONÍK" " Petr Herrmann" "PETR" " Josef Lukáš" "JENDA" " Zdenek Husták" "Diary." "The diary of our journey." "My friends and I just got back from the most incredible journey you can imagine." "We undertook a grand expedition." "To prehistoric times!" "Just like boys who play Indians, or pirates." "There were four of us." "I'm Petr, holding the diary." "That's me." "Jirka's in the middle." "He was the youngest member of our expedition." "That's Jenda beside him." "You can't see Toník because he took the picture." "That's his shadow down in the corner." "He was the expedition's photographer." "X marks the spot by the cave where Jirka found this:" "This is where it all started." "It?" "s not an ordinary stone." "It?" "s a fossil trilobite!" "Jirka didn?" "t know that trilobites died out long ago." "He wanted to find a live one." "He had no idea there had once been a sea bottom here." "And that sea was full of trilobites." "We only know what they looked like from their fossils." "To help him understand, we showed him this chart:" "He saw that five hundred million years lie between us and the trilobites." "If he wanted to see a live one, he would have to go back to the past, down this giant staircase." "Back to the Ice Age, through the Tertiary, down to the Mesozoic Era, then back to the Paleozoic." "Then all the way to the Silurian sea and trilobites." "To further his understanding, we took him to the National Museum in Prague." "He saw many different fossils there, some very big, others quite rare." "Toník took a picture of him with a mammoth." "It fascinated Jirka." "But he was sad that he would never see one alive." "If only mammoths like that lived in our forests!" "Jirka would have loved it." "But all these skeletons and drawings were lifeless." "Jirka would do anything to see those monsters alive." "He once read a book by Jules Verne about people who went to the centre of the Earth." "There they saw prehistoric animals." "So he thought we should take a trip like that." "And since nearly everything in Verne?" "s books came true, we decided to go." "Up the river and through that cave." "Yes, that cave." "That magic place." "Where our journey began." "It's frozen." "Seriously guys, there?" "s ice everywhere." "Try to keep rowing." "We're still moving." "No." "At the moment we are." "It's going to get harder the further we go." "Gosh, so much ice." "Looks like a real Ice Age." "We're not getting past those ice floes, even an icebreaker couldn?" "t." "We have to get through." "We'd better dress for the cold first." "Here Jirka." "Cover your ears or they?" "ll get frostbitten." "Hand me the lamp." "Let's go." "Watch out." "Careful Jirka." "Don't worry, it's thick enough for all of us." "Get out guys, we?" "ll drag the boat over the ice like a sleigh." "Good idea!" "Come on guys, let?" "s do this." "Let?" "s go, come on." "A little bit further." "Watch the oar." "OK guys, we?" "re ready to go." "Let?" "s go." "This is going to be quite a chore." "Not if we keep it moving." "Have one of these damson buns." "Thanks." "They?" "re plum delicious!" "Want one?" "Stop that Jirka, we have to protect this book." "It?" "s our expedition?" "s diary." "So let?" "s make the first entry now." "And so the first page of our journal was written." "About camping out in the Ice Age." "It had to be the Ice Age, all those glaciers?" "Our face and hands were freezing." "But that's OK." "We were happy to make it this far." "Jirka was the happiest." "He got to experience the adventure he'd wished for so badly." "Adventurous expedition into the unknown." "The next day we set out again." "The river was open now." "There was less ice than before." "The further we got from the icepack, the more trees and bushes we saw." "Just like ones in the present." "Not much further the ice vanished completely." "Guys look!" "There by those trees." "It?" "s a mammoth!" "Really!" "Come on, let?" "s get closer." "Mammoth!" "A real live mammoth guys!" "Look at that." "Such a colossus." "Hurry!" "I want to look too." "Me too." "Hurry!" "Wait a sec." "Give it here man." "Relax guys." "He can?" "t see us anyway." "Hello!" "Hello!" "Hello!" "Helloooooooo!" "Mr. Mammoth, are we back at the Prehistoric?" "Hello!" "Sit down or you?" "ll swamp the boat." "When we set up camp all we could talk about was the mammoth." "Especially Jirka." "That was not the same thing as a skeleton in a museum." "That was a real, live animal." "The first we saw in the Prehistoric." "We set off first thing in the morning." "We could still see glaciers in the distance, but the landscape had changed completely." "Everything was green and it felt like home." "Meltwater was pouring into the river, and we couldn't row upstream." "Jenda, I?" "ve found a path." "Can you see it?" "Right here." "Where is it?" "OK I see it." "Guys!" "What have you found?" "Come and see!" "Hold on, I?" "ll pull you in." "Careful!" "Hold on." "Come on!" "There?" "s a path here." "Maybe it was made by mammoths." "I don't see any mammoth footprints." "Maybe wild animals use it." "Let?" "s follow it, guys." "Just a few yards." "Great idea." "Let?" "s go!" "You're not really going in there, are you?" "You have no way of knowing what's in there." "I see a deserted fireplace." "A caveman might live here." "A mighty hunter." "And suppose he's still in there?" "I don't think he is." "Look at the tall grass all around." "Wait a sec, I have a torch." "You go first." "No one's home." "Someone was in here." "And he knew how to make fire." "And he was a hunter!" "Look!" "What a trophy!" "Jesus, it's heavy." "What is this?" "What do you think, Petr?" "Looks like a deer?" "s antler." "I'd like to see one of these babies!" "Quite a brute." "Must weigh a hundred kilos." "Guys, look at this!" "Uhhhhhh!" "Maybe you should lift this." "And what about this?" "Let me." "Lordy, what a bone!" "It must be a mammoth's tusk." "Yes." "And it's only a third of it!" "No way!" "I?" "d like to take this home." "Yes, we'll put it in the back of your Humvee." "Look at this Petr." "It?" "s a caveman?" "s weapon." "He fought mammoths with this?" "Wouldn?" "t like to meet him." "He must have been a terrible savage." "Glad he?" "s not home." "Guys, he could come back at any time!" "You see that tunnel over there?" "Let?" "s check it out." "Just in case..." "Be careful, Jenda." "Petr!" "Drawings of animals!" "Bison." "That was the most incredible discovery the cave had given us." "Those drawings." "That hunter was able to record his ideas and impressions onto the wall of the cave." "He hunted deer and bison but he could also paint them." "And how skillfully!" "We'd seen a mammoth, but none of us could paint one so well." "That caveman didn't look like a brutal killer anymore." "We weren't afraid of him now." "He was a human being just like us." "Petr, can't I take a souvenir home with me?" "Please..." "Honestly Jirka." "Imagine how much work that would be." "Toník was right, you'd need a Humvee to haul that home." "That sucks." "Where the heck did Toník go?" "Come on guys, let?" "s follow him." "Toník!" "Where are you going?" "Don?" "t worry, I?" "ll be back." "Be careful!" "We have to get back to the river." "I'm just going to take some pictures." "Toník!" "Toník!" "Our calls fell on deaf ears." "Toník was enthralled by the caveman?" "s story." "He had to find him so he could take his picture." "It would have been the first ever photograph of a caveman." "Who could resist that?" "That?" "s why he had to go deeper into that unknown forest." "Well?" "Do you see anything?" "No." "Keep looking." "I still don?" "t see him." "Climb down." "We'll go look for him." "We have to find him." "I hope he's not hurt." "Did you see that?" "Look!" "Over there." "Petr, what are they?" "Woolly rhinoceroses I guess." "Yes, they're woolly rhinos." "Great." "The battle's over." "Come on Jirka, we've got to find Toník." "We?" "re wasting time." "Guys!" "It?" "s swimming right towards us!" "Jirka!" "What's the matter?" "Shh, don't talk." "Look over there." "He?" "s coming to get us!" "Who?" "A caveman with a spear!" "Look." "There he is!" "Toník!" "Toník boy!" "You fooled us all right!" "You have no idea what I?" "ve been through..." "Why are you all muddy?" "We've been searching for you for ages." "Clear out, guys!" "Wow!" "A real hunter." "Is that cool or what?" "Out of the way." "Say 'cheese'." "Oh, Jirka." "Beautiful." "Toník is drying off by the fire." "I record everything we experience in the diary." "We were excited about our adventures to come." "Most of our journey to the past still lie ahead of us." "Millions and millions of years before mammoths lived, we come to..." "The Tertiary!" "The next stage." "Wow!" "That?" "s amazing!" "Welcome to the Tertiary!" "Hurrah!" "Let's get out of these warm clothes." "Or we?" "ll be hot as heck!" "It's summertime!" "Jirka, look." "Flamingos!" "Look!" "Sakra." "Over there." "This is how we pictured the Animal Kingdom." "Like Africa." "There were gazelles, antelopes, giraffes and elephants." "But this one looked odd." "Not like elephants from today." "It had tusks growing from its lower jaw." "This predator also had tusks." "Teeth actually, sharp as a sabre." "It killed anything it saw." "One of the most feared beasts of that era." "Jirka thought we should have brought a rifle." "I did not agree with that." "We're scientists and explorers, not hunters." "We're here to study life." "Not kill it." "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Where has that kid gotten to now?" "Don?" "t know." "Nothing but trouble, that kid." "I'll go look for him." "I?" "ll go this way, you two go that way." "OK." "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Jirka." "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Hear that?" "That must be Petr." "He's having no luck either." "Let?" "s go this way." "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Whoa!" "What were you thinking?" "Couldn?" "t you hear us calling?" "Wait!" "Help me first..." "What a beaut!" "Sure is!" "You lucky dog." "Ten kilos at least!" "We'll have a meal fit for a king!" "A feast!" "When we got back to the boat and saw how proud Jirka was, we couldn't be mad at him." "His fish truly was a beauty!" "That's why we named this place "Whale Cove"." "We made a habit of giving mountains and bays names." "Just like real explorers do." "Accordingly, we made maps." "This peak is called "Thunder Mountain"." "That?" "s because of the terrible storm we experienced there." "A truly bad one." "We decided to stay on the boat that night." "We couldn't build a fire in this rain." "And we couldn?" "t risk camping out without one." "I took the first watch." "It finally stopped raining." "A calm tropical night." "I was thinking about everything we'd encountered so far." "I thought about home too." "What?" "s going on?" "Don?" "t worry Jirka, I'm just adjusting the lamp." "Such a little flame... and it helped us so much." "We could feel safe." "What a moment in history it must have been when Man lit his first torch!" "When he first conquered fire!" "He became the Lord of Creation." "That is how we became Humankind." "Give it here." "Jeez, it's cold as ice!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Come on!" "Quickly!" "Fire!" "Take that!" "Give me your hand!" "Row." "Quickly!" "Move it!" "The rest of our trip was a Tertiary safari." "There were wild animals all around." "So many we could we couldn't count them all" "What a disgusting brute." "I've never seen anything so ugly." "Its name is just as ugly. 'Uintatherium'." "Say what?" "'Uintatherium'." "Who on earth came up with a name like that?" "Some tongue-twister, isn?" "t it?" "Don't laugh, guys." "It is scientifically correct." "This is a serious matter." "When scientists discover new species, they must construct new names." "Just like they did for this creature." "That is why names are always Greek or Latin." "So they can be understood the world over." "It's OK to use such conglomerations in scientific talk." "But not in everyday Czech." "It would sound wrong if we called it 'hump-head', or 'crook-jaw', or something like that." "'Uintatherium' just works better." "Wake up Jirka, it's morning." "Petr!" "Come on!" "Quickly!" "Row!" "Phorusrhacos." "Look!" "When people in ancient times found a claw like this," "They imagined a monster with wings like that." "That's how the legends of dragons and basilisks began." "Powerful legends." "We were about to enter such a world." "But it wasn't a myth anymore." "This time, it was real." "We'd reached the Mesozoic, and Jirka wanted to see dinosaurs." "But all we could see was bare rock and sand." "I don't see any dinosaurs." "What about that?" "Look." "Where?" "That's a dinosaur?" "That little thing?" "It?" "s just a turtle." "A plain old tortoise like Dad once drew for me." "Forget that, Jirka." "Look up there!" "Dragons!" "Flying monsters!" "Wow, an air show!" "Precisely." "Prehistoric aircraft." "Pteranodons." "What a squadron!" "Watch out!" "It?" "s flying right at us!" "Duck!" "Jirka!" "Watch out!" "Hold on!" "Let?" "s get to shore!" "They?" "re flying away." "Good riddance." "They only wanted to check us out." "We needn?" "t have been afraid." "My notes say they only eat fish." "Just fish?" "I get it." "Humans didn?" "t exist back then." "They couldn?" "t eat us if they wanted to." "Did you see that beak?" "Monster from Hades." "Pull us in Jirka." "I hope they leave us alone." "Hope so." "At least I'm clean now." "Guys, let?" "s look around while Jirka dries off." "Look at all those trees." "Plants, and bushes." "A whole forest of them!" "These trees are very similar to ours." "Just like at home." "Especially those big ones." "Pines, aren?" "t they?" "They look like pines." "They're called 'Arocariae'." "Their wood is rich in resin." "They?" "d be good for building fires." "The palm trees down there are called 'Cycases'." "Some of these plants look completely modern." "They'll stay the same until the present day." "On the other hand, animals will keep evolving for millions of years." "Jirka!" "Petr!" "What's that?" "What does the diary say?" "Styracosaurus." "It looked dangerous, due to its horned collar." "But it was only a dull giant." "It's skull was more than six feet high." "It's brain was as small as a cat?" "s." "We saw some fast reptiles." "But they disappeared before we could identify them." "Look at this fortress of a beast!" "The 'Stegosaurus'." "It looks like a Transformer." "Only a mad scientist would build something like that." "It had shields to protect it against attack." "And armour like a knight!" "Bigger than an army tank, when in danger it fought back using its spiked tail like a medieval mace." "There were many strange creatures in the Mesozoic era." "We ran into one when we rounded a bend." "It looked like a cross between a duck and a kangaroo." "That is a 'Tracodon'." "Jenda." "Shh!" "Quiet now." "You too Jirka." "I sketched it in our diary." "What a great catch this was!" "But the best catch, the biggest chapter of the Mesozoic era was..." "The 'Brontosaurus'!" "Maybe the biggest land animal of all time." "The first time we saw it, we were paralyzed with fear." "But curiosity overcame fear." "We had to row closer." "That giant mountain was not really dangerous." "Large as he was, he had a very small brain." "That small brain could not control such a huge body." "The Brontosaurus had a second brain in the middle of its spinal chord." "It was lucky it could move at all." "Sauropods prefer to live in water." "It helps to hold up their great weight." "They weighed about forty tonnes." "Slowly, Jenda, we only want to look at it." "Don't be afraid." "What a giant." "It seems to me..." "That mountain is turning towards us." "Honestly!" "It's coming right for us." "We better turn too." "Just to be safe." "OK then, stroke left." "Guys." "Guys!" "Wait." "What?" "We've got to get a picture of it." "I have to get one." "I almost forgot about it." "Keep still." "Got it." "Thanks." "Hello, it appears to be coming to get us." "No kidding." "It's coming right at us." "We better get out of here." "Good idea." "The science of paleontology is concerned with researching extinct species, through which they map geological history." "Guys there's something moving over there!" "On the other side of the river." "Like a crawling rock." "What is it?" "Stegosaurus!" "Too bad it?" "s dark already." "We can barely see it." "And over there." "Look." "Another beast." "It just crawled out." "First thing in the morning we crossed the river." "We wanted to check out that Stegosaurus." "He must be dead by now." "He's been lying there since yesterday." "Here was our chance to get close to a dinosaur." "Up close, and hands on." "Maybe he's just sleeping." "No way, he's a goner." "Let?" "s get closer." "Stick a fork in him, he's done." "Told you so." "This is an ex-Stegosaurus." "Bereft of life, it rests in peace." "Only when you get this close can you see what a huge monster it is." "It's big as an army tank." "Ahoy." "It?" "s good he?" "s dead, at least we can get a good look at him." "It's a shame, we could have kept him." "What an idea!" "How the heck would you tame a monster like this?" "Like Bruncvík tamed that lion." "Oh yeah, like you could do that." "I?" "d nurse his wounds, that?" "s how." "You know the story, right?" "How Bruncvík nursed his wounds and the lion befriended him." "How the other kids would envy us if I brought him back home." "Wouldn't that be something!" "That?" "s true, but something more important is at stake here Jirka." "After all we didn?" "t make this journey just for fun." "We came to study what prehistoric life really looked like." "We are so lucky to have the opportunity to do just that." "To see everything with our own eyes." "That is why we?" "re here." "We must not waste it." "We'll write everything down, draw it and measure it." "And I'll photograph him from every angle Petr, every detail, just the way you?" "d want it." "Great!" "Start here by the head, back up a bit and kneel down." "Get a good clear shot." "While you do that, I?" "ll measure and sketch him." "Oh, I left the diary in the boat." "Jirka please go get it for me." "Why me?" "We can get things started here while you're gone." "Skoot!" "OK then." "Anything for science." "Good." "Now the other side, and just the head again." "Petr if you like I have a notebook here." "Thanks Jenda, that will work for now." "Pace off the length will you?" "Start up by the head." "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9." "Nine steps Petr, from head to tail." "Nine steps, that?" "s about 8 meters." "Now measure the plate by hand." "1,2,3,4,5,6." "That?" "s approximately 60 centimeters." "Next the width. 1,2,3,4,5,6." "It's the same size, height and width." "Height and width 60." "Correct?" "Felloooows!" "It?" "s Jirka!" "Something?" "s happened to him!" "What happened?" "A lizard squashed it." "According to those frightful footprints it must have been a giant." "Did you see it?" "No." "I never saw it." "It was already.." "It was like this when I got here." "Game over, man." "We could never fix this." "It?" "s completely wrecked." "Equipment seems to be OK." "The diary!" "Look guys." "Right here and it is undamaged." "At least we have that!" "Well we can't go on." "Don?" "t cry Jirka, this is nothing." "We?" "ll build a raft." "That will do." "There?" "s lots of trees here and we will go on." "Right!" "We?" "ll go till the end." "Don?" "t worry!" "We?" "ll make it." "Our expedition won?" "t give up, Jirka." "We knew from before that passing through this mist meant going back through time." "Like a curtain that opens to reveal a completely different world." "Ever older and stranger." "According to the chart, we should be arriving at the Carboniferous era." "An era of sprawling swamps and ponds." "Everything looked serious and severe." "So quiet." "Silence hung over everything like a curse." "Petr!" "Look." "I bet I know what those trees are!" "Where?" "There on the shore." "At that bend in the stream." "See it?" "Horsetails, aren?" "t they?" "Yes, those by the water." "But those giants next to them are clubmosses." "In place of those strange trees, there will be mines here one day." "This is the beginning of coal formation." "Miners will excavate it one day." "But not for ages and ages." "Wait, I?" "ll clear the way." "There's so much junk here." "Toník!" "Wait a sec." "No way, guys." "We can?" "t go any further." "Roger that." "Look at this." "We'll never get the raft past it." "Well..." "What should we do?" "We?" "ll walk." "Let?" "s take everything with us." "Don?" "t forget anything, guys." "We?" "ll need everything for the journey ahead." "Especially the diary." "We must take extra good care of it." "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Come and help." "Quiet!" "Quiet." "Can you hear it?" "Cricket!" "Cricket for sure!" "A cricket!" "That's a find?" "Crazy kid." "What's he doing?" "Knowing Jirka, whatever he finds will be a big deal." "Guys, I just found a Carboniferous animal." "Let me see." "Well, I?" "m no scientist, but I?" "m sure this didn?" "t make that noise." "You cricket you, it?" "s a centipede, that's all." "I know that." "But I?" "m gonna find that bug." "I can still hear it." "Don?" "t go too far." "These swamps are dangerous." "You could sink out of sight before you know it." "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Get back!" "Jirka!" "Jirka!" "Diary!" "Our diary." "Shoo!" "Shoo!" "Get lost!" "Take that!" "Scuzzbag!" "Get lost!" "Shoo!" "Scat!" "Outta the way!" "Hear that?" "It?" "s him!" "At last!" "That way!" "Let?" "s find him!" "So he won?" "t walk around in circles." "Perfect!" "He heard us." "Guys, we can't let him off so lightly this time." "He deserves a real kick in the pants." "He has it coming all right, the trouble-maker." "Hi guys!" "I?" "m back." "Glad I found you." "The whistling helped a lot." "If you saw what had happened..." "I ran into a lizard or salamander, you'd know what it was Petr." "And it stuck its head out and then I... you know what?" "We don?" "t." "But we know that you can?" "t behave like an expedition member." "You?" "re a kid and nothing more." "Swamps everywhere and you're God-knows-where." "We always have to watch your back." "I fought with it and drove it away!" "It was a terrible lizard." "Must have been." "Look at your pants." "You need to change your clothes." "Come on." "Let?" "s go." "You won?" "t trust me!" "Shut up and move." "I really fought with it!" "Hurry up, we have to find a campsite before dark." "Jirka, take this." "Did you hear me?" "Take it!" "Jirka!" "Come and see our bed for tonight!" "We'll be sleeping high and dry." "Ah, Mr. Offended." "What are you looking for, Petr?" "The diary." "I can't find it." "I packed it myself." "It must be here somewhere." "You put it in the kit-bag." "I saw it." "Look again!" "I did." "But it?" "s gone." "You must have dropped it during the hike." "Or when we were climbing over that tree." "What will I do?" "No point searching for it in these marshes." "Well, we don?" "t know the way back." "What a loss." "The most precious thing we brought." "The diary." "All our records." "Everything lost." "Diary!" "That?" "s it!" ""You can?" "t behave like an expedition member." "You are a kid and nothing more."" "Is that what you told me?" "Guys!" "Our Jirka..." "Come and sit!" "So show me your bed!" "I?" "ll record this." "Don?" "t forget Jirka fighting the salamander." "And finding the diary!" "Right!" "That was his greatest find!" "With the diary found, hope returned to our hearts." "Without this good fortune our diary would have missed the end of the story." "We walked through the mazes of the Carboniferous and our final journey was ahead." "We were entering the Silurian Period." "The Silurian." "Nothing but rock and stone." "As if the whole world was petrified." "Not a leaf of grass, nor a bush, bug, nothing." "Nothing could live in this world." "The sea!" "We saw it for the first time." "It was wide, infinite." "We were stunned by its immensity." "Somewhere far, far away, in times man cannot imagine, the beginning lay." "Life began there." "Well?" "How do you like it?" "Is the water salty?" "What?" "Is the water salty?" "Go ahead, taste it!" "Well?" "Do you believe it?" "s seawater?" "What a shame it?" "s so lifeless and bare." "Look." "Over there." "Seaweed." "That?" "s a living thing." "In water, for now." "But sometimes they are washed up onto shore." "Some die, but some hold on." "They?" "ll get used to air." "And the first plants will grow." "And become giant forests!" "It?" "s going to take millions and millions of years." "I?" "ve found something!" "Another piece of life!" "Shells of some crustaceans." "The ocean is teeming with them." "This is how they got onto land." "Let?" "s look for more!" "Guys!" "Look at this!" "Do you see it?" "Jirka!" "Do you know what this is?" "Nah." "Trilobite!" "Really?" "So this is no. 2!" "You found one before!" "Remember?" "Um, let me look..." "Where'd I put it?" "Here!" "Jirka now held two trilobites in his hands." "So close together and yet so far from each other." "Separated by 500 million years." "This stone is a piece of Earth?" "s prehistory." "Now Jirka finally understood." "That was the aim." "The aim of our expedition." "To let him meet prehistoric life." "Neither he, nor we shall ever forget what we have seen." "Life changes and evolves all the time." "And flows away." "Like the waves of the ocean." "This will go on forever." "Into eternity."