"Curious! curious!" muttered the Canadian, who, forgetting his
ill-temper, seemed to submit to some irresistible attraction; "and one
would come further than this to admire such a sight!"
"Ah!" thought I to myself, "I understand the life of this man; he has
made a world apart for himself, in which he treasures all his greatest
wonders."
For two whole hours an aquatic army escorted the Nautilus. During
their games, their bounds, while rivalling each other in beauty,
brightness, and velocity, I distinguished the green labre; the banded
mullet, marked by a double line of black; the round-tailed goby, of a
white colour, with violet spots on the back; the Japanese scombrus, a
beautiful mackerel of these seas, with a blue body and silvery head;
the brilliant azurors, whose name alone defies description; some banded
spares, with variegated fins of blue and yellow; the woodcocks of the
seas, some specimens of which attain a yard in length; Japanese
salamanders, spider lampreys, serpents six feet long, with eyes small
and lively, and a huge mouth bristling with teeth; with many other
species.
Our imagination was kept at its height, interjections followed quickly
on each other. Ned named the fish, and Conseil classed them. I was in
ecstasies with the vivacity of their movements and the beauty of their
forms. Never had it been given to me to surprise these animals, alive
and at liberty, in their natural element. I will not mention all the
varieties which passed before my dazzled eyes, all the collection of
the seas of China and Japan. These fish, more numerous than the birds
of the air, came, attracted, no doubt, by the brilliant focus of the
electric light.
Suddenly there was daylight in the saloon, the iron panels closed
again, and the enchanting vision disappeared. But for a long time I
dreamt on, till my eyes fell on the instruments hanging on the
partition. The compass still showed the course to be E.N.E., the
manometer indicated a pressure of five atmospheres, equivalent to a
depth of twenty five fathoms, and the electric log gave a speed of
fifteen miles an hour. I expected Captain Nemo, but he did not appear.
The clock marked the hour of five.
Ned Land and Conseil returned to their cabin, and I retired to my
chamber. My dinner was ready. It was composed of turtle soup made of
the most delicate hawks bills, of a surmullet served with puff paste
(the liver of which, prepared by itself, was most delicious), and
fillets of the emperor-holocanthus, the savour of which seemed to me
superior even to salmon.
I passed the evening reading, writing, and thinking. Then sleep
overpowered me, and I stretched myself on my couch of zostera, and
slept profoundly, whilst the Nautilus was gliding rapidly through the
current of the Black River.
CHAPTER XIV
A NOTE OF INVITATION
The next day was the 9th of November. I awoke after a long sleep of
twelve hours. Conseil came, according to custom, to know "how I passed
the night," and to offer his services. He had left his friend the
Canadian sleeping like a man who had never done anything else all his
life. I let the worthy fellow chatter as he pleased, without caring to
answer him. I was preoccupied by the absence of the Captain during our
sitting of the day before, and hoping to see him to-day.
As soon as I was dressed I went into the saloon. It was deserted. I
plunged into the study of the shell treasures hidden behind the glasses.
The whole day passed without my being honoured by a visit from Captain
Nemo. The panels of the saloon did not open. Perhaps they did not
wish us to tire of these beautiful things.
The course of the Nautilus was E.N.E., her speed twelve knots, the
depth below the surface between twenty-five and thirty fathoms.
The next day, 10th of November, the same desertion, the same solitude.
I did not see one of the ship's crew: Ned and Conseil spent the greater
part of the day with me. They were astonished at the puzzling absence
of the Captain. Was this singular man ill?--had he altered his
intentions with regard to us?
After all, as Conseil said, we enjoyed perfect liberty, we were
delicately and abundantly fed. Our host kept to his terms of the
treaty. We could not complain, and, indeed, the singularity of our
fate reserved such wonderful compensation for us that we had no right
to accuse it as yet.
That day I commenced the journal of these adventures which has enabled
me to relate them with more scrupulous exactitude and minute detail.
11th November, early in the morning. The fresh air spreading over the
interior of the Nautilus told me that we had come to the surface of the
ocean to renew our supply of oxygen. I directed my steps to the
central staircase, and mounted the platform.
It was six o'clock, the weather was cloudy, the sea grey, but calm.
Scarcely a billow. Captain Nemo, whom I hoped to meet, would he be
there? I saw no one but the steersman imprisoned in his glass cage.
Seated upon the projection formed by the hull of the pinnace, I inhaled
the salt breeze with delight.
By degrees the fog disappeared under the action of the sun's rays, the
radiant orb rose from behind the eastern horizon. The sea flamed under
its glance like a train of gunpowder. The clouds scattered in the
heights were coloured with lively tints of beautiful shades, and
numerous "mare's tails," which betokened wind for that day. But what
was wind to this Nautilus, which tempests could not frighten!
I was admiring this joyous rising of the sun, so gay, and so
life-giving, when I heard steps approaching the platform. I was
prepared to salute Captain Nemo, but it was his second (whom I had
already seen on the Captain's first visit) who appeared. He advanced
on the platform, not seeming to see me. With his powerful glass to his
eye, he scanned every point of the horizon with great attention. This
examination over, he approached the panel and pronounced a sentence in
exactly these terms. I have remembered it, for every morning it was
repeated under exactly the same conditions. It was thus worded:
"Nautron respoc lorni virch."
What it meant I could not say.
These words pronounced, the second descended. I thought that the
Nautilus was about to return to its submarine navigation. I regained
the panel and returned to my chamber.
Five days sped thus, without any change in our situation. Every
morning I mounted the platform. The same phrase was pronounced by the
same individual. But Captain Nemo did not appear.
I had made up my mind that I should never see him again, when, on the
16th November, on returning to my room with Ned and Conseil, I found
upon my table a note addressed to me. I opened it impatiently. It was
written in a bold, clear hand, the characters rather pointed, recalling
the German type. The note was worded as follows:
TO PROFESSOR ARONNAX, On board the Nautilus. 16th of November, 1867.
Captain Nemo invites Professor Aronnax to a hunting-party, which will
take place to-morrow morning in the forests of the Island of Crespo.
He hopes that nothing will prevent the Professor from being present,
and he will with pleasure see him joined by his companions.
CAPTAIN NEMO, Commander of the Nautilus.
"A hunt!" exclaimed Ned.
"And in the forests of the Island of Crespo!" added Conseil.
"Oh! then the gentleman is going on terra firma?" replied Ned Land.
"That seems to me to be clearly indicated," said I, reading the letter
once more.
"Well, we must accept," said the Canadian. "But once more on dry
ground, we shall know what to do. Indeed, I shall not be sorry to eat
a piece of fresh venison."
Without seeking to reconcile what was contradictory between Captain
Nemo's manifest aversion to islands and continents, and his invitation
to hunt in a forest, I contented myself with replying:
"Let us first see where the Island of Crespo is."
I consulted the planisphere, and in 32° 40' N. lat. and 157°
50' W. long., I found a small island, recognised in 1801 by Captain
Crespo, and marked in the ancient Spanish maps as Rocca de la Plata,
the meaning of which is The Silver Rock. We were then about eighteen
hundred miles from our starting-point, and the course of the Nautilus,
a little changed, was bringing it back towards the southeast.
I showed this little rock, lost in the midst of the North Pacific, to
my companions.
"If Captain Nemo does sometimes go on dry ground," said I, "he at least
chooses desert islands."
Ned Land shrugged his shoulders without speaking, and Conseil and he
left me.
After supper, which was served by the steward, mute and impassive, I
went to bed, not without some anxiety.
The next morning, the 17th of November, on awakening, I felt that the
Nautilus was perfectly still. I dressed quickly and entered the saloon.
Captain Nemo was there, waiting for me. He rose, bowed, and asked me
if it was convenient for me to accompany him. As he made no allusion
to his absence during the last eight days, I did not mention it, and
simply answered that my companions and myself were ready to follow him.
We entered the dining-room, where breakfast was served.
"M. Aronnax," said the Captain, "pray, share my breakfast without
ceremony; we will chat as we eat. For, though I promised you a walk in
the forest, I did not undertake to find hotels there. So breakfast as
a man who will most likely not have his dinner till very late."
I did honour to the repast. It was composed of several kinds of fish,
and slices of sea-cucumber, and different sorts of seaweed. Our drink
consisted of pure water, to which the Captain added some drops of a
fermented liquor, extracted by the Kamschatcha method from a seaweed
known under the name of Rhodomenia palmata. Captain Nemo ate at first
without saying a word. Then he began:
"Sir, when I proposed to you to hunt in my submarine forest of Crespo,
you evidently thought me mad. Sir, you should never judge lightly of
any man."
"But Captain, believe me----"
"Be kind enough to listen, and you will then see whether you have any
cause to accuse me of folly and contradiction."
"I listen."
"You know as well as I do, Professor, that man can live under water,
providing he carries with him a sufficient supply of breathable air.
In submarine works, the workman, clad in an impervious dress, with his
head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by means of forcing
pumps and regulators."
"That is a diving apparatus," said I.
"Just so, but under these conditions the man is not at liberty; he is
attached to the pump which sends him air through an india-rubber tube,
and if we were obliged to be thus held to the Nautilus, we could not go
far."
"And the means of getting free?" I asked.
"It is to use the Rouquayrol apparatus, invented by two of your own
countrymen, which I have brought to perfection for my own use, and
which will allow you to risk yourself under these new physiological
conditions without any organ whatever suffering. It consists of a
reservoir of thick iron plates, in which I store the air under a
pressure of fifty atmospheres. This reservoir is fixed on the back by
means of braces, like a soldier's knapsack. Its upper part forms a box
in which the air is kept by means of a bellows, and therefore cannot
escape unless at its normal tension. In the Rouquayrol apparatus such
as we use, two india rubber pipes leave this box and join a sort of
tent which holds the nose and mouth; one is to introduce fresh air, the
other to let out the foul, and the tongue closes one or the other
according to the wants of the respirator. But I, in encountering great
pressures at the bottom of the sea, was obliged to shut my head, like
that of a diver in a ball of copper; and it is to this ball of copper
that the two pipes, the inspirator and the expirator, open."
"Perfectly, Captain Nemo; but the air that you carry with you must soon
be used; when it only contains fifteen per cent. of oxygen it is no
longer fit to breathe."
"Right! But I told you, M. Aronnax, that the pumps of the Nautilus
allow me to store the air under considerable pressure, and on those
conditions the reservoir of the apparatus can furnish breathable air
for nine or ten hours."
"I have no further objections to make," I answered. "I will only ask
you one thing, Captain--how can you light your road at the bottom of
the sea?"
"With the Ruhmkorff apparatus, M. Aronnax; one is carried on the back,
the other is fastened to the waist. It is composed of a Bunsen pile,
which I do not work with bichromate of potash, but with sodium. A wire
is introduced which collects the electricity produced, and directs it
towards a particularly made lantern. In this lantern is a spiral glass
which contains a small quantity of carbonic gas. When the apparatus is
at work this gas becomes luminous, giving out a white and continuous
light. Thus provided, I can breathe and I can see."
"Captain Nemo, to all my objections you make such crushing answers that
I dare no longer doubt. But, if I am forced to admit the Rouquayrol
and Ruhmkorff apparatus, I must be allowed some reservations with
regard to the gun I am to carry."
"But it is not a gun for powder," answered the Captain.
"Then it is an air-gun."
"Doubtless! How would you have me manufacture gun powder on board,
without either saltpetre, sulphur, or charcoal?"
"Besides," I added, "to fire under water in a medium eight hundred and
fifty-five times denser than the air, we must conquer very considerable
resistance."
"That would be no difficulty. There exist guns, according to Fulton,
perfected in England by Philip Coles and Burley, in France by Furcy,
and in Italy by Landi, which are furnished with a peculiar system of
closing, which can fire under these conditions. But I repeat, having
no powder, I use air under great pressure, which the pumps of the
Nautilus furnish abundantly."
"But this air must be rapidly used?"
"Well, have I not my Rouquayrol reservoir, which can furnish it at
need? A tap is all that is required. Besides M. Aronnax, you must see
yourself that, during our submarine hunt, we can spend but little air
and but few balls."
"But it seems to me that in this twilight, and in the midst of this
fluid, which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could
not go far, nor easily prove mortal."
"Sir, on the contrary, with this gun every blow is mortal; and, however
lightly the animal is touched, it falls as if struck by a thunderbolt."
"Why?"
"Because the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little
cases of glass. These glass cases are covered with a case of steel,
and weighted with a pellet of lead; they are real Leyden bottles, into
which the electricity is forced to a very high tension. With the
slightest shock they are discharged, and the animal, however strong it
may be, falls dead. I must tell you that these cases are size number
four, and that the charge for an ordinary gun would be ten."
"I will argue no longer," I replied, rising from the table. "I have
nothing left me but to take my gun. At all events, I will go where you
go."
Captain Nemo then led me aft; and in passing before Ned's and Conseil's
cabin, I called my two companions, who followed promptly. We then came
to a cell near the machinery-room, in which we put on our walking-dress.
CHAPTER XV
A WALK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
This cell was, to speak correctly, the arsenal and wardrobe of the
Nautilus. A dozen diving apparatuses hung from the partition waiting
our use.
Ned Land, on seeing them, showed evident repugnance to dress himself in
one.
"But, my worthy Ned, the forests of the Island of Crespo are nothing
but submarine forests."
"Good!" said the disappointed harpooner, who saw his dreams of fresh
meat fade away. "And you, M. Aronnax, are you going to dress yourself
in those clothes?"
"There is no alternative, Master Ned."
"As you please, sir," replied the harpooner, shrugging his shoulders;
"but, as for me, unless I am forced, I will never get into one."
"No one will force you, Master Ned," said Captain Nemo.
"Is Conseil going to risk it?" asked Ned.
"I follow my master wherever he goes," replied Conseil.
At the Captain's call two of the ship's crew came to help us dress in
these heavy and impervious clothes, made of india-rubber without seam,
and constructed expressly to resist considerable pressure. One would
have thought it a suit of armour, both supple and resisting. This suit
formed trousers and waistcoat. The trousers were finished off with
thick boots, weighted with heavy leaden soles. The texture of the
waistcoat was held together by bands of copper, which crossed the
chest, protecting it from the great pressure of the water, and leaving
the lungs free to act; the sleeves ended in gloves, which in no way
restrained the movement of the hands. There was a vast difference
noticeable between these consummate apparatuses and the old cork
breastplates, jackets, and other contrivances in vogue during the
eighteenth century.
Captain Nemo and one of his companions (a sort of Hercules, who must
have possessed great strength), Conseil and myself were soon enveloped
in the dresses. There remained nothing more to be done but to enclose
our heads in the metal box. But, before proceeding to this operation,
I asked the Captain's permission to examine the guns.
One of the Nautilus men gave me a simple gun, the butt end of which,
made of steel, hollow in the centre, was rather large. It served as a
reservoir for compressed air, which a valve, worked by a spring,
allowed to escape into a metal tube. A box of projectiles in a groove
in the thickness of the butt end contained about twenty of these
electric balls, which, by means of a spring, were forced into the
barrel of the gun. As soon as one shot was fired, another was ready.
"Captain Nemo," said I, "this arm is perfect, and easily handled: I
only ask to be allowed to try it. But how shall we gain the bottom of
the sea?"
"At this moment, Professor, the Nautilus is stranded in five fathoms,
and we have nothing to do but to start."
"But how shall we get off?"
"You shall see."
Captain Nemo thrust his head into the helmet, Conseil and I did the
same, not without hearing an ironical "Good sport!" from the Canadian.
The upper part of our dress terminated in a copper collar upon which
was screwed the metal helmet. Three holes, protected by thick glass,
allowed us to see in all directions, by simply turning our head in the
interior of the head-dress. As soon as it was in position, the
Rouquayrol apparatus on our backs began to act; and, for my part, I
could breathe with ease.
With the Ruhmkorff lamp hanging from my belt, and the gun in my hand, I
was ready to set out. But to speak the truth, imprisoned in these
heavy garments, and glued to the deck by my leaden soles, it was
impossible for me to take a step.
But this state of things was provided for. I felt myself being pushed
into a little room contiguous to the wardrobe room. My companions
followed, towed along in the same way. I heard a water-tight door,
furnished with stopper plates, close upon us, and we were wrapped in
profound darkness.
After some minutes, a loud hissing was heard. I felt the cold mount
from my feet to my chest. Evidently from some part of the vessel they
had, by means of a tap, given entrance to the water, which was invading
us, and with which the room was soon filled. A second door cut in the
side of the Nautilus then opened. We saw a faint light. In another
instant our feet trod the bottom of the sea.
And now, how can I retrace the impression left upon me by that walk
under the waters? Words are impotent to relate such wonders! Captain
Nemo walked in front, his companion followed some steps behind.
Conseil and I remained near each other, as if an exchange of words had
been possible through our metallic cases. I no longer felt the weight
of my clothing, or of my shoes, of my reservoir of air, or my thick
helmet, in the midst of which my head rattled like an almond in its
shell.
The light, which lit the soil thirty feet below the surface of the
ocean, astonished me by its power. The solar rays shone through the
watery mass easily, and dissipated all colour, and I clearly
distinguished objects at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards.
Beyond that the tints darkened into fine gradations of ultramarine, and
faded into vague obscurity. Truly this water which surrounded me was
but another air denser than the terrestrial atmosphere, but almost as
transparent. Above me was the calm surface of the sea. We were
walking on fine, even sand, not wrinkled, as on a flat shore, which
retains the impression of the billows. This dazzling carpet, really a
reflector, repelled the rays of the sun with wonderful intensity, which
accounted for the vibration which penetrated every atom of liquid.
Shall I be believed when I say that, at the depth of thirty feet, I
could see as if I was in broad daylight?
For a quarter of an hour I trod on this sand, sown with the impalpable
dust of shells. The hull of the Nautilus, resembling a long shoal,
disappeared by degrees; but its lantern, when darkness should overtake
us in the waters, would help to guide us on board by its distinct rays.
Soon forms of objects outlined in the distance were discernible. I
recognised magnificent rocks, hung with a tapestry of zoophytes of the
most beautiful kind, and I was at first struck by the peculiar effect
of this medium.
It was then ten in the morning; the rays of the sun struck the surface
of the waves at rather an oblique angle, and at the touch of their
light, decomposed by refraction as through a prism, flowers, rocks,
plants, shells, and polypi were shaded at the edges by the seven solar
colours. It was marvellous, a feast for the eyes, this complication of
coloured tints, a perfect kaleidoscope of green, yellow, orange,
violet, indigo, and blue; in one word, the whole palette of an
enthusiastic colourist! Why could I not communicate to Conseil the
lively sensations which were mounting to my brain, and rival him in
expressions of admiration? For aught I knew, Captain Nemo and his
companion might be able to exchange thoughts by means of signs
previously agreed upon. So, for want of better, I talked to myself; I
declaimed in the copper box which covered my head, thereby expending
more air in vain words than was perhaps wise.
Various kinds of isis, clusters of pure tuft-coral, prickly fungi, and
anemones formed a brilliant garden of flowers, decked with their
collarettes of blue tentacles, sea-stars studding the sandy bottom. It
was a real grief to me to crush under my feet the brilliant specimens
of molluscs which strewed the ground by thousands, of hammerheads,
donaciae (veritable bounding shells), of staircases, and red
helmet-shells, angel-wings, and many others produced by this
inexhaustible ocean. But we were bound to walk, so we went on, whilst
above our heads waved medusae whose umbrellas of opal or rose-pink,
escalloped with a band of blue, sheltered us from the rays of the sun
and fiery pelagiae, which, in the darkness, would have strewn our path
with phosphorescent light.
All these wonders I saw in the space of a quarter of a mile, scarcely
stopping, and following Captain Nemo, who beckoned me on by signs.
Soon the nature of the soil changed; to the sandy plain succeeded an
extent of slimy mud which the Americans call "ooze," composed of equal
parts of silicious and calcareous shells. We then travelled over a
plain of seaweed of wild and luxuriant vegetation. This sward was of
close texture, and soft to the feet, and rivalled the softest carpet
woven by the hand of man. But whilst verdure was spread at our feet,
it did not abandon our heads. A light network of marine plants, of
that inexhaustible family of seaweeds of which more than two thousand
kinds are known, grew on the surface of the water.
I noticed that the green plants kept nearer the top of the sea, whilst
the red were at a greater depth, leaving to the black or brown the care
of forming gardens and parterres in the remote beds of the ocean.
We had quitted the Nautilus about an hour and a half. It was near
noon; I knew by the perpendicularity of the sun's rays, which were no
longer refracted. The magical colours disappeared by degrees, and the
shades of emerald and sapphire were effaced. We walked with a regular
step, which rang upon the ground with astonishing intensity; the
slightest noise was transmitted with a quickness to which the ear is
unaccustomed on the earth; indeed, water is a better conductor of sound
than air, in the ratio of four to one. At this period the earth sloped
downwards; the light took a uniform tint. We were at a depth of a
hundred and five yards and twenty inches, undergoing a pressure of six
atmospheres.
At this depth I could still see the rays of the sun, though feebly; to
their intense brilliancy had succeeded a reddish twilight, the lowest
state between day and night; but we could still see well enough; it was
not necessary to resort to the Ruhmkorff apparatus as yet. At this
moment Captain Nemo stopped; he waited till I joined him, and then
pointed to an obscure mass, looming in the shadow, at a short distance.
"It is the forest of the Island of Crespo," thought I; and I was not
mistaken.
CHAPTER XVI
A SUBMARINE FOREST
We had at last arrived on the borders of this forest, doubtless one of
the finest of Captain Nemo's immense domains. He looked upon it as his
own, and considered he had the same right over it that the first men
had in the first days of the world. And, indeed, who would have
disputed with him the possession of this submarine property? What
other hardier pioneer would come, hatchet in hand, to cut down the dark
copses?
This forest was composed of large tree-plants; and the moment we
penetrated under its vast arcades, I was struck by the singular
position of their branches--a position I had not yet observed.
Not an herb which carpeted the ground, not a branch which clothed the
trees, was either broken or bent, nor did they extend horizontally; all
stretched up to the surface of the ocean. Not a filament, not a
ribbon, however thin they might be, but kept as straight as a rod of
iron. The fuci and llianas grew in rigid perpendicular lines, due to
the density of the element which had produced them. Motionless yet,
when bent to one side by the hand, they directly resumed their former
position. Truly it was the region of perpendicularity!
I soon accustomed myself to this fantastic position, as well as to the
comparative darkness which surrounded us. The soil of the forest
seemed covered with sharp blocks, difficult to avoid. The submarine
flora struck me as being very perfect, and richer even than it would
have been in the arctic or tropical zones, where these productions are
not so plentiful. But for some minutes I involuntarily confounded the
genera, taking animals for plants; and who would not have been
mistaken? The fauna and the flora are too closely allied in this
submarine world.
These plants are self-propagated, and the principle of their existence
is in the water, which upholds and nourishes them. The greater number,
instead of leaves, shoot forth blades of capricious shapes, comprised
within a scale of colours pink, carmine, green, olive, fawn, and brown.
"Curious anomaly, fantastic element!" said an ingenious naturalist, "in
which the animal kingdom blossoms, and the vegetable does not!"
In about an hour Captain Nemo gave the signal to halt; I, for my part,
was not sorry, and we stretched ourselves under an arbour of alariae,
the long thin blades of which stood up like arrows.
This short rest seemed delicious to me; there was nothing wanting but
the charm of conversation; but, impossible to speak, impossible to
answer, I only put my great copper head to Conseil's. I saw the worthy
fellow's eyes glistening with delight, and, to show his satisfaction,
he shook himself in his breastplate of air, in the most comical way in
the world.
After four hours of this walking, I was surprised not to find myself
dreadfully hungry. How to account for this state of the stomach I
could not tell. But instead I felt an insurmountable desire to sleep,
which happens to all divers. And my eyes soon closed behind the thick
glasses, and I fell into a heavy slumber, which the movement alone had
prevented before. Captain Nemo and his robust companion, stretched in
the clear crystal, set us the example.
How long I remained buried in this drowsiness I cannot judge, but, when
I woke, the sun seemed sinking towards the horizon. Captain Nemo had
already risen, and I was beginning to stretch my limbs, when an
unexpected apparition brought me briskly to my feet.
A few steps off, a monstrous sea-spider, about thirty-eight inches
high, was watching me with squinting eyes, ready to spring upon me.
Though my diver's dress was thick enough to defend me from the bite of
this animal, I could not help shuddering with horror. Conseil and the
sailor of the Nautilus awoke at this moment. Captain Nemo pointed out
the hideous crustacean, which a blow from the butt end of the gun
knocked over, and I saw the horrible claws of the monster writhe in
terrible convulsions. This incident reminded me that other animals
more to be feared might haunt these obscure depths, against whose
attacks my diving-dress would not protect me. I had never thought of
it before, but I now resolved to be upon my guard. Indeed, I thought
that this halt would mark the termination of our walk; but I was
mistaken, for, instead of returning to the Nautilus, Captain Nemo
continued his bold excursion. The ground was still on the incline, its
declivity seemed to be getting greater, and to be leading us to greater
depths. It must have been about three o'clock when we reached a narrow
valley, between high perpendicular walls, situated about seventy-five
fathoms deep. Thanks to the perfection of our apparatus, we were
forty-five fathoms below the limit which nature seems to have imposed
on man as to his submarine excursions.
I say seventy-five fathoms, though I had no instrument by which to
judge the distance. But I knew that even in the clearest waters the
solar rays could not penetrate further. And accordingly the darkness
deepened. At ten paces not an object was visible. I was groping my
way, when I suddenly saw a brilliant white light. Captain Nemo had
just put his electric apparatus into use; his companion did the same,
and Conseil and I followed their example. By turning a screw I
established a communication between the wire and the spiral glass, and
the sea, lit by our four lanterns, was illuminated for a circle of
thirty-six yards.
As we walked I thought the light of our Ruhmkorff apparatus could not
fail to draw some inhabitant from its dark couch. But if they did
approach us, they at least kept at a respectful distance from the
hunters. Several times I saw Captain Nemo stop, put his gun to his
shoulder, and after some moments drop it and walk on. At last, after
about four hours, this marvellous excursion came to an end. A wall of
superb rocks, in an imposing mass, rose before us, a heap of gigantic
blocks, an enormous, steep granite shore, forming dark grottos, but
which presented no practicable slope; it was the prop of the Island of
Crespo. It was the earth! Captain Nemo stopped suddenly. A gesture
of his brought us all to a halt; and, however desirous I might be to
scale the wall, I was obliged to stop. Here ended Captain Nemo's
domains. And he would not go beyond them. Further on was a portion of
the globe he might not trample upon.
The return began. Captain Nemo had returned to the head of his little
band, directing their course without hesitation. I thought we were not
following the same road to return to the Nautilus. The new road was
very steep, and consequently very painful. We approached the surface
of the sea rapidly. But this return to the upper strata was not so
sudden as to cause relief from the pressure too rapidly, which might
have produced serious disorder in our organisation, and brought on
internal lesions, so fatal to divers. Very soon light reappeared and
grew, and, the sun being low on the horizon, the refraction edged the
different objects with a spectral ring. At ten yards and a half deep,
we walked amidst a shoal of little fishes of all kinds, more numerous
than the birds of the air, and also more agile; but no aquatic game
worthy of a shot had as yet met our gaze, when at that moment I saw the
Captain shoulder his gun quickly, and follow a moving object into the
shrubs. He fired; I heard a slight hissing, and a creature fell
stunned at some distance from us. It was a magnificent sea-otter, an
enhydrus, the only exclusively marine quadruped. This otter was five
feet long, and must have been very valuable. Its skin, chestnut-brown
above and silvery underneath, would have made one of those beautiful
furs so sought after in the Russian and Chinese markets: the fineness
and the lustre of its coat would certainly fetch L80. I admired this
curious mammal, with its rounded head ornamented with short ears, its
round eyes, and white whiskers like those of a cat, with webbed feet
and nails, and tufted tail. This precious animal, hunted and tracked
by fishermen, has now become very rare, and taken refuge chiefly in the
northern parts of the Pacific, or probably its race would soon become
extinct.
Captain Nemo's companion took the beast, threw it over his shoulder,
and we continued our journey. For one hour a plain of sand lay
stretched before us. Sometimes it rose to within two yards and some
inches of the surface of the water. I then saw our image clearly
reflected, drawn inversely, and above us appeared an identical group
reflecting our movements and our actions; in a word, like us in every
point, except that they walked with their heads downward and their feet
in the air.
Another effect I noticed, which was the passage of thick clouds which
formed and vanished rapidly; but on reflection I understood that these
seeming clouds were due to the varying thickness of the reeds at the
bottom, and I could even see the fleecy foam which their broken tops
multiplied on the water, and the shadows of large birds passing above
our heads, whose rapid flight I could discern on the surface of the sea.
On this occasion I was witness to one of the finest gun shots which
ever made the nerves of a hunter thrill. A large bird of great breadth
of wing, clearly visible, approached, hovering over us. Captain Nemo's
companion shouldered his gun and fired, when it was only a few yards
above the waves. The creature fell stunned, and the force of its fall
brought it within the reach of dexterous hunter's grasp. It was an
albatross of the finest kind.
Our march had not been interrupted by this incident. For two hours we
followed these sandy plains, then fields of algae very disagreeable to
cross. Candidly, I could do no more when I saw a glimmer of light,
which, for a half mile, broke the darkness of the waters. It was the
lantern of the Nautilus. Before twenty minutes were over we should be
on board, and I should be able to breathe with ease, for it seemed that
my reservoir supplied air very deficient in oxygen. But I did not
reckon on an accidental meeting which delayed our arrival for some time.
I had remained some steps behind, when I presently saw Captain Nemo
coming hurriedly towards me. With his strong hand he bent me to the
ground, his companion doing the same to Conseil. At first I knew not
what to think of this sudden attack, but I was soon reassured by seeing
the Captain lie down beside me, and remain immovable.
I was stretched on the ground, just under the shelter of a bush of
algae, when, raising my head, I saw some enormous mass, casting
phosphorescent gleams, pass blusteringly by.
My blood froze in my veins as I recognised two formidable sharks which
threatened us. It was a couple of tintoreas, terrible creatures, with
enormous tails and a dull glassy stare, the phosphorescent matter
ejected from holes pierced around the muzzle. Monstrous brutes! which
would crush a whole man in their iron jaws. I did not know whether
Conseil stopped to classify them; for my part, I noticed their silver
bellies, and their huge mouths bristling with teeth, from a very
unscientific point of view, and more as a possible victim than as a
naturalist.
Happily the voracious creatures do not see well. They passed without
seeing us, brushing us with their brownish fins, and we escaped by a
miracle from a danger certainly greater than meeting a tiger full-face
in the forest. Half an hour after, guided by the electric light we
reached the Nautilus. The outside door had been left open, and Captain
Nemo closed it as soon as we had entered the first cell. He then
pressed a knob. I heard the pumps working in the midst of the vessel,
I felt the water sinking from around me, and in a few moments the cell
was entirely empty. The inside door then opened, and we entered the
vestry.
There our diving-dress was taken off, not without some trouble, and,
fairly worn out from want of food and sleep, I returned to my room, in
great wonder at this surprising excursion at the bottom of the sea.
CHAPTER XVII
FOUR THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE PACIFIC
The next morning, the 18th of November, I had quite recovered from my
fatigues of the day before, and I went up on to the platform, just as
the second lieutenant was uttering his daily phrase.
I was admiring the magnificent aspect of the ocean when Captain Nemo
appeared. He did not seem to be aware of my presence, and began a
series of astronomical observations. Then, when he had finished, he
went and leant on the cage of the watch-light, and gazed abstractedly
on the ocean. In the meantime, a number of the sailors of the
Nautilus, all strong and healthy men, had come up onto the platform.
They came to draw up the nets that had been laid all night. These
sailors were evidently of different nations, although the European type
was visible in all of them. I recognised some unmistakable Irishmen,
Frenchmen, some Sclaves, and a Greek, or a Candiote. They were civil,
and only used that odd language among themselves, the origin of which I
could not guess, neither could I question them.
The nets were hauled in. They were a large kind of "chaluts," like
those on the Normandy coasts, great pockets that the waves and a chain
fixed in the smaller meshes kept open. These pockets, drawn by iron
poles, swept through the water, and gathered in everything in their
way. That day they brought up curious specimens from those productive
coasts.
I reckoned that the haul had brought in more than nine hundredweight of
fish. It was a fine haul, but not to be wondered at. Indeed, the nets
are let down for several hours, and enclose in their meshes an infinite
variety. We had no lack of excellent food, and the rapidity of the
Nautilus and the attraction of the electric light could always renew
our supply. These several productions of the sea were immediately
lowered through the panel to the steward's room, some to be eaten
fresh, and others pickled.
The fishing ended, the provision of air renewed, I thought that the
Nautilus was about to continue its submarine excursion, and was
preparing to return to my room, when, without further preamble, the
Captain turned to me, saying:
"Professor, is not this ocean gifted with real life? It has its
tempers and its gentle moods. Yesterday it slept as we did, and now it
has woke after a quiet night. Look!" he continued, "it wakes under the
caresses of the sun. It is going to renew its diurnal existence. It
is an interesting study to watch the play of its organisation. It has
a pulse, arteries, spasms; and I agree with the learned Maury, who
discovered in it a circulation as real as the circulation of blood in
animals.
"Yes, the ocean has indeed circulation, and to promote it, the Creator
has caused things to multiply in it--caloric, salt, and animalculae."
When Captain Nemo spoke thus, he seemed altogether changed, and aroused
an extraordinary emotion in me.
"Also," he added, "true existence is there; and I can imagine the
foundations of nautical towns, clusters of submarine houses, which,
like the Nautilus, would ascend every morning to breathe at the surface
of the water, free towns, independent cities. Yet who knows whether
some despot----"
Captain Nemo finished his sentence with a violent gesture. Then,
addressing me as if to chase away some sorrowful thought:
"M. Aronnax," he asked, "do you know the depth of the ocean?"
"I only know, Captain, what the principal soundings have taught us."
"Could you tell me them, so that I can suit them to my purpose?"
"These are some," I replied, "that I remember. If I am not mistaken, a
depth of 8,000 yards has been found in the North Atlantic, and 2,500
yards in the Mediterranean. The most remarkable soundings have been
made in the South Atlantic, near the thirty-fifth parallel, and they
gave 12,000 yards, 14,000 yards, and 15,000 yards. To sum up all, it
is reckoned that if the bottom of the sea were levelled, its mean depth
would be about one and three-quarter leagues."
"Well, Professor," replied the Captain, "we shall show you better than
that I hope. As to the mean depth of this part of the Pacific, I tell
you it is only 4,000 yards."
Having said this, Captain Nemo went towards the panel, and disappeared
down the ladder. I followed him, and went into the large drawing-room.
The screw was immediately put in motion, and the log gave twenty miles
an hour.
During the days and weeks that passed, Captain Nemo was very sparing of
his visits. I seldom saw him. The lieutenant pricked the ship's
course regularly on the chart, so I could always tell exactly the route
of the Nautilus.
Nearly every day, for some time, the panels of the drawing-room were
opened, and we were never tired of penetrating the mysteries of the
submarine world.
The general direction of the Nautilus was south-east, and it kept
between 100 and 150 yards of depth. One day, however, I do not know
why, being drawn diagonally by means of the inclined planes, it touched
the bed of the sea. The thermometer indicated a temperature of 4.25
(cent.): a temperature that at this depth seemed common to all
latitudes.
At three o'clock in the morning of the 26th of November the Nautilus
crossed the tropic of Cancer at 172° long. On 27th instant it
sighted the Sandwich Islands, where Cook died, February 14, 1779. We
had then gone 4,860 leagues from our starting-point. In the morning,
when I went on the platform, I saw two miles to windward, Hawaii, the
largest of the seven islands that form the group. I saw clearly the
cultivated ranges, and the several mountain-chains that run parallel
with the side, and the volcanoes that overtop Mouna-Rea, which rise
5,000 yards above the level of the sea. Besides other things the nets
brought up, were several flabellariae and graceful polypi, that are
peculiar to that part of the ocean. The direction of the Nautilus was
still to the south-east. It crossed the equator December 1, in 142°
long.; and on the 4th of the same month, after crossing rapidly and
without anything in particular occurring, we sighted the Marquesas
group. I saw, three miles off, Martin's peak in Nouka-Hiva, the
largest of the group that belongs to France. I only saw the woody
mountains against the horizon, because Captain Nemo did not wish to
bring the ship to the wind. There the nets brought up beautiful
specimens of fish: some with azure fins and tails like gold, the flesh
of which is unrivalled; some nearly destitute of scales, but of
exquisite flavour; others, with bony jaws, and yellow-tinged gills, as
good as bonitos; all fish that would be of use to us. After leaving
these charming islands protected by the French flag, from the 4th to
the 11th of December the Nautilus sailed over about 2,000 miles.
During the daytime of the 11th of December I was busy reading in the
large drawing-room. Ned Land and Conseil watched the luminous water
through the half-open panels. The Nautilus was immovable. While its
reservoirs were filled, it kept at a depth of 1,000 yards, a region
rarely visited in the ocean, and in which large fish were seldom seen.
I was then reading a charming book by Jean Mace, The Slaves of the
Stomach, and I was learning some valuable lessons from it, when Conseil
interrupted me.
"Will master come here a moment?" he said, in a curious voice.
"What is the matter, Conseil?"
"I want master to look."
I rose, went, and leaned on my elbows before the panes and watched.
In a full electric light, an enormous black mass, quite immovable, was
suspended in the midst of the waters. I watched it attentively,
seeking to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean. But a sudden
thought crossed my mind. "A vessel!" I said, half aloud.
"Yes," replied the Canadian, "a disabled ship that has sunk
perpendicularly."
Ned Land was right; we were close to a vessel of which the tattered
shrouds still hung from their chains. The keel seemed to be in good
order, and it had been wrecked at most some few hours. Three stumps of
masts, broken off about two feet above the bridge, showed that the
vessel had had to sacrifice its masts. But, lying on its side, it had
filled, and it was heeling over to port. This skeleton of what it had
once been was a sad spectacle as it lay lost under the waves, but
sadder still was the sight of the bridge, where some corpses, bound
with ropes, were still lying. I counted five--four men, one of whom
was standing at the helm, and a woman standing by the poop, holding an
infant in her arms. She was quite young. I could distinguish her
features, which the water had not decomposed, by the brilliant light
from the Nautilus. In one despairing effort, she had raised her infant
above her head--poor little thing!--whose arms encircled its mother's
neck. The attitude of the four sailors was frightful, distorted as
they were by their convulsive movements, whilst making a last effort to
free themselves from the cords that bound them to the vessel. The
steersman alone, calm, with a grave, clear face, his grey hair glued to
his forehead, and his hand clutching the wheel of the helm, seemed even
then to be guiding the three broken masts through the depths of the
ocean.
What a scene! We were dumb; our hearts beat fast before this
shipwreck, taken as it were from life and photographed in its last
moments. And I saw already, coming towards it with hungry eyes,
enormous sharks, attracted by the human flesh.
However, the Nautilus, turning, went round the submerged vessel, and in
one instant I read on the stern--"The Florida, Sunderland."
CHAPTER XVIII
VANIKORO
This terrible spectacle was the forerunner of the series of maritime
catastrophes that the Nautilus was destined to meet with in its route.
As long as it went through more frequented waters, we often saw the
hulls of shipwrecked vessels that were rotting in the depths, and
deeper down cannons, bullets, anchors, chains, and a thousand other
iron materials eaten up by rust. However, on the 11th of December we
sighted the Pomotou Islands, the old "dangerous group" of Bougainville,
that extend over a space of 500 leagues at E.S.E. to W.N.W., from the
Island Ducie to that of Lazareff. This group covers an area of 370
square leagues, and it is formed of sixty groups of islands, among
which the Gambier group is remarkable, over which France exercises
sway. These are coral islands, slowly raised, but continuous, created
by the daily work of polypi. Then this new island will be joined later
on to the neighboring groups, and a fifth continent will stretch from
New Zealand and New Caledonia, and from thence to the Marquesas.
One day, when I was suggesting this theory to Captain Nemo, he replied
coldly:
"The earth does not want new continents, but new men."
Chance had conducted the Nautilus towards the Island of
Clermont-Tonnere, one of the most curious of the group, that was
discovered in 1822 by Captain Bell of the Minerva. I could study now
the madreporal system, to which are due the islands in this ocean.
Madrepores (which must not be mistaken for corals) have a tissue lined
with a calcareous crust, and the modifications of its structure have
induced M. Milne Edwards, my worthy master, to class them into five
sections. The animalcule that the marine polypus secretes live by
millions at the bottom of their cells. Their calcareous deposits become
rocks, reefs, and large and small islands. Here they form a ring,
surrounding a little inland lake, that communicates with the sea by
means of gaps. There they make barriers of reefs like those on the
coasts of New Caledonia and the various Pomoton islands. In other
places, like those at Reunion and at Maurice, they raise fringed reefs,
high, straight walls, near which the depth of the ocean is considerable.
Some cable-lengths off the shores of the Island of Clermont I admired
the gigantic work accomplished by these microscopical workers. These
walls are specially the work of those madrepores known as milleporas,
porites, madrepores, and astraeas. These polypi are found particularly
in the rough beds of the sea, near the surface; and consequently it is
from the upper part that they begin their operations, in which they
bury themselves by degrees with the debris of the secretions that
support them. Such is, at least, Darwin's theory, who thus explains the
formation of the -atolls-, a superior theory (to my mind) to that given
of the foundation of the madreporical works, summits of mountains or
volcanoes, that are submerged some feet below the level of the sea.
I could observe closely these curious walls, for perpendicularly they
were more than 300 yards deep, and our electric sheets lighted up this
calcareous matter brilliantly. Replying to a question Conseil asked me
as to the time these colossal barriers took to be raised, I astonished
him much by telling him that learned men reckoned it about the eighth
of an inch in a hundred years.
Towards evening Clermont-Tonnerre was lost in the distance, and the
route of the Nautilus was sensibly changed. After having crossed the
tropic of Capricorn in 135° longitude, it sailed W.N.W., making
again for the tropical zone. Although the summer sun was very strong,
we did not suffer from heat, for at fifteen or twenty fathoms below the
surface, the temperature did not rise above from ten to twelve degrees.
On 15th of December, we left to the east the bewitching group of the
Societies and the graceful Tahiti, queen of the Pacific. I saw in the
morning, some miles to the windward, the elevated summits of the
island. These waters furnished our table with excellent fish,
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355
356
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365
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.
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.
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