detestable."
"Detestable, M. Aronnax. The Greek and Latin historians do not speak
favourably of it, and Strabo says it is very dangerous during the Etesian
winds and in the rainy season. The Arabian Edrisi portrays it under the
name of the Gulf of Colzoum, and relates that vessels perished there in
great numbers on the sandbanks and that no one would risk sailing in the
night. It is, he pretends, a sea subject to fearful hurricanes, strewn
with inhospitable islands, and `which offers nothing good either on its
surface or in its depths.'"
"One may see," I replied, "that these historians never sailed on board
the Nautilus."
"Just so," replied the Captain, smiling; "and in that respect moderns
are not more advanced than the ancients. It required many ages to find out
the mechanical power of steam. Who knows if, in another hundred years, we
may not see a second Nautilus? Progress is slow, M. Aronnax."
"It is true," I answered; "your boat is at least a century before its
time, perhaps an era. What a misfortune that the secret of such an
invention should die with its inventor!"
Captain Nemo did not reply. After some minutes' silence he continued:
"You were speaking of the opinions of ancient historians upon the
dangerous navigation of the Red Sea."
"It is true," said I; "but were not their fears exaggerated?"
"Yes and no, M. Aronnax," replied Captain Nemo, who seemed to know the
Red Sea by heart. "That which is no longer dangerous for a modern vessel,
well rigged, strongly built, and master of its own course, thanks to
obedient steam, offered all sorts of perils to the ships of the ancients.
Picture to yourself those first navigators venturing in ships made of
planks sewn with the cords of the palmtree, saturated with the grease of
the seadog, and covered with powdered resin! They had not even instruments
wherewith to take their bearings, and they went by guess amongst currents
of which they scarcely knew anything. Under such conditions shipwrecks
were, and must have been, numerous. But in our time, steamers running
between Suez and the South Seas have nothing more to fear from the fury of
this gulf, in spite of contrary trade-winds. The captain and passengers do
not prepare for their departure by offering propitiatory sacrifices; and,
on their return, they no longer go ornamented with wreaths and gilt
fillets to thank the gods in the neighbouring temple."
"I agree with you," said I; "and steam seems to have killed all
gratitude in the hearts of sailors. But, Captain, since you seem to have
especially studied this sea, can you tell me the origin of its name?"
"There exist several explanations on the subject, M. Aronnax. Would you
like to know the opinion of a chronicler of the fourteenth century?"
"Willingly."
"This fanciful writer pretends that its name was given to it after the
passage of the Israelites, when Pharaoh perished in the waves which closed
at the voice of Moses."
"A poet's explanation, Captain Nemo," I replied; "but I cannot content
myself with that. I ask you for your personal opinion."
"Here it is, M. Aronnax. According to my idea, we must see in this
appellation of the Red Sea a translation of the Hebrew word `Edom'; and if
the ancients gave it that name, it was on account of the particular colour
of its waters."
"But up to this time I have seen nothing but transparent waves and
without any particular colour."
"Very likely; but as we advance to the bottom of the gulf, you will see
this singular appearance. I remember seeing the Bay of Tor entirely red,
like a sea of blood."
"And you attribute this colour to the presence of a microscopic
seaweed?"
"Yes."
"So, Captain Nemo, it is not the first time you have overrun the Red
Sea on board the Nautilus?"
"No, sir."
"As you spoke a while ago of the passage of the Israelites and of the
catastrophe to the Egyptians, I will ask whether you have met with the
traces under the water of this great historical fact?"
"No, sir; and for a good reason."
"What is it?"
"It is that the spot where Moses and his people passed is now so
blocked up with sand that the camels can barely bathe their legs there.
You can well understand that there would not be water enough for my
Nautilus."
"And the spot?" I asked.
"The spot is situated a little above the Isthmus of Suez, in the arm
which formerly made a deep estuary, when the Red Sea extended to the Salt
Lakes. Now, whether this passage were miraculous or not, the Israelites,
nevertheless, crossed there to reach the Promised Land, and Pharaoh's army
perished precisely on that spot; and I think that excavations made in the
middle of the sand would bring to light a large number of arms and
instruments of Egyptian origin."
"That is evident," I replied; "and for the sake of archaeologists let
us hope that these excavations will be made sooner or later, when new
towns are established on the isthmus, after the construction of the Suez
Canal; a canal, however, very useless to a vessel like the Nautilus."
"Very likely; but useful to the whole world," said Captain Nemo. "The
ancients well understood the utility of a communication between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean for their commercial affairs: but they did not
think of digging a canal direct, and took the Nile as an intermediate.
Very probably the canal which united the Nile to the Red Sea was begun by
Sesostris, if we may believe tradition. One thing is certain, that in the
year 615 before Jesus Christ, Necos undertook the works of an alimentary
canal to the waters of the Nile across the plain of Egypt, looking towards
Arabia. It took four days to go up this canal, and it was so wide that two
triremes could go abreast. It was carried on by Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, and probably finished by Ptolemy II. Strabo saw it navigated:
but its decline from the point of departure, near Bubastes, to the Red Sea
was so slight that it was only navigable for a few months in the year.
This canal answered all commercial purposes to the age of Antonius, when
it was abandoned and blocked up with sand. Restored by order of the Caliph
Omar, it was definitely destroyed in 761 or 762 by Caliph Al-Mansor, who
wished to prevent the arrival of provisions to Mohammed-ben-Abdallah, who
had revolted against him. During the expedition into Egypt, your General
Bonaparte discovered traces of the works in the Desert of Suez; and,
surprised by the tide, he nearly perished before regaining Hadjaroth, at
the very place where Moses had encamped three thousand years before him."
"Well, Captain, what the ancients dared not undertake, this junction
between the two seas, which will shorten the road from Cadiz to India, M.
Lesseps has succeeded in doing; and before long he will have changed
Africa into an immense island."
"Yes, M. Aronnax; you have the right to be proud of your countryman.
Such a man brings more honour to a nation than great captains. He began,
like so many others, with disgust and rebuffs; but he has triumphed, for
he has the genius of will. And it is sad to think that a work like that,
which ought to have been an international work and which would have
sufficed to make a reign illustrious, should have succeeded by the energy
of one man. All honour to M. Lesseps!"
"Yes! honour to the great citizen," I replied, surprised by the manner
in which Captain Nemo had just spoken.
"Unfortunately," he continued, "I cannot take you through the Suez
Canal; but you will be able to see the long jetty of Port Said after
to-morrow, when we shall be in the Mediterranean."
"The Mediterranean!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, sir; does that astonish you?"
"What astonishes me is to think that we shall be there the day after
to-morrow."
"Indeed?"
"Yes, Captain, although by this time I ought to have accustomed myself
to be surprised at nothing since I have been on board your boat."
"But the cause of this surprise?"
"Well! it is the fearful speed you will have to put on the Nautilus, if
the day after to-morrow she is to be in the Mediterranean, having made the
round of Africa, and doubled the Cape of Good Hope!"
"Who told you that she would make the round of Africa and double the
Cape of Good Hope, sir?"
"Well, unless the Nautilus sails on dry land, and passes above the
isthmus-"
"Or beneath it, M. Aronnax."
"Beneath it?"
"Certainly," replied Captain Nemo quietly. "A long time ago Nature made
under this tongue of land what man has this day made on its surface."
"What! such a passage exists?"
"Yes; a subterranean passage, which I have named the Arabian Tunnel. It
takes us beneath Suez and opens into the Gulf of Pelusium."
"But this isthmus is composed of nothing but quick sands?"
"To a certain depth. But at fifty-five yards only there is a solid
layer of rock."
"Did you discover this passage by chance?" I asked more and more
surprised.
"Chance and reasoning, sir; and by reasoning even more than by chance.
Not only does this passage exist, but I have profited by it several times.
Without that I should not have ventured this day into the impassable Red
Sea. I noticed that in the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean there existed
a certain number of fishes of a kind perfectly identical. Certain of the
fact, I asked myself was it possible that there was no communication
between the two seas? If there was, the subterranean current must
necessarily run from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, from the sole cause
of difference of level. I caught a large number of fishes in the
neighbourhood of Suez. I passed a copper ring through their tails, and
threw them back into the sea. Some months later, on the coast of Syria, I
caught some of my fish ornamented with the ring. Thus the communication
between the two was proved. I then sought for it with my Nautilus; I
discovered it, ventured into it, and before long, sir, you too will have
passed through my Arabian tunnel!"
That same evening, in 21O 30' N. lat., the Nautilus floated on the
surface of the sea, approaching the Arabian coast. I saw Djeddah, the most
important counting-house of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and India. I
distinguished clearly enough its buildings, the vessels anchored at the
quays, and those whose draught of water obliged them to anchor in the
roads. The sun, rather low on the horizon, struck full on the houses of
the town, bringing out their whiteness. Outside, some wooden cabins, and
some made of reeds, showed the quarter inhabited by the Bedouins. Soon
Djeddah was shut out from view by the shadows of night, and the Nautilus
found herself under water slightly phosphorescent.
The next day, the 10th of February, we sighted several ships running to
windward. The Nautilus returned to its submarine navigation; but at noon,
when her bearings were taken, the sea being deserted, she rose again to
her waterline.
Accompanied by Ned and Conseil, I seated myself on the platform. The
coast on the eastern side looked like a mass faintly printed upon a damp
fog.
We were leaning on the sides of the pinnace, talking of one thing and
another, when Ned Land, stretching out his hand towards a spot on the sea,
said:
"Do you see anything there, sir?"
"No, Ned," I replied; "but I have not your eyes, you know."
"Look well," said Ned, "there, on the starboard beam, about the height
of the lantern! Do you not see a mass which seems to move?"
"Certainly," said I, after close attention; "I see something like a
long black body on the top of the water."
And certainly before long the black object was not more than a mile
from us. It looked like a great sandbank deposited in the open sea. It was
a gigantic dugong!
Ned Land looked eagerly. His eyes shone with covetousness at the sight
of the animal. His hand seemed ready to harpoon it. One would have thought
he was awaiting the moment to throw himself into the sea and attack it in
its element.
At this instant Captain Nemo appeared on the platform. He saw the
dugong, understood the Canadian's attitude, and, addressing him, said:
"If you held a harpoon just now, Master Land, would it not burn your
hand?"
"Just so, sir."
"And you would not be sorry to go back, for one day, to your trade of a
fisherman and to add this cetacean to the list of those you have already
killed?"
"I should not, sir."
"Well, you can try."
"Thank you, sir," said Ned Land, his eyes flaming.
"Only," continued the Captain, "I advise you for your own sake not to
miss the creature."
"Is the dugong dangerous to attack?" I asked, in spite of the
Canadian's shrug of the shoulders.
"Yes," replied the Captain; "sometimes the animal turns upon its
assailants and overturns their boat. But for Master Land this danger is
not to be feared. His eye is prompt, his arm sure."
At this moment seven men of the crew, mute and immovable as ever,
mounted the platform. One carried a harpoon and a line similar to those
employed in catching whales. The pinnace was lifted from the bridge,
pulled from its socket, and let down into the sea. Six oarsmen took their
seats, and the coxswain went to the tiller. Ned, Conseil, and I went to
the back of the boat.
"You are not coming, Captain?" I asked.
"No, sir; but I wish you good sport."
The boat put off, and, lifted by the six rowers, drew rapidly towards
the dugong, which floated about two miles from the Nautilus.
Arrived some cables-length from the cetacean, the speed slackened, and
the oars dipped noiselessly into the quiet waters. Ned Land, harpoon in
hand, stood in the fore part of the boat. The harpoon used for striking
the whale is generally attached to a very long cord which runs out rapidly
as the wounded creature draws it after him. But here the cord was not more
than ten fathoms long, and the extremity was attached to a small barrel
which, by floating, was to show the course the dugong took under the
water.
I stood and carefully watched the Canadian's adversary. This dugong,
which also bears the name of the halicore, closely resembles the manatee;
its oblong body terminated in a lengthened tail, and its lateral fins in
perfect fingers. Its difference from the manatee consisted in its upper
jaw, which was armed with two long and pointed teeth which formed on each
side diverging tusks.
This dugong which Ned Land was preparing to attack was of colossal
dimensions; it was more than seven yards long. It did not move, and seemed
to be sleeping on the waves, which circumstance made it easier to capture.
The boat approached within six yards of the animal. The oars rested on
the rowlocks. I half rose. Ned Land, his body thrown a little back,
brandished the harpoon in his experienced hand.
Suddenly a hissing noise was heard, and the dugong disappeared. The
harpoon, although thrown with great force; had apparently only struck the
water.
"Curse it!" exclaimed the Canadian furiously; "I have missed it!"
"No," said I; "the creature is wounded-look at the blood; but your
weapon has not stuck in his body."
"My harpoon! my harpoon!" cried Ned Land.
The sailors rowed on, and the coxswain made for the floating barrel.
The harpoon regained, we followed in pursuit of the animal.
The latter came now and then to the surface to breathe. Its wound had
not weakened it, for it shot onwards with great rapidity.
The boat, rowed by strong arms, flew on its track. Several times it
approached within some few yards, and the Canadian was ready to strike,
but the dugong made off with a sudden plunge, and it was impossible to
reach it.
Imagine the passion which excited impatient Ned Land! He hurled at the
unfortunate creature the most energetic expletives in the English tongue.
For my part, I was only vexed to see the dugong escape all our attacks.
We pursued it without relaxation for an hour, and I began to think it
would prove difficult to capture, when the animal, possessed with the
perverse idea of vengeance of which he had cause to repent, turned upon
the pinnace and assailed us in its turn.
This manoeuvre did not escape the Canadian.
"Look out!" he cried.
The coxswain said some words in his outlandish tongue, doubtless
warning the men to keep on their guard.
The dugong came within twenty feet of the boat, stopped, sniffed the
air briskly with its large nostrils (not pierced at the extremity, but in
the upper part of its muzzle). Then, taking a spring, he threw himself
upon us.
The pinnace could not avoid the shock, and half upset, shipped at least
two tons of water, which had to be emptied; but, thanks to the coxswain,
we caught it sideways, not full front, so we were not quite overturned.
While Ned Land, clinging to the bows, belaboured the gigantic animal with
blows from his harpoon, the creature's teeth were buried in the gunwale,
and it lifted the whole thing out of the water, as a lion does a roebuck.
We were upset over one another, and I know not how the adventure would
have ended, if the Canadian, still enraged with the beast, had not struck
it to the heart.
I heard its teeth grind on the iron plate, and the dugong disappeared,
carrying the harpoon with him. But the barrel soon returned to the
surface, and shortly after the body of the animal, turned on its back. The
boat came up with it, took it in tow, and made straight for the Nautilus.
It required tackle of enormous strength to hoist the dugong on to the
platform. It weighed 10,000 lb.
The next day, 11th February, the larder of the Nautilus was enriched by
some more delicate game. A flight of sea-swallows rested on the Nautilus.
It was a species of the Sterna nilotica, peculiar to Egypt; its beak is
black, head grey and pointed, the eye surrounded by white spots, the back,
wings, and tail of a greyish colour, the belly and throat white, and claws
red. They also took some dozen of Nile ducks, a wild bird of high flavour,
its throat and upper part of the head white with black spots.
About five o'clock in the evening we sighted to the north the Cape of
Ras-Mohammed. This cape forms the extremity of Arabia Petraea, comprised
between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Acabah.
The Nautilus penetrated into the Straits of Jubal, which leads to the
Gulf of Suez. I distinctly saw a high mountain, towering between the two
gulfs of Ras-Mohammed. It was Mount Horeb, that Sinai at the top of which
Moses saw God face to face.
At six o'clock the Nautilus, sometimes floating, sometimes immersed,
passed some distance from Tor, situated at the end of the bay, the waters
of which seemed tinted with red, an observation already made by Captain
Nemo. Then night fell in the midst of a heavy silence, sometimes broken by
the cries of the pelican and other night-birds, and the noise of the waves
breaking upon the shore, chafing against the rocks, or the panting of some
far-off steamer beating the waters of the Gulf with its noisy paddles.
From eight to nine o'clock the Nautilus remained some fathoms under the
water. According to my calculation we must have been very near Suez.
Through the panel of the saloon I saw the bottom of the rocks brilliantly
lit up by our electric lamp. We seemed to be leaving the Straits behind us
more and more.
At a quarter-past nine, the vessel having returned to the surface, I
mounted the platform. Most impatient to pass through Captain Nemo's
tunnel, I could not stay in one place, so came to breathe the fresh night
air.
Soon in the shadow I saw a pale light, half discoloured by the fog,
shining about a mile from us.
"A floating lighthouse!" said someone near me.
I turned, and saw the Captain.
"It is the floating light of Suez," he continued. "It will not be long
before we gain the entrance of the tunnel."
"The entrance cannot be easy?"
"No, sir; for that reason I am accustomed to go into the steersman's
cage and myself direct our course. And now, if you will go down, M.
Aronnax, the Nautilus is going under the waves, and will not return to the
surface until we have passed through the Arabian Tunnel."
Captain Nemo led me towards the central staircase; half way down he
opened a door, traversed the upper deck, and landed in the pilot's cage,
which it may be remembered rose at the extremity of the platform. It was a
cabin measuring six feet square, very much like that occupied by the pilot
on the steamboats of the Mississippi or Hudson. In the midst worked a
wheel, placed vertically, and caught to the tiller-rope, which ran to the
back of the Nautilus. Four light-ports with lenticular glasses, let in a
groove in the partition of the cabin, allowed the man at the wheel to see
in all directions.
This cabin was dark; but soon my eyes accustomed themselves to the
obscurity, and I perceived the pilot, a strong man, with his hands resting
on the spokes of the wheel. Outside, the sea appeared vividly lit up by
the lantern, which shed its rays from the back of the cabin to the other
extremity of the platform.
"Now," said Captain Nemo, "let us try to make our passage."
Electric wires connected the pilot's cage with the machinery room, and
from there the Captain could communicate simultaneously to his Nautilus
the direction and the speed. He pressed a metal knob, and at once the
speed of the screw diminished.
I looked in silence at the high straight wall we were running by at
this moment, the immovable base of a massive sandy coast. We followed it
thus for an hour only some few yards off.
Captain Nemo did not take his eye from the knob, suspended by its two
concentric circles in the cabin. At a simple gesture, the pilot modified
the course of the Nautilus every instant.
I had placed myself at the port-scuttle, and saw some magnificent
substructures of coral, zoophytes, seaweed, and fucus, agitating their
enormous claws, which stretched out from the fissures of the rock.
At a quarter-past ten, the Captain himself took the helm. A large
gallery, black and deep, opened before us. The Nautilus went boldly into
it. A strange roaring was heard round its sides. It was the waters of the
Red Sea, which the incline of the tunnel precipitated violently towards
the Mediterranean. The Nautilus went with the torrent, rapid as an arrow,
in spite of the efforts of the machinery, which, in order to offer more
effective resistance, beat the waves with reversed screw.
On the walls of the narrow passage I could see nothing but brilliant
rays, straight lines, furrows of fire, traced by the great speed, under
the brilliant electric light. My heart beat fast.
At thirty-five minutes past ten, Captain Nemo quitted the helm, and,
turning to me, said:
"The Mediterranean!"
In less than twenty minutes, the Nautilus, carried along by the
torrent, had passed through the Isthmus of Suez.
The next day, the 12th of February, at the dawn of day, the Nautilus
rose to the surface. I hastened on to the platform. Three miles to the
south the dim outline of Pelusium was to be seen. A torrent had carried us
from one sea to another. About seven o'clock Ned and Conseil joined me.
"Well, Sir Naturalist," said the Canadian, in a slightly jovial tone,
"and the Mediterranean?"
"We are floating on its surface, friend Ned."
"What!" said Conseil, "this very night."
"Yes, this very night; in a few minutes we have passed this impassable
isthmus."
"I do not believe it," replied the Canadian.
"Then you are wrong, Master Land," I continued; "this low coast which
rounds off to the south is the Egyptian coast. And you who have such good
eyes, Ned, you can see the jetty of Port Said stretching into the sea."
The Canadian looked attentively.
"Certainly you are right, sir, and your Captain is a first-rate man. We
are in the Mediterranean. Good! Now, if you please, let us talk of our own
little affair, but so that no one hears us."
I saw what the Canadian wanted, and, in any case, I thought it better
to let him talk, as he wished it; so we all three went and sat down near
the lantern, where we were less exposed to the spray of the blades.
"Now, Ned, we listen; what have you to tell us?"
"What I have to tell you is very simple. We are in Europe; and before
Captain Nemo's caprices drag us once more to the bottom of the Polar Seas,
or lead us into Oceania, I ask to leave the Nautilus."
I wished in no way to shackle the liberty of my companions, but I
certainly felt no desire to leave Captain Nemo.
Thanks to him, and thanks to his apparatus, I was each day nearer the
completion of my submarine studies; and I was rewriting my book of
submarine depths in its very element. Should I ever again have such an
opportunity of observing the wonders of the ocean? No, certainly not! And
I could not bring myself to the idea of abandoning the Nautilus before the
cycle of investigation was accomplished.
"Friend Ned, answer me frankly, are you tired of being on board? Are
you sorry that destiny has thrown us into Captain Nemo's hands?"
The Canadian remained some moments without answering. Then, crossing
his arms, he said:
"Frankly, I do not regret this journey under the seas. I shall be glad
to have made it; but, now that it is made, let us have done with it. That
is my idea."
"It will come to an end, Ned."
"Where and when?"
"Where I do not know-when I cannot say; or, rather, I suppose it will
end when these seas have nothing more to teach us."
"Then what do you hope for?" demanded the Canadian.
"That circumstances may occur as well six months hence as now by which
we may and ought to profit."
"Oh!" said Ned Land, "and where shall we be in six months, if you
please, Sir Naturalist?"
"Perhaps in China; you know the Nautilus is a rapid traveller. It goes
through water as swallows through the air, or as an express on the land.
It does not fear frequented seas; who can say that it may not beat the
coasts of France, England, or America, on which flight may be attempted as
advantageously as here."
"M. Aronnax," replied the Canadian, "your arguments are rotten at the
foundation. You speak in the future, `We shall be there! we shall be
here!' I speak in the present, `We are here, and we must profit by it.'"
Ned Land's logic pressed me hard, and I felt myself beaten on that
ground. I knew not what argument would now tell in my favour.
"Sir," continued Ned, "let us suppose an impossibility: if Captain Nemo
should this day offer you your liberty; would you accept it?"
"I do not know," I answered.
"And if," he added, "the offer made you this day was never to be
renewed, would you accept it?"
"Friend Ned, this is my answer. Your reasoning is against me. We must
not rely on Captain Nemo's good-will. Common prudence forbids him to set
us at liberty. On the other side, prudence bids us profit by the first
opportunity to leave the Nautilus."
"Well, M. Aronnax, that is wisely said."
"Only one observation-just one. The occasion must be serious, and our
first attempt must succeed; if it fails, we shall never find another, and
Captain Nemo will never forgive us."
"All that is true," replied the Canadian. "But your observation applies
equally to all attempts at flight, whether in two years' time, or in two
days'. But the question is still this: If a favourable opportunity
presents itself, it must be seized."
"Agreed! And now, Ned, will you tell me what you mean by a favourable
opportunity?"
"It will be that which, on a dark night, will bring the Nautilus a
short distance from some European coast."
"And you will try and save yourself by swimming?"
"Yes, if we were near enough to the bank, and if the vessel was
floating at the time. Not if the bank was far away, and the boat was under
the water."
"And in that case?"
"In that case, I should seek to make myself master of the pinnace. I
know how it is worked. We must get inside, and the bolts once drawn, we
shall come to the surface of the water, without even the pilot, who is in
the bows, perceiving our flight."
"Well, Ned, watch for the opportunity; but do not forget that a hitch
will ruin us."
"I will not forget, sir."
"And now, Ned, would you like to know what I think of your project?"
"Certainly, M. Aronnax."
"Well, I think-I do not say I hope-I think that this favourable
opportunity will never present itself."
"Why not?"
"Because Captain Nemo cannot hide from himself that we have not given
up all hope of regaining our liberty, and he will be on his guard, above
all, in the seas and in the sight of European coasts."
"We shall see," replied Ned Land, shaking his head determinedly.
"And now, Ned Land," I added, "let us stop here. Not another word on
the subject. The day that you are ready, come and let us know, and we will
follow you. I rely entirely upon you."
Thus ended a conversation which, at no very distant time, led to such
grave results. I must say here that facts seemed to confirm my foresight,
to the Canadian's great despair. Did Captain Nemo distrust us in these
frequented seas? or did he only wish to hide himself from the numerous
vessels, of all nations, which ploughed the Mediterranean? I could not
tell; but we were oftener between waters and far from the coast. Or, if
the Nautilus did emerge, nothing was to be seen but the pilot's cage; and
sometimes it went to great depths, for, between the Grecian Archipelago
and Asia Minor we could not touch the bottom by more than a thousand
fathoms.
Thus I only knew we were near the Island of Carpathos, one of the
Sporades, by Captain Nemo reciting these lines from Virgil:
"Est Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates, Caeruleus Proteus,"
as he pointed to a spot on the planisphere.
It was indeed the ancient abode of Proteus, the old shepherd of
Neptune's flocks, now the Island of Scarpanto, situated between Rhodes and
Crete. I saw nothing but the granite base through the glass panels of the
saloon.
The next day, the 14th of February, I resolved to employ some hours in
studying the fishes of the Archipelago; but for some reason or other the
panels remained hermetically sealed. Upon taking the course of the
Nautilus, I found that we were going towards Candia, the ancient Isle of
Crete. At the time I embarked on the Abraham Lincoln, the whole of this
island had risen in insurrection against the despotism of the Turks. But
how the insurgents had fared since that time I was absolutely ignorant,
and it was not Captain Nemo, deprived of all land communications, who
could tell me.
I made no allusion to this event when that night I found myself alone
with him in the saloon. Besides, he seemed to be taciturn and preoccupied.
Then, contrary to his custom, he ordered both panels to be opened, and,
going from one to the other, observed the mass of waters attentively. To
what end I could not guess; so, on my side, I employed my time in studying
the fish passing before my eyes.
In the midst of the waters a man appeared, a diver, carrying at his
belt a leathern purse. It was not a body abandoned to the waves; it was a
living man, swimming with a strong hand, disappearing occasionally to take
breath at the surface.
I turned towards Captain Nemo, and in an agitated voice exclaimed:
"A man shipwrecked! He must be saved at any price!"
The Captain did not answer me, but came and leaned against the panel.
The man had approached, and, with his face flattened against the glass,
was looking at us.
To my great amazement, Captain Nemo signed to him. The diver answered
with his hand, mounted immediately to the surface of the water, and did
not appear again.
"Do not be uncomfortable," said Captain Nemo. "It is Nicholas of Cape
Matapan, surnamed Pesca. He is well known in all the Cyclades. A bold
diver! water is his element, and he lives more in it than on land, going
continually from one island to another, even as far as Crete."
"You know him, Captain?"
"Why not, M. Aronnax?"
Saying which, Captain Nemo went towards a piece of furniture standing
near the left panel of the saloon. Near this piece of furniture, I saw a
chest bound with iron, on the cover of which was a copper plate, bearing
the cypher of the Nautilus with its device.
At that moment, the Captain, without noticing my presence, opened the
piece of furniture, a sort of strong box, which held a great many ingots.
They were ingots of gold. From whence came this precious metal, which
represented an enormous sum? Where did the Captain gather this gold from?
and what was he going to do with it?
I did not say one word. I looked. Captain Nemo took the ingots one by
one, and arranged them methodically in the chest, which he filled
entirely. I estimated the contents at more than 4,000 lb. weight of gold,
that is to say, nearly L200,000.
The chest was securely fastened, and the Captain wrote an address on
the lid, in characters which must have belonged to Modern Greece.
This done, Captain Nemo pressed a knob, the wire of which communicated
with the quarters of the crew. Four men appeared, and, not without some
trouble, pushed the chest out of the saloon. Then I heard them hoisting it
up the iron staircase by means of pulleys.
At that moment, Captain Nemo turned to me.
"And you were saying, sir?" said he.
"I was saying nothing, Captain."
"Then, sir, if you will allow me, I will wish you good night."
Whereupon he turned and left the saloon.
I returned to my room much troubled, as one may believe. I vainly tried
to sleep-I sought the connecting link between the apparition of the diver
and the chest filled with gold. Soon, I felt by certain movements of
pitching and tossing that the Nautilus was leaving the depths and
returning to the surface.
Then I heard steps upon the platform; and I knew they were unfastening
the pinnace and launching it upon the waves. For one instant it struck the
side of the Nautilus, then all noise ceased.
Two hours after, the same noise, the same going and coming was renewed;
the boat was hoisted on board, replaced in its socket, and the Nautilus
again plunged under the waves.
So these millions had been transported to their address. To what point
of the continent? Who was Captain Nemo's correspondent?
The next day I related to Conseil and the Canadian the events of the
night, which had excited my curiosity to the highest degree. My companions
were not less surprised than myself.
"But where does he take his millions to?" asked Ned Land.
To that there was no possible answer. I returned to the saloon after
having breakfast and set to work. Till five o'clock in the evening I
employed myself in arranging my notes. At that moment-(ought I to
attribute it to some peculiar idiosyncrasy)- I felt so great a heat that I
was obliged to take off my coat. It was strange, for we were under low
latitudes; and even then the Nautilus, submerged as it was, ought to
experience no change of temperature. I looked at the manometer; it showed
a depth of sixty feet, to which atmospheric heat could never attain.
I continued my work, but the temperature rose to such a pitch as to be
intolerable.
"Could there be fire on board?" I asked myself.
I was leaving the saloon, when Captain Nemo entered; he approached the
thermometer, consulted it, and, turning to me, said:
"Forty-two degrees."
"I have noticed it, Captain," I replied; "and if it gets much hotter we
cannot bear it."
"Oh, sir, it will not get better if we do not wish it."
"You can reduce it as you please, then?"
"No; but I can go farther from the stove which produces it."
"It is outward, then!"
"Certainly; we are floating in a current of boiling water."
"Is it possible!" I exclaimed.
"Look."
The panels opened, and I saw the sea entirely white all round. A
sulphurous smoke was curling amid the waves, which boiled like water in a
copper. I placed my hand on one of the panes of glass, but the heat was so
great that I quickly took it off again.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Near the Island of Santorin, sir," replied the Captain. "I wished to
give you a sight of the curious spectacle of a submarine eruption."
"I thought," said I, "that the formation of these new islands was
ended."
"Nothing is ever ended in the volcanic parts of the sea," replied
Captain Nemo; "and the globe is always being worked by subterranean fires.
Already, in the nineteenth year of our era, according to Cassiodorus and
Pliny, a new island, Theia (the divine), appeared in the very place where
these islets have recently been formed. Then they sank under the waves, to
rise again in the year 69, when they again subsided. Since that time to
our days the Plutonian work has been suspended. But on the 3rd of
February, 1866, a new island, which they named George Island, emerged from
the midst of the sulphurous vapour near Nea Kamenni, and settled again the
6th of the same month. Seven days after, the 13th of February, the Island
of Aphroessa appeared, leaving between Nea Kamenni and itself a canal ten
yards broad. I was in these seas when the phenomenon occurred, and I was
able therefore to observe all the different phases. The Island of
Aphroessa, of round form, measured 300 feet in diameter, and 30 feet in
height. It was composed of black and vitreous lava, mixed with fragments
of felspar. And lastly, on the 10th of March, a smaller island, called
Reka, showed itself near Nea Kamenni, and since then these three have
joined together, forming but one and the same island."
"And the canal in which we are at this moment?" I asked.
"Here it is," replied Captain Nemo, showing me a map of the
Archipelago. "You see, I have marked the new islands."
I returned to the glass. The Nautilus was no longer moving, the heat
was becoming unbearable. The sea, which till now had been white, was red,
owing to the presence of salts of iron. In spite of the ship's being
hermetically sealed, an insupportable smell of sulphur filled the saloon,
and the brilliancy of the electricity was entirely extinguished by bright
scarlet flames. I was in a bath, I was choking, I was broiled.
"We can remain no longer in this boiling water," said I to the Captain.
"It would not be prudent," replied the impassive Captain Nemo.
An order was given; the Nautilus tacked about and left the furnace it
could not brave with impunity. A quarter of an hour after we were
breathing fresh air on the surface. The thought then struck me that, if
Ned Land had chosen this part of the sea for our flight, we should never
have come alive out of this sea of fire.
The next day, the 16th of February, we left the basin which, between
Rhodes and Alexandria, is reckoned about 1,500 fathoms in depth, and the
Nautilus, passing some distance from Cerigo, quitted the Grecian
Archipelago after having doubled Cape Matapan.
The Mediterranean, the blue sea par excellence, "the great sea" of the
Hebrews, "the sea" of the Greeks, the "mare nostrum" of the Romans,
bordered by orange-trees, aloes, cacti, and sea-pines; embalmed with the
perfume of the myrtle, surrounded by rude mountains, saturated with pure
and transparent air, but incessantly worked by underground fires; a
perfect battlefield in which Neptune and Pluto still dispute the empire of
the world!
It is upon these banks, and on these waters, says Michelet, that man is
renewed in one of the most powerful climates of the globe. But, beautiful
as it was, I could only take a rapid glance at the basin whose superficial
area is two million of square yards. Even Captain Nemo's knowledge was
lost to me, for this puzzling person did not appear once during our
passage at full speed. I estimated the course which the Nautilus took
under the waves of the sea at about six hundred leagues, and it was
accomplished in forty-eight hours. Starting on the morning of the 16th of
February from the shores of Greece, we had crossed the Straits of
Gibraltar by sunrise on the 18th.
It was plain to me that this Mediterranean, enclosed in the midst of
those countries which he wished to avoid, was distasteful to Captain Nemo.
Those waves and those breezes brought back too many remembrances, if not
too many regrets. Here he had no longer that independence and that liberty
of gait which he had when in the open seas, and his Nautilus felt itself
cramped between the close shores of Africa and Europe.
Our speed was now twenty-five miles an hour. It may be well understood
that Ned Land, to his great disgust, was obliged to renounce his intended
flight. He could not launch the pinnace, going at the rate of twelve or
thirteen yards every second. To quit the Nautilus under such conditions
would be as bad as jumping from a train going at full speed-an imprudent
thing, to say the least of it. Besides, our vessel only mounted to the
surface of the waves at night to renew its stock of air; it was steered
entirely by the compass and the log.
I saw no more of the interior of this Mediterranean than a traveller by
express train perceives of the landscape which flies before his eyes; that
is to say, the distant horizon, and not the nearer objects which pass like
a flash of lightning.
We were then passing between Sicily and the coast of Tunis. In the
narrow space between Cape Bon and the Straits of Messina the bottom of the
sea rose almost suddenly. There was a perfect bank, on which there was not
more than nine fathoms of water, whilst on either side the depth was
ninety fathoms.
The Nautilus had to manoeuvre very carefully so as not to strike
against this submarine barrier.
I showed Conseil, on the map of the Mediterranean, the spot occupied by
this reef.
"But if you please, sir," observed Conseil, "it is like a real isthmus
joining Europe to Africa."
"Yes, my boy, it forms a perfect bar to the Straits of Lybia, and the
soundings of Smith have proved that in former times the continents between
Cape Boco and Cape Furina were joined."
"I can well believe it," said Conseil.
"I will add," I continued, "that a similar barrier exists between
Gibraltar and Ceuta, which in geological times formed the entire
Mediterranean."
"What if some volcanic burst should one day raise these two barriers
above the waves?"
"It is not probable, Conseil."
"Well, but allow me to finish, please, sir; if this phenomenon should
take place, it will be troublesome for M. Lesseps, who has taken so much
pains to pierce the isthmus."
"I agree with you; but I repeat, Conseil, this phenomenon will never
happen. The violence of subterranean force is ever diminishing. Volcanoes,
so plentiful in the first days of the world, are being extinguished by
degrees; the internal heat is weakened, the temperature of the lower
strata of the globe is lowered by a perceptible quantity every century to
the detriment of our globe, for its heat is its life."
"But the sun?"
"The sun is not sufficient, Conseil. Can it give heat to a dead body?"
"Not that I know of."
"Well, my friend, this earth will one day be that cold corpse; it will
become uninhabitable and uninhabited like the moon, which has long since
lost all its vital heat."
"In how many centuries?"
"In some hundreds of thousands of years, my boy."
"Then," said Conseil, "we shall have time to finish our journey- that
is, if Ned Land does not interfere with it."
And Conseil, reassured, returned to the study of the bank, which the
Nautilus was skirting at a moderate speed.
During the night of the 16th and 17th February we had entered the
second Mediterranean basin, the greatest depth of which was 1,450 fathoms.
The Nautilus, by the action of its crew, slid down the inclined planes and
buried itself in the lowest depths of the sea.
On the 18th of February, about three o'clock in the morning, we were at
the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar. There once existed two currents:
an upper one, long since recognised, which conveys the waters of the ocean
into the basin of the Mediterranean; and a lower counter-current, which
reasoning has now shown to exist. Indeed, the volume of water in the
Mediterranean, incessantly added to by the waves of the Atlantic and by
rivers falling into it, would each year raise the level of this sea, for
its evaporation is not sufficient to restore the equilibrium. As it is not
so, we must necessarily admit the existence of an under-current, which
empties into the basin of the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar
the surplus waters of the Mediterranean. A fact indeed; and it was this
"Detestable, M. Aronnax. The Greek and Latin historians do not speak
favourably of it, and Strabo says it is very dangerous during the Etesian
winds and in the rainy season. The Arabian Edrisi portrays it under the
name of the Gulf of Colzoum, and relates that vessels perished there in
great numbers on the sandbanks and that no one would risk sailing in the
night. It is, he pretends, a sea subject to fearful hurricanes, strewn
with inhospitable islands, and `which offers nothing good either on its
surface or in its depths.'"
"One may see," I replied, "that these historians never sailed on board
the Nautilus."
"Just so," replied the Captain, smiling; "and in that respect moderns
are not more advanced than the ancients. It required many ages to find out
the mechanical power of steam. Who knows if, in another hundred years, we
may not see a second Nautilus? Progress is slow, M. Aronnax."
"It is true," I answered; "your boat is at least a century before its
time, perhaps an era. What a misfortune that the secret of such an
invention should die with its inventor!"
Captain Nemo did not reply. After some minutes' silence he continued:
"You were speaking of the opinions of ancient historians upon the
dangerous navigation of the Red Sea."
"It is true," said I; "but were not their fears exaggerated?"
"Yes and no, M. Aronnax," replied Captain Nemo, who seemed to know the
Red Sea by heart. "That which is no longer dangerous for a modern vessel,
well rigged, strongly built, and master of its own course, thanks to
obedient steam, offered all sorts of perils to the ships of the ancients.
Picture to yourself those first navigators venturing in ships made of
planks sewn with the cords of the palmtree, saturated with the grease of
the seadog, and covered with powdered resin! They had not even instruments
wherewith to take their bearings, and they went by guess amongst currents
of which they scarcely knew anything. Under such conditions shipwrecks
were, and must have been, numerous. But in our time, steamers running
between Suez and the South Seas have nothing more to fear from the fury of
this gulf, in spite of contrary trade-winds. The captain and passengers do
not prepare for their departure by offering propitiatory sacrifices; and,
on their return, they no longer go ornamented with wreaths and gilt
fillets to thank the gods in the neighbouring temple."
"I agree with you," said I; "and steam seems to have killed all
gratitude in the hearts of sailors. But, Captain, since you seem to have
especially studied this sea, can you tell me the origin of its name?"
"There exist several explanations on the subject, M. Aronnax. Would you
like to know the opinion of a chronicler of the fourteenth century?"
"Willingly."
"This fanciful writer pretends that its name was given to it after the
passage of the Israelites, when Pharaoh perished in the waves which closed
at the voice of Moses."
"A poet's explanation, Captain Nemo," I replied; "but I cannot content
myself with that. I ask you for your personal opinion."
"Here it is, M. Aronnax. According to my idea, we must see in this
appellation of the Red Sea a translation of the Hebrew word `Edom'; and if
the ancients gave it that name, it was on account of the particular colour
of its waters."
"But up to this time I have seen nothing but transparent waves and
without any particular colour."
"Very likely; but as we advance to the bottom of the gulf, you will see
this singular appearance. I remember seeing the Bay of Tor entirely red,
like a sea of blood."
"And you attribute this colour to the presence of a microscopic
seaweed?"
"Yes."
"So, Captain Nemo, it is not the first time you have overrun the Red
Sea on board the Nautilus?"
"No, sir."
"As you spoke a while ago of the passage of the Israelites and of the
catastrophe to the Egyptians, I will ask whether you have met with the
traces under the water of this great historical fact?"
"No, sir; and for a good reason."
"What is it?"
"It is that the spot where Moses and his people passed is now so
blocked up with sand that the camels can barely bathe their legs there.
You can well understand that there would not be water enough for my
Nautilus."
"And the spot?" I asked.
"The spot is situated a little above the Isthmus of Suez, in the arm
which formerly made a deep estuary, when the Red Sea extended to the Salt
Lakes. Now, whether this passage were miraculous or not, the Israelites,
nevertheless, crossed there to reach the Promised Land, and Pharaoh's army
perished precisely on that spot; and I think that excavations made in the
middle of the sand would bring to light a large number of arms and
instruments of Egyptian origin."
"That is evident," I replied; "and for the sake of archaeologists let
us hope that these excavations will be made sooner or later, when new
towns are established on the isthmus, after the construction of the Suez
Canal; a canal, however, very useless to a vessel like the Nautilus."
"Very likely; but useful to the whole world," said Captain Nemo. "The
ancients well understood the utility of a communication between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean for their commercial affairs: but they did not
think of digging a canal direct, and took the Nile as an intermediate.
Very probably the canal which united the Nile to the Red Sea was begun by
Sesostris, if we may believe tradition. One thing is certain, that in the
year 615 before Jesus Christ, Necos undertook the works of an alimentary
canal to the waters of the Nile across the plain of Egypt, looking towards
Arabia. It took four days to go up this canal, and it was so wide that two
triremes could go abreast. It was carried on by Darius, the son of
Hystaspes, and probably finished by Ptolemy II. Strabo saw it navigated:
but its decline from the point of departure, near Bubastes, to the Red Sea
was so slight that it was only navigable for a few months in the year.
This canal answered all commercial purposes to the age of Antonius, when
it was abandoned and blocked up with sand. Restored by order of the Caliph
Omar, it was definitely destroyed in 761 or 762 by Caliph Al-Mansor, who
wished to prevent the arrival of provisions to Mohammed-ben-Abdallah, who
had revolted against him. During the expedition into Egypt, your General
Bonaparte discovered traces of the works in the Desert of Suez; and,
surprised by the tide, he nearly perished before regaining Hadjaroth, at
the very place where Moses had encamped three thousand years before him."
"Well, Captain, what the ancients dared not undertake, this junction
between the two seas, which will shorten the road from Cadiz to India, M.
Lesseps has succeeded in doing; and before long he will have changed
Africa into an immense island."
"Yes, M. Aronnax; you have the right to be proud of your countryman.
Such a man brings more honour to a nation than great captains. He began,
like so many others, with disgust and rebuffs; but he has triumphed, for
he has the genius of will. And it is sad to think that a work like that,
which ought to have been an international work and which would have
sufficed to make a reign illustrious, should have succeeded by the energy
of one man. All honour to M. Lesseps!"
"Yes! honour to the great citizen," I replied, surprised by the manner
in which Captain Nemo had just spoken.
"Unfortunately," he continued, "I cannot take you through the Suez
Canal; but you will be able to see the long jetty of Port Said after
to-morrow, when we shall be in the Mediterranean."
"The Mediterranean!" I exclaimed.
"Yes, sir; does that astonish you?"
"What astonishes me is to think that we shall be there the day after
to-morrow."
"Indeed?"
"Yes, Captain, although by this time I ought to have accustomed myself
to be surprised at nothing since I have been on board your boat."
"But the cause of this surprise?"
"Well! it is the fearful speed you will have to put on the Nautilus, if
the day after to-morrow she is to be in the Mediterranean, having made the
round of Africa, and doubled the Cape of Good Hope!"
"Who told you that she would make the round of Africa and double the
Cape of Good Hope, sir?"
"Well, unless the Nautilus sails on dry land, and passes above the
isthmus-"
"Or beneath it, M. Aronnax."
"Beneath it?"
"Certainly," replied Captain Nemo quietly. "A long time ago Nature made
under this tongue of land what man has this day made on its surface."
"What! such a passage exists?"
"Yes; a subterranean passage, which I have named the Arabian Tunnel. It
takes us beneath Suez and opens into the Gulf of Pelusium."
"But this isthmus is composed of nothing but quick sands?"
"To a certain depth. But at fifty-five yards only there is a solid
layer of rock."
"Did you discover this passage by chance?" I asked more and more
surprised.
"Chance and reasoning, sir; and by reasoning even more than by chance.
Not only does this passage exist, but I have profited by it several times.
Without that I should not have ventured this day into the impassable Red
Sea. I noticed that in the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean there existed
a certain number of fishes of a kind perfectly identical. Certain of the
fact, I asked myself was it possible that there was no communication
between the two seas? If there was, the subterranean current must
necessarily run from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, from the sole cause
of difference of level. I caught a large number of fishes in the
neighbourhood of Suez. I passed a copper ring through their tails, and
threw them back into the sea. Some months later, on the coast of Syria, I
caught some of my fish ornamented with the ring. Thus the communication
between the two was proved. I then sought for it with my Nautilus; I
discovered it, ventured into it, and before long, sir, you too will have
passed through my Arabian tunnel!"
That same evening, in 21O 30' N. lat., the Nautilus floated on the
surface of the sea, approaching the Arabian coast. I saw Djeddah, the most
important counting-house of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and India. I
distinguished clearly enough its buildings, the vessels anchored at the
quays, and those whose draught of water obliged them to anchor in the
roads. The sun, rather low on the horizon, struck full on the houses of
the town, bringing out their whiteness. Outside, some wooden cabins, and
some made of reeds, showed the quarter inhabited by the Bedouins. Soon
Djeddah was shut out from view by the shadows of night, and the Nautilus
found herself under water slightly phosphorescent.
The next day, the 10th of February, we sighted several ships running to
windward. The Nautilus returned to its submarine navigation; but at noon,
when her bearings were taken, the sea being deserted, she rose again to
her waterline.
Accompanied by Ned and Conseil, I seated myself on the platform. The
coast on the eastern side looked like a mass faintly printed upon a damp
fog.
We were leaning on the sides of the pinnace, talking of one thing and
another, when Ned Land, stretching out his hand towards a spot on the sea,
said:
"Do you see anything there, sir?"
"No, Ned," I replied; "but I have not your eyes, you know."
"Look well," said Ned, "there, on the starboard beam, about the height
of the lantern! Do you not see a mass which seems to move?"
"Certainly," said I, after close attention; "I see something like a
long black body on the top of the water."
And certainly before long the black object was not more than a mile
from us. It looked like a great sandbank deposited in the open sea. It was
a gigantic dugong!
Ned Land looked eagerly. His eyes shone with covetousness at the sight
of the animal. His hand seemed ready to harpoon it. One would have thought
he was awaiting the moment to throw himself into the sea and attack it in
its element.
At this instant Captain Nemo appeared on the platform. He saw the
dugong, understood the Canadian's attitude, and, addressing him, said:
"If you held a harpoon just now, Master Land, would it not burn your
hand?"
"Just so, sir."
"And you would not be sorry to go back, for one day, to your trade of a
fisherman and to add this cetacean to the list of those you have already
killed?"
"I should not, sir."
"Well, you can try."
"Thank you, sir," said Ned Land, his eyes flaming.
"Only," continued the Captain, "I advise you for your own sake not to
miss the creature."
"Is the dugong dangerous to attack?" I asked, in spite of the
Canadian's shrug of the shoulders.
"Yes," replied the Captain; "sometimes the animal turns upon its
assailants and overturns their boat. But for Master Land this danger is
not to be feared. His eye is prompt, his arm sure."
At this moment seven men of the crew, mute and immovable as ever,
mounted the platform. One carried a harpoon and a line similar to those
employed in catching whales. The pinnace was lifted from the bridge,
pulled from its socket, and let down into the sea. Six oarsmen took their
seats, and the coxswain went to the tiller. Ned, Conseil, and I went to
the back of the boat.
"You are not coming, Captain?" I asked.
"No, sir; but I wish you good sport."
The boat put off, and, lifted by the six rowers, drew rapidly towards
the dugong, which floated about two miles from the Nautilus.
Arrived some cables-length from the cetacean, the speed slackened, and
the oars dipped noiselessly into the quiet waters. Ned Land, harpoon in
hand, stood in the fore part of the boat. The harpoon used for striking
the whale is generally attached to a very long cord which runs out rapidly
as the wounded creature draws it after him. But here the cord was not more
than ten fathoms long, and the extremity was attached to a small barrel
which, by floating, was to show the course the dugong took under the
water.
I stood and carefully watched the Canadian's adversary. This dugong,
which also bears the name of the halicore, closely resembles the manatee;
its oblong body terminated in a lengthened tail, and its lateral fins in
perfect fingers. Its difference from the manatee consisted in its upper
jaw, which was armed with two long and pointed teeth which formed on each
side diverging tusks.
This dugong which Ned Land was preparing to attack was of colossal
dimensions; it was more than seven yards long. It did not move, and seemed
to be sleeping on the waves, which circumstance made it easier to capture.
The boat approached within six yards of the animal. The oars rested on
the rowlocks. I half rose. Ned Land, his body thrown a little back,
brandished the harpoon in his experienced hand.
Suddenly a hissing noise was heard, and the dugong disappeared. The
harpoon, although thrown with great force; had apparently only struck the
water.
"Curse it!" exclaimed the Canadian furiously; "I have missed it!"
"No," said I; "the creature is wounded-look at the blood; but your
weapon has not stuck in his body."
"My harpoon! my harpoon!" cried Ned Land.
The sailors rowed on, and the coxswain made for the floating barrel.
The harpoon regained, we followed in pursuit of the animal.
The latter came now and then to the surface to breathe. Its wound had
not weakened it, for it shot onwards with great rapidity.
The boat, rowed by strong arms, flew on its track. Several times it
approached within some few yards, and the Canadian was ready to strike,
but the dugong made off with a sudden plunge, and it was impossible to
reach it.
Imagine the passion which excited impatient Ned Land! He hurled at the
unfortunate creature the most energetic expletives in the English tongue.
For my part, I was only vexed to see the dugong escape all our attacks.
We pursued it without relaxation for an hour, and I began to think it
would prove difficult to capture, when the animal, possessed with the
perverse idea of vengeance of which he had cause to repent, turned upon
the pinnace and assailed us in its turn.
This manoeuvre did not escape the Canadian.
"Look out!" he cried.
The coxswain said some words in his outlandish tongue, doubtless
warning the men to keep on their guard.
The dugong came within twenty feet of the boat, stopped, sniffed the
air briskly with its large nostrils (not pierced at the extremity, but in
the upper part of its muzzle). Then, taking a spring, he threw himself
upon us.
The pinnace could not avoid the shock, and half upset, shipped at least
two tons of water, which had to be emptied; but, thanks to the coxswain,
we caught it sideways, not full front, so we were not quite overturned.
While Ned Land, clinging to the bows, belaboured the gigantic animal with
blows from his harpoon, the creature's teeth were buried in the gunwale,
and it lifted the whole thing out of the water, as a lion does a roebuck.
We were upset over one another, and I know not how the adventure would
have ended, if the Canadian, still enraged with the beast, had not struck
it to the heart.
I heard its teeth grind on the iron plate, and the dugong disappeared,
carrying the harpoon with him. But the barrel soon returned to the
surface, and shortly after the body of the animal, turned on its back. The
boat came up with it, took it in tow, and made straight for the Nautilus.
It required tackle of enormous strength to hoist the dugong on to the
platform. It weighed 10,000 lb.
The next day, 11th February, the larder of the Nautilus was enriched by
some more delicate game. A flight of sea-swallows rested on the Nautilus.
It was a species of the Sterna nilotica, peculiar to Egypt; its beak is
black, head grey and pointed, the eye surrounded by white spots, the back,
wings, and tail of a greyish colour, the belly and throat white, and claws
red. They also took some dozen of Nile ducks, a wild bird of high flavour,
its throat and upper part of the head white with black spots.
About five o'clock in the evening we sighted to the north the Cape of
Ras-Mohammed. This cape forms the extremity of Arabia Petraea, comprised
between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Acabah.
The Nautilus penetrated into the Straits of Jubal, which leads to the
Gulf of Suez. I distinctly saw a high mountain, towering between the two
gulfs of Ras-Mohammed. It was Mount Horeb, that Sinai at the top of which
Moses saw God face to face.
At six o'clock the Nautilus, sometimes floating, sometimes immersed,
passed some distance from Tor, situated at the end of the bay, the waters
of which seemed tinted with red, an observation already made by Captain
Nemo. Then night fell in the midst of a heavy silence, sometimes broken by
the cries of the pelican and other night-birds, and the noise of the waves
breaking upon the shore, chafing against the rocks, or the panting of some
far-off steamer beating the waters of the Gulf with its noisy paddles.
From eight to nine o'clock the Nautilus remained some fathoms under the
water. According to my calculation we must have been very near Suez.
Through the panel of the saloon I saw the bottom of the rocks brilliantly
lit up by our electric lamp. We seemed to be leaving the Straits behind us
more and more.
At a quarter-past nine, the vessel having returned to the surface, I
mounted the platform. Most impatient to pass through Captain Nemo's
tunnel, I could not stay in one place, so came to breathe the fresh night
air.
Soon in the shadow I saw a pale light, half discoloured by the fog,
shining about a mile from us.
"A floating lighthouse!" said someone near me.
I turned, and saw the Captain.
"It is the floating light of Suez," he continued. "It will not be long
before we gain the entrance of the tunnel."
"The entrance cannot be easy?"
"No, sir; for that reason I am accustomed to go into the steersman's
cage and myself direct our course. And now, if you will go down, M.
Aronnax, the Nautilus is going under the waves, and will not return to the
surface until we have passed through the Arabian Tunnel."
Captain Nemo led me towards the central staircase; half way down he
opened a door, traversed the upper deck, and landed in the pilot's cage,
which it may be remembered rose at the extremity of the platform. It was a
cabin measuring six feet square, very much like that occupied by the pilot
on the steamboats of the Mississippi or Hudson. In the midst worked a
wheel, placed vertically, and caught to the tiller-rope, which ran to the
back of the Nautilus. Four light-ports with lenticular glasses, let in a
groove in the partition of the cabin, allowed the man at the wheel to see
in all directions.
This cabin was dark; but soon my eyes accustomed themselves to the
obscurity, and I perceived the pilot, a strong man, with his hands resting
on the spokes of the wheel. Outside, the sea appeared vividly lit up by
the lantern, which shed its rays from the back of the cabin to the other
extremity of the platform.
"Now," said Captain Nemo, "let us try to make our passage."
Electric wires connected the pilot's cage with the machinery room, and
from there the Captain could communicate simultaneously to his Nautilus
the direction and the speed. He pressed a metal knob, and at once the
speed of the screw diminished.
I looked in silence at the high straight wall we were running by at
this moment, the immovable base of a massive sandy coast. We followed it
thus for an hour only some few yards off.
Captain Nemo did not take his eye from the knob, suspended by its two
concentric circles in the cabin. At a simple gesture, the pilot modified
the course of the Nautilus every instant.
I had placed myself at the port-scuttle, and saw some magnificent
substructures of coral, zoophytes, seaweed, and fucus, agitating their
enormous claws, which stretched out from the fissures of the rock.
At a quarter-past ten, the Captain himself took the helm. A large
gallery, black and deep, opened before us. The Nautilus went boldly into
it. A strange roaring was heard round its sides. It was the waters of the
Red Sea, which the incline of the tunnel precipitated violently towards
the Mediterranean. The Nautilus went with the torrent, rapid as an arrow,
in spite of the efforts of the machinery, which, in order to offer more
effective resistance, beat the waves with reversed screw.
On the walls of the narrow passage I could see nothing but brilliant
rays, straight lines, furrows of fire, traced by the great speed, under
the brilliant electric light. My heart beat fast.
At thirty-five minutes past ten, Captain Nemo quitted the helm, and,
turning to me, said:
"The Mediterranean!"
In less than twenty minutes, the Nautilus, carried along by the
torrent, had passed through the Isthmus of Suez.
The next day, the 12th of February, at the dawn of day, the Nautilus
rose to the surface. I hastened on to the platform. Three miles to the
south the dim outline of Pelusium was to be seen. A torrent had carried us
from one sea to another. About seven o'clock Ned and Conseil joined me.
"Well, Sir Naturalist," said the Canadian, in a slightly jovial tone,
"and the Mediterranean?"
"We are floating on its surface, friend Ned."
"What!" said Conseil, "this very night."
"Yes, this very night; in a few minutes we have passed this impassable
isthmus."
"I do not believe it," replied the Canadian.
"Then you are wrong, Master Land," I continued; "this low coast which
rounds off to the south is the Egyptian coast. And you who have such good
eyes, Ned, you can see the jetty of Port Said stretching into the sea."
The Canadian looked attentively.
"Certainly you are right, sir, and your Captain is a first-rate man. We
are in the Mediterranean. Good! Now, if you please, let us talk of our own
little affair, but so that no one hears us."
I saw what the Canadian wanted, and, in any case, I thought it better
to let him talk, as he wished it; so we all three went and sat down near
the lantern, where we were less exposed to the spray of the blades.
"Now, Ned, we listen; what have you to tell us?"
"What I have to tell you is very simple. We are in Europe; and before
Captain Nemo's caprices drag us once more to the bottom of the Polar Seas,
or lead us into Oceania, I ask to leave the Nautilus."
I wished in no way to shackle the liberty of my companions, but I
certainly felt no desire to leave Captain Nemo.
Thanks to him, and thanks to his apparatus, I was each day nearer the
completion of my submarine studies; and I was rewriting my book of
submarine depths in its very element. Should I ever again have such an
opportunity of observing the wonders of the ocean? No, certainly not! And
I could not bring myself to the idea of abandoning the Nautilus before the
cycle of investigation was accomplished.
"Friend Ned, answer me frankly, are you tired of being on board? Are
you sorry that destiny has thrown us into Captain Nemo's hands?"
The Canadian remained some moments without answering. Then, crossing
his arms, he said:
"Frankly, I do not regret this journey under the seas. I shall be glad
to have made it; but, now that it is made, let us have done with it. That
is my idea."
"It will come to an end, Ned."
"Where and when?"
"Where I do not know-when I cannot say; or, rather, I suppose it will
end when these seas have nothing more to teach us."
"Then what do you hope for?" demanded the Canadian.
"That circumstances may occur as well six months hence as now by which
we may and ought to profit."
"Oh!" said Ned Land, "and where shall we be in six months, if you
please, Sir Naturalist?"
"Perhaps in China; you know the Nautilus is a rapid traveller. It goes
through water as swallows through the air, or as an express on the land.
It does not fear frequented seas; who can say that it may not beat the
coasts of France, England, or America, on which flight may be attempted as
advantageously as here."
"M. Aronnax," replied the Canadian, "your arguments are rotten at the
foundation. You speak in the future, `We shall be there! we shall be
here!' I speak in the present, `We are here, and we must profit by it.'"
Ned Land's logic pressed me hard, and I felt myself beaten on that
ground. I knew not what argument would now tell in my favour.
"Sir," continued Ned, "let us suppose an impossibility: if Captain Nemo
should this day offer you your liberty; would you accept it?"
"I do not know," I answered.
"And if," he added, "the offer made you this day was never to be
renewed, would you accept it?"
"Friend Ned, this is my answer. Your reasoning is against me. We must
not rely on Captain Nemo's good-will. Common prudence forbids him to set
us at liberty. On the other side, prudence bids us profit by the first
opportunity to leave the Nautilus."
"Well, M. Aronnax, that is wisely said."
"Only one observation-just one. The occasion must be serious, and our
first attempt must succeed; if it fails, we shall never find another, and
Captain Nemo will never forgive us."
"All that is true," replied the Canadian. "But your observation applies
equally to all attempts at flight, whether in two years' time, or in two
days'. But the question is still this: If a favourable opportunity
presents itself, it must be seized."
"Agreed! And now, Ned, will you tell me what you mean by a favourable
opportunity?"
"It will be that which, on a dark night, will bring the Nautilus a
short distance from some European coast."
"And you will try and save yourself by swimming?"
"Yes, if we were near enough to the bank, and if the vessel was
floating at the time. Not if the bank was far away, and the boat was under
the water."
"And in that case?"
"In that case, I should seek to make myself master of the pinnace. I
know how it is worked. We must get inside, and the bolts once drawn, we
shall come to the surface of the water, without even the pilot, who is in
the bows, perceiving our flight."
"Well, Ned, watch for the opportunity; but do not forget that a hitch
will ruin us."
"I will not forget, sir."
"And now, Ned, would you like to know what I think of your project?"
"Certainly, M. Aronnax."
"Well, I think-I do not say I hope-I think that this favourable
opportunity will never present itself."
"Why not?"
"Because Captain Nemo cannot hide from himself that we have not given
up all hope of regaining our liberty, and he will be on his guard, above
all, in the seas and in the sight of European coasts."
"We shall see," replied Ned Land, shaking his head determinedly.
"And now, Ned Land," I added, "let us stop here. Not another word on
the subject. The day that you are ready, come and let us know, and we will
follow you. I rely entirely upon you."
Thus ended a conversation which, at no very distant time, led to such
grave results. I must say here that facts seemed to confirm my foresight,
to the Canadian's great despair. Did Captain Nemo distrust us in these
frequented seas? or did he only wish to hide himself from the numerous
vessels, of all nations, which ploughed the Mediterranean? I could not
tell; but we were oftener between waters and far from the coast. Or, if
the Nautilus did emerge, nothing was to be seen but the pilot's cage; and
sometimes it went to great depths, for, between the Grecian Archipelago
and Asia Minor we could not touch the bottom by more than a thousand
fathoms.
Thus I only knew we were near the Island of Carpathos, one of the
Sporades, by Captain Nemo reciting these lines from Virgil:
"Est Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates, Caeruleus Proteus,"
as he pointed to a spot on the planisphere.
It was indeed the ancient abode of Proteus, the old shepherd of
Neptune's flocks, now the Island of Scarpanto, situated between Rhodes and
Crete. I saw nothing but the granite base through the glass panels of the
saloon.
The next day, the 14th of February, I resolved to employ some hours in
studying the fishes of the Archipelago; but for some reason or other the
panels remained hermetically sealed. Upon taking the course of the
Nautilus, I found that we were going towards Candia, the ancient Isle of
Crete. At the time I embarked on the Abraham Lincoln, the whole of this
island had risen in insurrection against the despotism of the Turks. But
how the insurgents had fared since that time I was absolutely ignorant,
and it was not Captain Nemo, deprived of all land communications, who
could tell me.
I made no allusion to this event when that night I found myself alone
with him in the saloon. Besides, he seemed to be taciturn and preoccupied.
Then, contrary to his custom, he ordered both panels to be opened, and,
going from one to the other, observed the mass of waters attentively. To
what end I could not guess; so, on my side, I employed my time in studying
the fish passing before my eyes.
In the midst of the waters a man appeared, a diver, carrying at his
belt a leathern purse. It was not a body abandoned to the waves; it was a
living man, swimming with a strong hand, disappearing occasionally to take
breath at the surface.
I turned towards Captain Nemo, and in an agitated voice exclaimed:
"A man shipwrecked! He must be saved at any price!"
The Captain did not answer me, but came and leaned against the panel.
The man had approached, and, with his face flattened against the glass,
was looking at us.
To my great amazement, Captain Nemo signed to him. The diver answered
with his hand, mounted immediately to the surface of the water, and did
not appear again.
"Do not be uncomfortable," said Captain Nemo. "It is Nicholas of Cape
Matapan, surnamed Pesca. He is well known in all the Cyclades. A bold
diver! water is his element, and he lives more in it than on land, going
continually from one island to another, even as far as Crete."
"You know him, Captain?"
"Why not, M. Aronnax?"
Saying which, Captain Nemo went towards a piece of furniture standing
near the left panel of the saloon. Near this piece of furniture, I saw a
chest bound with iron, on the cover of which was a copper plate, bearing
the cypher of the Nautilus with its device.
At that moment, the Captain, without noticing my presence, opened the
piece of furniture, a sort of strong box, which held a great many ingots.
They were ingots of gold. From whence came this precious metal, which
represented an enormous sum? Where did the Captain gather this gold from?
and what was he going to do with it?
I did not say one word. I looked. Captain Nemo took the ingots one by
one, and arranged them methodically in the chest, which he filled
entirely. I estimated the contents at more than 4,000 lb. weight of gold,
that is to say, nearly L200,000.
The chest was securely fastened, and the Captain wrote an address on
the lid, in characters which must have belonged to Modern Greece.
This done, Captain Nemo pressed a knob, the wire of which communicated
with the quarters of the crew. Four men appeared, and, not without some
trouble, pushed the chest out of the saloon. Then I heard them hoisting it
up the iron staircase by means of pulleys.
At that moment, Captain Nemo turned to me.
"And you were saying, sir?" said he.
"I was saying nothing, Captain."
"Then, sir, if you will allow me, I will wish you good night."
Whereupon he turned and left the saloon.
I returned to my room much troubled, as one may believe. I vainly tried
to sleep-I sought the connecting link between the apparition of the diver
and the chest filled with gold. Soon, I felt by certain movements of
pitching and tossing that the Nautilus was leaving the depths and
returning to the surface.
Then I heard steps upon the platform; and I knew they were unfastening
the pinnace and launching it upon the waves. For one instant it struck the
side of the Nautilus, then all noise ceased.
Two hours after, the same noise, the same going and coming was renewed;
the boat was hoisted on board, replaced in its socket, and the Nautilus
again plunged under the waves.
So these millions had been transported to their address. To what point
of the continent? Who was Captain Nemo's correspondent?
The next day I related to Conseil and the Canadian the events of the
night, which had excited my curiosity to the highest degree. My companions
were not less surprised than myself.
"But where does he take his millions to?" asked Ned Land.
To that there was no possible answer. I returned to the saloon after
having breakfast and set to work. Till five o'clock in the evening I
employed myself in arranging my notes. At that moment-(ought I to
attribute it to some peculiar idiosyncrasy)- I felt so great a heat that I
was obliged to take off my coat. It was strange, for we were under low
latitudes; and even then the Nautilus, submerged as it was, ought to
experience no change of temperature. I looked at the manometer; it showed
a depth of sixty feet, to which atmospheric heat could never attain.
I continued my work, but the temperature rose to such a pitch as to be
intolerable.
"Could there be fire on board?" I asked myself.
I was leaving the saloon, when Captain Nemo entered; he approached the
thermometer, consulted it, and, turning to me, said:
"Forty-two degrees."
"I have noticed it, Captain," I replied; "and if it gets much hotter we
cannot bear it."
"Oh, sir, it will not get better if we do not wish it."
"You can reduce it as you please, then?"
"No; but I can go farther from the stove which produces it."
"It is outward, then!"
"Certainly; we are floating in a current of boiling water."
"Is it possible!" I exclaimed.
"Look."
The panels opened, and I saw the sea entirely white all round. A
sulphurous smoke was curling amid the waves, which boiled like water in a
copper. I placed my hand on one of the panes of glass, but the heat was so
great that I quickly took it off again.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Near the Island of Santorin, sir," replied the Captain. "I wished to
give you a sight of the curious spectacle of a submarine eruption."
"I thought," said I, "that the formation of these new islands was
ended."
"Nothing is ever ended in the volcanic parts of the sea," replied
Captain Nemo; "and the globe is always being worked by subterranean fires.
Already, in the nineteenth year of our era, according to Cassiodorus and
Pliny, a new island, Theia (the divine), appeared in the very place where
these islets have recently been formed. Then they sank under the waves, to
rise again in the year 69, when they again subsided. Since that time to
our days the Plutonian work has been suspended. But on the 3rd of
February, 1866, a new island, which they named George Island, emerged from
the midst of the sulphurous vapour near Nea Kamenni, and settled again the
6th of the same month. Seven days after, the 13th of February, the Island
of Aphroessa appeared, leaving between Nea Kamenni and itself a canal ten
yards broad. I was in these seas when the phenomenon occurred, and I was
able therefore to observe all the different phases. The Island of
Aphroessa, of round form, measured 300 feet in diameter, and 30 feet in
height. It was composed of black and vitreous lava, mixed with fragments
of felspar. And lastly, on the 10th of March, a smaller island, called
Reka, showed itself near Nea Kamenni, and since then these three have
joined together, forming but one and the same island."
"And the canal in which we are at this moment?" I asked.
"Here it is," replied Captain Nemo, showing me a map of the
Archipelago. "You see, I have marked the new islands."
I returned to the glass. The Nautilus was no longer moving, the heat
was becoming unbearable. The sea, which till now had been white, was red,
owing to the presence of salts of iron. In spite of the ship's being
hermetically sealed, an insupportable smell of sulphur filled the saloon,
and the brilliancy of the electricity was entirely extinguished by bright
scarlet flames. I was in a bath, I was choking, I was broiled.
"We can remain no longer in this boiling water," said I to the Captain.
"It would not be prudent," replied the impassive Captain Nemo.
An order was given; the Nautilus tacked about and left the furnace it
could not brave with impunity. A quarter of an hour after we were
breathing fresh air on the surface. The thought then struck me that, if
Ned Land had chosen this part of the sea for our flight, we should never
have come alive out of this sea of fire.
The next day, the 16th of February, we left the basin which, between
Rhodes and Alexandria, is reckoned about 1,500 fathoms in depth, and the
Nautilus, passing some distance from Cerigo, quitted the Grecian
Archipelago after having doubled Cape Matapan.
The Mediterranean, the blue sea par excellence, "the great sea" of the
Hebrews, "the sea" of the Greeks, the "mare nostrum" of the Romans,
bordered by orange-trees, aloes, cacti, and sea-pines; embalmed with the
perfume of the myrtle, surrounded by rude mountains, saturated with pure
and transparent air, but incessantly worked by underground fires; a
perfect battlefield in which Neptune and Pluto still dispute the empire of
the world!
It is upon these banks, and on these waters, says Michelet, that man is
renewed in one of the most powerful climates of the globe. But, beautiful
as it was, I could only take a rapid glance at the basin whose superficial
area is two million of square yards. Even Captain Nemo's knowledge was
lost to me, for this puzzling person did not appear once during our
passage at full speed. I estimated the course which the Nautilus took
under the waves of the sea at about six hundred leagues, and it was
accomplished in forty-eight hours. Starting on the morning of the 16th of
February from the shores of Greece, we had crossed the Straits of
Gibraltar by sunrise on the 18th.
It was plain to me that this Mediterranean, enclosed in the midst of
those countries which he wished to avoid, was distasteful to Captain Nemo.
Those waves and those breezes brought back too many remembrances, if not
too many regrets. Here he had no longer that independence and that liberty
of gait which he had when in the open seas, and his Nautilus felt itself
cramped between the close shores of Africa and Europe.
Our speed was now twenty-five miles an hour. It may be well understood
that Ned Land, to his great disgust, was obliged to renounce his intended
flight. He could not launch the pinnace, going at the rate of twelve or
thirteen yards every second. To quit the Nautilus under such conditions
would be as bad as jumping from a train going at full speed-an imprudent
thing, to say the least of it. Besides, our vessel only mounted to the
surface of the waves at night to renew its stock of air; it was steered
entirely by the compass and the log.
I saw no more of the interior of this Mediterranean than a traveller by
express train perceives of the landscape which flies before his eyes; that
is to say, the distant horizon, and not the nearer objects which pass like
a flash of lightning.
We were then passing between Sicily and the coast of Tunis. In the
narrow space between Cape Bon and the Straits of Messina the bottom of the
sea rose almost suddenly. There was a perfect bank, on which there was not
more than nine fathoms of water, whilst on either side the depth was
ninety fathoms.
The Nautilus had to manoeuvre very carefully so as not to strike
against this submarine barrier.
I showed Conseil, on the map of the Mediterranean, the spot occupied by
this reef.
"But if you please, sir," observed Conseil, "it is like a real isthmus
joining Europe to Africa."
"Yes, my boy, it forms a perfect bar to the Straits of Lybia, and the
soundings of Smith have proved that in former times the continents between
Cape Boco and Cape Furina were joined."
"I can well believe it," said Conseil.
"I will add," I continued, "that a similar barrier exists between
Gibraltar and Ceuta, which in geological times formed the entire
Mediterranean."
"What if some volcanic burst should one day raise these two barriers
above the waves?"
"It is not probable, Conseil."
"Well, but allow me to finish, please, sir; if this phenomenon should
take place, it will be troublesome for M. Lesseps, who has taken so much
pains to pierce the isthmus."
"I agree with you; but I repeat, Conseil, this phenomenon will never
happen. The violence of subterranean force is ever diminishing. Volcanoes,
so plentiful in the first days of the world, are being extinguished by
degrees; the internal heat is weakened, the temperature of the lower
strata of the globe is lowered by a perceptible quantity every century to
the detriment of our globe, for its heat is its life."
"But the sun?"
"The sun is not sufficient, Conseil. Can it give heat to a dead body?"
"Not that I know of."
"Well, my friend, this earth will one day be that cold corpse; it will
become uninhabitable and uninhabited like the moon, which has long since
lost all its vital heat."
"In how many centuries?"
"In some hundreds of thousands of years, my boy."
"Then," said Conseil, "we shall have time to finish our journey- that
is, if Ned Land does not interfere with it."
And Conseil, reassured, returned to the study of the bank, which the
Nautilus was skirting at a moderate speed.
During the night of the 16th and 17th February we had entered the
second Mediterranean basin, the greatest depth of which was 1,450 fathoms.
The Nautilus, by the action of its crew, slid down the inclined planes and
buried itself in the lowest depths of the sea.
On the 18th of February, about three o'clock in the morning, we were at
the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar. There once existed two currents:
an upper one, long since recognised, which conveys the waters of the ocean
into the basin of the Mediterranean; and a lower counter-current, which
reasoning has now shown to exist. Indeed, the volume of water in the
Mediterranean, incessantly added to by the waves of the Atlantic and by
rivers falling into it, would each year raise the level of this sea, for
its evaporation is not sufficient to restore the equilibrium. As it is not
so, we must necessarily admit the existence of an under-current, which
empties into the basin of the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar
the surplus waters of the Mediterranean. A fact indeed; and it was this