Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

into the labyrinth of canals which separate the Maldives from the Laccadives. It coasted even the Island of Kiltan, a land originally coraline, discovered by

00 (French) leagues from our sta

e Sea of Oman, between Arabia and the Indian Peninsula, which serves as an outlet to the Persian Gulf. It was evidently a block without any possible egre

our Captain's fancy

ian. "The Persian Gulf has no outlet: and, if we do

fter the Persian Gulf, the Nautilus would like to visit the Red

e Isthmus of Suez is not yet cut; and, if it was, a boat as mysterious as ours would not risk its

d we were going

you suppo

Nautilus will go down the Indian Ocean again, perhaps cross the Channel of M

ood Hope?" asked the Canad

red of this journey under the sea; you are surfeited with the incessantly varying spectacle of submarine

t various speeds and at various depths. It seemed to go at random, as if hesitat

, surrounded by black rocks upon which its white houses and forts stood in relief. I saw the rounded domes of its mosques, the elegant poin

untains being occasionally relieved by some ancient ruin. The 5th of February we at last entered the Gulf of Aden

land, a kind of inaccessible Gibraltar, the fortifications of which were rebuilt by the English after taking possession in 183

this point, would back out again; but I was mistak

the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb, the name of whic

d of Perim, with which the British Government has fortified the position of Aden. There were too many English or French steamers of the line of Suez to Bombay, Calcutta to Melbourne, and from

quite approved of the Nautilus entering it. Its speed was lessened: sometimes it kept on the surface, somet

unshot, yet which shelters here and there some verdant date-trees; once an important city, containing six public marke

along these sandbanks and algae and fuci. What an indescribable spectacle, and what variety of sites and landscapes along these sandbanks and volcanic islands which bound the Libyan coast! But where these shrubs appeared in all their beauty was on the eastern coast, which the Nautilus soon gained. It was on the coast

aloon! What new specimens of submarine flora and fauna d

he Red Sea, which is comprised between Souakin, on the west coast,

ened to be, and I was determined not to let him go down again without at least pressing him rega

wonders it covers, its fishes, its zoophytes, its parterres of sponges, and

Nautilus is wonderfully fitted for such

fears neither the terrible tempests of the R

f the worst, and in the time of the ancients, if

e 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

hat these historians never s

han the ancients. It required many ages to find out the mechanical power of steam. Who knows

before its time, perhaps an era. What a misfortune that the

ply. After some minutes

of ancient historians upon the da

; "but were not thei

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, steame

itude in the hearts of sailors. But, Captain, since you seem to have

ct, M. Aronnax. Would you like to know the opi

ling

o it after the passage of the Israelites, when Pharaoh p

plied; "but I cannot content myself with t

n of the Red Sea a translation of the Hebrew word `Edom'; and if the ancients

nothing but transparent waves a

lf, you will see this singular appearance. I remember s

colour to the presence o

es

first time you have overrun the

, s

the catastrophe to the Egyptians, I will ask whether you have me

nd for a go

t is

d up with sand that the camels can barely bathe their legs there. You c

spot?"

whether this passage were miraculous or not, the Israelites, nevertheless, crossed there to reach the Promised Land, and Pharaoh's army perished precisel

ations will be made sooner or later, when new towns are established on the isthmus, after the

anal 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

two seas, which will shorten the road from Cadiz to India, M. Lesseps has succeed

thers, 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

I replied, surprised by the manner i

Suez Canal; but you will be able to see the long jetty of Port

rranean!" I

does that a

think that we shall be the

dee

to have accustomed myself to be surprised at

use of this

s, if the day after to-morrow she is to be in the Mediterranean, h

ke the round of Africa and doub

s sails on dry land, and

th it, M.

eath

ong time ago Nature made under this tongue of l

h a passag

named the Arabian Tunnel. It takes us benea

s composed of nothi

fifty-five yards only ther

ssage by chance?" I asked

tical. 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 t