Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

saw the Canadian enter my room. I expect

sir?" s

tune was agains

stop exactly at the hour we

had business a

ban

I mean the ocean, where his riches are

dea of not abandoning the Captain; but my recital had no other result than an energetically expressed

only a blow of the harpoon lost. Another time

n is the Nautilus

know," r

n we shall se

ent into the saloon. The compass was not reassuring. The course

the platform. Ned Land had preceded me. No more land in sight. Nothing but an immense sea. Some sails on the horizon, doubtless those going to San Roque in search of favourable winds for doubling the

ofited by this brightness to take its height. Then, the sea

17' long., and 33° 22' lat., at 150 leagues from the nearest coast. There was no means of fli

ed of the load which had oppressed me, and was able to r

it from Captain Nemo. He asked me very graciously if I felt fatigu

x, I propose a c

se, Ca

by daylight, under the brightness of the sun. Would i

will

shall have far to walk, and must climb a

ly heightens my curiosity;

we will put on ou

any of the ship's crew were to follow us on this excursion. Captai

ur backs the reservoirs, abundantly filled with air, but no electri

be useless,

, we set foot on the bottom of the Atlantic at a depth of 150 fathoms. Midnight was near. The waters were profoundly dark, but Captain Nemo pointed out in the distance a reddish spot, a sort of large light shining brilliantly about two miles from the Nautilus. What this fire mig

sping the surface of the waves. Instinctively the thought flashed across my mind that I should be wet through! By the water! in the midst of the water! I could not help laughing at the odd

mpse of pieces of stone covered with millions of zoophytes and masses of sea weed. My feet often slipped upon this sticky carpet of sea weed, and without my ir

is conflagration? Had he fanned this flame? Was I to meet in these depths companions and friends of Captain Nemo whom he was going to visit, and who, like him, led this strange existence? Should I find down there a whole colony of exiles who, weary of the miseries of this earth, had sought and found independ

about 800 feet high. But what I saw was simply a reflection, developed by the clearness of the

. Doubtless he had often travelled over it, and could not lose himself. I followed him with unshaken confidence. He seemed to me like a

slopes of the mountain; but to gain access to them we m

h seaweed and fucus, between which grovelled a whole world of crustacea. I went along, climbing the rocks, striding over extended trunks, breaking the sea bind-weed which hung from one tree to the other; and frightening the fishes, which flew from branch to branch. Pressing onward, I felt no fatigue. I followed my guide, who was never tired. What a spectacle! How can I express it? how paint the aspect of those woods and rocks in this medium-their under part

e sides of the gulfs; but I walked with firm step, without feeling any giddiness. Now I jumped a crevice, the depth of which would have made me hesitate had it been among the glaciers on

nees trees sprang, like a jet under heavy pressure, and upheld others which upheld them. Natural towers, large scarps, cut perpen

cks were rent with impenetrable fractures, deep grottos, and unfathomable holes, at the bottom of which formidable creatures might be heard moving. My blood curdled when I saw enormous antennae blocking my road, or some frightful claw closing with a noise in the shadow of some cavity. Millions of luminous spots shone brightly in the mid

ngst which might be traced the vague and shadowy forms of castles and temples, clothed with a world of blossoming zoophytes, and over which, instead of ivy, sea-weed and fucus threw a thick vegetable mantle. B

him-I seized his arm. But, shaking his head, and pointin

e along; c

imbed to the top, which for a circle of t

the level of the plain; but on the opposite side it commanded from twice that height the depths of this part of th

volcano lit the lower plain like an immense torch, even to the extreme limits of the horizon. I said that the submarine crater threw up lava, but no flames. Flames require the oxygen of the air to feed upon and can

d torrents of lava slid to the bottom of the mountain

ecture. Further on, some remains of a gigantic aqueduct; here the high base of an Acropolis, with the floating outline of a Parthenon; there traces of a quay, as if an ancient port had formerly abutted on the borders of the ocean, and d

ut Captain Nemo stopped me by a gesture, and, picking up a piece of ch

LA

ndary tales. I had it there now before my eyes, bearing upon it the unexceptionable testimony of its catastrophe. The region thus engulfed was beyond Europe,

touching with my hand those ruins a thousand generations old and contemporary with the geologic

s, and live again this ancient life-he who wanted no modern one? What would I not have given to know his thoughts, to share them, to understand them! We remained for an hour at this place, contemplating the vast plains under the brightness of the lava, which was some times wonderfully intense. Rapid tremblings ran along the mountain caused by internal b

lantern of the Nautilus shining like a star. The Captain walked straight to it,