Chapter 16

This cell, properly speaking, was the Nautilus’s arsenal and wardrobe. Hanging from its walls, a dozen diving outfits were waiting for anybody who wanted to take a stroll.

After seeing these, Ned Land exhibited an obvious distaste for the idea of putting one on.

“But my gallant Ned,” I told him, “the forests of Crespo Island are simply underwater forests!”

“Oh great!” said the disappointed harpooner. “And is Conseil going to hunt?”

“Where master goes, I go,” Conseil replied.

Two crewmen came to help us put on these heavy, waterproof clothes. They were like suits of armor that were both yielding and resistant. These clothes consisted of jacket and pants. The fabric of the jacket was reinforced with copper that shielded the chest, protected it from the water’s pressure, and allowed the lungs to function freely; the sleeves ended in supple gloves that didn’t impede hand movements.

Conseil and I were soon dressed in these diving suits, as were Captain Nemo and one of his companions.

“Captain Nemo,” I said, “How will we reach the bottom of the sea?”

“Right now, professor, the Nautilus is aground in ten meters of water, and we’ve only to depart.”

Captain Nemo inserted his head into the spherical gear. Conseil and I did the same, but not without hearing the Canadian toss us a sarcastic “happy hunting.” I was ready to go forth. But, while imprisoned in these heavy clothes, it was impossible for me to take a single step.

I felt myself propelled into a little room adjoining the wardrobe. My companions went with me. I heard a door close after us, and we were surrounded by profound darkness. A second door then opened. Our feet touched the bottom of the sea.

How can I describe this stroll under the waters? Words are powerless to describe such wonders! Captain Nemo walked in front, and his companion followed us. Conseil and I stayed next to each other. I no longer felt the bulkiness of my clothes, footwear, and air tank, nor the weight of the heavy sphere inside which my head was rattling. Once immersed in water, all these objects lost a part of their weight equal to the weight of the liquid they displaced. I was no longer an inert mass, and I had great freedom of movement.

Lighting up the seafloor even thirty feet beneath the surface of the ocean, the sun astonished me with its power. I could easily distinguish objects 100 meters away. Above me I could see the calm surface of the ocean.

We were walking on sand. This dazzling carpet was a real mirror.

The vast plains of sand seemed endless. Soon the forms of some objects took shape before my eyes. I recognized the lower slopes of magnificent rocks.

By then it was ten o’clock in the morning. The sun’s rays came in contact with flowers, rocks, buds, seashells, and polyps: a genuine kaleidoscope of red, green, yellow, orange, violet, indigo, and blue!

We had been gone from the Nautilus for about an hour and a half. It was almost noon. The magic of solar colors disappeared little by little. We walked with steady steps. We reached a depth of 100 meters, by which point we were undergoing a pressure of ten atmospheres. But I did not suffer from this pressure. I felt only a certain tightness in the joints of my fingers, and even this discomfort soon disappeared. Helped by the water, my movements were executed with ease.

Arriving at this 300-foot depth, I still detected the sun’s rays, but just barely. But we could see well enough to find our way.

Just then Captain Nemo stopped. He waited until I joined him, then he pointed a finger at some dark masses outlined in the shadows a short distance away.

“It’s the forest of Crespo Island,” I thought; and I was not mistaken.

Chapter 17

We had finally arrived on the outskirts of this forest. It was made up of big treelike plants. None of the weeds carpeting, none of the branches crept, or leaned, or stretched on a horizontal plane. They all rose right up toward the surface of the ocean. I observed that all these plants had no roots.

I soon grew accustomed to this bizarre arrangement, likewise to the comparative darkness surrounding us. Flora and fauna are so closely associated in the underwater world!

Near one o’clock, Captain Nemo gave the signal to halt. This short break was a delight. It lacked only the charm of conversation. But it was impossible to speak, impossible to reply. After four hours of strolling, I was quite astonished not to feel any intense hunger. What kept my stomach in such a good mood I’m unable to say. But I experienced that irresistible desire for sleep that comes over every diver. My eyes soon closed behind their heavy glass windows and I fell into an uncontrollable doze.

When I awoke, Captain Nemo was already up. A few paces away, a monstrous, meter-high sea spider was staring at me with beady eyes, poised to spring at me. Although my diving suit was heavy enough to protect me from this animal’s bites, I was in horror. Just then Conseil woke up, together with the Nautilus’s sailor. Captain Nemo alerted his companion to this hideous spider, which a swing of the rifle butt quickly brought down, and I watched the monster’s horrible legs writhing in dreadful convulsions.

Suddenly I saw the glow of an intense white light. Captain Nemo had just activated his electric device. His companion did likewise. Conseil and I followed the example. The sea, lit up by our four lanterns, was illuminated for a radius of twenty-five meters.

Captain Nemo went through the forest, whose shrubbery grew ever more sparse. I observed that vegetable life was disappearing more quickly than animal life.

Finally, at around four o’clock, this marvelous excursion came to an end. A wall of rocks stood before us: a pile of gigantic stone blocks. This was land.

The captain stopped suddenly. I had to stop. Here ended the domains of Captain Nemo. He had no desire to pass beyond them.

Our return journey began. I noted that we didn’t follow the same path in returning to the Nautilus. This new route, very steep and hence very arduous, quickly took us close to the surface of the sea. At a depth of ten meters, we walked amid a swarm of small fish from every species, more numerous than birds in the air, but no aquatic game worthy of a gunshot had yet been offered to our eyes.

Just then I saw the captain’s weapon spring to his shoulder. A shot went off, and an animal dropped a few paces away. It was a magnificent sea otter. One and a half meters long, this otter had to be worth a good high price. Its coat, brown above and silver below, would have made one of those wonderful fur pieces so much in demand in the Russian and Chinese markets; it would go for at least 2,000 francs. Captain Nemo’s companion picked up the animal, loaded it on his shoulder, and we continued our way again.

In all honesty, I was dead tired, cutting through the darkness of the waters. Within twenty minutes we would be on board, and there I could breathe easy again.

I was lagging behind some twenty paces when I saw Captain Nemo suddenly come back toward me. When I raised my head I saw two enormous masses.

My blood turned cold in my veins! I saw that we were under threat from a fearsome pair of sharks. They were blue sharks, dreadful man-eaters with enormous tails. I looked at their silver bellies, their fearsome mouths with teeth.

Luckily these voracious animals have poor eyesight. They went by without noticing us.

Half an hour later we reached the Nautilus. The outside door had been left open, and Captain Nemo closed it after we reentered the first cell. Then he pressed a button. I heard pumps operating within the ship. The inside door opened, and we passed into the wardrobe.

There our diving suits were removed, not without difficulty; and went repaired to my stateroom, full of wonder at this startling excursion on the bottom of the sea.

Chapter 18

By the next morning, November 18, I was fully recovered from my exhaustion of the day before, and I climbed onto the platform just as the Nautilus’s chief officer was pronouncing his daily phrase. It then occurred to me that these words either referred to the state of the sea, or that they meant: “There’s nothing in sight.”

And in truth, the ocean was deserted. Not a sail on the horizon. The tips of Crespo Island had disappeared during the night.

I was marveling at this magnificent ocean view when Captain Nemo appeared. He didn’t seem to notice my presence and began a series of astronomical observations. Then he went and leaned his elbows on the beacon housing, his eyes straying over the surface of the ocean.

Meanwhile some twenty of the Nautilus’s sailors—all energetic, well-built fellows—climbed onto the platform. They had come to pull up the nets. These seamen obviously belonged to different nationalities, although indications of European physical traits could be seen in them all. If I’m not mistaken, I recognized some Irishmen, some Frenchmen, a few Slavs, and a native of either Greece or Crete. These men used among themselves only that bizarre dialect whose origin I couldn’t even guess.

I estimate that this cast of the net brought in more than 1,000 pounds of fish. It was a fine catch but not surprising. Captain Nemo turned to me and said without further preamble:

“Look at this ocean, professor! Isn’t it alive? Last evening it went to sleep just as we did, and there it is, waking up after a peaceful night!”

No hellos or good mornings! This eccentric man was simply continuing a conversation we’d already started!

“See!” he went on. “It’s waking up under the sun’s caresses! What a fascinating field of study lies in watching the play of its organism.”

I’m sure that Captain Nemo expected no replies from me. He was simply talking to himself, with long pauses between sentences. He was meditating out loud.

Then Captain Nemo headed to the hatch and disappeared down the ladder. I followed him and went back to the main lounge.

Days and weeks passed, I saw Captain Nemo only at rare intervals. Almost every day the panels in the lounge were open for some hours, and our eyes saw the mysteries of the underwater world.

During the day of December 11, I was busy reading in the main lounge. Ned Land and Conseil were observing the luminous waters through the gaping panels. The Nautilus was motionless. Suddenly Conseil interrupted my reading.

“Would master kindly come here for an instant?” he said to me in an odd voice.

“What is it, Conseil?”

“It’s something that master should see.”

I stood up, went, leaned on my elbows before the window, and I saw it.

In the broad electric daylight, I saw an enormous black mass. I observed it carefully, trying to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean. Then a sudden thought crossed my mind.

“A ship!” I exclaimed.

“Yes,” the Canadian replied, “a disabled craft that’s sinking straight down!”

Ned Land was not mistaken. A sorry sight, this carcass lost under the waves, but sorrier still was the sight on its deck some human corpses still lay! I counted four of them—four men, then a woman, holding a child in her arms.

What a scene! We stood dumbstruck, hearts pounding, before this shipwreck. And already I could see enormous sharks moving in, drawn by the lure of human flesh!

Meanwhile, turning, the Nautilus made a circle around the sinking ship, and for an instant I could read the board on its stern: The Florida Sunderland, England.