menu_book Chapter 18

chapter eighteen of twenty thousand leagues under the sea this is the librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org of the sea twenty thousand leagues under the sea by jules verne translated by f p walter chapter eighteen four thousand leagues under the pacific by the next morning november the eighteenth i was full recovered from my exhaustion of the day before and i climbed onto the platform just as the nautilus 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 is 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 the sea absorbing every color of the prison except its blue rays reflected the latter in every direction and sported a wonderful indio tint

the undulating waves regularly took on the parents of watered silk with white stripes i was marvelling 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 his operations finished he went and leaned his elbow on the beacon housing his eyes draying over the surface of the ocean meanwhile some twenty of the nautilus sailors all energetic well-built fellows climbed onto the platform they had come to pull up the nets left in our way during the night these seamen obviously belonged to different nationalities although indications of european physical traits could be seen in them all if i am not mistaken i recognized some irishmen some frenchmen and a few slavs and a native of either greece or crete even so these men were frugal of speech and used among themselves only that bizarre dialect whose origin i couldn't even guess so i had to give out any notions of questioning them

the nets were hauled on board they were a breed of trawl resembling those used off the normandy coast huge pouches held half open by a floating pole and a chain laced through the lower measures trailing in this way from these iron glove makers the resulting receptacles scoured the ocean floor and collected every marine exhibit in their path that day they gathered up some unusual specimens from these fish-twilled waterways angler fish whose comical movements qualify them for their epithet clowns black cumbers and anglers equipped with their antennas undulating trigger fish encircled by little red bands bloated puffers whose venom is extremely insidious some olive-hued lampreys snipe fish covered with silver scales cutlass fish whose electrocuting power equals that of the electric eel and the electric ray scaly feather-backs with brown cross-wire bands greenish codfish several varieties of gobby etc

finally some fish of larger proportions a one-meaty jack with a prominent head several fine benito from the genus cumber decked out in the colors blue and silver and three magnificent tuna whose high speeds couldn't save them from all trawl i estimate that the cast of the net brought in more than one thousand pounds of fish it was a fine catch but not surprising in essence these nets stayed in her wake for several hours incarcerating an entire aquatic world in prisons made of tread so we were never lacking in provisions of the highest quality which the nautilus speed and the lure of its electric light could continually replenish these various exhibits from the sea were immediately lowered down the hatch in the direction of the storage lockers some to be eaten fresh others to be preserved after its fishing was finished and its air supply renewed i thought the nautilus would resume its under-water excursion and i was getting ready to return to my stateroom when captain nemo turned to me and said without further preamble

look at this ocean professor doesn't it have the actual gift of life doesn't it experience both anger and affection last evening it went to sleep just as we did and there it is waking up after a peaceful night no hello's or good mornings for this gent you would have thought that this eccentric individual was simply continuing a conversation we'd already started see he went on it's waking up under the sun caresses it's going to relieve its daily existence what a fascinating field of study lies in watching the play of its organisms it owns a pulse and arteries it has spasms and i side with the scholarly commander moray who discovered that it is a circulation as real as the circulation of blood in animals i'm sure that captain nemo expected no replies from me and it seemed pointless to pitch in with ah yes exactly or how right you are rather he was simply talking to himself with long pauses between sentences he was mediating out loud yes he said the ocean owns a genuine circulation

and to start it going the creator of all things has only to increase its heat salt and microscopic animal life in essence heat creates the different densities that leads to currents and counter currents evaporation which is nil in the high arctic regions and very active in the equatorial zones brings about a constant interchange of tropical and polar waters what's more i've detected those falling and rising currents that makes up the ocean's true breathing i've seen a molecule of salt water heat up at the surface sink into the depths reach maximum density at minus two centigrade then cool off grow lighter and rise again at the poles you will see the consequences of this phenomenon and through this law of far-seen nature you'll understand why water can freeze only at the surface as the captain was finishing his sentence i said to myself the pole is this brazen individual claiming he'll take us even to that location

meanwhile the captain fell silent and stared at the element he had studied so proudly and unceasingly then going on salts he said fill the sea in considerable quantities professor and if you removed all its dissolved saw-line content you would create a mass measuring four million five hundred thousand cubic leagues which if it were spread all over the globe would form a layer more than ten meters high and don't think that the presence of these salts is due merely to some whim of nature no they make ocean water less open to evaporation and prevent winds from carrying off excessive amounts of steam which when condensing would submerge the temperate zones salts play a leading role the role of stabilizer for the general ecology of the globe captain nemo stopped straightened up took a few steps along the platform and returned to me as for those billions of tiny animals he went on

those infusoria that live by the millions in one droplet of water eight hundred thousand of which are needed to weigh one milligram their role is no less important they absorb the marine salts they assimilate the solid elements in the water and since they create coral and madrepores they're the true builders of limestone continents and so after they've finished depriving the water drops of its mineral nutrients the droplets gets lighter rises to the surface there absorbs more salt left behind to evaporation gets heavier sinks again and brings those tiny animals new elements to absorb the outcome a double current rising and falling constant movement constant life more intense than on land more impudent more infinite such life blooms in every part of this ocean an ailment fatal to man they say but vital to myriads of animals and to me

when captain nemo spoke in this way he was transfigured and he filled me with extraordinary excitement there he added out there lies true existence and i can imagine the finding of nautical towns clusters of under-water households that like the nautilus would return to the surface of the sea to breathe each morning free towns if ever there were independent cities then again who knows where there's some tyrant captain nemo finished his sentence with a vehement gesture then addressing me directly as if to drive away an ugly thought professor aranax he asked me do you know the depths of the ocean floor at least captain i know what the major surrounding tells us could you quote them to me so i can double-check them as the need arises here i replied are a few of them that sticks to my memory

if i am not mistaken an average depth of eight thousand two hundred meters was found in the north atlantic and two thousand five hundred meters in the mediterranean the most remarkable surroundings were taken in the south atlantic near the thirty-fifth parallel and they gave twelve thousand meters fourteen thousand and ninety-one meters and fifteen thousand one hundred and forty-nine meters all in all it's estimated that if the sea bottom were made level its average depth would be about seven kilometers well professor captain nemo replied we'll show you better than that i hope as for the average depth of this part of the pacific i'll inform you that it's a mere four thousand meters this said captain nemo headed to the hatch and disappeared down the ladder i followed him and went back to the main lounge the propeller was instantly set in motion and the log gave our speed as twenty miles per hour over the ensuing days and weeks captain nemo was very frugal with his visits

i saw him only at rare intervals his chief officer regularly fixed the positions i found reported on the chart and in such a way that i could exactly plot a nautilus cause kinsale had told his friend about the wonders of our undersea stroll and the canadian was sorry he hadn't gone along but i hoped an opportunity would arise for a visit to the forest of oceania almost every day the panels in the lounge were open for some hours and our eyes never tired of probing the mysteries of the under-water world the nautilus general heading was south-east and it stayed at a depth between hundred and hundred and fifty meters however from lord knows what whim one day it did a diagonal dive by means of its slanting fins reaching strata located two thousand meters under water a thermometer indicated a temperature of four point twenty five centigrade which at this depth seemed to be a temperature common to all latitudes

on november twenty sixth at three o'clock in the morning the nautilus cleared the tropic of cancer at longitude hundred and seventy two degrees on the twenty seventh it passed in sight of the wine islands where the famous captain cook met his death on february the fourteenth seventeen seventy nine by then we had fared four thousand eight hundred and sixty leagues from our starting point when i arrived on the platform that morning i saw the islands of hawai two miles leward the largest of the seven islands making up this group i could clearly distinguish the tilled soils on its outskirts the various mountain chains running parallel with its coastline and its volcanoes crowned by manakea whose elevation is five thousand meters above sea-level among other specimens from these waterways or nets brought up some peacock-tailed flabellarian coral polyps flattened into stylish shapes and unique to this part of the ocean

the nautilus kept to its south-eastly heading on december the first it cut the equator at longitude hundred and forty two degrees and on the fourth of the same month after a quick crossing marked by no incident we raced the markansas islands three miles off in latitude eight degrees fifty seven south and longitude hundred and thirty nine degrees thirty two west i spotted martin point on nuku chief member of this island group that belongs to france i could make out only its wooden mountains on the horizon because captain nemo hated to hug shore there our nets brought up some fine fish samples dolphin fish with their shore fins gold tails and flesh that's unrivalled in the entire world genus that were nearly denuded of scales but exquisite in flavor knife-jaws with bony beaks yellowish albacore that were as tasty as bonitae all fish worth classifying in the ship's pantry

after leaving these delightful islands to the protection of the french flag the nautilus covered about two thousand miles from december the fourth to the eleventh its navigating was marked by an encounter with an immense school of squid unusual mollusks that are near neighbors of the cuttle-fish french fishermen give them the name cockled fish and they belonged to the class cephalopata family diapranchiata consisting of themselves together with cuttle-fish and arcanuts the naturalists of antiquity made a special study of them and these animals furnished many rival figures of speech for soapbox orators as well as excellent dishes for the tables of rich citizens if we were to believe athenas a greek physician predating galen it was during the night of december the ninth of the tenth that anautilus encountered this army of distinctly nocturnal mollusks

they numbered in the millions they were migrating from the temperate zones towards the zone still warmer following the itineraries of herring and sardines we stared at them through our thick glass windows they swam backward with tremendous speed moving by means of their locomotive tubes chasing fish and mollusks eating the little ones eaten by the big ones and tossing in inscribable confusion the ten feet that nature has rooted in their heads like a hair-piece of pneumatic snakes despite its speed the nautilus navigated for several hours in the midst of this school of animals and its net brought up an incalculable number among which i recognized all nine species that professor orpingley has classified as native to the pacific ocean during this crossing the sea continually lodged us with the most marvellous sights its variety was infinite it changed its setting and decor for the mere pleasure of our eyes

and we were called upon not simply to contemplate the works of our creator in the midst of the liquid element but also to probe the ocean's most daunting mysteries the nautilus was motionless its ballast tank full it was sitting at the depths of a thousand meters in the comparatively unpopulated region of the ocean where only larger fish put in occasional appearance just then i was studying a delightful book by jean maze the servants of the stomach and savoring its own ingenious teachings when kinsale interrupted my reading but master kindly come here for an instant he said to me in an odd voice what is it kinsale 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 an enormous black mass quite motionless hung suspended in the midst of the waters

i absorbed it carefully trying to find out the nature of this gigantic excitation 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 we were in the presence of a ship whose severed shrouds still hung from their clasps it's all looked in good condition and it must have gone under only a few hours before the stumps of three masts chopped off two feet above the deck indicated a flooding ship that had been forced to sacrifice its masting but it had healed sideways filling completely and it was listing to port even yet sorry sight this carcass lost under the waves but sorry still was the sight on its deck well lashed with robes to prevent their being washed overboard some human corpses still lay i counted four of them four men one still standing at the helm then a woman half way out of the skylight on the after deck holding a child in arms

this woman was young under the brilliant light of the nautilus rays i could make out her features which the water hadn't yet decomposed with the supreme effort she had lifted her child above her head and the poor little creature's arms were still twined round its mother's neck the posture of the four seamen seemed ghastly to me twisted from convulsive movements as if making a last effort to break loose from the ropes that bound him to the ship and the helmsman standing alone calmer his face smooth and serious his grizzled hair plastered to his brow his hands clutching the wheel seemed even yet to be guiding his wrecked three-master through the ocean depths what a scene we stood dumbstruck hearts pounding before this shipwreck caught in the act as if it had been photographed in its final moments so to speak and already i could see enormous sharks moving in eyes ablaze 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 chapter eighteen recording by erli marie hofdenkwester