Chapter 41
CHAPTER 41. From Cape Horn to the Amazon. How I got onto the platform, I am unable to say. Perhaps the Canadian transferred me there. But I could breathe, I could inhale the life-giving sea air.
Next to me my two companions were getting tipsy on the fresh oxygen particles. Poor souls who have suffered from long starvation mustn't pounce heedlessly on the first food given them. We, on the other hand, didn't have to practice such moderation. We could suck the atoms from the air by the long fall, and it was the breeze, the breeze
itself, that poured into us this luxurious intoxication. Ah, conceal was putting in, what fine oxygen! Let the master have no fears about breathing, there's enough for everyone. As for Nedland, he didn't say a word, but his wide open jaws would have scared off a shark.
The Canadian drew like a furnace going full blast. Our strength returned promptly, and when I looked around, I saw that we were alone on the platform. No crewmen, not even Captain Nemo. Those strange seamen on the nautilus were content with the oxygen circulating inside.
Not one of them had come up to enjoy the open air. The first words I pronounced were words of appreciation and gratitude to my two companions. Ned and conceal had kept me alive during the final hours of our long death throes, but no expression of thanks could repay them fully for such devotion. Good Lord, Professor, Nedland answered me.
Don't mention it. What did we do that's so praiseworthy? Not a thing, it was a question of simple arithmetic. Your life is worth more than ours, so we had to save it. No, Ned, I replied, it isn't worth more.
Nobody could be better than a kind and generous man like yourself. All right, all right, the Canadian repeated in embarrassment. And you, my gallant conceal, you suffered a great deal. Not too much to become the Bith Master. I was lacking a few thoughtfuls of air, but I would have gotten by.
Besides, when I saw Master Fainting, it left me without the slightest desire to breathe. It took my breath away in a manner of... Confounded by the slaps into banality, conceal left his sentence hanging. My friends, I replied very moved. We're bound to each other forever and I'm deeply indebted to you,
which I'll take advantage of. The Canadian shot back. Eh, conceal put in. Yes, Nedland went on. You're going to pay your debt by coming with me when I leave this infernal nautilus.
By the way, conceal said, are we going in a favourable direction? Yes, I replied, because we're going in the direction of the sun, and here the sun is due north. Sure, Nedland went on, but it remains to be seen whether we'll make for the Atlantic or the Pacific. In other words, whether we'll end up in well-travelled or deserted seas.
I had no reply to this and I fear that Captain Nemo wouldn't take us homeward, but rather into that huge ocean washing the shores of both Asia and America. In this way, he would complete his underwater tour of the world, going back to those seas where the nautilus enjoyed the greatest freedom. But if we returned to the Pacific, far from every populated shore,
what would happen to Nedland's plans? We would soon settle this important point. The nautilus travelled swiftly. Soon we cleared the Antarctic Circle plus the promontory of Cape Horn. We were abreast of the tip of South America by March 31st at seven o'clock in the evening.
By then all our past sufferings were forgotten. The memory of that imprisonment under the ice faded from our minds. We had thoughts only of the future. Captain Nemo no longer appeared, neither in the lounge nor on the platform. The positions reported each day on the world map were put there by the Chief Officer
and they enabled me to determine the nautilus's exact heading. Now then, that evening became obvious, much to my satisfaction, that we were returning north by the Atlantic route. I share the results of my observations with the Canadian and Conceal. That's good news, the Canadian replied.
But where's the nautilus going? I'm unable to say, Ned. After the South Pole, does our captain want to tackle the North Pole, then go back to the Pacific by the notorious Northwest Passage? I wouldn't double dare him, Conceal replied.
Oh well, the Canadian said. We'll give him the slip long before then. In any event, Conceal added, he's the superman that Captain Nemo will never forget having known him. Especially once we've left him, Nedland shot back.
The next day, April 1st, when the nautilus rose to the surface of the waves a few minutes before noon, we raised land to the west. It was Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire, a name given it by early navigators after they saw numerous curls of snow rising from the natives' huts.
This land of fire forms a huge cluster of islands over 30 weeks long and 80 leaps wide, extending between latitude 53 degrees and 56 degrees south, and between longitude 67 degrees 50 and 77 degrees 15 west. Its coastline looked flat, but high mountains rose in the distance. I even thought I could say Sarmiento's elevation is 2,070 meters above sea level,
a pyramid-shaped block of shale with a very sharp summit, which, depending on whether it's clear or veiled in vapor, predicts fair weather or foul, as Nedland told me. First class barometer, my friend. Yes, sir, a natural barometer that didn't let me down
when I navigated the narrows of the Strait of Magellan. Just then, its peak appeared before us, standing out distinctly against the background of the skies. This forecasted fair weather, and so it proved. Going back under the waters, the Nautilus drew near the coast,
cruising along it for only a few miles. Through the large windows, I could see long creepers and gigantic fucus plants, both bearing seaweed, of which the open sea at the Pearl had revealed a few specimens. With their smooth, viscous filaments, they measured as much as 300 meters long, genuine cables more than an inch thick and very tough.
The Nautilus was a very large species of fish, and it was often used as mooring lines for ships. Another weed known by the name Velp and boasting four-foot leaves was crammed into the coral concretions and carved to the ocean floor. It served as both nests and nourishment for myriads of crustaceans and mollusks,
for crabs and cobblefish. Here, seals and otters could indulge in a sumptuous meal, mixing meat from fish with vegetables from the sea, like the English with their Irish stews. I approached the expanse of the sea at moderate depths with tremendous speed.
Near evening, it approached the Falkland Islands, whose rugged summits I recognized the next day. The sea was of moderate depth. So not without good reason, I assume that these two islands, plus the many islets surrounding them, used to be part of the Magellan coastline.
The Falkland Islands were probably discovered by the famous navigator John Davis, who gave them the name Davis Southern Islands. the maiden land after the Blessed Virgin. Subsequently, at the beginning of the 18th century, they were named the Malouis by fishermen from Saint-Malo in Brittany, then finally dubbed the Falklands by the English, to whom they belong today.
In these waterways our nets brought up fine samples of algae, in particular certain Fuchus plants whose roots were laden with the world's best mussels. Yeasts and duck are lighted by the dozens on the platform and soon took their places in the ship's pantry. As for fish, I specifically observed some bony fish belonging to the Gobi genus, especially some Gudgeon, two decimetres long, sprinkled with whitish and yellow spots. I likewise marvelled
the numerous Medusas, including the most beautiful of their breed, the Compass Jellyfish, unique to the Falkland seas. Some of these jellyfish were shaped like very smooth, semi-spheric parasols, with russet stripes and fringes of twelve neat festoons. Others looked like upside-down baskets, from which wide leaves and long red twigs were gracefully trailing. They swam with quiverings of their four-leaf-like arms, letting the opulent tresses of their
tentacles dangle in the drift. I wanted to preserve a few specimens of these delicate Zorphites, but they were merely clouds, shadows, illusions melting and evaporating outside their native element. When the last tips of the Falkland islands had disappeared below the horizon, the Nautilus submerged to a depth between 20 and 25 metres, and went along the South American coast. Captain Nemo didn't put in an appearance. We didn't leave these
Patagonian waterways until April 3rd, sometimes cruising under the ocean, sometimes on its surface. The Nautilus passed the wide estuary formed by the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, and on April 4th we lay abreast of Uruguay, albeit 50 miles out. Keeping to its northerly heading, it followed the long wind windings of South America. By then we had fared 16,000 leagues since coming on board in the seas of Japan. Near 11 o'clock in the morning, we cut the
Tropic of Capricorn on the 37th meridian, passing well out from Cape Thrill. Much to the Nautilus' displeasure, Captain Nemo had no lifeline for the neighbourhood of Brazil's popular shores, because he shot by with dizzying speed. Not even the swiftest fish or birds could keep up with us, and the natural curiosities in these seas completely eluded our observation. This speed was maintained for several days, and on the evening of April 9th,
we raised South America's easternmost tip, Cape Saurook. But then the Nautilus veered away again, and weren't looking for the lowest depths of an underwater valley gouged between this cape and Sierra Leone on the coast of Africa. Abreast of the West Indies, this valley forks into two arms, and to the north it ends in an enormous depression 9,000 metres deep. From this locality to the Lesser Antilles, the ocean's geologic profile features a steeply cut cliff six kilometres high,
and abreast of the Cape Verde Islands, there's another wall just as imposing. Together these two barricades confine the whole submerged continent of Atlantis. The floor of this immense valley is made picturesque by mountains that furnish these underwater depths with scenic views. This description is based mostly on certain hand-drawn charts kept in the Nautilus's library, charts obviously rendered by Captain Nemo himself from his own personal observations.
For two days we visited these deep and deserted waters by means of our slanting fins. The Nautilus would do long diagonal dives that took us to every level, but on April 11th it rose suddenly and the shore reappeared at the mouth of the Amazon River, a huge estuary whose outflow is so considerable it desaults the sea over an area of several leeks. We cut the equator. Twenty miles to the west lay Guiana, French territory, where we could easily
have taken refuge, but the wind was blowing a strong gust and the furious billows would not allow us to face them in a mere skiff. No doubt Ned Land understood this because he said nothing to me. For my part I made no allusion to his escape plans because I didn't want to push him into an attempt that was certain to misfire. I was readily compensated for this delay by fascinating research. During those two days of April 11th to 12th the Nautilus didn't leave the
surface of the sea and its trawl brought up a simply miraculous catch of zoophites, fish, and reptiles. Some zoophites were dredged up by the chain of our trawl. Most were lovely sea anemone belonging to the family Actinidia, including, among other species, the Fichtalis protexta, native to this part of the ocean, a small cylindrical trunk adorned with vertical lines, mottled with red spots and crowned by a wondrous blossoming of tentacles. As for mollusks,
they consisted of exhibits I had already observed, turret snails, olive shells of the tent olive species, with neatly intersecting lines and russet spots standing out sharply against a flesh-coloured background, fanciful spider conks that looked like petrified scorpions, transparent glass snails, argonauts, some highly edible cuddlefish and certain species of squid that the naturalists of antiquity classified with the flying fish, which are used chiefly as bait for catching cod.
As for the fish in these waterways, I noticed various species that I hadn't yet had the opportunity to study. Among cartilaginous fish, some brook lamprey, a type of eel 15 inches long, head greenish, fins violet, back bluish-grey, belly a silvery brown, strewn with bright spots, iris of the eye encircled in gold, unusual animals that the Amazon's current must have swept out to sea because their natural habitat is fresh water, stingrays, the snout pointed, the tail long,
slender and armed with an extensive jagged sting. Small one-metre sharks, with grey and whitish hides, their teeth arranged in several backward curving rows, fish commonly known by the name carpet shark. Batfish, a sort of reddish isosceles triangle, half a metre long, whose pictorial fins are attached by fleshy extensions that make these fish look like bats, although an appendage made of horn, located near the nostrils, earns them the nickname of senior unicorns. Lastly, a couple
species of triggerfish, the cucullo, whose stippled flanks glitter with a sparkling gold colour, and the bright purple leather jacket whose hues glisten like a pigeon's throat. I'll finish up this catalogue, a little dry but quite accurate, with the series of burning fish I discovered. Eels belonging to the genus Abtyronatus, whose snow-white snout is very blunt, the body painted a handsome black and armed with the very long sardines from the genus Odontognathus,
like three decimetre pike shining with a bright silver glow. Guarani and mackerel, furnished with two anal fins, black-tinted rudderfish that you catch by using torches, fish measuring two metres and boasting white, firm, plump meat that, when fresh, tastes like eel, when dried like smoked salmon. Semi-red rassi sporting scales only at the bases of their dorsal and anal fins, grunts on which gold and silver mingle their luster with that of ruby and topaz,
yellow-tailed gilthead whose flesh is extremely dainty and whose phosphorescent properties give them away in the midst of the waters, borgies tinted orange with slender tongues, croakers with gold caudal fins, black surgeonfish, four-eyed fish from Suriname, etc. This etc. won't keep me from mentioning one more fish that can seal with good reason for a long remember. One of our nets had hauled up a type of very flat ray that weighed some 20 kg. With its tail cut off
it would have formed a perfect disk. It was white underneath and reddish on top, with big round spots of deep blue encircled in black, it tied quite smooth and ending in a double-lobed fin. Laid out onto the platform it kept struggling with convulsive movements, trying to turn over, making such efforts that its final lunge was about to flip it into the sea, but Conceal, being very possessive of his fish, rushed at it, and before I could stop him he seized it with both hands.
Instantly there he was, thrown in his back, legs in the air, his body half paralysed and yelling, Oh sir, sir, will you help me? But once in his life the poor lad didn't address me in the third person. The Canadian and I sat him up, we massaged his contracted arms, and when we regained his five senses that eternal classifier mumbled in a broken voice, Classive, cartilaginous fish, order, Conductorigia, with fixed gills, suborder silagia,
Fermily, Ragiforma, genus Electric Ray. Yes, my friend, I answered. It was an electric ray that put you in this deplorable state. Oh, master, and trust me on this, Conceal shot back, I'll be revenged on that animal. How? I'll eat it. Which he did that same evening, but strictly as retaliation, because frankly it tasted like leather. Poor Conceal had assaulted an electric ray of the most dangerous species, a Kumana. Living in a conducting medium such as water,
this bizarre animal can electrocute other fish from several metres away, so great is the power of its electric organ, an organ whose two chief surfaces measure at least 27 square feet. During the course of the next day, April 12th, the Nautilus drew near the coast of Dutch Guiana by the mouth of the Moroni River. There several groups of sea cows were living in family units. These were manatees, which belonged to the order Cyrenia, like the Dugong and Stelisks Sea Cow.
Harmless and unaggressive, these fine animals were six to seven metres long and must have weighed at least 4,000 kilograms each. I told Nedland and Conceal that far-seeing nature had given these mammals a major role to play. In essence, manatees, like seals, are designed to graze the underwater prairies, destroying the clusters of weeds that obstruct the mouths of tropical rivers. And do you know, I added, what happened since man has almost
completely wiped out these beneficial races? Rotting weeds have poisoned the air, and this poisoned air causes the yellow fever that devastates these wonderful countries. This toxic vegetation has increased beneath the seas of the torrid zone, so the disease spreads unchecked from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to Florida. And if Professor Toussaint-Hel is correct, this plague is nothing compared with the scourge that will strike our descendants,
once the seas are depopulated of whales and seals. By then crowded jellyfish, squid and other devil fish, the oceans will have become huge centres of infection, because their waves will no longer possess those huge stomachs that God has entrusted with scouring the surface of the sea. Meanwhile, without scorning these theories, the Nautilus's crew captured half a dozen manatees. In essence, it was an issue of stocking the larder with excellent red meat,
even better than beef or veal. Their hunting was not a fascinating sport. The manatees let themselves be struck down without offering any resistance, so four thousand kilos of meat were hauled below to be dried and stored. The same day, an odd fishing practice further increased the Nautilus's stores, so full of game with these seas. Our trawl brought up in its mesh a number of fish whose heads were topped by little oval slabs with fleshy edges. These were sucker fish
from the third family of the Suburakian Malacopterigia. These flat discs on their heads consist of crosswise plates of moveable cartilage between which the animals can create a vacuum, enabling them to stick to objects like suction cups. The remoras, I had observed in the Mediterranean, were related to this species, but the creature at Isuheira was an Ekenais osteocara, unique to this sea. Right after catching them, our seamen dropped them in buckets of water.
Its fishing finish, the Nautilus drew nearer to the coast. In this locality, a number of sea turtles were sleeping on the surface of the waves. It would have been difficult to capture these valuable reptiles because they wake up with the slightest sound and their solid carapaces are harpoon-proof, but our sucker fish would affect their capture with extraordinary certainty and precision. In truth, this animal is a living fish hook, promising wealth and happiness to the greenest
fishermen in the business. The Nautilus's men attached to each fish's tail a ring that was big enough not to hamper its movements, and to this ring a long rope whose other end was moored on board. Thrown into the sea, the sucker fish immediately began to play their roles, going and fastening themselves under the breastplates of the turtles. The tenacity was so great they would rip apart rather than let go. They were hauled in, still sticking to the turtles that came aboard
with them. In this way, we caught several loggerheads, reptiles a metre wide and weighing 200 kilos. They are extremely valuable because of their carapaces, which are covered with big slabs of horn, thin, brown, transparent, with white and yellow markings. Besides, they were excellent from an edible viewpoint, with an exquisite flavour comparable to the green turtle. This fishing ended our stay in the waterways of the Amazon,
and that evening the Nautilus took to the high seas once more. End of chapter 41
