We now come to the second part of our journey under the sea.
The first ended with the moving scene in the coral cemetery which left such a deep impression on my mind.Thus,in the midst of this great sea,Captain Nemo's life was passing,even to his grave,which he had prepared in one of its deepest abysses.There,not one of the ocean's monsters could trouble the last sleep of the crew of the Nautilus,of those friends riveted to each other in death as in life.
"Nor any man,either,"had added the Captain.Still the same fierce,implacable defiance towards human society!
I could no longer content myself with the theory which satisfied Conseil.
That worthy fellow persisted in seeing in the Commander of the Nautilus one of those unknown servants who return mankind contempt for indifference.For him,he was a misunderstood genius who,tired of earth's deceptions,had taken refuge in this inaccessible medium,where he might follow his instincts freely.
To my mind,this explains but one side of Captain Nemo's character.
I ndeed,the mystery of that last night during which we had been chained in prison,the sleep,and the precaution so violently taken by the Captain of snatching from my eyes the glass I had raised to sweep the horizon,the mortal wound of the man,due to an unaccountable shock of the Nautilus,all put me on a new track.No;Captain Nemo was not satisfied with shunning man.
His formidable apparatus not only suited his instinct of freedom,but perhaps also the design of some terrible retaliation.
At this moment nothing is clear to me;I catch but a glimpse of light amidst all the darkness,and I must confine myself to writing as events shall dictate.
That day,the 24th of January,1868,at noon,the second officer came to take the altitude of the sun.I mounted the platform,lit a cigar,and watched the operation.I t seemed to me that the man did not understand French;for several times I made remarks in a loud voice,which must have drawn from him some involuntary sign of attention,if he had understood them;but he remained undisturbed and dumb.
As he was taking observations with the sextant,one of the sailors of the Nautilus (the strong man who had accompanied us on our first submarine excursion to the I sland of Crespo)came to clean the glasses of the lantern.I examined the fittings of the apparatus,the strength of which was increased a hundredfold by lenticular rings,placed similar to those in a lighthouse,and which projected their brilliance in a horizontal plane.
The electric lamp was combined in such a way as to give its most powerful light.I ndeed,it was produced in vacuo,which insured both its steadiness and its intensity.
This vacuum economised the graphite points between which the luminous arc was developed--an important point of economy for Captain Nemo,who could not easily have replaced them;and under these conditions their waste was imperceptible.
When the Nautilus was ready to continue its submarine journey,I went down to the saloon.The panel was closed,and the course marked direct west.
We were furrowing the waters of the I ndian Ocean,a vast liquid plain,with a surface of 1,200,000,000of acres,and whose waters are so clear and transparent that any one leaning over them would turn giddy.
The Nautilus usually floated between fifty and a hundred fathoms deep.
We went on so for some days.To anyone but myself,who had a great love for the sea,the hours would have seemed long and monotonous;but the daily walks on the platform,when I steeped myself in the reviving air of the ocean,the sight of the rich waters through the windows of the saloon,the books in the library,the compiling of my memoirs,took up all my time,and left me not a moment of ennui or weariness.
For some days we saw a great number of aquatic birds,sea-mews or gulls.
Some were cleverly killed and,prepared in a certain way,made very acceptable water-game.Amongst large-winged birds,carried a long distance from all lands and resting upon the waves from the fatigue of their flight,I saw some magnificent albatrosses,uttering discordant cries like the braying of an ass,and birds belonging to the family of the long-wings.
As to the fish,they always provoked our admiration when we surprised the secrets of their aquatic life through the open panels.
I saw many kinds which I never before had a chance of observing.
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From the 21st to the 23rd of January the Nautilus went at the rate of two hundred and fifty leagues in twenty-four hours,being five hundred and forty miles,or twenty-two miles an hour.
If we recognised so many different varieties of fish,it was because,attracted by the electric light,they tried to follow us;the greater part,however,were soon distanced by our speed,though some kept their place in the waters of the Nautilus for a time.
The morning of the 24th,in 12@5'S.lat.,and 94@33'
long.,we observed Keeling I sland,a coral formation,planted with magnificent cocos,and which had been visited by Mr.Darwin and Captain Fitzroy.The Nautilus skirted the shores of this desert island for a little distance.I ts nets brought up numerous specimens of polypi and curious shells of mollusca.
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Soon Keeling I sland disappeared from the horizon,and our course was directed to the north-west in the direction of the I ndian Peninsula.