Irushed on to the platform.Yes!the open sea,with but a few scattered pieces of ice and moving icebergs--a long stretch of sea;a world of birds in the air,and myriads of fishes under those waters,which varied from intense blue to olive green,according to the bottom.
The thermometer marked 3@C.above zero.It was comparatively spring,shut up as we were behind this iceberg,whose lengthened mass was dimly seen on our northern horizon.
"Are we at the pole?"Iasked the Captain,with a beating heart.
"Ido not know,"he replied."At noon Iwill take our bearings.""But will the sun show himself through this fog?"said I,looking at the leaden sky.
"However little it shows,it will be enough,"replied the Captain.
About ten miles south a solitary island rose to a height of one hundred and four yards.We made for it,but carefully,for the sea might be strewn with banks.One hour afterwards we had reached it,two hours later we had made the round of it.
It measured four or five miles in circumference.
Anarrow canal separated it from a considerable stretch of land,perhaps a continent,for we could not see its limits.
The existence of this land seemed to give some colour to Maury's theory.
The ingenious American has remarked that,between the South Pole and the sixtieth parallel,the sea is covered with floating ice of enormous size,which is never met with in the North Atlantic.
From this fact he has drawn the conclusion that the Antarctic Circle encloses considerable continents,as icebergs cannot form in open sea,but only on the coasts.According to these calculations,the mass of ice surrounding the southern pole forms a vast cap,the circumference of which must be,at least,2,500miles.
But the Nautilus,for fear of running aground,had stopped about three cable-lengths from a strand over which reared a superb heap of rocks.The boat was launched;the Captain,two of his men,bearing instruments,Conseil,and myself were in it.
It was ten in the morning.Ihad not seen Ned Land.
Doubtless the Canadian did not wish to admit the presence of the South Pole.Afew strokes of the oar brought us to the sand,where we ran ashore.Conseil was going to jump on to the land,when Iheld him back.
"Sir,"said Ito Captain Nemo,"to you belongs the honour of first setting foot on this land.""Yes,sir,"said the Captain,"and if Ido not hesitate to tread this South Pole,it is because,up to this time,no human being has left a trace there."Saying this,he jumped lightly on to the sand.His heart beat with emotion.He climbed a rock,sloping to a little promontory,and there,with his arms crossed,mute and motionless,and with an eager look,he seemed to take possession of these southern regions.
After five minutes passed in this ecstasy,he turned to us.
"When you like,sir."
Ilanded,followed by Conseil,leaving the two men in the boat.
For a long way the soil was composed of a reddish sandy stone,something like crushed brick,scoriae,streams of lava,and pumice-stones.One could not mistake its volcanic origin.
In some parts,slight curls of smoke emitted a sulphurous smell,proving that the internal fires had lost nothing of their expansive powers,though,having climbed a high acclivity,Icould see no volcano for a radius of several miles.
We know that in those Antarctic countries,James Ross found two craters,the Erebus and Terror,in full activity,on the 167th meridian,latitude 77@32'.The vegetation of this desolate continent seemed to me much restricted.
Some lichens lay upon the black rocks;some microscopic plants,rudimentary diatomas,a kind of cells placed between two quartz shells;long purple and scarlet weed,supported on little swimming bladders,which the breaking of the waves brought to the shore.
These constituted the meagre flora of this region.
The shore was strewn with molluscs,little mussels,and limpets.
Ialso saw myriads of northern clios,one-and-a-quarter inches long,of which a whale would swallow a whole world at a mouthful;and some perfect sea-butterflies,animating the waters on the skirts of the shore.
There appeared on the high bottoms some coral shrubs,of the kind which,according to James Ross,live in the Antarctic seas to the depth of more than 1,000yards.
Then there were little kingfishers and starfish studding the soil.
But where life abounded most was in the air.There thousands of birds fluttered and flew of all kinds,deafening us with their cries;others crowded the rock,looking at us as we passed by without fear,and pressing familiarly close by our feet.
There were penguins,so agile in the water,heavy and awkward as they are on the ground;they were uttering harsh cries,a large assembly,sober in gesture,but extravagant in clamour.
Albatrosses passed in the air,the expanse of their wings being at least four yards and a half,and justly called the vultures of the ocean;some gigantic petrels,and some damiers,a kind of small duck,the underpart of whose body is black and white;then there were a whole series of petrels,some whitish,with brown-bordered wings,others blue,peculiar to the Antarctic seas,and so oily,as Itold Conseil,that the inhabitants of the Ferroe Islands had nothing to do before lighting them but to put a wick in.
"Alittle more,"said Conseil,"and they would be perfect lamps!
After that,we cannot expect Nature to have previously furnished them with wicks!"About half a mile farther on the soil was riddled with ruffs'
nests,a sort of laying-ground,out of which many birds were issuing.
Captain Nemo had some hundreds hunted.They uttered a cry like the braying of an ass,were about the size of a goose,slate-colour on the body,white beneath,with a yellow line round their throats;they allowed themselves to be killed with a stone,never trying to escape.
But the fog did not lift,and at eleven the sun had not yet shown itself.
Its absence made me uneasy.Without it no observations were possible.