Bab Bab 15 · A WALK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

LK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

This cell was, to speak correctly, the arsenal and wardrobe of the

_Nautilus_. A dozen diving apparatuses hung from the partition, waiting

our use.

Ned Land, on seeing them, showed evident repugnance to dress himself in

one.

“But, my worthy Ned, the forests of the Island of Crespo are nothing

but submarine forests.”

“Good!” said the disappointed harpooner, who saw his dreams of fresh

meat fade away. “And you, M. Aronnax, are you going to dress yourself

in those clothes?”

“There is no alternative, Master Ned.”

“As you please, sir,” replied the harpooner, shrugging his shoulders;

“but as for me, unless I am forced, I will never get into one.”

“No one will force you, Master Ned,” said Captain Nemo.

“Is Conseil going to risk it?” asked Ned.

“I follow my master wherever he goes,” replied Conseil.

At the Captain’s call two of the ship’s crew came to help us to dress

in these heavy and impervious clothes, made of india-rubber without

seam, and constructed expressly to resist considerable pressure. One

would have thought it a suit of armour, both supple and resisting. This

suit formed trousers and waistcoat. The trousers were finished off with

thick boots, weighted with heavy leaden soles. The texture of the

waistcoat was held together by bands of copper, which crossed the

chest, protecting it from the great pressure of the water, and leaving

the lungs free to act; the sleeves ended in gloves, which in no way

restrained the movement of the hands. There was a vast difference

noticeable between these consummate apparatuses and the old cork

breastplates, jackets, and other contrivances in vogue during the

eighteenth century.

Captain Nemo and one of his companions (a sort of Hercules, who must

have possessed great strength), Conseil, and myself, were soon

enveloped in the dresses. There remained nothing more to be done but to

enclose our heads in the metal box. But before proceeding to this

operation, I asked the Captain’s permission to examine the guns we were

to carry.

One of the _Nautilus_ men gave me a simple gun, the butt end of which,

made of steel, hollow in the centre, was rather large. It served as a

reservoir for compressed air, which a valve, worked by a spring,

allowed to escape into a metal tube. A box of projectiles, in a groove

in the thickness of the butt end, contained about twenty of these

electric balls, which, by means of a spring, were forced into the

barrel of the gun. As soon as one shot was fired, another was ready.

“Captain Nemo,” said I, “this arm is perfect, and easily handled: I

only ask to be allowed to try it. But how shall we gain the bottom of

the sea?”

“At this moment, Professor, the _Nautilus_ is stranded in five fathoms,

and we have nothing to do but to start.”

“But how shall we get off?”

“You shall see.”

Captain Nemo thrust his head into the helmet, Conseil and I did the

same, not without hearing an ironical “Good sport!” from the Canadian.

The upper part of our dress terminated in a copper collar upon which

was screwed the metal helmet. Three holes, protected by thick glass,

allowed us to see in all directions, by simply turning our head in the

interior of the head-dress. As soon as it was in position, the

Rouquayrol apparatus on our backs began to act; and, for my part, I

could breathe with ease.

With the Ruhmkorff lamp hanging from my belt, and the gun in my hand, I

was ready to set out. But to speak the truth, imprisoned in these heavy

garments, and glued to the deck by my leaden soles, it was impossible

for me to take a step.

[Illustration] I was ready to set out

But this state of things was provided for. I felt myself being pushed

into a little room contiguous to the wardrobe-room. My companions

followed, towed along in the same way. I heard a water-tight door,

furnished with stopper-plates, close upon us, and we were wrapped in

profound darkness.

After some minutes, a loud hissing was heard. I felt the cold mount

from my feet to my chest. Evidently from some part of the vessel they

had, by means of a tap, given entrance to the water, which was invading

us, and with which the room was soon filled. A second door cut in the

side of the _Nautilus_ then opened. We saw a faint light. In another

instant our feet trod the bottom of the sea.

And now, how can I retrace the impression left upon me by that walk

under the waters? Words are impotent to relate such wonders! Captain

Nemo walked in front, his companion followed some steps behind. Conseil

and I remained near each other, as if an exchange of words had been

possible through our metallic cases. I no longer felt the weight of my

clothing, or of my shoes, of my reservoir of air, or my thick helmet,

in the midst of which my head rattled like an almond in its shell.

The light, which lit the soil thirty feet below the surface of the

ocean, astonished me by its power. The solar rays shone through the

watery mass easily, and dissipated all colour, and I clearly

distinguished objects at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards.

Beyond that the tints darkened into fine gradations of ultramarine, and

faded into vague obscurity. Truly this water which surrounded me was

but another air denser than the terrestrial atmosphere, but almost as

transparent. Above me was the calm surface of the sea.

We were walking on fine, even sand, not wrinkled, as on a flat shore,

which retains the impression of the billows. This dazzling carpet,

really a reflector, repelled the rays of the sun with wonderful

intensity, which accounted for the vibration which penetrated every

atom of liquid. Shall I be believed when I say that, at the depth of

thirty feet, I could see as if I was in broad daylight?

For a quarter of an hour I trod on this sand, sown with the impalpable

dust of shells. The hull of the _Nautilus_, resembling a long shoal,

disappeared by degrees; but its lantern, when darkness should overtake

us in the waters, would help to guide us on board by its distinct rays.

Soon forms of objects outlined in the distance were discernible. I

recognised magnificent rocks, hung with a tapestry of zoophytes of the

most beautiful kind, and I was at first struck by the peculiar effect

of this medium.

It was then ten in the morning; the rays of the sun struck the surface

of the waves at rather an oblique angle, and at the touch of their

light, decomposed by refraction as through a prism, flowers, rocks,

plants, shells, and polypi were shaded at the edges by the seven solar

colours. It was marvellous, a feast for the eyes, this complication of

coloured tints, a perfect kaleidoscope of green, yellow, orange,

violet, indigo, and blue; in one word, the whole palette of an

enthusiastic colourist! Why could I not communicate to Conseil the

lively sensations which were mounting to my brain, and rival him in

expressions of admiration? For aught I knew, Captain Nemo and his

companion might be able to exchange thoughts by means of signs

previously agreed upon. So, for want of better, I talked to myself; I

declaimed in the copper box which covered my head, thereby expending

more air in vain words than was perhaps expedient.

Various kinds of isis, clusters of pure tuft-coral, prickly fungi, and

anemones formed a brilliant garden of flowers, enamelled with porphitæ,

decked with their collarettes of blue tentacles, sea-stars studding the

sandy bottom, together with asterophytons like fine lace embroidered by

the hands of naïads, whose festoons were waved by the gentle

undulations caused by our walk. It was a real grief to me to crush

under my feet the brilliant specimens of molluscs which strewed the

ground by thousands, of hammer-heads, donaciae (veritable bounding

shells), of staircases, and red helmet-shells, angel-wings, and many

others produced by this inexhaustible ocean. But we were bound to walk,

so we went on, whilst above our heads waved shoals of physalides

leaving their tentacles to float in their train, medusæ whose umbrellas

of opal or rose-pink, escalloped with a band of blue, sheltered us from

the rays of the sun and fiery pelagiæ, which, in the darkness, would

have strewn our path with phosphorescent light.

All these wonders I saw in the space of a quarter of a mile, scarcely

stopping, and following Captain Nemo, who beckoned me on by signs. Soon

the nature of the soil changed; to the sandy plain succeeded an extent

of slimy mud, which the Americans call “ooze,” composed of equal parts

of silicious and calcareous shells. We then travelled over a plain of

sea-weed of wild and luxuriant vegetation. This sward was of close

texture, and soft to the feet, and rivalled the softest carpet woven by

the hand of man. But whilst verdure was spread at our feet, it did not

abandon our heads. A light network of marine plants, of that

inexhaustible family of sea-weeds of which more than two thousand kinds

are known, grew on the surface of the water. I saw long ribbons of

fucus floating, some globular, others tuberous; laurenciæ and

cladostephi of most delicate foliage, and some rhodomeniæ palmatæ,

resembling the fan of a cactus. I noticed that the green plants kept

nearer the top of the sea, whilst the red were at a greater depth,

leaving to the black or brown hydrophytes the care of forming gardens

and parterres in the remote beds of the ocean.

We had quitted the _Nautilus_ about an hour and a half. It was near

noon; I knew by the perpendicularity of the sun’s rays, which were no

longer refracted. The magical colours disappeared by degrees, and the

shades of emerald and sapphire were effaced. We walked with a regular

step, which rang upon the ground with astonishing intensity; the

slightest noise was transmitted with a quickness to which the ear is

unaccustomed on the earth; indeed, water is a better conductor of sound

than air, in the ratio of four to one. At this period the earth sloped

downwards; the light took a uniform tint. We were at a depth of a

hundred and five yards and twenty inches, undergoing a pressure of six

atmospheres.

At this depth I could still see the rays of the sun, though feebly; to

their intense brilliancy had succeeded a reddish twilight, the lowest

state between day and night; but we could still see well enough; it was

not necessary to resort to the Ruhmkorff apparatus as yet. At this

moment Captain Nemo stopped; he waited till I joined him, and then

pointed to an obscure mass, looming in the shadow, at a short distance.

“It is the forest of the Island of Crespo,” thought I;—and I was not

mistaken.

CHAP