pearing in the transparencies opened by the prow of
his vessel.

They were vigorous and therefore had no neck,--the most fragile and
delicate portion of terrestrial organism,--making them more like the
bull, the elephant and all the battering animals. They needed to be
light, and in order to be so had dispensed with the rigid and hard
shell of the crustacean that prevents motion, preferring the coat of
mail covered with scales, which expands and contracts, yields to the
blow but is not injured. They wished to be free, and their body, like
that of the ancient wrestlers, was covered with a slippery oil, the
oceanic mucus that becomes volatilized at the slightest pressure.

The freest animals on earth cannot be compared with them. The birds
need to perch and to rest during their sleep, but the fish continue
floating around and moving from place to place while asleep. The entire
world belongs to them. Wherever there is a mass of water,--ocean, river
or lake, in whatever altitude or latitude, a mountain peak lost in the
clouds, a valley boiling like a whirlpool, a sparkling and tropical sea
with a forest of colors in its bosoms, or a polar sea encrusted with
ice and people, with sea-lions and white bears,--there the fish always
appears.

The public of the Aquarium, seeing the flat heads of the swimming
animals near the glass, would scream and wave their arms as though they
could be seen by the fishy eyes of stupid fixity. Then they would
experience a certain dismay upon perceiving that the fish continued
their course with indifference.

Ferragut smiled before this deception. The crystal that separated the
water from the atmosphere had the density of millions of leagues,--an
insuperable obstacle interposed between two worlds that do not know
each other.

The sailor recalled the imperfect vision of the ocean inhabitants. In
spite of their bulging and movable eyes that enable them to see before
and behind them, their visual power extends but a short distance. The
splendors with which Nature clothes the butterfly cannot be appreciated
by them. Absolutely color-blind, they can appreciate only the
difference between light and darkness.

Complete silence accompanies their incomplete vision. All the aquatic
animals are deaf, or rather they completely lack the organs of hearing,
because they are unnecessary to them. Atmospheric agitations,
thunder-bolts and hurricanes do not penetrate the water. Only the
cracking shell of cer