ity, and the second the machinery that connected it with the
screw. I examined it with great interest, in order to understand the
machinery of the Nautilus.

"You see," said the Captain, "I use Bunsen's contrivances, not
Ruhmkorff's. Those would not have been powerful enough. Bunsen's are
fewer in number, but strong and large, which experience proves to be
the best. The electricity produced passes forward, where it works, by
electro-magnets of great size, on a system of levers and cog-wheels
that transmit the movement to the axle of the screw. This one, the
diameter of which is nineteen feet, and the thread twenty-three feet,
performs about 120 revolutions in a second."

"And you get then?"

"A speed of fifty miles an hour."

"I have seen the Nautilus manoeuvre before the Abraham Lincoln, and I
have my own ideas as to its speed. But this is not enough. We must
see where we go. We must be able to direct it to the right, to the
left, above, below. How do you get to the great depths, where you find
an increasing resistance, which is rated by hundreds of atmospheres?
How do you return to the surface of the ocean? And how do you maintain
yourselves in the requisite medium? Am I asking too much?"

"Not at all, Professor," replied the Captain, with some hesitation;
"since you may never leave this submarine boat. Come into the saloon,
it is our usual study, and there you will learn all you want to know
about the Nautilus."

CHAPTER XII

SOME FIGURES

A moment after we were seated on a divan in the saloon smoking. The
Captain showed me a sketch that gave the plan, section, and elevation
of the Nautilus. Then he began his description in these words:

"Here, M. Aronnax, are the several dimensions of the boat you are in.
It is an elongated cylinder with conical ends. It is very like a cigar
in shape, a shape already adopted in London in several constructions of
the same sort. The length of this cylinder, from stem to stern, is
exactly 232 feet, and its maximum breadth is twenty-six feet. It is
not built quite like your long-voyage steamers, but its lines are
sufficiently long, and its curves prolonged enough, to allow the water
to slide off easily, and oppose no obstacle to its passage. These two
dimensions enable you to obtain by a simple calculation the surface and
cubic contents of the Nautilus. Its area measures 6,032 feet; and its
contents about 1,500 cubic yards; that is to say, when completel