water.
It was this current that the Nautilus was to follow. I followed it
with my eye; saw it lose itself in the vastness of the Pacific, and
felt myself drawn with it, when Ned Land and Conseil appeared at the
door of the saloon.

My two brave companions remained petrified at the sight of the wonders
spread before them.

"Where are we, where are we?" exclaimed the Canadian. "In the museum
at Quebec?"

"My friends," I answered, making a sign for them to enter, "you are not
in Canada, but on board the Nautilus, fifty yards below the level of
the sea."

"But, M. Aronnax," said Ned Land, "can you tell me how many men there
are on board? Ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred?"

"I cannot answer you, Mr. Land; it is better to abandon for a time all
idea of seizing the Nautilus or escaping from it. This ship is a
masterpiece of modern industry, and I should be sorry not to have seen
it. Many people would accept the situation forced upon us, if only to
move amongst such wonders. So be quiet and let us try and see what
passes around us."

"See!" exclaimed the harpooner, "but we can see nothing in this iron
prison! We are walking--we are sailing--blindly."

Ned Land had scarcely pronounced these words when all was suddenly
darkness. The luminous ceiling was gone, and so rapidly that my eyes
received a painful impression.

We remained mute, not stirring, and not knowing what surprise awaited
us, whether agreeable or disagreeable. A sliding noise was heard: one
would have said that panels were working at the sides of the Nautilus.

"It is the end of the end!" said Ned Land.

Suddenly light broke at each side of the saloon, through two oblong
openings. The liquid mass appeared vividly lit up by the electric
gleam. Two crystal plates separated us from the sea. At first I
trembled at the thought that this frail partition might break, but
strong bands of copper bound them, giving an almost infinite power of
resistance.

The sea was distinctly visible for a mile all round the Nautilus. What
a spectacle! What pen can describe it? Who could paint the effects of
the light through those transparent sheets of water, and the softness
of the successive gradations from the lower to the superior strata of
the ocean?

We know the transparency of the sea and that its clearness is far
beyond that of rock-water. The mineral and organic substances which it
holds in suspension heightens its transparency. In certain parts of