the ocean at the Antilles, under seventy-five fathoms of water, can be
seen with surprising clearness a bed of sand. The penetrating power of
the solar rays does not seem to cease for a depth of one hundred and
fifty fathoms. But in this middle fluid travelled over by the
Nautilus, the electric brightness was produced even in the bosom of the
waves. It was no longer luminous water, but liquid light.

On each side a window opened into this unexplored abyss. The obscurity
of the saloon showed to advantage the brightness outside, and we looked
out as if this pure crystal had been the glass of an immense aquarium.

"You wished to see, friend Ned; well, you see now."

"Curious! curious!" muttered the Canadian, who, forgetting his
ill-temper, seemed to submit to some irresistible attraction; "and one
would come further than this to admire such a sight!"

"Ah!" thought I to myself, "I understand the life of this man; he has
made a world apart for himself, in which he treasures all his greatest
wonders."

For two whole hours an aquatic army escorted the Nautilus. During
their games, their bounds, while rivalling each other in beauty,
brightness, and velocity, I distinguished the green labre; the banded
mullet, marked by a double line of black; the round-tailed goby, of a
white colour, with violet spots on the back; the Japanese scombrus, a
beautiful mackerel of these seas, with a blue body and silvery head;
the brilliant azurors, whose name alone defies description; some banded
spares, with variegated fins of blue and yellow; the woodcocks of the
seas, some specimens of which attain a yard in length; Japanese
salamanders, spider lampreys, serpents six feet long, with eyes small
and lively, and a huge mouth bristling with teeth; with many other
species.

Our imagination was kept at its height, interjections followed quickly
on each other. Ned named the fish, and Conseil classed them. I was in
ecstasies with the vivacity of their movements and the beauty of their
forms. Never had it been given to me to surprise these animals, alive
and at liberty, in their natural element. I will not mention all the
varieties which passed before my dazzled eyes, all the collection of
the seas of China and Japan. These fish, more numerous than the birds
of the air, came, attracted, no doubt, by the brilliant focus of the
electric light.

Suddenly there was daylight in the saloon, the iron panels closed
again, and the enchanting v