woman standing by the poop, holding an
infant in her arms. She was quite young. I could distinguish her
features, which the water had not decomposed, by the brilliant light
from the Nautilus. In one despairing effort, she had raised her infant
above her head--poor little thing!--whose arms encircled its mother's
neck. The attitude of the four sailors was frightful, distorted as
they were by their convulsive movements, whilst making a last effort to
free themselves from the cords that bound them to the vessel. The
steersman alone, calm, with a grave, clear face, his grey hair glued to
his forehead, and his hand clutching the wheel of the helm, seemed even
then to be guiding the three broken masts through the depths of the
ocean.

What a scene! We were dumb; our hearts beat fast before this
shipwreck, taken as it were from life and photographed in its last
moments. And I saw already, coming towards it with hungry eyes,
enormous sharks, attracted by the human flesh.

However, the Nautilus, turning, went round the submerged vessel, and in
one instant I read on the stern--"The Florida, Sunderland."

CHAPTER XVIII

VANIKORO

This terrible spectacle was the forerunner of the series of maritime
catastrophes that the Nautilus was destined to meet with in its route.
As long as it went through more frequented waters, we often saw the
hulls of shipwrecked vessels that were rotting in the depths, and
deeper down cannons, bullets, anchors, chains, and a thousand other
iron materials eaten up by rust. However, on the 11th of December we
sighted the Pomotou Islands, the old "dangerous group" of Bougainville,
that extend over a space of 500 leagues at E.S.E. to W.N.W., from the
Island Ducie to that of Lazareff. This group covers an area of 370
square leagues, and it is formed of sixty groups of islands, among
which the Gambier group is remarkable, over which France exercises
sway. These are coral islands, slowly raised, but continuous, created
by the daily work of polypi. Then this new island will be joined later
on to the neighboring groups, and a fifth continent will stretch from
New Zealand and New Caledonia, and from thence to the Marquesas.

One day, when I was suggesting this theory to Captain Nemo, he replied
coldly:

"The earth does not want new continents, but new men."

Chance had conducted the Nautilus towards the Island of
Clermont-Tonnere, one of the most curious of the group, that was
discovered i