e. There were also some panopyres, slightly luminous; and
lastly, some oculines, like magnificent fans, forming one of the
richest vegetations of these seas.

In the midst of these living plants, and under the arbours of the
hydrophytes, were layers of clumsy articulates, particularly some
raninae, whose carapace formed a slightly rounded triangle; and some
horrible looking parthenopes.

At about seven o'clock we found ourselves at last surveying the
oyster-banks on which the pearl-oysters are reproduced by millions.

Captain Nemo pointed with his hand to the enormous heap of oysters; and
I could well understand that this mine was inexhaustible, for Nature's
creative power is far beyond man's instinct of destruction. Ned Land,
faithful to his instinct, hastened to fill a net which he carried by
his side with some of the finest specimens. But we could not stop. We
must follow the Captain, who seemed to guide him self by paths known
only to himself. The ground was sensibly rising, and sometimes, on
holding up my arm, it was above the surface of the sea. Then the level
of the bank would sink capriciously. Often we rounded high rocks
scarped into pyramids. In their dark fractures huge crustacea, perched
upon their high claws like some war-machine, watched us with fixed
eyes, and under our feet crawled various kinds of annelides.

At this moment there opened before us a large grotto dug in a
picturesque heap of rocks and carpeted with all the thick warp of the
submarine flora. At first it seemed very dark to me. The solar rays
seemed to be extinguished by successive gradations, until its vague
transparency became nothing more than drowned light. Captain Nemo
entered; we followed. My eyes soon accustomed themselves to this
relative state of darkness. I could distinguish the arches springing
capriciously from natural pillars, standing broad upon their granite
base, like the heavy columns of Tuscan architecture. Why had our
incomprehensible guide led us to the bottom of this submarine crypt? I
was soon to know. After descending a rather sharp declivity, our feet
trod the bottom of a kind of circular pit. There Captain Nemo stopped,
and with his hand indicated an object I had not yet perceived. It was
an oyster of extraordinary dimensions, a gigantic tridacne, a goblet
which could have contained a whole lake of holy-water, a basin the
breadth of which was more than two yards and a half, and consequently
larg