eplied; "but I cannot content
myself with that. I ask you for your personal opinion."

"Here it is, M. Aronnax. According to my idea, we must see in this
appellation of the Red Sea a translation of the Hebrew word `Edom'; and
if the ancients gave it that name, it was on account of the particular
colour of its waters."

"But up to this time I have seen nothing but transparent waves and
without any particular colour."

"Very likely; but as we advance to the bottom of the gulf, you will see
this singular appearance. I remember seeing the Bay of Tor entirely
red, like a sea of blood."

"And you attribute this colour to the presence of a microscopic
seaweed?"

"Yes."

"So, Captain Nemo, it is not the first time you have overrun the Red
Sea on board the Nautilus?"

"No, sir."

"As you spoke a while ago of the passage of the Israelites and of the
catastrophe to the Egyptians, I will ask whether you have met with the
traces under the water of this great historical fact?"

"No, sir; and for a good reason."

"What is it?"

"It is that the spot where Moses and his people passed is now so
blocked up with sand that the camels can barely bathe their legs there.
You can well understand that there would not be water enough for my
Nautilus."

"And the spot?" I asked.

"The spot is situated a little above the Isthmus of Suez, in the arm
which formerly made a deep estuary, when the Red Sea extended to the
Salt Lakes. Now, whether this passage were miraculous or not, the
Israelites, nevertheless, crossed there to reach the Promised Land, and
Pharaoh's army perished precisely on that spot; and I think that
excavations made in the middle of the sand would bring to light a large
number of arms and instruments of Egyptian origin."

"That is evident," I replied; "and for the sake of archaeologists let
us hope that these excavations will be made sooner or later, when new
towns are established on the isthmus, after the construction of the
Suez Canal; a canal, however, very useless to a vessel like the
Nautilus."

"Very likely; but useful to the whole world," said Captain Nemo. "The
ancients well understood the utility of a communication between the Red
Sea and the Mediterranean for their commercial affairs: but they did
not think of digging a canal direct, and took the Nile as an
intermediate. Very probably the canal which united the Nile to the Red
Sea was begun by Sesostris, if we may believe tradition. One thing i