inted, the eye surrounded by white
spots, the back, wings, and tail of a greyish colour, the belly and
throat white, and claws red. They also took some dozen of Nile ducks,
a wild bird of high flavour, its throat and upper part of the head
white with black spots.

About five o'clock in the evening we sighted to the north the Cape of
Ras-Mohammed. This cape forms the extremity of Arabia Petraea,
comprised between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Acabah.

The Nautilus penetrated into the Straits of Jubal, which leads to the
Gulf of Suez. I distinctly saw a high mountain, towering between the
two gulfs of Ras-Mohammed. It was Mount Horeb, that Sinai at the top of
which Moses saw God face to face.

At six o'clock the Nautilus, sometimes floating, sometimes immersed,
passed some distance from Tor, situated at the end of the bay, the
waters of which seemed tinted with red, an observation already made by
Captain Nemo. Then night fell in the midst of a heavy silence,
sometimes broken by the cries of the pelican and other night-birds, and
the noise of the waves breaking upon the shore, chafing against the
rocks, or the panting of some far-off steamer beating the waters of the
Gulf with its noisy paddles.

From eight to nine o'clock the Nautilus remained some fathoms under the
water. According to my calculation we must have been very near Suez.
Through the panel of the saloon I saw the bottom of the rocks
brilliantly lit up by our electric lamp. We seemed to be leaving the
Straits behind us more and more.

At a quarter-past nine, the vessel having returned to the surface, I
mounted the platform. Most impatient to pass through Captain Nemo's
tunnel, I could not stay in one place, so came to breathe the fresh
night air.

Soon in the shadow I saw a pale light, half discoloured by the fog,
shining about a mile from us.

"A floating lighthouse!" said someone near me.

I turned, and saw the Captain.

"It is the floating light of Suez," he continued. "It will not be long
before we gain the entrance of the tunnel."

"The entrance cannot be easy?"

"No, sir; for that reason I am accustomed to go into the steersman's
cage and myself direct our course. And now, if you will go down, M.
Aronnax, the Nautilus is going under the waves, and will not return to
the surface until we have passed through the Arabian Tunnel."

Captain Nemo led me towards the central staircase; half way down he
opened a door, traversed the upper