a at about six hundred
leagues, and it was accomplished in forty-eight hours. Starting on the
morning of the 16th of February from the shores of Greece, we had
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar by sunrise on the 18th.

It was plain to me that this Mediterranean, enclosed in the midst of
those countries which he wished to avoid, was distasteful to Captain
Nemo. Those waves and those breezes brought back too many
remembrances, if not too many regrets. Here he had no longer that
independence and that liberty of gait which he had when in the open
seas, and his Nautilus felt itself cramped between the close shores of
Africa and Europe.

Our speed was now twenty-five miles an hour. It may be well understood
that Ned Land, to his great disgust, was obliged to renounce his
intended flight. He could not launch the pinnace, going at the rate of
twelve or thirteen yards every second. To quit the Nautilus under such
conditions would be as bad as jumping from a train going at full
speed--an imprudent thing, to say the least of it. Besides, our vessel
only mounted to the surface of the waves at night to renew its stock of
air; it was steered entirely by the compass and the log.

I saw no more of the interior of this Mediterranean than a traveller by
express train perceives of the landscape which flies before his eyes;
that is to say, the distant horizon, and not the nearer objects which
pass like a flash of lightning.

We were then passing between Sicily and the coast of Tunis. In the
narrow space between Cape Bon and the Straits of Messina the bottom of
the sea rose almost suddenly. There was a perfect bank, on which there
was not more than nine fathoms of water, whilst on either side the
depth was ninety fathoms.

The Nautilus had to manoeuvre very carefully so as not to strike
against this submarine barrier.

I showed Conseil, on the map of the Mediterranean, the spot occupied by
this reef.

"But if you please, sir," observed Conseil, "it is like a real isthmus
joining Europe to Africa."

"Yes, my boy, it forms a perfect bar to the Straits of Lybia, and the
soundings of Smith have proved that in former times the continents
between Cape Boco and Cape Furina were joined."

"I can well believe it," said Conseil.

"I will add," I continued, "that a similar barrier exists between
Gibraltar and Ceuta, which in geological times formed the entire
Mediterranean."

"What if some volcanic burst should one day raise the