he platform and waited. The darkness was so complete that
I could not even see Captain Nemo; but, looking to the zenith, exactly
above my head, I seemed to catch an undecided gleam, a kind of twilight
filling a circular hole. At this instant the lantern was lit, and its
vividness dispelled the faint light. I closed my dazzled eyes for an
instant, and then looked again. The Nautilus was stationary, floating
near a mountain which formed a sort of quay. The lake, then,
supporting it was a lake imprisoned by a circle of walls, measuring two
miles in diameter and six in circumference. Its level (the manometer
showed) could only be the same as the outside level, for there must
necessarily be a communication between the lake and the sea. The high
partitions, leaning forward on their base, grew into a vaulted roof
bearing the shape of an immense funnel turned upside down, the height
being about five or six hundred yards. At the summit was a circular
orifice, by which I had caught the slight gleam of light, evidently
daylight.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"In the very heart of an extinct volcano, the interior of which has
been invaded by the sea, after some great convulsion of the earth.
Whilst you were sleeping, Professor, the Nautilus penetrated to this
lagoon by a natural canal, which opens about ten yards beneath the
surface of the ocean. This is its harbour of refuge, a sure,
commodious, and mysterious one, sheltered from all gales. Show me, if
you can, on the coasts of any of your continents or islands, a road
which can give such perfect refuge from all storms."

"Certainly," I replied, "you are in safety here, Captain Nemo. Who
could reach you in the heart of a volcano? But did I not see an
opening at its summit?"

"Yes; its crater, formerly filled with lava, vapour, and flames, and
which now gives entrance to the life-giving air we breathe."

"But what is this volcanic mountain?"

"It belongs to one of the numerous islands with which this sea is
strewn--to vessels a simple sandbank--to us an immense cavern. Chance
led me to discover it, and chance served me well."

"But of what use is this refuge, Captain? The Nautilus wants no port."

"No, sir; but it wants electricity to make it move, and the wherewithal
to make the electricity--sodium to feed the elements, coal from which
to get the sodium, and a coal-mine to supply the coal. And exactly on
this spot the sea covers entire forests embedded during