ce of the waves. The sea seemed abandoned. A few
sailing-vessels, on the road to India, were making for the Cape of Good
Hope. One day we were followed by the boats of a whaler, who, no
doubt, took us for some enormous whale of great price; but Captain Nemo
did not wish the worthy fellows to lose their time and trouble, so
ended the chase by plunging under the water. Our navigation continued
until the 13th of March; that day the Nautilus was employed in taking
soundings, which greatly interested me. We had then made about 13,000
leagues since our departure from the high seas of the Pacific. The
bearings gave us 45 deg. 37' S. lat., and 37 deg. 53' W. long. It was
the same water in which Captain Denham of the Herald sounded 7,000
fathoms without finding the bottom. There, too, Lieutenant Parker, of
the American frigate Congress, could not touch the bottom with 15,140
fathoms. Captain Nemo intended seeking the bottom of the ocean by a
diagonal sufficiently lengthened by means of lateral planes placed at
an angle of 45 deg. with the water-line of the Nautilus. Then the
screw set to work at its maximum speed, its four blades beating the
waves with in describable force. Under this powerful pressure, the
hull of the Nautilus quivered like a sonorous chord and sank regularly
under the water.

At 7,000 fathoms I saw some blackish tops rising from the midst of the
waters; but these summits might belong to high mountains like the
Himalayas or Mont Blanc, even higher; and the depth of the abyss
remained incalculable. The Nautilus descended still lower, in spite of
the great pressure. I felt the steel plates tremble at the fastenings
of the bolts; its bars bent, its partitions groaned; the windows of the
saloon seemed to curve under the pressure of the waters. And this firm
structure would doubtless have yielded, if, as its Captain had said, it
had not been capable of resistance like a solid block. We had attained
a depth of 16,000 yards (four leagues), and the sides of the Nautilus
then bore a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres, that is to say, 3,200 lb.
to each square two-fifths of an inch of its surface.

"What a situation to be in!" I exclaimed. "To overrun these deep
regions where man has never trod! Look, Captain, look at these
magnificent rocks, these uninhabited grottoes, these lowest receptacles
of the globe, where life is no longer possible! What unknown sights
are here! Why should we be unable to preserve