derstood; the wonderful qualities of the
Nautilus were going to serve us in this superhuman enterprise.

"I see we are beginning to understand one another, sir," said the
Captain, half smiling. "You begin to see the possibility--I should say
the success--of this attempt. That which is impossible for an ordinary
vessel is easy to the Nautilus. If a continent lies before the pole,
it must stop before the continent; but if, on the contrary, the pole is
washed by open sea, it will go even to the pole."

"Certainly," said I, carried away by the Captain's reasoning; "if the
surface of the sea is solidified by the ice, the lower depths are free
by the Providential law which has placed the maximum of density of the
waters of the ocean one degree higher than freezing-point; and, if I am
not mistaken, the portion of this iceberg which is above the water is
as one to four to that which is below."

"Very nearly, sir; for one foot of iceberg above the sea there are
three below it. If these ice mountains are not more than 300 feet
above the surface, they are not more than 900 beneath. And what are
900 feet to the Nautilus?"

"Nothing, sir."

"It could even seek at greater depths that uniform temperature of
sea-water, and there brave with impunity the thirty or forty degrees of
surface cold."

"Just so, sir--just so," I replied, getting animated.

"The only difficulty," continued Captain Nemo, "is that of remaining
several days without renewing our provision of air."

"Is that all? The Nautilus has vast reservoirs; we can fill them, and
they will supply us with all the oxygen we want."

"Well thought of, M. Aronnax," replied the Captain, smiling. "But, not
wishing you to accuse me of rashness, I will first give you all my
objections."

"Have you any more to make?"

"Only one. It is possible, if the sea exists at the South Pole, that
it may be covered; and, consequently, we shall be unable to come to the
surface."

"Good, sir! but do you forget that the Nautilus is armed with a
powerful spur, and could we not send it diagonally against these fields
of ice, which would open at the shocks."

"Ah! sir, you are full of ideas to-day."

"Besides, Captain," I added, enthusiastically, "why should we not find
the sea open at the South Pole as well as at the North? The frozen
poles of the earth do not coincide, either in the southern or in the
northern regions; and, until it is proved to the contrary, we may
suppose e