ending motion, our position cannot be
altered."

Indeed, the Nautilus still held the same position to starboard;
doubtless it would right itself when the block stopped. But at this
moment who knows if we may not be frightfully crushed between the two
glassy surfaces? I reflected on all the consequences of our position.
Captain Nemo never took his eyes off the manometer. Since the fall of
the iceberg, the Nautilus had risen about a hundred and fifty feet, but
it still made the same angle with the perpendicular. Suddenly a slight
movement was felt in the hold. Evidently it was righting a little.
Things hanging in the saloon were sensibly returning to their normal
position. The partitions were nearing the upright. No one spoke.
With beating hearts we watched and felt the straightening. The boards
became horizontal under our feet. Ten minutes passed.

"At last we have righted!" I exclaimed.

"Yes," said Captain Nemo, going to the door of the saloon.

"But are we floating?" I asked.

"Certainly," he replied; "since the reservoirs are not empty; and, when
empty, the Nautilus must rise to the surface of the sea."

We were in open sea; but at a distance of about ten yards, on either
side of the Nautilus, rose a dazzling wall of ice. Above and beneath
the same wall. Above, because the lower surface of the iceberg
stretched over us like an immense ceiling. Beneath, because the
overturned block, having slid by degrees, had found a resting-place on
the lateral walls, which kept it in that position. The Nautilus was
really imprisoned in a perfect tunnel of ice more than twenty yards in
breadth, filled with quiet water. It was easy to get out of it by
going either forward or backward, and then make a free passage under
the iceberg, some hundreds of yards deeper. The luminous ceiling had
been extinguished, but the saloon was still resplendent with intense
light. It was the powerful reflection from the glass partition sent
violently back to the sheets of the lantern. I cannot describe the
effect of the voltaic rays upon the great blocks so capriciously cut;
upon every angle, every ridge, every facet was thrown a different
light, according to the nature of the veins running through the ice; a
dazzling mine of gems, particularly of sapphires, their blue rays
crossing with the green of the emerald. Here and there were opal
shades of wonderful softness, running through bright spots like
diamonds of fire, the bril