lus which
would have involved greater difficulty, Captain Nemo had an immense
trench made at eight yards from the port-quarter. Then the men set to
work simultaneously with their screws on several points of its
circumference. Presently the pickaxe attacked this compact matter
vigorously, and large blocks were detached from the mass. By a curious
effect of specific gravity, these blocks, lighter than water, fled, so
to speak, to the vault of the tunnel, that increased in thickness at
the top in proportion as it diminished at the base. But that mattered
little, so long as the lower part grew thinner. After two hours' hard
work, Ned Land came in exhausted. He and his comrades were replaced by
new workers, whom Conseil and I joined. The second lieutenant of the
Nautilus superintended us. The water seemed singularly cold, but I
soon got warm handling the pickaxe. My movements were free enough,
although they were made under a pressure of thirty atmospheres. When I
re-entered, after working two hours, to take some food and rest, I
found a perceptible difference between the pure fluid with which the
Rouquayrol engine supplied me and the atmosphere of the Nautilus,
already charged with carbonic acid. The air had not been renewed for
forty-eight hours, and its vivifying qualities were considerably
enfeebled. However, after a lapse of twelve hours, we had only raised
a block of ice one yard thick, on the marked surface, which was about
600 cubic yards! Reckoning that it took twelve hours to accomplish
this much it would take five nights and four days to bring this
enterprise to a satisfactory conclusion. Five nights and four days!
And we have only air enough for two days in the reservoirs! "Without
taking into account," said Ned, "that, even if we get out of this
infernal prison, we shall also be imprisoned under the iceberg, shut
out from all possible communication with the atmosphere." True enough!
Who could then foresee the minimum of time necessary for our
deliverance? We might be suffocated before the Nautilus could regain
the surface of the waves? Was it destined to perish in this ice-tomb,
with all those it enclosed? The situation was terrible. But everyone
had looked the danger in the face, and each was determined to do his
duty to the last.

As I expected, during the night a new block a yard square was carried
away, and still further sank the immense hollow. But in the morning
when, dressed in my cork-