me! But that voice! The time is
past for Jonahs to take refuge in whales' bellies! However, Conseil
was towing me again. He raised his head sometimes, looked before us,
and uttered a cry of recognition, which was responded to by a voice
that came nearer and nearer. I scarcely heard it. My strength was
exhausted; my fingers stiffened; my hand afforded me support no longer;
my mouth, convulsively opening, filled with salt water. Cold crept
over me. I raised my head for the last time, then I sank.

At this moment a hard body struck me. I clung to it: then I felt that
I was being drawn up, that I was brought to the surface of the water,
that my chest collapsed--I fainted.

It is certain that I soon came to, thanks to the vigorous rubbings that
I received. I half opened my eyes.

"Conseil!" I murmured.

"Does master call me?" asked Conseil.

Just then, by the waning light of the moon which was sinking down to
the horizon, I saw a face which was not Conseil's and which I
immediately recognised.

"Ned!" I cried.

"The same, sir, who is seeking his prize!" replied the Canadian.

"Were you thrown into the sea by the shock to the frigate?"

"Yes, Professor; but more fortunate than you, I was able to find a
footing almost directly upon a floating island."

"An island?"

"Or, more correctly speaking, on our gigantic narwhal."

"Explain yourself, Ned!"

"Only I soon found out why my harpoon had not entered its skin and was
blunted."

"Why, Ned, why?"

"Because, Professor, that beast is made of sheet iron."

The Canadian's last words produced a sudden revolution in my brain. I
wriggled myself quickly to the top of the being, or object, half out of
the water, which served us for a refuge. I kicked it. It was
evidently a hard, impenetrable body, and not the soft substance that
forms the bodies of the great marine mammalia. But this hard body
might be a bony covering, like that of the antediluvian animals; and I
should be free to class this monster among amphibious reptiles, such as
tortoises or alligators.

Well, no! the blackish back that supported me was smooth, polished,
without scales. The blow produced a metallic sound; and, incredible
though it may be, it seemed, I might say, as if it was made of riveted
plates.

There was no doubt about it! This monster, this natural phenomenon
that had puzzled the learned world, and over thrown and misled the
imagination of seamen of both hemispheres,