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JULES VERNE

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Jules Verne was born in 1828. He studied law at Paris, but
turned to writing almost immediately after completing his
education, and brought out his first comedy in 1850. This was
followed by several comic operas. However, he is chiefly known
by his "scientific romances," of which the first, "Five Weeks
in a Balloon," appeared in 1863. "Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea" is perhaps the best example of Verne's tales of
the marvels of invention, and we have to remember that when it
was written, in 1873, nobody had yet succeeded in making a
boat to travel under water. For that reason it was, in a way,
a prophetic book, shadowing forth the wonderful possibilities
of human ingenuity in exploring the ocean's unknown depths.
Jules Verne died March 24, 1905.

_I.--I Join a Strange Expedition_

In the year 1866 the whole seafaring world of Europe and America was
greatly disturbed by an ocean mystery which baffled the wits of
scientists and sailors alike. Several vessels, in widely different
regions of the seas, had met a long and rapidly moving object, much
larger than a whale, and capable of almost incredible speed. It had also
been seen at night, and was then phosphorescent, moving under the water
in a glow of light.

There was no doubt whatever as to the reality of this unknown terror of
the deep, for several vessels had been struck by it, and particularly
the Cunard steamer Scotia, homeward bound for Liverpool. It had pierced
a large triangular hole through the steel plates of the Scotia's hull,
and would certainly have sunk the vessel had it not been divided into
seven water-tight compartments, any one of which could stand injury
without danger to the vessel. It was three hundred miles off Cape Clear
that the Scotia encountered this mysterious monster. Arriving after some
days' delay at Liverpool, the vessel was put into dock, when the result
of the blow from the unknown was thoroughly investigated. So many
vessels having recently been lost from unknown causes, the narrow escape
of the Scotia directed fresh attention to this ocean mystery, and both
in Europe and America there was a strong public agitation for an
expedition to be sent out, prepared to do battle with, and if possible
destroy, this narwhal of monstrous growth, as many scientists believed
it to be.

Now