The Mysterious Island Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Captain Grant's Children

Chapter 102: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (33)
I stood in front of the window, admiring the view of sea and sky, until the panels were closed, at which point the Nautilus had sailed to where the high wall was, and I could not feel the direction of the bow, so I had to go back to my room.Then the Nautilus came to a standstill, and I went to sleep, reminding myself that I would only sleep a few hours, but it was eight o'clock when I awoke the next day and rushed to the living room.Judging from the numbers on the pressure gauge, we were driving on the sea, and the sound of footsteps came from the platform.

There is no obvious swaying feeling on the hull, which means that the wind and waves on the sea should not be strong.I went to the panel and looked, and found that it was pitch black outside, and it was not eight o'clock in the morning.Where are we?Am I mistaken, and it is still night?No, without the shining stars, even the night would not be as dark as it is now.

I can't imagine, and in my agitation, I heard someone say to me behind me:
"Is that you, Professor Aronnax?"

"Yes, Captain Nemo," I replied, turning, "where are we now?"

"Underground, Mr. Professor."

"Underground? Is the 'Nautilus' floating on the water?" My voice was a little excited.

"It's always traveling in or on the water."

"Then I'm really confused."

"Hold on, the ship's searchlights will be turned on in a moment, and if you want to make things clear, you will."

I came to the platform to see how things were going.It was so dark outside that even the shadow of Captain Nemo could not be seen clearly.I looked up into the sky, and above my head, there was a faintly visible floating gleam.At this time, the searchlight was turned on, and the brilliant light dispersed the twilight.

My eyes are used to the darkness, and the light came on suddenly, I was so blinded that I had to close my eyes.When I opened my eyes again, I found that the "Nautilus" was leaning against the shore of a temporary pier, floating motionless on the water.This piece of water is like a lake, the water of the lake is connected to the sea, and the surface of the lake is flush with the sea.The lake is surrounded by a high wall, the lower part of the wall is inclined, and the upper part is surrounded by a dome, like a funnel placed upside down, with a height of about 600 meters.The shimmer I saw just now is the light outside the round hole.

Judging from the topography, we seem to be in a huge cave. I did not carefully consider the cause and process of the formation of this cave, such as whether it is natural or artificial. Instead, I went to Captain Nemo and said:

"Captain, what is this place?"

"This is the center of an extinct volcano, or rather a volcanic lake," replied the captain. "Because of the movement of the earth's crust, the sea water has invaded the crater, and the lava has been quenched by the sea water. Professor, when you were asleep just now, 'the Nautilus 'Drove into this saltwater lake along a natural waterway ten meters below the surface of the sea. We are now parked in a port that is safe, convenient, secret and inaccessible to wind blowing from any direction. You can Or islands to find a harbor like this? Especially not afraid of hurricanes."

"I can't, Captain," I replied. "Captain, I must say that the port you have chosen is indeed safe. Who can use the crater to anchor a ship? But don't we have a hole over our heads?"

"Yes, that is the eruption vent of the volcano. It was full of deadly lava, sulfurous gas and flames a long time ago, but now it is full of vitality, and what we breathe is the purest air."

"Is this volcano alone?" I continued.

"It turned out to be a small island in the ocean. For ships on long voyages, it is just a hidden reef, but for us, it is a huge cave. I discovered it by accident. I parked my boat here, and there are many benefits. "

"Will someone come down from the volcano's vent to the lake?"

"Impossible, no one can come down from the edge of the crater, just like I can't climb up from here. The lower layer of this mountain can still be walked, and when it is more than a hundred feet, the stone wall becomes very steep. People cannot cross the rock formations on the mountainside."

"Captain, you are a true friend of nature, and you can take advantage of all that nature has given you at any time and place. You are safe here, and no one can come to this lake except you. You do not simply use this as a port. Park it for a while, there must be other magical uses, right?"

"You are right, the 'Nautilus' does not need to use this place as a berth. This ship is driven by electricity, so it needs a lot of electricity. We need to use metallic sodium when generating electricity, and it consumes a lot of sodium to produce Coal. This place is rich in coal. In ancient times, seawater flooded the forest here. In the subsequent geological periods, a large number of trees became fossils, and later turned into coal under pressure. Here, for me, Just another Vigo Bay."

"Captain, are your crew members mining coal in the coal mine now?"

"Yes, here, like Newcastle in the UK, the coal seam is in sea water. My men are wearing diving suits, holding hoes and shovels, and mining coal underwater. I will burn coal on the spot to make sodium. The manufacturing process produces Fireworks came out of this crater, and people who didn’t know thought it was still a volcano erupting.”

"May I witness the coal mining of your companions?"

"Sorry, I can't do it this time. I only have one day to make and store sodium, and I have to hurry up and continue my plan to travel around the seabed. However, if you want to go around this volcanic cave and enjoy the scenery of the saltwater lake If so, Professor, I think you can make the most of this day."

Thanks to the captain for his thoughtfulness, I went to see Conseil and Ned Land, who had not yet left their rooms.I asked them to follow me to the platform without telling them where it was.Conseil had no doubts about the scene in front of him. He felt that it was normal for the boat to sail in the water when he fell asleep at night, and to be moored at the foot of a mountain when he woke up.The Canadian didn't think too deeply, he was just looking for an exit to the mainland from here.

After breakfast we disembarked at ten o'clock, and came ashore.

"We are on land again." Conseil was a little excited.

"This is no land," said the Canadian sarcastically, "and we are not on any land, but underground."

Between the lagoon and the foot of the cliff lies a sandy beach, five hundred feet at its widest point.We walked along the beach around the lake. Near the cliffs, the terrain became rugged and piled up with many stones formed by the cooling of lava after the volcanic eruption.Under the erosion of the years, these stones have all decomposed, and at the same time, under the action of underground heat, a layer of smooth enamel floats on the surface, which emits dazzling brilliance under the illumination of searchlights.There are many mica stone particles on the beach, laced up by our shoes, and they are likely to be disturbed by humans for the first time.

The terrain is gradually rising, and the lake is getting farther and farther away from us.We soon came to a very long, somewhat curved stone railing, and slowly climbed up the slope. We must be careful of the loose rocks under our feet at any time, because there is no cement in the middle of these piled stones. of glue.In addition, these rough rock surfaces are all crystal structures of feldspar and quartz, so shoes are easy to slip when stepping on them.From these many details, it can be confirmed that this huge cave is indeed caused by volcanic activity. I explained these principles to my two partners in time, so that they can pay attention to the internal relationship of these interesting phenomena.

"You can imagine," I said to them, "that this gigantic funnel was filled with boiling lava, and the level of the lava was as high as the rim of the crater, like a furnace filled with molten iron. What kind of situation will it be?"

"I can imagine that," said Conseil, "but I have a question, Professor, how did the fierce ironworker of the volcano stop his work? How did he empty the furnace of magma and replace it with What about the calm and cold lake?"

"Conseil, you have asked a very good question. I think it is likely that there has been a great change in the geological structure of the seabed, forming an underwater channel for the 'Nautilus' to enter and exit. At the same time, the sea water of the Atlantic Ocean has also From here, it flows into the interior of the volcano. The spectacular scene of water and fire at that time must have been amazing, and the final result was that the sea god won. After a long time, the volcano submerged in water has become a quiet and peaceful cave. .”

"I agree," Ned Land said. "Professor, I think your explanation just now is very reasonable. However, from our point of view, I regret why the access channel is not above sea level."

"My friend," replied Conseil, "if the opening had been on the ground instead of underwater, the Nautilus would not have been able to bring us here."

"Mr. Lan," I continued, "if the sea water hadn't rushed in from the bottom of the mountain, the volcano would still be the same as before, so your assumptions and regrets are just fantasy."

We continued to climb, and the road became more and more difficult and narrow.The trails were often disconnected, and there were deep holes below that forced us to jump through.When encountering some abruptly hanging stones, we had to go around the road, sometimes had to kneel down and rub forward, and sometimes leaned over and crawled.With the help of Conseil and Ned Land, these obstacles were overcome one by one.After climbing to a place of more than 30 meters, the road conditions under my feet have changed again, but fortunately I can still walk.Behind the sedimentary rocks and coarse rocks, followed by basalts.There are many air bubbles in the rough rock, which is in the form of flakes.The accumulation rocks form regular prisms, like a row of stone pillars, supporting the huge dome, like natural architectural stone pillars.In the middle of the basalt, as the lava cools completely from the molten state, it leaves a winding and pitch-colored line.From the upper opening, a powerful beam of light came in, illuminating the surface rock below our feet, but unable to penetrate the material beneath the rock forever buried in the volcano.

We climbed up to a height of two hundred feet, when we encountered an impassable obstacle and could not go any higher.We are now on the mountainside, where the plants are already growing hard and fighting the minerals.Some small trees sprouted branches obliquely from the unevenness of the cliff, and some plants I can still name, such as euphorbia, also known as sungrass, which is a very inappropriate nickname because the sun never shines on them.There is corrosive liquid in the leaves of euphorbia, and its flower clusters have little fragrance. When they bloom, the color of the flowers fades quickly, giving them a bleak look.There are also some wild chrysanthemums on the roadside, growing under the long-leaved aloe.Next to the volcanic stones, I see some tiny violets with a slight aroma.I am very happy to smell the smell of this land plant. The fragrance is the soul of flowers. Those flowers blooming in the sea are just beautiful aquatic plants without souls.We came to a dragon's blood tree, which belongs to the Liliaceae family. The resin is red, hence the name of the dragon's blood tree. Its red resin is a good preservative.Ned Land suddenly exclaimed: "Professor, you see a beehive!"

"Honeycomb? This kind of place?" I couldn't believe it.

"I can assure you, a hive of bees," the Canadian said excitedly, "and a lot of bees flying around."

I stepped forward to observe, and Ned Land was right. In the cavity formed by the dragon blood tree hole, there was a huge beehive. This was a kind of bee from the Canary Islands, and the honey it produced was regarded as For treasures.The Canadian will not let go of the delicacies produced by this land insect, and he is ready to pluck the hive.I didn't hold back, I could see that Canadians love honey as much as I love the smell of violets, which is justifiable.Ned Land found some hay, sprinkled some readily available sulfur on it, and lit it on his lighter.Under the choking smoke of the fire, the bees in and around the hive were gradually dispersed, and there were several catties of sweet spoils in this hive.Ned Land put the honey in his tool bag and said to us:
"When I go back, I will mix honey and bread flour and bake you delicious honey cakes."

"That's great," Conseil looked forward to, "you can also make sweet and fragrant French bread!"

We started to go down, round the rocky peaks ahead, and I saw something flying in the air.In the interior of this volcano, species are not rich, and those low-flying birds are some great bustards, belonging to the order Heliciformes.Some of them hovered slowly in the dark, and some stopped beside their nests built on rocks.Beautiful and plump, the bird is a delicacy that Canadians will not miss.Seeing a few great bustards scurrying on the slope, Ned Lan used rocks as weapons, but he failed to throw them a few times, and regretted not bringing the shotgun.Later, he actually wounded one and took the risk to climb up the slope. With his dexterity, the Canadian finally stuffed the prey into the bag.

We had to find our way back to the beach, and above our heads, the crater was like a wide well mouth, and the sky from there was magnificent.A turbulent cloud, pushed by the westerly wind, carried finer fragments of cloud to the summit, and the clouds were so low that the volcano was only eight hundred feet above sea level.

Half an hour after the Canadians' birding, I was back on the beach.There are many sea cockscombs growing on the shore, forming a large green carpet.This kind of cockscomb grass is an umbrella-shaped grass, also known as diamond grass, stone grass and sea seedling grass. It is an excellent raw material for making pickles, and Conseil picked several bunches.There are also many animals on the beach, including various crustaceans: lobster, large plate crab, long-handed crab, young shrimp, long-legged shrimp and Gala crab, as well as a large number of clams, magnetic shells, rock shells and braided shellfish. Lily shellfish.

On the side of the mountain we found a cave, which was spacious, and my companion and I were delighted to find a resting place on the fine sand in the cave.The walls of the cave are covered with mica stone powder, and due to the effect of volcanic heat, the enamel of the walls is somewhat shiny.Ned Land patted the walls, fearing they weren't thick enough, and our conversation turned to the Canadians' haunted escape plan.I did some analysis for Ned Land, and it was that Captain Nemo's trip south was just to replenish his sodium.So he should return to Europe or the coast of America, so that the Canadians can complete the escape plan, or more feasible to carry out his plan.In this warm and lovely cave we lay for an hour.At first we chatted enthusiastically, but then sleepiness gradually hit me. In this environment, I thought there was no need to resist sleep, so I fell asleep soundly.

In a trance, I heard Conseil's call, he was shouting:

"Wake up, there is a situation!"

"What's wrong?" I asked, pulling myself up at the same time.

"The water is coming up!"

I stood up immediately, and found that the lake was rushing towards our cave, and we had no gills for fish, so we had to flee to a higher place.

Fortunately, our legs and feet were still flexible. After a few minutes, we climbed up a high slope of this cave.

"Professor, what's going on?" Conseil asked. "Is this also a novel phenomenon?"

"It's nothing, it's normal," I replied. "It's the tide, the rising tide of the Atlantic Ocean outside, and the water level in the lake will rise because of the law of equilibrium. We'll have to swim back to the Nautilus."

After 45 minutes we were back on the boat and this excursion to Crater Lake was over.Captain Nemo's crew had just loaded up the required sodium, and we were ready to sail again.However, the captain did not give the order to sail. He wanted to wait until night before passing through the underground channel secretly.The next day, the "Nautilus" left its secret base and continued its voyage under the Atlantic Ocean.

salgas sea

The "Nautilus" continues to sail south, and my hope of returning to the coasts of Europe and America is temporarily stranded. Where does Captain Nemo want this ship to take us?I didn't give it a second thought.

On this day, the "Nautilus" sailed across a very special sea in the Atlantic Ocean.In the Atlantic Ocean there is a warm water current called the "Gyre".This ocean current starts from the Gulf of Florida and flows to Spitzsburg Bay. Before entering the Gulf of Mexico, that is, near 44° north latitude, the ocean current splits in two.The main tributaries go straight to the coasts of Ireland and Norway, and the minor tributaries turn south, pass the Arendres, then reach the west coast of Africa, draw a long and flat oval, and finally return to the Antilles.

It is this secondary tributary, a collar-like gyre, that generates many thermospheres along its way, enclosing a part of the cold, calm water of the North Atlantic that forms the Sargas Sea.This is a lake in the Atlantic Ocean. It takes at least three years for the warm current to circle this unique "lake" in the world.

The surface of the Sargas Sea is dotted with countless blades of grass, which some writers believe came from the grasslands of the ancient continent of Atlantis.Theoretically speaking, this sea area is enough to cover the vast Atlantis. The grass blades on the sea surface are plants such as kelp and seaweed, which come from the coasts of Europe and America, and are carried here by the Atlantic warm current.

At this moment, the "Nautilus" is sailing in this sea area, and the sea here is indeed like a dense "grassland", specifically a large piece of thick and dense grass woven by kelp, black carnitas, and tropical sea grapes. "Carpet", it takes a lot of effort to break through these blades of grass.In order to avoid the propeller being entangled by the long blades of grass, Captain Nemo ordered the boat to dive into the water layer several meters deep.

Salgas is Spanish and means seaweed.The seaweed here is all floating algae, which is the main part of this vast sea of ​​grass blades.According to Morley, a scientist and author of the book "Physical Geography of the Earth," the reason these marine plants tangle in the calm waters of the Atlantic Ocean is simple and profound.

(End of this chapter)