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

Chapter 103: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (34)
He explained it like this: "The cause I used to prove this phenomenon is actually very related to an experience in everyone's daily life. When we put pieces of cork or other floating debris into a basin of water, stir the basin Let the water in the water flow in a circular motion. At this time, we will find that the scattered debris all gather in the center of the flow, which is the place where the fluctuation is the least. So, if the Atlantic Ocean is a basin, and the ocean current is a circular flow, Sal Gas Sea is the central point where these flotsam gather."

For such an explanation, I think it is easy to understand and profound.It is difficult for other ordinary ships to observe the special environment around in the "Nautilus".On the water above our heads floated thick purple-black blades of grass intermingled with large tree trunks, door panels and wrecks of various shipwrecks from the Andes and transshipped by the Amazon and Mississippi rivers, including The keel, the floor of the cabin, and some of the boards became very heavy due to the parasitism of many shellfish, and could no longer surface.

For a whole day on March 3, we drove in the Sargas Sea. The fish that feed on marine plants and shellfish regard this thick seawater as a paradise.By the 22rd, the blades of grass on the surface of the water were gradually thinning out, and we could rise to the clear water of the Atlantic Ocean again.

I roughly calculated that during the ten days from February 2 to March 23, the "Nautilus" had been cruising in the Atlantic Ocean, traveling an average of one hundred miles a day.Obviously, Captain Nemo wants to complete his undersea tour. He will definitely head southwest all the way, and after rounding Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, he will return to the Antarctic waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Ned Land's worry was justified. On the surface of the South Atlantic Ocean, there was a vast expanse of smoke and waves. At a glance, the water and the sky were the same color. There were no islands, and there were no human settlements. It was extremely difficult to escape.On the "Nautilus", no one dared to defy Captain Nemo's will, and we have no good way to make him change his mind. We can only obediently obey and wait patiently for the time being.I advocate changing and sublimating ideas through education and persuasion, especially in children's education, and advocate intuitive teaching, so that children can acquire knowledge through playfulness.So I don't like any action that resorts to force, let alone we are alone.Captain Nemo once made us swear not to reveal the secrets of his life, and if we swear, we shall be set free.

Our oath is taken in the honor of a citizen, and must be kept without reservation.However, at this moment, the matter is still delicate, and we have been strictly keeping our agreement for the past four months, and have never raised the question of freedom with the captain.It is our silence on this matter, in the captain's view, is it our acquiescence to our current position and living conditions?But if he raises this issue with him rashly, I'm afraid it will arouse his attention and suspicion, and he will let the crew keep an eye on us, so that even if a good opportunity comes, it will be difficult for us to carry out the escape plan.These questions, full of contradictions and constraints, turned over and over in my mind. I was really in a dilemma and couldn't make a choice.Later, I talked with Conseil alone, and he was also very difficult, just like me.The only fact that can be clearly seen now is: our chances of returning to the mainland and seeing the world again are decreasing day by day, especially when Captain Nemo is commanding his "Nautilus" to march towards the south of the Atlantic Ocean!
During these ten days, our trip was quiet and uneventful, with no unexpected incidents, and Captain Nemo seldom showed up.In the library, I often see some books being flipped through and placed open on the table. These books must be read by the captain, mainly about biological science.He was also reading my humble book on Secrets of the Sea, filling the margins with notes.I noticed that in his annotations, he only pointed out some incorrect parts of the contents of my book, and then refuted some of my theories and viewpoints.The captain seldom discussed these matters with me face to face, preferring to play alone on his organ.Sometimes at night I hear the melancholy tones of the organ. What is the captain thinking when he plays these tunes?In the most secret darkness, I can not guess, the night makes all people quiet, only the "Nautilus" goes on in the desolate waters.

During this journey, we basically sailed on the sea, and there were few ships in the South Atlantic Ocean. The few sailing ships that passed by occasionally were all around the Cape of Good Hope to deliver goods to India.One day we came upon a whaling skiff, who mistook us for a gigantic and valuable whale, and pursued us.Captain Nemo didn't want these daring fishermen to waste their efforts, so he ordered to dive.This little accident made Ned Land a little excited. The Canadians must be regretting why the hunting fork on the boat did not kill our steel plate whale.

Conseil and I have made observations and studies of the fish in this region, and it turns out that the fish here are not very different from those we find in other latitudes, and are mainly some fishes of the terrible genus Chondrichthys.They are divided into three subgenera, striped mackerel, bead mackerel and dolphin.The striped shark is five meters long, with a huge flat head that looks larger than its body, a rounded tail fin, and seven parallel black slashes on its back.The pearl shark has a gray body with seven holes between its gills and a dorsal fin in the middle of its body.Dolphins like to live in groups. They often form a group of five or six, showing beautiful swimming postures in the sea.They are three meters long, with a black back and white belly, and some rare spots.

The end point of this fish observation is Conseil's records of flying fish, and there is no more novel activity than watching dolphins preying on flying fish.No matter how far the flying fish flew, how high or low the curve was, or over the Nautilus, some of them were unlucky enough to end up in the mouths of the dolphins.Some of these flying fish are pirate flying fish and some are bream, and they can also be observed at night.Their glowing mouths draw lines of fire in the night sky, briefly showing us the brightest moment before diving into the dark water.

On March 3th, the "Nautilus" was going to conduct an experiment to detect the depth of the sea floor, which interested me very much.

We have traveled about 45 miles since we set out from the Pacific Ocean.The current bearing is 37°37' south latitude and 53°4000' west longitude.On the surface of the sea in this area, Captain Deng Heng of the Hailar once dropped a 5000-meter-long probe, but it did not reach the bottom of the sea.In addition, Lieutenant Ilk of the British second-class battleship HMS Conference dropped a [-]-meter-long probe, but it did not touch the bottom of the sea.For us, the "Nautilus" is the probe, and Captain Nemo decided to drive the ship to the deepest seabed to verify the deepest dive achieved by previous explorations, and try to create a new record.I am ready to record all the results of this experiment.The panels of the living room were opened, and the boat began to dive, and the destination was the deepest bottom of the sea.

We can imagine that when diving deep, the "Nautilus" can no longer use the method of filling the storage tank. The tank has a capacity limit, which means that at a certain depth, the ship will be in a state of balance up and down.When floating, if you want to drain the water in the pool, the water pump cannot exceed the external water pressure, and as a result, not a single drop of water can be drained out.

So the captain used the pitch plane on the side of the ship so that it was at an angle of 45° to the buoy line of the "Nautilus", and took advantage of the power of the ship to dive along a well-extended diagonal line.After everything is arranged properly, the thruster is turned on to the maximum speed, and its four-blade propeller violently stirs the sea water, which is really a spectacular sight.

Under the action of the strong thrust, the hull of the "Nautilus" vibrated, and dived into the water according to the angle and route set by the captain.The captain and I sat in the living room, keeping our eyes on the fast-moving pointer of the pressure gauge. After a while, we had reached the water layer where most fish could not live.The rules of the sea are very clear. Most of the sea dwellers live in the shallow water, and only a few fish can explore the secrets of the seabed in the deep water.Among these few populations I saw the hexaporphin, with its six breathing ports; the telescope fish, with enormous telescope-like eyes; Anterior pectoral fins gray, posterior pectoral fins black.Finally, we found the grenade fish, which lives at a depth of 200 meters and can withstand an atmospheric pressure of 120 degrees.

I asked the captain if he had seen fish in deeper water.He said: "Fish? Few. How much do people on land know about this problem now?"

"That's right, Captain. Common sense tells us that the deeper you go into the bottom of the ocean, as the water pressure increases, plants are less likely to survive than animals due to their fragile structure. If people can still see some fish in deep water Shellfish protected by shells, then marine plants are hard to find. People have found shellfish and oyster shells in the deep water of 2000 meters. A seashell was collected at a depth of 500 meters. The crew of HMS Bulldog of the British Royal Navy collected a starfish from a depth of 620 feet, which is more than one nautical mile, and it was alive. Captain Nemo, your knowledge should be better than ours. There are many more of these ordinary people, in your opinion, we don’t know everything, do we?”

"No, professor," said the captain, "I'm not so harsh, but, as far as I am concerned, living things are the unity of the finite and the infinite. Sometimes there is no law to be found in the movement of the living world. I would like to ask you how What about explaining the life activities of organisms in deep water?"

"I have two points of view," I enjoyed the face-to-face discussion with the captain, "First, due to the different salinity and density of seawater, the upper water surface and the lower water surface will move with each other, and the temperature of seawater and the microorganisms contained in it are more suitable. And rich, can maintain the basic life needs of crinoids, that is, starfish."

"I agree," said the captain.

"Second, the basis of life is oxygen. As we all know, oxygen dissolved in seawater will not decrease as the depth of the water increases, but will increase accordingly. In deep water layers, the pressure of the water will further compress the oxygen."

"How do you know this?" Captain Nemo was a little surprised.

"Of course we know, because it's the truth. In addition, the swim bladder inside the fish's body, the composition of the air inside will also change with the depth of the water. At the surface, there is more nitrogen in the swim bladder than oxygen, and at the depth of the water , more oxygen than nitrogen. Now let's see to what depth."

I looked at the pressure gauge, and the pointer pointed to 6000 meters.We've been diving for an hour. The "Nautilus" stabs obliquely to the bottom of the sea under the powerful thrust of its pitch plane.We are surrounded by endless sea water. In such a deep water layer, the sea water is still very transparent. The transparency cannot be described in words.After another hour, we have reached a depth of 3000 meters, but we have not yet reached the bottom of the sea.

At a depth of 4000 meters, I saw some black spiers appear outside the window.If these peaks belong to peaks such as the Himalayas, they are at least 9000 meters away from the seabed.

In such a water layer, the pressure of the water is very strong, Captain Nemo did not stop, and the "Nautilus" continued to dive despite the huge pressure.Sitting in the boat, I felt that the steel plate of the hull began to tremble where there were bolts, the white checkered iron plate was slightly bent, the glass of the living room was sunken inwards under the pressure of the sea water, and the whole hull made a creaking sound , sounds scary.Fortunately, the ship was as solid as a block of iron as Captain Nemo described, otherwise it would have collapsed long ago.

As our boat skimmed the rocky slopes beneath the water, I saw some shellfish, snakes and thorns, and a species of starfish.

It didn't take long for these representatives of the animal kingdom who lived tenaciously on the bottom of the sea to disappear. The depth of 5000 meters exceeded the limit that the bottom of the sea can survive, just like a balloon ascending into the oxygen-thin atmosphere.At 6000 meters, the pressure of the sea water is already high enough to crush everything. The hull of the "Nautilus" bears a pressure of [-] pascals, that is, [-] kilograms per square centimeter. the weight of.

"It's amazing here!" I couldn't help shouting, "human beings have never been to such a deep seabed, captain, look at those magnificent rocks, those huge caves, these are all products of the earth, but human beings can't go to the bottom of the sea." It lives and thrives here. It is also the deepest shelter on earth, but there is no trace of life. Such a magnificent scenery, we can only preserve them in memory, what a pity."

"Professor," Captain Nemo asked me, "is there a better way than mere memory?"

"I can't think of one."

"There is nothing easier than taking pictures in the depths of the sea!"

I was amazed by this proposal from the captain, which I admit had never occurred to me, and the limitations of the human brain were laid bare.At the command of Captain Nemo, the crew brought a camera into the living room.Looking out from the open panels, the sea and water were clearly visible in the light of the ship's lights.Our artificial light does not have any problems of darkness and unevenness. For this kind of indoor photography, even sunlight is not as suitable as our current light.At this time, the "Nautilus" reduced the power of the propulsion engine, and at the same time was controlled by the slope of its own pitching machine plate, and the ship stopped in the water.Taking advantage of the relatively calm period, the camera was aimed at the underwater scenery to shoot, but within a few seconds, we got a very clear negative.

What I have in my hand is the positive negative, showing the original foundational rocks that have always lived on the cold, dark sea floor, never receiving the warmth of the sun.And those granite rocks that are the solid foundations of the earth, and those deep caverns hidden among the boulders.All these are silhouetted with uncommon clarity on the negative, their outlines being black lines like those drawn by the brush of a Flemish painter.On the negative, a little farther away, there is a beautiful wave-shaped curved line, which is the mountain range across the seabed, forming the distant view of this landscape painting.At the bottom of the film, there are groups of dark, shiny rocks without moss and spots. They have been cut into bizarre shapes by nature, standing firmly on the fine sand, and the sand grains are illuminated by the searchlight. down, sparkle.

After the pictures were taken, Captain Nemo said to me:

"Professor, it's time for us to go up. We've stayed here for too long. I'm worried that some parts of the 'Nautilus' won't be able to withstand the pressure."

"Okay, we should get out of here."

"Please stand still."

Before I carefully understood the captain's prompt, I fell down on the carpet.

Under the command of the captain, the propellers rotated rapidly, and the pitch plane was erected vertically, and the "Nautilus" rose rapidly like a hydrogen balloon flying in the air.The bow of the ship parted the sea forcefully, making a cheerful "squeak" sound.The scene outside the window disappeared in an instant, and nothing could be seen clearly.It took us only 4 minutes to travel a distance of 2000 meters, jumping out of the sea like a flying fish, beating the sea water into white waves, and then falling heavily on the water.

Bighead and Fin Whales

On the night of March 3th and 13th, the navigation direction of the "Nautilus" was still south.I estimate that at the latitude of Cape Horn, which is 14° south, our ship will turn westward and reach the Pacific Ocean to complete her circumnavigation.But in fact, Captain Nemo did not do this. The bow of the ship was still pointing south, heading for the Antarctic region.Where does the captain want to go?Go to Antarctica?That was a bit of a show, and I'm beginning to think that the captain's audacity was enough to justify the Canadians' fears.

This strange voyage affected my companion's mood, and the Canadian was sullen and taciturn these days, and never mentioned his escape plan to me.I understand that this indefinite prolongation and the unpredictability of the future make him very uncomfortable, and I can even feel the pent-up anger in his heart.When he met Captain Nemo, his eyes were dark and resentful, and I was sometimes worried that he would not be able to restrain his violent temper and do some stupid things. On March 3, Ned Land and Conseil came to my room and said they wanted to talk to me.

"Professor," said the Canadian, "I have a question I wish you could answer."

"Go ahead, Ned."

"On the 'Nautilus,' how many people were there?"

"I can't say that, my friend."

"I don't think," said Ned Land seriously, "that a ship like this will not need many men."

"I agree," I said, "from what I've observed of the jobs on board, about a dozen people can take care of the whole ship."

"But," said the Canadian, "why are there so many people in the boat?"

"How do you know there are so many people in the boat?" I asked immediately, staring at Ned Land, whose intentions were not difficult to understand.

"Because," said Ned Land, "according to my deduction and what I know of the captain's life, the Nautilus is not just a ship. on this boat."

"That makes sense," Conseil said, "but for a ship that is often under water, it can only accommodate a certain number of people. Sir, can we estimate the maximum number of people?"

"Conseil, you mean by calculation?" I was a little puzzled.

"Yes," Conseil said with bright eyes, "according to the known volume of this ship, we can figure out how much air it contains, and then use the amount of oxygen consumed by each person to breathe in a normal state, and the 'Nautilus' 'You have to go up once a day to get fresh air for comparison."

Conseil only said a few words, and I understood his method.

(End of this chapter)