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

Chapter 110: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (41)
In this rich seabed, the "Nautilus" did not linger, but sailed quickly.By night it was not far from the Maruins, and the next day I could see their steep peaks.

When the weather is calm, the fishing nets of the "Nautilus" often have some windfalls.In this part of the sea, our nets catch beautiful kombu and various varieties of kelp, such as a special black carapace, whose roots are delicious.The crew also caught a dozen sea geese and sea ducks resting on the platform, and they were naturally handed over to the kitchen for cooking.In terms of fish, I saw bony fish of the genus Gobies, especially Gobies, about two decimeters long, with many grayish white and yellow spots on their bodies.

There are countless jellyfish swimming in the water here, which are the most beautiful species I have ever seen, namely the cocoon-shaped jellyfish unique to the Maruin Sea.They are sometimes hemispherical, like a smooth and beautiful umbrella, decorated with reddish-brown stripes, and twelve regular flower whiskers hang down from below.Sometimes they are an overturned flower basket, from which protrude red leaves and twigs.As they swim, they gracefully shake their four leaf-like limbs, and their abundant tentacles dangle in the water.I'd love to catch and preserve these exquisite zoophytes, but they're like elves in the Maruin Sea, disappearing without a trace as soon as they leave the embrace of Mother Sea.

The Maruine Islands receded from us until they disappeared below the horizon. The "Nautilus" dived to a depth of 20 to 25 meters and continued to drive along the east coast of South America, during which Captain Nemo never showed up.

All day on April 4, we were in the waters off the coast of Patagonia, Argentina. Sometimes the ship sank to the bottom of the sea, and sometimes it was on the surface of the ocean. On the 3th of April we passed the mouth of the Rio de la Plata and passed Uruguay, fifty miles east of the mainland, always heading north by east, strictly following the long east coast of South America. coast driving.We have traveled 4 miles since we set out in the Sea of ​​Japan.

Around 37 o'clock in the morning, we crossed the Tropic of Capricornus along the west longitude [-]°, and crossed the sea of ​​Cape Folio.It was evident that Captain Nemo did not like having his ship too close to inhabited shores, and Ned Land was greatly annoyed at the alarming speed with which we were moving.

At this speed, we saw Cape San Roca, the easternmost tip of South America, in the distance on the night of April 4. Before arriving here, the "Nautilus" dived into the deepest seabed to find the submarine valley between here and Serra Le Woone on the west coast of Africa.This submarine valley is at the same latitude as the Antilles and is the dividing point between the North and South Atlantic Oceans.From here to the Lesser Antilles stretches a cliff about six kilometers long, very steep.At the same latitude as the Qingjiao Islands, there is another stone wall of almost the same length, which surrounds the entire submerged Atlantis, which is the Atlantic State.At the bottom of this vast valley, there are many rugged mountains, which make this underwater scene very picturesque.The reason why I can give a general picture of the situation on the bottom of the sea depends on the manuscript map hidden in the library of the "Nautilus". This map was obviously drawn by Captain Nemo himself. from his personal observations.

The sea water in this area is desolate, and the "Nautilus" dives using the vertical inclined plane. This oblique sailing device with a long longitudinal diagonal is the genius invention of Captain Nemo, which allows the ship to travel to very deep water layers. . On April 4th, we suddenly ascended from the state of sneaking under the sea. On the platform, I saw the mouth of the Amazon River. In this wide estuary, there is abundant water, and the sea water within several miles has become less salty. .

After we cross the equator from south to north, twenty nautical miles to the west is Guyana, which is a French overseas territory.We could have carried out our escape plan and found a place to hide easily.But the weather is not good, the sea wind is strong, and the turbulent waves can easily capsize any adventurous boat.Ned Land was well aware of this, so he didn't say anything to me.And I didn't take the initiative to mention his escape plan. I didn't want to encourage him to do experiments that were risky and doomed to miscarriage.

In such a helpless environment prone to discouragement, I would rather let interesting research pass the time.For two days, April 4-11, the "Nautilus" did not leave the sea, and the nets on board caught a large number of phytozoans, fish and reptiles, and the variety was so rich that any old fisherman He grinned with satisfaction.

The chain ropes of the fishing net dragged up many zoophytes, most of which were whisker-shaped seaweeds belonging to the family Anemone, with beautiful shapes.There is also a species of seaweed, native to this part of the Atlantic Ocean, with a cylindrical body of small size, with graceful straight lines and red spots, and curious tentacle-shaped flowers on its head.

I have not had the opportunity to study the fish in this area of ​​seawater in detail before, and here are some representative ones.Among the cartilaginous fishes there are piebald fishes, fifteen inches long, with bluish-blue heads, purplish-red fins, bluish-gray dorsal spine, bright silvery-white or reddish-brown spots on the belly, and around the eyes are The golden circle looks very beautiful.They are originally a freshwater fish, and the water of the Amazon River has carried them from the tropical jungle to the Atlantic Ocean, and they can also grow freely in sea water.Tumor shrimps have a sharp mouth, a very long and thin tail, and only one tooth-shaped spike in the body.There is also a kind of petite mackerel, only about one meter long, with gray-black skin and light white skin, sharp teeth, arranged in several rows, and fishermen here collectively call them slipper fish.The bat saddlefish is a red fish shaped like an isosceles triangle. Its pectoral fins grow on the protruding body, which looks like a bat. There are horny tentacles around the nostrils, so some people call them one-horned fish.There are many spines on both sides of the soft-shelled turtle's body, it looks scary, and its color is bright golden yellow.The purple of the stickleback has a soft sheen, like the soft throat of a homing pigeon.

Finally, I end this somewhat dry, but precise, compendium of North Atlantic fish species with a group of bony fishes.Basang fish are wingless fins, with obtuse-angled mouth and face, snow-white head, black body, a very long and thin fleshy tail; toothed fish with many sharp spines; sardines are three decimeters long , a shimmering silvery white; the ovate-finned fish has two anal fins; and the black stickleback is black all over, and fishermen often light dry grass to attract them.They are two meters long and have firm flesh.The freshly caught fish is cooked right away, tastes like an eel, and when dried it makes a good smoked fish; half of the body of the rabbu is red, and it grows only under the dorsal fin and anus Scaled; the golden and silvery fish with golden and silvery gleams, tinged with ruby ​​and topaz; and the goldentail snapper, whose flesh is so tender that their phosphorescent gleams in the sea as dusk darkens. The center is shiny; the pubirone has a very small head and an orange-yellow body.There are also skinks, black sclerophylls and popeyes from the Suriname Islands, among others.

Here I must solemnly introduce a fish, which Conseil still remembers and never forgets.

One of the Nautilus' nets caught a flat fish so flat that, if the tail were cut off, it would become a complete disc.Its body weighs about [-] kilograms. Its belly is white, its upper body is light red, with dark blue dots and black circles around the dots. It is a very dangerous fish.It fell from the fishing net and landed on the platform, struggling desperately. It looked like it wanted to turn over.Finally, it jumped up with all its strength, and it was about to jump back into the sea.Conseil didn't just sit idly by, he immediately pounced on it, trying to catch the fish back, and just as I was about to remind him, his hands had already caught the fish.

But Conseil was knocked down in an instant. He fell so badly that his legs kicked in the air, half of his body was paralyzed, and he kept shouting:

"My master, come and save me, I am unconscious!"

It was the first time he had called out to me in such a panic, and the Canadian and I rushed over to help him up.The two of us massaged his upper body to help him regain consciousness, and when his mind returned to normal, the species-obsessed man said in a low, inarticulate voice:
"Cartilaginous class, Soft-finned class, Gill-fixed, Chimera suborder, Thuridae, Electric fish genus!"

octopus
These days, the direction of the "Nautilus" is very clear, and Captain Nemo does not want to go to the Gulf of Mexico, or the waters of the Greater Antilles.In fact, the sea in that area is not shallow, with an average depth of 8000 meters, which can definitely accommodate the hull of the "Nautilus".It may be because there are many islands in that area, and there are many steamboats on the sea, which is a trouble for Captain Nemo.

On the 4th of April we surfaced, and at a distance of about thirty miles we saw the islands of Martinique and Kadlupi, and the peaks of the mountains on both islands.

The Canadian had wanted to carry out his plan in the Gulf of Mexico, where the chances of a successful escape to land, or to the island of Cuba to the east, were high, in that gulf, surrounded on three sides by the North American continent.So he was disappointed when he found the Nautilus out of the bay.In the Gulf of Mexico, taking advantage of Captain Nemo's unpreparedness, it is very likely to succeed in escaping after snatching the boat.But if you continue to stay in the Atlantic Ocean, don't even think about it.

The Canadian, Conseil, and I had a secret conversation about this, and it has now been six months since we were taken captive aboard the Nautilus.We sailed seventeen thousand miles with Captain Nemo. As Ned Land said, this kind of journey has no end.So he suggested to me, but the content of the suggestion was beyond my expectation, that is to ask Captain Nemo directly: Mr. Captain, do you want to keep the three of us on board indefinitely?
Such talks made me very embarrassed, even a little bored.As far as I am concerned, such talks will not be fruitful, and all our speculations and hopes will be shattered mercilessly by the temporary diversion of the "Nautilus" or its dive into the deep sea.Therefore, we can't have any extravagant hopes, and everything depends on ourselves.Moreover, what worries me most is that Captain Nemo has become more dull recently, never shows up, and rarely initiates discussions with me as before.I have a feeling that he seems to be avoiding me on purpose.In the past, he liked to explain to me the magic of the seabed and his personal experience. Now he ignores me reading and doing research in the living room alone, but he hides in a secret corner of the cabin.

what is he planningWhy is he so mysterious?I felt that I had nothing to feel sorry for him, or something to blame myself for.Had he been embarrassed by something we had done on board?Either way, I wouldn't expect him to one day offer to restore our freedom.

If I follow Ned Land's suggestion, I need to have an interview with Captain Nemo.I have to think about this matter for a while. If the results of the interview are not satisfactory, not only will we fail to realize our original intention, but we will also startle the enemy, increase his suspicion for no reason, and make our situation even more difficult.I could not plead to leave the Nautilus on the grounds of my health, and in fact Ned Land, Conseil, and I have been in good health, except for our suffering under the Antarctic icebergs.On the "Nautilus", clean food, healthy air, regular life, and stable temperature will never make people sick.For a person who does not miss anything on land, such as Captain Nemo, staying on the "Nautilus" is a great happiness for him, just like being in his own home, where he can go wherever he wants, He can move unswervingly towards his destination. In the eyes of ordinary people like us, he has chosen a mysterious path, but he himself does not think so.This is also a way of life, I am willing to understand, and it is understandable.But for those of us, we don't have a deep hatred for human beings, and we don't want to be cut off from the solid continent.I myself don't want my strange and fresh research to be buried in a seabed cemetery with me. I have the right to write this book to describe what the real ocean is to readers, and I also have the right to let it be published to the public one day, so that readers Can't put it down.

In the waters of the Lesser Antilles before me, at a depth of ten meters, I looked out through the open panels and found many interesting sea creatures, which I noted in my diary.Among the many zoophytes, there is a ship-shaped coelenterate called the keloid, which has a thick rectangular body and emits a uranium flash.If they open their membranes to the wind, the blue tentacles float in the water, looking like beautiful and charming jellyfish, but they secrete a very corrosive sap.Among the fish, there are the snakefish, which are huge cartilaginous fishes ten feet long and six hundred pounds in weight.It has triangular pectoral fins, some bulge in the middle of the back, and eyes at the front of the head.Like wrecks of a ship, they float about in the water, like an opaque shutter, which often covers our panes of glass; The box-shaped goby has a long, stocky body with yellow fins; there is the goby, which is about fifteen or six decimeters long, has short, sharp teeth, and is covered with fine scales; there is sea carp Turtles, they live in groups in the water, often blocking the sunlight from the water surface.They have strips of golden yellow from head to tail, and their fins are very beautiful when they swim in the water; there are golden apple fin fishes, which have green strips on their bodies, like clothes in velvet. Tunics, majestic, like princes and nobles in the paintings of Villanes, swim proudly past our eyes; there are barbed snappers, whose pectoral fins are flapping so fast, they will often flash past your eyes; there are phosphorescent whales, Names vary widely from body to body, measuring just fifteen inches long and covered in gleaming scales; there are mahi, with their thick, fleshy tails whipping the water incessantly; and red abalone, with their sharp pectoral fins Cutting the sea; there are silvery moonfish, not like phosphorescent whales, as they are called fish, and when they float in the water, they look like a faintly glowing moon.

On April 4, we remained at an average depth of 20 meters. At this time, the nearest land to the "Nautilus" was the Liukayi Islands.The islets of this archipelago are scattered like a heap of stone slabs on the sea.There are many underwater cliffs in this area, like high walls standing one after another; many black holes are exposed in the middle of the walls, and the holes are so deep that the searchlights on our ship can't reach the bottom.

The rocks on the bottom of the sea are covered with layers of wide sea grass leaves, which are some large kelp plants, such as giant black carrageenan, layered on top of each other. Driving on such a bottom is like entering the world of giants under the sea.

Conseil, Ned Land, and I naturally talked about the huge animals in this area of ​​the sea from the huge underwater plants in front of us.They form a food chain, some animals are a meal for other animals, looking out of the glass window of the "Nautilus", I found these beautiful but scary creatures, on a long blade of grass, with brachiopods Arthropods such as long-clawed sea spiders, purple sea crabs, and pterosaurs endemic to the Caribbean.

At eleven o'clock in the morning Ned Land pointed out the window to the violent commotion among the great blades of grass and called my attention.

"That's not surprising," I said, "that's the cave of the giant octopuses, terrible monsters and typical animals of this region."

"Professor," said Conseil, "are you talking about the cephalopod squid?"

"No," I said, "it's a huge octopus, Ned. You must be mistaken. I can't see where you're pointing."

"Unfortunately," Conseil replied, "I would like to observe this giant octopus up close. I have heard many rumors about this kind of thing. Its powerful arms and legs can drag the entire ship to the bottom of the sea. These things are called carats..."

"It's Clark," said the Canadian sarcastically.

"Yes, it's Clark." Conseil finished his sentence, ignoring the Canadian's ridicule.

"I don't believe in such a thing!" said Ned Land. "How can there be such animals in the world?"

"Why is it impossible?" Conseil replied, "Isn't the sea unicorn mentioned by the professor a living example?"

"Oh, Conseil, I was wrong that time."

"Of course! Besides me and the professor, there must be others who believe in the existence of giant octopuses."

"It's possible, Conseil, but for me, Ned Land, as an experienced harpooner, I must kill this monster myself before I fully believe in its existence."

"If that's the case," Conseil asked me, "Sir won't insist on having a big octopus."

"Yeah, no one would believe a story like this!" exclaimed the Canadian.

"Ned, many people believe it." I said slowly.

"It's definitely not a fisherman, I'm afraid it's those scholars who like to do research work!"

"Ned, the fishermen and the scholars believe it," I said.

"Ned, don't be too stubborn. Among the people who are talking to you now, such as me," Conseil said in a very serious tone, "I clearly remember that I saw a large boat being pulled by the arm of a cephalopod. Under the surface of the sea."

"Have you seen it?" asked the Canadian in amazement.

"That's right, Ned."

"where?"

"In Port San Malo." Conseil replied calmly and firmly.

"In the port?" Ned Land said sarcastically.

"No, in a church in the port," Conseil replied.

(End of this chapter)