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

Chapter 84: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (15)
Conseil, like me, admired this splendid beauty with astonishment.I could see the lad seeing so many zoophytes and molluscs that he was starting to classify them again.Coelenterates and echinoderms abound.Colorful and changing forked worms; solitary horned worms; solid-colored compound eye corals; mushroom-like fungal worms; anemones attached to the ground with suckers; starfish walking on the beach dotted with stars; with tumors The star-shaped mushrooms, like delicate lace embroidered by fairies, rippling in the microwaves stirred up by our walk.The tens of thousands of molluscs scattered on the ground can become the most beautiful specimens, and I really can't bear to step on them.Among them are ringed sea fans, sea roughfish, and water leaf beetles, which are some shellfish that can really jump; Many, many other creatures.But we have to keep going.Along the way, groups of tube-shaped jellyfish floated above our heads with their sky-blue tentacles; there were also moon-shaped jellyfish with milky white or light red umbrellas and sky-blue lace, which blocked the sun for us; The hemispherical jellyfish that emits bright phosphorescence in the dark illuminates our way forward!
From time to time Captain Nemo beckoned me to follow behind him.For about a quarter of the ocean, my eyes were full of these wonderful creatures.After walking for a while, the nature of the soil under our feet changed, and the fine sand disappeared, and a sticky mud appeared instead. This is what Americans call "Uzi", which is made entirely of silica or lime shells. constituted.Then, we passed an area full of seaweed, which is a marine plant that has not been washed away by the sea, and it grows luxuriantly.Stepping on this kind of lawn made of seaweed, I feel soft under my feet, which is no less comfortable than the softest carpet woven by hand.What's even more amazing is that not only are the green grass under our feet, but even our heads are green.A layer of marine plants floats lightly on the surface of the water. Taxonomically speaking, this marine plant belongs to the prosperous kelp family, and we know no less than 2000 species.I saw long kelp floating in the water, some spherical and some tubular; I also saw red flower algae, sage moss with very slender leaves, and rose algae very similar to cactus.I found turquoise seagrass growing close to the sponge, red seagrass a bit deeper, and some black or ocher aquatic plants in the deepest parts of the ocean.These marine plants form gardens and meadows under the sea.

Both the smallest and largest plants on Earth arise from seaweeds.Because in a place of five square millimeters, there can be 500 microbial plants that are invisible to the naked eye, and at the same time, people have collected kelp that is more than [-] meters long.These seaweeds are really a miracle of God's creation, a spectacle in the plant world.

It was nearly an hour and a half since we had left the Nautilus towards noon.I saw that the sun's light had begun to shine directly down, and it was no longer refracted.No more patterns of color, no more shades of emerald and sapphire overhead.We walked forward with even steps, which were surprisingly loud.In the underwater world, even a little sound is transmitted quickly, which makes people's eardrums feel very uncomfortable.In fact, the best conductor of sound is water, which travels four times faster than air.

At this time, a clear slope appeared on the sea floor.The color of the light gradually becomes monotonous.When we reach the bottom of the sea at a depth of 100 meters, the pressure we are subjected to is ten atmospheres.But my wetsuit is made for these conditions, so the pressure didn't cause me any discomfort, just a lack of dexterity in my fingers, but for a brief period of time.I thought that walking for two hours in such heavy clothes would definitely be tiring, but I didn't feel tired at all, and with the help of water, I was very flexible.

At a depth of [-] feet, I can still see sunlight, but it is very faint, and it is no longer so dazzling. It has become a reddish sunset, a color between day and night.However, we can still see the road in front of us clearly, and we don't need to use Lankov lights for the time being.

At this time, Captain Nemo stopped, and when I walked in front of him, he pointed to the shadows not far away for me to see, and I saw piles of blurry figures gradually revealed.

"That must be Crespo Woods," I thought.Sure enough, my thinking was correct.

Undersea forest
At last we reached the edge of the forest, which was probably the finest estate of Captain Nemo's vast domain.He regarded the forest as his private property, and he considered it a privilege to own it, like the privilege enjoyed by the first men on the earth when the world was created.In fact, how can there be such a bold pioneer as him, who came here to open up wasteland and log trees with a big axe?Who can compete with him for the ownership of this seabed property?

Many tall woody plants grow in this forest. When we walked under the wide arched branches in the middle of the forest, the strange shape of the branches in the forest attracted my attention deeply. It's a strange shape I've never seen before.

In the open space of the forest, there is almost no grass growing. All the bushes and branches grow straight towards the ocean, neither branching out, nor bending vertically to the ground, nor stretching horizontally.Any slender stem, any ribbon-shaped leaf, no matter how thin or slender, is as straight as an iron rod.Due to the influence of the strong density of seawater, kelp and algae grow tall and straight upward.These aquatic plants are usually stationary, but when I separate them with my hands, and then let them go, they immediately return to their original straight state.This forest is truly the kingdom of vertical lines.

After a while I got used to the odd shape, and a little attuned to the darkness around us.There are many sharp stones scattered all over the ground in the forest, and it is not easy to avoid them.The variety of seabed plants here is very complete, even richer than in the arctic or tropical regions, at least I think so.However, within a few minutes, the two types of animals and plants were confused by me unconsciously, taking zoophytes as aquatic plants, and animals as plants.In fact, the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom under the sea are so close that anyone can be mistaken.

After careful observation, I found that all the plants here have no roots, but are only connected to the surface of the soil, whether it is sand, shells, carapaces or pebbles, they can support them.And these plants only need a fulcrum, and don't need the soil to provide them with nutrients. They all fend for themselves, and seawater is their only resource for sustaining life.Most of the plants here have no leaves, and what grow out are small pieces of strange shapes, and the colors are very monotonous, only rose red, magenta, green, blue-yellow, taupe, bronze and other colors.Some of the treasures I saw on the Nautilus, I saw here again, only here, instead of dried specimens, I saw fresh peacock shells unfolded like a fan, scarlet ceramic shells , flake-shaped shells that grow like young shoots, 15-meter-tall, slender and soft bronze algae, clumps of pitcher-shaped water plants with stems that grow larger at the top, and many other marine plants, all without flowering.A biologist once said very humorously: "The sea is really a strange and novel environment. Animal things will bloom, but plant things will not bloom!"

These shrubs of various species are as tall as temperate trees, and in their moist shadows grow flowering brambles and rows of zoophytes.On top of the zoophytes grow brain-striped corals with curved stripes, black and yellow carnation corals with transparent tentacles, and stony corals that grow like meadows.Swarms of flyfish flew from branch to branch like hummingbirds.There are also groups of wheatworm fish, flying fish and monofin fish with double gills and sharp scales swimming around our feet.

At about one o'clock, Captain Nemo gave the signal for a short rest.So lay down under a sea-weed whose slender branches shot straight up like arrows.For me, it's really nice to be able to take a break like this for a while.The only regret is that we can't speak, we can't talk to each other.I could only bring the head in the metal cover as close as possible to Conseil's copper head.I saw this young man's eyes were shining brightly, and he looked very excited. He was still shaking his head in the copper shell to express his happiness. That look was really ridiculous.

To my surprise, we had walked four hours and yet I wasn't hungry at all.What is the reason?I can't explain it clearly.But I felt very sleepy and wanted to sleep, like all divers.Until I rest, I have been relying on the movement of walking to resist sleep disturbance.At this time, the eyes behind the thick glass closed uncontrollably, and soon fell asleep.And Captain Nemo and his fellow Hercules, already comfortably lying in the crystal-clear water, gave us a demonstration of sleeping.

I don't know how long I was in a coma, but when I woke up, the sun was slowly setting towards the west.I saw Captain Nemo already standing there.Just as I was stretching, something unexpected appeared, and I stood up "teng".

A one-meter-tall sea spider stared at me squinting a few steps away from us, as if preparing to pounce on me.Although the diving suit is very thick and I am not afraid of sea spider bites, I am still trembling with nervousness.At this time, Conseil and the sailors of the "Nautilus" also woke up.Captain Nemo pointed out the clawing thing to his companion, who shot it down.I saw the monster's hideous paws twitch violently.

This monster made me think that there must be other more terrifying monsters appearing in this dark seabed, and the protective function of the diving suit is limited, and I am afraid that it cannot deal with their attacks.At first, I didn't think about this problem, and now I remind myself that I must always be vigilant.In addition, I thought that our trip would be over after a break, but Captain Nemo's actions let me know that I was wrong. He did not intend to let us return to the ship, but took us to move forward .

The seabed is still sinking, and the slope is becoming more and more obvious. We have reached the deepest point of the seabed.At about three o'clock, a narrow valley appeared in front of us at a depth of 150 meters under the sea, with cliffs on both sides.Relying on perfect diving equipment, we have surpassed the limit of the depth of seabed travel set by nature for human beings - a depth of 90 meters.

Although there is no equipment to measure the depth of the sea floor, I am pretty sure we are at a depth of 150 meters.Because, no matter how transparent the sea is, the sun can no longer shine here.At this moment, the surroundings became dark, and I couldn't see anything ten steps away, so I could only walk forward by groping.Suddenly, a very dazzling white light flashed out.It turned out to be the strong light from Captain Nemo's searchlight.His companion also turned on the searchlight, and Conseil and I did the same.I turned the screw, connected the coil to the curved glass tube, and the light came on.In an instant, the place within 25 meters around was extremely brightly illuminated by our four searchlights.

Captain Nemo led us to continue walking towards the deepest part of the forest, with fewer and fewer trees along the way.I found that the vegetable kingdom of the sea floor was decreasing more rapidly than the animal kingdom.Although marine plants have abandoned these increasingly barren lands, there are still large numbers of insects, arthropods, molluscs and fish breeding here.

I continued to walk forward under the guidance of the searchlight, thinking as I walked, such a strong light would definitely wake up the animals sleeping under the black seabed.But I know that even if these animals swim towards us together, they will definitely keep a certain distance from us.I saw Captain Nemo stop several times, aiming his gun, but after aiming for a while, put down the gun again, and walked on.

The novel and astonishing journey came to an end about four o'clock.A beautiful rock stood majestically in front of us, and there were piles of large stones lying there. On the huge granite cliffs, there were bottomless holes, but there was no slope to climb.There is no way to climb up here at all.

This is the end of Crespo Island, and it is land when you go up.

Captain Nemo came to a sudden halt, and he gestured for us to stop too.This is the final limit of Captain Nemo's domain.He doesn't want to cross the line.Beyond this limit is the land part of the earth that his footsteps do not want to step on.Although, this wall is what I really want to cross, but I have to stop.

So Captain Nemo led his small team back in front again.I found that the way we returned didn't seem to be the way we came.This is a new road, very steep and difficult to walk, obviously it is relatively close to the sea.However, the action of returning to the upper layer of seawater should be as slow as possible, so as not to reduce the pressure too quickly, because too rapid pressure reduction may cause some damage to our body, and it is likely to be some fatal internal injuries.So, we all floated up at a very slow speed.Soon, light came into view, and the range of the light was gradually expanding. The sun was about to set, and the refracted light cast a colorful halo on various objects.

At a depth of ten meters, we walked among a large group of small fish in different poses and with different expressions. They were much more numerous than the birds in the air, and their movements were also very flexible.We don't have a single animal we can shoot with, though.

Suddenly the captain hastily slung his gun over his shoulder and took aim at something moving in the jungle. With a "bang", the gun went off, and a slight whistling sound entered my ears. A few steps away from us, the animal was shot and fell.

What was hit was a beautiful otter, probably the only quadruped living in the sea.This otter is about one and a half meters long and should be very valuable.Its hide, chestnut brown on top and silvery white below, would make a very handsome leather case.Leather like this is very rare on the Russian and Chinese markets.It is fine and shiny, and worth at least two thousand francs.I am very fond of mammals with round heads, short ears, round eyes, whiskers as white as a cat's whiskers, webbed feet with armor, and bushy tails.This is a very rare carnivore. They mainly hide in the Arctic Circle in the Pacific Ocean. Because they are often hunted by fishermen, they are now very rare and facing the danger of extinction.

Captain Nemo's companion ran up to pick up the otter, hoisted it on his shoulders, and we went on.

During the nearly one-hour journey, we have been stepping on very flat fine sand.The sand often rises to within two meters of the sea.At this time, I will clearly see our reflection in the water, so a group of the same people appear above us, doing the same movements.That is to say, above us there is a group of people walking upside down and standing on their feet, which are actually our shadows.

There is another situation that is worth noting.Over us often flitted patches of dense clouds, which formed quickly and disappeared quickly.After thinking about it carefully, I realized that these so-called clouds are actually just reflected by the waves of different thicknesses on the seabed.I also saw that the waves turned into billowing white waves with countless foam splashes when they fell down, like a flock of white sheep.I also saw the shadows of huge birds darting across the sea above our heads.

Just then, I witnessed a wonderful shot, and I clearly saw a large bird with huge wings flying towards us.When the big bird was still a few meters away from the water waves, Captain Nemo quickly aimed and shot.A shot as accurate and beautiful as this one probably never has been fired by a hunter.The big bird was shot and fell, right next to the swift hunter, who caught it at once.This is a beautiful seagull, one of the most admirable species of seabirds.

After hitting this seagull, we continued walking.During the two-hour journey, we sometimes walked on fine sand plains and sometimes on mossy grasslands, and it was very strenuous to walk.To be honest, I can't walk anymore.At this time, I saw a blurred light breaking through the darkness of the sea half a mile away.That was the searchlight of the Nautilus.In less than 10 minutes, we were able to get back to the boat, and when I got back to the boat, I was able to breathe smoothly because I felt that there was not much oxygen in my air tank.However, this is just my unilateral thought. I didn't expect that the next unexpected encounter would delay our boarding time.

(End of this chapter)