The Iceberg

: PART TWO

The Nautilus was steadily pursuing its southerly course, following the

fiftieth meridian with considerable speed. Did he wish to reach the

pole? I did not think so, for every attempt to reach that point had

hitherto failed. Again, the season was far advanced, for in the

Antarctic regions the 13th of March corresponds with the 13th of

September of northern regions, which begin at the equinoctial season.

On the 14th o March I saw floating ice in latitude 55 deg., merely

pale bits of debris from twenty to twenty-five feet long, forming banks

over which the sea curled. The Nautilus remained on the surface of the

ocean. Ned Land, who had fished in the Arctic Seas, was familiar with

its icebergs; but Conseil and I admired them for the first time. In

the atmosphere towards the southern horizon stretched a white dazzling

band. English whalers have given it the name of "ice blink." However

thick the clouds may be, it is always visible, and announces the

presence of an ice pack or bank. Accordingly, larger blocks soon

appeared, whose brilliancy changed with the caprices of the fog. Some

of these masses showed green veins, as if long undulating lines had

been traced with sulphate of copper; others resembled enormous

amethysts with the light shining through them. Some reflected the

light of day upon a thousand crystal facets. Others shaded with vivid

calcareous reflections resembled a perfect town of marble. The more we

neared the south the more these floating islands increased both in

number and importance.



At 60 deg. lat. every pass had disappeared. But, seeking carefully,

Captain Nemo soon found a narrow opening, through which he boldly

slipped, knowing, however, that it would close behind him. Thus,

guided by this clever hand, the Nautilus passed through all the ice

with a precision which quite charmed Conseil; icebergs or mountains,

ice-fields or smooth plains, seeming to have no limits, drift-ice or

floating ice-packs, plains broken up, called palchs when they are

circular, and streams when they are made up of long strips. The

temperature was very low; the thermometer exposed to the air marked 2

deg. or 3 deg. below zero, but we were warmly clad with fur, at the

expense of the sea-bear and seal. The interior of the Nautilus, warmed

regularly by its electric apparatus, defied the most intense cold.

Besides, it would only have been necessary to go some yards beneath the

waves to find a more bearable temperature. Two months earlier we

should have had perpetual daylight in these latitudes; but already we

had had three or four hours of night, and by and by there would be six

months of darkness in these circumpolar regions. On the 15th of March

we were in the latitude of New Shetland and South Orkney. The Captain

told me that formerly numerous tribes of seals inhabited them; but that

English and American whalers, in their rage for destruction, massacred

both old and young; thus, where there was once life and animation, they

had left silence and death.



About eight o'clock on the morning of the 16th of March the Nautilus,

following the fifty-fifth meridian, cut the Antarctic polar circle.

Ice surrounded us on all sides, and closed the horizon. But Captain

Nemo went from one opening to another, still going higher. I cannot

express my astonishment at the beauties of these new regions. The ice

took most surprising forms. Here the grouping formed an oriental town,

with innumerable mosques and minarets; there a fallen city thrown to

the earth, as it were, by some convulsion of nature. The whole aspect

was constantly changed by the oblique rays of the sun, or lost in the

greyish fog amidst hurricanes of snow. Detonations and falls were

heard on all sides, great overthrows of icebergs, which altered the

whole landscape like a diorama. Often seeing no exit, I thought we

were definitely prisoners; but, instinct guiding him at the slightest

indication, Captain Nemo would discover a new pass. He was never

mistaken when he saw the thin threads of bluish water trickling along

the ice-fields; and I had no doubt that he had already ventured into

the midst of these Antarctic seas before. On the 16th of March,

however, the ice-fields absolutely blocked our road. It was not the

iceberg itself, as yet, but vast fields cemented by the cold. But this

obstacle could not stop Captain Nemo: he hurled himself against it with

frightful violence. The Nautilus entered the brittle mass like a

wedge, and split it with frightful crackings. It was the battering ram

of the ancients hurled by infinite strength. The ice, thrown high in

the air, fell like hail around us. By its own power of impulsion our

apparatus made a canal for itself; some times carried away by its own

impetus, it lodged on the ice-field, crushing it with its weight, and

sometimes buried beneath it, dividing it by a simple pitching movement,

producing large rents in it. Violent gales assailed us at this time,

accompanied by thick fogs, through which, from one end of the platform

to the other, we could see nothing. The wind blew sharply from all

parts of the compass, and the snow lay in such hard heaps that we had

to break it with blows of a pickaxe. The temperature was always at 5

deg. below zero; every outward part of the Nautilus was covered with

ice. A rigged vessel would have been entangled in the blocked up

gorges. A vessel without sails, with electricity for its motive power,

and wanting no coal, could alone brave such high latitudes. At length,

on the 18th of March, after many useless assaults, the Nautilus was

positively blocked. It was no longer either streams, packs, or

ice-fields, but an interminable and immovable barrier, formed by

mountains soldered together.



"An iceberg!" said the Canadian to me.



I knew that to Ned Land, as well as to all other navigators who had

preceded us, this was an inevitable obstacle. The sun appearing for an

instant at noon, Captain Nemo took an observation as near as possible,

which gave our situation at 51 deg. 30' long. and 67 deg. 39' of S.

lat. We had advanced one degree more in this Antarctic region. Of the

liquid surface of the sea there was no longer a glimpse. Under the

spur of the Nautilus lay stretched a vast plain, entangled with

confused blocks. Here and there sharp points and slender needles

rising to a height of 200 feet; further on a steep shore, hewn as it

were with an axe and clothed with greyish tints; huge mirrors,

reflecting a few rays of sunshine, half drowned in the fog. And over

this desolate face of nature a stern silence reigned, scarcely broken

by the flapping of the wings of petrels and puffins. Everything was

frozen--even the noise. The Nautilus was then obliged to stop in its

adventurous course amid these fields of ice. In spite of our efforts,

in spite of the powerful means employed to break up the ice, the

Nautilus remained immovable. Generally, when we can proceed no

further, we have return still open to us; but here return was as

impossible as advance, for every pass had closed behind us; and for the

few moments when we were stationary, we were likely to be entirely

blocked, which did indeed happen about two o'clock in the afternoon,

the fresh ice forming around its sides with astonishing rapidity. I

was obliged to admit that Captain Nemo was more than imprudent. I was

on the platform at that moment. The Captain had been observing our

situation for some time past, when he said to me:



"Well, sir, what do you think of this?"



"I think that we are caught, Captain."



"So, M. Aronnax, you really think that the Nautilus cannot disengage

itself?"



"With difficulty, Captain; for the season is already too far advanced

for you to reckon on the breaking of the ice."



"Ah! sir," said Captain Nemo, in an ironical tone, "you will always be

the same. You see nothing but difficulties and obstacles. I affirm

that not only can the Nautilus disengage itself, but also that it can

go further still."



"Further to the South?" I asked, looking at the Captain.



"Yes, sir; it shall go to the pole."



"To the pole!" I exclaimed, unable to repress a gesture of incredulity.



"Yes," replied the Captain, coldly, "to the Antarctic pole--to that

unknown point from whence springs every meridian of the globe. You

know whether I can do as I please with the Nautilus!"



Yes, I knew that. I knew that this man was bold, even to rashness.

But to conquer those obstacles which bristled round the South Pole,

rendering it more inaccessible than the North, which had not yet been

reached by the boldest navigators--was it not a mad enterprise, one

which only a maniac would have conceived? It then came into my head to

ask Captain Nemo if he had ever discovered that pole which had never

yet been trodden by a human creature?



"No, sir," he replied; "but we will discover it together. Where others

have failed, I will not fail. I have never yet led my Nautilus so far

into southern seas; but, I repeat, it shall go further yet."



"I can well believe you, Captain," said I, in a slightly ironical tone.

"I believe you! Let us go ahead! There are no obstacles for us! Let

us smash this iceberg! Let us blow it up; and, if it resists, let us

give the Nautilus wings to fly over it!"



"Over it, sir!" said Captain Nemo, quietly; "no, not over it, but under

it!"



"Under it!" I exclaimed, a sudden idea of the Captain's projects

flashing upon my mind. I understood; the wonderful qualities of the

Nautilus were going to serve us in this superhuman enterprise.



"I see we are beginning to understand one another, sir," said the

Captain, half smiling. "You begin to see the possibility--I should say

the success--of this attempt. That which is impossible for an ordinary

vessel is easy to the Nautilus. If a continent lies before the pole,

it must stop before the continent; but if, on the contrary, the pole is

washed by open sea, it will go even to the pole."



"Certainly," said I, carried away by the Captain's reasoning; "if the

surface of the sea is solidified by the ice, the lower depths are free

by the Providential law which has placed the maximum of density of the

waters of the ocean one degree higher than freezing-point; and, if I am

not mistaken, the portion of this iceberg which is above the water is

as one to four to that which is below."



"Very nearly, sir; for one foot of iceberg above the sea there are

three below it. If these ice mountains are not more than 300 feet

above the surface, they are not more than 900 beneath. And what are

900 feet to the Nautilus?"



"Nothing, sir."



"It could even seek at greater depths that uniform temperature of

sea-water, and there brave with impunity the thirty or forty degrees of

surface cold."



"Just so, sir--just so," I replied, getting animated.



"The only difficulty," continued Captain Nemo, "is that of remaining

several days without renewing our provision of air."



"Is that all? The Nautilus has vast reservoirs; we can fill them, and

they will supply us with all the oxygen we want."



"Well thought of, M. Aronnax," replied the Captain, smiling. "But, not

wishing you to accuse me of rashness, I will first give you all my

objections."



"Have you any more to make?"



"Only one. It is possible, if the sea exists at the South Pole, that

it may be covered; and, consequently, we shall be unable to come to the

surface."



"Good, sir! but do you forget that the Nautilus is armed with a

powerful spur, and could we not send it diagonally against these fields

of ice, which would open at the shocks."



"Ah! sir, you are full of ideas to-day."



"Besides, Captain," I added, enthusiastically, "why should we not find

the sea open at the South Pole as well as at the North? The frozen

poles of the earth do not coincide, either in the southern or in the

northern regions; and, until it is proved to the contrary, we may

suppose either a continent or an ocean free from ice at these two

points of the globe."



"I think so too, M. Aronnax," replied Captain Nemo. "I only wish you

to observe that, after having made so many objections to my project,

you are now crushing me with arguments in its favour!"



The preparations for this audacious attempt now began. The powerful

pumps of the Nautilus were working air into the reservoirs and storing

it at high pressure. About four o'clock, Captain Nemo announced the

closing of the panels on the platform. I threw one last look at the

massive iceberg which we were going to cross. The weather was clear,

the atmosphere pure enough, the cold very great, being 12 deg. below

zero; but, the wind having gone down, this temperature was not so

unbearable. About ten men mounted the sides of the Nautilus, armed

with pickaxes to break the ice around the vessel, which was soon free.

The operation was quickly performed, for the fresh ice was still very

thin. We all went below. The usual reservoirs were filled with the

newly-liberated water, and the Nautilus soon descended. I had taken my

place with Conseil in the saloon; through the open window we could see

the lower beds of the Southern Ocean. The thermometer went up, the

needle of the compass deviated on the dial. At about 900 feet, as

Captain Nemo had foreseen, we were floating beneath the undulating

bottom of the iceberg. But the Nautilus went lower still--it went to

the depth of four hundred fathoms. The temperature of the water at the

surface showed twelve degrees, it was now only ten; we had gained two.

I need not say the temperature of the Nautilus was raised by its

heating apparatus to a much higher degree; every manoeuvre was

accomplished with wonderful precision.



"We shall pass it, if you please, sir," said Conseil.



"I believe we shall," I said, in a tone of firm conviction.



In this open sea, the Nautilus had taken its course direct to the pole,

without leaving the fifty-second meridian. From 67 deg. 30' to 90

deg., twenty-two degrees and a half of latitude remained to travel;

that is, about five hundred leagues. The Nautilus kept up a mean speed

of twenty-six miles an hour--the speed of an express train. If that

was kept up, in forty hours we should reach the pole.



For a part of the night the novelty of the situation kept us at the

window. The sea was lit with the electric lantern; but it was

deserted; fishes did not sojourn in these imprisoned waters; they only

found there a passage to take them from the Antarctic Ocean to the open

polar sea. Our pace was rapid; we could feel it by the quivering of

the long steel body. About two in the morning I took some hours'

repose, and Conseil did the same. In crossing the waist I did not meet

Captain Nemo: I supposed him to be in the pilot's cage. The next

morning, the 19th of March, I took my post once more in the saloon.

The electric log told me that the speed of the Nautilus had been

slackened. It was then going towards the surface; but prudently

emptying its reservoirs very slowly. My heart beat fast. Were we

going to emerge and regain the open polar atmosphere? No! A shock

told me that the Nautilus had struck the bottom of the iceberg, still

very thick, judging from the deadened sound. We had in deed "struck,"

to use a sea expression, but in an inverse sense, and at a thousand

feet deep. This would give three thousand feet of ice above us; one

thousand being above the water-mark. The iceberg was then higher than

at its borders--not a very reassuring fact. Several times that day the

Nautilus tried again, and every time it struck the wall which lay like

a ceiling above it. Sometimes it met with but 900 yards, only 200 of

which rose above the surface. It was twice the height it was when the

Nautilus had gone under the waves. I carefully noted the different

depths, and thus obtained a submarine profile of the chain as it was

developed under the water. That night no change had taken place in our

situation. Still ice between four and five hundred yards in depth! It

was evidently diminishing, but, still, what a thickness between us and

the surface of the ocean! It was then eight. According to the daily

custom on board the Nautilus, its air should have been renewed four

hours ago; but I did not suffer much, although Captain Nemo had not yet

made any demand upon his reserve of oxygen. My sleep was painful that

night; hope and fear besieged me by turns: I rose several times. The

groping of the Nautilus continued. About three in the morning, I

noticed that the lower surface of the iceberg was only about fifty feet

deep. One hundred and fifty feet now separated us from the surface of

the waters. The iceberg was by degrees becoming an ice-field, the

mountain a plain. My eyes never left the manometer. We were still

rising diagonally to the surface, which sparkled under the electric

rays. The iceberg was stretching both above and beneath into

lengthening slopes; mile after mile it was getting thinner. At length,

at six in the morning of that memorable day, the 19th of March, the

door of the saloon opened, and Captain Nemo appeared.



"The sea is open!!" was all he said.