The Sargasso Sea

: PART TWO

That day the Nautilus crossed a singular part of the Atlantic Ocean.

No one can be ignorant of the existence of a current of warm water

known by the name of the Gulf Stream. After leaving the Gulf of

Florida, we went in the direction of Spitzbergen. But before entering

the Gulf of Mexico, about 45 deg. of N. lat., this current divides into

two arms, the principal one going towards the coast of Ireland and

Norway, whi st the second bends to the south about the height of the

Azores; then, touching the African shore, and describing a lengthened

oval, returns to the Antilles. This second arm--it is rather a collar

than an arm--surrounds with its circles of warm water that portion of

the cold, quiet, immovable ocean called the Sargasso Sea, a perfect

lake in the open Atlantic: it takes no less than three years for the

great current to pass round it. Such was the region the Nautilus was

now visiting, a perfect meadow, a close carpet of seaweed, fucus, and

tropical berries, so thick and so compact that the stem of a vessel

could hardly tear its way through it. And Captain Nemo, not wishing to

entangle his screw in this herbaceous mass, kept some yards beneath the

surface of the waves. The name Sargasso comes from the Spanish word

"sargazzo" which signifies kelp. This kelp, or berry-plant, is the

principal formation of this immense bank. And this is the reason why

these plants unite in the peaceful basin of the Atlantic. The only

explanation which can be given, he says, seems to me to result from the

experience known to all the world. Place in a vase some fragments of

cork or other floating body, and give to the water in the vase a

circular movement, the scattered fragments will unite in a group in the

centre of the liquid surface, that is to say, in the part least

agitated. In the phenomenon we are considering, the Atlantic is the

vase, the Gulf Stream the circular current, and the Sargasso Sea the

central point at which the floating bodies unite.



I share Maury's opinion, and I was able to study the phenomenon in the

very midst, where vessels rarely penetrate. Above us floated products

of all kinds, heaped up among these brownish plants; trunks of trees

torn from the Andes or the Rocky Mountains, and floated by the Amazon

or the Mississippi; numerous wrecks, remains of keels, or ships'

bottoms, side-planks stove in, and so weighted with shells and

barnacles that they could not again rise to the surface. And time will

one day justify Maury's other opinion, that these substances thus

accumulated for ages will become petrified by the action of the water

and will then form inexhaustible coal-mines--a precious reserve

prepared by far-seeing Nature for the moment when men shall have

exhausted the mines of continents.



In the midst of this inextricable mass of plants and sea weed, I

noticed some charming pink halcyons and actiniae, with their long

tentacles trailing after them, and medusae, green, red, and blue.



All the day of the 22nd of February we passed in the Sargasso Sea,

where such fish as are partial to marine plants find abundant

nourishment. The next, the ocean had returned to its accustomed

aspect. From this time for nineteen days, from the 23rd of February to

the 12th of March, the Nautilus kept in the middle of the Atlantic,

carrying us at a constant speed of a hundred leagues in twenty-four

hours. Captain Nemo evidently intended accomplishing his submarine

programme, and I imagined that he intended, after doubling Cape Horn,

to return to the Australian seas of the Pacific. Ned Land had cause

for fear. In these large seas, void of islands, we could not attempt

to leave the boat. Nor had we any means of opposing Captain Nemo's

will. Our only course was to submit; but what we could neither gain by

force nor cunning, I liked to think might be obtained by persuasion.

This voyage ended, would he not consent to restore our liberty, under

an oath never to reveal his existence?--an oath of honour which we

should have religiously kept. But we must consider that delicate

question with the Captain. But was I free to claim this liberty? Had

he not himself said from the beginning, in the firmest manner, that the

secret of his life exacted from him our lasting imprisonment on board

the Nautilus? And would not my four months' silence appear to him a

tacit acceptance of our situation? And would not a return to the

subject result in raising suspicions which might be hurtful to our

projects, if at some future time a favourable opportunity offered to

return to them?



During the nineteen days mentioned above, no incident of any kind

happened to signalise our voyage. I saw little of the Captain; he was

at work. In the library I often found his books left open, especially

those on natural history. My work on submarine depths, conned over by

him, was covered with marginal notes, often contradicting my theories

and systems; but the Captain contented himself with thus purging my

work; it was very rare for him to discuss it with me. Sometimes I

heard the melancholy tones of his organ; but only at night, in the

midst of the deepest obscurity, when the Nautilus slept upon the

deserted ocean. During this part of our voyage we sailed whole days on

the surface of the waves. The sea seemed abandoned. A few

sailing-vessels, on the road to India, were making for the Cape of Good

Hope. One day we were followed by the boats of a whaler, who, no

doubt, took us for some enormous whale of great price; but Captain Nemo

did not wish the worthy fellows to lose their time and trouble, so

ended the chase by plunging under the water. Our navigation continued

until the 13th of March; that day the Nautilus was employed in taking

soundings, which greatly interested me. We had then made about 13,000

leagues since our departure from the high seas of the Pacific. The

bearings gave us 45 deg. 37' S. lat., and 37 deg. 53' W. long. It was

the same water in which Captain Denham of the Herald sounded 7,000

fathoms without finding the bottom. There, too, Lieutenant Parker, of

the American frigate Congress, could not touch the bottom with 15,140

fathoms. Captain Nemo intended seeking the bottom of the ocean by a

diagonal sufficiently lengthened by means of lateral planes placed at

an angle of 45 deg. with the water-line of the Nautilus. Then the

screw set to work at its maximum speed, its four blades beating the

waves with in describable force. Under this powerful pressure, the

hull of the Nautilus quivered like a sonorous chord and sank regularly

under the water.



At 7,000 fathoms I saw some blackish tops rising from the midst of the

waters; but these summits might belong to high mountains like the

Himalayas or Mont Blanc, even higher; and the depth of the abyss

remained incalculable. The Nautilus descended still lower, in spite of

the great pressure. I felt the steel plates tremble at the fastenings

of the bolts; its bars bent, its partitions groaned; the windows of the

saloon seemed to curve under the pressure of the waters. And this firm

structure would doubtless have yielded, if, as its Captain had said, it

had not been capable of resistance like a solid block. We had attained

a depth of 16,000 yards (four leagues), and the sides of the Nautilus

then bore a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres, that is to say, 3,200 lb.

to each square two-fifths of an inch of its surface.



"What a situation to be in!" I exclaimed. "To overrun these deep

regions where man has never trod! Look, Captain, look at these

magnificent rocks, these uninhabited grottoes, these lowest receptacles

of the globe, where life is no longer possible! What unknown sights

are here! Why should we be unable to preserve a remembrance of them?"



"Would you like to carry away more than the remembrance?" said Captain

Nemo.



"What do you mean by those words?"



"I mean to say that nothing is easier than to make a photographic view

of this submarine region."



I had not time to express my surprise at this new proposition, when, at

Captain Nemo's call, an objective was brought into the saloon. Through

the widely-opened panel, the liquid mass was bright with electricity,

which was distributed with such uniformity that not a shadow, not a

gradation, was to be seen in our manufactured light. The Nautilus

remained motionless, the force of its screw subdued by the inclination

of its planes: the instrument was propped on the bottom of the oceanic

site, and in a few seconds we had obtained a perfect negative.



But, the operation being over, Captain Nemo said, "Let us go up; we

must not abuse our position, nor expose the Nautilus too long to such

great pressure."



"Go up again!" I exclaimed.



"Hold well on."



I had not time to understand why the Captain cautioned me thus, when I

was thrown forward on to the carpet. At a signal from the Captain, its

screw was shipped, and its blades raised vertically; the Nautilus shot

into the air like a balloon, rising with stunning rapidity, and cutting

the mass of waters with a sonorous agitation. Nothing was visible; and

in four minutes it had shot through the four leagues which separated it

from the ocean, and, after emerging like a flying-fish, fell, making

the waves rebound to an enormous height.