in this great
depth of water? We are now five hundred and forty feet beneath the
surface of the sea, or three hundred and thirty-six feet deeper than man
has ever reached before. Why, if we were to accomplish nothing more
than this, we have already achieved a great triumph! Now, let us make
our way toward the deepest spot in this submarine valley; I have an idea
that we shall see something curious when we reach it. This way,
gentlemen; our course is about due west, and we cannot well lose our way
if we descend the slope which seems to commence yonder."

The little party pressed forward, experiencing no inconvenience or
difficulty whatever, save that of making their way through water of such
a density as that which enveloped them, and soon reached the edge of a
rather steep declivity, evidently leading down to the lowest part of the
depression. Before venturing down this declivity they paused to glance
backward, and saw that, though the ship herself had become invisible in
the sombre twilight, all the electric lights were distinctly visible,
the very powerful one on the top of the pilot-house especially gleaming
like the illuminated lantern of a lighthouse. So far, therefore, all
was well; they were still within range of the lights, and they at once
turned and plunged fearlessly into the depression. They had not far to
go, the sides of the depression being steep, and in about two minutes
they found themselves at the bottom, and standing before an immense
confused heap of wreckage of almost every imaginable description.
Shattered stumps of spars, waterlogged and weighed down with a thick
incrustation of barnacles, the accumulated growth of years of immersion;
part of the hull of a ship, so overgrown with "sea grass" as to be
distinguishable as such only from the fact that the channels and channel
irons with their dead-eyes, and even the frayed ends of the shroud
lanyards still remained attached; a twisted and tangled-up mass of iron
rods which looked as though it might at some distant period have been
the paddle-wheel of a steamer, and near it the evident remains of a
boiler and some machinery; the beam of a trawl-net, and bales, boxes,
packing-cases, barrels, and, in short, every conceivable description of
covering in which ships' cargoes are usually stowed were mixed up in
inextricable confusion with heaps of coal, large stones, and other
anomalous substances.

"Just as I anticipated," exclaimed the professor, p