aratus, I must be allowed some reservations with regard to
the gun I am to carry."

"But it is not a gun for powder," he said.

"Then it is an air-gun?" I asked.

"Doubtless. How would you have me manufacture gunpowder on board,
without saltpeter, sulphur, or charcoal?"

"Besides," I added, "to fire under water in a medium eight hundred and
fifty times denser than the air, we must conquer a very considerable
resistance."

"That would be no difficulty. There exist guns which can fire under
these conditions. But I repeat, having no powder, I use air under great
pressure, which the pumps of the _Nautilus_ furnish abundantly."

"But this air must be rapidly used?"

"Well, have I not my Rouquayrol reservoir, which can furnish it at need?
A tap is all that is required. Besides, M. Aronnax, you must see
yourself that during our submarine hunt we can spend but little air."

"But it seems to me that in this twilight, and in the midst of this
fluid, which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could not
go far or easily prove fatal."

"On the contrary," replied Nemo, "with this gun every blow is mortal;
however lightly the animal is touched, it falls dead as if struck by a
thunderbolt."

"Why?"

"Because the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little
cases of glass, of which I have a large supply. These glass cases are
covered with a shell of steel and weighted with a pellet of lead; they
are real [v]Leyden jars, into which electricity is forced to a very high
tension. With the slightest shock they are discharged, and the animal,
however strong it may be, falls dead."

Captain Nemo then led me aft; and in passing before Ned and Conseil's
cabin, I called my two companions, who followed immediately. Conseil was
delighted at the idea of exploring the sea, but Ned declined to go when
he learned that the hunt was to be a submarine one. We came to a kind of
cell near the machinery-room, in which we were to put on our
walking-dress. It was, in fact, the arsenal and wardrobe of the
_Nautilus_. A dozen diving-suits hung from the partition, awaiting our
use.

At the captain's call two of the ship's crew came to help us dress in
these heavy and impervious clothes, made of rubber without seam and
constructed expressly to resist considerable pressure. One might have
taken this diving apparatus for a suit of armor, both supple and
resisting. It formed trousers and waistcoat; the trousers were finished