ke a step.

But this state of things was provided for. I felt myself being pushed
into a little room contiguous to the wardrobe room. My companions
followed, towed along in the same way. I heard a water-tight door,
furnished with stopper plates, close upon us, and we were wrapped in
profound darkness.

After some minutes, a loud hissing was heard. I felt the cold mount
from my feet to my chest. Evidently from some part of the vessel they
had, by means of a tap, given entrance to the water, which was invading
us, and with which the room was soon filled. A second door cut in the
side of the Nautilus then opened. We saw a faint light. In another
instant our feet trod the bottom of the sea.

And now, how can I retrace the impression left upon me by that walk
under the waters? Words are impotent to relate such wonders! Captain
Nemo walked in front, his companion followed some steps behind.
Conseil and I remained near each other, as if an exchange of words had
been possible through our metallic cases. I no longer felt the weight
of my clothing, or of my shoes, of my reservoir of air, or my thick
helmet, in the midst of which my head rattled like an almond in its
shell.

The light, which lit the soil thirty feet below the surface of the
ocean, astonished me by its power. The solar rays shone through the
watery mass easily, and dissipated all colour, and I clearly
distinguished objects at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards.
Beyond that the tints darkened into fine gradations of ultramarine, and
faded into vague obscurity. Truly this water which surrounded me was
but another air denser than the terrestrial atmosphere, but almost as
transparent. Above me was the calm surface of the sea. We were
walking on fine, even sand, not wrinkled, as on a flat shore, which
retains the impression of the billows. This dazzling carpet, really a
reflector, repelled the rays of the sun with wonderful intensity, which
accounted for the vibration which penetrated every atom of liquid.
Shall I be believed when I say that, at the depth of thirty feet, I
could see as if I was in broad daylight?

For a quarter of an hour I trod on this sand, sown with the impalpable
dust of shells. The hull of the Nautilus, resembling a long shoal,
disappeared by degrees; but its lantern, when darkness should overtake
us in the waters, would help to guide us on board by its distinct rays.

Soon forms of objects outlined in the distance were