ads. A light network of marine plants, of
that inexhaustible family of seaweeds of which more than two thousand
kinds are known, grew on the surface of the water.

I noticed that the green plants kept nearer the top of the sea, whilst
the red were at a greater depth, leaving to the black or brown the care
of forming gardens and parterres in the remote beds of the ocean.

We had quitted the Nautilus about an hour and a half. It was near
noon; I knew by the perpendicularity of the sun's rays, which were no
longer refracted. The magical colours disappeared by degrees, and the
shades of emerald and sapphire were effaced. We walked with a regular
step, which rang upon the ground with astonishing intensity; the
slightest noise was transmitted with a quickness to which the ear is
unaccustomed on the earth; indeed, water is a better conductor of sound
than air, in the ratio of four to one. At this period the earth sloped
downwards; the light took a uniform tint. We were at a depth of a
hundred and five yards and twenty inches, undergoing a pressure of six
atmospheres.

At this depth I could still see the rays of the sun, though feebly; to
their intense brilliancy had succeeded a reddish twilight, the lowest
state between day and night; but we could still see well enough; it was
not necessary to resort to the Ruhmkorff apparatus as yet. At this
moment Captain Nemo stopped; he waited till I joined him, and then
pointed to an obscure mass, looming in the shadow, at a short distance.

"It is the forest of the Island of Crespo," thought I; and I was not
mistaken.

CHAPTER XVI

A SUBMARINE FOREST

We had at last arrived on the borders of this forest, doubtless one of
the finest of Captain Nemo's immense domains. He looked upon it as his
own, and considered he had the same right over it that the first men
had in the first days of the world. And, indeed, who would have
disputed with him the possession of this submarine property? What
other hardier pioneer would come, hatchet in hand, to cut down the dark
copses?

This forest was composed of large tree-plants; and the moment we
penetrated under its vast arcades, I was struck by the singular
position of their branches--a position I had not yet observed.

Not an herb which carpeted the ground, not a branch which clothed the
trees, was either broken or bent, nor did they extend horizontally; all
stretched up to the surface of the ocean. Not a filament, not a
ribb