sharks which
threatened us. It was a couple of tintoreas, terrible creatures, with
enormous tails and a dull glassy stare, the phosphorescent matter
ejected from holes pierced around the muzzle. Monstrous brutes! which
would crush a whole man in their iron jaws. I did not know whether
Conseil stopped to classify them; for my part, I noticed their silver
bellies, and their huge mouths bristling with teeth, from a very
unscientific point of view, and more as a possible victim than as a
naturalist.

Happily the voracious creatures do not see well. They passed without
seeing us, brushing us with their brownish fins, and we escaped by a
miracle from a danger certainly greater than meeting a tiger full-face
in the forest. Half an hour after, guided by the electric light we
reached the Nautilus. The outside door had been left open, and Captain
Nemo closed it as soon as we had entered the first cell. He then
pressed a knob. I heard the pumps working in the midst of the vessel,
I felt the water sinking from around me, and in a few moments the cell
was entirely empty. The inside door then opened, and we entered the
vestry.

There our diving-dress was taken off, not without some trouble, and,
fairly worn out from want of food and sleep, I returned to my room, in
great wonder at this surprising excursion at the bottom of the sea.

CHAPTER XVII

FOUR THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE PACIFIC

The next morning, the 18th of November, I had quite recovered from my
fatigues of the day before, and I went up on to the platform, just as
the second lieutenant was uttering his daily phrase.

I was admiring the magnificent aspect of the ocean when Captain Nemo
appeared. He did not seem to be aware of my presence, and began a
series of astronomical observations. Then, when he had finished, he
went and leant on the cage of the watch-light, and gazed abstractedly
on the ocean. In the meantime, a number of the sailors of the
Nautilus, all strong and healthy men, had come up onto the platform.
They came to draw up the nets that had been laid all night. These
sailors were evidently of different nations, although the European type
was visible in all of them. I recognised some unmistakable Irishmen,
Frenchmen, some Sclaves, and a Greek, or a Candiote. They were civil,
and only used that odd language among themselves, the origin of which I
could not guess, neither could I question them.

The nets were hauled in. They were a larg