ed from the saloon to the library. My
companions were silent. I soon threw myself on an ottoman, and took a
book, which my eyes overran mechanically. A quarter of an hour after,
Conseil, approaching me, said, "Is what you are reading very
interesting, sir?"

"Very interesting!" I replied.

"I should think so, sir. It is your own book you are reading."

"My book?"

And indeed I was holding in my hand the work on the Great Submarine
Depths. I did not even dream of it. I closed the book and returned to
my walk. Ned and Conseil rose to go.

"Stay here, my friends," said I, detaining them. "Let us remain
together until we are out of this block."

"As you please, sir," Conseil replied.

Some hours passed. I often looked at the instruments hanging from the
partition. The manometer showed that the Nautilus kept at a constant
depth of more than three hundred yards; the compass still pointed to
south; the log indicated a speed of twenty miles an hour, which, in
such a cramped space, was very great. But Captain Nemo knew that he
could not hasten too much, and that minutes were worth ages to us. At
twenty-five minutes past eight a second shock took place, this time
from behind. I turned pale. My companions were close by my side. I
seized Conseil's hand. Our looks expressed our feelings better than
words. At this moment the Captain entered the saloon. I went up to
him.

"Our course is barred southward?" I asked.

"Yes, sir. The iceberg has shifted and closed every outlet."

"We are blocked up then?"

"Yes."

CHAPTER XVI

WANT OF AIR

Thus around the Nautilus, above and below, was an impenetrable wall of
ice. We were prisoners to the iceberg. I watched the Captain. His
countenance had resumed its habitual imperturbability.

"Gentlemen," he said calmly, "there are two ways of dying in the
circumstances in which we are placed." (This puzzling person had the
air of a mathematical professor lecturing to his pupils.) "The first is
to be crushed; the second is to die of suffocation. I do not speak of
the possibility of dying of hunger, for the supply of provisions in the
Nautilus will certainly last longer than we shall. Let us, then,
calculate our chances."

"As to suffocation, Captain," I replied, "that is not to be feared,
because our reservoirs are full."

"Just so; but they will only yield two days' supply of air. Now, for
thirty-six hours we have been hidden under the water, and