Chapter 15 Chapter 15 An Invitation Letter

The next day, November 9th, I slept for twelve hours before waking up.Conseil came, he asked me habitually, "Sir, did you sleep well at night", and then he started to work.He didn't disturb his friend, the Canadian, to sleep in his room like a sleepy man. I let this nice gentleman talk to him all he wanted without answering his every word.I was preoccupied with why Captain Nemo hadn't been seen since our meeting yesterday, and I hoped to see him today. In no time I was dressed in my flock of shellfish.The material of this suit caused Conseil to think more than once.I told him that the material of the suit was made of luminous, silky fibers grown on sea stones and left behind by a type of shellfish like the "pigcolum" that is abundant on the Mediterranean coast.People used to make nice clothes, socks, and gloves because they were soft and warm.The crew of the Nautilus didn't need any cotton, wool, or silk from land to wear cheap and good clothes.

I dressed and went to the living room, but there was no one there. So I delved into the conchological treasures piled up in those glass cases, and studied them with rapt attention.I also devoted myself to the vast herbarium, filled with the rarest plants of the sea, which, though dried, still retain their admirable colors.Among these precious aquatic plants, I saw those bad seaweed, peacock kelp, grape leaf-shaped seaweed, granular water purslane, big red soft seaweed, fan-shaped sea garden, sucker grass, this grass is very Like the sunken mushrooms, which have long been classified as zoophytes, I finally saw a whole group of seaweed plants.

A whole day passed, and Captain Nemo never came to see me.The panels in the living room were not opened perhaps they did not want us to have too much contact with beautiful things.The Nautilus was still heading east-northeast, at a speed of twelve knots, fifty to sixty meters above the sea. On the third day, November 10, there was still no one, and it was also deserted.I see a crew member.Ned Land and Conseil spent most of the day with me.They were amazed at the captain's incomprehensible non-appearance, was this singular man ill?Is he going to change how he arranges our plans? In short, as Conseil said, we enjoy complete freedom and we eat well.Our host fully abided by the terms of his agreement.We couldn't complain, and the fact that we were treated so well by our unexpected encounters alone gave us no right to sue him.

On this day I began to write a diary of this adventure, so that I could record it with great detail and exactness; and it was also a novelty that I wrote it on paper made of eelweed from the sea.On the 11th, early in the morning, the interior of the Nautilus was completely replaced with fresh air. I know that we are now back on the surface of the ocean to supplement oxygen.I headed for the central staircase and onto the landing. It was six o'clock in the morning.I saw that the sky was cloudy and the sea was dark, but it was quite calm.Almost no waves.I hope to meet Captain Nemo on the platform, will he come) I see only the pilot in his glass cage.I sat on the ledge of the dinghy's hull and breathed the fresh sea air quite comfortably.

Under the sunlight, the dense fog gradually dissipated.A red sun surged from the eastern sky.The sea surface was illuminated by the sun like burning gunpowder, emitting a red light.The clouds are scattered high in the sky, stained with different shades of color, and countless "cat tongues" predict that it will be windy all day today. But for the Nautilus, which is not afraid of big storms, what is an ordinary wind? I was admiring the delightful sunrise when I heard someone come up to the platform. I was about to greet Captain Nemo, but it was not he who came up, but his second-in-command.He walked forward on the platform as if he didn't see me.Taking a telescope of great power, he surveyed the horizon of the sky all around him with great care; and having done so, approaching the panel, he said a sentence, which was spelled exactly as it was written.I wrote it down because I hear it every morning under the same circumstances.This sentence is like this:

"Northulon-Lespo-Roy-Wilch." What that means, I can't say. After saying this, the mate went down to the cabin again.I think the Nautilus is going to dive under the sea again.So I went back to the paneling, down the long corridor, to my room. After five days of this, the situation did not change at all.Every morning, I walk up to the platform and hear the same people say the same things.Captain Nemo still did not show up. I no longer count on seeing him.On November 16, when I returned to my room with Ned Land and Conseil, I saw a letter addressed to me on the table. I took the letter and opened it at once.The handwriting on the letter was clear... very clean, but with a little archaic style, which reminded one of something like a German script.

The content of this letter is as follows: Deliver to Professor Aronnax on board the Nautilus Captain Nemo invited Professor Aronnax to go hunting, which was scheduled to take place in the woods on Crespo Island tomorrow morning.The captain wished he had no booths, and was glad to have his companion come with him. Nemo, captain of the Nautilus November 16, 1867 "Hunting!" cried Ned Land. "In the woods of Crespo Island!" Conseil added. "Is this eccentric going to land?" Ned Land continued. "In my opinion, the letter is clearly stated." I read the letter again.

"Then do accept the invitation," said the Canadian. "What we shall do will be known on dry land. Besides, I am glad to have some fresh game." Captain Nemo originally hated the mainland and islands, but now he invites us to go hunting in the forest. I don't want to ask for an explanation of this contradiction, but I just say it with satisfaction. "Let's see what kind of place Crespo Island is." So I checked the plane map and found a small island at 32 degrees 40 minutes north latitude and 167 degrees 50 minutes west longitude. It was discovered by Captain Crispo in 1801. The old Spanish map called it Loga della Prada, literally translated as Silverstone.So we are about 1,800 nautical miles from our starting point, and the Nautilus has changed direction a bit, and it is now heading southeast again.

I showed my companion this small island in the northern Pacific Ocean. I said to them: "Even if Captain Nemo wants to go to land by chance, he must choose those desolate and uninhabited places." Ned Land shook his head and did not answer. After a while, Conseil and he both walked away.The calm manager brought me dinner. After I had dinner, I was thinking about tomorrow, and I didn't fall asleep for a long time. The next day, November: 7th, I woke up and felt that the Nautilus was not moving.I hurriedly put on my clothes and walked into the living room. Captain Nemo, who was already waiting for me in the hall, saw me, rose to greet me, and asked if it would be any inconvenience for us to go hunting with him.

Since he made no mention of the reason for his absence for eight days, I could not inquire, so I simply replied that my companion and I were very glad to go hunting with him. "However," I added, "permit me to ask you a question, sir." "Bring it on, Monsieur Aronnax, if I can answer it, I will." "Then, Captain, how can you have forests on Crespo Island, since you have cut off all contact with the land?" "Professor;" replied the captain, "my forest needs neither the sun, nor its light, nor its heat. Lions, tigers, panthers, whatever quadrupeds, etc., cannot come into my forests. .Everything in the forest grows only for me. This is not a forest on land, but a forest under the sea."

"The forest under the sea!" I shouted. "Yes, Professor." "Will you invite me to the underwater forest?" "Exactly" "Go on foot?" "Go on foot, and without getting any sea water." "Are you hunting?" "While hunting." "Has a shotgun in hand?" "Shotgun in hand." I fixed my eyes on the captain of the Nautilus without showing any signs of flattering him. I think there must be something wrong with his brain; it is because he had an attack recently, and it dragged on for eight days, and he still hasn't healed yet.Poor!I hope he loses his temper, but don't go crazy! My countenance clearly expressed my thoughts, but Captain Nemo didn't say, "What, just ask me to follow him like a man resigned to fate in spite of everything."We reached the dining room, where breakfast was already set. "Monsieur Aronnax," said the captain to me, "I invite you to dinner. You are welcome. We talked while we ate. Although I promised you a walk in the woods, I did not promise you There is a restaurant in the woods. So eat as much as you can, eat as much as a man who is late for lunch." I was very full with this meal.A variety of dishes are made from fish, sea cucumbers, delicious zoophytes, and digestive seaweed plants, such as green and red sliced ​​seaweed, bitter milk seaweed and so on.The drink is composed of water and fermented wine, which is brewed according to the method of the people of Kamchatka from the famous seaweed, the so-called rosea palmatum. At first Captain Nemo ate without saying a word, but then he said to me: "Monsieur Aronnax, you thought I was contradicting myself when I invited you to hunt in the forests of my Crespo Island. You thought I was crazy when I told you it was an underwater forest. Professor, You cannot judge so easily. "But, Captain, please believe..." "Please listen patiently, and then see if you have to accuse me of being mad and contradictory." "I hear you, Captain." "Professor, you and I both know that a person can live underwater as long as he has enough breathable air. When a worker works underwater, he wears an impermeable suit and puts a metal cover on his head. box, and by means of an air pump and a restrictor, the air can be obtained from above the water." "That's a set of diving equipment," I said. "Yes, but with this set of equipment, a person is not free. The rubber tube that conveys air connects him to the air pump, which is simply a chain to tie him to the land. If we tie him like this With the Nautilus, we cannot go far." "So, what's the way to move freely?" I asked. "That is to use an apparatus created by two of your French countrymen, Lougros and Denaruz. I have improved this apparatus to meet my requirements, and by means of this apparatus, it can be used in new physiological conditions. Living in sea water, your organs will not feel any pain at all. It has a sealed bottle made of thick steel, which is full of compressed air at a pressure of 50 atmospheres. It is like a soldier's rucksack, tied with a belt Behind the person, the upper part of the bottle is like a steel box, and the air in the box is controlled by a blower, and can only flow out under a certain pressure. Now the common Lugerol apparatus has two rubber tubes passing through the steel box. Come out, the trumpet-shaped thing that is put on the mouth and nose; one of them is used for inhalation, and the other is used for exhalation. The human tongue controls the switch of these two rubber tubes according to the needs of breathing. However, The pressure under the sea is very high, so I have to put my head in a copper ball like a diver, and the two rubber tubes-the inhalation tube and the exhalation tube are connected to the ball. "Very well, Captain Nemo.However, the air you carry will run out soon, and it is not suitable to breathe when the air contains only 15% oxygen. " "No, but I told you, Monsieur Aronnax, that the Nautilus' inflator allowed me to fill it with high-pressure compressed air. Under these conditions, the sealed bottles of this set could supply enough air for me to breathe for nine or ten hours." "I have nothing more to censure," I answered, "but I ask, by what light do you move under the sea?" "I use a Lankov lamp, Mr. Aronnax. The respirator is on my back and the searchlight is at my waist. The searchlight has a set of Bunsen batteries, but instead of potassium chloride, I use seawater. A lot of sodium chloride is used to generate electricity. An induction coil is used to collect the generated electricity and send it to a special bulb. There is a curved glass tube in the bulb, and there is only a small amount of carbon dioxide gas in the tube. When using a searchlight, carbon dioxide gas emits A continuous white light, illuminated. With these devices, I can breathe and I can see." "Captain Nemo, you have given such forceful answers to all my objections that I can no longer doubt them. However, although I have to admit the Lugerol respirator and the Lankov searchlight, I am compelled to reserve my opinion on the shotgun, which is the weapon you want me to carry." "It's not a powder gun," replied the captain. "So, is it an air gun?" "No. There's no saltpeter, no brimstone, no charcoal on board. How do you want me to make gunpowder?" "Also," I said, "sea water is eight hundred and fifty-five times heavier than air. To be effective in firing a gun in this environment, you must first overcome this enormous pressure." "That cannot be counted as a reason. There is now a gun which, according to Fulton's design, was improved by the Englishmen Felicor and Breuer, the Frenchman Furcy, and the Italian Landi, which was equipped with a special switch, and can shoot in sea water. But I tell you again, I have no gunpowder and can only substitute compressed air, which the Nautilus's inflators can supply in large quantities." "But this air will run out soon." "That's right, but I have a Lugerol bottle, can't I supply air whenever I need it? Just install a switch tap as needed. Besides, Mr. Aronnax, you will see for yourself that the bottom of the water It doesn't take a lot of air and a lot of bullets to hunt." "However, in this kind of place where you can't see clearly, in the middle of this sea water that is much heavier than air, I think the bullets fired can't go very far, and it's hard to hit, right?" "With this gun, sir, every shot is fatal, and an animal, however slightly wounded, must fall as if struck by lightning." "why?" "Because the bullets fired by this gun are not ordinary bullets. They are small glass balls invented by the Austrian chemist Leni Brock. I have a lot of them on board. This small glass ball is equipped with a steel sleeve, and the bottom is added It has a lead bottom and, like a real Lyton jar, has a very high voltage inside. Even the slightest impact will explode, and the animal hit, no matter how powerful it may be, will fall down and die. I will tell You, it's no bigger than a four-gauge bullet, and a normal shotgun magazine holds ten." "I won't argue any more," I said, rising from the table, "I'll just take my gun. I'll go with you wherever you go." The captain led me to the stern of the Nautilus, past the door of Ned Land's and Conseil's cabins, and I called my two companions, who immediately followed us out. After a while, we came to the front, in a small house near the machine room, where we were going to put on our sea hunting clothes.