Home Categories science fiction twenty thousand leagues under the sea

Chapter 16 Chapter XVI A Walk on the Plain of the Sea

This little house was, more correctly, the Nautilus's arsenal and clothes store.A dozen wetsuits hang on the wall, waiting to be donned by sea walkers. When Ned Land saw these diving suits, he felt very disgusted and didn't want to wear them. "You know, honest Ned Land," I said to him, "that the forest on Crespo Island is a forest under the sea!" "Well!" said the harpooner, disappointed, for his dreams of fresh meat had been dashed. "Monsieur Aronnax, are you going to put yourself in this dress?" "Of course, Master Ned Land." "Sir, you can wear it if you like!" The harpooner shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's like a bottle with a high voltage inside. Even the slightest impact will explode and get hit The animal, no matter how powerful it may be, will fall down and die. I will tell you that it is no bigger than a four-gauge bullet, and an ordinary shotgun can hold ten of them."

"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.Two crewmen, at the command of the captain, came up to help us in these impermeable, heavy garments; made of rubber, without seams, to withstand the great pressure without injury.It should be said that this is a set of soft and strong armor.The jacket and trousers are connected together, and under the trousers are thick shoes with heavy lead iron plates on the soles.The jacket is all made of copper sheets, which protect the chest like iron armor, can resist the impact of water, and allow the lungs to breathe freely; the sleeves are connected with the gloves, which are very soft and do not hinder the movement of the hands at all.

Those incomplete and defective diving suits, such as the acclaimed bark breastplate invented in the eighteenth century, the sleeveless outer cover, the sea suit, the hiding box, etc., compared with the perfect diving suit in front of us, are really worthless. It is too dwarfed. Captain Nemo, one of his companions (a Hercules like Hercules), Conseil, and I, four of us in total, were all in diving suits.Now as long as we drill our heads into the metal sphere, we will be equipped.But before putting on the orb, I asked Captain Nemo to show me the shotgun we were going to be carrying. A crew member of the Nautilus showed me a very simple gun.The butt is made of sheet steel, hollow, and quite large in size to store compressed air.The container has a piston on it, and the rotation of the mechanism allows air to flow into the barrel.There is a box of bullets in the butt, and there are 20 electric bullets in the box. The spring bullets can automatically jump into the barrel of the gun.After one bullet is fired, another one is filled immediately, and can be fired continuously.

"Captain Nemo," I said, "it's a very nice gun, and easy to use. I really want to try it now. But how do we get down to the bottom of the sea?" "Professor, at this moment the Nautilus is stranded at a depth of ten meters below the seabed, and we just need to set off." "How do we get out?" "You will soon find out." Captain Nemo slipped his head into the ball hat.Conseil and I followed his example and put on our ball caps.We heard the Canadian say to us sarcastically, "Go and hunt well."The upper part of our diving suit is a copper collar with screws, and the copper cap is nailed to the collar.There are three holes in the ball, which are protected by thick glass. As long as the head turns inside the ball, things in all directions can be seen.The Lugroel respirators placed on our backs immediately worked as the heads went into the ball; personally, I breathed well and without difficulty.

With a Lankov searchlight on my waist and a shotgun in my hand, I was ready to go.But, to tell the truth, it was impossible to take a step in this heavy suit, nailed to the deck by lead soles. But this situation was anticipated, I felt, and someone pushed me into a small room adjoining the cloakroom.My companion, who was pinned like me, followed me.I heard the door containing the jamming machine close as we came out, and it was pitch black all around us. After a few minutes, a sharp whistling sound reached my ears.I felt as if there was a gust of cold air rushing from the soles of my feet to my chest.Someone had evidently opened the water-doors in the boat, letting the water rush in at us, and the little house was soon filled with water. ·The other door on the side of the Nautilus opens at this time.A half-dark light hit us.After a while, "our feet were on the bottom of the sea.

Now, how can I write the impression of walking under the sea at that time?There are no words to describe something as miraculous as this!Even a paintbrush cannot describe the special scenes in the sea, let alone language. Captain Nemo went in front, and his companion followed us a few paces behind.Conseil and I were so close to each other that it seemed we could talk through our metal shells.I no longer feel the heaviness of my clothes, the soles of my shoes, my airbox, nor the weight of this thick ball in which my head dangles like an almond in its core. Medium scrolling is average.All these objects, in the water, lose some of their weight, the weight of the water they displace, so I got to know more about this principle of physics discovered by Archimedes.I am no longer a motionless mass, I can almost be said to be able to move freely.

I am amazed at the power of the sun to reach thirty feet below the surface of the ocean.The sunlight powerfully penetrates the water layer, dispelling the colors in the water, and I can clearly distinguish objects within a hundred meters.A hundred meters away, the bottom of the water showed different shades of sky blue, which gradually faded, and turned into light blue in the distance, in the darkness where no one was blurred.Indeed, the water around me is really but a kind of air, denser than the air on the ground, but similar in its transparency.Over my head, I saw the calm sea again. We walk on sand that is fine, flat, and wrinkle-free, like a beach with only traces of the tide.This dazzling rug, like a real reflector, strongly reflects the sun's rays.From this arises that powerful radiance of light that penetrates all water layers.Will people believe me if I affirm that at a depth of thirty feet in water I can see as well as in sunlight?

For a quarter of an hour we walked on the bright sand, made of shells turned into powder.The Nautilus's hull, which appeared like a long reef, was gradually disappearing; but its searchlights, which cast a very clear light, in dark places in the water, could guide us back to the ship.People have only seen such brilliant white lights on land. It is really not easy to understand the role of electric light under the sea.On land, the air is filled with dust, which makes the streaks of light like bright clouds: but at sea, as under the sea, the electric lights are quite transparent and not at all dim.

We kept moving, and the vast plain of fine sand seemed endless.I opened the water curtain with my hands, and it closed automatically after I walked by, and my footprints disappeared immediately under the pressure of the water. After walking for a while, I saw something in front of me. Although the image was only slightly revealed in the distance, the outline had clearly appeared in front of my eyes.I saw that this was a handsome line of rocks on the seabed, covered with the most beautiful and varied zoophytes; and I was first struck by this peculiar sight. It was ten o'clock in the morning.Sunlight is projected on the water wave surface at a rather oblique angle. Due to the bending effect, the light is decomposed as if passing through a three-shot mirror. Flowers, stones, plants, shells, and coral animals on the bottom of the sea, as soon as they touch the decomposed light, The seven different colors of the sun's rays appear on the edge.This intricate interweaving of all shades of color is really a colorful kaleidoscope of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue, purple, in short, it is a set of colors for a very particular watercolor painter!It seems really miraculous, it is a blessing to the eyes!How can I tell Conseil all the novel sensations in my heart!How can we praise him together!How can I convey my thoughts by an agreed sign, like Captain Nemo and his companions!As there was nothing better to do, I was obliged to talk to myself, and shout out in the brass box over my head; though I knew that uttering such empty words would probably consume more air than intended.

Conseil admired this splendid beauty as much as I did.Obviously, this dutiful person wants to classify and keep classifying the various zoophytes and molluscs in front of him.Coelenterates and echinoderms are everywhere.Different forked worms, solitary horned worms, pure eyeball clusters, mushroom-shaped mushroom-shaped fungi called snow-white corals, and pulsatillas with muscles attached to the ground...arranged into a field of flowers ; and then decorated with red flower stone warts with sky-blue silk lace collars, starfish scattered in the sand like stars, and full of small bugs and fake sea discs, all these are really exquisite lace embroidered by water nymphs.Blossoms and festoons vibrate with the slightest undulation caused by our walk.Beautiful species of molluscs that scatter tens of thousands on the ground, ringed cockles, scallops, donna shells - real jumping shells, hollow shells, vermilion shells, sleeve shells like angel wings, leaf-patterned shells Shellfish, and many other endless sea creatures, trampled under my feet, I feel really sad and ashamed.But we had to go, and we kept going, and above us were swarms of tube-shaped jellyfish, stretching out their sky-blue tentacles, floating in cascades through the water.There is also the moon jellyfish, whose milky white or light rose red umbrella is covered with a sky blue frame, covering us from the sun.In the dark, there are more luminous i-hemispherical jellyfish, which emit phosphorescence for us, illuminating our way forward!

In the space of about a quarter of a nautical mile, I did not stop and saw these treasures almost constantly.Captain Nemo waved to me, and I followed him.Before long, the soil underfoot changed its nature.Next to the plain of fine sand is a sticky mud, made up solely of silica or lime shells, which the Americans call "the Uzi."Then we ran through a section of seaweed field. They are marine plants that have not been washed away by sea water and have strong reproductive capacity.This kind of lawn with dense fibers is soft under our feet, which is comparable to the softest carpet woven by hand. However, not only is the green grass under our feet, even our heads are green. The water floats lightly There is a layer of marine plants floating on it, all of which are inexhaustible seaweeds. There are at least 2,000 species of this kind of plants that we already know. I saw very long kelp floating in the water (some are spherical, some are tubular) ), safflower algae, slender leaf moss, and cactus-like rose algae. I noticed that the layer near the sea surface is a turquoise seaweed, and in a deeper place is a red seaweed, black or ocher. The aquatic plants are in the deepest part, forming underwater gardens and grasslands. These seaweeds are really a miracle of good fortune, a miracle of the plant kingdom of the universe.Both the smallest and largest plants on Earth arise from seaweeds.Because in a place of five square millimeters, there can be 40,000 such microscopic plants that are invisible to the naked eye, and at the same time, people have collected kelp that has been more than 500 meters long. We had left the Nautilus about an hour and a half ago.It was just before noon when I saw the sun's rays coming down vertically, with no more meandering effect.Gradually the color-changing patterns faded away, and the shades of jadeite and sapphire faded over our heads.We walked at a regular pace, and there was an unusually loud sound on the ground.A very slight sound spread quickly.This is unfamiliar to the ear when on land.Originally, for sound, water is a better sound conductor than air, and it transmits sound four times faster than air. At this time, the sea floor gradually lowered due to the obvious slope.The color of the light is consistent.We reached a depth of 100 meters and were pressured by the top ten Qi doctors.But my wetsuit is made for these conditions, so I don't feel the pressure.I just felt that I couldn't use my fingers flexibly, but this difficulty disappeared after a while.I put on my unaccustomed diving suit and roamed for two hours. I should be tired, but now I feel nothing.I am very mobile with the help of water power. At a depth of three hundred feet I could still see sunlight, but very faintly.The intense brilliance of the sun followed by the red dawn, the shadowy light between day and night.But we can still see clearly, we can lead the way, and we don't need to use Lankov lamps. At this moment, Captain Nemo stopped.He waited, asking me to come up to him, and he pointed me to the clusters of indistinct shapes that gradually emerged not far from the shadows. That, I thought, was Crespo Forest.Sure enough, I was not mistaken.
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