Chapter 17 Chapter 17 Undersea Forest

At last we came to the edge of the forest, which may be the most beautiful part of Captain Nemo's vast domain.He regards the forest as his own, and he takes the ownership of the forest to himself, just like when the world was opened, the first group of people who appeared took ownership.In fact, who can compete with him for the ownership of this underwater property?How could there be a more daring pioneer than him, with an ax in hand, who dared to come here to cut down the thorns and clear the fields? All the tall woody plants grow in this forest. When we walked to the tree, under the wide arched branches in the middle of the forest, my eyes were first attracted by the strange shape of the branches in the forest, and I felt strange. It's this shape, I've never seen it before.

There was no grass growing on the ground in the forest, and none of the clumping branches of the young trees spread out, bent or hung down, or stretched horizontally.All vegetation stretches straight to the ocean.There are no branches, no leaf belts, no matter how small they are, they are straight, like iron rods.Kelp and algae, influenced by the strong density of seawater, grow unwaveringly along vertical lines.And these water pitchforks are stationary, when I separate them with my hands, they immediately return to their original straight state as soon as I let go.This forest is simply a world of vertical lines.

It didn't take long for me to get used to the odd shape, and the relative darkness around us.There are sharp stones everywhere on the ground in the forest, and it is not easy to avoid them.The plants of the bottom of the sea, so far as I can see, are here in abundance, and are probably more abundant than in the polar regions or the tropics, where they are less abundant.However, within a few minutes, I unconsciously confused the two categories of animals and plants, mistaking zoophytes for aquatic plants and animals for plants.Originally, who could not make a mistake?Under the sea, the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom are very close.

I have observed that all the products of the plant kingdom here are only superficially connected with the soil.They have no roots, and it doesn't matter whether they are supported by solids, sand, shells, shells, or stones. All they need is a fulcrum, not a growth to buy strength.These plants simply developed by themselves, and the only resource for their survival was the sea water that sustained and nourished them.Most of them do not grow leaves, but only small, odd-shaped pieces. The surface colors are very limited, only rose red, magenta, green, blue-yellow, taupe, bronze and other colors: colors.What I see here again is not the dried specimens on the Nautilus ship, but the vivid peacock shells that seem to be fanning out like a fan, the bright red ceramic shells, elongated like a canopy. The flaky shellfish that are eaten like tender bamboo shoots.The slender and soft bronze algae that grow up to fifteen meters high, the bunches of bottle-shaped aquatic plants with stems growing on the top, and many other marine plants, all of which have no flowers.A very funny biologist once said: "Animals bloom, but plants don't. The sea is really a strange and exceptional environment, a strange and novel nature!"

Among these various shrubs, as tall as temperate trees, and under their moist shadows, abounded veritable jungles with vivid flowers, hedge-rows of insectivores, blooming like flowers with curved stripes. the brain-striped corals, the black and yellow carnations with transparent tentacles, the piles of stony corals in the meadows—to complete the illusion there were flyfish, which flew like swarms of hummingbirds from this branch to That branch, as for the wheatworm fish with raised gills and sharp scales, flying fish, and monofin fish, they are almost like a group of quails, jumping around under our feet.

About one o'clock, Captain Nemo signaled for a respite.For my part, I was glad to have a break, and we lay down under a canopy of seaweed with slender branches sticking straight up like arrows. I feel comfortable with this moment of rest, the fly in the ointment is that we can't talk to each other.There was no way to speak, and certainly no way to answer.I just put my thick brass head close to Conseil's.I saw the honest man's eyes gleam with excitement, and to express his satisfaction, he waddled around inside the copper case, making the most ridiculous grotesques. Although I had walked for four hours, I was surprised that I did not feel the need to eat.Why this happened, I cannot tell.But on the other hand, like all divers, I felt so sleepy that I couldn't help it.So my eyes closed behind the thick glass, and I immediately fell into an uncontrollable stupor, which was only temporarily stopped by walking forward.Captain Nemo and his stout companions, lying in clear crystals, set us the first example of sleep.

How long I fell into this lethargy I cannot estimate; but when I awoke, I saw that the sun had set in the west.Captain Nemo was already on his feet, and I began to stretch my limbs, when something unexpected happened, and I immediately stood on my feet. A few steps away from us, there was a plum spider one meter tall, squinting at me, and was about to pounce on me.Although my wetsuit is quite heavy and protects me from its bite, I can't help being afraid and shaking.Conseil and the crew of the Nautilus woke up at this time.Captain Nemo showed this frightening crustacean to his companion, who shot it dead with the butt of his rifle, and I saw the hideous twitch of the monster's hideous paws, struggling desperately.

This encounter with this monster made me think that there must be other, more terrifying creatures that frequent the dark bottom, and that my diving suit might not be able to protect me from their attacks.I didn't think of it at first, but now I'm determined to be on the alert.Again, I thought this rest was the end of our voyage, but I was mistaken. Captain Nemo would not let us return to the ship, but continued on with his daring voyage. The ground is always sinking, and the slope is more obvious, pulling us to the deepest bottom of the sea.At this time, I think it was almost three o'clock, and we came to a narrow valley between the cliffs and under the sea at a depth of one hundred and fifty meters.Thanks to the perfect equipment we use, we can go beyond the depth of ninety meters which seems to limit human travel under the sea.

I said we were at a depth of one hundred and fifty metres; and though I had no instruments to measure it, I knew that even the clearest waters could not be sunk any further.It was at this moment that the surroundings became pitch black.Can't see anything ten paces away.So I could only feel my way, when I saw a rather bright white light suddenly flash out.It turned out that Captain Nemo used his electro-optical machine.His companions did as he did.Conseil and I followed their example.I turned the screw to connect the electromagnet with the curved glass tube, and the light turned on. The sea was illuminated by our four searchlights, and everything within 25 meters around was brightened.

Captain Nemo continued to walk into the deepest part of the forest, and the trees gradually became scarce along the way.I noticed that at the bottom of the sea the vegetable kingdom disappeared earlier than the animal kingdom.Although marine plants have abandoned these barren lands, animals, zoozoans, arthropods, molluscs and fish are still abundant in abundance. As I walked, I thought that the light of the Lankov lamps we brought must attract the attention of those residents in the dark seabed and gather to come.However, although they come, they always stay in a place far away from the hunter's strength.Several times I saw Captain Nemo stop and aim his gun, but after some time of observation he put it down again and moved on.

Then, about four o'clock, the novelty and astonishment came to an end.A tall rock wall and a large group of strange rocks stood in front of us. It was a giant rock formation, a granite cliff, and a dark cave, but there was no way to climb it. This is the end of Crespo Island, land. Captain Nemo stopped suddenly.He gestured to us to stop, and although I wanted to go through this wall, I couldn't stop. This was the final limit of Captain Nemo's domain.He doesn't want to cross the line.Beyond this limit is the land part of the earth that his footsteps do not want to step on. So we started walking back.Captain Nemo was again leading his little...little procession, always moving forward without hesitation.It seemed to me that our turning back to the Nautilus was not the way we had come.The new road is steep, therefore: difficult to walk, apparently it is closer to the sea.However, the action of returning to the upper layer of seawater should not be very sudden, so as not to reduce the pressure too quickly, because too rapid pressure reduction may cause serious diseases in our body and internal injuries that endanger the life of divers.So we are slowly coming up.Soon the light: reappeared and expanded again, the sun was already in the lower part of the sky, and the bending effect was heavy: again, the seven-color halo was placed on various objects. At a depth of ten meters, we were walking among a large school of various small fish, more numerous and more agile than the flying crows, but no aquatic prey worthy of our shooting appeared before our eyes. At this moment, I saw the captain's gun was slung over his shoulder, aiming at something moving in the jungle.The shot went off, and I heard a slight whistling sound, and the animal was struck and fell a few paces away. What fell was a fine-looking otter, a water beast, probably the only quadruped living in the sea.This otter is one and a half meters long and must be worth a lot.Its skin is chestnut brown on the surface and silvery white on the underside. It can be made into a very beautiful leather case. It is a very rare leather material in the Russian and Chinese markets.The softness and fineness of the fur and its smooth color determine that its price is at least two thousand francs.I admired this novel mammal, with its rounded head with short ears, round eyes, white whiskers like a cat's whiskers, palmate and armored feet, and tufted tail.This kind of precious endodontic animal is now very rare because of being chased and captured by fishermen. They mainly hide in the Arctic Circle in the Pacific Ocean. Even in the Arctic Circle, their family is about to become extinct. Captain Nemo's companion ran up to pick up the otter, put it on his shoulders, and we walked on. Within an hour, a plain of fine sand spread out beneath our feet.The plains often rise to a depth of less than two meters from the sea.I saw our shadows reflected in the water, clearly appearing, in the opposite direction: above us, the same group of people appeared, performing our movements and postures, all the same, head hanging below, feet hanging upside down up in the air. There is another situation worth noting.Bursts of dense clouds flew past, and these clouds formed and disappeared quickly; but after thinking about it carefully, I realized that these so-called clouds were just the reflection of waves of different thickness on the seabed.I also saw the billowing waves of countless foam splashes when the waves broke down, like a flock of sheep.I've also seen the shadows of those huge birds above our heads as they scuttled across the sea. At this time, I saw a shot with my own eyes. Perhaps no hunter has ever fired such an accurate and beautiful gun.A large bird, which can be seen clearly, flies with its wings wide open.Captain Nemo's companions saw the big bird just a few meters above the waves, and Nemo took aim and shot.The great bird was shot down, and fell very close to the swift hunter, who caught it at once.This is the most beautiful of the gullies, and one of the most admirable species of sea-birds. Our walk was not interrupted by the swan-shooting.In two hours we walked sometimes along the plain of fine sand, sometimes along the mossy grass, which was quite difficult.To be honest, I really couldn't go any further. At this moment, I saw a blurred light breaking through the darkness of the sea half a mile away.Those were the searchlights of the Nautilus.In less than twenty minutes we were on board, and once there I was able to breathe freely, for it seemed to me that my air reservoir was only supplying me with little oxygen.However, in my plans, I did not consider the unexpected encounter below, which delayed us for some time before we reached the ship. I was walking about twenty paces behind Captain Nemo when he suddenly turned back towards me.With his strong hand, he threw me to the ground, and his companion did the same to Conseil.At first I made all kinds of guesses about this sudden attack, but when I saw the captain lying beside me, not daring to move, I felt at ease. So I lay on the ground, just behind the mossy thicket, and when I looked up, I saw a gigantic phosphorescent body coming menacingly. The blood in my veins is congealed!What I saw approaching us were very powerful sharks, a pair of fire sharks, the most terrifying sharks, with huge tails, dull and gloomy eyes, and many holes around their mouths, from which phosphorous sprayed out, shining brightly.It is really a terrifyingly big fire shark, their iron jaws can bite the whole person into meat sauce!I don't know if Conseil is paying attention to classifying them. As far as I'm concerned, I observe them not so much as a biologist, but as a person who will be swallowed, a very unscientific point of view A silver belly, a mouth full of sharp teeth. As luck would have it, the pair of voracious animals have poor eyesight and can't see very clearly.They passed by without seeing us, but their yellow and black tails touched us slightly. It is a miracle that we escaped this danger. There is no doubt that this danger is greater than meeting a tiger in the deep forest much. Half an hour later, guided by lightning, we arrived at the Nautilus.The outer door was still open, and Captain Nemo closed it when he saw that we had all entered the first cabin.Then he pressed a knob; I heard the pump inside the boat go into action, and I felt the water around me gradually sinking, and after a while the water in the cabin was completely drained.The inner door opened and we walked into the locker room. In the locker room, we took off our diving suits, which of course took some effort; I was very tired and went back to my room, on the one hand, elated and admiring this amazing underwater journey, on the other hand. , I was so tired that I couldn't move, I lay on the bed and fell asleep drowsily.