But I do not understand. You have hitherto only visited the submarine depths by daylight, under the brightness of the sun. Would it suit you to see them in the darkness of the night? Ho! ho! said Ned Land, moving his jaws significantly. My friends, I answered, making a sign to them to enter, you are not in Canada, but on board the Nautilus, fifty yards below the level of the sea.
I must therefore take my part, and prepare for flight. My luggage was not heavy; my notes, nothing more. I followed, and in a few minutes I had climbed to the top, which for a circle of ten yards commanded the whole mass of rock. In the midst of the waters a man appeared, a diver, carrying at his belt a leathern purse. It was not a body abandoned to the waves; it was a living man, swimming with a strong hand, disappearing occasionally to take breath at the surface. I do not think he would, but he would not taste them.
Suppose we never return? added Ned Land. Admiral Chateau-Renaud had the rashness to obey this injunction, and the galleons entered Vigo Bay. In that case, as I have never fished in these seas, I do not know the kind of whale frequenting them. I can well believe it, said Conseil.