tions. So soon as we were ready, the Rouquayrol apparatus was placed upon our backs, and immediately began to act, so that I felt no inconvenience in breathing.
The Ruhmkorff lamp at my waist, and gun in hand, I declared myself ready to set out. But in those heavy garments and boots, I found it impossible to stir a step. This had been provided for, for I felt that I was carried into an adjoining chamber. My companions followed. I heard a door spring back, and darkness enveloped us. After some minutes, I heard a loud hissing noise—I am certain a sensation of cold rose from my feet to my chest. Evidently, the water had been admitted, and the chamber was filled. Then another door in the side of the Nautilus opened. A dim light was visible, and an instant afterwards, our feet touched the bottom of the sea.
And now, how can I recall the impressions which this expedition at the bottom of the sea has left upon me? Words are powerless to describe such marvels. Where the pencil cannot depict, how can the pen reproduce these wonders? Captain Nemo walked in front, his friend behind us, while Conseil and I remained together, as if any interchange of words were possible under the circumstances. I no longer felt the weight of my garments, or boots, or the reservoir of air; my head moved about in my helmet like a nut in its shell. All objects plunged into water lose a portion of their weight, equal to that of the water displaced, and I recognised that physical law discovered by Archimedes. I was no longer an inert mass, but had considerable freedom of movement. The light, which illuminated the ground thirty feet below the surface, surprised me by its power. The
