Captain Nemo was waiting for me.
"Professor Aronnax," he said to me, "are you ready to start?"
"I"m ready."
"Kindly follow me."
"What about my companions, captain?"
"They"ve been alerted and are waiting for us."
"Aren"t we going to put on our diving suits?" I asked.
"Not yet. I haven"t let the Nautilus pull too near the coast, and we"re fairly well out from the Mannar oysterbank.
But I have the skiff ready, and it will take us to the exact spot where we"ll disembark, which will save us a pretty long trek.
It"s carrying our diving equipment, and we"ll suit up just before we begin our underwater exploring."
Captain Nemo took me to the central companionway whose steps led to the platform. Ned and Conseil were there, enraptured with the "pleasure trip" getting under way. Oars in position, five of the Nautilus"s sailors were waiting for us aboard the skiff, which was moored alongside. The night was still dark.
Layers of clouds cloaked the sky and left only a few stars in view.
My eyes flew to the side where land lay, but I saw only a blurred line covering three-quarters of the horizon from southwest to northwest.
Going up Ceylon"s west coast during the night, the Nautilus lay west of the bay, or rather that gulf formed by the mainland and Mannar Island. Under these dark waters there stretched the bank of sh.e.l.lfish, an inexhaustible field of pearls more than twenty miles long.
Captain Nemo, Conseil, Ned Land, and I found seats in the stern of the skiff. The longboat"s c.o.xswain took the tiller; his four companions leaned into their oars; the moorings were cast off and we pulled clear.
The skiff headed southward. The oarsmen took their time.
I watched their strokes vigorously catch the water, and they always waited ten seconds before rowing again, following the practice used in most navies. While the longboat coasted, drops of liquid flicked from the oars and hit the dark troughs of the waves, pitter-pattering like splashes of molten lead.
Coming from well out, a mild swell made the skiff roll gently, and a few cresting billows lapped at its bow.
We were silent. What was Captain Nemo thinking? Perhaps that this approaching sh.o.r.e was too close for comfort, contrary to the Canadian"s views in which it still seemed too far away.
As for Conseil, he had come along out of simple curiosity.
Near 5:30 the first glimmers of light on the horizon defined the upper lines of the coast with greater distinctness.
Fairly flat to the east, it swelled a little toward the south.
Five miles still separated it from us, and its beach merged with the misty waters. Between us and the sh.o.r.e, the sea was deserted.
Not a boat, not a diver. Profound solitude reigned over this gathering place of pearl fishermen. As Captain Nemo had commented, we were arriving in these waterways a month too soon.
At six o"clock the day broke suddenly, with that speed unique to tropical regions, which experience no real dawn or dusk.
The sun"s rays pierced the cloud curtain gathered on the easterly horizon, and the radiant orb rose swiftly.
I could clearly see the sh.o.r.e, which featured a few spa.r.s.e trees here and there.
The skiff advanced toward Mannar Island, which curved to the south.
Captain Nemo stood up from his thwart and studied the sea.
At his signal the anchor was lowered, but its chain barely ran because the bottom lay no more than a meter down, and this locality was one of the shallowest spots near the bank of sh.e.l.lfish.
Instantly the skiff wheeled around under the ebb tide"s outbound thrust.
"Here we are, Professor Aronnax," Captain Nemo then said.
"You observe this confined bay? A month from now in this very place, the numerous fishing boats of the harvesters will gather, and these are the waters their divers will ransack so daringly.
This bay is felicitously laid out for their type of fishing.
It"s sheltered from the strongest winds, and the sea is never very turbulent here, highly favorable conditions for diving work.
Now let"s put on our underwater suits, and we"ll begin our stroll."
I didn"t reply, and while staring at these suspicious waves, I began to put on my heavy aquatic clothes, helped by the longboat"s sailors.
Captain Nemo and my two companions suited up as well.
None of the Nautilus"s men were to go with us on this new excursion.
Soon we were imprisoned up to the neck in india-rubber clothing, and straps fastened the air devices onto our backs.
As for the Ruhmkorff device, it didn"t seem to be in the picture.
Before inserting my head into its copper capsule, I commented on this to the captain.
"Our lighting equipment would be useless to us," the captain answered me.
"We won"t be going very deep, and the sun"s rays will be sufficient to light our way. Besides, it"s unwise to carry electric lanterns under these waves. Their brightness might unexpectedly attract certain dangerous occupants of these waterways."
As Captain Nemo p.r.o.nounced these words, I turned to Conseil and Ned Land. But my two friends had already encased their craniums in their metal headgear, and they could neither hear nor reply.
I had one question left to address to Captain Nemo.
"What about our weapons?" I asked him. "Our rifles?"
"Rifles! What for? Don"t your mountaineers attack bears dagger in hand?
And isn"t steel surer than lead? Here"s a st.u.r.dy blade.
Slip it under your belt and let"s be off."
I stared at my companions. They were armed in the same fashion, and Ned Land was also brandishing an enormous harpoon he had stowed in the skiff before leaving the Nautilus.
Then, following the captain"s example, I let myself be crowned with my heavy copper sphere, and our air tanks immediately went into action.
An instant later, the longboat"s sailors helped us overboard one after the other, and we set foot on level sand in a meter and a half of water.
Captain Nemo gave us a hand signal. We followed him down a gentle slope and disappeared under the waves.
There the obsessive fears in my brain left me. I became surprisingly calm again. The ease with which I could move increased my confidence, and the many strange sights captivated my imagination.
The sun was already sending sufficient light under these waves.
The tiniest objects remained visible. After ten minutes of walking, we were in five meters of water, and the terrain had become almost flat.
Like a covey of snipe over a marsh, there rose underfoot schools of unusual fish from the genus Monopterus, whose members have no fin but their tail. I recognized the Javanese eel, a genuine eight-decimeter serpent with a bluish gray belly, which, without the gold lines over its flanks, could easily be confused with the conger eel.
From the b.u.t.terfish genus, whose oval bodies are very flat, I observed several adorned in brilliant colors and sporting a dorsal fin like a sickle, edible fish that, when dried and marinated, make an excellent dish known by the name "karawade"; then some sea poachers, fish belonging to the genus Aspidophoroides, whose bodies are covered with scaly armor divided into eight lengthwise sections.
Meanwhile, as the sun got progressively higher, it lit up the watery ma.s.s more and more. The seafloor changed little by little.
Its fine-grained sand was followed by a genuine causeway of smooth crags covered by a carpet of mollusks and zoophytes.
Among other specimens in these two branches, I noted some windowpane oysters with thin valves of unequal size, a type of ostracod unique to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, then orange-hued lucina with circular sh.e.l.ls, awl-shaped auger sh.e.l.ls, some of those Persian murex snails that supply the Nautilus with such wonderful dye, spiky periwinkles fifteen centimeters long that rose under the waves like hands ready to grab you, turban snails with sh.e.l.ls made of horn and bristling all over with spines, lamp sh.e.l.ls, edible duck clams that feed the Hindu marketplace, subtly luminous jellyfish of the species Pelagia panopyra, and finally some wonderful Oculina flabelliforma, magnificent sea fans that fashion one of the most luxuriant tree forms in this ocean.
In the midst of this moving vegetation, under arbors of water plants, there raced legions of clumsy articulates, in particular some fanged frog crabs whose carapaces form a slightly rounded triangle, robber crabs exclusive to these waterways, and horrible parthenope crabs whose appearance was repulsive to the eye.
One animal no less hideous, which I encountered several times, was the enormous crab that Mr. Darwin observed, to which nature has given the instinct and requisite strength to eat coconuts; it scrambles up trees on the beach and sends the coconuts tumbling; they fracture in their fall and are opened by its powerful pincers.
Here, under these clear waves, this crab raced around with matchless agility, while green turtles from the species frequenting the Malabar coast moved sluggishly among the crumbling rocks.
Near seven o"clock we finally surveyed the bank of sh.e.l.lfish, where pearl oysters reproduce by the millions. These valuable mollusks stick to rocks, where they"re strongly attached by a ma.s.s of brown filaments that forbids their moving about.