expelling the water they had aspired. Of their eight tentacles, six long and thin floated in the water, while the others, rolled up in a rounded, flattened form, were extended to the wind, and acted as sails. I could easily see the spiral and undulating shells, which Cuvier justly compared to an elegant boat. A boat indeed, for it bears the animal without the animal being fixed to it.
“The argonaut is free to quit its shell,” I said to Conseil, “but it does not do so.”
“Just like Captain Nemo,” replied Conseil, judiciously. “Perhaps it would be better to have called this vessel the Argonaut.”
For about an hour the Nautilus was surrounded by this shoal of molluscs. Suddenly they took alarm, I know not why. At a signal all the sails were furled, the arms were folded, the bodies contracted; the shells, turning over, changed the centre of gravity, and the whole fleet disappeared beneath the waves. It was instantaneous, and no ships in the navy could execute a manœuvre with greater smartness.
Night now fell, and the waves, scarcely ruffled by the breeze, rolled quietly alongside the Nautilus.
The following day we crossed the equator at the eighty-second meridian, and passed into the northern hemisphere.
During the day a formidable tribe of sharks kept us company. Terrible animals they are, and render these seas very dangerous. These were the “Phillipi” species, with brown backs and whitish bellies, having eleven rows of teeth; the “eyed” sharks, which have a great black patch surrounded by white on their backs, which resembles an eye; and the “Isabelle” sharks, their round backs spotted with black. These powerful animals often struck the glass panels of the saloon with a violence that was rather alarming. At those
