The Indian Ocean (part 2)

This is the second part of our journey under the sea. The first part ended with the sad scene in the coral cemetery. That scene stayed in the mind of Professor Aronnax. Captain Nemo lived his life in the middle of the sea. He even prepared his grave in a deep abyss (a very deep part of the ocean). No sea monsters could disturb the sleep of his crew there. No men could disturb them there, either. Captain Nemo still felt very angry at the world of men. Professor Aronnax did not agree with the ideas of Conseil. Conseil thought Captain Nemo was just a famous scientist. Conseil thought the Captain was tired of other people. He thought Captain Nemo wanted to be free in the ocean. But Professor Aronnax thought there was a different reason. Professor Aronnax remembered the night in the prison. He remembered the strange sleep and the man with the terrible wound. Professor Aronnax thought Captain Nemo wanted revenge (the act of hurting someone because they hurt you first). Captain Nemo did not just want freedom. He wanted to hurt his enemies with his powerful ship. At this moment, Professor Aronnax did not know the truth. Everything was a mystery (something that is very difficult to understand). Professor Aronnax decided to write about everything he saw. It was the 24th of January, 1868. At noon, the second officer came to check the position of the sun. Professor Aronnax went to the platform and watched him. The officer did not speak. Professor Aronnax spoke loudly in French, but the officer did not answer. The officer did not seem to understand the language. A sailor came to clean the glass of the big lantern. This lamp used electricity to make a very bright light. The light was in a vacuum (a space with no air inside). Because there was no air, the lamp parts lasted a long time. This was important because Captain Nemo could not buy new parts easily. When the sailor finished his work, Professor Aronnax went down to the saloon. The Nautilus moved west into the Indian Ocean. The water was very clear and transparent. Professor Aronnax could see deep into the sea. The Nautilus stayed about 300 or 600 feet under the water. For many days, the journey was the same. Professor Aronnax was never bored. He enjoyed his walks, his books, and his notes. Many sea birds flew over the water. Sometimes the crew caught these birds for food. Professor Aronnax saw many large albatrosses (very big sea birds with long wings). These birds flew a long way from the land. They made a very loud and strange noise. Professor Aronnax watched many strange fish through the windows. He saw fish with shells made of bone. These shells looked like triangles or squares. Some were small and good to eat. Others were brown and yellow. Professor Aronnax liked to look at their bright colors. Conseil wrote many notes about the fish too. He saw fish that looked like brown eggs. He saw diodons (fish with sharp spikes like a hedgehog). They could fill their bodies with air to look like a ball. He also saw sea horses and fish with wings. Some fish even used drops of water to hit insects in the air. From the 21st to the 23rd of January, the Nautilus moved very fast. It moved at twenty-two miles an hour. Many fish tried to follow the ship because they liked the electric light. But the Nautilus was too fast for most of them. On January 24th, the ship moved near Keeling Island. It was a coral island with many coconut trees. The crew used nets to catch many shells and small sea animals near the island. Captain Nemo added these to his collection. Soon, the island disappeared. The Nautilus moved toward India. The ship went very deep into the water. The temperature of the deep water was always 4 degrees. On January 25th, the Nautilus stayed on the surface of the sea. Professor Aronnax spent most of the day on the platform. At four o’clock, he saw a large steamboat (a ship that moves using steam power) far away. The ship moved toward the west. The people on that ship were too far away to see the Nautilus. At five o’clock, Professor Aronnax and Conseil saw something amazing. There were hundreds of argonauts (small sea animals with a shell like a boat). They moved on top of the water. They used their arms like small sails. They looked like a fleet of tiny, elegant ships. The Nautilus moved with these small animals for one hour. Then, the argonauts became afraid. They pulled their arms into their shells. They all went under the water at the same time. They moved together like a group of soldiers. Then the night became very dark and quiet. On January 26th, the Nautilus crossed the equator (the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth). Many dangerous sharks followed the ship. Some had eleven rows of teeth. Some were very big tiger sharks. These sharks were six yards long. The sharks were very aggressive. They hit the glass of the saloon windows. Ned Land became very excited. Ned Land wanted to kill the sharks with a harpoon (a long spear used to hunt large fish). But the Nautilus moved faster and left the sharks behind. On January 27th, the Nautilus entered the Bay of Bengal. Professor Aronnax saw a sad sight. Dead bodies floated on the water. These bodies came from the river Ganges in India. The sharks in the bay ate these bodies in the water. At seven o'clock in the evening, the sea changed color. It looked like a sea of milk. The water was white everywhere. The sky looked very black because the water was so white. Conseil was very surprised. Professor Aronnax explained this to Conseil. The white color came from millions of tiny animals. These animals are called infusoria (very small living things that can make light). They are as thin as a hair. They stay together in the water for many miles. At midnight, the water became dark again. But the sky still looked bright for a long time.

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Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

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