Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Twenty Thousand Leagues under the SeaThe Project Gutenberg eBook of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea Author: Jules Verne Release date: September 1, 1994 [eBook #164] Most recently updated: March 18, 2025 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/164 Credits: a number of anonymous Gutenberg Project volunteers *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA *** Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne Contents PART I CHAPTER I A SHIFTING REEF CHAPTER II PRO AND CON CHAPTER III I FORM MY RESOLUTION CHAPTER IV NED LAND CHAPTER V AT A VENTURE CHAPTER VI AT FULL STEAM CHAPTER VII AN UNKNOWN SPECIES OF WHALE CHAPTER VIII MOBILIS IN MOBILI CHAPTER IX NED LAND'S TEMPERS CHAPTER X THE MAN OF THE SEAS CHAPTER XI ALL BY ELECTRICITY CHAPTER XII SOME FIGURES CHAPTER XIII THE BLACK RIVER CHAPTER XIV A NOTE OF INVITATION CHAPTER XV A WALK ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA CHAPTER XVI A SUBMARINE FOREST CHAPTER XVII FOUR THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE PACIFIC CHAPTER XVIII VANIKORO CHAPTER XIX TORRES STRAITS CHAPTER XX A FEW DAYS ON LAND CHAPTER XXI CAPTAIN NEMO'S THUNDERBOLT CHAPTER XXII "ÆGRI SOMNIA" CHAPTER XXIII THE CORAL KINGDOM PART II CHAPTER I THE INDIAN OCEAN CHAPTER II A NOVEL PROPOSAL OF CAPTAIN NEMO'S CHAPTER III A PEARL OF TEN MILLIONS CHAPTER IV THE RED SEA CHAPTER V THE ARABIAN TUNNEL CHAPTER VI THE GRECIAN ARCHIPELAGO CHAPTER VII THE MEDITERRANEAN IN FORTY-EIGHT HOURS CHAPTER VIII VIGO BAY CHAPTER IX A VANISHED CONTINENT CHAPTER X THE SUBMARINE COAL-MINES CHAPTER XI THE SARGASSO SEA CHAPTER XII CACHALOTS AND WHALES CHAPTER XIII THE ICEBERG CHAPTER XIV THE SOUTH POLE CHAPTER XV ACCIDENT OR INCIDENT? CHAPTER XVI WANT OF AIR CHAPTER XVII FROM CAPE HORN TO THE AMAZON CHAPTER XVIII THE POULPS CHAPTER XIX THE GULF STREAM CHAPTER XX FROM LATITUDE 47° 24′ TO LONGITUDE 17° 28′ CHAPTER XXI A HECATOMB CHAPTER XXII THE LAST WORDS OF CAPTAIN NEMO CHAPTER XXIII CONCLUSION List of Illustrations An old grey-bearded gunner . . . . Captain Nemo's state-room Captain Nemo took the Sun's altitude I was ready to set out Conseil seized his gun All fell on their knees in an attitude of prayer A terrible combat began "A man! A shipwrecked sailor!" I cried The _Nautilus_ was floating near a mountain The _Nautilus_ was blocked up One of these long arms glided through the opening The unfortunate vessel sank more rapidly PART ONE CHAPTER I A SHIFTING REEF The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels, skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and the Governments of several states on the two continents, were deeply interested in the matter. For some time past, vessels had been met by "an enormous thing," a long object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger and more rapid in its movements than a whale. The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books) agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object or creature in question, the untiring rapidity of its movements, its surprising power of locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a cetacean, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in science. Taking into consideration the mean of observations made at divers times,-rejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this object a length of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it down as a mile in width and three in length,-we might fairly conclude that this mysterious being surpassed greatly all dimensions admitted by the ichthyologists of the day, if it existed at all. And that it _did_ exist was an undeniable fact; and, with that tendency which disposes the human mind in favour of the marvellous, we can understand the excitement produced in the entire world by this supernatural apparition. As to classing it in the list of fables, the idea was out of the question. On the 20th of July, 1866, the steamer _Governor Higginson_, of the Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Company, had met this moving mass five miles off the east coast of Australia. Captain Baker thought at first that he was in the presence of an unknown sandbank; he even prepared to determine its exact position, when two columns of water, projected by the inexplicable object, shot with a hissing noise a hundred and fifty feet up into the air. Now, unless the sandbank had been submitted to the intermittent eruption of a geyser, the _Governor Higginson_ had to do neither more nor less than with an aquatic mammal, unknown till then, which threw up from its blow-holes columns of water mixed with air and vapour. Similar facts were observed on the 23rd of July in the same year, in the Pacific Ocean, by the _Columbus_, of the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company. But this extraordinary cetaceous creature could transport itself from one place to another with surprising velocity; as, in an interval of three days, the _Governor Higginson_ and the _Columbus_ had observed it at two different points of the chart, separated by a distance of more than seven hundred nautical leagues. Fifteen days later, two thousand miles farther off, the _Helvetia_, of the Compagnie-Nationale, and the _Shannon_, of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, sailing to windward in that portion of the Atlantic lying between the United States and Europe, respectively signalled the monster to each other in 42° 15′ N. lat. and 60° 35′ W. long. In these simultaneous observations they thought themselves justified in estimating the minimum length of the mammal at more than three hundred and fifty feet, as the _Shannon_ and _Helvetia_ were of smaller dimensions than it, though they measured three hundred feet over all. Now the largest whales, those which frequent those parts of the sea round the Aleutian, Kulammak, and Umgullich islands, have never exceeded the length of sixty yards, if they attain that. These reports arriving one after the other, with fresh observations made on board the transatlantic ship _Pereire_, a collision which occurred between the _Etna_ of the Inman line and the monster, a _procès verbal_ d |