Music Welcome to snoozecast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us at snoozecast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. This episode is brought to you by Fleeisi Fong. Tonight we'll read the next part to 20,000 leagues under the sea, a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, Aaron X, Canceille, Nemo, and another sailor from the Nautilus embark on their hunting expedition to the underwater forests of Crespo Island in their underwater suits. They see diverse landscapes and all sorts of creatures, and also take a a half before continuing their wondrous training. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softveness of your bed.

Now, take a few deep breaths. We continued our journey for one hour hour, a plane of sand lay stretched before us. Sometimes it rose to within two yards, and some inches of the surface of the water. I then saw our image clearly reflected, drawn in versely, and above us appeared an identical group reflecting our movements and our actions. In a word, like us in every point, except they walked with their heads downward and their feet in the air. Another effect I noticed, which was the passage of thick clouds which formed and vanished rapidly. But on reflection, I understood that these seeming clouds were due to the varying thickness of the reeds at the bottom, and I could even see the fleecy foam, which their broken tops multiplied on the water, and the shadows of large birds passing above our heads, whose rapid flight I could discern on the surface of the sea. For two hours we followed these sandy plains, then fields of algae very disagreeable to cross. Candidly, I could do no more when I saw a glimmer of light, which for half a mile broke the darkness of the waters. It was the lantern of the Nautilus. Before twenty minutes were over, we should be on board, and I should be able to breathe with ease. For it seemed that my reservoir supplied air very deficient in oxygen, but I did not reckon on an accidental meeting which delayed our arrival for some time. I had remained some steps behind when I presently saw Captain Nemo coming hurriedly towards me. His strong hand, he bent me to the ground, his companion doing the same to Kansai. At first, I knew not what to think of this sudden attack, but I was soon reassured by seeing the captain lie down beside me and remain a movable. I was stretched on the ground, just under the shelter of a bush of algae, when, raising my head, I saw some enormous mass, casting phosphorescent gleams, past blusteringly by. I recognized two formidable sharks with enormous tails, an adult glassy stare. The phosphorescent matter ejected from holes pierced around the muzzle. I did not know whether Consay stopped to classify them. For my part, I noticed their silver bellies and their huge mouths bristling with teeth from a very unscientific point of view. How believe the creatures do not see well. They passed without seeing us, brushing us with their brownish fins. Half an hour after, guided by the electric light, we reached the nautilus. The outside door had been left open, and Captain Nemo closed it as soon as we had entered the first cell. He then pressed a knob. I heard the pumps working in the midst of the vessel. I felt the water sinking from around me, and in a few moments the cell was entirely empty. The inside door then opened, and we entered the vestry. There, our diving dress was taken off, not without some trouble, and fairly worn out from want of food and sleep, I returned to my room. I'm great wonder at this surprising excursion at the bottom of the sea. Chapter 17 4,000 leaks under the Pacific. The next morning, the 18th of November, I had quite recovered from my fatigues of the day before, and I went up onto the platform, just as the second lieutenant was uttering

his daily phrase. I was admiring the magnificent aspect of the ocean when Captain Nemo appeared. He did not seem to be aware of my presence and began a series of astronomical observations. Then, when he had finished, he went and lent on the cage of the watchlight and gazed abstractedly on the ocean. In the meantime, a number of the sailors of the non-alice, all strong and healthy men, had come up on the platform. They came to drop the nets that had been laid all night. These sailors were evidently of different nations. Although the European type was visible in all of them, I recognized some unmistakable Irishmen, Frenchmen, some Sclaves, and a Greek. They were civil. Then only used that odd language among themselves, the origin of which I could not guess, and either could I question them. The nets were hauled in. They were a large kind like those on the Normandy coasts, great pockets that the waves and chained fixed in the smaller meshes kept open. These pockets, drawn by iron poles, swept through the water and gathered in everything in their way. That day they brought up curious specimens from those productive coasts. I reckoned that the hall had brought in more than 900 weight of fish. It was a fine hall, but not to be wondered at. Indeed, the nets are let down for several hours, and in clothes in their meshes an infinite variety. We had no lack of excellent food, and the rapidity of the non-alus, and the attraction of the electric light could always renew our supply. These several productions of the sea were immediately lowered through the panel to the steward's room, some to be eaten fresh and others pickled. The fishing ended. The provision of air renewed. I thought that the notalless was about to

continue its submarine excursion and was preparing to return to my room when, without further preamble, the captain turned to me, saying, Professor, is not this ocean gifted with real life.

It has its tempers and its gentle moods.

Yesterday it slept as we did, and now it has woke after a quiet night. Look, he continued, it wakes under the caresses of the sun. It is going to renew its diurnal existence. It is an interesting study to watch the play of its organization. It has a pulse, arteries, spasms. And I agree with the Learned Mori, who discovered in circulation as real as the circulation of blood in animals. Yes, the ocean has indeed circulation, and to promote it, the creator has caused things to multiply in it, caloric, salt, and animal. When Captain Nemo spoke thus, he seemed altogether changed and aroused an extraordinary emotion in me. Also, he added, true existence is there. And I can imagine the foundations of nautical towns, clusters of submarine houses, which, like the Nautilus, would ascend every morning to breathe at the surface of the water, free towns, independent cities. Yet, who knows whether some despaught, Captain Nemo finished his sentence with a violent gesture, then addressing me as if to chase away some sorrowful thought. As your air nags, he asked, do you know the depth of the ocean? I only know Captain what the principal soundings have taught us. Could you tell me them so that I can suit them to my purpose? These are some I replied that I remember, if I am not mistaken, a depth of 8,000 yards has been found in the North Atlantic, and 2,500 yards in the Mediterranean.

The most remarkable soundings have been made in the South Atlantic, near the 35th parallel, and they gave 12,000 yards, 14,000 yards, and 15,000 yards. to sum up all. It is reckoned that if the bottom of the sea were leveled, its mean depth would be about 1 and 3 quarter leagues. Well, Professor, replied the captain, we shall show you better than that, I hope. As to the mean depth of this part of the Pacific, I tell you it is only 4,000 yards. Having said this, Captain Nemo went towards the panel and disappeared down the ladder. I followed him and went into the large drawing room. The screw was immediately put in motion, and the log gave 20 miles an hour. During the days and weeks that passed, Captain Nemo was very sparing of his visits. I seldom saw him. The lieutenant pricked the ship's course regularly on the chart, so I could always tell exactly the root of the Nautilus. Nearly every day, for some time, the panels of the drawing room were opened, and we were never tired of penetrating the mysteries of the submarine world. The general direction of the Nautilus was southeast, and it kept between a hundred and a hundred fifty yards of depth. One day, however, I do not know why, being drawn diagonally by means of the inclined planes, it touched the bed of the sea. The thermometer indicated a temperature of 4.25 centigrade, a temperature that at this depth seemed common to all attitudes. At 3 o'clock in the morning of the 26th of November, the Nautilus crossed the tropic of cancer at 172 degrees longitude. On 27th instant, it sighted the sandwich islands where Cook died February 14 to 1779. We had then gone 4,860 leaks from our starting point. In the morning, when I went on the platform, I saw two miles to win word Hawaii, the largest of the seven islands that form the group. I saw clearly the cultivated ranges

and the several mountain chains that run parallel with the side and the volcanoes that overtop Monocayah, which rise 5,000 yards above the level of the sea. Besides other things that nets brought up. We're several flabularia and graceful polypide that are peculiar to that part of the ocean. The direction of the Nautilus was still to the southeast and crossed the equator December 1st in 142 degrees longitude and on the 4th of the same month, after crossing rapidly and without anything in particular occurring, we sighted the Marquetsas group. I saw three miles off Martin's Peak in Nukahiva, the largest of the group that belongs to France. I only saw the Woody Mountains against the horizon, because Captain Nemo did not wish to bring the ship to the wind. There, the nets brought up beautiful specimens of fish, some with azure fins and tails like gold, the flesh of which is unrivaled, some nearly destitute of scales, but of exquisite flavor, others with bony jaws, and yellow tinge to gills as good as bonitos, all fish that would be of use to us. After leaving these charming islands protected by the French flag from the 4th to 11thth of December, the notalless sailed about 2,000 miles. During the daytime of the 11th of December I was busy reading in the large drawing room, an inland and con say, watched the luminous water through the half-open panels. The nodautilus was immovable. While its reservoirs were filled, it kept at a depth of a thousand yards, a region rarely visited in the ocean, and in which large fish reselled them seen. I was then reading a charming book by Jean Mace, the servants of the stomach, and I was learning some valuable lessons from it, when Consay interrupted me. Well, Master, come here a moment, he said in a curious voice. What is the matter, Consay? I want Master to look. I rose, went, and leaned on my elbows before the pains and watched, in a full electric light, an enormous black mass, quite a moveable, was suspended in the midst of the waters. I watched it attentively, seeking to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean. But a sudden thought crossed my mind. A vessel, I said, half aloud. Yes, replied the Canadian, a disabled ship that has sunk perpendicularly. Nedland was right. We were close to a vessel of which the tattered trouts still hung from

their chains. The keel seemed to be in good order, and it had been wrecked at most some few hours. Three stumps of masts, broken off about two feet above the bridge, showed that the vessel had had to sacrifice its masts.

But, lying on its side, it had filled, and it was healing over to port. This skeleton of what it had once been was a sad spectacle as it lay lost under the waves. However, the nautilus turning went round the submerged vessel, and in one instant I read on the stern, the Florida Sunderland. CHAPTER 18 Vanicoro As long as it went through more frequent waters. We often saw the the halls of shipwrecked vessels that were rotting in the depths and deeper down cannons, bullet, sankers, chains, and a thousand other iron materials eaten up by rust. However, on the 11th of December, we cited the Pomu II Islands, the Old Dangerous Group, that extend over a space of 500 leagues at East-South East to West-North-West. This group covers an area of 300 square leagues and is it is formed of 60 groups of islands, among which, among which France exercises sway. These are coral islands slowly raised but continuous, created by the daily work of Paulepie. Then this new island will be joined later onto the neighboring groups, and a fifth continent will stretch from New Zealand, and from thence to Marquesis. One day, when I was suggesting this theory to Captain Nemo, he replied coldly, the Earth does not want new continents but new men. Chance had conducted the Nautilus toward the island of Clermont, one of the most curious of the group that was discovered in 1822 by Captain Bell of the Minerva. I could study now the system to which are due the islands in this ocean. Madre Pors, which must not be mistaken for corals, have a tissue lined with a calcorous crust and the modifications of its structure, have induced Mesura Edwards, my worthy master, to class them into five sections. The animal cule that the marine polypus secreates, lived by millions at the bottom of their cells. Their calcarest deposits become rocks, reefs, and large and small islands.

Here they form a ring, surrounding a little inland lake that communicates with the sea by means of gaps. There, they make barriers of reefs like those on the coasts of New Caledonia and the various pommatone islands in places, like those at Reunion and at Maurice, they raise fringed reefs, high, straight walls near which the depth of the ocean is considerable. Some cable lengths off the shores of the island of Claremont. I admired the gigantic work accomplished by these microscopic workers. These polypies are found particularly in the rough beds of the sea near the surface, and consequently it is from the upper part that they begin their operations in which they bury

themselves by degrees with the debris of the secretions that support them, such as at least in Darwin's theory, who thus explains the formation of the atolls. A superior theory to my mind, to that given of the foundation of the magiroporical works, summits of mountains or volcanoes that are submerged to some feet below the level of the sea. I could observe closely these curious walls, for perpendicularly, they were more than 300 yards deep, and our electric sheets lighted up this calcissus matter brilliantly. Replying to a question, Konsei asked me, as to the time these colossal barriers took to be raised, I astonished him by telling him that learned men reckoned about the eighth of an inch in a hundred years. Towards evening, Clermont was lost in the distance, and the root of the Nalus was sensibly changed, and having crossed the tropic of Capricorn in 135 degrees longitude, it sailed west-northwest, making again for the tropical zone. Although the summer sun was very strong, we did not suffer from heat. For at fifteen or twenty fathoms below the surface, the temperature did not rise above from ten to twelve degrees. On the 15th of December, we left the east, the bewitching group of the societies, and the graceful Tahiti, queen of the Pacific. I saw in the morning some miles to the windward the elevated summits of the island. These waters furnished our table with excellent fish, mackerel, ponitos, and some varieties of the sea serpent. On the 25th of December,

the Nautilus sailed into the midst of new Hebrides discovered by Chiros in 1606, and that Bougain and Vell explored in 1768, and to which Cook gave its present name in 1773.

This group is composed. blurred in 1768, and to which Cook gave its present name in 1773.

This group is composed principally of nine large islands that form a band of 120 leagues north-north south to south-south west. 15 degrees and 2 degrees South latitude and 164 degrees and 168 degrees longitude. We passed tolerably near the island of Oro that at noon looked like a mass of green woods surmounted by a peak of great height. That day being Christmas day,

that land seemed to regret sorely the non-sileration of Christmas.

I had not seen Captain Nemo for a week, when on the morning of the 27th,

he came into the large strong room, always seeming as if he had seen you five minutes before.

I was busily tracing the root of the notalless on the planet sphere. The captain came up to me, put his finger on one spot of the chart, and said this single word. Vanicoro The effect was magical. It was the name of the islands on which Roo's had been lost. I rose suddenly. The novelist has brought us to Vanacoro, I asked. Yes, Professor, said the captain. And I can visit the celebrated islands. If you like, Professor. When shall we be there? We are there now. Followed by Captain Nemo, I went up onto the platform and greedily scanned their eyes in. To the northeast, two volcanic islands emerged of unequal size, surrounded by a coral reef that measured 40 miles in circumference. We were close to Vanicorl, and exactly facing the little harbor of the new, situated in 16 degrees, four minutes south latitude, and on 64 degrees degrees, 32 minutes east longitude. The earth is seen covered with verger from the shore to the summits in the interior that were crowned by Mount Capogo, 476 feet high. The nautilus, having passed the outer belt of rocks by a narrow straight, found itself among breakers, where the sea was from 30 to 40 fathoms deep. Under the verdant shade of some main groves, I perceived some islanders who appeared greatly surprised at our approach. In the long black body moving between wind and water, did they not see some formidable cetacean that they regarded with suspicion? Just then, Captain Nemo asked me what I knew about the wreck of La Perouche, only what everyone knows, Captain. I replied, and could you tell me what everyone knows about it? He inquired, ironically.

Easily, I related to him all that the last works had made known, works from which the following is a brief account. and his captain were sent by Louis XVI in 1785 on a voyage of circumnavigation. embarked, and neither of which were again heard of.

In 1791, the French government, justly uneasy as to the fate of these two slups,

and two large merchantmen, which left the 28th of September.

...