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You're built to win it. Welcome to snoozecast. podcast design to help you fall asleep. Find a set snoozecast. The podcast is on. 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 Ancient Naturalists. 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, their submarine has navigated into the Mediterranean. and that land expresses his firm desire to escape the Nautilus.

Now... navigated into the Mediterranean. Ned Land expresses his firm desire to escape the Nautilus, now that they have made it to European territory. Aeronax feels conflicted. He doesn't like being out captive. However, he is thrilled But the scientific exploration he has been allowed to make. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. Chapter 7. The Mediterranean in 48 hours. The Mediterranean. The Great Sea of the Hebrews, the sea of the Greeks, the Maurei Nostrum of the Romans, bordered by orange trees, allos, cacti, and sea pines, bombed with the perfume of the myrtle,

surrounded by rude mountains, saturated with pure and transparent air, but incessantly worked by underground fires, A perfect battlefield in which Neptune and Pluto still dispute the empire of the world. But beautiful as it was, I could only take a rapid glance at the basin whose superficial area is 2 million of square yards.

Even Captain Nemo's knowledge was lost to me, for this puzzling person did not appear once during our passage at full speed. I estimated the course which the Nautilus took under the waves of the sea at about 600 leagues, and it was accomplished in 48 hours. It was plain to me that this Mediterranean enclosed in the midst of those countries which he wished to avoid was distasteful to Captain Nemo. Those waves and those breezes brought back too many remembrances, if not too many regrets. Here, he had no longer that independence and that liberty of a gate, which he had when in the open seas, and his notaless felt itself cramped between the close shores of Africa and Europe. Our speed was now 25 miles an hour, and maybe well understood that netland, to his great disgust, was obliged to renounce his intended flight. He could not launch the penis, going at the rate of 12 or 13 yards every second.

To quit the non-alice under such conditions would be as bad as jumping from a train, going at full speed, an imprudent thing to say the least of it. Besides, our vessel only mounted to the surface of the waves at night to renew its stock of air. It was steered entirely by the compass and the log. I saw no more of the interior of this Mediterranean than a traveler by express train perceives of the landscape which flies before his eyes. That is to say, the distant horizon and not the nearer objects which pass like a flash of lightning. We were then passing between Sicily. In the narrow space between Cape Bonn and the Straits of Messina, the bottom of the sea rose almost suddenly. There was a perfect bank on which there was not more than nine fathoms of water, whilst on either side the depth was 90 fathoms.

The nautilus had to maneuver very carefully, so as not to strike against this submarine barrier.

I showed Konsei on the map of the Mediterranean, the spawn occupied by this reef. But if you please sir, observed Concei, it is like a realism. Is Miss joining Europe to Africa? Yes, it forms a perfect bar to the Straits of Libya, and the soundings of Smith have proved that in former times the continents between Cape Boko and Cape Furena were joined. I can well believe it," said Konsei. But what if some volcanic burst should one day raise these two barriers above the waves?

It is not probable, Conce. The violence of subterranean force is ever diminishing. Volcanoes, so plentiful in the first days of the world, are being extinguished by degrees. The internal heat is weakened. The temperature of the lower strata of the globe is lowered by a perceptible quantity every century to the detriment of our globe, for its heat is its life. But the sun? The sun is not sufficient, can't say, this earth will one day be cold. It will become unhabitable and unhabited like the moon, which has long since lost all its vital heat. In how many centuries? In some hundreds of thousands of years. Then said Konsei, we shall have time to finish our journey, that is, if Nedland does not interfere with it. And Konsei reassured, returned to the study of the bank, which the Nautilus was scurrying at a moderate speed. During the night of the 16th and 17th of February, we had entered the Second Mediterranean Basin, the greatest depth of which was 1400 bathamns, the Nautilus, by the action of its crew, slid down the inclined plains and buried itself in the lowest depths of the sea. On the 18th of February, about three o'clock in the morning, we were at the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar. There once existed two currents, an upper one, long since recognized, which conveys the waters of the ocean into the basin of the Mediterranean, and a lower countercurrent, which reasoning has now shown to exist. Indeed, the volume of water in the Mediterranean, incessantly added to by the waves of the Atlantic and by rivers falling into it, would each year raise the level of the sea, for its evaporation is not sufficient to restore the equilibrium. As it is not so, we must necessarily admit the existence of an undercurrent, which empties into the basin of the Atlantic through the straits of Gibraltar, the surplus waters of the Mediterranean, a fact indeed, and it was this countercurrent by which the Nautilus profited, it advanced rapidly by the narrow paths. one instant instant I caught a glimpse of the beautiful ruins of the Temple of Hercules buried in the ground according to Pliny and with the low island which supports it. And a few minutes later we were floating on the Atlantic.

CHAPTER 8 VIGO BAY The Atlantic, a vast sheet of water whose superficial area covers 25 millions of square miles, the length of which is 9,000 miles, with a mean breadth of 2,700, an ocean

whose parallel winding shores embrace an immense circumference, watered by the largest rivers of the the world, the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Niger, the Senegal, the Elbe, the Laurie, and the Rhine, magnificent field of water incessantly plowed by vessels of every nation, sheltered by the flags of every nation, and which terminates in those two points so dreaded by mariners, Cape Horn and the Cape of Tempest. The Nautilus was piercing the water with its sharp spur after having accomplished nearly 10,000 leagues in three months and a half, a distance greater than the great circle of the earth. Where were we going now and what was reserved for the future? The notalless leaving the straits of Gibraltar had gone far out. It returned to the surface of the waves and our daily walks on the platform, or restored to us. I mounted at once accompanied by netland and consay, at our distance of about 12 miles, Cape St. Vincent was dimly to be seen, forming the southwestern point of the Spanish Peninsula. A strong, southerly gale was blowing. The sea was swollen and billowy. It made the non-alice rock back and forth. It was almost impossible to keep one's foot on the platform, which the heavy rolls of the sea beat over every instant, so we descended after inhaling some mouthfuls of fresh air. I returned to my room, conceded to his cabin, but the Canadian, with a preoccupied air, followed me. Our rapid passage across the Mediterranean had not allowed him to put his project into execution, and he could not help showing his disappointment. When the door of my room was shut, he sat down and looked at me silently. Friend Ned said, I understand you, but you cannot reproach yourself. Do have attempted to leave the novelists under the circumstances would have been folly. Ned land did not answer. His compressed lips and frowning brow showed with him the possession this fixed idea had taken of his mind. Let us see, I continued. We need not despair yet. We are going up the coast of Portugal again. France and England are not far off, where we can easily find refuge. Now if the Nautilus, on leaving the stra of Gibraltar, I've gone to the south. If it had carried us towards regions where there were no continents, I should share your uneasiness. But we now know that Captain Nemo does not fly from civilized seas. And in some days I think you can act with security. Ned Land still looked at me fixately. At length his fixed lips parted, and he said, it is for tonight. I drew myself up suddenly. I was, I admit, little prepared for this communication. I wanted to answer the Canadian, but words would not come. We agreed to wait for an opportunity, continued deadland, and the opportunity has arrived. This night we shall be but a few miles from the Spanish coast. It is cloudy. The wind blows freely. I have your word, Miss Your Aeronax, and I rely upon you. As I was silent, the Canadian approached me. Tonight, at 9 o'clock, said he, I have warned Conce, at that moment Captain Nemo will be shut up in his room, probably in bed. Neither the engineers nor the ship's crew can see us. Conce and I will gain the central staircase, in you measure air and eggs, when remain in the library. Two steps from us, waiting my signal. The ores, the mast, and the sail are in the canoe. I have even succeeded in getting some provisions. I have procured an English wrench to unfasten

the bolts which attach it to the shell of the nonless, so all is ready, til tonight. The sea is bad. That I allow replied the Canadian, but we must grist that. Liberty is worth paying for. Besides, the boat is strong, and a few miles with a fair wind to carry us is no great thing. Who knows, but by tomorrow we may be a hundred leaks away. Let circumstances only favor us, and by ten or eleven o'clock we shall have landed on some spot of terra firma. But a dew now, till tonight, with these words the Canadian withdrew, leaving me almost dumb. I had imagined that, the chance gone, I should have time to reflect and discuss the matter. My obstinate companion had given me no time. and after all, what could I have said to him? Nedland was perfectly right. There was almost the opportunity to profit by. Could I retract my word and take upon myself the responsibility of compromising the future of my companions, tomorrow Captain Nemo might take us far from all land. At that moment, a rather loud hissing noise told me that the reservoirs were filling and that the notless was sinking under the waves of the Atlantic. A sad day I passed between the desire of regaining my liberty of action and of abandoning the wonderful Nautilus and leaving my submarine studies incomplete. dread dreadful hours I passed thus, sometimes seeing myself and companions safely landed, sometimes wishing, in spite of my reason, that some unforeseen circumstance would prevent the realization of Nedlands' project.

Twice I went to the saloon. I wished to consult the compass. I wished to see if the direction the Nautilus was taking was bringing us nearer or taking us farther from the coast, but no, the novel is kept in Portuguese waters. I must therefore take my part and prepare for flight. My luggage was not heavy, my notes nothing more. As to Captain Nemo, I asked myself what he would think of our escape, what trouble, what wrong it might cause him, and what he might do in case of its discovery or failure. Certainly I had no cause to complain of him. On the contrary, never was hospitality freer than his. In leaving him I could not be taxed with ingratitude. No oath bound us to him. It was on the strength of circumstance he relied.

I had not seen the captains in Sarv visit to the island of Santorini. Would chance bring me to his presence before our departure? I wished it, and I feared it at the same time. I listened if I could hear him walking the room, contiguous to mine. No sound reached my ear. I felt an unbearable uneasiness. This day of waiting seemed eternal. or struck too slowly to keep pace with my impatience.

My dinner was served in my room as usual. I ate but little. I was too preoccupied. I left the table at seven o'clock. 120 minutes I counted them still separated me from the moment in which I was to join Nedland. I could not remain quiet. I went and came hoping to calm my troubled spirit by constant movement. I wanted to see the saloon for the last time. I descended the stairs, and I arrived in the museum where I had passed so many useful and agreeable hours. I looked at all its riches, all its treasures,

like a man on the eve of an eternal exile who was leaving never to return. These wonders of nature, these masterpieces of art, amongst which for so many days my life had been concentrated, I was going to abandon them forever. I should like to have taken a last look through the windows, into the waters of the Atlantic, but the panels were medically closed, and a cloak of steel separated me from that ocean which I had not yet explored. In passing, I came near the door, let into the angle which opened into the captain's room. To my great surprise, this door was a jar. I drew back involuntarily. If Captain Nemo should be in his room, he could see me. But hearing no sound, I drew nearer. The room was deserted. I pushed open the door and took some steps forward. Still the same monk-like severity of aspect. Suddenly the clock struck eight. The first beat of the hammer on the bell awoke me from my dreams.

I trembled as if an invisible eye had plunged into my most secret thoughts, and I hurried from the room. There my eye fell upon the compass. Our course was still north, the log indicated moderate speed. The denominator, a depth of about 60 feet, I returned to my room, clothed myself warmly, Seaboot's, an Otterskin cap.

I was ready. I was waiting. The vibration of this screw alone broke the deep silence which rained on board. I listened tentatively.

Would no loud voice suddenly inform me

that an endland had been surprised

in his projected flight?

...