Music Welcome to SNewscast. The podcast is on to help you fall asleep. Find us at SNewscast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. wanted to listen to 20,000 leaks under the sea, for example, as a playlist, so you could either start from the beginning or play multiple episodes from just that story in a row, and you wouldn't need to go searching through the catalog? In case you didn't know dear listeners, besides the primary snooze cast show, we also produce standalone versions of many of our continuing stories as their own separate podcasts for your convenience. Just search for snooze cast presents to find all the options available. And if you subscribe to snoewscast Plus, you get complete access to all these series, ad-free. To learn more, go to snewscast.com slash plus. This episode is brought to you by Great Submarine Depths. Tonight, we'll read the next part to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the classic science-fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. In the last episode, Aeronax and the crew of the Nautilus reached the South Pole. They encountered scattered icebergs in various wildlife. Captain Nemo expresses uncertainty about their exact location and decides to take bearings. We pick up right after Aeronax's and Captain Nemo's last conversation where they discuss the importance of taking those observations, as it marks the equinox and the last opportunity for six months to determine their position at the South Pole before the polar night descends. The captain expresses confidence that if they can see the sun exactly cut by the northern horizon at noon, it will confirm their location. Despite potential mathematical errors due to the equinox, not necessarily beginning at noon, the captain is optimistic that their bearings will be accurate enough.

They agree to reconvene after breakfast to choose a suitable observation post, a shore.

Let's get cozy.

Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now, take a few deep breaths. The weather is lightening a little. Said the captain, I have some hope. After breakfast, we will go on shore and choose a post for observation.

That point settled, I sought an end land. I wanted to take him with me, but the obstinate Canadian refused, and I saw that his task eternity and his bad humor grew day by day. all. I was not sorry for his obstinacy under the circumstances. Indeed, there were too many seals on shore, and we ought not to lay such temptation in this unreflecting fisherman's way. Breakfast over, we went on shore. The notalless had gone some miles further up in the night. It was a whole league from the coast, above which reared a sharp peak, about 500 yards high. The boat and the took with me Captain Nemo, two men of the crew and the instruments which consisted of a cronometer, a telescope and a barometer. While crossing, I saw numerous whales belonging to the three kinds peculiar to the southern seas.

The whale or the English right whale, which has no dorsal fin, the humpback, with reaved chest and large whitish fins, which, in spite of its name, do not form wings, and the fin back of a yellowish brown, the liveliest of all the sataycha. This powerful creature is heard a long way off when he throws to a great height, columns of air and vapor, which look like whirlwinds of smoke these different mammals were disporting themselves in troops in the quiet waters. And I could see that this basin of the Antarctic pole serves as a place of refuge to the cetacea to closely tracked by the hunters. I also noticed large jellyfish floating between the reeds. At nine we landed. The sky was brightening. The clouds were flying to the south, and the fog seemed to be leaving the cold surface of the waters.

Captain Nemo went towards the peak, which he doubtless meant to be his observatory. It was a painful ascent over the sharp lava and the pumice stones in an atmosphere often impregnated with a sulfur smell from the smoking cracks. For a man unaccustomed to a walk on land, the captain climbed the steep slopes with an agility I never saw equaled and which a hunter would have envied. We were two hours getting to the summit of this peak. From thence, we looked upon a vast sea, which, towards the north, distinctly traced its boundary line upon the sky, at our feet lay fields of dazzling whiteness, over our heads, a pale blue, free from fog. To the north, the disc of the sun seemed like a ball of fire, already horned by the cutting of the horizon, from the bosom of the water rose sheaves of liquid jets by hundreds. In the distance lay the nautilus, like a citation asleep on the water, behind us to the south and east, an immense country and a chaotic heap of rocks and ice, the limits of which were not visible. On arriving at the summit, Captain Nemo carefully took the mean height of the barometer, for he would have to consider that and taking his observations. But according to twelve the sun, then seen only by refraction, looked like a golden disc shedding its last rays upon this deserted continent, and sees which man never had yet plowed. Captain Nemo furnished with a lenticular glass which, by means of a mirror, corrected the refraction, watching the orbs sinking below the horizon by degrees, following a length and a diagonal. I held the cronometer. My heart beat fast. If the disappearance of the half-disk of the sun coincided with twelve o'clock, we were at the pole itself. Twelve, I exclaimed. the South Pole replied Captain Nemo in a grey voice, handing me the glass which showed the orb cut in exactly equal parts by their horizon. I looked at the last rays crowning the peak and the shadow mounting by degrees up its slopes. At that moment, Captain Nemo resting with his hand on my shoulder said, I, Captain Nemo, on this 21st day of March, 1868, have reached the South Pole on the 90th agree. And I take possession of this part of the globe equal to one-sixth of the known continents. In whose name, Captain, in my own sir, saying which, Captain Nemo unfurled a black banner, bearing an end in gold quartered on its bunting. Then, turning towards the orb of day, whose last rays lapped the horizon of the sea, he exclaimed, A dew-sun. disappear thou radiant orb, rest beneath this open sea, and let the night of six months spread its shadow over my new domains. 15. Accident or Incident. The next day, the 22nd of March, at 6 in the morning, preparations for departure were begun. The last gleams of twilight were melting into night. The cold was great. The constellations shone with wonderful intensity. In the zenith glittered that wondrous southern cross, the polar bear of Antarctic regions. The thermometer showed 120 degrees below zero. and when the wind freshened, it was most biting. Flakes of ice increased on the open water. The sea seemed everywhere alike. Numerous blackish patches spread on the surface, showing the formation of fresh ice. Evidently, the southern basin, frozen during the six winter months, was absolutely inaccessible. What became of the whales in that time? outlessless they went beneath the icebergs seeking more practicable seas. As to the seals and the morses, accustomed to living in a hard climate, they remained on these icy shores. These creatures have the instinct to break holes in the ice field and to keep them open. To these holes they come for breath, when the birds driven away by the cold have emigrated to the north. These sea mammals remained soul masters of the polar continent. But the reservoirs were filling with water, and the nautilus was slowly descending. At 1,000 feet deep, it stopped. Its screw beat the waves, and it advanced straight towards the north at a speed of fifteen miles an hour. Towards night it was already floating under the immense body of the iceberg. At three in the morning I was awakened by a violent shock. I sat up in my bed and listened in the darkness. I was thrown into the middle of the room, the nautilus, after having struck, had rebounded. I gropeed along the partition and by the staircase. To this alone, which was lit by the luminous ceiling. The furniture was upset.

Fortunately, the windows were firmly set.

And had held fast.

The pictures on the starboard side,

from being no longer vertical,

were clinging to the paper,

whilst those of the port side were hanging at least a foot from the wall. The nautilus was lying on its starboard side perfectly motionless. I heard footsteps and a confusion of voices, but Captain Nemo did not appear. As I was leaving, that land and con say entered. What is the matter?" said I at once. I came to ask you, sir," replied con say. Con't found it. exclaimed the Canadian. I know well enough. The novelist has struck, and judging by the

way she lies, I do not think she will write herself. But I ask, as she at least come to the surface of the sea, we do not know, is that con say? It is easy to decide, I answered.

I consulted the denominator.

To my great surprise, it showed a depth of more than 180 fathoms. What does that mean? I exclaimed. We must ask Captain Nemo, said Conce. But where shall we find him?" said Nedland. Follow me, said I, to my companions. We left. There was no one in the library. At the center staircase, by the births of the ship's crew, there was no one. I thought that Captain Nemo must be in the pilot's cage. It was best to wait. We all returned to the saloon. For twenty minutes, we remained thus, trying to hear the slightest noise, which might be made on board the Nautilus, when Captain Nemo entered. He seemed not to see us. His face, generally so impassive, showed signs of uneasiness. He watched the compass silently, then the monometer, and going to the planet sphere, placed his fingers on a spot representing the southern seas. I would not interrupt him, but some minutes later, when he turned towards me, I said, using one of his own expressions. an incident, Captain? No, sir. An accident this time. Serious? Perhaps. Is the danger immediate? No. The Nautilus has stranded? Yes. And this has happened how? From a caprice of nature, not from the ignorance of man. Not a mistake has been made in the working. But we cannot prevent equilibrium from producing its effects. We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones. Captain Nemo had chosen a strange moment for uttering this philosophical reflection. On the whole, his answer helped me little. I ask ask, sir, the cause of this accident? An enormous block of ice, a whole mountain, has turned over. He replied, when icebergs are undermined at their base by warmer waters, or reiterated shocks their center of gravity rises, and the whole thing turns over. This is what has happened. One of these blocks, as it fell, struck the non-alice. Then, gliding under its hull, raised it with irresistible force, bringing it into beds, which are not so thick, where it is lying on its side. But can we not get the nodalists off by emptying its reservoirs that it might regain its equilibrium? That, sir, is being done at this moment. You can hear the pump working. Look at the needle of the manometer. It shows that the nautilus is rising. But the block of ice is floating with it. And until some obstacle stops its ascending motion, our position cannot be altered. Indeed, the nautilus still held the same position to starboard. Doubtless, it would write itself when the block stopped. But at this moment, who knows if we may not be frightfully crushed between the two glassy surfaces? I reflected on all the consequences of our position. Captain Nemo never took his eyes off the manometer. Since the fall of the iceberg, the novelist had risen about 150 feet, but it still made the same angle with the perpendicular. Suddenly, a slight movement was felt in the hold. Evidently, it was writing a little. Things hanging in the saloon were sensibly returning to their normal position. The partitions were nearing the upright. No one spoke. With beating hearts we watched and felt the straining.. The boards became horizontal under our feet. Ten minutes passed. At last we have righted. I exclaimed, yes, that Captain Nemo, going to the door. But are we floating? I asked.

Certainly, he replied, since the reservoirs are not empty, and when empty the nautilus was rise to the surface of the sea. We were in the open sea, but at a distance of about ten yards on either side of the anodilous rose, a dazzlingling wall of ice. Above and beneath the same wall. Above, because the lower surface of the iceberg stretched over us like an immense ceiling, beneath, because the overturned block, having slid by degrees, had found a resting place on the lateral walls, which kept it in that position. The nautilus was really imprisoned in a perfect tunnel of ice, more than twenty yards in breadth, filled with quiet water. It was easy to get out of it by going either forward or backward, and then make free passage under the iceberg, some hundreds of yards deeper. The luminous ceiling had been extinguished, but the saloon was still resplendent with intense light. It was the powerful reflection from the glass partition sent back to the sheets of the lantern. I cannot describe the effect of the Voltaic rays upon the great blocks so capriciously cut upon every angle, every ridge, every facet was thrown at different light according to the nature of the veins running through the ice, a dazzling mind of gems, particularly of sapphires, their blue rays crossing with the green of the emerald. in there were were opal shades of wonderful softness, running through bright spots like diamonds of fire, the brilliancy of which the eye could not bear. The power of the lantern seemed increased a hundredfold, like a lamp through the lenticular plates of a first-class lighthouse. How beautiful, how beautiful, cried Conce. Yes, I said, it is a wonderful sight. Is it not, Ned? Yes, Conned found it, yes, answered Nedland. It is superb. I am mad at being obliged to admit it. No one has ever seen anything like it. But the sight may cost us dear. And if I may say it all, I think we are seeing here things which God never intended man to see. That was right. It was too beautiful. Suddenly a cry from con say made me turn. What is it? I asked. Shud your eyes, sir. Do not look, sir. Saying which con say clapped his hands over his eyes. But what is the matter? I am dazzled. My eyes turned involuntarily towards the glass, but I could not stand the fire which seemed to devour them. I understood what had happened. The notalless had put on full speed. All the quiet luster of the ice walls was at once changed into flashes of lightning.

The fire from these myriads of diamonds was blinding. It required some time to calm our troubled looks. At last, the hands were taken down. Faith I should have never believed it, said Gonzá, it was five in the morning and at that

moment. Faith I should have never believed it," said Gonzay.

It was five in the morning, and at that moment a shock was felt on the nautilus. I knew that its spur had struck a block of ice. It must have been a false maneuver. this submarine tunnel, obstructed by blocks, was not very easy navigation. I thought that Captain Nemo, by changing his course, would either turn these obstacles, or else follow the windings of the tunnel. In any case, the road before us could not be entirely blocked. But contrary to my expectations, the Nautilus took a decided retrograde motion. We are going backwards. Said Konsei. Yes, I replied, this end of the tunnel can have no egress. And then, then, said I, the working is easy. We must go back again and go out at the southern opening. That is all. And speaking of those, I wished to appear more confident than I really was, but the retrograde motion of the Nautilus was increasing and reversing the screw it carried us at great speed. It will be a hindrance, said Ned.

What does it matter some hours more or less provided we get out at last? Yes, repeated dead land, provided we do get out at last. For a short time, I walked from the saloon to the library. My companions were silent. I soon threw myself on an ottoman and took a book

which my eyes overran mechanically. A quarter of an hour after, Kahn's say approaching me said, is what you are reading very interesting, sir? Very interesting, I replied. I should think so, sir. It is your own book you are reading. My book? And indeed, I was holding in my hand the work on the great submarine depths. I did not even dream of it. I closed the book and returned to my walk. Ned and Conce rose to go. Stay here, my friends," said I, detaining them. Let us remain together until we are out of this block. As you please, sir," Consay replied. Some hours passed, I often looked at the instruments hanging from the partition.

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