For several days the Nautilus kept off from the American coast.
Evidently it did not wish to risk the tides of the Gulf of Mexico or of the sea of the Antilles.April 16th,we sighted Martinique and Guadaloupe from a distance of about thirty miles.
Isaw their tall peaks for an instant.The Canadian,who counted on carrying out his projects in the Gulf,by either landing or hailing one of the numerous boats that coast from one island to another,was quite disheartened.
Flight would have been quite practicable,if Ned Land had been able to take possession of the boat without the Captain's knowledge.
But in the open sea it could not be thought of.The Canadian,Conseil,and Ihad a long conversation on this subject.
For six months we had been prisoners on board the Nautilus.
We had travelled 17,000leagues;and,as Ned Land said,there was no reason why it should come to an end.We could hope nothing from the Captain of the Nautilus,but only from ourselves.
Besides,for some time past he had become graver,more retired,less sociable.He seemed to shun me.Imet him rarely.
Formerly he was pleased to explain the submarine marvels to me;now he left me to my studies,and came no more to the saloon.
What change had come over him?For what cause?For my part,Idid not wish to bury with me my curious and novel studies.
Ihad now the power to write the true book of the sea;and this book,sooner or later,Iwished to see daylight.
The land nearest us was the archipelago of the Bahamas.There rose high submarine cliffs covered with large weeds.It was about eleven o'clock when Ned Land drew my attention to a formidable pricking,like the sting of an ant,which was produced by means of large seaweeds.
"Well,"Isaid,"these are proper caverns for poulps,and Ishould not be astonished to see some of these monsters.""What!"said Conseil;"cuttlefish,real cuttlefish of the cephalopod class?""No,"Isaid,"poulps of huge dimensions."
"Iwill never believe that such animals exist,"said Ned.
"Well,"said Conseil,with the most serious air in the world,"Iremember perfectly to have seen a large vessel drawn under the waves by an octopus's arm.""You saw that?"said the Canadian.
"Yes,Ned."
"With your own eyes?"
"With my own eyes."
"Where,pray,might that be?"
"At St.Malo,"answered Conseil.
"In the port?"said Ned,ironically.
"No;in a church,"replied Conseil.
"In a church!"cried the Canadian.
"Yes;friend Ned.In a picture representing the poulp in question.""Good!"said Ned Land,bursting out laughing.
"He is quite right,"Isaid."Ihave heard of this picture;but the subject represented is taken from a legend,and you know what to think of legends in the matter of natural history.
Besides,when it is a question of monsters,the imagination is apt to run wild.Not only is it supposed that these poulps can draw down vessels,but a certain Olaus Magnus speaks of an octopus a mile long that is more like an island than an animal.
It is also said that the Bishop of Nidros was building an altar on an immense rock.Mass finished,the rock began to walk,and returned to the sea.The rock was a poulp.
Another Bishop,Pontoppidan,speaks also of a poulp on which a regiment of cavalry could manoeuvre.Lastly,the ancient naturalists speak of monsters whose mouths were like gulfs,and which were too large to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar.""But how much is true of these stories?"asked Conseil.
"Nothing,my friends;at least of that which passes the limit of truth to get to fable or legend.Nevertheless,there must be some ground for the imagination of the story-tellers.One cannot deny that poulps and cuttlefish exist of a large species,inferior,however,to the cetaceans.
Aristotle has stated the dimensions of a cuttlefish as five cubits,or nine feet two inches.Our fishermen frequently see some that are more than four feet long.Some skeletons of poulps are preserved in the museums of Trieste and Montpelier,that measure two yards in length.
Besides,according to the calculations of some naturalists,one of these animals only six feet long would have tentacles twenty-seven feet long.
That would suffice to make a formidable monster.""Do they fish for them in these days?"asked Ned.
"If they do not fish for them,sailors see them at least.
One of my friends,Captain Paul Bos of Havre,has often affirmed that he met one of these monsters of colossal dimensions in the Indian seas.But the most astonishing fact,and which does not permit of the denial of the existence of these gigantic animals,happened some years ago,in 1861.""What is the fact?"asked Ned Land.
"This is it.In 1861,to the north-east of Teneriffe,very nearly in the same latitude we are in now,the crew of the despatch-boat Alector perceived a monstrous cuttlefish swimming in the waters.
Captain Bouguer went near to the animal,and attacked it with harpoon and guns,without much success,for balls and harpoons glided over the soft flesh.After several fruitless attempts the crew tried to pass a slip-knot round the body of the mollusc.
The noose slipped as far as the tail fins and there stopped.
They tried then to haul it on board,but its weight was so considerable that the tightness of the cord separated the tail from the body,and,deprived of this ornament,he disappeared under the water.""Indeed!is that a fact?"
"An indisputable fact,my good Ned.They proposed to name this poulp `Bouguer's cuttlefish.'""What length was it?"asked the Canadian.
"Did it not measure about six yards?"said Conseil,who,posted at the window,was examining again the irregular windings of the cliff.
"Precisely,"Ireplied.
"Its head,"rejoined Conseil,"was it not crowned with eight tentacles,that beat the water like a nest of serpents?""Precisely."
"Had not its eyes,placed at the back of its head,considerable development?""Yes,Conseil."
"And was not its mouth like a parrot's beak?""Exactly,Conseil."