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1PRO AND CON At the period when these events took place, I had just returned from a scientific research in the
2disagreeable territory of Nebraska, in the United States. In virtue of my office as Assistant Professor in the Museum of
3Natural History in Paris, the French Government had attached me to that expedition. After six months in Nebraska, I
4arrived in New York towards the end of March, laden with a precious collection. My departure for France was fixed for
5the first days in May. Meanwhile, I was occupying myself in classifying my mineralogical, botanical, and zoological
6riches, when the accident happened to the Scotia. I was perfectly up in the subject which was the question of the day.
7How could I be otherwise? I had read and re-read all the American and European papers without being any nearer a
8conclusion. This mystery puzzled me. Under the impossibility of forming an opinion, I jumped from one extreme to the
9other. That there really was something could not be doubted, and the incredulous were invited to put their finger on the
10wound of the Scotia. On my arrival at New York the question was at its height. The hypothesis of the floating island,
11and the unapproachable sandbank, supported by minds little competent to form a judgment, was abandoned. And, indeed,
12unless this shoal had a machine in its stomach, how could it change its position with such astonishing rapidity? From
13the same cause, the idea of a floating hull of an enormous wreck was given up. There remained then only two possible
14solutions of the question, which created two distinct parties: on one side, those who were for a monster of colossal
15strength; on the other, those who were for a submarine vessel of enormous motive power. But this last hypothesis,
16plausible as it was, could not stand against inquiries made in both worlds. That a private gentleman should have such a
17machine at his command was not likely. Where, when, and how was it built? and how could its construction have been kept
18secret? Certainly a Government might possess such a destructive machine. And in these disastrous times, when the
19ingenuity of man has multiplied the power of weapons of war, it was possible that, without the knowledge of others, a
20state might try to work such a formidable engine. After the chassepots came the torpedoes, after the torpedoes the
21submarine rams, then--the reaction. At least, I hope so. But the hypothesis of a war machine fell before the declaration
22of Governments. As public interest was in question, and transatlantic communications suffered, their veracity could not
23be doubted. But, how admit that the construction of this submarine boat had escaped the public eye? For a private
24gentleman to keep the secret under such circumstances would be very difficult, and for a state whose every act is
25persistently watched by powerful rivals, certainly impossible. After inquiries made in England, France, Russia, Prussia,
26Spain, Italy, and America, even in Turkey, the hypothesis of a submarine monitor was definitely rejected. Upon my
27arrival in New York several persons did me the honour of consulting me on the phenomenon in question. I had published in
28France a work in quarto, in two volumes, entitled "Mysteries of the Great Submarine Grounds." This book, highly approved
29of in the learned world, gained for me a special reputation in this rather obscure branch of Natural History. My advice
30was asked. As long as I could deny the reality of the fact, I confined myself to a decided negative. But soon, finding
31myself driven into a corner, I was obliged to explain myself categorically. And even "the Honourable Pierre Aronnax,
32Professor in the Museum of Paris," was called upon by the New York Herald to express a definite opinion of some sort. I
33did something. I spoke, for want of power to hold my tongue. I discussed the question in all its forms, politically and
34scientifically; and I give here an extract from a carefully-studied article which I published in the number of the 30th
35of April. It ran as follows:-- "After examining one by one the different hypotheses, rejecting all other suggestions, it
36becomes necessary to admit the existence of a marine animal of enormous power. "The great depths of the ocean are
37entirely unknown to us. Soundings cannot reach them. What passes in those remote depths--what beings live, or can live,
38twelve or fifteen miles beneath the surface of the waters--what is the organisation of these animals, we can scarcely
39conjecture. However, the solution of the problem submitted to me may modify the form of the dilemma. Either we do know
40all the varieties of beings which people our planet, or we do not. If we do not know them all--if Nature has still
41secrets in ichthyology for us, nothing is more conformable to reason than to admit the existence of fishes, or cetaceans
42of other kinds, or even of new species, of an organisation formed to inhabit the strata inaccessible to soundings, and
43which an accident of some sort, either fatastical or capricious, has brought at long intervals to the upper level of the
44ocean. "If, on the contrary, we do know all living kinds, we must necessarily seek for the animal in question amongst
45those marine beings already classed; and, in that case, I should be disposed to admit the existence of a gigantic
46narwhal. "The common narwhal, or unicorn of the sea, often attains a length of sixty feet. Increase its size fivefold or
47tenfold, give it strength proportionate to its size, lengthen its destructive weapons, and you obtain the animal
48required. It will have the proportions determined by the officers of the Shannon, the instrument required by the
49perforation of the Scotia, and the power necessary to pierce the hull of the steamer. "Indeed, the narwhal is armed with
50a sort of ivory sword, a halberd, according to the expression of certain naturalists. The principal tusk has the
51hardness of steel. Some of these tusks have been found buried in the bodies of whales, which the unicorn always attacks
52with success. Others have been drawn out, not without trouble, from the bottoms of ships, which they had pierced through
53and through, as a gimlet pierces a barrel. The Museum of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris possesses one of these
54defensive weapons, two yards and a quarter in length, and fifteen inches in diameter at the base. "Very well! suppose
55this weapon to be six times stronger and the animal ten times more powerful; launch it at the rate of twenty miles an
56hour, and you obtain a shock capable of producing the catastrophe required. Until further information, therefore, I
57shall maintain it to be a sea-unicorn of colossal dimensions, armed not with a halberd, but with a real spur, as the
58armoured frigates, or the 'rams' of war, whose massiveness and motive power it would possess at the same time. Thus may
59this puzzling phenomenon be explained, unless there be something over and above all that one has ever conjectured, seen,
60perceived, or experienced; which is just within the bounds of possibility." These last words were cowardly on my part;
61but, up to a certain point, I wished to shelter my dignity as Professor, and not give too much cause for laughter to the
62Americans, who laugh well when they do laugh. I reserved for myself a way of escape. In effect, however, I admitted the
63existence of the "monster." My article was warmly discussed, which procured it a high reputation. It rallied round it a
64certain number of partisans. The solution it proposed gave, at least, full liberty to the imagination. The human mind
65delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings. And the sea is precisely their best vehicle, the only medium
66through which these giants (against which terrestrial animals, such as elephants or rhinoceroses, are as nothing) can be
67produced or developed.
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