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1THE MEDITERRANEAN IN FORTY-EIGHT HOURS The Mediterranean, the blue sea par excellence, "the great sea" of the Hebrews,
2"the sea" of the Greeks, the "mare nostrum" of the Romans, bordered by orange-trees, aloes, cacti, and sea-pines;
3embalmed with the perfume of the myrtle, surrounded by rude mountains, saturated with pure and transparent air, but
4incessantly worked by underground fires; a perfect battlefield in which Neptune and Pluto still dispute the empire of
5the world! It is upon these banks, and on these waters, says Michelet, that man is renewed in one of the most powerful
6climates of the globe. But, beautiful as it was, I could only take a rapid glance at the basin whose superficial area is
7two million of square yards. Even Captain Nemo's knowledge was lost to me, for this puzzling person did not appear once
8during our passage at full speed. I estimated the course which the Nautilus took under the waves of the sea at about six
9hundred leagues, and it was accomplished in forty-eight hours. Starting on the morning of the 16th of February from the
10shores of Greece, we had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar by sunrise on the 18th. It was plain to me that this
11Mediterranean, enclosed in the midst of those countries which he wished to avoid, was distasteful to Captain Nemo. Those
12waves and those breezes brought back too many remembrances, if not too many regrets. Here he had no longer that
13independence and that liberty of gait which he had when in the open seas, and his Nautilus felt itself cramped between
14the close shores of Africa and Europe. Our speed was now twenty-five miles an hour. It may be well understood that Ned
15Land, to his great disgust, was obliged to renounce his intended flight. He could not launch the pinnace, going at the
16rate of twelve or thirteen yards every second. To quit the Nautilus under such conditions would be as bad as jumping
17from a train going at full speed--an imprudent thing, to say the least of it. Besides, our vessel only mounted to the
18surface of the waves at night to renew its stock of air; it was steered entirely by the compass and the log. I saw no
19more of the interior of this Mediterranean than a traveller by express train perceives of the landscape which flies
20before his eyes; that is to say, the distant horizon, and not the nearer objects which pass like a flash of lightning.
21We were then passing between Sicily and the coast of Tunis. In the narrow space between Cape Bon and the Straits of
22Messina the bottom of the sea rose almost suddenly. There was a perfect bank, on which there was not more than nine
23fathoms of water, whilst on either side the depth was ninety fathoms. The Nautilus had to manœuvre very carefully so as
24not to strike against this submarine barrier. I showed Conseil, on the map of the Mediterranean, the spot occupied by
25this reef. "But if you please, sir," observed Conseil, "it is like a real isthmus joining Europe to Africa." "Yes, my
26boy, it forms a perfect bar to the Straits of Lybia, and the soundings of Smith have proved that in former times the
27continents between Cape Boco and Cape Furina were joined." "I can well believe it," said Conseil. "I will add," I
28continued, "that a similar barrier exists between Gibraltar and Ceuta, which in geological times formed the entire
29Mediterranean." "What if some volcanic burst should one day raise these two barriers above the waves?" "It is not
30probable, Conseil." "Well, but allow me to finish, please, sir; if this phenomenon should take place, it will be
31troublesome for M. Lesseps, who has taken so much pains to pierce the isthmus." "I agree with you; but I repeat,
32Conseil, this phenomenon will never happen. The violence of subterranean force is ever diminishing. Volcanoes, so
33plentiful in the first days of the world, are being extinguished by degrees; the internal heat is weakened, the
34temperature of the lower strata of the globe is lowered by a perceptible quantity every century to the detriment of our
35globe, for its heat is its life." "But the sun?" "The sun is not sufficient, Conseil. Can it give heat to a dead body?"
36"Not that I know of." "Well, my friend, this earth will one day be that cold corpse; it will become uninhabitable and
37uninhabited like the moon, which has long since lost all its vital heat." "In how many centuries?" "In some hundreds of
38thousands of years, my boy." "Then," said Conseil, "we shall have time to finish our journey--that is, if Ned Land does
39not interfere with it." And Conseil, reassured, returned to the study of the bank, which the Nautilus was skirting at a
40moderate speed. During the night of the 16th and 17th February we had entered the second Mediterranean basin, the
41greatest depth of which was 1,450 fathoms. The Nautilus, by the action of its screw, slid down the inclined planes and
42buried itself in the lowest depths of the sea. On the 18th of February, about three o'clock in the morning, we were at
43the entrance of the Straits of Gibraltar. There once existed two currents: an upper one, long since recognised, which
44conveys the waters of the ocean into the basin of the Mediterranean; and a lower counter-current, which reasoning has
45now shown to exist. Indeed, the volume of water in the Mediterranean, incessantly added to by the waves of the Atlantic
46and by rivers falling into it, would each year raise the level of this sea, for its evaporation is not sufficient to
47restore the equilibrium. As it is not so, we must necessarily admit the existence of an under-current, which empties
48into the basin of the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibraltar the surplus waters of the Mediterranean. A fact indeed;
49and it was this counter-current by which the Nautilus profited. It advanced rapidly by the narrow pass. For one instant
50I caught a glimpse of the beautiful ruins of the temple of Hercules, buried in the ground, according to Pliny, and with
51the low island which supports it; and a few minutes later we were floating on the Atlantic.
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