Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/162



CHAPTER XVII.

A SUBMARINE FOREST.

had at length reached the borders of this forest, without doubt one of the most beautiful in the extensive domains of Captain Nemo. He looked upon them as his own, and arrogated to himself the same rights as the first inhabitants in the world’s infancy. Moreover, who would dispute with him the possession of this submarine domain? What other and more hardy pioneer would have come, hatchet in hand, to cut down these dark coppices.

This forest was composed of immense arborescent plants; and as soon as we had entered it I was struck by the peculiar disposition of their branches, such as I had not ever before observed. None of the grasses which carpeted the earth, nor any of the branches of the plants were curved, or crept along the ground; they all grew perpendicularly upward towards the surface. Not a filament nor a reed, thin and delicate as they were, but stood up straight as a rod of iron. The fucus and the bind-weeds grew rigid