Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/177

 Each day, for some hours, the panels of the saloon were drawn back, and our eyes were by no means fatigued.

The Nautilus was kept in a south-easterly course, and at about 150 yards below the surface. One day, however, for some reason, she descended diagonally by means of the inclined planes, to a depth of 2,000 feet. The thermometer indicated 4.25 centigrade, a temperature that at this depth appears to be common to all latitudes.

On the 26th November, at 3, the Nautilus crossed the tropic of Cancer at 172° longitude. On the 27th we passed the Sandwich Islands, where the illustrious Captain Cook met his death, on the 14th February, 1779. We had then made 4,860 leagues from our starting-point. In the morning, when I came up on the platform, I perceived, about two miles to windward, the island of Hawaii, the largest of the seven composing the group. I could distinctly perceive its cultivated borders, the chains of mountains parallel to the coast, and the volcanoes, of which Mouna Rea is the highest, rising 15,000 feet above the level of the sea. Amongst other souvenirs of these regions, the nets pulled in some polyps peculiar to this part of the ocean.

The Nautilus still ran south-east. We passed the equator on the 1st December, in 142° longitude, and on the fourth of the same month, after a rapid passage, but devoid of incident, we reached the Marquesas Isles. I perceived three miles away, in 8° 57′ south latitude, and 139° 32′ longitude, Point Martin, in Nouka-Hiva, the principal of the group which belongs to France. I could only distinguish the wooded hills, for Captain Nemo did