Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/21

 “The profound depths of the ocean are entirely unknown to us. Soundings have never reached to the bottom. What goes on in these abysses? What beings inhabit or can inhabit the regions twelve or fifteen miles beneath the surface of the water? What is their organisation? One can scarcely even conjecture.

“Nevertheless, the solution of the problem which has been submitted to me assumes this shape—

“Either we are acquainted with all the varieties of beings which inhabit our planet, or we are not.

“If we do not know them all, if Nature has still secrets from us in ichthyology, nothing can be more rational than to admit the existence of fishes or cetacea of new species, or even new genera, of an essentially primary organisation, which inhabit the beds of ocean inaccessible to the sounding line, and which some accident, a fancy or caprice, if they will it, impels, at long intervals, to the upper waters of the ocean.

“If, on the contrary, we do know all living species, we must, necessarily, seek for the animal in question amongst the marine animals already catalogued, and in this event, I am disposed to admit the existence of a gigantic narwhal.

“The common narwhal or sea-unicorn often attains a length of sixty feet. Five or ten times this extent would give to this cetacean a force proportionate to its size; increase its offensive power, and you obtain the animal you desire. It will have the proportions mentioned by the officers of the Shannon, the instrument needed for the perforation of the Scotia, and the force necessary to pierce the hull of a steamer. As a fact, the narwhal is armed with an ivory sword, or halberd—as some natural-