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 millions. These valuable molluscs adhere to the rocks, and are there strongly attached by the byssus which will not allow them to move. In this respect, the oyster is inferior to the lowly mussel, to which nature has granted certain powers of locomotion.

Captain Nemo indicated a prodigious number of pintadines, and I could understand that the supply was really inexhaustible, for the creative power of nature is beyond man’s destructive tastes. Ned Land, faithful to his instinct, hastened to fill his net with the best oysters he could gather.

But we could not stay, we were obliged to follow Captain Nemo, who appeared to be striking out paths known to him alone. The ground was getting higher evidently, and sometimes my arm, when held up, was above the surface of the water. The levels of the beds were very irregular, we often turned high rocks worn into pyramid shape. In their gloomy fissures enormous crustacea, standing on their long limbs like war-machines, looked at us with fixed eyes, while beneath our feet were many others.

A large grotto now opened before us, excavated amid a picturesque mass of rock, covered with thick submarine flora. The grotto at first sight seemed very dark indeed. The sun’s rays seemed to be extinguished gradually, and the vague transparency might fitly be termed “drowned light.”

Captain Nemo entered it, however; we all followed him. My eyes soon got accustomed to the gloom. I perceived that the springings of the arches were irregular, and supported by natural pillars standing on broad granite bases like Tuscan columns. Why did our guide lead us into this submarine crypt? I was to know ere long.

Having descended a somewhat steep decline, we reached