Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/9



CHAPTER I.

A MOVING ROCK.

year 1866 was marked by a very strange event, an inexplicable and unexplained phenomenon, which must still be in the recollection of our readers. Without mentioning rumours which agitated the population of the sea-ports, and extended to the interior of various countries, the maritime population were more particularly exercised in their minds. Merchants, ship-owners, ship-captains, skippers, and masters, both European and American, officers of the Marines of both countries, and, subsequently, the Governments of various States of these continents, were deeply engrossed respecting this phenomenon.

As a matter of fact, for some time many vessels had encountered “an enormous thing,” long, spindle-shaped, phosphorescent at times—very much larger and swifter than a whale.