such a cramped space, was very great. But Captain Nemo knew that he
could not hasten too much, and that minutes were worth ages to us. At
twenty-five minutes past eight a second shock took place, this time
from behind. I turned pale. My companions were close by my side. I
seized Conseil's hand. Our looks expressed our feelings better than
words. At this moment the Captain entered the saloon. I went up to
him.
"Our course is barred southward?" I asked.
"Yes, sir. The iceberg has shifted and closed every outlet."
"We are blocked up then?"
"Yes."
CHAPTER XVI
WANT OF AIR
Thus around the Nautilus, above and below, was an impenetrable wall of
ice. We were prisoners to the iceberg. I watched the Captain. His
countenance had resumed its habitual imperturbability.
"Gentlemen," he said calmly, "there are two ways of dying in the
circumstances in which we are placed." (This puzzling person had the
air of a mathematical professor lecturing to his pupils.) "The first is
to be crushed; the second is to die of suffocation. I do not speak of
the possibility of dying of hunger, for the supply of provisions in the
Nautilus will certainly last longer than we shall. Let us, then,
calculate our chances."
"As to suffocation, Captain," I replied, "that is not to be feared,
because our reservoirs are full."
"Just so; but they will only yield two days' supply of air. Now, for
thirty-six hours we have been hidden under the water, and already the
heavy atmosphere of the Nautilus requires renewal. In forty-eight
hours our reserve will be exhausted."
"Well, Captain, can we be delivered before forty-eight hours?"
"We will attempt it, at least, by piercing the wall that surrounds us."
"On which side?"
"Sound will tell us. I am going to run the Nautilus aground on the
lower bank, and my men will attack the iceberg on the side that is
least thick."
Captain Nemo went out. Soon I discovered by a hissing noise that the
water was entering the reservoirs. The Nautilus sank slowly, and
rested on the ice at a depth of 350 yards, the depth at which the lower
bank was immersed.
"My friends," I said, "our situation is serious, but I rely on your
courage and energy."
"Sir," replied the Canadian, "I am ready to do anything for the general
safety."
"Good! Ned," and I held out my hand to the Canadian.
"I will add," he continued, "that, being as handy with the pickaxe as
with the harpoon, if I can be useful to the Captain, he can command my
services."
"He will not refuse your help. Come, Ned!"
I led him to the room where the crew of the Nautilus were putting on
their cork-jackets. I told the Captain of Ned's proposal, which he
accepted. The Canadian put on his sea-costume, and was ready as soon
as his companions. When Ned was dressed, I re-entered the
drawing-room, where the panes of glass were open, and, posted near
Conseil, I examined the ambient beds that supported the Nautilus. Some
instants after, we saw a dozen of the crew set foot on the bank of ice,
and among them Ned Land, easily known by his stature. Captain Nemo was
with them. Before proceeding to dig the walls, he took the soundings,
to be sure of working in the right direction.  It was useless to attack it on the ceiling-like
surface, since the iceberg itself measured more than 400 yards in
height. Captain Nemo then sounded the lower surface. There ten yards
of wall separated us from the water, so great was the thickness of the
ice-field. It was necessary, therefore, to cut from it a piece equal in
extent to the waterline of the Nautilus. There were about 6,000 cubic
yards to detach, so as to dig a hole by which we could descend to the
ice-field. The work had begun immediately and carried on with
indefatigable energy. Instead of digging round the Nautilus which
would have involved greater difficulty, Captain Nemo had an immense
trench made at eight yards from the port-quarter. Then the men set to
work simultaneously with their screws on several points of its
circumference. Presently the pickaxe attacked this compact matter
vigorously, and large blocks were detached from the mass. By a curious
effect of specific gravity, these blocks, lighter than water, fled, so
to speak, to the vault of the tunnel, that increased in thickness at
the top in proportion as it diminished at the base. But that mattered
little, so long as the lower part grew thinner. After two hours' hard
work, Ned Land came in exhausted. He and his comrades were replaced by
new workers, whom Conseil and I joined. The second lieutenant of the
Nautilus superintended us. The water seemed singularly cold, but I
soon got warm handling the pickaxe. My movements were free enough,
although they were made under a pressure of thirty atmospheres. When I
re-entered, after working two hours, to take some food and rest, I
found a perceptible difference between the pure fluid with which the
Rouquayrol engine supplied me and the atmosphere of the Nautilus,
already charged with carbonic acid. The air had not been renewed for
forty-eight hours, and its vivifying qualities were considerably
enfeebled. However, after a lapse of twelve hours, we had only raised
a block of ice one yard thick, on the marked surface, which was about
600 cubic yards! Reckoning that it took twelve hours to accomplish
this much it would take five nights and four days to bring this
enterprise to a satisfactory conclusion. Five nights and four days!
And we have only air enough for two days in the reservoirs! "Without
taking into account," said Ned, "that, even if we get out of this
infernal prison, we shall also be imprisoned under the iceberg, shut
out from all possible communication with the atmosphere." True enough!
Who could then foresee the minimum of time necessary for our
deliverance? We might be suffocated before the Nautilus could regain
the surface of the waves? Was it destined to perish in this ice-tomb,
with all those it enclosed? The situation was terrible. But everyone
had looked the danger in the face, and each was determined to do his
duty to the last.
As I expected, during the night a new block a yard square was carried
away, and still further sank the immense hollow. But in the morning
when, dressed in my cork-jacket, I traversed the slushy mass at a
temperature of six or seven degrees below zero, I remarked that the
side walls were gradually closing in. The beds of water farthest from
the trench, that were not warmed by the men's work, showed a tendency
to solidification. In presence of this new and imminent danger, what
would become of our chances of safety, and how hinder the
solidification of this liquid medium, that would burst the partitions
of the Nautilus like glass?
I did not tell my companions of this new danger. What was the good of
damping the energy they displayed in the painful work of escape? But
when I went on board again, I told Captain Nemo of this grave
complication.
"I know it," he said, in that calm tone which could counteract the most
terrible apprehensions. "It is one danger more; but I see no way of
escaping it; the only chance of safety is to go quicker than
solidification. We must be beforehand with it, that is all."
On this day for several hours I used my pickaxe vigorously. The work
kept me up. Besides, to work was to quit the Nautilus, and breathe
directly the pure air drawn from the reservoirs, and supplied by our
apparatus, and to quit the impoverished and vitiated atmosphere.
Towards evening the trench was dug one yard deeper. When I returned on
board, I was nearly suffocated by the carbonic acid with which the air
was filled--ah! if we had only the chemical means to drive away this
deleterious gas. We had plenty of oxygen; all this water contained a
considerable quantity, and by dissolving it with our powerful piles, it
would restore the vivifying fluid. I had thought well over it; but of
what good was that, since the carbonic acid produced by our respiration
had invaded every part of the vessel? To absorb it, it was necessary
to fill some jars with caustic potash, and to shake them incessantly.
Now this substance was wanting on board, and nothing could replace it.
On that evening, Captain Nemo ought to open the taps of his reservoirs,
and let some pure air into the interior of the Nautilus; without this
precaution we could not get rid of the sense of suffocation. The next
day, March 26th, I resumed my miner's work in beginning the fifth yard.
The side walls and the lower surface of the iceberg thickened visibly.
It was evident that they would meet before the Nautilus was able to
disengage itself. Despair seized me for an instant; my pickaxe nearly
fell from my hands. What was the good of digging if I must be
suffocated, crushed by the water that was turning into stone?--a
punishment that the ferocity of the savages even would not have
invented! Just then Captain Nemo passed near me. I touched his hand
and showed him the walls of our prison. The wall to port had advanced
to at least four yards from the hull of the Nautilus. The Captain
understood me, and signed me to follow him. We went on board. I took
off my cork-jacket and accompanied him into the drawing-room.
"M. Aronnax, we must attempt some desperate means, or we shall be
sealed up in this solidified water as in cement."
"Yes; but what is to be done?"
"Ah! if my Nautilus were strong enough to bear this pressure without
being crushed!"
"Well?" I asked, not catching the Captain's idea.
"Do you not understand," he replied, "that this congelation of water
will help us? Do you not see that by its solidification, it would
burst through this field of ice that imprisons us, as, when it freezes,
it bursts the hardest stones? Do you not perceive that it would be an
agent of safety instead of destruction?"
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"Yes, Captain, perhaps. But, whatever resistance to crushing the
Nautilus possesses, it could not support this terrible pressure, and
would be flattened like an iron plate."
"I know it, sir. Therefore we must not reckon on the aid of nature,
but on our own exertions. We must stop this solidification. Not only
will the side walls be pressed together; but there is not ten feet of
water before or behind the Nautilus. The congelation gains on us on
all sides."
"How long will the air in the reservoirs last for us to breathe on
board?"
The Captain looked in my face. "After to-morrow they will be empty!"
A cold sweat came over me. However, ought I to have been astonished at
the answer? On March 22, the Nautilus was in the open polar seas. We
were at 26°. For five days we had lived on the reserve on board.
And what was left of the respirable air must be kept for the workers.
Even now, as I write, my recollection is still so vivid that an
involuntary terror seizes me and my lungs seem to be without air.
Meanwhile, Captain Nemo reflected silently, and evidently an idea had
struck him; but he seemed to reject it. At last, these words escaped
his lips:
"Boiling water!" he muttered.
"Boiling water?" I cried.
"Yes, sir. We are enclosed in a space that is relatively confined.
Would not jets of boiling water, constantly injected by the pumps,
raise the temperature in this part and stay the congelation?"
"Let us try it," I said resolutely.
"Let us try it, Professor."
The thermometer then stood at 7° outside. Captain Nemo took me to
the galleys, where the vast distillatory machines stood that furnished
the drinkable water by evaporation. They filled these with water, and
all the electric heat from the piles was thrown through the worms
bathed in the liquid. In a few minutes this water reached 100°. It
was directed towards the pumps, while fresh water replaced it in
proportion. The heat developed by the troughs was such that cold
water, drawn up from the sea after only having gone through the
machines, came boiling into the body of the pump. The injection was
begun, and three hours after the thermometer marked 6° below zero
outside. One degree was gained. Two hours later the thermometer only
marked 4°.
"We shall succeed," I said to the Captain, after having anxiously
watched the result of the operation.
"I think," he answered, "that we shall not be crushed. We have no more
suffocation to fear."
During the night the temperature of the water rose to 1° below
zero. The injections could not carry it to a higher point. But, as
the congelation of the sea-water produces at least 2°, I was at
least reassured against the dangers of solidification.
The next day, March 27th, six yards of ice had been cleared, twelve
feet only remaining to be cleared away. There was yet forty-eight
hours' work. The air could not be renewed in the interior of the
Nautilus. And this day would make it worse. An intolerable weight
oppressed me. Towards three o'clock in the evening this feeling rose
to a violent degree. Yawns dislocated my jaws. My lungs panted as
they inhaled this burning fluid, which became rarefied more and more.
A moral torpor took hold of me. I was powerless, almost unconscious.
My brave Conseil, though exhibiting the same symptoms and suffering in
the same manner, never left me. He took my hand and encouraged me, and
I heard him murmur, "Oh! if I could only not breathe, so as to leave
more air for my master!"
Tears came into my eyes on hearing him speak thus. If our situation to
all was intolerable in the interior, with what haste and gladness would
we put on our cork-jackets to work in our turn! Pickaxes sounded on
the frozen ice-beds. Our arms ached, the skin was torn off our hands.
But what were these fatigues, what did the wounds matter? Vital air
came to the lungs! We breathed! we breathed!
All this time no one prolonged his voluntary task beyond the prescribed
time. His task accomplished, each one handed in turn to his panting
companions the apparatus that supplied him with life. Captain Nemo set
the example, and submitted first to this severe discipline. When the
time came, he gave up his apparatus to another and returned to the
vitiated air on board, calm, unflinching, unmurmuring.
On that day the ordinary work was accomplished with unusual vigour.
Only two yards remained to be raised from the surface. Two yards only
separated us from the open sea. But the reservoirs were nearly emptied
of air. The little that remained ought to be kept for the workers; not
a particle for the Nautilus. When I went back on board, I was half
suffocated. What a night! I know not how to describe it. The next
day my breathing was oppressed. Dizziness accompanied the pain in my
head and made me like a drunken man. My companions showed the same
symptoms. Some of the crew had rattling in the throat.
On that day, the sixth of our imprisonment, Captain Nemo, finding the
pickaxes work too slowly, resolved to crush the ice-bed that still
separated us from the liquid sheet. This man's coolness and energy
never forsook him. He subdued his physical pains by moral force.
By his orders the vessel was lightened, that is to say, raised from the
ice-bed by a change of specific gravity. When it floated they towed it
so as to bring it above the immense trench made on the level of the
water-line. Then, filling his reservoirs of water, he descended and
shut himself up in the hole.
Just then all the crew came on board, and the double door of
communication was shut. The Nautilus then rested on the bed of ice,
which was not one yard thick, and which the sounding leads had
perforated in a thousand places. The taps of the reservoirs were then
opened, and a hundred cubic yards of water was let in, increasing the
weight of the Nautilus to 1,800 tons. We waited, we listened,
forgetting our sufferings in hope. Our safety depended on this last
chance. Notwithstanding the buzzing in my head, I soon heard the
humming sound under the hull of the Nautilus. The ice cracked with a
singular noise, like tearing paper, and the Nautilus sank.
"We are off!" murmured Conseil in my ear.
I could not answer him. I seized his hand, and pressed it
convulsively. All at once, carried away by its frightful overcharge,
the Nautilus sank like a bullet under the waters, that is to say, it
fell as if it was in a vacuum. Then all the electric force was put on
the pumps, that soon began to let the water out of the reservoirs.
After some minutes, our fall was stopped. Soon, too, the manometer
indicated an ascending movement. The screw, going at full speed, made
the iron hull tremble to its very bolts and drew us towards the north.
But if this floating under the iceberg is to last another day before we
reach the open sea, I shall be dead first.
Half stretched upon a divan in the library, I was suffocating. My face
was purple, my lips blue, my faculties suspended. I neither saw nor
heard. All notion of time had gone from my mind. My muscles could not
contract. I do not know how many hours passed thus, but I was
conscious of the agony that was coming over me. I felt as if I was
going to die. Suddenly I came to. Some breaths of air penetrated my
lungs. Had we risen to the surface of the waves? Were we free of the
iceberg? No! Ned and Conseil, my two brave friends, were sacrificing
themselves to save me. Some particles of air still remained at the
bottom of one apparatus. Instead of using it, they had kept it for me,
and, while they were being suffocated, they gave me life, drop by drop.
I wanted to push back the thing; they held my hands, and for some
moments I breathed freely. I looked at the clock; it was eleven in the
morning. It ought to be the 28th of March. The Nautilus went at a
frightful pace, forty miles an hour. It literally tore through the
water. Where was Captain Nemo? Had he succumbed? Were his companions
dead with him? At the moment the manometer indicated that we were not
more than twenty feet from the surface. A mere plate of ice separated
us from the atmosphere. Could we not break it? Perhaps. In any case
the Nautilus was going to attempt it. I felt that it was in an oblique
position, lowering the stern, and raising the bows. The introduction
of water had been the means of disturbing its equilibrium. Then,
impelled by its powerful screw, it attacked the ice-field from beneath
like a formidable battering-ram. It broke it by backing and then
rushing forward against the field, which gradually gave way; and at
last, dashing suddenly against it, shot forwards on the ice-field, that
crushed beneath its weight. The panel was opened--one might say torn
off--and the pure air came in in abundance to all parts of the Nautilus.
CHAPTER XVII
FROM CAPE HORN TO THE AMAZON
How I got on to the platform, I have no idea; perhaps the Canadian had
carried me there. But I breathed, I inhaled the vivifying sea-air. My
two companions were getting drunk with the fresh particles. The other
unhappy men had been so long without food, that they could not with
impunity indulge in the simplest aliments that were given them. We, on
the contrary, had no end to restrain ourselves; we could draw this air
freely into our lungs, and it was the breeze, the breeze alone, that
filled us with this keen enjoyment.
"Ah!" said Conseil, "how delightful this oxygen is! Master need not
fear to breathe it. There is enough for everybody."
Ned Land did not speak, but he opened his jaws wide enough to frighten
a shark. Our strength soon returned, and, when I looked round me, I
saw we were alone on the platform. The foreign seamen in the Nautilus
were contented with the air that circulated in the interior; none of
them had come to drink in the open air.
The first words I spoke were words of gratitude and thankfulness to my
two companions. Ned and Conseil had prolonged my life during the last
hours of this long agony. All my gratitude could not repay such
devotion.
"My friends," said I, "we are bound one to the other for ever, and I am
under infinite obligations to you."
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"Which I shall take advantage of," exclaimed the Canadian.
"What do you mean?" said Conseil.
"I mean that I shall take you with me when I leave this infernal
Nautilus."
"Well," said Conseil, "after all this, are we going right?"
"Yes," I replied, "for we are going the way of the sun, and here the
sun is in the north."
"No doubt," said Ned Land; "but it remains to be seen whether he will
bring the ship into the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean, that is, into
frequented or deserted seas."
I could not answer that question, and I feared that Captain Nemo would
rather take us to the vast ocean that touches the coasts of Asia and
America at the same time. He would thus complete the tour round the
submarine world, and return to those waters in which the Nautilus could
sail freely. We ought, before long, to settle this important point.
The Nautilus went at a rapid pace. The polar circle was soon passed,
and the course shaped for Cape Horn. We were off the American point,
March 31st, at seven o'clock in the evening. Then all our past
sufferings were forgotten. The remembrance of that imprisonment in the
ice was effaced from our minds. We only thought of the future.
Captain Nemo did not appear again either in the drawing-room or on the
platform. The point shown each day on the planisphere, and, marked by
the lieutenant, showed me the exact direction of the Nautilus. Now, on
that evening, it was evident, to, my great satisfaction, that we were
going back to the North by the Atlantic. The next day, April 1st, when
the Nautilus ascended to the surface some minutes before noon, we
sighted land to the west. It was Terra del Fuego, which the first
navigators named thus from seeing the quantity of smoke that rose from
the natives' huts. The coast seemed low to me, but in the distance
rose high mountains. I even thought I had a glimpse of Mount
Sarmiento, that rises 2,070 yards above the level of the sea, with a
very pointed summit, which, according as it is misty or clear, is a
sign of fine or of wet weather. At this moment the peak was clearly
defined against the sky. The Nautilus, diving again under the water,
approached the coast, which was only some few miles off. From the
glass windows in the drawing-room, I saw long seaweeds and gigantic
fuci and varech, of which the open polar sea contains so many
specimens, with their sharp polished filaments; they measured about 300
yards in length--real cables, thicker than one's thumb; and, having
great tenacity, they are often used as ropes for vessels. Another weed
known as velp, with leaves four feet long, buried in the coral
concretions, hung at the bottom. It served as nest and food for
myriads of crustacea and molluscs, crabs, and cuttlefish. There seals
and otters had splendid repasts, eating the flesh of fish with
sea-vegetables, according to the English fashion. Over this fertile
and luxuriant ground the Nautilus passed with great rapidity. Towards
evening it approached the Falkland group, the rough summits of which I
recognised the following day. The depth of the sea was moderate. On
the shores our nets brought in beautiful specimens of sea weed, and
particularly a certain fucus, the roots of which were filled with the
best mussels in the world. Geese and ducks fell by dozens on the
platform, and soon took their places in the pantry on board.
When the last heights of the Falklands had disappeared from the
horizon, the Nautilus sank to between twenty and twenty-five yards, and
followed the American coast. Captain Nemo did not show himself. Until
the 3rd of April we did not quit the shores of Patagonia, sometimes
under the ocean, sometimes at the surface. The Nautilus passed beyond
the large estuary formed by the Uraguay. Its direction was northwards,
and followed the long windings of the coast of South America. We had
then made 1,600 miles since our embarkation in the seas of Japan.
About eleven o'clock in the morning the Tropic of Capricorn was crossed
on the thirty-seventh meridian, and we passed Cape Frio standing out to
sea. Captain Nemo, to Ned Land's great displeasure, did not like the
neighbourhood of the inhabited coasts of Brazil, for we went at a giddy
speed. Not a fish, not a bird of the swiftest kind could follow us,
and the natural curiosities of these seas escaped all observation.
This speed was kept up for several days, and in the evening of the 9th
of April we sighted the most westerly point of South America that forms
Cape San Roque. But then the Nautilus swerved again, and sought the
lowest depth of a submarine valley which is between this Cape and
Sierra Leone on the African coast. This valley bifurcates to the
parallel of the Antilles, and terminates at the mouth by the enormous
depression of 9,000 yards. In this place, the geological basin of the
ocean forms, as far as the Lesser Antilles, a cliff to three and a half
miles perpendicular in height, and, at the parallel of the Cape Verde
Islands, an other wall not less considerable, that encloses thus all
the sunk continent of the Atlantic. The bottom of this immense valley
is dotted with some mountains, that give to these submarine places a
picturesque aspect. I speak, moreover, from the manuscript charts that
were in the library of the Nautilus--charts evidently due to Captain
Nemo's hand, and made after his personal observations. For two days
the desert and deep waters were visited by means of the inclined
planes. The Nautilus was furnished with long diagonal broadsides which
carried it to all elevations. But on the 11th of April it rose
suddenly, and land appeared at the mouth of the Amazon River, a vast
estuary, the embouchure of which is so considerable that it freshens
the sea-water for the distance of several leagues.
The equator was crossed. Twenty miles to the west were the Guianas, a
French territory, on which we could have found an easy refuge; but a
stiff breeze was blowing, and the furious waves would not have allowed
a single boat to face them. Ned Land understood that, no doubt, for he
spoke not a word about it. For my part, I made no allusion to his
schemes of flight, for I would not urge him to make an attempt that
must inevitably fail. I made the time pass pleasantly by interesting
studies. During the days of April 11th and 12th, the Nautilus did not
leave the surface of the sea, and the net brought in a marvellous haul
of Zoophytes, fish and reptiles. Some zoophytes had been fished up by
the chain of the nets; they were for the most part beautiful
phyctallines, belonging to the actinidian family, and among other
species the phyctalis protexta, peculiar to that part of the ocean,
with a little cylindrical trunk, ornamented With vertical lines,
speckled with red dots, crowning a marvellous blossoming of tentacles.
As to the molluscs, they consisted of some I had already
observed--turritellas, olive porphyras, with regular lines
intercrossed, with red spots standing out plainly against the flesh;
odd pteroceras, like petrified scorpions; translucid hyaleas,
argonauts, cuttle-fish (excellent eating), and certain species of
calmars that naturalists of antiquity have classed amongst the
flying-fish, and that serve principally for bait for cod-fishing. I had
now an opportunity of studying several species of fish on these shores.
Amongst the cartilaginous ones, petromyzons-pricka, a sort of eel,
fifteen inches long, with a greenish head, violet fins, grey-blue back,
brown belly, silvered and sown with bright spots, the pupil of the eye
encircled with gold--a curious animal, that the current of the Amazon
had drawn to the sea, for they inhabit fresh waters--tuberculated
streaks, with pointed snouts, and a long loose tail, armed with a long
jagged sting; little sharks, a yard long, grey and whitish skin, and
several rows of teeth, bent back, that are generally known by the name
of pantouffles; vespertilios, a kind of red isosceles triangle, half a
yard long, to which pectorals are attached by fleshy prolongations that
make them look like bats, but that their horny appendage, situated near
the nostrils, has given them the name of sea-unicorns; lastly, some
species of balistae, the curassavian, whose spots were of a brilliant
gold colour, and the capriscus of clear violet, and with varying shades
like a pigeon's throat.
I end here this catalogue, which is somewhat dry perhaps, but very
exact, with a series of bony fish that I observed in passing belonging
to the apteronotes, and whose snout is white as snow, the body of a
beautiful black, marked with a very long loose fleshy strip;
odontognathes, armed with spikes; sardines nine inches long, glittering
with a bright silver light; a species of mackerel provided with two
anal fins; centronotes of a blackish tint, that are fished for with
torches, long fish, two yards in length, with fat flesh, white and
firm, which, when they arc fresh, taste like eel, and when dry, like
smoked salmon; labres, half red, covered with scales only at the bottom
of the dorsal and anal fins; chrysoptera, on which gold and silver
blend their brightness with that of the ruby and topaz; golden-tailed
spares, the flesh of which is extremely delicate, and whose
phosphorescent properties betray them in the midst of the waters;
orange-coloured spares with long tongues; maigres, with gold caudal
fins, dark thorn-tails, anableps of Surinam, etc.
Notwithstanding this "et cetera," I must not omit to mention fish that
Conseil will long remember, and with good reason.  It was white
underneath, red above, with large round spots of dark blue encircled
with black, very glossy skin, terminating in a bilobed fin. Laid out on
the platform, it struggled, tried to turn itself by convulsive
movements, and made so many efforts, that one last turn had nearly sent
it into the sea. But Conseil, not wishing to let the fish go, rushed to
it, and, before I could prevent him, had seized it with both hands. In
a moment he was overthrown, his legs in the air, and half his body
paralysed, crying--
"Oh! master, master! help me!"
It was the first time the poor boy had spoken to me so familiarly. The
Canadian and I took him up, and rubbed his contracted arms till he
became sensible. The unfortunate Conseil had attacked a cramp-fish of
the most dangerous kind, the cumana. This odd animal, in a medium
conductor like water, strikes fish at several yards' distance, so great
is the power of its electric organ, the two principal surfaces of which
do not measure less than twenty-seven square feet. The next day, April
12th, the Nautilus approached the Dutch coast, near the mouth of the
Maroni. There several groups of sea-cows herded together; they were
manatees, that, like the dugong and the stellera, belong to the skenian
order. These beautiful animals, peaceable and inoffensive, from
eighteen to twenty-one feet in length, weigh at least sixteen
hundredweight. I told Ned Land and Conseil that provident nature had
assigned an important role to these mammalia. Indeed, they, like the
seals, are designed to graze on the submarine prairies, and thus
destroy the accumulation of weed that obstructs the tropical rivers.
"And do you know," I added, "what has been the result since men have
almost entirely annihilated this useful race? That the putrefied weeds
have poisoned the air, and the poisoned air causes the yellow fever,
that desolates these beautiful countries. Enormous vegetations are
multiplied under the torrid seas, and the evil is irresistibly
developed from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to Florida. If we are
to believe Toussenel, this plague is nothing to what it would be if the
seas were cleaned of whales and seals. Then, infested with poulps,
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medusae, and cuttle-fish, they would become immense centres of
infection, since their waves would not possess 'these vast stomachs
that God had charged to infest the surface of the seas.'"
CHAPTER XVIII
THE POULPS
For several days the Nautilus kept off from the American coast.
Evidently it did not wish to risk the tides of the Gulf of Mexico or of
the sea of the Antilles. April 16th, we sighted Martinique and
Guadaloupe from a distance of about thirty miles. I saw their tall
peaks for an instant. The Canadian, who counted on carrying out his
projects in the Gulf, by either landing or hailing one of the numerous
boats that coast from one island to another, was quite disheartened.
Flight would have been quite practicable, if Ned Land had been able to
take possession of the boat without the Captain's knowledge. But in
the open sea it could not be thought of. The Canadian, Conseil, and I
had a long conversation on this subject. For six months we had been
prisoners on board the Nautilus. We had travelled 17,000 leagues; and,
as Ned Land said, there was no reason why it should come to an end. We
could hope nothing from the Captain of the Nautilus, but only from
ourselves. Besides, for some time past he had become graver, more
retired, less sociable. He seemed to shun me. I met him rarely.
Formerly he was pleased to explain the submarine marvels to me; now he
left me to my studies, and came no more to the saloon. What change had
come over him? For what cause? For my part, I did not wish to bury
with me my curious and novel studies. I had now the power to write the
true book of the sea; and this book, sooner or later, I wished to see
daylight. The land nearest us was the archipelago of the Bahamas.
There rose high submarine cliffs covered with large weeds. It was
about eleven o'clock when Ned Land drew my attention to a formidable
pricking, like the sting of an ant, which was produced by means of
large seaweeds.
"Well," I said, "these are proper caverns for poulps, and I should not
be astonished to see some of these monsters."
"What!" said Conseil; "cuttlefish, real cuttlefish of the cephalopod
class?"
"No," I said, "poulps of huge dimensions."
"I will never believe that such animals exist," said Ned.
"Well," said Conseil, with the most serious air in the world, "I
remember perfectly to have seen a large vessel drawn under the waves by
an octopus's arm."
"You saw that?" said the Canadian.
"Yes, Ned."
"With your own eyes?"
"With my own eyes."
"Where, pray, might that be?"
"At St. Malo," answered Conseil.
"In the port?" said Ned, ironically.
"No; in a church," replied Conseil.
"In a church!" cried the Canadian.
"Yes; friend Ned. In a picture representing the poulp in question."
"Good!" said Ned Land, bursting out laughing.
"He is quite right," I said. "I have heard of this picture; but the
subject represented is taken from a legend, and you know what to think
of legends in the matter of natural history. Besides, when it is a
question of monsters, the imagination is apt to run wild. Not only is
it supposed that these poulps can draw down vessels, but a certain
Olaus Magnus speaks of an octopus a mile long that is more like an
island than an animal. It is also said that the Bishop of Nidros was
building an altar on an immense rock. Mass finished, the rock began to
walk, and returned to the sea. The rock was a poulp. Another Bishop,
Pontoppidan, speaks also of a poulp on which a regiment of cavalry
could manoeuvre. Lastly, the ancient naturalists speak of monsters
whose mouths were like gulfs, and which were too large to pass through
the Straits of Gibraltar."
"But how much is true of these stories?" asked Conseil.
"Nothing, my friends; at least of that which passes the limit of truth
to get to fable or legend. Nevertheless, there must be some ground for
the imagination of the story-tellers. One cannot deny that poulps and
cuttlefish exist of a large species, inferior, however, to the
cetaceans. Aristotle has stated the dimensions of a cuttlefish as five
cubits, or nine feet two inches. Our fishermen frequently see some
that are more than four feet long. Some skeletons of poulps are
preserved in the museums of Trieste and Montpelier, that measure two
yards in length. Besides, according to the calculations of some
naturalists, one of these animals only six feet long would have
tentacles twenty-seven feet long. That would suffice to make a
formidable monster."
"Do they fish for them in these days?" asked Ned.
"If they do not fish for them, sailors see them at least. One of my
friends, Captain Paul Bos of Havre, has often affirmed that he met one
of these monsters of colossal dimensions in the Indian seas. But the
most astonishing fact, and which does not permit of the denial of the
existence of these gigantic animals, happened some years ago, in 1861."
"What is the fact?" asked Ned Land.
"This is it. In 1861, to the north-east of Teneriffe, very nearly in
the same latitude we are in now, the crew of the despatch-boat Alector
perceived a monstrous cuttlefish swimming in the waters. Captain
Bouguer went near to the animal, and attacked it with harpoon and guns,
without much success, for balls and harpoons glided over the soft
flesh. After several fruitless attempts the crew tried to pass a
slip-knot round the body of the mollusc. The noose slipped as far as
the tail fins and there stopped. They tried then to haul it on board,
but its weight was so considerable that the tightness of the cord
separated the tail from the body, and, deprived of this ornament, he
disappeared under the water."
"Indeed! is that a fact?"
"An indisputable fact, my good Ned. They proposed to name this poulp
`Bouguer's cuttlefish.'"
"What length was it?" asked the Canadian.
"Did it not measure about six yards?" said Conseil, who, posted at the
window, was examining again the irregular windings of the cliff.
"Precisely," I replied.
"Its head," rejoined Conseil, "was it not crowned with eight tentacles,
that beat the water like a nest of serpents?"
"Precisely."
"Had not its eyes, placed at the back of its head, considerable
development?"
"Yes, Conseil."
"And was not its mouth like a parrot's beak?"
"Exactly, Conseil."
"Very well! no offence to master," he replied, quietly; "if this is not
Bouguer's cuttlefish, it is, at least, one of its brothers."
I looked at Conseil. Ned Land hurried to the window.
 he cried.
I looked in my turn, and could not repress a gesture of disgust.
Before my eyes was a horrible monster worthy to figure in the legends
of the marvellous. It was an immense cuttlefish, being eight yards
long. It swam crossways in the direction of the Nautilus with great
speed, watching us with its enormous staring green eyes. Its eight
arms, or rather feet, fixed to its head, that have given the name of
cephalopod to these animals, were twice as long as its body, and were
twisted like the furies' hair. One could see the 250 air holes on the
inner side of the tentacles.  Its tongue, a horned substance,
furnished with several rows of pointed teeth, came out quivering from
this veritable pair of shears.  Its spindle-like body formed a fleshy mass that might
weigh 4,000 to 5,000 lb.; the, varying colour changing with great
rapidity, according to the irritation of the animal, passed
successively from livid grey to reddish brown. What irritated this
mollusc? No doubt the presence of the Nautilus, more formidable than
itself, and on which its suckers or its jaws had no hold. Yet, what
monsters these poulps are! what vitality the Creator has given them!
what vigour in their movements! and they possess three hearts! Chance
had brought us in presence of this cuttlefish, and I did not wish to
lose the opportunity of carefully studying this specimen of
cephalopods. I overcame the horror that inspired me, and, taking a
pencil, began to draw it.
"Perhaps this is the same which the Alector saw," said Conseil.
"No," replied the Canadian; "for this is whole, and the other had lost
its tail."
"That is no reason," I replied. "The arms and tails of these animals
are re-formed by renewal; and in seven years the tail of Bouguer's
cuttlefish has no doubt had time to grow."
By this time other poulps appeared at the port light. I counted seven.
They formed a procession after the Nautilus, and I heard their beaks
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gnashing against the iron hull. I continued my work. These monsters
kept in the water with such precision that they seemed immovable.
Suddenly the Nautilus stopped. A shock made it tremble in every plate.
"Have we struck anything?" I asked.
"In any case," replied the Canadian, "we shall be free, for we are
floating."
The Nautilus was floating, no doubt, but it did not move. A minute
passed. Captain Nemo, followed by his lieutenant, entered the
drawing-room. I had not seen him for some time. He seemed dull.
Without noticing or speaking to us, he went to the panel, looked at the
poulps, and said something to his lieutenant. The latter went out.
Soon the panels were shut. The ceiling was lighted. I went towards
the Captain.
"A curious collection of poulps?" I said.
"Yes, indeed, Mr. Naturalist," he replied; "and we are going to fight
them, man to beast."
I looked at him. I thought I had not heard aright.
"Man to beast?" I repeated.
"Yes, sir. The screw is stopped. I think that the horny jaws of one
of the cuttlefish is entangled in the blades. That is what prevents
our moving."
"What are you going to do?"
"Rise to the surface, and slaughter this vermin."
"A difficult enterprise."
"Yes, indeed. The electric bullets are powerless against the soft
flesh, where they do not find resistance enough to go off. But we
shall attack them with the hatchet."
"And the harpoon, sir," said the Canadian, "if you do not refuse my
help."
"I will accept it, Master Land."
"We will follow you," I said, and, following Captain Nemo, we went
towards the central staircase.
There, about ten men with boarding-hatchets were ready for the attack.
Conseil and I took two hatchets; Ned Land seized a harpoon. The
Nautilus had then risen to the surface. One of the sailors, posted on
the top ladderstep, unscrewed the bolts of the panels. But hardly were
the screws loosed, when the panel rose with great violence, evidently
drawn by the suckers of a poulp's arm. Immediately one of these arms
slid like a serpent down the opening and twenty others were above.
With one blow of the axe, Captain Nemo cut this formidable tentacle,
that slid wriggling down the ladder. Just as we were pressing one on
the other to reach the platform, two other arms, lashing the air, came
down on the seaman placed before Captain Nemo, and lifted him up with
irresistible power. Captain Nemo uttered a cry, and rushed out. We
hurried after him.
What a scene! The unhappy man, seized by the tentacle and fixed to the
suckers, was balanced in the air at the caprice of this enormous trunk.
He rattled in his throat, he was stifled, he cried, "Help! help!"
These words, spoken in French, startled me! I had a fellow-countryman
on board, perhaps several! That heart-rending cry! I shall hear it
all my life. The unfortunate man was lost. Who could rescue him from
that powerful pressure? However, Captain Nemo had rushed to the poulp,
and with one blow of the axe had cut through one arm. His lieutenant
struggled furiously against other monsters that crept on the flanks of
the Nautilus. The crew fought with their axes. The Canadian, Conseil,
and I buried our weapons in the fleshy masses; a strong smell of musk
penetrated the atmosphere. It was horrible!
For one instant, I thought the unhappy man, entangled with the poulp,
would be torn from its powerful suction. Seven of the eight arms had
been cut off. One only wriggled in the air, brandishing the victim
like a feather. But just as Captain Nemo and his lieutenant threw
themselves on it, the animal ejected a stream of black liquid. We were
blinded with it. When the cloud dispersed, the cuttlefish had
disappeared, and my unfortunate countryman with it. Ten or twelve
poulps now invaded the platform and sides of the Nautilus. We rolled
pell-mell into the midst of this nest of serpents, that wriggled on the
platform in the waves of blood and ink. It seemed as though these
slimy tentacles sprang up like the hydra's heads. Ned Land's harpoon,
at each stroke, was plunged into the staring eyes of the cuttle fish.
But my bold companion was suddenly overturned by the tentacles of a
monster he had not been able to avoid.
Ah! how my heart beat with emotion and horror! The formidable beak of
a cuttlefish was open over Ned Land. The unhappy man would be cut in
two. I rushed to his succour. But Captain Nemo was before me; his axe
disappeared between the two enormous jaws, and, miraculously saved, the
Canadian, rising, plunged his harpoon deep into the triple heart of the
poulp.
"I owed myself this revenge!" said the Captain to the Canadian.
Ned bowed without replying. The combat had lasted a quarter of an
hour. The monsters, vanquished and mutilated, left us at last, and
disappeared under the waves. Captain Nemo, covered with blood, nearly
exhausted, gazed upon the sea that had swallowed up one of his
companions, and great tears gathered in his eyes.
CHAPTER XIX
THE GULF STREAM
This terrible scene of the 20th of April none of us can ever forget. I
have written it under the influence of violent emotion. Since then I
have revised the recital; I have read it to Conseil and to the
Canadian. They found it exact as to facts, but insufficient as to
effect. To paint such pictures, one must have the pen of the most
illustrious of our poets, the author of The Toilers of the Deep.
I have said that Captain Nemo wept while watching the waves; his grief
was great. It was the second companion he had lost since our arrival
on board, and what a death! That friend, crushed, stifled, bruised by
the dreadful arms of a poulp, pounded by his iron jaws, would not rest
with his comrades in the peaceful coral cemetery! In the midst of the
struggle, it was the despairing cry uttered by the unfortunate man that
had torn my heart.
Amongst the crew of the Nautilus, associated with the body and soul of
the Captain, recoiling like him from all contact with men, I had a
fellow-countryman. Did he alone represent France in this mysterious
association, evidently composed of individuals of divers nationalities?
It was one of these insoluble problems that rose up unceasingly before
my mind!
Captain Nemo entered his room, and I saw him no more for some time.
But that he was sad and irresolute I could see by the vessel, of which
he was the soul, and which received all his impressions. The Nautilus
did not keep on in its settled course; it floated about like a corpse
at the will of the waves. It went at random. He could not tear
himself away from the scene of the last struggle, from this sea that
had devoured one of his men. Ten days passed thus. It was not till
the 1st of May that the Nautilus resumed its northerly course, after
having sighted the Bahamas at the mouth of the Bahama Canal. We were
then following the current from the largest river to the sea, that has
its banks, its fish, and its proper temperatures. I mean the Gulf
Stream. It is really a river, that flows freely to the middle of the
Atlantic, and whose waters do not mix with the ocean waters. It is a
salt river, salter than the surrounding sea. Its mean depth is 1,500
fathoms, its mean breadth ten miles. In certain places the current
flows with the speed of two miles and a half an hour. The body of its
waters is more considerable than that of all the rivers in the globe.
It was on this ocean river that the Nautilus then sailed.
I must add that, during the night, the phosphorescent waters of the
Gulf Stream rivalled the electric power of our watch-light, especially
in the stormy weather that threatened us so frequently. May 8th, we
were still crossing Cape Hatteras, at the height of the North Caroline.
The width of the Gulf Stream there is seventy-five miles, and its depth
210 yards. The Nautilus still went at random; all supervision seemed
abandoned. I thought that, under these circumstances, escape would be
possible. Indeed, the inhabited shores offered anywhere an easy
refuge. The sea was incessantly ploughed by the steamers that ply
between New York or Boston and the Gulf of Mexico, and overrun day and
night by the little schooners coasting about the several parts of the
American coast. We could hope to be picked up. It was a favourable
opportunity, notwithstanding the thirty miles that separated the
Nautilus from the coasts of the Union. One unfortunate circumstance
thwarted the Canadian's plans. The weather was very bad. We were
nearing those shores where tempests are so frequent, that country of
waterspouts and cyclones actually engendered by the current of the Gulf
Stream. To tempt the sea in a frail boat was certain destruction. Ned
Land owned this himself. He fretted, seized with nostalgia that flight
only could cure.
"Master," he said that day to me, "this must come to an end. I must
make a clean breast of it. This Nemo is leaving land and going up to
the north. But I declare to you that I have had enough of the South
Pole, and I will not follow him to the North."
"What is to be done, Ned, since flight is impracticable just now?"
"We must speak to the Captain," said he; "you said nothing when we were
in your native seas. I will speak, now we are in mine. When I think
that before long the Nautilus will be by Nova Scotia, and that there
near New foundland is a large bay, and into that bay the St. Lawrence
empties itself, and that the St. Lawrence is my river, the river by
Quebec, my native town--when I think of this, I feel furious, it makes
my hair stand on end. Sir, I would rather throw myself into the sea!
I will not stay here! I am stifled!"
The Canadian was evidently losing all patience. His vigorous nature
could not stand this prolonged imprisonment. His face altered daily;
his temper became more surly. I knew what he must suffer, for I was
seized with home-sickness myself. Nearly seven months had passed
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without our having had any news from land; Captain Nemo's isolation,
his altered spirits, especially since the fight with the poulps, his
taciturnity, all made me view things in a different light.
"Well, sir?" said Ned, seeing I did not reply.
"Well, Ned, do you wish me to ask Captain Nemo his intentions
concerning us?"
"Yes, sir."
"Although he has already made them known?"
"Yes; I wish it settled finally. Speak for me, in my name only, if you
like."
"But I so seldom meet him. He avoids me."
"That is all the more reason for you to go to see him."
I went to my room. From thence I meant to go to Captain Nemo's. It
would not do to let this opportunity of meeting him slip. I knocked at
the door. No answer. I knocked again, then turned the handle. The
door opened, I went in. The Captain was there. Bending over his
work-table, he had not heard me. Resolved not to go without having
spoken, I approached him. He raised his head quickly, frowned, and
said roughly, "You here! What do you want?"
"To speak to you, Captain."
"But I am busy, sir; I am working. I leave you at liberty to shut
yourself up; cannot I be allowed the same?"
This reception was not encouraging; but I was determined to hear and
answer everything.
"Sir," I said coldly, "I have to speak to you on a matter that admits
of no delay."
"What is that, sir?" he replied, ironically. "Have you discovered
something that has escaped me, or has the sea delivered up any new
secrets?"
We were at cross-purposes. But, before I could reply, he showed me an
open manuscript on his table, and said, in a more serious tone, "Here,
M. Aronnax, is a manuscript written in several languages. It contains
the sum of my studies of the sea; and, if it please God, it shall not
perish with me.  The
last survivor of all of us on board the Nautilus will throw this case
into the sea, and it will go whither it is borne by the waves."
This man's name! his history written by himself! His mystery would
then be revealed some day.
"Captain," I said, "I can but approve of the idea that makes you act
thus. The result of your studies must not be lost. But the means you
employ seem to me to be primitive. Who knows where the winds will
carry this case, and in whose hands it will fall? Could you not use
some other means? Could not you, or one of yours----"
"Never, sir!" he said, hastily interrupting me.
"But I and my companions are ready to keep this manuscript in store;
and, if you will put us at liberty----"
"At liberty?" said the Captain, rising.
"Yes, sir; that is the subject on which I wish to question you. For
seven months we have been here on board, and I ask you to-day, in the
name of my companions and in my own, if your intention is to keep us
here always?"
"M. Aronnax, I will answer you to-day as I did seven months ago:
Whoever enters the Nautilus, must never quit it."
"You impose actual slavery upon us!"
"Give it what name you please."
"But everywhere the slave has the right to regain his liberty."
"Who denies you this right? Have I ever tried to chain you with an
oath?"
He looked at me with his arms crossed.
"Sir," I said, "to return a second time to this subject will be neither
to your nor to my taste; but, as we have entered upon it, let us go
through with it. I repeat, it is not only myself whom it concerns.
Study is to me a relief, a diversion, a passion that could make me
forget everything. Like you, I am willing to live obscure, in the
frail hope of bequeathing one day, to future time, the result of my
labours. But it is otherwise with Ned Land. Every man, worthy of the
name, deserves some consideration. Have you thought that love of
liberty, hatred of slavery, can give rise to schemes of revenge in a
nature like the Canadian's; that he could think, attempt, and try----"
I was silenced; Captain Nemo rose.
"Whatever Ned Land thinks of, attempts, or tries, what does it matter
to me? I did not seek him! It is not for my pleasure that I keep him
on board!  I have nothing more to say to
you. Let this first time you have come to treat of this subject be the
last, for a second time I will not listen to you."
I retired. Our situation was critical. I related my conversation to
my two companions.
"We know now," said Ned, "that we can expect nothing from this man.
The Nautilus is nearing Long Island. We will escape, whatever the
weather may be."
But the sky became more and more threatening. Symptoms of a hurricane
became manifest. The atmosphere was becoming white and misty. On the
horizon fine streaks of cirrhous clouds were succeeded by masses of
cumuli. Other low clouds passed swiftly by. The swollen sea rose in
huge billows. The birds disappeared with the exception of the petrels,
those friends of the storm. The barometer fell sensibly, and indicated
an extreme extension of the vapours. The mixture of the storm glass
was decomposed under the influence of the electricity that pervaded the
atmosphere. The tempest burst on the 18th of May, just as the Nautilus
was floating off Long Island, some miles from the port of New York. I
can describe this strife of the elements! for, instead of fleeing to
the depths of the sea, Captain Nemo, by an unaccountable caprice, would
brave it at the surface. The wind blew from the south-west at first.
Captain Nemo, during the squalls, had taken his place on the platform.
He had made himself fast, to prevent being washed overboard by the
monstrous waves. I had hoisted myself up, and made myself fast also,
dividing my admiration between the tempest and this extraordinary man
who was coping with it. The raging sea was swept by huge cloud-drifts,
which were actually saturated with the waves. The Nautilus, sometimes
lying on its side, sometimes standing up like a mast, rolled and
pitched terribly. About five o'clock a torrent of rain fell, that
lulled neither sea nor wind. The hurri cane blew nearly forty leagues
an hour. It is under these conditions that it overturns houses, breaks
iron gates, displaces twenty-four pounders. However, the Nautilus, in
the midst of the tempest, confirmed the words of a clever engineer,
"There is no well-constructed hull that cannot defy the sea." This was
not a resisting rock; it was a steel spindle, obedient and movable,
without rigging or masts, that braved its fury with impunity. However,
I watched these raging waves attentively. They measured fifteen feet
in height, and 150 to 175 yards long, and their speed of propagation
was thirty feet per second. Their bulk and power increased with the
depth of the water. Such waves as these, at the Hebrides, have
displaced a mass weighing 8,400 lb. They are they which, in the
tempest of December 23rd, 1864, after destroying the town of Yeddo, in
Japan, broke the same day on the shores of America. The intensity of
the tempest increased with the night. The barometer, as in 1860 at
Reunion during a cyclone, fell seven-tenths at the close of day. I saw
a large vessel pass the horizon struggling painfully. She was trying
to lie to under half steam, to keep up above the waves. It was
probably one of the steamers of the line from New York to Liverpool, or
Havre. It soon disappeared in the gloom. At ten o'clock in the
evening the sky was on fire. The atmosphere was streaked with vivid
lightning. I could not bear the brightness of it; while the captain,
looking at it, seemed to envy the spirit of the tempest. A terrible
noise filled the air, a complex noise, made up of the howls of the
crushed waves, the roaring of the wind, and the claps of thunder. The
wind veered suddenly to all points of the horizon; and the cyclone,
rising in the east, returned after passing by the north, west, and
south, in the inverse course pursued by the circular storm of the
southern hemisphere. Ah, that Gulf Stream! It deserves its name of
the King of Tempests. It is that which causes those formidable
cyclones, by the difference of temperature between its air and its
currents. A shower of fire had succeeded the rain. The drops of water
were changed to sharp spikes. One would have thought that Captain Nemo
was courting a death worthy of himself, a death by lightning. As the
Nautilus, pitching dreadfully, raised its steel spur in the air, it
seemed to act as a conductor, and I saw long sparks burst from it.
Crushed and without strength I crawled to the panel, opened it, and
descended to the saloon. The storm was then at its height. It was
impossible to stand upright in the interior of the Nautilus. Captain
Nemo came down about twelve. I heard the reservoirs filling by
degrees, and the Nautilus sank slowly beneath the waves. Through the
open windows in the saloon I saw large fish terrified, passing like
phantoms in the water. Some were struck before my eyes. The Nautilus
was still descending. I thought that at about eight fathoms deep we
should find a calm. But no! the upper beds were too violently agitated
for that. We had to seek repose at more than twenty-five fathoms in
the bowels of the deep. But there, what quiet, what silence, what
peace! Who could have told that such a hurricane had been let loose on
the surface of that ocean?
CHAPTER XX
FROM LATITUDE 47° 24' TO LONGITUDE 17° 28'
In consequence of the storm, we had been thrown eastward once more.
All hope of escape on the shores of New York or St. Lawrence had faded
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The Enumerable module in Ruby is one of the most powerful colelctions of methods in the entire language. It allows us to iterate over and manipulate data structures in almost any way you can think of.
So what's #map, then?
#map allows us to change the elements within an array and return a new one without changing the original array. This is incredibly important because we often want to keep the original data structure intact.
#collect...What's that?
#collect is a sibling of #map and accomplishes the same thing. There is literally no difference between the two, so use whichever one makes your code look better.
Example please??
Fine. Here's an example from the documentation:
#map and Enumerable are absolutely crucial to writing code in Ruby.  If you've somehow missed it unitl now, give it a try!s


Deep 360 Pilot: Learning a Deep Agent for Piloting through 360° Sports Videos
Watching a 360°
sports video requires a viewer to continuously
select a viewing angle, either through a sequence
of mouse clicks or head movements. To relieve the viewer
from this “360 piloting” task, we propose “deep 360 pilot”
– a deep learning-based agent for piloting through 360°
sports videos automatically. At each frame, the agent observes
a panoramic image and has the knowledge of previously
selected viewing angles. The task of the agent is
to shift the current viewing angle (i.e. action) to the next
preferred one (i.e., goal).
(* indicates equal contribution)
Hou-Ning Hu*, Yen-Chen Lin*, Ming-Yu Liu, Hsien-Tzu Cheng, Yung-Ju Chang, Min Sun
CVPR 2017 (Oral)


JavaScript (JS) is an interpreted computer programming language.
It was originally implemented as part of web browsers so that client-side scripts could interact with the user, control the browser,
communicate asynchronously, and alter the document content that was displayed.[5] More recently, however,
it has become common in both game development and the creation of desktop applications.
C# is intended to be a simple, modern, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language.
Its development team is led by Anders Hejlsberg. The most recent version is C# 5.0, which was released on August 15, 2012.
The command-line compiler, VBC.EXE, is installed as part of the freeware .NET Framework SDK.
Mono also includes a command-line VB.NET compiler. The most recent version is VB 2012, which was released on August 15, 2012.


Bradley saw 3 dinosaur skeletons at the museum. To measure the length of each skeleton, he counted the number of his shoe lengths from the head to the tail, as shown in the picture below.
Bradley's shoe length is 17cm long. Which list shows the dinosaur skeletons that were more than 320 centimeters long?


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addEffect(Effect)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Add an effect to this bus.
Asset
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
PathType
A path to an asset in the .apk.
AttenuationMode
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Indicates how volume on 3D sounds is attenuated with distance.
AudioUpdateMs
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
Audio processing frame duration, in ms.
B
Bank
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
A bank of memory-resident sounds.
BiquadFilter
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectType
BitCrusher
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectType
C
Ck
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
The Cricket interface.
com.crickettechnology.audio
- package com.crickettechnology.audio
Config
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Configuration options for the Engine.
Config()
- Constructor for class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
D
Default
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
PathType
The default path type.
E
Effect
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
EffectBus
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
EffectType
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Types of built-in effects available.
EnableOggVorbis
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
If true, software support for Ogg Vorbis stream sounds is enabled.
ExternalStorage
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
PathType
A path relative to the external storage directory.
F
FileSystem
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
PathType
A full path to a file on the file system.
find(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Find a loaded bank by name.
find(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Finds a mixer by name.
FloatRef
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Mutable float container, used for emulating float C++ reference parameters.
FloatRef()
- Constructor for class com.crickettechnology.audio.
FloatRef
G
get()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
FloatRef
Get the value
get()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
IntRef
Get the value
get()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
ObjectRef
Get the object
get3dAttenuation(ObjectRef<AttenuationMode>, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets parameters used for 3D volume attenuation.
get3dListenerPosition(FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the listener position and rotation in 3D space.
get3dListenerVelocity(FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the listener velocity in 3D space.
get3dPosition(FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the position of the sound emitter in 3D space.
get3dSoundSpeed()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the speed of sound.
get3dVelocity(FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the velocity of the sound emitter in 3D space.
getChannels()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the number of channels in the sound (1 for mono, 2 for stereo).
getCpuLoad()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Returns an estimate of the load on the audio processing thread.
getCurrentLoop()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the number of the current loop.
getGlobalEffectBus()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Get the global effect bus.
getLength()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the total duration of the sound, in sample frames.
getLengthMs()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the total duration of the sound, in milliseconds.
getLoop(IntRef, IntRef)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Get the loop start and end.
getLoopCount()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the number of times the sound should loop.
getMaster()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Returns the master mixer, which is the root of the mixer hierarchy.
getMixedVolume()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Returns the volume used for mixing (affected by ancestors).
getMixedVolume()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the volume value used for mixing.
getMixer()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the mixer to which this sound is assigned.
getName()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Returns the name of the bank.
getName()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Returns the name of the mixer.
getNumSounds()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Returns the number of sounds in the bank.
getOutputBus()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Get the bus to which this bus's output is sent.
getPan()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the pan.
getPanMatrix(FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef, FloatRef)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the pan matrix.
getParent()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Returns the parent of the mixer.
getPitchShift()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the pitch shift value, in half-steps.
getPlayPosition()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Get the current play position in the sound, in sample frames.
getPlayPositionMs()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Get the current play position in the sound, in milliseconds.
getSampleRate()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the sample rate of the sound, in Hz.
getSoundName(int)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Returns the name of a sound in this bank.
getSpeed()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the playback speed.
getVolume()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Returns the local volume.
getVolume()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets the volume.
getVolumeRampTime()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Gets the maximum rate at which volumes change on playing sounds, in ms per full volume scale.
getWetDryRatio()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Gets the wet/dry ratio for this effect.
getWetDryRatio()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Gets the wet/dry ratio for this bus.
I
init(Activity)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Initializes Cricket Audio.
init(Activity, Config)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Initializes Cricket Audio.
IntRef
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Mutable integer container, used for emulating int C++ reference parameters.
IntRef()
- Constructor for class com.crickettechnology.audio.
IntRef
InvDistance
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
AttenuationMode
Attenuation proportional to the reciprocal of the distance.
InvDistanceSquared
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
AttenuationMode
Attenuation proportional to the square of the reciprocal of the distance.
is3dEnabled()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets whether 3D positioning is enabled.
isBypassed()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Gets whether this effect is bypassed.
isBypassed()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Gets whether this bus is bypassed.
isFailed()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Returns true if an asynchronously loaded bank had an error during loading.
isFailed()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Returns true if an error occurred while creating the sound.
isLoaded()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Returns true when an asynchronously loaded bank has finished loading.
isPaused()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets whether the sound is paused.
isPlaying()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Gets whether the sound is playing.
isReady()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Returns true if the sound is ready.
L
Linear
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
AttenuationMode
Linear attenuation of volume between near distance and far distance.
LOG_ALL
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
LOG_ERROR
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
LOG_INFO
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
LOG_NONE
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
LOG_WARNING
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
LogFile
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
Log file in which messages are saved.
LogMask
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
Bitmask for which types of messages are logged.
M
maxAudioTasks
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
Maximum number of audio tasks that can be queued at once.
Mixer
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
An object in the mixing hierarchy.
N
NativeDebug
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
If true, the debug version of the native library (libckjava_d.so) is loaded, instead of the release version (libckjava.so).
newBank(String, PathType)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Loads a bank.
newBank(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Loads a bank from an asset in the .apk.
newBankAsync(String, PathType)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Loads a bank asynchronously.
newBankAsync(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Bank
Loads a bank asynchronously from an asset in the .apk.
newBankSound(Bank, int)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Creates a sound from a bank.
newBankSound(Bank, String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Creates a sound from a bank.
newEffect(EffectType)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Create a built-in effect.
newEffectBus()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Create a new effect bus.
newMixer(String, Mixer)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Creates a new mixer.
newMixer(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Creates a new mixer.
newNetworkStreamSound(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Creates an HTTP network streaming sound
newStreamSound(String, PathType)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Creates a streaming sound.
newStreamSound(String)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Creates a streaming sound from an asset in the .apk.
None
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
AttenuationMode
No attenuation; volume is 1.0 when closer than the far distance, and far volume outside of that.
O
ObjectRef
<
T
> - Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Mutable object container, used for emulating C++ reference parameters.
ObjectRef()
- Constructor for class com.crickettechnology.audio.
ObjectRef
P
PathType
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
Indicates how a file path should be interpreted.
play()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Play the sound.
PrivateFiles
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
PathType
A path relative to the private files directory.
R
releaseLoop()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Makes the current loop the last.
removeAllEffects()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Remove all effects from this bus.
removeEffect(Effect)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Remove an effect from this bus.
reset()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Reset the state of this effect.
reset()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Reset the state of all effects on this bus.
resume()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Resumes Cricket Audio.
RingMod
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectType
S
set(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
FloatRef
Set the value
set(int)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
IntRef
Set the value
set(T)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
ObjectRef
Set the object
set3dAttenuation(AttenuationMode, float, float, float)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets parameters used for 3D volume attenuation.
set3dEnabled(boolean)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets whether 3D positioning is enabled.
set3dListenerPosition(float, float, float, float, float, float, float, float, float)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the listener position and rotation in 3D space.
set3dListenerVelocity(float, float, float)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the listener velocity in 3D space.
set3dPosition(float, float, float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the position of the sound emitter in 3D space.
set3dSoundSpeed(float)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the speed of sound.
set3dVelocity(float, float, float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the velocity of the sound emitter in 3D space.
setBypassed(boolean)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Set whether this effect is bypassed.
setBypassed(boolean)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Set whether this bus is bypassed.
setEffectBus(EffectBus)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the effect bus to which this sound's audio is sent to be processed, or null for dry output (no effects).
setLoop(int, int)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Set the loop start and end.
setLoopCount(int)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the number of times the sound should loop.
setMixer(Mixer)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the mixer to which this sound is assigned.
setName(String)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Sets the name of the mixer.
setOutputBus(EffectBus)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Set the bus to which this bus's output is sent.
setPan(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the pan.
setPanMatrix(float, float, float, float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the pan matrix explicitly.
setParam(int, int)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Set an effect parameter.
setParam(int, float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Set an effect parameter.
setParent(Mixer)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Sets the parent of the mixer.
setPaused(boolean)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets whether the sound is paused.
setPitchShift(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the pitch shift value, in half-steps.
setPlayPosition(int)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Set the play position in the sound, in sample frames.
setPlayPositionMs(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Set the play position in the sound, in milliseconds.
setSpeed(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the playback speed.
setVolume(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Mixer
Sets the local volume.
setVolume(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Sets the volume.
setVolumeRampTime(float)
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Sets the maximum rate at which volumes change on playing sounds, in ms per full volume scale.
setWetDryRatio(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Effect
Sets the wet/dry ratio for this effect.
setWetDryRatio(float)
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
EffectBus
Sets the wet/dry ratio for this bus.
shutdown()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Shuts down Cricket Audio.
Sound
- Class in
com.crickettechnology.audio
A sound (either memory-resident or streamed).
SOUND_SPEED_CENTIMETERS_PER_SECOND
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
The speed of sound in dry air at 20 degrees C, in centimeters per second.
SOUND_SPEED_FEET_PER_SECOND
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
The speed of sound in dry air at 20 degrees C, in feet per second.
SOUND_SPEED_INCHES_PER_SECOND
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
The speed of sound in dry air at 20 degrees C, in inches per second.
SOUND_SPEED_METERS_PER_SECOND
- Static variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
The speed of sound in dry air at 20 degrees C, in meters per second.
stop()
- Method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Sound
Stop the sound.
StreamBufferMs
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
Size of buffer for stream sounds.
StreamFileUpdateMs
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
Interval between file reads for stream sounds, in ms.
suspend()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Suspends Cricket Audio.
U
update()
- Static method in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Ck
Updates Cricket Audio.
UseJavaAudio
- Variable in class com.crickettechnology.audio.
Config
If true, always use Java audio output instead of OpenSL ES.
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I am trying to learn html. Em is used to make line italics
I need to be goodin math otherwise
coding is not goign to
work . theStrong is used to make senetnce bold jshdjshd dhhf sdfhshdsd shdkshds
lets see how interesting is this.
I am just feeling weird and funny.
now this color should be in green
i m a goodTarget blank open link in another tab. A href is used for hyperlink
| name | age | gender |
|---|---|---|
| kunjan | 30 | female |
| kunjan | 30 | female |
The wwwis awsesome
html crash courseby Kunjan


WITNESS LIST Natural Resources Committee February 7, 2001-3:00P Agency Briefings On: Baker, John (Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission) Beal, Joseph (Lower Colorado River Authority) Butler, Susan (San Antonio Water System) Kelly, Mary (San Antonio Water System) Pedersen, Craig (Texas Water Development Board) Ray, Tom (Brazos River Authority) Rothe, Greg (San Antonio River Authority) Sansom, Andrew (Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) West, Bill (Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority)


This add-in allows you to:
The integration should work seamlessly no matter how the file is opened from OneDrive, including:
The only Office applications supported by this integration are:
Once the document has been filed in Content Manager the task pane should open automatically to display the list of properties available in the Content Manager view pane. If this task pane is not open it may be opened using the same 'Record' menu option as was used to originally register them document.
Once the document has been registered in Content Manager its content may be updated in one of two ways:
If you have used the 'Check in and delete on close' method to update a Record in Content Manager then a link to that Record will have been created for you in OneDrive. This link may be used to re-open the Record. Opening the record will cause it to be checked out to you and a copy of the document placed in your 'Content Manager Documents' folder in OneDrive.
If you have used the 'Check in and delete on close' method to update a Record in Content Manager then a link to that Record will have been created for you in OneDrive. This link may be used to preview the document within Content Manager. The ellipsis menu on the document contains a 'preview' option, this will open a PDF rendition of the document from within Content Manager for preview. From this preview you may to choose to open the actual document which will cause it to be copied back into your 'Content Manager Documents' folder in OneDrive.
The integration will prompt you to send a request to share a Record if you use the open dialog to find a Record in Content Manager that is already checked out to someone elses OneDrive. If the owner of the checked out Record allows sharing you will be able to edit the instance in their OneDrive but only they will have permission to check the document into Content Manager.
The context menu in the task pane contains a 'paste' item which allows you to paste the:
These paste menu is availeble both in the context menu for the current Record and also in the list of Records displayed inside the Context tab.
Once a document has been registered in Content Manager the the Task Pane should open automatically whenever the document is opening. This Task Pane contains a Context tab with quick links to those Records that are:
The context pane may also be used to do a search for any Record in Content Manager.
Fields in the Record entry form that contain Content Manager objects, such as Container or Author, are populated using quick select fields. These quick select fields are simpler than the corresponding fields in either the desktop or web clients, you may find an object by:
Once you have found the appropriate object in the list select it to populate the field.
The open dialog allows you to search all Records in CM, even non electronic ones. To use it:
The tabs used in the record entry form have to fit into the width of the task pane, for this reason they have an overflow feature. If there is more than one tab in the Record Entry form and it is likely the combined size of the tabs will be larger than the available width then overflowing tabs will be shown not as tabs but in the overflow menu, represented by the an ellipsis menu.
Records and Check in Places are displayed using the properties pane, this is the pane that is displayed in the task pane when you select the 'Record' menu item for an item that exists in Content Manager. The properties pane shows the list of properties you have selected to show in the View Pane. To remove a property from display use the X icon to the right of the property value. To add a property use the combobox at the bottom of the pane to choose the property then select 'Add'. To reset the displayed properties to the default choose 'Get default properties and fields for view pane' from the context menu.


A
Levels / New level
Marina B
Logged in as instructor
New level 1/2: general
Name
Image
Background
Weight


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Play It. Enjoy It.
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June 23, 2003
Thong Man found dead
San Antonio Express-News | Submitted by: Bill Dunn
"Joseph Gottschalk, 52, received international media attention after the San Antonio Express-News wrote of his habit of riding around Southside Lions Park wearing nothing but a thong. ... Peering down a sharp drop, the hikers saw Gottschalk’s body on a wide ledge about 100 feet below, park spokesman David Elkowitz said. ... Rangers said they found no sign of foul play nor any kind of note. ... In May, Gottschalk, who had become better known to many as 'Thong Man,' served as grand marshal for a parade of thong-wearers vying for free Spurs playoff tickets. Earlier this month, however, he was arrested for stripping down to a sack. While Gottschalk’s thong had covered body parts required by law, the tan bag he was wearing did not meet that legal standard." [Goodbye, Thong Man. You and your briefly-glimpsed taint will be missed.]
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Read article...
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King implores political candidates not to engage in ritual murder
Johannesburg Daily Mail Guardian | Submitted by: Hubble Bubble
"[King Mswati III of Swaziland] sternly warned prospective candidates not to murder innocent people in order to harvest their body parts to make a 'muti' to bring good fortune. 'During election times, we tend to lose our grandmothers, grandfathers and young children. They just disappear. But I want to warn you all that you should not resort to ritual murder,' Mswati said. Addressing more than 15 000 people at Ludzidzini Royal Village, 20km east of Mbabane, the king emphasised: 'Don't do that, because you might get caught and then you will not achieve your dream of going to Parliament.' ... Before the last parliamentary poll in 1998, the number of corpses with missing body parts discovered in rural or peri-urban areas increased from the usual three or four a year to more than a dozen. ... Mswati wants the first Parliament under a new constitutional dispensation to be elected without homicide, and is urging candidates to stick to conventional means of campaigning."
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Surgeons extract 7-year-old fetal skeleton from mother's womb
WKMG-TV 6 Orlando | Submitted by: Rio
"Indonesian doctors have removed the skeleton of a fetus that had been stuck in its mother's womb for more than seven years. ... A naval spokesman said the woman went to doctors complaining of stomach pains. Naval surgeons initially thought she had a tumor, but when they operated on her, they discovered the skeleton of a fetus in her womb." [All part of God's plan.]
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Man gangraped, tortured for PIN number
World Net Daily | Submitted by: B()() B()()
"A 19-year-old New Zealand man traveling in Australia on a backpacking trip was raped and tortured over the weekend by a gang of men trying to get his personal bank PIN number, reports Down Under. The victim was admitted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital for treatment for a broken nose, cheek and fingers. The man was blindfolded and his legs and feet burned with a flame. Many of the other injuries were inflicted with home-made weapons, reports the New Zealand Herald. ... The gang of five men allegedly tied the victim to a chair and assaulted him throughout the night in an attempt to persuade him to give them his bank PIN number. Police don't know why the man was sexually attacked."
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Sleepfucking newest legal defense in sex crime cases
canada.com | Submitted by: Tim Howard
"Sexsomnia can affect both men and women. While the causes are unknown, researchers suspect stress, chronic sleepiness, or alcohol or drug abuse may play a role. Seizure disorders, an injury to the brain, or a history of physical or sexual abuse may also be triggers. In some cases, nocturnal sex may be considered 'odd but still within present social norms,' the authors write, 'particularly if the partner is a willing participant.' ... [But there have been] several cases of men who were charged with sexually assaulting their partners, or even their own children. All were 'exculpated' after doctors found evidence of sexsomnia, and the study suggests cases of alleged sexual molestation should be investigated for evidence of the sleep sex disorder -- a prospect that alarms groups who work with sex assault victims."
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Woman convicted of shooting boyfriend tried suicide by cop
KNSD-TV 7 San Diego | Submitted by: Tim Howard
"A jury convicted a La Mesa woman who shot her boyfriend four times last year after they had painful sex in his University City condominium of attempted murder. ... She said the encounter reminded her of two past rapes and an abusive relationship. ... Witnesses testified that Watson stumbled outside and collapsed in a flowerbed. They said Rucker stood over him for about a minute before firing two more shots at his body. Police testified that they shot Rucker when she got out of her car carrying the gun at her La Mesa apartment complex. ... 'She said, "Just let me die,"' the officer testified. 'She said, "Why can't you guys be better shots?"'"
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'Abortion ship' docks in Poland to jeers, cheers
Chicago Sun-Times | Submitted by: Tim Howard
"Protesters threw red paint at a ship crewed by a Dutch abortion rights group as it arrived in Poland on Sunday. Dozens of people, many shouting 'murderers' and waving Polish flags, met the Langenort as it pulled into Wladyslawowo. Among the Poles was a small group of women who applauded the arrival of Women on Waves, a group that says the purpose of its trip is to offer Polish women advice on contraceptives. Poland has some of Europe's strictest anti-abortion laws. ... In Poland, pregnancy can be terminated only if it threatens the woman's health, if the fetus is irreparably damaged or if the pregnancy results from rape or incest. People performing or helping with an abortion in other circumstances can face up to three years in prison."
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Mother arrested for DIY fingerectomy
WKMG-TV 6 Orlando | Submitted by: Rio
"An Ohio woman who admitted she tried to remove an extra finger from her infant son's hand by tying it off with string has been allowed to remain free on bond during a presentencing investigation. ... The child was born with an extra finger protruding from his right pinkie. Uphole had apparently been told by a doctor that the extra appendage needed to be surgically removed. Instead, Uphole tried to do it herself by tying a piece of string or sewing thread tightly around the baby's extra finger in February." Didn't work.
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Lawyer busted for bringing marijuana to jail
Canoe | Submitted by: Tim Howard
"A defence lawyer taped 113 grams of marijuana to his thighs and tried to enter the Cook County Jail so he could pass the pot onto jailed clients, authorities said. A drug-sniffing dog barked at Barry Alan Mattes as he entered the jail Friday, and he was arrested after consenting to a search at a checkpoint. ... 'He admitted to the sheriff's police officers that he intended to pass marijuana to his inmates,' Cook County sheriff's spokesman Bill Cunningham said."
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Elian raid tactics not demonstrably Janet Reno's fault
Court TV | Submitted by: Tim Howard
"Protesters and neighbors who alleged their constitutional rights were violated during the raid to seize Elian Gonzalez cannot sue former Attorney General Janet Reno, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The Atlanta-based panel reversed a lower court decision, stating Reno has immunity from damages because the 52 plaintiffs failed to show that she knew agents would violate their rights during the pre-dawn raid three years ago. ... The court said the connection between the behavior of the agents and Reno's supervisory role was 'vague.'"
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Jamaicans settle election tie the old-fashioned way
Independent Online | Submitted by: Tim Howard
"Patrick White of Jamaica's ruling People's National Party called heads and won his race on Friday after a recount from local elections on Thursday showed a tie in voting for the Annotto Bay seat in St Mary's parish. ... The electoral office on the Caribbean island said constitutional provisions allowed for the presiding elections officer to cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie. But 'the danger of the electoral official being branded a supporter of one of the parties exists when he is asked to decide the casting vote, and it was agreed, under Jamaican law, to flip a coin,' said director of elections Danville Walker."
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Chicken attached to helium balloons flies into power lines
WKMG-TV 6 Orlando | Submitted by: Rio
"A hen tied to about 12 helium balloons was rescued after the bird became tangled in power lines, according to a Local 6 News report. Police said that the fowl floated into power lines Saturday and was extracted hours later after authorities shut off power to more than 1,800 homes. Police officers used pellet guns to shoot the balloons and retrieve the hen. ... animal cruelty charges could result for the person responsible for attaching the balloons to the hen." With video.
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Giant snake hunting for English kids
ITV | Submitted by: nitanoo
"Tracy the Burmese Python -- who has been missing for 24 hours -- has not been fed for over two weeks and is capable of eating small animals. Paul Tomlinson, 34, of Wincobank Lane, Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, warned that if she was threatened, the three-year-old constrictor snake could kill a small child. ...  She might puff up a bit and look a bit intimidating but she never strikes humans." [Except for children.]
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Police raid warehouse full of rotting meat
BBC | Submitted by: Lydia
"Goat meat, cows' feet and decaying chicken made up some of the 30 tons of illegal meat seized in east London. Food safety officers backed up by 50 police officers raided an unlicensed food plant... They found the place was infested with rats and mice and found so much illegal meat it took them a day to remove it. ... It is thought the meat, which was meant to become pet food, was bought at abattoirs to be repacked and sold for human consumption."
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I work hard to gain experience that enables me to master my work in the field of programming and development, especially as I love this area because of the challenges and learning new things daily.
Apart from being a software developer, I enjoy most outdoors, and I care to play sport, and I spend most of my time learning new things, sometimes I love video games.


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