Chapter 17.
The South Pole.
About eight o'clock on the morning of the 16th of March, the Nautilus entered the Antarctic Polar Circle.
Ice surrounded us on all sides.
I can't describe the beauty of what we saw.
The ice was in such surprising shapes.
Occasionally I would panic, thinking we were trapped inside the icy forts, but Captain Nemo always discovered a way out.
On this day, however, the ice truly blocked our road.
It was not so much the iceberg itself, but a field of coldness that wouldn't let us through.
But Captain Nemo wasn't about to stop.
He kept forcing the ship against the iceberg.
For two days, the captain rammed the ice.
Ice pellets were thrown high into the air.
It fell like hail around us, but the mass of ice would not move.
I was on the platform that night.
Captain Nemo had been thinking about our situation for some time when he said to me Well sir, what do you think of this?
I think we are stuck, Captain.
So, Mr. Aronax, you really think that the Nautilus cannot move?
The captain asked, looking for honesty.
Perhaps it could move, I said, but not without great difficulty.
The captain answered, personally, I think the ship can get out and we can go even farther still.
Farther to the south, I asked, looking at the captain.
Yes, sir, it shall go to the pole.
To the pole, I asked, sounding like an excited child.
Yes, replied the captain coldly, to the Antarctic.
I got caught up in the excitement of our talk.
Let's go ahead, I cried.
Let nothing stand in our way.
Let us smash up this iceberg.
Let us blow it up if it doesn't work.
We'll give the Nautilus wings to fly over it.
No, not over it, sir, said Captain Nemo quietly.
Not over it, but under it.
Under it, I yelled.
I understood.
I see we are starting to think alike, said Captain Nemo, smiling.
You are beginning to see the possibilities.
Things that are impossible with an ordinary ship are easy for the Nautilus.
We discussed for the next several moments the problems that we could meet in the hours to come.
The only big problem I see, said Captain Nemo, is that of being under the iceberg for days without coming up to get air.
Of course, this would be a life or death problem, one that needed careful planning.
But by four o'clock that afternoon, Captain Nemo called for the closing of the platform.
I took one last look at the huge iceberg we were going to cross.
For a part of the night we kept watch out the window.
The sea was lit by the electric lanterns, but there was no ocean life present.
We moved quickly.
By about two in the morning, I went to sleep.
The next morning, the 19th of March, I went to the saloon to check on the past hour's work.
The instrument told me our speed had dropped way down.
We were moving toward the surface.
My heart began to beat fast.
A shock told me the Nautilus had struck the bottom of the iceberg.
There were still about 3,000 feet of ice above us.
Several times that day, the Nautilus tried again and again.
It wasn't even close to breaking through such a mass of ice.
It was now time to begin worrying about the oxygen on board.
Our air supply should have been refilled four hours ago.
I didn't suffer much, but Captain Nemo still had no plan on exactly when to use the extra oxygen he had stored on board.
My sleep was painful that night.
I tossed and turned.
I awoke several times.
In the middle of the night, I noticed that the Nautilus was only 50 feet under the iceberg.
I watched the instrument as it kept telling us that we were rising closer and closer toward the surface of the ocean.
We could see the gleaming of the sun through the ice before we were actually at the top.
What a wonderful sight to see.
At six o'clock in the morning, Captain Nemo appeared at the door.
The sea is open, was all he said.
I rushed onto the platform.
Yes, the open sea, with just a few scattered pieces of ice and moving icebergs, a long stretch of sea, a world of birds in the air and fishes of all colors under those waters.
It seemed like spring the way we were shut up behind this iceberg.
Are we at the pole?
I asked the captain with a fast beating heart.
He replied, But do you think the sun will show itself through this fog?
I said, Captain Nemo answered, By 10 a.m., we were ready for a visit to the island.
We took the rowboat to shore.
Consail was going to jump onto the land when I held him back.
Sir, I said to Captain Emo, you are the one who deserves to be first upon this land.
Yes, said the captain.
We could tell he liked the attention.
He gazed at the island as though he'd never really seen it before.
Until this time, no human being has stepped foot on the South Pole.
He jumped lightly onto the sand.
He climbed a rock, crossed his arms, and gazed out over the land.
He looked like a king who had just returned to his own kingdom.
After about five minutes, he finally turned to us and invited us onto the land.
The rest of us joined him.
I couldn't wait to explore.
I didn't know where to start first.
My feet made my mind up for me.
The soil I was walking on was made of a reddish, sandy stone.
It had been made by a volcano.
There was little plant life in this area.
Most of it was tiny bits washed up from the sea.
As for animal life, there were some species of little mussels and sea butterflies and mollusks.
The most dramatic thing I noticed, though, was the wonderful example of life in the air.
Thousands of birds fluttered and flew.
Their cries were so loud we could hear nothing else.
Others crowded onto rocks, looking at us as we passed by.
They hopped about our feet without fear.
There were penguins graceful in the water despite how funny they looked on land.
They were uttering loud cries.
We watched as different species flew, swam, and walked about us.
I stood in amazement as I tried to recall these birds from the many bird species books I'd read.
Chenise, albatrosses, petrels, and domiers came to mind.
It was hard to believe they were actually in front of me, allowing me to study them up close.
It was hard to believe there could be any disappointment on this day.
But there was.
The fog did not lift, and the sun did not appear.
We could not know for sure that we were actually on the pole.
To make it worse, the white fog turned to snow.
Until tomorrow, said the captain quietly.
We returned to the Nautilus with mixed feelings.
We felt great joy at the wonders we had seen, but still a sadness that we did not find the truth.
The snow continued into the next day.
It was impossible to stay on the platforms.
From the window in the saloon where I was taking notes, I could hear the cries of birds in the storm.
The Nautilus did not remain still, but went up the coast about ten miles.
By the next day, the 20th of March, the snow had stopped.
It was a little colder, the thermometer reading two degrees above zero.
The fog was rising.
There was hope for the sun.
Captain Nemo wasn't there, so Conceal and I took the boat to the island ourselves.
The soil was the same as it had been on our last stop, but the birds now shared their land with large troops of sea mammals.
They looked at us with their soft eyes.
There were several kinds of seals, some stretched on the earth, some on the ice, many going in and out of the sea.
They did not leave as we got closer.
I was surprised since they had never seen men before.
Conceal and I spent the next three hours studying and watching these mammals.
What pleasure we found just to listen to them, watch them play, feel their skin.
I could have spent days with these curious creatures.
At ten o'clock we decided to head back and see if Captain Nemo had found good conditions to get a report on where we were.
We took a different path back to the starting point.
The boat had gone back for the captain.
I saw him standing there, looking toward the sky.
We would need the highest point for true readings to appear.
The captain and I went alone to check the instruments.
We climbed the steep slope for two hours to reach the highest point.
The captain set up his tools and set his sights on the sun.
It's twelve o'clock, I exclaimed.
We held our breath as the instrument measured.
The South Pole, replied Captain Nemo in a serious voice.
I looked at the man who had tried so hard to find this land.
At that moment, Captain Nemo, resting with his hand on my shoulder, said I, Captain Nemo, on this 21st day of March 1868, have reached, I now take possession of this part of the globe equal to one-sixth of the known continents.
In whose name, Captain?
In my own, sir.
Captain Nemo unrolled a black flag with a golden letter in it.
As we placed the flag into the snowy ice and cold, we saw the sun begin to disappear beneath the open sea.
Six months of night was spreading its shadows over the captain's new land.
