Chapter 16 Creatures of the Deep The days at sea passed with few adventures to report.
The wind kept us at a steady pace.
We had been sailing for four days, and still there was no sign of the opposite shore.
I was beginning to wonder if this ocean was endless.
I also kept wondering what might be below us.
Who knew what other creatures might live under the water's surface?
It was incredible to think about.
We could find new, undiscovered creatures like that fish, yet the sea was quiet.
As you might imagine, my uncle was frustrated that there was still no sign of landing.
I tried to cheer him up.
But uncle, we are moving so quickly, I reminded him.
It is not that our speed is too small, but the ocean that is too big, he said.
The only thing we had to pass the time was taking more measurements.
My uncle attempted to take soundings.
To do so, he attached the end of a rope to one of the picks we had used for climbing down the rocks.
Then he lowered it from the raft.
The rope was 200 fathoms long, that's 1,800 feet, but it still did not hit the bottom.
It took time to pull the pick back onto the raft.
When we finally lifted it from the water, Hans pointed out strange marks on the metal.
I looked closely and was amazed by what I saw.
Teeth, I said, there are teeth marks on the metal.
By the size of the teeth marks, it must have been a very large creature.
The thought of this bothered me all day.
It bothered me at night while I was trying to sleep.
It was too scary.
Less than two hours later, I was woken up by a terrible shock.
The raft was being lifted into the air.
We were held there for a moment, then thrown 100 feet.
We landed with a crash into the sea.
Water rushed over the sides.
Thankfully, the three of us were not thrown overboard.
At that moment, I understood why Hans had secured all our belongings to the raft.
Did we hit land?
My uncle asked.
He had also been asleep and was very confused.
We were all stunned.
We had no idea what had happened.
Hans pointed.
There was a large black object bobbing up and down in the water.
It looks like a giant porpoise, I said.
And there, my uncle cried, it's a giant lizard and a giant crocodile.
Now it has disappeared.
Oh, where did it go?
We'll need to describe that in our journal.
My uncle was very excited.
A whale, he said.
Look, you can see the water shooting out of its spout.
At that moment, two tall fountains of water shot up from the ocean surface.
A large black tail lifted up, then crashed down, making a splash.
We were amazed.
So many sea creatures had suddenly appeared.
They were all huge.
The smallest of them could easily have destroyed our raft in one bite.
Hans took control of the raft and tried to get us away from this danger.
However, there were almost as many monsters on the other side of us.
There was a giant tortoise that was forty feet wide and a snake at least thirty feet long.
There was nowhere for us to go.
The tortoise and snake raced toward our raft.
They turned just as they reached us.
Everything happened so quickly that I'm not sure I can describe it.
All the creatures disappeared except for the enormous snake and crocodile.
They were each coming at us from opposite sides, or so I thought.
The snake met up with the crocodile about 200 yards away from us.
There a terrible fight began.
The two monsters grabbed a hold of each other.
They began to wrestle, fight, and struggle.
I noticed that the other creatures, the tortoise, porpoise, and giant lizard, appeared and disappeared during the fight.
I pointed this out to my uncle, but he shook his head.
He was watching these events through his telescope.
Therefore, he had a much better view than Hans and I. No, he said, there are only two creatures.
We were mistaken to think there were more.
How could there not be more, I asked.
We saw all of them.
One creature has the nose of a porpoise, the head of a lizard, and the teeth of a crocodile.
The other creature has the head of a long snake, tucked into the shell of a giant turtle.
As I watched them fight, I could see that my uncle was right.
It was only two creatures.
I watched them with great fascination.
I was also terrified that they might turn their anger on us.
All of their fighting was creating great waves.
Our little raft rocked back and forth.
It almost flipped several times.
One hour, two hours passed.
The fight did not slow down.
We were still trapped in the middle of it.
All at once, the two creatures dove underwater and we were left with silence.
Nothing.
Not another sight or sound from these terrifying beasts.
