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-\chapter{Ned Land}
-
-Captain Farragut was a good seaman, worthy of the frigate he commanded.
-His vessel and he were one. He was the soul of it. On the question
-of the monster there was no doubt in his mind, and he would not allow
-the existence of the animal to be disputed on board. He believed in it,
-as certain good women believe in the leviathan--by faith, not by reason.
-The monster did exist, and he had sworn to rid the seas of it. Either Captain
-Farragut would kill the narwhal, or the narwhal would kill the captain.
-There was no third course.
-
-The officers on board shared the opinion of their chief.
-They were ever chatting, discussing, and calculating the various
-chances of a meeting, watching narrowly the vast surface of the ocean.
-More than one took up his quarters voluntarily in the cross-trees,
-who would have cursed such a berth under any other circumstances.
-As long as the sun described its daily course, the rigging was
-crowded with sailors, whose feet were burnt to such an extent by
-the heat of the deck as to render it unbearable; still the Abraham
-Lincoln had not yet breasted the suspected waters of the Pacific.
-As to the ship's company, they desired nothing better than to meet
-the unicorn, to harpoon it, hoist it on board, and despatch it.
-They watched the sea with eager attention.
-
-Besides, Captain Farragut had spoken of a certain sum of two thousand dollars,
-set apart for whoever should first sight the monster, were he cabin-boy,
-common seaman, or officer.
-
-I leave you to judge how eyes were used on board the Abraham Lincoln.
-
-\section{added section marker}
-
-For my own part I was not behind the others, and, left to no one my share
-of daily observations. The frigate might have been called the Argus,
-for a hundred reasons. Only one amongst us, Conseil, seemed to protest
-by his indifference against the question which so interested us all,
-and seemed to be out of keeping with the general enthusiasm on board.
-
-\begin{equation}
-E=mc^2
-\end{equation}
-
-I have said that Captain Farragut had carefully provided his
-ship with every apparatus for catching the gigantic cetacean.
-No whaler had ever been better armed. We possessed every
-known engine, from the harpoon thrown by the hand to the barbed
-arrows of the blunderbuss, and the explosive balls of the duck-gun.
-On the forecastle lay the perfection of a breech-loading gun,
-very thick at the breech, and very narrow in the bore,
-the model of which had been in the Exhibition of 1867.
-This precious weapon of American origin could throw with ease
-a conical projectile of nine pounds to a mean distance
-of ten miles.
-
-Thus the Abraham Lincoln wanted for no means of destruction; and, what was
-better still she had on board Ned Land, the prince of harpooners.
-
-Ned Land was a Canadian, with an uncommon quickness of hand, and who knew
-no equal in his dangerous occupation. Skill, coolness, audacity, and cunning
-he possessed in a superior degree, and it must be a cunning whale to escape
-the stroke of his harpoon.
-
-Ned Land was about forty years of age; he was a tall man
-(more than six feet high), strongly built, grave and taciturn,
-occasionally violent, and very passionate when contradicted.
-His person attracted attention, but above all the boldness
-of his look, which gave a singular expression to his face.
-
-Who calls himself Canadian calls himself French; and, little communicative
-as Ned Land was, I must admit that he took a certain liking for me.
-My nationality drew him to me, no doubt. It was an opportunity for him
-to talk, and for me to hear, that old language of Rabelais, which is still
-in use in some Canadian provinces. The harpooner's family was originally
-from Quebec, and was already a tribe of hardy fishermen when this town
-belonged to France.
-
-Little by little, Ned Land acquired a taste for chatting, and I
-loved to hear the recital of his adventures in the polar seas.
-He related his fishing, and his combats, with natural poetry
-of expression; his recital took the form of an epic poem,
-and I seemed to be listening to a Canadian Homer singing the Iliad
-of the regions of the North.
-
-\begin{equation}
-E=mc^2
-\end{equation}
-
-I am portraying this hardy companion as I really knew him.
-We are old friends now, united in that unchangeable friendship
-which is born and cemented amidst extreme dangers. Ah, brave Ned!
-I ask no more than to live a hundred years longer, that I may have more
-time to dwell the longer on your memory.
-
-Now, what was Ned Land's opinion upon the question of the marine monster?
-I must admit that he did not believe in the unicorn, and was
-the only one on board who did not share that universal conviction.
-He even avoided the subject, which I one day thought it my duty
-to press upon him. One magnificent evening, the 30th July (that is
-to say, three weeks after our departure), the frigate was abreast
-of Cape Blanc, thirty miles to leeward of the coast of Patagonia.
-We had crossed the tropic of Capricorn, and the Straits of Magellan
-opened less than seven hundred miles to the south. Before eight
-days were over the Abraham Lincoln would be ploughing the waters
-of the Pacific.
-
-Seated on the poop, Ned Land and I were chatting of one thing
-and another as we looked at this mysterious sea, whose great
-depths had up to this time been inaccessible to the eye of man.
-I naturally led up the conversation to the giant unicorn, and examined
-the various chances of success or failure of the expedition.
-But, seeing that Ned Land let me speak without saying too much himself,
-I pressed him more closely.
-
-``Well, Ned,'' said I, ``is it possible that you are not convinced
-of the existence of this cetacean that we are following?
-Have you any particular reason for being so incredulous?''
-
-The harpooner looked at me fixedly for some moments
-before answering, struck his broad forehead with his hand
-(a habit of his), as if to collect himself, and said at last,
-``Perhaps I have, Mr. Aronnax.''
-
-``But, Ned, you, a whaler by profession, familiarised with all
-the great marine mammalia---YOU ought to be the last to doubt
-under such circumstances!''
-
-``That is just what deceives you, Professor,'' replied Ned.
-``As a whaler I have followed many a cetacean, harpooned a great number,
-and killed several; but, however strong or well-armed they may
-have been, neither their tails nor their weapons would have been
-able even to scratch the iron plates of a steamer.''
-
-``But, Ned, they tell of ships which the teeth of the narwhal
-have pierced through and through.''
-
-``Wooden ships---that is possible,'' replied the Canadian,
-``but I have never seen it done; and, until further proof,
-I deny that whales, cetaceans, or sea-unicorns could ever produce
-the effect you describe.''
-
-``Well, Ned, I repeat it with a conviction resting on the logic of facts.
-I believe in the existence of a mammal power fully organised, belonging to
-the branch of vertebrata, like the whales, the cachalots, or the dolphins,
-and furnished with a horn of defence of great penetrating power.''
-
-``Hum!'' said the harpooner, shaking his head with the air of a man
-who would not be convinced.
-
-``Notice one thing, my worthy Canadian,'' I resumed.
-``If such an animal is in existence, if it inhabits the depths
-of the ocean, if it frequents the strata lying miles below
-the surface of the water, it must necessarily possess an
-organisation the strength of which would defy all comparison.''
-
-``And why this powerful organisation?'' demanded Ned.
-
-``Because it requires incalculable strength to keep one's self
-in these strata and resist their pressure. Listen to me.
-Let us admit that the pressure of the atmosphere is represented
-by the weight of a column of water thirty-two feet high.
-In reality the column of water would be shorter, as we are
-speaking of sea water, the density of which is greater than
-that of fresh water. Very well, when you dive, Ned, as many
-times 32 feet of water as there are above you, so many times
-does your body bear a pressure equal to that of the atmosphere,
-that is to say, 15 lb. for each square inch of its surface.
-It follows, then, that at 320 feet this pressure equals
-that of 10 atmospheres, of 100 atmospheres at 3,200 feet,
-and of 1,000 atmospheres at 32,000 feet, that is, about 6 miles;
-which is equivalent to saying that if you could attain this
-depth in the ocean, each square three-eighths of an inch
-of the surface of your body would bear a pressure of 5,600 lb.
-Ah! my brave Ned, do you know how many square inches you carry on
-the surface of your body?''
-
-``I have no idea, Mr. Aronnax.''
-
-``About 6,500; and as in reality the atmospheric pressure is about 15 lb.
-to the square inch, your 6,500 square inches bear at this moment a pressure
-of 97,500 lb.''
-
-``Without my perceiving it?''
-
-''Without your perceiving it. And if you are not crushed by
-such a pressure, it is because the air penetrates the interior
-of your body with equal pressure. Hence perfect equilibrium
-between the interior and exterior pressure, which thus neutralise
-each other, and which allows you to bear it without inconvenience.
-But in the water it is another thing.''
-
-``Yes, I understand,'' replied Ned, becoming more attentive;
-``because the water surrounds me, but does not penetrate.''
-
-``Precisely, Ned: so that at 32 feet beneath the surface of the sea you would
-undergo a pressure of 97,500 lb.; at 320 feet, ten times that pressure;
-at 3,200 feet, a hundred times that pressure; lastly, at 32,000 feet,
-a thousand times that pressure would be 97,500,000 lb.---that is to say,
-that you would be flattened as if you had been drawn from the plates of
-a hydraulic machine!''
-
-``The devil!'' exclaimed Ned.
-
-``Very well, my worthy harpooner, if some vertebrate, several hundred
-yards long, and large in proportion, can maintain itself in such depths---of
-those whose surface is represented by millions of square inches, that is
-by tens of millions of pounds, we must estimate the pressure they undergo.
-Consider, then, what must be the resistance of their bony structure,
-and the strength of their organisation to withstand such pressure!''
-
-``Why!'' exclaimed Ned Land, ``they must be made of iron plates
-eight inches thick, like the armoured frigates.''
-
-``As you say, Ned. And think what destruction such a mass would cause,
-if hurled with the speed of an express train against the hull of a vessel.''
-
-``Yes---certainly---perhaps,'' replied the Canadian, shaken by these figures,
-but not yet willing to give in.
-
-``Well, have I convinced you?''
-
-``You have convinced me of one thing, sir, which is that,
-if such animals do exist at the bottom of the seas, they must
-necessarily be as strong as you say.''
-
-``But if they do not exist, mine obstinate harpooner, how explain
-the accident to the Scotia?''