elements to make the electricity; sodium to supply those elements, carbon to make the sodium, and coal to extract the carbon. In this very spot the sea covers entire forests which were embedded during the geological period, now mineralised and become coal, an inexhaustible mine for me.”
“Your crew become miners here, then, captain.”
“Certainly. These mines extend beneath the waves, like the Newcastle collieries. Here in their divers’ dresses, with pick and shovel, my men dig the coal out, which I do not ask from terrestrial mines. When I burn it to make sodium, the smoke escapes by the crater, which makes the mountain appear as an active volcano.”
“Shall we see your companions at work?” I asked.
“Well, not this time, for I am in a hurry to continue our voyage. So I will only draw the sodium from my reserves. We only allow a day to put it on board; so if you wish to see the cavern and make a tour of the lagoon, you had better take advantage of that day, M. Aronnax.”
I thanked the captain and sought my companions, who had not yet left their cabin. I invited them to accompany me, but did not tell them where we were.
They ascended to the platform. Conseil, who was never astonished at anything, looked upon it as quite a natural thing to wake up in the centre of a mountain, having gone to sleep while under water. But Ned Land thought of nothing but of finding an exit.
After breakfast—about six o’clock—we landed.
“Well, here we are on land again,” said Conseil.
“I don’t call this land,” replied Ned. “And, besides, we are not on land, we are underneath it.”
Between the mountain side and the lake ran a sandy
