I flew to the platform.

Yes! Free passage of the sea. There are only some scattered ice and floating ice in the near side, a sea in the distance, and a world of birds in the air; There are billions of fish under the water, and the color of the water varies with the depth, ranging from deep indigo to olive green. The thermometer pointed to three degrees Celsius. For the weather behind this iceberg, it seems to be a relative spring, and the distant ice group is exposed in the northern sky.

"We are in the Antarctic? "I asked the captain, and my heart was beating.

"I don't know." He answered me. "I didn't come to measure the position at noon. ""But does solar energy pass through these clouds? I looked at the gray sky and said. "As long as a little is enough. , the captain replied. Two nautical miles south of the Nautilus, an isolated island emerged, 200 meters high. We walked to the island, but we were careful, because there might be reefs everywhere in the sea. In an hour, we arrived at the island. In another two hours, we circled the island for a week. It is four to five nautical miles long around it. A narrow waterway separates it from a vast land, or this is a continent, and we can't see its boundaries yet. The existence of this land seems to prove Molly's hypothesis right. Indeed, this brilliant American scholar pointed out that between the South Pole and the latitude of 60 degrees, there are floating ice groups on the sea. These ice groups are so huge that they can never be encountered in the northern Atlantic. According to this fact, he came to the conclusion that there is a large area of land in the Antarctic circle, because icebergs can't form in the middle of the sea, but only exist on the shore near the land. According to other calculations, the ice covering the South Pole forms a spherical dome, which may be 4,000 kilometers wide.

However, the Nautilus was afraid of being stranded and stopped in front of the beach about six meters apart. There was a magnificent rock layer towering over the beach. Put the boat into the sea. The captain, his two crew members with all kinds of equipment, Conseil and I, we went to the boat together. It was ten o'clock in the morning, and I didn't see Ned Land. Canadians must be reluctant to admit that the South Pole is in front of him. After a few strokes of the paddle, the boat reached the beach and ran aground. Conseil was about to go to the fields when I stopped him.

"Sir," I said to Captain Nemo, "the glory of setting foot on this land for the first time should belong to you."

"Yes, sir," replied the captain, "I didn't hesitate to step on this polar land because no one has left his footprints on this land until now." foretell

Having said this, he jumped briskly on the beach. Nervous and excited emotions made his heart beat violently. He climbed a rock, and the sloping rock was covered with a small sip. On the sip, he crossed his hands, looked enthusiastic, motionless and poked. It seems that he has acquired the ownership of these Antarctic places. After five minutes in this bliss, he turned to us; Shout to me:

"Sir, you can clear it up as soon as you are happy."

I jumped out of the boat, followed by Conseil, and the two men stayed in the boat.

The soil shows germanium-red tuff in a long space, just like layers of bricks and stones. Volcanic burning stones, spewing flint and pumice chips are all over the ground. It is impossible for people not to know that the composition of this land is the source of volcanoes. In some places, there is a slight smoke, which gives off the smell of sulfur, which proves that the internal fire still maintains its strength of development. However, I climbed a towering cliff, and there was no volcano within a radius of several nautical miles. As we all know, in the Antarctic region, james ross (1) found the active Ailebeis and Tirol volcanic vents at 160 degrees east longitude and 77 degrees 32 minutes latitude. ：

Plants in this desolate continent seem extremely limited. Some single black moss species are clustered and spread on black rocks. Some kind of microscopic vegetation, primitive diatoms, Shi Ying-quality cell plants gathered between two shells, Zhen Hong and scarlet black horn vegetables cling to the fish sent ashore at low tide, which is the whole plant kingdom that makes up this place.

There are some mollusks along the coast, such as inkstones, snakes, smooth shells in the shape of hearts, especially those rectangular, membranous tentacles shells with heads formed by two rounded lobes. I also saw countless tentacles shells in the north, which are three centimeters long; Whales devour a large group of them with each bite. These beautiful pterodactyls, which are really butterflies in the sea, liven up the flowing seawater along the coast. Among the plants, there are some coral trees. According to James Ross, these coral trees can live in the Antarctic Sea up to a depth of 1,000 meters. Secondly, there are small jadeite corals belonging to the marine group, many petrels in this area and many starfish scattered on the ground.

But the place where life is rich and colorful is in the air. There are countless different kinds of blackbirds flying up and down, and their singing is noisy, which deafened our ears. 6 Other birds are crowded on the rocks, and they are not afraid at all, watching us pass by) and gather at our feet very affectionately. It is a penguin that is as light and convenient in the water, and sometimes people confuse them with fast roller birds; But the birds are clumsy and stupid on the ground, and they make strange calls and flock in countless numbers; , gathered together, their movements and postures are very few, but their shouts are very powerful!

Among the birds, I saw Antarctic waterfowl of the family Wading Birds. They are about the same size as pigeons. White, with a short conical mouth, eyes in a red circle, Conseil catches this kind of bird for food, because this kind of bird is cooked properly and it is delicious food. There are coal-black albatrosses flying in the air, whose wings are four meters wide. They are also called sea honeymoons.' The name is very appropriate. There are huge petrels, including bow petrels with arched wings, which like to eat seals best. There are sea chess birds, which are ducklings; The body is white and black. Finally, there is a group of petrels, some of which are gray, the edges of their wings are chestnut, and some are blue, which is a specialty of antarctic ocean. I said to Conseil, "There is a lot of gray grease. In the Feroe Islands, people can light it by putting a wick on their abdomen."

"Almost," Conseil replied, "they are completely a lamp. In this case, we have to ask nature to prepare a wick for them in advance!"

After walking half a mile, there are many short-winged diving birds' nests on the ground. These nests are caves built to lay eggs, from which many diving birds fly out. Captain Nemo later shot hundreds of these birds because their black meat was very edible. They make sounds like donkeys barking. These birds are like me; General figure, the body is slate-colored, the bottom is white, and the neck has lemon-colored flower edges. Just like that, people are killed with stones and don't want to escape.

However, the clouds did not disperse, and the sun did not come out until eleven o'clock. The sun does not come out, which makes my heart anxious. Without the sun, it is impossible to make all kinds of observations. So, how do we decide that we are at the South Pole?

When I got back to Captain Nemo, I saw his elbow leaning against a rock, silent and staring at the sky. It seems that he is impatient and angry. But what can we do? This bold and powerful man can't command the sun as he commands the ocean.

At noon, the sun is still shining for a moment. People can't even recognize where it is behind this fog curtain. Soon, the fog melted into snowflakes again.

"Come back tomorrow." The captain simply said to me, and at the same time, let's take a look at the nautilus in the middle of the atmospheric shower.

When we were not on the boat, the fishing net was put into the sea, and I was very interested in observing the fish that people had just pulled onto the boat. Antarctic sea water is the hiding place of most waiting fish, and they move here to avoid storms in the lower latitudes. But they often fall into the mouths of dolphins and seals again. I saw some Antarctic spiny-fin fish, ten centimeters long, which are gray-white cartilaginous fish with oblique pale white stripes and sharp spines. Secondly, I saw antarctic ocean cartilaginous fish, three feet long, with a long, silvery-white and smooth skin, a rounded head, three fins on its back, and a horn bent to its mouth at the front end of its face. I have tasted the meat of this kind of fish, and I think it is insipid, but Conseil has a different opinion. He likes it very much.

The snowstorm lasted until the next day, and it was impossible to stand on the platform. I wrote about my trip to the Antarctic continent in the living room, and heard the cries of petrels and albatrosses flying up and down in the middle of the blizzard from the hall. The nautilus didn't stand still. It sailed along the coast, and in the middle of the dawn left by the sun passing through the sky, it went south for about ten nautical miles.

The next day, March 20th, the snow stopped. The weather is colder, and the thermometer is two degrees below zero. The dense fog has dispersed. I hope our position observation can be made today.

Before Captain Nemo came out, the boat took Conseil and me first and sent us to land. The soil on the ground, like before, is formed by volcanoes. There are remnants of volcanic eruptions, volcanic rocks and basalts everywhere, but I don't see the crater that spewed out these rocks. Here, as before, there are countless birds that add a lively atmosphere to this part of the Antarctic continent. But at the same time, along with the dead, there are a large group of mammals in the sea who stare at us with their gentle eyes. Those are all kinds of seals. Some lie on the ground, some sleep on tilted ice, some come up from the sea or go back to the sea. They don't run away when they see us approaching, because they have never dealt with people. I think there are many seals here, which can carry hundreds of ships.

The time is eight o'clock in the morning. There are only four hours left for us to observe and use the sun. I walked step by step to a wide harbor, which was Zangetsu-shaped, in the middle of a granite cliff.

There, I can almost say that all around us, on the land and on the ice, are crowded with mammals in the sea as far as the eye can see, and I unexpectedly look for the old man Proud, who is an old man who guards the livestock herd for the sea god Niedouni in myth. There are a lot of seals. They form separate teams, male and female together, the father seal cares about its family, the mother seal nurses its cubs, and some young seals who have grown up walk away at will; It's farther away. When these mammals want to walk, they jump and jump because of the expansion and contraction of their bodies. At the same time, they are quite stupid and use their underdeveloped fins to help them walk, but this fin becomes a real forearm in their similar manatees. I have to say, they have a superior living environment in seawater. These animals with active spines, narrow bony plates, short and dense hair and palm-shaped feet are good swimmers. When they are resting and on the ground, their posture is very beautiful and makes people like it.

I pointed out to Conseil that this clever cetacean has a particularly developed brain lobe. Except for humans: no mammal has such a rich brain nerve. Therefore, seals may receive some education; They are easy to domesticate and become domestic animals. I agree with some biologists that seals can be trained properly. They can be used as hunting dogs for fishing, serving human beings and doing many beneficial things.

Most seals sleep on rocks or in sand. Among these real seals, they don't have outer ears-this is different from sea otters with prominent outer ears-I have seen many varieties of sea otters, which are three feet long, with white hair and a hunting dog's head. There are ten teeth in the upper and lower jaws, four front teeth and two big tiger teeth in the shape of lilies. Among them, there are walruses trampling around. This is a seal with a short moving nose tube, which is the largest type of this animal, with a body of 20 feet and a length of 10 feet. They watched us approach and didn't move.

"Aren't they dangerous and hurtful animals?" Conseil asked me.

"No," I replied, "unless someone wants to attack them. When a seal defends its children, it is afraid of anger. It is not uncommon for it to break the fisherman's boat into pieces. "

"That is its legitimate right." Conseil immediately said.

"I didn't sayno."

Two nautical miles further, we will be blocked by a sharp gorge that protects the harbor from the south wind. The sharp gorge stands by the sea, the tide comes, the foam splashes, and there is a rumbling roar outside, just like the sound that a group of cattle, sheep and ruminants may make. "Why," Conseil said, "is it a buffalo concert?" "No," I said, "it's a concert by Haima." "Do they fight?" "They are either fighting or playing." "Please forgive me, sir. We should have a look." "We should have a look, Conseil." So we walked through the gray and black rock ground between unexpected rocks, on the gravel that was slippery by ice. More than once, I slipped and made my waist ache. Conseil, either because he was careful or because he was strong and didn't fall: he picked me up and said:

"If Mr. Wang is willing to move his legs a little, Mr. Wang will be able to keep his balance better."

On the high back of Jianxia, I saw a vast white plain full of seahorses. These seahorses are playing in groups, and what they just heard was their happy voice, not their angry screams.

From the appearance of the body and the arrangement of limbs, the hippocampus is very similar to a seal. However, there are no tiger teeth and incisors in the lower jaw. As for the tiger teeth in the upper jaw, they are two horns with a length of 80 cm and a groove of 33 cm in Ruta. These teeth are made of dense and flawless dentin, which is harder than ivory and less prone to yellowing. It is a treasure that people strive for. As a result, these seahorses were accidentally over-hunted. It will soon be reduced to the final stage, because hunters who beat seahorses blindly slaughter, whether pregnant mothers or young seahorses, killing more than 4 thousand each year.

Walking past these novel animals, I can examine them calmly because they stay there motionless. Their skin is thick and wrinkled, their color is dark brown like Chuhong, and their fur is short and rare. Some seahorses are as long as four meters. They are quieter and bolder than the seahorses in the Arctic Ocean, and they don't appoint specially selected sentries to guard the surroundings where they camp.

I want to go back after visiting this city where the seahorses gather. It is eleven o'clock. If Captain Nemo feels that the conditions are smooth and can be observed, then I will go to him and watch him do it. However, I dare not hope that the sun will come out this day. Thick clouds piled up on the horizon made it avoid our eyes. It seems that the sun, which is very precious, is unwilling to show it to people in an inaccessible place on this earth.

However, I think we should go back to the nautilus. We went down a narrow slope at the top of the cliff. At half past eleven, we arrived at the landing site. The boat stranded there is sending the captain to the ground. I saw him standing on a basalt rock, and his instruments were placed near him. His eyes were fixed on the northern sky. The sun draws a long curve over there.

I stood beside him, and I waited, not talking. At noon, just like yesterday, the sun didn't come out. This is really something that can't be helped. You can't do observation. If the observation can't be completed tomorrow, I'm afraid we have to give up completely to determine our position.

Today happens to be March 20th. Tomorrow's 2 1 day is the vernal equinox, not counting the sunlight reflected by the light analysis. After the sun, no one will be below the horizon, and it will not come out for six months. When the sun disappears, the long night period of the polar circle will begin. From the autumnal equinox in mid-September, it will appear in the northern horizon and rise along a long spiral until1February 2 1. This time is the summer solstice in the Arctic Ocean, and it begins to descend again. Tomorrow is the last day for it to emit light.

I told Captain Nemo my opinions and concerns, and he said to me.

"You're right, Mr. Pierre Aronnax. If I can't measure the height of the sun tomorrow, I won't have to do it again in six months. However, it is precisely because of the opportunity of my voyage that I was brought to the Antarctic Sea on March 2 1 Day. If the sun appears for us, my position is easy to determine. "

"Captain, why?"

"Because the sun walks along such an elongated spiral, it is very difficult to accurately measure its height on the horizontal line, and the instrument is prone to make serious mistakes."

"So, how do you proceed?"

"I'm just using my navigation timepiece," Captain Nemo replied. "If tomorrow March 2 1 day, including refraction, the sun's ring is just tangent to the northern horizon, then I'll be at the South Pole."

"Yes," I said, "but this measurement is not completely accurate mathematically, because the vernal equinox is not necessarily at noon."

"Of course, sir, but the difference can't be more than 100 meters, and we don't want to be more accurate. Then, come back tomorrow."

Captain Nemo turned back to the ship. Conseil and I, we stayed until five o'clock and ran around the beach, making observations and doing research. I didn't get anything novel, but I found an egg of a sea owl, which was so big that a rare collector might pay more than 1000 francs to buy it. Its light yellow color, like lines and patterns painted in hieroglyphics, makes it a rare rarity. I gave it to Conseil, the careful child with steady steps, took it in his hand and brought it to the Nautilus intact like precious China porcelain.

On the boat, I put the eggs in a glass cupboard in the showroom. I had a good dinner. I ate a piece of seal liver, which was delicious, much like pig liver. Then I went back to my room to sleep. When I slept, I prayed for the favor of the sun like Indians and asked it to come out tomorrow.

The next day, at five o'clock in the morning on March 2 1, I stepped onto the platform. I saw Captain Nemo already on the stage. He said to me:

"The weather is clear, the sun is promising. After breakfast, we went to the ground, chose a place and made our observation. "

After that, I went to Ned Land. I want to pull him with me. The stubborn Canadian refused, and I can see that his silence, like his bad temper, is increasing day by day. Originally, I don't regret that he was stubborn and unwilling to go under such circumstances. Really, there are many seals on the ground. We should use them to lure this careless and thoughtless fisherman.

After breakfast, I went to the ground. The nautilus went up several nautical miles at night. The ship is in the sea, a full mile from the shore, and there are peaks standing 400 to 500 meters high on the shore. The boat carried Captain Nemo and me, two crew members, and instruments, namely, navigation timepieces, telescopes and barometers.

When our ship passed by, I saw many whales, which belong to three kinds of whales unique to Antarctica: the straight whale, which has no dorsal fin; the humpback whale, which has a wrinkled belly and a wide gray thread, although it has such a name, its swollen back does not form wings; Finback whale, yellowish brown, is the most lively cetacean. The sounds made by these powerful animals are heard far away. They are shooting a water column mixed with gas into the sky, as if spewing out bursts of smoke. These different mammals are playing in the quiet sea. I see that Antarctic sea water is now a refuge for cetaceans that are excessively chased by hunters.

At nine o'clock, we landed. The sky is clear, the thick clouds fly south, and the fog gives up the cold water. Captain Nemo walked towards a peak, and he must want to make his observation on this peak. We climbed hard along the sharp flint and pumice layers in the atmosphere full of sulfur gas from the crater. The captain is a man who is not used to stepping on the land. He is light and flexible on these steepest slopes, which not only I can't compare with, but also the hunters who chase antelopes should admire him.

It took us two hours to reach this peak doped with porphyry and basalt. From above, our eyes can see a vast sea, and the sea clearly shows its final boundary in the northern sky. At our feet, is the dazzling brilliance of Bai Bing field. On our heads, it is a pale blue color that emerges from the clouds. In the north, the sun's roulette, like a fireball, has been cut off by the sharp edge of the horizontal line. In the middle of the sea, there are beautiful and beautiful water-spraying bouquets released by hundreds. Far away is the nautilus, like a sleeping cetacean. Behind us, in the east and south, there is a vast land, which is a messy platform of rocks and ice groups that can't see the edge.

Captain Nemo walked to the top of the mountain and carefully measured the height of the peak with a barometer, because in his observation, the height of the peak should also be estimated.

At a quarter to noon, simply by refraction, the sun appears like a golden plate, and it scatters its last light on the desolate and uninhabited continent to the sea that has never been visited by anyone.

Captain Nemo put on a mesh line telescope, which uses a mirror to correct refraction. He observed the sun sinking gradually below the horizontal line along a long diagonal line. I have a navigation timepiece in my hand. My heart is pounding. If half of the sun wheel disappears, it happens that the navigation timepiece points to noon, then we are at the South Pole.

"Noon!" I shouted.

"Antarctic! Captain Nemo answered in a serious voice and gave me the telescope. The sun in the mirror was exactly cut in half on the horizontal line.

I watched the last sunshine shining on the top of the peak and the dark shadow coming up from the peaks.

At this time, Captain Nemo put his hand on my shoulder and said to me:

"Sir, 1600, the Dutchman Yerik was blown by waves and storms, arrived at 64 degrees south latitude, and found south shetland islands. 1773 1 month 17, the famous cook went along 38 degrees east longitude and reached 67 degrees 30 minutes south latitude; 1774 On February 30th, he was at 109 degrees west longitude and arrived at 7 1 degree south latitude 15 minutes. 18 19, the Russian Berlingo was born at 69 degrees south latitude; 182 1 year, he was at11degree west longitude and reached 66 degrees south latitude. 1820, the Englishman blanz Fell stopped at 65 degrees south latitude. In the same year, Moller, an American, whose account was unreliable, traced back from 42 degrees west longitude and found a free-flowing sea at 70 degrees latitude 14 minutes. 1825, Englishman Bao Weier reached 62 degrees south latitude, which could not be exceeded. In the same year, an Englishman, Weddell, who was just a seal hunter, went up to 72 degrees south latitude 14 minutes at 35 degrees west longitude and 74 degrees south latitude 15 minutes at 36 degrees west longitude. 1829, an Englishman, Faust, commanded the Xiang Tekly and occupied the mainland of antarctic ocean at 63 degrees 26 minutes south latitude and 63 degrees 26 minutes west longitude. 183 1 February 1 day, the Englishman Bisgo discovered enderby at 68 degrees 50 minutes south latitude; 1On February 5th, 832, he found Adilayi at 67 degrees south latitude; On February 2 1 day, Graham was found at 64 degrees 45 south latitude. 1833, the Frenchman Dumont Gueville stopped in front of the iceberg at 62 degrees 57 minutes south latitude, and explained the location of Louis Philippe: two years later, 1 month 2 1 day, he arrived at another sharp point in the south, at 66 degrees 30 minutes south latitude, and he called it Adelie place; Eight days later, he arrived at 64 degrees 40 minutes south latitude, and his name was Cralli Coast. 1838, British Wilkes advanced to 69 degrees south latitude at 100 degrees east longitude. 1839, an Englishman, Baliny, discovered Chabli Deng on the border of Antarctic Circle. Finally, in 1842, james ross, an Englishman, set foot on Mount Ellebes and Mount Tyrol. On 1 month 12, he found Victoria at 76 degrees 56 minutes south latitude and 7 minutes east longitude10/degree. On the 23rd of the same month, he measured the azimuth of 74 degrees south latitude, which was the highest point that could be reached at that time. On the 27th, he reached 76 degrees 8 minutes south latitude, on the 28th, at 77 degrees 32 minutes south latitude, and on February 2nd, at 78 degrees 4 minutes south latitude. 1842, he returned to 7 degrees south latitude that he could not cross. So, now, I, Captain Nemo,1March 2, 8661day, I arrived at the South Pole at 90 degrees south latitude, and I occupied this part of the earth with an area equal to one-sixth of the known mainland. "

"Captain, whose name do you use?"

"Sir, I use my name!"

As he said this, Captain Nemo unfurled a black flag with a golden N in the middle. Then, turning around, he faced the sun whose last light was shining on the horizon of the sea and shouted.

"Goodbye, sun! Sink, golden ball! Rest in peace under this free sea, and let six months of long nights cover its shadow on my new territory! "