The things we do!

"
"One last question, Captain Nemo."
"Ask it, Professor."
"You are rich?"
"Immensely rich, sir; and I could, without missing it,
pay the national debt of France."
I stared at the singular person who spoke thus. Was he playing
upon my credulity? The future would decide that.

CHAPTER XIII
THE BLACK RIVER
The portion of the terrestrial globe which is covered by
water is estimated at upwards of eighty millions of acres.
This fluid mass comprises two billions two hundred and fifty
millions of cubic miles, forming a spherical body of a diameter
of sixty leagues, the weight of which would be three quintillions
of tons. To comprehend the meaning of these figures,
it is necessary to observe that a quintillion is to a billion
as a billion is to unity; in other words, there are as many
billions in a quintillion as there are units in a billion.
This mass of fluid is equal to about the quantity of water
which would be discharged by all the rivers of the earth in
forty thousand years.
During the geological epochs the ocean originally prevailed everywhere.


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