The things we do!

Soon the nature of the soil changed; to the sandy plain
succeeded an extent of slimy mud which the Americans call "ooze,"
composed of equal parts of silicious and calcareous shells. We then
travelled over a plain of seaweed of wild and luxuriant vegetation.
This sward was of close texture, and soft to the feet,
and rivalled the softest carpet woven by the hand of man.
But whilst verdure was spread at our feet, it did not abandon our heads.
A light network of marine plants, of that inexhaustible family
of seaweeds of which more than two thousand kinds are known,
grew on the surface of the water.
I noticed that the green plants kept nearer the top of the sea,
whilst the red were at a greater depth, leaving to the black
or brown the care of forming gardens and parterres in the remote
beds of the ocean.
We had quitted the Nautilus about an hour and a half.
It was near noon; I knew by the perpendicularity of the sun's rays,
which were no longer refracted. The magical colours disappeared
by degrees, and the shades of emerald and sapphire were effaced.


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