The things we do!

The general direction of the Nautilus was south-east, and it kept between 100
and 150 yards of depth. One day, however, I do not know why, being drawn
diagonally by means of the inclined planes, it touched the bed of the sea.
The thermometer indicated a temperature of 4.25 (cent.): a temperature that at
this depth seemed common to all latitudes.
At three o'clock in the morning of the 26th of November the Nautilus
crossed the tropic of Cancer at 172@ long. On 27th instant it
sighted the Sandwich Islands, where Cook died, February 14, 1779.
We had then gone 4,860 leagues from our starting-point. In the morning,
when I went on the platform, I saw two miles to windward,
Hawaii, the largest of the seven islands that form the group.
I saw clearly the cultivated ranges, and the several mountain-chains
that run parallel with the side, and the volcanoes that overtop
Mouna-Rea, which rise 5,000 yards above the level of the sea.
Besides other things the nets brought up, were several flabellariae
and graceful polypi, that are peculiar to that part of the ocean.


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