I could observe closely these curious walls, for perpendicularly
they were more than 300 yards deep, and our electric sheets lighted
up this calcareous matter brilliantly. Replying to a question
Conseil asked me as to the time these colossal barriers took to be
raised, I astonished him much by telling him that learned men
reckoned it about the eighth of an inch in a hundred years.
Towards evening Clermont-Tonnerre was lost in the distance, and the
route of the Nautilus was sensibly changed. After having crossed the
tropic of Capricorn in 135 deg. longitude, it sailed W.N.W., making
again for the tropical zone. Although the summer sun was very
strong, we did not suffer from heat, for at fifteen or twenty
fathoms below the surface, the temperature did not rise above from
ten to twelve degrees.
On 15th of December, we left to the east the bewitching group
of the Societies and the graceful Tahiti, queen of the Pacific.
I saw in the morning, some miles to the windward, the elevated
summits of the island. These waters furnished our table
with excellent fish, mackerel, bonitos, and some varieties
of a sea-serpent.
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