"M. Aronnax, we must attempt some desperate means, or we shall
be sealed up in this solidified water as in cement."
"Yes; but what is to be done?"
"Ah! if my Nautilus were strong enough to bear this pressure
without being crushed!"
"Well?" I asked, not catching the Captain's idea.
"Do you not understand," he replied, "that this congelation of water
will help us? Do you not see that by its solidification, it would
burst through this field of ice that imprisons us, as, when it freezes,
it bursts the hardest stones? Do you not perceive that it would be
an agent of safety instead of destruction?"
"Yes, Captain, perhaps. But, whatever resistance to crushing
the Nautilus possesses, it could not support this terrible pressure,
and would be flattened like an iron plate."
"I know it, sir. Therefore we must not reckon on the aid of nature,
but on our own exertions. We must stop this solidification.
Not only will the side walls be pressed together; but there
is not ten feet of water before or behind the Nautilus.
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