Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the fifteenth chapter of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

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Today we'll be continuing 20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne chapter 15 a walk on the bottom of the sea.

This cell was, to speak correctly, the arsenal and wardrobe of the nautilus.

A dozen diving apparatuses hung from the partition, waiting for our use.

Ned land, on seeing them, showed evident repugnance to dress himself in one but, my worthy Ned, the forests of the island of crespo were nothing but submarine forests.

Good, said the disappointed harpooner, who saw his dreams of fresh meat fade away.

And you, Monster Aranax, are you going to dress yourself in those clothes?

There is no alternative, master Ned.

As you please, sir, replied the harpooner, shrugging his shoulders.

But as for me, unless I am forced, I will never get into one.

No one will force you, Master Ned, said Captain Nemo.

Is conceal going to risk it?

Asked Ned.

I'd follow my master wherever he goes, replied conceal.

At the captain's call, two of the ship's crew came to help us to dress in these heavy and impervious clothes made of India rubber, without seam and constructed expressly to resist considerable pressure, one would have thought a suit of armor.

Both supple and resisting, this suit formed trousers and waistcoat.

The trousers were finished off with thick boots weighted with heavy leaden soles.

The texture of the waistcoat was held together by bands of copper, which crossed the chest, protecting it from the great pressure of the water and leaving the lungs free to act.

The sleeves ended in gloves, which in no way restrained the movements of the hands.

There was a vast difference, noticeable between these consummate apparatuses and the old cork breastplates, jackets and other contrivances in vogue during the 18th century.

Captain Nemo and one of his companions, a sort of Hercules who must have possessed great strength, conceal and myself, were soon enveloped in the dresses.

There remained nothing more to be done but to enclose our heads in the metal box.

But before proceeding to this operation, I asked the captain's permission to examine the guns we were to carry.

One of the nautilus men gave me a simple gun, the b*** end of which, made of steel, hollow in the center, was rather large.

It served as a reservoir for compressed air, which a valve worked by a spring allowed to escape into a metal tube.

A box of projectiles in a groove in the thickness of the b*** end, contained about 20 of these electric balls, which, by means of a spring, were forced into the barrel of the gun.

As soon as one shot was fired, another was ready.

Captain Nemo said I, this arm is perfect and easily handled.

I only ask to be allowed to try it.

But how shall we gain the bottom of the sea at this moment, professor, the nautilus is stranded in five fathoms, and we have nothing to do but to start.

But how shall we get off?

You shall see.

Captain Nemo thrust his head into the helmet conceal.

And I did the same, not without hearing an ironical good sport from the Canadian.

The upper part of our dress terminated in a copper collar, upon which was screwed the metal helmet.

Three holes, protected by thick glass, allowed us to see in all directions by simply turning our head in the interior of the headdress.

As soon as it was in position, the ruqueiral apparatus on our backs began to act, and for my part, I could breathe with ease.

With the rumcorf lamp hanging from my belt and the gun in my hand, I was ready to set out.

But to speak the truth.

Imprisoned in these heavy garments and glued to the deck by my leaden shoes, it was impossible for me to take a step.

But this state of things was provided for.

I felt myself being pushed into a little room contiguous to the wardrobe room.

My companions followed, towed along in the same way.

I heard a watertight door, furnished with stopper plates, close upon us, and we were wrapped in profound darkness.

After some minutes, a loud hissing was heard.

I felt the cold mount from my feet to my chest, evidently from some part of the vessel.

They had, by means of a tap, given entrance to the water which was invading us, and with which the room was soon filled.

A second door, cut in the side of the nautilus, then opened.

We saw a faint light.

In another instant, our feet trod the bottom of the sea.

And now how can I retrace the impression left upon me by that walk under the waters?

Words are impotent to relate such wonders.

Captain Nemo walked in front.

His companion followed some steps behind.

Conceal and I remained near each other, as if an exchange of words had been possible.

Through our metallic cases.

I no longer felt the weight of my clothing, or of my shoes, or of my reservoir of air, or my thick helmet, in the midst of which my head rattled like an almond in its shell.

The light which lit the soil 30ft below the surface of the ocean, astonished me by its power.

The solar rays shone through the watery mass, easily indicated all color, and I clearly distinguished objects at a distance of 150 yards.

Beyond that, the tints darkened into fine gradations of ultramarine, and faded into vague obscurity.

Truly, this water which surrounded me was but another air, denser than the terrestrial atmosphere, but almost as transparent.

Above me was the calm surface of the sea.

We were walking on fine, even sand, not wrinkled as on a flat shore, which retains the impression of the billows.

This dazzling carpet, really a reflector, repelled the rays of the sun with wonderful intensity, which accounted for the vibration which penetrated every atom of liquid.

Shall I be believed when I say that at the depth of 30ft I could see as if I was in broad daylight?

For a quarter of an hour I trod on the sand, sown with the impalpable dust of shells, the hull of the nautilus, resembling a long shoal, it disappeared by degrees, but its lantern, when darkness should overtake us in the waters, would help to guide us on board by its distinct rays.

Soon forms of objects outlined in the distance were discernible.

I recognized magnificent rocks hung with a tapestry of zoofites of the most beautiful kind, and I was at first struck by the peculiar effect of this medium.

It was then ten in the morning.

The rays of the sun struck the surface of the waves at rather an oblique angle.

And, at the touch of their light, decomposed by refraction as through a prism.

Flowers, rocks, plants, shells and polypy were shaded at the edges by the seven solar colors.

It was marvelous, a feast for the eyes, this complication of colored tints, a perfect kaleidoscope of green, yellow, orange, violet, indigo and blue, in one word, the whole palette of an enthusiastic colorist.

Why could I not communicate?

To conceal the lively sensations which were mounting to my brain and rival him in expressions of admiration for aught, I knew, Captain Nemo and his companion might be able to exchange thoughts by means of signs previously agreed upon.

So for want of better, I talked to myself.

I declared in the copper box which covered my head, thereby expending more air, in vain words, than was perhaps expedient.

Various kinds of Isis, clusters of pure tuft, coral, prickly fungi, anonymities, formed a brilliant garden of flowers enameled with portofay, decked with their colorates of blue tentacles, sea stars studying the sandy bottom together with asterophytons like fine lace, embroidered by the hands of niaads, whose festoons were waived by the gentle undulations caused by our walk.

It was real grief to me to crush under my feet the brilliant specimens of mollusks which strewed the ground by thousands of hammerheads, known as a veritable bounding shells of staircases and real helmet shells, angel wings, and many others produced by this inexhaustible ocean.

But we were bound to walk, so we went on, whilst above our heads waved shoals of phylusades, leaving their tentacles to float in the train.

Medusai, whose umbrellas are of opal or rose pink, escalloped with a band of blue, sheltered us from the rays of the sun and fiery pelegue, which in the darkness would have strewn our path with phosphorescent light.

All these wonders I saw in the space of a quarter of a mile, scarcely stopping and following Captain Nemo, who beckoned me on by signs.

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 salicious and calci shells.

We then traveled over a plain of seaweed, of wild and luxuriant vegetation.

This swart was of close texture and soft to the feet, and rivaled the softest carpet woven by the hand of man.

But whilst verger 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 2000 kinds are known grew on the surface of the water.

I saw long ribbons of fuchus floating, some globular, others tuberous.

Lorenti and Clodestophy of most delicate foliage, and some rodomeniae pelemte resembling the fan of a cactus.

I noticed that the green plants kept nearer the top of the sea, whilst the red were at greater depth, leaving to the black or brown hydrophytes the care of forming gardens and partiers 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 colors disappeared by degrees, and the shades of emerald and sapphire were effaced.

We walked with a regular step, which rang upon the ground with astonishing intensity.

The slightest noise was transmitted with a quickness to which the ear is unaccustomed.

On the earth, indeed, water is a better conductor of sound than air in the ratio of four to one.

At this period, the earth sloped downwards.

The light took a uniform tent.

We were at a depth of 105 yards and 20 inches, undergoing a pressure of six atmospheres.

At this depth I could still see the rays of the sun, though feebly to their intense brilliancy had exceeded a reddish twilight, the lowest state between day and night.

But we could still see well enough.

It was not necessary to resort to the rumcorf apparatus as yet.

At this moment, Captain Nemo stopped.

He waited till I joined him and then pointed to an obscure mass looming in the shadow at a short distance.

It is the forest of the island of Crespo.

I, and I was not mistaken.

Thank you for joining Bite at a time books today while we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.

Again, my name is Brie Carlyle, and I hope you come back tomorrow for.

The next bite of 20,000 leagues under the sea.

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One bite at a time so many adventures and mountains we can climb take it word forward, line by line, one bite at a time close.