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

Come with us as we release one bite a day of one of your favorite classic novels, plays & short stories. Bree reads these classics like she reads to her daughter, one chapter a day. If you love books or audiobooks and want something to listen to as you're getting ready, driving to work, or as you're getting ready for bed, check out Bite at a Time Books!

Follow, rate, and review Bite at a Time Books where we read you your favorite classics, one bite at a time. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Check out our website, or join our Facebook Group!

Get exclusive Behind the Scenes content on our YouTube!

We are now part of the Bite at a Time Books Productions network!

If you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories, what was happening in their lives or the world at the time, check out Bite at a Time Books Behind the Story wherever you listen to podcasts.

Follow us on all the socials: Instagram - Twitter - Facebook - TikTok

Follow Bree at: Instagram - Twitter - Facebook

San the book and let's see what we can find.

Take it chapter by chapter, one bite at a time so many adventures and mountains we can climb take it word for word like by line.

One bite at a time.

My name is Brie Carlyle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you.

If you want to know what's coming next and vote on upcoming books, sign up for our newsletter@byetatimebooks.com you'll also find our new t shirts in the shop, including podcast shirts and quote shirts from your favorite classic novels.

Be sure to follow my show on your favorite podcast platform so you get all the new episodes.

You can find most of our links in the show notes, but also our website, bytetimebooks.com includes all of the links for our show, including to our Patreon to support the show and YouTube, where we have special behind the narration of the episodes.

We're part of the Bite at a Time Books productions network.

If you'd also like to hear what inspired your favorite classic authors to write their novels and what was going on in the world at the time, check out the bite at a Time books behind the story podcast.

Wherever you listen to podcasts, please note, while we try to keep the text as close to the original as possible, some words have been changed to honor the marginalized communities who've identified the words as harmful and to stay in alignment with bite at a time book's brand values.

Today we'll be continuing 20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne chapter 16.

A submarine forest we had at last arrived on the borders of this forest, doubtless one of the finest of Captain Nemo's immense domains.

He looked upon it as his own and considered he had the same right over it that the first men had in the first days of the world, and indeed, who would have disputed with him the possession of the submarine property, what other hardier pioneer would come hatchet and hands to cut down the dark corpses?

This forest was composed of large tree plants, and the moment we penetrated under its vast arcades, I was struck by the singular position of their branches, a position I had not yet observed.

Not a herb which carpeted the ground, not a branch which clothed the trees was either broken or bent, nor did they extend horizontally, all stretched up to the surface of the ocean, not a filament, not a ribbon, however thin they might be, but kept as straight as a rod of iron.

The fuki and illness grew in rigid, perpendicular lines due to the density of the element which had produced them motionless.

Yet when bent to one side by the hand, they directly resumed their former position.

Truly it was the region of perpendicularity.

I soon accustomed myself to this fantastic position, as well as to the comparative darkness which surrounded us.

The soil of the forest seemed covered with sharp blocks, difficult to avoid.

The submarine flora struck me as being very perfect and richer even than it would have been in the arctic or tropical zones.

For these productions are not so plentiful.

But for some minutes I involuntarily confounded the genera, taking zoophytes for hydrophytes, animals for plants.

And who would not have been mistaken, the fauna and the flora are too closely allied in this submarine world.

These plants are self propagated, and the principle of their existence is in the water, which upholds and nourishes them a greater number.

Instead of leaves shot forth, blades of capricious shapes comprised within a scale of colors.

Pink, carmine, green, olive, fawn and brown, I saw there, but not dried up as our specimens of the nautilus are.

Pavaneras spread like a fan as if to catch the breeze.

Scarlet ceremos, whose laminaries extended their edible shoots of fern shaped nerisis die, which grow to a height of 15ft.

Clusters of acidibulli, whose stems increase in size upwards.

And numbers of other marine plants, all devoid of flowers.

Curious anomaly, fantastic element set an ingenious naturalist, in which the animal kingdom blossoms and the vegetable does not.

Under these numerous shrubs, as largest trees of the temperate zone and under their damp shadow were masked together real bushes of living flowers.

Hedges of zoophytes, on which blossomed some zebra mandarins, with crooked groves, some yellow carifali.

And to complete the illusion, the fish flies flew from branch to branch like a swarm of hummingbirds.

Whilst yellow lepisacomthi, with bristling jaws, dacliloptory and monocentrides, rose at our feet like a flight of snipes.

In about an hour, Captain Nemo gave the signal to halt.

I, for my part, was not sorry.

And we stretched ourselves under an arbor of allurai, the long thin blades of which stood up like arrows.

The short rest seemed delicious to me.

There was nothing wanting but the charm of conversation.

But impossible to speak, impossible to answer.

I only put my great copper head to conceals.

I saw the worthy fellow's eyes glistening with delight.

And to show his satisfaction, he shook himself in his breastplate of air in the most comical way in the world.

After 4 hours of this walking, I was surprised not to find myself dreadfully hungry.

How to account for the state of the stomach, I could not tell, but instead I felt an insurmountable desire to sleep, which happens to all divers.

And my eyes soon closed behind the thick glasses, and I fell into a heavy slumber, which the movement alone had prevented before.

Captain Nemo and his robust companion, stretched in the clear crystal, set us the example.

How long I remained buried in this drowsiness, I cannot judge.

But when I woke, the sun seemed sinking towards the horizon.

Captain Nemo had already risen, and I was beginning to stretch my limbs, when an unexpected apparition brought me briskly to my feet.

A few steps off, a monstrous sea spider, about 38 inches high, was watching me with squinting eyes, ready to spring upon me.

Though my diver's dress was thick enough to defend me from the bite of this animal, I could not help shuddering with horror.

Conceal.

And the sailor of the Nautilus awoke.

At this moment, Captain Nemo pointed out the hideous crustacean, which a blow from the b*** end of the gun knocked over, and I saw the horrible claws of the monster writhe in terrible convulsions.

This accident reminded me that other animals, more to be feared, might haunt these obscure depths, against whose attacks my diving dress would not protect me.

I'd never thought of it before, but I now resolved to be upon my guard.

Indeed, I thought that this halt would mark the termination of our walk.

But I was mistaken.

For instead of returning to the nautilus, Captain Nemo continued his bold excursion.

The ground was still on the incline.

Its declivity seemed to be getting greater and to be leading us to greater depths.

It must have been about 03:00 when we reached a narrow valley between high, perpendicular walls, situated about 75 fathoms deep.

Thanks to the perfection of our apparatus, we were 45 fathoms below the limit which nature seems to have imposed on man.

As to his submarine excursions, I saved 75 fathoms, though I had no instrument by which to judge the distance.

But I knew that even in the clearest waters, the solar rays could not penetrate further, and accordingly, the darkness deepened.

At ten paces, not an object was visible.

I was groping my way when I suddenly saw a brilliant white light.

Captain Nemo had just put his electric apparatus into use.

His companion did the same and conceal, and I followed their example.

By turning a screw.

I established a communication between the wire and the spiral glass, and the sea, lit by our four lanterns, was illuminated for a circle of 36 yards.

Captain Nemo was still plunging into the dark depths of the forest, whose trees were getting scarcer.

At every step, I noticed that vegetable life disappeared sooner than animal life.

The medusai had already abandoned the arid soil from which a great number of animals, zoo fights, articulata, mollusks and fishes, still obtained sustenance.

As we walked, I thought of the light of our rumcorf apparatus, could not fail to draw some inhabitant from its dark couch.

But if they did approach us, they at least kept it a respectful distance from the hunters.

Several times I saw Captain Nemo stop, put his gun to his shoulder, and after some moments, drop it and walk on.

At last, after about 4 hours, this marvelous excursion came to an end.

A wall of superb rocks and an imposing mass rose before us.

A heap of gigantic blocks, an enormous, steep granite shore forming dark grottos, but which presented no practicable slope.

It was the prop of the island of Crespo.

It was the earth.

Captain Nemo stopped suddenly.

A gesture of his brought us all to a halt, and however desirous I might be to scale the wall, I was obliged to stop.

Here ended Captain Nemo's domains, and he would not go beyond them.

Further on was a portion of the globe he might not trample.

Upon the return began.

Captain Nemo had returned to the head of his little band, directing their course without hesitation.

I thought we were not following the same road to return to the nautilus.

The new road was very steep and consequently very painful.

We approached the surface of the sea rapidly.

But this return to the upper strata was not so sudden as to cause relief from the pressure too rapidly, which might have produced serious disorder in our organization and brought on internal lesions so fatal to divers.

Very soon light reappeared and grew, and the sun being low on the horizon, the refraction edged the different objects with a spectral ring at ten yards and a half deep.

We walked amidst a shoal of little fishes of all kinds, more numerous than the birds of the air, and also more agile.

No aquatic game worthy of a shot had as yet met our gaze.

When at that moment I saw the captain shoulder his gun quickly and follow a moving object into the shrubs, he fired.

I heard a slight hissing, and the creature fell, stunned, at some distance from us.

It was a magnificent sea otter, an anhydrus, the only exclusively marine quadruped.

This otter was 5ft long and must have been very valuable.

Its skin, chestnut brown above and silvery underneath, would have made one of those beautiful furs so sought after in the russian and chinese markets.

The fineness and the luster of its coat would certainly fetch 80 pounds.

I admired this curious mammal with its rounded head, ornamented with short ears, its round eyes and white whiskers, like those of a cat, with webbed feet and nails and tufted tail.

This precious animal, hunted and tracked by fishermen, has now become very rare and taken refuge chiefly in the northern parts of the Pacific.

Or probably its race would soon become extinct.

Captain Nemo's companion took the beast, threw it over his shoulder, and we continued our journey for 1 hour.

A plane of sand lay stretched before us.

Sometimes it rose to within two yards and some inches of the surface of the water.

I then saw our image clearly reflected.

Drawn inversely, and above us appeared an identical group, reflecting our movements and our actions.

In a word, like us in every point, except that they walked with their heads downward and their feet in the air.

Another effect I noticed, which was the passage of thick clouds, which formed and vanished rapidly.

But on reflection, I understood that these seeming clouds were due to the varying thickness of the reeds at the bottom.

And I could even see the fleecy foam which their broken tops multiplied on the water, and the shadows of large birds passing above our heads, whose rapid flight I could discern on the surface of the sea.

On this occasion, I was witnessed to one of the finest gunshots which ever made the nerves of a hunter thrill.

A large bird of great breadth of wing, clearly visible, approached, hovering over us.

Captain Nemo's companion shouldered his gun and fired.

When it was only a few yards above the waves, the creature fell stunned, and the force of its fall brought it within the reach of dexterous hunter's grasp.

It was an albatross of the finest kind.

Our march had not been interrupted by this incident.

For 2 hours we followed these sandy plains, then fields of algae very disagreeable to cross.

Candidly, I could do no more when I saw a glimmer of light which for a half mile broke the darkness of the waters.

It was the lantern of the nautilus.

Before 20 minutes were over, we should be on board, and I should be able to breathe with ease, for it seemed that my reservoir supplied air very deficient in oxygen.

But I did not reckon on an accidental meeting, which delayed our arrival for some time.

I had remained some steps behind when I presently saw Captain Nemo coming hurriedly towards me.

With his strong hand, he bent me to the ground, his companion doing the same to conceal.

At first I knew not what to think of this sudden attack, but I was soon reassured by seeing the captain lie down beside me and remain immovable.

I was stretched on the ground, just under the shelter of a bush of algae.

When, raising my head, I saw some enormous mass casting phosphorescent gleams pass blusteringly by.

My blood frozen my veins as I recognized two formidable sharks which threatened us.

It was a couple of tentories, terrible creatures with enormous tails and a dull, glassy stare.

The phosphorescent matter ejected from holes pierced around the muzzle, monstrous brutes which would crush a whole man in their iron jaws.

I did not know whether conceal stopped to classify them.

For my part, I noticed their silver bellies and their huge mouths spritzling with teeth from a very unscientific point of view, and more as a possible victim than as a naturalist.

Happily, the voracious creatures do not see well.

They passed without seeing us, brushing us with their brownish fins, and we escaped by a miracle, from a danger certainly greater than meeting a tiger full face in the forest.

Half an hour after, guided by the electric light, we reached the nautilus.

The outside door had been left open, and Captain Nemo closed it as soon as we entered the first cell.

He then pressed a knob.

I heard the pumps working in the midst of the vessel.

I felt the water sinking from around me, and in a few moments the cell was entirely empty.

The inside door then opened and we entered the vestry.

There our diving dress was taken off.

Not without some trouble, and fairly worn out from want of food and sleep.

I returned to my room in great wonder at the surprising excursion at the bottom of the sea.

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.

Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter@bytetimebooks.com, and check out the shop.

You can check out the show notes or our website, byteathimebooks.com, for the rest of the links for our show, we'd love to hear from you on social media as well.

Take a look and look, and let's see what we can find taking chapter by chapter, one at a time so many adventures and mountain as we can climb take it word for word, line by line, one bite at a time close.