THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



colony of small animals grouped together and attached 

 to the sea-bottom — strange creatures not unlike sea- 

 anemones. They watched a queer animal that looked 

 like an enormous flower — resembling, perhaps, a tulip 

 more than anything else — a plant-animal about a foot 

 tall, spreading its leaf-like arms and swaying gently in 

 the current. 



Suddenly the sphere shuddered as though some huge 

 creature had struck it. Something was happening in the 

 float over their heads. The bathyscaphe started to 

 ascend, and they realized what had happened — the 

 battery cases had fallen off, and the craft, 2,700 pounds 

 lighter, was soaring upwards. 



The electro-magnets had cut out, releasing the bat- 

 teries. Houot and Willm had the satisfaction that their 

 safety devices were working efficiently, but this seemed 

 poor consolation for the enforced curtailment of their 

 cruise over the ocean floor. 



They rose through a multitude of phosphorescent 

 lights — luminous fish in myriads. 



Breaking the surface at 3.21 p.m., they opened the 

 air-blast, and for a quarter of an hour the sea water ran 

 steadily out of the float. When the air-lock was empty 

 they raised the hatch, and went quickly up the ladder. 

 Three turns of the hand-wheel released the hatch and 

 they emerged into the open air, to find the Elie Monnier 

 a few hundred feet away, and the Tenace making ready 

 to take them in tow, while the Beautemps Beaupre, with its 

 load of journalists, was bearing down on them. The 

 F.N.R.S.3 had accomplished its sensational task success- 

 fully. 



Despite the thickness of its walls it might well be 

 described as a bubble — a man-made one which had 

 penetrated the skin of this spinning bubble which we call 

 our world. 



How little we know of the world's seas may be appre- 

 ciated when we realize that the descent of the F.R.N. S. 3 



18 



