CHAPTER IV. 



GETTING READY. 



Upon reaching Nassau, the party immediately set 

 to work to build a suitable barge. The construc- 

 tion of the barge, which was forty feet in length 

 and sixteen feet in width, occupied a month. Amid- 

 ships it contained a well measuring six feet l^y ten 

 feet, through which the deep-sea tube was ^o be 

 lowered into the sea. The well was boarded round 

 with heavy, water-tight planks. 



When the craft was finished, the party christened 

 it "Jules Verne," in honour of the esteemed French 

 imaginative writer, whose book, " Twenty Thousand 

 Leagues Under the Sea," has charmed thousands of 

 adventurous school-boys, and has delighted many a 

 stolid adult reader who loves to read a romance 

 that is based on scientific facts. To tow the "Jules 

 Verne," the Williamson brothers secured a big gaso- 

 line power boat from a native, who also happened, 

 curiously enough, to be an ardent admirer of the 

 charming French writer, and had named his boat 

 the "Nautilus." So, here was the enterprise now 

 fairly started on its way in the real adventurous 

 spirit of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the 

 Sea." 



40 



