storms are too frequent : finally, an essential point, if we wanted to go 

 down 2^ miles after having subjected our apparatus to a test while 

 empty, with an 'overload' of 50%, we should have to be able to use 

 depths of 3I: miles. Now the North Sea and the Channel have no such 

 depths; besides, there is too much traffic on these seas. The Bay of 

 Biscay and the North Atlantic are too often racked by storms. Then 

 we had thought of the Gulf of Guinea, and, in particular, of the point 

 where the geographical co-ordinates are the simplest in the world, 

 longitude and latitude 0°. But having in mind the limited time during 

 which we had the Scaldis at our disposal, we gave up this plan and 

 finally decided on the vicinity of Cape Verde. 



During the first part of the trip, in the Channel, we met many ships 

 and passed fairly close to a submarine. It sent us light signals in Morse 

 code, but at such speed that none of us could make them out. Was it 

 an order } A message of goodwill } Did it suspect that our ship was 

 carrying a new submersible capable of diving twenty times deeper than 

 itself.'^ In the Atlantic the ships became less frequent. Several times we 

 saw sharks. More remarkable, we saw butterflies at hundreds of miles 

 from the coast. How many hours had they had to persevere in their 

 solitary flight to reach that point } Doubtless they had been carried by 

 rising currents of air like gliders. One of them, after having followed 

 the Scaldis for an instant, was snapped up under our eyes by a bird. 

 This sight pained us! 



Off the coast of Africa we made the acquaintance of flying fish. 

 We saw them abruptly rise out of the water in great numbers and fly 

 off in all directions. It was not, as is often said, gliding: the speed with 

 which they emerged from the water would not be sufficient to carry 

 them to the distances which we observed: we distinctly saw their 

 flying fins vibrate in the air like the wings of dragonflies. After fifty 

 or a hundred yards the fish drops into the water. Its alighting, con- 

 sidered from the aeronautical point of view, is quite a failure. It 

 dives no matter how into a wave, without making the least attempt 

 to reduce the impact, as any bird would do, by flaring out before 

 ^ landing. If it doesn't fly a great distance, it is because flight with such 

 small wing-fins must be exhausting. Besides, a prolonged flight would 

 have no purpose, for it is clear that it only leaves the water to escape 

 an enemy : to tell the truth we never saw their pursuer, but by noticing 

 the place from which the flying fish emerged we could guess the 

 path of the hunter. 



[ 53] 



