It was composed of several kinds of fish, and slices of sea-cucumber, and different sorts of seaweed.

Our drink consisted of pure water, to which the Captain added some drops of a fermented liquor, extracted by the Kamschatcha method from a seaweed known under the name of Rhodomenia palmata.

Captain Nemo ate at first without saying a word.

Then he began: "Sir, when I proposed to you to hunt in my submarine forest of Crespo, you evidently thought me mad.

Sir, you should never judge lightly of any man." "But Captain, believe me----" "Be kind enough to listen, and you will then see whether you have any cause to accuse me of folly and contradiction." "I listen." "You know as well as I do, Professor, that man can live under water, providing he carries with him a sufficient supply of breathable air.
In submarine works, the workman, clad in an impervious dress, with his head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by means of forcing pumps and regulators." "That is a diving apparatus," said I.
"Just so, but under these conditions the man is not at liberty; he is attached to the pump which sends him air through an india-rubber tube, and if we were obliged to be thus held to the Nautilus, we could not go far." "And the means of getting free ?" I asked.
"It is to use the Rouquayrol apparatus, invented by two of your own countrymen, which I have brought to perfection for my own use, and which will allow you to risk yourself under these new physiological conditions without any organ whatever suffering.