The shadow of the raft was clearly outlined upon the surface of the waves. Truly this sea is of infinite width. It must be as wide as the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, and why not? These thoughts agitated me all day, and my imagination scarcely calmed down after several hours' sleep. I shudder as I recall these monsters to my remembrance. I saw at the Hamburg Museum the skeleton of one of these creatures, thirty feet in length. I suppose Professor Lidenbrock was of my opinion too, and even shared my fears, for after having examined the pick, his eyes traversed the ocean from side to side. Tuesday, august eighteenth. During his watch I slept. Two hours afterwards a terrible shock awoke me. The raft was heaved up on a watery mountain and pitched down again at a distance of twenty fathoms. There's a whale a whale cried the professor. Flight was out of the question now. The reptiles rose they wheeled around our little raft with a rapidity greater than that of express trains. Two monsters only were creating all this commotion and before my eyes are two reptiles of the primitive world. I can distinguish the eye of the ichthyosaurus glowing like a red hot coal and as large as a man's head. Its jaw is enormous and according to naturalists it is armed with no less than one hundred eighty two teeth. Those huge creatures attacked each other with the greatest animosity. Suddenly the ichthyosaurus and the plesiosaurus disappear below leaving a whirlpool eddying in the water. As for the ichthyosaurus has he returned to his submarine cavern the roarings become lost in the distance the weather if we may use the term will change before long the atmosphere is charged with vapours pervaded with the electricity generated by the evaporation of saline waters the electric light can scarcely penetrate through the dense curtain which is dropped over the theatre on which the battle of the elements is about to be waged the air is heavy the sea is calm From time to time a fleecy tuft of mist with yet some gleaming light left upon it drops down upon the dense floor of grey and loses itself in the opaque and impenetrable mass. The atmosphere is evidently charged and surcharged with electricity. The wind never lulls but to acquire increased strength. The vast bank of heavy clouds is a huge reservoir of fearful windy gusts and rushing storms. There's a heavy storm coming on I cried pointing towards the horizon. Those clouds seem as if they were going to crush the sea. On the mast already I see the light play of a lammant St. Elbow's fire. The outstretched sail catches not a breath of wind and hangs like a sheet of lead. But if we have now ceased to advance, why do we yet leave that sail loose, which at the first shock of a tempest may capsize us in a moment? That will be the safest. No, no, never! The piled up vapours condensed into water and the air put into violent action to supply the vacuum left by the condensation of the mist rouses itself into a whirlwind. Hans stirs not. From the undersurface of the clouds there are continual emissions of lurid light. Electric matter is in continual evolution from their component molecules. The gaseous elements of the air need to be slaked with moisture, for innumerable columns of water rush upwards into the air and fall back again in white foam. I refer to the thermometer it indicates. The figure is obliterated. Is the atmospheric conditioning having once reached this density to become final? The raft bears on still to the southeast. At noon the violence of the storm redoubles. Each of us is lashed to some part of the raft. The waves rise above our heads. They seem to be we are lost, but I am not sure. He nods his consent. The fire ball, half of it white, half azure blue, and the size of a ten inch shell, moves slowly about the raft, but revolving on its own axis with astonishing velocity, as if whipped round by the force of the whirlwind. Here it comes, there it glides. Now it is up the ragged stump of the mast, thence it lightly leaps on the provision bag, descends with a light bound, and just skims the powder magazine. Horrible. We shall be blown up, but no, the dazzling disc of mysterious light nimbly leaps aside. It approaches Hans, who fixes his blue eye upon it steadily. It threatens the head of my uncle, who falls upon his knees with his head down to avoid it. A suffocating smell of nitrogen fills the air. It enters the throat, it fills the lungs. We suffer stifling pains. And how odd the directions will look. Poor Alice. It was the white rabbit returning, splendidly dressed with a pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the other. He came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to himself as he came. Oh, the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh, won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting! Alice took up the fan and gloves, and as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking. Dear, dear, how queer everything is today, and yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night. I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. I'll try if I know all the things I used to know. I shall never get to twenty at that rate. How cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spread his claws and welcome little fishes in with gently smiling jaws. No, I've made up my mind about it. If I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here. It'll be no use their putting their heads down and saying, come up again, dear.