#zostera

[sorrysomethingwentwrong]

Andrey Shpatak, "44°20'12.0"N, 135°50'12.0"E,

[earlypalaeoart]

"Plantes de la période devonienne" [Plants of the Devonian period] from La terre avant le déluge [The world before the deluge] by Louis Figuier, 1863

Previously published in The past and present life of the globe. Being a sketch in outline of the world’s life-system by David Page, 1861

[stars-n-zeds]

the first official tugs oc i made, meet my main zed oc - zosteria!

The tough, quiet and intimidating ocean-going tug of the Zed Fleet, Zosteria is not a tug you want to mess with. Sharing the same large frame as Hercules - with the edition of an icebreaker hull - it's easy to think she's just as headstrong and snarky as her fleetmates from first glance, but it's actually quite the opposite. Having served further north as an icebreaking and long-haul tug, Zosteria is not one of many words and definitely not one for rivalries, mainly focused on doing her job within the Bigg City Port. The scar she has was caused by a chunk of an iceberg falling and hitting her pretty badly on the face when she was trying to break it up, leaving her with a little mark of it. But when push comes to shove, Zos knows how to keep her cool and not let her size and strength get to her head, undoubtedly serving as one of the more rational-minded tugs of the Zeds alongside Zebedee. But something that a lot of tugs don't expect is the fact that she's actually Zip's older sister. Yes, the clueless and not-very-bright youngest switcher of the Zed fleet is the younger brother of one of the toughest and biggest tugs of Bigg City Port. The whole reason why Zos joined the Zed Stacks in the first place was because Zip was part of them. The siblings were separated in a fierce storm and left the two uncertain of the others fate for four whole years. But now that they've found each other again, you bet that Zosteria is determined not to lose her brother again.

[can you tell i like giving canon characters sibling ocs yet?]

Even though Zosteria is a Zed Stack and significantly increases the competition between the Stars and the Zeds - having an ocean tug does wonders for the contracts Captain Zero is able to land after all - she doesn't actively participate in her fleetmates antagonization of their competitors. Although this is usually because she's outside of the port doing other jobs, while she's there she typically stays quiet unless a tug goes out of line, and she's quick to snap back. To the surprise of both of their fleets, Zosteria and Hercules actually get along quite well and consider each other friends - mostly because they're happy to have the company of another ocean tug since work out on the open sea gets lonely pretty fast. She also gets along really well with Zebedee and considers him her closest friend, and he's glad to have another tug that he doesn't feel like he has to hide who he really is to get along with, unlike most of the Zed fleet. Everyone else [besides Zip of course] she considers to have a pretty neutral relationship with, not really considering anyone her enemy. [eeexcept for maybe bluenose she really doesn't like him but then again who does lmao]

Put it simply, Zosteria is a tough and quiet tug that won't do anything to you unless you do something to her.

[ask-the-anemone]

// I am SO sorry for my absence! Life's been hectic and I haven't had the time nor motivation to work on this, but I'm going to try to go on! This blog ain't dead yet!

// As a proper apology, I'll showcase a few OCs that will eventually make their rounds into the blog! //

Obelia, a young Yellowtail Clownfish! She's spunky and headstrong and tends to bother the other fish in the community. Despite all this, she's not aggressive at all and actually likes spending time with other clownfish... and maybe playing a game or two of tag.

Zostera, an elderly Barrier Reef Anemonefish! Known across a particular section of the Reef as "The Protector", Zostera knows her way out of bad situations. Her many scars (and many wrinkles) are signs of her wisdom, and young fish would be foolish to not listen to her... even if she tends to ramble on and on and on-

Thrash, a Sand Tiger Shark! Very aggressive and moody despite being a nurse shark. Sleezy and likes to pick on smaller fish- stays FAR away from larger sharks. "Ey, if nobody saw nothin', ev'rythin's okay."

[botanyone]

Seaweed hitchhikers catch a ride on limpets

Marine ecosystems around the world are experiencing an influx of non-native species as global trade and traffic increases. Scientists have long studied how factors like shipping contribute to the spread of invasive organisms, but new research by Louise Firth and colleagues, published in Annals of Botany reveals an overlooked player: the humble limpet.  The research team found that the Atlantic…

[fatehbaz]

“He was the messenger of a great spirit,” says René Montaño, a Comcaac linguist. [...] Montaño is addressing the entire community at a cultural festival in the Comcaac territory in what is today northwestern Mexico. He talks about how their ancestors learned that xnois (Zostera marina), a type of seagrass also known as eelgrass, could feed their people.

“Zostera marina is paramount for us,” Montaño says. “There are other parts of the world where it barely exists, but here, in this channel, there’s plenty. [...]”

Comcaac [...] fishers learned that it was a food that would give them the necessary strength to survive long ways at sea, and the different ways it could be prepared were passed down from generation to generation. In the past few decades, this knowledge has been largely neglected. Today, the Comcaac people are breathing new life into it.

Comcaac environmentalists Alberto Mellado and Erika Barnett [...] have been developing a study since 2020 [...]. The Infiernillo Channel, located between the Sonora coast and Tiburón Island -- the largest island in Mexico and a sacred site for the Comcaac people -- is a Ramsar site, meaning it’s a wetland of key global importance. It features seagrass meadows, mangrove estuaries, and small patches of coral reefs where various marine species feed. [...] The channel is also home to 81 species of invertebrates endemic to the Gulf of California, and various threatened species, like totoabas (Totoaba macdonaldi) and sea turtles. [...]

In early 2022, as part of this initiative, the team created an event that brought together chefs and biologists from Sonora, the U.S. and Spain who were interested in the culinary uses of xnois and in the conservation of seagrass. There, the Comcaac cooks shared their knowledge about the ancestral ways of preparing xnois: ground by hand to make flour for tortillas or tostadas, or as a drink made with warm water combined with honey [...]. Newer ways of preparing xnois were also on show, such as in energy bars, hotcakes, and bread in combination with wheat flour. [...]

Today, it’s Comcaac [...] like Laura Molina working to promote the benefits of xnois [...]. In a workshop [...], she flattens small dough balls into tortillas and toasts them over a fire. She says the first time she heard about this ancestral food was from her grandmother. Years later, she asked her mother to teach her how to prepare it. [...]

Erika Barnett says her great-grandparents were probably the last ones in the family to harvest eelgrass for the seeds. She says the fact that her father, now 76, can once again eat food prepared with xnois represents a great success. “The last time he’d eaten it, he was 7 years old,” she says. “Most young people have never tasted it, so this effort is really rescuing our culture.” [...] “The guys and my colleagues didn’t know how to prepare xnois, but I’m happy because we’re teaching them and the kids and adults who want to learn,” Molina says. “This is thanks to our ancestors. [...] [T]hey opened the path that led us here.”

---

Headline, images, captions, and text as published by: Astrid Arellano. “Indigenous Comcaac serve up an oceanic grain to preserve seagrass meadows.” Mongabay. Translated by Maria Angeles Salazar. 3 March 2023. [Photos by Asstrid Arellano. This story was reported by Mongabay’s Latam team and first published on their Latam site on 6 June 2022. Some paragraph breaks added by me.]

[harpyartisan]

Forgot to share my most recent completed project! This is Zostera! His lore? He is blue. :)

[nightbunnysong]

What I studied today!

09.08.2024

Identification and Classification of Marine Angiosperms:

Zostera marina, Nanozostera noltei and Cymodocea nodosa

Marine angiosperms such as Zostera marina, Nanozostera noltei, and Cymodocea nodosa play a crucial role in coastal ecosystems by providing habitat and nutrients for marine life. Their identification can be challenging due to similar appearances.

Morphological Differences

Zostera marina: is a perennial seagrass species widely distributed in temperate marine waters. It typically features long, narrow, ribbon-like leaves that can extend up to 2 meters in length. The leaves are linear, with a width ranging from 1 to 2 mm, and are characterized by parallel venation, which is subtle and not prominent. The stems, or rhizomes, are usually greenish or light brown, and the plant forms dense underwater meadows. Zostera marina reproduces through both sexual and vegetative means, producing small, inconspicuous flowers and asexually propagating via rhizome extension.

Nanozostera noltei: commonly known as dwarf eelgrass, is a smaller seagrass species found in shallow, brackish, and coastal waters. The leaves are relatively short and broad, typically measuring 20 to 30 cm in length and 1 to 2 mm in width. Unlike Zostera marina, the venation of Nanozostera noltei is more pronounced, giving the leaves a more textured appearance. The rhizomes are darker green to brown and less robust than those of Zostera marina. This species is adapted to higher salinity fluctuations and often forms mixed meadows with other seagrass species. Reproduction occurs through both flowering and rhizome propagation.

Cymodocea nodosa: is a seagrass species predominantly found in tropical and subtropical marine environments. It is characterized by its coriaceous, thick, and rigid leaves, which are typically 15 to 30 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide. The leaves display a distinct reticulate venation pattern, with well-defined, thick veins running parallel and intersecting, creating a net-like appearance. The stems are lighter in color, ranging from pale green to yellow, and the plant forms extensive, dense meadows on sandy substrates. Cymodocea nodosa primarily reproduces through vegetative means by spreading rhizomes, although it also produces small, inconspicuous flowers.

Syntassonomic Classification

In syntassonomy, which classifies and describes plant communities based on ecological and floristic criteria, the following terms are used:

Class: Represents a broad unit of classification for plant communities, grouping together different alliances that share similar ecological and climatic characteristics. Examples include the classes Zosteretea marinae and Ruppietea maritimae.

Order: A subdivision of the class, grouping alliances with more specific ecological affinities. Orders, such as Zosteretalia marinae and Ruppietalia maritimae, include alliances that share particular environmental conditions and ecological dynamics.

Alliance: A category within the order that includes plant communities with common dominant species and similar environmental conditions. Alliance group together associations with comparable floristic and ecological characteristics.

Difference between alliance and association

Alliance: A broader category that groups together different associations sharing common ecological and floristic characteristics. It represents an aggregation of several associations with similar ecological structures.

Association: The most specific unit in syntassonomy, representing a distinct plant community found in specific environmental conditions with a well-defined species composition. Associations are the actual plant communities observable in the field.

[novinitumd]

Crelog #2

(for optimal viewing, please use a computer and blog address ^^)

This is the second Novinitum D crelog! (a.k.a. creator log. I know, very creative). These are basically like devlogs but for my specevo and worldbuilding projects. Entries where it's me updating yall on the behind-the-scenes stuff and also asking for feedback on occasion, maybe even a poll, we'll see.

It's been a while! Happy 2024! In this entry I'll be discussing some major changes about the planet + a tentative list of seeding taxa! It's very brief but I think I owe it to the very small handful of people who've shown interest in this project.

sneak peak into what this crelog features

Previous crelog [#1] <- [#2] -> Next crelog [#3] 🗒️Crelogs🗒️

~~~~~🌎🌍🌏~~~~~

the state of the world map at 0 MY (the massive blank space is part of a plate which is too big for gplates to render)

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that not only is this an entirely different map, but that I'm starting from an entirely different method. Instead of starting with a super continent which splits apart - like in Worldbuilding Pasta's method (link to their blog here) - I've started from the oceanic plates first, essentially starting the world from scratch. The map at 50 MY will be seen when I reveal the name of the first time period.

~~~~~🐟🐟🐟~~~~~

This list is very tentative but most likely will stay the same:

Animals:

Operculaurisichthys

made up fully pelagic Grimothea species

reef building oysters

scallops

copepods

made up Argyroneta species

clam shrimp of marine and freshwater varieties

made up thalattosuchian genus

made up starfish genus

made up Ptychoceras species

made up Squalus species

made up lanternfish species

made up pycnodont species

Plants:

Zostera marina

indeterminate algae

Valonia ventricosa

indeterminate phytoplankton

Fungi:

marine lichens (I know these aren't true fungi but for simplicity's sake they're here)

That's all for now! There should be more coming soon since progress has been incredibly quick since the change in plate tectonic method

[frumpytaco]

Yesterday in a conversation with an undergrad, my PI mentioned that he was planning to go to the university’s marine station today to sample seagrasses. This was my first time hearing about this and I (naively I guess?) assumed that he had been planning this all beforehand. I asked if I could go if it wasn’t too much trouble (I sit in front of a computer all day and I miss the grass) and he said yes so I was like cool great. THEN at 4:30 in the afternoon, aka 30 minutes before I have to run to catch my train he was like “hey can you find a rental car for tomorrow?” and I was so fucking speechless all I could say was “yeah sure” and frantically tried to find a place, none of which were both located nearby and had pickup times that we needed. But I found one. And I couldn’t send him a link to it because the stupid rental website was storing all the work I did in the cache or whatever (idk I’m not a scientist) so I literally had to hand. him. my. computer. so he could pay for the car. AND THEN I realized wait this is an all day trip should I bring lunch because idk what the culture is in this lab (as if there’s any lab culture whatsoever but that’s a broader issue) /university and I asked him as I was leaving if we were stopping somewhere and he was like “oh food that’s a good point haha” (!!!!!!) and then I thought oh wait what about gear, like does the marine station have boots or waders we could rent? what’s the tide supposed to be like tomorrow? what sites are we going for? are we targeting Phyllospadix or Zostera because they live in super different habitats and require different sampling gear? And he had no answers to these questions. Also the low low tide today is -0.1’. Also he told me that Phyllospadix is not a seagrass, which, it literally fucking is and he had to pull up Wikipedia to check. So then he sent an email to everyone asking me to provide logistical information for tomorrow and I replied with as little snark as I could saying things about what to expect from the habitats and where to find the grasses. I realized I forgot to mention that nearest location of Zostera is in a national estuarine research reserve and I would be very surprised at this point if he’s considered permitting.

But you know what the best part about being tasked with planning a trip I didn’t know about the day before? Since I wasn’t planning on coming until less than 24 hours before, I can back out just as easily. You’re welcome for my help. What were you going to do if I hadn’t expressed interest in coming?



[macabremadness]

hi there gamers. it's 1 in the morning. i just wanna tell you a really fun fact about the funny alien rhi pokemon go!

so you might already know that all members of the ultra recon squad are named after seagrass or algae.

- soliera/mirin is named after solieriaceae or solieria pacifica (a red algae)

- dulse is,,just dulse/palmaria palmata (a red seaweed,,which is an algae)

- zossie/amamo is named after the zostera genus, which is common eelgrass

- phyco/shionira is named after the syringodium filiforme or phycoschoenus nakai, which is just noodle seagrass

but! what the hell is rhi supposed to be named after? was it a random name? probably. but i ended up finding out that there's a species of seagrass that fits!

meet the thalassodendron pachyrhizum! it's a species of seagrass in the cymodoceaceae family, which is the same family that has phycoschoenus. so that's pretty cool, i think! it also fits perfectly, since phyco and zossie, the two members of the urs who don't fight you, are named after green seagrasses. while soliera and dulse, the ones who do fight you, are named after red algae. rhi's yet another seagrass who doesn't fight with you!

i feel like i should try to edit rhi's bulbapedia page and add that...

[barstoolblues]

zostera marina at low tide.

[oddman-the-oldman]

I remain fascinated by the advanced agricultural and maricultural practices of the first people to inhabit the Americas both north and south. This document talks about the propagation and proliferation of Eelgrass as a food crop. Eelgrass is an important habitat for other species including forage fish like Haring consumed by both people and salmon and has  led to the decline of both fish populations as well as Southern Resident Orca populations in Puget Sound.

.

[unofficial-sean]

The Canadians are afraid of geese because they nest up there. Down here, however, they're just chillin. They're just grazing. Nothing but grazing. Lawn grass, dandelions, even the fucking sea grass Zostera marina. Yeah! They'll paddle through the shallow ocean, duck their heads underwater, and graze on sea grass!!!!

It is tragic that Canadians are traumatized by these guys, I love them with all my heart. Come to Tacoma, you will see.

[20k-leagues-speedrun]

CHAPTER XIV A NOTE OF INVITATION

The next day was the 9th of November. I awoke after a long sleep of twelve hours. Conseil came, according to custom, to know “how I had passed the night,” and to offer his services. He had left his friend the Canadian sleeping like a man who had never done anything else all his life. I let the worthy fellow chatter as he pleased, without caring to answer him. I was pre-occupied by the absence of the Captain during our sitting of the day before, and hoping to see him to-day.

As soon as I was dressed I went into the saloon. It was deserted.

I plunged into the study of the shell treasures hidden behind the glasses. I revelled also in great herbals filled with the rarest marine plants, which, although dried up, retained their lovely colours. Amongst these precious hydrophytes I remarked some vorticellæ, pavonariæ, delicate ceramies with scarlet tints, some fan-shaped agari, and some natabuli like flat mushrooms, which at one time used to be classed as zoophytes; in short, a perfect series of algæ.

The whole day passed without my being honoured by a visit from Captain Nemo. The panels of the saloon did not open. Perhaps they did not wish us to tire of these beautiful things.

The course of the Nautilus was E.N.E., her speed twelve knots, the depth below the surface between twenty-five and thirty fathoms.

The next day, 10th of November, the same desertion, the same solitude. I did not see one of the ship’s crew: Ned and Conseil spent the greater part of the day with me. They were astonished at the inexplicable absence of the Captain. Was this singular man ill?—had he altered his intentions with regard to us?

After all, as Conseil said, we enjoyed perfect liberty, we were delicately and abundantly fed. Our host kept to his terms of the treaty. We could not complain, and, indeed, the singularity of our fate reserved such wonderful compensation for us, that we had no right to accuse it as yet.

That day I commenced the journal of these adventures which has enabled me to relate them with more scrupulous exactitude and minute detail. I wrote it on paper made from the zostera marina.

11th November, early in the morning. The fresh air spreading over the interior of the Nautilus told me that we had come to the surface of the ocean to renew our supply of oxygen. I directed my steps to the central staircase, and mounted the platform.

It was six o’clock, the weather was cloudy, the sea grey but calm. Scarcely a billow. Captain Nemo, whom I hoped to meet, would he be there? I saw no one but the steersman imprisoned in his glass cage. Seated upon the projection formed by the hull of the pinnace, I inhaled the salt breeze with delight.

By degrees the fog disappeared under the action of the sun’s rays, the radiant orb rose from behind the eastern horizon. The sea flamed under its glance like a train of gunpowder. The clouds scattered in the heights were coloured with lively tints of beautiful shades, and numerous “mare’s tails,” which betokened wind for that day. But what was wind to this Nautilus which tempests could not frighten!

I was admiring this joyous rising of the sun, so gay, and so lifegiving, when I heard steps approaching the platform. I was prepared to salute Captain Nemo, but it was his second (whom I had already seen on the Captain’s first visit) who appeared. He advanced on the platform, not seeming to see me. With his powerful glass to his eye he scanned every point of the horizon with great attention. This examination over, he approached the panel and pronounced a sentence in exactly these terms. I have remembered it, for every morning it was repeated under exactly the same conditions. It was thus worded—

“Nautron respoc lorni virch.”

What it meant I could not say.

These words pronounced, the second descended. I thought that the Nautilus was about to return to its submarine navigation. I regained the panel and returned to my chamber.

Five days sped thus, without any change in our situation. Every morning I mounted the platform. The same phrase was pronounced by the same individual. But Captain Nemo did not appear.

I had made up my mind that I should never see him again, when, on the 16th November, on returning to my room with Ned and Conseil, I found upon my table a note addressed to me. I opened it impatiently. It was written in a bold, clear hand, the characters rather pointed, recalling the German type. The note was worded as follows—

16th of November, 1867.

TO PROFESSOR ARONNAX, On board the Nautilus.

Captain Nemo invites Professor Aronnax to a hunting-party, which will take place to-morrow morning in the forests of the island of Crespo. He hopes that nothing will prevent the Professor from being present, and he will with pleasure see him joined by his companions.

CAPTAIN NEMO, Commander of the Nautilus.

“A hunt!” exclaimed Ned.

“And in the forests of the island of Crespo!” added Conseil.

“Oh! then the gentleman is going on terra firma?” replied Ned Land.

“That seems to me to be clearly indicated,” said I, reading the letter once more.

“Well, we must accept,” said the Canadian. “But once more on dry ground, we shall know what to do. Indeed, I shall not be sorry to eat a piece of fresh venison.”

Without seeking to reconcile what was contradictory between Captain Nemo’s manifest aversion to islands and continents, and his invitation to hunt in a forest, I contented myself with replying—

“Let us first see where the island of Crespo is.”

I consulted the planisphere, and in 32° 40′ north lat. and 157° 50′ west long., I found a small island, recognised in 1801 by Captain Crespo, and marked in the ancient Spanish maps as Rocca de la Plata, the meaning of which is “The Silver Rock.” We were then about eighteen hundred miles from our starting-point, and the course of the Nautilus, a little changed, was bringing it back towards the south-east.

I showed this little rock lost in the midst of the North Pacific to my companions.

“If Captain Nemo does sometimes go on dry ground,” said I, “he at least chooses desert islands.”

Ned Land shrugged his shoulders without speaking, and Conseil and he left me.

After supper, which was served by the steward mute and impassive, I went to bed, not without some anxiety.

The next morning, the 17th of November, on awakening, I felt that the Nautilus was perfectly still. I dressed quickly and entered the saloon.

Captain Nemo was there, waiting for me. He rose, bowed, and asked me if it was convenient for me to accompany him. As he made no allusion to his absence during the last eight days, I did not mention it, and simply answered that my companions and myself were ready to follow him.

We entered the dining-room, where breakfast was served.

“M. Aronnax,” said the Captain, “pray, share my breakfast without ceremony; we will chat as we eat. For though I promised you a walk in the forest, I did not undertake to find hotels there. So breakfast as a man who will most likely not have his dinner till very late.”

I did honour to the repast. It was composed of several kinds of fish, and slices of holothuridæ (excellent zoophytes), and different sorts of sea-weed. Our drink consisted of pure water, to which the Captain added some drops of a fermented liquor, extracted by the Kamschatcha method from a sea-weed 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. It consists of a reservoir of thick iron plates, in which I store the air under a pressure of fifty atmospheres. This reservoir is fixed on the back by means of braces, like a soldier’s knapsack. Its upper part forms a box in which the air is kept by means of a bellows, and therefore cannot escape unless at its normal tension. In the Rouquayrol apparatus such as we use, two india-rubber pipes leave this box and join a sort of tent which holds the nose and mouth; one is to introduce fresh air, the other to let out the foul, and the tongue closes one or the other according to the wants of the respirator. But I, in encountering great pressures at the bottom of the sea, was obliged to shut my head, like that of a diver in a ball of copper; and it is to this ball of copper that the two pipes, the inspirator and the expirator, open.”

“Perfectly, Captain Nemo; but the air that you carry with you must soon be used; when it only contains fifteen per cent. of oxygen it is no longer fit to breathe.”

“Right! But I told you, M. Aronnax, that the pumps of the Nautilus allow me to store the air under considerable pressure, and on those conditions the reservoir of the apparatus can furnish breathable air for nine or ten hours.”

“I have no further objections to make,” I answered; “I will only ask you one thing, Captain—how can you light your road at the bottom of the sea?”

“With the Ruhmkorff apparatus, M. Aronnax; one is carried on the back, the other is fastened to the waist. It is composed of a Bunsen pile, which I do not work with bichromate of potash, but with sodium. A wire is introduced which collects the electricity produced, and directs it towards a particularly made lantern. In this lantern is a spiral glass which contains a small quantity of carbonic gas. When the apparatus is at work this gas becomes luminous, giving out a white and continuous light. Thus provided, I can breathe and I can see.”

“Captain Nemo, to all my objections you make such crushing answers, that I dare no longer doubt. But if I am forced to admit the Rouquayrol and Ruhmkorff apparatus, I must be allowed some reservations with regard to the gun I am to carry.”

“But it is not a gun for powder,” answered the Captain.

“Then it is an air-gun.”

“Doubtless! How would you have me manufacture gunpowder on board, without either saltpetre, sulphur, or charcoal?”

“Besides,” I added, “to fire under water in a medium eight hundred and fifty-five times denser than the air, we must conquer very considerable resistance.”

“That would be no difficulty. There exist guns, according to Fulton, perfected in England by Philip Coles and Burley, in France by Furcy, and in Italy by Landi, which are furnished with a peculiar system of closing, which can fire under these conditions. But I repeat, having no powder, I use air under great pressure, which the pumps of the Nautilus furnish abundantly.”

“But this air must be rapidly used?”

“Well, have I not my Rouquayrol reservoir, which can furnish it at need? A tap is all that is required. Besides, M. Aronnax, you must see yourself that, during our submarine hunt, we can spend but little air and but few balls.”

“But it seems to me that in this twilight, and in the midst of this fluid, which is very dense compared with the atmosphere, shots could not go far, nor easily prove mortal.”

“Sir, on the contrary, with this gun every blow is mortal; and however lightly the animal is touched, it falls as if struck by a thunderbolt.”

“Why?”

“Because the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little cases of glass (invented by Leniebroek, an Austrian chemist), of which I have a large supply. These glass cases are covered with a case of steel, and weighted with a pellet of lead; they are real Leyden bottles, into which the electricity is forced to a very high tension. With the slightest shock they are discharged, and the animal, however strong it may be, falls dead. I must tell you that these cases are size number four, and that the charge for an ordinary gun would be ten.”

“I will argue no longer,” I replied, rising from the table; “I have nothing left me but to take my gun. At all events, I will go where you go.”

Captain Nemo then led me aft; and in passing before Ned’s and Conseil’s cabin, I called my two companions, who followed immediately. We then came to a kind of cell near the machinery-room, in which we were to put on our walking-dress.

[drhoz]

Finding Myriolecis zosterae (Lecanora)