An Excursion over the Plains
- Nemo and our boys enter the room. A dozen "frogmen's suits" hang on the wall.
- Ned is freaked out; he doesn't want to wear such a strange-looking contraption. He backs out.
- Conseil, ever loyal, follows his master.
- A couple of sailors help Aronnax and Conseil suit up. The outfits, complete with big lead boots, are surprisingly comfy.
- Nemo hands out the guns, which are simple to use. Aronnax is impressed.
- Now they put on their helmets—big round copper things—and get ready to go.
- The hunters are then carried into a special room. They can't walk anywhere with those unconscionably heavy boots on.
- The room fills with water, then a second door opens in the side of the sub.
- They walk outside onto the ocean floor.
- So Aronnax, Conseil, Nemo, and another sailor from the Nautilus embark on their hunting expedition.
- Underwater, the suits no longer feel so weighty; the buoyant water makes moving a lot easier.
- The four spend fifteen minutes walking over the sandy sea bottom, and soon come upon a landscape full of rocks and shells and all sorts of pretty things.
- Aronnax is overwhelmed by the beauty. But he can't talk to anyone about it, on account of his helmet. So he talks to himself instead.
- Overhead, he can see a bunch of jellyfish and Portuguese men-of-war (really large, deadly jellyfish) glistening in the sunlight.
- They pass through a "muddy" area and a field of seaweed. Green marine plants (this phrase has a nice ring to it, no?) form a canopy overhead.
- About an hour and a half into the journey, Nemo points at a shadowy area in the distance.
- They've reached the "forests" of Crespo Island.