"Jules Verne - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Verne Jules)

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. AT THE
COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
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TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES
UNDER THE SEA

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Chapter 1.1

A SHIFTING REEF

THE year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious
and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten. Not to
mention rumours which agitated the maritime population and excited the
public mind, even in the interior of continents, seafaring men were
particularly excited. Merchants, common sailors, captains of vessels,
skippers, both of Europe and America, naval officers of all countries, and
the Governments of several States on the two continents, were deeply
interested in the matter.

For some time past vessels had been met by "an enormous thing," a long
object, spindle-shaped, occasionally phosphorescent, and infinitely larger
and more rapid in its movements than a whale.

The facts relating to this apparition (entered in various log-books)
agreed in most respects as to the shape of the object or creature in
question, the untiring rapidity of its movements, its surprising power of
locomotion, and the peculiar life with which it seemed endowed. If it was a
whale, it surpassed in size all those hitherto classified in science.
Taking into consideration the mean of observations made at divers times --
rejecting the timid estimate of those who assigned to this object a length
of two hundred feet, equally with the exaggerated opinions which set it
down as a mile in width and three in length -- we might fairly conclude
that this mysterious being surpassed greatly all dimensions admitted by the
learned ones of the day, if it existed at all. And that it did exist was an
undeniable fact; and, with that tendency which disposes the human mind in
favour of the
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marvellous, we can understand the excitement produced in the entire world
by this supernatural apparition. As to classing it in the list of fables,
the idea was out of the question.