I did honor to the repast. It was composed of several kinds of fish, and different sorts of seaweed. Our drink consisted of pure water, to which the captain added some drops of a fermented liquor extracted from a seaweed. Captain Nemo ate at first without saying a word. Then he began: "Professor, 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 [v]impervious dress, with his head in a metal helmet, receives air from above by means of forcing-pumps and [v]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 a 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 without any organ of the body suffering. It consists of a reservoir of thick iron plates, in which I store the air under a pressure of fifty [v]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 [v]normal tension. In the Rouquayrol apparatus such as we use, two 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 foul, and the tongues close one or the other pipe according to the wants of the [v]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 into this ball of copper that the two pipes, the inspirator and the expirator, open. Do you see?" "Perfectly, Captain Nemo. But the air that you carry with you must soon be used; when it contains only 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 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 one thing, captain--how can you light your road at the bottom of the sea?"