Yes, I knew that. I knew that this man was bold, even to rashness. But to conquer those obstacles which bristled round the South Pole, rendering it more inaccessible than the North, which had not yet been reached by the boldest navigators—was it not a mad enterprise, one which only a maniac would have conceived? It then came into my head to ask Captain Nemo if he had ever discovered that pole which had never yet been trodden by a human creature? “No, sir,” he replied; “but we will discover it together. Where others have failed, I will not fail. I have never yet led my _Nautilus_ so far into southern seas; but, I repeat, it shall go further yet.” “I can well believe you, Captain,” said I, in a slightly ironical tone. “I believe you! Let us go ahead! There are no obstacles for us! Let us smash this iceberg! Let us blow it up; and, if it resists, let us give the _Nautilus_ wings to fly over it!” “Over it, sir!” said Captain Nemo, quietly; “no, not over it, but under it!” “Under it!” I exclaimed, a sudden idea of the Captain’s projects flashing upon my mind. I understood; the wonderful qualities of the _Nautilus_ were going to serve us in this superhuman enterprise. “I see we are beginning to understand one another, sir,” said the Captain, half smiling. “You begin to see the possibility—I should say the success—of this attempt. That which is impossible for an ordinary vessel is easy to the _Nautilus_. If a continent lies before the pole, it must stop before the continent; but if, on the contrary, the pole is washed by open sea, it will go even to the pole.” “Certainly,” said I, carried away by the Captain’s reasoning; “if the surface of the sea is solidified by the ice, the lower depths are free by the Providential law which has placed the maximum of density of the waters of the ocean one degree higher than freezing-point; and, if I am not mistaken, the portion of this iceberg which is above the water is as one to four to that which is below.” “Very nearly, sir; for one foot of iceberg above the sea there are three below it. If these ice mountains are not more than 300 feet above the surface, they are not more than 900 beneath. And what are 900 feet to the _Nautilus?_” “Nothing, sir.” “It could even seek at greater depths that uniform temperature of sea-water, and there brave with impunity the thirty or forty degrees of surface cold.” “Just so, sir—just so,” I replied, getting animated. “The only difficulty,” continued Captain Nemo, “is that of remaining several days without renewing our provision of air.” “Is that all? The _Nautilus_ has vast reservoirs; we can fill them, and they will supply us with all the oxygen we want.” “Well thought of, M. Aronnax,” replied the Captain, smiling. “But, not wishing you to accuse me of rashness, I will first give you all my objections.” “Have you any more to make?”