Chapter 11
The Sargasso SeaTHE Nautilus didn't change direction. For the time being, then,
we had to set aside any hope of returning to European seas. Captain
Nemo kept his prow pointing south. Where was he taking us? I was
afraid to guess.
That day the Nautilus crossed an odd part of the Atlantic Ocean.
No one is unaware of the existence of that great warm–water current
known by name as the Gulf Stream. After emerging from channels off
Florida, it heads toward Spitzbergen. But before entering the Gulf
of Mexico near latitude 44° north, this current divides into two
arms; its chief arm makes for the shores of Ireland and Norway
while the second flexes southward at the level of the Azores; then
it hits the coast of Africa, sweeps in a long oval, and returns to
the Caribbean Sea
