Chapter 2 A
New Proposition from Captain NemoON JANUARY 28, in latitude 9° 4' north, when the Nautilus
returned at noon to the surface of the sea, it lay in sight of land
some eight miles to the west. Right off, I observed a cluster of
mountains about 2,000 feet high, whose shapes were very whimsically
sculpted. After our position fix, I reentered the lounge, and when
our bearings were reported on the chart, I saw that we were off the
island of Ceylon, that pearl dangling from the lower lobe of the
Indian peninsula.
I went looking in the library for a book about this island, one
of the most fertile in the world. Sure enough, I found a volume
entitled Ceylon and the Singhalese by H. C. Sirr, Esq. Reentering
the lounge, I first noted the bearings of Ceylon, on which
antiquity la
