As for zoophytes, for a few moments I was able to marvel at a wonderful,
orange-hued hydra from the genus Galeolaria that clung to the glass
of our port panel; it consisted of a long, lean filament that spread
out into countless branches and ended in the most delicate lace
ever spun by the followers of Arachne. Unfortunately I couldn't
fish up this wonderful specimen, and surely no other Mediterranean
zoophytes would have been offered to my gaze, if, on the evening
of the 16th, the Nautilus hadn't slowed down in an odd fashion.
This was the situation.
By then we were passing between Sicily and the coast
of Tunisia. In the cramped space between Cape Bon and the
Strait of Messina, the sea bottom rises almost all at once.
It forms an actual ridge with only seventeen meters of water
remaining above it, while the depth on either side is 170 meters.
Consequently, the Nautilus had to maneuver with caution so as not
to bump into this underwater barrier.
I showed Conseil the position of this long reef on our chart
of the Mediterranean.
"But with all due respect to master," Conseil ventured to observe,
"it's like an actual isthmus connecting Europe to Africa."
"Yes, my boy," I replied, "it cuts across the whole Strait of Sicily,
and Smith's soundings prove that in the past, these two continents
were genuinely connected between Cape Boeo and Cape Farina.
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