Chapter 17
An Underwater ForestWE HAD FINALLY arrived on the outskirts of this forest, surely
one of the finest in Captain Nemo's immense domains. He regarded it
as his own and had laid the same claim to it that, in the first
days of the world, the first men had to their forests on land.
Besides, who else could dispute his ownership of this underwater
property? What other, bolder pioneer would come, ax in hand, to
clear away its dark underbrush?
This forest was made up of big treelike plants, and when we
entered beneath their huge arches, my eyes were instantly struck by
the unique arrangement of their branches—an arrangement that I had
never before encountered.
None of the weeds carpeting the seafloor, none of the branches
bristling from the shrubbery, crept, or leaned, or st
