I half opened my eyes.
"Conseil!" I murmured.
"Does master call me ?" asked Conseil.
Just then, by the waning light of the moon which was sinking down to the horizon, I saw a face which was not Conseil's and which I immediately recognised.
"Ned!" I cried.
"The same, sir, who is seeking his prize!" replied the Canadian.
"Were you thrown into the sea by the shock to the frigate ?" "Yes, Professor; but more fortunate than you, I was able to find a footing almost directly upon a floating island." "An island ?" "Or, more correctly speaking, on our gigantic narwhal." "Explain yourself, Ned!" "Only I soon found out why my harpoon had not entered its skin and was blunted." "Why, Ned, why ?" "Because, Professor, that beast is made of sheet iron." The Canadian's last words produced a sudden revolution in my brain.

I wriggled myself quickly to the top of the being, or object, half out of the water, which served us for a refuge.

I kicked it.

It was evidently a hard, impenetrable body, and not the soft substance that forms the bodies of the great marine mammalia.

But this hard body might be a bony covering, like that of the antediluvian animals; and I should be free to class this monster among amphibious reptiles, such as tortoises or alligators.
Well, no! the blackish back that supported me was smooth, polished, without scales.