We remain still and dumb from utter horror.They advance upon us,nearer and nearer.Our fate appears certain,fearful and terrible.
On one side the mighty crocodile,on the other the great sea serpent.The rest of the fearful crowd of marine prodigies have plunged beneath the briny waves and disappeared!
I am about to fire at any risk and try the effect of a shot.Hans,the guide,however,interfered by a sign to check me.The two hideous and ravenous monsters passed within fifty fathoms of the raft,and then made a rush at one another-their fury and rage preventing them from seeing us.
The combat commenced.We distinctly made out every action of the two hideous monsters.
But to my excited imagination the other animals appeared about to take part in the fierce and deadly struggle-the monster,the whale,the lizard,and the turtle.I distinctly saw them every moment.Ipointed them out to the Icelander.But he only shook his head.
"Tva,"he said.
"What-two only does he say.Surely he is mistaken,"I cried in a tone of wonder.
"He is quite right,"replied my uncle coolly and philosophically,examining the terrible duel with his telescope and speaking as if he were in a lecture room.
"How can that be?"
"Yes,it is so.The first of these hideous monsters has the snout of a porpoise,the head of a lizard,the teeth of a crocodile;and it is this that has deceived us.It is the most fearful of all antediluvian reptiles,the world-renowned Ichthyosaurus or great fish lizard.""And the other?"
"The other is a monstrous serpent,concealed under the hard vaulted shell of the turtle,the terrible enemy of its fearful rival,the Plesiosaurus,or sea crocodile."Hans was quite right.The two monsters only,disturbed the surface of the sea!
At last have mortal eyes gazed upon two reptiles of the great primitive ocean!I see the flaming red eyes of the Ichthyosaurus,each as big,or bigger than a man's head.Nature in its infinite wisdom had gifted this wondrous marine animal with an optical apparatus of extreme power,capable of resisting the pressure of the heavy layers of water which rolled over him in the depths of the ocean where he usually fed.It has by some authors truly been called the whale of the saurian race,for it is as big and quick in its motions as our king of the seas.This one measures not less than a hundred feet in length,and I can form some idea of his girth when I see him lift his prodigious tail out of the waters.His jaw is of awful size and strength,and according to the best-informed naturalists,it does not contain less than a hundred and eighty-two teeth.
The other was the mighty Plesiosaurus,a serpent with a cylindrical trunk,with a short stumpy tail,with fins like a bank of oars in a Roman galley.
Its whole body covered by a carapace or shell,and its neck,as flexible as that of a swan,rose more than thirty feet above the waves,a tower of animated flesh!
These animals attacked one another with inconceivable fury.Such a combat was never seen before by mortal eyes,and to us who did see it,it appeared more like the phantasmagoric creation of a dream than anything else.They raised mountains of water,which dashed in spray over the raft,already tossed to and fro by the waves.Twenty times we seemed on the point of being upset and hurled headlong into the waves.
Hideous hisses appeared to shake the gloomy granite roof of that mighty cavern-hisses which carried terror to our hearts.The awful combatants held each other in a tight embrace.I could not make out one from the other.Still the combat could not last forever;and woe unto us,whichsoever became the victor.
One hour,two hours,three hours passed away,without any decisive result.The struggle continued with the same deadly tenacity,but without apparent result.The deadly opponents now approached,now drew away from the raft.Once or twice we fancied they were about to leave us altogether,but instead of that,they came nearer and nearer.
We crouched on the raft ready to fire at them at a moment's notice,poor as the prospect of hurting or terrifying them was.
Still we were determined not to perish without a struggle.
Suddenly the Ichthyosaurus and the Plesiosaurus disappeared beneath the waves,leaving behind them a maelstrom in the midst of the sea.We were nearly drawn down by the indraft of the water!
Several minutes elapsed before anything was again seen.Was this wonderful combat to end in the depths of the ocean?Was the last act of this terrible drama to take place without spectators?
It was impossible for us to say.
Suddenly,at no great distance from us,an enormous mass rises out of the waters-the head of the great Plesiosaurus.The terrible monster is now wounded unto death.I can see nothing now of his enormous body.All that could be distinguished was his serpent-like neck,which he twisted and curled in all the agonies of death.Now he struck the waters with it as if it had been a gigantic whip,and then again wriggled like a worm cut in two.The water was spurted up to a great distance in all directions.A great portion of it swept over our raft and nearly blinded us.But soon the end of the beast approached nearer and nearer;his movements slackened visibly;his contortions almost ceased;and at last the body of the mighty snake lay an inert,dead mass on the surface of the now calm and placid waters.
As for the Ichthyosaurus,has he gone down to his mighty cavern under the sea to rest,or will he reappear to destroy us?
This question remained unanswered.And we had breathing time.