Note: Translated by William Butcher. This translation is based on the original manuscript, prior to changes by Michel Verne. It begins: "The sun was about to sink below the line where sea and sky met, four or five leagues to the west. The weather was fine. To the east, a scattering of small clouds absorbed the last rays, that would soon fade in the long high-latitude twilight, fifty-five degrees south of the equator."