Suriname

Suriname, a territory on the northeastern coast of South America, appears in the narrative of the Nautilus's Atlantic passage as a landmark rather than a destination. The ship draws near the coast of Dutch Guiana by the mouth of the Maroni River, and it is in these waters that the crew encounters herds of manatees, which belong to the order Sirenia alongside the dugong and Steller's sea cow. These harmless, unaggressive animals, six to seven meters long and weighing at least 4,000 kilograms each, are captured for their excellent red meat, which the narrative compares favorably to beef or veal. Professor Aronnax explains to Ned Land and Conseil that farseeing nature designed these mammals to graze the underwater prairies, destroying the clusters of weeds that obstruct the mouths of tropical rivers, and he warns that the near-complete extermination of these beneficial races has led to rotting weeds poisoning the air and causing the yellow fever that devastates these countries. The same day, the Nautilus's trawl brings up a number of suckerfish, which the crew uses to capture several loggerhead turtles, reptiles a meter wide and weighing 200 kilograms, valued for their carapaces of thin, brown, transparent horn with white and yellow markings, and for their exquisite flavor comparable to the green turtle. The fishing ends the Nautilus's stay in the waterways of the Amazon, and that evening the ship takes to the high seas once more. Suriname itself is not visited; the narrative passes over it as part of the swift, northward course that carries the Nautilus away from the South American coast and toward the Caribbean, where the Canadian's hopes of escape are again frustrated.