a few minutes before noon
`` Oh well , '' the Canadian said , `` we 'll give him the slip long before then . '' `` In any event , '' Conseil added , `` he 's a superman , that Captain Nemo , and we 'll never regret having known him . '' `` Especially once we 've left him , '' Ned Land shot back . The next day , April 1 , when the Nautilus rose to the surface of the waves a few minutes before noon , we raised land to the west . It was Tierra del Fuego , the Land of Fire , a name given it by early navigators after they saw numerous curls of smoke rising from the natives ' huts . This Land of Fire forms a huge cluster of islands over thirty leagues long and eighty leagues wide , extending between latitude 53 degrees and 56 degrees south , and between longitude 67 degrees 50 ' and 77 degrees 15 ' west . Its coastline looked flat , but high mountains rose in the distance .