Nemo's characteristics are largely presented through the observations of Professor Pierre Aronnax, narrator of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas". At their first meeting, the professor remarks: "Whether this individual was thirty-five or fifty years of age, I couldn't tell." He goes on to describe Nemo as a tall, self-contained man with a straight nose, broad brow, and wide-set eyes—"certainly the most wonderful physical specimen I'd ever met up with." In "The Mysterious Island", the captain is in his late sixties and sports a long white beard.