July 11, 1861, in north latitude 89° 59′ 15″, “Queen Island” was discovered at the North Pole by Captain Hatteras, commanding the brig Forward of Liverpool, who has set his name hereto, with his companions. Whoever shall find this document is entreated to forward it to the Admiralty.
“And now, my friends, to table!” said the doctor, gayly.
XXIV
Polar Cosmography
Of course, to eat at table, they were obliged to sit on the ground.
“But,” said Clawbonny, “who wouldn’t give all the tables and dining-rooms in the world, to dine in north latitude 89° 59′ 15″?”
The thoughts of each one were about their situation. They had no other idea than the North Pole. The dangers they had undergone to reach it, those to overcome before returning, were forgotten in their unprecedented success. What neither Europeans, Americans, nor Asiatics had been able to do, they had accomplished. Hence they were all ready to listen to the doctor when he told them all that his inexhaustible memory could recall about their position. It was with real enthusiasm that he first proposed their captain’s health.
“To John Hatteras!” he said.
“To John Hatteras!” repeated the others.
“To the North Pole!” answered the captain, with a warmth that was unusual in this man who was usually so self-restrained, but who now was in a state of great nervous excitement. They touched glasses, and the toasts were followed by earnest hand-shakings.
“It is,” said the doctor, “the most important geographical fact of our day! Who would have thought that this discovery would precede that of the centre of Africa or Australia? Really, Hatteras, you are greater than Livingstone, Burton, and Barth! All honor to you!”
“You are right, Doctor,” said Altamont; “it would seem, from the difficulty of the undertaking, that the Pole would be the last place discovered. Whenever the government was absolutely determined to know the middle of Africa, it would have succeeded at the cost of so many men and so much money; but here nothing is less certain than success, and there might be obstacles really insuperable.”
“Insuperable!” cried Hatteras with warmth; “there are no insuperable obstacles; there are more or less determined minds, that is all!”
“Well,” said Johnson, “we are here, and it is well. But, Doctor, will you tell me, once for all, what there is so remarkable about the Pole?”
“It is this, Johnson, that it is the only motionless part of the globe, while all the rest is turning with extreme rapidity.”
“But I don’t see that we are more motionless here than at Liverpool.”
“No more than you perceive the motion at Liverpool; and that is because in both cases you participate in the movement or the repose. But the fact is no less certain. The earth rotates in twenty-four hours, and this motion is on an axis with its extremities at the two poles. Well, we are at one of the extremities of the axis, which is necessarily motionless.”
“So,” said Bell, “when our countrymen are turning rapidly, we are perfectly still?”
“Very nearly, for we are not exactly at the Pole.”
“You are right, Doctor,” said Hatteras seriously, and shaking his head; “we are still forty-five seconds from the precise spot.”
“That is not far,” answered Altamont, “and we can consider ourselves motionless.”
“Yes,” continued the doctor, “while those living at the equator move at the rate of three hundred and ninety-six leagues an hour.”
“And without getting tired!” said Bell.
“Exactly!” answered the doctor.
“But,” continued Johnson, “besides this movement of rotation, doesn’t the earth also move about the sun?”
“Yes, and this takes a year.”
“Is it swifter than the other?”
“Infinitely so; and I ought to say that, although we are at the Pole, it takes us with it as well as all the people in the world. So our pretended immobility is a chimera: we are motionless with regard to the other points of the globe, but not so with regard to the sun.”
“Good!” said Bell, with an accent of comic regret; “so I, who thought I was still, was mistaken! This illusion has to be given up! One can’t have a moment’s peace in this world.”
“You are right, Bell,” answered Johnson; “and will you tell us, Doctor, how fast this motion is?”
“It is very fast,” answered the doctor; “the earth moves around the sun seventy-six times faster than a twenty-four-pound cannonball flies, which goes one hundred and ninety-five fathoms a second. It moves, then, seven leagues and six tenths per second; you see it is very different from the diurnal movement of the equator.”
“The deuce!” said Bell; “that is incredible, Doctor! More than seven leagues a second, and that when it would have been so easy to be motionless, if God had wished it!”
“Good!” said Altamont; “do you think so, Bell? In that case no more night, nor spring, nor autumn, nor winter!”
“Without considering a still more terrible result,” continued the doctor.
“What is that?” asked Johnson.
“We should all fall into the sun!”
“Fall into the sun!” repeated Bell with surprise.
“Yes. If this motion were to stop, the earth would fall into the sun in sixty-four days and a half.”
“A fall of sixty-four days!” said Johnson.
“No more nor less,” answered the doctor; “for it would have to fall a distance of thirty-eight millions of leagues.”
“What is the weight of the earth?” asked Altamont.
“It is five thousand eight hundred and ninety-one quadrillions of tons.”
“Good!” said Johnson; “those numbers have no meaning.”
“For that reason, Johnson, I was going to give you two comparisons which you could remember. Don’t forget that it would
