“That is tremendous!” said Altamont.
“Tremendous is the word,” answered the doctor; “but, to return to the Pole, no lesson on cosmography on this part of the globe could be more opportune, if it doesn’t weary you.”
“Go on, Doctor, go on!”
“I told you,” resumed the doctor, who took as much pleasure in giving as the others did in receiving instruction—“I told you that the Pole was motionless in comparison with the rest of the globe. Well, that is not quite true!”
“What!” said Bell, “has that got to be taken back?”
“Yes, Bell, the Pole is not always exactly in the same place; formerly the North Star was farther from the celestial pole than it is now. So our Pole has a certain motion; it describes a circle in about twenty-six thousand years. That comes from the precession of the equinoxes, of which I shall speak soon.”
“But,” asked Altamont, “might it not happen that some day the Pole should get farther from its place?”
“Ah, my dear Altamont,” answered the doctor, “you bring up there a great question, which scientific men investigated for a long time in consequence of a singular discovery.”
“What was that?”
“This is it. In 1771 the body of a rhinoceros was found on the shore of the Arctic Sea, and in 1799 that of an elephant on the coast of Siberia. How did the animals of warm countries happen to be found in these latitudes? Thereupon there was much commotion among geologists, who were not so wise as a Frenchman, M. Elie de Beaumont, has been since. He showed that these animals used to live in rather high latitudes, and that the streams and rivers simply carried their bodies to the places where they were found. But do you know the explanation which scientific men gave before this one?”
“Scientific men are capable of anything,” said Altamont.
“Yes, in explanation of a fact; well, they imagined that the Pole used to be at the equator and the equator at the Pole.”
“Bah!”
“It was exactly what I tell you. Now, if it had been so, since the earth is flattened more than five leagues at the pole, the seas, carried to the equator by centrifugal force, would have covered mountains twice as high as the Himalayas; all the countries near the polar circle, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Siberia, Greenland, and New Britain, would have been buried in five leagues of water, while the regions at the equator, having become the pole, would have formed plateaus fifteen leagues high!”
“What a change!” said Johnson.
“Oh, that made no difference to scientific men!”
“And how did they explain the alteration?” asked Altamont.
“They said it was due to the shock of collision with a comet. The comet is the deus ex machina; whenever one comes to a difficult question in cosmography, a comet is lugged in. It is the most obliging of the heavenly bodies, and at the least sign from a scientific man it disarranges itself to arrange everything.”
“Then,” said Johnson, “according to you, Doctor, this change is impossible?”
“Impossible!”
“And if it should take place?”
“If it did, the equator would be frozen in twenty-four hours!”
“Good! if it were to take place now,” said Bell, “people would as likely as not say we had never gone to the Pole.”
“Calm yourself, Bell. To return to the immobility of the terrestrial axis, the following is the result: if we were to spend a winter here, we should see the stars describing a circle about us. As for the sun, the day of the vernal equinox, March 23rd, it would appear to us (I take no account of refraction) exactly cut in two by the horizon, and would rise gradually in longer and longer curves; but here it is remarkable that when it has once risen it sets no more; it is visible for six months. Then its disk touches the horizon again at the autumnal equinox, September 22nd, and as soon as it is set, it is seen no more again all winter.”
“You were speaking just now of the flattening of the earth at the poles,” said Johnson; “be good enough to explain that, Doctor.”
“I will. Since the earth was fluid when first created, you understand that its rotary movement would try to drive part of the mobile mass to the equator, where the centrifugal force was greater. If the earth had been motionless, it would have remained a perfect sphere; but in consequence of the phenomenon I have just described, it has an ellipsoidal form, and points at the pole are nearer the centre of the earth than points at the equator by about five leagues.”
“So,” said Johnson, “if our captain wanted to take us to the centre of the earth, we should have five leagues less to go?”
“Exactly, my friend.”
“Well, Captain, it’s so much gained! We ought to avail ourselves of it.”
But Hatteras did not answer. Evidently he had lost all interest in the conversation, or perhaps he was listening without hearing.
“Well,” answered the doctor, “according to certain scientific men, it would be worth while to try this expedition.”
“What! really?” exclaimed Johnson.
“But let me finish,” answered the doctor. “I will tell you. I must first tell you this flattening of the poles is the cause of the precession of the equinoxes; that is to say, why every year the vernal equinox comes a day sooner than it would if the earth were perfectly round. This comes from the attraction of the sun operating in a different way on the heaped-up land of the equator, which then experiences a retrograde movement. Subsequently it displaces this Pole a little, as I just said. But, independently of this effect, this flattening ought to have a more curious and more personal effect, which we should perceive if we had mathematical sensibility.”
“What do you mean?” asked Bell.
“I mean that we are heavier here than at Liverpool.”
“Heavier?”
“Yes; ourselves, the dogs, our guns, and instruments!”
“Is it possible?”
“Certainly, and
