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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12901 ***
+THE MOON-VOYAGE.
+
+CONTAINING
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON,"
+AND
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+BY
+
+JULES VERNE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA,"
+"AMONG THE CANNIBALS," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY HENRY AUSTIN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON."
+
+I. THE GUN CLUB
+
+II. PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+III. EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+IV. ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY
+
+V. THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON
+
+VI. WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO
+BE BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+VII. THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL
+
+VIII. HISTORY OF THE CANNON
+
+IX. THE QUESTION OF POWDERS
+
+X. ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS
+
+XI. FLORIDA AND TEXAS
+
+XII. "URBI ET ORBI"
+
+XIII. STONY HILL
+
+XIV. PICKAXE AND TROWEL
+
+XV. THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING
+
+XVI. THE COLUMBIAD
+
+XVII. A TELEGRAM
+
+XVIII. THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA
+
+XIX. A MEETING
+
+XX. THRUST AND PARRY
+
+XXI. HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR
+
+XXII. THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+XXIII. THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT
+
+XXIV. THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+
+XXV. FINAL DETAILS
+
+XXVI. FIRE
+
+XXVII. CLOUDY WEATHER
+
+XXVIII. A NEW STAR
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF
+THIS WORK TO SERVE AS PREFACE TO THE SECOND
+
+I. FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+II. THE FIRST HALF-HOUR
+
+III. TAKING POSSESSION
+
+IV. A LITTLE ALGEBRA
+
+V. THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE
+
+VI. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+
+VII. A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION
+
+VIII. AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES
+
+IX. THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION
+
+X. THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON
+
+XI. IMAGINATION AND REALITY
+
+XII. OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS
+
+XIII. LUNAR LANDSCAPES
+
+XIV. A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF
+
+XV. HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA
+
+XVI. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
+
+XVII. TYCHO
+
+XVIII. GRAVE QUESTIONS
+
+XIX. A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE
+
+XX. THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA
+
+XXI. J.T. MASTON CALLED IN
+
+XXII. PICKED UP
+
+XXIII. THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GUN CLUB.
+
+
+During the Federal war in the United States a new and very influential
+club was established in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is well
+known with what energy the military instinct was developed amongst that
+nation of shipowners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Mere tradesmen jumped
+their counters to become extempore captains, colonels, and generals
+without having passed the Military School at West Point; they soon
+rivalled their colleagues of the old continent, and, like them, gained
+victories by dint of lavishing bullets, millions, and men.
+
+But where Americans singularly surpassed Europeans was in the science of
+ballistics, or of throwing massive weapons by the use of an engine; not
+that their arms attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were of
+unusual dimensions, and consequently of hitherto unknown ranges. The
+English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn about flank,
+running, enfilading, or point-blank firing; but their cannon, howitzers,
+and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines
+of American artillery.
+
+This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians
+in the world, are born engineers, just as Italians are musicians and
+Germans metaphysicians. Thence nothing more natural than to see them
+bring their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of ballistics.
+Hence those gigantic cannon, much less useful than sewing-machines, but
+quite as astonishing, and much more admired. The marvels of this style
+by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known. There was nothing left
+the Armstrongs, Pallisers, and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before
+their transatlantic rivals.
+
+Therefore during the terrible struggle between Northerners and
+Southerners, artillerymen were in great request; the Union newspapers
+published their inventions with enthusiasm, and there was no little
+tradesman nor _naïf_ "booby" who did not bother his head day and night
+with calculations about impossible trajectory engines.
+
+Now when an American has an idea he seeks another American to share it.
+If they are three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given
+four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established. Five convoke a
+general meeting, and the club is formed. It thus happened at Baltimore.
+The first man who invented a new cannon took into partnership the first
+man who cast it and the first man that bored it. Such was the nucleus of
+the Gun Club. One month after its formation it numbered eighteen hundred
+and thirty-three effective members, and thirty thousand five hundred and
+seventy-five corresponding members.
+
+One condition was imposed as a _sine quâ non_ upon every one who wished
+to become a member--that of having invented, or at least perfected, a
+cannon; or, in default of a cannon, a firearm of some sort. But, to tell
+the truth, mere inventors of fifteen-barrelled rifles, revolvers, or
+sword-pistols did not enjoy much consideration. Artillerymen were always
+preferred to them in every circumstance.
+
+"The estimation in which they are held," said one day a learned orator
+of the Gun Club, "is in proportion to the size of their cannon, and in
+direct ratio to the square of distance attained by their projectiles!"
+
+A little more and it would have been Newton's law of gravitation applied
+to moral order.
+
+Once the Gun Club founded, it can be easily imagined its effect upon the
+inventive genius of the Americans. War-engines took colossal
+proportions, and projectiles launched beyond permitted distances cut
+inoffensive pedestrians to pieces. All these inventions left the timid
+instruments of European artillery far behind them. This may be estimated
+by the following figures:--
+
+Formerly, "in the good old times," a thirty-six pounder, at a distance
+of three hundred feet, would cut up thirty-six horses, attacked in
+flank, and sixty-eight men. The art was then in its infancy.
+Projectiles have since made their way. The Rodman gun that sent a
+projectile weighing half a ton a distance of seven miles could easily
+have cut up a hundred and fifty horses and three hundred men. There was
+some talk at the Gun Club of making a solemn experiment with it. But if
+the horses consented to play their part, the men unfortunately were
+wanting.
+
+However that may be, the effect of these cannon was very deadly, and at
+each discharge the combatants fell like ears before a scythe. After such
+projectiles what signified the famous ball which, at Coutras, in 1587,
+disabled twenty-five men; and the one which, at Zorndorff, in 1758,
+killed forty fantassins; and in 1742, Kesseldorf's Austrian cannon, of
+which every shot levelled seventy enemies with the ground? What was the
+astonishing firing at Jena or Austerlitz, which decided the fate of the
+battle? During the Federal war much more wonderful things had been seen.
+At the battle of Gettysburg, a conical projectile thrown by a
+rifle-barrel cut up a hundred and seventy-three Confederates, and at the
+passage of the Potomac a Rodman ball sent two hundred and fifteen
+Southerners into an evidently better world. A formidable mortar must
+also be mentioned, invented by J.T. Maston, a distinguished member and
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, the result of which was far more
+deadly, seeing that, at its trial shot, it killed three hundred and
+thirty-seven persons--by bursting, it is true.
+
+What can be added to these figures, so eloquent in themselves? Nothing.
+So the following calculation obtained by the statistician Pitcairn will
+be admitted without contestation: by dividing the number of victims
+fallen under the projectiles by that of the members of the Gun Club, he
+found that each one of them had killed, on his own account, an average
+of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five men and a fraction.
+
+By considering such a result it will be seen that the single
+preoccupation of this learned society was the destruction of humanity
+philanthropically, and the perfecting of firearms considered as
+instruments of civilisation. It was a company of Exterminating Angels,
+at bottom the best fellows in the world.
+
+It must be added that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved
+themselves, did not confine themselves to formulae, but sacrificed
+themselves to their theories. Amongst them might be counted officers of
+every rank, those who had just made their _début_ in the profession of
+arms, and those who had grown old on their gun-carriage. Many whose
+names figured in the book of honour of the Gun Club remained on the
+field of battle, and of those who came back the greater part bore marks
+of their indisputable valour. Crutches, wooden legs, articulated arms,
+hands with hooks, gutta-percha jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses,
+nothing was wanting to the collection; and the above-mentioned Pitcairn
+likewise calculated that in the Gun Club there was not quite one arm
+amongst every four persons, and only two legs amongst six.
+
+But these valiant artillerymen paid little heed to such small matters,
+and felt justly proud when the report of a battle stated the number of
+victims at tenfold the quantity of projectiles expended.
+
+One day, however, a sad and lamentable day, peace was signed by the
+survivors of the war, the noise of firing gradually ceased, the mortars
+were silent, the howitzers were muzzled for long enough, and the cannon,
+with muzzles depressed, were stored in the arsenals, the shots were
+piled up in the parks, the bloody reminiscences were effaced, cotton
+shrubs grew magnificently on the well-manured fields, mourning garments
+began to be worn-out, as well as sorrow, and the Gun Club had nothing
+whatever to do.
+
+Certain old hands, inveterate workers, still went on with their
+calculations in ballistics; they still imagined gigantic bombs and
+unparalleled howitzers. But what was the use of vain theories that could
+not be put in practice? So the saloons were deserted, the servants slept
+in the antechambers, the newspapers grew mouldy on the tables, from dark
+corners issued sad snores, and the members of the Gun Club, formerly so
+noisy, now reduced to silence by the disastrous peace, slept the sleep
+of Platonic artillery!
+
+"This is distressing," said brave Tom Hunter, whilst his wooden legs
+were carbonising at the fireplace of the smoking-room. "Nothing to do!
+Nothing to look forward to! What a tiresome existence! Where is the time
+when cannon awoke you every morning with its joyful reports?"
+
+"That time is over," answered dandy Bilsby, trying to stretch the arms
+he had lost. "There was some fun then! You invented an howitzer, and it
+was hardly cast before you ran to try it on the enemy; then you went
+back to the camp with an encouragement from Sherman, or a shake of the
+hands from MacClellan! But now the generals have gone back to their
+counters, and instead of cannon-balls they expedite inoffensive cotton
+bales! Ah, by Saint Barb! the future of artillery is lost to America!"
+
+"Yes, Bilsby," cried Colonel Blomsberry, "it is too bad! One fine
+morning you leave your tranquil occupations, you are drilled in the use
+of arms, you leave Baltimore for the battle-field, you conduct yourself
+like a hero, and in two years, three years at the latest, you are
+obliged to leave the fruit of so many fatigues, to go to sleep in
+deplorable idleness, and keep your hands in your pockets."
+
+The valiant colonel would have found it very difficult to give such a
+proof of his want of occupation, though it was not the pockets that were
+wanting.
+
+"And no war in prospect, then," said the famous J.T. Maston, scratching
+his gutta-percha cranium with his steel hook; "there is not a cloud on
+the horizon now that there is so much to do in the science of artillery!
+I myself finished this very morning a diagram with plan, basin, and
+elevation of a mortar destined to change the laws of warfare!"
+
+"Indeed!" replied Tom Hunter, thinking involuntarily of the Honourable
+J.T. Maston's last essay.
+
+"Indeed!" answered Maston. "But what is the use of the good results of
+such studies and so many difficulties conquered? It is mere waste of
+time. The people of the New World seem determined to live in peace, and
+our bellicose _Tribune_ has gone as far as to predict approaching
+catastrophes due to the scandalous increase of population!"
+
+"Yet, Maston," said Colonel Blomsberry, "they are always fighting in
+Europe to maintain the principle of nationalities!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"Why, there might be something to do over there, and if they accepted
+our services--"
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Bilsby. "Work at ballistics for the
+benefit of foreigners!"
+
+"Perhaps that would be better than not doing it at all," answered the
+colonel.
+
+"Doubtless," said J.T. Maston, "it would be better, but such an
+expedient cannot be thought of."
+
+"Why so?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Because their ideas of advancement would be contrary to all our
+American customs. Those folks seem to think that you cannot be a
+general-in-chief without having served as second lieutenant, which comes
+to the same as saying that no one can point a gun that has not cast one.
+Now that is simply--"
+
+"Absurd!" replied Tom Hunter, whittling the arms of his chair with his
+bowie-knife; "and as things are so, there is nothing left for us but to
+plant tobacco or distil whale-oil!"
+
+"What!" shouted J.T. Maston, "shall we not employ these last years of
+our existence in perfecting firearms? Will not a fresh opportunity
+present itself to try the ranges of our projectiles? Will the atmosphere
+be no longer illuminated by the lightning of our cannons? Won't some
+international difficulty crop up that will allow us to declare war
+against some transatlantic power? Won't France run down one of our
+steamers, or won't England, in defiance of the rights of nations, hang
+up three or four of our countrymen?"
+
+"No, Maston," answered Colonel Blomsberry; "no such luck! No, not one of
+those incidents will happen; and if one did, it would be of no use to
+us. American sensitiveness is declining daily, and we are going to the
+dogs!"
+
+"Yes, we are growing quite humble," replied Bilsby.
+
+"And we are humiliated!" answered Tom Hunter.
+
+"All that is only too true," replied J.T. Maston, with fresh vehemence.
+"There are a thousand reasons for fighting floating about, and still we
+don't fight! We economise legs and arms, and that to the profit of folks
+that don't know what to do with them. Look here, without looking any
+farther for a motive for war, did not North America formerly belong to
+the English?"
+
+"Doubtless," answered Tom Hunter, angrily poking the fire with the end
+of his crutch.
+
+"Well," replied J.T. Maston, "why should not England in its turn belong
+to the Americans?"
+
+"It would be but justice," answered Colonel Blomsberry.
+
+"Go and propose that to the President of the United States," cried J.T.
+Maston, "and see what sort of a reception you would get."
+
+"It would not be a bad reception," murmured Bilsby between the four
+teeth he had saved from battle.
+
+"I'faith," cried J.T. Maston, "they need not count upon my vote in the
+next elections."
+
+"Nor upon ours," answered with common accord these bellicose invalids.
+
+"In the meantime," continued J.T. Maston, "and to conclude, if they do
+not furnish me with the opportunity of trying my new mortar on a real
+battle-field, I shall send in my resignation as member of the Gun Club,
+and I shall go and bury myself in the backwoods of Arkansas."
+
+"We will follow you there," answered the interlocutors of the
+enterprising J.T. Maston.
+
+Things had come to that pass, and the club, getting more excited, was
+menaced with approaching dissolution, when an unexpected event came to
+prevent so regrettable a catastrophe.
+
+The very day after the foregoing conversation each member of the club
+received a circular couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 3rd.
+
+"The president of the Gun Club has the honour to inform his colleagues
+that at the meeting on the 5th ultimo he will make them a communication
+of an extremely interesting nature. He therefore begs that they, to the
+suspension of all other business, will attend, in accordance with the
+present invitation,
+
+"Their devoted colleague,
+
+"IMPEY BARBICANE, P.G.C."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+On the 5th of October, at 8 p.m., a dense crowd pressed into the saloons
+of the Gun Club, 21, Union-square. All the members of the club residing
+at Baltimore had gone on the invitation of their president. The express
+brought corresponding members by hundreds, and if the meeting-hall had
+not been so large, the crowd of _savants_ could not have found room in
+it; they overflowed into the neighbouring rooms, down the passages, and
+even into the courtyards; there they ran against the populace who were
+pressing against the doors, each trying to get into the front rank, all
+eager to learn the important communication of President Barbicane, all
+pressing, squeezing, crushing with that liberty of action peculiar to
+the masses brought up in the idea of self-government.
+
+That evening any stranger who might have chanced to be in Baltimore
+could not have obtained a place at any price in the large hall; it was
+exclusively reserved to residing or corresponding members; no one else
+was admitted; and the city magnates, common councillors, and select men
+were compelled to mingle with their inferiors in order to catch stray
+news from the interior.
+
+The immense hall presented a curious spectacle; it was marvellously
+adapted to the purpose for which it was built. Lofty pillars formed of
+cannon, superposed upon huge mortars as a base, supported the fine
+ironwork of the arches--real cast-iron lacework.
+
+Trophies of blunderbusses, matchlocks, arquebuses, carbines, all sorts
+of ancient or modern firearms, were picturesquely enlaced against the
+walls. The gas, in full flame, came out of a thousand revolvers grouped
+in the form of lustres, whilst candlesticks of pistols, and candelabra
+made of guns done up in sheaves, completed this display of light. Models
+of cannons, specimens of bronze, targets spotted with shot-marks,
+plaques broken by the shock of the Gun Club, balls, assortments of
+rammers and sponges, chaplets of shells, necklaces of projectiles,
+garlands of howitzers--in a word, all the tools of the artilleryman
+surprised the eyes by their wonderful arrangement, and induced a belief
+that their real purpose was more ornamental than deadly.
+
+In the place of honour was seen, covered by a splendid glass case, a
+piece of breech, broken and twisted under the effort of the powder--a
+precious fragment of J.T. Maston's cannon.
+
+At the extremity of the hall the president, assisted by four
+secretaries, occupied a wide platform. His chair, placed on a carved
+gun-carriage, was modelled upon the powerful proportions of a 32-inch
+mortar; it was pointed at an angle of 90 degs., and hung upon trunnions
+so that the president could use it as a rocking-chair, very agreeable in
+great heat. Upon the desk, a huge iron plate, supported upon six
+carronades, stood a very tasteful inkstand, made of a beautifully-chased
+Spanish piece, and a report-bell, which, when required, went off like a
+revolver. During the vehement discussions this new sort of bell scarcely
+sufficed to cover the voices of this legion of excited artillerymen.
+
+In front of the desk, benches, arranged in zigzags, like the
+circumvallations of intrenchment, formed a succession of bastions and
+curtains where the members of the Gun Club took their seats; and that
+evening, it may be said, there were plenty on the ramparts. The
+president was sufficiently known for all to be assured that he would not
+have called together his colleagues without a very great motive.
+
+Impey Barbicane was a man of forty, calm, cold, austere, of a singularly
+serious and concentrated mind, as exact as a chronometer, of an
+imperturbable temperament and immovable character; not very chivalrous,
+yet adventurous, and always bringing practical ideas to bear on the
+wildest enterprises; an essential New-Englander, a Northern colonist,
+the descendant of those Roundheads so fatal to the Stuarts, and the
+implacable enemy of the Southern gentlemen, the ancient cavaliers of the
+mother country--in a word, a Yankee cast in a single mould.
+
+Barbicane had made a great fortune as a timber-merchant; named director
+of artillery during the war, he showed himself fertile in inventions;
+enterprising in his ideas, he contributed powerfully to the progress of
+ballistics, gave an immense impetus to experimental researches.
+
+He was a person of average height, having, by a rare exception in the
+Gun Club, all his limbs intact. His strongly-marked features seemed to
+be drawn by square and rule, and if it be true that in order to guess
+the instincts of a man one must look at his profile, Barbicane seen
+thus offered the most certain indications of energy, audacity, and
+_sang-froid_.
+
+At that moment he remained motionless in his chair, mute, absorbed, with
+an inward look sheltered under his tall hat, a cylinder of black silk,
+which seems screwed down upon the skull of American men.
+
+His colleagues talked noisily around him without disturbing him; they
+questioned one another, launched into the field of suppositions,
+examined their president, and tried, but in vain, to make out the _x_ of
+his imperturbable physiognomy.
+
+Just as eight o'clock struck from the fulminating clock of the large
+hall, Barbicane, as if moved by a spring, jumped up; a general silence
+ensued, and the orator, in a slightly emphatic tone, spoke as follows:--
+
+"Brave colleagues,--It is some time since an unfruitful peace plunged
+the members of the Gun Club into deplorable inactivity. After a period
+of some years, so full of incidents, we have been obliged to abandon our
+works and stop short on the road of progress. I do not fear to proclaim
+aloud that any war which would put arms in our hands again would be
+welcome--"
+
+"Yes, war!" cried impetuous J.T. Maston.
+
+"Hear, hear!" was heard on every side.
+
+"But war," said Barbicane, "war is impossible under actual
+circumstances, and, whatever my honourable interrupter may hope, long
+years will elapse before our cannons thunder on a field of battle. We
+must, therefore, make up our minds to it, and seek in another order of
+ideas food for the activity by which we are devoured."
+
+The assembly felt that its president was coming to the delicate point;
+it redoubled its attention.
+
+"A few months ago, my brave colleagues," continued Barbicane, "I asked
+myself if, whilst still remaining in our speciality, we could not
+undertake some grand experiment worthy of the nineteenth century, and if
+the progress of ballistics would not allow us to execute it with
+success. I have therefore sought, worked, calculated, and the conviction
+has resulted from my studies that we must succeed in an enterprise that
+would seem impracticable in any other country. This project, elaborated
+at length, will form the subject of my communication; it is worthy of
+you, worthy of the Gun Club's past history, and cannot fail to make a
+noise in the world!"
+
+"Much noise?" cried a passionate artilleryman.
+
+"Much noise in the true sense of the word," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Don't interrupt!" repeated several voices.
+
+"I therefore beg of you, my brave colleagues," resumed the president,
+"to grant me all your attention."
+
+A shudder ran through the assembly. Barbicane, having with a rapid
+gesture firmly fixed his hat on his head, continued his speech in a calm
+tone:--
+
+"There is not one of you, brave colleagues, who has not seen the moon,
+or, at least, heard of It. Do not be astonished if I wish to speak to
+you about the Queen of Night. It is, perhaps, our lot to be the
+Columbuses of this unknown world. Understand me, and second me as much
+as you can, I will lead you to its conquest, and its name shall be
+joined to those of the thirty-six States that form the grand country of
+the Union!"
+
+"Hurrah for the moon!" cried the Gun Club with one voice.
+
+"The moon has been much studied," resumed Barbicane; "its mass, density,
+weight, volume, constitution, movements, distance, the part it plays in
+the solar world, are all perfectly determined; selenographic maps have
+been drawn with a perfection that equals, if it does not surpass, those
+of terrestrial maps; photography has given to our satellite proofs of
+incomparable beauty--in a word, all that the sciences of mathematics,
+astronomy, geology, and optics can teach is known about the moon; but
+until now no direct communication with it has ever been established."
+
+A violent movement of interest and surprise welcomed this sentence of
+the orator.
+
+"Allow me," he resumed, "to recall to you in few words how certain
+ardent minds, embarked upon imaginary journeys, pretended to have
+penetrated the secrets of our satellite. In the seventeenth century a
+certain David Fabricius boasted of having seen the inhabitants of the
+moon with his own eyes. In 1649 a Frenchman, Jean Baudoin, published his
+_Journey to the Moon by Dominique Gonzales, Spanish Adventurer_. At the
+same epoch Cyrano de Bergerac published the celebrated expedition that
+had so much success in France. Later on, another Frenchman (that nation
+took a great deal of notice of the moon), named Fontenelle, wrote his
+_Plurality of Worlds_, a masterpiece of his time; but science in its
+progress crushes even masterpieces! About 1835, a pamphlet, translated
+from the _New York American_, related that Sir John Herschel, sent to
+the Cape of Good Hope, there to make astronomical observations, had, by
+means of a telescope, perfected by interior lighting, brought the moon
+to within a distance of eighty yards. Then he distinctly perceived
+caverns in which lived hippopotami, green mountains with golden borders,
+sheep with ivory horns, white deer, and inhabitants with membraneous
+wings like those of bats. This treatise, the work of an American named
+Locke, had a very great success. But it was soon found out that it was a
+scientific mystification, and Frenchmen were the first to laugh at it."
+
+"Laugh at an American!" cried J.T. Maston; "but that's a _casus belli_!"
+
+"Be comforted, my worthy friend; before Frenchmen laughed they were
+completely taken in by our countryman. To terminate this rapid history,
+I may add that a certain Hans Pfaal, of Rotterdam, went up in a balloon
+filled with a gas made from azote, thirty-seven times lighter than
+hydrogen, and reached the moon after a journey of nineteen days. This
+journey, like the preceding attempts, was purely imaginary, but it was
+the work of a popular American writer of a strange and contemplative
+genius. I have named Edgar Poe!"
+
+"Hurrah for Edgar Poe!" cried the assembly, electrified by the words of
+the president.
+
+"I have now come to an end of these attempts which I may call purely
+literary, and quite insufficient to establish any serious communications
+with the Queen of Night. However, I ought to add that some practical
+minds tried to put themselves into serious communication with her. Some
+years ago a German mathematician proposed to send a commission of
+_savants_ to the steppes of Siberia. There, on the vast plains, immense
+geometrical figures were to be traced by means of luminous reflectors;
+amongst others, the square of the hypothenuse, vulgarly called the
+'Ass's Bridge.' 'Any intelligent being,' said the mathematician, 'ought
+to understand the scientific destination of that figure. The Selenites
+(inhabitants of the moon), if they exist, will answer by a similar
+figure, and, communication once established, it will be easy to create
+an alphabet that will allow us to hold converse with the inhabitants of
+the moon.' Thus spoke the German mathematician, but his project was not
+put into execution, and until now no direct communication has existed
+between the earth and her satellite. But it was reserved to the
+practical genius of Americans to put itself into communication with the
+sidereal world. The means of doing so are simple, easy, certain,
+unfailing, and will make the subject of my proposition."
+
+A hubbub and tempest of exclamations welcomed these words. There was not
+one of the audience who was not dominated and carried away by the words
+of the orator.
+
+"Hear, hear! Silence!" was heard on all sides.
+
+When the agitation was calmed down Barbicane resumed, in a graver tone,
+his interrupted speech.
+
+"You know," said he, "what progress the science of ballistics has made
+during the last few years, and to what degree of perfection firearms
+would have been brought if the war had gone on. You are not ignorant in
+general that the power of resistance of cannons and the expansive force
+of powder are unlimited. Well, starting from that principle, I asked
+myself if, by means of sufficient apparatus, established under
+determined conditions of resistance, it would not be possible to send a
+cannon-ball to the moon!"
+
+At these words an "Oh!" of stupefaction escaped from a thousand panting
+breasts; then occurred a moment of silence, like the profound calm that
+precedes thunder. In fact, the thunder came, but a thunder of applause,
+cries, and clamour which made the meeting-hall shake again. The
+president tried to speak; he could not. It was only at the end of ten
+minutes that he succeeded in making himself heard.
+
+"Let me finish," he resumed coldly. "I have looked at the question in
+all its aspects, and from my indisputable calculations it results that
+any projectile, hurled at an initial speed of twelve thousand yards a
+second, and directed at the moon, must necessarily reach her. I have,
+therefore, the honour of proposing to you, my worthy colleagues, the
+attempting of this little experiment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+It is impossible to depict the effect produced by the last words of the
+honourable president. What cries! what vociferations! What a succession
+of groans, hurrahs, cheers, and all the onomatopoeia of which the
+American language is so full. It was an indescribable hubbub and
+disorder. Mouths, hands, and feet made as much noise as they could. All
+the weapons in this artillery museum going off at once would not have
+more violently agitated the waves of sound. That is not surprising;
+there are cannoneers nearly as noisy as their cannons.
+
+Barbicane remained calm amidst these enthusiastic clamours; perhaps he
+again wished to address some words to his colleagues, for his gestures
+asked for silence, and his fulminating bell exhausted itself in violent
+detonations; it was not even heard. He was soon dragged from his chair,
+carried in triumph, and from the hands of his faithful comrades he
+passed into those of the no less excited crowd.
+
+Nothing can astonish an American. It has often been repeated that the
+word "impossible" is not French; the wrong dictionary must have been
+taken by mistake. In America everything is easy, everything is simple,
+and as to mechanical difficulties, they are dead before they are born.
+Between the Barbicane project and its realisation not one true Yankee
+would have allowed himself to see even the appearance of a difficulty.
+As soon said as done.
+
+The triumphant march of the president was prolonged during the evening.
+A veritable torchlight procession--Irish, Germans, Frenchmen,
+Scotchmen--all the heterogeneous individuals that compose the population
+of Maryland--shouted in their maternal tongue, and the cheering was
+unanimous.
+
+Precisely as if she knew it was all about her, the moon shone out then
+with serene magnificence, eclipsing other lights with her intense
+irradiation. All the Yankees directed their eyes towards the shining
+disc; some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the
+sweetest names; between eight o'clock and midnight an optician in
+Jones-Fall-street made a fortune by selling field-glasses. The Queen of
+Night was looked at through them like a lady of high life. The Americans
+acted in regard to her with the freedom of proprietors. It seemed as if
+the blonde Phoebe belonged to these enterprising conquerors and already
+formed part of the Union territory. And yet the only question was that
+of sending a projectile--a rather brutal way of entering into
+communication even with a satellite, but much in vogue amongst civilised
+nations.
+
+Midnight had just struck, and the enthusiasm did not diminish; it was
+kept up in equal doses in all classes of the population; magistrates,
+_savants_, merchants, tradesmen, street-porters, intelligent as well as
+"green" men were moved even in their most delicate fibres. It was a
+national enterprise; the high town, low town, the quays bathed by the
+waters of the Patapsco, the ships, imprisoned in their docks, overflowed
+with crowds intoxicated with joy, gin, and whisky; everybody talked,
+argued, perorated, disputed, approved, and applauded, from the gentleman
+comfortably stretched on the bar-room couch before his glass of
+"sherry-cobbler" to the waterman who got drunk upon "knock-me-down" in
+the dark taverns of Fell's Point.
+
+However, about 2 a.m. the emotion became calmer. President Barbicane
+succeeded in getting home almost knocked to pieces. A Hercules could not
+have resisted such enthusiasm. The crowd gradually abandoned the squares
+and streets. The four railroads of Ohio, Susquehanna, Philadelphia, and
+Washington, which converge at Baltimore, took the heterogeneous
+population to the four corners of the United States, and the town
+reposed in a relative tranquillity.
+
+It would be an error to believe that during this memorable evening
+Baltimore alone was agitated. The large towns of the Union, New York,
+Boston, Albany, Washington, Richmond, New Orleans, Charlestown, La
+Mobile of Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Florida, all shared in the
+delirium. The thirty thousand correspondents of the Gun Club were
+acquainted with their president's letter, and awaited with equal
+impatience the famous communication of the 5th of October. The same
+evening as the orator uttered his speech it ran along the telegraph
+wires, across the states of the Union, with a speed of 348,447 miles a
+second. It may, therefore, be said with absolute certainty that at the
+same moment the United States of America, ten times as large as France,
+cheered with a single voice, and twenty-five millions of hearts, swollen
+with pride, beat with the same pulsation.
+
+The next day five hundred daily, weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly
+newspapers took up the question; they examined it under its different
+aspects--physical, meteorological, economical, or moral, from a
+political or social point of view. They debated whether the moon was a
+finished world, or if she was not still undergoing transformation. Did
+she resemble the earth in the time when the atmosphere did not yet
+exist? What kind of spectacle would her hidden hemisphere present to our
+terrestrial spheroid? Granting that the question at present was simply
+about sending a projectile to the Queen of Night, every one saw in that
+the starting-point of a series of experiments; all hoped that one day
+America would penetrate the last secrets of the mysterious orb, and some
+even seemed to fear that her conquest would disturb the balance of power
+in Europe.
+
+The project once under discussion, not one of the papers suggested a
+doubt of its realisation; all the papers, treatises, bulletins, and
+magazines published by scientific, literary, or religious societies
+enlarged upon its advantages, and the "Natural History Society" of
+Boston, the "Science and Art Society" of Albany, the "Geographical and
+Statistical Society" of New York, the "American Philosophical Society"
+of Philadelphia, and the "Smithsonian Institution" of Washington sent in
+a thousand letters their congratulations to the Gun Club, with immediate
+offers of service and money.
+
+It may be said that no proposition ever had so many adherents; there was
+no question of hesitations, doubts, or anxieties. As to the jokes,
+caricatures, and comic songs that would have welcomed in Europe, and,
+above all, in France, the idea of sending a projectile to the moon, they
+would have been turned against their author; all the "life-preservers"
+in the world would have been powerless to guarantee him against the
+general indignation. There are things that are not to be laughed at in
+the New World.
+
+Impey Barbicane became from that day one of the greatest citizens of the
+United States, something like a Washington of science, and one fact
+amongst several will serve to show the sudden homage which was paid by a
+nation to one man.
+
+Some days after the famous meeting of the Gun Club the manager of an
+English company announced at the Baltimore Theatre a representation of
+_Much Ado About Nothing_, but the population of the town, seeing in the
+title a damaging allusion to the projects of President Barbicane,
+invaded the theatre, broke the seats, and forced the unfortunate manager
+to change the play. Like a sensible man, the manager, bowing to public
+opinion, replaced the offending comedy by _As You Like It_, and for
+several weeks he had fabulous houses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY.
+
+
+In the meantime Barbicane did not lose an instant amidst the enthusiasm
+of which he was the object. His first care was to call together his
+colleagues in the board-room of the Gun Club. There, after a debate,
+they agreed to consult astronomers about the astronomical part of their
+enterprise. Their answer once known, they would then discuss the
+mechanical means, and nothing would be neglected to assure the success
+of their great experiment.
+
+A note in precise terms, containing special questions, was drawn up and
+addressed to the observatory of Cambridge in Massachusetts. This town,
+where the first University of the United States was founded, is justly
+celebrated for its astronomical staff. There are assembled the greatest
+men of science; there is the powerful telescope which enabled Bond to
+resolve the nebula of Andromeda and Clarke to discover the satellite of
+Sirius. This celebrated institution was, therefore, worthy in every way
+of the confidence of the Gun Club.
+
+After two days the answer, impatiently awaited, reached the hands of
+President Barbicane.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"_The Director of the Cambridge Observatory to the President of the Gun
+Club at Baltimore_.
+
+"On the receipt of your favour of the 6th inst., addressed to the
+Observatory of Cambridge in the name of the members of the Baltimore
+Gun Club, we immediately called a meeting of our staff, who have deemed
+it expedient to answer as follows:--
+
+"The questions proposed to it were these:--
+
+"'1. Is it possible to send a projectile to the moon?
+
+"'2. What is the exact distance that separates the earth and her
+satellite?
+
+"'3. What would be the duration of the projectile's transit to which a
+sufficient initial speed had been given, and consequently at what moment
+should it be hurled so as to reach the moon at a particular point?
+
+"'4. At what moment would the moon present the most favourable position
+for being reached by the projectile?
+
+"'5. What point in the heavens ought the cannon, destined to hurl the
+projectile, be aimed at?
+
+"'6. What place in the heavens will the moon occupy at the moment when
+the projectile will start?'
+
+"Regarding question No. 1, 'Is it possible to send a projectile to the
+moon?'
+
+"Yes, it is possible to send a projectile to the moon if it is given an
+initial velocity of 1,200 yards a second. Calculations prove that this
+speed is sufficient. In proportion to the distance from the earth the
+force of gravitation diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of the
+distance--that is to say, that for a distance three times greater that
+force is nine times less. In consequence, the weight of the projectile
+will decrease rapidly, and will end by being completely annulled at the
+moment when the attraction of the moon will be equal to that of the
+earth--that is to say, at the 47/52 of the distance. At that moment the
+projectile will have no weight at all, and if it clears that point it
+will fall on to the moon only by the effect of lunar gravitation. The
+theoretic possibility of the experiment is, therefore, quite
+demonstrated; as to its success, that depends solely in the power of the
+engine employed.
+
+"Regarding question No. 2, 'What is the exact distance that separates
+the earth from her satellite?'
+
+"The moon does not describe a circle round the earth, but an ellipse, of
+which our earth occupies one of the foci; the consequence is, therefore,
+that at certain times it approaches nearer to, and at others recedes
+farther from, the earth, or, in astronomical language, it has its apogee
+and its perigee. At its apogee the moon is at 247,552 miles from the
+earth, and at its perigee at 218,657 miles only, which makes a
+difference of 28,895, or more than a ninth of the distance. The perigee
+distance is, therefore, the one that should give us the basis of all
+calculations.
+
+"Regarding question No. 3, 'What would be the duration of the
+projectile's transit to which a sufficient initial speed has been given,
+and consequently at what moment should it be hurled so as to reach the
+moon at a particular point?'
+
+"If the projectile kept indefinitely the initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second, it would only take about nine hours to reach its destination;
+but as that initial velocity will go on decreasing, it will happen,
+everything calculated upon, that the projectile will take 300,000
+seconds, or 83 hours and 20 minutes, to reach the point where the
+terrestrial and lunar gravitations are equal, and from that point it
+will fall upon the moon in 50,000 seconds, or 13 hours, 53 minutes, and
+20 seconds. It must, therefore, be hurled 97 hours, 13 minutes, and 20
+seconds before the arrival of the moon at the point aimed at.
+
+"Regarding question No. 4, 'At what moment would the moon present the
+most favourable position for being reached by the projectile?'
+
+"According to what has been said above the epoch of the moon's perigee
+must first be chosen, and at the moment when she will be crossing her
+zenith, which will still further diminish the entire distance by a
+length equal to the terrestrial radius--i.e., 3,919 miles; consequently,
+the passage to be accomplished will be 214,976 miles. But the moon is
+not always at her zenith when she reaches her perigee, which is once a
+month. She is only under the two conditions simultaneously at long
+intervals of time. This coincidence of perigee and zenith must be waited
+for. It happens fortunately that on December 4th of next year the moon
+will offer these two conditions; at midnight she will be at her perigee
+and her zenith--that is to say, at her shortest distance from the earth
+and at her zenith at the same time.
+
+"Regarding question No. 5, 'At what point in the heavens ought the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile be aimed?'
+
+"The preceding observations being admitted, the cannon ought to be aimed
+at the zenith of the place (the zenith is the spot situated vertically
+above the head of a spectator), so that its range will be perpendicular
+to the plane of the horizon, and the projectile will pass the soonest
+beyond the range of terrestrial gravitation. But for the moon to reach
+the zenith of a place that place must not exceed in latitude the
+declination of the luminary--in other words, it must be comprised
+between 0° and 28° of north or south latitude. In any other place the
+range must necessarily be oblique, which would seriously affect the
+success of the experiment.
+
+"Regarding question No. 6, 'What place will the moon occupy In the
+heavens at the moment of the projectile's departure?'
+
+"At the moment when the projectile is hurled into space, the moon, which
+travels forward 13° 10' 35" each day, will be four times as distant from
+her zenith point--i.e., by 52° 42' 20", a space which corresponds to the
+distance she will travel during the transit of the projectile. But as
+the deviation which the rotatory movement of the earth will impart to
+the shock must also be taken into account, and as the projectile cannot
+reach the moon until after a deviation equal to sixteen radii of the
+earth, which, calculated upon the moon's orbit, is equal to about 11°,
+it is necessary to add these 11° to those caused by the
+already-mentioned delay of the moon, or, in round numbers, 64°. Thus, at
+the moment of firing, the visual radius applied to the moon will
+describe with the vertical line of the place an angle of 64°.
+
+"Such are the answers to the questions proposed to the Observatory of
+Cambridge by the members of the Gun Club.
+
+"To sum up--
+
+"1st. The cannon must be placed in a country situated between 0° and 28°
+of north or south latitude.
+
+"2nd. It must be aimed at the zenith of the place.
+
+"3rd. The projectile must have an initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second.
+
+"4th. It must be hurled on December 1st of next year, at 10hrs. 46mins.
+40secs. p.m.
+
+"5th. It will meet the moon four days after its departure on December
+4th, at midnight precisely, at the moment she arrives at her zenith.
+
+"The members of the Gun Club ought, therefore, at once to commence the
+labour necessitated by such an enterprise, and be ready to put them into
+execution at the moment fixed upon, for they will not find the moon in
+the same conditions of perigee and zenith till eighteen years and eleven
+days later.
+
+"The staff of the Observatory of Cambridge puts itself entirely at their
+disposition for questions of theoretic astronomy, and begs to join its
+congratulations to those of the whole of America.
+
+"On behalf of the staff,
+
+"J.M. BELFAST,
+
+"_Director of the Observatory of Cambridge_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON.
+
+
+A spectator endowed with infinite power of sight, and placed at the
+unknown centre round which gravitates the universe, would have seen
+myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of creation.
+But by degrees, as centuries went on, a change took place; a law of
+gravitation manifested itself which the wandering atoms obeyed; these
+atoms, combined chemically according to their affinities, formed
+themselves into molecules, and made those nebulous masses with which the
+depths of the heavens are strewed.
+
+These masses were immediately animated by a movement of rotation round
+their central point. This centre, made of vague molecules, began to turn
+on itself whilst progressively condensing; then, following the immutable
+laws of mechanics, in proportion as its volume became diminished by
+condensation its movement of rotation was accelerated, and these two
+effects persisting, there resulted a principal planet, the centre of the
+nebulous mass.
+
+By watching attentively the spectator would then have seen other
+molecules in the mass behave like the central planet, and condense in
+the same manner by a movement of progressively-accelerated rotation, and
+gravitate round it under the form of innumerable stars. The nebulae, of
+which astronomers count nearly 5,000 at present, were formed.
+
+Amongst these 5,000 nebulae there is one that men have called the Milky
+Way, and which contains eighteen millions of stars, each of which has
+become the centre of a solar world.
+
+If the spectator had then specially examined amongst these eighteen
+millions of stars one of the most modest and least brilliant, a star of
+the fourth order, the one that proudly named itself the sun, all the
+phenomena to which the formation of the universe is due would have
+successively taken place under his eyes.
+
+In fact, he would have perceived this sun still in its gaseous state,
+and composed of mobile molecules; he would have perceived it turning on
+its own axis to finish its work of concentration. This movement,
+faithful to the laws of mechanics, would have been accelerated by the
+diminution of volume, and a time would have come when the centrifugal
+force would have overpowered the centripetal, which causes the molecules
+all to tend towards the centre.
+
+Then another phenomenon would have passed before the eyes of the
+spectator, and the molecules situated in the plane of the equator would
+have formed several concentric rings like that of Saturn round the sun.
+In their turn these rings of cosmic matter, seized with a movement of
+rotation round the central mass, would have been broken up into
+secondary nebulae--that is to say, into planets.
+
+If the spectator had then concentrated all his attention on these
+planets he would have seen them behave exactly like the sun and give
+birth to one or more cosmic rings, origin of those secondary bodies
+which we call satellites.
+
+Thus in going up from the atom to the molecule, from the molecule to the
+nebulae, and from the nebulae to the principal star, from the principal
+star to the sun, from the sun to the planet, and from the planet to the
+satellite, we have the whole series of transformations undergone by the
+celestial powers from the first days of the universe.
+
+The sun seems lost amidst the immensities of the stellar universe, and
+yet it is related, by actual theories of science, to the nebula of the
+Milky Way. Centre of a world, and small as it appears amidst the
+ethereal regions, it is still enormous, for its size is 1,400,000 times
+that of the earth. Around it gravitate eight planets, struck off from
+its own mass in the first days of creation. These are, in proceeding
+from the nearest to the most distant, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Between Mars and Jupiter circulate
+regularly other smaller bodies, the wandering _débris_, perhaps, of a
+star broken up into thousands of pieces, of which the telescope has
+discovered eighty-two at present. Some of these asteroids are so small
+that they could be walked round in a single day by going at a gymnastic
+pace.
+
+Of these attendant bodies which the sun maintains in their elliptical
+orbit by the great law of gravitation, some possess satellites of their
+own. Uranus has eight, Saturn eight, Jupiter four, Neptune three
+perhaps, and the Earth one; this latter, one of the least important of
+the solar world, is called the Moon, and it is that one that the
+enterprising genius of the Americans means to conquer.
+
+The Queen of Night, from her relative proximity and the spectacle
+rapidly renewed of her different phases, at first divided the attention
+of the inhabitants of the earth with the sun; but the sun tires the
+eyesight, and the splendour of its light forces its admirers to lower
+their eyes.
+
+The blonde Phoebe, more humane, graciously allows herself to be seen in
+her modest grace; she is gentle to the eye, not ambitious, and yet she
+sometimes eclipses her brother the radiant Apollo, without ever being
+eclipsed by him. The Mahommedans understood what gratitude they owed to
+this faithful friend of the earth, and they ruled their months at 29-1/2
+days on her revolution.
+
+The first people of the world dedicated particular worship to this
+chaste goddess. The Egyptians called her Isis, the Phoenicians Astarte,
+the Greeks Phoebe, daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and they explained
+her eclipses by the mysterious visits of Diana and the handsome
+Endymion. The mythological legend relates that the Nemean lion traversed
+the country of the moon before its apparition upon earth, and the poet
+Agesianax, quoted by Plutarch, celebrated in his sweet lines its soft
+eyes, charming nose, and admirable mouth, formed by the luminous parts
+of the adorable Selene.
+
+But though the ancients understood the character, temperament, and, in a
+word, moral qualities of the moon from a mythological point of view, the
+most learned amongst them remained very ignorant of selenography.
+
+Several astronomers, however, of ancient times discovered certain
+particulars now confirmed by science. Though the Arcadians pretended
+they had inhabited the earth at an epoch before the moon existed, though
+Simplicius believed her immovable and fastened to the crystal vault,
+though Tacitus looked upon her as a fragment broken off from the solar
+orbit, and Clearch, the disciple of Aristotle, made of her a polished
+mirror upon which were reflected the images of the ocean--though, in
+short, others only saw in her a mass of vapours exhaled by the earth, or
+a globe half fire and half ice that turned on itself, other _savants_,
+by means of wise observations and without optical instruments, suspected
+most of the laws that govern the Queen of Night.
+
+Thus Thales of Miletus, B.C. 460, gave out the opinion that the moon was
+lighted up by the sun. Aristarchus of Samos gave the right explanation
+of her phases. Cleomenus taught that she shone by reflected light.
+Berose the Chaldean discovered that the duration of her movement of
+rotation was equal to that of her movement of revolution, and he thus
+explained why the moon always presented the same side. Lastly,
+Hipparchus, 200 years before the Christian era, discovered some
+inequalities in the apparent movements of the earth's satellite.
+
+These different observations were afterwards confirmed, and other
+astronomers profited by them. Ptolemy in the second century, and the
+Arabian Aboul Wefa in the tenth, completed the remarks of Hipparchus on
+the inequalities that the moon undergoes whilst following the undulating
+line of its orbit under the action of the sun. Then Copernicus, in the
+fifteenth century, and Tycho Brahe, in the sixteenth, completely exposed
+the system of the world and the part that the moon plays amongst the
+celestial bodies.
+
+At that epoch her movements were pretty well known, but very little of
+her physical constitution was known. It was then that Galileo explained
+the phenomena of light produced in certain phases by the existence of
+mountains, to which he gave an average height of 27,000 feet.
+
+After him, Hevelius, an astronomer of Dantzig, lowered the highest
+altitudes to 15,000 feet; but his contemporary, Riccioli, brought them
+up again to 21,000 feet.
+
+Herschel, at the end of the eighteenth century, armed with a powerful
+telescope, considerably reduced the preceding measurements. He gave a
+height of 11,400 feet to the highest mountains, and brought down the
+average of different heights to little more than 2,400 feet. But
+Herschel was mistaken too, and the observations of Schroeter, Louville,
+Halley, Nasmyth, Bianchini, Pastorff, Lohrman, Gruithuysen, and
+especially the patient studies of MM. Boeer and Moedler, were necessary
+to definitely resolve the question. Thanks to these _savants_, the
+elevation of the mountains of the moon is now perfectly known. Boeer and
+Moedler measured 1,905 different elevations, of which six exceed 15,000
+feet and twenty-two exceed 14,400 feet. Their highest summit towers to a
+height of 22,606 feet above the surface of the lunar disc.
+
+At the same time the survey of the moon was being completed; she
+appeared riddled with craters, and her essentially volcanic nature was
+affirmed by each observation. From the absence of refraction in the rays
+of the planets occulted by her it is concluded that she can have no
+atmosphere. This absence of air entails absence of water; it therefore
+became manifest that the Selenites, in order to live under such
+conditions, must have a special organisation, and differ singularly from
+the inhabitants of the earth.
+
+Lastly, thanks to new methods, more perfected instruments searched the
+moon without intermission, leaving not a point of her surface
+unexplored, and yet her diameter measures 2,150 miles; her surface is
+one-thirteenth of the surface of the globe, and her volume
+one-forty-ninth of the volume of the terrestrial spheroid; but none of
+her secrets could escape the astronomers' eyes, and these clever
+_savants_ carried their wonderful observations still further.
+
+Thus they remarked that when the moon was at her full the disc appeared
+in certain places striped with white lines, and during her phases
+striped with black lines. By prosecuting the study of these with greater
+precision they succeeded in making out the exact nature of these lines.
+They are long and narrow furrows sunk between parallel ridges, bordering
+generally upon the edges of the craters; their length varied from ten to
+one hundred miles, and their width was about 1,600 yards. Astronomers
+called them furrows, and that was all they could do; they could not
+ascertain whether they were the dried-up beds of ancient rivers or not.
+The Americans hope, some day or other, to determine this geological
+question. They also undertake to reconnoitre the series of parallel
+ramparts discovered on the surface of the moon by Gruithuysen, a learned
+professor of Munich, who considered them to be a system of elevated
+fortifications raised by Selenite engineers. These two still obscure
+points, and doubtless many others, can only be definitely settled by
+direct communication with the moon.
+
+As to the intensity of her light there is nothing more to be learnt; it
+is 300,000 times weaker than that of the sun, and its heat has no
+appreciable action upon thermometers; as to the phenomenon known as the
+"ashy light," it is naturally explained by the effect of the sun's rays
+transmitted from the earth to the moon, and which seem to complete the
+lunar disc when it presents a crescent form during its first and last
+phases.
+
+Such was the state of knowledge acquired respecting the earth's
+satellite which the Gun Club undertook to perfect under all its aspects,
+cosmographical, geographical, geological, political, and moral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO BE
+BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The immediate effect of Barbicane's proposition was that of bringing out
+all astronomical facts relative to the Queen of Night. Everybody began
+to study her assiduously. It seemed as if the moon had appeared on the
+horizon for the first time, and that no one had ever seen her in the sky
+before. She became the fashion; she was the lion of the day, without
+appearing less modest on that account, and took her place amongst the
+"stars" without being any the prouder. The newspapers revived old
+anecdotes in which this "Sun of the wolves" played a part; they recalled
+the influence which the ignorance of past ages had ascribed to her; they
+sang about her in every tone; a little more and they would have quoted
+her witty sayings; the whole of America was filled with selenomania.
+
+The scientific journals treated the question which touched upon the
+enterprise of the Gun Club more specially; they published the letter
+from the Observatory of Cambridge, they commented upon it and approved
+of it without reserve.
+
+In short, even the most ignorant Yankee was no longer allowed to be
+ignorant of a single fact relative to his satellite, nor, to the oldest
+women amongst them, to have any superstitions about her left. Science
+flooded them; it penetrated into their eyes and ears; it was impossible
+to be an ass--in astronomy.
+
+Until then many people did not know how the distance between the earth
+and the moon had been calculated. This fact was taken advantage of to
+explain to them that it was done by measuring the parallax of the moon.
+If the word "parallax" seemed new to them, they were told it was the
+angle formed by two straight lines drawn from either extremity of the
+earth's radius to the moon. If they were in doubt about the perfection
+of this method, it was immediately proved to them that not only was the
+mean distance 234,347 miles, but that astronomers were right to within
+seventy miles.
+
+To those who were not familiar with the movements of the moon, the
+newspapers demonstrated daily that she possesses two distinct movements,
+the first being that of rotation upon her axis, the second that of
+revolution round the earth, accomplishing both in the same time--that is
+to say, in 27-1/3 days.
+
+The movement of rotation is the one that causes night and day on the
+surface of the moon, only there is but one day and one night in a lunar
+month, and they each last 354-1/3 hours. But, happily, the face, turned
+towards the terrestrial globe, is lighted by it with an intensity equal
+to the light of fourteen moons. As to the other face, the one always
+invisible, it has naturally 354 hours of absolute night, tempered only
+by "the pale light that falls from the stars." This phenomenon is due
+solely to the peculiarity that the movements of rotation and revolution
+are accomplished in rigorously equal periods, a phenomenon which,
+according to Cassini and Herschel, is common to the satellites of
+Jupiter, and, very probably to the other satellites.
+
+Some well-disposed but rather unyielding minds did not quite understand
+at first how, if the moon invariably shows the same face to the earth
+during her revolution, she describes one turn round herself in the same
+period of time. To such it was answered--"Go into your dining-room, and
+turn round the table so as always to keep your face towards the centre;
+when your circular walk is ended you will have described one circle
+round yourselves, since your eye will have successively traversed every
+point of the room. Well, then, the room is the heavens, the table is the
+earth, and you are the moon!"
+
+And they go away delighted with the comparison.
+
+Thus, then, the moon always presents the same face to the earth; still,
+to be quite exact, it should be added that in consequence of certain
+fluctuations from north to south and from west to east, called
+libration, she shows rather more than the half of her disc, about 0.57.
+
+When the ignoramuses knew as much as the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory about the moon's movement of rotation they began to make
+themselves uneasy about her movement of revolution round the earth, and
+twenty scientific reviews quickly gave them the information they wanted.
+They then learnt that the firmament, with its infinite stars, may be
+looked upon as a vast dial upon which the moon moves, indicating the
+time to all the inhabitants of the earth; that it is in this movement
+that the Queen of Night shows herself in her different phases, that she
+is full when she is in opposition with the sun--that is to say, when the
+three bodies are on a line with each other, the earth being in the
+centre; that the moon is new when she is in conjunction with the
+sun--that is to say, when she is between the sun and the earth; lastly,
+that the moon is in her first or last quarter when she makes, with the
+sun and the earth, a right angle of which she occupies the apex.
+
+Some perspicacious Yankees inferred in consequence that eclipses could
+only take place at the periods of conjunction or opposition, and their
+reasoning was just. In conjunction the moon can eclipse the sun, whilst
+in opposition it is the earth that can eclipse him in her turn; and the
+reason these eclipses do not happen twice in a lunar month is because
+the plane upon which the moon moves is elliptical like that of the
+earth.
+
+As to the height which the Queen of Night can attain above the horizon,
+the letter from the Observatory of Cambridge contained all that can be
+said about it. Every one knew that this height varies according to the
+latitude of the place where the observation is taken. But the only zones
+of the globe where the moon reaches her zenith--that is to say, where
+she is directly above the heads of the spectators--are necessarily
+comprised between the 28th parallels and the equator. Hence the
+important recommendation given to attempt the experiment upon some point
+in this part of the globe, in order that the projectile may be hurled
+perpendicularly, and may thus more quickly escape the attraction of
+gravitation. This was a condition essential to the success of the
+enterprise, and public opinion was much exercised thereupon.
+
+As to the line followed by the moon in her revolution round the earth,
+the Observatory of Cambridge had demonstrated to the most ignorant that
+it is an ellipse of which the earth occupies one of the foci. These
+elliptical orbits are common to all the planets as well as to all the
+satellites, and rational mechanism rigorously proves that it could not
+be otherwise. It was clearly understood that when at her apogee the moon
+was farthest from the earth, and when at her perigee she was nearest to
+our planet.
+
+This, therefore, was what every American knew whether he wished to or
+no, and what no one could decently be ignorant of. But if these true
+principles rapidly made their way, certain illusive fears and many
+errors were with difficulty cleared away.
+
+Some worthy people maintained, for instance, that the moon was an
+ancient comet, which, whilst travelling along its elongated orbit round
+the sun, passed near to the earth, and was retained in her circle of
+attraction. The drawing-room astronomers pretended to explain thus the
+burnt aspect of the moon, a misfortune of which they accused the sun.
+Only when they were told to notice that comets have an atmosphere, and
+that the moon has little or none, they did not know what to answer.
+
+Others belonging to the class of "Shakers" manifested certain fears
+about the moon; they had heard that since the observations made in the
+times of the Caliphs her movement of revolution had accelerated in a
+certain proportion; they thence very logically concluded that an
+acceleration of movement must correspond to a diminution in the distance
+between the two bodies, and that this double effect going on infinitely
+the moon would one day end by falling into the earth. However, they were
+obliged to reassure themselves and cease to fear for future generations
+when they were told that according to the calculations of Laplace, an
+illustrious French mathematician, this acceleration of movement was
+restricted within very narrow limits, and that a proportional diminution
+will follow it. Thus the equilibrium of the solar world cannot be
+disturbed in future centuries.
+
+Lastly there was the superstitious class of ignoramuses to be dealt
+with; these are not content with being ignorant; they know what does not
+exist, and about the moon they know a great deal. Some of them
+considered her disc to be a polished mirror by means of which people
+might see themselves from different points on the earth, and communicate
+their thoughts to one another. Others pretended that out of 1,000 new
+moons 950 had brought some notable change, such as cataclysms,
+revolutions, earthquakes, deluges, &c.; they therefore believed in the
+mysterious influence of the Queen of Night on human destinies; they
+think that every Selenite is connected by some sympathetic tie with each
+inhabitant of the earth; they pretend, with Dr. Mead, that she entirely
+governs the vital system--that boys are born during the new moon and
+girls during her last quarter, &c., &c. But at last it became necessary
+to give up these vulgar errors, to come back to truth; and if the moon,
+stripped of her influence, lost her prestige in the minds of courtesans
+of every power, if some turned their backs on her, the immense majority
+were in her favour. As to the Yankees, they had no other ambition than
+that of taking possession of this new continent of the sky, and to plant
+upon its highest summit the star-spangled banner of the United States of
+America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL.
+
+
+The Cambridge Observatory had, in its memorable letter of October 7th,
+treated the question from an astronomical point of view--the mechanical
+point had still to be treated. It was then that the practical
+difficulties would have seemed insurmountable to any other country but
+America; but there they were looked upon as play.
+
+President Barbicane had, without losing any time, nominated a working
+committee in the heart of the Gun Club. This committee was in three
+sittings to elucidate the three great questions of the cannon, the
+projectile, and the powder. It was composed of four members very learned
+upon these matters. Barbicane had the casting vote, and with him were
+associated General Morgan, Major Elphinstone, and, lastly, the
+inevitable J.T. Maston, to whom were confided the functions of
+secretary.
+
+On the 8th of October the committee met at President Barbicane's house,
+No. 3, Republican-street; as it was important that the stomach should
+not trouble so important a debate, the four members of the Gun Club took
+their seats at a table covered with sandwiches and teapots. J.T. Maston
+immediately screwed his pen on to his steel hook and the business began.
+
+Barbicane opened the meeting as follows:--
+
+"Dear colleagues," said he, "we have to solve one of the more important
+problems in ballistics--that greatest of sciences which treats of the
+movement of projectiles--that is to say, of bodies hurled into space by
+some power of impulsion and then left to themselves."
+
+"Oh, ballistics, ballistics!" cried J.T. Maston in a voice of emotion.
+
+"Perhaps," continued Barbicane, "the most logical thing would be to
+consecrate this first meeting to discussing the engine."
+
+"Certainly," answered General Morgan.
+
+"Nevertheless," continued Barbicane, "after mature deliberation, it
+seems to me that the question of the projectile ought to precede that of
+the cannon, and that the dimensions of the latter ought to depend upon
+the dimensions of the former."
+
+J.T. Maston here interrupted the president, and was heard with the
+attention which his magnificent past career deserved.
+
+"My dear friends," said he in an inspired tone, "our president is right
+to give the question of the projectile the precedence of every other;
+the cannon-ball we mean to hurl at the moon will be our messenger, our
+ambassador, and I ask your permission to regard it from an entirely
+moral point of view."
+
+This new way of looking at a projectile excited the curiosity of the
+members of the committee; they therefore listened attentively to the
+words of J.T. Maston.
+
+"My dear colleagues," he continued, "I will be brief. I will lay aside
+the material projectile--the projectile that kills--in order to take up
+the mathematical projectile--the moral projectile. A cannon-ball is to
+me the most brilliant manifestation of human power, and by creating it
+man has approached nearest to the Creator!"
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Major Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," cried the orator, "if God has made the stars and the planets,
+man has made the cannon-ball--that criterion of terrestrial speed--that
+reduction of bodies wandering in space which are really nothing but
+projectiles. Let Providence claim the speed of electricity, light, the
+stars, comets, planets, satellites, sound, and wind! But ours is the
+speed of the cannon-ball--a hundred times greater than that of trains
+and the fastest horses!"
+
+J.T. Maston was inspired; his accents became quite lyrical as he chanted
+the hymn consecrated to the projectile.
+
+"Would you like figures?" continued he; "here are eloquent ones. Take
+the simple 24 pounder; though it moves 80,000 times slower than
+electricity, 64,000 times slower than light, 76 times slower than the
+earth in her movement of translation round the sun, yet when it leaves
+the cannon it goes quicker than sound; it goes at the rate of 14 miles a
+minute, 840 miles an hour, 20,100 miles a day--that is to say, at the
+speed of the points of the equator in the globe's movement of rotation,
+7,336,500 miles a year. It would therefore take 11 days to get to the
+moon, 12 years to get to the sun, 360 years to reach Neptune, at the
+limits of the solar world. That is what this modest cannon-ball, the
+work of our hands, can do! What will it be, therefore, when, with twenty
+times that speed, we shall hurl it with a rapidity of seven miles a
+second? Ah! splendid shot! superb projectile! I like to think you will
+be received up there with the honours due to a terrestrial ambassador!"
+
+Cheers greeted this brilliant peroration, and J.T. Maston, overcome with
+emotion, sat down amidst the felicitations of his colleagues.
+
+"And now," said Barbicane, "that we have given some time to poetry, let
+us proceed to facts."
+
+"We are ready," answered the members of the committee as they each
+demolished half-a-dozen sandwiches.
+
+"You know what problem it is we have to solve," continued the president;
+"it is that of endowing a projectile with a speed of 12,000 yards per
+second. I have every reason to believe that we shall succeed, but at
+present let us see what speeds we have already obtained; General Morgan
+can edify us upon that subject."
+
+"So much the more easily," answered the general, "because during the war
+I was a member of the Experiment Commission. The 100-pound cannon of
+Dahlgren, with a range of 5,000 yards, gave their projectiles an initial
+speed of 500 yards a second."
+
+"Yes; and the Rodman Columbiad?" (the Americans gave the name of
+"Columbiad" to their enormous engines of destruction) asked the
+president.
+
+"The Rodman Columbiad, tried at Fort Hamilton, near New York, hurled a
+projectile, weighing half a ton, a distance of six miles, with a speed
+of 800 yards a second, a result which neither Armstrong nor Palliser has
+obtained in England."
+
+"Englishmen are nowhere!" said J.T. Maston, pointing his formidable
+steel hook eastward.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "a speed of 800 yards is the maximum obtained
+at present."
+
+"Yes," answered Morgan.
+
+"I might add, however," replied J.T. Maston, "that if my mortar had not
+been blown up--"
+
+"Yes, but it was blown up," replied Barbicane with a benevolent gesture.
+"We must take the speed of 800 yards for a starting point. We must keep
+till another meeting the discussion of the means used to produce this
+speed; allow me to call your attention to the dimensions which our
+projectile must have. Of course it must be something very different to
+one of half a ton weight."
+
+"Why?" asked the major.
+
+"Because," quickly answered J.T. Maston, "it must be large enough to
+attract the attention of the inhabitants of the moon, supposing there
+are any."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "and for another reason still more
+important."
+
+"What do you mean, Barbicane?" asked the major.
+
+"I mean that it is not enough to send up a projectile and then to think
+no more about it; we must follow it in its transit."
+
+"What?" said the general, slightly surprised at the proposition.
+
+"Certainly," replied Barbicane, like a man who knew what he was saying,
+"or our experiment will be without result."
+
+"But then," replied the major, "you will have to give the projectile
+enormous dimensions."
+
+"No. Please grant me your attention. You know that optical instruments
+have acquired great perfection; certain telescopes increase objects six
+thousand, and bring the moon to within a distance of forty miles. Now at
+that distance objects sixty feet square are perfectly visible. The power
+of penetration of the telescope has not been increased, because that
+power is only exercised to the detriment of their clearness, and the
+moon, which is only a reflecting mirror, does not send a light intense
+enough for the telescopes to increase objects beyond that limit."
+
+"Very well, then, what do you mean to do?" asked the general. "Do you
+intend giving a diameter of sixty feet to your projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are not going to take upon yourself the task of making the moon
+more luminous?"
+
+"I am, though."
+
+"That's rather strong!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Yes, but simple," answered Barbicane. "If I succeed in lessening the
+density of the atmosphere which the moon's light traverses, shall I not
+render that light more intense?"
+
+"Evidently."
+
+"In order to obtain that result I shall only have to establish my
+telescope upon some high mountain. We can do that."
+
+"I give in," answered the major; "you have such a way of simplifying
+things! What enlargement do you hope to obtain thus?"
+
+"One of 48,000 times, which will bring the moon within five miles only,
+and objects will only need a diameter of nine feet."
+
+"Perfect!" exclaimed J.T. Maston; "then our projectile will have a
+diameter of nine feet?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Allow me to inform you, however," returned Major Elphinstone, "that its
+weight will still be--"
+
+"Oh, major!" answered Barbicane, "before discussing its weight allow me
+to tell you that our forefathers did marvels in that way. Far be it from
+me to pretend that ballistics have not progressed, but it is well to
+know that in the Middle Ages surprising results were obtained, I dare
+affirm, even more surprising than ours."
+
+"Justify your statement," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Barbicane; "I can give you some examples.
+At the siege of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 1453, they hurled
+stone bullets that weighed 1,900 lbs.; at Malta, in the time of its
+knights, a certain cannon of Fort Saint Elme hurled projectiles weighing
+2,500 lbs. According to a French historian, under Louis XI. a mortar
+hurled a bomb of 500 lbs. only; but that bomb, fired at the Bastille, a
+place where mad men imprisoned wise ones, fell at Charenton, where wise
+men imprison mad ones."
+
+"Very well," said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Since, what have we seen, after all? The Armstrong cannons hurl
+projectiles of 500 lbs., and the Rodman Columbiads projectiles of half a
+ton! It seems, then, that if projectiles have increased in range they
+have lost in weight. Now, if we turn our efforts in that direction, we
+must succeed with the progress of the science in doubling the weight of
+the projectiles of Mahomet II. and the Knights of Malta."
+
+"That is evident," answered the major; "but what metal do you intend to
+employ for your own projectile?"
+
+"Simply cast-iron," said General Morgan.
+
+"Cast-iron!" exclaimed J.T. Maston disdainfully, "that's very common for
+a bullet destined to go to the moon."
+
+"Do not let us exaggerate, my honourable friend," answered Morgan;
+"cast-iron will be sufficient."
+
+"Then," replied Major Elphinstone, "as the weight of the projectile is
+in proportion to its volume, a cast-iron bullet, measuring nine feet in
+diameter, will still be frightfully heavy."
+
+"Yes, if it be solid, but not if it be hollow," said Barbicane.
+
+"Hollow!--then it will be an obus?"
+
+"In which we can put despatches," replied J.T. Maston, "and specimens of
+our terrestrial productions."
+
+"Yes, an obus," answered Barbicane; "that is what it must be; a solid
+bullet of 108 inches would weigh more than 200,000 lbs., a weight
+evidently too great; however, as it is necessary to give the projectile
+a certain stability, I propose to give it a weight of 20,000 lbs."
+
+"What will be the thickness of the metal?" asked the major.
+
+"If we follow the usual proportions," replied Morgan, "a diameter of 800
+inches demands sides two feet thick at least."
+
+"That would be much too thick," answered Barbicane; "we do not want a
+projectile to pierce armour-plate; it only needs sides strong enough to
+resist the pressure of the powder-gas. This, therefore, is the
+problem:--What thickness ought an iron obus to have in order to weigh
+only 20,000 lbs.? Our clever calculator, Mr. Maston, will tell us at
+once."
+
+"Nothing is easier," replied the honourable secretary.
+
+So saying, he traced some algebraical signs on the paper, amongst which
+n^2 and x^2 frequently appeared. He even seemed to extract from them a
+certain cubic root, and said--
+
+"The sides must be hardly two inches thick."
+
+"Will that be sufficient?" asked the major doubtfully.
+
+"No," answered the president, "certainly not."
+
+"Then what must be done?" resumed Elphinstone, looking puzzled.
+
+"We must use another metal instead of cast-iron."
+
+"Brass?" suggested Morgan.
+
+"No; that is too heavy too, and I have something better than that to
+propose."
+
+"What?" asked the major.
+
+"Aluminium," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Aluminium!" cried all the three colleagues of the president.
+
+"Certainly, my friends. You know that an illustrious French chemist,
+Henry St. Claire Deville, succeeded in 1854 in obtaining aluminium in a
+compact mass. This precious metal possesses the whiteness of silver, the
+indestructibility of gold, the tenacity of iron, the fusibility of
+copper, the lightness of glass; it is easily wrought, and is very widely
+distributed in nature, as aluminium forms the basis of most rocks; it is
+three times lighter than iron, and seems to have been created expressly
+to furnish us with the material for our projectile!"
+
+"Hurrah for aluminium!" cried the secretary, always very noisy in his
+moments of enthusiasm.
+
+"But, my dear president," said the major, "is not aluminium quoted
+exceedingly high?"
+
+"It was so," answered Barbicane; "when first discovered a pound of
+aluminium cost 260 to 280 dollars; then it fell to twenty-seven dollars,
+and now it is worth nine dollars."
+
+"But nine dollars a pound," replied the major, who did not easily give
+in; "that is still an enormous price."
+
+"Doubtless, my dear major; but not out of reach."
+
+"What will the projectile weigh, then?" asked Morgan.
+
+"Here is the result of my calculations," answered Barbicane. "A
+projectile of 108 inches in diameter and 12 inches thick would weigh, if
+it were made of cast-iron, 67,440 lbs.; cast in aluminium it would be
+reduced to 19,250 lbs."
+
+"Perfect!" cried Maston; "that suits our programme capitally."
+
+"Yes," replied the major; "but do you not know that at nine dollars a
+pound the projectile would cost--"
+
+"One hundred seventy-three thousand and fifty dollars. Yes, I know that;
+but fear nothing, my friends; money for our enterprise will not be
+wanting, I answer for that."
+
+"It will be showered upon us," replied J.T. Maston.
+
+"Well, what do you say to aluminium?" asked the president.
+
+"Adopted," answered the three members of the committee.
+
+"As to the form of the projectile," resumed Barbicane, "it is of little
+consequence, since, once the atmosphere cleared, it will find itself in
+empty space; I therefore propose a round ball, which will turn on
+itself, if it so pleases."
+
+Thus ended the first committee meeting. The question of the projectile
+was definitely resolved upon, and J.T. Maston was delighted with the
+idea of sending an aluminium bullet to the Selenites, "as it will give
+them no end of an idea of the inhabitants of the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HISTORY OF THE CANNON.
+
+
+The resolutions passed at this meeting produced a great effect outside.
+Some timid people grew alarmed at the idea of a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs. hurled into space. People asked what cannon could ever
+transmit an initial speed sufficient for such a mass. The report of the
+second meeting was destined to answer these questions victoriously.
+
+The next evening the four members of the Gun Club sat down before fresh
+mountains of sandwiches and a veritable ocean of tea. The debate then
+began.
+
+"My dear colleagues," said Barbicane, "we are going to occupy ourselves
+with the construction of the engine, its length, form, composition, and
+weight. It is probable that we shall have to give it gigantic
+dimensions, but, however great our difficulties might be, our industrial
+genius will easily overcome them. Will you please listen to me and
+spare objections for the present? I do not fear them."
+
+An approving murmur greeted this declaration.
+
+"We must not forget," resumed Barbicane, "to what point our yesterday's
+debate brought us; the problem is now the following: how to give an
+initial speed of 12,000 yards a second to a shot 108 inches in diameter
+weighing 20,000 lbs.
+
+"That is the problem indeed," answered Major Elphinstone.
+
+"When a projectile is hurled into space," resumed Barbicane, "what
+happens? It is acted upon by three independent forces, the resistance of
+the medium, the attraction of the earth, and the force of impulsion with
+which it is animated. Let us examine these three forces. The resistance
+of the medium--that is to say, the resistance of the air--is of little
+importance. In fact, the terrestrial atmosphere is only forty miles
+deep. With a rapidity of 12,000 yards the projectile will cross that in
+five seconds, and this time will be short enough to make the resistance
+of the medium insignificant. Let us now pass to the attraction of the
+earth--that is to say, to the weight of the projectile. We know that
+that weight diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of
+distances--in fact, this is what physics teach us: when a body left to
+itself falls on the surface of the earth, it falls 15 feet in the first
+second, and if the same body had to fall 257,542 miles--that is to say,
+the distance between the earth and the moon--its fall would be reduced
+to half a line in the first second. That is almost equivalent to
+immobility. The question is, therefore, how progressively to overcome
+this law of gravitation. How shall we do it? By the force of impulsion?"
+
+"That is the difficulty," answered the major.
+
+"That is it indeed," replied the president. "But we shall triumph over
+it, for this force of impulsion we want depends on the length of the
+engine and the quantity of powder employed, the one only being limited
+by the resistance of the other. Let us occupy ourselves, therefore,
+to-day with the dimensions to be given to the cannon. It is quite
+understood that we can make it, as large as we like, seeing it will not
+have to be moved."
+
+"All that is evident," replied the general.
+
+"Until now," said Barbicane, "the longest cannon, our enormous
+Columbiads, have not been more than twenty-five feet long; we shall
+therefore astonish many people by the dimensions we shall have to
+adopt."
+
+"Certainly," exclaimed J.T. Maston. "For my part, I ask for a cannon
+half a mile long at least!"
+
+"Half a mile!" cried the major and the general.
+
+"Yes, half a mile, and that will be half too short."
+
+"Come, Maston," answered Morgan, "you exaggerate."
+
+"No, I do not," said the irate secretary; "and I really do not know why
+you tax me with exaggeration."
+
+"Because you go too far."
+
+"You must know, sir," answered J.T. Maston, looking dignified, "that an
+artilleryman is like a cannon-ball, he can never go too far."
+
+The debate was getting personal, but the president interfered.
+
+"Be calm, my friends, and let us reason it out. We evidently want a gun
+of great range, as the length of the engine will increase the detention
+of gas accumulated behind the projectile, but it is useless to overstep
+certain limits."
+
+"Perfectly," said the major.
+
+"What are the usual rules in such a case? Ordinarily the length of a
+cannon is twenty or twenty-five times the diameter of the projectile,
+and it weighs 235 to 240 times its weight."
+
+"It is not enough," cried J.T. Maston with impetuosity.
+
+"I agree to that, my worthy friend, and in fact by keeping that
+proportion for a projectile nine feet wide, weighing 30,000 lbs., the
+engine would only have a length of 225 feet and a weight of 7,200,000
+lbs."
+
+"That is ridiculous," resumed J.T. Maston. "You might as well take a
+pistol."
+
+"I think so too," answered Barbicane; "that is why I propose to
+quadruple that length, and to construct a cannon 900 feet long."
+
+The general and the major made some objections, but, nevertheless, this
+proposition, strongly supported by the secretary, was definitely
+adopted.
+
+"Now," said Elphinstone, "what thickness must we give its sides?"
+
+"A thickness of six feet," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You do not think of raising such a mass upon a gun-carriage?" asked the
+major.
+
+"That would be superb, however! said J.T. Maston.
+
+"But impracticable," answered Barbicane. "No, I think of casting this
+engine in the ground itself, binding it up with wrought-iron hoops, and
+then surrounding it with a thick mass of stone and cement masonry. When
+it is cast it must be bored with great precision so as to prevent
+windage, so there will be no loss of gas, and all the expansive force of
+the powder will be employed in the propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" said Maston, "we have our cannon."
+
+"Not yet," answered Barbicane, calming his impatient friend with his
+hand.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we have not discussed its form. Shall it be a cannon, howitzer,
+or a mortar?"
+
+"A cannon," replied Morgan.
+
+"A howitzer," said the major.
+
+"A mortar," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+A fresh discussion was pending, each taking the part of his favourite
+weapon, when the president stopped it short.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I will soon make you agree. Our Columbiad will
+be a mixture of all three. It will be a cannon, because the
+powder-magazine will have the same diameter as the chamber. It will be a
+howitzer, because it will hurl an obus. Lastly, it will be a mortar,
+because it will be pointed at an angle of 90°, and that without any
+chance of recoil; unalterably fixed to the ground, it will communicate
+to the projectile all the power of impulsion accumulated in its body."
+
+"Adopted, adopted," answered the members of the committee.
+
+"One question," said Elphinstone, "and will this _canobusomortar_ be
+rifled?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "No, we must have an enormous initial speed,
+and you know very well that a shot leaves a rifle less rapidly than a
+smooth-bore."
+
+"True," answered the major.
+
+"Well, we have it this time," repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"Not quite yet," replied the president.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we do not yet know of what metal it will be made."
+
+"Let us decide that without delay."
+
+"I was going to propose it to you."
+
+The four members of the committee each swallowed a dozen sandwiches,
+followed by a cup of tea, and the debate recommenced.
+
+"Our cannon," said Barbicane, "must be possessed of great tenacity,
+great hardness; it must be infusible by heat, indissoluble, and
+inoxydable by the corrosive action of acids."
+
+"There is no doubt about that," answered the major, "and as we shall
+have to employ a considerable quantity of metal we shall not have much
+choice."
+
+"Well, then," said Morgan, "I propose for the fabrication of the
+Columbiad the best alloy hitherto known--that is to say, 100 parts of
+copper, 12 of tin, and 6 of brass."
+
+"My friends," answered the president, "I agree that this composition has
+given excellent results; but in bulk it would be too dear and very hard
+to work. I therefore think we must adopt an excellent material, but
+cheap, such as cast-iron. Is not that your opinion, major?"
+
+"Quite," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "cast-iron costs ten times less than
+bronze; it is easily melted, it is readily run into sand moulds, and is
+rapidly manipulated; it is, therefore, an economy of money and time.
+Besides, that material is excellent, and I remember that during the war
+at the siege of Atlanta cast-iron cannon fired a thousand shots each
+every twenty minutes without being damaged by it."
+
+"Yet cast-iron is very brittle," answered Morgan.
+
+"Yes, but it possesses resistance too. Besides, we shall not let it
+explode, I can answer for that."
+
+"It is possible to explode and yet be honest," replied J.T. Maston
+sententiously.
+
+"Evidently," answered Barbicane. "I am, therefore, going to beg our
+worthy secretary to calculate the weight of a cast-iron cannon 900 feet
+long, with an inner diameter of nine feet, and sides six feet thick."
+
+"At once," answered J.T. Maston, and, as he had done the day before, he
+made his calculations with marvellous facility, and said at the end of a
+minute--
+
+"This cannon will weigh 68,040 tons."
+
+"And how much will that cost at two cents a pound?"
+
+"Two million five hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and one
+dollars."
+
+J.T. Maston, the major, and the general looked at Barbicane anxiously.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the president, "I can only repeat what I said to
+you yesterday, don't be uneasy; we shall not want for money."
+
+Upon this assurance of its president the committee broke up, after
+having fixed a third meeting for the next evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE QUESTION OF POWDERS.
+
+
+The question of powder still remained to be settled. The public awaited
+this last decision with anxiety. The size of the projectile and length
+of the cannon being given, what would be the quantity of powder
+necessary to produce the impulsion? This terrible agent, of which,
+however, man has made himself master, was destined to play a part in
+unusual proportions.
+
+It is generally known and often asserted that gunpowder was invented in
+the fourteenth century by the monk Schwartz, who paid for his great
+discovery with his life. But it is nearly proved now that this story
+must be ranked among the legends of the Middle Ages. Gunpowder was
+invented by no one; it is a direct product of Greek fire, composed, like
+it, of sulphur and saltpetre; only since that epoch these mixtures;
+which were only dissolving, have been transformed into detonating
+mixtures.
+
+But if learned men know perfectly the false history of gunpowder, few
+people are aware of its mechanical power. Now this is necessary to be
+known in order to understand the importance of the question submitted to
+the committee.
+
+Thus a litre of gunpowder weighs about 2 lbs.; it produces, by burning,
+about 400 litres of gas; this gas, liberated, and under the action of a
+temperature of 2,400°, occupies the space of 4,000 litres. Therefore the
+volume of powder is to the volume of gas produced by its deflagration as
+1 to 400. The frightful force of this gas, when it is compressed into a
+space 4,000 times too small, may be imagined.
+
+This is what the members of the committee knew perfectly when, the next
+day, they began their sitting. Major Elphinstone opened the debate.
+
+"My dear comrades," said the distinguished chemist, "I am going to begin
+with some unexceptionable figures, which will serve as a basis for our
+calculation. The 24-lb. cannon-ball, of which the Hon. J.T. Maston spoke
+the day before yesterday, is driven out of the cannon by 16 lbs. of
+powder only."
+
+"You are certain of your figures?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Absolutely certain," answered the major. "The Armstrong cannon only
+uses 75 lbs. of powder for a projectile of 800 lbs., and the Rodman
+Columbiad only expends 160 lbs. of powder to send its half-ton bullet
+six miles. These facts cannot be doubted, for I found them myself in the
+reports of the Committee of Artillery."
+
+"That is certain," answered the general.
+
+"Well," resumed the major, "the conclusion to be drawn from these
+figures is that the quantity of powder does not augment with the weight
+of the shot; in fact, if a shot of 24 lbs. took 16 lbs. of powder, and,
+in other terms, if in ordinary cannons a quantity of powder weighing
+two-thirds of the weight of the projectile is used, this proportion is
+not always necessary. Calculate, and you will see that for the shot of
+half a ton weight, instead of 333 lbs. of powder, this quantity has been
+reduced to 116 lbs. only.
+
+"What are you driving at?" asked the president.
+
+"The extreme of your theory, my dear major," said J.T. Maston, "would
+bring you to having no powder at all, provided your shot were
+sufficiently heavy."
+
+"Friend Maston will have his joke even in the most serious things,"
+replied the major; "but he need not be uneasy; I shall soon propose a
+quantity of powder that will satisfy him. Only I wish to have it
+understood that during the war, and for the largest guns, the weight of
+the powder was reduced, after experience, to a tenth of the weight of
+the shot."
+
+"Nothing is more exact," said Morgan; "but, before deciding the quantity
+of powder necessary to give the impulsion, I think it would be well to
+agree upon its nature."
+
+"We shall use a large-grained powder," answered the major; "its
+deflagration is the most rapid."
+
+"No doubt," replied Morgan; "but it is very brittle, and ends by
+damaging the chamber of the gun."
+
+"Certainly; but what would be bad for a gun destined for long service
+would not be so for our Columbiad. We run no danger of explosion, and
+the powder must immediately take fire to make its mechanical effect
+complete."
+
+"We might make several touchholes," said J.T. Maston, "so as to set fire
+to it in several places at the same time."
+
+"No doubt," answered Elphinstone, "but that would make the working of it
+more difficult. I therefore come back to my large-grained powder that
+removes these difficulties."
+
+"So be it," answered the general.
+
+"To load his Columbiad," resumed the major, "Rodman used a powder in
+grains as large as chestnuts, made of willow charcoal, simply rarefied
+in cast-iron pans. This powder was hard and shining, left no stain on
+the hands, contained a great proportion of hydrogen and oxygen,
+deflagrated instantaneously, and, though very brittle, did not much
+damage the mouthpiece."
+
+"Well, it seems to me," answered J.T. Maston, "that we have nothing to
+hesitate about, and that our choice is made."
+
+"Unless you prefer gold-powder," replied the major, laughing, which
+provoked a threatening gesture from the steel hook of his susceptible
+friend.
+
+Until then Barbicane had kept himself aloof from the discussion; he
+listened, and had evidently an idea. He contented himself with saying
+simply--
+
+"Now, my friends, what quantity of powder do you propose?"
+
+The three members of the Gun Club looked at one another for the space of
+a minute.
+
+"Two hundred thousand pounds," said Morgan at last.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," replied the major.
+
+"Eight hundred thousand," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+This, time Elphinstone dared not tax his colleague with exaggeration. In
+fact, the question was that of sending to the moon a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs., and of giving it an initial force of 2000 yards a second. A
+moment of silence, therefore, followed the triple proposition made by
+the three colleagues.
+
+It was at last broken by President Barbicane.
+
+"My brave comrades," said he in a quiet tone, "I start from this
+principle, that the resistance of our cannon, in the given conditions,
+is unlimited. I shall, therefore, surprise the Honourable J.T. Maston
+when I tell him that he has been timid in his calculations, and I
+propose to double his 800,000 lbs. of powder."
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds!" shouted J.T. Maston, jumping out of
+his chair.
+
+"Quite as much as that."
+
+"Then we shall have to come back to my cannon half a mile long."
+
+"It is evident," said the major.
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds of powder," resumed the Secretary of
+Committee, "will occupy about a space of 22,000 cubic feet; now, as your
+cannon will only hold about 54,000 cubic feet, it will be half full, and
+the chamber will not be long enough to allow the explosion of the gas to
+give sufficient impulsion to your projectile."
+
+There was nothing to answer. J.T. Maston spoke the truth. They all
+looked at Barbicane.
+
+"However," resumed the president, "I hold to that quantity of powder.
+Think! 1,600,000 pounds of powder will give 6,000,000,000 litres of
+gas."
+
+"Then how is it to be done?" asked the general.
+
+"It is very simple. We must reduce this enormous quantity of powder,
+keeping at the same time its mechanical power."
+
+"Good! By what means?"
+
+"I will tell you," answered Barbicane simply.
+
+His interlocutors all looked at him.
+
+"Nothing is easier, in fact," he resumed, "than to bring that mass of
+powder to a volume four times less. You all know that curious cellular
+matter which constitutes the elementary tissues of vegetables?"
+
+"Ah!" said the major, "I understand you, Barbicane."
+
+"This matter," said the president, "is obtained in perfect purity in
+different things, especially in cotton, which is nothing but the skin of
+the seeds of the cotton plant. Now cotton, combined with cold nitric
+acid, is transformed into a substance eminently insoluble, eminently
+combustible, eminently explosive. Some years ago, in 1832, a French
+chemist, Braconnot, discovered this substance, which he called
+xyloidine. In 1838, another Frenchman, Pelouze, studied its different
+properties; and lastly, in 1846, Schonbein, professor of chemistry at
+Basle, proposed it as gunpowder. This powder is nitric cotton."
+
+"Or pyroxyle," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"Or fulminating cotton," replied Morgan.
+
+"Is there not an American name to put at the bottom of this discovery?"
+exclaimed J.T. Maston, animated by a lively sentiment of patriotism.
+
+"Not one, unfortunately," replied the major.
+
+"Nevertheless, to satisfy Maston," resumed the president, "I may tell
+him that one of our fellow-citizens may be annexed to the study of the
+celluosity, for collodion, which is one of the principal agents in
+photography, is simply pyroxyle dissolved in ether to which alcohol has
+been added, and it was discovered by Maynard, then a medical student."
+
+"Hurrah for Maynard and fulminating cotton!" cried the noisy secretary
+of the Gun Club.
+
+"I return to pyroxyle," resumed Barbicane. "You are acquainted with its
+properties which make it so precious to us. It is prepared with the
+greatest facility; cotton plunged in smoking nitric acid for fifteen
+minutes, then washed in water, then dried, and that is all."
+
+"Nothing is more simple, certainty," said Morgan.
+
+"What is more, pyroxyle is not damaged by moisture, a precious quality
+in our eyes, as it will take several days to load the cannon. Its
+inflammability takes place at 170° instead of at 240° and its
+deflagration is so immediate that it may be fired on ordinary gunpowder
+before the latter has time to catch fire too."
+
+"Perfect," answered the major.
+
+"Only it will cost more."
+
+"What does that matter?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Lastly, it communicates to projectiles a speed four times greater than
+that of gunpowder. I may even add that if 8/10ths of its weight of
+nitrate of potash is added its expansive force is still greatly
+augmented."
+
+"Will that be necessary?" asked the major.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "Thus instead of 1,600,000 lbs.
+of powder, we shall only have 400,000 lbs. of fulminating cotton, and as
+we can, without danger, compress 500 lbs. of cotton into 27 cubic feet,
+that quantity will not take up more than 180 feet in the chamber of the
+Columbiad. By these means the projectile will have more than 700 feet of
+chamber to traverse under a force of 6,000,000,000 of litres of gas
+before taking its flight over the Queen of Night."
+
+Here J.T. Maston could not contain his emotion. He threw himself into
+the arms of his friend with the violence of a projectile, and he would
+have been stove in had he not have been bombproof.
+
+This incident ended the first sitting of the committee. Barbicane and
+his enterprising colleagues, to whom nothing seemed impossible, had just
+solved the complex question of the projectile, cannon, and powder. Their
+plan being made, there was nothing left but to put it into execution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS.
+
+
+The American public took great interest in the least details of the Gun
+Club's enterprise. It followed the committee debates day by day. The
+most simple preparations for this great experiment, the questions of
+figures it provoked, the mechanical difficulties to be solved, all
+excited popular opinion to the highest pitch.
+
+More than a year would elapse between the commencement of the work and
+its completion; but the interval would not be void of excitement. The
+place to be chosen for the boring, the casting the metal of the
+Columbiad, its perilous loading, all this was more than necessary to
+excite public curiosity. The projectile, once fired, would be out of
+sight in a few seconds; then what would become of it, how it would
+behave in space, how it would reach the moon, none but a few privileged
+persons would see with their own eyes. Thus, then, the preparations for
+the experiment and the precise details of its execution constituted the
+real source of interest.
+
+In the meantime the purely scientific attraction of the enterprise was
+all at once heightened by an incident.
+
+It is known what numerous legions of admirers and friends the Barbicane
+project had called round its author. But, notwithstanding the number and
+importance of the majority, it was not destined to be unanimous. One
+man, one out of all the United States, protested against the Gun Club.
+He attacked it violently on every occasion, and--for human nature is
+thus constituted--Barbicane was more sensitive to this one man's
+opposition than to the applause of all the others.
+
+Nevertheless he well knew the motive of this antipathy, from whence came
+this solitary enmity, why it was personal and of ancient date; lastly,
+in what rivalry it had taken root.
+
+The president of the Gun Club had never seen this persevering enemy.
+Happily, for the meeting of the two men would certainly have had
+disastrous consequences. This rival was a _savant_ like Barbicane, a
+proud, enterprising, determined, and violent character, a pure Yankee.
+His name was Captain Nicholl. He lived in Philadelphia.
+
+No one is ignorant of the curious struggle which went on during the
+Federal war between the projectile and ironclad vessels, the former
+destined to pierce the latter, the latter determined not to be pierced.
+Thence came a radical transformation in the navies of the two
+continents. Cannon-balls and iron plates struggled for supremacy, the
+former getting larger as the latter got thicker. Ships armed with
+formidable guns went into the fire under shelter of their invulnerable
+armour. The Merrimac, Monitor, ram Tennessee, and Wechhausen shot
+enormous projectiles after having made themselves proof against the
+projectiles of other ships. They did to others what they would not have
+others do to them, an immoral principle upon which the whole art of war
+is based.
+
+Now Barbicane was a great caster of projectiles, and Nicholl was an
+equally great forger of plate-armour. The one cast night and day at
+Baltimore, the other forged day and night at Philadelphia. Each followed
+an essentially different current of ideas.
+
+As soon as Barbicane had invented a new projectile, Nicholl invented a
+new plate armour. The president of the Gun Club passed his life in
+piercing holes, the captain in preventing him doing it. Hence a constant
+rivalry which even touched their persons. Nicholl appeared in
+Barbicane's dreams as an impenetrable ironclad against which he split,
+and Barbicane in Nicholl's dreams appeared like a projectile which
+ripped him up.
+
+Still, although they ran along two diverging lines, these _savants_
+would have ended by meeting each other in spite of all the axioms in
+geometry; but then it would have been on a duel field. Happily for these
+worthy citizens, so useful to their country, a distance of from fifty to
+sixty miles separated them, and their friends put such obstacles in the
+way that they never met.
+
+At present it was not clearly known which of the two inventors held the
+palm. The results obtained rendered a just decision difficult. It
+seemed, however, that in the end armour-plate would have to give way to
+projectiles. Nevertheless, competent men had their doubts. At the latest
+experiments the cylindro-conical shots of Barbicane had no more effect
+than pins upon Nicholl's armour-plate. That day the forger of
+Philadelphia believed himself victorious, and henceforth had nothing but
+disdain for his rival. But when, later on, Barbicane substituted simple
+howitzers of 600 lbs. for conical shots, the captain was obliged to go
+down in his own estimation. It fact, these projectiles, though of
+mediocre velocity, drilled with holes and broke to pieces armour-plate
+of the best metal.
+
+Things had reached this point and victory seemed to rest with the
+projectile, when the war ended the very day that Nicholl terminated a
+new forged armour-plate. It was a masterpiece of its kind. It defied all
+the projectiles in the world. The captain had it taken to the Washington
+Polygon and challenged the president of the Gun Club to pierce it.
+Barbicane, peace having been made, would not attempt the experiment.
+
+Then Nicholl, in a rage, offered to expose his armour-plate to the shock
+of any kind of projectile, solid, hollow, round, or conical.
+
+The president, who was determined not to compromise his last success,
+refused.
+
+Nicholl, excited by this unqualified obstinacy, tried to tempt Barbicane
+by leaving him every advantage. He proposed to put his plate 200 yards
+from the gun. Barbicane still refused. At 100 yards? Not even at 75.
+
+"At 50, then," cried the captain, through the newspapers, "at 25 yards
+from my plate, and I will be behind it."
+
+Barbicane answered that even if Captain Nicholl would be in front of it
+he would not fire any more.
+
+On this reply, Nicholl could no longer contain himself. He had recourse
+to personalities; he insinuated cowardice--that the man who refuses to
+fire a shot from a cannon is very nearly being afraid of it; that, in
+short, the artillerymen who fight now at six miles distance have
+prudently substituted mathematical formulae for individual courage, and
+that there is as much bravery required to quietly wait for a cannon-ball
+behind armour-plate as to send it according to all the rules of science.
+
+To these insinuations Barbicane answered nothing. Perhaps he never knew
+about them, for the calculations of his great enterprise absorbed him
+entirely.
+
+When he made his famous communication to the Gun Club, the anger of
+Captain Nicholl reached its maximum. Mixed with it was supreme jealousy
+and a sentiment of absolute powerlessness. How could he invent anything
+better than a Columbiad 900 feet long? What armour-plate could ever
+resist a projectile of 30,000 lbs.? Nicholl was at first crushed by this
+cannon-ball, then he recovered and resolved to crush the proposition by
+the weight of his best arguments.
+
+He therefore violently attacked the labours of the Gun Club. He sent a
+number of letters to the newspapers, which they did not refuse to
+publish. He tried to demolish Barbicane's work scientifically. Once the
+war begun, he called reasons of every kind to his aid, reasons it must
+be acknowledged often specious and of bad metal.
+
+Firstly, Barbicane was violently attacked about his figures. Nicholl
+tried to prove by A + B the falseness of his formulae, and he accused
+him of being ignorant of the rudimentary principles of ballistics.
+Amongst other errors, and according to Nicholl's own calculations, it
+was impossible to give any body a velocity of 12,000 yards a second. He
+sustained, algebra in hand, that even with that velocity a projectile
+thus heavy would never pass the limits of the terrestrial atmosphere. It
+would not even go eight leagues! Better still. Granted the velocity, and
+taking it as sufficient, the shot would not resist the pressure of the
+gas developed by the combustion of 1,600,000 pounds of powder, and even
+if it did resist that pressure, it at least would not support such a
+temperature; it would melt as it issued from the Columbiad, and would
+fall in red-hot rain on the heads of the imprudent spectators.
+
+Barbicane paid no attention to these attacks, and went on with his work.
+
+Then Nicholl considered the question in its other aspects. Without
+speaking of its uselessness from all other points of view, he looked
+upon the experiment as exceedingly dangerous, both for the citizens who
+authorised so condemnable a spectacle by their presence, and for the
+towns near the deplorable cannon. He also remarked that if the
+projectile did not reach its destination, a result absolutely
+impossible, it was evident that it would fall on to the earth again, and
+that the fall of such a mass multiplied by the square of its velocity
+would singularly damage some point on the globe. Therefore, in such a
+circumstance, and without any restriction being put upon the rights of
+free citizens, it was one of those cases in which the intervention of
+government became necessary, and the safety of all must not be
+endangered for the good pleasure of a single individual.
+
+It will be seen to what exaggeration Captain Nicholl allowed himself to
+be carried. He was alone in his opinion. Nobody took any notice of his
+Cassandra prophecies. They let him exclaim as much as he liked, till his
+throat was sore if he pleased. He had constituted himself the defender
+of a cause lost in advance. He was heard but not listened to, and he did
+not carry off a single admirer from the president of the Gun Club, who
+did not even take the trouble to refute his rival's arguments.
+
+Nicholl, driven into his last intrenchments, and not being able to fight
+for his opinion, resolved to pay for it. He therefore proposed in the
+_Richmond Inquirer_ a series of bets conceived in these terms and in an
+increasing proportion.
+
+He bet that--
+
+1. The funds necessary for the Gun Club's enterprise would not be
+forthcoming, 1,000 dols.
+
+2. That the casting of a cannon of 900 feet was impracticable and would
+not succeed, 2,000 dols.
+
+3. That it would be impossible to load the Columbiad, and that the
+pyroxyle would ignite spontaneously under the weight of the projectile,
+3,000 dols.
+
+4. That the Columbiad would burst at the first discharge, 4,000 dols.
+
+5. That the projectile would not even go six miles, and would fall a few
+seconds after its discharge, 5,000 dols.
+
+It will be seen that the captain was risking an important sum in his
+invincible obstinacy. No less than 15,000 dols. were at stake.
+
+Notwithstanding the importance of the wager, he received on the 19th of
+October a sealed packet of superb laconism, couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 18th.
+
+"Done.
+
+"BARBICANE."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FLORIDA AND TEXAS.
+
+
+There still remained one question to be decided--a place favourable to
+the experiment had to be chosen. According to the recommendation of the
+Cambridge Observatory the gun must be aimed perpendicularly to the plane
+of the horizon--that is to say, towards the zenith. Now the moon only
+appears in the zenith in the places situated between 0° and 28° of
+latitude, or, in other terms, when her declination is only 28°. The
+question was, therefore, to determine the exact point of the globe where
+the immense Columbiad should be cast.
+
+On the 20th of October the Gun Club held a general meeting. Barbicane
+brought a magnificent map of the United States by Z. Belltropp. But
+before he had time to unfold it J.T. Maston rose with his habitual
+vehemence, and began to speak as follows:--
+
+"Honourable colleagues, the question we are to settle to-day is really
+of national importance, and will furnish us with an occasion for doing a
+great act of patriotism."
+
+The members of the Gun Club looked at each other without understanding
+what the orator was coming to.
+
+"Not one of you," he continued, "would think of doing anything to
+lessen the glory of his country, and if there is one right that the
+Union may claim it is that of harbouring in its bosom the formidable
+cannon of the Gun Club. Now, under the present circumstances--"
+
+"Will you allow me--" said Barbicane.
+
+"I demand the free discussion of ideas," replied the impetuous J.T.
+Maston, "and I maintain that the territory from which our glorious
+projectile will rise ought to belong to the Union."
+
+"Certainly," answered several members.
+
+"Well, then, as our frontiers do not stretch far enough, as on the south
+the ocean is our limit, as we must seek beyond the United States and in
+a neighbouring country this 28th parallel, this is all a legitimate
+_casus belli_, and I demand that war should be declared against Mexico!"
+
+"No, no!" was cried from all parts.
+
+"No!" replied J.T. Maston. "I am much astonished at hearing such a word
+in these precincts!"
+
+"But listen--"
+
+"Never! never!" cried the fiery orator. "Sooner or later this war will
+be declared, and I demand that it should be this very day."
+
+"Maston," said Barbicane, making his bell go off with a crash, "I agree
+with you that the experiment cannot and ought not to be made anywhere
+but on the soil of the Union, but if I had been allowed to speak before,
+and you had glanced at this map, you would know that it is perfectly
+useless to declare war against our neighbours, for certain frontiers of
+the United States extend beyond the 28th parallel. Look, we have at our
+disposition all the southern part of Texas and Florida."
+
+This incident had no consequences; still it was not without regret that
+J.T. Maston allowed himself to be convinced. It was, therefore, decided
+that the Columbiad should be cast either on the soil of Texas or on that
+of Florida. But this decision was destined to create an unexampled
+rivalry between the towns of these two states.
+
+The 28th parallel, when it touches the American coast, crosses the
+peninsula of Florida, and divides it into two nearly equal portions.
+Then, plunging into the Gulf of Mexico, it subtends the arc formed by
+the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; then skirting Texas,
+off which it cuts an angle, it continues its direction over Mexico,
+crosses the Sonora and Old California, and loses itself in the Pacific
+Ocean; therefore only the portions of Texas and Florida situated below
+this parallel fulfilled the requisite conditions of latitude recommended
+by the Observatory of Cambridge.
+
+The southern portion of Florida contains no important cities. It only
+bristles with forts raised against wandering Indians. One town only,
+Tampa Town, could put in a claim in favour of its position.
+
+In Texas, on the contrary, towns are more numerous and more important.
+Corpus Christi in the county of Nuaces, and all the cities situated on
+the Rio Bravo, Laredo, Comalites, San Ignacio in Web, Rio Grande city in
+Starr, Edinburgh in Hidalgo, Santa-Rita, El Panda, and Brownsville in
+Cameron, formed a powerful league against the pretensions of Florida.
+
+The decision, therefore, was hardly made public before the Floridan and
+Texican deputies flocked to Baltimore by the shortest way. From that
+moment President Barbicane and the influential members of the Gun Club
+were besieged day and night by formidable claims. If seven towns of
+Greece contended for the honour of being Homer's birthplace, two entire
+states threatened to fight over a cannon.
+
+These rival parties were then seen marching with weapons about the
+streets of the town. Every time they met a fight was imminent, which
+would have had disastrous consequences. Happily the prudence and skill
+of President Barbicane warded off this danger. Personal demonstrations
+found an outlet in the newspapers of the different states. It was thus
+that the _New York Herald_ and the _Tribune_ supported the claims of
+Texas, whilst the _Times_ and the _American Review_ took the part of the
+Floridan deputies. The members of the Gun Club did not know which to
+listen to.
+
+Texas came up proudly with its twenty-six counties, which it seemed to
+put in array; but Florida answered that twelve counties proved more than
+twenty-six in a country six times smaller.
+
+Texas bragged of its 33,000 inhabitants; but Florida, much smaller,
+boasted of being much more densely populated with 56,000. Besides,
+Florida accused Texas of being the home of paludian fevers, which
+carried off, one year with another, several thousands of inhabitants,
+and Florida was not far wrong.
+
+In its turn Texas replied that Florida need not envy its fevers, and
+that it was, at least, imprudent to call other countries unhealthy when
+Florida itself had chronic "vomito negro," and Texas was not far wrong.
+
+"Besides," added the Texicans through the _New York Herald_, "there are
+rights due to a state that grows the best cotton in all America, a state
+which produces holm oak for building ships, a state that contains superb
+coal and mines of iron that yield fifty per cent. of pure ore."
+
+To that the _American Review_ answered that the soil of Florida, though
+not so rich, offered better conditions for the casting of the Columbiad,
+as it was composed of sand and clay-ground.
+
+"But," answered the Texicans, "before anything can be cast in a place,
+it must get to that place; now communication with Florida is difficult,
+whilst the coast of Texas offers Galveston Bay, which is fourteen
+leagues round, and could contain all the fleets in the world."
+
+"Why," replied the newspapers devoted to Florida, "your Galveston Bay is
+situated above the 29th parallel, whilst our bay of Espiritu-Santo opens
+precisely at the 28th degree of latitude, and by it ships go direct to
+Tampa Town."
+
+"A nice bay truly!" answered Texas; "it is half-choked up with sand."
+
+"Any one would think, to hear you talk," cried Florida, "that I was a
+savage country."
+
+"Well, the Seminoles do still wander over your prairies!"
+
+"And what about your Apaches and your Comanches--are they civilised?"
+
+The war had been thus kept up for some days when Florida tried to draw
+her adversary upon another ground, and one morning the _Times_
+insinuated that the enterprise being "essentially American," it ought
+only to be attempted upon an "essentially American" territory.
+
+At these words Texas could not contain itself.
+
+"American!" it cried, "are we not as American as you? Were not Texas and
+Florida both incorporated in the Union in 1845?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the _Times_, "but we have belonged to America
+since 1820."
+
+"Yes," replied the _Tribune_, "after having been Spanish or English for
+200 years, you were sold to the United States for 5,000,000 of dollars!"
+
+"What does that matter?" answered Florida. "Need we blush for that? Was
+not Louisiana bought in 1803 from Napoleon for 16,000,000 of dollars?"
+
+"It is shameful!" then cried the Texican deputies. "A miserable slice of
+land like Florida to dare to compare itself with Texas, which, instead
+of being sold, made itself independent, which drove out the Mexicans on
+the 2nd of March, 1836, which declared itself Federative Republican
+after the victory gained by Samuel Houston on the banks of the San
+Jacinto over the troops of Santa-Anna--a country, in short, which
+voluntarily joined itself to the United States of America!"
+
+"Because it was afraid of the Mexicans!" answered Florida.
+
+"Afraid!" From the day this word, really too cutting, was pronounced,
+the situation became intolerable. An engagement was expected between the
+two parties in the streets of Baltimore. The deputies were obliged to be
+watched.
+
+President Barbicane was half driven wild. Notes, documents, and letters
+full of threats inundated his house. Which course ought he to decide
+upon? In the point of view of fitness of soil, facility of
+communications, and rapidity of transport, the rights of the two states
+were really equal. As to the political personalities, they had nothing
+to do with the question.
+
+Now this hesitation and embarrassment had already lasted some time when
+Barbicane resolved to put an end to it; he called his colleagues
+together, and the solution he proposed to them was a profoundly wise
+one, as will be seen from the following:--
+
+"After due consideration," said he, "of all that has just occurred
+between Florida and Texas, it is evident that the same difficulties will
+again crop up between the towns of the favoured state. The rivalry will
+be changed from state to city, and that is all. Now Texas contains
+eleven towns with the requisite conditions that will dispute the honour
+of the enterprise, and that will create fresh troubles for us, whilst
+Florida has but one; therefore I decide for Tampa Town!"
+
+The Texican deputies were thunderstruck at this decision. It put them
+into a terrible rage, and they sent nominal provocations to different
+members of the Gun Club. There was only one course for the magistrates
+of Baltimore to take, and they took it. They had the steam of a special
+train got up, packed the Texicans into it, whether they would or no, and
+sent them away from the town at a speed of thirty miles an hour.
+
+But they were not carried off too quickly to hurl a last and threatening
+sarcasm at their adversaries.
+
+Making allusion to the width of Florida, a simple peninsula between two
+seas, they pretended it would not resist the shock, and would be blown
+up the first time the cannon was fired.
+
+"Very well! let it be blown up!" answered the Floridans with a laconism
+worthy of ancient times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"URBI ET ORBI."
+
+
+The astronomical, mechanical, and topographical difficulties once
+removed, there remained the question of money. An enormous sum was
+necessary for the execution of the project. No private individual, no
+single state even, could have disposed of the necessary millions.
+
+President Barbicane had resolved--although the enterprise was
+American--to make it a business of universal interest, and to ask every
+nation for its financial co-operation. It was the bounded right and duty
+of all the earth to interfere in the business of the satellite. The
+subscription opened at Baltimore, for this end extended thence to all
+the world--_urbi et orbi_.
+
+This subscription was destined to succeed beyond all hope; yet the money
+was to be given, not lent. The operation was purely disinterested, in
+the literal meaning of the word, and offered no chance of gain.
+
+But the effect of Barbicane's communication had not stopped at the
+frontiers of the United States; it had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific,
+had invaded both Asia and Europe, both Africa and Oceania. The
+observatories of the Union were immediately put into communication with
+the observatories of foreign countries; some--those of Paris, St.
+Petersburg, the Cape, Berlin, Altona, Stockholm, Warsaw, Hamburg, Buda,
+Bologna, Malta, Lisbon, Benares, Madras, and Pekin--sent their
+compliments to the Gun Club; the others prudently awaited the result.
+
+As to the Greenwich Observatory, seconded by the twenty-two astronomical
+establishments of Great Britain, it made short work of it; it boldly
+denied the possibility of success, and took up Captain Nicholl's
+theories. Whilst the different scientific societies promised to send
+deputies to Tampa Town, the Greenwich staff met and contemptuously
+dismissed the Barbicane proposition. This was pure English jealousy and
+nothing else.
+
+Generally speaking, the effect upon the world of science was excellent,
+and from thence it passed to the masses, who, in general, were greatly
+interested in the question, a fact of great importance, seeing those
+masses were to be called upon to subscribe a considerable capital.
+
+On the 8th of October President Barbicane issued a manifesto, full of
+enthusiasm, in which he made appeal to "all persons on the face of the
+earth willing to help." This document, translated into every language,
+had great success.
+
+Subscriptions were opened in the principal towns of the Union with a
+central office at the Baltimore Bank, 9, Baltimore street; then
+subscriptions were opened in the different countries of the two
+continents:--At Vienna, by S.M. de Rothschild; St. Petersburg, Stieglitz
+and Co.; Paris, Crédit Mobilier; Stockholm, Tottie and Arfuredson;
+London, N.M. de Rothschild and Son; Turin, Ardouin and Co.; Berlin,
+Mendelssohn; Geneva, Lombard, Odier, and Co.; Constantinople, Ottoman
+Bank; Brussels, J. Lambert; Madrid, Daniel Weisweller; Amsterdam,
+Netherlands Credit Co.; Rome, Torlonia and Co.; Lisbon, Lecesne;
+Copenhagen, Private Bank; Buenos Ayres, Mana Bank; Rio Janeiro, Mana
+Bank; Monte Video, Mana Bank; Valparaiso, Thomas La Chambre and Co.;
+Lima, Thomas La Chambre and Co.; Mexico, Martin Daran and Co.
+
+Three days after President Barbicane's manifesto 400,000 dollars were
+received in the different towns of the Union. With such a sum in hand
+the Gun Club could begin at once.
+
+But a few days later telegrams informed America that foreign
+subscriptions were pouring in rapidly. Certain countries were
+distinguished by their generosity; others let go their money less
+easily. It was a matter of temperament.
+
+However, figures are more eloquent than words, and the following is an
+official statement of the sums paid to the credit of the Gun Club when
+the subscription was closed:--
+
+The contingent of Russia was the enormous sum of 368,733 roubles. This
+need astonish no one who remembers the scientific taste of the Russians
+and the impetus which they have given to astronomical studies, thanks to
+their numerous observatories, the principal of which cost 2,000,000
+roubles.
+
+France began by laughing at the pretensions of the Americans. The moon
+served as an excuse for a thousand stale puns and a score of vaudevilles
+in which bad taste contested the palm with ignorance. But, as the French
+formerly paid after singing, they now paid after laughing, and
+subscribed a sum of 1,258,930 francs. At that price they bought the
+right to joke a little.
+
+Austria, in the midst of her financial difficulties, was sufficiently
+generous. Her part in the public subscription amounted to 216,000
+florins, which were welcome.
+
+Sweden and Norway contributed 52,000 rix-dollars. The figure was small
+considering the country; but it would certainly have been higher if a
+subscription had been opened at Christiania as well as at Stockholm. For
+some reason or other the Norwegians do not like to send their money to
+Norway.
+
+Prussia, by sending 250,000 thalers, testified her approbation of the
+enterprise. Her different observatories contributed an important sum,
+and were amongst the most ardent in encouraging President Barbicane.
+
+Turkey behaved generously, but she was personally interested in the
+business; the moon, in fact, rules the course of her years and her
+Ramadan fast. She could do no less than give 1,372,640 piastres, and she
+gave them with an ardour that betrayed, however, a certain pressure from
+the Government of the Porte.
+
+Belgium distinguished herself amongst all the second order of States by
+a gift of 513,000 francs, about one penny and a fraction for each
+inhabitant.
+
+Holland and her colonies contributed 110,000 florins, only demanding a
+discount of five per cent., as she paid ready money.
+
+Denmark, rather confined for room, gave, notwithstanding, 9,000 ducats,
+proving her love for scientific experiments.
+
+The Germanic Confederation subscribed 34,285 florins; more could not be
+asked from her; besides, she would not have given more.
+
+Although in embarrassed circumstances, Italy found 2,000,000 francs in
+her children's pockets, but by turning them well inside out. If she had
+then possessed Venetia she would have given more, but she did not yet
+possess Venetia.
+
+The Pontifical States thought they could not send less than 7,040 Roman
+crowns, and Portugal pushed her devotion to the extent of 3,000
+cruzades.
+
+Mexico gent the widow's mite, 86 piastres; but empires in course of
+formation are always in rather embarrassed circumstances.
+
+Switzerland sent the modest sum of 257 francs to the American scheme. It
+must be frankly stated that Switzerland only looked upon the practical
+side of the operation; the action of sending a bullet to the moon did
+not seem of a nature sufficient for the establishing of any
+communication with the Queen of Night, so Switzerland thought it
+imprudent to engage capital in an enterprise depending upon such
+uncertain events. After all, Switzerland was, perhaps, right.
+
+As to Spain, she found it impossible to get together more than 110
+reals. She gave as an excuse that she had her railways to finish. The
+truth is that science is not looked upon very favourably in that
+country; it is still a little behindhand. And then certain Spaniards,
+and not the most ignorant either, had no clear conception of the size of
+the projectile compared with that of the moon; they feared it might
+disturb the satellite from her orbit, and make her fall on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe. In that case it was better to have
+nothing to do with it, which they carried out, with that small
+exception.
+
+England alone remained. The contemptuous antipathy with which she
+received Barbicane's proposition is known. The English have but a single
+mind in their 25,000,000 of bodies which Great Britain contains. They
+gave it to be understood that the enterprise of the Gun Club was
+contrary "to the principle of non-intervention," and they did not
+subscribe a single farthing.
+
+At this news the Gun Club contented itself with shrugging its shoulders,
+and returned to its great work. When South America--that is to say,
+Peru, Chili, Brazil, the provinces of La Plata and Columbia--had poured
+into their hands their quota of 300,000 dollars, it found itself
+possessed of a considerable capital of which the following is a
+statement:--
+
+United States subscription, 4,000,000 dollars; foreign subscriptions,
+1,446,675 dollars; total, 5,446,675 dollars.
+
+This was the large sum poured by the public into the coffers of the Gun
+Club.
+
+No one need be surprised at its importance. The work of casting, boring,
+masonry, transport of workmen, and their installation in an almost
+uninhabited country, the construction of furnaces and workshops, the
+manufacturing tools, powder, projectile and incidental expenses would,
+according to the estimates, absorb nearly the whole. Some of the
+cannon-shots fired during the war cost 1,000 dollars each; that of
+President Barbicane, unique in the annals of artillery, might well cost
+5,000 times more.
+
+On the 20th of October a contract was made with the Goldspring
+Manufactory, New York, which during the war had furnished Parrott with
+his best cast-iron guns.
+
+It was stipulated between the contracting parties that the Goldspring
+Manufactory should pledge itself to send to Tampa Town, in South
+Florida, the necessary materials for the casting of the Columbiad.
+
+This operation was to be terminated, at the latest, on the 15th of the
+next October, and the cannon delivered in good condition, under penalty
+of 100 dollars a day forfeit until the moon should again present herself
+under the same conditions--that is to say, during eighteen years and
+eleven days.
+
+The engagement of the workmen, their pay, and the necessary transports
+all to be made by the Goldspring Company.
+
+This contract, made in duplicate, was signed by I. Barbicane, president
+of the Gun Club, and J. Murphison, Manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory, who thus signed on the part of the contracting parties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STONY HILL.
+
+
+Since the choice made by the members of the Gun Club to the detriment of
+Texas, every one in America--where every one knows how to read--made it
+his business to study the geography of Florida. Never before had the
+booksellers sold so many _Bertram's Travels in Florida_, _Roman's
+Natural History of East and West Florida_, _Williams' Territory of
+Florida_, and _Cleland on the Culture of the Sugar Cane in East
+Florida_. New editions of these works were required. There was quite a
+rage for them.
+
+Barbicane had something better to do than to read; he wished to see with
+his own eyes and choose the site of the Columbiad. Therefore, without
+losing a moment, he put the funds necessary for the construction of a
+telescope at the disposition of the Cambridge Observatory, and made a
+contract with the firm of Breadwill and Co., of Albany, for the making
+of the aluminium projectile; then he left Baltimore accompanied by J.T.
+Maston, Major Elphinstone, and the manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory.
+
+The next day the four travelling companions reached New Orleans. There
+they embarked on board the _Tampico_, a despatch-boat belonging to the
+Federal Navy, which the Government had placed at their disposal, and,
+with all steam on, they quickly lost sight of the shores of Louisiana.
+
+The passage was not a long one; two days after its departure the
+_Tampico_, having made four hundred and eighty miles, sighted the
+Floridian coast. As it approached, Barbicane saw a low, flat coast,
+looking rather unfertile. After coasting a series of creeks rich in
+oysters and lobsters, the _Tampico_ entered the Bay of Espiritu-Santo.
+
+This bay is divided into two long roadsteads, those of Tampa and
+Hillisboro, the narrow entrance to which the steamer soon cleared. A
+short time afterwards the batteries of Fort Brooke rose above the waves
+and the town of Tampa appeared, carelessly lying on a little natural
+harbour formed by the mouth of the river Hillisboro.
+
+There the _Tampico_ anchored on October 22nd, at seven p.m.; the four
+passengers landed immediately.
+
+Barbicane felt his heart beat violently as he set foot on Floridian
+soil; he seemed to feel it with his feet like an architect trying the
+solidity of a house. J.T. Maston scratched the ground with his steel
+hook.
+
+"Gentlemen," then said Barbicane, "we have no time to lose, and we will
+set off on horseback to-morrow to survey the country."
+
+The minute Barbicane landed the three thousand inhabitants of Tampa Town
+went out to meet him, an honour quite due to the president of the Gun
+Club, who had decided in their favour. They received him with formidable
+exclamations, but Barbicane escaped an ovation by shutting himself up in
+his room at the Franklin Hotel and refusing to see any one.
+
+The next day, October 23rd, small horses of Spanish race, full of fire
+and vigour, pawed the ground under his windows. But, instead of four,
+there were fifty, with their riders. Barbicane went down accompanied by
+his three companions, who were at first astonished to find themselves in
+the midst of such a cavalcade. He remarked besides that each horseman
+carried a carbine slung across his shoulders and pistols in his
+holsters. The reason for such a display of force was immediately given
+him by a young Floridian, who said to him--
+
+"Sir, the Seminoles are there."
+
+"What Seminoles?"
+
+"Savages who frequent the prairies, and we deemed it prudent to give you
+an escort."
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed J.T. Maston as he mounted his steed.
+
+"It is well to be on the safe side," answered the Floridian.
+
+"Gentlemen," replied Barbicane, "I thank you for your attention, and now
+let us be off."
+
+The little troop set out immediately, and disappeared in a cloud of
+dust. It was five a.m.; the sun shone brilliantly already, and the
+thermometer indicated 84°, but fresh sea breezes moderated this
+excessive heat.
+
+Barbicane, on leaving Tampa Town, went down south and followed the coast
+to Alifia Creek. This small river falls into Hillisboro Bay, twelve
+miles below Tampa Town. Barbicane and his escort followed its right bank
+going up towards the east. The waves of the bay disappeared behind an
+inequality in the ground, and the Floridian country was alone in sight.
+
+Florida is divided into two parts; the one to the north, more populous
+and less abandoned, has Tallahassee for capital, and Pensacola, one of
+the principal marine arsenals of the United States; the other, lying
+between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, is only a narrow peninsula,
+eaten away by the current of the Gulf Stream--a little tongue of land
+lost amidst a small archipelago, which the numerous vessels of the
+Bahama Channel double continually. It is the advanced sentinel of the
+gulf of great tempests. The superficial area of this state measures
+38,033,267 acres, amongst which one had to be chosen situated beyond the
+28th parallel and suitable for the enterprise. As Barbicane rode along
+he attentively examined the configuration of the ground and its
+particular distribution.
+
+Florida, discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512, on Palm Sunday, was
+first of all named _Pascha Florida_. It was well worthy of that
+designation with its dry and arid coasts. But a few miles from the shore
+the nature of the ground gradually changed, and the country showed
+itself worthy of its name; the soil was cut up by a network of creeks,
+rivers, watercourses, ponds, and small lakes; it might have been
+mistaken for Holland or Guiana; but the ground gradually rose and soon
+showed its cultivated plains, where all the vegetables of the North and
+South grow in perfection, its immense fields, where a tropical sun and
+the water conserved in its clayey texture do all the work of
+cultivating, and lastly its prairies of pineapples, yams, tobacco, rice,
+cotton, and sugarcanes, which extended as far as the eye could reach,
+spreading out their riches with careless prodigality.
+
+Barbicane appeared greatly satisfied on finding the progressive
+elevation of the ground, and when J.T. Maston questioned him on the
+subject,
+
+"My worthy friend," said he, "it is greatly to our interest to cast our
+Columbiad on elevated ground."
+
+"In order to be nearer the moon?" exclaimed the secretary of the Gun
+Club.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, smiling. "What can a few yards more or less
+matter? No, but on elevated ground our work can be accomplished more
+easily; we shall not have to struggle against water, which will save us
+long and expensive tubings, and that has to be taken into consideration
+when a well 900 feet deep has to be sunk."
+
+"You are right," said Murchison, the engineer; "we must, as much as
+possible, avoid watercourses during the casting; but if we meet with
+springs they will not matter much; we can exhaust them with our machines
+or divert them from their course. Here we have not to work at an
+artesian well, narrow and dark, where all the boring implements have to
+work in the dark. No; we can work under the open sky, with spade and
+pickaxe, and, by the help of blasting, our work will not take long."
+
+"Still," resumed Barbicane, "if by the elevation of the ground or its
+nature we can avoid a struggle with subterranean waters, we can do our
+work more rapidly and perfectly; we must, therefore, make our cutting in
+ground situated some thousands of feet above the level of the sea."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Barbicane, and, if I am not mistaken, we shall soon
+find a suitable spot."
+
+"I should like to see the first spadeful turned up," said the president.
+
+"And I the last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"We shall manage it, gentlemen," answered the engineer; "and, believe
+me, the Goldspring Company will not have to pay you any forfeit for
+delay."
+
+"Faith! it had better not," replied J.T. Maston; "a hundred dollars a
+day till the moon presents herself in the same conditions--that is to
+say, for eighteen years and eleven days--do you know that would make
+658,000 dollars?"
+
+"No, sir, we do not know, and we shall not need to learn."
+
+About ten a.m. the little troop had journeyed about twelve miles; to the
+fertile country succeeded a forest region. There were the most varied
+perfumes in tropical profusion. The almost impenetrable forests were
+made up of pomegranates, orange, citron, fig, olive, and apricot trees,
+bananas, huge vines, the blossoms and fruit of which rivalled each other
+in colour and perfume. Under the perfumed shade of these magnificent
+trees sang and fluttered a world of brilliantly-coloured birds, amongst
+which the crab-eater deserved a jewel casket, worthy of its feathered
+gems, for a nest.
+
+J.T. Maston and the major could not pass through such opulent nature
+without admiring its splendid beauty.
+
+But President Barbicane, who thought little of these marvels, was in a
+hurry to hasten onwards; this country, so fertile, displeased him by its
+very fertility; without being otherwise hydropical, he felt water under
+his feet, and sought in vain the signs of incontestable aridity.
+
+In the meantime they journeyed on. They were obliged to ford several
+rivers, and not without danger, for they were infested with alligators
+from fifteen to eighteen feet long. J.T. Maston threatened them boldly
+with his formidable hook, but he only succeeded in frightening the
+pelicans, phaetons, and teals that frequented the banks, while the red
+flamingoes looked on with a stupid stare.
+
+At last these inhabitants of humid countries disappeared in their turn.
+The trees became smaller and more thinly scattered in smaller woods;
+some isolated groups stood amidst immense plains where ranged herds of
+startled deer.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed Barbicane, rising in his stirrups. "Here is the
+region of pines."
+
+"And savages," answered the major.
+
+In fact, a few Seminoles appeared on the horizon. They moved about
+backwards and forwards on their fleet horses, brandishing long lances or
+firing their guns with a dull report. However, they confined themselves
+to these hostile demonstrations, which had no effect on Barbicane and
+his companions.
+
+They were then in the middle of a rocky plain, a vast open space of
+several acres in extent which the sun covered with burning rays. It was
+formed by a wide elevation of the soil, and seemed to offer to the
+members of the Gun Club all the required conditions for the construction
+of their Columbiad.
+
+"Halt!" cried Barbicane, stopping. "Has this place any name?"
+
+"It is called Stony Hill," answered the Floridians.
+
+Barbicane, without saying a word, dismounted, took his instruments, and
+began to fix his position with extreme precision. The little troop drawn
+up around him watched him in profound silence.
+
+At that moment the sun passed the meridian. Barbicane, after an
+interval, rapidly noted the result of his observation, and said--
+
+"This place is situated 1,800 feet above the sea level in lat. 27° 7'
+and West long. 5° 7' by the Washington meridian. It appears to me by its
+barren and rocky nature to offer every condition favourable to our
+enterprise; we will therefore raise our magazines, workshops, furnaces,
+and workmen's huts here, and it is from this very spot," said he,
+stamping upon it with his foot, "the summit of Stony Hill, that our
+projectile will start for the regions of the solar world!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PICKAXE AND TROWEL.
+
+
+That same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town,
+and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the _Tampico_ for New
+Orleans. He was to engage an army of workmen to bring back the greater
+part of the working-stock. The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa
+Town in order to set on foot the preliminary work with the assistance of
+the inhabitants of the country.
+
+Eight days after its departure the _Tampico_ returned to the
+Espiritu-Santo Bay with a fleet of steamboats. Murchison had succeeded
+in getting together 1,500 workmen. In the evil days of slavery he would
+have lost his time and trouble; but since America, the land of liberty,
+has only contained freemen, they flock wherever they can get good pay.
+Now money was not wanting to the Gun Club; it offered a high rate of
+wages with considerable and proportionate perquisites. The workman
+enlisted for Florida could, once the work finished, depend upon a
+capital placed in his name in the bank of Baltimore.
+
+Murchison had therefore only to pick and choose, and could be severe
+about the intelligence and skill of his workmen. He enrolled in his
+working legion the pick of mechanics, stokers, iron-founders,
+lime-burners, miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every sort, white or
+black without distinction of colour. Many of them brought their families
+with them. It was quite an emigration.
+
+On the 31st of October, at 10 a.m., this troop landed on the quays of
+Tampa Town. The movement and activity which reigned in the little town
+that had thus doubled its population in a single day may be imagined. In
+fact, Tampa Town was enormously benefited by this enterprise of the Gun
+Club, not by the number of workmen who were immediately drafted to Stony
+Hill, but by the influx of curious idlers who converged by degrees from
+all points of the globe towards the Floridian peninsula.
+
+During the first few days they were occupied in unloading the flotilla
+of the tools, machines, provisions, and a large number of plate iron
+houses made in pieces separately pieced and numbered. At the same time
+Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles long that
+was destined to unite Stony Hill and Tampa Town.
+
+It is known how American railways are constructed, with capricious
+bends, bold slopes, steep hills, and deep valleys. They do not cost much
+and are not much in their way, only their trains run off or jump off as
+they please. The railway from Tampa Town to Stony Hill was but a trifle,
+and wanted neither much time nor much money for its construction.
+
+Barbicane was the soul of this army of workmen who had come at his call.
+He animated them, communicated to them his ardour, enthusiasm, and
+conviction. He was everywhere at once, as if endowed with the gift of
+ubiquity, and always followed by J.T. Maston, his bluebottle fly. His
+practical mind invented a thousand things. With him there were no
+obstacles, difficulties, or embarrassment. He was as good a miner,
+mason, and mechanic as he was an artilleryman, having an answer to every
+question, and a solution to every problem. He corresponded actively with
+the Gun Club and the Goldspring Manufactory, and day and night the
+_Tampico_ kept her steam up awaiting his orders in Hillisboro harbour.
+
+Barbicane, on the 1st of November, left Tampa Town with a detachment of
+workmen, and the very next day a small town of workmen's houses rose
+round Stony Hill. They surrounded it with palisades, and from its
+movement and ardour it might soon have been taken for one of the great
+cities of the Union. Life was regulated at once and work began in
+perfect order.
+
+Careful boring had established the nature of the ground, and digging was
+begun on November 4th. That day Barbicane called his foremen together
+and said to them--
+
+"You all know, my friends, why I have called you together in this part
+of Florida. We want to cast a cannon nine feet in diameter, six feet
+thick, and with a stone revetment nineteen and a half feet thick; we
+therefore want a well 60 feet wide and 900 feet deep. This large work
+must be terminated in nine months. You have, therefore, 2,543,400 cubic
+feet of soil to dig out in 255 days--that is to say, 10,000 cubic feet a
+day. That would offer no difficulty if you had plenty of elbow-room, but
+as you will only have a limited space it will be more trouble.
+Nevertheless as the work must be done it will be done, and I depend upon
+your courage as much as upon your skill."
+
+At 8 a.m. the first spadeful was dug out of the Floridian soil, and from
+that moment this useful tool did not stop idle a moment in the hands of
+the miner. The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
+
+Besides, although the work was colossal it did not exceed the limit of
+human capability. Far from that. How many works of much greater
+difficulty, and in which the elements had to be more directly contended
+against, had been brought to a successful termination! Suffice it to
+mention the well of Father Joseph, made near Cairo by the Sultan Saladin
+at an epoch when machines had not yet appeared to increase the strength
+of man a hundredfold, and which goes down to the level of the Nile
+itself at a depth of 300 feet! And that other well dug at Coblentz by
+the Margrave Jean of Baden, 600 feet deep! All that was needed was a
+triple depth and a double width, which made the boring easier. There was
+not one foreman or workman who doubted about the success of the
+operation.
+
+An important decision taken by Murchison and approved of by Barbicane
+accelerated the work. An article in the contract decided that the
+Columbiad should be hooped with wrought-iron--a useless precaution, for
+the cannon could evidently do without hoops. This clause was therefore
+given up. Hence a great economy of time, for they could then employ the
+new system of boring now used for digging wells, by which the masonry is
+done at the same time as the boring. Thanks to this very simple
+operation they were not obliged to prop up the ground; the wall kept it
+up and went down by its own weight.
+
+This manoeuvre was only to begin when the spade should have reached the
+solid part of the ground.
+
+On the 4th of November fifty workmen began to dig in the very centre of
+the inclosure surrounded by palisades--that is to say, the top of Stony
+Hill--a circular hole sixty feet wide.
+
+The spade first turned up a sort of black soil six inches deep, which it
+soon carried away. To this soil succeeded two feet of fine sand, which
+was carefully taken out, as it was to be used for the casting.
+
+After this sand white clay appeared, similar to English chalk, and which
+was four feet thick.
+
+Then the pickaxes rang upon the hard layer, a species of rock formed by
+very dry petrified shells. At that point the hole was six and a half
+feet deep, and the masonry was begun.
+
+At the bottom of that excavation they made an oak wheel, a sort of
+circle strongly bolted and of enormous strength; in its centre a hole
+was pierced the size of the exterior diameter of the Columbiad. It was
+upon this wheel that the foundations of the masonry were placed, the
+hydraulic cement of which joined the stones solidly together. After the
+workmen had bricked up the space from the circumference to the centre,
+they found themselves inclosed in a well twenty-one feet wide.
+
+When this work was ended the miners began again with spade and pickaxe,
+and set upon the rock under the wheel itself, taking care to support it
+on extremely strong tressels; every time the hole was two feet deeper
+they took away the tressels; the wheel gradually sank, taking with it
+its circle of masonry, at the upper layer of which the masons worked
+incessantly, taking care to make vent-holes for the escape of gas during
+the operation of casting.
+
+This kind of work required great skill and constant attention on the
+part of the workmen; more than one digging under the wheel was
+dangerous, and some were even mortally wounded by the splinters of
+stone; but their energy did not slacken for a moment by day nor night;
+by day, when the sun's rays sent the thermometer up to 99° on the
+calcined planes; by night, under the white waves of electric light, the
+noise of the pickaxe on the rock, the blasting and the machines,
+together with the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced a
+circle of terror round Stony Hill, which the herds of buffaloes and the
+detachments of Seminoles never dared to pass.
+
+In the meantime the work regularly advanced; steam-cranes speeded the
+carrying away of the rubbish; of unexpected obstacles there were none;
+all the difficulties had been foreseen and guarded against.
+
+When the first month had gone by the well had attained the depth
+assigned for the time--i.e., 112 feet. In December this depth was
+doubled, and tripled in January. During February the workmen had to
+contend against a sheet of water which sprang from the ground. They were
+obliged to employ powerful pumps and apparatus of compressed air to
+drain it off, so as to close up the orifice from which it issued, just
+as leaks are caulked on board ship. At last they got the better of these
+unwelcome springs, only in consequence of the loosening of the soil the
+wheel partially gave way, and there was a landslip. The frightful force
+of this bricked circle, more than 400 feet high, may be imagined! This
+accident cost the life of several workmen. Three weeks had to be taken
+up in propping the stone revetment and making the wheel solid again.
+But, thanks to the skill of the engineer and the power of the machines,
+it was all set right, and the boring continued.
+
+No fresh incident henceforth stopped the progress of the work, and on
+the 10th of June, twenty days before the expiration of the delay fixed
+by Barbicane, the well, quite bricked round, had reached the depth of
+900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block, thirty
+feet thick, whilst at the top it was on a level with the soil.
+
+President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulated
+the engineer Murchison; his cyclopean work had been accomplished with
+extraordinary rapidity.
+
+During these eight months Barbicane did not leave Stony Hill for a
+minute; whilst he narrowly watched over the boring operations, he took
+every precaution to insure the health and well-being of his workmen, and
+he was fortunate enough to avoid the epidemics common to large
+agglomerations of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe
+exposed to tropical influence.
+
+It is true that several workmen paid with their lives for the
+carelessness engendered by these dangerous occupations; but such
+deplorable misfortunes cannot be avoided, and these are details that
+Americans pay very little attention to. They are more occupied with
+humanity in general than with individuals in particular. However,
+Barbicane professed the contrary principles, and applied them upon every
+occasion. Thanks to his care, to his intelligence and respectful
+intervention in difficult cases, to his prodigious and humane wisdom,
+the average of catastrophes did not exceed that of cities on the other
+side of the Atlantic, amongst others those of France, where they count
+about one accident upon every 200,000 francs of work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING.
+
+
+During the eight months that were employed in the operation of boring
+the preparatory works of the casting had been conducted simultaneously
+with extreme rapidity; a stranger arriving at Stony Hill would have been
+much surprised at what he saw there.
+
+Six hundred yards from the well, and standing in a circle round it as a
+central point, were 1,200 furnaces, each six feet wide and three yards
+apart. The line made by these 1,200 furnaces was two miles long. They
+were all built on the same model, with high quadrangular chimneys, and
+had a singular effect. J.T. Maston thought the architectural arrangement
+superb. It reminded him of the monuments at Washington. He thought there
+was nothing finer in the world, not even in Greece, where he
+acknowledged never to have been.
+
+It will be remembered that at their third meeting the committee decided
+to use cast-iron for the Columbiad, and in particular the grey
+description. This metal is, in fact, the most tenacious, ductile, and
+malleable, suitable for all moulding operations, and when smelted with
+pit coal it is of superior quality for engine-cylinders, hydraulic
+presses, &c.
+
+But cast-iron, if it has undergone a single fusion, is rarely
+homogeneous enough; and it is by means of a second fusion that it is
+purified, refined, and dispossessed of its last earthly deposits.
+
+Before being forwarded to Tampa Town, the iron ore, smelted in the great
+furnaces of Goldspring, and put in contact with coal and silicium heated
+to a high temperature, was transformed into cast-iron. After this first
+operation the metal was taken to Stony Hill. But there were 136 millions
+of pounds of cast-iron, a bulk too expensive to be sent by railway; the
+price of transport would have doubled that of the raw material. It
+appeared preferable to freight vessels at New York and to load them with
+the iron in bars; no less than sixty-eight vessels of 1,000 tons were
+required, quite a fleet, which on May 3rd left New York, took the Ocean
+route, coasted the American shores, entered the Bahama Channel, doubled
+the point of Florida, and on the 10th of the same month entered the Bay
+of Espiritu-Santo and anchored safely in the port of Tampa Town. There
+the vessels were unloaded and their cargo carried by railway to Stony
+Hill, and about the middle of January the enormous mass of metal was
+delivered at its destination.
+
+It will easily be understood that 1,200 furnaces were not too many to
+melt these 60,000 tons of iron simultaneously. Each of these furnaces
+contained about 1,400,000 lbs. of metal; they had been built on the
+model of those used for the casting of the Rodman gun; they were
+trapezoidal in form, with a high elliptical arch. The warming apparatus
+and the chimney were placed at the two extremities of the furnace, so
+that it was equally heated throughout. These furnaces, built of
+fireproof brick, were filled with coal-grates and a "sole" for the bars
+of iron; this sole, inclosed at an angle of 25°, allowed the metal to
+flow into the receiving-troughs; from thence 1,200 converging trenches
+carried it down to the central well.
+
+The day following that upon which the works of masonry and casting were
+terminated, Barbicane set to work upon the interior mould; his object
+now was to raise in the centre of the well, with a coincident axis, a
+cylinder 900 feet high and nine in diameter, to exactly fill up the
+space reserved for the bore of the Columbiad. This cylinder was made of
+a mixture of clay and sand, with the addition of hay and straw. The
+space left between the mould and the masonry was to be filled with the
+molten metal, which would thus make the sides of the cannon six feet
+thick.
+
+This cylinder, in order to have its equilibrium maintained, had to be
+consolidated with iron bands and fixed at intervals by means of
+cross-clamps fastened into the stone lining; after the casting these
+clamps would be lost in the block of metal, which would not be the worse
+for them.
+
+This operation was completed on the 8th of July, and the casting was
+fixed for the 10th.
+
+"The casting will be a fine ceremony," said J.T. Maston to his friend
+Barbicane.
+
+"Undoubtedly," answered Barbicane, "but it will not be a public one!"
+
+"What! you will not open the doors of the inclosure to all comers?"
+
+"Certainly not; the casting of the Columbiad is a delicate, not to say a
+dangerous, operation, and I prefer that it should be done with closed
+doors. When the projectile is discharged you may have a public ceremony
+if you like, but till then, no!"
+
+The president was right; the operation might be attended with unforeseen
+danger, which a large concourse of spectators would prevent being
+averted. It was necessary to preserve complete freedom of movement. No
+one was admitted into the inclosure except a delegation of members of
+the Gun Club who made the voyage to Tampa Town. Among them was the brisk
+Bilsby, Tom Hunter, Colonel Blomsberry, Major Elphinstone, General
+Morgan, and _tutti quanti_, to whom the casting of the Columbiad was a
+personal business. J.T. Maston constituted himself their cicerone; he
+did not excuse them any detail; he led them about everywhere, through
+the magazines, workshops, amongst the machines, and he forced them to
+visit the 1,200 furnaces one after the other. At the end of the 1,200th
+visit they were rather sick of it.
+
+The casting was to take place precisely at twelve o'clock; the evening
+before each furnace had been charged with 114,000 lbs. of metal in bars
+disposed crossway to each other so that the warm air could circulate
+freely amongst them. Since early morning the 1,200 chimneys had been
+pouring forth volumes of flames into the atmosphere, and the soil was
+shaken convulsively. There were as many pounds of coal to be burnt as
+metal to be melted. There were, therefore, 68,000 tons of coal throwing
+up before the sun a thick curtain of black smoke.
+
+The heat soon became unbearable in the circle of furnaces, the rambling
+of which resembled the rolling of thunder; powerful bellows added their
+continuous blasts, and saturated the incandescent furnaces with oxygen.
+
+The operation of casting in order to succeed must be done rapidly. At a
+signal given by a cannon-shot each furnace was to pour out the liquid
+iron and to be entirely emptied.
+
+These arrangements made, foremen and workmen awaited the preconcerted
+moment with impatience mixed with emotion. There was no longer any one
+in the inclosure, and each superintendent took his place near the
+aperture of the run.
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues, installed on a neighbouring eminence,
+assisted at the operation. Before them a cannon was planted ready to be
+fired as a sign from the engineer.
+
+A few minutes before twelve the first drops of metal began to run; the
+reservoirs were gradually filled, and when the iron was all in a liquid
+state it was left quiet for some instants in order to facilitate the
+separation of foreign substances.
+
+Twelve o'clock struck. The cannon was suddenly fired, and shot its flame
+into the air. Twelve hundred tapping-holes were opened simultaneously,
+and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept along twelve hundred troughs
+towards the central well, rolling in rings of fire. There they plunged
+with terrific noise down a depth of 900 feet. It was an exciting and
+magnificent spectacle. The ground trembled, whilst these waves of iron,
+throwing into the sky their clouds of smoke, evaporated at the same time
+the humidity of the mould, and hurled it upwards through the vent-holes
+of the masonry in the form of impenetrable vapour. These artificial
+clouds unrolled their thick spirals as they went up to a height of 3,000
+feet into the air. Any Red Indian wandering upon the limits of the
+horizon might have believed in the formation of a new crater in the
+heart of Florida, and yet it was neither an irruption, nor a typhoon,
+nor a storm, nor a struggle of the elements, nor one of those terrible
+phenomena which Nature is capable of producing. No; man alone had
+produced those reddish vapours, those gigantic flames worthy of a
+volcano, those tremendous vibrations like the shock of an earthquake,
+those reverberations, rivals of hurricanes and storms, and it was his
+hand which hurled into an abyss, dug by himself, a whole Niagara of
+molten metal!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE COLUMBIAD.
+
+
+Had the operation of casting succeeded? People were reduced to mere
+conjecture. However, there was every reason to believe in its success,
+as the mould had absorbed the entire mass of metal liquefied in the
+furnaces. Still it was necessarily a long time impossible to be certain.
+
+In fact, when Major Rodman cast his cannon of 160,000 lbs., it took no
+less than a fortnight to cool. How long, therefore, would the monstrous
+Columbiad, crowned with its clouds of vapour, and guarded by its intense
+heat, be kept from the eyes of its admirers? It was difficult to
+estimate.
+
+The impatience of the members of the Gun Club was put to a rude test
+during this lapse of time. But it could not be helped. J.T. Maston was
+nearly roasted through his anxiety. A fortnight after the casting an
+immense column of smoke was still soaring towards the sky, and the
+ground burnt the soles of the feet within a radius of 200 feet round the
+summit of Stony Hill.
+
+The days went by; weeks followed them. There were no means of cooling
+the immense cylinder. It was impossible to approach it. The members of
+the Gun Club were obliged to wait with what patience they could muster.
+
+"Here we are at the 10th of August," said J.T. Maston one morning. "It
+wants hardly four months to the 1st of December! There still remains the
+interior mould to be taken out, and the Columbiad to be loaded! We never
+shall be ready! One cannot even approach the cannon! Will it never get
+cool? That would be a cruel deception!"
+
+They tried to calm the impatient secretary without succeeding. Barbicane
+said nothing, but his silence covered serious irritation. To see himself
+stopped by an obstacle that time alone could remove--time, an enemy to
+be feared under the circumstances--and to be in the power of an enemy
+was hard for men of war.
+
+However, daily observations showed a certain change in the state of the
+ground. Towards the 15th of August the vapour thrown off had notably
+diminished in intensity and thickness. A few days after the earth only
+exhaled a slight puff of smoke, the last breath of the monster shut up
+in its stone tomb. By degrees the vibrations of the ground ceased, and
+the circle of heat contracted; the most impatient of the spectators
+approached; one day they gained ten feet, the next twenty, and on the
+22nd of August Barbicane, his colleagues, and the engineer could take
+their place on the cast-iron surface which covered the summit of Stony
+Hill, certainly a very healthy spot, where it was not yet allowed to
+have cold feet.
+
+"At last!" cried the president of the Gun Club with an immense sigh of
+satisfaction.
+
+The works were resumed the same day. The extraction of the interior
+mould was immediately proceeded with in order to clear out the bore;
+pickaxes, spades, and boring-tools were set to work without
+intermission; the clay and sand had become exceedingly hard under the
+action of the heat; but by the help of machines they cleared away the
+mixture still burning at its contact with the iron; the rubbish was
+rapidly carted away on the railway, and the work was done with such
+spirit, Barbicane's intervention was so urgent, and his arguments,
+presented under the form of dollars, carried so much conviction, that on
+the 3rd of September all trace of the mould had disappeared.
+
+The operation of boring was immediately begun; the boring-machines were
+set up without delay, and a few weeks later the interior surface of the
+immense tube was perfectly cylindrical, and the bore had acquired a high
+polish.
+
+At last, on the 22nd of September, less than a year after the Barbicane
+communication, the enormous weapon, raised by means of delicate
+instruments, and quite vertical, was ready for use. There was nothing
+but the moon to wait for, but they were sure she would not fail.
+
+J.T. Maston's joy knew no bounds, and he nearly had a frightful fall
+whilst looking down the tube of 900 feet. Without Colonel Blomsberry's
+right arm, which he had happily preserved, the secretary of the Gun
+Club, like a modern Erostatus, would have found a grave in the depths of
+the Columbiad.
+
+The cannon was then finished; there was no longer any possible doubt as
+to its perfect execution; so on the 6th of October Captain Nicholl
+cleared off his debt to President Barbicane, who inscribed in his
+receipt-column a sum of 2,000 dollars. It may be believed that the
+captain's anger reached its highest pitch, and cost him an illness.
+Still there were yet three bets of 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000 dollars, and
+if he only gained 2,000, his bargain would not be a bad one, though not
+excellent. But money did not enter into his calculations, and the
+success obtained by his rival in the casting of a cannon against which
+iron plates sixty feet thick would not have resisted was a terrible blow
+to him.
+
+Since the 23rd of September the inclosure on Stony Hill had been quite
+open to the public, and the concourse of visitors will be readily
+imagined.
+
+In fact, innumerable people from all points of the United States flocked
+to Florida. The town of Tampa was prodigiously increased during that
+year, consecrated entirely to the works of the Gun Club; it then
+comprised a population of 150,000 souls. After having surrounded Fort
+Brooke in a network of streets it was now being lengthened out on that
+tongue of land which separated the two harbours of Espiritu-Santo Bay;
+new quarters, new squares, and a whole forest of houses had grown up in
+these formerly-deserted regions under the heat of the American sun.
+Companies were formed for the erection of churches, schools, private
+dwellings, and in less than a year the size of the town was increased
+tenfold.
+
+It is well known that Yankees are born business men; everywhere that
+destiny takes them, from the glacial to the torrid zone, their instinct
+for business is usefully exercised. That is why simple visitors to
+Florida for the sole purpose of following the operations of the Gun Club
+allowed themselves to be involved in commercial operations as soon as
+they were installed in Tampa Town. The vessels freighted for the
+transport of the metal and the workmen had given unparalleled activity
+to the port. Soon other vessels of every form and tonnage, freighted
+with provisions and merchandise, ploughed the bay and the two harbours;
+vast offices of shipbrokers and merchants were established in the town,
+and the _Shipping Gazette_ each day published fresh arrivals in the port
+of Tampa.
+
+Whilst roads were multiplied round the town, in consequence of the
+prodigious increase in its population and commerce, it was joined by
+railway to the Southern States of the Union. One line of rails connected
+La Mobile to Pensacola, the great southern maritime arsenal; thence from
+that important point it ran to Tallahassee. There already existed there
+a short line, twenty-one miles long, to Saint Marks on the seashore. It
+was this loop-line that was prolonged as far as Tampa Town, awakening in
+its passage the dead or sleeping portions of Central Florida. Thus
+Tampa, thanks to these marvels of industry due to the idea born one fine
+day in the brain of one man, could take as its right the airs of a large
+town. They surnamed it "Moon-City," and the capital of Florida suffered
+an eclipse visible from all points of the globe.
+
+Every one will now understand why the rivalry was so great between Texas
+and Florida, and the irritation of the Texicans when they saw their
+pretensions set aside by the Gun Club. In their long-sighted sagacity
+they had foreseen what a country might gain from the experiment
+attempted by Barbicane, and the wealth that would accompany such a
+cannon-shot. Texas lost a vast centre of commerce, railways, and a
+considerable increase of population. All these advantages had been given
+to that miserable Floridian peninsula, thrown like a pier between the
+waves of the Gulf and those of the Atlantic Ocean. Barbicane, therefore,
+divided with General Santa-Anna the Texan antipathy.
+
+However, though given up to its commercial and industrial fury, the new
+population of Tampa Town took care not to forget the interesting
+operations of the Gun Club. On the contrary, the least details of the
+enterprise, every blow of the pickaxe, interested them. There was an
+incessant flow of people to and from Tampa Town to Stony Hill--a perfect
+procession, or, better still, a pilgrimage.
+
+It was already easy to foresee that the day of the experiment the
+concourse of spectators would be counted by millions, for they came
+already from all points of the earth to the narrow peninsula. Europe was
+emigrating to America.
+
+But until then, it must be acknowledged, the curiosity of the numerous
+arrivals had only been moderately satisfied. Many counted upon seeing
+the casting who only saw the smoke from it. This was not much for hungry
+eyes, but Barbicane would allow no one to see that operation. Thereupon
+ensued grumbling, discontent, and murmurs; they blamed the president for
+what they considered dictatorial conduct. His act was stigmatised as
+"un-American." There was nearly a riot round Stony Hill, but Barbicane
+was not to be moved. When, however, the Columbiad was quite finished,
+this state of closed doors could no longer be kept up; besides, it would
+have been in bad taste, and even imprudent, to offend public opinion.
+Barbicane, therefore, opened the inclosure to all comers; but, in
+accordance with his practical character, he determined to coin money out
+of the public curiosity.
+
+It was, indeed, something to even be allowed to see this immense
+Columbiad, but to descend into its depths seemed to the Americans the
+_ne plus ultra_ of earthly felicity. In consequence there was not one
+visitor who was not willing to give himself the pleasure of visiting the
+interior of this metallic abyss. Baskets hung from steam-cranes allowed
+them to satisfy their curiosity. It became a perfect mania. Women,
+children, and old men all made it their business to penetrate the
+mysteries of the colossal gun. The price for the descent was fixed at
+five dollars a head, and, notwithstanding this high charge, during the
+two months that preceded the experiment, the influx of visitors allowed
+the Gun Club to pocket nearly 500,000 dollars!
+
+It need hardly be said that the first visitors to the Columbiad were the
+members of the Gun Club. This privilege was justly accorded to that
+illustrious body. The ceremony of reception took place on the 25th of
+September. A basket of honour took down the president, J.T. Maston,
+Major Elphinstone, General Morgan, Colonel Blomsberry, and other members
+of the Gun Club, ten in all. How hot they were at the bottom of that
+long metal tube! They were nearly stifled, but how delightful--how
+exquisite! A table had been laid for ten on the massive stone which
+formed the bottom of the Columbiad, and was lighted by a jet of electric
+light as bright as day itself. Numerous exquisite dishes, that seemed to
+descend from heaven, were successively placed before the guests, and the
+richest wines of France flowed profusely during this splendid repast,
+given 900 feet below the surface of the earth!
+
+The festival was a gay, not to say a noisy one. Toasts were given and
+replied to. They drank to the earth and her satellite, to the Gun Club,
+the Union, the Moon, Diana, Phoebe, Selene, "the peaceful courier of the
+night." All the hurrahs, carried up by the sonorous waves of the immense
+acoustic tube, reached its mouth with a noise of thunder; then the
+multitude round Stony Hill heartily united their shouts to those of the
+ten revellers hidden from sight in the depths of the gigantic Columbiad.
+
+J.T. Maston could contain himself no longer. Whether he shouted or ate,
+gesticulated or talked most would be difficult to determine. Any way he
+would not have given up his place for an empire, "not even if the
+cannon--loaded, primed, and fired at that very moment--were to blow him
+in pieces into the planetary universe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A TELEGRAM.
+
+
+The great work undertaken by the Gun Club was now virtually ended, and
+yet two months would still elapse before the day the projectile would
+start for the moon. These two months would seem as long as two years to
+the universal impatience. Until then the smallest details of each
+operation had appeared in the newspapers every day, and were eagerly
+devoured by the public, but now it was to be feared that this "interest
+dividend" would be much diminished, and every one was afraid of no
+longer receiving his daily share of emotions.
+
+They were all agreeably disappointed: the most unexpected,
+extraordinary, incredible, and improbable incident happened in time to
+keep up the general excitement to its highest pitch.
+
+On September 30th, at 3.47 p.m., a telegram, transmitted through the
+Atlantic Cable, arrived at Tampa Town for President Barbicane.
+
+He tore open the envelope and read the message, and, notwithstanding his
+great self-control, his lips grew pale and his eyes dim as he read the
+telegram.
+
+The following is the text of the message stored in the archives of the
+Gun Club:--
+
+"France, Paris,
+
+"September 30th, 4 a.m.
+
+"Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States.
+
+"Substitute a cylindro-conical projectile for your spherical shell.
+Shall go inside. Shall arrive by steamer _Atlanta_.
+
+"MICHEL ARDAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA.
+
+
+If this wonderful news, instead of coming by telegraph, had simply
+arrived by post and in a sealed envelope--if the French, Irish,
+Newfoundland, and American telegraph clerks had not necessarily been
+acquainted with it--Barbicane would not have hesitated for a moment. He
+would have been quite silent about it for prudence' sake, and in order
+not to throw discredit on his work. This telegram might be a practical
+joke, especially as it came from a Frenchman. What probability could
+there be that any man should conceive the idea of such a journey? And if
+the man did exist was he not a madman who would have to be inclosed in a
+strait-waistcoat instead of in a cannon-ball?
+
+But the message was known, and Michel Ardan's proposition was already
+all over the States of the Union, so Barbicane had no reason for
+silence. He therefore called together his colleagues then in Tampa Town,
+and, without showing what he thought about it or saying a word about the
+degree of credibility the telegram deserved, he read coldly the laconic
+text.
+
+"Not possible!"--"Unheard of!"--"They are laughing at
+us!"--"Ridiculous!"--"Absurd!" Every sort of expression for doubt,
+incredulity, and folly was heard for some minutes with accompaniment of
+appropriate gestures. J.T. Maston alone uttered the words:--
+
+"That's an idea!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "but if people have such ideas as that they
+ought not to think of putting them into execution."
+
+"Why not?" quickly answered the secretary of the Gun Club, ready for an
+argument. But the subject was let drop.
+
+In the meantime Michel Ardan's name was already going about Tampa Town.
+Strangers and natives talked and joked together, not about the
+European--evidently a mythical personage--but about J.T. Maston, who had
+the folly to believe in his existence. When Barbicane proposed to send a
+projectile to the moon every one thought the enterprise natural and
+practicable--a simple affair of ballistics. But that a reasonable being
+should offer to go the journey inside the projectile was a farce, or, to
+use a familiar Americanism, it was all "humbug."
+
+This laughter lasted till evening throughout the Union, an unusual thing
+in a country where any impossible enterprise finds adepts and partisans.
+
+Still Michel Ardan's proposition did not fail to awaken a certain
+emotion in many minds. "They had not thought of such a thing." How many
+things denied one day had become realities the next! Why should not this
+journey be accomplished one day or another? But, any way, the man who
+would run such a risk must be a madman, and certainly, as his project
+could not be taken seriously, he would have done better to be quiet
+about it, instead of troubling a whole population with such ridiculous
+trash.
+
+But, first of all, did this personage really exist? That was the great
+question. The name of "Michel Ardan" was not altogether unknown in
+America. It belonged to a European much talked about for his audacious
+enterprises. Then the telegram sent all across the depths of the
+Atlantic, the designation of the ship upon which the Frenchman had
+declared he had taken his passage, the date assigned for his
+arrival--all these circumstances gave to the proposition a certain air
+of probability. They were obliged to disburden their minds about it.
+Soon these isolated individuals formed into groups, the groups became
+condensed under the action of curiosity like atoms by virtue of
+molecular attraction, and the result was a compact crowd going towards
+President Barbicane's dwelling.
+
+The president, since the arrival of the message, had not said what he
+thought about it; he had let J.T. Maston express his opinions without
+manifesting either approbation or blame. He kept quiet, proposing to
+await events, but he had not taken public impatience into consideration,
+and was not very pleased at the sight of the population of Tampa Town
+assembled under his windows. Murmurs, cries, and vociferations soon
+forced him to appear. It will be seen that he had all the disagreeables
+as well as the duties of a public man.
+
+He therefore appeared; silence was made, and a citizen asked him the
+following question:--"Is the person designated in the telegram as Michel
+Ardan on his way to America or not?"
+
+"Gentlemen," answered Barbicane, "I know no more than you."
+
+"We must get to know," exclaimed some impatient voices.
+
+"Time will inform us," answered the president coldly.
+
+"Time has no right to keep a whole country in suspense," answered the
+orator. "Have you altered your plans for the projectile as the telegram
+demanded?"
+
+"Not yet, gentlemen; but you are right, we must have recourse to the
+telegraph that has caused all this emotion."
+
+"To the telegraph-office!" cried the crowd.
+
+Barbicane descended into the street, and, heading the immense
+assemblage, he went towards the telegraph-office.
+
+A few minutes afterwards a telegram was on its way to the underwriters
+at Liverpool, asking for an answer to the following questions:--
+
+"What sort of vessel is the _Atlanta_? When did she leave Europe? Had
+she a Frenchman named Michel Ardan on board?"
+
+Two hours afterwards Barbicane received such precise information that
+doubt was no longer possible.
+
+"The steamer _Atlanta_, from Liverpool, set sail on October 2nd for
+Tampa Town, having on board a Frenchman inscribed in the passengers'
+book as Michel Ardan."
+
+At this confirmation of the first telegram the eyes of the president
+were lighted up with a sudden flame; he clenched his hands, and was
+heard to mutter--
+
+"It is true, then! It is possible, then! the Frenchman does exist! and
+in a fortnight he will be here! But he is a madman! I never can
+consent."
+
+And yet the very same evening he wrote to the firm of Breadwill and Co.
+begging them to suspend the casting of the projectile until fresh
+orders.
+
+Now how can the emotion be described which took possession of the whole
+of America? The effect of the Barbicane proposition was surpassed
+tenfold; what the newspapers of the Union said, the way they accepted
+the news, and how they chanted the arrival of this hero from the old
+continent; how to depict the feverish agitation in which every one
+lived, counting the hours, minutes, and seconds; how to give even a
+feeble idea of the effect of one idea upon so many heads; how to show
+every occupation being given up for a single preoccupation, work
+stopped, commerce suspended, vessels, ready to start, waiting in the
+ports so as not to miss the arrival of the _Atlanta_, every species of
+conveyance arriving full and returning empty, the bay of Espiritu-Santo
+incessantly ploughed by steamers, packet-boats, pleasure-yachts, and
+fly-boats of all dimensions; how to denominate in numbers the thousands
+of curious people who in a fortnight increased the population of Tampa
+Town fourfold, and were obliged to encamp under tents like an army in
+campaign--all this is a task above human force, and could not be
+undertaken without rashness.
+
+At 9 a.m. on the 20th of October the semaphores of the Bahama Channel
+signalled thick smoke on the horizon. Two hours later a large steamer
+exchanged signals with them. The name _Atlanta_ was immediately sent to
+Tampa Town. At 4 p.m. the English vessel entered the bay of
+Espiritu-Santo. At 5 p.m. she passed the entrance to Hillisboro Harbour,
+and at 6 p.m. weighed anchor in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+The anchor had not reached its sandy bed before 500 vessels surrounded
+the _Atlanta_ and the steamer was taken by assault. Barbicane was the
+first on deck, and in a voice the emotion of which he tried in vain to
+suppress--
+
+"Michel Ardan!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Present!" answered an individual mounted on the poop.
+
+Barbicane, with his arms crossed, questioning eyes, and silent mouth,
+looked fixedly at the passenger of the _Atlanta_.
+
+He was a man forty-two years of age, tall, but already rather stooping,
+like caryatides which support balconies on their shoulders. His large
+head shook every now and then a shock of red hair like a lion's mane; a
+short face, wide forehead, a moustache bristling like a cat's whiskers,
+and little bunches of yellow hair on the middle of his cheeks, round and
+rather wild-looking, short-sighted eyes completed this eminently feline
+physiognomy. But the nose was boldly cut, the mouth particularly humane,
+the forehead high, intelligent, and ploughed like a field that was never
+allowed to remain fallow. Lastly, a muscular body well poised on long
+limbs, muscular arms, powerful and well-set levers, and a decided gait
+made a solidly built fellow of this European, "rather wrought than
+cast," to borrow one of his expressions from metallurgic art.
+
+The disciples of Lavater or Gratiolet would have easily deciphered in
+the cranium and physiognomy of this personage indisputable signs of
+combativity--that is to say, of courage in danger and tendency to
+overcome obstacles, those of benevolence, and a belief in the
+marvellous, an instinct that makes many natures dwell much on superhuman
+things; but, on the other hand, the bumps of acquisivity, the need of
+possessing and acquiring, were absolutely wanting.
+
+To put the finishing touches to the physical type of the passenger of
+the _Atlanta_, his garments wide, loose, and flowing, open cravat, wide
+collar, and cuffs always unbuttoned, through which came nervous hands.
+People felt that even in the midst of winter and dangers that man was
+never cold.
+
+On the deck of the steamer, amongst the crowd, he bustled about, never
+still for a moment, "dragging his anchors," in nautical speech,
+gesticulating, making friends with everybody, and biting his nails
+nervously. He was one of those original beings whom the Creator invents
+in a moment of fantasy, and of whom He immediately breaks the cast.
+
+In fact, the character of Michel Ardan offered a large field for
+physiological analysis. This astonishing man lived in a perpetual
+disposition to hyperbole, and had not yet passed the age of
+superlatives; objects depicted themselves on the retina of his eye with
+exaggerated dimensions; from thence an association of gigantic ideas; he
+saw everything on a large scale except difficulties and men.
+
+He was besides of a luxuriant nature, an artist by instinct, and witty
+fellow; he loved arguments _ad hominem_, and defended the weak side
+tooth and nail.
+
+Amongst other peculiarities he gave himself out as "sublimely ignorant,"
+like Shakspeare, and professed supreme contempt for all _savants_,
+"people," said he, "who only score our points." He was, in short, a
+Bohemian of the country of brains, adventurous but not an adventurer, a
+harebrained fellow, a Phaeton running away with the horses of the sun, a
+kind of Icarus with relays of wings. He had a wonderful facility for
+getting into scrapes, and an equally wonderful facility for getting out
+of them again, falling on his feet like a cat.
+
+In short, his motto was, "Whatever it may cost!" and the love of the
+impossible his "ruling passion," according to Pope's fine expression.
+
+But this enterprising fellow had the defects of his qualities. Who risks
+nothing wins nothing, it is said. Ardan often risked much and got
+nothing. He was perfectly disinterested and chivalric; he would not have
+signed the death-warrant of his worst enemy, and would have sold himself
+into slavery to redeem a negro.
+
+In France and Europe everybody knew this brilliant, bustling person. Did
+he not get talked of ceaselessly by the hundred voices of Fame, hoarse
+in his service? Did he not live in a glass house, taking the entire
+universe as confidant of his most intimate secrets? But he also
+possessed an admirable collection of enemies amongst those he had cuffed
+and wounded whilst using his elbows to make a passage in the crowd.
+
+Still he was generally liked and treated like a spoiled child. Every one
+was interested in his bold enterprises, and followed them with uneasy
+mind. He was known to be so imprudent! When some friend wished to stop
+him by predicting an approaching catastrophe, "The forest is only burnt
+by its own trees," he answered with an amiable smile, not knowing that
+he was quoting the prettiest of Arabian proverbs.
+
+Such was the passenger of the _Atlanta_, always in a bustle, always
+boiling under the action of inward fire, always moved, not by what he
+had come to do in America--he did not even think about it--but on
+account of his feverish organisation. If ever individuals offered a
+striking contrast they were the Frenchman Michel Ardan and the Yankee
+Barbicane, both, however, enterprising, bold, and audacious, each in his
+own way.
+
+Barbicane's contemplation of his rival was quickly interrupted by the
+cheers of the crowd. These cries became even so frantic and the
+enthusiasm took such a personal form that Michel Ardan, after having
+shaken a thousand hands in which he nearly left his ten fingers, was
+obliged to take refuge in his cabin.
+
+Barbicane followed him without having uttered a word.
+
+"You are Barbicane?" Michel Ardan asked him as soon as they were alone,
+and in the same tone as he would have spoken to a friend of twenty
+years' standing.
+
+"Yes," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"Well, good morning, Barbicane. How are you? Very well? That's right!
+that's right!"
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, without further preliminary, "you have decided
+to go?"
+
+"Quite decided."
+
+"Nothing will stop you?"
+
+"Nothing. Have you altered your projectile as I told you in my message?"
+
+"I waited till you came. But," asked Barbicane, insisting once more,
+"you have quite reflected?"
+
+"Reflected! have I any time to lose? I find the occasion to go for a
+trip to the moon, I profit by it, and that is all. It seems to me that
+does not want so much reflection."
+
+Barbicane looked eagerly at the man who spoke of his project of journey
+with so much carelessness, and with such absence of anxiety.
+
+"But at least," he said, "you have some plan, some means of execution?"
+
+"Excellent means. But allow me to tell you one thing. I like to say my
+say once and for all, and to everybody, and to hear no more about it.
+Then, unless you can think of something better, call together your
+friends, your colleagues, all the town, all Florida, all America if you
+like, and to-morrow I shall be ready to state my means of execution, and
+answer any objections, whatever they may be. Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, that will do," answered Barbicane.
+
+Whereupon the president left the cabin, and told the crowd about Michel
+Ardan's proposition. His words were received with great demonstrations
+of joy. That cut short all difficulties. The next day every one could
+contemplate the European hero at their ease. Still some of the most
+obstinate spectators would not leave the deck of the _Atlanta_; they
+passed the night on board. Amongst others, J.T. Maston had screwed his
+steel hook into the combing of the poop, and it would have taken the
+capstan to get it out again.
+
+"He is a hero! a hero!" cried he in every tone, "and we are only old
+women compared to that European!"
+
+As to the president, after having requested the spectators to withdraw,
+he re-entered the passenger's cabin, and did not leave it till the bell
+of the steamer rang out the midnight quarter.
+
+But then the two rivals in popularity shook each other warmly by the
+hand, and separated friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A MEETING.
+
+
+The next day the sun did not rise early enough to satisfy public
+impatience. Barbicane, fearing that indiscreet questions would be put to
+Michel Ardan, would like to have reduced his auditors to a small number
+of adepts, to his colleagues for instance. But it was as easy as to dam
+up the Falls at Niagara. He was, therefore, obliged to renounce his
+project, and let his friend run all the risks of a public lecture. The
+new Town Hall of Tampa Town, notwithstanding its colossal dimensions,
+was considered insufficient for the occasion, which had assumed the
+proportions of a public meeting.
+
+The place chosen was a vast plain, situated outside the town. In a few
+hours they succeeded in sheltering it from the rays of the sun. The
+ships of the port, rich in canvas, furnished the necessary accessories
+for a colossal tent. Soon an immense sky of cloth was spread over the
+calcined plain, and defended it against the heat of the day. There
+300,000 persons stood and braved a stifling temperature for several
+hours whilst awaiting the Frenchman's arrival. Of that crowd of
+spectators one-third alone could see and hear; a second third saw badly,
+and did not hear. As to the remaining third, it neither heard nor saw,
+though it was not the least eager to applaud.
+
+At three o'clock Michel Ardan made his appearance, accompanied by the
+principal members of the Gun Club. He gave his right arm to President
+Barbicane, and his left to J.T. Maston, more radiant than the midday
+sun, and nearly as ruddy.
+
+Ardan mounted the platform, from which his eyes extended over a forest
+of black hats. He did not seem in the least embarrassed; he did not
+pose; he was at home there, gay, familiar, and amiable. To the cheers
+that greeted him he answered by a gracious bow; then with his hand asked
+for silence, began to speak in English, and expressed himself very
+correctly in these terms:--
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "although it is very warm, I intend to keep you a
+few minutes to give you some explanation of the projects which have
+appeared to interest you. I am neither an orator nor a _savant_, and I
+did not count upon having to speak in public; but my friend Barbicane
+tells me it would give you pleasure, so I do it. Then listen to me with
+your 600,000 ears, and please to excuse the faults of the orator."
+
+This unceremonious beginning was much admired by the audience, who
+expressed their satisfaction by an immense murmur of applause.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "no mark of approbation or dissent is prohibited.
+That settled, I continue. And, first of all, do not forget that you have
+to do with an ignorant man, but his ignorance goes far enough to ignore
+difficulties. It has, therefore, appeared a simple, natural, and easy
+thing to him to take his passage in a projectile and to start for the
+moon. That journey would be made sooner or later, and as to the mode of
+locomotion adopted, it simply follows the law of progress. Man began by
+travelling on all fours, then one fine day he went on two feet, then in
+a cart, then in a coach, then on a railway. Well, the projectile is the
+carriage of the future, and, to speak the truth, planets are only
+projectiles, simple cannon-balls hurled by the hand of the Creator. But
+to return to our vehicle. Some of you, gentlemen, may think that the
+speed it will travel at is excessive--nothing of the kind. All the
+planets go faster, and the earth itself in its movement round the sun
+carries us along three times as fast. Here are some examples. Only I ask
+your permission to express myself in leagues, for American measures are
+not very familiar to me, and I fear getting muddled in my calculations."
+
+The demand appeared quite simple, and offered no difficulty. The orator
+resumed his speech.
+
+"The following, gentlemen, is the speed of the different planets. I am
+obliged to acknowledge that, notwithstanding my ignorance, I know this
+small astronomical detail exactly, but in two minutes you will be as
+learned as I. Learn, then, that Neptune goes at the rate of 5,000
+leagues an hour; Uranus, 7,000; Saturn, 8,858; Jupiter, 11,675; Mars,
+22,011; the earth, 27,500; Venus, 32,190; Mercury, 52,520; some comets,
+14,000 leagues in their perihelion! As to us, veritable idlers, people
+in no hurry, our speed does not exceed 9,900 leagues, and it will go on
+decreasing! I ask you if there is anything to wonder at, and if it is
+not evident that it will be surpassed some day by still greater speeds,
+of which light or electricity will probably be the mechanical agents?"
+
+No one seemed to doubt this affirmation.
+
+"Dear hearers," he resumed, "according to certain narrow minds--that is
+the best qualification for them--humanity is inclosed in a Popilius
+circle which it cannot break open, and is condemned to vegetate upon
+this globe without ever flying towards the planetary shores! Nothing of
+the kind! We are going to the moon, we shall go to the planets, we shall
+go to the stars as we now go from Liverpool to New York, easily,
+rapidly, surely, and the atmospheric ocean will be as soon crossed as
+the oceans of the earth! Distance is only a relative term, and will end
+by being reduced to zero."
+
+The assembly, though greatly in favour of the French hero, was rather
+staggered by this audacious theory. Michel Ardan appeared to see it.
+
+"You do not seem convinced, my worthy hosts," he continued with an
+amiable smile. "Well, let us reason a little. Do you know how long it
+would take an express train to reach the moon? Three hundred days. Not
+more. A journey of 86,410 leagues, but what is that? Not even nine times
+round the earth, and there are very few sailors who have not done that
+during their existence. Think, I shall be only ninety-eight hours on the
+road! Ah, you imagine that the moon is a long way from the earth, and
+that one must think twice before attempting the adventure! But what
+would you say if I were going to Neptune, which gravitates at
+1,147,000,000 leagues from the sun? That is a journey that very few
+people could go, even if it only cost a farthing a mile! Even Baron
+Rothschild would not have enough to take his ticket!"
+
+This argument seemed greatly to please the assembly; besides, Michel
+Ardan, full of his subject, grew superbly eloquent; he felt he was
+listened to, and resumed with admirable assurance--
+
+"Well, my friends, this distance from Neptune to the sun is nothing
+compared to that of the stars, some of which are billions of leagues
+from the sun! And yet people speak of the distance that separates the
+planets from the sun! Do you know what I think of this universe that
+begins with the sun and ends at Neptune? Should you like to know my
+theory? It is a very simple one. According to my opinion, the solar
+universe is one solid homogeneous mass; the planets that compose it are
+close together, crowd one another, and the space between them is only
+the space that separates the molecules of the most compact
+metal--silver, iron, or platinum! I have, therefore, the right to
+affirm, and I will repeat it with a conviction you will all
+share--distance is a vain word; distance does not exist!"
+
+"Well said! Bravo! Hurrah!" cried the assembly with one voice,
+electrified by the gesture and accent of the orator, and the boldness of
+his conceptions.
+
+"No!" cried J.T. Maston, more energetically than the others; "distance
+does not exist!"
+
+And, carried away by the violence of his movements and emotions he could
+hardly contain, he nearly fell from the top of the platform to the
+ground. But he succeeded in recovering his equilibrium, and thus avoided
+a fall that would have brutally proved distance not to be a vain word.
+Then the speech of the distinguished orator resumed its course.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I think that this question is now solved. If I
+have not convinced you all it is because I have been timid in my
+demonstrations, feeble in my arguments, and you must set it down to my
+theoretic ignorance. However that may be, I repeat, the distance from
+the earth to her satellite is really very unimportant and unworthy to
+occupy a serious mind. I do not think I am advancing too much in saying
+that soon a service of trains will be established by projectiles, in
+which the journey from the earth to the moon will be comfortably
+accomplished. There will be no shocks nor running off the lines to fear,
+and the goal will be reached rapidly, without fatigue, in a straight
+line, 'as the crow flies.' Before twenty years are over, half the earth
+will have visited the moon!"
+
+"Three cheers for Michel Ardan!" cried the assistants, even those least
+convinced.
+
+"Three cheers for Barbicane!" modestly answered the orator.
+
+This act of gratitude towards the promoter of the enterprise was greeted
+with unanimous applause.
+
+"Now, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan, "if you have any questions to
+ask me you will evidently embarrass me, but still I will endeavour to
+answer you."
+
+Until now the president of the Gun Club had reason to be very satisfied
+with the discussion. It had rolled upon speculative theories, upon which
+Michel Ardan, carried away by his lively imagination, had shown himself
+very brilliant. He must, therefore, be prevented from deviating towards
+practical questions, which he would doubtless not come out of so well.
+Barbicane made haste to speak, and asked his new friend if he thought
+that the moon or the planets were inhabited.
+
+"That is a great problem, my worthy president," answered the orator,
+smiling; "still, if I am not mistaken, men of great intelligence--Plutarch,
+Swedenborg, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others--answered in the
+affirmative. If I answered from a natural philosophy point of view I
+should do the same--I should say to myself that nothing useless exists
+in this world, and, answering your question by another, friend
+Barbicane, I should affirm that if the planets are inhabitable, either
+they are inhabited, they have been, or they will be."
+
+"Very well," cried the first ranks of spectators, whose opinion had the
+force of law for the others.
+
+"It is impossible to answer with more logic and justice," said the
+president of the Gun Club. "The question, therefore, comes to this: 'Are
+the planets inhabitable?' I think so, for my part."
+
+"And I--I am certain of it," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Still," replied one of the assistants, "there are arguments against the
+inhabitability of the worlds. In most of them it is evident that the
+principles of life must be modified. Thus, only to speak of the planets,
+the people must be burnt up in some and frozen in others according as
+they are a long or short distance from the sun."
+
+"I regret," answered Michel Ardan, "not to know my honourable opponent
+personally. His objection has its value, but I think it may be combated
+with some success, like all those of which the habitability of worlds
+has been the object. If I were a physician I should say that if there
+were less caloric put in motion in the planets nearest to the sun, and
+more, on the contrary, in the distant planets, this simple phenomenon
+would suffice to equalise the heat and render the temperature of these
+worlds bearable to beings organised like we are. If I were a naturalist
+I should tell him, after many illustrious _savants_, that Nature
+furnishes us on earth with examples of animals living in very different
+conditions of habitability; that fish breathe in a medium mortal to the
+other animals; that amphibians have a double existence difficult to
+explain; that certain inhabitants of the sea live in the greatest
+depths, and support there, without being crushed, pressures of fifty or
+sixty atmospheres; that some aquatic insects, insensible to the
+temperature, are met with at the same time in springs of boiling water
+and in the frozen plains of the Polar Ocean--in short, there are in
+nature many means of action, often incomprehensible, but no less real.
+If I were a chemist I should say that aërolites--bodies evidently formed
+away from our terrestrial globe--have when analysed, revealed
+indisputable traces of carbon, a substance that owes its origin solely
+to organised beings, and which, according to Reichenbach's experiments,
+must necessarily have been 'animalised.' Lastly, if I were a theologian
+I should say that Divine Redemption, according to St. Paul, seems
+applicable not only to the earth but to all the celestial bodies. But I
+am neither a theologian, chemist, naturalist, nor natural philosopher.
+So, in my perfect ignorance of the great laws that rule the universe, I
+can only answer, 'I do not know if the heavenly bodies are inhabited,
+and, as I do not know, I am going to see!'"
+
+Did the adversary of Michel Ardan's theories hazard any further
+arguments? It is impossible to say, for the frantic cries of the crowd
+would have prevented any opinion from being promulgated. When silence
+was again restored, even in the most distant groups, the triumphant
+orator contented himself with adding the following considerations:--
+
+"You will think, gentlemen, that I have hardly touched upon this grave
+question. I am not here to give you an instructive lecture upon this
+vast subject. There is another series of arguments in favour of the
+heavenly bodies being inhabited; I do not look upon that. Allow me only
+to insist upon one point. To the people who maintain that the planets
+are not inhabited you must answer, 'You may be right if it is
+demonstrated that the earth is the best of possible worlds; but it is
+not so, notwithstanding Voltaire.' It has only one satellite, whilst
+Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune have several at their service, an
+advantage that is not to be disdained. But that which now renders the
+earth an uncomfortable place of abode is the inclination of its axis
+upon its orbit. Hence the inequality of day and night; hence the
+unfortunate diversity of seasons. Upon our miserable spheroid it is
+always either too warm or too cold; we are frozen in winter and roasted
+in summer; it is the planet of colds, rheumatism, and consumption,
+whilst on the surface of Jupiter, for instance, where the axis has only
+a very slight inclination, the inhabitants can enjoy invariable
+temperature. There is the perpetual spring, summer, autumn, and winter
+zone; each 'Jovian' may choose the climate that suits him, and may
+shelter himself all his life from the variations of the temperature. You
+will doubtless agree to this superiority of Jupiter over our planet
+without speaking of its years, which each lasts twelve years! What is
+more, it is evident to me that, under these auspices, and under such
+marvellous conditions of existence, the inhabitants of that fortunate
+world are superior beings--that _savants_ are more learned, artists more
+artistic, the wicked less wicked, and the good are better. Alas! what is
+wanting to our spheroid to reach this perfection is very little!--an
+axis of rotation less inclined on the plane of its orbit."
+
+"Well!" cried an impetuous voice, "let us unite our efforts, invent
+machines, and rectify the earth's axis!"
+
+Thunders of applause greeted this proposition, the author of which could
+be no other than J.T. Maston. It is probable that the fiery secretary
+had been carried away by his instincts as engineer to venture such a
+proposition; but it must be said, for it is the truth, many encouraged
+him with their cries, and doubtless, if they had found the resting-point
+demanded by Archimedes, the Americans would have constructed a lever
+capable of raising the world and redressing its axis. But this point was
+wanting to these bold mechanicians.
+
+Nevertheless, this eminently practical idea had enormous success: the
+discussion was suspended for a good quarter of an hour, and long, very
+long afterwards, they talked in the United States of America of the
+proposition so energetically enunciated by the perpetual secretary of
+the Gun Club.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THRUST AND PARRY.
+
+
+This incident seemed to have terminated the discussion, but when the
+agitation had subsided these words were heard uttered in a loud and
+severe voice:--
+
+"Now that the orator has allowed his fancy to roam, perhaps he would
+kindly go back to his subject, pay less attention to theories, and
+discuss the practical part of his expedition."
+
+All eyes were turned towards the person who spoke thus. He was a thin,
+dry-looking man, with an energetic face and an American beard. By taking
+advantage of the agitation in the assembly from time to time he had
+gained, by degrees, the front row of spectators. There, with his arms
+crossed, his eyes brilliant and bold, he stared imperturbably at the
+hero of the meeting. After having asked his question he kept silence,
+and did not seem disturbed by the thousands of eyes directed towards him
+nor by the disapproving murmur excited by his words. The answer being
+delayed he again put the question with the same clear and precise
+accent; then he added--
+
+"We are here to discuss the moon, not the earth."
+
+"You are right, sir," answered Michel Ardan, "the discussion has
+wandered from the point; we will return to the moon."
+
+"Sir," resumed the unknown man, "you pretend that our satellite is
+inhabited. So far so good; but if Selenites do exist they certainly live
+without breathing, for--I tell you the fact for your good--there is not
+the least particle of air on the surface of the moon."
+
+At this affirmation Ardan shook his red mane; he understood that a
+struggle was coming with this man on the real question. He looked at him
+fixedly in his turn, and said--
+
+"Ah! there is no air in the moon! And who says so, pray?"
+
+"The _savants_."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel, "joking apart, I have a profound respect for
+_savants_ who know, but a profound contempt for _savants_ who do not
+know."
+
+"Do you know any who belong to the latter category?"
+
+"Yes; in France there is one who maintains that, 'mathematically,' a
+bird cannot fly, and another who demonstrates that a fish is not made to
+live in water."
+
+"There is no question of those two, sir, and I can quote in support of
+my proposition names that you will not object to."
+
+"Then, sir, you would greatly embarrass a poor ignorant man like me!"
+
+"Then why do you meddle with scientific questions which you have never
+studied?" asked the unknown brutally.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan; "because the man who does not suspect danger is
+always brave! I know nothing, it is true, but it is precisely my
+weakness that makes my strength."
+
+"Your weakness goes as far as madness," exclaimed the unknown in a
+bad-tempered tone.
+
+"So much the better," replied the Frenchman, "if my madness takes me to
+the moon!"
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues stared at the intruder who had come so
+boldly to stand in the way of their enterprise. None of them knew him,
+and the president, not reassured upon the upshot of such a discussion,
+looked at his new friend with some apprehension. The assembly was
+attentive and slightly uneasy, for this struggle called attention to the
+dangers and impossibilities of the expedition.
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel Ardan's adversary, "the reasons that prove the
+absence of all atmosphere round the moon are numerous and indisputable.
+I may say, even, that, _à priori_ if that atmosphere had ever existed,
+it must have been drawn away by the earth, but I would rather oppose you
+with incontestable facts."
+
+"Oppose, sir," answered Michel Ardan, with perfect gallantry--oppose as
+much as you like."
+
+"You know," said the unknown, "that when the sun's rays traverse a
+medium like air they are deviated from a straight line, or, in other
+words, they are refracted. Well, when stars are occulted by the moon
+their rays, on grazing the edge of her disc, do not show the least
+deviation nor offer the slightest indication of refraction. It follows,
+therefore, that the moon can have no atmosphere."
+
+Every one looked at the Frenchman, for, this once admitted, the
+consequences were rigorous.
+
+"In fact," answered Michel Ardan, "that is your best if not only
+argument, and a _savant_, perhaps, would be embarrassed to answer it. I
+can only tell you that this argument has no absolute value because it
+supposes the angular diameter of the moon to be perfectly determined,
+which it is not. But let us waive that, and tell me, my dear sir, if
+you admit the existence of volcanoes on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Extinct volcanoes, yes; volcanoes in eruption, no."
+
+"For the sake of argument let us suppose that these volcanoes have been
+in eruption for a certain period."
+
+"That is certain, but as they can themselves furnish the oxygen
+necessary for combustion the fact of their eruption does not in the
+least prove the presence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+"We will pass on, then," answered Michel Ardan, "and leave this series
+of argument and arrive at direct observation. But I warn you that I am
+going to quote names."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"In 1715 the astronomers Louville and Halley, observing the eclipse of
+the 3rd of May, remarked certain fulminations of a remarkable nature.
+These jets of light, rapid and frequent, were attributed by them to
+storms in the atmosphere of the moon."
+
+"In 1715," replied the unknown, "the astronomers Louville and Halley
+took for lunar phenomena phenomena purely terrestrial, such as meteoric
+or other bodies which are generated in our own atmosphere. That was the
+scientific aspect of these facts, and I go with it."
+
+"Let us pass on again," answered Ardan, without being confused by the
+reply. "Did not Herschel, in 1787, observe a great number of luminous
+points on the surface of the moon?"
+
+"Certainly; but without explaining the origin of these luminous points.
+Herschel himself did not thereby conclude the necessity of a lunar
+atmosphere."
+
+"Well answered," said Michel Ardan, complimenting his adversary; "I see
+that you are well up in selenography."
+
+"Yes, sir; and I may add that the most skilful observers, MM. Boeer and
+Moedler, agree that air is absolutely wanting on the moon's surface."
+
+A movement took place amongst the audience, who appeared struck by the
+arguments of this singular personage.
+
+"We will pass on again," answered Michel Ardan, with the greatest
+calmness, "and arrive now at an important fact. A skilful French
+astronomer, M. Laussedat, whilst observing the eclipse of July 18th,
+1860, proved that the horns of the solar crescent were rounded and
+truncated. Now this appearance could only have been produced by a
+deviation of the solar rays in traversing the atmosphere of the moon.
+There is no other possible explanation of the fact."
+
+"But is this fact authenticated?"
+
+"It is absolutely certain."
+
+An inverse movement brought back the audience to the side of their
+favourite hero, whose adversary remained silent.
+
+Ardan went on speaking without showing any vanity about his last
+advantage; he said simply--
+
+"You see, therefore, my dear sir, that it cannot be positively affirmed
+that there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon. This atmosphere
+is probably not dense, but science now generally admits that it exists."
+
+"Not upon the mountains," replied the unknown, who would not give in.
+
+"No, but in the depths of the valleys, and it is not more than some
+hundreds of feet deep."
+
+"Any way you will do well to take your precautions, for the air will be
+terribly rarefied."
+
+"Oh, there will always be enough for one man. Besides, once delivered up
+there, I shall do my best to economise it and only to breathe it on
+great occasions."
+
+A formidable burst of laughter saluted the mysterious interlocutor, who
+looked round the assembly daring it proudly.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, carelessly, "as we are agreed upon the
+presence of some atmosphere, we are forced to admit the presence of some
+water--a consequence I am delighted with, for my part. Besides, I have
+another observation to make. We only know one side of the moon's disc,
+and if there is little air on that side there may be much on the other."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because the moon under the action of terrestrial attraction has assumed
+the form of an egg, of which we see the small end. Hence the consequence
+due to the calculations of Hausen, that its centre of gravity is
+situated in the other hemisphere. Hence this conclusion that all the
+masses of air and water have been drawn to the other side of our
+satellite in the first days of the creation."
+
+"Pure fancies," exclaimed the unknown.
+
+"No, pure theories based upon mechanical laws, and it appears difficult
+to me to refute them. I make appeal to this assembly and put it to the
+vote to know if life such as it exists upon earth is possible on the
+surface of the moon?"
+
+Three hundred thousand hearers applauded this proposition. Michel
+Ardan's adversary wished to speak again, but he could not make himself
+heard. Cries and threats were hailed upon him.
+
+"Enough, enough!" said some.
+
+"Turn him out!" repeated others.
+
+But he, holding on to the platform, did not move, and let the storm
+pass by. It might have assumed formidable proportions if Michel Ardan
+had not appeased it by a gesture. He was too chivalrous to abandon his
+contradicter in such an extremity.
+
+"You wish to add a few words?" he asked, in the most gracious tone.
+
+"Yes, a hundred! a thousand!" answered the unknown, carried away, "or
+rather no, one only! To persevere in your enterprise you must be--"
+
+"Imprudent! How can you call me that when I have asked for a
+cylindro-conical bullet from my friend Barbicane so as not to turn round
+on the road like a squirrel?"
+
+"But, unfortunate man! the fearful shock will smash you to pieces when
+you start."
+
+"You have there put your finger upon the real and only difficulty; but I
+have too good an opinion of the industrial genius of the Americans to
+believe that they will not overcome that difficulty."
+
+"But the heat developed by the speed of the projectile whilst crossing
+the beds of air?"
+
+"Oh, its sides are thick, and I shall so soon pass the atmosphere."
+
+"But provisions? water?"
+
+"I have calculated that I could carry enough for one year, and I shall
+only be four days going."
+
+"But air to breathe on the road?"
+
+"I shall make some by chemical processes."
+
+"But your fall upon the moon, supposing you ever get there?"
+
+"It will be six times less rapid than a fall upon the earth, as
+attraction is six times less on the surface of the moon."
+
+"But it still will be sufficient to smash you like glass."
+
+"What will prevent me delaying my fall by means of rockets conveniently
+placed and lighted at the proper time?"
+
+"But lastly, supposing that all difficulties be solved, all obstacles
+cleared away by uniting every chance in your favour, admitting that you
+reach the moon safe and well, how shall you come back?"
+
+"I shall not come back."
+
+Upon this answer, which was almost sublime by reason of its simplicity,
+the assembly remained silent. But its silence was more eloquent than its
+cries of enthusiasm would have been. The unknown profited by it to
+protest one last time.
+
+"You will infallibly kill yourself," he cried, "and your death, which
+will be only a madman's death, will not even be useful to science."
+
+"Go on, most generous of men, for you prophesy in the most agreeable
+manner."
+
+"Ah, it is too much!" exclaimed Michel Ardan's adversary, "and I do not
+know why I go on with so childish a discussion. Go on with your mad
+enterprise as you like. It is not your fault."
+
+"Fire away."
+
+"No, another must bear the responsibility of your acts."
+
+"Who is that, pray?" asked Michel Ardan in an imperious voice.
+
+"The fool who has organised this attempt, as impossible as it is
+ridiculous."
+
+The attack was direct. Barbicane since the intervention of the unknown
+had made violent efforts to contain himself and "consume his own smoke,"
+but upon seeing himself so outrageously designated he rose directly and
+was going to walk towards his adversary, who dared him to his face, when
+he felt himself suddenly separated from him.
+
+The platform was lifted up all at once by a hundred vigorous arms, and
+the president of the Gun Club was forced to share the honours of triumph
+with Michel Ardan. The platform was heavy, but the bearers came in
+continuous relays, disputing, struggling, even fighting for the
+privilege of lending the support of their shoulders to this
+manifestation.
+
+However, the unknown did not take advantage of the tumult to leave the
+place. He kept in the front row, his arms folded, still staring at
+President Barbicane.
+
+The president did not lose sight of him either, and the eyes of these
+two men met like flaming swords.
+
+The cries of the immense crowds kept at their maximum of intensity
+during this triumphant march. Michel Ardan allowed himself to be carried
+with evident pleasure.
+
+Sometimes the platform pitched and tossed like a ship beaten by the
+waves. But the two heroes of the meeting were good sailors, and their
+vessel safely arrived in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+Michel Ardan happily succeeded in escaping from his vigorous admirers.
+He fled to the Franklin Hotel, quickly reached his room, and glided
+rapidly into bed whilst an army of 100,000 men watched under his
+windows.
+
+In the meanwhile a short, grave, and decisive scene had taken place
+between the mysterious personage and the president of the Gun Club.
+
+Barbicane, liberated at last, went straight to his adversary.
+
+"Come!" said he in a curt voice.
+
+The stranger followed him on to the quay, and they were soon both alone
+at the entrance to a wharf opening on to Jones' Fall.
+
+There these enemies, still unknown to one another, looked at each other.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Captain Nicholl."
+
+"I thought so. Until now fate has never made you cross my path."
+
+"I crossed it of my own accord."
+
+"You have insulted me."
+
+"Publicly."
+
+"And you shall give me satisfaction for that insult."
+
+"Now, this minute."
+
+"No. I wish everything between us to be kept secret. There is a wood
+situated three miles from Tampa--Skersnaw Wood. Do you know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you enter it to-morrow morning at five o'clock by one side?"
+
+"Yes, if you will enter it by the other at the same time."
+
+"And you will not forget your rifle?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Not more than you will forget yours," answered Captain Nicholl.
+
+After these words had been coldly pronounced the president of the Gun
+Club and the captain separated. Barbicane returned to his dwelling; but,
+instead of taking some hours' rest, he passed the night in seeking means
+to avoid the shock of the projectile, and to solve the difficult problem
+given by Michel Ardan at the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR.
+
+
+Whilst the duel was being discussed between the president and the
+captain--a terrible and savage duel in which each adversary became a
+man-hunter--Michel Ardan was resting after the fatigues of his triumph.
+Resting is evidently not the right expression, for American beds rival
+in hardness tables of marble or granite.
+
+Ardan slept badly, turning over and over between the _serviettes_ that
+served him for sheets, and he was thinking of installing a more
+comfortable bed in his projectile when a violent noise startled him from
+his slumbers. Thundering blows shook his door. They seemed to be
+administered with an iron instrument. Shouts were heard in this racket,
+rather too early to be agreeable.
+
+"Open!" some one cried. "Open, for Heaven's sake!"
+
+There was no reason why Ardan should acquiesce in so peremptory a
+demand. Still he rose and opened his door at the moment it was giving
+way under the efforts of the obstinate visitor.
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club bounded into the room. A bomb would not
+have entered with less ceremony.
+
+"Yesterday evening," exclaimed J.T. Maston _ex abrupto_, "our president
+was publicly insulted during the meeting! He has challenged his
+adversary, who is no other than Captain Nicholl! They are going to fight
+this morning in Skersnaw Wood! I learnt it all from Barbicane himself!
+If he is killed our project will be at an end! This duel must be
+prevented! Now one man only can have enough empire over Barbicane to
+stop it, and that man is Michel Ardan."
+
+Whilst J.T. Maston was speaking thus, Michel Ardan, giving up
+interrupting him, jumped into his vast trousers, and in less than two
+minutes after the two friends were rushing as fast as they could go
+towards the suburbs of Tampa Town.
+
+It was during this rapid course that Maston told Ardan the state of the
+case. He told him the real causes of the enmity between Barbicane and
+Nicholl, how that enmity was of old date, why until then, thanks to
+mutual friends, the president and the captain had never met; he added
+that it was solely a rivalry between iron-plate and bullet; and, lastly,
+that the scene of the meeting had only been an occasion long sought by
+Nicholl to satisfy an old grudge.
+
+There is nothing more terrible than these private duels in America,
+during which the two adversaries seek each other across thickets, and
+hunt each other like wild animals. It is then that each must envy those
+marvellous qualities so natural to the Indians of the prairies, their
+rapid intelligence, their ingenious ruse, their scent of the enemy. An
+error, a hesitation, a wrong step, may cause death. In these meetings
+the Yankees are often accompanied by their dogs, and both sportsmen and
+game go on for hours.
+
+"What demons you are!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, when his companion had
+depicted the scene with much energy.
+
+"We are what we are," answered J.T. Maston modestly; "but let us make
+haste."
+
+In vain did Michel Ardan and he rush across the plain still wet with
+dew, jump the creeks, take the shortest cuts; they could not reach
+Skersnaw Wood before half-past five. Barbicane must have entered it
+half-an-hour before.
+
+There an old bushman was tying up faggots his axe had cut.
+
+Maston ran to him crying--
+
+"Have you seen a man enter the wood armed with a rifle? Barbicane, the
+president--my best friend?"
+
+The worthy secretary of the Gun Club thought naïvely that all the world
+must know his president. But the bushman did not seem to understand.
+
+"A sportsman," then said Ardan.
+
+"A sportsman? Yes," answered the bushman.
+
+"Is it long since?"
+
+"About an hour ago."
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Have you heard any firing?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not one shot?"
+
+"Not one. That sportsman does not seem to bag much game!"
+
+"What shall we do?" said Maston.
+
+"Enter the wood at the risk of catching a bullet not meant for us."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Maston, with an unmistakable accent, "I would rather
+have ten bullets in my head than one in Barbicane's head."
+
+"Go ahead, then!" said Ardan, pressing his companion's hand.
+
+A few seconds after the two companions disappeared in a copse. It was a
+dense thicket made of huge cypresses, sycamores, tulip-trees, olives,
+tamarinds, oaks, and magnolias. The different trees intermingled their
+branches in inextricable confusion, and quite hid the view. Michel Ardan
+and Maston walked on side by side phasing silently through the tall
+grass, making a road for themselves through the vigorous creepers,
+looking in all the bushes or branches lost in the sombre shade of the
+foliage, and expecting to hear a shot at every step. As to the traces
+that Barbicane must have left of his passage through the wood, it was
+impossible for them to see them, and they marched blindly on in the
+hardly-formed paths in which an Indian would have followed his adversary
+step by step.
+
+After a vain search of about an hour's length the two companions
+stopped. Their anxiety was redoubled.
+
+"It must be all over," said Maston in despair. "A man like Barbicane
+would not lay traps or condescend to any manoeuvre! He is too frank, too
+courageous. He has gone straight into danger, and doubtless far enough
+from the bushman for the wind to carry off the noise of the shot!"
+
+"But we should have heard it!" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"But what if we came too late?" exclaimed J.T. Maston in an accent of
+despair.
+
+Michel Ardan did not find any answer to make. Maston and he resumed
+their interrupted walk. From time to time they shouted; they called
+either Barbicane or Nicholl; but neither of the two adversaries
+answered. Joyful flocks of birds, roused by the noise, disappeared
+amongst the branches, and some frightened deer fled through the copses.
+
+They continued their search another hour. The greater part of the wood
+had been explored. Nothing revealed the presence of the combatants. They
+began to doubt the affirmation of the bushman, and Ardan was going to
+renounce the pursuit as useless, when all at once Maston stopped.
+
+"Hush!" said he. "There is some one yonder!"
+
+"Some one?" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes! a man! He does not seem to move. His rifle is not in his hand.
+What can he be doing?"
+
+"But do you recognise him?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, yes! he is turning round," answered Maston.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Captain Nicholl!"
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Michel Ardan, whose heart almost stopped beating.
+
+"Nicholl disarmed! Then he had nothing more to fear from his adversary?"
+
+"Let us go to him," said Michel Ardan; "we shall know how it is."
+
+But his companion and he had not gone fifty steps when they stopped to
+examine the captain more attentively. They imagined they should find a
+bloodthirsty and revengeful man. Upon seeing him they remained
+stupefied.
+
+A net with fine meshes was hung between two gigantic tulip-trees, and in
+it a small bird, with its wings entangled, was struggling with plaintive
+cries. The bird-catcher who had hung the net was not a human being but a
+venomous spider, peculiar to the country, as large as a pigeon's egg,
+and furnished with enormous legs. The hideous insect, as he was rushing
+on his prey, was forced to turn back and take refuge in the high
+branches of a tulip-tree, for a formidable enemy threatened him in his
+turn.
+
+In fact, Captain Nicholl, with his gun on the ground, forgetting the
+dangers of his situation, was occupied in delivering as delicately as
+possible the victim taken in the meshes of the monstrous spider. When he
+had finished he let the little bird fly away; it fluttered its wings
+joyfully and disappeared.
+
+Nicholl, touched, was watching it fly through the copse when he heard
+these words uttered in a voice full of emotion:--
+
+"You are a brave man, you are!"
+
+He turned. Michel Ardan was in front of him, repeating in every tone--
+
+"And a kind one!"
+
+"Michel Ardan!" exclaimed the captain, "what have you come here for,
+sir?"
+
+"To shake hands with you, Nicholl, and prevent you killing Barbicane or
+being killed by him."
+
+"Barbicane!" cried the captain, "I have been looking for him these two
+hours without finding him! Where is he hiding himself?"
+
+"Nicholl!" said Michel Ardan, "this is not polite! You must always
+respect your adversary; don't be uneasy; if Barbicane is alive we shall
+find him, and so much the more easily that if he has not amused himself
+with protecting birds he must be looking for you too. But when you have
+found him--and Michel Ardan tells you this--there will be no duel
+between you."
+
+"Between President Barbicane and me," answered Nicholl gravely, "there
+is such rivalry that the death of one of us--"
+
+"Come, come!" resumed Michel Ardan, "brave men like you may detest one
+another, but they respect one another too. You will not fight."
+
+"I shall fight, sir."
+
+"No you won't."
+
+"Captain," then said J.T. Maston heartily, "I am the president's friend,
+his _alter ego_; if you must absolutely kill some one kill me; that will
+be exactly the same thing."
+
+"Sir," said Nicholl, convulsively seizing his rifle, "this joking--"
+
+"Friend Maston is not joking," answered Michel Ardan, "and I understand
+his wanting to be killed for the man he loves; but neither he nor
+Barbicane will fall under Captain Nicholl's bullets, for I have so
+tempting a proposition to make to the two rivals that they will hasten
+to accept it."
+
+"But what is it, pray?" asked Nicholl, with visible incredulity.
+
+"Patience," answered Ardan; "I can only communicate it in Barbicane's
+presence."
+
+"Let us look for him, then," cried the captain.
+
+The three men immediately set out; the captain, having discharged his
+rifle, threw it on his shoulder and walked on in silence.
+
+During another half-hour the search was in vain. Maston was seized with
+a sinister presentiment. He observed Captain Nicholl closely, asking
+himself if, once the captain's vengeance satisfied, the unfortunate
+Barbicane had not been left lying in some bloody thicket. Michel Ardan
+seemed to have the same thought, and they were both looking
+questioningly at Captain Nicholl when Maston suddenly stopped.
+
+The motionless bust of a man leaning against a gigantic catalpa appeared
+twenty feet off half hidden in the grass.
+
+"It is he!" said Maston.
+
+Barbicane did not move. Ardan stared at the captain, but he did not
+wince. Ardan rushed forward, crying--
+
+"Barbicane! Barbicane!"
+
+No answer. Ardan was about to seize his arm; he stopped short, uttering
+a cry of surprise.
+
+Barbicane, with a pencil in his hand, was tracing geometrical figures
+upon a memorandum-book, whilst his unloaded gun lay on the ground.
+
+Absorbed in his work, the _savant_, forgetting in his turn his duel and
+his vengeance, had neither seen nor heard anything.
+
+But when Michel Ardan placed his hand on that of the president, he got
+up and looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"Ah!" cried he at last; "you here! I have found it, my friend, I have
+found it!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The way to do it."
+
+"The way to do what?"
+
+"To counteract the effect of the shock at the departure of the
+projectile."
+
+"Really?" said Michel, looking at the captain out of the corner of his
+eye.
+
+"Yes, water! simply water, which will act as a spring. Ah, Maston!"
+cried Barbicane, "you too!"
+
+"Himself," answered Michel Ardan; "and allow me to introduce at the same
+time the worthy Captain Nicholl."
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Barbicane, up in a moment. "Excuse me, captain," said
+he; "I had forgotten. I am ready."
+
+Michel Ardan interfered before the two enemies had time to recriminate.
+
+"Faith," said he, "it is fortunate that brave fellows like you did not
+meet sooner. We should now have to mourn for one or other of you; but,
+thanks to God, who has prevented it, there is nothing more to fear. When
+one forgets his hatred to plunge into mechanical problems and the other
+to play tricks on spiders, their hatred cannot be dangerous to anybody."
+
+And Michel Ardan related the captain's story to the president.
+
+"I ask you now," said he as he concluded, "if two good beings like you
+were made to break each other's heads with gunshots?"
+
+There was in this rather ridiculous situation something so unexpected,
+that Barbicane and Nicholl did not know how to look at one another.
+Michel Ardan felt this, and resolved to try for a reconciliation.
+
+"My brave friends," said he, smiling in his most fascinating manner, "it
+has all been a mistake between you, nothing more. Well, to prove that
+all is ended between you, and as you are men who risk your lives,
+frankly accept the proposition that I am going to make to you."
+
+"Speak," said Nicholl.
+
+"Friend Barbicane believes that his projectile will go straight to the
+moon."
+
+"Yes, certainly," replied the president.
+
+"And friend Nicholl is persuaded that it will fall back on the earth."
+
+"I am certain of it," cried the captain.
+
+"Good," resumed Michel Ardan. "I do not pretend to make you agree; all I
+say to you is, 'Come with me, and see if we shall stop on the road.'"
+
+"What?" said J.T. Maston, stupefied.
+
+The two rivals at this sudden proposition had raised their eyes and
+looked at each other attentively. Barbicane waited for Captain Nicholl's
+answer; Nicholl awaited the president's reply.
+
+"Well," said Michel in his most engaging tone, "as there is now no shock
+to fear----"
+
+"Accepted!" cried Barbicane.
+
+But although this word was uttered very quickly, Nicholl had finished it
+at the same time.
+
+"Hurrah! bravo!" cried Michel Ardan, holding out his hands to the two
+adversaries. "And now that the affair is arranged, my friends, allow me
+to treat you French fashion. _Allons déjeuner_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+That day all America heard about the duel and its singular termination.
+The part played by the chivalrous European, his unexpected proposition
+which solved the difficulty, the simultaneous acceptation of the two
+rivals, that conquest of the lunar continent to which France and the
+United States were going to march in concert--everything tended to
+increase Michel Ardan's popularity. It is well known how enthusiastic
+the Yankees will get about an individual. In a country where grave
+magistrates harness themselves to a dancer's carriage and draw it in
+triumph, it may be judged how the bold Frenchman was treated. If they
+did not take out his horses it was probably because he had none, but all
+other marks of enthusiasm were showered upon him. There was no citizen
+who did not join him heart and mind:--_Ex pluribus unam_, according to
+the motto of the United States.
+
+From that day Michel Ardan had not a minute's rest. Deputations from all
+parts of the Union worried him incessantly. He was forced to receive
+them whether he would or no. The hands he shook could not be counted; he
+was soon completely worn out, his voice became hoarse in consequence of
+his innumerable speeches, and only escaped from his lips in
+unintelligible sounds, and he nearly caught a gastro-enterite after the
+toasts he proposed to the Union. This success would have intoxicated
+another man from the first, but he managed to stay in a _spirituelle_
+and charming demi-inebriety.
+
+Amongst the deputations of every sort that assailed him, that of the
+"Lunatics" did not forget what they owed to the future conqueror of the
+moon. One day some of these poor creatures, numerous enough in America,
+went to him and asked to return with him to their native country. Some
+of them pretended to speak "Selenite," and wished to teach it to Michel
+Ardan, who willingly lent himself to their innocent mania, and promised
+to take their messages to their friends in the moon.
+
+"Singular folly!" said he to Barbicane, after having dismissed them;
+"and a folly that often takes possession of men of great intelligence.
+One of our most illustrious _savants_, Arago, told me that many very
+wise and reserved people in their conceptions became much excited and
+gave way to incredible singularities every time the moon occupied them.
+Do you believe in the influence of the moon upon maladies?"
+
+"Very little," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"I do not either, and yet history has preserved some facts that, to say
+the least, are astonishing. Thus in 1693, during an epidemic, people
+perished in the greatest numbers on the 21st of January, during an
+eclipse. The celebrated Bacon fainted during the moon eclipses, and only
+came to himself after its entire emersion. King Charles VI. relapsed six
+times into madness during the year 1399, either at the new or full moon.
+Physicians have ranked epilepsy amongst the maladies that follow the
+phases of the moon. Nervous maladies have often appeared to be
+influenced by it. Mead speaks of a child who had convulsions when the
+moon was in opposition. Gall remarked that insane persons underwent an
+accession of their disorder twice in every month, at the epochs of the
+new and full moon. Lastly, a thousand observations of this sort made
+upon malignant fevers and somnambulism tend to prove that the Queen of
+Night has a mysterious influence upon terrestrial maladies."
+
+"But how? why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan. "Why, the only thing I can tell you is what Arago
+repeated nineteen centuries after Plutarch. Perhaps it is because it is
+not true."
+
+In the height of his triumph Michel Ardan could not escape any of the
+annoyances incidental to a celebrated man. Managers of entertainments
+wished to exhibit him. Barnum offered him a million dollars to show him
+as a curious animal in the different towns of the United States.
+
+Still, though he refused to satisfy public curiosity in that way, his
+portraits went all over the world, and occupied the place of honour in
+albums; proofs were made of all sizes from life size to medallions.
+Every one could possess the hero in all positions--head, bust, standing,
+full-face, profile, three-quarters, back. Fifteen hundred thousand
+copies were taken, and it would have been a fine occasion to get money
+by relics, but he did not profit by it. If he had sold his hairs for a
+dollar apiece there would have remained enough to make his fortune!
+
+To tell the truth, this popularity did not displease him. On the
+contrary, he put himself at the disposition of the public, and
+corresponded with the entire universe. They repeated his witticisms,
+especially those he did not perpetrate.
+
+Not only had he all the men for him, but the women too. What an infinite
+number of good marriages he might have made if he had taken a fancy to
+"settle!" Old maids especially dreamt before his portraits day and
+night.
+
+It is certain that he would have found female companions by hundreds,
+even if he had imposed the condition of following him up into the air.
+Women are intrepid when they are not afraid of everything. But he had no
+intention of transplanting a race of Franco-Americans upon the lunar
+continent, so he refused.
+
+"I do not mean," said he, "to play the part of Adam with a daughter of
+Eve up there. I might meet with serpents!"
+
+As soon as he could withdraw from the joys of triumph, too often
+repeated, he went with his friends to pay a visit to the Columbiad. He
+owed it that. Besides, he was getting very learned in ballistics since
+he had lived with Barbicane, J.T. Maston, and _tutti quanti_. His
+greatest pleasure consisted in repeating to these brave artillerymen
+that they were only amiable and learned murderers. He was always joking
+about it. The day he visited the Columbiad he greatly admired it, and
+went down to the bore of the gigantic mortar that was soon to hurl him
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+"At least," said he, "that cannon will not hurt anybody, which is
+already very astonishing on the part of a cannon. But as to your engines
+that destroy, burn, smash, and kill, don't talk to me about them!"
+
+It is necessary to report here a proposition made by J.T. Maston. When
+the secretary of the Gun Club heard Barbicane and Nicholl accept Michel
+Ardan's proposition he resolved to join them, and make a party of four.
+One day he asked to go. Barbicane, grieved at having to refuse, made him
+understand that the projectile could not carry so many passengers. J.T.
+Maston, in despair, went to Michel Ardan, who advised him to be
+resigned, adding one or two arguments _ad hominem_.
+
+"You see, old fellow," he said to him, "you must not be offended, but
+really, between ourselves, you are too incomplete to present yourself in
+the moon."
+
+"Incomplete!" cried the valiant cripple.
+
+"Yes, my brave friend. Suppose we should meet with inhabitants up there.
+Do you want to give them a sorry idea of what goes on here, teach them
+what war is, show them that we employ the best part of our time in
+devouring each other and breaking arms and limbs, and that upon a globe
+that could feed a hundred thousand millions of inhabitants, and where
+there are hardly twelve hundred millions? Why, my worthy friend, you
+would have us shown to the door!"
+
+"But if you arrive smashed to pieces," replied J.T. Maston, "you will be
+as incomplete as I."
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel Ardan, "but we shall not arrive in pieces."
+
+In fact, a preparatory experiment, tried on the 18th of October, had
+been attended with the best results, and given rise to the most
+legitimate hopes. Barbicane, wishing to know the effect of the shock at
+the moment of the projectile's departure, sent for a 32-inch mortar from
+Pensacola Arsenal. It was installed upon the quay of Hillisboro Harbour,
+in order that the bomb might fall into the sea, and the shock of its
+fall be deadened. He only wished to experiment upon the shock of its
+departure, not that of its arrival.
+
+A hollow projectile was prepared with the greatest care for this curious
+experiment. A thick wadding put upon a network of springs made of the
+best steel lined it inside. It was quite a wadded nest.
+
+"What a pity one can't go in it!" said J.T. Maston, regretting that his
+size did not allow him to make the venture.
+
+Into this charming bomb, which was closed by means of a lid, screwed
+down, they put first a large cat, then a squirrel belonging to the
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, which J.T. Maston was very fond of.
+But they wished to know how this little animal, not likely to be giddy,
+would support this experimental journey.
+
+The mortar was loaded with 160 lbs. of powder and the bomb. It was then
+fired.
+
+The projectile immediately rose with rapidity, described a majestic
+parabola, attained a height of about a thousand feet, and then with a
+graceful curve fell into the waves.
+
+Without losing an instant, a vessel was sent to the spot where it fell;
+skilful divers sank under water and fastened cable-chains to the handles
+of the bomb, which was rapidly hoisted on board. Five minutes had not
+elapsed between the time the animals were shut up and the unscrewing of
+their prison lid.
+
+Ardan, Barbicane, Maston, and Nicholl were upon the vessel, and they
+assisted at the operation with a sentiment of interest easy to
+understand. The bomb was hardly opened before the cat sprang out, rather
+bruised but quite lively, and not looking as if it had just returned
+from an aërial expedition. But nothing, was seen of the squirrel. The
+truth was then discovered. The cat had eaten its travelling companion.
+
+J.T. Maston was very grieved at the loss of his poor squirrel, and
+proposed to inscribe it in the martyrology of science.
+
+However that may be, after this experiment all hesitation and fear were
+at an end; besides, Barbicane's plans were destined further to perfect
+the projectile, and destroy almost entirely the effect of the shock.
+There was nothing more to do but to start.
+
+Two days later Michel Ardan received a message from the President of
+the Union, an honour which he much appreciated.
+
+After the example of his chivalrous countryman, La Fayette, the
+government had bestowed upon him the title of "Citizen of the United
+States of America."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT.
+
+
+After the celebrated Columbiad was completed public interest immediately
+centred upon the projectile, the new vehicle destined to transport the
+three bold adventurers across space. No one had forgotten that in his
+despatch of September 30th Michel Ardan asked for a modification of the
+plans laid out by the members of the committee.
+
+President Barbicane then thought with reason that the form of the
+projectile was of slight importance, for, after crossing the atmosphere
+in a few seconds, it would meet with vacuum. The committee had therefore
+chosen the round form, so that the ball might turn over and over and do
+as it liked. But as soon as it had to be made into a vehicle, that was
+another thing. Michel Ardan did not want to travel squirrel-fashion; he
+wished to go up head up and feet down with as much dignity as in the car
+of a balloon, quicker of course, but without unseemly gambols.
+
+New plans were, therefore, sent to the firm of Breadwill and Co., of
+Albany, with the recommendation to execute them without delay. The
+projectile, thus modified, was cast on the 2nd of November, and sent
+immediately to Stony Hill by the Eastern Railway.
+
+On the 10th it arrived without accident at its place of destination.
+Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl awaited with the most lively
+impatience this "projectile compartment" in which they were to take
+their passage for the discovery of a new world.
+
+It must be acknowledged that it was a magnificent piece of metal, a
+metallurgic production that did the greatest honour to the industrial
+genius of the Americans. It was the first time that aluminium had been
+obtained in so large a mass, which result might be justly regarded as
+prodigious. This precious projectile sparkled in the rays of the sun.
+Seeing it in its imposing shape with its conical top, it might easily
+have been taken for one of those extinguisher-shaped towers that
+architects of the Middle Ages put at the angles of their castles. It
+only wanted loopholes and a weathercock.
+
+"I expect," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "to see a man armed _cap-à-pie_ come
+out of it. We shall be like feudal lords in there; with a little
+artillery we could hold our own against a whole army of Selenites--that
+is, if there are any in the moon!"
+
+"Then the vehicle pleases you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, yes! certainly," answered Michel Ardan, who was examining it as an
+artist. "I only regret that its form is not a little more slender, its
+cone more graceful; it ought to be terminated by a metal group, some
+Gothic ornament, a salamander escaping from it with outspread wings and
+open beak."
+
+"What would be the use?" said Barbicane, whose positive mind was little
+sensitive to the beauties of art.
+
+"Ah, friend Barbicane, I am afraid you will never understand the use, or
+you would not ask!"
+
+"Well, tell me, at all events, my brave companion."
+
+"Well, my friend, I think we ought always to put a little art in all we
+do. Do you know an Indian play called _The Child's Chariot_?"
+
+"Not even by name," answered Barbicane.
+
+"I am not surprised at that," continued Michel Ardan. "Learn, then, that
+in that play there is a robber who, when in the act of piercing the wall
+of a house, stops to consider whether he shall make his hole in the
+shape of a lyre, a flower, or a bird. Well, tell me, friend Barbicane,
+if at that epoch you had been his judge would you have condemned that
+robber?"
+
+"Without hesitation," answered the president of the Gun Club, "and as a
+burglar too."
+
+"Well, I should have acquitted him, friend Barbicane. That is why you
+could never understand me."
+
+"I will not even try, my valiant artist."
+
+"But, at least," continued Michel Ardan, "as the exterior of our
+projectile compartment leaves much to be desired, I shall be allowed to
+furnish the inside as I choose, and with all luxury suitable to
+ambassadors from the earth."
+
+"About that, my brave Michel," answered Barbicane, "you can do entirely
+as you please."
+
+But before passing to the agreeable the president of the Gun Club had
+thought of the useful, and the means he had invented for lessening the
+effects of the shock were applied with perfect intelligence.
+
+Barbicane had said to himself, not unreasonably, that no spring would be
+sufficiently powerful to deaden the shock, and during his famous
+promenade in Skersnaw Wood he had ended by solving this great difficulty
+in an ingenious fashion. He depended upon water to render him this
+signal service. This is how:--
+
+The projectile was to be filled to the depth of three feet with water
+destined to support a water-tight wooden disc, which easily worked
+within the walls of the projectile. It was upon this raft that the
+travellers were to take their place. As to the liquid mass, it was
+divided by horizontal partitions which the departing shock would
+successively break; then each sheet of water, from the lowest to the
+highest, escaping by valves in the upper part of the projectile, thus
+making a spring, and the disc, itself furnished with extremely powerful
+buffers, could not strike the bottom until it had successively broken
+the different partitions. The travellers would doubtless feel a violent
+recoil after the complete escape of the liquid mass, but the first shock
+would be almost entirely deadened by so powerful a spring.
+
+It is true that three feet on a surface of 541 square feet would weigh
+nearly 11,500 lbs; but the escape of gas accumulated in the Columbiad
+would suffice, Barbicane thought to conquer that increase of weight;
+besides, the shock would send out all that water in less than a second,
+and the projectile would soon regain its normal weight.
+
+This is what the president of the Gun Club had imagined, and how he
+thought he had solved the great question of the recoil. This work,
+intelligently comprehended by the engineers of the Breadwill firm, was
+marvellously executed; the effect once produced and the water gone, the
+travellers could easily get rid of the broken partitions and take away
+the mobile disc that bore them at the moment of departure.
+
+As to the upper sides of the projectile, they were lined with a thick
+wadding of leather, put upon the best steel springs as supple as
+watch-springs. The escape-pipes hidden under this wadding were not even
+seen.
+
+All imaginable precautions for deadening the first shock having been
+taken, Michel Ardan said they must be made of "very bad stuff" to be
+crushed.
+
+The projectile outside was nine feet wide and twelve feet high. In order
+not to pass the weight assigned the sides had been made a little less
+thick and the bottom thicker, as it would have to support all the
+violence of the gases developed by the deflagration of the pyroxyle.
+Bombs and cylindro-conical howitzers are always made with thicker
+bottoms.
+
+The entrance to this tower of metal was a narrow opening in the wall of
+the cone, like the "man-hole" of steam boilers. It closed hermetically
+by means of an aluminium plate fastened inside by powerful screw
+pressure. The travellers could therefore leave their mobile prison at
+will as soon as they had reached the Queen of Night.
+
+But going was not everything; it was necessary to see on the road.
+Nothing was easier. In fact, under the wadding were four thick
+lenticular footlights, two let into the circular wall of the projectile,
+the third in its lower part, and the fourth in its cone. The travellers
+could, therefore, observe during their journey the earth they were
+leaving, the moon they were approaching, and the constellated spaces of
+the sky. These skylights were protected against the shocks of departure
+by plates let into solid grooves, which it was easy to move by
+unscrewing them. By that means the air contained in the projectile could
+not escape, and it was possible to make observations.
+
+All these mechanical appliances, admirably set, worked with the greatest
+ease, and the engineers had not shown themselves less intelligent in the
+arrangement of the projectile compartment.
+
+Lockers solidly fastened were destined to contain the water and
+provisions necessary for the three travellers; they could even procure
+themselves fire and light by means of gas stored up in a special case
+under a pressure of several atmospheres. All they had to do was to turn
+a tap, and the gas would light and warm this comfortable vehicle for six
+days. It will be seen that none of the things essential to life, or even
+to comfort, were wanting. More, thanks to the instincts of Michel Ardan,
+the agreeable was joined to the useful under the form of objects of art;
+he would have made a veritable artist's studio of his projectile if room
+had not been wanting. It would be mistaken to suppose that three persons
+would be restricted for space in that metal tower. It had a surface of
+54 square feet, and was nearly 10 feet high, and allowed its occupiers a
+certain liberty of movement. They would not have been so much at their
+ease in the most comfortable railway compartment of the United States.
+
+The question of provisions and lighting having been solved, there
+remained the question of air. It was evident that the air confined in
+the projectile would not be sufficient for the travellers' respiration
+for four days; each man, in fact, consumes in one hour all the oxygen
+contained in 100 litres of air. Barbicane, his two companions, and two
+dogs that he meant to take, would consume every twenty-four hours 2,400
+litres of oxygen, or a weight equal to 7 lbs. The air in the projectile
+must, therefore, be renewed. How? By a very simple method, that of
+Messrs. Reiset and Regnault, indicated by Michel Ardan during the
+discussion of the meeting.
+
+It is known that the air is composed principally of twenty-one parts of
+oxygen and seventy-nine parts of azote. Now what happens in the act of
+respiration? A very simple phenomenon, Man absorbs the oxygen of the
+air, eminently adapted for sustaining life, and throws out the azote
+intact. The air breathed out has lost nearly five per cent, of its
+oxygen, and then contains a nearly equal volume of carbonic acid, the
+definitive product of the combustion of the elements of the blood by the
+oxygen breathed in it. It happens, therefore, that in a confined space
+and after a certain time all the oxygen of the air is replaced by
+carbonic acid, an essentially deleterious gas.
+
+The question was then reduced to this, the azote being conserved
+intact--1. To remake the oxygen absorbed; 2. To destroy the carbonic
+acid breathed out. Nothing easier to do by means of chlorate of potash
+and caustic potash. The former is a salt which appears under the form of
+white crystals; when heated to a temperature of 400° it is transformed
+into chlorine of potassium, and the oxygen which it contains is given
+off freely. Now 18 lbs. of chlorate of potash give 7 lbs of oxygen--that
+is to say, the quantity necessary to the travellers for twenty-four
+hours.
+
+As to caustic potash, it has a great affinity for carbonic acid mixed in
+air, and it is sufficient to shake it in order for it to seize upon the
+acid and form bicarbonate of potash. So much for the absorption of
+carbonic acid.
+
+By combining these two methods they were certain of giving back to
+vitiated air all its life-giving qualities. The two chemists, Messrs.
+Reiset and Regnault, had made the experiment with success.
+
+But it must be said the experiment had only been made _in anima vili_.
+Whatever its scientific accuracy might be, no one knew how man could
+bear it.
+
+Such was the observation made at the meeting where this grave question
+was discussed. Michel Ardan meant to leave no doubt about the
+possibility of living by means of this artificial air, and he offered to
+make the trial before the departure.
+
+But the honour of putting it to the proof was energetically claimed by
+J.T. Maston.
+
+"As I am not going with you," said the brave artilleryman, "the least I
+can do will be to live in the projectile for a week."
+
+It would have been ungracious to refuse him. His wish was complied with.
+A sufficient quantity of chlorate of potash and caustic potash was
+placed at his disposition, with provisions for a week; then having
+shaken hands with his friends, on the 12th of November at 6 a.m., after
+having expressly recommended them not to open his prison before the 20th
+at 6 p.m., he crept into the projectile, the iron plate of which was
+hermetically shut.
+
+What happened during that week? It was impossible to ascertain. The
+thickness of the projectile's walls prevented any interior noise from
+reaching the outside.
+
+On the 20th of November, at six o'clock precisely, the plate was
+removed; the friends of J.T. Maston were rather uneasy. But they were
+promptly reassured by hearing a joyful voice shouting a formidable
+hurrah!
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club appeared on the summit of the cone in a
+triumphant attitude.
+
+He had grown fat!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+On the 20th of October of the preceding year, after the subscription
+list was closed, the president of the Gun Club had credited the
+Cambridge Observatory with the sums necessary for the construction of a
+vast optical instrument. This telescope was to be powerful enough to
+render visible on the surface of the moon an object being at least nine
+feet wide.
+
+There is an important difference between a field-glass and a telescope,
+which it is well to recall here. A field-glass is composed of a tube
+which carries at its upper extremity a convex glass called an
+object-glass, and at its lower extremity a second glass called ocular,
+to which the eye of the observer is applied. The rays from the luminous
+object traverse the first glass, and by refraction form an image upside
+down at its focus. This image is looked at with the ocular, which
+magnifies it. The tube of the field-glass is, therefore, closed at each
+extremity by the object and the ocular glasses.
+
+The telescope, on the contrary, is open at its upper extremity. The rays
+from the object observed penetrate freely into it, and strike a concave
+metallic mirror--that is to say, they are focussed. From thence their
+reflected rays meet with a little mirror, which sends them back to the
+ocular in such a way as to magnify the image produced.
+
+Thus in field-glasses refraction plays the principal part, and
+reflection does in the telescope. Hence the name of refractors given to
+the former, and reflectors given to the latter. All the difficulty in
+the execution of these optical instruments lies in the making of the
+object-glass, whether they be made of glass or metallic mirrors.
+
+Still at the epoch when the Gun Club made its great experiment these
+instruments were singularly perfected and gave magnificent results. The
+time was far distant when Galileo observed the stars with his poor
+glass, which magnified seven times at the most. Since the 16th century
+optical instruments had widened and lengthened in considerable
+proportions, and they allowed the stellar spaces to be gauged to a depth
+unknown before. Amongst the refracting instruments at work at that
+period were the glass of the Poulkowa Observatory in Russia, the
+object-glass of which measured 15 inches in width, that of the French
+optician Lerebours, furnished with an object-glass equally large, and
+lastly that of the Cambridge Observatory, furnished with an object-glass
+19 inches in diameter.
+
+Amongst telescopes, two were known of remarkable power and gigantic
+dimensions. The first, constructed by Herschel, was 36 feet in length,
+and had an object-glass of 4 feet 6 inches; it magnified 6,000 times;
+the second, raised in Ireland, at Birrcastle, in Parsonstown Park,
+belonged to Lord Rosse; the length of its tube was 48 feet and the width
+of its mirror 6 feet; it magnified 6,400 times, and it had required an
+immense erection of masonry on which to place the apparatus necessary
+for working the instrument, which weighed 12-1/2 tons.
+
+But it will be seen that notwithstanding these colossal dimensions the
+magnifying power obtained did not exceed 6,000 times in round numbers;
+now that power would only bring the moon within 39 miles, and would only
+allow objects 60 feet in diameter to be perceived unless these objects
+were very elongated.
+
+Now in space they had to deal with a projectile 9 feet wide and 15 long,
+so the moon had to be brought within five miles at least, and for that a
+magnifying power of 48,000 times was necessary.
+
+Such was the problem propounded to the Cambridge Observatory. They were
+not to be stopped by financial difficulties, so there only remained
+material difficulties.
+
+First of all they had to choose between telescopes and field-glasses.
+The latter had some advantages. With equal object-glasses they have a
+greater magnifying power, because the luminous rays that traverse the
+glasses lose less by absorption than the reflection on the metallic
+mirror of telescopes; but the thickness that can be given to glass is
+limited, for too thick it does not allow the luminous rays to pass.
+Besides, the construction of these vast glasses is excessively
+difficult, and demands a considerable time, measured by years.
+
+Therefore, although images are better given by glasses, an inappreciable
+advantage when the question is to observe the moon, the light of which
+is simply reflected they decided to employ the telescope, which is
+prompter in execution and is capable of a greater magnifying power; only
+as the luminous rays lose much of their intensity by traversing the
+atmosphere, the Gun Club resolved to set up the instrument on one of the
+highest mountains of the Union, which would diminish the depth of the
+aërial strata.
+
+In telescopes it has been seen that the glass placed at the observer's
+eye produces the magnifying power, and the object-glass which bears this
+power the best is the one that has the largest diameter and the greatest
+focal distance. In order to magnify 48,000 times it must be much larger
+than those of Herschel and Lord Rosse. There lay the difficulty, for the
+casting of these mirrors is a very delicate operation.
+
+Happily, some years before a _savant_ of the _Institut de France_, Léon
+Foucault, had just invented means by which the polishing of
+object-glasses became very prompt and easy by replacing the metallic
+mirror by taking a piece of glass the size required and plating it.
+
+It was to be fixed according to the method invented by Herschel for
+telescopes. In the great instrument of the astronomer at Slough, the
+image of objects reflected by the mirror inclined at the bottom of the
+tube was formed at the other extremity where the eyeglass was placed.
+Thus the observer, instead of being placed at the lower end of the tube,
+was hoisted to the upper end, and there with his eyeglass he looked down
+into the enormous cylinder. This combination had the advantage of doing
+away with the little mirror destined to send back the image to the
+ocular glass, which thus only reflected once instead of twice; therefore
+there were fewer luminous rays extinguished, the image was less feeble,
+and more light was obtained, a precious advantage in the observation
+that was to be made.
+
+This being resolved upon, the work was begun. According to the
+calculations of the Cambridge Observatory staff, the tube of the new
+reflector was to be 280 feet long and its mirror 16 feet in diameter.
+Although it was so colossal it was not comparable to the telescope
+10,000 feet long which the astronomer Hooke proposed to construct some
+years ago. Nevertheless the setting up of such an apparatus presented
+great difficulties.
+
+The question of its site was promptly settled. It must be upon a high
+mountain, and high mountains are not numerous in the States.
+
+In fact, the orographical system of this great country only contains two
+chains of average height, amongst which flows the magnificent
+Mississippi, which the Americans would call the "king of rivers" if they
+admitted any royalty whatever.
+
+On the east rise the Apalachians, the very highest point of which, in
+New Hampshire, does not exceed the very moderate altitude of 5,600 feet.
+
+On the west are, however, the Rocky Mountains, that immense chain which
+begins at the Straits of Magellan, follows the west coast of South
+America under the name of the Andes or Cordilleras, crosses the Isthmus
+of Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to the very shores of
+the Polar Sea.
+
+These mountains are not very high, and the Alps or Himalayas would look
+down upon them with disdain. In fact, their highest summit is only
+10,701 feet high, whilst Mont Blanc is 14,439, and the highest summit of
+the Himalayas is 26,776 feet above the level of the sea.
+
+But as the Gun Club wished that its telescope, as well as the Columbiad,
+should be set up in the States of the Union, they were obliged to be
+content with the Rocky Mountains, and all the necessary material was
+sent to the summit of Long's Peak in the territory of Missouri.
+
+Neither pen nor language could relate the difficulties of every kind
+that the American engineers had to overcome, and the prodigies of
+audacity and skill that they accomplished. Enormous stones, massive
+pieces of wrought-iron, heavy corner-clamps, and huge portions of
+cylinder had to be raised with an object-glass, weighing nearly 30,000
+lbs., above the line of perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in
+height, after crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful
+rapids far from all centres of population, and in the midst of savage
+regions in which every detail of life becomes an insoluble problem, and,
+nevertheless, American genius triumphed over all these obstacles. Less
+than a year after beginning the works in the last days of the month of
+September, the gigantic reflector rose in the air to a height of 280
+feet. It was hung from an enormous iron scaffolding; an ingenious
+arrangement allowed it to be easily moved towards every point of the
+sky, and to follow the stars from one horizon to the other during their
+journey across space.
+
+It had cost more than 400,000 dollars. The first time it was pointed at
+the moon the observers felt both curious and uneasy. What would they
+discover in the field of this telescope which magnified objects 48,000
+times? Populations, flocks of lunar animals, towns, lakes, and oceans?
+No, nothing that science was not already acquainted with, and upon all
+points of her disc the volcanic nature of the moon could be determined
+with absolute precision.
+
+But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before being used by the Gun
+Club, rendered immense services to astronomy. Thanks to its power of
+penetration, the depths of the sky were explored to their utmost limits,
+the apparent diameter of a great number of stars could be rigorously
+measured, and Mr. Clarke, of the Cambridge staff, resolved the Crab
+nebula in Taurus, which Lord Rosse's reflector had never been able to
+do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+FINAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It was the 22nd of November. The supreme departure was to take place ten
+days later. One operation still remained to bring it to a happy
+termination, a delicate and perilous operation exacting infinite
+precautions, and against the success of which Captain Nicholl had laid
+his third bet. It was, in fact, nothing less than the loading of the gun
+and the introduction into it of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. Nicholl had
+thought, not without reason, perhaps, that the handling of so large a
+quantity of pyroxyle would cause grave catastrophes, and that in any
+case this eminently explosive mass would ignite of itself under the
+pressure of the projectile.
+
+There were also grave dangers increased by the carelessness of the
+Americans, who, during the Federal war, used to load their cannon cigar
+in mouth. But Barbicane had set his heart on succeeding, and did not
+mean to founder in port; he therefore chose his best workmen, made them
+work under his superintendence, and by dint of prudence and precautions
+he managed to put all the chances of success on his side.
+
+First he took care not to bring all his charge at once to the inclosure
+of Stony Hill. He had it brought little by little carefully packed in
+sealed cases. The 400,000 lbs. of pyroxyle had been divided into packets
+of 500 lbs., which made 800 large cartridges made carefully by the
+cleverest artisans of Pensacola. Each case contained ten, and they
+arrived one after the other by the railroad of Tampa Town; by that means
+there were never more than 500 lbs. of pyroxyle at once in the
+inclosure. As soon as it arrived each case was unloaded by workmen
+walking barefoot, and each cartridge transported to the orifice of the
+Columbiad, into which they lowered them by means of cranes worked by the
+men. Every steam-engine had been excluded, and the least fires
+extinguished for two miles round. Even in November it was necessary to
+preserve this gun-cotton from the ardour of the sun. So they worked at
+night by light produced in a vacuum by means of Rühmkorff's apparatus,
+which threw an artificial brightness into the depths of the Columbiad.
+There the cartridges were arranged with the utmost regularity, fastened
+together by a wire destined to communicate the electric spark to them
+all simultaneously.
+
+In fact, it was by means of electricity that fire was to be set to this
+mass of gun-cotton. All these single wires, surrounded by isolating
+material, were rolled into a single one at a narrow hole pierced at the
+height the projectile was to be placed; there they crossed the thick
+metal wall and came up to the surface by one of the vent-holes in the
+masonry made on purpose. Once arrived at the summit of Stony Hill, the
+wire supported on poles for a distance of two miles met a powerful pile
+of Bunsen passing through a non-conducting apparatus. It would,
+therefore, be enough to press with the finger the knob of the apparatus
+for the electric current to be at once established, and to set fire to
+the 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. It is hardly necessary to say that this
+was only to be done at the last moment.
+
+On the 28th of November the 800 cartridges were placed at the bottom of
+the Columbiad. That part of the operation had succeeded. But what worry,
+anxiety, and struggles President Barbicane had to undergo! In vain had
+he forbidden entrance to Stony Hill; every day curious sightseers
+climbed over the palisading, and some, pushing imprudence to folly, came
+and smoked amongst the bales of gun-cotton. Barbicane put himself into
+daily rages. J.T. Maston seconded him to the best of his ability,
+chasing the intruders away and picking up the still-lighted cigar-ends
+which the Yankees threw about--a rude task, for more than 300,000 people
+pressed round the palisades. Michel Ardan had offered himself to escort
+the cases to the mouth of the gun, but having caught him with a cigar in
+his mouth whilst he drove out the intruders to whom he was giving this
+unfortunate example, the president of the Gun Club saw that he could not
+depend upon this intrepid smoker, and was obliged to have him specially
+watched.
+
+At last, there being a Providence even for artillerymen, nothing blew
+up, and the loading was happily terminated. The third bet of Captain
+Nicholl was therefore much imperilled. There still remained the work of
+introducing the projectile into the Columbiad and placing it on the
+thick bed of gun-cotton.
+
+But before beginning this operation the objects necessary for the
+journey were placed with order in the waggon-compartment. There were a
+good many of them, and if they had allowed Michel Ardan to do as he
+pleased he would soon have filled up all the space reserved for the
+travellers. No one can imagine all that the amiable Frenchman wished to
+carry to the moon--a heap of useless trifles. But Barbicane interfered,
+and refused all but the strictly necessary.
+
+Several thermometers, barometers, and telescopes were placed in the
+instrument-case.
+
+The travellers were desirous of examining the moon during their transit,
+and in order to facilitate the survey of this new world they took an
+excellent map by Boeer and Moedler, the _Mappa Selenographica_,
+published in four plates, which is justly looked upon as a masterpiece
+of patience and observation. It represented with scrupulous exactitude
+the slightest details of that portion of the moon turned towards the
+earth. Mountains, valleys, craters, peaks, watersheds, were depicted on
+it in their exact dimensions, faithful positions, and names, from Mounts
+Doerfel and Leibnitz, whose highest summits rise on the eastern side of
+the disc, to the _Mare Frigoris_, which extends into the North Polar
+regions.
+
+It was, therefore, a precious document for the travellers, for they
+could study the country before setting foot upon it.
+
+They took also three rifles and three fowling-pieces with powder and
+shot in great quantity.
+
+"We do not know with whom we may have to deal," said Michel Ardan. "Both
+men and beasts may be displeased at our visit; we must, therefore, take
+our precautions."
+
+The instruments of personal defence were accompanied by pickaxes,
+spades, saws, and other indispensable tools, without mentioning garments
+suitable to every temperature, from the cold of the polar regions to the
+heat of the torrid zone.
+
+Michel Ardan would have liked to take a certain number of animals of
+different sorts, not male and female of every species, as he did not see
+the necessity of acclimatising serpents, tigers, alligators, or any
+other noxious beasts in the moon.
+
+"No," said he to Barbicane, "but some useful animals, ox or cow, ass or
+horse, would look well in the landscape and be of great use."
+
+"I agree with you, my dear Ardan," answered the president of the Gun
+Club; "but our projectile is not Noah's Ark. It differs both in
+dimensions and object, so let us remain in the bounds of possibility."
+
+At last after long discussions it was agreed that the travellers should
+be content to take with them an excellent sporting dog belonging to
+Nicholl and a vigorous Newfoundland of prodigious strength. Several
+cases of the most useful seeds were included amongst the indispensable
+objects. If they had allowed him, Michel Ardan would have taken several
+sacks of earth to sow them in. Any way he took a dozen little trees,
+which were carefully enveloped in straw and placed in a corner of the
+projectile.
+
+Then remained the important question of provisions, for they were
+obliged to provide against finding the moon absolutely barren. Barbicane
+managed so well that he took enough for a year. But it must be added, to
+prevent astonishment, that these provisions consisted of meat and
+vegetable compressed to their smallest volume by hydraulic pressure, and
+included a great quantity of nutritive elements; there was not much
+variety, but it would not do to be too particular in such an expedition.
+There was also about fifty gallons of brandy and water for two months
+only, for, according to the latest observations of astronomers, no one
+doubted the presence of a large quantity of water in the moon. As to
+provisions, it would have been insane to believe that the inhabitants of
+the earth would not find food up there. Michel Ardan had no doubt about
+it. If he had he would not have gone.
+
+"Besides," said he one day to his friends, "we shall not be completely
+abandoned by our friends on earth, and they will take care not to forget
+us."
+
+"No, certainly," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing more simple," answered Ardan. "Will not our Columbiad be still
+there? Well, then, every time that the moon is in favourable conditions
+of zenith, if not of perigee--that is to say, about once a year--could
+they not send us a projectile loaded with provisions which we should
+expect by a fixed date?"
+
+"Hurrah!" cried J.T. Maston. "That is not at all a bad idea. Certainly
+we will not forget you."
+
+"I depend upon you. Thus you see we shall have news regularly from the
+globe, and for our part we shall be very awkward if we do not find means
+to communicate with our good friends on earth."
+
+These words inspired such confidence that Michel Ardan with his superb
+assurance would have carried the whole Gun Club with him. What he said
+seemed simple, elementary, and sure of success, and it would have been
+sordid attachment to this earth to hesitate to follow the three
+travellers upon their lunar expedition.
+
+When the different objects were placed in the projectile the water was
+introduced between the partitions and the gas for lighting purposes laid
+in. Barbicane took enough chlorate of potash and caustic potash for two
+months, as he feared unforeseen delay. An extremely ingenious machine
+working automatically put the elements for good air in motion. The
+projectile, therefore, was ready, and the only thing left to do was to
+lower it into the gun, an operation full of perils and difficulty.
+
+The enormous projectile was taken to the summit of Stony Hill. There
+enormous cranes seized it and held it suspended over the metal well.
+
+This was an anxious moment. If the chains were to break under the
+enormous weight the fall of such a mass would inevitably ignite the
+gun-cotton.
+
+Happily nothing of the sort happened, and a few hours afterwards the
+projectile-compartment rested on its pyroxyle bed, a veritable
+fulminating pillow. The only effect of its pressure was to ram the
+charge of the gun more strongly.
+
+"I have lost," said the captain, handing the sum of 3,000 dollars to
+President Barbicane.
+
+Barbicane did not wish to receive this money from his travelling
+companion, but he was obliged to give way to Nicholl, who wished to
+fulfil all his engagements before leaving the earth.
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "there is but one thing I wish for you now,
+captain."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is that you may lose your other two wagers. By that means we shall
+be sure not to be stopped on the road."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+FIRE!
+
+
+The 1st of December came, the fatal day, for if the projectile did not
+start that very evening at 10h. 46m. and 40s. p.m., more than eighteen
+years would elapse before the moon would present the same simultaneous
+conditions of zenith and perigee.
+
+The weather was magnificent; notwithstanding the approach of winter the
+sun shone brightly and bathed in its radiance that earth which three of
+its inhabitants were about to leave for a new world.
+
+How many people slept badly during the night that preceded the
+ardently-longed-for day! How many breasts were oppressed with the heavy
+burden of waiting! All hearts beat with anxiety except only the heart of
+Michel Ardan. This impassible person went and came in his usual
+business-like way, but nothing in him denoted any unusual preoccupation.
+His sleep had been peaceful--it was the sleep of Turenne upon a
+gun-carriage the night before the battle.
+
+From early dawn an innumerable crowd covered the prairie, which extended
+as far as the eye could reach round Stony Hill. Every quarter of an hour
+the railroad of Tampa brought fresh sightseers. According to the _Tampa
+Town Observer_, five millions of spectators were that day upon Floridian
+soil.
+
+The greater part of this crowd had been living in tents round the
+inclosure, and laid the foundations of a town which has since been
+called "Ardan's Town." The ground bristled with huts, cabins, and tents,
+and these ephemeral habitations sheltered a population numerous enough
+to rival the largest cities of Europe.
+
+Every nation upon earth was represented; every language was spoken at
+the same time. It was like the confusion of tongues at the Tower of
+Babel. There the different classes of American society mixed in absolute
+equality. Bankers, cultivators, sailors, agents, merchants,
+cotton-planters, and magistrates elbowed each other with primitive ease.
+The creoles of Louisiana fraternised with the farmers of Indiana; the
+gentlemen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the elegant and haughty Virginians,
+joked with the half-savage trappers of the Lakes and the butchers of
+Cincinnati. They appeared in broad-brimmed white beavers and Panamas,
+blue cotton trousers, from the Opelousa manufactories, draped in elegant
+blouses of écru cloth, in boots of brilliant colours, and extravagant
+shirt-frills; upon shirt-fronts, cuffs, cravats, on their ten fingers,
+even in their ears, an assortment of rings, pins, diamonds, chains,
+buckles, and trinkets, the cost of which equalled the bad taste. Wife,
+children, servants, in no less rich dress, accompanied, followed,
+preceded, and surrounded their husbands, fathers, and masters, who
+resembled the patriarchs amidst their innumerable families.
+
+At meal-times it was a sight to see all these people devour the dishes
+peculiar to the Southern States, and eat, with an appetite menacing to
+the provisioning of Florida, the food that would be repugnant to a
+European stomach, such as fricasseed frogs, monkey-flesh, fish-chowder,
+underdone opossum, and raccoon steaks.
+
+The liquors that accompanied this indigestible food were numerous.
+Shouts and vociferations to buy resounded through the bar-rooms or
+taverns, decorated with glasses, tankards, decanters, and bottles of
+marvellous shapes, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws.
+
+"Mint-julep!" roars out one of the salesmen.
+
+"Claret sangaree!" shouts another through his nose.
+
+"Gin-sling!" shouts one.
+
+"Cocktail! Brandy-smash!" cries another.
+
+"Who'll buy real mint-julep in the latest style?" shouted these skilful
+salesmen, rapidly passing from one glass to another the sugar, lemon,
+green mint, crushed ice, water, cognac, and fresh pine-apple which
+compose this refreshing drink.
+
+Generally these sounds, addressed to throats made thirsty by the spices
+they consumed, mingled into one deafening roar. But on this 1st of
+December these cries were rare. No one thought of eating and drinking,
+and at 4 p.m. there were many spectators in the crowd who had not taken
+their customary lunch! A much more significant fact, even the national
+passion for gaming was allayed by the general emotion. Thimbles,
+skittles, and cards were left in their wrappings, and testified that the
+great event of the day absorbed all attention.
+
+Until nightfall a dull, noiseless agitation like that which precedes
+great catastrophes ran through the anxious crowd. An indescribable
+uneasiness oppressed all minds, and stopped the beating of all hearts.
+Every one wished it over.
+
+However, about seven o'clock this heavy silence was suddenly broken. The
+moon rose above the horizon. Several millions of hurrahs saluted her
+apparition. She was punctual to the appointment. Shouts of welcome broke
+from all parts, whilst the blonde Phoebe shone peacefully in a clear
+sky, and caressed the enraptured crowd with her most affectionate rays.
+
+At that moment the three intrepid travellers appeared. When they
+appeared the cries redoubled in intensity. Unanimously, instantaneously,
+the national song of the United States escaped from all the spectators,
+and "Yankee Doodle," sung by 5,000,000 of hearty throats, rose like a
+roaring tempest to the farthest limits of the atmosphere.
+
+Then, after this irresistible outburst, the hymn was ended, the last
+harmonies died away by degrees, and a silent murmur floated over the
+profoundly-excited crowd.
+
+In the meantime the Frenchman and the two Americans had stepped into the
+inclosure round which the crowd was pressing. They were accompanied by
+the members of the Gun Club, and deputations sent by the European
+observatories. Barbicane was coolly and calmly giving his last orders.
+Nicholl, with compressed lips and hands crossed behind his back, walked
+with a firm and measured step. Michel Ardan, always at his ease, clothed
+in a perfect travelling suit, with leather gaiters on his legs, pouch at
+his side, in vast garment of maroon velvet, a cigar in his mouth,
+distributed shakes of the hand with princely prodigality. He was full of
+inexhaustible gaiety, laughing, joking, playing pranks upon the worthy
+J.T. Maston, and was, in a word, "French," and, what is worse,
+"Parisian," till the last second.
+
+Ten o'clock struck. The moment had come to take their places in the
+projectile; the necessary mechanism for the descent the door-plate to
+screw down, the removal of the cranes and scaffolding hung over the
+mouth of the Columbiad, took some time.
+
+Barbicane had set his chronometer to the tenth of a second by that of
+the engineer Murchison, who was entrusted with setting fire to the
+powder by means of the electric spark; the travellers shut up in the
+projectile could thus watch the impassive needle which was going to mark
+the precise instant of their departure.
+
+The moment for saying farewell had come. The scene was touching; in
+spite of his gaiety Michel Ardan felt touched. J.T. Maston had found
+under his dry eyelids an ancient tear that he had, doubtless, kept for
+the occasion. He shed it upon the forehead of his dear president.
+
+"Suppose I go too?" said he. "There is still time!"
+
+"Impossible, old fellow," answered Barbicane.
+
+A few moments later the three travelling companions were installed in
+the projectile, and had screwed down the door-plate, and the mouth of
+the Columbiad, entirely liberated, rose freely towards the sky.
+
+Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan were definitively walled up in
+their metal vehicle.
+
+Who could predict the universal emotion then at its paroxysm?
+
+The moon was rising in a firmament of limpid purity, outshining on her
+passage the twinkling fire of the stars; she passed over the
+constellation of the Twins, and was now nearly halfway between the
+horizon and the zenith.
+
+A frightful silence hung over all that scene. There was not a breath of
+wind on the earth! Not a sound of breathing from the crowd! Hearts dared
+not beat. Every eye was fixed on the gaping mouth of the Columbiad.
+
+Murchison watched the needle of his chronometer. Hardly forty seconds
+had to elapse before the moment of departure struck, and each one lasted
+a century!
+
+At the twentieth there was a universal shudder, and the thought occurred
+to all the crowd that the audacious travellers shut up in the vehicle
+were likewise counting these terrible seconds! Some isolated cries were
+heard.
+
+"Thirty-five!--thirty-six!--thirty-seven!--thirty--eight!--thirty-nine!
+--forty! Fire!!!"
+
+Murchison immediately pressed his finger upon the electric knob and
+hurled the electric spark into the depths of the Columbiad.
+
+A fearful, unheard-of, superhuman report, of which nothing could give
+an idea, not even thunder or the eruption of volcanoes, was immediately
+produced. An immense spout of fire sprang up from the bowels of the
+earth as if from a crater. The soil heaved and very few persons caught a
+glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air amidst the
+flaming smoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+CLOUDY WEATHER.
+
+
+At the moment when the pyramid of flame rose to a prodigious height in
+the air it lighted up the whole of Florida, and for an incalculable
+moment day was substituted for night over a considerable extent of
+country. This immense column of fire was perceived for a hundred miles
+out at sea, from the Gulf and from the Atlantic, and more than one
+ship's captain noted the apparition of this gigantic meteor in his
+log-book.
+
+The discharge of the Columbiad was accompanied by a veritable
+earthquake. Florida was shaken to its very depths. The gases of the
+powder, expanded by heat, forced back the atmospheric strata with
+tremendous violence, passing like a waterspout through the air.
+
+Not one spectator remained on his legs; men, women, and children were
+thrown down like ears of wheat in a storm; there was a terrible tumult,
+and a large number of people were seriously injured. J.T. Maston, who
+had very imprudently kept to the fore, was thrown twenty yards backwards
+like a bullet over the heads of his fellow-citizens. Three hundred
+thousand people were temporarily deafened and as though thunderstruck.
+
+The atmospheric current, after throwing over huts and cabins, uprooting
+trees within a radius of twenty miles, throwing the trains off the
+railway as far as Tampa, burst upon the town like an avalanche and
+destroyed a hundred houses, amongst others the church of St. Mary and
+the new edifice of the Exchange. Some of the vessels in the port were
+run against each other and sunk, and ten of them were stranded high and
+dry after breaking their chains like threads of cotton.
+
+But the circle of these devastations extended farther still, and beyond
+the limits of the United States. The recoil, aided by the westerly
+winds, was felt on the Atlantic at more than 300 miles from the American
+shores. An unexpected tempest, which even Admiral Fitzroy could not have
+foreseen, broke upon the ships with unheard-of violence. Several
+vessels, seized by a sort of whirlwind before they had time to furl
+their sails, were sunk, amongst others the _Childe Harold_, of
+Liverpool, a regrettable catastrophe which was the object of lively
+recriminations.
+
+Lastly--although the fact is not warranted except by the affirmation of
+a few natives--half-an-hour after the departure of the projectile the
+inhabitants of Sierra-Leone pretended that they heard a dull noise, the
+last displacement of the sonorous waves, which, after crossing the
+Atlantic, died away on the African coast.
+
+But to return to Florida. The tumult once lessened, the wounded and
+deaf--in short, all the crowd--rose and shouted in a sort of frenzy,
+"Hurrah for Ardan! Hurrah for Barbicane! Hurrah for Nicholl!" Several
+millions of men, nose in air, armed with telescopes and every species of
+field-glass, looked into space, forgetting contusions and feelings, in
+order to look at the projectile. But they sought in vain; it was not to
+be seen, and they resolved to await the telegrams from Long's Peak. The
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, M. Belfast, was at his post in
+the Rocky Mountains, and it was to this skilful and persevering
+astronomer that the observations had been entrusted.
+
+But an unforeseen phenomenon, against which nothing could be done, soon
+came to put public impatience to a rude test.
+
+The weather, so fine before, suddenly changed; the sky became covered
+with clouds. It could not be otherwise after so great a displacement of
+the atmospheric strata and the dispersion of the enormous quantity of
+gases from the combustion of 200,000 lbs. of pyroxyle. All natural order
+had been disturbed. There is nothing astonishing in that, for in
+sea-fights it has been noticed that the state of the atmosphere has been
+suddenly changed by the artillery discharge.
+
+The next day the sun rose upon an horizon covered with thick clouds, a
+heavy and an impenetrable curtain hung between earth and sky, and which
+unfortunately extended as far as the regions of the Rocky Mountains. It
+was a fatality. A concert of complaints rose from all parts of the
+globe. But Nature took no notice, and as men had chosen to disturb the
+atmosphere with their gun, they must submit to the consequences.
+
+During this first day every one tried to pierce the thick veil of
+clouds, but no one was rewarded for the trouble; besides, they were all
+mistaken in supposing they could see it by looking up at the sky, for on
+account of the diurnal movement of the globe the projectile was then, of
+course, shooting past the line of the antipodes.
+
+However that might be, when night again enveloped the earth--a dark,
+impenetrable night--it was impossible to see the moon above the horizon;
+it might have been thought that she was hiding on purpose from the bold
+beings who had shot at her. No observation was, therefore, possible, and
+the despatches from Long's Peak confirmed the disastrous intelligence.
+
+However, if the experiment had succeeded, the travellers, who had
+started on the 1st of December, at 10h. 46m. 40s. p.m., were due at
+their destination on the 4th at midnight; so that as up to that time it
+would, after all, have been difficult to observe a body so small, people
+waited with all the patience they could muster.
+
+On the 4th of December, from 8 p.m. till midnight, it would have been
+possible to follow the trace of the projectile, which would have
+appeared like a black speck on the shining disc of the moon. But the
+weather remained imperturbably cloudy, and exasperated the public, who
+swore at the moon for not showing herself. _Sic transit gloria mundi_!
+
+J.T. Maston, in despair, set out for Long's Peak. He wished to make an
+observation himself. He did not doubt that his friends had arrived at
+the goal of their journey. No one had heard that the projectile had
+fallen upon any continent or island upon earth, and J.T. Maston did not
+admit for a moment that it could have fallen into any of the oceans with
+which the earth is three parts covered.
+
+On the 5th the same weather. The large telescopes of the old
+world--those of Herschel, Rosse, and Foucault--were invariably fixed
+upon the Queen of Night, for the weather was magnificent in Europe, but
+the relative weakness of these instruments prevented any useful
+observation.
+
+On the 6th the same weather reigned. Impatience devoured three parts of
+the globe. The most insane means were proposed for dissipating the
+clouds accumulated in the air.
+
+On the 7th the sky seemed to clear a little. Hopes revived but did not
+last long, and in the evening thick clouds defended the starry vault
+against all eyes.
+
+Things now became grave. In fact, on the 11th, at 9.11 a.m., the moon
+would enter her last quarter. After this delay she would decline every
+day, and even if the sky should clear the chances of observation would
+be considerably lessened--in fact, the moon would then show only a
+constantly-decreasing portion of her disc, and would end by becoming
+new--that is to say, she would rise and set with the sun, whose rays
+would make her quite invisible. They would, therefore, be obliged to
+wait till the 3rd of January, at 12.43 p.m., till she would be full
+again and ready for observation.
+
+The newspapers published these reflections with a thousand commentaries,
+and did not fail to tell the public that it must arm itself with angelic
+patience.
+
+On the 8th no change. On the 9th the sun appeared for a moment, as if to
+jeer at the Americans. It was received with hisses, and wounded,
+doubtless, by such a reception, it was very miserly of its rays.
+
+On the 10th no change. J.T. Maston nearly went mad, and fears were
+entertained for his brain until then so well preserved in its
+gutta-percha cranium.
+
+But on the 11th one of those frightful tempests peculiar to tropical
+regions was let loose in the atmosphere. Terrific east winds swept away
+the clouds which had been so long there, and in the evening the
+half-disc of the moon rode majestically amidst the limpid constellations
+of the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A NEW STAR.
+
+
+That same night the news so impatiently expected burst like a
+thunderbolt over the United States of the Union, and thence darting
+across the Atlantic it ran along all the telegraphic wires of the globe.
+The projectile had been perceived, thanks to the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak.
+
+The following is the notice drawn up by the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory. It resumes the scientific conclusion of the great
+experiment made by the Gun Club:--
+
+"Long's Peak, December 12th.
+
+"To the Staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+"The projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill was perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston on the 12th of December at 8.47 p.m.,
+the moon having entered her last quarter.
+
+"The projectile has not reached its goal. It has deviated to the side,
+but near enough to be detained by lunar attraction.
+
+"There its rectilinear movement changed to a circular one of extreme
+velocity, and it has been drawn round the moon in an elliptical orbit,
+and has become her satellite.
+
+"We have not yet been able to determine the elements of this new star.
+Neither its speed of translation or rotation is known. The distance
+which separates it from the surface of the moon may be estimated at
+about 2,833 miles.
+
+"Now two hypotheses may be taken into consideration as to a modification
+in this state of things:--
+
+"Either the attraction of the moon will end by drawing it towards her,
+and the travellers will reach the goal of their journey,
+
+"Or the projectile, maintained in an immutable orbit, will gravitate
+round the lunar disc till the end of time.
+
+"Observation will settle this point some day, but until now the
+experiment of the Gun Club has had no other result than that of
+providing our solar system with a new star.
+
+"J BELFAST."
+
+What discussions this unexpected _dénouement_ gave rise to! What a
+situation full of mystery the future reserved for the investigations of
+science! Thanks to the courage and devotion of three men, this
+enterprise of sending a bullet to the moon, futile enough in appearance,
+had just had an immense result, the consequences of which are
+incalculable. The travellers imprisoned in a new satellite, if they have
+not attained their end, form at least part of the lunar world; they
+gravitate around the Queen of Night, and for the first time human eyes
+can penetrate all her mysteries. The names of Nicholl, Barbicane, and
+Michel Ardan would be for ever celebrated in astronomical annals, for
+these bold explorers, desirous of widening the circle of human
+knowledge, had audaciously rushed into space, and had risked their lives
+in the strangest experiment of modern times.
+
+The notice from Long's Peak once made known, there spread throughout the
+universe a feeling of surprise and horror. Was it possible to go to the
+aid of these bold inhabitants of the earth? Certainly not, for they had
+put themselves outside of the pale of humanity by crossing the limits
+imposed by the Creator on His terrestrial creatures. They could procure
+themselves air for two months; they had provisions for one year; but
+after? The hardest hearts palpitated at this terrible question.
+
+One man alone would not admit that the situation was desperate. One
+alone had confidence, and it was their friend--devoted, audacious, and
+resolute as they--the brave J.T. Maston.
+
+He resolved not to lose sight of them. His domicile was henceforth the
+post of Long's Peak--his horizon the immense reflector. As soon as the
+moon rose above the horizon he immediately framed her in the field of
+his telescope; he did not lose sight of her for an instant, and
+assiduously followed her across the stellar spaces; he watched with
+eternal patience the passage of the projectile over her disc of silver,
+and in reality the worthy man remained in perpetual communication with
+his three friends, whom he did not despair of seeing again one day.
+
+"We will correspond with them," said he to any one who would listen, "as
+soon as circumstances will allow. We shall have news from them, and they
+will have news from us. Besides, I know them--they are ingenious men.
+Those three carry with them into space all the resources of art,
+science, and industry. With those everything can be accomplished, and
+you will see that they will get out of the difficulty."
+
+(FOR SEQUEL, SEE "AROUND THE MOON.")
+
+[Illustration: "They watched thus through the lateral windows."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
+
+CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF THIS WORK TO SERVE AS
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND.
+
+
+During the course of the year 186---- the entire world was singularly
+excited by a scientific experiment without precedent in the annals of
+science. The members of the Gun Club, a circle of artillerymen
+established at Baltimore after the American war, had the idea of putting
+themselves in communication with the moon--yes, with the moon--by
+sending a bullet to her. Their president, Barbicane, the promoter of the
+enterprise, having consulted the astronomers of the Cambridge
+Observatory on this subject, took all the precautions necessary for the
+success of the extraordinary enterprise, declared practicable by the
+majority of competent people. After having solicited a public
+subscription which produced nearly 30,000,000 of francs, it began its
+gigantic labours.
+
+According to the plan drawn up by the members of the observatory, the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile was to be set up in some country
+situated between the 0° and 28° of north or south latitude in order to
+aim at the moon at the zenith. The bullet was to be endowed with an
+initial velocity of 12,000 yards a second. Hurled on the 1st of December
+at thirteen minutes and twenty seconds to eleven in the evening, it was
+to get to the moon four days after its departure on the 5th of December
+at midnight precisely, at the very instant she would be at her
+perigee--that is to say, nearest to the earth, or at exactly 86,410
+leagues' distance.
+
+The principal members of the Gun Club, the president, Barbicane, Major
+Elphinstone, the secretary, J.T. Maston, and other _savants_, held
+several meetings, in which the form and composition of the bullet were
+discussed, as well as the disposition and nature of the cannon, and the
+quality and quantity of the powder to be employed. It was decided--1,
+that the projectile should be an obus of aluminium, with a diameter of
+800 inches; its sides were to be 12 inches thick, and it was to weigh
+19,250 lbs.; 2, that the cannon should be a cast-iron Columbiad 900 feet
+long, and should be cast at once in the ground; 3, that the charge
+should consist of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, which, by developing
+6,000,000,000 litres of gas under the projectile, would carry it easily
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+These questions settled, President Barbicane, aided by the engineer,
+Murchison, chose a site in Florida in 27° 7' north lat. and 5° 7' west
+long. It was there that after marvels of labour the Columbiad was cast
+quite successfully.
+
+Things were at that pass when an incident occurred which Increased the
+interest attached to this great enterprise.
+
+A Frenchman, a regular Parisian, an artist as witty as audacious, asked
+leave to shut himself up in the bullet in order to reach the moon and
+make a survey of the terrestrial satellite. This intrepid adventurer's
+name was Michel Ardan. He arrived in America, was received with
+enthusiasm, held meetings, was carried in triumph, reconciled President
+Barbicane to his mortal enemy, Captain Nicholl, and in pledge of the
+reconciliation he persuaded them to embark with him in the projectile.
+
+The proposition was accepted. The form of the bullet was changed. It
+became cylindro-conical. They furnished this species of aërial
+compartment with powerful springs and breakable partitions to break the
+departing shock. It was filled with provisions for one year, water for
+some months, and gas for some days. An automatic apparatus made and gave
+out the air necessary for the respiration of the three travellers. At
+the same time the Gun Club had a gigantic telescope set up on one of the
+highest summits of the Rocky Mountains, through which the projectile
+could be followed during its journey through space. Everything was then
+ready.
+
+On the 30th of November, at the time fixed, amidst an extraordinary
+concourse of spectators, the departure took place, and for the first
+time three human beings left the terrestrial globe for the
+interplanetary regions with almost the certainty of reaching their goal.
+
+These audacious travellers, Michel Ardan, President Barbicane, and
+Captain Nicholl were to accomplish their journey in ninety-seven hours
+thirteen minutes and twenty seconds; consequently they could not reach
+the lunar disc until the 5th of December, at midnight, at the precise
+moment that the moon would be full, and not on the 4th, as some
+wrongly-informed newspapers had given out.
+
+But an unexpected circumstance occurred; the detonation produced by the
+Columbiad had the immediate effect of disturbing the terrestrial
+atmosphere, where an enormous quantity of vapour accumulated. This
+phenomenon excited general indignation, for the moon was hidden during
+several nights from the eyes of her contemplators.
+
+The worthy J.T. Maston, the greatest friend of the three travellers, set
+out for the Rocky Mountains in the company of the Honourable J. Belfast,
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, and reached the station of Long's
+Peak, where the telescope was set up which brought the moon, apparently,
+to within two leagues. The honourable secretary of the Gun Club wished
+to observe for himself the vehicle that contained his audacious friends.
+
+The accumulation of clouds in the atmosphere prevented all observation
+during the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of December. It was even
+thought that no observation could take place before the 3rd of January
+in the following year, for the moon, entering her last quarter on the
+11th, would after that not show enough of her surface to allow the trace
+of the projectile to be followed.
+
+But at last, to the general satisfaction, a strong tempest during the
+night between the 11th and 12th of December cleared the atmosphere, and
+the half-moon was distinctly visible on the dark background of the sky.
+
+That same night a telegram was sent from Long's Peak Station by J.T.
+Maston and Belfast to the staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+This telegram announced that on the 11th of December, at 8.47 p.m., the
+projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill had been perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston, that the bullet had deviated from its
+course through some unknown cause, and had not reached its goal, but had
+gone near enough to be retained by lunar attraction; that its
+rectilinear movement had been changed to a circular one, and that it was
+describing an elliptical orbit round the moon, and had become her
+satellite.
+
+The telegram added that the elements of this new star had not yet been
+calculated--in fact, three observations, taking a star in three
+different positions, are necessary to determine them. Then it stated
+that the distance separating the projectile from the lunar surface
+"might be" estimated at about 2,833 leagues, or 4,500 miles.
+
+It ended with the following double hypothesis:--Either the attraction of
+the moon would end by carrying the day, and the travellers would reach
+their goal; or the projectile, fixed in an immutable orbit, would
+gravitate around the lunar disc to the end of time.
+
+In either of these alternatives what would be the travellers' fate? It
+is true they had provisions enough for some time. But even supposing
+that their bold enterprise were crowned with success, how would they
+return? Could they ever return? Would news of them ever reach the earth?
+These questions, debated upon by the most learned writers of the time,
+intensely interested the public.
+
+A remark may here be made which ought to be meditated upon by too
+impatient observers. When a _savant_ announces a purely speculative
+discovery to the public he cannot act with too much prudence. No one is
+obliged to discover either a comet or a satellite, and those who make a
+mistake in such a case expose themselves justly to public ridicule.
+Therefore it is better to wait; and that is what impatient J.T. Maston
+ought to have done before sending to the world the telegram which,
+according to him, contained the last communication about this
+enterprise.
+
+In fact, the telegram contained errors of two sorts, verified later:--1.
+Errors of observation concerning the distance of the projectile from the
+surface of the moon, for upon the date of the 11th of December it was
+impossible to perceive it, and that which J.T. Maston had seen, or
+thought he saw, could not be the bullet from the Columbiad. 2. A
+theoretic error as to the fate of the said projectile, for making it a
+satellite of the moon was an absolute contradiction of the laws of
+rational mechanics.
+
+One hypothesis only made by the astronomers of Long's Peak might be
+realised, the one that foresaw the case when the travellers--if any yet
+existed--should unite their efforts with the lunar attraction so as to
+reach the surface of the disc.
+
+Now these men, as intelligent as they were bold, had survived the
+terrible shock at departure, and their journey in their bullet-carriage
+will be related in its most dramatic as well as in its most singular
+details. This account will put an end to many illusions and previsions,
+but it will give a just idea of the various circumstances incidental to
+such an enterprise, and will set in relief Barbicane's scientific
+instincts, Nicholl's industrial resources, and the humorous audacity of
+Michel Ardan.
+
+Besides, it will prove that their worthy friend J.T. Maston was losing
+his time when, bending over the gigantic telescope, he watched the
+course of the moon across the planetary regions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+
+When ten o'clock struck, Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl said
+good-bye to the numerous friends they left upon the earth. The two dogs,
+destined to acclimatise the canine race upon the lunar continents, were
+already imprisoned in the projectile. The three travellers approached
+the orifice of the enormous iron tube, and a crane lowered them to the
+conical covering of the bullet.
+
+There an opening made on purpose let them down into the aluminium
+vehicle. The crane's tackling was drawn up outside, and the mouth of the
+Columbiad instantly cleared of its last scaffolding.
+
+As soon as Nicholl and his companions were in the projectile he closed
+the opening by means of a strong plate screwed down inside. Other
+closely-fitting plates covered the lenticular glasses of the skylights.
+The travellers, hermetically inclosed in their metal prison, were in
+profound darkness.
+
+"And now, my dear companions," said Michel Ardan, "let us make ourselves
+at home. I am a domestic man myself, and know how to make the best of
+any lodgings. First let us have a light; gas was not invented for
+moles!"
+
+Saying which the light-hearted fellow struck a match on the sole of his
+boot and then applied it to the burner of the receptacle, in which there
+was enough carbonised hydrogen, stored under strong pressure, for
+lighting and heating the bullet for 144 hours, or six days and six
+nights.
+
+Once the gas lighted, the projectile presented the aspect of a
+comfortable room with padded walls, furnished with circular divans, the
+roof of which was in the shape of a dome.
+
+The objects in it, weapons, instruments, and utensils, were solidly
+fastened to the sides in order to bear the parting shock with impunity.
+Every possible precaution had been taken to insure the success of so
+bold an experiment.
+
+Michel Ardan examined everything, and declared himself quite satisfied
+with his quarters.
+
+"It is a prison," said he, "but a travelling prison, and if I had the
+right to put my nose to the window I would take it on a hundred years'
+lease! You are smiling, Barbicane. You are thinking of something you do
+not communicate. Do you say to yourself that this prison may be our
+coffin? Our coffin let it be; I would not change it for Mahomet's, which
+only hangs in space, and does not move!"
+
+Whilst Michel Ardan was talking thus, Barbicane and Nicholl were making
+their last preparations.
+
+It was 10.20 p.m. by Nicholl's chronometer when the three travellers
+were definitely walled up in their bullet. This chronometer was
+regulated to the tenth of a second by that of the engineer, Murchison.
+Barbicane looked at it.
+
+"My friends," said he, "it is twenty minutes past ten; at thirteen
+minutes to eleven Murchison will set fire to the Columbiad; at that
+minute precisely we shall leave our spheroid. We have, therefore, still
+seven-and-twenty minutes to remain upon earth."
+
+"Twenty-six minutes and thirteen seconds," answered the methodical
+Nicholl.
+
+"Very well!" cried Michel Ardan good-humouredly; "in twenty-six minutes
+lots of things can be done. We can discuss grave moral or political
+questions, and even solve them. Twenty-six minutes well employed are
+worth more than twenty-six years of doing nothing. A few seconds of a
+Pascal or a Newton are more precious than the whole existence of a crowd
+of imbeciles."
+
+"And what do you conclude from that, talker eternal?" asked President
+Barbicane.
+
+"I conclude that we have twenty-six minutes," answered Ardan.
+
+"Twenty-four only," said Nicholl.
+
+"Twenty-four, then, if you like, brave captain," answered Ardan;
+"twenty-four minutes, during which we might investigate--"
+
+"Michel," said Barbicane, "during our journey we shall have plenty of
+time to investigate the deepest questions. Now we must think of
+starting."
+
+"Are we not ready?"
+
+"Certainly. But there are still some precautions to be taken to deaden
+the first shock as much as possible!"
+
+"Have we not water-cushions placed between movable partitions elastic
+enough to protect us sufficiently?"
+
+"I hope so, Michel," answered Barbicane gently; "but I am not quite
+sure!"
+
+"Ah, the joker!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "He hopes! He is not quite
+sure! And he waits till we are encased to make this deplorable
+acknowledgment! I ask to get out."
+
+"By what means?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Well!" said Michel Ardan, "it would be difficult. We are in the train,
+and the guard's whistle will be heard in twenty-four minutes."
+
+"Twenty!" ejaculated Nicholl.
+
+The three travellers looked at one another for a few seconds. Then they
+examined all the objects imprisoned with them.
+
+"Everything is in its place," said Barbicane. "The question now is where
+we can place ourselves so as best to support the departing shock. The
+position we assume must be important too--we must prevent the blood
+rushing too violently to our heads."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," answered Michel Ardan, always ready to suit the action to the
+word, "we will stand on our heads like the clowns at the circus."
+
+"No," said Barbicane; "but let us lie on our sides; we shall thus resist
+the shock better. When the bullet starts it will not much matter whether
+we are inside or in front."
+
+"If it comes to 'not much matter' I am more reassured," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Do you approve of my idea, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Entirely," answered the captain. "Still thirteen minutes and a-half."
+
+"Nicholl is not a man," exclaimed Michel; "he is a chronometer marking
+the seconds, and with eight holes in--"
+
+But his companions were no longer listening to him, and they were making
+their last preparations with all the coolness imaginable. They looked
+like two methodical travellers taking their places in the train and
+making themselves as comfortable as possible. One wonders, indeed, of
+what materials these American hearts are made, to which the approach of
+the most frightful danger does not add a single pulsation.
+
+Three beds, thick and solidly made, had been placed in the projectile.
+Nicholl and Barbicane placed them in the centre of the disc that formed
+the movable flooring. There the three travellers were to lie down a few
+minutes before their departure.
+
+In the meanwhile Ardan, who could not remain quiet, turned round his
+narrow prison like a wild animal in a cage, talking to his friends and
+his dogs, Diana and Satellite, to whom it will be noticed he had some
+time before given these significant names.
+
+"Up, Diana! up, Satellite!" cried he, exciting them. "You are going to
+show to the Selenite dogs how well-behaved the dogs of the earth can be!
+That will do honour to the canine race. If we ever come back here I will
+bring back a cross-breed of 'moon-dogs' that will become all the rage."
+
+"If there are any dogs in the moon," said Barbicane.
+
+"There are some," affirmed Michel Ardan, "the same as there are horses,
+cows, asses, and hens. I wager anything we shall find some hens."
+
+"I bet a hundred dollars we find none," said Nicholl.
+
+"Done, captain," answered Ardan, shaking hands with Nicholl. "But,
+by-the-bye, you have lost three bets with the president, for the funds
+necessary for the enterprise were provided, the casting succeeded, and
+lastly, the Columbiad was loaded without accident--that makes six
+thousand dollars."
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl. "Twenty-three minutes and six seconds to
+eleven."
+
+"I hear, captain. Well, before another quarter of an hour is over you
+will have to make over another nine thousand dollars to the president,
+four thousand because the Columbiad will not burst, and five thousand
+because the bullet will rise higher than six miles into the air."
+
+"I have the dollars," answered Nicholl, striking his coat pocket, "and I
+only want to pay."
+
+"Come, Nicholl, I see you are a man of order, what I never could be; but
+allow me to tell you that your series of bets cannot be very
+advantageous to you."
+
+"Why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because if you win the first the Columbiad will have burst, and the
+bullet with it, and Barbicane will not be there to pay you your
+dollars."
+
+"My wager is deposited in the Baltimore Bank," answered Barbicane
+simply; "and in default of Nicholl it will go to his heirs."
+
+"What practical men you are!" cried Michel Ardan. "I admire you as much
+as I do not understand you."
+
+"Eighteen minutes to eleven," said Nicholl.
+
+"Only five minutes more," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, five short minutes!" replied Michel Ardan. "And we are shut up in
+a bullet at the bottom of a cannon 900 feet long! and under this bullet
+there are 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, worth more than 1,600,000 lbs. of
+ordinary powder! And friend Murchison, with his chronometer in hand and
+his eye fixed on the hand and his finger on the electric knob, is
+counting the seconds to hurl us into the planetary regions."
+
+"Enough, Michel, enough!" said Barbicane in a grave tone. "Let us
+prepare ourselves. A few seconds only separate us from a supreme moment.
+Your hands, my friends."
+
+"Yes," cried Michel Ardan, more moved than he wished to appear.
+
+The three bold companions shook hands.
+
+"God help us!" said the religious president.
+
+Michel Ardan and Nicholl lay down on their beds in the centre of the
+floor.
+
+"Thirteen minutes to eleven," murmured the captain.
+
+Twenty seconds more! Barbicane rapidly put out the gas, and lay down
+beside his companions.
+
+The profound silence was only broken by the chronometer beating the
+seconds.
+
+Suddenly a frightful shock was felt, and the projectile, under the
+impulsion of 6,000,000,000 litres of gas developed by the deflagration
+of the pyroxyle, rose into space.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST HALF-HOUR.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the effect of the frightful shock? Had the
+ingenuity of the constructors of the projectile been attended by a happy
+result? Was the effect of the shock deadened, thanks to the springs, the
+four buffers, the water-cushions, and the movable partitions? Had they
+triumphed over the frightful impulsion of the initial velocity of 11,000
+metres a second? This was evidently the question the thousands of
+witnesses of the exciting scene asked themselves. They forgot the object
+of the journey, and only thought of the travellers! Suppose one of
+them--J.T. Maston, for instance--had been able to get a glimpse of the
+interior of the projectile, what would he have seen?
+
+Nothing then. The obscurity was profound in the bullet. Its
+cylindro-conical sides had resisted perfectly. There was not a break, a
+crack, or a dint in them. The admirable projectile was not hurt by the
+intense deflagration of the powders, instead of being liquefied, as it
+was feared, into a shower of aluminium.
+
+In the interior there was very little disorder on the whole. A few
+objects had been violently hurled up to the roof, but the most important
+did not seem to have suffered from the shock. Their fastenings were
+intact.
+
+On the movable disc, crushed down to the bottom by the smashing of the
+partitions and the escape of the water, three bodies lay motionless. Did
+Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan still breathe? Was the projectile
+nothing but a metal coffin carrying three corpses into space?
+
+A few minutes after the departure of the bullet one of these bodies
+moved, stretched out its arms, lifted up its head, and succeeded in
+getting upon its knees. It was Michel Ardan. He felt himself, uttered a
+sonorous "Hum," then said--
+
+"Michel Ardan, complete. Now for the others!"
+
+The courageous Frenchman wanted to get up, but he could not stand. His
+head vacillated; his blood, violently sent up to his head, blinded him.
+He felt like a drunken man.
+
+"Brrr!" said he. "I feel as though I had been drinking two bottles of
+Corton, only that was not so agreeable to swallow!"
+
+Then passing his hand across his forehead several times, and rubbing his
+temples, he called out in a firm voice--
+
+"Nicholl! Barbicane!"
+
+He waited anxiously. No answer. Not even a sigh to indicate that the
+hearts of his companions still beat. He reiterated his call. Same
+silence.
+
+"The devil!" said he. "They seem as though they had fallen from the
+fifth story upon their heads! Bah!" he added with the imperturbable
+confidence that nothing could shake, "if a Frenchman can get upon his
+knees, two Americans will have no difficulty in getting upon their feet.
+But, first of all, let us have a light on the subject."
+
+Ardan felt life come back to him in streams. His blood became calm, and
+resumed its ordinary circulation. Fresh efforts restored his
+equilibrium. He succeeded in getting up, took a match out of his pocket,
+and struck it; then putting it to the burner he lighted the gas. The
+meter was not in the least damaged. The gas had not escaped. Besides,
+the smell would have betrayed it, and had this been the case, Michel
+Ardan could not with impunity have lighted a match in a medium filled
+with hydrogen. The gas, mixed in the air, would have produced a
+detonating mixture, and an explosion would have finished what a shock
+had perhaps begun.
+
+As soon as the gas was lighted Ardan bent down over his two companions.
+Their bodies were thrown one upon the other, Nicholl on the top,
+Barbicane underneath.
+
+Ardan raised the captain, propped him up against a divan, and rubbed him
+vigorously. This friction, administered skilfully, reanimated Nicholl,
+who opened his eyes, instantly recovered his presence of mind, seized
+Ardan's hand, and then looking round him--
+
+"And Barbicane?" he asked.
+
+"Each in turn," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly. "I began with you,
+Nicholl, because you were on the top. Now I'll go to Barbicane."
+
+That said, Ardan and Nicholl raised the president of the Gun Club and
+put him on a divan. Barbicane seemed to have suffered more than his
+companions. He was bleeding, but Nicholl was glad to find that the
+hemorrhage only came from a slight wound in his shoulder. It was a
+simple scratch, which he carefully closed.
+
+Nevertheless, Barbicane was some time before he came to himself, which
+frightened his two friends, who did not spare their friction.
+
+"He is breathing, however," said Nicholl, putting his ear to the breast
+of the wounded man.
+
+"Yes," answered Ardan, "he is breathing like a man who is in the habit
+of doing it daily. Rub, Nicholl, rub with all your might."
+
+And the two improvised practitioners set to work with such a will and
+managed so well that Barbicane at last came to his senses. He opened his
+eyes, sat up, took the hands of his two friends, and his first words
+were--
+
+"Nicholl, are we going on?"
+
+Nicholl and Ardan looked at one another. They had not yet thought about
+the projectile. Their first anxiety had been for the travellers, not for
+the vehicle.
+
+"Well, really, are we going on?" repeated Michel Ardan.
+
+"Or are we tranquilly resting on the soil of Florida?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Or at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?" added Michel Ardan.
+
+"Impossible!" cried President Barbicane.
+
+This double hypothesis suggested by his two friends immediately recalled
+him to life and energy.
+
+They could not yet decide the question. The apparent immovability of the
+bullet and the want of communication with the exterior prevented them
+finding it out. Perhaps the projectile was falling through space.
+Perhaps after rising a short distance it had fallen upon the earth, or
+even into the Gulf of Mexico, a fall which the narrowness of the
+Floridian peninsula rendered possible.
+
+The case was grave, the problem interesting. It was necessary to solve
+it as soon as possible. Barbicane, excited, and by his moral energy
+triumphing over his physical weakness, stood up and listened. A profound
+silence reigned outside. But the thick padding was sufficient to shut
+out all the noises on earth; However, one circumstance struck
+Barbicane. The temperature in the interior of the projectile was
+singularly high. The president drew out a thermometer from the envelope
+that protected it and consulted it. The instrument showed 81° Fahr.
+
+"Yes!" he then exclaimed--"yes, we are moving! This stifling heat oozes
+through the sides of our projectile. It is produced by friction against
+the atmosphere. It will soon diminish; because we are already moving in
+space, and after being almost suffocated we shall endure intense cold."
+
+"What!" asked Michel Ardan, "do you mean to say that we are already
+beyond the terrestrial atmosphere?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt, Michel. Listen to me. It now wants but
+five minutes to eleven. It is already eight minutes since we started.
+Now, if our initial velocity has not been diminished by friction, six
+seconds would be enough for us to pass the sixteen leagues of atmosphere
+which surround our spheroid."
+
+"Just so," answered Nicholl; "but in what proportion do you reckon the
+diminution of speed by friction?"
+
+"In the proportion of one-third," answered Barbicane. "This diminution
+is considerable, but it is so much according to my calculations. If,
+therefore, we have had an initial velocity of 11,000 metres, when we get
+past the atmosphere it will be reduced to 7,332 metres. However that may
+be, we have already cleared that space, and--"
+
+"And then," said Michel Ardan, "friend Nicholl has lost his two
+bets--four thousand dollars because the Columbiad has not burst, five
+thousand dollars because the projectile has risen to a greater height
+than six miles; therefore, Nicholl, shell out."
+
+"We must prove it first," answered the captain, "and pay afterwards. It
+is quite possible that Barbicane's calculations are exact, and that I
+have lost my nine thousand dollars. But another hypothesis has come into
+my mind, and it may cancel the wager."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane quickly.
+
+"The supposition that for some reason or other the powder did not catch
+fire, and we have not started."
+
+"Good heavens! captain," cried Michel Ardan, "that is a supposition
+worthy of me! It is not serious! Have we not been half stunned by the
+shock? Did I not bring you back to life? Does not the president's
+shoulder still bleed from the blow?"
+
+"Agreed, Michel," replied Nicholl, "but allow me to ask one question."
+
+"Ask it, captain."
+
+"Did you hear the detonation, which must certainly have been
+formidable?"
+
+"No," answered Ardan, much surprised, "I certainly did not hear it."
+
+"And you, Barbicane?"
+
+"I did not either."
+
+"What do you make of that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"What indeed!" murmured the president; "why did we not hear the
+detonation?"
+
+The three friends looked at one another rather disconcertedly. Here was
+an inexplicable phenomenon. The projectile had been fired, however, and
+there must have been a detonation.
+
+"We must know first where we are," said Barbicane, "so let us open the
+panel."
+
+This simple operation was immediately accomplished. The screws that
+fastened the bolts on the outer plates of the right-hand skylight
+yielded to the coach-wrench. These bolts were driven outside, and
+obturators wadded with indiarubber corked up the hole that let them
+through. The exterior plate immediately fell back upon its hinges like a
+port-hole, and the lenticular glass that covered the hole appeared. An
+identical light-port had been made in the other side of the projectile,
+another in the dome, and a fourth in the bottom. The firmament could
+therefore be observed in four opposite directions--the firmament through
+the lateral windows, and the earth or the moon more directly through the
+upper or lower opening of the bullet.
+
+Barbicane and his companions immediately rushed to the uncovered
+port-hole. No ray of light illuminated it. Profound darkness surrounded
+the projectile. This darkness did not prevent Barbicane exclaiming--
+
+"No, my friends, we have not fallen on the earth again! No, we are not
+immersed at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico! Yes, we are going up
+through space! Look at those stars that are shining in the darkness, and
+the impenetrable darkness that lies between the earth and us!"
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Michel Ardan and Nicholl with one voice.
+
+In fact, the thick darkness proved that the projectile had left the
+earth, for the ground, then brilliantly lighted by the moon, would have
+appeared before the eyes of the travellers if they had been resting upon
+it. This darkness proved also that the projectile had passed beyond the
+atmosphere, for the diffused light in the air would have been reflected
+on the metallic sides of the projectile, which reflection was also
+wanting. This light would have shone upon the glass of the light-port,
+and that glass was in darkness. Doubt was no longer possible. The
+travellers had quitted the earth.
+
+"I have lost." said Nicholl.
+
+"I congratulate you upon it," answered Ardan.
+
+"Here are nine thousand dollars," said the captain, taking a bundle of
+notes out of his pocket.
+
+"Will you have a receipt?" asked Barbicane as he took the money.
+
+"If you do not mind," answered Nicholl; "it is more regular."
+
+And as seriously and phlegmatically as if he had been in his
+counting-house, President Barbicane drew out his memorandum-book and
+tore out a clear page, wrote a receipt in pencil, dated it, signed it,
+and gave it to the captain, who put it carefully into his pocket-book.
+
+Michel Ardan took off his hat and bowed to his two companions without
+speaking a word. Such formality under such circumstances took away his
+power of speech. He had never seen anything so American.
+
+Once their business over, Barbicane and Nicholl went back to the
+light-port and looked at the constellations. The stars stood out clearly
+upon the dark background of the sky. But from this side the moon could
+not be seen, as she moves from east to west, rising gradually to the
+zenith. Her absence made Ardan say--
+
+"And the moon? Is she going to fail us?"
+
+"Do not frighten yourself," answered Barbicane, "Our spheroid is at her
+post, but we cannot see her from this side. We must open the opposite
+light-port."
+
+At the very moment when Barbicane was going to abandon one window to set
+clear the opposite one, his attention was attracted by the approach of a
+shining object. It was an enormous disc the colossal dimensions of which
+could not be estimated. Its face turned towards the earth was
+brilliantly lighted. It looked like a small moon reflecting the light of
+the large one. It advanced at prodigious speed, and seemed to describe
+round the earth an orbit right across the passage of the projectile. To
+the movement of translation of this object was added a movement of
+rotation upon itself. It was therefore behaving like all celestial
+bodies abandoned in space.
+
+"Eh!" cried Michel Ardan. "Whatever is that? Another projectile?"
+
+Barbicane did not answer. The apparition of this enormous body surprised
+him and made him uneasy. A collision was possible which would have had
+deplorable results, either by making the projectile deviate from its
+route and fall back upon the earth, or be caught up by the attractive
+power of the asteroid.
+
+President Barbicane had rapidly seized the consequences of these three
+hypotheses, which in one way or other would fatally prevent the success
+of his attempt. His companions were silently watching the object, which
+grew prodigiously larger as it approached, and through a certain optical
+illusion it seemed as if the projectile were rushing upon it.
+
+"Ye gods!" cried Michel Ardan; "there will be a collision on the line!"
+
+The three travellers instinctively drew back. Their terror was extreme,
+but it did not last long, hardly a few seconds. The asteroid passed at a
+distance of a few hundred yards from the projectile and disappeared, not
+so much on account of the rapidity of its course, but because its side
+opposite to the moon was suddenly confounded with the absolute darkness
+of space.
+
+"A good journey to you!" cried Michel Ardan, uttering a sigh of
+satisfaction. "Is not infinitude large enough to allow a poor little
+bullet to go about without fear? What was that pretentious globe which
+nearly knocked against us?"
+
+"I know!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Of course! you know everything."
+
+"It is a simple asteroid," said Barbicane; "but so large that the
+attraction of the earth has kept it in the state of a satellite."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Then the earth has two moons
+like Neptune?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, two moons, though she is generally supposed to have but
+one. But this second moon is so small and her speed so great that the
+inhabitants of the earth cannot perceive her. It was by taking into
+account certain perturbations that a French astronomer, M. Petit, was
+able to determine the existence of this second satellite and calculate
+its elements. According to his observations, this asteroid accomplishes
+its revolution round the earth in three hours and twenty minutes only.
+That implies prodigious speed."
+
+"Do all astronomers admit the existence of this satellite?" asked
+Nicholl.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane; "but if they had met it like we have they
+could not doubt any longer. By-the-bye, this asteroid, which would have
+much embarrassed us had it knocked against us, allows us to determine
+our position in space."
+
+"How?" said Ardan.
+
+"Because its distance is known, and where we met it we were exactly at
+8,140 kilometres from the surface of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"More than 2,000 leagues!" cried Michel Ardan. "That beats the express
+trains of the pitiable globe called the earth!"
+
+"I should think it did," answered Nicholl, consulting his
+chronometer; "it is eleven o'clock, only thirteen minutes since we
+left the American continent."
+
+"Only thirteen minutes?" said Barbicane.
+
+"That is all," answered Nicholl; "and if our initial velocity were
+constant we should make nearly 10,000 leagues an hour."
+
+"That is all very well, my friends," said the president; "but one
+insoluble question still remains--why did we not hear the detonation of
+the Columbiad?"
+
+For want of an answer the conversation stopped, and Barbicane, still
+reflecting, occupied himself with lowering the covering of the second
+lateral light-port. His operation succeeded, and through the glass the
+moon filled the interior of the projectile with brilliant light.
+Nicholl, like an economical man, put out the gas that was thus rendered
+useless, and the brilliance of which obstructed the observation of
+planetary space.
+
+The lunar disc then shone with incomparable purity. Her rays, no longer
+filtered by the vapoury atmosphere of the terrestrial globe, shone
+clearly through the glass and saturated the interior air of the
+projectile with silvery reflections. The black curtain of the firmament
+really doubled the brilliancy of the moon, which in this void of ether
+unfavourable to diffusion did not eclipse the neighbouring stars. The
+sky, thus seen, presented quite a different aspect--one that no human
+eye could imagine.
+
+It will be readily understood with what interest these audacious men
+contemplated the moon, the supreme goal of their journey. The earth's
+satellite, in her movement of translation, insensibly neared the zenith,
+a mathematical point which she was to reach about ninety-six hours
+later. Her mountains and plains, or any object in relief, were not seen
+more plainly than from the earth; but her light across the void was
+developed with incomparable intensity. The disc shone like a platinum
+mirror. The travellers had already forgotten all about the earth which
+was flying beneath their feet.
+
+It was Captain Nicholl who first drew attention to the vanished globe.
+
+"Yes!" answered Michel Ardan. "We must not be ungrateful to it. As we
+are leaving our country let our last looks reach it. I want to see the
+earth before it disappears completely from our eyes!"
+
+Barbicane, to satisfy the desires of his companion, occupied himself
+with clearing the window at the bottom of the projectile, the one
+through which they could observe the earth directly. The movable floor
+which the force of projection had sent to the bottom was taken to
+pieces, not without difficulty; its pieces, carefully placed against the
+sides, might still be of use. Then appeared a circular bay window, half
+a yard wide, cut in the lower part of the bullet. It was filled with
+glass five inches thick, strengthened with brass settings. Under it was
+an aluminium plate, held down by bolts. The screws taken out and the
+bolts withdrawn, the plate fell back, and visual communication was
+established between interior and exterior.
+
+Michel Ardan knelt upon the glass. It was dark, and seemed opaque.
+
+"Well," cried he, "but where's the earth?"
+
+"There it is," said Barbicane.
+
+"What!" cried Ardan, "that thin streak, that silvery crescent?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel. In four days' time, when the moon is full, at the
+very minute we shall reach her, the earth will be new. She will only
+appear to us under the form of a slender crescent, which will soon
+disappear, and then she will be buried for some days in impenetrable
+darkness."
+
+"That the earth!" repeated Michel Ardan, staring at the thin slice of
+his natal planet.
+
+The explanation given by President Barbicane was correct. The earth,
+looked at from the projectile, was entering her last quarter. She was in
+her octant, and her crescent was clearly outlined on the dark background
+of the sky. Her light, made bluish by the thickness of her atmosphere,
+was less intense than that of the lunar crescent. This crescent then
+showed itself under considerable dimensions. It looked like an enormous
+arch stretched across the firmament. Some points, more vividly lighted,
+especially in its concave part, announced the presence of high
+mountains; but they disappeared sometimes under black spots, which are
+never seen on the surface of the lunar disc. They were rings of clouds
+placed concentrically round the terrestrial spheroid.
+
+However, by dint of a natural phenomenon, identical with that produced
+on the moon when she is in her octants, the contour of the terrestrial
+globe could be traced. Its entire disc appeared slightly visible through
+an effect of pale light, less appreciable than that of the moon. The
+reason of this lessened intensity is easy to understand. When this
+reflection is produced on the moon it is caused by the solar rays which
+the earth reflects upon her satellite. Here it was caused by the solar
+rays reflected from the moon upon the earth. Now terrestrial light is
+thirteen times more intense than lunar light on account of the
+difference of volume in the two bodies. Hence it follows that in the
+phenomenon of the pale light the dark part of the earth's disc is less
+clearly outlined than that of the moon's disc, because the intensity of
+the phenomenon is in proportion to the lighting power of the two stars.
+It must be added that the terrestrial crescent seems to form a more
+elongated curve than that of the disc--a pure effect of irradiation.
+
+Whilst the travellers were trying to pierce the profound darkness of
+space, a brilliant shower of falling stars shone before their eyes.
+Hundreds of meteors, inflamed by contact with the atmosphere, streaked
+the darkness with luminous trails, and lined the cloudy part of the disc
+with their fire. At that epoch the earth was in her perihelion, and the
+month of December is so propitious to these shooting stars that
+astronomers have counted as many as 24,000 an hour. But Michel Ardan,
+disdaining scientific reasoning, preferred to believe that the earth was
+saluting with her finest fireworks the departure of her three children.
+
+This was all they saw of the globe lost in the darkness, an inferior
+star of the solar world, which for the grand planets rises or sets as a
+simple morning or evening star! Imperceptible point in space, it was now
+only a fugitive crescent, this globe where they had left all their
+affections.
+
+For a long time the three friends, not speaking, yet united in heart,
+watched while the projectile went on with uniformly decreasing velocity.
+Then irresistible sleep took possession of them. Was it fatigue of body
+and mind? Doubtless, for after the excitement of the last hours passed
+upon earth, reaction must inevitably set in.
+
+"Well," said Michel, "as we must sleep, let us go to sleep."
+
+Stretched upon their beds, all three were soon buried in profound
+slumber.
+
+But they had not been unconscious for more than a quarter of an hour
+when Barbicane suddenly rose, and, waking his companions, in a loud
+voice cried--
+
+"I've found it!"
+
+"What have you found?" asked Michel Ardan, jumping out of bed.
+
+"The reason we did not hear the detonation of the Columbiad!"
+
+"Well?" said Nicholl.
+
+"It was because our projectile went quicker than sound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TAKING POSSESSION.
+
+
+This curious but certainly correct explanation once given, the three
+friends fell again into a profound sleep. Where would they have found a
+calmer or more peaceful place to sleep in? Upon earth, houses in the
+town or cottages in the country feel every shock upon the surface of the
+globe. At sea, ships, rocked by the waves, are in perpetual movement. In
+the air, balloons incessantly oscillate upon the fluid strata of
+different densities. This projectile alone, travelling in absolute void
+amidst absolute silence, offered absolute repose to its inhabitants.
+
+The sleep of the three adventurers would have, perhaps, been
+indefinitely prolonged if an unexpected noise had not awakened them
+about 7 a.m. on the 2nd of December, eight hours after their departure.
+
+This noise was a very distinct bark.
+
+"The dogs! It is the dogs!" cried Michel Ardan, getting up immediately.
+
+"They are hungry," said Nicholl.
+
+"I should think so," answered Michel; "we have forgotten them."
+
+"Where are they?" asked Barbicane.
+
+One of the animals was found cowering under the divan. Terrified and
+stunned by the first shock, it had remained in a corner until the moment
+it had recovered its voice along with the feeling of hunger.
+
+It was Diana, still rather sheepish, that came from the retreat, not
+without urging. Michel Ardan encouraged her with his most gracious
+words.
+
+"Come, Diana," he said--"come, my child; your destiny will be noted in
+cynegetic annals! Pagans would have made you companion to the god
+Anubis, and Christians friend to St. Roch! You are worthy of being
+carved in bronze for the king of hell, like the puppy that Jupiter gave
+beautiful Europa as the price of a kiss! Your celebrity will efface that
+of the Montargis and St. Bernard heroes. You are rushing through
+interplanetary space, and will, perhaps, be the Eve of Selenite dogs!
+You will justify up there Toussenel's saying, 'In the beginning God
+created man, and seeing how weak he was, gave him the dog!' Come, Diana,
+come here!"
+
+Diana, whether flattered or not, came out slowly, uttering plaintive
+moans.
+
+"Good!" said Barbicane. "I see Eve, but where is Adam?"
+
+"Adam," answered Michel Ardan, "can't be far off. He is here somewhere.
+He must be called! Satellite! here, Satellite!"
+
+But Satellite did not appear. Diana continued moaning. It was decided,
+however, that she was not wounded, and an appetising dish was set before
+her to stop her complaining.
+
+As to Satellite, he seemed lost. They were obliged to search a long time
+before discovering him in one of the upper compartments of the
+projectile, where a rather inexplicable rebound had hurled him
+violently. The poor animal was in a pitiable condition.
+
+"The devil!" said Michel. "Our acclimatisation is in danger!"
+
+The unfortunate dog was carefully lowered. His head had been fractured
+against the roof, and it seemed difficult for him to survive such a
+shock. Nevertheless, he was comfortably stretched on a cushion, where he
+sighed once.
+
+"We will take care of you," said Michel; "we are responsible for your
+existence. I would rather lose an arm than a paw of my poor Satellite."
+
+So saying he offered some water to the wounded animal, who drank it
+greedily.
+
+These attentions bestowed, the travellers attentively watched the earth
+and the moon. The earth only appeared like a pale disc terminated by a
+crescent smaller than that of the previous evening, but its volume
+compared with that of the moon, which was gradually forming a perfect
+circle, remained enormous.
+
+"_Parbleu_!" then said Michel Ardan; "I am really sorry we did not start
+when the earth was at her full--that is to say, when our globe was in
+opposition to the sun!"
+
+"Why?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Because we should have seen our continents and seas under a new
+aspect--the continents shining under the solar rays, the seas darker,
+like they figure upon certain maps of the world! I should like to have
+seen those poles of the earth upon which the eye of man has never yet
+rested!"
+
+"I daresay," answered Barbicane, "but if the earth had been full the
+moon would have been new--that is to say, invisible amidst the
+irradiation of the sun. It is better for us to see the goal we want to
+reach than the place we started from."
+
+"You are right, Barbicane," answered Captain Nicholl; "and besides, when
+we have reached the moon we shall have plenty of time during the long
+lunar nights to consider at leisure the globe that harbours men like
+us."
+
+"Men like us!" cried Michel Ardan. "But now they are not more like us
+than the Selenites. We are inhabitants of a new world peopled by us
+alone--the projectile! I am a man like Barbicane, and Barbicane is a man
+like Nicholl. Beyond us and outside of us humanity ends, and we are the
+only population of this microcosm until the moment we become simple
+Selenites."
+
+"In about eighty-eight hours," replied the captain.
+
+"Which means?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"That it is half-past eight," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," answered Michel, "I fail to find the shadow of a reason why
+we should not breakfast _illico_."
+
+In fact, the inhabitants of the new star could not live in it without
+eating, and their stomachs then submitted to the imperious laws of
+hunger. Michel Ardan, in his quality of Frenchman, declared himself
+chief cook, an important function that no one disputed with him. The gas
+gave the necessary degrees of heat for cooking purposes, and the
+provision-locker furnished the elements of this first banquet.
+
+The breakfast began with three cups of excellent broth, due to the
+liquefaction in hot water of three precious Liebig tablets, prepared
+from the choicest morsels of the Pampas ruminants. Some slices of
+beefsteak succeeded them, compressed by the hydraulic press, as tender
+and succulent as if they had just come from the butchers of the Paris
+Café Anglais. Michel, an imaginative man, would have it they were even
+rosy.
+
+Preserved vegetables, "fresher than the natural ones," as the amiable
+Michel observed, succeeded the meat, and were followed by some cups of
+tea and slices of bread and butter, American fashion. This beverage,
+pronounced excellent, was made from tea of the first quality, of which
+the Emperor of Russia had put some cases at the disposition of the
+travellers.
+
+Lastly, as a worthy ending to the meal, Ardan ferreted out a fine bottle
+of "Nuits" burgundy that "happened" to be in the provision compartment.
+The three friends drank it to the union of the earth and her satellite.
+
+And as if the generous wine it had distilled upon the hill-sides of
+Burgundy were not enough, the sun was determined to help in the feast.
+The projectile at that moment emerged from the cone of shadow cast by
+the terrestrial globe, and the sun's rays fell directly upon the lower
+disc of the bullet, on account of the angle which the orbit of the moon
+makes with that of the earth.
+
+"The sun!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Of course," answered Barbicane; "I expected it."
+
+"But," said Michel, "the cone of shadow thrown by the earth into space
+extends beyond the moon."
+
+"Much beyond if you do not take the atmospheric refraction into
+account," said Barbicane. "But when the moon is enveloped in that shadow
+the centres of the three heavenly bodies--the sun, the earth, and the
+moon--are in a straight line. Then the nodes coincide with the full moon
+and there is an eclipse. If, therefore, we had started during an eclipse
+of the moon all our journey would have been accomplished in the dark,
+which would have been a pity."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, although we are journeying in the void, our projectile, bathed
+in the solar rays, will gather their light and heat; therefore there
+will be economy of gas, a precious economy in every way."
+
+In fact, under these rays, the temperature and brilliancy of which there
+was no atmosphere to soften, the projectile was lighted and warmed as if
+it had suddenly passed from winter to summer. The moon above and the sun
+below inundated it with their rays.
+
+"It is pleasant here now," said Nicholl.
+
+"I believe you!" cried Michel Ardan. "With a little vegetable soil
+spread over our aluminium planet we could grow green peas in twenty-four
+hours. I have only one fear, that is that the walls of our bullet will
+melt."
+
+"You need not alarm yourself, my worthy friend," answered Barbicane.
+"The projectile supported a much higher temperature while it was
+travelling through the atmosphere. I should not even wonder if it looked
+to the eyes of the spectators like a fiery meteor."
+
+"Then J.T. Maston must think we are roasted!"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Barbicane, "is that we are not. It
+was a danger we did not foresee."
+
+"I feared it," answered Nicholl simply.
+
+"And you did not say anything about it, sublime captain!" cried Michel
+Ardan, shaking his companion's hand.
+
+In the meantime Barbicane was making his arrangements in the projectile
+as though he was never going to leave it. It will be remembered that the
+base of the aërial vehicle was fifty-four feet square. It was twelve
+feet high, and admirably fitted up in the interior. It was not much
+encumbered by the instruments and travelling utensils, which were all in
+special places, and it left some liberty of movement to its three
+inhabitants. The thick glass let into a part of the floor could bear
+considerable weight with impunity. Barbicane and his companions walked
+upon it as well as upon a solid floor; but the sun, which struck it
+directly with its rays, lighting the interior of the projectile from
+below, produced singular effects of light.
+
+They began by examining the state of the water and provision
+receptacles. They were not in the least damaged, thanks to the
+precautions taken to deaden the shock. The provisions were abundant, and
+sufficient for one year's food. Barbicane took this precaution in case
+the projectile should arrive upon an absolutely barren part of the moon.
+There was only enough water and brandy for two months. But according to
+the latest observations of astronomers, the moon had a dense low and
+thick atmosphere, at least in its deepest valleys, and there streams and
+watercourses could not fail. Therefore the adventurous explorers would
+not suffer from hunger or thirst during the journey, and the first year
+of their installation upon the lunar continent.
+
+The question of air in the interior of the projectile also offered all
+security. The Reiset and Regnault apparatus, destined to produce oxygen,
+was furnished with enough chlorate of potash for two months. It
+necessarily consumed a large quantity of gas, for it was obliged to keep
+the productive matter up to 100°. But there was abundance of that also.
+The apparatus wanted little looking after. It worked automatically. At
+that high temperature the chlorate of potash changed into chlorine of
+potassium, and gave out all the oxygen it contained. The eighteen pounds
+of chlorate of potash gave out the seven pounds of oxygen necessary for
+the daily consumption of the three travellers.
+
+But it was not enough to renew the oxygen consumed; the carbonic acid
+gas produced by expiration must also be absorbed. Now for the last
+twelve hours the atmosphere of the bullet had become loaded with this
+deleterious gas, the product of the combustion of the elements of blood
+by the oxygen taken into the lungs. Nicholl perceived this state of the
+air by seeing Diana palpitate painfully. In fact, carbonic acid
+gas--through a phenomenon identical with the one to be noticed in the
+famous Dog's Grotto--accumulated at the bottom of the projectile by
+reason of its weight. Poor Diana, whose head was low down, therefore
+necessarily suffered from it before her masters. But Captain Nicholl
+made haste to remedy this state of things. He placed on the floor of the
+projectile several receptacles containing caustic potash which he shook
+about for some time, and this matter, which is very greedy of carbonic
+acid, completely absorbed it, and thus purified the interior air.
+
+An inventory of the instruments was then begun. The thermometers and
+barometers were undamaged, with the exception of a minimum thermometer
+the glass of which was broken. An excellent aneroid was taken out of
+its padded box and hung upon the wall. Of course it was only acted upon
+by and indicated the pressure of the air inside the projectile; but it
+also indicated the quantity of moisture it contained. At that moment its
+needle oscillated between 25.24 and 25.08. It was at "set fair."
+
+Barbicane had brought several compasses, which were found intact. It
+will be easily understood that under those circumstances their needles
+were acting at random, without any constant direction. In fact, at the
+distance the projectile was from the earth the magnetic pole could not
+exercise any sensible action upon the apparatus. But these compasses,
+taken upon the lunar disc, might show particular phenomena. In any case
+it would be interesting to verify whether the earth's satellite, like
+the earth herself, submitted to magnetical influence.
+
+A hypsometer to measure the altitude of the lunar mountains, a sextant
+to take the height of the sun, a theodolite, an instrument for
+surveying, telescopes to be used as the moon approached--all these
+instruments were carefully inspected and found in good condition,
+notwithstanding the violence of the initial shock.
+
+As to the utensils--pickaxes, spades, and different tools--of which
+Nicholl had made a special collection, the sacks of various kinds of
+grain, and the shrubs which Michel Ardan counted upon transplanting into
+Selenite soil, they were in their places in the upper corners of the
+projectile. There was made a sort of granary, which the prodigal
+Frenchman had filled. What was in it was very little known, and the
+merry fellow did not enlighten anybody. From time to time he climbed up
+the cramp-irons riveted in the walls to this store-room, the inspection
+of which he had reserved to himself. He arranged and re-arranged,
+plunged his hand rapidly into certain mysterious boxes, singing all the
+time in a voice very out of tune some old French song to enliven the
+situation.
+
+Barbicane noticed with interest that his rockets and other fireworks
+were not damaged. These were important, for, powerfully loaded, they
+were meant to slacken the speed with which the projectile would, when
+attracted by the moon after passing the point of neutral attraction,
+fall upon her surface. This fall besides would be six times less rapid
+than it would have been upon the surface of the earth, thanks to the
+difference of volume in the two bodies.
+
+The inspection ended, therefore, in general satisfaction. Then they all
+returned to their posts of observation at the lateral and lower
+port-lights.
+
+The same spectacle was spread before them. All the extent of the
+celestial sphere swarmed with stars and constellations of marvellous
+brilliancy, enough to make an astronomer wild! On one side the sun, like
+the mouth of a fiery furnace, shone upon the dark background of the
+heavens. On the other side the moon, reflecting back his fires, seemed
+motionless amidst the starry world. Then a large spot, like a hole in
+the firmament, bordered still by a slight thread of silver--it was the
+earth. Here and there nebulous masses like large snow-flakes, and from
+zenith to nadir an immense ring, formed of an impalpable dust of
+stars--that milky way amidst which the sun only counts as a star of the
+fourth magnitude!
+
+The spectators could not take their eyes off a spectacle so new, of
+which no description could give any idea. What reflections it suggested!
+What unknown emotions it aroused in the soul! Barbicane wished to begin
+the recital of his journey under the empire of these impressions, and he
+noted down hourly all the events that signalised the beginning of his
+enterprise. He wrote tranquilly in his large and rather
+commercial-looking handwriting.
+
+During that time the calculating Nicholl looked over the formulae of
+trajectories, and worked away at figures with unparalleled dexterity.
+Michel Ardan talked sometimes to Barbicane, who did not answer much, to
+Nicholl, who did not hear, and to Diana, who did not understand his
+theories, and lastly to himself, making questions and answers, going and
+coming, occupying himself with a thousand details, sometimes leaning
+over the lower port-light, sometimes roosting in the heights of the
+projectile, singing all the time. In this microcosm he represented the
+French agitation and loquacity, and it was worthily represented.
+
+The day, or rather--for the expression is not correct--the lapse of
+twelve hours which makes a day upon earth--was ended by a copious supper
+carefully prepared. No incident of a nature to shake the confidence of
+the travellers had happened, so, full of hope and already sure of
+success, they went to sleep peacefully, whilst the projectile, at a
+uniformly increasing speed, made its way in the heavens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A LITTLE ALGEBRA.
+
+
+The night passed without incident. Correctly speaking, the word "night"
+is an improper one. The position of the projectile in regard to the sun
+did not change. Astronomically it was day on the bottom of the bullet,
+and night on the top. When, therefore, in this recital these two words
+are used they express the lapse of time between the rising and setting
+of the sun upon earth.
+
+The travellers' sleep was so much the more peaceful because,
+notwithstanding its excessive speed, the projectile seemed absolutely
+motionless. No movement indicated its journey through space. However
+rapidly change of place may be effected, it cannot produce any sensible
+effect upon the organism when it takes place in the void, or when the
+mass of air circulates along with the travelling body. What inhabitant
+of the earth perceives the speed which carries him along at the rate of
+68,000 miles an hour? Movement under such circumstances is not felt more
+than repose. Every object is indifferent to it. When a body is in repose
+it remains so until some foreign force puts it in movement. When in
+movement it would never stop if some obstacle were not in its road. This
+indifference to movement or repose is inertia.
+
+Barbicane and his companions could, therefore, imagine themselves
+absolutely motionless, shut up in the interior of the projectile. The
+effect would have been the same if they had placed themselves on the
+outside. Without the moon, which grew larger above them, and the earth
+that grew smaller below, they would have sworn they were suspended in a
+complete stagnation.
+
+That morning, the 3rd of December, they were awakened by a joyful but
+unexpected noise. It was the crowing of a cock in the interior of their
+vehicle.
+
+Michel Ardan was the first to get up; he climbed to the top of the
+projectile and closed a partly-open case.
+
+"Be quiet," said he in a whisper. "That animal will spoil my plan!"
+
+In the meantime Nicholl and Barbicane awoke.
+
+"Was that a cock?" said Nicholl.
+
+"No, my friends," answered Michel quickly. "I wished to awake you with
+that rural sound."
+
+So saying he gave vent to a cock-a-doodle-do which would have done
+honour to the proudest of gallinaceans.
+
+The two Americans could not help laughing.
+
+"A fine accomplishment that," said Nicholl, looking suspiciously at his
+companion.
+
+"Yes," answered Michel, "a joke common in my country. It is very Gallic.
+We perpetrate it in the best society."
+
+Then turning the conversation--
+
+"Barbicane, do you know what I have been thinking about all night?"
+
+"No," answered the president.
+
+"About our friends at Cambridge. You have already remarked how
+admirably ignorant I am of mathematics. I find it, therefore, impossible
+to guess how our _savants_ of the observatory could calculate what
+initial velocity the projectile ought to be endowed with on leaving the
+Columbiad in order to reach the moon."
+
+"You mean," replied Barbicane, "in order to reach that neutral point
+where the terrestrial and lunar attractions are equal; for beyond this
+point, situated at about 0.9 of the distance, the projectile will fall
+upon the moon by virtue of its own weight merely."
+
+"Very well," answered Michel; "but once more; how did they calculate the
+initial velocity?"
+
+"Nothing is easier," said Barbicane.
+
+"And could you have made the calculation yourself?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Certainly; Nicholl and I could have determined it if the notice from
+the observatory had not saved us the trouble."
+
+"Well, old fellow," answered Michel, "they might sooner cut off my head,
+beginning with my feet, than have made me solve that problem!"
+
+"Because you do not know algebra," replied Barbicane tranquilly.
+
+"Ah, that's just like you dealers in _x_! You think you have explained
+everything when you have said 'algebra.'"
+
+"Michel," replied Barbicane, "do you think it possible to forge without
+a hammer, or to plough without a ploughshare?"
+
+"It would be difficult."
+
+"Well, then, algebra is a tool like a plough or a hammer, and a good
+tool for any one who knows how to use it."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Could you use that tool before me?"
+
+"If it would interest you."
+
+"And could you show me how they calculated the initial speed of our
+vehicle?"
+
+"Yes, my worthy friend. By taking into account all the elements of the
+problem, the distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the
+moon, of the radius of the earth, the volume of the earth and the volume
+of the moon, I can determine exactly what the initial speed of the
+projectile ought to be, and that by a very simple formula."
+
+"Show me the formula."
+
+"You shall see it. Only I will not give you the curve really traced by
+the bullet between the earth and the moon, by taking into account their
+movement of translation round the sun. No. I will consider both bodies
+to be motionless, and that will be sufficient for us."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because that would be seeking to solve the problem called 'the problem
+of the three bodies,' for which the integral calculus is not yet far
+enough advanced."
+
+"Indeed," said Michel Ardan in a bantering tone; "then mathematics have
+not said their last word."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Good! Perhaps the Selenites have pushed the integral calculus further
+than you! By-the-bye, what is the integral calculus?"
+
+"It is the inverse of the differential calculus," answered Barbicane
+seriously.
+
+"Much obliged."
+
+"To speak otherwise, it is a calculus by which you seek finished
+quantities of what you know the differential quantities."
+
+"That is clear at least," answered Barbicane with a quite satisfied air.
+
+"And now," continued Barbicane, "for a piece of paper and a pencil, and
+in half-an-hour I will have found the required formula."
+
+That said, Barbicane became absorbed in his work, whilst Nicholl looked
+into space, leaving the care of preparing breakfast to his companion.
+
+Half-an-hour had not elapsed before Barbicane, raising his head, showed
+Michel Ardan a page covered with algebraical signs, amidst which the
+following general formula was discernible:--
+
+    1   2   2          r         m'    r     r
+    - (v - v ) = gr { --- - 1 + --- ( --- - ---) }
+    2       0          x         m    d-x   d-r
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked Michel.
+
+"That means," answered Nicholl, "that the half of _v_ minus _v_ zero
+square equals _gr_ multiplied by _r_ upon _x_ minus 1 plus _m_ prime
+upon _m_ multiplied by _r_ upon _d_ minus _x_, minus _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_x_ minus _r_--"
+
+"_X_ upon _y_ galloping upon _z_ and rearing upon _p_" cried Michel
+Ardan, bursting out laughing. "Do you mean to say you understand that,
+captain?"
+
+"Nothing is clearer."
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "it is as plain as a pikestaff, and I want
+nothing more."
+
+"Everlasting laugher," said Barbicane, "you wanted algebra, and now you
+shall have it over head and ears."
+
+"I would rather be hung!"
+
+"That appears a good solution, Barbicane," said Nicholl, who was
+examining the formula like a _connaisseur_. "It is the integral of the
+equation of 'vis viva,' and I do not doubt that it will give us the
+desired result."
+
+"But I should like to understand!" exclaimed Michel. "I would give ten
+years of Nicholl's life to understand!"
+
+"Then listen," resumed Barbicane. "The half of _v_ minus _v_ zero square
+is the formula that gives us the demi-variation of the 'vis viva.'"
+
+"Good; and does Nicholl understand what that means?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel," answered the captain. "All those signs that look so
+cabalistic to you form the clearest and most logical language for those
+who know how to read it."
+
+"And do you pretend, Nicholl," asked Michel, "that by means of these
+hieroglyphics, more incomprehensible than the Egyptian ibis, you can
+find the initial speed necessary to give to the projectile?"
+
+"Incontestably," answered Nicholl; "and even by that formula I could
+always tell you what speed it is going at on any point of the journey."
+
+"Upon your word of honour?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you are as clever as our president."
+
+"No, Michel, all the difficulty consists in what Barbicane has done. It
+is to establish an equation which takes into account all the conditions
+of the problem. The rest is only a question of arithmetic, and requires
+nothing but a knowledge of the four rules."
+
+"That's something," answered Michel Ardan, who had never been able to
+make a correct addition in his life, and who thus defined the rule: "A
+Chinese puzzle, by which you can obtain infinitely various results."
+
+Still Barbicane answered that Nicholl would certainly have found the
+formula had he thought about it.
+
+"I do not know if I should," said Nicholl, "for the more I study it the
+more marvellously correct I find it."
+
+"Now listen," said Barbicane to his ignorant comrade, "and you will see
+that all these letters have a signification."
+
+"I am listening," said Michel, looking resigned.
+
+"_d_," said Barbicane, "is the distance from the centre of the earth to
+the centre of the moon, for we must take the centres to calculate the
+attraction."
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"_r_ is the radius of the earth."
+
+"_r_, radius; admitted."
+
+"_m_ is the volume of the earth; _m prime_ that of the moon. We are
+obliged to take into account the volume of the two attracting bodies, as
+the attraction is in proportion to the volume."
+
+"I understand that."
+
+"_g_ represents gravity, the speed acquired at the end of a second by a
+body falling on the surface of the earth. Is that clear?"
+
+"A mountain stream!" answered Michel.
+
+"Now I represent by _x_ the variable distance that separates the
+projectile from the centre of the earth, and by _v_ the velocity the
+projectile has at that distance."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Lastly, the expression _v_ zero which figures in the equation is the
+speed the bullet possesses when it emerges from the atmosphere."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "you were obliged to calculate the velocity from
+that point, because we knew before that the velocity at departure is
+exactly equal to 3/2 of the velocity upon emerging from the atmosphere."
+
+"Don't understand any more!" said Michel.
+
+"Yet it is very simple," said Barbicane.
+
+"I do not find it very simple," replied Michel.
+
+"It means that when our projectile reached the limit of the terrestrial
+atmosphere it had already lost one-third of its initial velocity."
+
+"As much as that?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, simply by friction against the atmosphere. You will
+easily understand that the greater its speed the more resistance it
+would meet with from the air."
+
+"That I admit," answered Michel, "and I understand it, although your _v_
+zero two and your _v_ zero square shake about in my head like nails in a
+sack."
+
+"First effect of algebra," continued Barbicane. "And now to finish we
+are going to find the numerical known quantity of these different
+expressions--that is to say, find out their value."
+
+"You will finish me first!" answered Michel.
+
+"Some of these expressions," said Barbicane, "are known; the others have
+to be calculated."
+
+"I will calculate those," said Nicholl.
+
+"And _r_," resumed Barbicane, "_r_ is the radius of the earth under the
+latitude of Florida, our point of departure, _d_--that is to say, the
+distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon equals
+fifty-six terrestrial radii--"
+
+Nicholl rapidly calculated.
+
+"That makes 356,720,000 metres when the moon is at her perigee--that is
+to say, when she is nearest to the earth."
+
+"Very well," said Barbicane, "now _m_ prime upon _m_--that is to say,
+the proportion of the moon's volume to that of the earth equals 1/81."
+
+"Perfect," said Michel.
+
+"And _g_, the gravity, is to Florida 9-1/81 metres. From whence it
+results that _gr_ equals--"
+
+"Sixty-two million four hundred and twenty-six thousand square metres,"
+answered Nicholl.
+
+"What next?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Now that the expressions are reduced to figures, I am going to find the
+velocity _v zero_--that is to say, the velocity that the projectile
+ought to have on leaving the atmosphere to reach the point of equal
+attraction with no velocity. The velocity at that point I make equal
+_zero_, and _x_, the distance where the neutral point is, will be
+represented by the nine-tenths of _d_--that is to say, the distance that
+separates the two centres."
+
+"I have some vague idea that it ought to be so," said Michel.
+
+"I shall then have, _x_ equals nine-tenths of _d_, and _v_ equals
+_zero_, and my formula will become--"
+
+Barbicane wrote rapidly on the paper--
+
+     2              10r   1    10r    r
+    v  = 2 gr { 1 - ---  --- ( --- - ---) }
+     0               9d   81    d    d-r
+
+Nicholl read it quickly.
+
+"That's it! that is it!" he cried.
+
+"Is it clear?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"It is written in letters of fire!" answered Nicholl.
+
+"Clever fellows!" murmured Michel.
+
+"Do you understand now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"If I understand!" cried Michel Ardan. "My head is bursting with it."
+
+"Thus," resumed Barbicane, "_v zero_ square equals 2 _gr_ multiplied by
+1 minus 10 _r_ upon 9 _d_ minus 1/81 multiplied by 10 _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_r_ upon _d_ minus _r_."
+
+"And now," said Nicholl, "in order to obtain the velocity of the bullet
+as it emerges from the atmosphere I have only to calculate."
+
+The captain, like a man used to overcome all difficulties, began to
+calculate with frightful rapidity. Divisions and multiplications grew
+under his fingers. Figures dotted the page. Barbicane followed him with
+his eyes, whilst Michel Ardan compressed a coming headache with his two
+hands.
+
+"Well, what do you make it?" asked Barbicane after several minutes'
+silence.
+
+"I make it 11,051 metres in the first second."
+
+"What do you say?" said Barbicane, starting.
+
+"Eleven thousand and fifty-one metres."
+
+"Malediction!" cried the president with a gesture of despair.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" asked Michel Ardan, much surprised.
+
+"The matter! why if at this moment the velocity was already diminished
+one-third by friction, the initial speed ought to have been--"
+
+"Sixteen thousand five hundred and seventy-six metres!" answered
+Nicholl.
+
+"But the Cambridge Observatory declared that 11,000 metres were enough
+at departure, and our bullet started with that velocity only!"
+
+"Well?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Why it was not enough!"
+
+"No."
+
+"We shall not reach the neutral point."
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"We shall not even go half way!"
+
+"_Nom d'un boulet_!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, jumping up as if the
+projectile were on the point of striking against the terrestrial globe.
+
+"And we shall fall back upon the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE.
+
+
+This revelation acted like a thunderbolt. Who could have expected such
+an error in calculation? Barbicane would not believe it. Nicholl went
+over the figures again. They were correct. The formula which had
+established them could not be mistrusted, and, when verified, the
+initial velocity of 16,576 metres, necessary for attaining the neutral
+point, was found quite right.
+
+The three friends looked at one another in silence. No one thought about
+breakfast after that. Barbicane, with set teeth, contracted brow, and
+fists convulsively closed, looked through the port-light. Nicholl
+folded his arms and examined his calculations. Michel Ardan murmured--
+
+"That's just like _savants_! That's the way they always do! I would give
+twenty pistoles to fall upon the Cambridge Observatory and crush it,
+with all its stupid staff inside!"
+
+All at once the captain made a reflection which struck Barbicane at
+once.
+
+"Why," said he, "it is seven o'clock in the morning, so we have been
+thirty-two hours on the road. We have come more than half way, and we
+are not falling yet that I know of!"
+
+Barbicane did not answer, but after a rapid glance at the captain he
+took a compass, which he used to measure the angular distance of the
+terrestrial globe. Then through the lower port-light he made a very
+exact observation from the apparent immobility of the projectile. Then
+rising and wiping the perspiration from his brow, he put down some
+figures upon paper. Nicholl saw that the president wished to find out
+from the length of the terrestrial diameter the distance of the bullet
+from the earth. He looked at him anxiously.
+
+"No!" cried Barbicane in a few minutes' time, "we are not falling! We
+are already more than 50,000 leagues from the earth! We have passed the
+point the projectile ought to have stopped at if its speed had been only
+11,000 metres at our departure! We are still ascending!"
+
+"That is evident," answered Nicholl; "so we must conclude that our
+initial velocity, under the propulsion of the 400,000 lbs. of
+gun-cotton, was greater than the 11,000 metres. I can now explain to
+myself why we met with the second satellite, that gravitates at more
+than 2,000 leagues from the earth, in less than thirteen minutes."
+
+"That explanation is so much the more probable," added Barbicane,
+"because by throwing out the water in our movable partitions the
+projectile was made considerably lighter all at once."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah, my brave Nicholl," cried Barbicane, "we are saved!"
+
+"Very well then," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly, "as we are saved,
+let us have breakfast."
+
+Nicholl was not mistaken. The initial speed had happily been greater
+than that indicated by the Cambridge Observatory, but the Cambridge
+Observatory had no less been mistaken.
+
+The travellers, recovered from their false alarm, sat down to table and
+breakfasted merrily. Though they ate much they talked more. Their
+confidence was greater after the "algebra incident."
+
+"Why should we not succeed?" repeated Michel Ardan. "Why should we not
+arrive? We are on the road; there are no obstacles before us, and no
+stones on our route. It is free--freer than that of a ship that has to
+struggle with the sea, or a balloon with the wind against it! Now if a
+ship can go where it pleases, or a balloon ascend where it pleases, why
+should not our projectile reach the goal it was aimed at?"
+
+"It will reach it," said Barbicane.
+
+"If only to honour the American nation," added Michel Ardan, "the only
+nation capable of making such an enterprise succeed--the only one that
+could have produced a President Barbicane! Ah! now I think of it, now
+that all our anxieties are over, what will become of us? We shall be as
+dull as stagnant water."
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl made gestures of repudiation.
+
+"But I foresaw this, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan. "You have only
+to say the word. I have chess, backgammon, cards, and dominoes at your
+disposition. We only want a billiard-table!"
+
+"What?" asked Barbicane, "did you bring such trifles as those?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel; "not only for our amusement, but also in
+the praiseworthy intention of bestowing them upon Selenite inns."
+
+"My friend," said Barbicane, "if the moon is inhabited its inhabitants
+appeared some thousands of years before those of the earth, for it
+cannot be doubted that the moon is older than the earth. If, therefore,
+the Selenites have existed for thousands of centuries--if their brains
+are organised like that of human beings--they have invented all that we
+have invented, already, and even what we shall only invent in the lapse
+of centuries. They will have nothing to learn from us, and we shall have
+everything to learn from them."
+
+"What!" answered Michel, "do you think they have had artists like
+Phidias, Michael Angelo, or Raphael?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Poets like Homer, Virgil, Milton, Lamartine, and Hugo?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it."
+
+"_Savants_ like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal, and Newton?"
+
+"I could swear it."
+
+"Clowns like Arnal, and photographers like--Nadar?"
+
+"I am certain of it."
+
+"Then, friend Barbicane, if these Selenites are as learned as we, and
+even more so, why have they not hurled a lunar projectile as far as the
+terrestrial regions?"
+
+"Who says they have not done it?" answered Barbicane seriously.
+
+"In fact," added Nicholl, "it would have been easier to them than to us,
+and that for two reasons--the first because the attraction is six times
+less on the surface of the moon than on the surface of the earth, which
+would allow a projectile to go up more easily; secondly the projectile
+would only have 8,000 leagues to travel instead of 80,000, which would
+require a force of propulsion ten times less."
+
+"Then," resumed Michel, "I repeat--why have they not done it?"
+
+"And I," replied Barbicane, "I repeat--who says they have not done it?"
+
+"When?"
+
+"Hundreds of centuries ago, before man's appearance upon earth."
+
+"And the bullet? Where is the bullet? I ask to see the bullet!"
+
+"My friend," answered Barbicane, "the sea covers five-sixths of our
+globe, hence there are five good reasons for supposing that the lunar
+projectile, if it has been fired, is now submerged at the bottom of the
+Atlantic or Pacific, unless it was buried down some abyss at the epoch
+when the earth's crust was not sufficiently formed."
+
+"Old fellow," answered Michel, "you have an answer to everything, and I
+bow before your wisdom. There is one hypothesis I would rather believe
+than the others, and that is that the Selenites being older than we are
+wiser, and have not invented gunpowder at all."
+
+At that moment Diana claimed her share in the conversation by a sonorous
+bark. She asked for her breakfast.
+
+"Ah!" said Michel Ardan, "our arguments make us forget Diana and
+Satellite!"
+
+A good dish of food was immediately offered to the dog, who devoured it
+with great appetite.
+
+"Do you know, Barbicane," said Michel, "we ought to have made this
+projectile a sort of Noah's Ark, and have taken a couple of all the
+domestic animals with us to the moon."
+
+"No doubt," answered Barbicane, "but we should not have had room
+enough."
+
+"Oh, we might have been packed a little tighter!"
+
+"The fact is," answered Nicholl, "that oxen, cows, bulls, and horses,
+all those ruminants would be useful on the lunar continent.
+Unfortunately we cannot make our projectile either a stable or a
+cowshed."
+
+"But at least," said Michel Ardan, "we might have brought an ass,
+nothing but a little ass, the courageous and patient animal old Silenus
+loved to exhibit. I am fond of those poor asses! They are the least
+favoured animals in creation. They are not only beaten during their
+lifetime, but are still beaten after their death!"
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why, don't they use his skin to make drums of?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at this absurd reflection.
+But a cry from their merry companion stopped them; he was bending over
+Satellite's niche, and rose up saying--
+
+"Good! Satellite is no longer ill."
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl.
+
+"No!" resumed Michel, "he is dead. Now," he added in a pitiful tone,
+"this will be embarrassing! I very much fear, poor Diana, that you will
+not leave any of your race in the lunar regions!"
+
+The unfortunate Satellite had not been able to survive his wounds. He
+was dead, stone dead. Michel Ardan, much put out of countenance, looked
+at his friends.
+
+"This makes another difficulty," said Barbicane. "We can't keep the dead
+body of this dog with us for another eight-and-forty hours."
+
+"No, certainly not," answered Nicholl, "but our port-lights are hung
+upon hinges. They can be let down. We will open one of them, and throw
+the body into space."
+
+The president reflected for a few minutes, and then said--
+
+"Yes, that is what we must do, but we must take the most minute
+precautions."
+
+"Why?" asked Michel.
+
+"For two reasons that I will explain to you," answered Barbicane. "The
+first has reference to the air in the projectile, of which we must lose
+as little as possible."
+
+"But we can renew the air!"
+
+"Not entirely. We can only renew the oxygen, Michel; and, by-the-bye, we
+must be careful that the apparatus do not furnish us with this oxygen in
+an immoderate quantity, for an excess of it would cause grave
+physiological consequences. But although we can renew the oxygen we
+cannot renew the azote, that medium which the lungs do not absorb, and
+which ought to remain intact. Now the azote would rapidly escape if the
+port-lights were opened."
+
+"Not just the time necessary to throw poor Satellite out."
+
+"Agreed; but we must do it quickly."
+
+"And what is the second reason?" asked Michel.
+
+"The second reason is that we must not allow the exterior cold, which is
+excessive, to penetrate into our projectile lest we should be frozen
+alive."
+
+"Still the sun--"
+
+"The sun warms our projectile because it absorbs its rays, but it does
+not warm the void we are in now. When there is no air there is no more
+heat than there is diffused light, and where the sun's rays do not reach
+directly it is both dark and cold. The temperature outside is only that
+produced by the radiation of the stars--that is to say, the same as the
+temperature of the terrestrial globe would be if one day the sun were to
+be extinguished."
+
+"No fear of that," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Who knows?" said Michel Ardan. "And even supposing that the sun be not
+extinguished, it might happen that the earth will move farther away from
+it."
+
+"Good!" said Nicholl; "that's one of Michel's ideas!"
+
+"Well," resumed Michel, "it is well known that in 1861 the earth went
+through the tail of a comet. Now suppose there was a comet with a power
+of attraction greater than that of the sun, the terrestrial globe might
+make a curve towards the wandering star, and the earth would become its
+satellite, and would be dragged away to such a distance that the rays of
+the sun would have no action on its surface."
+
+"That might happen certainly," answered Barbicane, "but the consequences
+would not be so redoubtable as you would suppose."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because heat and cold would still be pretty well balanced upon our
+globe. It has been calculated that if the earth had been carried away by
+the comet of 1861, it would only have felt, when at its greatest
+distance from the sun, a heat sixteen times greater than that sent to us
+by the moon--a heat which, when focussed by the strongest lens, produces
+no appreciable effect."
+
+"Well?" said Michel.
+
+"Wait a little," answered Barbicane. "It has been calculated that at its
+perihelion, when nearest to the sun, the earth would have borne a heat
+equal to 28,000 times that of summer. But this heat, capable of
+vitrifying terrestrial matters, and of evaporating water, would have
+formed a thick circle of clouds which would have lessened the excessive
+heat, hence there would be compensation between the cold of the aphelion
+and the heat of the perihelion, and an average probably supportable."
+
+"At what number of degrees do they estimate the temperature of the
+planetary space?"
+
+"Formerly," answered Barbicane, "it was believed that this temperature
+was exceedingly low. By calculating its thermometric diminution it was
+fixed at millions of degrees below zero. It was Fourier, one of Michel's
+countrymen, an illustrious _savant_ of the _Académie des Sciences_, who
+reduced these numbers to a juster estimation. According to him, the
+temperature of space does not get lower than 60° Centigrade."
+
+Michel whistled.
+
+"It is about the temperature of the polar regions," answered Barbicane,
+"at Melville Island or Fort Reliance--about 56° Centigrade below zero."
+
+"It remains to be proved," said Nicholl, "that Fourier was not mistaken
+in his calculations. If I am not mistaken, another Frenchman, M.
+Pouillet, estimates the temperature of space at 160° below zero. We
+shall be able to verify that."
+
+"Not now," answered Barbicane, "for the solar rays striking directly
+upon our thermometer would give us, on the contrary, a very elevated
+temperature. But when we get upon the moon, during the nights, a
+fortnight long, which each of its faces endures alternately, we shall
+have leisure to make the experiment, for our satellite moves in the
+void."
+
+"What do you mean by the void?" asked Michel; "is it absolute void?"
+
+"It is absolutely void of air."
+
+"Is there nothing in its place?"
+
+"Yes, ether," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Ah! and what is ether?"
+
+"Ether, my friend, is an agglomeration of imponderable particles, which,
+relatively to their dimensions, are as far removed from each other as
+the celestial bodies are in space, so say works on molecular physics. It
+is these atoms that by their vibrating movement produce light and heat
+by making four hundred and thirty billions of oscillations a second."
+
+"Millions of millions!" exclaimed Michel Ardan; "then _savants_ have
+measured and counted these oscillations! All these figures, friend
+Barbicane, are _savants'_ figures, which reach the ear but say nothing
+to the mind."
+
+"But they are obliged to have recourse to figures."
+
+"No. It would be much better to compare. A billion signifies nothing. An
+object of comparison explains everything. Example--When you tell me that
+Uranus is 76 times larger than the earth, Saturn 900 times larger,
+Jupiter 1,300 times larger, the sun 1,300,000 times larger, I am not
+much wiser. So I much prefer the old comparisons of the _Double
+Liégoise_ that simply tells you, 'The sun is a pumpkin two feet in
+diameter, Jupiter an orange, Saturn a Blenheim apple, Neptune a large
+cherry, Uranus a smaller cherry, the earth a pea, Venus a green pea,
+Mars the head of a large pin, Mercury a grain of mustard, and Juno,
+Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas fine grains of sand!' Then I know what it
+means!"
+
+After this tirade of Michel Ardan's against _savants_ and their
+billions, which he delivered without stopping to take breath, they set
+about burying Satellite. He was to be thrown into space like sailors
+throw a corpse into the sea.
+
+As President Barbicane had recommended, they had to act quickly so as to
+lose as little air as possible. The bolts upon the right-hand port-hole
+were carefully unscrewed, and an opening of about half a yard made,
+whilst Michel prepared to hurl his dog into space. The window, worked by
+a powerful lever, which conquered the pressure of air in the interior
+upon the sides of the projectile, moved upon its hinges, and Satellite
+was thrown out. Scarcely a particle of air escaped, and the operation
+succeeded so well that later on Barbicane did not fear to get rid of all
+the useless rubbish that encumbered the vehicle in the same way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+On the 4th of December, at 5 a.m. by terrestrial reckoning, the
+travellers awoke, having been fifty-four hours on their journey. They
+had only been five hours and forty minutes more than half the time
+assigned for the accomplishment of their journey, but they had come more
+than seven-tenths of the distance. This peculiarity was due to their
+regularly-decreasing speed.
+
+When they looked at the earth through the port-light at the bottom, it
+only looked like a black spot drowned in the sun's rays. No crescent or
+pale light was now to be seen. The next day at midnight the earth would
+be new at the precise moment when the moon would be full. Above, the
+Queen of Night was nearing the line followed by the projectile, so as to
+meet it at the hour indicated. All around the dark vault was studded
+with brilliant specks which seemed to move slowly; but through the great
+distance they were at their relative size did not seem to alter much.
+The sun and the stars appeared exactly as they do from the earth. The
+moon was considerably enlarged; but the travellers' not very powerful
+telescopes did not as yet allow them to make very useful observations on
+her surface, or to reconnoitre the topographical or geological details.
+
+The time went by in interminable conversations. The talk was especially
+about the moon. Each brought his contingent of particular knowledge.
+Barbicane's and Nicholl's were always serious, Michel Ardan's always
+fanciful. The projectile, its situation and direction, the incidents
+that might arise, the precautions necessitated by its fall upon the
+moon, all this afforded inexhaustible material for conjecture.
+
+Whilst breakfasting a question of Michel's relative to the projectile
+provoked a rather curious answer from Barbicane, and one worthy of being
+recorded.
+
+Michel, supposing the bullet to be suddenly stopped whilst still endowed
+with its formidable initial velocity, wished to know what the
+consequences would have been.
+
+"But," answered Barbicane, "I don't see how the projectile could have
+been stopped."
+
+"But let us suppose it," answered Nicholl.
+
+"It is an impossible supposition," replied the practical president,
+"unless the force of impulsion had failed. But in that case its speed
+would have gradually decreased, and would not have stopped abruptly."
+
+"Admit that it had struck against some body in space."
+
+"What body?"
+
+"The enormous meteor we met."
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the projectile would have been broken into a
+thousand pieces, and we with it."
+
+"More than that," answered Barbicane, "we should have been burnt alive."
+
+"Burnt!" exclaimed Michel. "I regret it did not happen for us just to
+see."
+
+"And you would have seen with a vengeance," answered Barbicane. "It is
+now known that heat is only a modification of movement when water is
+heated--that is to say, when heat is added to it--that means the giving
+of movement to its particles."
+
+"That is an ingenious theory!" said Michel.
+
+"And a correct one, my worthy friend, for it explains all the phenomena
+of caloric. Heat is only molecular movement, a single oscillation of the
+particles of a body. When the break is put on a train it stops. But what
+becomes of the movement which animated it? Why do they grease the axles
+of the wheels? In order to prevent them catching fire from the movement
+lost by transformation. Do you understand?"
+
+"Admirably," answered Michel. "For example, when I have been running
+some time, and am covered with sweat, why am I forced to stop? Simply
+because my movement has been transformed into heat."
+
+Barbicane could not help laughing at this _répartie_ of Michel's. Then
+resuming his theory--
+
+"Thus," said he, "in case of a collision, it would have happened to our
+projectile as it does to the metal cannon-ball after striking
+armour-plate; it would fall burning, because its movement had been
+transformed into heat. In consequence, I affirm that if our bullet had
+struck against the asteroid, its speed, suddenly annihilated, would have
+produced heat enough to turn it immediately into vapour."
+
+"Then," asked Nicholl, "what would happen if the earth were to be
+suddenly stopped in her movement of translation?"
+
+"Her temperature would be carried to such a point," answered Barbicane,
+"that she would be immediately reduced to vapour."
+
+"Good," said Michel; "that means of ending the world would simplify many
+things."
+
+"And suppose the earth were to fall upon the sun?" said Nicholl.
+
+"According to calculations," answered Barbicane, "that would develop a
+heat equal to that produced by 1,600 globes of coal, equal in volume to
+the terrestrial globe."
+
+"A good increase of temperature for the sun," replied Michel Ardan, "of
+which the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune will probably not complain,
+for they must be dying of cold on their planet."
+
+"Thus, then, my friends, any movement suddenly stopped produces heat.
+This theory makes it supposed that the sun is constantly fed by an
+incessant fall of bodies upon its surface. It has been calculated--"
+
+"Now I shall be crushed," murmured Michel, "for figures are coming."
+
+"It has been calculated," continued Barbicane imperturbably, "that the
+shock of each asteroid upon the sun must produce heat equal to that of
+4,000 masses of coal of equal volume."
+
+"And what is the heat of the sun?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is equal to that which would be produced by a stratum of coal
+surrounding the sun to a depth of twenty-seven kilometres."
+
+"And that heat--"
+
+"Could boil 2,900,000,000 of cubic myriametres of water an hour." (A
+myriametre is equal to rather more than 6.2138 miles, or 6 miles 1
+furlong 28 poles.)
+
+"And we are not roasted by it?" cried Michel.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "because the terrestrial atmosphere absorbs
+four-tenths of the solar heat. Besides, the quantity of heat intercepted
+by the earth is only two thousand millionth of the total."
+
+"I see that all is for the best," replied Michel, "and that our
+atmosphere is a useful invention, for it not only allows us to breathe,
+but actually prevents us roasting."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "but, unfortunately, it will not be the same on the
+moon."
+
+"Bah!" said Michel, always confident. "If there are any inhabitants they
+breathe. If there are no longer any they will surely have left enough
+oxygen for three people, if only at the bottom of those ravines where it
+will have accumulated by reason of its weight! Well, we shall not climb
+the mountains! That is all."
+
+And Michel, getting up, went to look at the lunar disc, which was
+shining with intolerable brilliancy.
+
+"Faith!" said he, "it must be hot up there."
+
+"Without reckoning," answered Nicholl, "that daylight lasts 360 hours."
+
+"And by way of compensation night has the same duration," said
+Barbicane, "and as heat is restored by radiation, their temperature must
+be that of planetary space."
+
+"A fine country truly!" said Nicholl.
+
+"Never mind! I should like to be there already! It will be comical to
+have the earth for a moon, to see it rise on the horizon, to recognise
+the configuration of its continents, to say to oneself, 'There's America
+and there's Europe;' then to follow it till it is lost in the rays of
+the sun! By-the-bye, Barbicane, have the Selenites any eclipses?"
+
+"Yes, eclipses of the sun," answered Barbicane, "when the centres of the
+three stars are on the same line with the earth in the middle. But they
+are merely annular eclipses, during which the earth, thrown like a
+screen across the solar disc, allows the greater part to be seen."
+
+"Why is there no total eclipse?" asked Nicholl. "Is it because the cone
+of shade thrown by the earth does not extend beyond the moon?"
+
+"Yes, if you do not take into account the refraction produced by the
+terrestrial atmosphere, not if you do take that refraction into account.
+Thus, let _delta_ be the horizontal parallax and _p_ the apparent
+semidiameter--"
+
+"Ouf!" said Michel, "half of _v_ zero square! Do speak the vulgar
+tongue, man of algebra!"
+
+"Well, then, in popular language," answered Barbicane, "the mean
+distance between the moon and the earth being sixty terrestrial radii,
+the length of the cone of shadow, by dint of refraction, is reduced to
+less than forty-two radii. It follows, therefore, that during the
+eclipses the moon is beyond the cone of pure shade, and the sun sends it
+not only rays from its edges, but also rays from its centre."
+
+"Then," said Michel in a grumbling tone, "why is there any eclipse when
+there ought to be none?"
+
+"Solely because the solar rays are weakened by the refraction, and the
+atmosphere which they traverse extinguishes the greater part of them."
+
+"That reason satisfies me," answered Michel; "besides, we shall see for
+ourselves when we get there. Now, Barbicane, do you believe that the
+moon is an ancient comet?"
+
+"What an idea!"
+
+"Yes," replied Michel, with amiable conceit, "I have a few ideas of that
+kind."
+
+"But that idea does not originate with Michel," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Then I am only a plagiarist."
+
+"Without doubt," answered Nicholl. "According to the testimony of the
+ancients, the Arcadians pretended that their ancestors inhabited the
+earth before the moon became her satellite. Starting from this fact,
+certain _savants_ think the moon was a comet which its orbit one day
+brought near enough to the earth to be retained by terrestrial
+attraction."
+
+"And what truth is there in that hypothesis?" asked Michel.
+
+"None," answered Barbicane, "and the proof is that the moon has not kept
+a trace of the gaseous envelope that always accompanies comets."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "might not the moon, before becoming the earth's
+satellite, have passed near enough to the sun to leave all her gaseous
+substances by evaporation?"
+
+"It might, friend Nicholl, but it is not probable."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because--because, I really don't know."
+
+"Ah, what hundreds of volumes we might fill with what we don't know!"
+exclaimed Michel. "But I say," he continued, "what time is it?"
+
+"Three o'clock," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How the time goes," said Michel, "in the conversation of _savants_ like
+us! Decidedly I feel myself getting too learned! I feel that I am
+becoming a well of knowledge!"
+
+So saying, Michel climbed to the roof of the projectile, "in order
+better to observe the moon," he pretended. In the meanwhile his
+companions watched the vault of space through the lower port-light.
+There was nothing fresh to signalise.
+
+When Michel Ardan came down again he approached the lateral port-light,
+and suddenly uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"What is the matter now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+The president approached the glass and saw a sort of flattened sack
+floating outside at some yards' distance from the projectile. This
+object seemed motionless like the bullet, and was consequently animated
+with the same ascensional movement.
+
+"Whatever can that machine be?" said Michel Ardan. "Is it one of the
+corpuscles of space which our projectile holds in its radius of
+attraction, and which will accompany it as far as the moon?"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Nicholl, "is that the specific
+weight of this body, which is certainly superior to that of the bullet,
+allows it to maintain itself so rigorously on its level."
+
+"Nicholl," said Barbicane, after a moment's reflection, "I do not know
+what that object is, but I know perfectly why it keeps on a level with
+the projectile."
+
+"Why, pray?"
+
+"Because we are floating in the void where bodies fall or move--which is
+the same thing--with equal speed whatever their weight or form may be.
+It is the air which, by its resistance, creates differences in weight.
+When you pneumatically create void in a tube, the objects you throw down
+it, either lead or feathers, fall with the same rapidity. Here in space
+you have the same cause and the same effect."
+
+"True," said Nicholl, "and all we throw out of the projectile will
+accompany us to the moon."
+
+"Ah! what fools we are!" cried Michel.
+
+"Why this qualification?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because we ought to have filled the projectile with useful objects,
+books, instruments, tools, &c. We could have thrown them all out, and
+they would all have followed in our wake! But, now I think of it, why
+can't we take a walk outside this? Why can't we go into space through
+the port-light? What delight it would be to be thus suspended in ether,
+more favoured even than birds that are forced to flap their wings to
+sustain them!"
+
+"Agreed," said Barbicane, "but how are we to breathe?"
+
+"Confounded air to fail so inopportunely!"
+
+"But if it did not fail, Michel, your density being inferior to that of
+the projectile, you would soon remain behind."
+
+"Then it is a vicious circle."
+
+"All that is most vicious."
+
+"And we must remain imprisoned in our vehicle."
+
+"Yes, we must."
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel in a formidable voice.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I know, I guess what this pretended asteroid is! It is not a broken
+piece of planet!"
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is our unfortunate dog! It is Diana's husband!"
+
+In fact, this deformed object, reduced to nothing, and quite
+unrecognisable, was the body of Satellite flattened like a bagpipe
+without wind, and mounting, for ever mounting!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION.
+
+
+Thus a curious but logical, strange yet logical phenomenon took place
+under these singular conditions. Every object thrown out of the
+projectile would follow the same trajectory and only stop when it did.
+That furnished a text for conversation which the whole evening could not
+exhaust. The emotion of the three travellers increased as they
+approached the end of their journey. They expected unforeseen incidents,
+fresh phenomena, and nothing would have astonished them under present
+circumstances. Their excited imagination outdistanced the projectile,
+the speed of which diminished notably without their feeling it. But the
+moon grew larger before their eyes, and they thought they had only to
+stretch out their hands to touch it.
+
+The next day, the 5th of December, they were all wide awake at 5 a.m.
+That day was to be the last of their journey if the calculations were
+exact. That same evening, at midnight, within eighteen hours, at the
+precise moment of full moon, they would reach her brilliant disc. The
+next midnight would bring them to the goal of their journey, the most
+extraordinary one of ancient or modern times. At early dawn, through the
+windows made silvery with her rays, they saluted the Queen of Night with
+a confident and joyful hurrah.
+
+The moon was sailing majestically across the starry firmament. A few
+more degrees and she would reach that precise point in space where the
+projectile was to meet her. According to his own observations, Barbicane
+thought that he should accost her in her northern hemisphere, where vast
+plains extend and mountains are rare--a favourable circumstance if the
+lunar atmosphere was, according to received opinion, stored up in deep
+places only.
+
+"Besides," observed Michel Ardan, "a plain is more suitable for landing
+upon than a mountain. A Selenite landed in Europe on the summit of Mont
+Blanc, or in Asia on a peak of the Himalayas, would not be precisely at
+his destination!"
+
+"What is more," added Nicholl, "on a plain the projectile will remain
+motionless after it has touched the ground, whilst it would roll down a
+hill like an avalanche, and as we are not squirrels we should not come
+out safe and sound. Therefore all is for the best."
+
+In fact, the success of the audacious enterprise no longer appeared
+doubtful. Still one reflection occupied Barbicane; but not wishing to
+make his two companions uneasy, he kept silence upon it.
+
+The direction of the projectile towards the northern hemisphere proved
+that its trajectory had been slightly modified. The aim, mathematically
+calculated, ought to have sent the bullet into the very centre of the
+lunar disc. If it did not arrive there it would be because it had
+deviated. What had caused it? Barbicane could not imagine nor determine
+the importance of this deviation, for there was no datum to go upon. He
+hoped, however, that the only result would be to take them towards the
+upper edge of the moon, a more suitable region for landing.
+
+Barbicane, therefore, without saying anything to his friends, contented
+himself with frequently observing the moon, trying to see if the
+direction of the projectile would not change. For the situation would
+have been so terrible had the bullet, missing its aim, been dragged
+beyond the lunar disc and fallen into interplanetary space.
+
+At that moment the moon, instead of appearing flat like a disc, already
+showed her convexity. If the sun's rays had reached her obliquely the
+shadow then thrown would have made the high mountains stand out. They
+could have seen the gaping craters and the capricious furrows that cut
+up the immense plains. But all relief was levelled in the intense
+brilliancy. Those large spots that give the appearance of a human face
+to the moon were scarcely distinguishable.
+
+"It may be a face," said Michel Ardan, "but I am sorry for the amiable
+sister of Apollo, her face is so freckled!"
+
+In the meantime the travellers so near their goal ceaselessly watched
+this new world. Their imagination made them take walks over these
+unknown countries. They climbed the elevated peaks. They descended to
+the bottom of the large amphitheatres. Here and there they thought they
+saw vast seas scarcely kept together under an atmosphere so rarefied,
+and streams of water that poured them their tribute from the mountains.
+Leaning over the abyss they hoped to catch the noise of this orb for
+ever mute in the solitudes of the void.
+
+This last day left them the liveliest remembrances. They noted down the
+least details. A vague uneasiness took possession of them as they
+approached their goal. This uneasiness would have been doubled if they
+had felt how slight their speed was. It appeared quite insufficient to
+take them to the end of their journey. This was because the projectile
+scarcely "weighed" anything. Its weight constantly decreased, and would
+be entirely annihilated on that line where the lunar and terrestrial
+attractions neutralise each other, causing surprising effects.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of his preoccupations, Michel Ardan did not
+forget to prepare the morning meal with his habitual punctuality. They
+ate heartily. Nothing was more excellent than their broth liquefied by
+the heat of the gas. Nothing better than these preserved meats. A few
+glasses of good French wine crowned the repast, and caused Michel Ardan
+to remark that the lunar vines, warmed by this ardent sun, ought to
+distil the most generous wines--that is, if they existed. Any way, the
+far-seeing Frenchman had taken care not to forget in his collection some
+precious cuttings of the Médoc and Côte d'Or, upon which he counted
+particularly.
+
+The Reiset and Regnault apparatus always worked with extreme precision.
+The air was kept in a state of perfect purity. Not a particle of
+carbonic acid resisted the potash, and as to the oxygen, that, as
+Captain Nicholl said, was of "first quality." The small amount of
+humidity in the projectile mixed with this air and tempered its dryness,
+and many Paris, London, or New York apartments and many theatres do not
+certainly fulfil hygienic conditions so well.
+
+But in order to work regularly this apparatus had to be kept going
+regularly. Each morning Michel inspected the escape regulators, tried
+the taps, and fixed by the pyrometer the heat of the gas. All had gone
+well so far, and the travellers, imitating the worthy J.T. Maston, began
+to get so stout that they would not be recognisable if their
+imprisonment lasted several months. They behaved like chickens in a
+cage--they fattened.
+
+Looking through the port lights Barbicane saw the spectre of the
+dog, and the different objects thrown out of the projectile, which
+obstinately accompanied it. Diana howled lamentably when she perceived
+the remains of Satellite. All the things seemed as motionless as if they
+had rested upon solid ground.
+
+"Do you know, my friends," said Michel Ardan, "that if one of us had
+succumbed to the recoil shock at departure we should have been much
+embarrassed as to how to get rid of him? You see the accusing corpse
+would have followed us in space like remorse!"
+
+"That would have been sad," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah!" continued Michel, "what I regret is our not being able to take a
+walk outside. What delight it would be to float in this radiant ether,
+to bathe in these pure rays of the sun! If Barbicane had only thought of
+furnishing us with diving-dresses and air-pumps I should have ventured
+outside, and have assumed the attitude of a flying-horse on the summit
+of the projectile."
+
+"Ah, old fellow!" answered Barbicane, "you would not have stayed there
+long in spite of your diving-dress; you would have burst like an obus by
+the expansion of air inside you, or rather like a balloon that goes up
+too high. So regret nothing, and do not forget this: while we are moving
+in the void you must do without any sentimental promenade out of the
+projectile."
+
+Michel Ardan allowed himself to be convinced in a certain measure. He
+agreed that the thing was difficult, but not "impossible;" that was a
+word he never uttered.
+
+The conversation passed from this subject to another, and never
+languished an instant. It seemed to the three friends that under these
+conditions ideas came into their heads like leaves in the first warm
+days of spring.
+
+Amidst the questions and answers that crossed each other during this
+morning, Nicholl asked one that did not get an immediate solution.
+
+"I say," said he, "it is all very well to go to the moon, but how shall
+we get back again?"
+
+"What do you mean by that, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane gravely.
+
+"It seems to me very inopportune to ask about getting away from a
+country before you get to it," added Michel.
+
+"I don't ask that question because I want to draw back, but I repeat my
+question, and ask, 'How shall we get back?'"
+
+"I have not the least idea," answered Barbicane.
+
+"And as for me," said Michel, "if I had known how to come back I should
+not have gone."
+
+"That is what you call answering," cried Nicholl.
+
+"I approve of Michel's words, and add that the question has no actual
+interest. We will think about that later on, when we want to return.
+Though the Columbiad will not be there, the projectile will."
+
+"Much good that will be, a bullet without a gun!"
+
+"A gun can be made, and so can powder! Neither metal, saltpetre, nor
+coal can be wanting in the bowels of the moon. Besides, in order to
+return you have only the lunar attraction to conquer, and you will only
+have 8,000 leagues to go so as to fall on the terrestrial globe by the
+simple laws of weight."
+
+"That is enough," said Michel, getting animated. "Let us hear no more
+about returning. As to communicating with our ancient colleagues upon
+earth, that will not be difficult."
+
+"How are we to do that, pray?"
+
+"By means of meteors hurled by the lunar volcanoes."
+
+"A good idea, Michel," answered Barbicane. "Laplace has calculated that
+a force five times superior to that of our cannons would suffice to send
+a meteor from the moon to the earth. Now there is no volcano that has
+not a superior force of propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Michel. "Meteors will be convenient postmen and will not
+cost anything! And how we shall laugh at the postal service! But now I
+think--"
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"A superb idea! Why did we not fasten a telegraph wire to our bullet? We
+could have exchanged telegrams with the earth!"
+
+"And the weight of a wire 86,000 leagues long," answered Nicholl, "does
+that go for nothing?"
+
+"Yes, for nothing! We should have trebled the charge of the Columbiad!
+We could have made it four times--five times--greater!" cried Michel,
+whose voice became more and more violent.
+
+"There is a slight objection to make to your project," answered
+Barbicane. "It is that during the movement of rotation of the globe our
+wire would have been rolled round it like a chain round a windlass, and
+it would inevitably have dragged us down to the earth again."
+
+"By the thirty-nine stars of the Union!" said Michel, "I have nothing
+but impracticable ideas to-day--ideas worthy of J.T. Maston! But now I
+think of it, if we do not return to earth J.T. Maston will certainly
+come to us!"
+
+"Yes! he will come," replied Barbicane; "he is a worthy and courageous
+comrade. Besides, what could be easier? Is not the Columbiad still lying
+in Floridian soil? Is cotton and nitric acid wanting wherewith to
+manufacture the projectile? Will not the moon again pass the zenith of
+Florida? In another eighteen years will she not occupy exactly the same
+place that she occupies to-day?"
+
+"Yes," repeated Michel--"yes, Maston will come, and with him our friends
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and all the members of the Gun Club, and they
+will be welcome! Later on trains of projectiles will be established
+between the earth and the moon! Hurrah for J.T. Maston!"
+
+It is probable that if the Honourable J.T. Maston did not hear the
+hurrahs uttered in his honour his ears tingled at least. What was he
+doing then? He was no doubt stationed in the Rocky Mountains at Long's
+Peak, trying to discover the invisible bullet gravitating in space. If
+he was thinking of his dear companions it must be acknowledged that they
+were not behindhand with him, and that, under the influence of singular
+exaltation, they consecrated their best thoughts to him.
+
+But whence came the animation that grew visibly greater in the
+inhabitants of the projectile? Their sobriety could not be questioned.
+Must this strange erethismus of the brain be attributed to the
+exceptional circumstances of the time, to that proximity of the Queen of
+Night from which a few hours only separated them, or to some secret
+influence of the moon acting on their nervous system? Their faces became
+as red as if exposed to the reverberation of a furnace; their
+respiration became more active, and their lungs played like
+forge-bellows; their eyes shone with extraordinary flame, and their
+voices became formidably loud, their words escaped like a champagne-cork
+driven forth by carbonic acid gas; their gestures became disquieting,
+they wanted so much room to perform them in. And, strange to say, they
+in no wise perceived this excessive tension of the mind.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl in a sharp tone--"now that I do not know whether we
+shall come back from the moon, I will know what we are going there for!"
+
+"What we are going there for!" answered Barbicane, stamping as if he
+were in a fencing-room; "I don't know."
+
+"You don't know!" cried Michel with a shout that provoked a sonorous
+echo in the projectile.
+
+"No, I have not the least idea!" answered Barbicane, shouting in unison
+with his interlocutor.
+
+"Well, then, I know," answered Michel.
+
+"Speak, then," said Nicholl, who could no longer restrain the angry
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I shall speak if it suits me!" cried Michel, violently seizing his
+companion's arm. "It must suit you!" said Barbicane, with eyes on fire
+and threatening hands. "It was you who drew us into this terrible
+journey, and we wish to know why!"
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "now I don't know where I am going, I will know
+why I am going."
+
+"Why?" cried Michel, jumping a yard high--"why? To take possession of
+the moon in the name of the United States! To add a fortieth State to
+the Union! To colonise the lunar regions, to cultivate them, people
+them, to take them all the wonders of art, science, and industry! To
+civilise the Selenites, unless they are more civilised than we are, and
+to make them into a republic if they have not already done it for
+themselves!"
+
+"If there are any Selenites!" answered Nicholl, who under the empire of
+this inexplicable intoxication became very contradictory.
+
+"Who says there are no Selenites?" cried Michel in a threatening tone.
+
+"I do!" shouted Nicholl.
+
+"Captain," said Michel, "do not repeat that insult or I will knock your
+teeth down your throat!"
+
+The two adversaries were about to rush upon one another, and this
+incoherent discussion was threatening to degenerate into a battle, when
+Barbicane interfered.
+
+"Stop, unhappy men," said he, putting his two companions back to back,
+"if there are no Selenites, we will do without them!"
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Michel, who did not care more about them than that. "We
+have nothing to do with the Selenites! Bother the Selenites!"
+
+"The empire of the moon shall be ours," said Nicholl. "Let us found a
+Republic of three!"
+
+"I shall be the Congress," cried Michel.
+
+"And I the Senate," answered Nicholl.
+
+"And Barbicane the President," shouted Michel.
+
+"No President elected by the nation!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, then, a President elected by the Congress," exclaimed Michel;
+"and as I am the Congress I elect you unanimously."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah for President Barbicane!" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"Hip--hip--hip! hurrah!" vociferated Michel Ardan.
+
+Then the President and Senate struck up "Yankee Doodle" as loudly as
+they could, whilst the Congress shouted the virile "Marseillaise."
+
+Then began a frantic dance with maniacal gestures, mad stamping, and
+somersaults of boneless clowns. Diana took part in the dance, howling
+too, and jumped to the very roof of the projectile. An inexplicable
+flapping of wings and cock-crows of singular sonority were heard. Five
+or six fowls flew about striking the walls like mad bats.
+
+Then the three travelling companions, whose lungs were disorganised
+under some incomprehensible influence, more than intoxicated, burnt by
+the air that had set their breathing apparatus on fire, fell motionless
+upon the bottom of the projectile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the cause of that singular intoxication, the
+consequences of which might prove so disastrous? Simply carelessness on
+Michel's part, which Nicholl was able to remedy in time.
+
+After a veritable swoon, which lasted a few minutes, the captain, who
+was the first to regain consciousness, soon collected his intellectual
+faculties.
+
+Although he had breakfasted two hours before, he began to feel as hungry
+as if he had not tasted food for several days. His whole being, his
+brain and stomach, were excited to the highest point.
+
+He rose, therefore, and demanded a supplementary collation from Michel,
+who was still unconscious, and did not answer. Nicholl, therefore,
+proceeded to prepare some cups of tea, in order to facilitate the
+absorption of a dozen sandwiches. He busied himself first with lighting
+a fire, and so struck a match.
+
+What was his surprise to see the sulphur burn with extraordinary and
+almost unbearable brilliancy! From the jet of gas he lighted rose a
+flame equal to floods of electric light.
+
+A revelation took place in Nicholl's mind. This intensity of light, the
+physiological disturbance in himself, the extra excitement of all his
+moral and sensitive faculties--he understood it all.
+
+"The oxygen!" he exclaimed.
+
+And leaning over the air-apparatus, he saw that the tap was giving out a
+flood of colourless, savourless, and odourless gas, eminently vital, but
+which in a pure state produces the gravest disorders in the
+constitution. Through carelessness Michel had left the tap full on.
+Nicholl made haste to turn off this flow of oxygen with which the
+atmosphere was saturated, and which would have caused the death of the
+travellers, not by suffocation, but by combustion.
+
+An hour afterwards the air was relieved, and gave their normal play to
+the lungs. By degrees the three friends recovered from their
+intoxication; but they were obliged to recover from their oxygen like a
+drunkard from his wine.
+
+When Michel knew his share of responsibility in this incident he did not
+appear in the least disconcerted. This unexpected intoxication broke the
+monotony of the journey. Many foolish things had been said under its
+influence, but they had been forgotten as soon as said.
+
+"Then," added the merry Frenchman, "I am not sorry for having
+experienced the effect of this captious gas. Do you know, my friends,
+that there might be a curious establishment set up with oxygen-rooms,
+where people whose constitutions are weak might live a more active life
+during a few hours at least? Suppose we had meetings where the air could
+be saturated with this heroic fluid, theatres where the managers would
+send it out in strong doses, what passion there would be in the souls of
+actors and spectators, what fire and what enthusiasm! And if, instead of
+a simple assembly, a whole nation could be saturated with it, what
+activity, what a supplement of life it would receive! Of an exhausted
+nation it perhaps would make a great and strong nation, and I know more
+than one state in old Europe that ought to put itself under the oxygen
+_régime_ in the interest of its health."
+
+Michel spoke with as much animation as if the tap were still full on.
+But with one sentence Barbicane damped his enthusiasm.
+
+"All that is very well, friend Michel," he said, "but now perhaps you
+will tell us where those fowls that joined in our concert came from."
+
+"Those fowls?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+In fact, half-a-dozen hens and a superb cock were flying hither and
+thither.
+
+"Ah, the stupids!" cried Michel. "It was the oxygen that put them in
+revolt."
+
+"But what are you going to do with those fowls?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Acclimatise them in the moon of course! For the sake of a joke, my
+worthy president; simply a joke that has unhappily come to nothing! I
+wanted to let them out on the lunar continent without telling you! How
+astounded you would have been to see these terrestrial poultry pecking
+the fields of the moon!"
+
+"Ah, _gamin_, you eternal boy!" answered Barbicane, "you don't want
+oxygen to make you out of your senses! You are always what we were under
+the influence of this gas! You are always insane!"
+
+"Ah! how do we know we were not wiser then?" replied Michel Ardan.
+
+After this philosophical reflection the three friends repaired the
+disorder in the projectile. Cock and hens were put back in their cage.
+But as they were doing this Barbicane and his two companions distinctly
+perceived a fresh phenomenon.
+
+Since the moment they had left the earth their own weight, that of the
+bullet and the objects it contained, had suffered progressive
+diminution. Though they could not have any experience of this in the
+projectile, a moment must come when the effect upon themselves and the
+tools and instruments they used would be felt.
+
+Of course scales would not have indicated this loss of weight, for the
+weights used would have lost precisely as much as the object itself; but
+a spring weighing-machine, the tension of which is independent of
+attraction, would have given the exact valuation of this diminution.
+
+It is well known that attraction, or weight, is in proportion to the
+bulk, and in inverse proportion to the square of distances. Hence this
+consequence. If the earth had been alone in space, if the other heavenly
+bodies were to be suddenly annihilated, the projectile, according to
+Newton's law, would have weighed less according to its distance from the
+earth, but without ever losing its weight entirely, for the terrestrial
+attraction would always have made itself felt, no matter at what
+distance.
+
+But in the case with which we are dealing, a moment must come when the
+projectile would not be at all under the law of gravitation, after
+allowing for the other celestial bodies, whose effect could not be set
+down as zero.
+
+In fact, the trajectory of the projectile was between the earth and the
+moon. As it went farther away from the earth terrestrial attraction
+would be diminished in inverse proportion to the square of distances,
+but the lunar attraction would be augmented in the same proportion. A
+point must, therefore, be reached where these two attractions would
+neutralise each other, and the bullet would have no weight at all. If
+the volumes of the moon and earth were equal, this point would have been
+reached at an equal distance between the two bodies. But by taking their
+difference of bulk into account it was easy to calculate that this
+point would be situated at 47/52 of the journey, or at 78,114 leagues
+from the earth.
+
+At this point a body that had no principle of velocity or movement in
+itself would remain eternally motionless, being equally attracted by the
+two heavenly bodies, and nothing drawing it more towards one than the
+other.
+
+Now if the force of impulsion had been exactly calculated the projectile
+ought to reach that point with no velocity, having lost all weight like
+the objects it contained.
+
+What would happen then? Three hypotheses presented themselves.
+
+Either the projectile would have kept some velocity, and passing the
+point of equal attraction, would fall on the moon by virtue of the
+excess of lunar attraction over terrestrial attraction.
+
+Or velocity sufficient to reach the neutral point being wanting, it
+would fall back on the earth by virtue of the excess of terrestrial
+attraction over lunar attraction.
+
+Or lastly, endowed with sufficient velocity to reach the neutral point,
+but insufficient to pass it, it would remain eternally suspended in the
+same place, like the pretended coffin of Mahomet, between the zenith and
+nadir.
+
+Such was the situation, and Barbicane clearly explained the consequences
+to his travelling companions. They were interested to the highest
+degree. How were they to know when they had reached this neutral point,
+situated at 78,114 leagues from the earth, at the precise moment when
+neither they nor the objects contained in the projectile should be in
+any way subject to the laws of weight?
+
+Until now the travellers, though they had remarked that this action
+diminished little by little, had not yet perceived its total absence.
+But that day, about 11 a.m., Nicholl having let a tumbler escape from
+his hand, instead of falling, it remained suspended in the air.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "this is a little amusing chemistry!"
+
+And immediately different objects, weapons, bottles, &c, left to
+themselves, hung suspended as if by miracle. Diana, too, lifted up by
+Michel into space, reproduced, but without trickery, the marvellous
+suspensions effected by Robert-Houdin and Maskelyne and Cook.
+
+The three adventurous companions, surprised and stupefied in spite of
+their scientific reasoning, carried into the domain of the marvellous,
+felt weight go out of their bodies. When they stretched out their arms
+they felt no inclination to drop them. Their heads vacillated on their
+shoulders. Their feet no longer kept at the bottom of the projectile.
+They were like staggering drunkards. Imagination has created men
+deprived of their reflection, others deprived of their shadows! But here
+reality, by the neutrality of active forces, made men in whom nothing
+had any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves.
+
+Suddenly Michel, making a slight spring, left the floor and remained
+suspended in the air like the good monk in Murillo's _Cuisine des
+Anges_. His two friends joined him in an instant, and all three, in the
+centre of the projectile, figured a miraculous ascension.
+
+"Is it believable? Is it likely? Is it possible?" cried Michel. "No. And
+yet it exists! Ah! if Raphael could have seen us like this what an
+Assumption he could have put upon canvas!"
+
+"The Assumption cannot last," answered Barbicane. "If the projectile
+passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to the
+moon."
+
+"Then our feet will rest upon the roof of the projectile,' answered
+Michel.
+
+"No," said Barbicane, "because the centre of gravity in the projectile
+is very low, and it will turn over gradually."
+
+"Then all our things will be turned upside down for certain!"
+
+"Do not alarm yourself, Michel," answered Nicholl. "There is nothing of
+the kind to be feared. Not an object will move; the projectile will turn
+insensibly."
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when it has cleared the point of equal
+attraction, its bottom, relatively heavier, will drag it perpendicularly
+down to the moon. But in order that such a phenomenon should take place
+we must pass the neutral line."
+
+"Passing the neutral line!" cried Michel. "Then let us do like the
+sailors who pass the equator--let us water our passage!"
+
+A slight side movement took Michel to the padded wall. Thence he took a
+bottle and glasses, placed them "in space" before his companions, and
+merrily touching glasses, they saluted the line with a triple hurrah.
+
+This influence of the attractions lasted scarcely an hour. The
+travellers saw themselves insensibly lowered towards the bottom, and
+Barbicane thought he remarked that the conical end of the projectile
+deviated slightly from the normal direction towards the moon. By an
+inverse movement the bottom side approached it. Lunar attraction was
+therefore gaining over terrestrial attraction. The fall towards the moon
+began, insensibly as yet; it could only be that of a millimetre (0.03937
+inch), and a third in the first second. But the attractive force would
+gradually increase, the fall would be more accentuated, the projectile,
+dragged down by its bottom side, would present its cone to the earth,
+and would fall with increasing velocity until it reached the Selenite
+surface. Now nothing could prevent the success of the enterprise, and
+Nicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane's joy.
+
+Then they chatted about all the phenomena that had astounded them one
+after another, especially about the neutralisation of the laws of
+weight. Michel Ardan, always full of enthusiasm, wished to deduce
+consequences which were only pure imagination.
+
+"Ah! my worthy friends," he cried, "what progress we should make could
+we but get rid upon earth of this weight, this chain that rivets us to
+her! It would be the prisoner restored to liberty! There would be no
+more weariness either in arms or legs. And if it is true that, in order
+to fly upon the surface of the earth, to sustain yourself in the air by
+a simple action of the muscles, it would take a force 150 times superior
+to that we possess, a simple act of will, a caprice, would transport us
+into space, and attraction would not exist."
+
+"In fact," said Nicholl, laughing, "if they succeeded in suppressing
+gravitation, like pain is suppressed by anaesthesia, it would change the
+face of modern society!"
+
+"Yes," cried Michel, full of his subject, "let us destroy weight and
+have no more burdens! No more cranes, screw-jacks, windlasses, cranks,
+or other machines will be wanted."
+
+"Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight nothing
+would keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel;
+nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight! Not
+even ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence of
+weight. Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held in
+equilibrium by terrestrial attraction. Lastly, not even the atmosphere,
+the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperse
+into space!"
+
+"That is a pity," replied Michel. "There is nothing like positive people
+for recalling you brutally to reality!"
+
+"Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel," resumed Barbicane, "for if no
+star could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are at
+least going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth."
+
+"The moon?"
+
+"Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times less
+than upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy to
+demonstrate."
+
+"And shall we perceive it?" asked Michel. "Evidently, for 400 lbs. only
+weigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Will not our muscular strength be diminished?"
+
+"Not at all. Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six."
+
+"Then we shall be Hercules in the moon," cried Michel.
+
+"Yes," replied Nicholl, "and the more so because if the height of the
+Selenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will be
+hardly a foot high."
+
+"Liliputians!" replied Michel. "Then I am going to play the _rôle_ of
+Gulliver! We shall realise the fable of the giants! That is the
+advantage of leaving one's own planet to visit the solar world!"
+
+"But if you want to play Gulliver," answered Barbicane, "only visit the
+inferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is rather
+less than that of the earth. But do not venture into the big planets,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the _rôles_ would be
+inverted, and you would become Liliputian."
+
+"And in the sun?"
+
+"In the sun, though its density is four times less than that of the
+earth, its volume is thirteen hundred and twenty-four thousand times
+greater, and gravitation there is twenty-seven times greater than upon
+the surface of our globe. Every proportion kept, the inhabitants ought
+on an average to be two hundred feet high."
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Michel. "I should only be a pigmy!"
+
+"Gulliver amongst the giants," said Nicholl.
+
+"Just so," answered Barbicane.
+
+"It would not have been a bad thing to carry some pieces of artillery to
+defend oneself with."
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane; "your bullets would have no effect on the
+sun, and they would fall to the ground in a few minutes."
+
+"That's saying a great deal!"
+
+"It is a fact," answered Barbicane. "Gravitation is so great on that
+enormous planet that an object weighing 70 lbs. on the earth would weigh
+1,930 lbs. on the surface of the sun. Your hat would weigh 20 lbs.! your
+cigar 1/2 lb.! Lastly, if you fell on the solar continent your weight
+would be so great--about 5,000 lbs.--that you could not get up again."
+
+"The devil!" said Michel, "I should have to carry about a portable
+crane! Well, my friends, let us be content with the moon for to-day.
+There, at least, we shall cut a great figure! Later on we shall see if
+we will go to the sun, where you can't drink without a crane to lift the
+glass to your mouth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION.
+
+
+Barbicane had now no fear, if not about the issue of the journey, at
+least about the projectile's force of impulsion. Its own speed would
+carry it beyond the neutral line. Therefore it would not return to the
+earth nor remain motionless upon the point of attraction. One hypothesis
+only remained to be realised, the arrival of the bullet at its goal
+under the action of lunar attraction.
+
+In reality it was a fall of 8,296 leagues upon a planet, it is true,
+where the gravity is six times less than upon the earth. Nevertheless it
+would be a terrible fall, and one against which all precautions ought to
+be taken without delay.
+
+These precautions were of two sorts; some were for the purpose of
+deadening the shock at the moment the projectile would touch lunar
+ground; others were to retard the shock, and so make it less violent.
+
+In order to deaden the shock, it was a pity that Barbicane was no longer
+able to employ the means that had so usefully weakened the shock at
+departure--that is to say, the water used as a spring and the movable
+partitions. The partitions still existed, but water was wanting, for
+they could not use the reserve for this purpose--that would be precious
+in case the liquid element should fail on the lunar soil.
+
+Besides, this reserve would not have been sufficient for a spring. The
+layer of water stored in the projectile at their departure, and on which
+lay the waterproof disc, occupied no less than three feet in depth, and
+spread over a surface of not less than fifty-four feet square. Now the
+receptacles did not contain the fifth part of that. They were therefore
+obliged to give up this effectual means of deadening the shock.
+
+Fortunately Barbicane, not content with employing water, had furnished
+the movable disc with strong spring buffers, destined to lessen the
+shock against the bottom, after breaking the horizontal partitions.
+These buffers were still in existence; they had only to be fitted on and
+the movable disc put in its place. All these pieces, easy to handle, as
+they weighed scarcely anything, could be rapidly mounted.
+
+This was done. The different pieces were adjusted without difficulty. It
+was only a matter of bolts and screws. There were plenty of tools. The
+disc was soon fixed on its steel buffers like a table on its legs. One
+inconvenience resulted from this arrangement. The lower port-hole was
+covered, and it would be impossible for the travellers to observe the
+moon through that opening whilst they were being precipitated
+perpendicularly upon her. But they were obliged to give it up. Besides,
+through the lateral openings they could still perceive the vast lunar
+regions, like the earth is seen from the car of a balloon.
+
+This placing of the disc took an hour's work. It was more than noon when
+the preparations were completed. Barbicane made fresh observations on
+the inclination of the projectile, but to his great vexation it had not
+turned sufficiently for a fall; it appeared to be describing a curve
+parallel with the lunar disc. The Queen of Night was shining splendidly
+in space, whilst opposite the orb of day was setting her on fire with
+his rays.
+
+This situation soon became an anxious one.
+
+"Shall we get there?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We must act as though we should," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You are faint-hearted fellows," replied Michel Ardan. "We shall get
+there, and quicker than we want."
+
+This answer recalled Barbicane to his preparations, and he occupied
+himself with placing the contrivances destined to retard the fall.
+
+It will be remembered that, at the meeting held in Tampa Town, Florida,
+Captain Nicholl appeared as Barbicane's enemy, and Michel Ardan's
+adversary. When Captain Nicholl said that the projectile would be broken
+like glass, Michel answered that he would retard the fall by means of
+fusees properly arranged.
+
+In fact, powerful fusees, resting upon the bottom, and being fired
+outside, might, by producing a recoil action, lessen the speed of the
+bullet. These fusees were to burn in the void it is true, but oxygen
+would not fail them, for they would furnish that themselves like the
+lunar volcanoes, the deflagration of which has never been prevented by
+the want of atmosphere around the moon.
+
+Barbicane had therefore provided himself with fireworks shut up in
+little cannons of bored steel, which could be screwed on to the bottom
+of the projectile. Inside these cannons were level with the bottom;
+outside they went half a foot beyond it. There were twenty of them. An
+opening in the disc allowed them to light the match with which each was
+provided. All the effect took place outside. The exploding mixture had
+been already rammed into each gun. All they had to do, therefore, was to
+take up the metallic buffers fixed in the base, and to put these cannons
+in their place, where they fitted exactly.
+
+This fresh work was ended about 3 p.m., and all precaution taken they
+had now nothing to do but to wait.
+
+In the meantime the projectile visibly drew nearer the moon. It was,
+therefore, submitted in some proportion to its influence; but its own
+velocity also inclined it in an oblique line. Perhaps the result of
+these two influences would be a line that would become a tangent. But it
+was certain that the projectile was not falling normally upon the
+surface of the moon, for its base, by reason of its weight, ought to
+have been turned towards her.
+
+Barbicane's anxiety was increased on seeing that his bullet resisted the
+influence of gravitation. It was the unknown that was before him--the
+unknown of the interstellar regions. He, the _savant_, believed that he
+had foreseen the only three hypotheses that were possible--the return to
+the earth, the fall upon the moon, or stagnation upon the neutral line!
+And here a fourth hypothesis, full of all the terrors of the infinite,
+cropped up inopportunely. To face it without flinching took a resolute
+_savant_ like Barbicane, a phlegmatic being like Nicholl, or an
+audacious adventurer like Michel Ardan.
+
+Conversation was started on this subject. Other men would have
+considered the question from a practical point of view. They would have
+wondered where the projectile would take them to. Not they, however.
+They sought the cause that had produced this effect.
+
+"So we are off the line," said Michel. "But how is that?"
+
+"I am very much afraid," answered Nicholl, "that notwithstanding all the
+precautions that were taken, the Columbiad was not aimed correctly. The
+slightest error would suffice to throw us outside the pale of lunar
+attraction."
+
+"Then the cannon was pointed badly?" said Michel.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "The cannon was rigorously
+perpendicular, and its direction towards the zenith of the place was
+incontestable. The moon passing the zenith, we ought to have reached her
+at the full. There is another reason, but it escapes me."
+
+"Perhaps we have arrived too late," suggested Nicholl.
+
+"Too late?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Nicholl. "The notice from the Cambridge Observatory said
+that the transit ought to be accomplished in ninety-seven hours thirteen
+minutes and twenty seconds. That means that before that time the moon
+would not have reached the point indicated, and after she would have
+passed it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Barbicane. "But we started on the 1st of December at
+11h. 13m. 25s. p.m., and we ought to arrive at midnight on the 5th,
+precisely as the moon is full. Now this is the 5th of December. It is
+half-past three, and eight hours and a half ought to be sufficient to
+take us to our goal. Why are we not going towards it?"
+
+"Perhaps the velocity was greater than it ought to have been," answered
+Nicholl, "for we know now that the initial velocity was greater than it
+was supposed to be."
+
+"No! a hundred times no!" replied Barbicane. "An excess of velocity,
+supposing the direction of the projectile to have been correct, would
+not have prevented us reaching the moon. No! There has been a deviation.
+We have deviated!"
+
+"Through whom? through what?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, Barbicane," then said Michel, "should you like to know what I
+think about why we have deviated?"
+
+"Say what you think."
+
+"I would not give half a dollar to know! We have deviated, that is a
+fact. It does not matter much where we are going. We shall soon find
+out. As we are being carried along into space we shall end by falling
+into some centre of attraction or another."
+
+Barbicane could not be contented with this indifference of Michel
+Ardan's. Not that he was anxious about the future. But what he wanted to
+know, at any price, was why his projectile had deviated.
+
+In the meantime the projectile kept on its course sideways to the moon,
+and the objects thrown out along with it. Barbicane could even prove by
+the landmarks upon the moon, which was only at 2,000 leagues' distance,
+that its speed was becoming uniform--a fresh proof that they were not
+falling. Its force of impulsion was prevailing over the lunar
+attraction, but the trajectory of the projectile was certainly taking
+them nearer the lunar disc, and it might be hoped that at a nearer point
+the weight would predominate and provoke a fall.
+
+The three friends, having nothing better to do, went on with their
+observations. They could not, however, yet determine the topography of
+the satellite. Every relief was levelled under the action of the solar
+rays.
+
+They watched thus through the lateral windows until 8 p.m. The moon then
+looked so large that she hid half the firmament from them. The sun on
+one side, and the Queen of Night on the other, inundated the projectile
+with light.
+
+At that moment Barbicane thought he could estimate at 700 leagues only
+the distance that separated them from their goal. The velocity of the
+projectile appeared to him to be 200 yards a second, or about 170
+leagues an hour. The base of the bullet had a tendency to turn towards
+the moon under the influence of the centripetal force; but the
+centrifugal force still predominated, and it became probable that the
+rectilinear trajectory would change to some curve the nature of which
+could not be determined.
+
+Barbicane still sought the solution of his insoluble problem. The hours
+went by without result. The projectile visibly drew nearer to the moon,
+but it was plain that it would not reach her. The short distance at
+which it would pass her would be the result of two forces, attractive
+and repulsive, which acted upon the projectile.
+
+"I only pray for one thing," repeated Michel, "and that is to pass near
+enough to the moon to penetrate her secrets."
+
+"Confound the cause that made our projectile deviate!" cried Nicholl.
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, as if he had been suddenly struck with an idea,
+"confound that asteroid that crossed our path!"
+
+"Eh?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"I mean," resumed Barbicane, who appeared convinced, "I mean that our
+deviation is solely due to the influence of that wandering body."
+
+"But it did not even graze us," continued Michel.
+
+"What does that matter? Its bulk, compared with that of our projectile,
+was enormous, and its attraction was sufficient to have an influence
+upon our direction."
+
+"That influence must have been very slight," said Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, but slight as it was," answered Barbicane, "upon a
+distance of 84,000 leagues it was enough to make us miss the moon!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON.
+
+
+Barbicane had evidently found the only plausible reason for the
+deviation. However slight it had been, it had been sufficient to modify
+the trajectory of the projectile. It was a fatality. The audacious
+attempt had miscarried by a fortuitous circumstance, and unless anything
+unexpected happened, the lunar disc could no longer be reached. Would
+they pass it near enough to resolve certain problems in physics and
+geology until then unsolved? This was the only question that occupied
+the minds of these bold travellers. As to the fate the future held in
+store for them, they would not even think about it. Yet what was to
+become of them amidst these infinite solitudes when air failed them? A
+few more days and they would fall suffocated in this bullet wandering at
+hazard. But a few days were centuries to these intrepid men, and they
+consecrated every moment to observing the moon they no longer hoped to
+reach.
+
+The distance which then separated the projectile from the satellite was
+estimated at about 200 leagues. Under these conditions, as far as
+regards the visibility of the details of the disc, the travellers were
+farther from the moon than are the inhabitants of the earth with their
+powerful telescopes.
+
+It is, in fact, known that the instrument set up by Lord Rosse at
+Parsonstown, which magnifies 6,500 times, brings the moon to within
+sixteen leagues; and the powerful telescope set up at Long's Peak
+magnifies 48,000 times, and brings the moon to within less than two
+leagues, so that objects twelve yards in diameter were sufficiently
+distinct.
+
+Thus, then, at that distance the topographical details of the moon, seen
+without a telescope, were not distinctly determined. The eye caught the
+outline of those vast depressions inappropriately called "seas," but
+they could not determine their nature. The prominence of the mountains
+disappeared under the splendid irradiation produced by the reflection of
+the solar rays. The eye, dazzled as if leaning over a furnace of molten
+silver, turned from it involuntarily.
+
+However, the oblong form of the orb was already clearly seen.
+
+It appeared like a gigantic egg, with the small end turned towards the
+earth. The moon, liquid and pliable in the first days of her formation,
+was originally a perfect sphere. But soon, drawn within the pale of the
+earth's gravitation, she became elongated under its influence. By
+becoming a satellite she lost her native purity of form; her centre of
+gravity was in advance of the centre of her figure, and from this fact
+some _savants_ draw the conclusion that air and water might have taken
+refuge on the opposite side of the moon, which is never seen from the
+earth.
+
+This alteration in the primitive forms of the satellite was only visible
+for a few moments. The distance between the projectile and the moon
+diminished visibly; its velocity was considerably less than its initial
+velocity, but eight or nine times greater than that of our express
+trains. The oblique direction of the bullet, from its very obliquity,
+left Michel Ardan some hope of touching the lunar disc at some point or
+other. He could not believe that he should not get to it. No, he could
+not believe it, and this he often repeated. But Barbicane, who was a
+better judge, always answered him with pitiless logic.
+
+"No, Michel, no. We can only reach the moon by a fall, and we are not
+falling. The centripetal force keeps us under the moon's influence, but
+the centrifugal force sends us irresistibly away from it."
+
+This was said in a tone that deprived Michel Ardan of his last hopes.
+
+The portion of the moon the projectile was approaching was the northern
+hemisphere. The selenographic maps make it the lower one, because they
+are generally drawn up according to the image given by the telescopes,
+and we know that they reverse the objects. Such was the _Mappa
+Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler which Barbicane consulted. This
+northern hemisphere presented vast plains, relieved by isolated
+mountains.
+
+At midnight the moon was full. At that precise moment the travellers
+ought to have set foot upon her if the unlucky asteroid had not made
+them deviate from their direction. The orb was exactly in the condition
+rigorously determined by the Cambridge Observatory. She was
+mathematically at her perigee, and at the zenith of the twenty-eighth
+parallel. An observer placed at the bottom of the enormous Columbiad
+while it is pointed perpendicularly at the horizon would have framed the
+moon in the mouth of the cannon. A straight line drawn through the axis
+of the piece would have passed through the centre of the moon.
+
+It need hardly be stated that during the night between the 5th and 6th
+of December the travellers did not take a minute's rest. Could they have
+closed their eyes so near to a new world? No. All their feelings were
+concentrated in one thought--to see! Representatives of the earth, of
+humanity past and present, all concentrated in themselves, it was
+through their eyes that the human race looked at these lunar regions and
+penetrated the secrets of its satellite! A strange emotion filled their
+hearts, and they went silently from one window to another.
+
+Their observations were noted down by Barbicane, and were made
+rigorously exact. To make them they had telescopes. To control them they
+had maps.
+
+The first observer of the moon was Galileo. His poor telescope only
+magnified thirty times. Nevertheless, in the spots that pitted the lunar
+disc "like eyes in a peacock's tail," he was the first to recognise
+mountains, and measure some heights to which he attributed,
+exaggerating, an elevation equal to the 20th of the diameter of the
+disc, or 8,000 metres. Galileo drew up no map of his observations.
+
+A few years later an astronomer of Dantzig, Hevelius--by operations
+which were only exact twice a month, at the first and second
+quadrature--reduced Galileo's heights to one-twenty-sixth only of the
+lunar diameter. This was an exaggeration the other way. But it is to
+this _savant_ that the first map of the moon is due. The light round
+spots there form circular mountains, and the dark spots indicate vast
+seas which, in reality, are plains. To these mountains and extents of
+sea he gave terrestrial denominations. There is a Sinai in the middle of
+an Arabia, Etna in the centre of Sicily, the Alps, Apennines,
+Carpathians, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Caspian, &c.--names
+badly applied, for neither mountains nor seas recalled the configuration
+of their namesakes on the globe. That large white spot, joined on the
+south to vaster continents and terminated in a point, could hardly be
+recognised as the inverted image of the Indian Peninsula, the Bay of
+Bengal, and Cochin-China. So these names were not kept. Another
+chartographer, knowing human nature better, proposed a fresh
+nomenclature, which human vanity made haste to adopt.
+
+This observer was Father Riccioli, a contemporary of Hevelius. He drew
+up a rough map full of errors. But he gave to the lunar mountains the
+names of great men of antiquity and _savants_ of his own epoch.
+
+A third map of the moon was executed in the seventeenth century by
+Dominique Cassini; superior to that of Riccioli in the execution, it is
+inexact in the measurements. Several smaller copies were published, but
+the plate long kept in the _Imprimerie Nationale_ was sold by weight as
+old brass.
+
+La Hire, a celebrated mathematician and designer, drew up a map of the
+moon four and a half yards high, which was never engraved.
+
+After him, a German astronomer, Tobie Marger, about the middle of the
+eighteenth century, began the publication of a magnificent selenographic
+map, according to lunar measures, which he rigorously verified; but his
+death, which took place in 1762, prevented the termination of this
+beautiful work.
+
+It was in 1830 that Messrs. Boeer and Moedler composed their celebrated
+_Mappa Selenographica_, according to an orthographical projection. This
+map reproduces the exact lunar disc, such as it appears, only the
+configurations of the mountains and plains are only correct in the
+central part; everywhere else--in the northern or southern portions,
+eastern or western--the configurations foreshortened cannot be compared
+with those of the centre. This topographical map, one yard high and
+divided into four parts, is a masterpiece of lunar chartography.
+
+After these _savants_ may be cited the selenographic reliefs of the
+German astronomer Julius Schmidt, the topographical works of Father
+Secchi, the magnificent sheets of the English amateur, Waren de la Rue,
+and lastly a map on orthographical projection of Messrs. Lecouturier and
+Chapuis, a fine model set up in 1860, of very correct design and clear
+outlines.
+
+Such is the nomenclature of the different maps relating to the lunar
+world. Barbicane possessed two, that of Messrs. Boeer and Moedler and
+that of Messrs. Chapuis and Lecouturier. They were to make his work of
+observer easier.
+
+They had excellent marine glasses specially constructed for this
+journey. They magnified objects a hundred times; they would therefore
+have reduced the distance between the earth and the moon to less than
+1,000 leagues. But then at a distance which towards 3 a.m. did not
+exceed a hundred miles, and in a medium which no atmosphere obstructed,
+these instruments brought the lunar level to less than fifteen hundred
+metres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+IMAGINATION AND REALITY.
+
+
+"Have you ever seen the moon?" a professor asked one of his pupils
+ironically.
+
+"No, sir," answered the pupil more ironically still, "but I have heard
+it spoken of."
+
+In one sense the jocose answer of the pupil might have been made by the
+immense majority of sublunary beings. How many people there are who have
+heard the moon spoken of and have never seen it--at least through a
+telescope! How many even have never examined the map of their satellite!
+
+Looking at a comprehensive selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us
+at once. In contrast to the geographical arrangements of the earth and
+Mars, the continents occupy the more southern hemisphere of the lunar
+globe. These continents have not such clear and regular boundary-lines
+as those of South America, Africa, and the Indian Peninsula. Their
+angular, capricious, and deeply-indented coasts are rich in gulfs and
+peninsulas. They recall the confusion in the islands of the Sound, where
+the earth is excessively cut up. If navigation has ever existed upon the
+surface of the moon it must have been exceedingly difficult and
+dangerous, and the Selenite mariners and hydrographers were greatly to
+be pitied, the former when they came upon these perilous coasts, the
+latter when they were marine surveying on the stormy banks.
+
+It may also be noticed that upon the lunar spheroid the South Pole is
+much more continental than the North Pole. On the latter there is only a
+slight strip of land capping it, separated from the other continents by
+vast seas. (When the word "seas" is used the vast plains probably
+covered by the sea formerly must be understood.) On the south the land
+covers nearly the whole hemisphere. It is, therefore, possible that the
+Selenites have already planted their flag on one of their poles, whilst
+Franklin, Ross, Kane, Dumont d'Urville, and Lambert have been unable to
+reach this unknown point on the terrestrial globe.
+
+Islands are numerous on the surface of the moon. They are almost all
+oblong or circular, as though traced with a compass, and seem to form a
+vast archipelago, like that charming group lying between Greece and Asia
+Minor which mythology formerly animated with its most graceful legends.
+Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, Milo, and Carpathos come into
+the mind, and you seek the ship of Ulysses or the "clipper" of the
+Argonauts. That was what it appeared to Michel Ardan; it was a Grecian
+Archipelago that he saw on the map. In the eyes of his less imaginative
+companions the aspect of these shores recalled rather the cut-up lands
+of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and where the Frenchman looked for
+traces of the heroes of fable, these Americans were noting favourable
+points for the establishment of mercantile houses in the interest of
+lunar commerce and industry.
+
+Some remarks on the orographical disposition of the moon must conclude
+the description of its continents, chains of mountains, isolated
+mountains, amphitheatres, and watercourses. The moon is like an immense
+Switzerland--a continual Norway, where Plutonic influence has done
+everything. This surface, so profoundly rugged, is the result of the
+successive contractions of the crust while the orb was being formed. The
+lunar disc is propitious for the study of great geological phenomena.
+According to the remarks of some astronomers, its surface, although more
+ancient than the surface of the earth, has remained newer. There there
+is no water to deteriorate the primitive relief, the continuous action
+of which produces a sort of general levelling. No air, the decomposing
+influence of which modifies orographical profiles. There Pluto's work,
+unaltered by Neptune's, is in all its native purity. It is the earth as
+she was before tides and currents covered her with layers of soil.
+
+After having wandered over these vast continents the eye is attracted by
+still vaster seas. Not only does their formation, situation, and aspect
+recall the terrestrial oceans, but, as upon earth, these seas occupy the
+largest part of the globe. And yet these are not liquid tracts, but
+plains, the nature of which the travellers hoped soon to determine.
+
+Astronomers, it must be owned, have decorated these pretended seas with
+at least odd names which science has respected at present. Michel Ardan
+was right when he compared this map to a "map of tenderness," drawn up
+by Scudery or Cyrano de Bergerac.
+
+"Only," added he, "it is no longer the map of sentiment like that of the
+18th century; it is the map of life, clearly divided into two parts, the
+one feminine, the other masculine. To the women, the right hemisphere;
+to the men, the left!"
+
+When he spoke thus Michel made his prosaic companions shrug their
+shoulders. Barbicane and Nicholl looked at the lunar map from another
+point of view to that of their imaginative friend. However, their
+imaginative friend had some reason on his side. Judge if he had not.
+
+In the left hemisphere stretches the "Sea of Clouds," where human reason
+is so often drowned. Not far off appears the "Sea of Rains," fed by all
+the worries of existence. Near lies the "Sea of Tempests," where man
+struggles incessantly against his too-often victorious passions. Then,
+exhausted by deceptions, treasons, infidelities, and all the procession
+of terrestrial miseries, what does he find at the end of his career? The
+vast "Sea of Humours," scarcely softened by some drops from the waters
+of the "Gulf of Dew!" Clouds, rain, tempests, humours, does the life of
+man contain aught but these? and is it not summed up in these four
+words?
+
+The right-hand hemisphere dedicated to "the women" contains smaller
+seas, the significant names of which agree with every incident of
+feminine existence. There is the "Sea of Serenity," over which bends the
+young maiden, and the "Lake of Dreams," which reflects her back a happy
+future. The "Sea of Nectar," with its waves of tenderness and breezes of
+love! The "Sea of Fecundity," the "Sea of Crises," and the "Sea of
+Vapours," the dimensions of which are, perhaps, too restricted, and
+lastly, that vast "Sea of Tranquillity" where all false passions, all
+useless dreams, all unassuaged desires are absorbed, and the waves of
+which flow peacefully into the "Lake of Death!"
+
+What a strange succession of names! What a singular division of these
+two hemispheres of the moon, united to one another like man and woman,
+and forming a sphere of life, carried through space. And was not the
+imaginative Michel right in thus interpreting the fancies of the old
+astronomers?
+
+But whilst his imagination thus ran riot on the "seas," his grave
+companions were looking at things more geographically. They were
+learning this new world by heart. They were measuring its angles and
+diameters.
+
+To Barbicane and Nicholl the "Sea of Clouds" was an immense depression
+of ground, with circular mountains scattered about on it; covering a
+great part of the western side of the southern hemisphere, it covered
+184,800 square leagues, and its centre was in south latitude 15°, and
+west longitude 20°. The Ocean of Tempests, _Oceanus Procellarum_, the
+largest plain on the lunar disc, covered a surface of 328,300 square
+leagues, its centre being in north latitude 10°, and east longitude 45°.
+From its bosom emerge the admirable shining mountains of Kepler and
+Aristarchus.
+
+More to the north, and separated from the Sea of Clouds by high chains
+of mountains, extends the Sea of Rains, _Mare Imbrium_, having its
+central point in north latitude 35° and east longitude 20°; it is of a
+nearly circular form, and covers a space of 193,000 leagues. Not far
+distant the Sea of Humours, _Mare Humorum_, a little basin of 44,200
+square leagues only, was situated in south latitude 25°, and east
+longitude 40°. Lastly, three gulfs lie on the coast of this
+hemisphere--the Torrid Gulf, the Gulf of Dew, and the Gulf of Iris,
+little plains inclosed by high chains of mountains.
+
+The "Feminine" hemisphere, naturally more capricious, was distinguished
+by smaller and more numerous seas. These were, towards the north, the
+_Mare Frigoris_, in north latitude 55° and longitude 0°, with 76,000
+square leagues of surface, which joined the Lake of Death and Lake of
+Dreams; the Sea of Serenity, _Mare Serenitatis_, by north latitude 25°
+and west longitude 20°, comprising a surface of 80,000 square leagues;
+the Sea of Crises, _Mare Crisium_, round and very compact, in north
+latitude 17° and west longitude 55°, a surface of 40,000 square leagues,
+a veritable Caspian buried in a girdle of mountains. Then on the
+equator, in north latitude 5° and west longitude 25°, appeared the Sea
+of Tranquillity, _Mare Tranquillitatis_, occupying 121,509 square
+leagues of surface; this sea communicated on the south with the Sea of
+Nectar, _Mare Nectaris_, an extent of 28,800 square leagues, in south
+latitude 15° and west longitude 35°, and on the east with the Sea of
+Fecundity, _Mare Fecunditatis_, the vastest in this hemisphere,
+occupying 219,300 square leagues, in south latitude 3° and west
+longitude 50°. Lastly, quite to the north and quite to the south lie two
+more seas, the Sea of Humboldt, _Mare Humboldtianum_, with a surface of
+6,500 square leagues, and the Southern Sea, _Mare Australe_, with a
+surface of 26,000.
+
+In the centre of the lunar disc, across the equator and on the zero
+meridian, lies the centre gulf, _Sinus Medii_, a sort of hyphen between
+the two hemispheres.
+
+Thus appeared to the eyes of Nicholl and Barbicane the surface always
+visible of the earth's satellite. When they added up these different
+figures they found that the surface of this hemisphere measured
+4,738,160 square leagues, 3,317,600 of which go for volcanoes, chains of
+mountains, amphitheatres, islands--in a word, all that seems to form the
+solid portion of the globe--and 1,410,400 leagues for the seas, lake,
+marshes, and all that seems to form the liquid portion, all of which was
+perfectly indifferent to the worthy Michel.
+
+It will be noticed that this hemisphere is thirteen and a-half times
+smaller than the terrestrial hemisphere. And yet upon it selenographers
+have already counted 50,000 craters. It is a rugged surface worthy of
+the unpoetical qualification of "green cheese" which the English have
+given it.
+
+When Barbicane pronounced this disobliging name Michel Ardan gave a
+bound.
+
+"That is how the Anglo-Saxons of the 19th century treat the beautiful
+Diana, the blonde Phoebe, the amiable Isis, the charming Astarte, the
+Queen of Night, the daughter of Latona and Jupiter, the younger sister
+of the radiant Apollo!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It has already been pointed out that the direction followed by the
+projectile was taking us towards the northern hemisphere of the moon.
+The travellers were far from that central point which they ought to have
+touched if their trajectory had not suffered an irremediable deviation.
+
+It was half-past twelve at night. Barbicane then estimated his distance
+at 1,400 kilometres, a distance rather greater than the length of the
+lunar radius, and which must diminish as he drew nearer the North Pole.
+The projectile was then not at the altitude of the equator, but on the
+tenth parallel, and from that latitude carefully observed on the map as
+far as the Pole, Barbicane and his two companions were able to watch the
+moon under the most favourable circumstances.
+
+In fact, by using telescopes, this distance of 1,400 kilometres was
+reduced to fourteen miles, or four and a-half leagues. The telescope of
+the Rocky Mountains brought the moon still nearer, but the terrestrial
+atmosphere singularly lessened its optical power. Thus Barbicane, in his
+projectile, by looking through his glass, could already perceive certain
+details almost imperceptible to observers on the earth.
+
+"My friends," then said the president in a grave voice, "I do not know
+where we are going, nor whether we shall ever see the terrestrial globe
+again. Nevertheless, let us do our work as if one day it would be of use
+to our fellow-creatures. Let us keep our minds free from all
+preoccupation. We are astronomers. This bullet is the Cambridge
+Observatory transported into space. Let us make our observations."
+
+That said, the work was begun with extreme precision, and it faithfully
+reproduced the different aspects of the moon at the variable distances
+which the projectile reached in relation to that orb.
+
+Whilst the bullet was at the altitude of the 10th north parallel it
+seemed to follow the 20th degree of east longitude.
+
+Here may be placed an important remark on the subject of the map which
+they used for their observations. In the selenographic maps, where, on
+account of the reversal of objects by the telescope, the south is at the
+top and the north at the bottom, it seems natural that the east should
+be on the left and the west on the right. However, it is not so. If the
+map were turned upside down, and showed the moon as she appears, the
+east would be left and the west right, the inverse of the terrestrial
+maps. The reason of this anomaly is the following:--Observers situated
+in the northern hemisphere--in Europe, for example--perceive the moon in
+the south from them. When they look at her they turn their backs to the
+north, the opposite position they take when looking at a terrestrial
+map. Their backs being turned to the north, they have the east to the
+left and the west to the right. For observers in the southern
+hemisphere--in Patagonia, for example--the west of the moon would be on
+their left and the east on their right, for the south would be behind
+them.
+
+Such is the reason for the apparent reversal of these two cardinal
+points, and this must be remembered whilst following the observations of
+President Barbicane.
+
+Helped by the _Mappa Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler, the
+travellers could, without hesitating, survey that portion of the disc in
+the field of their telescopes.
+
+"What are we looking at now?" asked Michel.
+
+"At the northern portion of the Sea of Clouds," answered Barbicane. "We
+are too far off to make out its nature. Are those plains composed of
+dry sand, as the first astronomers believed? Or are they only immense
+forests, according to the opinion of Mr. Waren de la Rue, who grants a
+very low but very dense atmosphere to the moon? We shall find that out
+later on. We will affirm nothing till we are quite certain."
+
+"This Sea of Clouds is rather doubtfully traced upon the maps. It is
+supposed that this vast plain is strewn with blocks of lava vomited by
+the neighbouring volcanoes on its right side, Ptolemy, Purbach, and
+Arzachel. The projectile was drawing sensibly nearer, and the summits
+which close in this sea on the north were distinctly visible. In front
+rose a mountain shining gloriously, the top of which seemed drowned in
+the solar rays."
+
+"That mountain is--?" asked Michel.
+
+"Copernicus," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Let us have a look at Copernicus," said Michel.
+
+This mountain, situated in north latitude 9°, and east longitude 20°,
+rises to a height of nearly 11,000 feet above the surface of the moon.
+It is quite visible from the earth, and astronomers can study it with
+ease, especially during the phase between the last quarter and the new
+moon, because then shadows are thrown lengthways from east to west, and
+allow the altitudes to be taken.
+
+Copernicus forms the most important radiating system in the southern
+hemisphere, according to Tycho Brahe. It rises isolated like a gigantic
+lighthouse over that of the Sea of Clouds bordering on the Sea of
+Tempests, and it lights two oceans at once with its splendid rays. Those
+long luminous trails, so dazzling at full moon, made a spectacle without
+an equal; they pass the boundary chains on the north, and stretch as far
+as the Sea of Rains. At 1 a.m., terrestrial time, the projectile, like a
+balloon carried into space, hung over this superb mountain.
+
+Barbicane could perfectly distinguish its chief features. Copernicus is
+comprehended in the series of annular mountains of the first order in
+the division of the large amphitheatres. Like the mountains of Kepler
+and Aristarchus, which overlook the Ocean of Tempests, it appears
+sometimes like a brilliant point through the pale light, and used to be
+taken for a volcano in activity. But it is only an extinct volcano, like
+those on that side of the moon. Its circumference presented a diameter
+of about twenty-two leagues. The glasses showed traces of
+stratifications in it produced by successive eruptions, and its
+neighbourhood appeared strewn with volcanic remains, which were still
+seen in the crater.
+
+"There exist," said Barbicane, "several sorts of amphitheatres an the
+surface of the moon, and it is easy to see that Copernicus belongs to
+the radiating class. If we were nearer it we should perceive the cones
+which bristle in the interior, and which were formerly so many fiery
+mouths. A curious arrangement, and one without exception on the lunar
+disc, is presented on the interior surface of these amphitheatres, being
+notably downward from the exterior plane, a contrary form to that which
+terrestrial craters present. It follows, therefore, that the general
+curvature at the bottom of these amphitheatres gives us fear of an
+inferior diameter to that of the moon."
+
+"What is the reason of this special arrangement?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is not known," answered Barbicane.
+
+"How splendidly it shines!" said Michel. "I think it would be difficult
+to see a more beautiful spectacle!"
+
+"What should you say, then," answered Barbicane, "if the chances of our
+journey should take us towards the southern hemisphere?"
+
+"Well, I should say it is finer still," replied Michel Ardan.
+
+At that moment the projectile hung right over the amphitheatre. The
+circumference of Copernicus formed an almost perfect circle, and its
+steep ramparts were clearly defined. A second circular inclosure could
+even be distinguished. A grey plain of wild aspect spread around on
+which every relief appeared yellow. At the bottom of the amphitheatre,
+as if in a jewel-case, sparkled for one instant two or three eruptive
+cones like enormous dazzling gems. Towards the north the sides of the
+crater were lowered into a depression which would probably have given
+access to the interior of the crater.
+
+As they passed above the surrounding plain Barbicane was able to note a
+large number of mountains of slight importance, amongst others a little
+circular mountain called "Gay-Lussac," more than twenty-three kilometres
+wide. Towards the south the plain was very flat, without one elevation
+or projection of the soil. Towards the north, on the contrary, as far as
+the place where it borders on the Ocean of Tempests, it was like a
+liquid surface agitated by a storm, of which the hills and hollows
+formed a succession of waves suddenly coagulated. Over the whole of
+this, and in all directions, ran the luminous trails which converged to
+the summit of Copernicus. Some had a width of thirty kilometres over a
+length that could not be estimated.
+
+The travellers discussed the origin of these strange rays, but they
+could not determine their nature any better than terrestrial observers.
+
+"Why," said Nicholl, "may not these rays be simply the spurs of the
+mountains reflecting the light of the sun more vividly?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "if it were so in certain conditions of the
+moon they would throw shadows, which they do not."
+
+In fact, these rays only appear when the sun is in opposition with the
+moon, and they disappear as soon as its rays become oblique.
+
+"But what explanation of these trails of light have been imagined?"
+asked Michel, "for I cannot believe that _savants_ would ever stop short
+for want of explanation."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "Herschel has uttered an opinion, but he does
+not affirm it."
+
+"Never mind; what is his opinion?"
+
+"He thought that these rays must be streams of cold lava which shone
+when the sun struck them normally."
+
+"That may be true, but nothing is less certain. However, if we pass
+nearer to Tycho we shall be in a better position to find out the cause
+of this radiation."
+
+"What do you think that plain is like, seen from the height we are at?"
+asked Michel.
+
+"I don't know," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, with all these pieces of lava, sharpened like spindles, it looks
+like 'an immense game of spilikins,' thrown down pell-mell. We only want
+a hook to draw them up."
+
+"Be serious for once in your life," said Barbicane.
+
+"I will be serious," replied Michel tranquilly, "and instead of
+spilikins let us say they are bones. This plain would then be only an
+immense cemetery upon which would repose the immortal remains of a
+thousand distinct generations. Do you like that comparison better?"
+
+"One is as good as the other," answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil! You are difficult to please," replied Michel.
+
+"My worthy friend," resumed the prosaic Barbicane, "it does not matter
+what it looks like when we don't know what it is."
+
+"A good answer," exclaimed Michel; "that will teach me to argue with
+_savants_."
+
+In the meantime the projectile went with almost uniform speed round the
+lunar disc. It may be easily imagined that the travellers did not dream
+of taking a minute's rest. A fresh landscape lay before their eyes every
+instant. About half-past one in the morning they caught a glimpse of the
+summit of another mountain. Barbicane consulted his map, and recognised
+Eratosthenes.
+
+It was a circular mountain 4,500 metres high, one of those amphitheatres
+so numerous upon the satellite. Barbicane informed his friends of
+Kepler's singular opinion upon the formation of these circles.
+According to the celebrated mathematician, these crateriform cavities
+had been dug out by the hand of man.
+
+"What for?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"In order to preserve themselves from the ardour of the solar rays,
+which strike the moon during fifteen consecutive days."
+
+"The Selenites were not fools!" said Michel.
+
+"It was a singular idea!" answered Nicholl. "But it is probable that
+Kepler did not know the real dimensions of these circles, for digging
+them would have been giants' labour, impracticable for Selenites."
+
+"Why so, if the weight on the surface of the moon is six times less than
+upon the surface of the earth?" said Michel.
+
+"But if the Selenites are six times smaller?" replied Nicholl.
+
+"And if there are no Selenites?" added Barbicane, which terminated the
+discussion.
+
+Eratosthenes soon disappeared from the horizon without the projectile
+having been sufficiently near it to allow a rigorous observation. This
+mountain separated the Apennines from the Carpathians.
+
+In lunar orography, several chains of mountains have been distinguished
+which are principally distributed over the northern hemisphere. Some,
+however, occupy certain portions of the southern hemisphere.
+
+The following is a list of these different chains, with their latitudes
+and the height of their highest summits:--
+
+                        deg.   deg.       metres.
+    Mounts Doerfel       84 to  0 S. lat.  7,603
+      "    Leibnitz      65 "   0   "      7,600
+      "    Rook          20 "  30   "      1,600
+      "    Altai         17 "  28   "      4,047
+      "    Cordilleras   10 "  20   "      3,898
+      "    Pyrenees       8 "  18   "      3,631
+      "    Oural          5 "  13   "        838
+      "    Alembert       4 "  10   "      5,847
+      "    Hoemus         8 "  21 N. lat.  2,021
+      "    Carpathians   15 "  19   "      1,939
+      "    Apennines     14 "  27   "      5,501
+      "    Taurus        21 "  28   "      2,746
+      "    Riphees       25 "  33   "      4,171
+      "    Hercynians    17 "  29   "      1,170
+      "    Caucasia      32 "  41   "      5,567
+      "    Alps          42 "  49   "      3,617
+
+The most important of these different chains is that of the Apennines,
+the development of which extends 150 leagues, and is yet inferior to
+that of the great orographical movements of the earth. The Apennines run
+along the eastern border of the Sea of Rains, and are continued on the
+north by the Carpathians, the profile of which measures about 100
+leagues.
+
+The travellers could only catch a glimpse of the summit of these
+Apennines which lie between west long. 10° and east long. 16°; but the
+chain of the Carpathians was visible from 18° to 30° east long., and
+they could see how they were distributed.
+
+One hypothesis seemed to them very justifiable. Seeing that this chain
+of the Carpathians was here and there circular in form and with high
+peaks, they concluded that it anciently formed important amphitheatres.
+These mountainous circles must have been broken up by the vast cataclysm
+to which the Sea of Rains was due. These Carpathians looked then what
+the amphitheatres of Purbach, Arzachel, and Ptolemy would if some
+cataclysm were to throw down their left ramparts and transform them into
+continuous chains. They present an average height of 3,200 metres, a
+height comparable to certain of the Pyrenees. Their southern slopes fall
+straight into the immense Sea of Rains.
+
+About 2 a.m. Barbicane was at the altitude of the 20th lunar parallel,
+not far from that little mountain, 1,559 metres high, which bears the
+name of Pythias. The distance from the projectile to the moon was only
+1,200 kilometres, brought by means of telescopes to two and a half
+leagues.
+
+The "Mare Imbrium" lay before the eyes of the travellers like an immense
+depression of which the details were not very distinct. Near them on the
+left rose Mount Lambert, the altitude of which is estimated at 1,813
+metres, and farther on, upon the borders of the Ocean of Tempests, in
+north lat. 23° and east long. 29°, rose the shining mountain of Euler.
+This mountain, which rises only 1,815 metres above the lunar surface,
+has been the object of an interesting work by the astronomer Schroeter.
+This _savant_, trying to find out the origin of the lunar mountains,
+asked himself whether the volume of the crater always looked equal to
+the volume of the ramparts that formed it. Now this he found to be
+generally the case, and he hence concluded that a single eruption of
+volcanic matter had sufficed to form these ramparts, for successive
+eruptions would have destroyed the connection. Mount Euler alone was an
+exception to this general law, and it must have taken several successive
+eruptions to form it, for the volume of its cavity is double that of its
+inclosure.
+
+All these hypotheses were allowable to terrestrial observers whose
+instruments were incomplete; but Barbicane was no longer contented to
+accept them, and seeing that his projectile drew regularly nearer the
+lunar disc he did not despair of ultimately reaching it, or at least of
+finding out the secrets of its formation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+LUNAR LANDSCAPES.
+
+
+At half-past two in the morning the bullet was over the 30th lunar
+parallel at an effective distance of 1,000 kilometres, reduced by the
+optical instruments to ten. It still seemed impossible that it could
+reach any point on the disc. Its movement of translation, relatively
+slow, was inexplicable to President Barbicane. At that distance from the
+moon it ought to have been fast in order to maintain it against the
+power of attraction. The reason of that phenomenon was also
+inexplicable; besides, time was wanting to seek for the cause. The
+reliefs on the lunar surface flew beneath their eyes, and they did not
+want to lose a single detail.
+
+The disc appeared through the telescopes at a distance of two and a half
+leagues. If an aëronaut were taken up that distance from the earth, what
+would he distinguish upon its surface? No one can tell, as the highest
+ascensions have not exceeded 8,000 metres.
+
+The following, however, is an exact description of what Barbicane and
+his companions saw from that height:--
+
+Large patches of different colours appeared on the disc. Selenographers
+do not agree about their nature. They are quite distinct from each
+other. Julius Schmidt is of opinion that if the terrestrial oceans were
+dried up, a Selenite observer could only tell the difference between the
+terrestrial oceans and continental plains by patches of colour as
+distinctly varied as those which a terrestrial observer sees upon the
+moon. According to him, the colour common to the vast plains, known
+under the name of "seas," is dark grey, intermingled with green and
+brown. Some of the large craters are coloured in the same way.
+
+Barbicane knew this opinion of the German selenographer; it is shared by
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler. He noticed that they were right, whilst
+certain astronomers, who only allow grey colouring on the surface of the
+moon, are wrong. In certain places the green colour was very vivid;
+according to Julius Schmidt, it is so in the Seas of Serenity and
+Humours. Barbicane likewise remarked the wide craters with no interior
+cones, which are of a bluish colour, analogous to that of fresh-polished
+sheets of steel. These colours really belonged to the lunar disc, and
+did not result, as certain astronomers think, either from some
+imperfection in the object-glasses of the telescopes or the
+interposition of the terrestrial atmosphere. Barbicane had no longer any
+doubt about it. He was looking at it through the void, and could not
+commit any optical error. He considered that the existence of this
+different colouring was proved to science. Now were the green shades
+owing to tropical vegetation, kept up by a low and dense atmosphere? He
+could not yet be certain.
+
+Farther on he noticed a reddish tinge, quite sufficiently distinct. A
+similar colour had already been observed upon the bottom of an isolated
+inclosure, known under the name of the Lichtenberg Amphitheatre, which
+is situated near the Hercynian Mountains, on the border of the moon. But
+he could not make out its nature.
+
+He was not more fortunate about another peculiarity of the disc, for he
+could not find out its cause. The peculiarity was the following one:--
+
+Michel Ardan was watching near the president when he remarked some long
+white lines brilliantly lighted up by the direct rays of the sun. It was
+a succession of luminous furrows, very different from the radiation that
+Copernicus had presented. They ran in parallel lines.
+
+Michel, with his usual readiness, exclaimed--
+
+"Why, there are cultivated fields!"
+
+"Cultivated fields!" repeated Nicholl, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Ploughed fields, at all events," replied Michel Ardan. "But what
+ploughmen these Selenites must be, and what gigantic oxen they must
+harness to their ploughs, to make such furrows!"
+
+"They are not furrows, they are crevices!"
+
+"Crevices let them be," answered Michel with docility. "Only what do you
+mean by crevices in the world of science?" Barbicane soon told his
+companions all he knew about lunar crevices. He knew that they were
+furrows observed upon all the non-mountainous parts of the lunar disc;
+that these furrows, generally isolated, were from four to five leagues
+only; that their width varies from 1,000 to 1,500 metres, and their
+edges are rigorously parallel. But he knew nothing more about their
+formation or their nature.
+
+Barbicane watched these furrows through his telescope very attentively.
+He noticed that their banks were exceedingly steep. They were long
+parallel ramparts; with a little imagination they might be taken for
+long lines of fortifications raised by Selenite engineers.
+
+Some of these furrows were as straight as if they had been cut by line,
+others were slightly curved through with edges still parallel. Some
+crossed each other. Some crossed craters. Some furrowed the circular
+cavities, such as Posidonius or Petavius. Some crossed the seas, notably
+the Sea of Serenity.
+
+These accidents of Nature had naturally exercised the imagination of
+terrestrial astronomers. The earliest observations did not discover
+these furrows. Neither Hevelius, Cassini, La Hire, nor Herschel seems to
+have known them. It was Schroeter who in 1789 first attracted the
+attention of _savants_ to them. Others followed who studied them, such
+as Pastorff, Gruithuysen, Boeer, and Moedler. At present there are
+seventy-six; but though they have been counted, their nature has not yet
+been determined. They are not fortifications certainly, anymore than
+they are beds of dried-up rivers, for water so light on the surface of
+the moon could not have dug such ditches, and there furrows often cross
+craters at a great elevation.
+
+It must, however, be acknowledged that Michel Ardan had an idea, and
+that, without knowing it, he shared it with Julius Schmidt.
+
+"Why," said he, "may not these inexplicable appearances be simply
+phenomena of vegetation?"
+
+"In what way do you mean?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Now do not be angry, worthy president," answered Michel, "but may not
+these black lines be regular rows of trees?"
+
+"Do you want to find some vegetation?" said Barbicane.
+
+"I want to explain what you scientific men do not explain! My hypothesis
+will at least explain why these furrows disappear, or seem to disappear,
+at regular epochs."
+
+"Why should they?"
+
+"Because trees might become invisible when they lose their leaves, and
+visible when they grow again."
+
+"Your explanation is ingenious, old fellow," answered Barbicane, "but it
+cannot be admitted."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it cannot be said to be any season on the surface of the moon,
+and, consequently, the phenomena of vegetation on the surface of the
+moon cannot be produced."
+
+In fact, the slight obliquity of the lunar axis keeps the sun there at
+an almost equal altitude under every latitude. Above the equatorial
+regions the radiant orb almost invariably occupies the zenith, and
+hardly passes the limit of the horizon in the polar regions. Therefore,
+in each region, according to its position, there reigns perpetual
+spring, summer, autumn, or winter, as in the planet Jupiter, whose axis
+is also slightly inclined upon its orbit.
+
+The origin of these furrows is a difficult question to solve. They are
+certainly posterior to the formation of the craters and amphitheatres,
+for several have crossed them, and broken their circular ramparts. It
+may be that they are contemporary with the latest geographical epochs,
+and are only owing to the expansion of natural forces.
+
+In the meantime the projectile had reached the altitude of the 40th
+degree of lunar latitude at a distance that could not be greater than
+800 kilometres. Objects appeared through the telescopes at two leagues
+only. At this point rose under their feet the Helicon, 505 metres high,
+and on the left were the mediocre heights, which inclose a small portion
+of the Sea of Rains under the name of the Gulf of Iris.
+
+The terrestrial atmosphere ought to be 170 times more transparent than
+it is in order to allow astronomers to make complete observations on the
+surface of the moon. But in the void the projectile was moving in no
+fluid lay between the eye of the observer and the object observed. What
+is more, Barbicane was at a less distance than the most powerful
+telescopes, even that of Lord Rosse or the one on the Rocky Mountains,
+could give. It was, therefore, in circumstances highly favourable for
+solving the great question of the habitability of the moon. Yet the
+solution of this question escaped him still. He could only distinguish
+the deserted beds of the immense plains, and, towards the north, arid
+mountains. No labour betrayed the hand of man. No ruin indicated his
+passage. No agglomeration of animals indicated that life was developed
+there, even in an inferior degree. There was no movement anywhere, no
+appearance of vegetation anywhere. Of the three kingdoms represented on
+the terrestrial globe, one only was represented on that of the
+moon--viz., the mineral kingdom.
+
+"So," said Michel Ardan, looking rather put out, "there is nobody after
+all."
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "we have seen neither man, animal, nor tree as
+yet. After all, if the atmosphere has taken refuge at the bottom of
+cavities, in the interior of the amphitheatres, or even on the opposite
+face of the moon, we cannot decide the question."
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "even for the most piercing sight a man is
+not visible at a distance of more than four miles. Therefore if there
+are any Selenites they can see our projectile, but we cannot see them."
+
+About 11 a.m., at the altitude of the 50th parallel, the distance was
+reduced to 300 miles. On the left rose the capricious outlines of a
+chain of mountains, outlined in full light. Towards the right, on the
+contrary, was a large black hole like a vast dark and bottomless well
+bored in the lunar soil.
+
+That hole was the Black Lake, or Pluto, a deep circle from which the
+earth could be conveniently studied between the last quarter and the new
+moon, when the shadows are thrown from west to east.
+
+This black colour is rarely met with on the surface of the satellite. It
+has, as yet, only been seen in the depths of the circle of Endymion, to
+the east of the Cold Sea, in the northern hemisphere, and at the bottom
+of the circle of Grimaldi upon the equator towards the eastern border of
+the orb.
+
+Pluto is a circular mountain, situated in north lat. 51° and east long.
+9°. Its circle is fifty miles long and thirty wide. Barbicane regretted
+not passing perpendicularly over this vast opening. There was an abyss
+to see, perhaps some mysterious phenomenon to become acquainted with.
+But the course of the projectile could not be guided. There was nothing
+to do but submit. A balloon could not be guided, much less a projectile
+when you are inside.
+
+About 5 a.m. the northern limit of the Sea of Rains was at last passed.
+Mounts La Condamine and Fontenelle remained, the one on the left, the
+other on the right. That part of the disc, starting from the 60th
+degree, became absolutely mountainous. The telescopes brought it to
+within one league, an inferior distance to that between the summit of
+Mont Blanc and the sea level. All this region was bristling with peaks
+and amphitheatres. Mount Philolaus rose about the 70th degree to a
+height of 3,700 metres, opening an elliptical crater sixteen leagues
+long and four wide.
+
+Then the disc, seen from that distance, presented an exceedingly strange
+aspect. The landscapes were very different to earthly ones, and also
+very inferior.
+
+The moon having no atmosphere, this absence of vaporous covering had
+consequences already pointed out. There is no twilight on its surface,
+night following day and day following night, with the suddenness of a
+lamp extinguished or lighted in profound darkness. There is no
+transition from cold to heat: the temperature falls in one instant from
+boiling water heat to the cold of space.
+
+Another consequence of this absence of air is the following:--Absolute
+darkness reigns where the sun's rays do not penetrate. What is called
+diffused light upon the earth, the luminous matter that the air holds
+in suspension, which creates twilights and dawns, which produces
+shadows, penumbrae, and all the magic of the chiaro-oscuro, does not
+exist upon the moon. Hence the harshness of contrasts that only admit
+two colours, black and white. If a Selenite shades his eyes from the
+solar rays the sky appears absolutely dark, and the stars shine as in
+the darkest nights.
+
+The impression produced on Barbicane and his two friends by this strange
+state of things may well be imagined. They did not know how to use their
+eyes. They could no longer seize the respective distances in
+perspective. A lunar landscape, which does not soften the phenomenon of
+the chiaro-oscuro, could not be painted by a landscape-painter of the
+earth. It would be nothing but blots of ink upon white paper.
+
+This aspect of things did not alter even when the projectile, then at
+the altitude of the 80th degree, was only separated from the moon by a
+distance of fifty miles, not even when, at 5 a.m., it passed at less
+than twenty-five miles from the mountain of Gioja, a distance which the
+telescopes reduced to half-a-mile. It seemed as if they could have
+touched the moon. It appeared impossible that before long the projectile
+should not knock against it, if only at the North Pole, where the
+brilliant mountains were clearly outlined against the dark background of
+the sky. Michel Ardan wanted to open one of the port-lights and jump
+upon the lunar surface. What was a fall of twelve leagues? He thought
+nothing of that. It would, however, have been a useless attempt, for if
+the projectile was not going to reach any point on the satellite, Michel
+would have been hurled along by its movement, and not have reached it
+either.
+
+At that moment, 6 a.m., the lunar pole appeared. Only half the disc,
+brilliantly lighted, appeared to the travellers, whilst the other half
+disappeared in the darkness. The projectile suddenly passed the line of
+demarcation between intense light and absolute darkness, and was
+suddenly plunged into the profoundest night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF.
+
+
+At the moment this phenomenon took place the projectile was grazing the
+moon's North Pole, at less that twenty-five miles' distance. A few
+seconds had, therefore, sufficed to plunge it into the absolute darkness
+of space. The transition had taken place so rapidly, without gradations
+of light or attenuation of the luminous undulations, that the orb seemed
+to have been blown out by a powerful gust.
+
+"The moon has melted, disappeared!" cried Michel Ardan, wonder-stricken.
+
+In fact, no ray of light or shade had appeared on the disc, formerly so
+brilliant. The obscurity was complete, and rendered deeper still by the
+shining of the stars. It was the darkness of lunar night, which lasts
+354 hours and a half on each point of the disc--a long night, the result
+of the equality of the movements of translation and rotation of the
+moon, the one upon herself, the other round the earth. The projectile in
+the satellite's cone of shadow was no longer under the action of the
+solar rays.
+
+In the interior darkness was, therefore, complete. The travellers could
+no longer see one another. Hence came the necessity to lighten this
+darkness. However desirous Barbicane might be to economise the gas, of
+which he had so small a reserve, he was obliged to have recourse to it
+for artificial light--an expensive brilliancy which the sun then
+refused.
+
+"The devil take the radiant orb!" cried Michel Ardan; "he is going to
+force us to spend our gas instead of giving us his rays for nothing."
+
+"We must not accuse the sun," said Nicholl. "It is not his fault, it is
+the moon's fault for coming and putting herself like a screen between us
+and him."
+
+"It's the sun!" said Michel again.
+
+"It's the moon!" retorted Nicholl.
+
+An idle dispute began, which Barbicane put an end to by saying--
+
+"My friends, it is neither the fault of the sun nor the moon. It is the
+projectile's fault for deviating from its course instead of rigorously
+following it. Or, to be juster still, it is the fault of that
+unfortunate asteroid which so deplorably altered our first direction."
+
+"Good!" answered Michel Ardan; "as that business is settled let us have
+our breakfast. After a night entirely passed in making observations, we
+want something to set us to rights a little."
+
+This proposition met with no contradiction. Michel prepared the repast
+in a few minutes. But they ate for the sake of eating. They drank
+without toasts or hurrahs. The bold travellers, borne away into the
+darkness of space without their accustomed escort of rays, felt a vague
+uneasiness invade their hearts. The "farouche" darkness, so dear to the
+pen of Victor Hugo, surrounded them on all sides.
+
+In the meantime they talked about this interminable night, 354 hours, or
+nearly 15 days, long, which physical laws have imposed upon the
+inhabitants of the moon. Barbicane gave his friends some explanation of
+the causes and consequences of this curious phenomenon.
+
+"Curious it certainly is," said he, "for if each hemisphere of the moon
+is deprived of solar light for fifteen days, the one over which we are
+moving at this moment does not even enjoy, during its long night, a
+sight of the brilliantly-lighted earth. In a word, there is no moon,
+applying that qualification to our spheroid, except for one side of the
+disc. Now, if it was the same upon earth--if, for example, Europe never
+saw the moon, and she was only visible at the antipodes--you can figure
+to yourselves the astonishment of a European on arriving in Australia."
+
+"They would make the voyage for nothing but to go and see the moon,"
+answered Michel.
+
+"Well," resumed Barbicane, "that astonishment is reserved to the
+Selenite who inhabits the opposite side of the moon to the earth, a side
+for ever invisible to our fellow-beings of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"And which we should have seen," added Nicholl, "if we had arrived here
+at the epoch when the moon is new--that is to say, a fortnight later."
+
+"To make amends," resumed Barbicane, "an inhabitant of the visible face
+is singularly favoured by Nature to the detriment on the invisible face.
+The latter, as you see, has dark nights of 354 hours long, without a ray
+of light to penetrate the obscurity. The other, on the contrary, when
+the sun, which has lighted him for a fortnight, sets under the horizon,
+sees on the opposite horizon a splendid orb rise. It is the earth,
+thirteen times larger than that moon which we know--the earth, which is
+developed to a diameter of two degrees, and which sheds a light thirteen
+times greater, which no atmosphere qualifies; the earth, which only
+disappears when the sun reappears."
+
+"A fine sentence," said Michel Ardan; "rather academical perhaps."
+
+"It follows," resumed Barbicane, nowise put out, "that the visible face
+of the disc must be very agreeable to inhabit, as it is always lighted
+by the sun or the moon."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "this advantage must be quite compensated by the
+unbearable heat which this light must cause."
+
+"This inconvenience is the same under two faces, for the light reflected
+by the earth is evidently deprived of heat. However, this invisible face
+is still more deprived of heat than the visible face. I say that for
+you, Nicholl; Michel would probably not understand."
+
+"Thank you," said Michel.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when the invisible face receives the
+solar light and heat the moon is new--that is to say, that she is in
+conjunction, that she is situated between the sun and the earth. She is
+then, on account of the situation which she occupies in opposition when
+she is full, nearer the sun by the double of her distance from the
+earth. Now this distance may be estimated at the two-hundredth part of
+that which separates the sun and the earth; or, in round numbers, at two
+hundred thousand leagues. Therefore this visible face is nearer the sun
+by two hundred thousand leagues when it receives his rays."
+
+"Quite right," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Whilst--" resumed Barbicane.
+
+"Allow me," said Michel, interrupting his grave companion.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I want to go on with the explanation."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"To prove that I have understood."
+
+"Go on, then," said Barbicane, smiling.
+
+"Whilst," said Michel, imitating the tone and gestures of President
+Barbicane, "when the visible face of the moon is lighted by the sun the
+moon is full--that is to say, situated with regard to the earth the
+opposite to the sun. The distance which separates it from the radiant
+orb is then increased in round numbers by 200,000 leagues, and the heat
+which it receives must be rather less."
+
+"Well done!" exclaimed Barbicane. "Do you know, Michel, for an artist
+you are intelligent."
+
+"Yes," answered Michel carelessly, "we are all intelligent on the
+Boulevard des Italiens."
+
+Barbicane shook hands gravely with his amiable companion, and went on
+enumerating the few advantages reserved to the inhabitants of the
+visible face.
+
+Amongst others he quoted the observations of the sun's eclipses, which
+can only be seen from one side of the lunar disc, because the moon must
+be in opposition before they can take place. These eclipses, caused by
+the interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon, may last
+two hours, during which, on account of the rays refracted by its
+atmosphere, the terrestrial globe can only appear like a black spot upon
+the sun.
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the invisible hemisphere is very ill-treated by
+Nature."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "but not the whole of it. By a certain
+movement of liberation, a sort of balancing on its centre, the moon
+presents more than the half of her disc to the earth. She is like a
+pendulum, the centre of gravity of which is towards the terrestrial
+globe, and which oscillates regularly. Whence comes that oscillation?
+Because her movement of rotation on her axis is animated with uniform
+velocity, whilst her movement of translation, following an elliptical
+orb round the earth, is not. At the perigee the velocity of translation
+is greater, and the moon shows a certain portion of her western border.
+At her apogee the velocity of rotation is greater, and a morsel of her
+eastern border appears. It is a strip of about eight degrees, which
+appears sometimes on the west, sometimes on the east. The result is,
+therefore, that of a thousand parts the moon shows five hundred and
+sixty-nine."
+
+"No matter," answered Michel; "if we ever become Selenites, we will
+inhabit the visible face. I like light."
+
+"Unless," replied Nicholl, "the atmosphere should be condensed on the
+other side, as certain astronomers pretend."
+
+"That is a consideration," answered Michel simply.
+
+In the meantime breakfast was concluded, and the observers resumed their
+posts. They tried to see through the dark port-light by putting out all
+light in the projectile. But not one luminous atom penetrated the
+obscurity.
+
+One inexplicable fact preoccupied Barbicane. How was it that though the
+projectile had been so near the moon, within a distance of twenty-five
+miles, it had not fallen upon her? If its speed had been enormous, he
+would have understood why it had not fallen. But with a relatively
+slight speed the resistance to lunar attraction could not be explained.
+Was the projectile under the influence of some strange force? Did some
+body maintain it in the ether? It was henceforth evident that it would
+not touch any point upon the moon. Where was it going? Was it going
+farther away from or nearer to the disc? Was it carried along in the
+gloom across infinitude? How were they to know, how calculate in the
+dark? All these questions made Barbicane anxious, but he could not solve
+them.
+
+In fact, the invisible orb was there, perhaps, at a distance of some
+leagues only, but neither his companions nor he could any longer see it.
+If any noise was made on its surface they could not hear it. The air,
+that vehicle of transmission, was wanting to convey to them the groans
+of that moon which the Arabian legends make "a man already half-granite,
+but still palpitating."
+
+It will be agreed that it was enough to exasperate the most patient
+observers. It was precisely the unknown hemisphere that was hidden from
+their eyes. That face which a fortnight sooner or a fortnight later had
+been, or would be, splendidly lighted up by the solar rays, was then
+lost in absolute darkness. Where would the projectile be in another
+fortnight? Where would the hazards of attraction have taken it? Who
+could say?
+
+It is generally admitted that the invisible hemisphere of the moon is,
+by its constitution, absolutely similar to the visible hemisphere.
+One-seventh of it is seen in those movements of libration Barbicane
+spoke of. Now upon the surface seen there were only plains and
+mountains, amphitheatres and craters, like those on the maps. They could
+there imagine the same arid and dead nature. And yet, supposing the
+atmosphere to have taken refuge upon that face? Suppose that with the
+air water had given life to these regenerated continents? Suppose that
+vegetation still persists there? Suppose that animals people these
+continents and seas? Suppose that man still lives under those conditions
+of habitability? How many questions there were it would have been
+interesting to solve! What solutions might have been drawn from the
+contemplation of that hemisphere! What delight it would have been to
+glance at that world which no human eye has seen!
+
+The disappointment of the travellers in the midst of this darkness may
+be imagined. All observation of the lunar disc was prevented. The
+constellations alone were visible, and it must be acknowledged that no
+astronomers, neither Faye, Chacornac, nor the Secchi, had ever been in
+such favourable conditions to observe them.
+
+In fact, nothing could equal the splendour of this starry world, bathed
+in limpid ether. Diamonds set in the celestial vault threw out superb
+flames. One look could take in the firmament from the Southern Cross to
+the North Star, those two constellations which will in 12,000 years, on
+account of the succession of equinoxes, resign their _rôles_ of polar
+stars, the one to Canopus in the southern hemisphere, the other to Wega
+in the northern. Imagination lost itself in this sublime infinitude,
+amidst which the projectile was moving like a new star created by the
+hand of man. From natural causes these constellations shone with a soft
+lustre; they did not twinkle because there was no atmosphere to
+intervene with its strata unequally dense, and of different degrees of
+humidity, which causes this scintillation.
+
+The travellers long watched the constellated firmament, upon which the
+vast screen of the moon made an enormous black hole. But a painful
+sensation at length drew them from their contemplation. This was an
+intense cold, which soon covered the glasses of the port-lights with a
+thick coating of ice. The sun no longer warmed the projectile with his
+rays, and it gradually lost the heat stored up in its walls. This heat
+was by radiation rapidly evaporated into space, and a considerable
+lowering of the temperature was the result. The interior humidity was
+changed into ice by contact with the window-panes, and prevented all
+observation.
+
+Nicholl, consulting the thermometer, said that it had fallen to 17°
+(centigrade) below zero (1° Fahr). Therefore, notwithstanding every
+reason for being economical, Barbicane was obliged to seek heat as well
+as light from gas. The low temperature of the bullet was no longer
+bearable. Its occupants would have been frozen to death.
+
+"We will not complain about the monotony of the journey," said Michel
+Ardan. "What variety we have had, in temperature at all events! At times
+we have been blinded with light, and saturated with heat like the
+Indians of the Pampas! Now we are plunged into profound darkness amidst
+boreal cold, like the Esquimaux of the pole! No, indeed! We have no
+right to complain, and Nature has done many things in our honour!"
+
+"But," asked Nicholl, "what is the exterior temperature?"
+
+"Precisely that of planetary space," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, "would not this be an opportunity for
+making that experiment we could not attempt when we were bathed in the
+solar rays?"
+
+"Now or never," answered Barbicane, "for we are usefully situated in
+order to verify the temperature of space, and see whether the
+calculations of Fourier or Pouillet are correct."
+
+"Any way it is cold enough," said Michel. "Look at the interior humidity
+condensing on the port-lights. If this fall continues the vapour of our
+respiration will fall around us in snow."
+
+"Let us get a thermometer," said Barbicane.
+
+It will be readily seen that an ordinary thermometer would have given no
+result under the circumstances in which it was going to be exposed. The
+mercury would have frozen in its cup, for it does not keep liquid below
+44° below zero. But Barbicane had provided himself with a spirit
+thermometer, on the Walferdin system, which gives the minima of
+excessively low temperature.
+
+Before beginning the experiment this instrument was compared with an
+ordinary thermometer, and Barbicane prepared to employ it.
+
+"How shall we manage it?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Michel Ardan, who was never at a loss.
+"Open the port-light rapidly, throw out the instrument; it will follow
+the projectile with exemplary docility; a quarter of an hour after take
+it in."
+
+"With your hand?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"With my hand," answered Michel.
+
+"Well, then, my friend, do not try it," said Barbicane, "for the hand
+you draw back will be only a stump, frozen and deformed by the frightful
+cold."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"You would feel the sensation of a terrible burn, like one made with a
+red-hot iron, for the same thing happens when heat is brutally
+abstracted from our body as when it is inserted. Besides, I am not sure
+that objects thrown out still follow us."
+
+"Why?" said Nicholl.
+
+"Because if we are passing through any atmosphere, however slightly
+dense, these objects will be delayed. Now the darkness prevents us
+verifying whether they still float around us. Therefore, in order not to
+risk our thermometer, we will tie something to it, and so easily pull it
+back into the interior."
+
+Barbicane's advice was followed. Nicholl threw the instrument out of the
+rapidly-opened port-light, holding it by a very short cord, so that it
+could be rapidly drawn in. The window was only open one second, and yet
+that one second was enough to allow the interior of the projectile to
+become frightfully cold.
+
+"_Mille diables!_" cried Michel Ardan, "it is cold enough here to freeze
+white bears!"
+
+Barbicane let half-an-hour go by, more than sufficient time to allow the
+instrument to descend to the level of the temperature of space. The
+thermometer was then rapidly drawn in.
+
+Barbicane calculated the quantity of mercury spilt into the little phial
+soldered to the lower part of the instrument, and said--
+
+"One hundred and forty degrees centigrade below zero!" (218° Fahr.)
+
+M. Pouillet was right, not Fourier. Such was the frightful temperature
+of sidereal space! Such perhaps that of the lunar continents when the
+orb of night loses by radiation all the heat which she absorbs during
+the fifteen days of sunshine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA.
+
+
+Our readers will probably be astonished that Barbicane and his
+companions were so little occupied with the future in store for them in
+their metal prison, carried along in the infinitude of ether. Instead of
+asking themselves where they were going, they lost their time in making
+experiments, just as if they had been comfortably installed in their
+own studies.
+
+It might be answered that men so strong-minded were above such
+considerations, that such little things did not make them uneasy, and
+that they had something else to do than to think about their future.
+
+The truth is that they were not masters of their projectile--that they
+could neither stop it nor alter its direction. A seaman can direct the
+head of his ship as he pleases; an aëronaut can give his balloon
+vertical movement. They, on the contrary, had no authority over their
+vehicle. No manoeuvre was possible to them. Hence their not troubling
+themselves, or "let things go" state of mind.
+
+Where were they at that moment, 8 a.m. during that day called upon earth
+the sixth of December? Certainly in the neighbourhood of the moon, and
+even near enough for her to appear like a vast black screen upon the
+firmament. As to the distance which separated them, it was impossible to
+estimate it. The projectile, kept up by inexplicable forces, has grazed
+the north pole of the satellite at less than twenty-five miles'
+distance. But had that distance increased or diminished since they had
+been in the cone of shadow? There was no landmark by which to estimate
+either the direction or the velocity of the projectile. Perhaps it was
+going rapidly away from the disc and would soon leave the pure shadow.
+Perhaps, on the contrary, it was approaching it, and would before long
+strike against some elevated peak in the invisible atmosphere, which
+would have terminated the journey, doubtless to the detriment of the
+travellers.
+
+A discussion began upon this subject, and Michel Ardan, always rich in
+explanations, gave out the opinion that the bullet, restrained by lunar
+attraction, would end by falling on the moon like an aërolite on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe.
+
+"In the first place," answered Barbicane, "all aërolites do not fall
+upon the surface of the earth; only a small proportion do so. Therefore,
+if we are aërolites it does not necessarily follow that we shall fall
+upon the moon."
+
+"Still," answered Michel, "if we get near enough--"
+
+"Error," replied Barbicane. "Have you not seen shooting stars by
+thousands in the sky at certain epochs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, those stars, or rather corpuscles, only shine by rubbing against
+the atmospheric strata. Now, if they pass through the atmosphere, they
+pass at less than 16 miles from our globe, and yet they rarely fall. It
+is the same with our projectile. It may approach very near the moon, and
+yet not fall upon it."
+
+"But then," asked Michel, "I am curious to know how our vehicle would
+behave in space."
+
+"I only see two hypotheses," answered Barbicane, after some minutes'
+reflection.
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"The projectile has the choice between two mathematical curves, and it
+will follow the one or the other according to the velocity with which it
+is animated, and which I cannot now estimate."
+
+"Yes, it will either describe a parabola or an hyperbola."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "with some speed it will describe a parabola,
+and with greater speed an hyperbola."
+
+"I like those grand words!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "I know at once what
+you mean. And what is your parabola, if you please?"
+
+"My friend," answered the captain, "a parabola is a conic section
+arising from cutting a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides."
+
+"Oh!" said Michel in a satisfied tone.
+
+"It is about the same trajectory that the bomb of a howitzer describes."
+
+"Just so. And an hyperbola?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is a curve formed by a section of a cone when the cutting plane
+makes a greater angle with the base than the side of the cone makes."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Michel Ardan in the most serious tone, as if
+he had been informed of a grave event. "Then remember this, Captain
+Nicholl, what I like in your definition of the hyperbola--I was going to
+say of the hyperhumbug--is that it is still less easy to understand than
+the word you pretend to define."
+
+Nicholl and Barbicane paid no attention to Michel Ardan's jokes. They
+had launched into a scientific discussion. They were eager about what
+curve the projectile would take. One was for the hyperbola, the other
+for the parabola. They gave each other reasons bristling with _x_'s.
+Their arguments were presented in a language which made Michel Ardan
+jump. The discussion was lively, and neither of the adversaries would
+sacrifice his curve of predilection.
+
+This scientific dispute was prolonged until Michel Ardan became
+impatient, and said--
+
+"I say, Messrs. Cosine, do leave off throwing your hyperbolas and
+parabolas at one's head. I want to know the only interesting thing about
+the business. We shall follow one or other of your curves. Very well.
+But where will they take us to?"
+
+"Nowhere," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How nowhere?"
+
+"Evidently they are unfinished curves, prolonged indefinitely!"
+
+"Ah, _savants_! What does it matter about hyperbola or parabola if they
+both carry us indefinitely into space?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing. They cared for art for
+its own sake. Never had more useless question been discussed at a more
+inopportune moment. The fatal truth was that the projectile, whether
+hyperbolically or parabolically carried along, would never strike
+against either the earth or the moon.
+
+What would become of these bold travellers in the most immediate future?
+If they did not die of hunger or thirst, they would in a few days, when
+gas failed them, die for want of air, if the cold had not killed them
+first!
+
+Still, although it was so important to economise gas, the excessive
+lowness of the surrounding temperature forced them to consume a certain
+quantity. They could not do without either its light or heat. Happily
+the caloric developed by the Reiset and Regnault apparatus slightly
+elevated the temperature of the projectile, and without spending much
+they could raise it to a bearable degree.
+
+In the meantime observation through the port-lights had become very
+difficult. The steam inside the bullet condensed upon the panes and
+froze immediately. They were obliged to destroy the opacity of the glass
+by constant rubbing. However, they could record several phenomena of the
+highest interest.
+
+In fact, if the invisible disc had any atmosphere, the shooting stars
+would be seen passing through it. If the projectile itself passed
+through the fluid strata, might it not hear some noise echoed--a storm,
+for instance, an avalanche, or a volcano in activity? Should they not
+see the intense fulgurations of a burning mountain? Such facts,
+carefully recorded, would have singularly elucidated the obscure
+question of the lunar constitution. Thus Barbicane and Nicholl, standing
+like astronomers at their port-lights, watched with scrupulous patience.
+
+But until then the disc remained mute and dark. It did not answer the
+multifarious interrogations of these ardent minds.
+
+This provoked from Michel a reflection that seemed correct enough.
+
+"If ever we recommence our journey, we shall do well to choose the epoch
+when the moon is new."
+
+"True," answered Nicholl, "that circumstance would have been more
+favourable. I agree that the moon, bathed in sunlight, would not be
+visible during the passage, but on the other hand the earth would be
+full. And if we are dragged round the moon like we are now, we should
+at least have the advantage of seeing the invisible disc magnificently
+lighted up."
+
+"Well said, Nicholl," replied Michel Ardan. "What do you think about it,
+Barbicane?"
+
+"I think this," answered the grave president: "if ever we recommence
+this journey, we shall start at the same epoch, and under the same
+circumstances. Suppose we had reached our goal, would it not have been
+better to find the continents in full daylight instead of dark night?
+Would not our first installation have been made under better
+circumstances? Yes, evidently. As to the invisible side, we could have
+visited that in our exploring expeditions on the lunar globe. So,
+therefore, the time of the full moon was well chosen. But we ought to
+have reached our goal, and in order to have reached it we ought not to
+have deviated from our road."
+
+"There is no answer to make to that," said Michel Ardan. "Yet we have
+passed a fine opportunity for seeing the moon! Who knows whether the
+inhabitants of the other planets are not more advanced than the
+_savants_ of the earth on the subject of their satellites?"
+
+The following answer might easily have been given to Michel Ardan's
+remark:--Yes, other satellites, on account of their greater proximity,
+have made the study of them easier. The inhabitants of Saturn, Jupiter,
+and Uranus, if they exist, have been able to establish communication
+with their moons much more easily. The four satellites of Jupiter
+gravitate at a distance of 108,260 leagues, 172,200 leagues, 274,700
+leagues, and 480,130 leagues. But these distances are reckoned from the
+centre of the planet, and by taking away the radius, which is 17,000 to
+18,000 leagues, it will be seen that the first satellite is at a much
+less distance from the surface of Jupiter than the moon is from the
+centre of the earth. Of the eight moons of Saturn, four are near. Diana
+is 84,600 leagues off; Thetys, 62,966 leagues; Enceladus, 48,191
+leagues; and lastly, Mimas is at an average distance of 34,500 leagues
+only. Of the eighteen satellites of Uranus, the first, Ariel, is only
+51,520 leagues from the planet.
+
+Therefore, upon the surface of those three stars, an experiment
+analogous to that of President Barbicane would have presented less
+difficulties. If, therefore, their inhabitants have attempted the
+enterprise, they have, perhaps, acquainted themselves with the
+constitution of the half of the disc which their satellite hides
+eternally from their eyes. But if they have never left their planet,
+they do not know more about them than the astronomers of the earth.
+
+In the meantime the bullet was describing in the darkness that
+incalculable trajectory which no landmark allowed them to find out. Was
+its direction altered either under the influence of lunar attraction or
+under the action of some unknown orb? Barbicane could not tell. But a
+change had taken place in the relative position of the vehicle, and
+Barbicane became aware of it about 4 a.m.
+
+The change consisted in this, that the bottom of the projectile was
+turned towards the surface of the moon, and kept itself perpendicular
+with its axis. The attraction or gravitation had caused this
+modification. The heaviest part of the bullet inclined towards the
+invisible disc exactly as if it had fallen towards it.
+
+Was it falling then? Were the travellers at last about to reach their
+desired goal? No. And the observation of one landmark, inexplicable in
+itself, demonstrated to Barbicane that his projectile was not nearing
+the moon, and that it was following an almost concentric curve.
+
+This was a flash of light which Nicholl signalised all at once on the
+limit of the horizon formed by the black disc. This point could not be
+mistaken for a star. It was a reddish flame, which grew gradually
+larger--an incontestable proof that the projectile was getting nearer
+it, and not falling normally upon the surface of the satellite.
+
+"A volcano! It is a volcano in activity!" exclaimed Nicholl--"an
+eruption of the interior fires of the moon. That world, then, is not
+quite extinguished."
+
+"Yes, an eruption!" answered Barbicane, who studied the phenomenon
+carefully through his night-glass. "What should it be if not a volcano?"
+
+"But then," said Michel Ardan, "air is necessary to feed that
+combustion, therefore there is some atmosphere on that part of the
+moon."
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Barbicane, "but not necessarily. A volcano, by
+the decomposition of certain matters, can furnish itself with oxygen,
+and so throw up flames into the void. It seems to me, too, that that
+deflagration has the intensity and brilliancy of objects the combustion
+of which is produced in pure oxygen. We must not be in a hurry to affirm
+the existence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+The burning mountain was situated at the 45th degree of south latitude
+on the invisible part of the disc. But to the great disappointment of
+Barbicane the curve that the projectile described dragged it away from
+the point signalised by the eruption, therefore he could not exactly
+determine its nature. Half-an-hour after it had first been seen this
+luminous point disappeared on the horizon. Still the authentication of
+this phenomenon was a considerable fact in selenographic studies. It
+proved that all heat had not yet disappeared from the interior of this
+globe, and where heat exists, who may affirm that the vegetable kingdom,
+or even the animal kingdom itself, has not until now resisted the
+destructive influences? The existence of this volcano in eruption,
+indisputably established by earthly _savants_, was favourable to the
+theory of the habitability of the moon.
+
+Barbicane became absorbed in reflection. He forgot himself in a mute
+reverie, filled with the mysterious destinies of the lunar world. He was
+trying to connect the facts observed up till then, when a fresh incident
+recalled him suddenly to the reality.
+
+This incident was more than a cosmic phenomenon; it was a threatening
+danger, the consequences of which might be disastrous.
+
+Suddenly in the midst of the ether, in the profound darkness, an
+enormous mass had appeared. It was like a moon, but a burning moon of
+almost unbearable brilliancy, outlined as it was on the total obscurity
+of space. This mass, of a circular form, threw such light that it filled
+the projectile. The faces of Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan,
+bathed in its white waves, looked spectral, livid, _blafard_, like the
+appearance produced by the artificial light of alcohol impregnated with
+salt.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan. "How hideous we are! Whatever is that
+wretched moon?"
+
+"It is a bolis," answered Barbicane.
+
+"A bolis, on fire, in the void?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+This globe of fire was indeed a bolis. Barbicane was not mistaken. But
+if these cosmic meteors, seen from the earth, present an inferior light
+to that of the moon, here, in the dark ether, they shone magnificently.
+These wandering bodies carry in themselves the principle of their own
+incandescence. The surrounding air is not necessary to the deflagration.
+And, indeed, if certain of these bodies pass through our atmosphere at
+two or three leagues from the earth, others describe their trajectory at
+a distance the atmosphere cannot reach. Some of these meteors are from
+one to two miles wide, and move at a speed of forty miles a second,
+following an inverse direction from the movement of the earth.
+
+This shooting star suddenly appeared in the darkness at a distance of at
+least 100 leagues, and measured, according to Barbicane's estimate, a
+diameter of 2,000 metres. It moved with the speed of about thirty
+leagues a minute. It cut across the route of the projectile, and would
+reach it in a few minutes. As it approached it grew larger in an
+enormous proportion.
+
+If possible, let the situation of the travellers be imagined! It is
+impossible to describe it. In spite of their courage, their
+_sang-froid_, their carelessness of danger, they were mute, motionless,
+with stiffened limbs, a prey to fearful terror. Their projectile, the
+course of which they could not alter, was running straight on to this
+burning mass, more intense than the open mouth of a furnace. They seemed
+to be rushing towards an abyss of fire.
+
+Barbicane seized the hands of his two companions, and all three looked
+through their half-closed eyelids at the red-hot asteroid. If they still
+thought at all, they must have given themselves up as lost!
+
+Two minutes after the sudden appearance of the bolis, two centuries of
+agony, the projectile seemed about to strike against it, when the ball
+of fire burst like a bomb, but without making any noise in the void,
+where sound, which is only the agitation of the strata of air, could not
+be made.
+
+Nicholl uttered a cry. His companions and he rushed to the port-lights.
+
+What a spectacle! What pen could describe it, what palette would be rich
+enough in colours to reproduce its magnificence?
+
+It was like the opening of a crater, or the spreading of an immense
+fire. Thousands of luminous fragments lit up space with their fires.
+Every size, colour, and shade were there. There were yellow, red, green,
+grey, a crown of multi-coloured fireworks. There only remained of the
+enormous and terrible globe pieces carried in all directions, each an
+asteroid in its turn, some shining like swords, some surrounded by white
+vapour, others leaving behind them a trail of cosmic dust.
+
+These incandescent blocks crossed each other, knocked against each
+other, and were scattered into smaller fragments, of which some struck
+the projectile. Its left window was even cracked by the violent shock.
+It seemed to be floating in a shower of bullets, of which the least
+could annihilate it in an instant.
+
+The light which saturated the ether was of incomparable intensity, for
+these asteroids dispersed it in every direction. At a certain moment it
+was so bright that Michel dragged Barbicane and Nicholl to the window,
+exclaiming--
+
+"The invisible moon is at last visible!"
+
+And all three, across the illumination, saw for a few seconds that
+mysterious disc which the eye of man perceived for the first time.
+
+What did they distinguish across that distance which they could not
+estimate? Long bands across the disc, veritable clouds formed in a very
+restricted atmospheric medium, from which emerged not only all the
+mountains, but every relief of middling importance, amphitheatres,
+yawning craters, such as exist on the visible face. Then immense tracts,
+no longer arid plains, but veritable seas, oceans which reflected in
+their liquid mirror all the dazzling magic of the fires of space.
+Lastly, on the surface of the continents, vast dark masses, such as
+immense forests would resemble under the rapid illumination of a flash
+of lightning.
+
+Was it an illusion, an error of the eyes, an optical deception? Could
+they give a scientific affirmation to that observation so superficially
+obtained? Dared they pronounce upon the question of its habitability
+after so slight a glimpse of the invisible disc?
+
+By degrees the fulgurations of space gradually died out, its accidental
+brilliancy lessened, the asteroids fled away by their different
+trajectories, and went out in the distance. The ether resumed its
+habitual darkness; the stars, for one moment eclipsed, shone in the
+firmament, and the disc, of which scarcely a glimpse had been caught,
+was lost in the impenetrable night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
+
+
+The projectile had just escaped a terrible danger, a danger quite
+unforeseen. Who would have imagined such a meeting of asteroids? These
+wandering bodies might prove serious perils to the travellers. They were
+to them like so many rocks in the sea of ether, which, less fortunate
+than navigators, they could not avoid. But did these adventurers of
+space complain? No, as Nature had given them the splendid spectacle of a
+cosmic meteor shining by formidable expansion, as this incomparable
+display of fireworks, which no Ruggieri could imitate, had lighted for a
+few seconds the invisible nimbus of the moon. During that rapid peep,
+continents, seas, and forests had appeared to them. Then the atmosphere
+did give there its life-giving particles? Questions still not solved,
+eternally asked by American curiosity.
+
+It was then 3.30 p.m. The bullet was still describing its curve round
+the moon. Had its route again been modified by the meteor? It was to be
+feared. The projectile ought, however to describe a curve imperturbably
+determined by the laws of mechanics. Barbicane inclined to the opinion
+that this curve would be a parabola and not an hyperbola. However, if
+the parabola was admitted, the bullet ought soon to come out of the cone
+of shadow thrown into the space on the opposite side to the sun. This
+cone, in fact, is very narrow, the angular diameter of the moon is so
+small compared to the diameter of the orb of day. Until now the
+projectile had moved in profound darkness. Whatever its speed had
+been--and it could not have been slight--its period of occultation
+continued. That fact was evident, but perhaps that would not have been
+the case in a rigidly parabolical course. This was a fresh problem which
+tormented Barbicane's brain, veritably imprisoned as it was in a web of
+the unknown which he could not disentangle.
+
+Neither of the travellers thought of taking a minute's rest. Each
+watched for some unexpected incident which should throw a new light on
+their uranographic studies. About five o'clock Michel distributed to
+them, by way of dinner, some morsels of bread and cold meat, which were
+rapidly absorbed, whilst no one thought of leaving the port-light, the
+panes of which were becoming incrusted under the condensation of vapour.
+
+About 5.45 p.m., Nicholl, armed with his telescope, signalised upon the
+southern border of the moon, and in the direction followed by the
+projectile, a few brilliant points outlined against the dark screen of
+the sky. They looked like a succession of sharp peaks with profiles in a
+tremulous line. They were rather brilliant. The terminal line of the
+moon looks the same when she is in one of her octants.
+
+They could not be mistaken. There was no longer any question of a simple
+meteor, of which that luminous line had neither the colour nor the
+mobility, nor of a volcano in eruption. Barbicane did not hesitate to
+declare what it was.
+
+"The sun!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What! the sun!" answered Nicholl and Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, my friends, it is the radiant orb itself, lighting up the summit
+of the mountains situated on the southern border of the moon. We are
+evidently approaching the South Pole!"
+
+"After having passed the North Pole," answered Michel. "Then we have
+been all round our satellite."
+
+"Yes, friend Michel."
+
+"Then we have no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves
+to fear!"
+
+"No, but a closed curve."
+
+"Which is called--"
+
+"An ellipsis. Instead of being lost in the interplanetary spaces it is
+possible that the projectile will describe an elliptical orbit round the
+moon."
+
+"Really!"
+
+"And that it will become its satellite."
+
+"Moon of the moon," exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Only I must tell you, my worthy friend, that we are none the less lost
+men on that account!"
+
+"No, but in another and much pleasanter way!" answered the careless
+Frenchman, with his most amiable smile.
+
+President Barbicane was right. By describing this elliptical orbit the
+projectile was going to gravitate eternally round the moon like a
+sub-satellite. It was a new star added to the solar world, a microcosm
+peopled by three inhabitants, whom want of air would kill before long.
+Barbicane, therefore, could not rejoice at the position imposed on the
+bullet by the double influence of the centripetal and centrifugal
+forces. His companions and he were again going to see the visible face
+of the disc. Perhaps their existence would last long enough for them to
+perceive for the last time the full earth superbly lighted up by the
+rays of the sun! Perhaps they might throw a last adieu to the globe they
+were never more to see again! Then their projectile would be nothing but
+an extinct mass, dead like those inert asteroids which circulate in the
+ether. A single consolation remained to them: it was that of seeing the
+darkness and returning to light, it was that of again entering the zones
+bathed by solar irradiation!
+
+In the meantime the mountains recognised by Barbicane stood out more and
+more from the dark mass. They were Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, which
+stand on the southern circumpolar region of the moon.
+
+All the mountains of the visible hemisphere have been measured with
+perfect exactitude. This perfection will, no doubt, seem astonishing,
+and yet the hypsometric methods are rigorous. The altitude of the lunar
+mountains may be no less exactly determined than that of the mountains
+of the earth.
+
+The method generally employed is that of measuring the shadow thrown by
+the mountains, whilst taking into account the altitude of the sun at the
+moment of observation. This method also allows the calculating of the
+depth of craters and cavities on the moon. Galileo used it, and since
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler have employed it with the greatest success.
+
+Another method, called the tangent radii, may also be used for measuring
+lunar reliefs. It is applied at the moment when the mountains form
+luminous points on the line of separation between light and darkness
+which shine on the dark part of the disc. These luminous points are
+produced by the solar rays above those which determine the limit of the
+phase. Therefore the measure of the dark interval which the luminous
+point and the luminous part of the phase leave between them gives
+exactly the height of the point. But it will be seen that this method
+can only be applied to the mountains near the line of separation of
+darkness and light.
+
+A third method consists in measuring the profile of the lunar mountains
+outlined on the background by means of a micrometer; but it is only
+applicable to the heights near the border of the orb.
+
+In any case it will be remarked that this measurement of shadows,
+intervals, or profiles can only be made when the solar rays strike the
+moon obliquely in relation to the observer. When they strike her
+directly--in a word, when she is full--all shadow is imperiously
+banished from her disc, and observation is no longer possible.
+
+Galileo, after recognising the existence of the lunar mountains, was the
+first to employ the method of calculating their heights by the shadows
+they throw. He attributed to them, as it has already been shown, an
+average of 9,000 yards. Hevelius singularly reduced these figures, which
+Riccioli, on the contrary, doubled. All these measures were exaggerated.
+Herschel, with his more perfect instruments, approached nearer the
+hypsometric truth. But it must be finally sought in the accounts of
+modern observers.
+
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler, the most perfect selenographers in the whole
+world, have measured 1,095 lunar mountains. It results from their
+calculations that 6 of these mountains rise above 5,800 metres, and 22
+above 4,800. The highest summit of the moon measures 7,603 metres; it
+is, therefore, inferior to those of the earth, of which some are 1,000
+yards higher. But one remark must be made. If the respective volumes of
+the two orbs are compared the lunar mountains are relatively higher than
+the terrestrial. The lunar ones form 1/70 of the diameter of the moon,
+and the terrestrial only form 1/140 of the diameter of the earth. For a
+terrestrial mountain to attain the relative proportions of a lunar
+mountain, its perpendicular height ought to be 6-1/2 leagues. Now the
+highest is not four miles.
+
+Thus, then, to proceed by comparison, the chain of the Himalayas counts
+three peaks higher than the lunar ones, Mount Everest, Kunchinjuga, and
+Dwalagiri. Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, on the moon, are as high as
+Jewahir in the same chain. Newton, Casatus, Curtius, Short, Tycho,
+Clavius, Blancanus, Endymion, the principal summits of Caucasus and the
+Apennines, are higher than Mont Blanc. The mountains equal to Mont Blanc
+are Moret, Theophylus, and Catharnia; to Mount Rosa, Piccolomini,
+Werner, and Harpalus; to Mount Cervin, Macrobus, Eratosthenes,
+Albateque, and Delambre; to the Peak of Teneriffe, Bacon, Cysatus,
+Philolaus, and the Alps; to Mount Perdu, in the Pyrenees, Roemer and
+Boguslawski; to Etna, Hercules, Atlas, and Furnerius.
+
+Such are the points of comparison that allow the appreciation of the
+altitude of lunar mountains. Now the trajectory followed by the
+projectile dragged it precisely towards that mountainous region of the
+southern hemisphere where rise the finest specimens of lunar orography.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TYCHO.
+
+
+At 6 p.m. the projectile passed the South Pole at less than thirty
+miles, a distance equal to that already reached at the North Pole. The
+elliptical curve was, therefore, being rigorously described.
+
+At that moment the travellers re-entered the beneficent sunshine. They
+saw once more the stars moving slowly from east to west. The radiant orb
+was saluted with a triple hurrah. With its light came also its heat,
+which soon pierced the middle walls. The windows resumed their
+accustomed transparency. Their "layer of ice" melted as if by
+enchantment. The gas was immediately extinguished by way of economy. The
+air apparatus alone was to consume its habitual quantity.
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl, "sunshine is good! How impatiently after their long
+nights the Selenites must await the reappearance of the orb of day!"
+
+"Yes," answered Michel Ardan, "imbibing, as it were, the brilliant
+ether, light and heat, all life is in them."
+
+At that moment the bottom of the projectile moved slightly from the
+lunar surface in order to describe a rather long elliptical orbit. From
+that point, if the earth had been full, Barbicane and his friends could
+have seen it again. But, drowned in the sun's irradiation, it remained
+absolutely invisible. Another spectacle attracted their eyes, presented
+by the southern region of the moon, brought by the telescopes to within
+half-a-mile. They left the port-lights no more, and noted all the
+details of the strange continent.
+
+Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz formed two separate groups stretching nearly
+to the South Pole; the former group extends from the Pole to the 84th
+parallel on the eastern part of the orb; the second, starting from the
+eastern border, stretches from the 65th degree of latitude to the Pole.
+
+On their capriciously-formed ridge appeared dazzling sheets of light
+like those signalised by Father Secchi. With more certainty than the
+illustrious Roman astronomer, Barbicane was enabled to establish their
+nature.
+
+"It is snow," cried he.
+
+"Snow?" echoed Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, snow, the surface of which is profoundly frozen. Look how
+it reflects the luminous rays. Cooled lava would not give so intense a
+reflection. Therefore there is water and air upon the moon, as little as
+you like, but the fact can no longer be contested."
+
+No, it could not be, and if ever Barbicane saw the earth again his notes
+would testify to this fact, important in selenographic observations.
+
+These Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz arose in the midst of plains of
+moderate extent, bounded by an indefinite succession of amphitheatres
+and circular ramparts. These two chains are the only ones which are met
+with in the region of amphitheatres. Relatively they are not very
+broken, and only throw out here and there some sharp peaks, the highest
+of which measures 7,603 metres.
+
+The projectile hung high above all this, and the relief disappeared in
+the intense brilliancy of the disc.
+
+Then reappeared to the eyes of the travellers that original aspect of
+the lunar landscapes, raw in tone, without gradation of colours, only
+white and black, for diffused light was wanting. Still the sight of this
+desolate world was very curious on account of its very strangeness. They
+were moving above this chaotic region as if carried along by the breath
+of a tempest, seeing the summits fly under their feet, looking down the
+cavities, climbing the ramparts, sounding the mysterious holes. But
+there was no trace of vegetation, no appearance of cities, nothing but
+stratifications, lava streams, polished like immense mirrors, which
+reflect the solar rays with unbearable brilliancy. There was no
+appearance of a living world, everything of a dead one, where the
+avalanches rolling from the summit of the mountains rushed noiselessly.
+They had plenty of movement, but noise was wanting still.
+
+Barbicane established the fact, by reiterated observation, that the
+reliefs on the borders of the disc, although they had been acted upon
+by different forces to those of the central region, presented a uniform
+conformation. There was the same circular aggregation, the same
+accidents of ground. Still it might be supposed that their arrangements
+were not completely analogous. In the centre the still malleable crust
+of the moon suffered the double attraction of the moon and the earth
+acting in inverse ways according to a radius prolonged from one to the
+other. On the borders of the disc, on the contrary, the lunar attraction
+has been, thus to say, perpendicular with the terrestrial attraction. It
+seems, therefore, that the reliefs on the soil produced under these
+conditions ought to have taken a different form. Yet they had not,
+therefore the moon had found in herself alone the principle of her
+formation and constitution. She owed nothing to foreign influences,
+which justified the remarkable proposition of Arago's, "No action
+exterior to the moon has contributed to the production of her relief."
+
+However that may be in its actual condition, this world was the image of
+death without it being possible to say that life had ever animated it.
+
+Michel Ardan, however, thought he recognised a heap of ruins, to which
+he drew Barbicane's attention. It was situated in about the 80th
+parallel and 30° longitude. This heap of stones, pretty regularly made,
+was in the shape of a vast fortress, overlooking one of those long
+furrows which served as river-beds in ante-historical times. Not far off
+rose to a height of 5,646 metres the circular mountain called Short,
+equal to the Asiatic Caucasus. Michel Ardan, with his habitual ardour,
+maintained "the evidences" of his fortress. Below he perceived the
+dismantled ramparts of a town; here the arch of a portico, still intact;
+there two or three columns lying on their side; farther on a succession
+of archpieces, which must have supported the conduct of an aqueduct; in
+another part the sunken pillars of a gigantic bridge run into the
+thickest part of the furrow. He distinguished all that, but with so much
+imagination in his eyes, through a telescope so fanciful, that his
+observation cannot be relied upon. And yet who would affirm, who would
+dare to say, that the amiable fellow had not really seen what his two
+companions would not see?
+
+The moments were too precious to be sacrificed to an idle discussion.
+The Selenite city, whether real or pretended, had disappeared in the
+distance. The projectile began to get farther away from the lunar disc,
+and the details of the ground began to be lost in a confused jumble. The
+reliefs, amphitheatres, craters, and plains alone remained, and still
+showed their boundary-lines distinctly.
+
+At that moment there stretched to the left one of the finest
+amphitheatres in lunar orography. It was Newton, which Barbicane easily
+recognised by referring to the _Mappa Selenographica_.
+
+Newton is situated in exactly 77° south lat. and 16° east long. It forms
+a circular crater, the ramparts of which, 7,264 metres high, seemed to
+be inaccessible.
+
+Barbicane made his companions notice that the height of that mountain
+above the surrounding plain was far from being equal to the depth of its
+crater. This enormous hole was beyond all measurement, and made a gloomy
+abyss, the bottom of which the sun's rays could never reach. There,
+according to Humboldt, utter darkness reigns, which the light of the sun
+and the earth could not break. The mythologists would have made it with
+justice hell's mouth.
+
+"Newton," said Barbicane, "is the most perfect type of the circular
+mountains, of which the earth possesses no specimen. They prove that the
+formation of the moon by cooling was due to violent causes, for whilst
+under the influence of interior fire the reliefs were thrown up to
+considerable heights, the bottom dropped in, and became lower than the
+lunar level."
+
+"I do not say no," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+A few minutes after having passed Newton the projectile stood directly
+over the circular mountain of Moret. It also passed rather high above
+the summits of Blancanus, and about 7.30 p.m. it reached the
+amphitheatre of Clavius.
+
+This circle, one of the most remarkable on the disc, is situated in
+south lat. 58° and east long. 15°. Its height is estimated at 7,091
+metres. The travellers at a distance of 200 miles, reduced to two by the
+telescopes, could admire the arrangement of this vast crater.
+
+"The terrestrial volcanoes," said Barbicane, "are only molehills
+compared to the volcanoes of the moon. Measuring the ancient craters
+formed by the first eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna, they are found to be
+scarcely 6,000 metres wide. In France the circle of the Cantal measures
+five miles; at Ceylon the circle of the island is forty miles, and is
+considered the largest on the globe. What are these diameters compared
+to that of Clavius, which we are over in this moment?"
+
+"What is its width?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"About seventy miles," answered Barbicane. "This amphitheatre is
+certainly the largest on the moon, but many are fifty miles wide!"
+
+"Ah, my friends," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "can you imagine what this
+peaceful orb of night was once like? when these craters vomited torrents
+of lava and stones, with clouds of smoke and sheets of flame? What a
+prodigious spectacle formerly, and now what a falling off! This moon is
+now only the meagre case of fireworks, of which the rockets, serpents,
+suns, and wheels, after going off magnificently, only leave torn pieces
+of cardboard. Who can tell the cause, reason, or justification of such
+cataclysms?"
+
+Barbicane did not listen to Michel Ardan. He was contemplating those
+ramparts of Clavius, formed of wide mountains several leagues thick. At
+the bottom of its immense cavity lay hundreds of small extinct craters,
+making the soil like a sieve, and overlooked by a peak more than 15,000
+feet high.
+
+The plain around had a desolate aspect. Nothing so arid as these
+reliefs, nothing so sad as these ruins of mountains, if so they may be
+called, as those heaps of peaks and mountains encumbering the ground!
+The satellite seemed to have been blown up in this place.
+
+The projectile still went on, and the chaos was still the same. Circles,
+craters, and mountains succeeded each other incessantly. No more plains
+or seas--an interminable Switzerland or Norway. Lastly, in the centre of
+the creviced region at its culminating point, the most splendid mountain
+of the lunar disc, the dazzling Tycho, to which posterity still gives
+the name of the illustrious Danish astronomer.
+
+Whilst observing the full moon in a cloudless sky, there is no one who
+has not remarked this brilliant point on the southern hemisphere. Michel
+Ardan, to qualify it, employed all the metaphors his imagination could
+furnish him with. To him Tycho was an ardent focus of light, a centre of
+irradiation, a crater vomiting flames! It was the axle of a fiery wheel,
+a sea-star encircling the disc with its silver tentacles, an immense eye
+darting fire, a nimbo made for Pluto's head! It was a star hurled by the
+hand of the Creator, and fallen upon the lunar surface!
+
+Tycho forms such a luminous concentration that the inhabitants of the
+earth can see it without a telescope, although they are at a distance of
+100,000 leagues. It will, therefore, be readily imagined what its
+intensity must have been in the eyes of observers placed at fifty
+leagues only.
+
+Across this pure ether its brilliancy was so unbearable that Barbicane
+and his friends were obliged to blacken the object-glasses of their
+telescopes with gas-smoke in order to support it. Then, mute, hardly
+emitting a few admirative interjections, they looked and contemplated.
+All their sentiments, all their impressions were concentrated in their
+eyes, as life, under violent emotion, is concentrated in the heart.
+
+Tycho belongs to the system of radiating mountains, like Aristarchus and
+Copernicus. But it testified the most completely of all to the terrible
+volcanic action to which the formation of the moon is due.
+
+Tycho is situated in south lat. 43° and east long. 12°. Its centre is
+occupied by a crater more than forty miles wide. It affects a slightly
+elliptical form, and is inclosed by circular ramparts, which on the east
+and west overlook the exterior plain from a height of 5,000 metres. It
+is an aggregation of Mont Blancs, placed round a common centre, and
+crowned with shining rays.
+
+Photography itself could never represent what this incomparable
+mountain, with all its projections converging to it and its interior
+excrescences, is really like. In fact, it is during the full moon that
+Tycho is seen in all its splendour. Then all shadows disappear, the
+foreshortenings of perspective disappear, and all proofs come out
+white--an unfortunate circumstance, for this strange region would have
+been curious to reproduce with photographic exactitude. It is only an
+agglomeration of holes, craters, circles, a vertiginous network of
+crests. It will be understood, therefore, that the bubblings of this
+central eruption have kept their first forms. Crystallised by cooling,
+they have stereotyped the aspect which the moon formerly presented under
+the influence of Plutonic forces.
+
+The distance which separated the travellers from the circular summits of
+Tycho was not so great that the travellers could not survey its
+principal details. Even upon the embankment which forms the ramparts of
+Tycho, the mountains hanging to the interior and exterior slopes rose in
+stories like gigantic terraces. They appeared to be higher by 300 or 400
+feet on the west than on the east. No system of terrestrial
+castrametation could equal these natural fortifications. A town built at
+the bottom of this circular cavity would have been utterly inaccessible.
+
+Inaccessible and marvellously extended over this ground of picturesque
+relief! Nature had not left the bottom of this crater flat and empty. It
+possessed a special orography, a mountain system which made it a world
+apart. The travellers clearly distinguished the cones, central hills,
+remarkable movements of the ground, naturally disposed for the reception
+of masterpieces of Selenite architecture. There was the place for a
+temple, here for a forum, there the foundations of a palace, there the
+plateau of a citadel, the whole overlooked by a central mountain 1,500
+feet high--a vast circuit which would have held ancient Rome ten times
+over.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, made enthusiastic by the sight, "what
+grand towns could be built in this circle of mountains! A tranquil city,
+a peaceful refuge, away from all human cares! How all misanthropes could
+live there, all haters of humanity, all those disgusted with social
+life!"
+
+"All! It would be too small for them!" replied Barbicane simply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+GRAVE QUESTIONS.
+
+
+In the meantime the projectile had passed the neighbourhood of Tycho.
+Barbicane and his two friends then observed, with the most scrupulous
+attention, those brilliant radii which the celebrated mountain disperses
+so curiously on every horizon.
+
+What was this radiating aureole? What geological phenomenon had caused
+those ardent beams? This question justly occupied Barbicane. Under his
+eyes, in every direction, ran luminous furrows, with raised banks and
+concave middle, some ten miles, others more than twenty miles wide.
+These shining trails ran in certain places at least 300 leagues from
+Tycho, and seemed to cover, especially towards the east, north-east, and
+north, half the southern hemisphere. One of these furrows stretched as
+far as the amphitheatre of Neander, situated on the 40th meridian.
+Another went rounding off through the Sea of Nectar and broke against
+the chain of the Pyrenees after a run of 400 leagues; others towards the
+west covered with a luminous network the Sea of Clouds and the Sea of
+Humours.
+
+What was the origin of these shining rays running equally over plains
+and reliefs, however high? They all started from a common centre, the
+crater of Tycho. They emanated from it.
+
+Herschel attributed their brilliant aspect to ancient streams of lava
+congealed by the cold, an opinion which has not been generally received.
+Other astronomers have seen in these inexplicable rays a kind of
+_moraines_, ranges of erratic blocks thrown out at the epoch of the
+formation of Tycho.
+
+"And why should it not be so?" asked Nicholl of Barbicane, who rejected
+these different opinions at the same time that he related them.
+
+"Because the regularity of these luminous lines, and the violence
+necessary to send them to such a distance, are inexplicable.
+
+"_Par bleu_!" replied Michel Ardan. "I can easily explain to myself the
+origin of these rays."
+
+"Indeed," said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel. "Why should they not be the cracks caused by the
+shock of a bullet or a stone upon a pane of glass?"
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane, smiling; "and what hand would be powerful
+enough to hurl the stone that would produce such a shock?"
+
+"A hand is not necessary," answered Michel, who would not give in; "and
+as to the stone, let us say it is a comet."
+
+"Ah! comets?" exclaimed Barbicane; "those much-abused comets! My worthy
+Michel, your explanation is not bad, but your comet is not wanted. The
+shock might have come from the interior of the planet. A violent
+contraction of the lunar crust whilst cooling was enough to make that
+gigantic crack."
+
+"Contraction let it be--something like a lunar colic," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "that is also the opinion of an English
+_savant_, Nasmyth, and it seems to me to explain the radiation of these
+mountains sufficiently."
+
+"That Nasmyth was no fool!" answered Michel.
+
+The travellers, who could never weary of such a spectacle, long admired
+the splendours of Tycho. Their projectile, bathed in that double
+irradiation of the sun and moon, must have appeared like a globe of
+fire. They had, therefore, suddenly passed from considerable cold to
+intense heat. Nature was thus preparing them to become Selenites.
+
+To become Selenites! That idea again brought up the question of the
+habitability of the moon. After what they had seen, could the travellers
+solve it? Could they conclude for or against? Michel Ardan asked his two
+friends to give utterance to their opinion, and asked them outright if
+they thought that humanity and animality were represented in the lunar
+world.
+
+"I think we cannot answer," said Barbicane, "but in my opinion the
+question ought not to be stated in that form. I ask to be allowed to
+state it differently."
+
+"State it as you like," answered Michel.
+
+"This is it," resumed Barbicane. "The problem is double, and requires a
+double solution. Is the moon habitable? Has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Right," said Nicholl. "Let us first see if the moon is habitable."
+
+"To tell the truth, I know nothing about it," replied Michel.
+
+"And I answer in the negative," said Barbicane. "In her actual state,
+with her certainly very slight atmosphere, her seas mostly dried up, her
+insufficient water, her restricted vegetation, her abrupt alternations
+of heat and cold, her nights and days 354 hours long, the moon does not
+appear habitable to me, nor propitious to the development of the animal
+kingdom, nor sufficient for the needs of existence such as we understand
+it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but is not the moon habitable for beings
+differently organised to us?"
+
+"That question is more difficult to answer," replied Barbicane. "I will
+try to do it, however, but I ask Nicholl if movement seems to him the
+necessary result of existence, under no matter what organisation?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, then, my worthy companion, my answer will be that we have seen
+the lunar continent at a distance of 500 yards, and that nothing
+appeared to be moving on the surface of the moon. The presence of no
+matter what form of humanity would be betrayed by appropriations,
+different constructions, or even ruins. What did we see? Everywhere the
+geological work of Nature, never the work of man. If, therefore,
+representatives of the animal kingdom exist upon the moon, they have
+taken refuge in those bottomless cavities which the eye cannot reach.
+And I cannot admit that either, for they would have left traces of their
+passage upon the plains which the atmosphere, however slight, covers.
+Now these traces are nowhere visible. Therefore the only hypothesis that
+remains is one of living beings without movement or life."
+
+"You might just as well say living creatures who are not alive."
+
+"Precisely," answered Barbicane, "which for us has no meaning."
+
+"Then now we may formulate our opinion," said Michel.
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," resumed Michel Ardan; "the Scientific Commission, meeting
+in the projectile of the Gun Club, after having supported its arguments
+upon fresh facts lately observed, decides unanimously upon the question
+of the habitability of the moon--'No, the moon is not inhabited.'"
+
+This decision was taken down by Barbicane in his notebook, where he had
+already written the _procès-verbal_ of the sitting of December 6th.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl, "let us attack the second question, depending on
+the first. I therefore ask the honourable Commission if the moon is not
+habitable, has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Answer, Citizen Barbicane," said Michel Ardan.
+
+"My friends," answered Barbicane, "I did not undertake this journey to
+form an opinion upon the ancient habitability of our satellite. I may
+add that my personal observations only confirm me in this opinion. I
+believe, I even affirm, that the moon has been inhabited by a human race
+organised like ours, that it has produced animals anatomically formed
+like terrestrial animals; but I add that these races, human or animal,
+have had their day, and are for ever extinct."
+
+"Then," asked Michel, "the moon is an older world than the earth?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane with conviction, "but a world that has grown
+old more quickly, whose formation and deformation have been more rapid.
+Relatively the organising forces of matter have been much more violent
+in the interior of the moon than in the interior of the celestial globe.
+The actual state of this disc, broken up, tormented, and swollen, proves
+this abundantly. In their origin the moon and the earth were only gases.
+These gases became liquids under different influences, and the solid
+mass was formed afterwards. But it is certain that our globe was gas or
+liquid still when the moon, already solidified by cooling, became
+habitable."
+
+"I believe that," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "it was surrounded by atmosphere. The water
+held in by the gassy element could not evaporate. Under the influence of
+air, water, light, and heat, solar and central, vegetation took
+possession of these continents prepared for its reception, and certainly
+life manifested itself about that epoch, for Nature does not spend
+itself in inutilities, and a world so marvellously habitable must have
+been inhabited."
+
+"Still," answered Nicholl, "many phenomena inherent to the movements of
+our satellite must have prevented the expansion of the vegetable and
+animal kingdoms. The days and nights 354 hours long, for example."
+
+"At the terrestrial poles," said Michel, "they last six months."
+
+"That is not a valuable argument, as the poles are not inhabited."
+
+"In the actual state of the moon," resumed Barbicane, "the long nights
+and days create differences of temperature insupportable to the
+constitution, but it was not so at that epoch of historical times. The
+atmosphere enveloped the disc with a fluid mantle. Vapour deposited
+itself in the form of clouds. This natural screen tempered the ardour of
+the solar lays, and retained the nocturnal radiation. Both light and
+heat could diffuse themselves in the air. Hence there was equilibrium
+between the influences which no longer exists now that the atmosphere
+has almost entirely disappeared. Besides, I shall astonish you--"
+
+"Astonish us?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"But I believe that at the epoch when the moon was inhabited the nights
+and days did not last 354 hours!"
+
+"Why so?" asked Nicholl quickly.
+
+"Because it is very probable that then the moon's movement of rotation
+on her axis was not equal to her movement of revolution, an equality
+which puts every point of the lunar disc under the action of the solar
+rays for fifteen days."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but why should not these movements have
+been equal, since they are so actually?"
+
+"Because that equality has only been determined by terrestrial
+attraction. Now, how do we know that this attraction was powerful enough
+to influence the movements of the moon at the epoch the earth was still
+fluid?"
+
+"True," replied Nicholl; "and who can say that the moon has always been
+the earth's satellite?"
+
+"And who can say," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "that the moon did not exist
+before the earth?"
+
+Imagination began to wander in the indefinite field of hypotheses.
+Barbicane wished to hold them in.
+
+"Those," said he, "are speculations too high, problems really insoluble.
+Do not let us enter into them. Let us only admit the insufficiency of
+primordial attraction, and then by the inequality of rotation and
+revolution days and nights could succeed each other upon the moon as
+they do upon the earth. Besides, even under those conditions life was
+possible."
+
+"Then," asked Michel Ardan, "humanity has quite disappeared from the
+moon?"
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "after having, doubtless, existed for
+thousands of centuries. Then gradually the atmosphere becoming rarefied,
+the disc will again be uninhabitable like the terrestrial globe will one
+day become by cooling."
+
+"By cooling?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Barbicane. "As the interior fires became
+extinguished the incandescent matter was concentrated and the lunar disc
+became cool. By degrees the consequences of this phenomenon came
+about--the disappearance of organic beings and the disappearance of
+vegetation. Soon the atmosphere became rarefied, and was probably drawn
+away by terrestrial attraction; the breathable air disappeared, and so
+did water by evaporation. At that epoch the moon became uninhabitable,
+and was no longer inhabited. It was a dead world like it is to-day."
+
+"And you say that the like fate is reserved for the earth?"
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"When the cooling of its crust will have made it uninhabitable."
+
+"Has the time it will take our unfortunate globe to melt been
+calculated?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you know the reason?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then tell us, sulky _savant_--you make me boil with impatience."
+
+"Well, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane tranquilly, "it is well
+known what diminution of temperature the earth suffers in the lapse of a
+century. Now, according to certain calculations, that average
+temperature will be brought down to zero after a period of 400,000
+years!"
+
+"Four hundred thousand years!" exclaimed Michel. "Ah! I breathe again! I
+was really frightened. I imagined from listening to you that we had only
+fifty thousand years to live!"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at their companion's
+uneasiness. Then Nicholl, who wanted to have done with it, reminded them
+of the second question to be settled.
+
+"Has the moon been inhabited?" he asked.
+
+The answer was unanimously in the affirmative.
+
+During this discussion, fruitful in somewhat hazardous theories,
+although it resumed the general ideas of science on the subject, the
+projectile had run rapidly towards the lunar equator, at the same time
+that it went farther away from the lunar disc. It had passed the circle
+of Willem, and the 40th parallel, at a distance of 400 miles. Then
+leaving Pitatus to the right, on the 30th degree, it went along the
+south of the Sea of Clouds, of which it had already approached the
+north. Different amphitheatres appeared confusedly under the white light
+of the full moon--Bouillaud, Purbach, almost square with a central
+crater, then Arzachel, whose interior mountain shone with indefinable
+brilliancy.
+
+At last, as the projectile went farther and farther away, the details
+faded from the travellers' eyes, the mountains were confounded in the
+distance, and all that remained of the marvellous, fantastical, and
+wonderful satellite of the earth was the imperishable remembrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE.
+
+
+For some time Barbicane and his companions, mute and pensive, looked at
+this world, which they had only seen from a distance, like Moses saw
+Canaan, and from which they were going away for ever. The position of
+the projectile relatively to the moon was modified, and now its lower
+end was turned towards the earth.
+
+This change, verified by Barbicane, surprised him greatly. If the bullet
+was going to gravitate round the satellite in an elliptical orbit, why
+was not its heaviest part turned towards it like the moon to the earth?
+There again was an obscure point.
+
+By watching the progress of the projectile they could see that it was
+following away from the moon an analogous curve to that by which it
+approached her. It was, therefore, describing a very long ellipsis which
+would probably extend to the point of equal attraction, where the
+influences of the earth and her satellite are neutralised.
+
+Such was the conclusion which Barbicane correctly drew from the facts
+observed, a conviction which his two friends shared with him.
+
+Questions immediately began to shower upon him.
+
+"What will become of us after we have reached the neutral point?" asked
+Michel Ardan.
+
+"That is unknown!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"But we can make suppositions, I suppose?"
+
+"We can make two," answered Barbicane. "Either the velocity of the
+projectile will then be insufficient, and it will remain entirely
+motionless on that line of double attraction--"
+
+"I would rather have the other supposition, whatever it is," replied
+Michel.
+
+"Or the velocity will be sufficient," resumed Barbicane, "and it will
+continue its elliptical orbit, and gravitate eternally round the orb of
+night."
+
+"Not very consoling that revolution," said Michel, "to become the humble
+servants of a moon whom we are in the habit of considering our servant.
+And is that the future that awaits us?"
+
+Neither Barbicane nor Nicholl answered.
+
+"Why do you not answer?" asked the impatient Michel.
+
+"There is nothing to answer," said Nicholl.
+
+"Can nothing be done?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "Do you pretend to struggle with the
+impossible?"
+
+"Why not? Ought a Frenchman and two Americans to recoil at such a word?"
+
+"But what do you want to do?"
+
+"Command the motion that is carrying us along!"
+
+"Command it?"
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel, getting animated, "stop it or modify it; use it
+for the accomplishment of our plans."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"That is your business! If artillerymen are not masters of their bullets
+they are no longer artillerymen. If the projectile commands the gunner,
+the gunner ought to be rammed instead into the cannon! Fine _savants_,
+truly! who don't know now what to do after having induced me--"
+
+"Induced!" cried Barbicane and Nicholl. "Induced! What do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"No recriminations!" said Michel. "I do not complain. The journey
+pleases me. The bullet suits me. But let us do all that is humanly
+possible to fall somewhere, if only upon the moon."
+
+"We should only be too glad, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane, "but
+we have no means of doing it."
+
+"Can we not modify the motion of the projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor diminish its speed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even by lightening it like they lighten an overloaded ship?"
+
+"What can we throw out?" answered Nicholl. "We have no ballast on board.
+And besides, it seems to me that a lightened projectile would go on more
+quickly."
+
+"Less quickly," said Michel.
+
+"More quickly," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Neither more nor less quickly," answered Barbicane, wishing to make his
+two friends agree, "for we are moving in the void where we cannot take
+specific weight into account."
+
+"Very well," exclaimed Michel Ardan in a determined tone; "there is only
+one thing to do."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Have breakfast," imperturbably answered the audacious Frenchman, who
+always brought that solution to the greatest difficulties.
+
+In fact, though that operation would have no influence on the direction
+of the projectile, it might be attempted without risk, and even
+successfully from the point of view of the stomach. Decidedly the
+amiable Michel had only good ideas.
+
+They breakfasted, therefore, at 2 a.m., but the hour was not of much
+consequence. Michel served up his habitual _menu_, crowned by an amiable
+bottle out of his secret cellar. If ideas did not come into their heads
+the Chambertin of 1863 must be despaired of.
+
+The meal over, observations began again.
+
+The objects they had thrown out of the projectile still followed it at
+the same invariable distance. It was evident that the bullet in its
+movement of translation round the moon had not passed through any
+atmosphere, for the specific weight of these objects would have modified
+their respective distances.
+
+There was nothing to see on the side of the terrestrial globe. The earth
+was only a day old, having been new at midnight the day before, and two
+days having to go by before her crescent, disengaged from the solar
+rays, could serve as a clock to the Selenites, as in her movement of
+rotation each of her points always passes the same meridian of the moon
+every twenty-four hours.
+
+The spectacle was a different one on the side of the moon; the orb was
+shining in all its splendour amidst innumerable constellations, the rays
+of which could not trouble its purity. Upon the disc the plains again
+wore the sombre tint which is seen from the earth. The rest of the
+nimbus was shining, and amidst the general blaze Tycho stood out like a
+sun.
+
+Barbicane could not manage any way to appreciate the velocity of the
+projectile, but reasoning demonstrated that this speed must be uniformly
+diminishing in conformity with the laws of rational mechanics.
+
+In fact, it being admitted that the bullet would describe an orbit round
+the moon, that orbit must necessarily be elliptical. Science proves that
+it must be thus. No mobile circulation round any body is an exception to
+that law. All the orbits described in space are elliptical, those of
+satellites round their planets, those of planets around their sun, that
+of the sun round the unknown orb that serves as its central pivot. Why
+should the projectile of the Gun Club escape that natural arrangement?
+
+Now in elliptical orbits attracting bodies always occupy one of the foci
+of the ellipsis. The satellite is, therefore, nearer the body round
+which it gravitates at one moment than it is at another. When the earth
+is nearest the sun she is at her perihelion, and at her aphelion when
+most distant. The moon is nearest the earth at her perigee, and most
+distant at her apogee. To employ analogous expressions which enrich the
+language of astronomers, if the projectile remained a satellite of the
+moon, it ought to be said that it is in its "aposelene" at its most
+distant point, and at its "periselene" at its nearest.
+
+In the latter case the projectile ought to attain its maximum of speed,
+in the latter its minimum. Now it was evidently going towards its
+"aposelene," and Barbicane was right in thinking its speed would
+decrease up to that point, and gradually increase when it would again
+draw near the moon. That speed even would be absolutely _nil_ if the
+point was coexistent with that of attraction.
+
+Barbicane studied the consequences of these different situations; he was
+trying what he could make of them when he was suddenly interrupted by a
+cry from Michel Ardan.
+
+"I'faith!" cried Michel, "what fools we are!"
+
+"I don't say we are not," answered Barbicane; "but why?"
+
+"Because we have some very simple means of slackening the speed that is
+taking us away from the moon, and we do not use them."
+
+"And what are those means?"
+
+"That of utilising the force of recoil in our rockets."
+
+"Ah, why not?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We have not yet utilised that force, it is true," said Barbicane, "but
+we shall do so."
+
+"When?" asked Michel.
+
+"When the time comes. Remark, my friends, that in the position now
+occupied by the projectile, a position still oblique to the lunar disc,
+our rockets, by altering its direction, might take it farther away
+instead of nearer to the moon. Now I suppose it is the moon you want to
+reach?"
+
+"Essentially," answered Michel.
+
+"Wait, then. Through some inexplicable influence the projectile has a
+tendency to let its lower end fall towards the earth. It is probable
+that at the point of equal attraction its conical summit will be
+rigorously directed towards the moon. At that moment it may be hoped
+that its speed will be _nil_. That will be the time to act, and under
+the effort of our rockets we can, perhaps, provoke a direct fall upon
+the surface of the lunar disc."
+
+"Bravo!" said Michel.
+
+"We have not done it yet, and we could not do it as we passed the
+neutral point, because the projectile was still animated with too much
+velocity."
+
+"Well reasoned out," said Nicholl.
+
+"We must wait patiently," said Barbicane, "and put every chance on our
+side; then, after having despaired so long, I again begin to think we
+shall reach our goal."
+
+This conclusion provoked hurrahs from Michel Ardan. No one of these
+daring madmen remembered the question they had all answered in the
+negative--No, the moon is not inhabited! No, the moon is probably not
+inhabitable! And yet they were going to do all they could to reach it.
+
+One question only now remained to be solved: at what precise moment
+would the projectile reach that point of equal attraction where the
+travellers would play their last card?
+
+In order to calculate that moment to within some seconds Barbicane had
+only to have recourse to his travelling notes, and to take the different
+altitudes from lunar parallels. Thus the time employed in going over the
+distance between the neutral point and the South Pole must be equal to
+the distance which separates the South Pole from the neutral point. The
+hours representing the time it took were carefully noted down, and the
+calculation became easy.
+
+Barbicane found that this point would be reached by the projectile at 1
+a.m. on the 8th of December. It was then 3 a.m. on the 7th of December.
+Therefore, if nothing intervened, the projectile would reach the neutral
+point in twenty-two hours.
+
+The rockets had been put in their places to slacken the fall of the
+bullet upon the moon, and now the bold fellows were going to use them to
+provoke an exactly contrary effect. However that may be, they were
+ready, and there was nothing to do but await the moment for setting fire
+to them.
+
+"As there is nothing to do," said Nicholl, "I have a proposition to
+make."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"I propose we go to sleep."
+
+"That is a nice idea!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"It is forty hours since we have closed our eyes," said Nicholl. "A few
+hours' sleep would set us up again."
+
+"Never!" replied Michel.
+
+"Good," said Nicholl; "every man to his humour--mine is to sleep."
+
+And lying down on a divan, Nicholl was soon snoring like a forty-eight
+pound bullet.
+
+"Nicholl is a sensible man," said Barbicane soon. "I shall imitate him."
+
+A few minutes after he was joining his bass to the captain's baritone.
+
+"Decidedly," said Michel Ardan, when he found himself alone, "these
+practical people sometimes do have opportune ideas."
+
+And stretching out his long legs, and folding his long arms under his
+head, Michel went to sleep too.
+
+But this slumber could neither be durable nor peaceful. Too many
+preoccupations filled the minds of these three men, and a few hours
+after, at about 7 a.m., they all three awoke at once.
+
+The projectile was still moving away from the moon, inclining its
+conical summit more and more towards her. This phenomenon was
+inexplicable at present, but it fortunately aided the designs of
+Barbicane.
+
+Another seventeen hours and the time for action would have come.
+
+That day seemed long. However bold they might be, the travellers felt
+much anxiety at the approach of the minute that was to decide
+everything, either their fall upon the moon or their imprisonment in an
+immutable orbit. They therefore counted the hours, which went too slowly
+for them, Barbicane and Nicholl obstinately plunged in calculations,
+Michel walking up and down the narrow space between the walls
+contemplating with longing eye the impassible moon.
+
+Sometimes thoughts of the earth passed through their minds. They saw
+again their friends of the Gun Club, and the dearest of them all, J.T.
+Maston. At that moment the honourable secretary must have been occupying
+his post on the Rocky Mountains. If he should perceive the projectile
+upon the mirror of his gigantic telescope what would he think? After
+having seen it disappear behind the south pole of the moon, they would
+see it reappear at the north! It was, therefore, the satellite of a
+satellite! Had J.T. Maston sent that unexpected announcement into the
+world? Was this to be the _dénouement_ of the great enterprise?
+
+Meanwhile the day passed without incident. Terrestrial midnight came.
+The 8th of December was about to commence. Another hour and the point of
+equal attraction would be reached. What velocity then animated the
+projectile? They could form no estimate; but no error could vitiate
+Barbicane's calculations. At 1 a.m. that velocity ought to be and would
+be _nil_.
+
+Besides, another phenomenon would mark the stopping point of the
+projectile on the neutral line. In that spot the two attractions,
+terrestrial and lunar, would be annihilated. Objects would not weigh
+anything. This singular fact, which had so curiously surprised Barbicane
+and his companions before, must again come about under identical
+circumstances. It was at that precise moment they must act.
+
+The conical summit of the bullet had already sensibly turned towards the
+lunar disc. The projectile was just right for utilising all the recoil
+produced by setting fire to the apparatus. Chance was therefore in the
+travellers' favour. If the velocity of the projectile were to be
+absolutely annihilated upon the neutral point, a given motion, however
+slight, towards the moon would determine its fall.
+
+"Five minutes to one," said Nicholl.
+
+"Everything is ready," answered Michel Ardan, directing his match
+towards the flame of the gas.
+
+"Wait!" said Barbicane, chronometer in hand.
+
+At that moment weight had no effect. The travellers felt its complete
+disappearance in themselves. They were near the neutral point if they
+had not reached it.
+
+"One o'clock!" said Barbicane.
+
+Michel Ardan put his match to a contrivance that put all the fuses into
+instantaneous communication. No detonation was heard outside, where air
+was wanting, but through the port-lights Barbicane saw the prolonged
+flame, which was immediately extinguished.
+
+The projectile had a slight shock which was very sensibly felt in the
+interior.
+
+The three friends looked, listened, without speaking, hardly breathing.
+The beating of their hearts might have been heard in the absolute
+silence.
+
+"Are we falling?" asked Michel Ardan at last.
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "for the bottom of the projectile has not turned
+towards the lunar disc!"
+
+At that moment Barbicane left his window and turned towards his two
+companions. He was frightfully pale, his forehead wrinkled, his lips
+contracted.
+
+"We are falling!" said he.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "upon the moon?"
+
+"Upon the earth!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan; and he added philosophically, "when we
+entered the bullet we did not think it would be so difficult to get out
+of it again."
+
+In fact, the frightful fall had begun. The velocity kept by the
+projectile had sent it beyond the neutral point. The explosion of the
+fuses had not stopped it. That velocity which had carried the projectile
+beyond the neutral line as it went was destined to do the same upon its
+return. The law of physics condemned it, in its elliptical orbit, _to
+pass by every point it had already passed_.
+
+It was a terrible fall from a height of 78,000 leagues, and which no
+springs could deaden. According to the laws of ballistics the projectile
+would strike the earth with a velocity equal to that which animated it
+as it left the Columbiad--a velocity of "16,000 metres in the last
+second!"
+
+And in order to give some figures for comparison it has been calculated
+that an object thrown from the towers of Notre Dame, the altitude of
+which is only 200 feet, would reach the pavement with a velocity of 120
+leagues an hour. Here the projectile would strike the earth with a
+velocity of 57,600 _leagues an hour_.
+
+"We are lost men," said Nicholl coldly.
+
+"Well, if we die," answered Barbicane, with a sort of religious
+enthusiasm, "the result of our journey will be magnificently enlarged!
+God will tell us His own secret! In the other life the soul will need
+neither machines nor engines in order to know! It will be identified
+with eternal wisdom!"
+
+"True," replied Michel Ardan: "the other world may well console us for
+that trifling orb called the moon!"
+
+Barbicane crossed his arms upon his chest with a movement of sublime
+resignation.
+
+"God's will be done!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA.
+
+
+Well, lieutenant, and what about those soundings?"
+
+"I think the operation is almost over, sir. But who would have expected
+to find such a depth so near land, at 100 leagues only from the American
+coast?"
+
+"Yes, Bronsfield, there is a great depression," said Captain Blomsberry.
+"There exists a submarine valley here, hollowed out by Humboldt's
+current, which runs along the coasts of America to the Straits of
+Magellan."
+
+"Those great depths," said the lieutenant, "are not favourable for the
+laying of telegraph cables. A smooth plateau is the best, like the one
+the American cable lies on between Valentia and Newfoundland."
+
+"I agree with you, Bronsfield. And, may it please you, lieutenant, where
+are we now?"
+
+"Sir," answered Bronsfield, "we have at this moment 21,500 feet of line
+out, and the bullet at the end of the line has not yet touched the
+bottom, for the sounding-lead would have come up again."
+
+"Brook's apparatus is an ingenious one," said Captain Blomsberry. "It
+allows us to obtain very correct soundings."
+
+"Touched!" cried at that moment one of the forecastle-men who was
+superintending the operation.
+
+The captain and lieutenant went on to the forecastle-deck.
+
+"What depth are we in?" asked the captain.
+
+"Twenty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two feet," answered the
+lieutenant, writing it down in his pocket-book.
+
+"Very well, Bronsfield," said the captain, "I will go and mark the
+result on my chart. Now have the sounding-line brought in--that is a
+work of several hours. Meanwhile the engineer shall have his fires
+lighted, and we shall be ready to start as soon as you have done. It is
+10 p.m., and with your permission, lieutenant, I shall turn in."
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly!" answered Lieutenant Bronsfield amiably.
+
+The captain of the Susquehanna, a worthy man if ever there was one, the
+very humble servant of his officers, went to his cabin, took his
+brandy-and-water with many expressions of satisfaction to the steward,
+got into bed, not before complimenting his servant on the way he made
+beds, and sank into peaceful slumber.
+
+It was then 10 p.m. The eleventh day of the month of December was going
+to end in a magnificent night.
+
+The Susquehanna, a corvette of 500 horse power, of the United States
+Navy, was taking soundings in the Pacific at about a hundred leagues
+from the American coast, abreast of that long peninsula on the coast of
+New Mexico.
+
+The wind had gradually fallen. There was not the slightest movement in
+the air. The colours of the corvette hung from the mast motionless and
+inert.
+
+The captain, Jonathan Blomsberry, cousin-german to Colonel Blomsberry,
+one of the Gun Club members who had married a Horschbidden, the
+captain's aunt and daughter of an honourable Kentucky merchant--Captain
+Blomsberry could not have wished for better weather to execute the
+delicate operation of sounding. His corvette had felt nothing of that
+great tempest which swept away the clouds heaped up on the Rocky
+Mountains, and allowed the course of the famous projectile to be
+observed. All was going on well, and he did not forget to thank Heaven
+with all the fervour of a Presbyterian.
+
+The series of soundings executed by the Susquehanna were intended for
+finding out the most favourable bottoms for the establishment of a
+submarine cable between the Hawaiian Islands and the American coast.
+
+It was a vast project set on foot by a powerful company. Its director,
+the intelligent Cyrus Field, meant even to cover all the islands of
+Oceania with a vast electric network--an immense enterprise worthy of
+American genius.
+
+It was to the corvette Susquehanna that the first operations of sounding
+had been entrusted. During the night from the 11th to the 12th of
+December she was exactly in north lat. 27° 7' and 41° 37' long., west
+from the Washington meridian.
+
+The moon, then in her last quarter, began to show herself above the
+horizon.
+
+After Captain Blomsberry's departure, Lieutenant Bronsfield and a few
+officers were together on the poop. As the moon appeared their thoughts
+turned towards that orb which the eyes of a whole hemisphere were then
+contemplating. The best marine glasses could not have discovered the
+projectile wandering round the demi-globe, and yet they were all pointed
+at the shining disc which millions of eyes were looking at in the same
+moment.
+
+"They started ten days ago," then said Lieutenant Bronsfield. "What can
+have become of them?"
+
+"They have arrived, sir," exclaimed a young midshipman, "and they are
+doing what all travellers do in a new country, they are looking about
+them."
+
+"I am certain of it as you say so, my young friend," answered Lieutenant
+Bronsfield, smiling.
+
+"Still," said another officer, "their arrival cannot be doubted. The
+projectile must have reached the moon at the moment she was full, at
+midnight on the 5th. We are now at the 11th of December; that makes six
+days. Now in six times twenty-four hours, with no darkness, they have
+had time to get comfortably settled. It seems to me that I see our brave
+countrymen encamped at the bottom of a valley, on the borders of a
+Selenite stream, near the projectile, half buried by its fall, amidst
+volcanic remains, Captain Nicholl beginning his levelling operations,
+President Barbicane putting his travelling notes in order, Michel Ardan
+performing the lunar solitudes with his Londrès cigar--"
+
+"Oh, it must be so; it is so!" exclaimed the young midshipman,
+enthusiastic at the ideal description of his superior.
+
+"I should like to believe it," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, who was
+seldom carried away. "Unfortunately direct news from the lunar world
+will always be wanting."
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the midshipman, "but cannot President Barbicane
+write?"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted this answer.
+
+"Not letters," answered the young man quickly. "The post-office has
+nothing to do with that."
+
+"Perhaps you mean the telegraph-office?" said one of the officers
+ironically.
+
+"Nor that either," answered the midshipman, who would not give in. "But
+it is very easy to establish graphic communication with the earth."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"By means of the telescope on Long's Peak. You know that it brings the
+moon to within two leagues only of the Rocky Mountains, and that it
+allows them to see objects having nine feet of diameter on her surface.
+Well, our industrious friends will construct a gigantic alphabet! They
+will write words 600 feet long, and sentences a league long, and then
+they can send up news!"
+
+The young midshipman, who certainly had some imagination was loudly
+applauded. Lieutenant Bronsfield himself was convinced that the idea
+could have been carried out. He added that by sending luminous rays,
+grouped by means of parabolical mirrors, direct communications could
+also be established--in fact, these rays would be as visible on the
+surface of Venus or Mars as the planet Neptune is from the earth. He
+ended by saying that the brilliant points already observed on the
+nearest planets might be signals made to the earth. But he said, that
+though by these means they could have news from the lunar world, they
+could not send any from the terrestrial world unless the Selenites have
+at their disposition instruments with which to make distant
+observations.
+
+"That is evident," answered one of the officers, "but what has become of
+the travellers? What have they done? What have they seen? That is what
+interests us. Besides, if the experiment has succeeded, which I do not
+doubt, it will be done again. The Columbiad is still walled up in the
+soil of Florida. It is, therefore, now only a question of powder and
+shot, and every time the moon passes the zenith we can send it a cargo
+of visitors."
+
+"It is evident," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "that J.T. Maston will
+go and join his friends one of these days."
+
+"If he will have me," exclaimed the midshipman, "I am ready to go with
+him."
+
+"Oh, there will be plenty of amateurs, and if they are allowed to go,
+half the inhabitants of the earth will soon have emigrated to the moon!"
+
+This conversation between the officers of the Susquehanna was kept up
+till about 1 a.m. It would be impossible to transcribe the overwhelming
+systems and theories which were emitted by these audacious minds. Since
+Barbicane's attempt it seemed that nothing was impossible to Americans.
+They had already formed the project of sending, not another commission
+of _savants_, but a whole colony, and a whole army of infantry,
+artillery, and cavalry to conquer the lunar world.
+
+At 1 a.m. the sounding-line was not all hauled in. Ten thousand feet
+remained out, which would take several more hours to bring in. According
+to the commander's orders the fires had been lighted, and the pressure
+was going up already. The Susquehanna might have started at once.
+
+At that very moment--it was 1.17 a.m.--Lieutenant Bronsfield was about
+to leave his watch to turn in when his attention was attracted by a
+distant and quite unexpected hissing sound.
+
+His comrades and he at first thought that the hissing came from an
+escape of steam, but upon lifting up his head he found that it was high
+up in the air.
+
+They had not time to question each other before the hissing became of
+frightful intensity, and suddenly to their dazzled eyes appeared an
+enormous bolis, inflamed by the rapidity of its course, by its friction
+against the atmospheric strata.
+
+This ignited mass grew huger as it came nearer, and fell with the noise
+of thunder upon the bowsprit of the corvette, which it smashed off close
+to the stem, and vanished in the waves.
+
+A few feet nearer and the Susquehanna would have gone down with all on
+board.
+
+At that moment Captain Blomsberry appeared half-clothed, and rushing in
+the forecastle, where his officers had preceded him--
+
+"With your permission, gentlemen, what has happened?" he asked.
+
+And the midshipman, making himself the mouthpiece of them all, cried
+out--
+
+"Commander, it is 'they' come back again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+J.T. MASTON CALLED IN.
+
+
+Emotion was great on board the Susquehanna. Officers and sailors forgot
+the terrible danger they had just been in--the danger of being crushed
+and sunk. They only thought of the catastrophe which terminated the
+journey. Thus, therefore, the moat audacious enterprise of ancient and
+modern times lost the life of the bold adventurers who had attempted it.
+
+"It is 'they' come back," the young midshipman had said, and they had
+all understood. No one doubted that the bolis was the projectile of the
+Gun Club. Opinions were divided about the fate of the travellers.
+
+"They are dead!" said one.
+
+"They are alive," answered the other. "The water is deep here, and the
+shock has been deadened."
+
+"But they will have no air, and will die suffocated!"
+
+"Burnt!" answered the other. "Their projectile was only an incandescent
+mass as it crossed the atmosphere."
+
+"What does it matter?" was answered unanimously, "living or dead they
+must be brought up from there."
+
+Meanwhile Captain Blomsberry had called his officers together, and with
+their permission he held a council. Something must be done immediately.
+The most immediate was to haul up the projectile--a difficult operation,
+but not an impossible one. But the corvette wanted the necessary
+engines, which would have to be powerful and precise. It was, therefore,
+resolved to put into the nearest port, and to send word to the Gun Club
+about the fall of the bullet.
+
+This determination was taken unanimously. The choice of a port was
+discussed. The neighbouring coast had no harbour on the 27th degree of
+latitude. Higher up, above the peninsula of Monterey, was the important
+town which has given its name to it. But, seated on the confines of a
+veritable desert, it had no telegraphic communication with the interior,
+and electricity alone could spread the important news quickly enough.
+
+Some degrees above lay the bay of San Francisco. Through the capital of
+the Gold Country communication with the centre of the Union would be
+easy. By putting all steam on, the Susquehanna, in less than two days,
+could reach the port of San Francisco. She must, therefore, start at
+once.
+
+The fires were heaped up, and they could set sail immediately. Two
+thousand fathoms of sounding still remained in the water. Captain
+Blomsberry would not lose precious time in hauling it in, and resolved
+to cut the line.
+
+"We will fix the end to a buoy," said he, "and the buoy will indicate
+the exact point where the projectile fell."
+
+"Besides," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "we have our exact bearings:
+north lat. 27° 7', and west long. 41° 37'."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Bronsfield," answered the captain; "with your
+permission, have the line cut."
+
+A strong buoy, reinforced by a couple of spars, was thrown out on to
+the surface of the ocean. The end of the line was solidly struck
+beneath, and only submitted to the ebb and flow of the surges, so that
+it would not drift much.
+
+At that moment the engineer came to warn the captain that he had put the
+pressure on, and they could start. The captain thanked him for his
+excellent communication. Then he gave N.N.E. as the route. The corvette
+was put about, and made for the bay of San Francisco with all steam on.
+It was then 3 a.m.
+
+Two hundred leagues to get over was not much for a quick vessel like the
+Susquehanna. It got over that distance in thirty-six hours, and on the
+14th of December, at 1.27 p.m., she would enter the bay of San
+Francisco.
+
+At the sight of this vessel of the national navy arriving with all speed
+on, her bowsprit gone, and her mainmast propped up, public curiosity was
+singularly excited. A compact crowd was soon assembled on the quays
+awaiting the landing.
+
+After weighing anchor Captain Blomsberry and Lieutenant Bronsfield got
+down into an eight-oared boat which carried them rapidly to the land.
+
+They jumped out on the quay.
+
+"The telegraph-office?" they asked, without answering one of the
+thousand questions that were showered upon them.
+
+The port inspector guided them himself to the telegraph-office, amidst
+an immense crowd of curious people.
+
+Blomsberry and Bronsfield went into the office whilst the crowd crushed
+against the door.
+
+A few minutes later one message was sent in four different
+directions:--1st, to the Secretary of the Navy, Washington; 2nd, to the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, Baltimore; 3rd, to the Honourable J.T.
+Maston, Long's Peak, Rocky Mountains; 4th, to the Sub-Director of the
+Cambridge Observatory, Massachusetts.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"In north lat. 20° 7', and west long. 41° 37', the projectile of the
+Columbiad fell into the Pacific, on December 12th, at 1.17 am. Send
+instructions.--BLOMSBERRY, Commander Susquehanna."
+
+Five minutes afterwards the whole town of San Francisco knew the
+tidings. Before 6 p.m. the different States of the Union had
+intelligence of the supreme catastrophe. After midnight, through the
+cable, the whole of Europe knew the result of the great American
+enterprise.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the effect produced throughout the
+world by the unexpected news.
+
+On receipt of the telegram the Secretary of the Navy telegraphed to the
+Susquehanna to keep under fire, and wait in the bay of San Francisco.
+She was to be ready to set sail day or night.
+
+The Observatory of Cambridge had an extraordinary meeting, and, with the
+serenity which distinguishes scientific bodies, it peacefully discussed
+the scientific part of the question.
+
+At the Gun Club there was an explosion. All the artillerymen were
+assembled. The Vice-President, the Honourable Wilcome, was just reading
+the premature telegram by which Messrs. Maston and Belfast announced
+that the projectile had just been perceived in the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak. This communication informed them also that the bullet,
+retained by the attraction of the moon, was playing the part of
+sub-satellite in the solar world.
+
+The truth on this subject is now known.
+
+However, upon the arrival of Blomsberry's message, which so formally
+contradicted J.T. Maston's telegram, two parties were formed in the
+bosom of the Gun Club. On the one side were members who admitted the
+fall of the projectile, and consequently the return of the travellers.
+On the other were those who, holding by the observations at Long's Peak,
+concluded that the commander of the Susquehanna was mistaken. According
+to the latter, the pretended projectile was only a bolis, nothing but a
+bolis, a shooting star, which in its fall had fractured the corvette.
+Their argument could not very well be answered, because the velocity
+with which it was endowed had made its observation very difficult. The
+commander of the Susquehanna and his officers might certainly have been
+mistaken in good faith. One argument certainly was in their favour: if
+the projectile had fallen on the earth it must have touched the
+terrestrial spheroid upon the 27th degree of north latitude, and, taking
+into account the time that had elapsed, and the earth's movement of
+rotation, between the 41st and 42nd degree of west longitude.
+
+However that might be, it was unanimously decided in the Gun Club that
+Blomsberry's brother Bilsby and Major Elphinstone should start at once
+for San Francisco and give their advice about the means of dragging up
+the projectile from the depths of the ocean.
+
+These men started without losing an instant, and the railway which was
+soon to cross the whole of Central America took them to St. Louis, where
+rapid mail-coaches awaited them.
+
+Almost at the same moment that the Secretary of the Navy, the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, and the Sub-Director of the Observatory
+received the telegram from San Francisco, the Honourable J.T. Maston
+felt the most violent emotion of his whole existence--an emotion not
+even equalled by that he had experienced when his celebrated cannon was
+blown up, and which, like it, nearly cost him his life.
+
+It will be remembered that the Secretary of the Gun Club had started
+some minutes after the projectile--and almost as quickly--for the
+station of Long's Peak in the Rocky Mountains. The learned J. Belfast,
+Director of the Cambridge Observatory, accompanied him. Arrived at the
+station the two friends had summarily installed themselves, and no
+longer left the summit of their enormous telescope.
+
+We know that this gigantic instrument had been set up on the reflecting
+system, called "front view" by the English. This arrangement only gave
+one reflection of objects, and consequently made the view much clearer.
+The result was that J.T. Maston and Belfast, whilst observing, were
+stationed in the upper part of the instrument instead of in the lower.
+They reached it by a twisted staircase, a masterpiece of lightness, and
+below them lay the metal, well terminated by the metallic mirror, 280
+feet deep.
+
+Now it was upon the narrow platform placed round the telescope that the
+two _savants_ passed their existence, cursing the daylight which hid the
+moon from their eyes, and the clouds which obstinately veiled her at
+night.
+
+Who can depict their delight when, after waiting several days, during
+the night of December 5th they perceived the vehicle that was carrying
+their friends through space? To that delight succeeded deep
+disappointment when, trusting to incomplete observations, they sent out
+with their first telegram to the world the erroneous affirmation that
+the projectile had become a satellite of the moon gravitating in an
+immutable orbit.
+
+After that instant the bullet disappeared behind the invisible disc of
+the moon. But when it ought to have reappeared on the invisible disc the
+impatience of J.T. Maston and his no less impatient companion may be
+imagined. At every minute of the night they thought they should see the
+projectile again, and they did not see it. Hence between them arose
+endless discussions and violent disputes, Belfast affirming that the
+projectile was not visible, J.T. Maston affirming that any one but a
+blind man could see it.
+
+"It is the bullet!" repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"No!" answered Belfast, "it is an avalanche falling from a lunar
+mountain!"
+
+"Well, then, we shall see it to-morrow."
+
+"No, it will be seen no more. It is carried away into space."
+
+"We shall see it, I tell you."
+
+"No, we shall not."
+
+And while these interjections were being showered like hail, the
+well-known irritability of the Secretary of the Gun Club constituted a
+permanent danger to the director, Belfast.
+
+Their existence together would soon have become impossible, but an
+unexpected event cut short these eternal discussions.
+
+During the night between the 14th and 15th of December the two
+irreconcilable friends were occupied in observing the lunar disc. J.T.
+Maston was, as usual, saying strong things to the learned Belfast, who
+was getting angry too. The Secretary of the Gun Club declared for the
+thousandth time that he had just perceived the projectile, adding even
+that Michel Ardan's face had appeared at one of the port-lights. He was
+emphasising his arguments by a series of gestures which his redoubtable
+hook rendered dangerous.
+
+At that moment Belfast's servant appeared upon the platform--it was 10
+p.m.--and gave him a telegram. It was the message from the Commander of
+the Susquehanna.
+
+Belfast tore the envelope, read the inclosure, and uttered a cry.
+
+"What is it?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"It's the bullet!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"It has fallen upon the earth!"
+
+Another cry; this time a howl answered him.
+
+He turned towards J.T. Maston. The unfortunate fellow, leaning
+imprudently over the metal tube, had disappeared down the immense
+telescope--a fall of 280 feet! Belfast, distracted, rushed towards the
+orifice of the reflector.
+
+He breathed again. J.T. Maston's steel hook had caught in one of the
+props which maintained the platform of the telescope. He was uttering
+formidable cries.
+
+Belfast called. Help came, and the imprudent secretary was hoisted up,
+not without trouble.
+
+He reappeared unhurt at the upper orifice.
+
+"Suppose I had broken the mirror?" said he.
+
+"You would have paid for it," answered Belfast severely.
+
+"And where has the infernal bullet fallen?" asked J.T. Maston.
+
+"Into the Pacific."
+
+"Let us start at once."
+
+A quarter of an hour afterwards the two learned friends were descending
+the slope of the Rocky Mountains, and two days afterwards they reached
+San Francisco at the same time as their friends of the Gun Club, having
+killed five horses on the road.
+
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and Bilsby rushed up to them upon their
+arrival.
+
+"What is to be done?" they exclaimed.
+
+"The bullet must be fished up," answered J.T. Maston, "and as soon as
+possible!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+PICKED UP.
+
+
+The very spot where the projectile had disappeared under the waves was
+exactly known. The instruments for seizing it and bringing it to the
+surface of the ocean were still wanting. They had to be invented and
+then manufactured. American engineers could not be embarrassed by such a
+trifle. The grappling-irons once established and steam helping, they
+were assured of raising the projectile, notwithstanding its weight,
+which diminished the density of the liquid amidst which it was plunged.
+
+But it was not enough to fish up the bullet. It was necessary to act
+promptly in the interest of the travellers. No one doubted that they
+were still living.
+
+"Yes," repeated J.T. Maston incessantly, whose confidence inspired
+everybody, "our friends are clever fellows, and they cannot have fallen
+like imbeciles. They are alive, alive and well, but we must make haste
+in order to find them so. He had no anxiety about provisions and water.
+They had enough for a long time! But air!--air would soon fail them.
+Then they must make haste!"
+
+And they did make haste. They prepared the Susquehanna for her new
+destination. Her powerful engines were arranged to be used for the
+hauling machines. The aluminium projectile only weighed 19,250 lbs., a
+much less weight than that of the transatlantic cable, which was picked
+up under similar circumstances. The only difficulty lay in the smooth
+sides of the cylindro-conical bullet, which made it difficult to
+grapple.
+
+With that end in view the engineer Murchison, summoned to San Francisco,
+caused enormous grappling-irons to be fitted upon an automatical system
+which would not let the projectile go again if they succeeded in seizing
+it with their powerful pincers. He also had some diving-dresses
+prepared, which, by their impermeable and resisting texture, allowed
+divers to survey the bottom of the sea. He likewise embarked on board
+the Susquehanna apparatuses for compressed air, very ingeniously
+contrived. They were veritable rooms, with port-lights in them, and
+which, by introducing the water into certain compartments, could be sunk
+to great depths. These apparatuses were already at San Francisco, where
+they had been used in the construction of a submarine dyke. This was
+fortunate, for there would not have been time to make them.
+
+Yet notwithstanding the perfection of the apparatus, notwithstanding the
+ingenuity of the _savants_ who were to use them, the success of the
+operation was anything but assured. Fishing up a bullet from 20,000 feet
+under water must be an uncertain operation. And even if the bullet
+should again be brought to the surface, how had the travellers borne the
+terrible shock that even 20,000 feet of water would not sufficiently
+deaden?
+
+In short, everything must be done quickly. J.T. Maston hurried on his
+workmen day and night. He was ready either to buckle on the diver's
+dress or to try the air-apparatus in order to find his courageous
+friends.
+
+Still, notwithstanding the diligence with which the different machines
+were got ready, notwithstanding the considerable sums which were placed
+at the disposition of the Gun Club by the Government of the Union, five
+long days (five centuries) went by before the preparations were
+completed. During that time public opinion was excited to the highest
+point. Telegrams were incessantly exchanged all over the world through
+the electric wires and cables. The saving of Barbicane, Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan became an international business. All the nations that had
+subscribed to the enterprise of the Gun Club were equally interested in
+the safety of the travellers.
+
+At last the grappling-chains, air-chambers, and automatic
+grappling-irons were embarked on board the Susquehanna. J.T. Maston, the
+engineer Murchison, and the Gun Club delegates already occupied their
+cabins. There was nothing to do but to start.
+
+On the 21st of December, at 8 p.m., the corvette set sail on a calm sea
+with a rather cold north-east wind blowing. All the population of San
+Francisco crowded on to the quays, mute and anxious, reserving its
+hurrahs for the return.
+
+The steam was put on to its maximum of tension, and the screw of the
+Susquehanna carried it rapidly out of the bay.
+
+It would be useless to relate the conversations on board amongst the
+officers, sailors, and passengers. All these men had but one thought.
+Their hearts all beat with the same emotion. What were Barbicane and his
+companions doing whilst they were hastening to their succour? What had
+become of them? Had they been able to attempt some audacious manoeuvre
+to recover their liberty? No one could say. The truth is that any
+attempt would have failed. Sunk to nearly two leagues under the ocean,
+their metal prison would defy any effort of its prisoners.
+
+On the 23rd of December, at 8 a.m., after a rapid passage, the
+Susquehanna ought to be on the scene of the disaster. They were obliged
+to wait till twelve o'clock to take their exact bearings. The buoy
+fastened on to the sounding-line had not yet been seen.
+
+At noon Captain Blomsberry, helped by his officers, who controlled the
+observation, made his point in presence of the delegates of the Gun
+Club. That was an anxious moment. The Susquehanna was found to be at
+some minutes west of the very spot where the projectile had disappeared
+under the waves.
+
+The direction of the corvette was therefore given in view of reaching
+the precise spot.
+
+At 12.47 p.m. the buoy was sighted. It was in perfect order, and did not
+seem to have drifted far.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Shall we begin?" asked Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"Without losing a second," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+Every precaution was taken to keep the corvette perfectly motionless.
+
+Before trying to grapple the projectile, the engineer, Murchison, wished
+to find out its exact position on the sea-bottom. The submarine
+apparatus destined for this search received their provision of air. The
+handling of these engines is not without danger, for at 20,000 feet
+below the surface of the water and under such great pressure they are
+exposed to ruptures the consequences of which would be terrible.
+
+J.T. Maston, the commander's brother, and the engineer Murchison,
+without a thought of these dangers, took their places in the
+air-chambers. The commander, on his foot-bridge, presided over the
+operation, ready to stop or haul in his chains at the least signal. The
+screw had been taken off, and all the force of the machines upon the
+windlass would soon have brought up the apparatus on board.
+
+The descent began at 1.25 p.m., and the chamber, dragged down by its
+reservoirs filled with water, disappeared under the surface of the
+ocean.
+
+The emotion of the officers and sailors on board was now divided between
+the prisoners in the projectile and the prisoners of the submarine
+apparatus. These latter forgot themselves, and, glued to the panes of
+the port-lights, they attentively observed the liquid masses they were
+passing through.
+
+The descent was rapid. At 2.17 p.m. J.T. Maston and his companions had
+reached the bottom of the Pacific; but they saw nothing except the arid
+desert which neither marine flora nor fauna any longer animated. By the
+light of their lamps, furnished with powerful reflectors, they could
+observe the dark layers of water in a rather large radius, but the
+projectile remained invisible in their eyes.
+
+The impatience of these bold divers could hardly be described. Their
+apparatus being in electric communication with the corvette, they made a
+signal agreed upon, and the Susquehanna carried their chamber over a
+mile of space at one yard from the soil.
+
+They thus explored all the submarine plain, deceived at every instant by
+optical delusions which cut them to the heart. Here a rock, there a
+swelling of the ground, looked to them like the much-sought-for
+projectile; then they would soon find out their error and despair again.
+
+"Where are they? Where can they be?" cried J.T. Maston.
+
+And the poor man called aloud to Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan,
+as if his unfortunate friends could have heard him through that
+impenetrable medium!
+
+The search went on under those conditions until the vitiated state of
+the air in the apparatus forced the divers to go up again.
+
+The hauling in was begun at 6 p.m., and was not terminated before
+midnight.
+
+"We will try again to-morrow," said J.T. Maston as he stepped on to the
+deck of the corvette.
+
+"Yes," answered Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"And in another place."
+
+"Yes."
+
+J.T. Maston did not yet doubt of his ultimate success, but his
+companions, who were no longer intoxicated with the animation of the
+first few hours, already took in all the difficulties of the enterprise.
+What seemed easy at San Francisco in open ocean appeared almost
+impossible. The chances of success diminished in a large proportion, and
+it was to chance alone that the finding of the projectile had to be
+left.
+
+The next day, the 24th of December, notwithstanding the fatigues of the
+preceding day, operations were resumed. The corvette moved some minutes
+farther west, and the apparatus, provisioned with air again, took the
+same explorers to the depths of the ocean.
+
+All that day was passed in a fruitless search. The bed of the sea was a
+desert. The day of the 25th brought no result, neither did that of the
+26th.
+
+It was disheartening. They thought of the unfortunate men shut up for
+twenty-six days in the projectile. Perhaps they were all feeling the
+first symptoms of suffocation, even if they had escaped the dangers of
+their fall. The air was getting exhausted, and doubtless with the air
+their courage and spirits.
+
+"The air very likely, but their courage never," said J.T. Maston.
+
+On the 28th, after two days' search, all hope was lost. This bullet was
+an atom in the immensity of the sea! They must give up the hope of
+finding it.
+
+Still J.T. Maston would not hear about leaving. He would not abandon the
+place without having at least found the tomb of his friends. But Captain
+Blomsberry could not stay on obstinately, and notwithstanding the
+opposition of the worthy secretary, he was obliged to give orders to set
+sail.
+
+On the 29th of December, at 9 a.m., the Susquehanna, heading north-east,
+began to return to the bay of San Francisco.
+
+It was 10 a.m. The corvette was leaving slowly and as if with regret the
+scene of the catastrophe, when the sailor at the masthead, who was on
+the look-out, called out all at once--
+
+"A buoy on the lee bow!"
+
+The officers looked in the direction indicated. They saw through their
+telescopes the object signalled, which did look like one of those buoys
+used for marking the openings of bays or rivers; but, unlike them, a
+flag floating in the wind surmounted a cone which emerged five or six
+feet. This buoy shone in the sunshine as if made of plates of silver.
+
+The commander, Blomsberry, J.T. Maston, and the delegates of the Gun
+Club ascended the foot-bridge and examined the object thus drifting on
+the waves.
+
+All looked with feverish anxiety, but in silence. None of them dared
+utter the thought that came into all their minds.
+
+The corvette approached to within two cables' length of the object.
+
+A shudder ran through the whole crew.
+
+The flag was an American one!
+
+At that moment a veritable roar was heard. It was the worthy J.T.
+Maston, who had fallen in a heap; forgetting on the one hand that he had
+only an iron hook for one arm, and on the other that a simple
+gutta-percha cap covered his cranium-box, he had given himself a
+formidable blow.
+
+They rushed towards him and picked him up. They recalled him to life.
+And what were his first words?
+
+"Ah! triple brutes! quadruple idiots! quintuple boobies that we are!"
+
+"What is the matter?" every one round him exclaimed.
+
+"What the matter is?"
+
+"Speak, can't you?"
+
+"It is, imbeciles," shouted the terrible secretary, "it is the bullet
+only weighs 19,250 lbs!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And it displaces 28 tons, or 56,000 lbs., consequently _it floats_!"
+
+Ah! how that worthy man did underline the verb "to float!" And it was
+the truth! All, yes! all these _savants_ had forgotten this fundamental
+law, that in consequence of its specific lightness the projectile, after
+having been dragged by its fall to the greatest depths of the ocean, had
+naturally returned to the surface; and now it was floating tranquilly
+whichever way the wind carried them.
+
+The boats had been lowered. J.T. Maston and his friends rushed into
+them. The excitement was at its highest point. All hearts palpitated
+whilst the boats rowed towards the projectile. What did it contain--the
+living or the dead? The living. Yes! unless death had struck down
+Barbicane and his companions since they had hoisted the flag!
+
+Profound silence reigned in the boats. All hearts stopped beating. Eyes
+no longer performed their office. One of the port-lights of the
+projectile was opened. Some pieces of glass remaining in the frame
+proved that it had been broken. This port-light was situated actually
+five feet above water.
+
+A boat drew alongside--that of J.T. Maston. He rushed to the broken
+window.
+
+At that moment the joyful and clear voice of Michel Ardan was heard
+exclaiming in the accents of victory--"Double blank, Barbicane, double
+blank!"
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, and Nicholl were playing at dominoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+It will be remembered that immense sympathy accompanied the three
+travellers upon their departure. If the beginning of their enterprise
+had caused such excitement in the old and new world, what enthusiasm
+must welcome their return! Would not those millions of spectators who
+had invaded the Floridian peninsula rush to meet the sublime
+adventurers? Would those legions of foreigners from all points of the
+globe, now in America, leave the Union without seeing Barbicane,
+Nicholl, and Michel Ardan once more? No, and the ardent passion of the
+public would worthily respond to the grandeur of the enterprise. Human
+beings who had left the terrestrial spheroid, who had returned after
+their strange journey into celestial space, could not fail to be
+received like the prophet Elijah when he returned to the earth. To see
+them first, to hear them afterwards, was the general desire.
+
+This desire was to be very promptly realised by almost all the
+inhabitants of the Union.
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, Nicholl, and the delegates of the Gun Club
+returned without delay to Baltimore, and were there received with
+indescribable enthusiasm. The president's travelling notes were ready to
+be given up for publicity. The _New York Herald_ bought this manuscript
+at a price which is not yet known, but which must have been enormous. In
+fact, during the publication of the _Journey to the Moon_ they printed
+5,000,000 copies of that newspaper. Three days after the travellers'
+return to the earth the least details of their expedition were known.
+The only thing remaining to be done was to see the heroes of this
+superhuman enterprise.
+
+The exploration of Barbicane and his friends around the moon had allowed
+them to control the different theories about the terrestrial satellite.
+These _savants_ had observed it _de visu_ and under quite peculiar
+circumstances. It was now known which systems were to be rejected, which
+admitted, upon the formation of this orb, its origin, and its
+inhabitability. Its past, present, and future had given up their
+secrets. What could be objected to conscientious observations made at
+less than forty miles from that curious mountain of Tycho, the strangest
+mountain system of lunar orography? What answers could be made to
+_savants_ who had looked into the dark depths of the amphitheatre of
+Pluto? Who could contradict these audacious men whom the hazards of
+their enterprise had carried over the invisible disc of the moon, which
+no human eye had ever seen before? It was now their prerogative to
+impose the limits of that selenographic science which had built up the
+lunar world like Cuvier did the skeleton of a fossil, and to say, "The
+moon was this, a world inhabitable and inhabited anterior to the earth!
+The moon is this, a world now uninhabitable and uninhabited!"
+
+In order to welcome the return of the most illustrious of its members
+and his two companions, the Gun Club thought of giving them a banquet;
+but a banquet worthy of them, worthy of the American people, and under
+such circumstances that all the inhabitants of the Union could take a
+direct part in it.
+
+All the termini of the railroads in the State were joined together by
+movable rails. Then, in all the stations hung with the same flags,
+decorated with the same ornaments, were spread tables uniformly dressed.
+At a certain time, severely calculated upon electric clocks which beat
+the seconds at the same instant, the inhabitants were invited to take
+their places at the same banquet.
+
+During four days, from the 5th to the 9th of January, the trains were
+suspended like they are on Sundays upon the railways of the Union, and
+all the lines were free.
+
+One locomotive alone, a very fast engine, dragging a state saloon, had
+the right of circulating, during these four days, upon the railways of
+the United States.
+
+This locomotive, conducted by a stoker and a mechanic, carried, by a
+great favour, the Honourable J.T. Maston, Secretary of the Gun Club.
+
+The saloon was reserved for President Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan.
+
+The train left the station of Baltimore upon the whistle of the
+engine-driver amidst the hurrahs and all the admiring interjections of
+the American language. It went at the speed of eighty leagues an hour.
+But what was that speed compared to the one with which the three heroes
+had left the Columbiad?
+
+Thus they went from one town to another, finding the population in
+crowds upon their passage saluting them with the same acclamations, and
+showering upon them the same "bravoes." They thus travelled over the
+east of the Union through Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
+Vermont, Maine, and New Brunswick; north and west through New York,
+Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin; south through Illinois, Missouri,
+Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana; south-east through Alabama and Florida,
+Georgia, and the Carolinas; they visited the centre through Tennessee,
+Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana; then after the station of Washington
+they re-entered Baltimore, and during four days they could imagine that
+the United States of America, seated at one immense banquet, saluted
+them simultaneously with the same hurrahs.
+
+This apotheosis was worthy of these heroes, whom fable would have placed
+in the ranks of demigods.
+
+And now would this attempt, without precedent in the annals of travels,
+have any practical result? Would direct communication ever be
+established with the moon? Would a service of navigation ever be founded
+across space for the solar world? Will people ever go from planet to
+planet, from Jupiter to Mercury, and later on from one star to another,
+from the Polar star to Sirius, would a method of locomotion allow of
+visiting the suns which swarm in the firmament?
+
+No answer can be given to these questions, but knowing the audacious
+ingenuity of the Anglo-Saxon race, no one will be astonished that the
+Americans tried to turn President Barbicane's experiment to account.
+
+Thus some time after the return of the travellers the public received
+with marked favour the advertisement of a Joint-Stock Company (Limited),
+with a capital of a hundred million dollars, divided into a hundred
+thousand shares of a thousand dollars each, under the name of _National
+Company for Interstellar Communication_--President, Barbicane;
+Vice-President, Captain Nicholl; Secretary, J.T. Maston; Director,
+Michel Ardan--and as it is customary in America to foresee everything in
+business, even bankruptcy, the Honourable Harry Trollope, Commissary
+Judge, and Francis Dayton were appointed beforehand assignees.
+
+THE END.
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12901 ***
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+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12901 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12901)
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12901 ***
+
+
+
+
+THE MOON-VOYAGE.
+
+CONTAINING
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON,"
+AND
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+BY
+
+JULES VERNE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA,"
+"AMONG THE CANNIBALS," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY HENRY AUSTIN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON."
+
+I. THE GUN CLUB
+
+II. PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+III. EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+IV. ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY
+
+V. THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON
+
+VI. WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO
+BE BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+VII. THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL
+
+VIII. HISTORY OF THE CANNON
+
+IX. THE QUESTION OF POWDERS
+
+X. ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS
+
+XI. FLORIDA AND TEXAS
+
+XII. "URBI ET ORBI"
+
+XIII. STONY HILL
+
+XIV. PICKAXE AND TROWEL
+
+XV. THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING
+
+XVI. THE COLUMBIAD
+
+XVII. A TELEGRAM
+
+XVIII. THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA
+
+XIX. A MEETING
+
+XX. THRUST AND PARRY
+
+XXI. HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR
+
+XXII. THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+XXIII. THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT
+
+XXIV. THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+
+XXV. FINAL DETAILS
+
+XXVI. FIRE
+
+XXVII. CLOUDY WEATHER
+
+XXVIII. A NEW STAR
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF
+THIS WORK TO SERVE AS PREFACE TO THE SECOND
+
+I. FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+II. THE FIRST HALF-HOUR
+
+III. TAKING POSSESSION
+
+IV. A LITTLE ALGEBRA
+
+V. THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE
+
+VI. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+
+VII. A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION
+
+VIII. AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES
+
+IX. THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION
+
+X. THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON
+
+XI. IMAGINATION AND REALITY
+
+XII. OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS
+
+XIII. LUNAR LANDSCAPES
+
+XIV. A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF
+
+XV. HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA
+
+XVI. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
+
+XVII. TYCHO
+
+XVIII. GRAVE QUESTIONS
+
+XIX. A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE
+
+XX. THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA
+
+XXI. J.T. MASTON CALLED IN
+
+XXII. PICKED UP
+
+XXIII. THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GUN CLUB.
+
+
+During the Federal war in the United States a new and very influential
+club was established in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is well
+known with what energy the military instinct was developed amongst that
+nation of shipowners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Mere tradesmen jumped
+their counters to become extempore captains, colonels, and generals
+without having passed the Military School at West Point; they soon
+rivalled their colleagues of the old continent, and, like them, gained
+victories by dint of lavishing bullets, millions, and men.
+
+But where Americans singularly surpassed Europeans was in the science of
+ballistics, or of throwing massive weapons by the use of an engine; not
+that their arms attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were of
+unusual dimensions, and consequently of hitherto unknown ranges. The
+English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn about flank,
+running, enfilading, or point-blank firing; but their cannon, howitzers,
+and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines
+of American artillery.
+
+This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians
+in the world, are born engineers, just as Italians are musicians and
+Germans metaphysicians. Thence nothing more natural than to see them
+bring their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of ballistics.
+Hence those gigantic cannon, much less useful than sewing-machines, but
+quite as astonishing, and much more admired. The marvels of this style
+by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known. There was nothing left
+the Armstrongs, Pallisers, and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before
+their transatlantic rivals.
+
+Therefore during the terrible struggle between Northerners and
+Southerners, artillerymen were in great request; the Union newspapers
+published their inventions with enthusiasm, and there was no little
+tradesman nor _naïf_ "booby" who did not bother his head day and night
+with calculations about impossible trajectory engines.
+
+Now when an American has an idea he seeks another American to share it.
+If they are three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given
+four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established. Five convoke a
+general meeting, and the club is formed. It thus happened at Baltimore.
+The first man who invented a new cannon took into partnership the first
+man who cast it and the first man that bored it. Such was the nucleus of
+the Gun Club. One month after its formation it numbered eighteen hundred
+and thirty-three effective members, and thirty thousand five hundred and
+seventy-five corresponding members.
+
+One condition was imposed as a _sine quâ non_ upon every one who wished
+to become a member--that of having invented, or at least perfected, a
+cannon; or, in default of a cannon, a firearm of some sort. But, to tell
+the truth, mere inventors of fifteen-barrelled rifles, revolvers, or
+sword-pistols did not enjoy much consideration. Artillerymen were always
+preferred to them in every circumstance.
+
+"The estimation in which they are held," said one day a learned orator
+of the Gun Club, "is in proportion to the size of their cannon, and in
+direct ratio to the square of distance attained by their projectiles!"
+
+A little more and it would have been Newton's law of gravitation applied
+to moral order.
+
+Once the Gun Club founded, it can be easily imagined its effect upon the
+inventive genius of the Americans. War-engines took colossal
+proportions, and projectiles launched beyond permitted distances cut
+inoffensive pedestrians to pieces. All these inventions left the timid
+instruments of European artillery far behind them. This may be estimated
+by the following figures:--
+
+Formerly, "in the good old times," a thirty-six pounder, at a distance
+of three hundred feet, would cut up thirty-six horses, attacked in
+flank, and sixty-eight men. The art was then in its infancy.
+Projectiles have since made their way. The Rodman gun that sent a
+projectile weighing half a ton a distance of seven miles could easily
+have cut up a hundred and fifty horses and three hundred men. There was
+some talk at the Gun Club of making a solemn experiment with it. But if
+the horses consented to play their part, the men unfortunately were
+wanting.
+
+However that may be, the effect of these cannon was very deadly, and at
+each discharge the combatants fell like ears before a scythe. After such
+projectiles what signified the famous ball which, at Coutras, in 1587,
+disabled twenty-five men; and the one which, at Zorndorff, in 1758,
+killed forty fantassins; and in 1742, Kesseldorf's Austrian cannon, of
+which every shot levelled seventy enemies with the ground? What was the
+astonishing firing at Jena or Austerlitz, which decided the fate of the
+battle? During the Federal war much more wonderful things had been seen.
+At the battle of Gettysburg, a conical projectile thrown by a
+rifle-barrel cut up a hundred and seventy-three Confederates, and at the
+passage of the Potomac a Rodman ball sent two hundred and fifteen
+Southerners into an evidently better world. A formidable mortar must
+also be mentioned, invented by J.T. Maston, a distinguished member and
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, the result of which was far more
+deadly, seeing that, at its trial shot, it killed three hundred and
+thirty-seven persons--by bursting, it is true.
+
+What can be added to these figures, so eloquent in themselves? Nothing.
+So the following calculation obtained by the statistician Pitcairn will
+be admitted without contestation: by dividing the number of victims
+fallen under the projectiles by that of the members of the Gun Club, he
+found that each one of them had killed, on his own account, an average
+of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five men and a fraction.
+
+By considering such a result it will be seen that the single
+preoccupation of this learned society was the destruction of humanity
+philanthropically, and the perfecting of firearms considered as
+instruments of civilisation. It was a company of Exterminating Angels,
+at bottom the best fellows in the world.
+
+It must be added that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved
+themselves, did not confine themselves to formulae, but sacrificed
+themselves to their theories. Amongst them might be counted officers of
+every rank, those who had just made their _début_ in the profession of
+arms, and those who had grown old on their gun-carriage. Many whose
+names figured in the book of honour of the Gun Club remained on the
+field of battle, and of those who came back the greater part bore marks
+of their indisputable valour. Crutches, wooden legs, articulated arms,
+hands with hooks, gutta-percha jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses,
+nothing was wanting to the collection; and the above-mentioned Pitcairn
+likewise calculated that in the Gun Club there was not quite one arm
+amongst every four persons, and only two legs amongst six.
+
+But these valiant artillerymen paid little heed to such small matters,
+and felt justly proud when the report of a battle stated the number of
+victims at tenfold the quantity of projectiles expended.
+
+One day, however, a sad and lamentable day, peace was signed by the
+survivors of the war, the noise of firing gradually ceased, the mortars
+were silent, the howitzers were muzzled for long enough, and the cannon,
+with muzzles depressed, were stored in the arsenals, the shots were
+piled up in the parks, the bloody reminiscences were effaced, cotton
+shrubs grew magnificently on the well-manured fields, mourning garments
+began to be worn-out, as well as sorrow, and the Gun Club had nothing
+whatever to do.
+
+Certain old hands, inveterate workers, still went on with their
+calculations in ballistics; they still imagined gigantic bombs and
+unparalleled howitzers. But what was the use of vain theories that could
+not be put in practice? So the saloons were deserted, the servants slept
+in the antechambers, the newspapers grew mouldy on the tables, from dark
+corners issued sad snores, and the members of the Gun Club, formerly so
+noisy, now reduced to silence by the disastrous peace, slept the sleep
+of Platonic artillery!
+
+"This is distressing," said brave Tom Hunter, whilst his wooden legs
+were carbonising at the fireplace of the smoking-room. "Nothing to do!
+Nothing to look forward to! What a tiresome existence! Where is the time
+when cannon awoke you every morning with its joyful reports?"
+
+"That time is over," answered dandy Bilsby, trying to stretch the arms
+he had lost. "There was some fun then! You invented an howitzer, and it
+was hardly cast before you ran to try it on the enemy; then you went
+back to the camp with an encouragement from Sherman, or a shake of the
+hands from MacClellan! But now the generals have gone back to their
+counters, and instead of cannon-balls they expedite inoffensive cotton
+bales! Ah, by Saint Barb! the future of artillery is lost to America!"
+
+"Yes, Bilsby," cried Colonel Blomsberry, "it is too bad! One fine
+morning you leave your tranquil occupations, you are drilled in the use
+of arms, you leave Baltimore for the battle-field, you conduct yourself
+like a hero, and in two years, three years at the latest, you are
+obliged to leave the fruit of so many fatigues, to go to sleep in
+deplorable idleness, and keep your hands in your pockets."
+
+The valiant colonel would have found it very difficult to give such a
+proof of his want of occupation, though it was not the pockets that were
+wanting.
+
+"And no war in prospect, then," said the famous J.T. Maston, scratching
+his gutta-percha cranium with his steel hook; "there is not a cloud on
+the horizon now that there is so much to do in the science of artillery!
+I myself finished this very morning a diagram with plan, basin, and
+elevation of a mortar destined to change the laws of warfare!"
+
+"Indeed!" replied Tom Hunter, thinking involuntarily of the Honourable
+J.T. Maston's last essay.
+
+"Indeed!" answered Maston. "But what is the use of the good results of
+such studies and so many difficulties conquered? It is mere waste of
+time. The people of the New World seem determined to live in peace, and
+our bellicose _Tribune_ has gone as far as to predict approaching
+catastrophes due to the scandalous increase of population!"
+
+"Yet, Maston," said Colonel Blomsberry, "they are always fighting in
+Europe to maintain the principle of nationalities!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"Why, there might be something to do over there, and if they accepted
+our services--"
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Bilsby. "Work at ballistics for the
+benefit of foreigners!"
+
+"Perhaps that would be better than not doing it at all," answered the
+colonel.
+
+"Doubtless," said J.T. Maston, "it would be better, but such an
+expedient cannot be thought of."
+
+"Why so?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Because their ideas of advancement would be contrary to all our
+American customs. Those folks seem to think that you cannot be a
+general-in-chief without having served as second lieutenant, which comes
+to the same as saying that no one can point a gun that has not cast one.
+Now that is simply--"
+
+"Absurd!" replied Tom Hunter, whittling the arms of his chair with his
+bowie-knife; "and as things are so, there is nothing left for us but to
+plant tobacco or distil whale-oil!"
+
+"What!" shouted J.T. Maston, "shall we not employ these last years of
+our existence in perfecting firearms? Will not a fresh opportunity
+present itself to try the ranges of our projectiles? Will the atmosphere
+be no longer illuminated by the lightning of our cannons? Won't some
+international difficulty crop up that will allow us to declare war
+against some transatlantic power? Won't France run down one of our
+steamers, or won't England, in defiance of the rights of nations, hang
+up three or four of our countrymen?"
+
+"No, Maston," answered Colonel Blomsberry; "no such luck! No, not one of
+those incidents will happen; and if one did, it would be of no use to
+us. American sensitiveness is declining daily, and we are going to the
+dogs!"
+
+"Yes, we are growing quite humble," replied Bilsby.
+
+"And we are humiliated!" answered Tom Hunter.
+
+"All that is only too true," replied J.T. Maston, with fresh vehemence.
+"There are a thousand reasons for fighting floating about, and still we
+don't fight! We economise legs and arms, and that to the profit of folks
+that don't know what to do with them. Look here, without looking any
+farther for a motive for war, did not North America formerly belong to
+the English?"
+
+"Doubtless," answered Tom Hunter, angrily poking the fire with the end
+of his crutch.
+
+"Well," replied J.T. Maston, "why should not England in its turn belong
+to the Americans?"
+
+"It would be but justice," answered Colonel Blomsberry.
+
+"Go and propose that to the President of the United States," cried J.T.
+Maston, "and see what sort of a reception you would get."
+
+"It would not be a bad reception," murmured Bilsby between the four
+teeth he had saved from battle.
+
+"I'faith," cried J.T. Maston, "they need not count upon my vote in the
+next elections."
+
+"Nor upon ours," answered with common accord these bellicose invalids.
+
+"In the meantime," continued J.T. Maston, "and to conclude, if they do
+not furnish me with the opportunity of trying my new mortar on a real
+battle-field, I shall send in my resignation as member of the Gun Club,
+and I shall go and bury myself in the backwoods of Arkansas."
+
+"We will follow you there," answered the interlocutors of the
+enterprising J.T. Maston.
+
+Things had come to that pass, and the club, getting more excited, was
+menaced with approaching dissolution, when an unexpected event came to
+prevent so regrettable a catastrophe.
+
+The very day after the foregoing conversation each member of the club
+received a circular couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 3rd.
+
+"The president of the Gun Club has the honour to inform his colleagues
+that at the meeting on the 5th ultimo he will make them a communication
+of an extremely interesting nature. He therefore begs that they, to the
+suspension of all other business, will attend, in accordance with the
+present invitation,
+
+"Their devoted colleague,
+
+"IMPEY BARBICANE, P.G.C."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+On the 5th of October, at 8 p.m., a dense crowd pressed into the saloons
+of the Gun Club, 21, Union-square. All the members of the club residing
+at Baltimore had gone on the invitation of their president. The express
+brought corresponding members by hundreds, and if the meeting-hall had
+not been so large, the crowd of _savants_ could not have found room in
+it; they overflowed into the neighbouring rooms, down the passages, and
+even into the courtyards; there they ran against the populace who were
+pressing against the doors, each trying to get into the front rank, all
+eager to learn the important communication of President Barbicane, all
+pressing, squeezing, crushing with that liberty of action peculiar to
+the masses brought up in the idea of self-government.
+
+That evening any stranger who might have chanced to be in Baltimore
+could not have obtained a place at any price in the large hall; it was
+exclusively reserved to residing or corresponding members; no one else
+was admitted; and the city magnates, common councillors, and select men
+were compelled to mingle with their inferiors in order to catch stray
+news from the interior.
+
+The immense hall presented a curious spectacle; it was marvellously
+adapted to the purpose for which it was built. Lofty pillars formed of
+cannon, superposed upon huge mortars as a base, supported the fine
+ironwork of the arches--real cast-iron lacework.
+
+Trophies of blunderbusses, matchlocks, arquebuses, carbines, all sorts
+of ancient or modern firearms, were picturesquely enlaced against the
+walls. The gas, in full flame, came out of a thousand revolvers grouped
+in the form of lustres, whilst candlesticks of pistols, and candelabra
+made of guns done up in sheaves, completed this display of light. Models
+of cannons, specimens of bronze, targets spotted with shot-marks,
+plaques broken by the shock of the Gun Club, balls, assortments of
+rammers and sponges, chaplets of shells, necklaces of projectiles,
+garlands of howitzers--in a word, all the tools of the artilleryman
+surprised the eyes by their wonderful arrangement, and induced a belief
+that their real purpose was more ornamental than deadly.
+
+In the place of honour was seen, covered by a splendid glass case, a
+piece of breech, broken and twisted under the effort of the powder--a
+precious fragment of J.T. Maston's cannon.
+
+At the extremity of the hall the president, assisted by four
+secretaries, occupied a wide platform. His chair, placed on a carved
+gun-carriage, was modelled upon the powerful proportions of a 32-inch
+mortar; it was pointed at an angle of 90 degs., and hung upon trunnions
+so that the president could use it as a rocking-chair, very agreeable in
+great heat. Upon the desk, a huge iron plate, supported upon six
+carronades, stood a very tasteful inkstand, made of a beautifully-chased
+Spanish piece, and a report-bell, which, when required, went off like a
+revolver. During the vehement discussions this new sort of bell scarcely
+sufficed to cover the voices of this legion of excited artillerymen.
+
+In front of the desk, benches, arranged in zigzags, like the
+circumvallations of intrenchment, formed a succession of bastions and
+curtains where the members of the Gun Club took their seats; and that
+evening, it may be said, there were plenty on the ramparts. The
+president was sufficiently known for all to be assured that he would not
+have called together his colleagues without a very great motive.
+
+Impey Barbicane was a man of forty, calm, cold, austere, of a singularly
+serious and concentrated mind, as exact as a chronometer, of an
+imperturbable temperament and immovable character; not very chivalrous,
+yet adventurous, and always bringing practical ideas to bear on the
+wildest enterprises; an essential New-Englander, a Northern colonist,
+the descendant of those Roundheads so fatal to the Stuarts, and the
+implacable enemy of the Southern gentlemen, the ancient cavaliers of the
+mother country--in a word, a Yankee cast in a single mould.
+
+Barbicane had made a great fortune as a timber-merchant; named director
+of artillery during the war, he showed himself fertile in inventions;
+enterprising in his ideas, he contributed powerfully to the progress of
+ballistics, gave an immense impetus to experimental researches.
+
+He was a person of average height, having, by a rare exception in the
+Gun Club, all his limbs intact. His strongly-marked features seemed to
+be drawn by square and rule, and if it be true that in order to guess
+the instincts of a man one must look at his profile, Barbicane seen
+thus offered the most certain indications of energy, audacity, and
+_sang-froid_.
+
+At that moment he remained motionless in his chair, mute, absorbed, with
+an inward look sheltered under his tall hat, a cylinder of black silk,
+which seems screwed down upon the skull of American men.
+
+His colleagues talked noisily around him without disturbing him; they
+questioned one another, launched into the field of suppositions,
+examined their president, and tried, but in vain, to make out the _x_ of
+his imperturbable physiognomy.
+
+Just as eight o'clock struck from the fulminating clock of the large
+hall, Barbicane, as if moved by a spring, jumped up; a general silence
+ensued, and the orator, in a slightly emphatic tone, spoke as follows:--
+
+"Brave colleagues,--It is some time since an unfruitful peace plunged
+the members of the Gun Club into deplorable inactivity. After a period
+of some years, so full of incidents, we have been obliged to abandon our
+works and stop short on the road of progress. I do not fear to proclaim
+aloud that any war which would put arms in our hands again would be
+welcome--"
+
+"Yes, war!" cried impetuous J.T. Maston.
+
+"Hear, hear!" was heard on every side.
+
+"But war," said Barbicane, "war is impossible under actual
+circumstances, and, whatever my honourable interrupter may hope, long
+years will elapse before our cannons thunder on a field of battle. We
+must, therefore, make up our minds to it, and seek in another order of
+ideas food for the activity by which we are devoured."
+
+The assembly felt that its president was coming to the delicate point;
+it redoubled its attention.
+
+"A few months ago, my brave colleagues," continued Barbicane, "I asked
+myself if, whilst still remaining in our speciality, we could not
+undertake some grand experiment worthy of the nineteenth century, and if
+the progress of ballistics would not allow us to execute it with
+success. I have therefore sought, worked, calculated, and the conviction
+has resulted from my studies that we must succeed in an enterprise that
+would seem impracticable in any other country. This project, elaborated
+at length, will form the subject of my communication; it is worthy of
+you, worthy of the Gun Club's past history, and cannot fail to make a
+noise in the world!"
+
+"Much noise?" cried a passionate artilleryman.
+
+"Much noise in the true sense of the word," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Don't interrupt!" repeated several voices.
+
+"I therefore beg of you, my brave colleagues," resumed the president,
+"to grant me all your attention."
+
+A shudder ran through the assembly. Barbicane, having with a rapid
+gesture firmly fixed his hat on his head, continued his speech in a calm
+tone:--
+
+"There is not one of you, brave colleagues, who has not seen the moon,
+or, at least, heard of It. Do not be astonished if I wish to speak to
+you about the Queen of Night. It is, perhaps, our lot to be the
+Columbuses of this unknown world. Understand me, and second me as much
+as you can, I will lead you to its conquest, and its name shall be
+joined to those of the thirty-six States that form the grand country of
+the Union!"
+
+"Hurrah for the moon!" cried the Gun Club with one voice.
+
+"The moon has been much studied," resumed Barbicane; "its mass, density,
+weight, volume, constitution, movements, distance, the part it plays in
+the solar world, are all perfectly determined; selenographic maps have
+been drawn with a perfection that equals, if it does not surpass, those
+of terrestrial maps; photography has given to our satellite proofs of
+incomparable beauty--in a word, all that the sciences of mathematics,
+astronomy, geology, and optics can teach is known about the moon; but
+until now no direct communication with it has ever been established."
+
+A violent movement of interest and surprise welcomed this sentence of
+the orator.
+
+"Allow me," he resumed, "to recall to you in few words how certain
+ardent minds, embarked upon imaginary journeys, pretended to have
+penetrated the secrets of our satellite. In the seventeenth century a
+certain David Fabricius boasted of having seen the inhabitants of the
+moon with his own eyes. In 1649 a Frenchman, Jean Baudoin, published his
+_Journey to the Moon by Dominique Gonzales, Spanish Adventurer_. At the
+same epoch Cyrano de Bergerac published the celebrated expedition that
+had so much success in France. Later on, another Frenchman (that nation
+took a great deal of notice of the moon), named Fontenelle, wrote his
+_Plurality of Worlds_, a masterpiece of his time; but science in its
+progress crushes even masterpieces! About 1835, a pamphlet, translated
+from the _New York American_, related that Sir John Herschel, sent to
+the Cape of Good Hope, there to make astronomical observations, had, by
+means of a telescope, perfected by interior lighting, brought the moon
+to within a distance of eighty yards. Then he distinctly perceived
+caverns in which lived hippopotami, green mountains with golden borders,
+sheep with ivory horns, white deer, and inhabitants with membraneous
+wings like those of bats. This treatise, the work of an American named
+Locke, had a very great success. But it was soon found out that it was a
+scientific mystification, and Frenchmen were the first to laugh at it."
+
+"Laugh at an American!" cried J.T. Maston; "but that's a _casus belli_!"
+
+"Be comforted, my worthy friend; before Frenchmen laughed they were
+completely taken in by our countryman. To terminate this rapid history,
+I may add that a certain Hans Pfaal, of Rotterdam, went up in a balloon
+filled with a gas made from azote, thirty-seven times lighter than
+hydrogen, and reached the moon after a journey of nineteen days. This
+journey, like the preceding attempts, was purely imaginary, but it was
+the work of a popular American writer of a strange and contemplative
+genius. I have named Edgar Poe!"
+
+"Hurrah for Edgar Poe!" cried the assembly, electrified by the words of
+the president.
+
+"I have now come to an end of these attempts which I may call purely
+literary, and quite insufficient to establish any serious communications
+with the Queen of Night. However, I ought to add that some practical
+minds tried to put themselves into serious communication with her. Some
+years ago a German mathematician proposed to send a commission of
+_savants_ to the steppes of Siberia. There, on the vast plains, immense
+geometrical figures were to be traced by means of luminous reflectors;
+amongst others, the square of the hypothenuse, vulgarly called the
+'Ass's Bridge.' 'Any intelligent being,' said the mathematician, 'ought
+to understand the scientific destination of that figure. The Selenites
+(inhabitants of the moon), if they exist, will answer by a similar
+figure, and, communication once established, it will be easy to create
+an alphabet that will allow us to hold converse with the inhabitants of
+the moon.' Thus spoke the German mathematician, but his project was not
+put into execution, and until now no direct communication has existed
+between the earth and her satellite. But it was reserved to the
+practical genius of Americans to put itself into communication with the
+sidereal world. The means of doing so are simple, easy, certain,
+unfailing, and will make the subject of my proposition."
+
+A hubbub and tempest of exclamations welcomed these words. There was not
+one of the audience who was not dominated and carried away by the words
+of the orator.
+
+"Hear, hear! Silence!" was heard on all sides.
+
+When the agitation was calmed down Barbicane resumed, in a graver tone,
+his interrupted speech.
+
+"You know," said he, "what progress the science of ballistics has made
+during the last few years, and to what degree of perfection firearms
+would have been brought if the war had gone on. You are not ignorant in
+general that the power of resistance of cannons and the expansive force
+of powder are unlimited. Well, starting from that principle, I asked
+myself if, by means of sufficient apparatus, established under
+determined conditions of resistance, it would not be possible to send a
+cannon-ball to the moon!"
+
+At these words an "Oh!" of stupefaction escaped from a thousand panting
+breasts; then occurred a moment of silence, like the profound calm that
+precedes thunder. In fact, the thunder came, but a thunder of applause,
+cries, and clamour which made the meeting-hall shake again. The
+president tried to speak; he could not. It was only at the end of ten
+minutes that he succeeded in making himself heard.
+
+"Let me finish," he resumed coldly. "I have looked at the question in
+all its aspects, and from my indisputable calculations it results that
+any projectile, hurled at an initial speed of twelve thousand yards a
+second, and directed at the moon, must necessarily reach her. I have,
+therefore, the honour of proposing to you, my worthy colleagues, the
+attempting of this little experiment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+It is impossible to depict the effect produced by the last words of the
+honourable president. What cries! what vociferations! What a succession
+of groans, hurrahs, cheers, and all the onomatopoeia of which the
+American language is so full. It was an indescribable hubbub and
+disorder. Mouths, hands, and feet made as much noise as they could. All
+the weapons in this artillery museum going off at once would not have
+more violently agitated the waves of sound. That is not surprising;
+there are cannoneers nearly as noisy as their cannons.
+
+Barbicane remained calm amidst these enthusiastic clamours; perhaps he
+again wished to address some words to his colleagues, for his gestures
+asked for silence, and his fulminating bell exhausted itself in violent
+detonations; it was not even heard. He was soon dragged from his chair,
+carried in triumph, and from the hands of his faithful comrades he
+passed into those of the no less excited crowd.
+
+Nothing can astonish an American. It has often been repeated that the
+word "impossible" is not French; the wrong dictionary must have been
+taken by mistake. In America everything is easy, everything is simple,
+and as to mechanical difficulties, they are dead before they are born.
+Between the Barbicane project and its realisation not one true Yankee
+would have allowed himself to see even the appearance of a difficulty.
+As soon said as done.
+
+The triumphant march of the president was prolonged during the evening.
+A veritable torchlight procession--Irish, Germans, Frenchmen,
+Scotchmen--all the heterogeneous individuals that compose the population
+of Maryland--shouted in their maternal tongue, and the cheering was
+unanimous.
+
+Precisely as if she knew it was all about her, the moon shone out then
+with serene magnificence, eclipsing other lights with her intense
+irradiation. All the Yankees directed their eyes towards the shining
+disc; some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the
+sweetest names; between eight o'clock and midnight an optician in
+Jones-Fall-street made a fortune by selling field-glasses. The Queen of
+Night was looked at through them like a lady of high life. The Americans
+acted in regard to her with the freedom of proprietors. It seemed as if
+the blonde Phoebe belonged to these enterprising conquerors and already
+formed part of the Union territory. And yet the only question was that
+of sending a projectile--a rather brutal way of entering into
+communication even with a satellite, but much in vogue amongst civilised
+nations.
+
+Midnight had just struck, and the enthusiasm did not diminish; it was
+kept up in equal doses in all classes of the population; magistrates,
+_savants_, merchants, tradesmen, street-porters, intelligent as well as
+"green" men were moved even in their most delicate fibres. It was a
+national enterprise; the high town, low town, the quays bathed by the
+waters of the Patapsco, the ships, imprisoned in their docks, overflowed
+with crowds intoxicated with joy, gin, and whisky; everybody talked,
+argued, perorated, disputed, approved, and applauded, from the gentleman
+comfortably stretched on the bar-room couch before his glass of
+"sherry-cobbler" to the waterman who got drunk upon "knock-me-down" in
+the dark taverns of Fell's Point.
+
+However, about 2 a.m. the emotion became calmer. President Barbicane
+succeeded in getting home almost knocked to pieces. A Hercules could not
+have resisted such enthusiasm. The crowd gradually abandoned the squares
+and streets. The four railroads of Ohio, Susquehanna, Philadelphia, and
+Washington, which converge at Baltimore, took the heterogeneous
+population to the four corners of the United States, and the town
+reposed in a relative tranquillity.
+
+It would be an error to believe that during this memorable evening
+Baltimore alone was agitated. The large towns of the Union, New York,
+Boston, Albany, Washington, Richmond, New Orleans, Charlestown, La
+Mobile of Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Florida, all shared in the
+delirium. The thirty thousand correspondents of the Gun Club were
+acquainted with their president's letter, and awaited with equal
+impatience the famous communication of the 5th of October. The same
+evening as the orator uttered his speech it ran along the telegraph
+wires, across the states of the Union, with a speed of 348,447 miles a
+second. It may, therefore, be said with absolute certainty that at the
+same moment the United States of America, ten times as large as France,
+cheered with a single voice, and twenty-five millions of hearts, swollen
+with pride, beat with the same pulsation.
+
+The next day five hundred daily, weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly
+newspapers took up the question; they examined it under its different
+aspects--physical, meteorological, economical, or moral, from a
+political or social point of view. They debated whether the moon was a
+finished world, or if she was not still undergoing transformation. Did
+she resemble the earth in the time when the atmosphere did not yet
+exist? What kind of spectacle would her hidden hemisphere present to our
+terrestrial spheroid? Granting that the question at present was simply
+about sending a projectile to the Queen of Night, every one saw in that
+the starting-point of a series of experiments; all hoped that one day
+America would penetrate the last secrets of the mysterious orb, and some
+even seemed to fear that her conquest would disturb the balance of power
+in Europe.
+
+The project once under discussion, not one of the papers suggested a
+doubt of its realisation; all the papers, treatises, bulletins, and
+magazines published by scientific, literary, or religious societies
+enlarged upon its advantages, and the "Natural History Society" of
+Boston, the "Science and Art Society" of Albany, the "Geographical and
+Statistical Society" of New York, the "American Philosophical Society"
+of Philadelphia, and the "Smithsonian Institution" of Washington sent in
+a thousand letters their congratulations to the Gun Club, with immediate
+offers of service and money.
+
+It may be said that no proposition ever had so many adherents; there was
+no question of hesitations, doubts, or anxieties. As to the jokes,
+caricatures, and comic songs that would have welcomed in Europe, and,
+above all, in France, the idea of sending a projectile to the moon, they
+would have been turned against their author; all the "life-preservers"
+in the world would have been powerless to guarantee him against the
+general indignation. There are things that are not to be laughed at in
+the New World.
+
+Impey Barbicane became from that day one of the greatest citizens of the
+United States, something like a Washington of science, and one fact
+amongst several will serve to show the sudden homage which was paid by a
+nation to one man.
+
+Some days after the famous meeting of the Gun Club the manager of an
+English company announced at the Baltimore Theatre a representation of
+_Much Ado About Nothing_, but the population of the town, seeing in the
+title a damaging allusion to the projects of President Barbicane,
+invaded the theatre, broke the seats, and forced the unfortunate manager
+to change the play. Like a sensible man, the manager, bowing to public
+opinion, replaced the offending comedy by _As You Like It_, and for
+several weeks he had fabulous houses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY.
+
+
+In the meantime Barbicane did not lose an instant amidst the enthusiasm
+of which he was the object. His first care was to call together his
+colleagues in the board-room of the Gun Club. There, after a debate,
+they agreed to consult astronomers about the astronomical part of their
+enterprise. Their answer once known, they would then discuss the
+mechanical means, and nothing would be neglected to assure the success
+of their great experiment.
+
+A note in precise terms, containing special questions, was drawn up and
+addressed to the observatory of Cambridge in Massachusetts. This town,
+where the first University of the United States was founded, is justly
+celebrated for its astronomical staff. There are assembled the greatest
+men of science; there is the powerful telescope which enabled Bond to
+resolve the nebula of Andromeda and Clarke to discover the satellite of
+Sirius. This celebrated institution was, therefore, worthy in every way
+of the confidence of the Gun Club.
+
+After two days the answer, impatiently awaited, reached the hands of
+President Barbicane.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"_The Director of the Cambridge Observatory to the President of the Gun
+Club at Baltimore_.
+
+"On the receipt of your favour of the 6th inst., addressed to the
+Observatory of Cambridge in the name of the members of the Baltimore
+Gun Club, we immediately called a meeting of our staff, who have deemed
+it expedient to answer as follows:--
+
+"The questions proposed to it were these:--
+
+"'1. Is it possible to send a projectile to the moon?
+
+"'2. What is the exact distance that separates the earth and her
+satellite?
+
+"'3. What would be the duration of the projectile's transit to which a
+sufficient initial speed had been given, and consequently at what moment
+should it be hurled so as to reach the moon at a particular point?
+
+"'4. At what moment would the moon present the most favourable position
+for being reached by the projectile?
+
+"'5. What point in the heavens ought the cannon, destined to hurl the
+projectile, be aimed at?
+
+"'6. What place in the heavens will the moon occupy at the moment when
+the projectile will start?'
+
+"Regarding question No. 1, 'Is it possible to send a projectile to the
+moon?'
+
+"Yes, it is possible to send a projectile to the moon if it is given an
+initial velocity of 1,200 yards a second. Calculations prove that this
+speed is sufficient. In proportion to the distance from the earth the
+force of gravitation diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of the
+distance--that is to say, that for a distance three times greater that
+force is nine times less. In consequence, the weight of the projectile
+will decrease rapidly, and will end by being completely annulled at the
+moment when the attraction of the moon will be equal to that of the
+earth--that is to say, at the 47/52 of the distance. At that moment the
+projectile will have no weight at all, and if it clears that point it
+will fall on to the moon only by the effect of lunar gravitation. The
+theoretic possibility of the experiment is, therefore, quite
+demonstrated; as to its success, that depends solely in the power of the
+engine employed.
+
+"Regarding question No. 2, 'What is the exact distance that separates
+the earth from her satellite?'
+
+"The moon does not describe a circle round the earth, but an ellipse, of
+which our earth occupies one of the foci; the consequence is, therefore,
+that at certain times it approaches nearer to, and at others recedes
+farther from, the earth, or, in astronomical language, it has its apogee
+and its perigee. At its apogee the moon is at 247,552 miles from the
+earth, and at its perigee at 218,657 miles only, which makes a
+difference of 28,895, or more than a ninth of the distance. The perigee
+distance is, therefore, the one that should give us the basis of all
+calculations.
+
+"Regarding question No. 3, 'What would be the duration of the
+projectile's transit to which a sufficient initial speed has been given,
+and consequently at what moment should it be hurled so as to reach the
+moon at a particular point?'
+
+"If the projectile kept indefinitely the initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second, it would only take about nine hours to reach its destination;
+but as that initial velocity will go on decreasing, it will happen,
+everything calculated upon, that the projectile will take 300,000
+seconds, or 83 hours and 20 minutes, to reach the point where the
+terrestrial and lunar gravitations are equal, and from that point it
+will fall upon the moon in 50,000 seconds, or 13 hours, 53 minutes, and
+20 seconds. It must, therefore, be hurled 97 hours, 13 minutes, and 20
+seconds before the arrival of the moon at the point aimed at.
+
+"Regarding question No. 4, 'At what moment would the moon present the
+most favourable position for being reached by the projectile?'
+
+"According to what has been said above the epoch of the moon's perigee
+must first be chosen, and at the moment when she will be crossing her
+zenith, which will still further diminish the entire distance by a
+length equal to the terrestrial radius--i.e., 3,919 miles; consequently,
+the passage to be accomplished will be 214,976 miles. But the moon is
+not always at her zenith when she reaches her perigee, which is once a
+month. She is only under the two conditions simultaneously at long
+intervals of time. This coincidence of perigee and zenith must be waited
+for. It happens fortunately that on December 4th of next year the moon
+will offer these two conditions; at midnight she will be at her perigee
+and her zenith--that is to say, at her shortest distance from the earth
+and at her zenith at the same time.
+
+"Regarding question No. 5, 'At what point in the heavens ought the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile be aimed?'
+
+"The preceding observations being admitted, the cannon ought to be aimed
+at the zenith of the place (the zenith is the spot situated vertically
+above the head of a spectator), so that its range will be perpendicular
+to the plane of the horizon, and the projectile will pass the soonest
+beyond the range of terrestrial gravitation. But for the moon to reach
+the zenith of a place that place must not exceed in latitude the
+declination of the luminary--in other words, it must be comprised
+between 0° and 28° of north or south latitude. In any other place the
+range must necessarily be oblique, which would seriously affect the
+success of the experiment.
+
+"Regarding question No. 6, 'What place will the moon occupy In the
+heavens at the moment of the projectile's departure?'
+
+"At the moment when the projectile is hurled into space, the moon, which
+travels forward 13° 10' 35" each day, will be four times as distant from
+her zenith point--i.e., by 52° 42' 20", a space which corresponds to the
+distance she will travel during the transit of the projectile. But as
+the deviation which the rotatory movement of the earth will impart to
+the shock must also be taken into account, and as the projectile cannot
+reach the moon until after a deviation equal to sixteen radii of the
+earth, which, calculated upon the moon's orbit, is equal to about 11°,
+it is necessary to add these 11° to those caused by the
+already-mentioned delay of the moon, or, in round numbers, 64°. Thus, at
+the moment of firing, the visual radius applied to the moon will
+describe with the vertical line of the place an angle of 64°.
+
+"Such are the answers to the questions proposed to the Observatory of
+Cambridge by the members of the Gun Club.
+
+"To sum up--
+
+"1st. The cannon must be placed in a country situated between 0° and 28°
+of north or south latitude.
+
+"2nd. It must be aimed at the zenith of the place.
+
+"3rd. The projectile must have an initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second.
+
+"4th. It must be hurled on December 1st of next year, at 10hrs. 46mins.
+40secs. p.m.
+
+"5th. It will meet the moon four days after its departure on December
+4th, at midnight precisely, at the moment she arrives at her zenith.
+
+"The members of the Gun Club ought, therefore, at once to commence the
+labour necessitated by such an enterprise, and be ready to put them into
+execution at the moment fixed upon, for they will not find the moon in
+the same conditions of perigee and zenith till eighteen years and eleven
+days later.
+
+"The staff of the Observatory of Cambridge puts itself entirely at their
+disposition for questions of theoretic astronomy, and begs to join its
+congratulations to those of the whole of America.
+
+"On behalf of the staff,
+
+"J.M. BELFAST,
+
+"_Director of the Observatory of Cambridge_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON.
+
+
+A spectator endowed with infinite power of sight, and placed at the
+unknown centre round which gravitates the universe, would have seen
+myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of creation.
+But by degrees, as centuries went on, a change took place; a law of
+gravitation manifested itself which the wandering atoms obeyed; these
+atoms, combined chemically according to their affinities, formed
+themselves into molecules, and made those nebulous masses with which the
+depths of the heavens are strewed.
+
+These masses were immediately animated by a movement of rotation round
+their central point. This centre, made of vague molecules, began to turn
+on itself whilst progressively condensing; then, following the immutable
+laws of mechanics, in proportion as its volume became diminished by
+condensation its movement of rotation was accelerated, and these two
+effects persisting, there resulted a principal planet, the centre of the
+nebulous mass.
+
+By watching attentively the spectator would then have seen other
+molecules in the mass behave like the central planet, and condense in
+the same manner by a movement of progressively-accelerated rotation, and
+gravitate round it under the form of innumerable stars. The nebulae, of
+which astronomers count nearly 5,000 at present, were formed.
+
+Amongst these 5,000 nebulae there is one that men have called the Milky
+Way, and which contains eighteen millions of stars, each of which has
+become the centre of a solar world.
+
+If the spectator had then specially examined amongst these eighteen
+millions of stars one of the most modest and least brilliant, a star of
+the fourth order, the one that proudly named itself the sun, all the
+phenomena to which the formation of the universe is due would have
+successively taken place under his eyes.
+
+In fact, he would have perceived this sun still in its gaseous state,
+and composed of mobile molecules; he would have perceived it turning on
+its own axis to finish its work of concentration. This movement,
+faithful to the laws of mechanics, would have been accelerated by the
+diminution of volume, and a time would have come when the centrifugal
+force would have overpowered the centripetal, which causes the molecules
+all to tend towards the centre.
+
+Then another phenomenon would have passed before the eyes of the
+spectator, and the molecules situated in the plane of the equator would
+have formed several concentric rings like that of Saturn round the sun.
+In their turn these rings of cosmic matter, seized with a movement of
+rotation round the central mass, would have been broken up into
+secondary nebulae--that is to say, into planets.
+
+If the spectator had then concentrated all his attention on these
+planets he would have seen them behave exactly like the sun and give
+birth to one or more cosmic rings, origin of those secondary bodies
+which we call satellites.
+
+Thus in going up from the atom to the molecule, from the molecule to the
+nebulae, and from the nebulae to the principal star, from the principal
+star to the sun, from the sun to the planet, and from the planet to the
+satellite, we have the whole series of transformations undergone by the
+celestial powers from the first days of the universe.
+
+The sun seems lost amidst the immensities of the stellar universe, and
+yet it is related, by actual theories of science, to the nebula of the
+Milky Way. Centre of a world, and small as it appears amidst the
+ethereal regions, it is still enormous, for its size is 1,400,000 times
+that of the earth. Around it gravitate eight planets, struck off from
+its own mass in the first days of creation. These are, in proceeding
+from the nearest to the most distant, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Between Mars and Jupiter circulate
+regularly other smaller bodies, the wandering _débris_, perhaps, of a
+star broken up into thousands of pieces, of which the telescope has
+discovered eighty-two at present. Some of these asteroids are so small
+that they could be walked round in a single day by going at a gymnastic
+pace.
+
+Of these attendant bodies which the sun maintains in their elliptical
+orbit by the great law of gravitation, some possess satellites of their
+own. Uranus has eight, Saturn eight, Jupiter four, Neptune three
+perhaps, and the Earth one; this latter, one of the least important of
+the solar world, is called the Moon, and it is that one that the
+enterprising genius of the Americans means to conquer.
+
+The Queen of Night, from her relative proximity and the spectacle
+rapidly renewed of her different phases, at first divided the attention
+of the inhabitants of the earth with the sun; but the sun tires the
+eyesight, and the splendour of its light forces its admirers to lower
+their eyes.
+
+The blonde Phoebe, more humane, graciously allows herself to be seen in
+her modest grace; she is gentle to the eye, not ambitious, and yet she
+sometimes eclipses her brother the radiant Apollo, without ever being
+eclipsed by him. The Mahommedans understood what gratitude they owed to
+this faithful friend of the earth, and they ruled their months at 29-1/2
+days on her revolution.
+
+The first people of the world dedicated particular worship to this
+chaste goddess. The Egyptians called her Isis, the Phoenicians Astarte,
+the Greeks Phoebe, daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and they explained
+her eclipses by the mysterious visits of Diana and the handsome
+Endymion. The mythological legend relates that the Nemean lion traversed
+the country of the moon before its apparition upon earth, and the poet
+Agesianax, quoted by Plutarch, celebrated in his sweet lines its soft
+eyes, charming nose, and admirable mouth, formed by the luminous parts
+of the adorable Selene.
+
+But though the ancients understood the character, temperament, and, in a
+word, moral qualities of the moon from a mythological point of view, the
+most learned amongst them remained very ignorant of selenography.
+
+Several astronomers, however, of ancient times discovered certain
+particulars now confirmed by science. Though the Arcadians pretended
+they had inhabited the earth at an epoch before the moon existed, though
+Simplicius believed her immovable and fastened to the crystal vault,
+though Tacitus looked upon her as a fragment broken off from the solar
+orbit, and Clearch, the disciple of Aristotle, made of her a polished
+mirror upon which were reflected the images of the ocean--though, in
+short, others only saw in her a mass of vapours exhaled by the earth, or
+a globe half fire and half ice that turned on itself, other _savants_,
+by means of wise observations and without optical instruments, suspected
+most of the laws that govern the Queen of Night.
+
+Thus Thales of Miletus, B.C. 460, gave out the opinion that the moon was
+lighted up by the sun. Aristarchus of Samos gave the right explanation
+of her phases. Cleomenus taught that she shone by reflected light.
+Berose the Chaldean discovered that the duration of her movement of
+rotation was equal to that of her movement of revolution, and he thus
+explained why the moon always presented the same side. Lastly,
+Hipparchus, 200 years before the Christian era, discovered some
+inequalities in the apparent movements of the earth's satellite.
+
+These different observations were afterwards confirmed, and other
+astronomers profited by them. Ptolemy in the second century, and the
+Arabian Aboul Wefa in the tenth, completed the remarks of Hipparchus on
+the inequalities that the moon undergoes whilst following the undulating
+line of its orbit under the action of the sun. Then Copernicus, in the
+fifteenth century, and Tycho Brahe, in the sixteenth, completely exposed
+the system of the world and the part that the moon plays amongst the
+celestial bodies.
+
+At that epoch her movements were pretty well known, but very little of
+her physical constitution was known. It was then that Galileo explained
+the phenomena of light produced in certain phases by the existence of
+mountains, to which he gave an average height of 27,000 feet.
+
+After him, Hevelius, an astronomer of Dantzig, lowered the highest
+altitudes to 15,000 feet; but his contemporary, Riccioli, brought them
+up again to 21,000 feet.
+
+Herschel, at the end of the eighteenth century, armed with a powerful
+telescope, considerably reduced the preceding measurements. He gave a
+height of 11,400 feet to the highest mountains, and brought down the
+average of different heights to little more than 2,400 feet. But
+Herschel was mistaken too, and the observations of Schroeter, Louville,
+Halley, Nasmyth, Bianchini, Pastorff, Lohrman, Gruithuysen, and
+especially the patient studies of MM. Boeer and Moedler, were necessary
+to definitely resolve the question. Thanks to these _savants_, the
+elevation of the mountains of the moon is now perfectly known. Boeer and
+Moedler measured 1,905 different elevations, of which six exceed 15,000
+feet and twenty-two exceed 14,400 feet. Their highest summit towers to a
+height of 22,606 feet above the surface of the lunar disc.
+
+At the same time the survey of the moon was being completed; she
+appeared riddled with craters, and her essentially volcanic nature was
+affirmed by each observation. From the absence of refraction in the rays
+of the planets occulted by her it is concluded that she can have no
+atmosphere. This absence of air entails absence of water; it therefore
+became manifest that the Selenites, in order to live under such
+conditions, must have a special organisation, and differ singularly from
+the inhabitants of the earth.
+
+Lastly, thanks to new methods, more perfected instruments searched the
+moon without intermission, leaving not a point of her surface
+unexplored, and yet her diameter measures 2,150 miles; her surface is
+one-thirteenth of the surface of the globe, and her volume
+one-forty-ninth of the volume of the terrestrial spheroid; but none of
+her secrets could escape the astronomers' eyes, and these clever
+_savants_ carried their wonderful observations still further.
+
+Thus they remarked that when the moon was at her full the disc appeared
+in certain places striped with white lines, and during her phases
+striped with black lines. By prosecuting the study of these with greater
+precision they succeeded in making out the exact nature of these lines.
+They are long and narrow furrows sunk between parallel ridges, bordering
+generally upon the edges of the craters; their length varied from ten to
+one hundred miles, and their width was about 1,600 yards. Astronomers
+called them furrows, and that was all they could do; they could not
+ascertain whether they were the dried-up beds of ancient rivers or not.
+The Americans hope, some day or other, to determine this geological
+question. They also undertake to reconnoitre the series of parallel
+ramparts discovered on the surface of the moon by Gruithuysen, a learned
+professor of Munich, who considered them to be a system of elevated
+fortifications raised by Selenite engineers. These two still obscure
+points, and doubtless many others, can only be definitely settled by
+direct communication with the moon.
+
+As to the intensity of her light there is nothing more to be learnt; it
+is 300,000 times weaker than that of the sun, and its heat has no
+appreciable action upon thermometers; as to the phenomenon known as the
+"ashy light," it is naturally explained by the effect of the sun's rays
+transmitted from the earth to the moon, and which seem to complete the
+lunar disc when it presents a crescent form during its first and last
+phases.
+
+Such was the state of knowledge acquired respecting the earth's
+satellite which the Gun Club undertook to perfect under all its aspects,
+cosmographical, geographical, geological, political, and moral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO BE
+BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The immediate effect of Barbicane's proposition was that of bringing out
+all astronomical facts relative to the Queen of Night. Everybody began
+to study her assiduously. It seemed as if the moon had appeared on the
+horizon for the first time, and that no one had ever seen her in the sky
+before. She became the fashion; she was the lion of the day, without
+appearing less modest on that account, and took her place amongst the
+"stars" without being any the prouder. The newspapers revived old
+anecdotes in which this "Sun of the wolves" played a part; they recalled
+the influence which the ignorance of past ages had ascribed to her; they
+sang about her in every tone; a little more and they would have quoted
+her witty sayings; the whole of America was filled with selenomania.
+
+The scientific journals treated the question which touched upon the
+enterprise of the Gun Club more specially; they published the letter
+from the Observatory of Cambridge, they commented upon it and approved
+of it without reserve.
+
+In short, even the most ignorant Yankee was no longer allowed to be
+ignorant of a single fact relative to his satellite, nor, to the oldest
+women amongst them, to have any superstitions about her left. Science
+flooded them; it penetrated into their eyes and ears; it was impossible
+to be an ass--in astronomy.
+
+Until then many people did not know how the distance between the earth
+and the moon had been calculated. This fact was taken advantage of to
+explain to them that it was done by measuring the parallax of the moon.
+If the word "parallax" seemed new to them, they were told it was the
+angle formed by two straight lines drawn from either extremity of the
+earth's radius to the moon. If they were in doubt about the perfection
+of this method, it was immediately proved to them that not only was the
+mean distance 234,347 miles, but that astronomers were right to within
+seventy miles.
+
+To those who were not familiar with the movements of the moon, the
+newspapers demonstrated daily that she possesses two distinct movements,
+the first being that of rotation upon her axis, the second that of
+revolution round the earth, accomplishing both in the same time--that is
+to say, in 27-1/3 days.
+
+The movement of rotation is the one that causes night and day on the
+surface of the moon, only there is but one day and one night in a lunar
+month, and they each last 354-1/3 hours. But, happily, the face, turned
+towards the terrestrial globe, is lighted by it with an intensity equal
+to the light of fourteen moons. As to the other face, the one always
+invisible, it has naturally 354 hours of absolute night, tempered only
+by "the pale light that falls from the stars." This phenomenon is due
+solely to the peculiarity that the movements of rotation and revolution
+are accomplished in rigorously equal periods, a phenomenon which,
+according to Cassini and Herschel, is common to the satellites of
+Jupiter, and, very probably to the other satellites.
+
+Some well-disposed but rather unyielding minds did not quite understand
+at first how, if the moon invariably shows the same face to the earth
+during her revolution, she describes one turn round herself in the same
+period of time. To such it was answered--"Go into your dining-room, and
+turn round the table so as always to keep your face towards the centre;
+when your circular walk is ended you will have described one circle
+round yourselves, since your eye will have successively traversed every
+point of the room. Well, then, the room is the heavens, the table is the
+earth, and you are the moon!"
+
+And they go away delighted with the comparison.
+
+Thus, then, the moon always presents the same face to the earth; still,
+to be quite exact, it should be added that in consequence of certain
+fluctuations from north to south and from west to east, called
+libration, she shows rather more than the half of her disc, about 0.57.
+
+When the ignoramuses knew as much as the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory about the moon's movement of rotation they began to make
+themselves uneasy about her movement of revolution round the earth, and
+twenty scientific reviews quickly gave them the information they wanted.
+They then learnt that the firmament, with its infinite stars, may be
+looked upon as a vast dial upon which the moon moves, indicating the
+time to all the inhabitants of the earth; that it is in this movement
+that the Queen of Night shows herself in her different phases, that she
+is full when she is in opposition with the sun--that is to say, when the
+three bodies are on a line with each other, the earth being in the
+centre; that the moon is new when she is in conjunction with the
+sun--that is to say, when she is between the sun and the earth; lastly,
+that the moon is in her first or last quarter when she makes, with the
+sun and the earth, a right angle of which she occupies the apex.
+
+Some perspicacious Yankees inferred in consequence that eclipses could
+only take place at the periods of conjunction or opposition, and their
+reasoning was just. In conjunction the moon can eclipse the sun, whilst
+in opposition it is the earth that can eclipse him in her turn; and the
+reason these eclipses do not happen twice in a lunar month is because
+the plane upon which the moon moves is elliptical like that of the
+earth.
+
+As to the height which the Queen of Night can attain above the horizon,
+the letter from the Observatory of Cambridge contained all that can be
+said about it. Every one knew that this height varies according to the
+latitude of the place where the observation is taken. But the only zones
+of the globe where the moon reaches her zenith--that is to say, where
+she is directly above the heads of the spectators--are necessarily
+comprised between the 28th parallels and the equator. Hence the
+important recommendation given to attempt the experiment upon some point
+in this part of the globe, in order that the projectile may be hurled
+perpendicularly, and may thus more quickly escape the attraction of
+gravitation. This was a condition essential to the success of the
+enterprise, and public opinion was much exercised thereupon.
+
+As to the line followed by the moon in her revolution round the earth,
+the Observatory of Cambridge had demonstrated to the most ignorant that
+it is an ellipse of which the earth occupies one of the foci. These
+elliptical orbits are common to all the planets as well as to all the
+satellites, and rational mechanism rigorously proves that it could not
+be otherwise. It was clearly understood that when at her apogee the moon
+was farthest from the earth, and when at her perigee she was nearest to
+our planet.
+
+This, therefore, was what every American knew whether he wished to or
+no, and what no one could decently be ignorant of. But if these true
+principles rapidly made their way, certain illusive fears and many
+errors were with difficulty cleared away.
+
+Some worthy people maintained, for instance, that the moon was an
+ancient comet, which, whilst travelling along its elongated orbit round
+the sun, passed near to the earth, and was retained in her circle of
+attraction. The drawing-room astronomers pretended to explain thus the
+burnt aspect of the moon, a misfortune of which they accused the sun.
+Only when they were told to notice that comets have an atmosphere, and
+that the moon has little or none, they did not know what to answer.
+
+Others belonging to the class of "Shakers" manifested certain fears
+about the moon; they had heard that since the observations made in the
+times of the Caliphs her movement of revolution had accelerated in a
+certain proportion; they thence very logically concluded that an
+acceleration of movement must correspond to a diminution in the distance
+between the two bodies, and that this double effect going on infinitely
+the moon would one day end by falling into the earth. However, they were
+obliged to reassure themselves and cease to fear for future generations
+when they were told that according to the calculations of Laplace, an
+illustrious French mathematician, this acceleration of movement was
+restricted within very narrow limits, and that a proportional diminution
+will follow it. Thus the equilibrium of the solar world cannot be
+disturbed in future centuries.
+
+Lastly there was the superstitious class of ignoramuses to be dealt
+with; these are not content with being ignorant; they know what does not
+exist, and about the moon they know a great deal. Some of them
+considered her disc to be a polished mirror by means of which people
+might see themselves from different points on the earth, and communicate
+their thoughts to one another. Others pretended that out of 1,000 new
+moons 950 had brought some notable change, such as cataclysms,
+revolutions, earthquakes, deluges, &c.; they therefore believed in the
+mysterious influence of the Queen of Night on human destinies; they
+think that every Selenite is connected by some sympathetic tie with each
+inhabitant of the earth; they pretend, with Dr. Mead, that she entirely
+governs the vital system--that boys are born during the new moon and
+girls during her last quarter, &c., &c. But at last it became necessary
+to give up these vulgar errors, to come back to truth; and if the moon,
+stripped of her influence, lost her prestige in the minds of courtesans
+of every power, if some turned their backs on her, the immense majority
+were in her favour. As to the Yankees, they had no other ambition than
+that of taking possession of this new continent of the sky, and to plant
+upon its highest summit the star-spangled banner of the United States of
+America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL.
+
+
+The Cambridge Observatory had, in its memorable letter of October 7th,
+treated the question from an astronomical point of view--the mechanical
+point had still to be treated. It was then that the practical
+difficulties would have seemed insurmountable to any other country but
+America; but there they were looked upon as play.
+
+President Barbicane had, without losing any time, nominated a working
+committee in the heart of the Gun Club. This committee was in three
+sittings to elucidate the three great questions of the cannon, the
+projectile, and the powder. It was composed of four members very learned
+upon these matters. Barbicane had the casting vote, and with him were
+associated General Morgan, Major Elphinstone, and, lastly, the
+inevitable J.T. Maston, to whom were confided the functions of
+secretary.
+
+On the 8th of October the committee met at President Barbicane's house,
+No. 3, Republican-street; as it was important that the stomach should
+not trouble so important a debate, the four members of the Gun Club took
+their seats at a table covered with sandwiches and teapots. J.T. Maston
+immediately screwed his pen on to his steel hook and the business began.
+
+Barbicane opened the meeting as follows:--
+
+"Dear colleagues," said he, "we have to solve one of the more important
+problems in ballistics--that greatest of sciences which treats of the
+movement of projectiles--that is to say, of bodies hurled into space by
+some power of impulsion and then left to themselves."
+
+"Oh, ballistics, ballistics!" cried J.T. Maston in a voice of emotion.
+
+"Perhaps," continued Barbicane, "the most logical thing would be to
+consecrate this first meeting to discussing the engine."
+
+"Certainly," answered General Morgan.
+
+"Nevertheless," continued Barbicane, "after mature deliberation, it
+seems to me that the question of the projectile ought to precede that of
+the cannon, and that the dimensions of the latter ought to depend upon
+the dimensions of the former."
+
+J.T. Maston here interrupted the president, and was heard with the
+attention which his magnificent past career deserved.
+
+"My dear friends," said he in an inspired tone, "our president is right
+to give the question of the projectile the precedence of every other;
+the cannon-ball we mean to hurl at the moon will be our messenger, our
+ambassador, and I ask your permission to regard it from an entirely
+moral point of view."
+
+This new way of looking at a projectile excited the curiosity of the
+members of the committee; they therefore listened attentively to the
+words of J.T. Maston.
+
+"My dear colleagues," he continued, "I will be brief. I will lay aside
+the material projectile--the projectile that kills--in order to take up
+the mathematical projectile--the moral projectile. A cannon-ball is to
+me the most brilliant manifestation of human power, and by creating it
+man has approached nearest to the Creator!"
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Major Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," cried the orator, "if God has made the stars and the planets,
+man has made the cannon-ball--that criterion of terrestrial speed--that
+reduction of bodies wandering in space which are really nothing but
+projectiles. Let Providence claim the speed of electricity, light, the
+stars, comets, planets, satellites, sound, and wind! But ours is the
+speed of the cannon-ball--a hundred times greater than that of trains
+and the fastest horses!"
+
+J.T. Maston was inspired; his accents became quite lyrical as he chanted
+the hymn consecrated to the projectile.
+
+"Would you like figures?" continued he; "here are eloquent ones. Take
+the simple 24 pounder; though it moves 80,000 times slower than
+electricity, 64,000 times slower than light, 76 times slower than the
+earth in her movement of translation round the sun, yet when it leaves
+the cannon it goes quicker than sound; it goes at the rate of 14 miles a
+minute, 840 miles an hour, 20,100 miles a day--that is to say, at the
+speed of the points of the equator in the globe's movement of rotation,
+7,336,500 miles a year. It would therefore take 11 days to get to the
+moon, 12 years to get to the sun, 360 years to reach Neptune, at the
+limits of the solar world. That is what this modest cannon-ball, the
+work of our hands, can do! What will it be, therefore, when, with twenty
+times that speed, we shall hurl it with a rapidity of seven miles a
+second? Ah! splendid shot! superb projectile! I like to think you will
+be received up there with the honours due to a terrestrial ambassador!"
+
+Cheers greeted this brilliant peroration, and J.T. Maston, overcome with
+emotion, sat down amidst the felicitations of his colleagues.
+
+"And now," said Barbicane, "that we have given some time to poetry, let
+us proceed to facts."
+
+"We are ready," answered the members of the committee as they each
+demolished half-a-dozen sandwiches.
+
+"You know what problem it is we have to solve," continued the president;
+"it is that of endowing a projectile with a speed of 12,000 yards per
+second. I have every reason to believe that we shall succeed, but at
+present let us see what speeds we have already obtained; General Morgan
+can edify us upon that subject."
+
+"So much the more easily," answered the general, "because during the war
+I was a member of the Experiment Commission. The 100-pound cannon of
+Dahlgren, with a range of 5,000 yards, gave their projectiles an initial
+speed of 500 yards a second."
+
+"Yes; and the Rodman Columbiad?" (the Americans gave the name of
+"Columbiad" to their enormous engines of destruction) asked the
+president.
+
+"The Rodman Columbiad, tried at Fort Hamilton, near New York, hurled a
+projectile, weighing half a ton, a distance of six miles, with a speed
+of 800 yards a second, a result which neither Armstrong nor Palliser has
+obtained in England."
+
+"Englishmen are nowhere!" said J.T. Maston, pointing his formidable
+steel hook eastward.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "a speed of 800 yards is the maximum obtained
+at present."
+
+"Yes," answered Morgan.
+
+"I might add, however," replied J.T. Maston, "that if my mortar had not
+been blown up--"
+
+"Yes, but it was blown up," replied Barbicane with a benevolent gesture.
+"We must take the speed of 800 yards for a starting point. We must keep
+till another meeting the discussion of the means used to produce this
+speed; allow me to call your attention to the dimensions which our
+projectile must have. Of course it must be something very different to
+one of half a ton weight."
+
+"Why?" asked the major.
+
+"Because," quickly answered J.T. Maston, "it must be large enough to
+attract the attention of the inhabitants of the moon, supposing there
+are any."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "and for another reason still more
+important."
+
+"What do you mean, Barbicane?" asked the major.
+
+"I mean that it is not enough to send up a projectile and then to think
+no more about it; we must follow it in its transit."
+
+"What?" said the general, slightly surprised at the proposition.
+
+"Certainly," replied Barbicane, like a man who knew what he was saying,
+"or our experiment will be without result."
+
+"But then," replied the major, "you will have to give the projectile
+enormous dimensions."
+
+"No. Please grant me your attention. You know that optical instruments
+have acquired great perfection; certain telescopes increase objects six
+thousand, and bring the moon to within a distance of forty miles. Now at
+that distance objects sixty feet square are perfectly visible. The power
+of penetration of the telescope has not been increased, because that
+power is only exercised to the detriment of their clearness, and the
+moon, which is only a reflecting mirror, does not send a light intense
+enough for the telescopes to increase objects beyond that limit."
+
+"Very well, then, what do you mean to do?" asked the general. "Do you
+intend giving a diameter of sixty feet to your projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are not going to take upon yourself the task of making the moon
+more luminous?"
+
+"I am, though."
+
+"That's rather strong!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Yes, but simple," answered Barbicane. "If I succeed in lessening the
+density of the atmosphere which the moon's light traverses, shall I not
+render that light more intense?"
+
+"Evidently."
+
+"In order to obtain that result I shall only have to establish my
+telescope upon some high mountain. We can do that."
+
+"I give in," answered the major; "you have such a way of simplifying
+things! What enlargement do you hope to obtain thus?"
+
+"One of 48,000 times, which will bring the moon within five miles only,
+and objects will only need a diameter of nine feet."
+
+"Perfect!" exclaimed J.T. Maston; "then our projectile will have a
+diameter of nine feet?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Allow me to inform you, however," returned Major Elphinstone, "that its
+weight will still be--"
+
+"Oh, major!" answered Barbicane, "before discussing its weight allow me
+to tell you that our forefathers did marvels in that way. Far be it from
+me to pretend that ballistics have not progressed, but it is well to
+know that in the Middle Ages surprising results were obtained, I dare
+affirm, even more surprising than ours."
+
+"Justify your statement," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Barbicane; "I can give you some examples.
+At the siege of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 1453, they hurled
+stone bullets that weighed 1,900 lbs.; at Malta, in the time of its
+knights, a certain cannon of Fort Saint Elme hurled projectiles weighing
+2,500 lbs. According to a French historian, under Louis XI. a mortar
+hurled a bomb of 500 lbs. only; but that bomb, fired at the Bastille, a
+place where mad men imprisoned wise ones, fell at Charenton, where wise
+men imprison mad ones."
+
+"Very well," said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Since, what have we seen, after all? The Armstrong cannons hurl
+projectiles of 500 lbs., and the Rodman Columbiads projectiles of half a
+ton! It seems, then, that if projectiles have increased in range they
+have lost in weight. Now, if we turn our efforts in that direction, we
+must succeed with the progress of the science in doubling the weight of
+the projectiles of Mahomet II. and the Knights of Malta."
+
+"That is evident," answered the major; "but what metal do you intend to
+employ for your own projectile?"
+
+"Simply cast-iron," said General Morgan.
+
+"Cast-iron!" exclaimed J.T. Maston disdainfully, "that's very common for
+a bullet destined to go to the moon."
+
+"Do not let us exaggerate, my honourable friend," answered Morgan;
+"cast-iron will be sufficient."
+
+"Then," replied Major Elphinstone, "as the weight of the projectile is
+in proportion to its volume, a cast-iron bullet, measuring nine feet in
+diameter, will still be frightfully heavy."
+
+"Yes, if it be solid, but not if it be hollow," said Barbicane.
+
+"Hollow!--then it will be an obus?"
+
+"In which we can put despatches," replied J.T. Maston, "and specimens of
+our terrestrial productions."
+
+"Yes, an obus," answered Barbicane; "that is what it must be; a solid
+bullet of 108 inches would weigh more than 200,000 lbs., a weight
+evidently too great; however, as it is necessary to give the projectile
+a certain stability, I propose to give it a weight of 20,000 lbs."
+
+"What will be the thickness of the metal?" asked the major.
+
+"If we follow the usual proportions," replied Morgan, "a diameter of 800
+inches demands sides two feet thick at least."
+
+"That would be much too thick," answered Barbicane; "we do not want a
+projectile to pierce armour-plate; it only needs sides strong enough to
+resist the pressure of the powder-gas. This, therefore, is the
+problem:--What thickness ought an iron obus to have in order to weigh
+only 20,000 lbs.? Our clever calculator, Mr. Maston, will tell us at
+once."
+
+"Nothing is easier," replied the honourable secretary.
+
+So saying, he traced some algebraical signs on the paper, amongst which
+n^2 and x^2 frequently appeared. He even seemed to extract from them a
+certain cubic root, and said--
+
+"The sides must be hardly two inches thick."
+
+"Will that be sufficient?" asked the major doubtfully.
+
+"No," answered the president, "certainly not."
+
+"Then what must be done?" resumed Elphinstone, looking puzzled.
+
+"We must use another metal instead of cast-iron."
+
+"Brass?" suggested Morgan.
+
+"No; that is too heavy too, and I have something better than that to
+propose."
+
+"What?" asked the major.
+
+"Aluminium," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Aluminium!" cried all the three colleagues of the president.
+
+"Certainly, my friends. You know that an illustrious French chemist,
+Henry St. Claire Deville, succeeded in 1854 in obtaining aluminium in a
+compact mass. This precious metal possesses the whiteness of silver, the
+indestructibility of gold, the tenacity of iron, the fusibility of
+copper, the lightness of glass; it is easily wrought, and is very widely
+distributed in nature, as aluminium forms the basis of most rocks; it is
+three times lighter than iron, and seems to have been created expressly
+to furnish us with the material for our projectile!"
+
+"Hurrah for aluminium!" cried the secretary, always very noisy in his
+moments of enthusiasm.
+
+"But, my dear president," said the major, "is not aluminium quoted
+exceedingly high?"
+
+"It was so," answered Barbicane; "when first discovered a pound of
+aluminium cost 260 to 280 dollars; then it fell to twenty-seven dollars,
+and now it is worth nine dollars."
+
+"But nine dollars a pound," replied the major, who did not easily give
+in; "that is still an enormous price."
+
+"Doubtless, my dear major; but not out of reach."
+
+"What will the projectile weigh, then?" asked Morgan.
+
+"Here is the result of my calculations," answered Barbicane. "A
+projectile of 108 inches in diameter and 12 inches thick would weigh, if
+it were made of cast-iron, 67,440 lbs.; cast in aluminium it would be
+reduced to 19,250 lbs."
+
+"Perfect!" cried Maston; "that suits our programme capitally."
+
+"Yes," replied the major; "but do you not know that at nine dollars a
+pound the projectile would cost--"
+
+"One hundred seventy-three thousand and fifty dollars. Yes, I know that;
+but fear nothing, my friends; money for our enterprise will not be
+wanting, I answer for that."
+
+"It will be showered upon us," replied J.T. Maston.
+
+"Well, what do you say to aluminium?" asked the president.
+
+"Adopted," answered the three members of the committee.
+
+"As to the form of the projectile," resumed Barbicane, "it is of little
+consequence, since, once the atmosphere cleared, it will find itself in
+empty space; I therefore propose a round ball, which will turn on
+itself, if it so pleases."
+
+Thus ended the first committee meeting. The question of the projectile
+was definitely resolved upon, and J.T. Maston was delighted with the
+idea of sending an aluminium bullet to the Selenites, "as it will give
+them no end of an idea of the inhabitants of the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HISTORY OF THE CANNON.
+
+
+The resolutions passed at this meeting produced a great effect outside.
+Some timid people grew alarmed at the idea of a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs. hurled into space. People asked what cannon could ever
+transmit an initial speed sufficient for such a mass. The report of the
+second meeting was destined to answer these questions victoriously.
+
+The next evening the four members of the Gun Club sat down before fresh
+mountains of sandwiches and a veritable ocean of tea. The debate then
+began.
+
+"My dear colleagues," said Barbicane, "we are going to occupy ourselves
+with the construction of the engine, its length, form, composition, and
+weight. It is probable that we shall have to give it gigantic
+dimensions, but, however great our difficulties might be, our industrial
+genius will easily overcome them. Will you please listen to me and
+spare objections for the present? I do not fear them."
+
+An approving murmur greeted this declaration.
+
+"We must not forget," resumed Barbicane, "to what point our yesterday's
+debate brought us; the problem is now the following: how to give an
+initial speed of 12,000 yards a second to a shot 108 inches in diameter
+weighing 20,000 lbs.
+
+"That is the problem indeed," answered Major Elphinstone.
+
+"When a projectile is hurled into space," resumed Barbicane, "what
+happens? It is acted upon by three independent forces, the resistance of
+the medium, the attraction of the earth, and the force of impulsion with
+which it is animated. Let us examine these three forces. The resistance
+of the medium--that is to say, the resistance of the air--is of little
+importance. In fact, the terrestrial atmosphere is only forty miles
+deep. With a rapidity of 12,000 yards the projectile will cross that in
+five seconds, and this time will be short enough to make the resistance
+of the medium insignificant. Let us now pass to the attraction of the
+earth--that is to say, to the weight of the projectile. We know that
+that weight diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of
+distances--in fact, this is what physics teach us: when a body left to
+itself falls on the surface of the earth, it falls 15 feet in the first
+second, and if the same body had to fall 257,542 miles--that is to say,
+the distance between the earth and the moon--its fall would be reduced
+to half a line in the first second. That is almost equivalent to
+immobility. The question is, therefore, how progressively to overcome
+this law of gravitation. How shall we do it? By the force of impulsion?"
+
+"That is the difficulty," answered the major.
+
+"That is it indeed," replied the president. "But we shall triumph over
+it, for this force of impulsion we want depends on the length of the
+engine and the quantity of powder employed, the one only being limited
+by the resistance of the other. Let us occupy ourselves, therefore,
+to-day with the dimensions to be given to the cannon. It is quite
+understood that we can make it, as large as we like, seeing it will not
+have to be moved."
+
+"All that is evident," replied the general.
+
+"Until now," said Barbicane, "the longest cannon, our enormous
+Columbiads, have not been more than twenty-five feet long; we shall
+therefore astonish many people by the dimensions we shall have to
+adopt."
+
+"Certainly," exclaimed J.T. Maston. "For my part, I ask for a cannon
+half a mile long at least!"
+
+"Half a mile!" cried the major and the general.
+
+"Yes, half a mile, and that will be half too short."
+
+"Come, Maston," answered Morgan, "you exaggerate."
+
+"No, I do not," said the irate secretary; "and I really do not know why
+you tax me with exaggeration."
+
+"Because you go too far."
+
+"You must know, sir," answered J.T. Maston, looking dignified, "that an
+artilleryman is like a cannon-ball, he can never go too far."
+
+The debate was getting personal, but the president interfered.
+
+"Be calm, my friends, and let us reason it out. We evidently want a gun
+of great range, as the length of the engine will increase the detention
+of gas accumulated behind the projectile, but it is useless to overstep
+certain limits."
+
+"Perfectly," said the major.
+
+"What are the usual rules in such a case? Ordinarily the length of a
+cannon is twenty or twenty-five times the diameter of the projectile,
+and it weighs 235 to 240 times its weight."
+
+"It is not enough," cried J.T. Maston with impetuosity.
+
+"I agree to that, my worthy friend, and in fact by keeping that
+proportion for a projectile nine feet wide, weighing 30,000 lbs., the
+engine would only have a length of 225 feet and a weight of 7,200,000
+lbs."
+
+"That is ridiculous," resumed J.T. Maston. "You might as well take a
+pistol."
+
+"I think so too," answered Barbicane; "that is why I propose to
+quadruple that length, and to construct a cannon 900 feet long."
+
+The general and the major made some objections, but, nevertheless, this
+proposition, strongly supported by the secretary, was definitely
+adopted.
+
+"Now," said Elphinstone, "what thickness must we give its sides?"
+
+"A thickness of six feet," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You do not think of raising such a mass upon a gun-carriage?" asked the
+major.
+
+"That would be superb, however! said J.T. Maston.
+
+"But impracticable," answered Barbicane. "No, I think of casting this
+engine in the ground itself, binding it up with wrought-iron hoops, and
+then surrounding it with a thick mass of stone and cement masonry. When
+it is cast it must be bored with great precision so as to prevent
+windage, so there will be no loss of gas, and all the expansive force of
+the powder will be employed in the propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" said Maston, "we have our cannon."
+
+"Not yet," answered Barbicane, calming his impatient friend with his
+hand.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we have not discussed its form. Shall it be a cannon, howitzer,
+or a mortar?"
+
+"A cannon," replied Morgan.
+
+"A howitzer," said the major.
+
+"A mortar," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+A fresh discussion was pending, each taking the part of his favourite
+weapon, when the president stopped it short.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I will soon make you agree. Our Columbiad will
+be a mixture of all three. It will be a cannon, because the
+powder-magazine will have the same diameter as the chamber. It will be a
+howitzer, because it will hurl an obus. Lastly, it will be a mortar,
+because it will be pointed at an angle of 90°, and that without any
+chance of recoil; unalterably fixed to the ground, it will communicate
+to the projectile all the power of impulsion accumulated in its body."
+
+"Adopted, adopted," answered the members of the committee.
+
+"One question," said Elphinstone, "and will this _canobusomortar_ be
+rifled?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "No, we must have an enormous initial speed,
+and you know very well that a shot leaves a rifle less rapidly than a
+smooth-bore."
+
+"True," answered the major.
+
+"Well, we have it this time," repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"Not quite yet," replied the president.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we do not yet know of what metal it will be made."
+
+"Let us decide that without delay."
+
+"I was going to propose it to you."
+
+The four members of the committee each swallowed a dozen sandwiches,
+followed by a cup of tea, and the debate recommenced.
+
+"Our cannon," said Barbicane, "must be possessed of great tenacity,
+great hardness; it must be infusible by heat, indissoluble, and
+inoxydable by the corrosive action of acids."
+
+"There is no doubt about that," answered the major, "and as we shall
+have to employ a considerable quantity of metal we shall not have much
+choice."
+
+"Well, then," said Morgan, "I propose for the fabrication of the
+Columbiad the best alloy hitherto known--that is to say, 100 parts of
+copper, 12 of tin, and 6 of brass."
+
+"My friends," answered the president, "I agree that this composition has
+given excellent results; but in bulk it would be too dear and very hard
+to work. I therefore think we must adopt an excellent material, but
+cheap, such as cast-iron. Is not that your opinion, major?"
+
+"Quite," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "cast-iron costs ten times less than
+bronze; it is easily melted, it is readily run into sand moulds, and is
+rapidly manipulated; it is, therefore, an economy of money and time.
+Besides, that material is excellent, and I remember that during the war
+at the siege of Atlanta cast-iron cannon fired a thousand shots each
+every twenty minutes without being damaged by it."
+
+"Yet cast-iron is very brittle," answered Morgan.
+
+"Yes, but it possesses resistance too. Besides, we shall not let it
+explode, I can answer for that."
+
+"It is possible to explode and yet be honest," replied J.T. Maston
+sententiously.
+
+"Evidently," answered Barbicane. "I am, therefore, going to beg our
+worthy secretary to calculate the weight of a cast-iron cannon 900 feet
+long, with an inner diameter of nine feet, and sides six feet thick."
+
+"At once," answered J.T. Maston, and, as he had done the day before, he
+made his calculations with marvellous facility, and said at the end of a
+minute--
+
+"This cannon will weigh 68,040 tons."
+
+"And how much will that cost at two cents a pound?"
+
+"Two million five hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and one
+dollars."
+
+J.T. Maston, the major, and the general looked at Barbicane anxiously.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the president, "I can only repeat what I said to
+you yesterday, don't be uneasy; we shall not want for money."
+
+Upon this assurance of its president the committee broke up, after
+having fixed a third meeting for the next evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE QUESTION OF POWDERS.
+
+
+The question of powder still remained to be settled. The public awaited
+this last decision with anxiety. The size of the projectile and length
+of the cannon being given, what would be the quantity of powder
+necessary to produce the impulsion? This terrible agent, of which,
+however, man has made himself master, was destined to play a part in
+unusual proportions.
+
+It is generally known and often asserted that gunpowder was invented in
+the fourteenth century by the monk Schwartz, who paid for his great
+discovery with his life. But it is nearly proved now that this story
+must be ranked among the legends of the Middle Ages. Gunpowder was
+invented by no one; it is a direct product of Greek fire, composed, like
+it, of sulphur and saltpetre; only since that epoch these mixtures;
+which were only dissolving, have been transformed into detonating
+mixtures.
+
+But if learned men know perfectly the false history of gunpowder, few
+people are aware of its mechanical power. Now this is necessary to be
+known in order to understand the importance of the question submitted to
+the committee.
+
+Thus a litre of gunpowder weighs about 2 lbs.; it produces, by burning,
+about 400 litres of gas; this gas, liberated, and under the action of a
+temperature of 2,400°, occupies the space of 4,000 litres. Therefore the
+volume of powder is to the volume of gas produced by its deflagration as
+1 to 400. The frightful force of this gas, when it is compressed into a
+space 4,000 times too small, may be imagined.
+
+This is what the members of the committee knew perfectly when, the next
+day, they began their sitting. Major Elphinstone opened the debate.
+
+"My dear comrades," said the distinguished chemist, "I am going to begin
+with some unexceptionable figures, which will serve as a basis for our
+calculation. The 24-lb. cannon-ball, of which the Hon. J.T. Maston spoke
+the day before yesterday, is driven out of the cannon by 16 lbs. of
+powder only."
+
+"You are certain of your figures?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Absolutely certain," answered the major. "The Armstrong cannon only
+uses 75 lbs. of powder for a projectile of 800 lbs., and the Rodman
+Columbiad only expends 160 lbs. of powder to send its half-ton bullet
+six miles. These facts cannot be doubted, for I found them myself in the
+reports of the Committee of Artillery."
+
+"That is certain," answered the general.
+
+"Well," resumed the major, "the conclusion to be drawn from these
+figures is that the quantity of powder does not augment with the weight
+of the shot; in fact, if a shot of 24 lbs. took 16 lbs. of powder, and,
+in other terms, if in ordinary cannons a quantity of powder weighing
+two-thirds of the weight of the projectile is used, this proportion is
+not always necessary. Calculate, and you will see that for the shot of
+half a ton weight, instead of 333 lbs. of powder, this quantity has been
+reduced to 116 lbs. only.
+
+"What are you driving at?" asked the president.
+
+"The extreme of your theory, my dear major," said J.T. Maston, "would
+bring you to having no powder at all, provided your shot were
+sufficiently heavy."
+
+"Friend Maston will have his joke even in the most serious things,"
+replied the major; "but he need not be uneasy; I shall soon propose a
+quantity of powder that will satisfy him. Only I wish to have it
+understood that during the war, and for the largest guns, the weight of
+the powder was reduced, after experience, to a tenth of the weight of
+the shot."
+
+"Nothing is more exact," said Morgan; "but, before deciding the quantity
+of powder necessary to give the impulsion, I think it would be well to
+agree upon its nature."
+
+"We shall use a large-grained powder," answered the major; "its
+deflagration is the most rapid."
+
+"No doubt," replied Morgan; "but it is very brittle, and ends by
+damaging the chamber of the gun."
+
+"Certainly; but what would be bad for a gun destined for long service
+would not be so for our Columbiad. We run no danger of explosion, and
+the powder must immediately take fire to make its mechanical effect
+complete."
+
+"We might make several touchholes," said J.T. Maston, "so as to set fire
+to it in several places at the same time."
+
+"No doubt," answered Elphinstone, "but that would make the working of it
+more difficult. I therefore come back to my large-grained powder that
+removes these difficulties."
+
+"So be it," answered the general.
+
+"To load his Columbiad," resumed the major, "Rodman used a powder in
+grains as large as chestnuts, made of willow charcoal, simply rarefied
+in cast-iron pans. This powder was hard and shining, left no stain on
+the hands, contained a great proportion of hydrogen and oxygen,
+deflagrated instantaneously, and, though very brittle, did not much
+damage the mouthpiece."
+
+"Well, it seems to me," answered J.T. Maston, "that we have nothing to
+hesitate about, and that our choice is made."
+
+"Unless you prefer gold-powder," replied the major, laughing, which
+provoked a threatening gesture from the steel hook of his susceptible
+friend.
+
+Until then Barbicane had kept himself aloof from the discussion; he
+listened, and had evidently an idea. He contented himself with saying
+simply--
+
+"Now, my friends, what quantity of powder do you propose?"
+
+The three members of the Gun Club looked at one another for the space of
+a minute.
+
+"Two hundred thousand pounds," said Morgan at last.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," replied the major.
+
+"Eight hundred thousand," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+This, time Elphinstone dared not tax his colleague with exaggeration. In
+fact, the question was that of sending to the moon a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs., and of giving it an initial force of 2000 yards a second. A
+moment of silence, therefore, followed the triple proposition made by
+the three colleagues.
+
+It was at last broken by President Barbicane.
+
+"My brave comrades," said he in a quiet tone, "I start from this
+principle, that the resistance of our cannon, in the given conditions,
+is unlimited. I shall, therefore, surprise the Honourable J.T. Maston
+when I tell him that he has been timid in his calculations, and I
+propose to double his 800,000 lbs. of powder."
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds!" shouted J.T. Maston, jumping out of
+his chair.
+
+"Quite as much as that."
+
+"Then we shall have to come back to my cannon half a mile long."
+
+"It is evident," said the major.
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds of powder," resumed the Secretary of
+Committee, "will occupy about a space of 22,000 cubic feet; now, as your
+cannon will only hold about 54,000 cubic feet, it will be half full, and
+the chamber will not be long enough to allow the explosion of the gas to
+give sufficient impulsion to your projectile."
+
+There was nothing to answer. J.T. Maston spoke the truth. They all
+looked at Barbicane.
+
+"However," resumed the president, "I hold to that quantity of powder.
+Think! 1,600,000 pounds of powder will give 6,000,000,000 litres of
+gas."
+
+"Then how is it to be done?" asked the general.
+
+"It is very simple. We must reduce this enormous quantity of powder,
+keeping at the same time its mechanical power."
+
+"Good! By what means?"
+
+"I will tell you," answered Barbicane simply.
+
+His interlocutors all looked at him.
+
+"Nothing is easier, in fact," he resumed, "than to bring that mass of
+powder to a volume four times less. You all know that curious cellular
+matter which constitutes the elementary tissues of vegetables?"
+
+"Ah!" said the major, "I understand you, Barbicane."
+
+"This matter," said the president, "is obtained in perfect purity in
+different things, especially in cotton, which is nothing but the skin of
+the seeds of the cotton plant. Now cotton, combined with cold nitric
+acid, is transformed into a substance eminently insoluble, eminently
+combustible, eminently explosive. Some years ago, in 1832, a French
+chemist, Braconnot, discovered this substance, which he called
+xyloidine. In 1838, another Frenchman, Pelouze, studied its different
+properties; and lastly, in 1846, Schonbein, professor of chemistry at
+Basle, proposed it as gunpowder. This powder is nitric cotton."
+
+"Or pyroxyle," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"Or fulminating cotton," replied Morgan.
+
+"Is there not an American name to put at the bottom of this discovery?"
+exclaimed J.T. Maston, animated by a lively sentiment of patriotism.
+
+"Not one, unfortunately," replied the major.
+
+"Nevertheless, to satisfy Maston," resumed the president, "I may tell
+him that one of our fellow-citizens may be annexed to the study of the
+celluosity, for collodion, which is one of the principal agents in
+photography, is simply pyroxyle dissolved in ether to which alcohol has
+been added, and it was discovered by Maynard, then a medical student."
+
+"Hurrah for Maynard and fulminating cotton!" cried the noisy secretary
+of the Gun Club.
+
+"I return to pyroxyle," resumed Barbicane. "You are acquainted with its
+properties which make it so precious to us. It is prepared with the
+greatest facility; cotton plunged in smoking nitric acid for fifteen
+minutes, then washed in water, then dried, and that is all."
+
+"Nothing is more simple, certainty," said Morgan.
+
+"What is more, pyroxyle is not damaged by moisture, a precious quality
+in our eyes, as it will take several days to load the cannon. Its
+inflammability takes place at 170° instead of at 240° and its
+deflagration is so immediate that it may be fired on ordinary gunpowder
+before the latter has time to catch fire too."
+
+"Perfect," answered the major.
+
+"Only it will cost more."
+
+"What does that matter?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Lastly, it communicates to projectiles a speed four times greater than
+that of gunpowder. I may even add that if 8/10ths of its weight of
+nitrate of potash is added its expansive force is still greatly
+augmented."
+
+"Will that be necessary?" asked the major.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "Thus instead of 1,600,000 lbs.
+of powder, we shall only have 400,000 lbs. of fulminating cotton, and as
+we can, without danger, compress 500 lbs. of cotton into 27 cubic feet,
+that quantity will not take up more than 180 feet in the chamber of the
+Columbiad. By these means the projectile will have more than 700 feet of
+chamber to traverse under a force of 6,000,000,000 of litres of gas
+before taking its flight over the Queen of Night."
+
+Here J.T. Maston could not contain his emotion. He threw himself into
+the arms of his friend with the violence of a projectile, and he would
+have been stove in had he not have been bombproof.
+
+This incident ended the first sitting of the committee. Barbicane and
+his enterprising colleagues, to whom nothing seemed impossible, had just
+solved the complex question of the projectile, cannon, and powder. Their
+plan being made, there was nothing left but to put it into execution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS.
+
+
+The American public took great interest in the least details of the Gun
+Club's enterprise. It followed the committee debates day by day. The
+most simple preparations for this great experiment, the questions of
+figures it provoked, the mechanical difficulties to be solved, all
+excited popular opinion to the highest pitch.
+
+More than a year would elapse between the commencement of the work and
+its completion; but the interval would not be void of excitement. The
+place to be chosen for the boring, the casting the metal of the
+Columbiad, its perilous loading, all this was more than necessary to
+excite public curiosity. The projectile, once fired, would be out of
+sight in a few seconds; then what would become of it, how it would
+behave in space, how it would reach the moon, none but a few privileged
+persons would see with their own eyes. Thus, then, the preparations for
+the experiment and the precise details of its execution constituted the
+real source of interest.
+
+In the meantime the purely scientific attraction of the enterprise was
+all at once heightened by an incident.
+
+It is known what numerous legions of admirers and friends the Barbicane
+project had called round its author. But, notwithstanding the number and
+importance of the majority, it was not destined to be unanimous. One
+man, one out of all the United States, protested against the Gun Club.
+He attacked it violently on every occasion, and--for human nature is
+thus constituted--Barbicane was more sensitive to this one man's
+opposition than to the applause of all the others.
+
+Nevertheless he well knew the motive of this antipathy, from whence came
+this solitary enmity, why it was personal and of ancient date; lastly,
+in what rivalry it had taken root.
+
+The president of the Gun Club had never seen this persevering enemy.
+Happily, for the meeting of the two men would certainly have had
+disastrous consequences. This rival was a _savant_ like Barbicane, a
+proud, enterprising, determined, and violent character, a pure Yankee.
+His name was Captain Nicholl. He lived in Philadelphia.
+
+No one is ignorant of the curious struggle which went on during the
+Federal war between the projectile and ironclad vessels, the former
+destined to pierce the latter, the latter determined not to be pierced.
+Thence came a radical transformation in the navies of the two
+continents. Cannon-balls and iron plates struggled for supremacy, the
+former getting larger as the latter got thicker. Ships armed with
+formidable guns went into the fire under shelter of their invulnerable
+armour. The Merrimac, Monitor, ram Tennessee, and Wechhausen shot
+enormous projectiles after having made themselves proof against the
+projectiles of other ships. They did to others what they would not have
+others do to them, an immoral principle upon which the whole art of war
+is based.
+
+Now Barbicane was a great caster of projectiles, and Nicholl was an
+equally great forger of plate-armour. The one cast night and day at
+Baltimore, the other forged day and night at Philadelphia. Each followed
+an essentially different current of ideas.
+
+As soon as Barbicane had invented a new projectile, Nicholl invented a
+new plate armour. The president of the Gun Club passed his life in
+piercing holes, the captain in preventing him doing it. Hence a constant
+rivalry which even touched their persons. Nicholl appeared in
+Barbicane's dreams as an impenetrable ironclad against which he split,
+and Barbicane in Nicholl's dreams appeared like a projectile which
+ripped him up.
+
+Still, although they ran along two diverging lines, these _savants_
+would have ended by meeting each other in spite of all the axioms in
+geometry; but then it would have been on a duel field. Happily for these
+worthy citizens, so useful to their country, a distance of from fifty to
+sixty miles separated them, and their friends put such obstacles in the
+way that they never met.
+
+At present it was not clearly known which of the two inventors held the
+palm. The results obtained rendered a just decision difficult. It
+seemed, however, that in the end armour-plate would have to give way to
+projectiles. Nevertheless, competent men had their doubts. At the latest
+experiments the cylindro-conical shots of Barbicane had no more effect
+than pins upon Nicholl's armour-plate. That day the forger of
+Philadelphia believed himself victorious, and henceforth had nothing but
+disdain for his rival. But when, later on, Barbicane substituted simple
+howitzers of 600 lbs. for conical shots, the captain was obliged to go
+down in his own estimation. It fact, these projectiles, though of
+mediocre velocity, drilled with holes and broke to pieces armour-plate
+of the best metal.
+
+Things had reached this point and victory seemed to rest with the
+projectile, when the war ended the very day that Nicholl terminated a
+new forged armour-plate. It was a masterpiece of its kind. It defied all
+the projectiles in the world. The captain had it taken to the Washington
+Polygon and challenged the president of the Gun Club to pierce it.
+Barbicane, peace having been made, would not attempt the experiment.
+
+Then Nicholl, in a rage, offered to expose his armour-plate to the shock
+of any kind of projectile, solid, hollow, round, or conical.
+
+The president, who was determined not to compromise his last success,
+refused.
+
+Nicholl, excited by this unqualified obstinacy, tried to tempt Barbicane
+by leaving him every advantage. He proposed to put his plate 200 yards
+from the gun. Barbicane still refused. At 100 yards? Not even at 75.
+
+"At 50, then," cried the captain, through the newspapers, "at 25 yards
+from my plate, and I will be behind it."
+
+Barbicane answered that even if Captain Nicholl would be in front of it
+he would not fire any more.
+
+On this reply, Nicholl could no longer contain himself. He had recourse
+to personalities; he insinuated cowardice--that the man who refuses to
+fire a shot from a cannon is very nearly being afraid of it; that, in
+short, the artillerymen who fight now at six miles distance have
+prudently substituted mathematical formulae for individual courage, and
+that there is as much bravery required to quietly wait for a cannon-ball
+behind armour-plate as to send it according to all the rules of science.
+
+To these insinuations Barbicane answered nothing. Perhaps he never knew
+about them, for the calculations of his great enterprise absorbed him
+entirely.
+
+When he made his famous communication to the Gun Club, the anger of
+Captain Nicholl reached its maximum. Mixed with it was supreme jealousy
+and a sentiment of absolute powerlessness. How could he invent anything
+better than a Columbiad 900 feet long? What armour-plate could ever
+resist a projectile of 30,000 lbs.? Nicholl was at first crushed by this
+cannon-ball, then he recovered and resolved to crush the proposition by
+the weight of his best arguments.
+
+He therefore violently attacked the labours of the Gun Club. He sent a
+number of letters to the newspapers, which they did not refuse to
+publish. He tried to demolish Barbicane's work scientifically. Once the
+war begun, he called reasons of every kind to his aid, reasons it must
+be acknowledged often specious and of bad metal.
+
+Firstly, Barbicane was violently attacked about his figures. Nicholl
+tried to prove by A + B the falseness of his formulae, and he accused
+him of being ignorant of the rudimentary principles of ballistics.
+Amongst other errors, and according to Nicholl's own calculations, it
+was impossible to give any body a velocity of 12,000 yards a second. He
+sustained, algebra in hand, that even with that velocity a projectile
+thus heavy would never pass the limits of the terrestrial atmosphere. It
+would not even go eight leagues! Better still. Granted the velocity, and
+taking it as sufficient, the shot would not resist the pressure of the
+gas developed by the combustion of 1,600,000 pounds of powder, and even
+if it did resist that pressure, it at least would not support such a
+temperature; it would melt as it issued from the Columbiad, and would
+fall in red-hot rain on the heads of the imprudent spectators.
+
+Barbicane paid no attention to these attacks, and went on with his work.
+
+Then Nicholl considered the question in its other aspects. Without
+speaking of its uselessness from all other points of view, he looked
+upon the experiment as exceedingly dangerous, both for the citizens who
+authorised so condemnable a spectacle by their presence, and for the
+towns near the deplorable cannon. He also remarked that if the
+projectile did not reach its destination, a result absolutely
+impossible, it was evident that it would fall on to the earth again, and
+that the fall of such a mass multiplied by the square of its velocity
+would singularly damage some point on the globe. Therefore, in such a
+circumstance, and without any restriction being put upon the rights of
+free citizens, it was one of those cases in which the intervention of
+government became necessary, and the safety of all must not be
+endangered for the good pleasure of a single individual.
+
+It will be seen to what exaggeration Captain Nicholl allowed himself to
+be carried. He was alone in his opinion. Nobody took any notice of his
+Cassandra prophecies. They let him exclaim as much as he liked, till his
+throat was sore if he pleased. He had constituted himself the defender
+of a cause lost in advance. He was heard but not listened to, and he did
+not carry off a single admirer from the president of the Gun Club, who
+did not even take the trouble to refute his rival's arguments.
+
+Nicholl, driven into his last intrenchments, and not being able to fight
+for his opinion, resolved to pay for it. He therefore proposed in the
+_Richmond Inquirer_ a series of bets conceived in these terms and in an
+increasing proportion.
+
+He bet that--
+
+1. The funds necessary for the Gun Club's enterprise would not be
+forthcoming, 1,000 dols.
+
+2. That the casting of a cannon of 900 feet was impracticable and would
+not succeed, 2,000 dols.
+
+3. That it would be impossible to load the Columbiad, and that the
+pyroxyle would ignite spontaneously under the weight of the projectile,
+3,000 dols.
+
+4. That the Columbiad would burst at the first discharge, 4,000 dols.
+
+5. That the projectile would not even go six miles, and would fall a few
+seconds after its discharge, 5,000 dols.
+
+It will be seen that the captain was risking an important sum in his
+invincible obstinacy. No less than 15,000 dols. were at stake.
+
+Notwithstanding the importance of the wager, he received on the 19th of
+October a sealed packet of superb laconism, couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 18th.
+
+"Done.
+
+"BARBICANE."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FLORIDA AND TEXAS.
+
+
+There still remained one question to be decided--a place favourable to
+the experiment had to be chosen. According to the recommendation of the
+Cambridge Observatory the gun must be aimed perpendicularly to the plane
+of the horizon--that is to say, towards the zenith. Now the moon only
+appears in the zenith in the places situated between 0° and 28° of
+latitude, or, in other terms, when her declination is only 28°. The
+question was, therefore, to determine the exact point of the globe where
+the immense Columbiad should be cast.
+
+On the 20th of October the Gun Club held a general meeting. Barbicane
+brought a magnificent map of the United States by Z. Belltropp. But
+before he had time to unfold it J.T. Maston rose with his habitual
+vehemence, and began to speak as follows:--
+
+"Honourable colleagues, the question we are to settle to-day is really
+of national importance, and will furnish us with an occasion for doing a
+great act of patriotism."
+
+The members of the Gun Club looked at each other without understanding
+what the orator was coming to.
+
+"Not one of you," he continued, "would think of doing anything to
+lessen the glory of his country, and if there is one right that the
+Union may claim it is that of harbouring in its bosom the formidable
+cannon of the Gun Club. Now, under the present circumstances--"
+
+"Will you allow me--" said Barbicane.
+
+"I demand the free discussion of ideas," replied the impetuous J.T.
+Maston, "and I maintain that the territory from which our glorious
+projectile will rise ought to belong to the Union."
+
+"Certainly," answered several members.
+
+"Well, then, as our frontiers do not stretch far enough, as on the south
+the ocean is our limit, as we must seek beyond the United States and in
+a neighbouring country this 28th parallel, this is all a legitimate
+_casus belli_, and I demand that war should be declared against Mexico!"
+
+"No, no!" was cried from all parts.
+
+"No!" replied J.T. Maston. "I am much astonished at hearing such a word
+in these precincts!"
+
+"But listen--"
+
+"Never! never!" cried the fiery orator. "Sooner or later this war will
+be declared, and I demand that it should be this very day."
+
+"Maston," said Barbicane, making his bell go off with a crash, "I agree
+with you that the experiment cannot and ought not to be made anywhere
+but on the soil of the Union, but if I had been allowed to speak before,
+and you had glanced at this map, you would know that it is perfectly
+useless to declare war against our neighbours, for certain frontiers of
+the United States extend beyond the 28th parallel. Look, we have at our
+disposition all the southern part of Texas and Florida."
+
+This incident had no consequences; still it was not without regret that
+J.T. Maston allowed himself to be convinced. It was, therefore, decided
+that the Columbiad should be cast either on the soil of Texas or on that
+of Florida. But this decision was destined to create an unexampled
+rivalry between the towns of these two states.
+
+The 28th parallel, when it touches the American coast, crosses the
+peninsula of Florida, and divides it into two nearly equal portions.
+Then, plunging into the Gulf of Mexico, it subtends the arc formed by
+the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; then skirting Texas,
+off which it cuts an angle, it continues its direction over Mexico,
+crosses the Sonora and Old California, and loses itself in the Pacific
+Ocean; therefore only the portions of Texas and Florida situated below
+this parallel fulfilled the requisite conditions of latitude recommended
+by the Observatory of Cambridge.
+
+The southern portion of Florida contains no important cities. It only
+bristles with forts raised against wandering Indians. One town only,
+Tampa Town, could put in a claim in favour of its position.
+
+In Texas, on the contrary, towns are more numerous and more important.
+Corpus Christi in the county of Nuaces, and all the cities situated on
+the Rio Bravo, Laredo, Comalites, San Ignacio in Web, Rio Grande city in
+Starr, Edinburgh in Hidalgo, Santa-Rita, El Panda, and Brownsville in
+Cameron, formed a powerful league against the pretensions of Florida.
+
+The decision, therefore, was hardly made public before the Floridan and
+Texican deputies flocked to Baltimore by the shortest way. From that
+moment President Barbicane and the influential members of the Gun Club
+were besieged day and night by formidable claims. If seven towns of
+Greece contended for the honour of being Homer's birthplace, two entire
+states threatened to fight over a cannon.
+
+These rival parties were then seen marching with weapons about the
+streets of the town. Every time they met a fight was imminent, which
+would have had disastrous consequences. Happily the prudence and skill
+of President Barbicane warded off this danger. Personal demonstrations
+found an outlet in the newspapers of the different states. It was thus
+that the _New York Herald_ and the _Tribune_ supported the claims of
+Texas, whilst the _Times_ and the _American Review_ took the part of the
+Floridan deputies. The members of the Gun Club did not know which to
+listen to.
+
+Texas came up proudly with its twenty-six counties, which it seemed to
+put in array; but Florida answered that twelve counties proved more than
+twenty-six in a country six times smaller.
+
+Texas bragged of its 33,000 inhabitants; but Florida, much smaller,
+boasted of being much more densely populated with 56,000. Besides,
+Florida accused Texas of being the home of paludian fevers, which
+carried off, one year with another, several thousands of inhabitants,
+and Florida was not far wrong.
+
+In its turn Texas replied that Florida need not envy its fevers, and
+that it was, at least, imprudent to call other countries unhealthy when
+Florida itself had chronic "vomito negro," and Texas was not far wrong.
+
+"Besides," added the Texicans through the _New York Herald_, "there are
+rights due to a state that grows the best cotton in all America, a state
+which produces holm oak for building ships, a state that contains superb
+coal and mines of iron that yield fifty per cent. of pure ore."
+
+To that the _American Review_ answered that the soil of Florida, though
+not so rich, offered better conditions for the casting of the Columbiad,
+as it was composed of sand and clay-ground.
+
+"But," answered the Texicans, "before anything can be cast in a place,
+it must get to that place; now communication with Florida is difficult,
+whilst the coast of Texas offers Galveston Bay, which is fourteen
+leagues round, and could contain all the fleets in the world."
+
+"Why," replied the newspapers devoted to Florida, "your Galveston Bay is
+situated above the 29th parallel, whilst our bay of Espiritu-Santo opens
+precisely at the 28th degree of latitude, and by it ships go direct to
+Tampa Town."
+
+"A nice bay truly!" answered Texas; "it is half-choked up with sand."
+
+"Any one would think, to hear you talk," cried Florida, "that I was a
+savage country."
+
+"Well, the Seminoles do still wander over your prairies!"
+
+"And what about your Apaches and your Comanches--are they civilised?"
+
+The war had been thus kept up for some days when Florida tried to draw
+her adversary upon another ground, and one morning the _Times_
+insinuated that the enterprise being "essentially American," it ought
+only to be attempted upon an "essentially American" territory.
+
+At these words Texas could not contain itself.
+
+"American!" it cried, "are we not as American as you? Were not Texas and
+Florida both incorporated in the Union in 1845?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the _Times_, "but we have belonged to America
+since 1820."
+
+"Yes," replied the _Tribune_, "after having been Spanish or English for
+200 years, you were sold to the United States for 5,000,000 of dollars!"
+
+"What does that matter?" answered Florida. "Need we blush for that? Was
+not Louisiana bought in 1803 from Napoleon for 16,000,000 of dollars?"
+
+"It is shameful!" then cried the Texican deputies. "A miserable slice of
+land like Florida to dare to compare itself with Texas, which, instead
+of being sold, made itself independent, which drove out the Mexicans on
+the 2nd of March, 1836, which declared itself Federative Republican
+after the victory gained by Samuel Houston on the banks of the San
+Jacinto over the troops of Santa-Anna--a country, in short, which
+voluntarily joined itself to the United States of America!"
+
+"Because it was afraid of the Mexicans!" answered Florida.
+
+"Afraid!" From the day this word, really too cutting, was pronounced,
+the situation became intolerable. An engagement was expected between the
+two parties in the streets of Baltimore. The deputies were obliged to be
+watched.
+
+President Barbicane was half driven wild. Notes, documents, and letters
+full of threats inundated his house. Which course ought he to decide
+upon? In the point of view of fitness of soil, facility of
+communications, and rapidity of transport, the rights of the two states
+were really equal. As to the political personalities, they had nothing
+to do with the question.
+
+Now this hesitation and embarrassment had already lasted some time when
+Barbicane resolved to put an end to it; he called his colleagues
+together, and the solution he proposed to them was a profoundly wise
+one, as will be seen from the following:--
+
+"After due consideration," said he, "of all that has just occurred
+between Florida and Texas, it is evident that the same difficulties will
+again crop up between the towns of the favoured state. The rivalry will
+be changed from state to city, and that is all. Now Texas contains
+eleven towns with the requisite conditions that will dispute the honour
+of the enterprise, and that will create fresh troubles for us, whilst
+Florida has but one; therefore I decide for Tampa Town!"
+
+The Texican deputies were thunderstruck at this decision. It put them
+into a terrible rage, and they sent nominal provocations to different
+members of the Gun Club. There was only one course for the magistrates
+of Baltimore to take, and they took it. They had the steam of a special
+train got up, packed the Texicans into it, whether they would or no, and
+sent them away from the town at a speed of thirty miles an hour.
+
+But they were not carried off too quickly to hurl a last and threatening
+sarcasm at their adversaries.
+
+Making allusion to the width of Florida, a simple peninsula between two
+seas, they pretended it would not resist the shock, and would be blown
+up the first time the cannon was fired.
+
+"Very well! let it be blown up!" answered the Floridans with a laconism
+worthy of ancient times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"URBI ET ORBI."
+
+
+The astronomical, mechanical, and topographical difficulties once
+removed, there remained the question of money. An enormous sum was
+necessary for the execution of the project. No private individual, no
+single state even, could have disposed of the necessary millions.
+
+President Barbicane had resolved--although the enterprise was
+American--to make it a business of universal interest, and to ask every
+nation for its financial co-operation. It was the bounded right and duty
+of all the earth to interfere in the business of the satellite. The
+subscription opened at Baltimore, for this end extended thence to all
+the world--_urbi et orbi_.
+
+This subscription was destined to succeed beyond all hope; yet the money
+was to be given, not lent. The operation was purely disinterested, in
+the literal meaning of the word, and offered no chance of gain.
+
+But the effect of Barbicane's communication had not stopped at the
+frontiers of the United States; it had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific,
+had invaded both Asia and Europe, both Africa and Oceania. The
+observatories of the Union were immediately put into communication with
+the observatories of foreign countries; some--those of Paris, St.
+Petersburg, the Cape, Berlin, Altona, Stockholm, Warsaw, Hamburg, Buda,
+Bologna, Malta, Lisbon, Benares, Madras, and Pekin--sent their
+compliments to the Gun Club; the others prudently awaited the result.
+
+As to the Greenwich Observatory, seconded by the twenty-two astronomical
+establishments of Great Britain, it made short work of it; it boldly
+denied the possibility of success, and took up Captain Nicholl's
+theories. Whilst the different scientific societies promised to send
+deputies to Tampa Town, the Greenwich staff met and contemptuously
+dismissed the Barbicane proposition. This was pure English jealousy and
+nothing else.
+
+Generally speaking, the effect upon the world of science was excellent,
+and from thence it passed to the masses, who, in general, were greatly
+interested in the question, a fact of great importance, seeing those
+masses were to be called upon to subscribe a considerable capital.
+
+On the 8th of October President Barbicane issued a manifesto, full of
+enthusiasm, in which he made appeal to "all persons on the face of the
+earth willing to help." This document, translated into every language,
+had great success.
+
+Subscriptions were opened in the principal towns of the Union with a
+central office at the Baltimore Bank, 9, Baltimore street; then
+subscriptions were opened in the different countries of the two
+continents:--At Vienna, by S.M. de Rothschild; St. Petersburg, Stieglitz
+and Co.; Paris, Crédit Mobilier; Stockholm, Tottie and Arfuredson;
+London, N.M. de Rothschild and Son; Turin, Ardouin and Co.; Berlin,
+Mendelssohn; Geneva, Lombard, Odier, and Co.; Constantinople, Ottoman
+Bank; Brussels, J. Lambert; Madrid, Daniel Weisweller; Amsterdam,
+Netherlands Credit Co.; Rome, Torlonia and Co.; Lisbon, Lecesne;
+Copenhagen, Private Bank; Buenos Ayres, Mana Bank; Rio Janeiro, Mana
+Bank; Monte Video, Mana Bank; Valparaiso, Thomas La Chambre and Co.;
+Lima, Thomas La Chambre and Co.; Mexico, Martin Daran and Co.
+
+Three days after President Barbicane's manifesto 400,000 dollars were
+received in the different towns of the Union. With such a sum in hand
+the Gun Club could begin at once.
+
+But a few days later telegrams informed America that foreign
+subscriptions were pouring in rapidly. Certain countries were
+distinguished by their generosity; others let go their money less
+easily. It was a matter of temperament.
+
+However, figures are more eloquent than words, and the following is an
+official statement of the sums paid to the credit of the Gun Club when
+the subscription was closed:--
+
+The contingent of Russia was the enormous sum of 368,733 roubles. This
+need astonish no one who remembers the scientific taste of the Russians
+and the impetus which they have given to astronomical studies, thanks to
+their numerous observatories, the principal of which cost 2,000,000
+roubles.
+
+France began by laughing at the pretensions of the Americans. The moon
+served as an excuse for a thousand stale puns and a score of vaudevilles
+in which bad taste contested the palm with ignorance. But, as the French
+formerly paid after singing, they now paid after laughing, and
+subscribed a sum of 1,258,930 francs. At that price they bought the
+right to joke a little.
+
+Austria, in the midst of her financial difficulties, was sufficiently
+generous. Her part in the public subscription amounted to 216,000
+florins, which were welcome.
+
+Sweden and Norway contributed 52,000 rix-dollars. The figure was small
+considering the country; but it would certainly have been higher if a
+subscription had been opened at Christiania as well as at Stockholm. For
+some reason or other the Norwegians do not like to send their money to
+Norway.
+
+Prussia, by sending 250,000 thalers, testified her approbation of the
+enterprise. Her different observatories contributed an important sum,
+and were amongst the most ardent in encouraging President Barbicane.
+
+Turkey behaved generously, but she was personally interested in the
+business; the moon, in fact, rules the course of her years and her
+Ramadan fast. She could do no less than give 1,372,640 piastres, and she
+gave them with an ardour that betrayed, however, a certain pressure from
+the Government of the Porte.
+
+Belgium distinguished herself amongst all the second order of States by
+a gift of 513,000 francs, about one penny and a fraction for each
+inhabitant.
+
+Holland and her colonies contributed 110,000 florins, only demanding a
+discount of five per cent., as she paid ready money.
+
+Denmark, rather confined for room, gave, notwithstanding, 9,000 ducats,
+proving her love for scientific experiments.
+
+The Germanic Confederation subscribed 34,285 florins; more could not be
+asked from her; besides, she would not have given more.
+
+Although in embarrassed circumstances, Italy found 2,000,000 francs in
+her children's pockets, but by turning them well inside out. If she had
+then possessed Venetia she would have given more, but she did not yet
+possess Venetia.
+
+The Pontifical States thought they could not send less than 7,040 Roman
+crowns, and Portugal pushed her devotion to the extent of 3,000
+cruzades.
+
+Mexico gent the widow's mite, 86 piastres; but empires in course of
+formation are always in rather embarrassed circumstances.
+
+Switzerland sent the modest sum of 257 francs to the American scheme. It
+must be frankly stated that Switzerland only looked upon the practical
+side of the operation; the action of sending a bullet to the moon did
+not seem of a nature sufficient for the establishing of any
+communication with the Queen of Night, so Switzerland thought it
+imprudent to engage capital in an enterprise depending upon such
+uncertain events. After all, Switzerland was, perhaps, right.
+
+As to Spain, she found it impossible to get together more than 110
+reals. She gave as an excuse that she had her railways to finish. The
+truth is that science is not looked upon very favourably in that
+country; it is still a little behindhand. And then certain Spaniards,
+and not the most ignorant either, had no clear conception of the size of
+the projectile compared with that of the moon; they feared it might
+disturb the satellite from her orbit, and make her fall on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe. In that case it was better to have
+nothing to do with it, which they carried out, with that small
+exception.
+
+England alone remained. The contemptuous antipathy with which she
+received Barbicane's proposition is known. The English have but a single
+mind in their 25,000,000 of bodies which Great Britain contains. They
+gave it to be understood that the enterprise of the Gun Club was
+contrary "to the principle of non-intervention," and they did not
+subscribe a single farthing.
+
+At this news the Gun Club contented itself with shrugging its shoulders,
+and returned to its great work. When South America--that is to say,
+Peru, Chili, Brazil, the provinces of La Plata and Columbia--had poured
+into their hands their quota of 300,000 dollars, it found itself
+possessed of a considerable capital of which the following is a
+statement:--
+
+United States subscription, 4,000,000 dollars; foreign subscriptions,
+1,446,675 dollars; total, 5,446,675 dollars.
+
+This was the large sum poured by the public into the coffers of the Gun
+Club.
+
+No one need be surprised at its importance. The work of casting, boring,
+masonry, transport of workmen, and their installation in an almost
+uninhabited country, the construction of furnaces and workshops, the
+manufacturing tools, powder, projectile and incidental expenses would,
+according to the estimates, absorb nearly the whole. Some of the
+cannon-shots fired during the war cost 1,000 dollars each; that of
+President Barbicane, unique in the annals of artillery, might well cost
+5,000 times more.
+
+On the 20th of October a contract was made with the Goldspring
+Manufactory, New York, which during the war had furnished Parrott with
+his best cast-iron guns.
+
+It was stipulated between the contracting parties that the Goldspring
+Manufactory should pledge itself to send to Tampa Town, in South
+Florida, the necessary materials for the casting of the Columbiad.
+
+This operation was to be terminated, at the latest, on the 15th of the
+next October, and the cannon delivered in good condition, under penalty
+of 100 dollars a day forfeit until the moon should again present herself
+under the same conditions--that is to say, during eighteen years and
+eleven days.
+
+The engagement of the workmen, their pay, and the necessary transports
+all to be made by the Goldspring Company.
+
+This contract, made in duplicate, was signed by I. Barbicane, president
+of the Gun Club, and J. Murphison, Manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory, who thus signed on the part of the contracting parties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STONY HILL.
+
+
+Since the choice made by the members of the Gun Club to the detriment of
+Texas, every one in America--where every one knows how to read--made it
+his business to study the geography of Florida. Never before had the
+booksellers sold so many _Bertram's Travels in Florida_, _Roman's
+Natural History of East and West Florida_, _Williams' Territory of
+Florida_, and _Cleland on the Culture of the Sugar Cane in East
+Florida_. New editions of these works were required. There was quite a
+rage for them.
+
+Barbicane had something better to do than to read; he wished to see with
+his own eyes and choose the site of the Columbiad. Therefore, without
+losing a moment, he put the funds necessary for the construction of a
+telescope at the disposition of the Cambridge Observatory, and made a
+contract with the firm of Breadwill and Co., of Albany, for the making
+of the aluminium projectile; then he left Baltimore accompanied by J.T.
+Maston, Major Elphinstone, and the manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory.
+
+The next day the four travelling companions reached New Orleans. There
+they embarked on board the _Tampico_, a despatch-boat belonging to the
+Federal Navy, which the Government had placed at their disposal, and,
+with all steam on, they quickly lost sight of the shores of Louisiana.
+
+The passage was not a long one; two days after its departure the
+_Tampico_, having made four hundred and eighty miles, sighted the
+Floridian coast. As it approached, Barbicane saw a low, flat coast,
+looking rather unfertile. After coasting a series of creeks rich in
+oysters and lobsters, the _Tampico_ entered the Bay of Espiritu-Santo.
+
+This bay is divided into two long roadsteads, those of Tampa and
+Hillisboro, the narrow entrance to which the steamer soon cleared. A
+short time afterwards the batteries of Fort Brooke rose above the waves
+and the town of Tampa appeared, carelessly lying on a little natural
+harbour formed by the mouth of the river Hillisboro.
+
+There the _Tampico_ anchored on October 22nd, at seven p.m.; the four
+passengers landed immediately.
+
+Barbicane felt his heart beat violently as he set foot on Floridian
+soil; he seemed to feel it with his feet like an architect trying the
+solidity of a house. J.T. Maston scratched the ground with his steel
+hook.
+
+"Gentlemen," then said Barbicane, "we have no time to lose, and we will
+set off on horseback to-morrow to survey the country."
+
+The minute Barbicane landed the three thousand inhabitants of Tampa Town
+went out to meet him, an honour quite due to the president of the Gun
+Club, who had decided in their favour. They received him with formidable
+exclamations, but Barbicane escaped an ovation by shutting himself up in
+his room at the Franklin Hotel and refusing to see any one.
+
+The next day, October 23rd, small horses of Spanish race, full of fire
+and vigour, pawed the ground under his windows. But, instead of four,
+there were fifty, with their riders. Barbicane went down accompanied by
+his three companions, who were at first astonished to find themselves in
+the midst of such a cavalcade. He remarked besides that each horseman
+carried a carbine slung across his shoulders and pistols in his
+holsters. The reason for such a display of force was immediately given
+him by a young Floridian, who said to him--
+
+"Sir, the Seminoles are there."
+
+"What Seminoles?"
+
+"Savages who frequent the prairies, and we deemed it prudent to give you
+an escort."
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed J.T. Maston as he mounted his steed.
+
+"It is well to be on the safe side," answered the Floridian.
+
+"Gentlemen," replied Barbicane, "I thank you for your attention, and now
+let us be off."
+
+The little troop set out immediately, and disappeared in a cloud of
+dust. It was five a.m.; the sun shone brilliantly already, and the
+thermometer indicated 84°, but fresh sea breezes moderated this
+excessive heat.
+
+Barbicane, on leaving Tampa Town, went down south and followed the coast
+to Alifia Creek. This small river falls into Hillisboro Bay, twelve
+miles below Tampa Town. Barbicane and his escort followed its right bank
+going up towards the east. The waves of the bay disappeared behind an
+inequality in the ground, and the Floridian country was alone in sight.
+
+Florida is divided into two parts; the one to the north, more populous
+and less abandoned, has Tallahassee for capital, and Pensacola, one of
+the principal marine arsenals of the United States; the other, lying
+between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, is only a narrow peninsula,
+eaten away by the current of the Gulf Stream--a little tongue of land
+lost amidst a small archipelago, which the numerous vessels of the
+Bahama Channel double continually. It is the advanced sentinel of the
+gulf of great tempests. The superficial area of this state measures
+38,033,267 acres, amongst which one had to be chosen situated beyond the
+28th parallel and suitable for the enterprise. As Barbicane rode along
+he attentively examined the configuration of the ground and its
+particular distribution.
+
+Florida, discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512, on Palm Sunday, was
+first of all named _Pascha Florida_. It was well worthy of that
+designation with its dry and arid coasts. But a few miles from the shore
+the nature of the ground gradually changed, and the country showed
+itself worthy of its name; the soil was cut up by a network of creeks,
+rivers, watercourses, ponds, and small lakes; it might have been
+mistaken for Holland or Guiana; but the ground gradually rose and soon
+showed its cultivated plains, where all the vegetables of the North and
+South grow in perfection, its immense fields, where a tropical sun and
+the water conserved in its clayey texture do all the work of
+cultivating, and lastly its prairies of pineapples, yams, tobacco, rice,
+cotton, and sugarcanes, which extended as far as the eye could reach,
+spreading out their riches with careless prodigality.
+
+Barbicane appeared greatly satisfied on finding the progressive
+elevation of the ground, and when J.T. Maston questioned him on the
+subject,
+
+"My worthy friend," said he, "it is greatly to our interest to cast our
+Columbiad on elevated ground."
+
+"In order to be nearer the moon?" exclaimed the secretary of the Gun
+Club.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, smiling. "What can a few yards more or less
+matter? No, but on elevated ground our work can be accomplished more
+easily; we shall not have to struggle against water, which will save us
+long and expensive tubings, and that has to be taken into consideration
+when a well 900 feet deep has to be sunk."
+
+"You are right," said Murchison, the engineer; "we must, as much as
+possible, avoid watercourses during the casting; but if we meet with
+springs they will not matter much; we can exhaust them with our machines
+or divert them from their course. Here we have not to work at an
+artesian well, narrow and dark, where all the boring implements have to
+work in the dark. No; we can work under the open sky, with spade and
+pickaxe, and, by the help of blasting, our work will not take long."
+
+"Still," resumed Barbicane, "if by the elevation of the ground or its
+nature we can avoid a struggle with subterranean waters, we can do our
+work more rapidly and perfectly; we must, therefore, make our cutting in
+ground situated some thousands of feet above the level of the sea."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Barbicane, and, if I am not mistaken, we shall soon
+find a suitable spot."
+
+"I should like to see the first spadeful turned up," said the president.
+
+"And I the last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"We shall manage it, gentlemen," answered the engineer; "and, believe
+me, the Goldspring Company will not have to pay you any forfeit for
+delay."
+
+"Faith! it had better not," replied J.T. Maston; "a hundred dollars a
+day till the moon presents herself in the same conditions--that is to
+say, for eighteen years and eleven days--do you know that would make
+658,000 dollars?"
+
+"No, sir, we do not know, and we shall not need to learn."
+
+About ten a.m. the little troop had journeyed about twelve miles; to the
+fertile country succeeded a forest region. There were the most varied
+perfumes in tropical profusion. The almost impenetrable forests were
+made up of pomegranates, orange, citron, fig, olive, and apricot trees,
+bananas, huge vines, the blossoms and fruit of which rivalled each other
+in colour and perfume. Under the perfumed shade of these magnificent
+trees sang and fluttered a world of brilliantly-coloured birds, amongst
+which the crab-eater deserved a jewel casket, worthy of its feathered
+gems, for a nest.
+
+J.T. Maston and the major could not pass through such opulent nature
+without admiring its splendid beauty.
+
+But President Barbicane, who thought little of these marvels, was in a
+hurry to hasten onwards; this country, so fertile, displeased him by its
+very fertility; without being otherwise hydropical, he felt water under
+his feet, and sought in vain the signs of incontestable aridity.
+
+In the meantime they journeyed on. They were obliged to ford several
+rivers, and not without danger, for they were infested with alligators
+from fifteen to eighteen feet long. J.T. Maston threatened them boldly
+with his formidable hook, but he only succeeded in frightening the
+pelicans, phaetons, and teals that frequented the banks, while the red
+flamingoes looked on with a stupid stare.
+
+At last these inhabitants of humid countries disappeared in their turn.
+The trees became smaller and more thinly scattered in smaller woods;
+some isolated groups stood amidst immense plains where ranged herds of
+startled deer.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed Barbicane, rising in his stirrups. "Here is the
+region of pines."
+
+"And savages," answered the major.
+
+In fact, a few Seminoles appeared on the horizon. They moved about
+backwards and forwards on their fleet horses, brandishing long lances or
+firing their guns with a dull report. However, they confined themselves
+to these hostile demonstrations, which had no effect on Barbicane and
+his companions.
+
+They were then in the middle of a rocky plain, a vast open space of
+several acres in extent which the sun covered with burning rays. It was
+formed by a wide elevation of the soil, and seemed to offer to the
+members of the Gun Club all the required conditions for the construction
+of their Columbiad.
+
+"Halt!" cried Barbicane, stopping. "Has this place any name?"
+
+"It is called Stony Hill," answered the Floridians.
+
+Barbicane, without saying a word, dismounted, took his instruments, and
+began to fix his position with extreme precision. The little troop drawn
+up around him watched him in profound silence.
+
+At that moment the sun passed the meridian. Barbicane, after an
+interval, rapidly noted the result of his observation, and said--
+
+"This place is situated 1,800 feet above the sea level in lat. 27° 7'
+and West long. 5° 7' by the Washington meridian. It appears to me by its
+barren and rocky nature to offer every condition favourable to our
+enterprise; we will therefore raise our magazines, workshops, furnaces,
+and workmen's huts here, and it is from this very spot," said he,
+stamping upon it with his foot, "the summit of Stony Hill, that our
+projectile will start for the regions of the solar world!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PICKAXE AND TROWEL.
+
+
+That same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town,
+and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the _Tampico_ for New
+Orleans. He was to engage an army of workmen to bring back the greater
+part of the working-stock. The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa
+Town in order to set on foot the preliminary work with the assistance of
+the inhabitants of the country.
+
+Eight days after its departure the _Tampico_ returned to the
+Espiritu-Santo Bay with a fleet of steamboats. Murchison had succeeded
+in getting together 1,500 workmen. In the evil days of slavery he would
+have lost his time and trouble; but since America, the land of liberty,
+has only contained freemen, they flock wherever they can get good pay.
+Now money was not wanting to the Gun Club; it offered a high rate of
+wages with considerable and proportionate perquisites. The workman
+enlisted for Florida could, once the work finished, depend upon a
+capital placed in his name in the bank of Baltimore.
+
+Murchison had therefore only to pick and choose, and could be severe
+about the intelligence and skill of his workmen. He enrolled in his
+working legion the pick of mechanics, stokers, iron-founders,
+lime-burners, miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every sort, white or
+black without distinction of colour. Many of them brought their families
+with them. It was quite an emigration.
+
+On the 31st of October, at 10 a.m., this troop landed on the quays of
+Tampa Town. The movement and activity which reigned in the little town
+that had thus doubled its population in a single day may be imagined. In
+fact, Tampa Town was enormously benefited by this enterprise of the Gun
+Club, not by the number of workmen who were immediately drafted to Stony
+Hill, but by the influx of curious idlers who converged by degrees from
+all points of the globe towards the Floridian peninsula.
+
+During the first few days they were occupied in unloading the flotilla
+of the tools, machines, provisions, and a large number of plate iron
+houses made in pieces separately pieced and numbered. At the same time
+Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles long that
+was destined to unite Stony Hill and Tampa Town.
+
+It is known how American railways are constructed, with capricious
+bends, bold slopes, steep hills, and deep valleys. They do not cost much
+and are not much in their way, only their trains run off or jump off as
+they please. The railway from Tampa Town to Stony Hill was but a trifle,
+and wanted neither much time nor much money for its construction.
+
+Barbicane was the soul of this army of workmen who had come at his call.
+He animated them, communicated to them his ardour, enthusiasm, and
+conviction. He was everywhere at once, as if endowed with the gift of
+ubiquity, and always followed by J.T. Maston, his bluebottle fly. His
+practical mind invented a thousand things. With him there were no
+obstacles, difficulties, or embarrassment. He was as good a miner,
+mason, and mechanic as he was an artilleryman, having an answer to every
+question, and a solution to every problem. He corresponded actively with
+the Gun Club and the Goldspring Manufactory, and day and night the
+_Tampico_ kept her steam up awaiting his orders in Hillisboro harbour.
+
+Barbicane, on the 1st of November, left Tampa Town with a detachment of
+workmen, and the very next day a small town of workmen's houses rose
+round Stony Hill. They surrounded it with palisades, and from its
+movement and ardour it might soon have been taken for one of the great
+cities of the Union. Life was regulated at once and work began in
+perfect order.
+
+Careful boring had established the nature of the ground, and digging was
+begun on November 4th. That day Barbicane called his foremen together
+and said to them--
+
+"You all know, my friends, why I have called you together in this part
+of Florida. We want to cast a cannon nine feet in diameter, six feet
+thick, and with a stone revetment nineteen and a half feet thick; we
+therefore want a well 60 feet wide and 900 feet deep. This large work
+must be terminated in nine months. You have, therefore, 2,543,400 cubic
+feet of soil to dig out in 255 days--that is to say, 10,000 cubic feet a
+day. That would offer no difficulty if you had plenty of elbow-room, but
+as you will only have a limited space it will be more trouble.
+Nevertheless as the work must be done it will be done, and I depend upon
+your courage as much as upon your skill."
+
+At 8 a.m. the first spadeful was dug out of the Floridian soil, and from
+that moment this useful tool did not stop idle a moment in the hands of
+the miner. The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
+
+Besides, although the work was colossal it did not exceed the limit of
+human capability. Far from that. How many works of much greater
+difficulty, and in which the elements had to be more directly contended
+against, had been brought to a successful termination! Suffice it to
+mention the well of Father Joseph, made near Cairo by the Sultan Saladin
+at an epoch when machines had not yet appeared to increase the strength
+of man a hundredfold, and which goes down to the level of the Nile
+itself at a depth of 300 feet! And that other well dug at Coblentz by
+the Margrave Jean of Baden, 600 feet deep! All that was needed was a
+triple depth and a double width, which made the boring easier. There was
+not one foreman or workman who doubted about the success of the
+operation.
+
+An important decision taken by Murchison and approved of by Barbicane
+accelerated the work. An article in the contract decided that the
+Columbiad should be hooped with wrought-iron--a useless precaution, for
+the cannon could evidently do without hoops. This clause was therefore
+given up. Hence a great economy of time, for they could then employ the
+new system of boring now used for digging wells, by which the masonry is
+done at the same time as the boring. Thanks to this very simple
+operation they were not obliged to prop up the ground; the wall kept it
+up and went down by its own weight.
+
+This manoeuvre was only to begin when the spade should have reached the
+solid part of the ground.
+
+On the 4th of November fifty workmen began to dig in the very centre of
+the inclosure surrounded by palisades--that is to say, the top of Stony
+Hill--a circular hole sixty feet wide.
+
+The spade first turned up a sort of black soil six inches deep, which it
+soon carried away. To this soil succeeded two feet of fine sand, which
+was carefully taken out, as it was to be used for the casting.
+
+After this sand white clay appeared, similar to English chalk, and which
+was four feet thick.
+
+Then the pickaxes rang upon the hard layer, a species of rock formed by
+very dry petrified shells. At that point the hole was six and a half
+feet deep, and the masonry was begun.
+
+At the bottom of that excavation they made an oak wheel, a sort of
+circle strongly bolted and of enormous strength; in its centre a hole
+was pierced the size of the exterior diameter of the Columbiad. It was
+upon this wheel that the foundations of the masonry were placed, the
+hydraulic cement of which joined the stones solidly together. After the
+workmen had bricked up the space from the circumference to the centre,
+they found themselves inclosed in a well twenty-one feet wide.
+
+When this work was ended the miners began again with spade and pickaxe,
+and set upon the rock under the wheel itself, taking care to support it
+on extremely strong tressels; every time the hole was two feet deeper
+they took away the tressels; the wheel gradually sank, taking with it
+its circle of masonry, at the upper layer of which the masons worked
+incessantly, taking care to make vent-holes for the escape of gas during
+the operation of casting.
+
+This kind of work required great skill and constant attention on the
+part of the workmen; more than one digging under the wheel was
+dangerous, and some were even mortally wounded by the splinters of
+stone; but their energy did not slacken for a moment by day nor night;
+by day, when the sun's rays sent the thermometer up to 99° on the
+calcined planes; by night, under the white waves of electric light, the
+noise of the pickaxe on the rock, the blasting and the machines,
+together with the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced a
+circle of terror round Stony Hill, which the herds of buffaloes and the
+detachments of Seminoles never dared to pass.
+
+In the meantime the work regularly advanced; steam-cranes speeded the
+carrying away of the rubbish; of unexpected obstacles there were none;
+all the difficulties had been foreseen and guarded against.
+
+When the first month had gone by the well had attained the depth
+assigned for the time--i.e., 112 feet. In December this depth was
+doubled, and tripled in January. During February the workmen had to
+contend against a sheet of water which sprang from the ground. They were
+obliged to employ powerful pumps and apparatus of compressed air to
+drain it off, so as to close up the orifice from which it issued, just
+as leaks are caulked on board ship. At last they got the better of these
+unwelcome springs, only in consequence of the loosening of the soil the
+wheel partially gave way, and there was a landslip. The frightful force
+of this bricked circle, more than 400 feet high, may be imagined! This
+accident cost the life of several workmen. Three weeks had to be taken
+up in propping the stone revetment and making the wheel solid again.
+But, thanks to the skill of the engineer and the power of the machines,
+it was all set right, and the boring continued.
+
+No fresh incident henceforth stopped the progress of the work, and on
+the 10th of June, twenty days before the expiration of the delay fixed
+by Barbicane, the well, quite bricked round, had reached the depth of
+900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block, thirty
+feet thick, whilst at the top it was on a level with the soil.
+
+President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulated
+the engineer Murchison; his cyclopean work had been accomplished with
+extraordinary rapidity.
+
+During these eight months Barbicane did not leave Stony Hill for a
+minute; whilst he narrowly watched over the boring operations, he took
+every precaution to insure the health and well-being of his workmen, and
+he was fortunate enough to avoid the epidemics common to large
+agglomerations of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe
+exposed to tropical influence.
+
+It is true that several workmen paid with their lives for the
+carelessness engendered by these dangerous occupations; but such
+deplorable misfortunes cannot be avoided, and these are details that
+Americans pay very little attention to. They are more occupied with
+humanity in general than with individuals in particular. However,
+Barbicane professed the contrary principles, and applied them upon every
+occasion. Thanks to his care, to his intelligence and respectful
+intervention in difficult cases, to his prodigious and humane wisdom,
+the average of catastrophes did not exceed that of cities on the other
+side of the Atlantic, amongst others those of France, where they count
+about one accident upon every 200,000 francs of work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING.
+
+
+During the eight months that were employed in the operation of boring
+the preparatory works of the casting had been conducted simultaneously
+with extreme rapidity; a stranger arriving at Stony Hill would have been
+much surprised at what he saw there.
+
+Six hundred yards from the well, and standing in a circle round it as a
+central point, were 1,200 furnaces, each six feet wide and three yards
+apart. The line made by these 1,200 furnaces was two miles long. They
+were all built on the same model, with high quadrangular chimneys, and
+had a singular effect. J.T. Maston thought the architectural arrangement
+superb. It reminded him of the monuments at Washington. He thought there
+was nothing finer in the world, not even in Greece, where he
+acknowledged never to have been.
+
+It will be remembered that at their third meeting the committee decided
+to use cast-iron for the Columbiad, and in particular the grey
+description. This metal is, in fact, the most tenacious, ductile, and
+malleable, suitable for all moulding operations, and when smelted with
+pit coal it is of superior quality for engine-cylinders, hydraulic
+presses, &c.
+
+But cast-iron, if it has undergone a single fusion, is rarely
+homogeneous enough; and it is by means of a second fusion that it is
+purified, refined, and dispossessed of its last earthly deposits.
+
+Before being forwarded to Tampa Town, the iron ore, smelted in the great
+furnaces of Goldspring, and put in contact with coal and silicium heated
+to a high temperature, was transformed into cast-iron. After this first
+operation the metal was taken to Stony Hill. But there were 136 millions
+of pounds of cast-iron, a bulk too expensive to be sent by railway; the
+price of transport would have doubled that of the raw material. It
+appeared preferable to freight vessels at New York and to load them with
+the iron in bars; no less than sixty-eight vessels of 1,000 tons were
+required, quite a fleet, which on May 3rd left New York, took the Ocean
+route, coasted the American shores, entered the Bahama Channel, doubled
+the point of Florida, and on the 10th of the same month entered the Bay
+of Espiritu-Santo and anchored safely in the port of Tampa Town. There
+the vessels were unloaded and their cargo carried by railway to Stony
+Hill, and about the middle of January the enormous mass of metal was
+delivered at its destination.
+
+It will easily be understood that 1,200 furnaces were not too many to
+melt these 60,000 tons of iron simultaneously. Each of these furnaces
+contained about 1,400,000 lbs. of metal; they had been built on the
+model of those used for the casting of the Rodman gun; they were
+trapezoidal in form, with a high elliptical arch. The warming apparatus
+and the chimney were placed at the two extremities of the furnace, so
+that it was equally heated throughout. These furnaces, built of
+fireproof brick, were filled with coal-grates and a "sole" for the bars
+of iron; this sole, inclosed at an angle of 25°, allowed the metal to
+flow into the receiving-troughs; from thence 1,200 converging trenches
+carried it down to the central well.
+
+The day following that upon which the works of masonry and casting were
+terminated, Barbicane set to work upon the interior mould; his object
+now was to raise in the centre of the well, with a coincident axis, a
+cylinder 900 feet high and nine in diameter, to exactly fill up the
+space reserved for the bore of the Columbiad. This cylinder was made of
+a mixture of clay and sand, with the addition of hay and straw. The
+space left between the mould and the masonry was to be filled with the
+molten metal, which would thus make the sides of the cannon six feet
+thick.
+
+This cylinder, in order to have its equilibrium maintained, had to be
+consolidated with iron bands and fixed at intervals by means of
+cross-clamps fastened into the stone lining; after the casting these
+clamps would be lost in the block of metal, which would not be the worse
+for them.
+
+This operation was completed on the 8th of July, and the casting was
+fixed for the 10th.
+
+"The casting will be a fine ceremony," said J.T. Maston to his friend
+Barbicane.
+
+"Undoubtedly," answered Barbicane, "but it will not be a public one!"
+
+"What! you will not open the doors of the inclosure to all comers?"
+
+"Certainly not; the casting of the Columbiad is a delicate, not to say a
+dangerous, operation, and I prefer that it should be done with closed
+doors. When the projectile is discharged you may have a public ceremony
+if you like, but till then, no!"
+
+The president was right; the operation might be attended with unforeseen
+danger, which a large concourse of spectators would prevent being
+averted. It was necessary to preserve complete freedom of movement. No
+one was admitted into the inclosure except a delegation of members of
+the Gun Club who made the voyage to Tampa Town. Among them was the brisk
+Bilsby, Tom Hunter, Colonel Blomsberry, Major Elphinstone, General
+Morgan, and _tutti quanti_, to whom the casting of the Columbiad was a
+personal business. J.T. Maston constituted himself their cicerone; he
+did not excuse them any detail; he led them about everywhere, through
+the magazines, workshops, amongst the machines, and he forced them to
+visit the 1,200 furnaces one after the other. At the end of the 1,200th
+visit they were rather sick of it.
+
+The casting was to take place precisely at twelve o'clock; the evening
+before each furnace had been charged with 114,000 lbs. of metal in bars
+disposed crossway to each other so that the warm air could circulate
+freely amongst them. Since early morning the 1,200 chimneys had been
+pouring forth volumes of flames into the atmosphere, and the soil was
+shaken convulsively. There were as many pounds of coal to be burnt as
+metal to be melted. There were, therefore, 68,000 tons of coal throwing
+up before the sun a thick curtain of black smoke.
+
+The heat soon became unbearable in the circle of furnaces, the rambling
+of which resembled the rolling of thunder; powerful bellows added their
+continuous blasts, and saturated the incandescent furnaces with oxygen.
+
+The operation of casting in order to succeed must be done rapidly. At a
+signal given by a cannon-shot each furnace was to pour out the liquid
+iron and to be entirely emptied.
+
+These arrangements made, foremen and workmen awaited the preconcerted
+moment with impatience mixed with emotion. There was no longer any one
+in the inclosure, and each superintendent took his place near the
+aperture of the run.
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues, installed on a neighbouring eminence,
+assisted at the operation. Before them a cannon was planted ready to be
+fired as a sign from the engineer.
+
+A few minutes before twelve the first drops of metal began to run; the
+reservoirs were gradually filled, and when the iron was all in a liquid
+state it was left quiet for some instants in order to facilitate the
+separation of foreign substances.
+
+Twelve o'clock struck. The cannon was suddenly fired, and shot its flame
+into the air. Twelve hundred tapping-holes were opened simultaneously,
+and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept along twelve hundred troughs
+towards the central well, rolling in rings of fire. There they plunged
+with terrific noise down a depth of 900 feet. It was an exciting and
+magnificent spectacle. The ground trembled, whilst these waves of iron,
+throwing into the sky their clouds of smoke, evaporated at the same time
+the humidity of the mould, and hurled it upwards through the vent-holes
+of the masonry in the form of impenetrable vapour. These artificial
+clouds unrolled their thick spirals as they went up to a height of 3,000
+feet into the air. Any Red Indian wandering upon the limits of the
+horizon might have believed in the formation of a new crater in the
+heart of Florida, and yet it was neither an irruption, nor a typhoon,
+nor a storm, nor a struggle of the elements, nor one of those terrible
+phenomena which Nature is capable of producing. No; man alone had
+produced those reddish vapours, those gigantic flames worthy of a
+volcano, those tremendous vibrations like the shock of an earthquake,
+those reverberations, rivals of hurricanes and storms, and it was his
+hand which hurled into an abyss, dug by himself, a whole Niagara of
+molten metal!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE COLUMBIAD.
+
+
+Had the operation of casting succeeded? People were reduced to mere
+conjecture. However, there was every reason to believe in its success,
+as the mould had absorbed the entire mass of metal liquefied in the
+furnaces. Still it was necessarily a long time impossible to be certain.
+
+In fact, when Major Rodman cast his cannon of 160,000 lbs., it took no
+less than a fortnight to cool. How long, therefore, would the monstrous
+Columbiad, crowned with its clouds of vapour, and guarded by its intense
+heat, be kept from the eyes of its admirers? It was difficult to
+estimate.
+
+The impatience of the members of the Gun Club was put to a rude test
+during this lapse of time. But it could not be helped. J.T. Maston was
+nearly roasted through his anxiety. A fortnight after the casting an
+immense column of smoke was still soaring towards the sky, and the
+ground burnt the soles of the feet within a radius of 200 feet round the
+summit of Stony Hill.
+
+The days went by; weeks followed them. There were no means of cooling
+the immense cylinder. It was impossible to approach it. The members of
+the Gun Club were obliged to wait with what patience they could muster.
+
+"Here we are at the 10th of August," said J.T. Maston one morning. "It
+wants hardly four months to the 1st of December! There still remains the
+interior mould to be taken out, and the Columbiad to be loaded! We never
+shall be ready! One cannot even approach the cannon! Will it never get
+cool? That would be a cruel deception!"
+
+They tried to calm the impatient secretary without succeeding. Barbicane
+said nothing, but his silence covered serious irritation. To see himself
+stopped by an obstacle that time alone could remove--time, an enemy to
+be feared under the circumstances--and to be in the power of an enemy
+was hard for men of war.
+
+However, daily observations showed a certain change in the state of the
+ground. Towards the 15th of August the vapour thrown off had notably
+diminished in intensity and thickness. A few days after the earth only
+exhaled a slight puff of smoke, the last breath of the monster shut up
+in its stone tomb. By degrees the vibrations of the ground ceased, and
+the circle of heat contracted; the most impatient of the spectators
+approached; one day they gained ten feet, the next twenty, and on the
+22nd of August Barbicane, his colleagues, and the engineer could take
+their place on the cast-iron surface which covered the summit of Stony
+Hill, certainly a very healthy spot, where it was not yet allowed to
+have cold feet.
+
+"At last!" cried the president of the Gun Club with an immense sigh of
+satisfaction.
+
+The works were resumed the same day. The extraction of the interior
+mould was immediately proceeded with in order to clear out the bore;
+pickaxes, spades, and boring-tools were set to work without
+intermission; the clay and sand had become exceedingly hard under the
+action of the heat; but by the help of machines they cleared away the
+mixture still burning at its contact with the iron; the rubbish was
+rapidly carted away on the railway, and the work was done with such
+spirit, Barbicane's intervention was so urgent, and his arguments,
+presented under the form of dollars, carried so much conviction, that on
+the 3rd of September all trace of the mould had disappeared.
+
+The operation of boring was immediately begun; the boring-machines were
+set up without delay, and a few weeks later the interior surface of the
+immense tube was perfectly cylindrical, and the bore had acquired a high
+polish.
+
+At last, on the 22nd of September, less than a year after the Barbicane
+communication, the enormous weapon, raised by means of delicate
+instruments, and quite vertical, was ready for use. There was nothing
+but the moon to wait for, but they were sure she would not fail.
+
+J.T. Maston's joy knew no bounds, and he nearly had a frightful fall
+whilst looking down the tube of 900 feet. Without Colonel Blomsberry's
+right arm, which he had happily preserved, the secretary of the Gun
+Club, like a modern Erostatus, would have found a grave in the depths of
+the Columbiad.
+
+The cannon was then finished; there was no longer any possible doubt as
+to its perfect execution; so on the 6th of October Captain Nicholl
+cleared off his debt to President Barbicane, who inscribed in his
+receipt-column a sum of 2,000 dollars. It may be believed that the
+captain's anger reached its highest pitch, and cost him an illness.
+Still there were yet three bets of 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000 dollars, and
+if he only gained 2,000, his bargain would not be a bad one, though not
+excellent. But money did not enter into his calculations, and the
+success obtained by his rival in the casting of a cannon against which
+iron plates sixty feet thick would not have resisted was a terrible blow
+to him.
+
+Since the 23rd of September the inclosure on Stony Hill had been quite
+open to the public, and the concourse of visitors will be readily
+imagined.
+
+In fact, innumerable people from all points of the United States flocked
+to Florida. The town of Tampa was prodigiously increased during that
+year, consecrated entirely to the works of the Gun Club; it then
+comprised a population of 150,000 souls. After having surrounded Fort
+Brooke in a network of streets it was now being lengthened out on that
+tongue of land which separated the two harbours of Espiritu-Santo Bay;
+new quarters, new squares, and a whole forest of houses had grown up in
+these formerly-deserted regions under the heat of the American sun.
+Companies were formed for the erection of churches, schools, private
+dwellings, and in less than a year the size of the town was increased
+tenfold.
+
+It is well known that Yankees are born business men; everywhere that
+destiny takes them, from the glacial to the torrid zone, their instinct
+for business is usefully exercised. That is why simple visitors to
+Florida for the sole purpose of following the operations of the Gun Club
+allowed themselves to be involved in commercial operations as soon as
+they were installed in Tampa Town. The vessels freighted for the
+transport of the metal and the workmen had given unparalleled activity
+to the port. Soon other vessels of every form and tonnage, freighted
+with provisions and merchandise, ploughed the bay and the two harbours;
+vast offices of shipbrokers and merchants were established in the town,
+and the _Shipping Gazette_ each day published fresh arrivals in the port
+of Tampa.
+
+Whilst roads were multiplied round the town, in consequence of the
+prodigious increase in its population and commerce, it was joined by
+railway to the Southern States of the Union. One line of rails connected
+La Mobile to Pensacola, the great southern maritime arsenal; thence from
+that important point it ran to Tallahassee. There already existed there
+a short line, twenty-one miles long, to Saint Marks on the seashore. It
+was this loop-line that was prolonged as far as Tampa Town, awakening in
+its passage the dead or sleeping portions of Central Florida. Thus
+Tampa, thanks to these marvels of industry due to the idea born one fine
+day in the brain of one man, could take as its right the airs of a large
+town. They surnamed it "Moon-City," and the capital of Florida suffered
+an eclipse visible from all points of the globe.
+
+Every one will now understand why the rivalry was so great between Texas
+and Florida, and the irritation of the Texicans when they saw their
+pretensions set aside by the Gun Club. In their long-sighted sagacity
+they had foreseen what a country might gain from the experiment
+attempted by Barbicane, and the wealth that would accompany such a
+cannon-shot. Texas lost a vast centre of commerce, railways, and a
+considerable increase of population. All these advantages had been given
+to that miserable Floridian peninsula, thrown like a pier between the
+waves of the Gulf and those of the Atlantic Ocean. Barbicane, therefore,
+divided with General Santa-Anna the Texan antipathy.
+
+However, though given up to its commercial and industrial fury, the new
+population of Tampa Town took care not to forget the interesting
+operations of the Gun Club. On the contrary, the least details of the
+enterprise, every blow of the pickaxe, interested them. There was an
+incessant flow of people to and from Tampa Town to Stony Hill--a perfect
+procession, or, better still, a pilgrimage.
+
+It was already easy to foresee that the day of the experiment the
+concourse of spectators would be counted by millions, for they came
+already from all points of the earth to the narrow peninsula. Europe was
+emigrating to America.
+
+But until then, it must be acknowledged, the curiosity of the numerous
+arrivals had only been moderately satisfied. Many counted upon seeing
+the casting who only saw the smoke from it. This was not much for hungry
+eyes, but Barbicane would allow no one to see that operation. Thereupon
+ensued grumbling, discontent, and murmurs; they blamed the president for
+what they considered dictatorial conduct. His act was stigmatised as
+"un-American." There was nearly a riot round Stony Hill, but Barbicane
+was not to be moved. When, however, the Columbiad was quite finished,
+this state of closed doors could no longer be kept up; besides, it would
+have been in bad taste, and even imprudent, to offend public opinion.
+Barbicane, therefore, opened the inclosure to all comers; but, in
+accordance with his practical character, he determined to coin money out
+of the public curiosity.
+
+It was, indeed, something to even be allowed to see this immense
+Columbiad, but to descend into its depths seemed to the Americans the
+_ne plus ultra_ of earthly felicity. In consequence there was not one
+visitor who was not willing to give himself the pleasure of visiting the
+interior of this metallic abyss. Baskets hung from steam-cranes allowed
+them to satisfy their curiosity. It became a perfect mania. Women,
+children, and old men all made it their business to penetrate the
+mysteries of the colossal gun. The price for the descent was fixed at
+five dollars a head, and, notwithstanding this high charge, during the
+two months that preceded the experiment, the influx of visitors allowed
+the Gun Club to pocket nearly 500,000 dollars!
+
+It need hardly be said that the first visitors to the Columbiad were the
+members of the Gun Club. This privilege was justly accorded to that
+illustrious body. The ceremony of reception took place on the 25th of
+September. A basket of honour took down the president, J.T. Maston,
+Major Elphinstone, General Morgan, Colonel Blomsberry, and other members
+of the Gun Club, ten in all. How hot they were at the bottom of that
+long metal tube! They were nearly stifled, but how delightful--how
+exquisite! A table had been laid for ten on the massive stone which
+formed the bottom of the Columbiad, and was lighted by a jet of electric
+light as bright as day itself. Numerous exquisite dishes, that seemed to
+descend from heaven, were successively placed before the guests, and the
+richest wines of France flowed profusely during this splendid repast,
+given 900 feet below the surface of the earth!
+
+The festival was a gay, not to say a noisy one. Toasts were given and
+replied to. They drank to the earth and her satellite, to the Gun Club,
+the Union, the Moon, Diana, Phoebe, Selene, "the peaceful courier of the
+night." All the hurrahs, carried up by the sonorous waves of the immense
+acoustic tube, reached its mouth with a noise of thunder; then the
+multitude round Stony Hill heartily united their shouts to those of the
+ten revellers hidden from sight in the depths of the gigantic Columbiad.
+
+J.T. Maston could contain himself no longer. Whether he shouted or ate,
+gesticulated or talked most would be difficult to determine. Any way he
+would not have given up his place for an empire, "not even if the
+cannon--loaded, primed, and fired at that very moment--were to blow him
+in pieces into the planetary universe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A TELEGRAM.
+
+
+The great work undertaken by the Gun Club was now virtually ended, and
+yet two months would still elapse before the day the projectile would
+start for the moon. These two months would seem as long as two years to
+the universal impatience. Until then the smallest details of each
+operation had appeared in the newspapers every day, and were eagerly
+devoured by the public, but now it was to be feared that this "interest
+dividend" would be much diminished, and every one was afraid of no
+longer receiving his daily share of emotions.
+
+They were all agreeably disappointed: the most unexpected,
+extraordinary, incredible, and improbable incident happened in time to
+keep up the general excitement to its highest pitch.
+
+On September 30th, at 3.47 p.m., a telegram, transmitted through the
+Atlantic Cable, arrived at Tampa Town for President Barbicane.
+
+He tore open the envelope and read the message, and, notwithstanding his
+great self-control, his lips grew pale and his eyes dim as he read the
+telegram.
+
+The following is the text of the message stored in the archives of the
+Gun Club:--
+
+"France, Paris,
+
+"September 30th, 4 a.m.
+
+"Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States.
+
+"Substitute a cylindro-conical projectile for your spherical shell.
+Shall go inside. Shall arrive by steamer _Atlanta_.
+
+"MICHEL ARDAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA.
+
+
+If this wonderful news, instead of coming by telegraph, had simply
+arrived by post and in a sealed envelope--if the French, Irish,
+Newfoundland, and American telegraph clerks had not necessarily been
+acquainted with it--Barbicane would not have hesitated for a moment. He
+would have been quite silent about it for prudence' sake, and in order
+not to throw discredit on his work. This telegram might be a practical
+joke, especially as it came from a Frenchman. What probability could
+there be that any man should conceive the idea of such a journey? And if
+the man did exist was he not a madman who would have to be inclosed in a
+strait-waistcoat instead of in a cannon-ball?
+
+But the message was known, and Michel Ardan's proposition was already
+all over the States of the Union, so Barbicane had no reason for
+silence. He therefore called together his colleagues then in Tampa Town,
+and, without showing what he thought about it or saying a word about the
+degree of credibility the telegram deserved, he read coldly the laconic
+text.
+
+"Not possible!"--"Unheard of!"--"They are laughing at
+us!"--"Ridiculous!"--"Absurd!" Every sort of expression for doubt,
+incredulity, and folly was heard for some minutes with accompaniment of
+appropriate gestures. J.T. Maston alone uttered the words:--
+
+"That's an idea!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "but if people have such ideas as that they
+ought not to think of putting them into execution."
+
+"Why not?" quickly answered the secretary of the Gun Club, ready for an
+argument. But the subject was let drop.
+
+In the meantime Michel Ardan's name was already going about Tampa Town.
+Strangers and natives talked and joked together, not about the
+European--evidently a mythical personage--but about J.T. Maston, who had
+the folly to believe in his existence. When Barbicane proposed to send a
+projectile to the moon every one thought the enterprise natural and
+practicable--a simple affair of ballistics. But that a reasonable being
+should offer to go the journey inside the projectile was a farce, or, to
+use a familiar Americanism, it was all "humbug."
+
+This laughter lasted till evening throughout the Union, an unusual thing
+in a country where any impossible enterprise finds adepts and partisans.
+
+Still Michel Ardan's proposition did not fail to awaken a certain
+emotion in many minds. "They had not thought of such a thing." How many
+things denied one day had become realities the next! Why should not this
+journey be accomplished one day or another? But, any way, the man who
+would run such a risk must be a madman, and certainly, as his project
+could not be taken seriously, he would have done better to be quiet
+about it, instead of troubling a whole population with such ridiculous
+trash.
+
+But, first of all, did this personage really exist? That was the great
+question. The name of "Michel Ardan" was not altogether unknown in
+America. It belonged to a European much talked about for his audacious
+enterprises. Then the telegram sent all across the depths of the
+Atlantic, the designation of the ship upon which the Frenchman had
+declared he had taken his passage, the date assigned for his
+arrival--all these circumstances gave to the proposition a certain air
+of probability. They were obliged to disburden their minds about it.
+Soon these isolated individuals formed into groups, the groups became
+condensed under the action of curiosity like atoms by virtue of
+molecular attraction, and the result was a compact crowd going towards
+President Barbicane's dwelling.
+
+The president, since the arrival of the message, had not said what he
+thought about it; he had let J.T. Maston express his opinions without
+manifesting either approbation or blame. He kept quiet, proposing to
+await events, but he had not taken public impatience into consideration,
+and was not very pleased at the sight of the population of Tampa Town
+assembled under his windows. Murmurs, cries, and vociferations soon
+forced him to appear. It will be seen that he had all the disagreeables
+as well as the duties of a public man.
+
+He therefore appeared; silence was made, and a citizen asked him the
+following question:--"Is the person designated in the telegram as Michel
+Ardan on his way to America or not?"
+
+"Gentlemen," answered Barbicane, "I know no more than you."
+
+"We must get to know," exclaimed some impatient voices.
+
+"Time will inform us," answered the president coldly.
+
+"Time has no right to keep a whole country in suspense," answered the
+orator. "Have you altered your plans for the projectile as the telegram
+demanded?"
+
+"Not yet, gentlemen; but you are right, we must have recourse to the
+telegraph that has caused all this emotion."
+
+"To the telegraph-office!" cried the crowd.
+
+Barbicane descended into the street, and, heading the immense
+assemblage, he went towards the telegraph-office.
+
+A few minutes afterwards a telegram was on its way to the underwriters
+at Liverpool, asking for an answer to the following questions:--
+
+"What sort of vessel is the _Atlanta_? When did she leave Europe? Had
+she a Frenchman named Michel Ardan on board?"
+
+Two hours afterwards Barbicane received such precise information that
+doubt was no longer possible.
+
+"The steamer _Atlanta_, from Liverpool, set sail on October 2nd for
+Tampa Town, having on board a Frenchman inscribed in the passengers'
+book as Michel Ardan."
+
+At this confirmation of the first telegram the eyes of the president
+were lighted up with a sudden flame; he clenched his hands, and was
+heard to mutter--
+
+"It is true, then! It is possible, then! the Frenchman does exist! and
+in a fortnight he will be here! But he is a madman! I never can
+consent."
+
+And yet the very same evening he wrote to the firm of Breadwill and Co.
+begging them to suspend the casting of the projectile until fresh
+orders.
+
+Now how can the emotion be described which took possession of the whole
+of America? The effect of the Barbicane proposition was surpassed
+tenfold; what the newspapers of the Union said, the way they accepted
+the news, and how they chanted the arrival of this hero from the old
+continent; how to depict the feverish agitation in which every one
+lived, counting the hours, minutes, and seconds; how to give even a
+feeble idea of the effect of one idea upon so many heads; how to show
+every occupation being given up for a single preoccupation, work
+stopped, commerce suspended, vessels, ready to start, waiting in the
+ports so as not to miss the arrival of the _Atlanta_, every species of
+conveyance arriving full and returning empty, the bay of Espiritu-Santo
+incessantly ploughed by steamers, packet-boats, pleasure-yachts, and
+fly-boats of all dimensions; how to denominate in numbers the thousands
+of curious people who in a fortnight increased the population of Tampa
+Town fourfold, and were obliged to encamp under tents like an army in
+campaign--all this is a task above human force, and could not be
+undertaken without rashness.
+
+At 9 a.m. on the 20th of October the semaphores of the Bahama Channel
+signalled thick smoke on the horizon. Two hours later a large steamer
+exchanged signals with them. The name _Atlanta_ was immediately sent to
+Tampa Town. At 4 p.m. the English vessel entered the bay of
+Espiritu-Santo. At 5 p.m. she passed the entrance to Hillisboro Harbour,
+and at 6 p.m. weighed anchor in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+The anchor had not reached its sandy bed before 500 vessels surrounded
+the _Atlanta_ and the steamer was taken by assault. Barbicane was the
+first on deck, and in a voice the emotion of which he tried in vain to
+suppress--
+
+"Michel Ardan!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Present!" answered an individual mounted on the poop.
+
+Barbicane, with his arms crossed, questioning eyes, and silent mouth,
+looked fixedly at the passenger of the _Atlanta_.
+
+He was a man forty-two years of age, tall, but already rather stooping,
+like caryatides which support balconies on their shoulders. His large
+head shook every now and then a shock of red hair like a lion's mane; a
+short face, wide forehead, a moustache bristling like a cat's whiskers,
+and little bunches of yellow hair on the middle of his cheeks, round and
+rather wild-looking, short-sighted eyes completed this eminently feline
+physiognomy. But the nose was boldly cut, the mouth particularly humane,
+the forehead high, intelligent, and ploughed like a field that was never
+allowed to remain fallow. Lastly, a muscular body well poised on long
+limbs, muscular arms, powerful and well-set levers, and a decided gait
+made a solidly built fellow of this European, "rather wrought than
+cast," to borrow one of his expressions from metallurgic art.
+
+The disciples of Lavater or Gratiolet would have easily deciphered in
+the cranium and physiognomy of this personage indisputable signs of
+combativity--that is to say, of courage in danger and tendency to
+overcome obstacles, those of benevolence, and a belief in the
+marvellous, an instinct that makes many natures dwell much on superhuman
+things; but, on the other hand, the bumps of acquisivity, the need of
+possessing and acquiring, were absolutely wanting.
+
+To put the finishing touches to the physical type of the passenger of
+the _Atlanta_, his garments wide, loose, and flowing, open cravat, wide
+collar, and cuffs always unbuttoned, through which came nervous hands.
+People felt that even in the midst of winter and dangers that man was
+never cold.
+
+On the deck of the steamer, amongst the crowd, he bustled about, never
+still for a moment, "dragging his anchors," in nautical speech,
+gesticulating, making friends with everybody, and biting his nails
+nervously. He was one of those original beings whom the Creator invents
+in a moment of fantasy, and of whom He immediately breaks the cast.
+
+In fact, the character of Michel Ardan offered a large field for
+physiological analysis. This astonishing man lived in a perpetual
+disposition to hyperbole, and had not yet passed the age of
+superlatives; objects depicted themselves on the retina of his eye with
+exaggerated dimensions; from thence an association of gigantic ideas; he
+saw everything on a large scale except difficulties and men.
+
+He was besides of a luxuriant nature, an artist by instinct, and witty
+fellow; he loved arguments _ad hominem_, and defended the weak side
+tooth and nail.
+
+Amongst other peculiarities he gave himself out as "sublimely ignorant,"
+like Shakspeare, and professed supreme contempt for all _savants_,
+"people," said he, "who only score our points." He was, in short, a
+Bohemian of the country of brains, adventurous but not an adventurer, a
+harebrained fellow, a Phaeton running away with the horses of the sun, a
+kind of Icarus with relays of wings. He had a wonderful facility for
+getting into scrapes, and an equally wonderful facility for getting out
+of them again, falling on his feet like a cat.
+
+In short, his motto was, "Whatever it may cost!" and the love of the
+impossible his "ruling passion," according to Pope's fine expression.
+
+But this enterprising fellow had the defects of his qualities. Who risks
+nothing wins nothing, it is said. Ardan often risked much and got
+nothing. He was perfectly disinterested and chivalric; he would not have
+signed the death-warrant of his worst enemy, and would have sold himself
+into slavery to redeem a negro.
+
+In France and Europe everybody knew this brilliant, bustling person. Did
+he not get talked of ceaselessly by the hundred voices of Fame, hoarse
+in his service? Did he not live in a glass house, taking the entire
+universe as confidant of his most intimate secrets? But he also
+possessed an admirable collection of enemies amongst those he had cuffed
+and wounded whilst using his elbows to make a passage in the crowd.
+
+Still he was generally liked and treated like a spoiled child. Every one
+was interested in his bold enterprises, and followed them with uneasy
+mind. He was known to be so imprudent! When some friend wished to stop
+him by predicting an approaching catastrophe, "The forest is only burnt
+by its own trees," he answered with an amiable smile, not knowing that
+he was quoting the prettiest of Arabian proverbs.
+
+Such was the passenger of the _Atlanta_, always in a bustle, always
+boiling under the action of inward fire, always moved, not by what he
+had come to do in America--he did not even think about it--but on
+account of his feverish organisation. If ever individuals offered a
+striking contrast they were the Frenchman Michel Ardan and the Yankee
+Barbicane, both, however, enterprising, bold, and audacious, each in his
+own way.
+
+Barbicane's contemplation of his rival was quickly interrupted by the
+cheers of the crowd. These cries became even so frantic and the
+enthusiasm took such a personal form that Michel Ardan, after having
+shaken a thousand hands in which he nearly left his ten fingers, was
+obliged to take refuge in his cabin.
+
+Barbicane followed him without having uttered a word.
+
+"You are Barbicane?" Michel Ardan asked him as soon as they were alone,
+and in the same tone as he would have spoken to a friend of twenty
+years' standing.
+
+"Yes," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"Well, good morning, Barbicane. How are you? Very well? That's right!
+that's right!"
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, without further preliminary, "you have decided
+to go?"
+
+"Quite decided."
+
+"Nothing will stop you?"
+
+"Nothing. Have you altered your projectile as I told you in my message?"
+
+"I waited till you came. But," asked Barbicane, insisting once more,
+"you have quite reflected?"
+
+"Reflected! have I any time to lose? I find the occasion to go for a
+trip to the moon, I profit by it, and that is all. It seems to me that
+does not want so much reflection."
+
+Barbicane looked eagerly at the man who spoke of his project of journey
+with so much carelessness, and with such absence of anxiety.
+
+"But at least," he said, "you have some plan, some means of execution?"
+
+"Excellent means. But allow me to tell you one thing. I like to say my
+say once and for all, and to everybody, and to hear no more about it.
+Then, unless you can think of something better, call together your
+friends, your colleagues, all the town, all Florida, all America if you
+like, and to-morrow I shall be ready to state my means of execution, and
+answer any objections, whatever they may be. Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, that will do," answered Barbicane.
+
+Whereupon the president left the cabin, and told the crowd about Michel
+Ardan's proposition. His words were received with great demonstrations
+of joy. That cut short all difficulties. The next day every one could
+contemplate the European hero at their ease. Still some of the most
+obstinate spectators would not leave the deck of the _Atlanta_; they
+passed the night on board. Amongst others, J.T. Maston had screwed his
+steel hook into the combing of the poop, and it would have taken the
+capstan to get it out again.
+
+"He is a hero! a hero!" cried he in every tone, "and we are only old
+women compared to that European!"
+
+As to the president, after having requested the spectators to withdraw,
+he re-entered the passenger's cabin, and did not leave it till the bell
+of the steamer rang out the midnight quarter.
+
+But then the two rivals in popularity shook each other warmly by the
+hand, and separated friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A MEETING.
+
+
+The next day the sun did not rise early enough to satisfy public
+impatience. Barbicane, fearing that indiscreet questions would be put to
+Michel Ardan, would like to have reduced his auditors to a small number
+of adepts, to his colleagues for instance. But it was as easy as to dam
+up the Falls at Niagara. He was, therefore, obliged to renounce his
+project, and let his friend run all the risks of a public lecture. The
+new Town Hall of Tampa Town, notwithstanding its colossal dimensions,
+was considered insufficient for the occasion, which had assumed the
+proportions of a public meeting.
+
+The place chosen was a vast plain, situated outside the town. In a few
+hours they succeeded in sheltering it from the rays of the sun. The
+ships of the port, rich in canvas, furnished the necessary accessories
+for a colossal tent. Soon an immense sky of cloth was spread over the
+calcined plain, and defended it against the heat of the day. There
+300,000 persons stood and braved a stifling temperature for several
+hours whilst awaiting the Frenchman's arrival. Of that crowd of
+spectators one-third alone could see and hear; a second third saw badly,
+and did not hear. As to the remaining third, it neither heard nor saw,
+though it was not the least eager to applaud.
+
+At three o'clock Michel Ardan made his appearance, accompanied by the
+principal members of the Gun Club. He gave his right arm to President
+Barbicane, and his left to J.T. Maston, more radiant than the midday
+sun, and nearly as ruddy.
+
+Ardan mounted the platform, from which his eyes extended over a forest
+of black hats. He did not seem in the least embarrassed; he did not
+pose; he was at home there, gay, familiar, and amiable. To the cheers
+that greeted him he answered by a gracious bow; then with his hand asked
+for silence, began to speak in English, and expressed himself very
+correctly in these terms:--
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "although it is very warm, I intend to keep you a
+few minutes to give you some explanation of the projects which have
+appeared to interest you. I am neither an orator nor a _savant_, and I
+did not count upon having to speak in public; but my friend Barbicane
+tells me it would give you pleasure, so I do it. Then listen to me with
+your 600,000 ears, and please to excuse the faults of the orator."
+
+This unceremonious beginning was much admired by the audience, who
+expressed their satisfaction by an immense murmur of applause.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "no mark of approbation or dissent is prohibited.
+That settled, I continue. And, first of all, do not forget that you have
+to do with an ignorant man, but his ignorance goes far enough to ignore
+difficulties. It has, therefore, appeared a simple, natural, and easy
+thing to him to take his passage in a projectile and to start for the
+moon. That journey would be made sooner or later, and as to the mode of
+locomotion adopted, it simply follows the law of progress. Man began by
+travelling on all fours, then one fine day he went on two feet, then in
+a cart, then in a coach, then on a railway. Well, the projectile is the
+carriage of the future, and, to speak the truth, planets are only
+projectiles, simple cannon-balls hurled by the hand of the Creator. But
+to return to our vehicle. Some of you, gentlemen, may think that the
+speed it will travel at is excessive--nothing of the kind. All the
+planets go faster, and the earth itself in its movement round the sun
+carries us along three times as fast. Here are some examples. Only I ask
+your permission to express myself in leagues, for American measures are
+not very familiar to me, and I fear getting muddled in my calculations."
+
+The demand appeared quite simple, and offered no difficulty. The orator
+resumed his speech.
+
+"The following, gentlemen, is the speed of the different planets. I am
+obliged to acknowledge that, notwithstanding my ignorance, I know this
+small astronomical detail exactly, but in two minutes you will be as
+learned as I. Learn, then, that Neptune goes at the rate of 5,000
+leagues an hour; Uranus, 7,000; Saturn, 8,858; Jupiter, 11,675; Mars,
+22,011; the earth, 27,500; Venus, 32,190; Mercury, 52,520; some comets,
+14,000 leagues in their perihelion! As to us, veritable idlers, people
+in no hurry, our speed does not exceed 9,900 leagues, and it will go on
+decreasing! I ask you if there is anything to wonder at, and if it is
+not evident that it will be surpassed some day by still greater speeds,
+of which light or electricity will probably be the mechanical agents?"
+
+No one seemed to doubt this affirmation.
+
+"Dear hearers," he resumed, "according to certain narrow minds--that is
+the best qualification for them--humanity is inclosed in a Popilius
+circle which it cannot break open, and is condemned to vegetate upon
+this globe without ever flying towards the planetary shores! Nothing of
+the kind! We are going to the moon, we shall go to the planets, we shall
+go to the stars as we now go from Liverpool to New York, easily,
+rapidly, surely, and the atmospheric ocean will be as soon crossed as
+the oceans of the earth! Distance is only a relative term, and will end
+by being reduced to zero."
+
+The assembly, though greatly in favour of the French hero, was rather
+staggered by this audacious theory. Michel Ardan appeared to see it.
+
+"You do not seem convinced, my worthy hosts," he continued with an
+amiable smile. "Well, let us reason a little. Do you know how long it
+would take an express train to reach the moon? Three hundred days. Not
+more. A journey of 86,410 leagues, but what is that? Not even nine times
+round the earth, and there are very few sailors who have not done that
+during their existence. Think, I shall be only ninety-eight hours on the
+road! Ah, you imagine that the moon is a long way from the earth, and
+that one must think twice before attempting the adventure! But what
+would you say if I were going to Neptune, which gravitates at
+1,147,000,000 leagues from the sun? That is a journey that very few
+people could go, even if it only cost a farthing a mile! Even Baron
+Rothschild would not have enough to take his ticket!"
+
+This argument seemed greatly to please the assembly; besides, Michel
+Ardan, full of his subject, grew superbly eloquent; he felt he was
+listened to, and resumed with admirable assurance--
+
+"Well, my friends, this distance from Neptune to the sun is nothing
+compared to that of the stars, some of which are billions of leagues
+from the sun! And yet people speak of the distance that separates the
+planets from the sun! Do you know what I think of this universe that
+begins with the sun and ends at Neptune? Should you like to know my
+theory? It is a very simple one. According to my opinion, the solar
+universe is one solid homogeneous mass; the planets that compose it are
+close together, crowd one another, and the space between them is only
+the space that separates the molecules of the most compact
+metal--silver, iron, or platinum! I have, therefore, the right to
+affirm, and I will repeat it with a conviction you will all
+share--distance is a vain word; distance does not exist!"
+
+"Well said! Bravo! Hurrah!" cried the assembly with one voice,
+electrified by the gesture and accent of the orator, and the boldness of
+his conceptions.
+
+"No!" cried J.T. Maston, more energetically than the others; "distance
+does not exist!"
+
+And, carried away by the violence of his movements and emotions he could
+hardly contain, he nearly fell from the top of the platform to the
+ground. But he succeeded in recovering his equilibrium, and thus avoided
+a fall that would have brutally proved distance not to be a vain word.
+Then the speech of the distinguished orator resumed its course.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I think that this question is now solved. If I
+have not convinced you all it is because I have been timid in my
+demonstrations, feeble in my arguments, and you must set it down to my
+theoretic ignorance. However that may be, I repeat, the distance from
+the earth to her satellite is really very unimportant and unworthy to
+occupy a serious mind. I do not think I am advancing too much in saying
+that soon a service of trains will be established by projectiles, in
+which the journey from the earth to the moon will be comfortably
+accomplished. There will be no shocks nor running off the lines to fear,
+and the goal will be reached rapidly, without fatigue, in a straight
+line, 'as the crow flies.' Before twenty years are over, half the earth
+will have visited the moon!"
+
+"Three cheers for Michel Ardan!" cried the assistants, even those least
+convinced.
+
+"Three cheers for Barbicane!" modestly answered the orator.
+
+This act of gratitude towards the promoter of the enterprise was greeted
+with unanimous applause.
+
+"Now, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan, "if you have any questions to
+ask me you will evidently embarrass me, but still I will endeavour to
+answer you."
+
+Until now the president of the Gun Club had reason to be very satisfied
+with the discussion. It had rolled upon speculative theories, upon which
+Michel Ardan, carried away by his lively imagination, had shown himself
+very brilliant. He must, therefore, be prevented from deviating towards
+practical questions, which he would doubtless not come out of so well.
+Barbicane made haste to speak, and asked his new friend if he thought
+that the moon or the planets were inhabited.
+
+"That is a great problem, my worthy president," answered the orator,
+smiling; "still, if I am not mistaken, men of great intelligence--Plutarch,
+Swedenborg, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others--answered in the
+affirmative. If I answered from a natural philosophy point of view I
+should do the same--I should say to myself that nothing useless exists
+in this world, and, answering your question by another, friend
+Barbicane, I should affirm that if the planets are inhabitable, either
+they are inhabited, they have been, or they will be."
+
+"Very well," cried the first ranks of spectators, whose opinion had the
+force of law for the others.
+
+"It is impossible to answer with more logic and justice," said the
+president of the Gun Club. "The question, therefore, comes to this: 'Are
+the planets inhabitable?' I think so, for my part."
+
+"And I--I am certain of it," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Still," replied one of the assistants, "there are arguments against the
+inhabitability of the worlds. In most of them it is evident that the
+principles of life must be modified. Thus, only to speak of the planets,
+the people must be burnt up in some and frozen in others according as
+they are a long or short distance from the sun."
+
+"I regret," answered Michel Ardan, "not to know my honourable opponent
+personally. His objection has its value, but I think it may be combated
+with some success, like all those of which the habitability of worlds
+has been the object. If I were a physician I should say that if there
+were less caloric put in motion in the planets nearest to the sun, and
+more, on the contrary, in the distant planets, this simple phenomenon
+would suffice to equalise the heat and render the temperature of these
+worlds bearable to beings organised like we are. If I were a naturalist
+I should tell him, after many illustrious _savants_, that Nature
+furnishes us on earth with examples of animals living in very different
+conditions of habitability; that fish breathe in a medium mortal to the
+other animals; that amphibians have a double existence difficult to
+explain; that certain inhabitants of the sea live in the greatest
+depths, and support there, without being crushed, pressures of fifty or
+sixty atmospheres; that some aquatic insects, insensible to the
+temperature, are met with at the same time in springs of boiling water
+and in the frozen plains of the Polar Ocean--in short, there are in
+nature many means of action, often incomprehensible, but no less real.
+If I were a chemist I should say that aërolites--bodies evidently formed
+away from our terrestrial globe--have when analysed, revealed
+indisputable traces of carbon, a substance that owes its origin solely
+to organised beings, and which, according to Reichenbach's experiments,
+must necessarily have been 'animalised.' Lastly, if I were a theologian
+I should say that Divine Redemption, according to St. Paul, seems
+applicable not only to the earth but to all the celestial bodies. But I
+am neither a theologian, chemist, naturalist, nor natural philosopher.
+So, in my perfect ignorance of the great laws that rule the universe, I
+can only answer, 'I do not know if the heavenly bodies are inhabited,
+and, as I do not know, I am going to see!'"
+
+Did the adversary of Michel Ardan's theories hazard any further
+arguments? It is impossible to say, for the frantic cries of the crowd
+would have prevented any opinion from being promulgated. When silence
+was again restored, even in the most distant groups, the triumphant
+orator contented himself with adding the following considerations:--
+
+"You will think, gentlemen, that I have hardly touched upon this grave
+question. I am not here to give you an instructive lecture upon this
+vast subject. There is another series of arguments in favour of the
+heavenly bodies being inhabited; I do not look upon that. Allow me only
+to insist upon one point. To the people who maintain that the planets
+are not inhabited you must answer, 'You may be right if it is
+demonstrated that the earth is the best of possible worlds; but it is
+not so, notwithstanding Voltaire.' It has only one satellite, whilst
+Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune have several at their service, an
+advantage that is not to be disdained. But that which now renders the
+earth an uncomfortable place of abode is the inclination of its axis
+upon its orbit. Hence the inequality of day and night; hence the
+unfortunate diversity of seasons. Upon our miserable spheroid it is
+always either too warm or too cold; we are frozen in winter and roasted
+in summer; it is the planet of colds, rheumatism, and consumption,
+whilst on the surface of Jupiter, for instance, where the axis has only
+a very slight inclination, the inhabitants can enjoy invariable
+temperature. There is the perpetual spring, summer, autumn, and winter
+zone; each 'Jovian' may choose the climate that suits him, and may
+shelter himself all his life from the variations of the temperature. You
+will doubtless agree to this superiority of Jupiter over our planet
+without speaking of its years, which each lasts twelve years! What is
+more, it is evident to me that, under these auspices, and under such
+marvellous conditions of existence, the inhabitants of that fortunate
+world are superior beings--that _savants_ are more learned, artists more
+artistic, the wicked less wicked, and the good are better. Alas! what is
+wanting to our spheroid to reach this perfection is very little!--an
+axis of rotation less inclined on the plane of its orbit."
+
+"Well!" cried an impetuous voice, "let us unite our efforts, invent
+machines, and rectify the earth's axis!"
+
+Thunders of applause greeted this proposition, the author of which could
+be no other than J.T. Maston. It is probable that the fiery secretary
+had been carried away by his instincts as engineer to venture such a
+proposition; but it must be said, for it is the truth, many encouraged
+him with their cries, and doubtless, if they had found the resting-point
+demanded by Archimedes, the Americans would have constructed a lever
+capable of raising the world and redressing its axis. But this point was
+wanting to these bold mechanicians.
+
+Nevertheless, this eminently practical idea had enormous success: the
+discussion was suspended for a good quarter of an hour, and long, very
+long afterwards, they talked in the United States of America of the
+proposition so energetically enunciated by the perpetual secretary of
+the Gun Club.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THRUST AND PARRY.
+
+
+This incident seemed to have terminated the discussion, but when the
+agitation had subsided these words were heard uttered in a loud and
+severe voice:--
+
+"Now that the orator has allowed his fancy to roam, perhaps he would
+kindly go back to his subject, pay less attention to theories, and
+discuss the practical part of his expedition."
+
+All eyes were turned towards the person who spoke thus. He was a thin,
+dry-looking man, with an energetic face and an American beard. By taking
+advantage of the agitation in the assembly from time to time he had
+gained, by degrees, the front row of spectators. There, with his arms
+crossed, his eyes brilliant and bold, he stared imperturbably at the
+hero of the meeting. After having asked his question he kept silence,
+and did not seem disturbed by the thousands of eyes directed towards him
+nor by the disapproving murmur excited by his words. The answer being
+delayed he again put the question with the same clear and precise
+accent; then he added--
+
+"We are here to discuss the moon, not the earth."
+
+"You are right, sir," answered Michel Ardan, "the discussion has
+wandered from the point; we will return to the moon."
+
+"Sir," resumed the unknown man, "you pretend that our satellite is
+inhabited. So far so good; but if Selenites do exist they certainly live
+without breathing, for--I tell you the fact for your good--there is not
+the least particle of air on the surface of the moon."
+
+At this affirmation Ardan shook his red mane; he understood that a
+struggle was coming with this man on the real question. He looked at him
+fixedly in his turn, and said--
+
+"Ah! there is no air in the moon! And who says so, pray?"
+
+"The _savants_."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel, "joking apart, I have a profound respect for
+_savants_ who know, but a profound contempt for _savants_ who do not
+know."
+
+"Do you know any who belong to the latter category?"
+
+"Yes; in France there is one who maintains that, 'mathematically,' a
+bird cannot fly, and another who demonstrates that a fish is not made to
+live in water."
+
+"There is no question of those two, sir, and I can quote in support of
+my proposition names that you will not object to."
+
+"Then, sir, you would greatly embarrass a poor ignorant man like me!"
+
+"Then why do you meddle with scientific questions which you have never
+studied?" asked the unknown brutally.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan; "because the man who does not suspect danger is
+always brave! I know nothing, it is true, but it is precisely my
+weakness that makes my strength."
+
+"Your weakness goes as far as madness," exclaimed the unknown in a
+bad-tempered tone.
+
+"So much the better," replied the Frenchman, "if my madness takes me to
+the moon!"
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues stared at the intruder who had come so
+boldly to stand in the way of their enterprise. None of them knew him,
+and the president, not reassured upon the upshot of such a discussion,
+looked at his new friend with some apprehension. The assembly was
+attentive and slightly uneasy, for this struggle called attention to the
+dangers and impossibilities of the expedition.
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel Ardan's adversary, "the reasons that prove the
+absence of all atmosphere round the moon are numerous and indisputable.
+I may say, even, that, _à priori_ if that atmosphere had ever existed,
+it must have been drawn away by the earth, but I would rather oppose you
+with incontestable facts."
+
+"Oppose, sir," answered Michel Ardan, with perfect gallantry--oppose as
+much as you like."
+
+"You know," said the unknown, "that when the sun's rays traverse a
+medium like air they are deviated from a straight line, or, in other
+words, they are refracted. Well, when stars are occulted by the moon
+their rays, on grazing the edge of her disc, do not show the least
+deviation nor offer the slightest indication of refraction. It follows,
+therefore, that the moon can have no atmosphere."
+
+Every one looked at the Frenchman, for, this once admitted, the
+consequences were rigorous.
+
+"In fact," answered Michel Ardan, "that is your best if not only
+argument, and a _savant_, perhaps, would be embarrassed to answer it. I
+can only tell you that this argument has no absolute value because it
+supposes the angular diameter of the moon to be perfectly determined,
+which it is not. But let us waive that, and tell me, my dear sir, if
+you admit the existence of volcanoes on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Extinct volcanoes, yes; volcanoes in eruption, no."
+
+"For the sake of argument let us suppose that these volcanoes have been
+in eruption for a certain period."
+
+"That is certain, but as they can themselves furnish the oxygen
+necessary for combustion the fact of their eruption does not in the
+least prove the presence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+"We will pass on, then," answered Michel Ardan, "and leave this series
+of argument and arrive at direct observation. But I warn you that I am
+going to quote names."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"In 1715 the astronomers Louville and Halley, observing the eclipse of
+the 3rd of May, remarked certain fulminations of a remarkable nature.
+These jets of light, rapid and frequent, were attributed by them to
+storms in the atmosphere of the moon."
+
+"In 1715," replied the unknown, "the astronomers Louville and Halley
+took for lunar phenomena phenomena purely terrestrial, such as meteoric
+or other bodies which are generated in our own atmosphere. That was the
+scientific aspect of these facts, and I go with it."
+
+"Let us pass on again," answered Ardan, without being confused by the
+reply. "Did not Herschel, in 1787, observe a great number of luminous
+points on the surface of the moon?"
+
+"Certainly; but without explaining the origin of these luminous points.
+Herschel himself did not thereby conclude the necessity of a lunar
+atmosphere."
+
+"Well answered," said Michel Ardan, complimenting his adversary; "I see
+that you are well up in selenography."
+
+"Yes, sir; and I may add that the most skilful observers, MM. Boeer and
+Moedler, agree that air is absolutely wanting on the moon's surface."
+
+A movement took place amongst the audience, who appeared struck by the
+arguments of this singular personage.
+
+"We will pass on again," answered Michel Ardan, with the greatest
+calmness, "and arrive now at an important fact. A skilful French
+astronomer, M. Laussedat, whilst observing the eclipse of July 18th,
+1860, proved that the horns of the solar crescent were rounded and
+truncated. Now this appearance could only have been produced by a
+deviation of the solar rays in traversing the atmosphere of the moon.
+There is no other possible explanation of the fact."
+
+"But is this fact authenticated?"
+
+"It is absolutely certain."
+
+An inverse movement brought back the audience to the side of their
+favourite hero, whose adversary remained silent.
+
+Ardan went on speaking without showing any vanity about his last
+advantage; he said simply--
+
+"You see, therefore, my dear sir, that it cannot be positively affirmed
+that there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon. This atmosphere
+is probably not dense, but science now generally admits that it exists."
+
+"Not upon the mountains," replied the unknown, who would not give in.
+
+"No, but in the depths of the valleys, and it is not more than some
+hundreds of feet deep."
+
+"Any way you will do well to take your precautions, for the air will be
+terribly rarefied."
+
+"Oh, there will always be enough for one man. Besides, once delivered up
+there, I shall do my best to economise it and only to breathe it on
+great occasions."
+
+A formidable burst of laughter saluted the mysterious interlocutor, who
+looked round the assembly daring it proudly.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, carelessly, "as we are agreed upon the
+presence of some atmosphere, we are forced to admit the presence of some
+water--a consequence I am delighted with, for my part. Besides, I have
+another observation to make. We only know one side of the moon's disc,
+and if there is little air on that side there may be much on the other."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because the moon under the action of terrestrial attraction has assumed
+the form of an egg, of which we see the small end. Hence the consequence
+due to the calculations of Hausen, that its centre of gravity is
+situated in the other hemisphere. Hence this conclusion that all the
+masses of air and water have been drawn to the other side of our
+satellite in the first days of the creation."
+
+"Pure fancies," exclaimed the unknown.
+
+"No, pure theories based upon mechanical laws, and it appears difficult
+to me to refute them. I make appeal to this assembly and put it to the
+vote to know if life such as it exists upon earth is possible on the
+surface of the moon?"
+
+Three hundred thousand hearers applauded this proposition. Michel
+Ardan's adversary wished to speak again, but he could not make himself
+heard. Cries and threats were hailed upon him.
+
+"Enough, enough!" said some.
+
+"Turn him out!" repeated others.
+
+But he, holding on to the platform, did not move, and let the storm
+pass by. It might have assumed formidable proportions if Michel Ardan
+had not appeased it by a gesture. He was too chivalrous to abandon his
+contradicter in such an extremity.
+
+"You wish to add a few words?" he asked, in the most gracious tone.
+
+"Yes, a hundred! a thousand!" answered the unknown, carried away, "or
+rather no, one only! To persevere in your enterprise you must be--"
+
+"Imprudent! How can you call me that when I have asked for a
+cylindro-conical bullet from my friend Barbicane so as not to turn round
+on the road like a squirrel?"
+
+"But, unfortunate man! the fearful shock will smash you to pieces when
+you start."
+
+"You have there put your finger upon the real and only difficulty; but I
+have too good an opinion of the industrial genius of the Americans to
+believe that they will not overcome that difficulty."
+
+"But the heat developed by the speed of the projectile whilst crossing
+the beds of air?"
+
+"Oh, its sides are thick, and I shall so soon pass the atmosphere."
+
+"But provisions? water?"
+
+"I have calculated that I could carry enough for one year, and I shall
+only be four days going."
+
+"But air to breathe on the road?"
+
+"I shall make some by chemical processes."
+
+"But your fall upon the moon, supposing you ever get there?"
+
+"It will be six times less rapid than a fall upon the earth, as
+attraction is six times less on the surface of the moon."
+
+"But it still will be sufficient to smash you like glass."
+
+"What will prevent me delaying my fall by means of rockets conveniently
+placed and lighted at the proper time?"
+
+"But lastly, supposing that all difficulties be solved, all obstacles
+cleared away by uniting every chance in your favour, admitting that you
+reach the moon safe and well, how shall you come back?"
+
+"I shall not come back."
+
+Upon this answer, which was almost sublime by reason of its simplicity,
+the assembly remained silent. But its silence was more eloquent than its
+cries of enthusiasm would have been. The unknown profited by it to
+protest one last time.
+
+"You will infallibly kill yourself," he cried, "and your death, which
+will be only a madman's death, will not even be useful to science."
+
+"Go on, most generous of men, for you prophesy in the most agreeable
+manner."
+
+"Ah, it is too much!" exclaimed Michel Ardan's adversary, "and I do not
+know why I go on with so childish a discussion. Go on with your mad
+enterprise as you like. It is not your fault."
+
+"Fire away."
+
+"No, another must bear the responsibility of your acts."
+
+"Who is that, pray?" asked Michel Ardan in an imperious voice.
+
+"The fool who has organised this attempt, as impossible as it is
+ridiculous."
+
+The attack was direct. Barbicane since the intervention of the unknown
+had made violent efforts to contain himself and "consume his own smoke,"
+but upon seeing himself so outrageously designated he rose directly and
+was going to walk towards his adversary, who dared him to his face, when
+he felt himself suddenly separated from him.
+
+The platform was lifted up all at once by a hundred vigorous arms, and
+the president of the Gun Club was forced to share the honours of triumph
+with Michel Ardan. The platform was heavy, but the bearers came in
+continuous relays, disputing, struggling, even fighting for the
+privilege of lending the support of their shoulders to this
+manifestation.
+
+However, the unknown did not take advantage of the tumult to leave the
+place. He kept in the front row, his arms folded, still staring at
+President Barbicane.
+
+The president did not lose sight of him either, and the eyes of these
+two men met like flaming swords.
+
+The cries of the immense crowds kept at their maximum of intensity
+during this triumphant march. Michel Ardan allowed himself to be carried
+with evident pleasure.
+
+Sometimes the platform pitched and tossed like a ship beaten by the
+waves. But the two heroes of the meeting were good sailors, and their
+vessel safely arrived in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+Michel Ardan happily succeeded in escaping from his vigorous admirers.
+He fled to the Franklin Hotel, quickly reached his room, and glided
+rapidly into bed whilst an army of 100,000 men watched under his
+windows.
+
+In the meanwhile a short, grave, and decisive scene had taken place
+between the mysterious personage and the president of the Gun Club.
+
+Barbicane, liberated at last, went straight to his adversary.
+
+"Come!" said he in a curt voice.
+
+The stranger followed him on to the quay, and they were soon both alone
+at the entrance to a wharf opening on to Jones' Fall.
+
+There these enemies, still unknown to one another, looked at each other.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Captain Nicholl."
+
+"I thought so. Until now fate has never made you cross my path."
+
+"I crossed it of my own accord."
+
+"You have insulted me."
+
+"Publicly."
+
+"And you shall give me satisfaction for that insult."
+
+"Now, this minute."
+
+"No. I wish everything between us to be kept secret. There is a wood
+situated three miles from Tampa--Skersnaw Wood. Do you know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you enter it to-morrow morning at five o'clock by one side?"
+
+"Yes, if you will enter it by the other at the same time."
+
+"And you will not forget your rifle?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Not more than you will forget yours," answered Captain Nicholl.
+
+After these words had been coldly pronounced the president of the Gun
+Club and the captain separated. Barbicane returned to his dwelling; but,
+instead of taking some hours' rest, he passed the night in seeking means
+to avoid the shock of the projectile, and to solve the difficult problem
+given by Michel Ardan at the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR.
+
+
+Whilst the duel was being discussed between the president and the
+captain--a terrible and savage duel in which each adversary became a
+man-hunter--Michel Ardan was resting after the fatigues of his triumph.
+Resting is evidently not the right expression, for American beds rival
+in hardness tables of marble or granite.
+
+Ardan slept badly, turning over and over between the _serviettes_ that
+served him for sheets, and he was thinking of installing a more
+comfortable bed in his projectile when a violent noise startled him from
+his slumbers. Thundering blows shook his door. They seemed to be
+administered with an iron instrument. Shouts were heard in this racket,
+rather too early to be agreeable.
+
+"Open!" some one cried. "Open, for Heaven's sake!"
+
+There was no reason why Ardan should acquiesce in so peremptory a
+demand. Still he rose and opened his door at the moment it was giving
+way under the efforts of the obstinate visitor.
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club bounded into the room. A bomb would not
+have entered with less ceremony.
+
+"Yesterday evening," exclaimed J.T. Maston _ex abrupto_, "our president
+was publicly insulted during the meeting! He has challenged his
+adversary, who is no other than Captain Nicholl! They are going to fight
+this morning in Skersnaw Wood! I learnt it all from Barbicane himself!
+If he is killed our project will be at an end! This duel must be
+prevented! Now one man only can have enough empire over Barbicane to
+stop it, and that man is Michel Ardan."
+
+Whilst J.T. Maston was speaking thus, Michel Ardan, giving up
+interrupting him, jumped into his vast trousers, and in less than two
+minutes after the two friends were rushing as fast as they could go
+towards the suburbs of Tampa Town.
+
+It was during this rapid course that Maston told Ardan the state of the
+case. He told him the real causes of the enmity between Barbicane and
+Nicholl, how that enmity was of old date, why until then, thanks to
+mutual friends, the president and the captain had never met; he added
+that it was solely a rivalry between iron-plate and bullet; and, lastly,
+that the scene of the meeting had only been an occasion long sought by
+Nicholl to satisfy an old grudge.
+
+There is nothing more terrible than these private duels in America,
+during which the two adversaries seek each other across thickets, and
+hunt each other like wild animals. It is then that each must envy those
+marvellous qualities so natural to the Indians of the prairies, their
+rapid intelligence, their ingenious ruse, their scent of the enemy. An
+error, a hesitation, a wrong step, may cause death. In these meetings
+the Yankees are often accompanied by their dogs, and both sportsmen and
+game go on for hours.
+
+"What demons you are!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, when his companion had
+depicted the scene with much energy.
+
+"We are what we are," answered J.T. Maston modestly; "but let us make
+haste."
+
+In vain did Michel Ardan and he rush across the plain still wet with
+dew, jump the creeks, take the shortest cuts; they could not reach
+Skersnaw Wood before half-past five. Barbicane must have entered it
+half-an-hour before.
+
+There an old bushman was tying up faggots his axe had cut.
+
+Maston ran to him crying--
+
+"Have you seen a man enter the wood armed with a rifle? Barbicane, the
+president--my best friend?"
+
+The worthy secretary of the Gun Club thought naïvely that all the world
+must know his president. But the bushman did not seem to understand.
+
+"A sportsman," then said Ardan.
+
+"A sportsman? Yes," answered the bushman.
+
+"Is it long since?"
+
+"About an hour ago."
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Have you heard any firing?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not one shot?"
+
+"Not one. That sportsman does not seem to bag much game!"
+
+"What shall we do?" said Maston.
+
+"Enter the wood at the risk of catching a bullet not meant for us."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Maston, with an unmistakable accent, "I would rather
+have ten bullets in my head than one in Barbicane's head."
+
+"Go ahead, then!" said Ardan, pressing his companion's hand.
+
+A few seconds after the two companions disappeared in a copse. It was a
+dense thicket made of huge cypresses, sycamores, tulip-trees, olives,
+tamarinds, oaks, and magnolias. The different trees intermingled their
+branches in inextricable confusion, and quite hid the view. Michel Ardan
+and Maston walked on side by side phasing silently through the tall
+grass, making a road for themselves through the vigorous creepers,
+looking in all the bushes or branches lost in the sombre shade of the
+foliage, and expecting to hear a shot at every step. As to the traces
+that Barbicane must have left of his passage through the wood, it was
+impossible for them to see them, and they marched blindly on in the
+hardly-formed paths in which an Indian would have followed his adversary
+step by step.
+
+After a vain search of about an hour's length the two companions
+stopped. Their anxiety was redoubled.
+
+"It must be all over," said Maston in despair. "A man like Barbicane
+would not lay traps or condescend to any manoeuvre! He is too frank, too
+courageous. He has gone straight into danger, and doubtless far enough
+from the bushman for the wind to carry off the noise of the shot!"
+
+"But we should have heard it!" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"But what if we came too late?" exclaimed J.T. Maston in an accent of
+despair.
+
+Michel Ardan did not find any answer to make. Maston and he resumed
+their interrupted walk. From time to time they shouted; they called
+either Barbicane or Nicholl; but neither of the two adversaries
+answered. Joyful flocks of birds, roused by the noise, disappeared
+amongst the branches, and some frightened deer fled through the copses.
+
+They continued their search another hour. The greater part of the wood
+had been explored. Nothing revealed the presence of the combatants. They
+began to doubt the affirmation of the bushman, and Ardan was going to
+renounce the pursuit as useless, when all at once Maston stopped.
+
+"Hush!" said he. "There is some one yonder!"
+
+"Some one?" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes! a man! He does not seem to move. His rifle is not in his hand.
+What can he be doing?"
+
+"But do you recognise him?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, yes! he is turning round," answered Maston.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Captain Nicholl!"
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Michel Ardan, whose heart almost stopped beating.
+
+"Nicholl disarmed! Then he had nothing more to fear from his adversary?"
+
+"Let us go to him," said Michel Ardan; "we shall know how it is."
+
+But his companion and he had not gone fifty steps when they stopped to
+examine the captain more attentively. They imagined they should find a
+bloodthirsty and revengeful man. Upon seeing him they remained
+stupefied.
+
+A net with fine meshes was hung between two gigantic tulip-trees, and in
+it a small bird, with its wings entangled, was struggling with plaintive
+cries. The bird-catcher who had hung the net was not a human being but a
+venomous spider, peculiar to the country, as large as a pigeon's egg,
+and furnished with enormous legs. The hideous insect, as he was rushing
+on his prey, was forced to turn back and take refuge in the high
+branches of a tulip-tree, for a formidable enemy threatened him in his
+turn.
+
+In fact, Captain Nicholl, with his gun on the ground, forgetting the
+dangers of his situation, was occupied in delivering as delicately as
+possible the victim taken in the meshes of the monstrous spider. When he
+had finished he let the little bird fly away; it fluttered its wings
+joyfully and disappeared.
+
+Nicholl, touched, was watching it fly through the copse when he heard
+these words uttered in a voice full of emotion:--
+
+"You are a brave man, you are!"
+
+He turned. Michel Ardan was in front of him, repeating in every tone--
+
+"And a kind one!"
+
+"Michel Ardan!" exclaimed the captain, "what have you come here for,
+sir?"
+
+"To shake hands with you, Nicholl, and prevent you killing Barbicane or
+being killed by him."
+
+"Barbicane!" cried the captain, "I have been looking for him these two
+hours without finding him! Where is he hiding himself?"
+
+"Nicholl!" said Michel Ardan, "this is not polite! You must always
+respect your adversary; don't be uneasy; if Barbicane is alive we shall
+find him, and so much the more easily that if he has not amused himself
+with protecting birds he must be looking for you too. But when you have
+found him--and Michel Ardan tells you this--there will be no duel
+between you."
+
+"Between President Barbicane and me," answered Nicholl gravely, "there
+is such rivalry that the death of one of us--"
+
+"Come, come!" resumed Michel Ardan, "brave men like you may detest one
+another, but they respect one another too. You will not fight."
+
+"I shall fight, sir."
+
+"No you won't."
+
+"Captain," then said J.T. Maston heartily, "I am the president's friend,
+his _alter ego_; if you must absolutely kill some one kill me; that will
+be exactly the same thing."
+
+"Sir," said Nicholl, convulsively seizing his rifle, "this joking--"
+
+"Friend Maston is not joking," answered Michel Ardan, "and I understand
+his wanting to be killed for the man he loves; but neither he nor
+Barbicane will fall under Captain Nicholl's bullets, for I have so
+tempting a proposition to make to the two rivals that they will hasten
+to accept it."
+
+"But what is it, pray?" asked Nicholl, with visible incredulity.
+
+"Patience," answered Ardan; "I can only communicate it in Barbicane's
+presence."
+
+"Let us look for him, then," cried the captain.
+
+The three men immediately set out; the captain, having discharged his
+rifle, threw it on his shoulder and walked on in silence.
+
+During another half-hour the search was in vain. Maston was seized with
+a sinister presentiment. He observed Captain Nicholl closely, asking
+himself if, once the captain's vengeance satisfied, the unfortunate
+Barbicane had not been left lying in some bloody thicket. Michel Ardan
+seemed to have the same thought, and they were both looking
+questioningly at Captain Nicholl when Maston suddenly stopped.
+
+The motionless bust of a man leaning against a gigantic catalpa appeared
+twenty feet off half hidden in the grass.
+
+"It is he!" said Maston.
+
+Barbicane did not move. Ardan stared at the captain, but he did not
+wince. Ardan rushed forward, crying--
+
+"Barbicane! Barbicane!"
+
+No answer. Ardan was about to seize his arm; he stopped short, uttering
+a cry of surprise.
+
+Barbicane, with a pencil in his hand, was tracing geometrical figures
+upon a memorandum-book, whilst his unloaded gun lay on the ground.
+
+Absorbed in his work, the _savant_, forgetting in his turn his duel and
+his vengeance, had neither seen nor heard anything.
+
+But when Michel Ardan placed his hand on that of the president, he got
+up and looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"Ah!" cried he at last; "you here! I have found it, my friend, I have
+found it!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The way to do it."
+
+"The way to do what?"
+
+"To counteract the effect of the shock at the departure of the
+projectile."
+
+"Really?" said Michel, looking at the captain out of the corner of his
+eye.
+
+"Yes, water! simply water, which will act as a spring. Ah, Maston!"
+cried Barbicane, "you too!"
+
+"Himself," answered Michel Ardan; "and allow me to introduce at the same
+time the worthy Captain Nicholl."
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Barbicane, up in a moment. "Excuse me, captain," said
+he; "I had forgotten. I am ready."
+
+Michel Ardan interfered before the two enemies had time to recriminate.
+
+"Faith," said he, "it is fortunate that brave fellows like you did not
+meet sooner. We should now have to mourn for one or other of you; but,
+thanks to God, who has prevented it, there is nothing more to fear. When
+one forgets his hatred to plunge into mechanical problems and the other
+to play tricks on spiders, their hatred cannot be dangerous to anybody."
+
+And Michel Ardan related the captain's story to the president.
+
+"I ask you now," said he as he concluded, "if two good beings like you
+were made to break each other's heads with gunshots?"
+
+There was in this rather ridiculous situation something so unexpected,
+that Barbicane and Nicholl did not know how to look at one another.
+Michel Ardan felt this, and resolved to try for a reconciliation.
+
+"My brave friends," said he, smiling in his most fascinating manner, "it
+has all been a mistake between you, nothing more. Well, to prove that
+all is ended between you, and as you are men who risk your lives,
+frankly accept the proposition that I am going to make to you."
+
+"Speak," said Nicholl.
+
+"Friend Barbicane believes that his projectile will go straight to the
+moon."
+
+"Yes, certainly," replied the president.
+
+"And friend Nicholl is persuaded that it will fall back on the earth."
+
+"I am certain of it," cried the captain.
+
+"Good," resumed Michel Ardan. "I do not pretend to make you agree; all I
+say to you is, 'Come with me, and see if we shall stop on the road.'"
+
+"What?" said J.T. Maston, stupefied.
+
+The two rivals at this sudden proposition had raised their eyes and
+looked at each other attentively. Barbicane waited for Captain Nicholl's
+answer; Nicholl awaited the president's reply.
+
+"Well," said Michel in his most engaging tone, "as there is now no shock
+to fear----"
+
+"Accepted!" cried Barbicane.
+
+But although this word was uttered very quickly, Nicholl had finished it
+at the same time.
+
+"Hurrah! bravo!" cried Michel Ardan, holding out his hands to the two
+adversaries. "And now that the affair is arranged, my friends, allow me
+to treat you French fashion. _Allons déjeuner_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+That day all America heard about the duel and its singular termination.
+The part played by the chivalrous European, his unexpected proposition
+which solved the difficulty, the simultaneous acceptation of the two
+rivals, that conquest of the lunar continent to which France and the
+United States were going to march in concert--everything tended to
+increase Michel Ardan's popularity. It is well known how enthusiastic
+the Yankees will get about an individual. In a country where grave
+magistrates harness themselves to a dancer's carriage and draw it in
+triumph, it may be judged how the bold Frenchman was treated. If they
+did not take out his horses it was probably because he had none, but all
+other marks of enthusiasm were showered upon him. There was no citizen
+who did not join him heart and mind:--_Ex pluribus unam_, according to
+the motto of the United States.
+
+From that day Michel Ardan had not a minute's rest. Deputations from all
+parts of the Union worried him incessantly. He was forced to receive
+them whether he would or no. The hands he shook could not be counted; he
+was soon completely worn out, his voice became hoarse in consequence of
+his innumerable speeches, and only escaped from his lips in
+unintelligible sounds, and he nearly caught a gastro-enterite after the
+toasts he proposed to the Union. This success would have intoxicated
+another man from the first, but he managed to stay in a _spirituelle_
+and charming demi-inebriety.
+
+Amongst the deputations of every sort that assailed him, that of the
+"Lunatics" did not forget what they owed to the future conqueror of the
+moon. One day some of these poor creatures, numerous enough in America,
+went to him and asked to return with him to their native country. Some
+of them pretended to speak "Selenite," and wished to teach it to Michel
+Ardan, who willingly lent himself to their innocent mania, and promised
+to take their messages to their friends in the moon.
+
+"Singular folly!" said he to Barbicane, after having dismissed them;
+"and a folly that often takes possession of men of great intelligence.
+One of our most illustrious _savants_, Arago, told me that many very
+wise and reserved people in their conceptions became much excited and
+gave way to incredible singularities every time the moon occupied them.
+Do you believe in the influence of the moon upon maladies?"
+
+"Very little," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"I do not either, and yet history has preserved some facts that, to say
+the least, are astonishing. Thus in 1693, during an epidemic, people
+perished in the greatest numbers on the 21st of January, during an
+eclipse. The celebrated Bacon fainted during the moon eclipses, and only
+came to himself after its entire emersion. King Charles VI. relapsed six
+times into madness during the year 1399, either at the new or full moon.
+Physicians have ranked epilepsy amongst the maladies that follow the
+phases of the moon. Nervous maladies have often appeared to be
+influenced by it. Mead speaks of a child who had convulsions when the
+moon was in opposition. Gall remarked that insane persons underwent an
+accession of their disorder twice in every month, at the epochs of the
+new and full moon. Lastly, a thousand observations of this sort made
+upon malignant fevers and somnambulism tend to prove that the Queen of
+Night has a mysterious influence upon terrestrial maladies."
+
+"But how? why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan. "Why, the only thing I can tell you is what Arago
+repeated nineteen centuries after Plutarch. Perhaps it is because it is
+not true."
+
+In the height of his triumph Michel Ardan could not escape any of the
+annoyances incidental to a celebrated man. Managers of entertainments
+wished to exhibit him. Barnum offered him a million dollars to show him
+as a curious animal in the different towns of the United States.
+
+Still, though he refused to satisfy public curiosity in that way, his
+portraits went all over the world, and occupied the place of honour in
+albums; proofs were made of all sizes from life size to medallions.
+Every one could possess the hero in all positions--head, bust, standing,
+full-face, profile, three-quarters, back. Fifteen hundred thousand
+copies were taken, and it would have been a fine occasion to get money
+by relics, but he did not profit by it. If he had sold his hairs for a
+dollar apiece there would have remained enough to make his fortune!
+
+To tell the truth, this popularity did not displease him. On the
+contrary, he put himself at the disposition of the public, and
+corresponded with the entire universe. They repeated his witticisms,
+especially those he did not perpetrate.
+
+Not only had he all the men for him, but the women too. What an infinite
+number of good marriages he might have made if he had taken a fancy to
+"settle!" Old maids especially dreamt before his portraits day and
+night.
+
+It is certain that he would have found female companions by hundreds,
+even if he had imposed the condition of following him up into the air.
+Women are intrepid when they are not afraid of everything. But he had no
+intention of transplanting a race of Franco-Americans upon the lunar
+continent, so he refused.
+
+"I do not mean," said he, "to play the part of Adam with a daughter of
+Eve up there. I might meet with serpents!"
+
+As soon as he could withdraw from the joys of triumph, too often
+repeated, he went with his friends to pay a visit to the Columbiad. He
+owed it that. Besides, he was getting very learned in ballistics since
+he had lived with Barbicane, J.T. Maston, and _tutti quanti_. His
+greatest pleasure consisted in repeating to these brave artillerymen
+that they were only amiable and learned murderers. He was always joking
+about it. The day he visited the Columbiad he greatly admired it, and
+went down to the bore of the gigantic mortar that was soon to hurl him
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+"At least," said he, "that cannon will not hurt anybody, which is
+already very astonishing on the part of a cannon. But as to your engines
+that destroy, burn, smash, and kill, don't talk to me about them!"
+
+It is necessary to report here a proposition made by J.T. Maston. When
+the secretary of the Gun Club heard Barbicane and Nicholl accept Michel
+Ardan's proposition he resolved to join them, and make a party of four.
+One day he asked to go. Barbicane, grieved at having to refuse, made him
+understand that the projectile could not carry so many passengers. J.T.
+Maston, in despair, went to Michel Ardan, who advised him to be
+resigned, adding one or two arguments _ad hominem_.
+
+"You see, old fellow," he said to him, "you must not be offended, but
+really, between ourselves, you are too incomplete to present yourself in
+the moon."
+
+"Incomplete!" cried the valiant cripple.
+
+"Yes, my brave friend. Suppose we should meet with inhabitants up there.
+Do you want to give them a sorry idea of what goes on here, teach them
+what war is, show them that we employ the best part of our time in
+devouring each other and breaking arms and limbs, and that upon a globe
+that could feed a hundred thousand millions of inhabitants, and where
+there are hardly twelve hundred millions? Why, my worthy friend, you
+would have us shown to the door!"
+
+"But if you arrive smashed to pieces," replied J.T. Maston, "you will be
+as incomplete as I."
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel Ardan, "but we shall not arrive in pieces."
+
+In fact, a preparatory experiment, tried on the 18th of October, had
+been attended with the best results, and given rise to the most
+legitimate hopes. Barbicane, wishing to know the effect of the shock at
+the moment of the projectile's departure, sent for a 32-inch mortar from
+Pensacola Arsenal. It was installed upon the quay of Hillisboro Harbour,
+in order that the bomb might fall into the sea, and the shock of its
+fall be deadened. He only wished to experiment upon the shock of its
+departure, not that of its arrival.
+
+A hollow projectile was prepared with the greatest care for this curious
+experiment. A thick wadding put upon a network of springs made of the
+best steel lined it inside. It was quite a wadded nest.
+
+"What a pity one can't go in it!" said J.T. Maston, regretting that his
+size did not allow him to make the venture.
+
+Into this charming bomb, which was closed by means of a lid, screwed
+down, they put first a large cat, then a squirrel belonging to the
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, which J.T. Maston was very fond of.
+But they wished to know how this little animal, not likely to be giddy,
+would support this experimental journey.
+
+The mortar was loaded with 160 lbs. of powder and the bomb. It was then
+fired.
+
+The projectile immediately rose with rapidity, described a majestic
+parabola, attained a height of about a thousand feet, and then with a
+graceful curve fell into the waves.
+
+Without losing an instant, a vessel was sent to the spot where it fell;
+skilful divers sank under water and fastened cable-chains to the handles
+of the bomb, which was rapidly hoisted on board. Five minutes had not
+elapsed between the time the animals were shut up and the unscrewing of
+their prison lid.
+
+Ardan, Barbicane, Maston, and Nicholl were upon the vessel, and they
+assisted at the operation with a sentiment of interest easy to
+understand. The bomb was hardly opened before the cat sprang out, rather
+bruised but quite lively, and not looking as if it had just returned
+from an aërial expedition. But nothing, was seen of the squirrel. The
+truth was then discovered. The cat had eaten its travelling companion.
+
+J.T. Maston was very grieved at the loss of his poor squirrel, and
+proposed to inscribe it in the martyrology of science.
+
+However that may be, after this experiment all hesitation and fear were
+at an end; besides, Barbicane's plans were destined further to perfect
+the projectile, and destroy almost entirely the effect of the shock.
+There was nothing more to do but to start.
+
+Two days later Michel Ardan received a message from the President of
+the Union, an honour which he much appreciated.
+
+After the example of his chivalrous countryman, La Fayette, the
+government had bestowed upon him the title of "Citizen of the United
+States of America."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT.
+
+
+After the celebrated Columbiad was completed public interest immediately
+centred upon the projectile, the new vehicle destined to transport the
+three bold adventurers across space. No one had forgotten that in his
+despatch of September 30th Michel Ardan asked for a modification of the
+plans laid out by the members of the committee.
+
+President Barbicane then thought with reason that the form of the
+projectile was of slight importance, for, after crossing the atmosphere
+in a few seconds, it would meet with vacuum. The committee had therefore
+chosen the round form, so that the ball might turn over and over and do
+as it liked. But as soon as it had to be made into a vehicle, that was
+another thing. Michel Ardan did not want to travel squirrel-fashion; he
+wished to go up head up and feet down with as much dignity as in the car
+of a balloon, quicker of course, but without unseemly gambols.
+
+New plans were, therefore, sent to the firm of Breadwill and Co., of
+Albany, with the recommendation to execute them without delay. The
+projectile, thus modified, was cast on the 2nd of November, and sent
+immediately to Stony Hill by the Eastern Railway.
+
+On the 10th it arrived without accident at its place of destination.
+Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl awaited with the most lively
+impatience this "projectile compartment" in which they were to take
+their passage for the discovery of a new world.
+
+It must be acknowledged that it was a magnificent piece of metal, a
+metallurgic production that did the greatest honour to the industrial
+genius of the Americans. It was the first time that aluminium had been
+obtained in so large a mass, which result might be justly regarded as
+prodigious. This precious projectile sparkled in the rays of the sun.
+Seeing it in its imposing shape with its conical top, it might easily
+have been taken for one of those extinguisher-shaped towers that
+architects of the Middle Ages put at the angles of their castles. It
+only wanted loopholes and a weathercock.
+
+"I expect," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "to see a man armed _cap-à-pie_ come
+out of it. We shall be like feudal lords in there; with a little
+artillery we could hold our own against a whole army of Selenites--that
+is, if there are any in the moon!"
+
+"Then the vehicle pleases you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, yes! certainly," answered Michel Ardan, who was examining it as an
+artist. "I only regret that its form is not a little more slender, its
+cone more graceful; it ought to be terminated by a metal group, some
+Gothic ornament, a salamander escaping from it with outspread wings and
+open beak."
+
+"What would be the use?" said Barbicane, whose positive mind was little
+sensitive to the beauties of art.
+
+"Ah, friend Barbicane, I am afraid you will never understand the use, or
+you would not ask!"
+
+"Well, tell me, at all events, my brave companion."
+
+"Well, my friend, I think we ought always to put a little art in all we
+do. Do you know an Indian play called _The Child's Chariot_?"
+
+"Not even by name," answered Barbicane.
+
+"I am not surprised at that," continued Michel Ardan. "Learn, then, that
+in that play there is a robber who, when in the act of piercing the wall
+of a house, stops to consider whether he shall make his hole in the
+shape of a lyre, a flower, or a bird. Well, tell me, friend Barbicane,
+if at that epoch you had been his judge would you have condemned that
+robber?"
+
+"Without hesitation," answered the president of the Gun Club, "and as a
+burglar too."
+
+"Well, I should have acquitted him, friend Barbicane. That is why you
+could never understand me."
+
+"I will not even try, my valiant artist."
+
+"But, at least," continued Michel Ardan, "as the exterior of our
+projectile compartment leaves much to be desired, I shall be allowed to
+furnish the inside as I choose, and with all luxury suitable to
+ambassadors from the earth."
+
+"About that, my brave Michel," answered Barbicane, "you can do entirely
+as you please."
+
+But before passing to the agreeable the president of the Gun Club had
+thought of the useful, and the means he had invented for lessening the
+effects of the shock were applied with perfect intelligence.
+
+Barbicane had said to himself, not unreasonably, that no spring would be
+sufficiently powerful to deaden the shock, and during his famous
+promenade in Skersnaw Wood he had ended by solving this great difficulty
+in an ingenious fashion. He depended upon water to render him this
+signal service. This is how:--
+
+The projectile was to be filled to the depth of three feet with water
+destined to support a water-tight wooden disc, which easily worked
+within the walls of the projectile. It was upon this raft that the
+travellers were to take their place. As to the liquid mass, it was
+divided by horizontal partitions which the departing shock would
+successively break; then each sheet of water, from the lowest to the
+highest, escaping by valves in the upper part of the projectile, thus
+making a spring, and the disc, itself furnished with extremely powerful
+buffers, could not strike the bottom until it had successively broken
+the different partitions. The travellers would doubtless feel a violent
+recoil after the complete escape of the liquid mass, but the first shock
+would be almost entirely deadened by so powerful a spring.
+
+It is true that three feet on a surface of 541 square feet would weigh
+nearly 11,500 lbs; but the escape of gas accumulated in the Columbiad
+would suffice, Barbicane thought to conquer that increase of weight;
+besides, the shock would send out all that water in less than a second,
+and the projectile would soon regain its normal weight.
+
+This is what the president of the Gun Club had imagined, and how he
+thought he had solved the great question of the recoil. This work,
+intelligently comprehended by the engineers of the Breadwill firm, was
+marvellously executed; the effect once produced and the water gone, the
+travellers could easily get rid of the broken partitions and take away
+the mobile disc that bore them at the moment of departure.
+
+As to the upper sides of the projectile, they were lined with a thick
+wadding of leather, put upon the best steel springs as supple as
+watch-springs. The escape-pipes hidden under this wadding were not even
+seen.
+
+All imaginable precautions for deadening the first shock having been
+taken, Michel Ardan said they must be made of "very bad stuff" to be
+crushed.
+
+The projectile outside was nine feet wide and twelve feet high. In order
+not to pass the weight assigned the sides had been made a little less
+thick and the bottom thicker, as it would have to support all the
+violence of the gases developed by the deflagration of the pyroxyle.
+Bombs and cylindro-conical howitzers are always made with thicker
+bottoms.
+
+The entrance to this tower of metal was a narrow opening in the wall of
+the cone, like the "man-hole" of steam boilers. It closed hermetically
+by means of an aluminium plate fastened inside by powerful screw
+pressure. The travellers could therefore leave their mobile prison at
+will as soon as they had reached the Queen of Night.
+
+But going was not everything; it was necessary to see on the road.
+Nothing was easier. In fact, under the wadding were four thick
+lenticular footlights, two let into the circular wall of the projectile,
+the third in its lower part, and the fourth in its cone. The travellers
+could, therefore, observe during their journey the earth they were
+leaving, the moon they were approaching, and the constellated spaces of
+the sky. These skylights were protected against the shocks of departure
+by plates let into solid grooves, which it was easy to move by
+unscrewing them. By that means the air contained in the projectile could
+not escape, and it was possible to make observations.
+
+All these mechanical appliances, admirably set, worked with the greatest
+ease, and the engineers had not shown themselves less intelligent in the
+arrangement of the projectile compartment.
+
+Lockers solidly fastened were destined to contain the water and
+provisions necessary for the three travellers; they could even procure
+themselves fire and light by means of gas stored up in a special case
+under a pressure of several atmospheres. All they had to do was to turn
+a tap, and the gas would light and warm this comfortable vehicle for six
+days. It will be seen that none of the things essential to life, or even
+to comfort, were wanting. More, thanks to the instincts of Michel Ardan,
+the agreeable was joined to the useful under the form of objects of art;
+he would have made a veritable artist's studio of his projectile if room
+had not been wanting. It would be mistaken to suppose that three persons
+would be restricted for space in that metal tower. It had a surface of
+54 square feet, and was nearly 10 feet high, and allowed its occupiers a
+certain liberty of movement. They would not have been so much at their
+ease in the most comfortable railway compartment of the United States.
+
+The question of provisions and lighting having been solved, there
+remained the question of air. It was evident that the air confined in
+the projectile would not be sufficient for the travellers' respiration
+for four days; each man, in fact, consumes in one hour all the oxygen
+contained in 100 litres of air. Barbicane, his two companions, and two
+dogs that he meant to take, would consume every twenty-four hours 2,400
+litres of oxygen, or a weight equal to 7 lbs. The air in the projectile
+must, therefore, be renewed. How? By a very simple method, that of
+Messrs. Reiset and Regnault, indicated by Michel Ardan during the
+discussion of the meeting.
+
+It is known that the air is composed principally of twenty-one parts of
+oxygen and seventy-nine parts of azote. Now what happens in the act of
+respiration? A very simple phenomenon, Man absorbs the oxygen of the
+air, eminently adapted for sustaining life, and throws out the azote
+intact. The air breathed out has lost nearly five per cent, of its
+oxygen, and then contains a nearly equal volume of carbonic acid, the
+definitive product of the combustion of the elements of the blood by the
+oxygen breathed in it. It happens, therefore, that in a confined space
+and after a certain time all the oxygen of the air is replaced by
+carbonic acid, an essentially deleterious gas.
+
+The question was then reduced to this, the azote being conserved
+intact--1. To remake the oxygen absorbed; 2. To destroy the carbonic
+acid breathed out. Nothing easier to do by means of chlorate of potash
+and caustic potash. The former is a salt which appears under the form of
+white crystals; when heated to a temperature of 400° it is transformed
+into chlorine of potassium, and the oxygen which it contains is given
+off freely. Now 18 lbs. of chlorate of potash give 7 lbs of oxygen--that
+is to say, the quantity necessary to the travellers for twenty-four
+hours.
+
+As to caustic potash, it has a great affinity for carbonic acid mixed in
+air, and it is sufficient to shake it in order for it to seize upon the
+acid and form bicarbonate of potash. So much for the absorption of
+carbonic acid.
+
+By combining these two methods they were certain of giving back to
+vitiated air all its life-giving qualities. The two chemists, Messrs.
+Reiset and Regnault, had made the experiment with success.
+
+But it must be said the experiment had only been made _in anima vili_.
+Whatever its scientific accuracy might be, no one knew how man could
+bear it.
+
+Such was the observation made at the meeting where this grave question
+was discussed. Michel Ardan meant to leave no doubt about the
+possibility of living by means of this artificial air, and he offered to
+make the trial before the departure.
+
+But the honour of putting it to the proof was energetically claimed by
+J.T. Maston.
+
+"As I am not going with you," said the brave artilleryman, "the least I
+can do will be to live in the projectile for a week."
+
+It would have been ungracious to refuse him. His wish was complied with.
+A sufficient quantity of chlorate of potash and caustic potash was
+placed at his disposition, with provisions for a week; then having
+shaken hands with his friends, on the 12th of November at 6 a.m., after
+having expressly recommended them not to open his prison before the 20th
+at 6 p.m., he crept into the projectile, the iron plate of which was
+hermetically shut.
+
+What happened during that week? It was impossible to ascertain. The
+thickness of the projectile's walls prevented any interior noise from
+reaching the outside.
+
+On the 20th of November, at six o'clock precisely, the plate was
+removed; the friends of J.T. Maston were rather uneasy. But they were
+promptly reassured by hearing a joyful voice shouting a formidable
+hurrah!
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club appeared on the summit of the cone in a
+triumphant attitude.
+
+He had grown fat!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+On the 20th of October of the preceding year, after the subscription
+list was closed, the president of the Gun Club had credited the
+Cambridge Observatory with the sums necessary for the construction of a
+vast optical instrument. This telescope was to be powerful enough to
+render visible on the surface of the moon an object being at least nine
+feet wide.
+
+There is an important difference between a field-glass and a telescope,
+which it is well to recall here. A field-glass is composed of a tube
+which carries at its upper extremity a convex glass called an
+object-glass, and at its lower extremity a second glass called ocular,
+to which the eye of the observer is applied. The rays from the luminous
+object traverse the first glass, and by refraction form an image upside
+down at its focus. This image is looked at with the ocular, which
+magnifies it. The tube of the field-glass is, therefore, closed at each
+extremity by the object and the ocular glasses.
+
+The telescope, on the contrary, is open at its upper extremity. The rays
+from the object observed penetrate freely into it, and strike a concave
+metallic mirror--that is to say, they are focussed. From thence their
+reflected rays meet with a little mirror, which sends them back to the
+ocular in such a way as to magnify the image produced.
+
+Thus in field-glasses refraction plays the principal part, and
+reflection does in the telescope. Hence the name of refractors given to
+the former, and reflectors given to the latter. All the difficulty in
+the execution of these optical instruments lies in the making of the
+object-glass, whether they be made of glass or metallic mirrors.
+
+Still at the epoch when the Gun Club made its great experiment these
+instruments were singularly perfected and gave magnificent results. The
+time was far distant when Galileo observed the stars with his poor
+glass, which magnified seven times at the most. Since the 16th century
+optical instruments had widened and lengthened in considerable
+proportions, and they allowed the stellar spaces to be gauged to a depth
+unknown before. Amongst the refracting instruments at work at that
+period were the glass of the Poulkowa Observatory in Russia, the
+object-glass of which measured 15 inches in width, that of the French
+optician Lerebours, furnished with an object-glass equally large, and
+lastly that of the Cambridge Observatory, furnished with an object-glass
+19 inches in diameter.
+
+Amongst telescopes, two were known of remarkable power and gigantic
+dimensions. The first, constructed by Herschel, was 36 feet in length,
+and had an object-glass of 4 feet 6 inches; it magnified 6,000 times;
+the second, raised in Ireland, at Birrcastle, in Parsonstown Park,
+belonged to Lord Rosse; the length of its tube was 48 feet and the width
+of its mirror 6 feet; it magnified 6,400 times, and it had required an
+immense erection of masonry on which to place the apparatus necessary
+for working the instrument, which weighed 12-1/2 tons.
+
+But it will be seen that notwithstanding these colossal dimensions the
+magnifying power obtained did not exceed 6,000 times in round numbers;
+now that power would only bring the moon within 39 miles, and would only
+allow objects 60 feet in diameter to be perceived unless these objects
+were very elongated.
+
+Now in space they had to deal with a projectile 9 feet wide and 15 long,
+so the moon had to be brought within five miles at least, and for that a
+magnifying power of 48,000 times was necessary.
+
+Such was the problem propounded to the Cambridge Observatory. They were
+not to be stopped by financial difficulties, so there only remained
+material difficulties.
+
+First of all they had to choose between telescopes and field-glasses.
+The latter had some advantages. With equal object-glasses they have a
+greater magnifying power, because the luminous rays that traverse the
+glasses lose less by absorption than the reflection on the metallic
+mirror of telescopes; but the thickness that can be given to glass is
+limited, for too thick it does not allow the luminous rays to pass.
+Besides, the construction of these vast glasses is excessively
+difficult, and demands a considerable time, measured by years.
+
+Therefore, although images are better given by glasses, an inappreciable
+advantage when the question is to observe the moon, the light of which
+is simply reflected they decided to employ the telescope, which is
+prompter in execution and is capable of a greater magnifying power; only
+as the luminous rays lose much of their intensity by traversing the
+atmosphere, the Gun Club resolved to set up the instrument on one of the
+highest mountains of the Union, which would diminish the depth of the
+aërial strata.
+
+In telescopes it has been seen that the glass placed at the observer's
+eye produces the magnifying power, and the object-glass which bears this
+power the best is the one that has the largest diameter and the greatest
+focal distance. In order to magnify 48,000 times it must be much larger
+than those of Herschel and Lord Rosse. There lay the difficulty, for the
+casting of these mirrors is a very delicate operation.
+
+Happily, some years before a _savant_ of the _Institut de France_, Léon
+Foucault, had just invented means by which the polishing of
+object-glasses became very prompt and easy by replacing the metallic
+mirror by taking a piece of glass the size required and plating it.
+
+It was to be fixed according to the method invented by Herschel for
+telescopes. In the great instrument of the astronomer at Slough, the
+image of objects reflected by the mirror inclined at the bottom of the
+tube was formed at the other extremity where the eyeglass was placed.
+Thus the observer, instead of being placed at the lower end of the tube,
+was hoisted to the upper end, and there with his eyeglass he looked down
+into the enormous cylinder. This combination had the advantage of doing
+away with the little mirror destined to send back the image to the
+ocular glass, which thus only reflected once instead of twice; therefore
+there were fewer luminous rays extinguished, the image was less feeble,
+and more light was obtained, a precious advantage in the observation
+that was to be made.
+
+This being resolved upon, the work was begun. According to the
+calculations of the Cambridge Observatory staff, the tube of the new
+reflector was to be 280 feet long and its mirror 16 feet in diameter.
+Although it was so colossal it was not comparable to the telescope
+10,000 feet long which the astronomer Hooke proposed to construct some
+years ago. Nevertheless the setting up of such an apparatus presented
+great difficulties.
+
+The question of its site was promptly settled. It must be upon a high
+mountain, and high mountains are not numerous in the States.
+
+In fact, the orographical system of this great country only contains two
+chains of average height, amongst which flows the magnificent
+Mississippi, which the Americans would call the "king of rivers" if they
+admitted any royalty whatever.
+
+On the east rise the Apalachians, the very highest point of which, in
+New Hampshire, does not exceed the very moderate altitude of 5,600 feet.
+
+On the west are, however, the Rocky Mountains, that immense chain which
+begins at the Straits of Magellan, follows the west coast of South
+America under the name of the Andes or Cordilleras, crosses the Isthmus
+of Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to the very shores of
+the Polar Sea.
+
+These mountains are not very high, and the Alps or Himalayas would look
+down upon them with disdain. In fact, their highest summit is only
+10,701 feet high, whilst Mont Blanc is 14,439, and the highest summit of
+the Himalayas is 26,776 feet above the level of the sea.
+
+But as the Gun Club wished that its telescope, as well as the Columbiad,
+should be set up in the States of the Union, they were obliged to be
+content with the Rocky Mountains, and all the necessary material was
+sent to the summit of Long's Peak in the territory of Missouri.
+
+Neither pen nor language could relate the difficulties of every kind
+that the American engineers had to overcome, and the prodigies of
+audacity and skill that they accomplished. Enormous stones, massive
+pieces of wrought-iron, heavy corner-clamps, and huge portions of
+cylinder had to be raised with an object-glass, weighing nearly 30,000
+lbs., above the line of perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in
+height, after crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful
+rapids far from all centres of population, and in the midst of savage
+regions in which every detail of life becomes an insoluble problem, and,
+nevertheless, American genius triumphed over all these obstacles. Less
+than a year after beginning the works in the last days of the month of
+September, the gigantic reflector rose in the air to a height of 280
+feet. It was hung from an enormous iron scaffolding; an ingenious
+arrangement allowed it to be easily moved towards every point of the
+sky, and to follow the stars from one horizon to the other during their
+journey across space.
+
+It had cost more than 400,000 dollars. The first time it was pointed at
+the moon the observers felt both curious and uneasy. What would they
+discover in the field of this telescope which magnified objects 48,000
+times? Populations, flocks of lunar animals, towns, lakes, and oceans?
+No, nothing that science was not already acquainted with, and upon all
+points of her disc the volcanic nature of the moon could be determined
+with absolute precision.
+
+But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before being used by the Gun
+Club, rendered immense services to astronomy. Thanks to its power of
+penetration, the depths of the sky were explored to their utmost limits,
+the apparent diameter of a great number of stars could be rigorously
+measured, and Mr. Clarke, of the Cambridge staff, resolved the Crab
+nebula in Taurus, which Lord Rosse's reflector had never been able to
+do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+FINAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It was the 22nd of November. The supreme departure was to take place ten
+days later. One operation still remained to bring it to a happy
+termination, a delicate and perilous operation exacting infinite
+precautions, and against the success of which Captain Nicholl had laid
+his third bet. It was, in fact, nothing less than the loading of the gun
+and the introduction into it of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. Nicholl had
+thought, not without reason, perhaps, that the handling of so large a
+quantity of pyroxyle would cause grave catastrophes, and that in any
+case this eminently explosive mass would ignite of itself under the
+pressure of the projectile.
+
+There were also grave dangers increased by the carelessness of the
+Americans, who, during the Federal war, used to load their cannon cigar
+in mouth. But Barbicane had set his heart on succeeding, and did not
+mean to founder in port; he therefore chose his best workmen, made them
+work under his superintendence, and by dint of prudence and precautions
+he managed to put all the chances of success on his side.
+
+First he took care not to bring all his charge at once to the inclosure
+of Stony Hill. He had it brought little by little carefully packed in
+sealed cases. The 400,000 lbs. of pyroxyle had been divided into packets
+of 500 lbs., which made 800 large cartridges made carefully by the
+cleverest artisans of Pensacola. Each case contained ten, and they
+arrived one after the other by the railroad of Tampa Town; by that means
+there were never more than 500 lbs. of pyroxyle at once in the
+inclosure. As soon as it arrived each case was unloaded by workmen
+walking barefoot, and each cartridge transported to the orifice of the
+Columbiad, into which they lowered them by means of cranes worked by the
+men. Every steam-engine had been excluded, and the least fires
+extinguished for two miles round. Even in November it was necessary to
+preserve this gun-cotton from the ardour of the sun. So they worked at
+night by light produced in a vacuum by means of Rühmkorff's apparatus,
+which threw an artificial brightness into the depths of the Columbiad.
+There the cartridges were arranged with the utmost regularity, fastened
+together by a wire destined to communicate the electric spark to them
+all simultaneously.
+
+In fact, it was by means of electricity that fire was to be set to this
+mass of gun-cotton. All these single wires, surrounded by isolating
+material, were rolled into a single one at a narrow hole pierced at the
+height the projectile was to be placed; there they crossed the thick
+metal wall and came up to the surface by one of the vent-holes in the
+masonry made on purpose. Once arrived at the summit of Stony Hill, the
+wire supported on poles for a distance of two miles met a powerful pile
+of Bunsen passing through a non-conducting apparatus. It would,
+therefore, be enough to press with the finger the knob of the apparatus
+for the electric current to be at once established, and to set fire to
+the 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. It is hardly necessary to say that this
+was only to be done at the last moment.
+
+On the 28th of November the 800 cartridges were placed at the bottom of
+the Columbiad. That part of the operation had succeeded. But what worry,
+anxiety, and struggles President Barbicane had to undergo! In vain had
+he forbidden entrance to Stony Hill; every day curious sightseers
+climbed over the palisading, and some, pushing imprudence to folly, came
+and smoked amongst the bales of gun-cotton. Barbicane put himself into
+daily rages. J.T. Maston seconded him to the best of his ability,
+chasing the intruders away and picking up the still-lighted cigar-ends
+which the Yankees threw about--a rude task, for more than 300,000 people
+pressed round the palisades. Michel Ardan had offered himself to escort
+the cases to the mouth of the gun, but having caught him with a cigar in
+his mouth whilst he drove out the intruders to whom he was giving this
+unfortunate example, the president of the Gun Club saw that he could not
+depend upon this intrepid smoker, and was obliged to have him specially
+watched.
+
+At last, there being a Providence even for artillerymen, nothing blew
+up, and the loading was happily terminated. The third bet of Captain
+Nicholl was therefore much imperilled. There still remained the work of
+introducing the projectile into the Columbiad and placing it on the
+thick bed of gun-cotton.
+
+But before beginning this operation the objects necessary for the
+journey were placed with order in the waggon-compartment. There were a
+good many of them, and if they had allowed Michel Ardan to do as he
+pleased he would soon have filled up all the space reserved for the
+travellers. No one can imagine all that the amiable Frenchman wished to
+carry to the moon--a heap of useless trifles. But Barbicane interfered,
+and refused all but the strictly necessary.
+
+Several thermometers, barometers, and telescopes were placed in the
+instrument-case.
+
+The travellers were desirous of examining the moon during their transit,
+and in order to facilitate the survey of this new world they took an
+excellent map by Boeer and Moedler, the _Mappa Selenographica_,
+published in four plates, which is justly looked upon as a masterpiece
+of patience and observation. It represented with scrupulous exactitude
+the slightest details of that portion of the moon turned towards the
+earth. Mountains, valleys, craters, peaks, watersheds, were depicted on
+it in their exact dimensions, faithful positions, and names, from Mounts
+Doerfel and Leibnitz, whose highest summits rise on the eastern side of
+the disc, to the _Mare Frigoris_, which extends into the North Polar
+regions.
+
+It was, therefore, a precious document for the travellers, for they
+could study the country before setting foot upon it.
+
+They took also three rifles and three fowling-pieces with powder and
+shot in great quantity.
+
+"We do not know with whom we may have to deal," said Michel Ardan. "Both
+men and beasts may be displeased at our visit; we must, therefore, take
+our precautions."
+
+The instruments of personal defence were accompanied by pickaxes,
+spades, saws, and other indispensable tools, without mentioning garments
+suitable to every temperature, from the cold of the polar regions to the
+heat of the torrid zone.
+
+Michel Ardan would have liked to take a certain number of animals of
+different sorts, not male and female of every species, as he did not see
+the necessity of acclimatising serpents, tigers, alligators, or any
+other noxious beasts in the moon.
+
+"No," said he to Barbicane, "but some useful animals, ox or cow, ass or
+horse, would look well in the landscape and be of great use."
+
+"I agree with you, my dear Ardan," answered the president of the Gun
+Club; "but our projectile is not Noah's Ark. It differs both in
+dimensions and object, so let us remain in the bounds of possibility."
+
+At last after long discussions it was agreed that the travellers should
+be content to take with them an excellent sporting dog belonging to
+Nicholl and a vigorous Newfoundland of prodigious strength. Several
+cases of the most useful seeds were included amongst the indispensable
+objects. If they had allowed him, Michel Ardan would have taken several
+sacks of earth to sow them in. Any way he took a dozen little trees,
+which were carefully enveloped in straw and placed in a corner of the
+projectile.
+
+Then remained the important question of provisions, for they were
+obliged to provide against finding the moon absolutely barren. Barbicane
+managed so well that he took enough for a year. But it must be added, to
+prevent astonishment, that these provisions consisted of meat and
+vegetable compressed to their smallest volume by hydraulic pressure, and
+included a great quantity of nutritive elements; there was not much
+variety, but it would not do to be too particular in such an expedition.
+There was also about fifty gallons of brandy and water for two months
+only, for, according to the latest observations of astronomers, no one
+doubted the presence of a large quantity of water in the moon. As to
+provisions, it would have been insane to believe that the inhabitants of
+the earth would not find food up there. Michel Ardan had no doubt about
+it. If he had he would not have gone.
+
+"Besides," said he one day to his friends, "we shall not be completely
+abandoned by our friends on earth, and they will take care not to forget
+us."
+
+"No, certainly," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing more simple," answered Ardan. "Will not our Columbiad be still
+there? Well, then, every time that the moon is in favourable conditions
+of zenith, if not of perigee--that is to say, about once a year--could
+they not send us a projectile loaded with provisions which we should
+expect by a fixed date?"
+
+"Hurrah!" cried J.T. Maston. "That is not at all a bad idea. Certainly
+we will not forget you."
+
+"I depend upon you. Thus you see we shall have news regularly from the
+globe, and for our part we shall be very awkward if we do not find means
+to communicate with our good friends on earth."
+
+These words inspired such confidence that Michel Ardan with his superb
+assurance would have carried the whole Gun Club with him. What he said
+seemed simple, elementary, and sure of success, and it would have been
+sordid attachment to this earth to hesitate to follow the three
+travellers upon their lunar expedition.
+
+When the different objects were placed in the projectile the water was
+introduced between the partitions and the gas for lighting purposes laid
+in. Barbicane took enough chlorate of potash and caustic potash for two
+months, as he feared unforeseen delay. An extremely ingenious machine
+working automatically put the elements for good air in motion. The
+projectile, therefore, was ready, and the only thing left to do was to
+lower it into the gun, an operation full of perils and difficulty.
+
+The enormous projectile was taken to the summit of Stony Hill. There
+enormous cranes seized it and held it suspended over the metal well.
+
+This was an anxious moment. If the chains were to break under the
+enormous weight the fall of such a mass would inevitably ignite the
+gun-cotton.
+
+Happily nothing of the sort happened, and a few hours afterwards the
+projectile-compartment rested on its pyroxyle bed, a veritable
+fulminating pillow. The only effect of its pressure was to ram the
+charge of the gun more strongly.
+
+"I have lost," said the captain, handing the sum of 3,000 dollars to
+President Barbicane.
+
+Barbicane did not wish to receive this money from his travelling
+companion, but he was obliged to give way to Nicholl, who wished to
+fulfil all his engagements before leaving the earth.
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "there is but one thing I wish for you now,
+captain."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is that you may lose your other two wagers. By that means we shall
+be sure not to be stopped on the road."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+FIRE!
+
+
+The 1st of December came, the fatal day, for if the projectile did not
+start that very evening at 10h. 46m. and 40s. p.m., more than eighteen
+years would elapse before the moon would present the same simultaneous
+conditions of zenith and perigee.
+
+The weather was magnificent; notwithstanding the approach of winter the
+sun shone brightly and bathed in its radiance that earth which three of
+its inhabitants were about to leave for a new world.
+
+How many people slept badly during the night that preceded the
+ardently-longed-for day! How many breasts were oppressed with the heavy
+burden of waiting! All hearts beat with anxiety except only the heart of
+Michel Ardan. This impassible person went and came in his usual
+business-like way, but nothing in him denoted any unusual preoccupation.
+His sleep had been peaceful--it was the sleep of Turenne upon a
+gun-carriage the night before the battle.
+
+From early dawn an innumerable crowd covered the prairie, which extended
+as far as the eye could reach round Stony Hill. Every quarter of an hour
+the railroad of Tampa brought fresh sightseers. According to the _Tampa
+Town Observer_, five millions of spectators were that day upon Floridian
+soil.
+
+The greater part of this crowd had been living in tents round the
+inclosure, and laid the foundations of a town which has since been
+called "Ardan's Town." The ground bristled with huts, cabins, and tents,
+and these ephemeral habitations sheltered a population numerous enough
+to rival the largest cities of Europe.
+
+Every nation upon earth was represented; every language was spoken at
+the same time. It was like the confusion of tongues at the Tower of
+Babel. There the different classes of American society mixed in absolute
+equality. Bankers, cultivators, sailors, agents, merchants,
+cotton-planters, and magistrates elbowed each other with primitive ease.
+The creoles of Louisiana fraternised with the farmers of Indiana; the
+gentlemen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the elegant and haughty Virginians,
+joked with the half-savage trappers of the Lakes and the butchers of
+Cincinnati. They appeared in broad-brimmed white beavers and Panamas,
+blue cotton trousers, from the Opelousa manufactories, draped in elegant
+blouses of écru cloth, in boots of brilliant colours, and extravagant
+shirt-frills; upon shirt-fronts, cuffs, cravats, on their ten fingers,
+even in their ears, an assortment of rings, pins, diamonds, chains,
+buckles, and trinkets, the cost of which equalled the bad taste. Wife,
+children, servants, in no less rich dress, accompanied, followed,
+preceded, and surrounded their husbands, fathers, and masters, who
+resembled the patriarchs amidst their innumerable families.
+
+At meal-times it was a sight to see all these people devour the dishes
+peculiar to the Southern States, and eat, with an appetite menacing to
+the provisioning of Florida, the food that would be repugnant to a
+European stomach, such as fricasseed frogs, monkey-flesh, fish-chowder,
+underdone opossum, and raccoon steaks.
+
+The liquors that accompanied this indigestible food were numerous.
+Shouts and vociferations to buy resounded through the bar-rooms or
+taverns, decorated with glasses, tankards, decanters, and bottles of
+marvellous shapes, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws.
+
+"Mint-julep!" roars out one of the salesmen.
+
+"Claret sangaree!" shouts another through his nose.
+
+"Gin-sling!" shouts one.
+
+"Cocktail! Brandy-smash!" cries another.
+
+"Who'll buy real mint-julep in the latest style?" shouted these skilful
+salesmen, rapidly passing from one glass to another the sugar, lemon,
+green mint, crushed ice, water, cognac, and fresh pine-apple which
+compose this refreshing drink.
+
+Generally these sounds, addressed to throats made thirsty by the spices
+they consumed, mingled into one deafening roar. But on this 1st of
+December these cries were rare. No one thought of eating and drinking,
+and at 4 p.m. there were many spectators in the crowd who had not taken
+their customary lunch! A much more significant fact, even the national
+passion for gaming was allayed by the general emotion. Thimbles,
+skittles, and cards were left in their wrappings, and testified that the
+great event of the day absorbed all attention.
+
+Until nightfall a dull, noiseless agitation like that which precedes
+great catastrophes ran through the anxious crowd. An indescribable
+uneasiness oppressed all minds, and stopped the beating of all hearts.
+Every one wished it over.
+
+However, about seven o'clock this heavy silence was suddenly broken. The
+moon rose above the horizon. Several millions of hurrahs saluted her
+apparition. She was punctual to the appointment. Shouts of welcome broke
+from all parts, whilst the blonde Phoebe shone peacefully in a clear
+sky, and caressed the enraptured crowd with her most affectionate rays.
+
+At that moment the three intrepid travellers appeared. When they
+appeared the cries redoubled in intensity. Unanimously, instantaneously,
+the national song of the United States escaped from all the spectators,
+and "Yankee Doodle," sung by 5,000,000 of hearty throats, rose like a
+roaring tempest to the farthest limits of the atmosphere.
+
+Then, after this irresistible outburst, the hymn was ended, the last
+harmonies died away by degrees, and a silent murmur floated over the
+profoundly-excited crowd.
+
+In the meantime the Frenchman and the two Americans had stepped into the
+inclosure round which the crowd was pressing. They were accompanied by
+the members of the Gun Club, and deputations sent by the European
+observatories. Barbicane was coolly and calmly giving his last orders.
+Nicholl, with compressed lips and hands crossed behind his back, walked
+with a firm and measured step. Michel Ardan, always at his ease, clothed
+in a perfect travelling suit, with leather gaiters on his legs, pouch at
+his side, in vast garment of maroon velvet, a cigar in his mouth,
+distributed shakes of the hand with princely prodigality. He was full of
+inexhaustible gaiety, laughing, joking, playing pranks upon the worthy
+J.T. Maston, and was, in a word, "French," and, what is worse,
+"Parisian," till the last second.
+
+Ten o'clock struck. The moment had come to take their places in the
+projectile; the necessary mechanism for the descent the door-plate to
+screw down, the removal of the cranes and scaffolding hung over the
+mouth of the Columbiad, took some time.
+
+Barbicane had set his chronometer to the tenth of a second by that of
+the engineer Murchison, who was entrusted with setting fire to the
+powder by means of the electric spark; the travellers shut up in the
+projectile could thus watch the impassive needle which was going to mark
+the precise instant of their departure.
+
+The moment for saying farewell had come. The scene was touching; in
+spite of his gaiety Michel Ardan felt touched. J.T. Maston had found
+under his dry eyelids an ancient tear that he had, doubtless, kept for
+the occasion. He shed it upon the forehead of his dear president.
+
+"Suppose I go too?" said he. "There is still time!"
+
+"Impossible, old fellow," answered Barbicane.
+
+A few moments later the three travelling companions were installed in
+the projectile, and had screwed down the door-plate, and the mouth of
+the Columbiad, entirely liberated, rose freely towards the sky.
+
+Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan were definitively walled up in
+their metal vehicle.
+
+Who could predict the universal emotion then at its paroxysm?
+
+The moon was rising in a firmament of limpid purity, outshining on her
+passage the twinkling fire of the stars; she passed over the
+constellation of the Twins, and was now nearly halfway between the
+horizon and the zenith.
+
+A frightful silence hung over all that scene. There was not a breath of
+wind on the earth! Not a sound of breathing from the crowd! Hearts dared
+not beat. Every eye was fixed on the gaping mouth of the Columbiad.
+
+Murchison watched the needle of his chronometer. Hardly forty seconds
+had to elapse before the moment of departure struck, and each one lasted
+a century!
+
+At the twentieth there was a universal shudder, and the thought occurred
+to all the crowd that the audacious travellers shut up in the vehicle
+were likewise counting these terrible seconds! Some isolated cries were
+heard.
+
+"Thirty-five!--thirty-six!--thirty-seven!--thirty--eight!--thirty-nine!
+--forty! Fire!!!"
+
+Murchison immediately pressed his finger upon the electric knob and
+hurled the electric spark into the depths of the Columbiad.
+
+A fearful, unheard-of, superhuman report, of which nothing could give
+an idea, not even thunder or the eruption of volcanoes, was immediately
+produced. An immense spout of fire sprang up from the bowels of the
+earth as if from a crater. The soil heaved and very few persons caught a
+glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air amidst the
+flaming smoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+CLOUDY WEATHER.
+
+
+At the moment when the pyramid of flame rose to a prodigious height in
+the air it lighted up the whole of Florida, and for an incalculable
+moment day was substituted for night over a considerable extent of
+country. This immense column of fire was perceived for a hundred miles
+out at sea, from the Gulf and from the Atlantic, and more than one
+ship's captain noted the apparition of this gigantic meteor in his
+log-book.
+
+The discharge of the Columbiad was accompanied by a veritable
+earthquake. Florida was shaken to its very depths. The gases of the
+powder, expanded by heat, forced back the atmospheric strata with
+tremendous violence, passing like a waterspout through the air.
+
+Not one spectator remained on his legs; men, women, and children were
+thrown down like ears of wheat in a storm; there was a terrible tumult,
+and a large number of people were seriously injured. J.T. Maston, who
+had very imprudently kept to the fore, was thrown twenty yards backwards
+like a bullet over the heads of his fellow-citizens. Three hundred
+thousand people were temporarily deafened and as though thunderstruck.
+
+The atmospheric current, after throwing over huts and cabins, uprooting
+trees within a radius of twenty miles, throwing the trains off the
+railway as far as Tampa, burst upon the town like an avalanche and
+destroyed a hundred houses, amongst others the church of St. Mary and
+the new edifice of the Exchange. Some of the vessels in the port were
+run against each other and sunk, and ten of them were stranded high and
+dry after breaking their chains like threads of cotton.
+
+But the circle of these devastations extended farther still, and beyond
+the limits of the United States. The recoil, aided by the westerly
+winds, was felt on the Atlantic at more than 300 miles from the American
+shores. An unexpected tempest, which even Admiral Fitzroy could not have
+foreseen, broke upon the ships with unheard-of violence. Several
+vessels, seized by a sort of whirlwind before they had time to furl
+their sails, were sunk, amongst others the _Childe Harold_, of
+Liverpool, a regrettable catastrophe which was the object of lively
+recriminations.
+
+Lastly--although the fact is not warranted except by the affirmation of
+a few natives--half-an-hour after the departure of the projectile the
+inhabitants of Sierra-Leone pretended that they heard a dull noise, the
+last displacement of the sonorous waves, which, after crossing the
+Atlantic, died away on the African coast.
+
+But to return to Florida. The tumult once lessened, the wounded and
+deaf--in short, all the crowd--rose and shouted in a sort of frenzy,
+"Hurrah for Ardan! Hurrah for Barbicane! Hurrah for Nicholl!" Several
+millions of men, nose in air, armed with telescopes and every species of
+field-glass, looked into space, forgetting contusions and feelings, in
+order to look at the projectile. But they sought in vain; it was not to
+be seen, and they resolved to await the telegrams from Long's Peak. The
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, M. Belfast, was at his post in
+the Rocky Mountains, and it was to this skilful and persevering
+astronomer that the observations had been entrusted.
+
+But an unforeseen phenomenon, against which nothing could be done, soon
+came to put public impatience to a rude test.
+
+The weather, so fine before, suddenly changed; the sky became covered
+with clouds. It could not be otherwise after so great a displacement of
+the atmospheric strata and the dispersion of the enormous quantity of
+gases from the combustion of 200,000 lbs. of pyroxyle. All natural order
+had been disturbed. There is nothing astonishing in that, for in
+sea-fights it has been noticed that the state of the atmosphere has been
+suddenly changed by the artillery discharge.
+
+The next day the sun rose upon an horizon covered with thick clouds, a
+heavy and an impenetrable curtain hung between earth and sky, and which
+unfortunately extended as far as the regions of the Rocky Mountains. It
+was a fatality. A concert of complaints rose from all parts of the
+globe. But Nature took no notice, and as men had chosen to disturb the
+atmosphere with their gun, they must submit to the consequences.
+
+During this first day every one tried to pierce the thick veil of
+clouds, but no one was rewarded for the trouble; besides, they were all
+mistaken in supposing they could see it by looking up at the sky, for on
+account of the diurnal movement of the globe the projectile was then, of
+course, shooting past the line of the antipodes.
+
+However that might be, when night again enveloped the earth--a dark,
+impenetrable night--it was impossible to see the moon above the horizon;
+it might have been thought that she was hiding on purpose from the bold
+beings who had shot at her. No observation was, therefore, possible, and
+the despatches from Long's Peak confirmed the disastrous intelligence.
+
+However, if the experiment had succeeded, the travellers, who had
+started on the 1st of December, at 10h. 46m. 40s. p.m., were due at
+their destination on the 4th at midnight; so that as up to that time it
+would, after all, have been difficult to observe a body so small, people
+waited with all the patience they could muster.
+
+On the 4th of December, from 8 p.m. till midnight, it would have been
+possible to follow the trace of the projectile, which would have
+appeared like a black speck on the shining disc of the moon. But the
+weather remained imperturbably cloudy, and exasperated the public, who
+swore at the moon for not showing herself. _Sic transit gloria mundi_!
+
+J.T. Maston, in despair, set out for Long's Peak. He wished to make an
+observation himself. He did not doubt that his friends had arrived at
+the goal of their journey. No one had heard that the projectile had
+fallen upon any continent or island upon earth, and J.T. Maston did not
+admit for a moment that it could have fallen into any of the oceans with
+which the earth is three parts covered.
+
+On the 5th the same weather. The large telescopes of the old
+world--those of Herschel, Rosse, and Foucault--were invariably fixed
+upon the Queen of Night, for the weather was magnificent in Europe, but
+the relative weakness of these instruments prevented any useful
+observation.
+
+On the 6th the same weather reigned. Impatience devoured three parts of
+the globe. The most insane means were proposed for dissipating the
+clouds accumulated in the air.
+
+On the 7th the sky seemed to clear a little. Hopes revived but did not
+last long, and in the evening thick clouds defended the starry vault
+against all eyes.
+
+Things now became grave. In fact, on the 11th, at 9.11 a.m., the moon
+would enter her last quarter. After this delay she would decline every
+day, and even if the sky should clear the chances of observation would
+be considerably lessened--in fact, the moon would then show only a
+constantly-decreasing portion of her disc, and would end by becoming
+new--that is to say, she would rise and set with the sun, whose rays
+would make her quite invisible. They would, therefore, be obliged to
+wait till the 3rd of January, at 12.43 p.m., till she would be full
+again and ready for observation.
+
+The newspapers published these reflections with a thousand commentaries,
+and did not fail to tell the public that it must arm itself with angelic
+patience.
+
+On the 8th no change. On the 9th the sun appeared for a moment, as if to
+jeer at the Americans. It was received with hisses, and wounded,
+doubtless, by such a reception, it was very miserly of its rays.
+
+On the 10th no change. J.T. Maston nearly went mad, and fears were
+entertained for his brain until then so well preserved in its
+gutta-percha cranium.
+
+But on the 11th one of those frightful tempests peculiar to tropical
+regions was let loose in the atmosphere. Terrific east winds swept away
+the clouds which had been so long there, and in the evening the
+half-disc of the moon rode majestically amidst the limpid constellations
+of the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A NEW STAR.
+
+
+That same night the news so impatiently expected burst like a
+thunderbolt over the United States of the Union, and thence darting
+across the Atlantic it ran along all the telegraphic wires of the globe.
+The projectile had been perceived, thanks to the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak.
+
+The following is the notice drawn up by the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory. It resumes the scientific conclusion of the great
+experiment made by the Gun Club:--
+
+"Long's Peak, December 12th.
+
+"To the Staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+"The projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill was perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston on the 12th of December at 8.47 p.m.,
+the moon having entered her last quarter.
+
+"The projectile has not reached its goal. It has deviated to the side,
+but near enough to be detained by lunar attraction.
+
+"There its rectilinear movement changed to a circular one of extreme
+velocity, and it has been drawn round the moon in an elliptical orbit,
+and has become her satellite.
+
+"We have not yet been able to determine the elements of this new star.
+Neither its speed of translation or rotation is known. The distance
+which separates it from the surface of the moon may be estimated at
+about 2,833 miles.
+
+"Now two hypotheses may be taken into consideration as to a modification
+in this state of things:--
+
+"Either the attraction of the moon will end by drawing it towards her,
+and the travellers will reach the goal of their journey,
+
+"Or the projectile, maintained in an immutable orbit, will gravitate
+round the lunar disc till the end of time.
+
+"Observation will settle this point some day, but until now the
+experiment of the Gun Club has had no other result than that of
+providing our solar system with a new star.
+
+"J BELFAST."
+
+What discussions this unexpected _dénouement_ gave rise to! What a
+situation full of mystery the future reserved for the investigations of
+science! Thanks to the courage and devotion of three men, this
+enterprise of sending a bullet to the moon, futile enough in appearance,
+had just had an immense result, the consequences of which are
+incalculable. The travellers imprisoned in a new satellite, if they have
+not attained their end, form at least part of the lunar world; they
+gravitate around the Queen of Night, and for the first time human eyes
+can penetrate all her mysteries. The names of Nicholl, Barbicane, and
+Michel Ardan would be for ever celebrated in astronomical annals, for
+these bold explorers, desirous of widening the circle of human
+knowledge, had audaciously rushed into space, and had risked their lives
+in the strangest experiment of modern times.
+
+The notice from Long's Peak once made known, there spread throughout the
+universe a feeling of surprise and horror. Was it possible to go to the
+aid of these bold inhabitants of the earth? Certainly not, for they had
+put themselves outside of the pale of humanity by crossing the limits
+imposed by the Creator on His terrestrial creatures. They could procure
+themselves air for two months; they had provisions for one year; but
+after? The hardest hearts palpitated at this terrible question.
+
+One man alone would not admit that the situation was desperate. One
+alone had confidence, and it was their friend--devoted, audacious, and
+resolute as they--the brave J.T. Maston.
+
+He resolved not to lose sight of them. His domicile was henceforth the
+post of Long's Peak--his horizon the immense reflector. As soon as the
+moon rose above the horizon he immediately framed her in the field of
+his telescope; he did not lose sight of her for an instant, and
+assiduously followed her across the stellar spaces; he watched with
+eternal patience the passage of the projectile over her disc of silver,
+and in reality the worthy man remained in perpetual communication with
+his three friends, whom he did not despair of seeing again one day.
+
+"We will correspond with them," said he to any one who would listen, "as
+soon as circumstances will allow. We shall have news from them, and they
+will have news from us. Besides, I know them--they are ingenious men.
+Those three carry with them into space all the resources of art,
+science, and industry. With those everything can be accomplished, and
+you will see that they will get out of the difficulty."
+
+(FOR SEQUEL, SEE "AROUND THE MOON.")
+
+[Illustration: "They watched thus through the lateral windows."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
+
+CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF THIS WORK TO SERVE AS
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND.
+
+
+During the course of the year 186---- the entire world was singularly
+excited by a scientific experiment without precedent in the annals of
+science. The members of the Gun Club, a circle of artillerymen
+established at Baltimore after the American war, had the idea of putting
+themselves in communication with the moon--yes, with the moon--by
+sending a bullet to her. Their president, Barbicane, the promoter of the
+enterprise, having consulted the astronomers of the Cambridge
+Observatory on this subject, took all the precautions necessary for the
+success of the extraordinary enterprise, declared practicable by the
+majority of competent people. After having solicited a public
+subscription which produced nearly 30,000,000 of francs, it began its
+gigantic labours.
+
+According to the plan drawn up by the members of the observatory, the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile was to be set up in some country
+situated between the 0° and 28° of north or south latitude in order to
+aim at the moon at the zenith. The bullet was to be endowed with an
+initial velocity of 12,000 yards a second. Hurled on the 1st of December
+at thirteen minutes and twenty seconds to eleven in the evening, it was
+to get to the moon four days after its departure on the 5th of December
+at midnight precisely, at the very instant she would be at her
+perigee--that is to say, nearest to the earth, or at exactly 86,410
+leagues' distance.
+
+The principal members of the Gun Club, the president, Barbicane, Major
+Elphinstone, the secretary, J.T. Maston, and other _savants_, held
+several meetings, in which the form and composition of the bullet were
+discussed, as well as the disposition and nature of the cannon, and the
+quality and quantity of the powder to be employed. It was decided--1,
+that the projectile should be an obus of aluminium, with a diameter of
+800 inches; its sides were to be 12 inches thick, and it was to weigh
+19,250 lbs.; 2, that the cannon should be a cast-iron Columbiad 900 feet
+long, and should be cast at once in the ground; 3, that the charge
+should consist of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, which, by developing
+6,000,000,000 litres of gas under the projectile, would carry it easily
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+These questions settled, President Barbicane, aided by the engineer,
+Murchison, chose a site in Florida in 27° 7' north lat. and 5° 7' west
+long. It was there that after marvels of labour the Columbiad was cast
+quite successfully.
+
+Things were at that pass when an incident occurred which Increased the
+interest attached to this great enterprise.
+
+A Frenchman, a regular Parisian, an artist as witty as audacious, asked
+leave to shut himself up in the bullet in order to reach the moon and
+make a survey of the terrestrial satellite. This intrepid adventurer's
+name was Michel Ardan. He arrived in America, was received with
+enthusiasm, held meetings, was carried in triumph, reconciled President
+Barbicane to his mortal enemy, Captain Nicholl, and in pledge of the
+reconciliation he persuaded them to embark with him in the projectile.
+
+The proposition was accepted. The form of the bullet was changed. It
+became cylindro-conical. They furnished this species of aërial
+compartment with powerful springs and breakable partitions to break the
+departing shock. It was filled with provisions for one year, water for
+some months, and gas for some days. An automatic apparatus made and gave
+out the air necessary for the respiration of the three travellers. At
+the same time the Gun Club had a gigantic telescope set up on one of the
+highest summits of the Rocky Mountains, through which the projectile
+could be followed during its journey through space. Everything was then
+ready.
+
+On the 30th of November, at the time fixed, amidst an extraordinary
+concourse of spectators, the departure took place, and for the first
+time three human beings left the terrestrial globe for the
+interplanetary regions with almost the certainty of reaching their goal.
+
+These audacious travellers, Michel Ardan, President Barbicane, and
+Captain Nicholl were to accomplish their journey in ninety-seven hours
+thirteen minutes and twenty seconds; consequently they could not reach
+the lunar disc until the 5th of December, at midnight, at the precise
+moment that the moon would be full, and not on the 4th, as some
+wrongly-informed newspapers had given out.
+
+But an unexpected circumstance occurred; the detonation produced by the
+Columbiad had the immediate effect of disturbing the terrestrial
+atmosphere, where an enormous quantity of vapour accumulated. This
+phenomenon excited general indignation, for the moon was hidden during
+several nights from the eyes of her contemplators.
+
+The worthy J.T. Maston, the greatest friend of the three travellers, set
+out for the Rocky Mountains in the company of the Honourable J. Belfast,
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, and reached the station of Long's
+Peak, where the telescope was set up which brought the moon, apparently,
+to within two leagues. The honourable secretary of the Gun Club wished
+to observe for himself the vehicle that contained his audacious friends.
+
+The accumulation of clouds in the atmosphere prevented all observation
+during the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of December. It was even
+thought that no observation could take place before the 3rd of January
+in the following year, for the moon, entering her last quarter on the
+11th, would after that not show enough of her surface to allow the trace
+of the projectile to be followed.
+
+But at last, to the general satisfaction, a strong tempest during the
+night between the 11th and 12th of December cleared the atmosphere, and
+the half-moon was distinctly visible on the dark background of the sky.
+
+That same night a telegram was sent from Long's Peak Station by J.T.
+Maston and Belfast to the staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+This telegram announced that on the 11th of December, at 8.47 p.m., the
+projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill had been perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston, that the bullet had deviated from its
+course through some unknown cause, and had not reached its goal, but had
+gone near enough to be retained by lunar attraction; that its
+rectilinear movement had been changed to a circular one, and that it was
+describing an elliptical orbit round the moon, and had become her
+satellite.
+
+The telegram added that the elements of this new star had not yet been
+calculated--in fact, three observations, taking a star in three
+different positions, are necessary to determine them. Then it stated
+that the distance separating the projectile from the lunar surface
+"might be" estimated at about 2,833 leagues, or 4,500 miles.
+
+It ended with the following double hypothesis:--Either the attraction of
+the moon would end by carrying the day, and the travellers would reach
+their goal; or the projectile, fixed in an immutable orbit, would
+gravitate around the lunar disc to the end of time.
+
+In either of these alternatives what would be the travellers' fate? It
+is true they had provisions enough for some time. But even supposing
+that their bold enterprise were crowned with success, how would they
+return? Could they ever return? Would news of them ever reach the earth?
+These questions, debated upon by the most learned writers of the time,
+intensely interested the public.
+
+A remark may here be made which ought to be meditated upon by too
+impatient observers. When a _savant_ announces a purely speculative
+discovery to the public he cannot act with too much prudence. No one is
+obliged to discover either a comet or a satellite, and those who make a
+mistake in such a case expose themselves justly to public ridicule.
+Therefore it is better to wait; and that is what impatient J.T. Maston
+ought to have done before sending to the world the telegram which,
+according to him, contained the last communication about this
+enterprise.
+
+In fact, the telegram contained errors of two sorts, verified later:--1.
+Errors of observation concerning the distance of the projectile from the
+surface of the moon, for upon the date of the 11th of December it was
+impossible to perceive it, and that which J.T. Maston had seen, or
+thought he saw, could not be the bullet from the Columbiad. 2. A
+theoretic error as to the fate of the said projectile, for making it a
+satellite of the moon was an absolute contradiction of the laws of
+rational mechanics.
+
+One hypothesis only made by the astronomers of Long's Peak might be
+realised, the one that foresaw the case when the travellers--if any yet
+existed--should unite their efforts with the lunar attraction so as to
+reach the surface of the disc.
+
+Now these men, as intelligent as they were bold, had survived the
+terrible shock at departure, and their journey in their bullet-carriage
+will be related in its most dramatic as well as in its most singular
+details. This account will put an end to many illusions and previsions,
+but it will give a just idea of the various circumstances incidental to
+such an enterprise, and will set in relief Barbicane's scientific
+instincts, Nicholl's industrial resources, and the humorous audacity of
+Michel Ardan.
+
+Besides, it will prove that their worthy friend J.T. Maston was losing
+his time when, bending over the gigantic telescope, he watched the
+course of the moon across the planetary regions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+
+When ten o'clock struck, Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl said
+good-bye to the numerous friends they left upon the earth. The two dogs,
+destined to acclimatise the canine race upon the lunar continents, were
+already imprisoned in the projectile. The three travellers approached
+the orifice of the enormous iron tube, and a crane lowered them to the
+conical covering of the bullet.
+
+There an opening made on purpose let them down into the aluminium
+vehicle. The crane's tackling was drawn up outside, and the mouth of the
+Columbiad instantly cleared of its last scaffolding.
+
+As soon as Nicholl and his companions were in the projectile he closed
+the opening by means of a strong plate screwed down inside. Other
+closely-fitting plates covered the lenticular glasses of the skylights.
+The travellers, hermetically inclosed in their metal prison, were in
+profound darkness.
+
+"And now, my dear companions," said Michel Ardan, "let us make ourselves
+at home. I am a domestic man myself, and know how to make the best of
+any lodgings. First let us have a light; gas was not invented for
+moles!"
+
+Saying which the light-hearted fellow struck a match on the sole of his
+boot and then applied it to the burner of the receptacle, in which there
+was enough carbonised hydrogen, stored under strong pressure, for
+lighting and heating the bullet for 144 hours, or six days and six
+nights.
+
+Once the gas lighted, the projectile presented the aspect of a
+comfortable room with padded walls, furnished with circular divans, the
+roof of which was in the shape of a dome.
+
+The objects in it, weapons, instruments, and utensils, were solidly
+fastened to the sides in order to bear the parting shock with impunity.
+Every possible precaution had been taken to insure the success of so
+bold an experiment.
+
+Michel Ardan examined everything, and declared himself quite satisfied
+with his quarters.
+
+"It is a prison," said he, "but a travelling prison, and if I had the
+right to put my nose to the window I would take it on a hundred years'
+lease! You are smiling, Barbicane. You are thinking of something you do
+not communicate. Do you say to yourself that this prison may be our
+coffin? Our coffin let it be; I would not change it for Mahomet's, which
+only hangs in space, and does not move!"
+
+Whilst Michel Ardan was talking thus, Barbicane and Nicholl were making
+their last preparations.
+
+It was 10.20 p.m. by Nicholl's chronometer when the three travellers
+were definitely walled up in their bullet. This chronometer was
+regulated to the tenth of a second by that of the engineer, Murchison.
+Barbicane looked at it.
+
+"My friends," said he, "it is twenty minutes past ten; at thirteen
+minutes to eleven Murchison will set fire to the Columbiad; at that
+minute precisely we shall leave our spheroid. We have, therefore, still
+seven-and-twenty minutes to remain upon earth."
+
+"Twenty-six minutes and thirteen seconds," answered the methodical
+Nicholl.
+
+"Very well!" cried Michel Ardan good-humouredly; "in twenty-six minutes
+lots of things can be done. We can discuss grave moral or political
+questions, and even solve them. Twenty-six minutes well employed are
+worth more than twenty-six years of doing nothing. A few seconds of a
+Pascal or a Newton are more precious than the whole existence of a crowd
+of imbeciles."
+
+"And what do you conclude from that, talker eternal?" asked President
+Barbicane.
+
+"I conclude that we have twenty-six minutes," answered Ardan.
+
+"Twenty-four only," said Nicholl.
+
+"Twenty-four, then, if you like, brave captain," answered Ardan;
+"twenty-four minutes, during which we might investigate--"
+
+"Michel," said Barbicane, "during our journey we shall have plenty of
+time to investigate the deepest questions. Now we must think of
+starting."
+
+"Are we not ready?"
+
+"Certainly. But there are still some precautions to be taken to deaden
+the first shock as much as possible!"
+
+"Have we not water-cushions placed between movable partitions elastic
+enough to protect us sufficiently?"
+
+"I hope so, Michel," answered Barbicane gently; "but I am not quite
+sure!"
+
+"Ah, the joker!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "He hopes! He is not quite
+sure! And he waits till we are encased to make this deplorable
+acknowledgment! I ask to get out."
+
+"By what means?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Well!" said Michel Ardan, "it would be difficult. We are in the train,
+and the guard's whistle will be heard in twenty-four minutes."
+
+"Twenty!" ejaculated Nicholl.
+
+The three travellers looked at one another for a few seconds. Then they
+examined all the objects imprisoned with them.
+
+"Everything is in its place," said Barbicane. "The question now is where
+we can place ourselves so as best to support the departing shock. The
+position we assume must be important too--we must prevent the blood
+rushing too violently to our heads."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," answered Michel Ardan, always ready to suit the action to the
+word, "we will stand on our heads like the clowns at the circus."
+
+"No," said Barbicane; "but let us lie on our sides; we shall thus resist
+the shock better. When the bullet starts it will not much matter whether
+we are inside or in front."
+
+"If it comes to 'not much matter' I am more reassured," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Do you approve of my idea, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Entirely," answered the captain. "Still thirteen minutes and a-half."
+
+"Nicholl is not a man," exclaimed Michel; "he is a chronometer marking
+the seconds, and with eight holes in--"
+
+But his companions were no longer listening to him, and they were making
+their last preparations with all the coolness imaginable. They looked
+like two methodical travellers taking their places in the train and
+making themselves as comfortable as possible. One wonders, indeed, of
+what materials these American hearts are made, to which the approach of
+the most frightful danger does not add a single pulsation.
+
+Three beds, thick and solidly made, had been placed in the projectile.
+Nicholl and Barbicane placed them in the centre of the disc that formed
+the movable flooring. There the three travellers were to lie down a few
+minutes before their departure.
+
+In the meanwhile Ardan, who could not remain quiet, turned round his
+narrow prison like a wild animal in a cage, talking to his friends and
+his dogs, Diana and Satellite, to whom it will be noticed he had some
+time before given these significant names.
+
+"Up, Diana! up, Satellite!" cried he, exciting them. "You are going to
+show to the Selenite dogs how well-behaved the dogs of the earth can be!
+That will do honour to the canine race. If we ever come back here I will
+bring back a cross-breed of 'moon-dogs' that will become all the rage."
+
+"If there are any dogs in the moon," said Barbicane.
+
+"There are some," affirmed Michel Ardan, "the same as there are horses,
+cows, asses, and hens. I wager anything we shall find some hens."
+
+"I bet a hundred dollars we find none," said Nicholl.
+
+"Done, captain," answered Ardan, shaking hands with Nicholl. "But,
+by-the-bye, you have lost three bets with the president, for the funds
+necessary for the enterprise were provided, the casting succeeded, and
+lastly, the Columbiad was loaded without accident--that makes six
+thousand dollars."
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl. "Twenty-three minutes and six seconds to
+eleven."
+
+"I hear, captain. Well, before another quarter of an hour is over you
+will have to make over another nine thousand dollars to the president,
+four thousand because the Columbiad will not burst, and five thousand
+because the bullet will rise higher than six miles into the air."
+
+"I have the dollars," answered Nicholl, striking his coat pocket, "and I
+only want to pay."
+
+"Come, Nicholl, I see you are a man of order, what I never could be; but
+allow me to tell you that your series of bets cannot be very
+advantageous to you."
+
+"Why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because if you win the first the Columbiad will have burst, and the
+bullet with it, and Barbicane will not be there to pay you your
+dollars."
+
+"My wager is deposited in the Baltimore Bank," answered Barbicane
+simply; "and in default of Nicholl it will go to his heirs."
+
+"What practical men you are!" cried Michel Ardan. "I admire you as much
+as I do not understand you."
+
+"Eighteen minutes to eleven," said Nicholl.
+
+"Only five minutes more," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, five short minutes!" replied Michel Ardan. "And we are shut up in
+a bullet at the bottom of a cannon 900 feet long! and under this bullet
+there are 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, worth more than 1,600,000 lbs. of
+ordinary powder! And friend Murchison, with his chronometer in hand and
+his eye fixed on the hand and his finger on the electric knob, is
+counting the seconds to hurl us into the planetary regions."
+
+"Enough, Michel, enough!" said Barbicane in a grave tone. "Let us
+prepare ourselves. A few seconds only separate us from a supreme moment.
+Your hands, my friends."
+
+"Yes," cried Michel Ardan, more moved than he wished to appear.
+
+The three bold companions shook hands.
+
+"God help us!" said the religious president.
+
+Michel Ardan and Nicholl lay down on their beds in the centre of the
+floor.
+
+"Thirteen minutes to eleven," murmured the captain.
+
+Twenty seconds more! Barbicane rapidly put out the gas, and lay down
+beside his companions.
+
+The profound silence was only broken by the chronometer beating the
+seconds.
+
+Suddenly a frightful shock was felt, and the projectile, under the
+impulsion of 6,000,000,000 litres of gas developed by the deflagration
+of the pyroxyle, rose into space.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST HALF-HOUR.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the effect of the frightful shock? Had the
+ingenuity of the constructors of the projectile been attended by a happy
+result? Was the effect of the shock deadened, thanks to the springs, the
+four buffers, the water-cushions, and the movable partitions? Had they
+triumphed over the frightful impulsion of the initial velocity of 11,000
+metres a second? This was evidently the question the thousands of
+witnesses of the exciting scene asked themselves. They forgot the object
+of the journey, and only thought of the travellers! Suppose one of
+them--J.T. Maston, for instance--had been able to get a glimpse of the
+interior of the projectile, what would he have seen?
+
+Nothing then. The obscurity was profound in the bullet. Its
+cylindro-conical sides had resisted perfectly. There was not a break, a
+crack, or a dint in them. The admirable projectile was not hurt by the
+intense deflagration of the powders, instead of being liquefied, as it
+was feared, into a shower of aluminium.
+
+In the interior there was very little disorder on the whole. A few
+objects had been violently hurled up to the roof, but the most important
+did not seem to have suffered from the shock. Their fastenings were
+intact.
+
+On the movable disc, crushed down to the bottom by the smashing of the
+partitions and the escape of the water, three bodies lay motionless. Did
+Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan still breathe? Was the projectile
+nothing but a metal coffin carrying three corpses into space?
+
+A few minutes after the departure of the bullet one of these bodies
+moved, stretched out its arms, lifted up its head, and succeeded in
+getting upon its knees. It was Michel Ardan. He felt himself, uttered a
+sonorous "Hum," then said--
+
+"Michel Ardan, complete. Now for the others!"
+
+The courageous Frenchman wanted to get up, but he could not stand. His
+head vacillated; his blood, violently sent up to his head, blinded him.
+He felt like a drunken man.
+
+"Brrr!" said he. "I feel as though I had been drinking two bottles of
+Corton, only that was not so agreeable to swallow!"
+
+Then passing his hand across his forehead several times, and rubbing his
+temples, he called out in a firm voice--
+
+"Nicholl! Barbicane!"
+
+He waited anxiously. No answer. Not even a sigh to indicate that the
+hearts of his companions still beat. He reiterated his call. Same
+silence.
+
+"The devil!" said he. "They seem as though they had fallen from the
+fifth story upon their heads! Bah!" he added with the imperturbable
+confidence that nothing could shake, "if a Frenchman can get upon his
+knees, two Americans will have no difficulty in getting upon their feet.
+But, first of all, let us have a light on the subject."
+
+Ardan felt life come back to him in streams. His blood became calm, and
+resumed its ordinary circulation. Fresh efforts restored his
+equilibrium. He succeeded in getting up, took a match out of his pocket,
+and struck it; then putting it to the burner he lighted the gas. The
+meter was not in the least damaged. The gas had not escaped. Besides,
+the smell would have betrayed it, and had this been the case, Michel
+Ardan could not with impunity have lighted a match in a medium filled
+with hydrogen. The gas, mixed in the air, would have produced a
+detonating mixture, and an explosion would have finished what a shock
+had perhaps begun.
+
+As soon as the gas was lighted Ardan bent down over his two companions.
+Their bodies were thrown one upon the other, Nicholl on the top,
+Barbicane underneath.
+
+Ardan raised the captain, propped him up against a divan, and rubbed him
+vigorously. This friction, administered skilfully, reanimated Nicholl,
+who opened his eyes, instantly recovered his presence of mind, seized
+Ardan's hand, and then looking round him--
+
+"And Barbicane?" he asked.
+
+"Each in turn," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly. "I began with you,
+Nicholl, because you were on the top. Now I'll go to Barbicane."
+
+That said, Ardan and Nicholl raised the president of the Gun Club and
+put him on a divan. Barbicane seemed to have suffered more than his
+companions. He was bleeding, but Nicholl was glad to find that the
+hemorrhage only came from a slight wound in his shoulder. It was a
+simple scratch, which he carefully closed.
+
+Nevertheless, Barbicane was some time before he came to himself, which
+frightened his two friends, who did not spare their friction.
+
+"He is breathing, however," said Nicholl, putting his ear to the breast
+of the wounded man.
+
+"Yes," answered Ardan, "he is breathing like a man who is in the habit
+of doing it daily. Rub, Nicholl, rub with all your might."
+
+And the two improvised practitioners set to work with such a will and
+managed so well that Barbicane at last came to his senses. He opened his
+eyes, sat up, took the hands of his two friends, and his first words
+were--
+
+"Nicholl, are we going on?"
+
+Nicholl and Ardan looked at one another. They had not yet thought about
+the projectile. Their first anxiety had been for the travellers, not for
+the vehicle.
+
+"Well, really, are we going on?" repeated Michel Ardan.
+
+"Or are we tranquilly resting on the soil of Florida?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Or at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?" added Michel Ardan.
+
+"Impossible!" cried President Barbicane.
+
+This double hypothesis suggested by his two friends immediately recalled
+him to life and energy.
+
+They could not yet decide the question. The apparent immovability of the
+bullet and the want of communication with the exterior prevented them
+finding it out. Perhaps the projectile was falling through space.
+Perhaps after rising a short distance it had fallen upon the earth, or
+even into the Gulf of Mexico, a fall which the narrowness of the
+Floridian peninsula rendered possible.
+
+The case was grave, the problem interesting. It was necessary to solve
+it as soon as possible. Barbicane, excited, and by his moral energy
+triumphing over his physical weakness, stood up and listened. A profound
+silence reigned outside. But the thick padding was sufficient to shut
+out all the noises on earth; However, one circumstance struck
+Barbicane. The temperature in the interior of the projectile was
+singularly high. The president drew out a thermometer from the envelope
+that protected it and consulted it. The instrument showed 81° Fahr.
+
+"Yes!" he then exclaimed--"yes, we are moving! This stifling heat oozes
+through the sides of our projectile. It is produced by friction against
+the atmosphere. It will soon diminish; because we are already moving in
+space, and after being almost suffocated we shall endure intense cold."
+
+"What!" asked Michel Ardan, "do you mean to say that we are already
+beyond the terrestrial atmosphere?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt, Michel. Listen to me. It now wants but
+five minutes to eleven. It is already eight minutes since we started.
+Now, if our initial velocity has not been diminished by friction, six
+seconds would be enough for us to pass the sixteen leagues of atmosphere
+which surround our spheroid."
+
+"Just so," answered Nicholl; "but in what proportion do you reckon the
+diminution of speed by friction?"
+
+"In the proportion of one-third," answered Barbicane. "This diminution
+is considerable, but it is so much according to my calculations. If,
+therefore, we have had an initial velocity of 11,000 metres, when we get
+past the atmosphere it will be reduced to 7,332 metres. However that may
+be, we have already cleared that space, and--"
+
+"And then," said Michel Ardan, "friend Nicholl has lost his two
+bets--four thousand dollars because the Columbiad has not burst, five
+thousand dollars because the projectile has risen to a greater height
+than six miles; therefore, Nicholl, shell out."
+
+"We must prove it first," answered the captain, "and pay afterwards. It
+is quite possible that Barbicane's calculations are exact, and that I
+have lost my nine thousand dollars. But another hypothesis has come into
+my mind, and it may cancel the wager."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane quickly.
+
+"The supposition that for some reason or other the powder did not catch
+fire, and we have not started."
+
+"Good heavens! captain," cried Michel Ardan, "that is a supposition
+worthy of me! It is not serious! Have we not been half stunned by the
+shock? Did I not bring you back to life? Does not the president's
+shoulder still bleed from the blow?"
+
+"Agreed, Michel," replied Nicholl, "but allow me to ask one question."
+
+"Ask it, captain."
+
+"Did you hear the detonation, which must certainly have been
+formidable?"
+
+"No," answered Ardan, much surprised, "I certainly did not hear it."
+
+"And you, Barbicane?"
+
+"I did not either."
+
+"What do you make of that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"What indeed!" murmured the president; "why did we not hear the
+detonation?"
+
+The three friends looked at one another rather disconcertedly. Here was
+an inexplicable phenomenon. The projectile had been fired, however, and
+there must have been a detonation.
+
+"We must know first where we are," said Barbicane, "so let us open the
+panel."
+
+This simple operation was immediately accomplished. The screws that
+fastened the bolts on the outer plates of the right-hand skylight
+yielded to the coach-wrench. These bolts were driven outside, and
+obturators wadded with indiarubber corked up the hole that let them
+through. The exterior plate immediately fell back upon its hinges like a
+port-hole, and the lenticular glass that covered the hole appeared. An
+identical light-port had been made in the other side of the projectile,
+another in the dome, and a fourth in the bottom. The firmament could
+therefore be observed in four opposite directions--the firmament through
+the lateral windows, and the earth or the moon more directly through the
+upper or lower opening of the bullet.
+
+Barbicane and his companions immediately rushed to the uncovered
+port-hole. No ray of light illuminated it. Profound darkness surrounded
+the projectile. This darkness did not prevent Barbicane exclaiming--
+
+"No, my friends, we have not fallen on the earth again! No, we are not
+immersed at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico! Yes, we are going up
+through space! Look at those stars that are shining in the darkness, and
+the impenetrable darkness that lies between the earth and us!"
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Michel Ardan and Nicholl with one voice.
+
+In fact, the thick darkness proved that the projectile had left the
+earth, for the ground, then brilliantly lighted by the moon, would have
+appeared before the eyes of the travellers if they had been resting upon
+it. This darkness proved also that the projectile had passed beyond the
+atmosphere, for the diffused light in the air would have been reflected
+on the metallic sides of the projectile, which reflection was also
+wanting. This light would have shone upon the glass of the light-port,
+and that glass was in darkness. Doubt was no longer possible. The
+travellers had quitted the earth.
+
+"I have lost." said Nicholl.
+
+"I congratulate you upon it," answered Ardan.
+
+"Here are nine thousand dollars," said the captain, taking a bundle of
+notes out of his pocket.
+
+"Will you have a receipt?" asked Barbicane as he took the money.
+
+"If you do not mind," answered Nicholl; "it is more regular."
+
+And as seriously and phlegmatically as if he had been in his
+counting-house, President Barbicane drew out his memorandum-book and
+tore out a clear page, wrote a receipt in pencil, dated it, signed it,
+and gave it to the captain, who put it carefully into his pocket-book.
+
+Michel Ardan took off his hat and bowed to his two companions without
+speaking a word. Such formality under such circumstances took away his
+power of speech. He had never seen anything so American.
+
+Once their business over, Barbicane and Nicholl went back to the
+light-port and looked at the constellations. The stars stood out clearly
+upon the dark background of the sky. But from this side the moon could
+not be seen, as she moves from east to west, rising gradually to the
+zenith. Her absence made Ardan say--
+
+"And the moon? Is she going to fail us?"
+
+"Do not frighten yourself," answered Barbicane, "Our spheroid is at her
+post, but we cannot see her from this side. We must open the opposite
+light-port."
+
+At the very moment when Barbicane was going to abandon one window to set
+clear the opposite one, his attention was attracted by the approach of a
+shining object. It was an enormous disc the colossal dimensions of which
+could not be estimated. Its face turned towards the earth was
+brilliantly lighted. It looked like a small moon reflecting the light of
+the large one. It advanced at prodigious speed, and seemed to describe
+round the earth an orbit right across the passage of the projectile. To
+the movement of translation of this object was added a movement of
+rotation upon itself. It was therefore behaving like all celestial
+bodies abandoned in space.
+
+"Eh!" cried Michel Ardan. "Whatever is that? Another projectile?"
+
+Barbicane did not answer. The apparition of this enormous body surprised
+him and made him uneasy. A collision was possible which would have had
+deplorable results, either by making the projectile deviate from its
+route and fall back upon the earth, or be caught up by the attractive
+power of the asteroid.
+
+President Barbicane had rapidly seized the consequences of these three
+hypotheses, which in one way or other would fatally prevent the success
+of his attempt. His companions were silently watching the object, which
+grew prodigiously larger as it approached, and through a certain optical
+illusion it seemed as if the projectile were rushing upon it.
+
+"Ye gods!" cried Michel Ardan; "there will be a collision on the line!"
+
+The three travellers instinctively drew back. Their terror was extreme,
+but it did not last long, hardly a few seconds. The asteroid passed at a
+distance of a few hundred yards from the projectile and disappeared, not
+so much on account of the rapidity of its course, but because its side
+opposite to the moon was suddenly confounded with the absolute darkness
+of space.
+
+"A good journey to you!" cried Michel Ardan, uttering a sigh of
+satisfaction. "Is not infinitude large enough to allow a poor little
+bullet to go about without fear? What was that pretentious globe which
+nearly knocked against us?"
+
+"I know!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Of course! you know everything."
+
+"It is a simple asteroid," said Barbicane; "but so large that the
+attraction of the earth has kept it in the state of a satellite."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Then the earth has two moons
+like Neptune?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, two moons, though she is generally supposed to have but
+one. But this second moon is so small and her speed so great that the
+inhabitants of the earth cannot perceive her. It was by taking into
+account certain perturbations that a French astronomer, M. Petit, was
+able to determine the existence of this second satellite and calculate
+its elements. According to his observations, this asteroid accomplishes
+its revolution round the earth in three hours and twenty minutes only.
+That implies prodigious speed."
+
+"Do all astronomers admit the existence of this satellite?" asked
+Nicholl.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane; "but if they had met it like we have they
+could not doubt any longer. By-the-bye, this asteroid, which would have
+much embarrassed us had it knocked against us, allows us to determine
+our position in space."
+
+"How?" said Ardan.
+
+"Because its distance is known, and where we met it we were exactly at
+8,140 kilometres from the surface of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"More than 2,000 leagues!" cried Michel Ardan. "That beats the express
+trains of the pitiable globe called the earth!"
+
+"I should think it did," answered Nicholl, consulting his
+chronometer; "it is eleven o'clock, only thirteen minutes since we
+left the American continent."
+
+"Only thirteen minutes?" said Barbicane.
+
+"That is all," answered Nicholl; "and if our initial velocity were
+constant we should make nearly 10,000 leagues an hour."
+
+"That is all very well, my friends," said the president; "but one
+insoluble question still remains--why did we not hear the detonation of
+the Columbiad?"
+
+For want of an answer the conversation stopped, and Barbicane, still
+reflecting, occupied himself with lowering the covering of the second
+lateral light-port. His operation succeeded, and through the glass the
+moon filled the interior of the projectile with brilliant light.
+Nicholl, like an economical man, put out the gas that was thus rendered
+useless, and the brilliance of which obstructed the observation of
+planetary space.
+
+The lunar disc then shone with incomparable purity. Her rays, no longer
+filtered by the vapoury atmosphere of the terrestrial globe, shone
+clearly through the glass and saturated the interior air of the
+projectile with silvery reflections. The black curtain of the firmament
+really doubled the brilliancy of the moon, which in this void of ether
+unfavourable to diffusion did not eclipse the neighbouring stars. The
+sky, thus seen, presented quite a different aspect--one that no human
+eye could imagine.
+
+It will be readily understood with what interest these audacious men
+contemplated the moon, the supreme goal of their journey. The earth's
+satellite, in her movement of translation, insensibly neared the zenith,
+a mathematical point which she was to reach about ninety-six hours
+later. Her mountains and plains, or any object in relief, were not seen
+more plainly than from the earth; but her light across the void was
+developed with incomparable intensity. The disc shone like a platinum
+mirror. The travellers had already forgotten all about the earth which
+was flying beneath their feet.
+
+It was Captain Nicholl who first drew attention to the vanished globe.
+
+"Yes!" answered Michel Ardan. "We must not be ungrateful to it. As we
+are leaving our country let our last looks reach it. I want to see the
+earth before it disappears completely from our eyes!"
+
+Barbicane, to satisfy the desires of his companion, occupied himself
+with clearing the window at the bottom of the projectile, the one
+through which they could observe the earth directly. The movable floor
+which the force of projection had sent to the bottom was taken to
+pieces, not without difficulty; its pieces, carefully placed against the
+sides, might still be of use. Then appeared a circular bay window, half
+a yard wide, cut in the lower part of the bullet. It was filled with
+glass five inches thick, strengthened with brass settings. Under it was
+an aluminium plate, held down by bolts. The screws taken out and the
+bolts withdrawn, the plate fell back, and visual communication was
+established between interior and exterior.
+
+Michel Ardan knelt upon the glass. It was dark, and seemed opaque.
+
+"Well," cried he, "but where's the earth?"
+
+"There it is," said Barbicane.
+
+"What!" cried Ardan, "that thin streak, that silvery crescent?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel. In four days' time, when the moon is full, at the
+very minute we shall reach her, the earth will be new. She will only
+appear to us under the form of a slender crescent, which will soon
+disappear, and then she will be buried for some days in impenetrable
+darkness."
+
+"That the earth!" repeated Michel Ardan, staring at the thin slice of
+his natal planet.
+
+The explanation given by President Barbicane was correct. The earth,
+looked at from the projectile, was entering her last quarter. She was in
+her octant, and her crescent was clearly outlined on the dark background
+of the sky. Her light, made bluish by the thickness of her atmosphere,
+was less intense than that of the lunar crescent. This crescent then
+showed itself under considerable dimensions. It looked like an enormous
+arch stretched across the firmament. Some points, more vividly lighted,
+especially in its concave part, announced the presence of high
+mountains; but they disappeared sometimes under black spots, which are
+never seen on the surface of the lunar disc. They were rings of clouds
+placed concentrically round the terrestrial spheroid.
+
+However, by dint of a natural phenomenon, identical with that produced
+on the moon when she is in her octants, the contour of the terrestrial
+globe could be traced. Its entire disc appeared slightly visible through
+an effect of pale light, less appreciable than that of the moon. The
+reason of this lessened intensity is easy to understand. When this
+reflection is produced on the moon it is caused by the solar rays which
+the earth reflects upon her satellite. Here it was caused by the solar
+rays reflected from the moon upon the earth. Now terrestrial light is
+thirteen times more intense than lunar light on account of the
+difference of volume in the two bodies. Hence it follows that in the
+phenomenon of the pale light the dark part of the earth's disc is less
+clearly outlined than that of the moon's disc, because the intensity of
+the phenomenon is in proportion to the lighting power of the two stars.
+It must be added that the terrestrial crescent seems to form a more
+elongated curve than that of the disc--a pure effect of irradiation.
+
+Whilst the travellers were trying to pierce the profound darkness of
+space, a brilliant shower of falling stars shone before their eyes.
+Hundreds of meteors, inflamed by contact with the atmosphere, streaked
+the darkness with luminous trails, and lined the cloudy part of the disc
+with their fire. At that epoch the earth was in her perihelion, and the
+month of December is so propitious to these shooting stars that
+astronomers have counted as many as 24,000 an hour. But Michel Ardan,
+disdaining scientific reasoning, preferred to believe that the earth was
+saluting with her finest fireworks the departure of her three children.
+
+This was all they saw of the globe lost in the darkness, an inferior
+star of the solar world, which for the grand planets rises or sets as a
+simple morning or evening star! Imperceptible point in space, it was now
+only a fugitive crescent, this globe where they had left all their
+affections.
+
+For a long time the three friends, not speaking, yet united in heart,
+watched while the projectile went on with uniformly decreasing velocity.
+Then irresistible sleep took possession of them. Was it fatigue of body
+and mind? Doubtless, for after the excitement of the last hours passed
+upon earth, reaction must inevitably set in.
+
+"Well," said Michel, "as we must sleep, let us go to sleep."
+
+Stretched upon their beds, all three were soon buried in profound
+slumber.
+
+But they had not been unconscious for more than a quarter of an hour
+when Barbicane suddenly rose, and, waking his companions, in a loud
+voice cried--
+
+"I've found it!"
+
+"What have you found?" asked Michel Ardan, jumping out of bed.
+
+"The reason we did not hear the detonation of the Columbiad!"
+
+"Well?" said Nicholl.
+
+"It was because our projectile went quicker than sound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TAKING POSSESSION.
+
+
+This curious but certainly correct explanation once given, the three
+friends fell again into a profound sleep. Where would they have found a
+calmer or more peaceful place to sleep in? Upon earth, houses in the
+town or cottages in the country feel every shock upon the surface of the
+globe. At sea, ships, rocked by the waves, are in perpetual movement. In
+the air, balloons incessantly oscillate upon the fluid strata of
+different densities. This projectile alone, travelling in absolute void
+amidst absolute silence, offered absolute repose to its inhabitants.
+
+The sleep of the three adventurers would have, perhaps, been
+indefinitely prolonged if an unexpected noise had not awakened them
+about 7 a.m. on the 2nd of December, eight hours after their departure.
+
+This noise was a very distinct bark.
+
+"The dogs! It is the dogs!" cried Michel Ardan, getting up immediately.
+
+"They are hungry," said Nicholl.
+
+"I should think so," answered Michel; "we have forgotten them."
+
+"Where are they?" asked Barbicane.
+
+One of the animals was found cowering under the divan. Terrified and
+stunned by the first shock, it had remained in a corner until the moment
+it had recovered its voice along with the feeling of hunger.
+
+It was Diana, still rather sheepish, that came from the retreat, not
+without urging. Michel Ardan encouraged her with his most gracious
+words.
+
+"Come, Diana," he said--"come, my child; your destiny will be noted in
+cynegetic annals! Pagans would have made you companion to the god
+Anubis, and Christians friend to St. Roch! You are worthy of being
+carved in bronze for the king of hell, like the puppy that Jupiter gave
+beautiful Europa as the price of a kiss! Your celebrity will efface that
+of the Montargis and St. Bernard heroes. You are rushing through
+interplanetary space, and will, perhaps, be the Eve of Selenite dogs!
+You will justify up there Toussenel's saying, 'In the beginning God
+created man, and seeing how weak he was, gave him the dog!' Come, Diana,
+come here!"
+
+Diana, whether flattered or not, came out slowly, uttering plaintive
+moans.
+
+"Good!" said Barbicane. "I see Eve, but where is Adam?"
+
+"Adam," answered Michel Ardan, "can't be far off. He is here somewhere.
+He must be called! Satellite! here, Satellite!"
+
+But Satellite did not appear. Diana continued moaning. It was decided,
+however, that she was not wounded, and an appetising dish was set before
+her to stop her complaining.
+
+As to Satellite, he seemed lost. They were obliged to search a long time
+before discovering him in one of the upper compartments of the
+projectile, where a rather inexplicable rebound had hurled him
+violently. The poor animal was in a pitiable condition.
+
+"The devil!" said Michel. "Our acclimatisation is in danger!"
+
+The unfortunate dog was carefully lowered. His head had been fractured
+against the roof, and it seemed difficult for him to survive such a
+shock. Nevertheless, he was comfortably stretched on a cushion, where he
+sighed once.
+
+"We will take care of you," said Michel; "we are responsible for your
+existence. I would rather lose an arm than a paw of my poor Satellite."
+
+So saying he offered some water to the wounded animal, who drank it
+greedily.
+
+These attentions bestowed, the travellers attentively watched the earth
+and the moon. The earth only appeared like a pale disc terminated by a
+crescent smaller than that of the previous evening, but its volume
+compared with that of the moon, which was gradually forming a perfect
+circle, remained enormous.
+
+"_Parbleu_!" then said Michel Ardan; "I am really sorry we did not start
+when the earth was at her full--that is to say, when our globe was in
+opposition to the sun!"
+
+"Why?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Because we should have seen our continents and seas under a new
+aspect--the continents shining under the solar rays, the seas darker,
+like they figure upon certain maps of the world! I should like to have
+seen those poles of the earth upon which the eye of man has never yet
+rested!"
+
+"I daresay," answered Barbicane, "but if the earth had been full the
+moon would have been new--that is to say, invisible amidst the
+irradiation of the sun. It is better for us to see the goal we want to
+reach than the place we started from."
+
+"You are right, Barbicane," answered Captain Nicholl; "and besides, when
+we have reached the moon we shall have plenty of time during the long
+lunar nights to consider at leisure the globe that harbours men like
+us."
+
+"Men like us!" cried Michel Ardan. "But now they are not more like us
+than the Selenites. We are inhabitants of a new world peopled by us
+alone--the projectile! I am a man like Barbicane, and Barbicane is a man
+like Nicholl. Beyond us and outside of us humanity ends, and we are the
+only population of this microcosm until the moment we become simple
+Selenites."
+
+"In about eighty-eight hours," replied the captain.
+
+"Which means?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"That it is half-past eight," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," answered Michel, "I fail to find the shadow of a reason why
+we should not breakfast _illico_."
+
+In fact, the inhabitants of the new star could not live in it without
+eating, and their stomachs then submitted to the imperious laws of
+hunger. Michel Ardan, in his quality of Frenchman, declared himself
+chief cook, an important function that no one disputed with him. The gas
+gave the necessary degrees of heat for cooking purposes, and the
+provision-locker furnished the elements of this first banquet.
+
+The breakfast began with three cups of excellent broth, due to the
+liquefaction in hot water of three precious Liebig tablets, prepared
+from the choicest morsels of the Pampas ruminants. Some slices of
+beefsteak succeeded them, compressed by the hydraulic press, as tender
+and succulent as if they had just come from the butchers of the Paris
+Café Anglais. Michel, an imaginative man, would have it they were even
+rosy.
+
+Preserved vegetables, "fresher than the natural ones," as the amiable
+Michel observed, succeeded the meat, and were followed by some cups of
+tea and slices of bread and butter, American fashion. This beverage,
+pronounced excellent, was made from tea of the first quality, of which
+the Emperor of Russia had put some cases at the disposition of the
+travellers.
+
+Lastly, as a worthy ending to the meal, Ardan ferreted out a fine bottle
+of "Nuits" burgundy that "happened" to be in the provision compartment.
+The three friends drank it to the union of the earth and her satellite.
+
+And as if the generous wine it had distilled upon the hill-sides of
+Burgundy were not enough, the sun was determined to help in the feast.
+The projectile at that moment emerged from the cone of shadow cast by
+the terrestrial globe, and the sun's rays fell directly upon the lower
+disc of the bullet, on account of the angle which the orbit of the moon
+makes with that of the earth.
+
+"The sun!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Of course," answered Barbicane; "I expected it."
+
+"But," said Michel, "the cone of shadow thrown by the earth into space
+extends beyond the moon."
+
+"Much beyond if you do not take the atmospheric refraction into
+account," said Barbicane. "But when the moon is enveloped in that shadow
+the centres of the three heavenly bodies--the sun, the earth, and the
+moon--are in a straight line. Then the nodes coincide with the full moon
+and there is an eclipse. If, therefore, we had started during an eclipse
+of the moon all our journey would have been accomplished in the dark,
+which would have been a pity."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, although we are journeying in the void, our projectile, bathed
+in the solar rays, will gather their light and heat; therefore there
+will be economy of gas, a precious economy in every way."
+
+In fact, under these rays, the temperature and brilliancy of which there
+was no atmosphere to soften, the projectile was lighted and warmed as if
+it had suddenly passed from winter to summer. The moon above and the sun
+below inundated it with their rays.
+
+"It is pleasant here now," said Nicholl.
+
+"I believe you!" cried Michel Ardan. "With a little vegetable soil
+spread over our aluminium planet we could grow green peas in twenty-four
+hours. I have only one fear, that is that the walls of our bullet will
+melt."
+
+"You need not alarm yourself, my worthy friend," answered Barbicane.
+"The projectile supported a much higher temperature while it was
+travelling through the atmosphere. I should not even wonder if it looked
+to the eyes of the spectators like a fiery meteor."
+
+"Then J.T. Maston must think we are roasted!"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Barbicane, "is that we are not. It
+was a danger we did not foresee."
+
+"I feared it," answered Nicholl simply.
+
+"And you did not say anything about it, sublime captain!" cried Michel
+Ardan, shaking his companion's hand.
+
+In the meantime Barbicane was making his arrangements in the projectile
+as though he was never going to leave it. It will be remembered that the
+base of the aërial vehicle was fifty-four feet square. It was twelve
+feet high, and admirably fitted up in the interior. It was not much
+encumbered by the instruments and travelling utensils, which were all in
+special places, and it left some liberty of movement to its three
+inhabitants. The thick glass let into a part of the floor could bear
+considerable weight with impunity. Barbicane and his companions walked
+upon it as well as upon a solid floor; but the sun, which struck it
+directly with its rays, lighting the interior of the projectile from
+below, produced singular effects of light.
+
+They began by examining the state of the water and provision
+receptacles. They were not in the least damaged, thanks to the
+precautions taken to deaden the shock. The provisions were abundant, and
+sufficient for one year's food. Barbicane took this precaution in case
+the projectile should arrive upon an absolutely barren part of the moon.
+There was only enough water and brandy for two months. But according to
+the latest observations of astronomers, the moon had a dense low and
+thick atmosphere, at least in its deepest valleys, and there streams and
+watercourses could not fail. Therefore the adventurous explorers would
+not suffer from hunger or thirst during the journey, and the first year
+of their installation upon the lunar continent.
+
+The question of air in the interior of the projectile also offered all
+security. The Reiset and Regnault apparatus, destined to produce oxygen,
+was furnished with enough chlorate of potash for two months. It
+necessarily consumed a large quantity of gas, for it was obliged to keep
+the productive matter up to 100°. But there was abundance of that also.
+The apparatus wanted little looking after. It worked automatically. At
+that high temperature the chlorate of potash changed into chlorine of
+potassium, and gave out all the oxygen it contained. The eighteen pounds
+of chlorate of potash gave out the seven pounds of oxygen necessary for
+the daily consumption of the three travellers.
+
+But it was not enough to renew the oxygen consumed; the carbonic acid
+gas produced by expiration must also be absorbed. Now for the last
+twelve hours the atmosphere of the bullet had become loaded with this
+deleterious gas, the product of the combustion of the elements of blood
+by the oxygen taken into the lungs. Nicholl perceived this state of the
+air by seeing Diana palpitate painfully. In fact, carbonic acid
+gas--through a phenomenon identical with the one to be noticed in the
+famous Dog's Grotto--accumulated at the bottom of the projectile by
+reason of its weight. Poor Diana, whose head was low down, therefore
+necessarily suffered from it before her masters. But Captain Nicholl
+made haste to remedy this state of things. He placed on the floor of the
+projectile several receptacles containing caustic potash which he shook
+about for some time, and this matter, which is very greedy of carbonic
+acid, completely absorbed it, and thus purified the interior air.
+
+An inventory of the instruments was then begun. The thermometers and
+barometers were undamaged, with the exception of a minimum thermometer
+the glass of which was broken. An excellent aneroid was taken out of
+its padded box and hung upon the wall. Of course it was only acted upon
+by and indicated the pressure of the air inside the projectile; but it
+also indicated the quantity of moisture it contained. At that moment its
+needle oscillated between 25.24 and 25.08. It was at "set fair."
+
+Barbicane had brought several compasses, which were found intact. It
+will be easily understood that under those circumstances their needles
+were acting at random, without any constant direction. In fact, at the
+distance the projectile was from the earth the magnetic pole could not
+exercise any sensible action upon the apparatus. But these compasses,
+taken upon the lunar disc, might show particular phenomena. In any case
+it would be interesting to verify whether the earth's satellite, like
+the earth herself, submitted to magnetical influence.
+
+A hypsometer to measure the altitude of the lunar mountains, a sextant
+to take the height of the sun, a theodolite, an instrument for
+surveying, telescopes to be used as the moon approached--all these
+instruments were carefully inspected and found in good condition,
+notwithstanding the violence of the initial shock.
+
+As to the utensils--pickaxes, spades, and different tools--of which
+Nicholl had made a special collection, the sacks of various kinds of
+grain, and the shrubs which Michel Ardan counted upon transplanting into
+Selenite soil, they were in their places in the upper corners of the
+projectile. There was made a sort of granary, which the prodigal
+Frenchman had filled. What was in it was very little known, and the
+merry fellow did not enlighten anybody. From time to time he climbed up
+the cramp-irons riveted in the walls to this store-room, the inspection
+of which he had reserved to himself. He arranged and re-arranged,
+plunged his hand rapidly into certain mysterious boxes, singing all the
+time in a voice very out of tune some old French song to enliven the
+situation.
+
+Barbicane noticed with interest that his rockets and other fireworks
+were not damaged. These were important, for, powerfully loaded, they
+were meant to slacken the speed with which the projectile would, when
+attracted by the moon after passing the point of neutral attraction,
+fall upon her surface. This fall besides would be six times less rapid
+than it would have been upon the surface of the earth, thanks to the
+difference of volume in the two bodies.
+
+The inspection ended, therefore, in general satisfaction. Then they all
+returned to their posts of observation at the lateral and lower
+port-lights.
+
+The same spectacle was spread before them. All the extent of the
+celestial sphere swarmed with stars and constellations of marvellous
+brilliancy, enough to make an astronomer wild! On one side the sun, like
+the mouth of a fiery furnace, shone upon the dark background of the
+heavens. On the other side the moon, reflecting back his fires, seemed
+motionless amidst the starry world. Then a large spot, like a hole in
+the firmament, bordered still by a slight thread of silver--it was the
+earth. Here and there nebulous masses like large snow-flakes, and from
+zenith to nadir an immense ring, formed of an impalpable dust of
+stars--that milky way amidst which the sun only counts as a star of the
+fourth magnitude!
+
+The spectators could not take their eyes off a spectacle so new, of
+which no description could give any idea. What reflections it suggested!
+What unknown emotions it aroused in the soul! Barbicane wished to begin
+the recital of his journey under the empire of these impressions, and he
+noted down hourly all the events that signalised the beginning of his
+enterprise. He wrote tranquilly in his large and rather
+commercial-looking handwriting.
+
+During that time the calculating Nicholl looked over the formulae of
+trajectories, and worked away at figures with unparalleled dexterity.
+Michel Ardan talked sometimes to Barbicane, who did not answer much, to
+Nicholl, who did not hear, and to Diana, who did not understand his
+theories, and lastly to himself, making questions and answers, going and
+coming, occupying himself with a thousand details, sometimes leaning
+over the lower port-light, sometimes roosting in the heights of the
+projectile, singing all the time. In this microcosm he represented the
+French agitation and loquacity, and it was worthily represented.
+
+The day, or rather--for the expression is not correct--the lapse of
+twelve hours which makes a day upon earth--was ended by a copious supper
+carefully prepared. No incident of a nature to shake the confidence of
+the travellers had happened, so, full of hope and already sure of
+success, they went to sleep peacefully, whilst the projectile, at a
+uniformly increasing speed, made its way in the heavens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A LITTLE ALGEBRA.
+
+
+The night passed without incident. Correctly speaking, the word "night"
+is an improper one. The position of the projectile in regard to the sun
+did not change. Astronomically it was day on the bottom of the bullet,
+and night on the top. When, therefore, in this recital these two words
+are used they express the lapse of time between the rising and setting
+of the sun upon earth.
+
+The travellers' sleep was so much the more peaceful because,
+notwithstanding its excessive speed, the projectile seemed absolutely
+motionless. No movement indicated its journey through space. However
+rapidly change of place may be effected, it cannot produce any sensible
+effect upon the organism when it takes place in the void, or when the
+mass of air circulates along with the travelling body. What inhabitant
+of the earth perceives the speed which carries him along at the rate of
+68,000 miles an hour? Movement under such circumstances is not felt more
+than repose. Every object is indifferent to it. When a body is in repose
+it remains so until some foreign force puts it in movement. When in
+movement it would never stop if some obstacle were not in its road. This
+indifference to movement or repose is inertia.
+
+Barbicane and his companions could, therefore, imagine themselves
+absolutely motionless, shut up in the interior of the projectile. The
+effect would have been the same if they had placed themselves on the
+outside. Without the moon, which grew larger above them, and the earth
+that grew smaller below, they would have sworn they were suspended in a
+complete stagnation.
+
+That morning, the 3rd of December, they were awakened by a joyful but
+unexpected noise. It was the crowing of a cock in the interior of their
+vehicle.
+
+Michel Ardan was the first to get up; he climbed to the top of the
+projectile and closed a partly-open case.
+
+"Be quiet," said he in a whisper. "That animal will spoil my plan!"
+
+In the meantime Nicholl and Barbicane awoke.
+
+"Was that a cock?" said Nicholl.
+
+"No, my friends," answered Michel quickly. "I wished to awake you with
+that rural sound."
+
+So saying he gave vent to a cock-a-doodle-do which would have done
+honour to the proudest of gallinaceans.
+
+The two Americans could not help laughing.
+
+"A fine accomplishment that," said Nicholl, looking suspiciously at his
+companion.
+
+"Yes," answered Michel, "a joke common in my country. It is very Gallic.
+We perpetrate it in the best society."
+
+Then turning the conversation--
+
+"Barbicane, do you know what I have been thinking about all night?"
+
+"No," answered the president.
+
+"About our friends at Cambridge. You have already remarked how
+admirably ignorant I am of mathematics. I find it, therefore, impossible
+to guess how our _savants_ of the observatory could calculate what
+initial velocity the projectile ought to be endowed with on leaving the
+Columbiad in order to reach the moon."
+
+"You mean," replied Barbicane, "in order to reach that neutral point
+where the terrestrial and lunar attractions are equal; for beyond this
+point, situated at about 0.9 of the distance, the projectile will fall
+upon the moon by virtue of its own weight merely."
+
+"Very well," answered Michel; "but once more; how did they calculate the
+initial velocity?"
+
+"Nothing is easier," said Barbicane.
+
+"And could you have made the calculation yourself?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Certainly; Nicholl and I could have determined it if the notice from
+the observatory had not saved us the trouble."
+
+"Well, old fellow," answered Michel, "they might sooner cut off my head,
+beginning with my feet, than have made me solve that problem!"
+
+"Because you do not know algebra," replied Barbicane tranquilly.
+
+"Ah, that's just like you dealers in _x_! You think you have explained
+everything when you have said 'algebra.'"
+
+"Michel," replied Barbicane, "do you think it possible to forge without
+a hammer, or to plough without a ploughshare?"
+
+"It would be difficult."
+
+"Well, then, algebra is a tool like a plough or a hammer, and a good
+tool for any one who knows how to use it."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Could you use that tool before me?"
+
+"If it would interest you."
+
+"And could you show me how they calculated the initial speed of our
+vehicle?"
+
+"Yes, my worthy friend. By taking into account all the elements of the
+problem, the distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the
+moon, of the radius of the earth, the volume of the earth and the volume
+of the moon, I can determine exactly what the initial speed of the
+projectile ought to be, and that by a very simple formula."
+
+"Show me the formula."
+
+"You shall see it. Only I will not give you the curve really traced by
+the bullet between the earth and the moon, by taking into account their
+movement of translation round the sun. No. I will consider both bodies
+to be motionless, and that will be sufficient for us."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because that would be seeking to solve the problem called 'the problem
+of the three bodies,' for which the integral calculus is not yet far
+enough advanced."
+
+"Indeed," said Michel Ardan in a bantering tone; "then mathematics have
+not said their last word."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Good! Perhaps the Selenites have pushed the integral calculus further
+than you! By-the-bye, what is the integral calculus?"
+
+"It is the inverse of the differential calculus," answered Barbicane
+seriously.
+
+"Much obliged."
+
+"To speak otherwise, it is a calculus by which you seek finished
+quantities of what you know the differential quantities."
+
+"That is clear at least," answered Barbicane with a quite satisfied air.
+
+"And now," continued Barbicane, "for a piece of paper and a pencil, and
+in half-an-hour I will have found the required formula."
+
+That said, Barbicane became absorbed in his work, whilst Nicholl looked
+into space, leaving the care of preparing breakfast to his companion.
+
+Half-an-hour had not elapsed before Barbicane, raising his head, showed
+Michel Ardan a page covered with algebraical signs, amidst which the
+following general formula was discernible:--
+
+    1   2   2          r         m'    r     r
+    - (v - v ) = gr { --- - 1 + --- ( --- - ---) }
+    2       0          x         m    d-x   d-r
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked Michel.
+
+"That means," answered Nicholl, "that the half of _v_ minus _v_ zero
+square equals _gr_ multiplied by _r_ upon _x_ minus 1 plus _m_ prime
+upon _m_ multiplied by _r_ upon _d_ minus _x_, minus _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_x_ minus _r_--"
+
+"_X_ upon _y_ galloping upon _z_ and rearing upon _p_" cried Michel
+Ardan, bursting out laughing. "Do you mean to say you understand that,
+captain?"
+
+"Nothing is clearer."
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "it is as plain as a pikestaff, and I want
+nothing more."
+
+"Everlasting laugher," said Barbicane, "you wanted algebra, and now you
+shall have it over head and ears."
+
+"I would rather be hung!"
+
+"That appears a good solution, Barbicane," said Nicholl, who was
+examining the formula like a _connaisseur_. "It is the integral of the
+equation of 'vis viva,' and I do not doubt that it will give us the
+desired result."
+
+"But I should like to understand!" exclaimed Michel. "I would give ten
+years of Nicholl's life to understand!"
+
+"Then listen," resumed Barbicane. "The half of _v_ minus _v_ zero square
+is the formula that gives us the demi-variation of the 'vis viva.'"
+
+"Good; and does Nicholl understand what that means?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel," answered the captain. "All those signs that look so
+cabalistic to you form the clearest and most logical language for those
+who know how to read it."
+
+"And do you pretend, Nicholl," asked Michel, "that by means of these
+hieroglyphics, more incomprehensible than the Egyptian ibis, you can
+find the initial speed necessary to give to the projectile?"
+
+"Incontestably," answered Nicholl; "and even by that formula I could
+always tell you what speed it is going at on any point of the journey."
+
+"Upon your word of honour?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you are as clever as our president."
+
+"No, Michel, all the difficulty consists in what Barbicane has done. It
+is to establish an equation which takes into account all the conditions
+of the problem. The rest is only a question of arithmetic, and requires
+nothing but a knowledge of the four rules."
+
+"That's something," answered Michel Ardan, who had never been able to
+make a correct addition in his life, and who thus defined the rule: "A
+Chinese puzzle, by which you can obtain infinitely various results."
+
+Still Barbicane answered that Nicholl would certainly have found the
+formula had he thought about it.
+
+"I do not know if I should," said Nicholl, "for the more I study it the
+more marvellously correct I find it."
+
+"Now listen," said Barbicane to his ignorant comrade, "and you will see
+that all these letters have a signification."
+
+"I am listening," said Michel, looking resigned.
+
+"_d_," said Barbicane, "is the distance from the centre of the earth to
+the centre of the moon, for we must take the centres to calculate the
+attraction."
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"_r_ is the radius of the earth."
+
+"_r_, radius; admitted."
+
+"_m_ is the volume of the earth; _m prime_ that of the moon. We are
+obliged to take into account the volume of the two attracting bodies, as
+the attraction is in proportion to the volume."
+
+"I understand that."
+
+"_g_ represents gravity, the speed acquired at the end of a second by a
+body falling on the surface of the earth. Is that clear?"
+
+"A mountain stream!" answered Michel.
+
+"Now I represent by _x_ the variable distance that separates the
+projectile from the centre of the earth, and by _v_ the velocity the
+projectile has at that distance."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Lastly, the expression _v_ zero which figures in the equation is the
+speed the bullet possesses when it emerges from the atmosphere."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "you were obliged to calculate the velocity from
+that point, because we knew before that the velocity at departure is
+exactly equal to 3/2 of the velocity upon emerging from the atmosphere."
+
+"Don't understand any more!" said Michel.
+
+"Yet it is very simple," said Barbicane.
+
+"I do not find it very simple," replied Michel.
+
+"It means that when our projectile reached the limit of the terrestrial
+atmosphere it had already lost one-third of its initial velocity."
+
+"As much as that?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, simply by friction against the atmosphere. You will
+easily understand that the greater its speed the more resistance it
+would meet with from the air."
+
+"That I admit," answered Michel, "and I understand it, although your _v_
+zero two and your _v_ zero square shake about in my head like nails in a
+sack."
+
+"First effect of algebra," continued Barbicane. "And now to finish we
+are going to find the numerical known quantity of these different
+expressions--that is to say, find out their value."
+
+"You will finish me first!" answered Michel.
+
+"Some of these expressions," said Barbicane, "are known; the others have
+to be calculated."
+
+"I will calculate those," said Nicholl.
+
+"And _r_," resumed Barbicane, "_r_ is the radius of the earth under the
+latitude of Florida, our point of departure, _d_--that is to say, the
+distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon equals
+fifty-six terrestrial radii--"
+
+Nicholl rapidly calculated.
+
+"That makes 356,720,000 metres when the moon is at her perigee--that is
+to say, when she is nearest to the earth."
+
+"Very well," said Barbicane, "now _m_ prime upon _m_--that is to say,
+the proportion of the moon's volume to that of the earth equals 1/81."
+
+"Perfect," said Michel.
+
+"And _g_, the gravity, is to Florida 9-1/81 metres. From whence it
+results that _gr_ equals--"
+
+"Sixty-two million four hundred and twenty-six thousand square metres,"
+answered Nicholl.
+
+"What next?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Now that the expressions are reduced to figures, I am going to find the
+velocity _v zero_--that is to say, the velocity that the projectile
+ought to have on leaving the atmosphere to reach the point of equal
+attraction with no velocity. The velocity at that point I make equal
+_zero_, and _x_, the distance where the neutral point is, will be
+represented by the nine-tenths of _d_--that is to say, the distance that
+separates the two centres."
+
+"I have some vague idea that it ought to be so," said Michel.
+
+"I shall then have, _x_ equals nine-tenths of _d_, and _v_ equals
+_zero_, and my formula will become--"
+
+Barbicane wrote rapidly on the paper--
+
+     2              10r   1    10r    r
+    v  = 2 gr { 1 - ---  --- ( --- - ---) }
+     0               9d   81    d    d-r
+
+Nicholl read it quickly.
+
+"That's it! that is it!" he cried.
+
+"Is it clear?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"It is written in letters of fire!" answered Nicholl.
+
+"Clever fellows!" murmured Michel.
+
+"Do you understand now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"If I understand!" cried Michel Ardan. "My head is bursting with it."
+
+"Thus," resumed Barbicane, "_v zero_ square equals 2 _gr_ multiplied by
+1 minus 10 _r_ upon 9 _d_ minus 1/81 multiplied by 10 _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_r_ upon _d_ minus _r_."
+
+"And now," said Nicholl, "in order to obtain the velocity of the bullet
+as it emerges from the atmosphere I have only to calculate."
+
+The captain, like a man used to overcome all difficulties, began to
+calculate with frightful rapidity. Divisions and multiplications grew
+under his fingers. Figures dotted the page. Barbicane followed him with
+his eyes, whilst Michel Ardan compressed a coming headache with his two
+hands.
+
+"Well, what do you make it?" asked Barbicane after several minutes'
+silence.
+
+"I make it 11,051 metres in the first second."
+
+"What do you say?" said Barbicane, starting.
+
+"Eleven thousand and fifty-one metres."
+
+"Malediction!" cried the president with a gesture of despair.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" asked Michel Ardan, much surprised.
+
+"The matter! why if at this moment the velocity was already diminished
+one-third by friction, the initial speed ought to have been--"
+
+"Sixteen thousand five hundred and seventy-six metres!" answered
+Nicholl.
+
+"But the Cambridge Observatory declared that 11,000 metres were enough
+at departure, and our bullet started with that velocity only!"
+
+"Well?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Why it was not enough!"
+
+"No."
+
+"We shall not reach the neutral point."
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"We shall not even go half way!"
+
+"_Nom d'un boulet_!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, jumping up as if the
+projectile were on the point of striking against the terrestrial globe.
+
+"And we shall fall back upon the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE.
+
+
+This revelation acted like a thunderbolt. Who could have expected such
+an error in calculation? Barbicane would not believe it. Nicholl went
+over the figures again. They were correct. The formula which had
+established them could not be mistrusted, and, when verified, the
+initial velocity of 16,576 metres, necessary for attaining the neutral
+point, was found quite right.
+
+The three friends looked at one another in silence. No one thought about
+breakfast after that. Barbicane, with set teeth, contracted brow, and
+fists convulsively closed, looked through the port-light. Nicholl
+folded his arms and examined his calculations. Michel Ardan murmured--
+
+"That's just like _savants_! That's the way they always do! I would give
+twenty pistoles to fall upon the Cambridge Observatory and crush it,
+with all its stupid staff inside!"
+
+All at once the captain made a reflection which struck Barbicane at
+once.
+
+"Why," said he, "it is seven o'clock in the morning, so we have been
+thirty-two hours on the road. We have come more than half way, and we
+are not falling yet that I know of!"
+
+Barbicane did not answer, but after a rapid glance at the captain he
+took a compass, which he used to measure the angular distance of the
+terrestrial globe. Then through the lower port-light he made a very
+exact observation from the apparent immobility of the projectile. Then
+rising and wiping the perspiration from his brow, he put down some
+figures upon paper. Nicholl saw that the president wished to find out
+from the length of the terrestrial diameter the distance of the bullet
+from the earth. He looked at him anxiously.
+
+"No!" cried Barbicane in a few minutes' time, "we are not falling! We
+are already more than 50,000 leagues from the earth! We have passed the
+point the projectile ought to have stopped at if its speed had been only
+11,000 metres at our departure! We are still ascending!"
+
+"That is evident," answered Nicholl; "so we must conclude that our
+initial velocity, under the propulsion of the 400,000 lbs. of
+gun-cotton, was greater than the 11,000 metres. I can now explain to
+myself why we met with the second satellite, that gravitates at more
+than 2,000 leagues from the earth, in less than thirteen minutes."
+
+"That explanation is so much the more probable," added Barbicane,
+"because by throwing out the water in our movable partitions the
+projectile was made considerably lighter all at once."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah, my brave Nicholl," cried Barbicane, "we are saved!"
+
+"Very well then," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly, "as we are saved,
+let us have breakfast."
+
+Nicholl was not mistaken. The initial speed had happily been greater
+than that indicated by the Cambridge Observatory, but the Cambridge
+Observatory had no less been mistaken.
+
+The travellers, recovered from their false alarm, sat down to table and
+breakfasted merrily. Though they ate much they talked more. Their
+confidence was greater after the "algebra incident."
+
+"Why should we not succeed?" repeated Michel Ardan. "Why should we not
+arrive? We are on the road; there are no obstacles before us, and no
+stones on our route. It is free--freer than that of a ship that has to
+struggle with the sea, or a balloon with the wind against it! Now if a
+ship can go where it pleases, or a balloon ascend where it pleases, why
+should not our projectile reach the goal it was aimed at?"
+
+"It will reach it," said Barbicane.
+
+"If only to honour the American nation," added Michel Ardan, "the only
+nation capable of making such an enterprise succeed--the only one that
+could have produced a President Barbicane! Ah! now I think of it, now
+that all our anxieties are over, what will become of us? We shall be as
+dull as stagnant water."
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl made gestures of repudiation.
+
+"But I foresaw this, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan. "You have only
+to say the word. I have chess, backgammon, cards, and dominoes at your
+disposition. We only want a billiard-table!"
+
+"What?" asked Barbicane, "did you bring such trifles as those?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel; "not only for our amusement, but also in
+the praiseworthy intention of bestowing them upon Selenite inns."
+
+"My friend," said Barbicane, "if the moon is inhabited its inhabitants
+appeared some thousands of years before those of the earth, for it
+cannot be doubted that the moon is older than the earth. If, therefore,
+the Selenites have existed for thousands of centuries--if their brains
+are organised like that of human beings--they have invented all that we
+have invented, already, and even what we shall only invent in the lapse
+of centuries. They will have nothing to learn from us, and we shall have
+everything to learn from them."
+
+"What!" answered Michel, "do you think they have had artists like
+Phidias, Michael Angelo, or Raphael?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Poets like Homer, Virgil, Milton, Lamartine, and Hugo?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it."
+
+"_Savants_ like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal, and Newton?"
+
+"I could swear it."
+
+"Clowns like Arnal, and photographers like--Nadar?"
+
+"I am certain of it."
+
+"Then, friend Barbicane, if these Selenites are as learned as we, and
+even more so, why have they not hurled a lunar projectile as far as the
+terrestrial regions?"
+
+"Who says they have not done it?" answered Barbicane seriously.
+
+"In fact," added Nicholl, "it would have been easier to them than to us,
+and that for two reasons--the first because the attraction is six times
+less on the surface of the moon than on the surface of the earth, which
+would allow a projectile to go up more easily; secondly the projectile
+would only have 8,000 leagues to travel instead of 80,000, which would
+require a force of propulsion ten times less."
+
+"Then," resumed Michel, "I repeat--why have they not done it?"
+
+"And I," replied Barbicane, "I repeat--who says they have not done it?"
+
+"When?"
+
+"Hundreds of centuries ago, before man's appearance upon earth."
+
+"And the bullet? Where is the bullet? I ask to see the bullet!"
+
+"My friend," answered Barbicane, "the sea covers five-sixths of our
+globe, hence there are five good reasons for supposing that the lunar
+projectile, if it has been fired, is now submerged at the bottom of the
+Atlantic or Pacific, unless it was buried down some abyss at the epoch
+when the earth's crust was not sufficiently formed."
+
+"Old fellow," answered Michel, "you have an answer to everything, and I
+bow before your wisdom. There is one hypothesis I would rather believe
+than the others, and that is that the Selenites being older than we are
+wiser, and have not invented gunpowder at all."
+
+At that moment Diana claimed her share in the conversation by a sonorous
+bark. She asked for her breakfast.
+
+"Ah!" said Michel Ardan, "our arguments make us forget Diana and
+Satellite!"
+
+A good dish of food was immediately offered to the dog, who devoured it
+with great appetite.
+
+"Do you know, Barbicane," said Michel, "we ought to have made this
+projectile a sort of Noah's Ark, and have taken a couple of all the
+domestic animals with us to the moon."
+
+"No doubt," answered Barbicane, "but we should not have had room
+enough."
+
+"Oh, we might have been packed a little tighter!"
+
+"The fact is," answered Nicholl, "that oxen, cows, bulls, and horses,
+all those ruminants would be useful on the lunar continent.
+Unfortunately we cannot make our projectile either a stable or a
+cowshed."
+
+"But at least," said Michel Ardan, "we might have brought an ass,
+nothing but a little ass, the courageous and patient animal old Silenus
+loved to exhibit. I am fond of those poor asses! They are the least
+favoured animals in creation. They are not only beaten during their
+lifetime, but are still beaten after their death!"
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why, don't they use his skin to make drums of?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at this absurd reflection.
+But a cry from their merry companion stopped them; he was bending over
+Satellite's niche, and rose up saying--
+
+"Good! Satellite is no longer ill."
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl.
+
+"No!" resumed Michel, "he is dead. Now," he added in a pitiful tone,
+"this will be embarrassing! I very much fear, poor Diana, that you will
+not leave any of your race in the lunar regions!"
+
+The unfortunate Satellite had not been able to survive his wounds. He
+was dead, stone dead. Michel Ardan, much put out of countenance, looked
+at his friends.
+
+"This makes another difficulty," said Barbicane. "We can't keep the dead
+body of this dog with us for another eight-and-forty hours."
+
+"No, certainly not," answered Nicholl, "but our port-lights are hung
+upon hinges. They can be let down. We will open one of them, and throw
+the body into space."
+
+The president reflected for a few minutes, and then said--
+
+"Yes, that is what we must do, but we must take the most minute
+precautions."
+
+"Why?" asked Michel.
+
+"For two reasons that I will explain to you," answered Barbicane. "The
+first has reference to the air in the projectile, of which we must lose
+as little as possible."
+
+"But we can renew the air!"
+
+"Not entirely. We can only renew the oxygen, Michel; and, by-the-bye, we
+must be careful that the apparatus do not furnish us with this oxygen in
+an immoderate quantity, for an excess of it would cause grave
+physiological consequences. But although we can renew the oxygen we
+cannot renew the azote, that medium which the lungs do not absorb, and
+which ought to remain intact. Now the azote would rapidly escape if the
+port-lights were opened."
+
+"Not just the time necessary to throw poor Satellite out."
+
+"Agreed; but we must do it quickly."
+
+"And what is the second reason?" asked Michel.
+
+"The second reason is that we must not allow the exterior cold, which is
+excessive, to penetrate into our projectile lest we should be frozen
+alive."
+
+"Still the sun--"
+
+"The sun warms our projectile because it absorbs its rays, but it does
+not warm the void we are in now. When there is no air there is no more
+heat than there is diffused light, and where the sun's rays do not reach
+directly it is both dark and cold. The temperature outside is only that
+produced by the radiation of the stars--that is to say, the same as the
+temperature of the terrestrial globe would be if one day the sun were to
+be extinguished."
+
+"No fear of that," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Who knows?" said Michel Ardan. "And even supposing that the sun be not
+extinguished, it might happen that the earth will move farther away from
+it."
+
+"Good!" said Nicholl; "that's one of Michel's ideas!"
+
+"Well," resumed Michel, "it is well known that in 1861 the earth went
+through the tail of a comet. Now suppose there was a comet with a power
+of attraction greater than that of the sun, the terrestrial globe might
+make a curve towards the wandering star, and the earth would become its
+satellite, and would be dragged away to such a distance that the rays of
+the sun would have no action on its surface."
+
+"That might happen certainly," answered Barbicane, "but the consequences
+would not be so redoubtable as you would suppose."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because heat and cold would still be pretty well balanced upon our
+globe. It has been calculated that if the earth had been carried away by
+the comet of 1861, it would only have felt, when at its greatest
+distance from the sun, a heat sixteen times greater than that sent to us
+by the moon--a heat which, when focussed by the strongest lens, produces
+no appreciable effect."
+
+"Well?" said Michel.
+
+"Wait a little," answered Barbicane. "It has been calculated that at its
+perihelion, when nearest to the sun, the earth would have borne a heat
+equal to 28,000 times that of summer. But this heat, capable of
+vitrifying terrestrial matters, and of evaporating water, would have
+formed a thick circle of clouds which would have lessened the excessive
+heat, hence there would be compensation between the cold of the aphelion
+and the heat of the perihelion, and an average probably supportable."
+
+"At what number of degrees do they estimate the temperature of the
+planetary space?"
+
+"Formerly," answered Barbicane, "it was believed that this temperature
+was exceedingly low. By calculating its thermometric diminution it was
+fixed at millions of degrees below zero. It was Fourier, one of Michel's
+countrymen, an illustrious _savant_ of the _Académie des Sciences_, who
+reduced these numbers to a juster estimation. According to him, the
+temperature of space does not get lower than 60° Centigrade."
+
+Michel whistled.
+
+"It is about the temperature of the polar regions," answered Barbicane,
+"at Melville Island or Fort Reliance--about 56° Centigrade below zero."
+
+"It remains to be proved," said Nicholl, "that Fourier was not mistaken
+in his calculations. If I am not mistaken, another Frenchman, M.
+Pouillet, estimates the temperature of space at 160° below zero. We
+shall be able to verify that."
+
+"Not now," answered Barbicane, "for the solar rays striking directly
+upon our thermometer would give us, on the contrary, a very elevated
+temperature. But when we get upon the moon, during the nights, a
+fortnight long, which each of its faces endures alternately, we shall
+have leisure to make the experiment, for our satellite moves in the
+void."
+
+"What do you mean by the void?" asked Michel; "is it absolute void?"
+
+"It is absolutely void of air."
+
+"Is there nothing in its place?"
+
+"Yes, ether," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Ah! and what is ether?"
+
+"Ether, my friend, is an agglomeration of imponderable particles, which,
+relatively to their dimensions, are as far removed from each other as
+the celestial bodies are in space, so say works on molecular physics. It
+is these atoms that by their vibrating movement produce light and heat
+by making four hundred and thirty billions of oscillations a second."
+
+"Millions of millions!" exclaimed Michel Ardan; "then _savants_ have
+measured and counted these oscillations! All these figures, friend
+Barbicane, are _savants'_ figures, which reach the ear but say nothing
+to the mind."
+
+"But they are obliged to have recourse to figures."
+
+"No. It would be much better to compare. A billion signifies nothing. An
+object of comparison explains everything. Example--When you tell me that
+Uranus is 76 times larger than the earth, Saturn 900 times larger,
+Jupiter 1,300 times larger, the sun 1,300,000 times larger, I am not
+much wiser. So I much prefer the old comparisons of the _Double
+Liégoise_ that simply tells you, 'The sun is a pumpkin two feet in
+diameter, Jupiter an orange, Saturn a Blenheim apple, Neptune a large
+cherry, Uranus a smaller cherry, the earth a pea, Venus a green pea,
+Mars the head of a large pin, Mercury a grain of mustard, and Juno,
+Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas fine grains of sand!' Then I know what it
+means!"
+
+After this tirade of Michel Ardan's against _savants_ and their
+billions, which he delivered without stopping to take breath, they set
+about burying Satellite. He was to be thrown into space like sailors
+throw a corpse into the sea.
+
+As President Barbicane had recommended, they had to act quickly so as to
+lose as little air as possible. The bolts upon the right-hand port-hole
+were carefully unscrewed, and an opening of about half a yard made,
+whilst Michel prepared to hurl his dog into space. The window, worked by
+a powerful lever, which conquered the pressure of air in the interior
+upon the sides of the projectile, moved upon its hinges, and Satellite
+was thrown out. Scarcely a particle of air escaped, and the operation
+succeeded so well that later on Barbicane did not fear to get rid of all
+the useless rubbish that encumbered the vehicle in the same way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+On the 4th of December, at 5 a.m. by terrestrial reckoning, the
+travellers awoke, having been fifty-four hours on their journey. They
+had only been five hours and forty minutes more than half the time
+assigned for the accomplishment of their journey, but they had come more
+than seven-tenths of the distance. This peculiarity was due to their
+regularly-decreasing speed.
+
+When they looked at the earth through the port-light at the bottom, it
+only looked like a black spot drowned in the sun's rays. No crescent or
+pale light was now to be seen. The next day at midnight the earth would
+be new at the precise moment when the moon would be full. Above, the
+Queen of Night was nearing the line followed by the projectile, so as to
+meet it at the hour indicated. All around the dark vault was studded
+with brilliant specks which seemed to move slowly; but through the great
+distance they were at their relative size did not seem to alter much.
+The sun and the stars appeared exactly as they do from the earth. The
+moon was considerably enlarged; but the travellers' not very powerful
+telescopes did not as yet allow them to make very useful observations on
+her surface, or to reconnoitre the topographical or geological details.
+
+The time went by in interminable conversations. The talk was especially
+about the moon. Each brought his contingent of particular knowledge.
+Barbicane's and Nicholl's were always serious, Michel Ardan's always
+fanciful. The projectile, its situation and direction, the incidents
+that might arise, the precautions necessitated by its fall upon the
+moon, all this afforded inexhaustible material for conjecture.
+
+Whilst breakfasting a question of Michel's relative to the projectile
+provoked a rather curious answer from Barbicane, and one worthy of being
+recorded.
+
+Michel, supposing the bullet to be suddenly stopped whilst still endowed
+with its formidable initial velocity, wished to know what the
+consequences would have been.
+
+"But," answered Barbicane, "I don't see how the projectile could have
+been stopped."
+
+"But let us suppose it," answered Nicholl.
+
+"It is an impossible supposition," replied the practical president,
+"unless the force of impulsion had failed. But in that case its speed
+would have gradually decreased, and would not have stopped abruptly."
+
+"Admit that it had struck against some body in space."
+
+"What body?"
+
+"The enormous meteor we met."
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the projectile would have been broken into a
+thousand pieces, and we with it."
+
+"More than that," answered Barbicane, "we should have been burnt alive."
+
+"Burnt!" exclaimed Michel. "I regret it did not happen for us just to
+see."
+
+"And you would have seen with a vengeance," answered Barbicane. "It is
+now known that heat is only a modification of movement when water is
+heated--that is to say, when heat is added to it--that means the giving
+of movement to its particles."
+
+"That is an ingenious theory!" said Michel.
+
+"And a correct one, my worthy friend, for it explains all the phenomena
+of caloric. Heat is only molecular movement, a single oscillation of the
+particles of a body. When the break is put on a train it stops. But what
+becomes of the movement which animated it? Why do they grease the axles
+of the wheels? In order to prevent them catching fire from the movement
+lost by transformation. Do you understand?"
+
+"Admirably," answered Michel. "For example, when I have been running
+some time, and am covered with sweat, why am I forced to stop? Simply
+because my movement has been transformed into heat."
+
+Barbicane could not help laughing at this _répartie_ of Michel's. Then
+resuming his theory--
+
+"Thus," said he, "in case of a collision, it would have happened to our
+projectile as it does to the metal cannon-ball after striking
+armour-plate; it would fall burning, because its movement had been
+transformed into heat. In consequence, I affirm that if our bullet had
+struck against the asteroid, its speed, suddenly annihilated, would have
+produced heat enough to turn it immediately into vapour."
+
+"Then," asked Nicholl, "what would happen if the earth were to be
+suddenly stopped in her movement of translation?"
+
+"Her temperature would be carried to such a point," answered Barbicane,
+"that she would be immediately reduced to vapour."
+
+"Good," said Michel; "that means of ending the world would simplify many
+things."
+
+"And suppose the earth were to fall upon the sun?" said Nicholl.
+
+"According to calculations," answered Barbicane, "that would develop a
+heat equal to that produced by 1,600 globes of coal, equal in volume to
+the terrestrial globe."
+
+"A good increase of temperature for the sun," replied Michel Ardan, "of
+which the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune will probably not complain,
+for they must be dying of cold on their planet."
+
+"Thus, then, my friends, any movement suddenly stopped produces heat.
+This theory makes it supposed that the sun is constantly fed by an
+incessant fall of bodies upon its surface. It has been calculated--"
+
+"Now I shall be crushed," murmured Michel, "for figures are coming."
+
+"It has been calculated," continued Barbicane imperturbably, "that the
+shock of each asteroid upon the sun must produce heat equal to that of
+4,000 masses of coal of equal volume."
+
+"And what is the heat of the sun?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is equal to that which would be produced by a stratum of coal
+surrounding the sun to a depth of twenty-seven kilometres."
+
+"And that heat--"
+
+"Could boil 2,900,000,000 of cubic myriametres of water an hour." (A
+myriametre is equal to rather more than 6.2138 miles, or 6 miles 1
+furlong 28 poles.)
+
+"And we are not roasted by it?" cried Michel.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "because the terrestrial atmosphere absorbs
+four-tenths of the solar heat. Besides, the quantity of heat intercepted
+by the earth is only two thousand millionth of the total."
+
+"I see that all is for the best," replied Michel, "and that our
+atmosphere is a useful invention, for it not only allows us to breathe,
+but actually prevents us roasting."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "but, unfortunately, it will not be the same on the
+moon."
+
+"Bah!" said Michel, always confident. "If there are any inhabitants they
+breathe. If there are no longer any they will surely have left enough
+oxygen for three people, if only at the bottom of those ravines where it
+will have accumulated by reason of its weight! Well, we shall not climb
+the mountains! That is all."
+
+And Michel, getting up, went to look at the lunar disc, which was
+shining with intolerable brilliancy.
+
+"Faith!" said he, "it must be hot up there."
+
+"Without reckoning," answered Nicholl, "that daylight lasts 360 hours."
+
+"And by way of compensation night has the same duration," said
+Barbicane, "and as heat is restored by radiation, their temperature must
+be that of planetary space."
+
+"A fine country truly!" said Nicholl.
+
+"Never mind! I should like to be there already! It will be comical to
+have the earth for a moon, to see it rise on the horizon, to recognise
+the configuration of its continents, to say to oneself, 'There's America
+and there's Europe;' then to follow it till it is lost in the rays of
+the sun! By-the-bye, Barbicane, have the Selenites any eclipses?"
+
+"Yes, eclipses of the sun," answered Barbicane, "when the centres of the
+three stars are on the same line with the earth in the middle. But they
+are merely annular eclipses, during which the earth, thrown like a
+screen across the solar disc, allows the greater part to be seen."
+
+"Why is there no total eclipse?" asked Nicholl. "Is it because the cone
+of shade thrown by the earth does not extend beyond the moon?"
+
+"Yes, if you do not take into account the refraction produced by the
+terrestrial atmosphere, not if you do take that refraction into account.
+Thus, let _delta_ be the horizontal parallax and _p_ the apparent
+semidiameter--"
+
+"Ouf!" said Michel, "half of _v_ zero square! Do speak the vulgar
+tongue, man of algebra!"
+
+"Well, then, in popular language," answered Barbicane, "the mean
+distance between the moon and the earth being sixty terrestrial radii,
+the length of the cone of shadow, by dint of refraction, is reduced to
+less than forty-two radii. It follows, therefore, that during the
+eclipses the moon is beyond the cone of pure shade, and the sun sends it
+not only rays from its edges, but also rays from its centre."
+
+"Then," said Michel in a grumbling tone, "why is there any eclipse when
+there ought to be none?"
+
+"Solely because the solar rays are weakened by the refraction, and the
+atmosphere which they traverse extinguishes the greater part of them."
+
+"That reason satisfies me," answered Michel; "besides, we shall see for
+ourselves when we get there. Now, Barbicane, do you believe that the
+moon is an ancient comet?"
+
+"What an idea!"
+
+"Yes," replied Michel, with amiable conceit, "I have a few ideas of that
+kind."
+
+"But that idea does not originate with Michel," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Then I am only a plagiarist."
+
+"Without doubt," answered Nicholl. "According to the testimony of the
+ancients, the Arcadians pretended that their ancestors inhabited the
+earth before the moon became her satellite. Starting from this fact,
+certain _savants_ think the moon was a comet which its orbit one day
+brought near enough to the earth to be retained by terrestrial
+attraction."
+
+"And what truth is there in that hypothesis?" asked Michel.
+
+"None," answered Barbicane, "and the proof is that the moon has not kept
+a trace of the gaseous envelope that always accompanies comets."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "might not the moon, before becoming the earth's
+satellite, have passed near enough to the sun to leave all her gaseous
+substances by evaporation?"
+
+"It might, friend Nicholl, but it is not probable."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because--because, I really don't know."
+
+"Ah, what hundreds of volumes we might fill with what we don't know!"
+exclaimed Michel. "But I say," he continued, "what time is it?"
+
+"Three o'clock," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How the time goes," said Michel, "in the conversation of _savants_ like
+us! Decidedly I feel myself getting too learned! I feel that I am
+becoming a well of knowledge!"
+
+So saying, Michel climbed to the roof of the projectile, "in order
+better to observe the moon," he pretended. In the meanwhile his
+companions watched the vault of space through the lower port-light.
+There was nothing fresh to signalise.
+
+When Michel Ardan came down again he approached the lateral port-light,
+and suddenly uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"What is the matter now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+The president approached the glass and saw a sort of flattened sack
+floating outside at some yards' distance from the projectile. This
+object seemed motionless like the bullet, and was consequently animated
+with the same ascensional movement.
+
+"Whatever can that machine be?" said Michel Ardan. "Is it one of the
+corpuscles of space which our projectile holds in its radius of
+attraction, and which will accompany it as far as the moon?"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Nicholl, "is that the specific
+weight of this body, which is certainly superior to that of the bullet,
+allows it to maintain itself so rigorously on its level."
+
+"Nicholl," said Barbicane, after a moment's reflection, "I do not know
+what that object is, but I know perfectly why it keeps on a level with
+the projectile."
+
+"Why, pray?"
+
+"Because we are floating in the void where bodies fall or move--which is
+the same thing--with equal speed whatever their weight or form may be.
+It is the air which, by its resistance, creates differences in weight.
+When you pneumatically create void in a tube, the objects you throw down
+it, either lead or feathers, fall with the same rapidity. Here in space
+you have the same cause and the same effect."
+
+"True," said Nicholl, "and all we throw out of the projectile will
+accompany us to the moon."
+
+"Ah! what fools we are!" cried Michel.
+
+"Why this qualification?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because we ought to have filled the projectile with useful objects,
+books, instruments, tools, &c. We could have thrown them all out, and
+they would all have followed in our wake! But, now I think of it, why
+can't we take a walk outside this? Why can't we go into space through
+the port-light? What delight it would be to be thus suspended in ether,
+more favoured even than birds that are forced to flap their wings to
+sustain them!"
+
+"Agreed," said Barbicane, "but how are we to breathe?"
+
+"Confounded air to fail so inopportunely!"
+
+"But if it did not fail, Michel, your density being inferior to that of
+the projectile, you would soon remain behind."
+
+"Then it is a vicious circle."
+
+"All that is most vicious."
+
+"And we must remain imprisoned in our vehicle."
+
+"Yes, we must."
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel in a formidable voice.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I know, I guess what this pretended asteroid is! It is not a broken
+piece of planet!"
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is our unfortunate dog! It is Diana's husband!"
+
+In fact, this deformed object, reduced to nothing, and quite
+unrecognisable, was the body of Satellite flattened like a bagpipe
+without wind, and mounting, for ever mounting!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION.
+
+
+Thus a curious but logical, strange yet logical phenomenon took place
+under these singular conditions. Every object thrown out of the
+projectile would follow the same trajectory and only stop when it did.
+That furnished a text for conversation which the whole evening could not
+exhaust. The emotion of the three travellers increased as they
+approached the end of their journey. They expected unforeseen incidents,
+fresh phenomena, and nothing would have astonished them under present
+circumstances. Their excited imagination outdistanced the projectile,
+the speed of which diminished notably without their feeling it. But the
+moon grew larger before their eyes, and they thought they had only to
+stretch out their hands to touch it.
+
+The next day, the 5th of December, they were all wide awake at 5 a.m.
+That day was to be the last of their journey if the calculations were
+exact. That same evening, at midnight, within eighteen hours, at the
+precise moment of full moon, they would reach her brilliant disc. The
+next midnight would bring them to the goal of their journey, the most
+extraordinary one of ancient or modern times. At early dawn, through the
+windows made silvery with her rays, they saluted the Queen of Night with
+a confident and joyful hurrah.
+
+The moon was sailing majestically across the starry firmament. A few
+more degrees and she would reach that precise point in space where the
+projectile was to meet her. According to his own observations, Barbicane
+thought that he should accost her in her northern hemisphere, where vast
+plains extend and mountains are rare--a favourable circumstance if the
+lunar atmosphere was, according to received opinion, stored up in deep
+places only.
+
+"Besides," observed Michel Ardan, "a plain is more suitable for landing
+upon than a mountain. A Selenite landed in Europe on the summit of Mont
+Blanc, or in Asia on a peak of the Himalayas, would not be precisely at
+his destination!"
+
+"What is more," added Nicholl, "on a plain the projectile will remain
+motionless after it has touched the ground, whilst it would roll down a
+hill like an avalanche, and as we are not squirrels we should not come
+out safe and sound. Therefore all is for the best."
+
+In fact, the success of the audacious enterprise no longer appeared
+doubtful. Still one reflection occupied Barbicane; but not wishing to
+make his two companions uneasy, he kept silence upon it.
+
+The direction of the projectile towards the northern hemisphere proved
+that its trajectory had been slightly modified. The aim, mathematically
+calculated, ought to have sent the bullet into the very centre of the
+lunar disc. If it did not arrive there it would be because it had
+deviated. What had caused it? Barbicane could not imagine nor determine
+the importance of this deviation, for there was no datum to go upon. He
+hoped, however, that the only result would be to take them towards the
+upper edge of the moon, a more suitable region for landing.
+
+Barbicane, therefore, without saying anything to his friends, contented
+himself with frequently observing the moon, trying to see if the
+direction of the projectile would not change. For the situation would
+have been so terrible had the bullet, missing its aim, been dragged
+beyond the lunar disc and fallen into interplanetary space.
+
+At that moment the moon, instead of appearing flat like a disc, already
+showed her convexity. If the sun's rays had reached her obliquely the
+shadow then thrown would have made the high mountains stand out. They
+could have seen the gaping craters and the capricious furrows that cut
+up the immense plains. But all relief was levelled in the intense
+brilliancy. Those large spots that give the appearance of a human face
+to the moon were scarcely distinguishable.
+
+"It may be a face," said Michel Ardan, "but I am sorry for the amiable
+sister of Apollo, her face is so freckled!"
+
+In the meantime the travellers so near their goal ceaselessly watched
+this new world. Their imagination made them take walks over these
+unknown countries. They climbed the elevated peaks. They descended to
+the bottom of the large amphitheatres. Here and there they thought they
+saw vast seas scarcely kept together under an atmosphere so rarefied,
+and streams of water that poured them their tribute from the mountains.
+Leaning over the abyss they hoped to catch the noise of this orb for
+ever mute in the solitudes of the void.
+
+This last day left them the liveliest remembrances. They noted down the
+least details. A vague uneasiness took possession of them as they
+approached their goal. This uneasiness would have been doubled if they
+had felt how slight their speed was. It appeared quite insufficient to
+take them to the end of their journey. This was because the projectile
+scarcely "weighed" anything. Its weight constantly decreased, and would
+be entirely annihilated on that line where the lunar and terrestrial
+attractions neutralise each other, causing surprising effects.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of his preoccupations, Michel Ardan did not
+forget to prepare the morning meal with his habitual punctuality. They
+ate heartily. Nothing was more excellent than their broth liquefied by
+the heat of the gas. Nothing better than these preserved meats. A few
+glasses of good French wine crowned the repast, and caused Michel Ardan
+to remark that the lunar vines, warmed by this ardent sun, ought to
+distil the most generous wines--that is, if they existed. Any way, the
+far-seeing Frenchman had taken care not to forget in his collection some
+precious cuttings of the Médoc and Côte d'Or, upon which he counted
+particularly.
+
+The Reiset and Regnault apparatus always worked with extreme precision.
+The air was kept in a state of perfect purity. Not a particle of
+carbonic acid resisted the potash, and as to the oxygen, that, as
+Captain Nicholl said, was of "first quality." The small amount of
+humidity in the projectile mixed with this air and tempered its dryness,
+and many Paris, London, or New York apartments and many theatres do not
+certainly fulfil hygienic conditions so well.
+
+But in order to work regularly this apparatus had to be kept going
+regularly. Each morning Michel inspected the escape regulators, tried
+the taps, and fixed by the pyrometer the heat of the gas. All had gone
+well so far, and the travellers, imitating the worthy J.T. Maston, began
+to get so stout that they would not be recognisable if their
+imprisonment lasted several months. They behaved like chickens in a
+cage--they fattened.
+
+Looking through the port lights Barbicane saw the spectre of the
+dog, and the different objects thrown out of the projectile, which
+obstinately accompanied it. Diana howled lamentably when she perceived
+the remains of Satellite. All the things seemed as motionless as if they
+had rested upon solid ground.
+
+"Do you know, my friends," said Michel Ardan, "that if one of us had
+succumbed to the recoil shock at departure we should have been much
+embarrassed as to how to get rid of him? You see the accusing corpse
+would have followed us in space like remorse!"
+
+"That would have been sad," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah!" continued Michel, "what I regret is our not being able to take a
+walk outside. What delight it would be to float in this radiant ether,
+to bathe in these pure rays of the sun! If Barbicane had only thought of
+furnishing us with diving-dresses and air-pumps I should have ventured
+outside, and have assumed the attitude of a flying-horse on the summit
+of the projectile."
+
+"Ah, old fellow!" answered Barbicane, "you would not have stayed there
+long in spite of your diving-dress; you would have burst like an obus by
+the expansion of air inside you, or rather like a balloon that goes up
+too high. So regret nothing, and do not forget this: while we are moving
+in the void you must do without any sentimental promenade out of the
+projectile."
+
+Michel Ardan allowed himself to be convinced in a certain measure. He
+agreed that the thing was difficult, but not "impossible;" that was a
+word he never uttered.
+
+The conversation passed from this subject to another, and never
+languished an instant. It seemed to the three friends that under these
+conditions ideas came into their heads like leaves in the first warm
+days of spring.
+
+Amidst the questions and answers that crossed each other during this
+morning, Nicholl asked one that did not get an immediate solution.
+
+"I say," said he, "it is all very well to go to the moon, but how shall
+we get back again?"
+
+"What do you mean by that, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane gravely.
+
+"It seems to me very inopportune to ask about getting away from a
+country before you get to it," added Michel.
+
+"I don't ask that question because I want to draw back, but I repeat my
+question, and ask, 'How shall we get back?'"
+
+"I have not the least idea," answered Barbicane.
+
+"And as for me," said Michel, "if I had known how to come back I should
+not have gone."
+
+"That is what you call answering," cried Nicholl.
+
+"I approve of Michel's words, and add that the question has no actual
+interest. We will think about that later on, when we want to return.
+Though the Columbiad will not be there, the projectile will."
+
+"Much good that will be, a bullet without a gun!"
+
+"A gun can be made, and so can powder! Neither metal, saltpetre, nor
+coal can be wanting in the bowels of the moon. Besides, in order to
+return you have only the lunar attraction to conquer, and you will only
+have 8,000 leagues to go so as to fall on the terrestrial globe by the
+simple laws of weight."
+
+"That is enough," said Michel, getting animated. "Let us hear no more
+about returning. As to communicating with our ancient colleagues upon
+earth, that will not be difficult."
+
+"How are we to do that, pray?"
+
+"By means of meteors hurled by the lunar volcanoes."
+
+"A good idea, Michel," answered Barbicane. "Laplace has calculated that
+a force five times superior to that of our cannons would suffice to send
+a meteor from the moon to the earth. Now there is no volcano that has
+not a superior force of propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Michel. "Meteors will be convenient postmen and will not
+cost anything! And how we shall laugh at the postal service! But now I
+think--"
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"A superb idea! Why did we not fasten a telegraph wire to our bullet? We
+could have exchanged telegrams with the earth!"
+
+"And the weight of a wire 86,000 leagues long," answered Nicholl, "does
+that go for nothing?"
+
+"Yes, for nothing! We should have trebled the charge of the Columbiad!
+We could have made it four times--five times--greater!" cried Michel,
+whose voice became more and more violent.
+
+"There is a slight objection to make to your project," answered
+Barbicane. "It is that during the movement of rotation of the globe our
+wire would have been rolled round it like a chain round a windlass, and
+it would inevitably have dragged us down to the earth again."
+
+"By the thirty-nine stars of the Union!" said Michel, "I have nothing
+but impracticable ideas to-day--ideas worthy of J.T. Maston! But now I
+think of it, if we do not return to earth J.T. Maston will certainly
+come to us!"
+
+"Yes! he will come," replied Barbicane; "he is a worthy and courageous
+comrade. Besides, what could be easier? Is not the Columbiad still lying
+in Floridian soil? Is cotton and nitric acid wanting wherewith to
+manufacture the projectile? Will not the moon again pass the zenith of
+Florida? In another eighteen years will she not occupy exactly the same
+place that she occupies to-day?"
+
+"Yes," repeated Michel--"yes, Maston will come, and with him our friends
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and all the members of the Gun Club, and they
+will be welcome! Later on trains of projectiles will be established
+between the earth and the moon! Hurrah for J.T. Maston!"
+
+It is probable that if the Honourable J.T. Maston did not hear the
+hurrahs uttered in his honour his ears tingled at least. What was he
+doing then? He was no doubt stationed in the Rocky Mountains at Long's
+Peak, trying to discover the invisible bullet gravitating in space. If
+he was thinking of his dear companions it must be acknowledged that they
+were not behindhand with him, and that, under the influence of singular
+exaltation, they consecrated their best thoughts to him.
+
+But whence came the animation that grew visibly greater in the
+inhabitants of the projectile? Their sobriety could not be questioned.
+Must this strange erethismus of the brain be attributed to the
+exceptional circumstances of the time, to that proximity of the Queen of
+Night from which a few hours only separated them, or to some secret
+influence of the moon acting on their nervous system? Their faces became
+as red as if exposed to the reverberation of a furnace; their
+respiration became more active, and their lungs played like
+forge-bellows; their eyes shone with extraordinary flame, and their
+voices became formidably loud, their words escaped like a champagne-cork
+driven forth by carbonic acid gas; their gestures became disquieting,
+they wanted so much room to perform them in. And, strange to say, they
+in no wise perceived this excessive tension of the mind.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl in a sharp tone--"now that I do not know whether we
+shall come back from the moon, I will know what we are going there for!"
+
+"What we are going there for!" answered Barbicane, stamping as if he
+were in a fencing-room; "I don't know."
+
+"You don't know!" cried Michel with a shout that provoked a sonorous
+echo in the projectile.
+
+"No, I have not the least idea!" answered Barbicane, shouting in unison
+with his interlocutor.
+
+"Well, then, I know," answered Michel.
+
+"Speak, then," said Nicholl, who could no longer restrain the angry
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I shall speak if it suits me!" cried Michel, violently seizing his
+companion's arm. "It must suit you!" said Barbicane, with eyes on fire
+and threatening hands. "It was you who drew us into this terrible
+journey, and we wish to know why!"
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "now I don't know where I am going, I will know
+why I am going."
+
+"Why?" cried Michel, jumping a yard high--"why? To take possession of
+the moon in the name of the United States! To add a fortieth State to
+the Union! To colonise the lunar regions, to cultivate them, people
+them, to take them all the wonders of art, science, and industry! To
+civilise the Selenites, unless they are more civilised than we are, and
+to make them into a republic if they have not already done it for
+themselves!"
+
+"If there are any Selenites!" answered Nicholl, who under the empire of
+this inexplicable intoxication became very contradictory.
+
+"Who says there are no Selenites?" cried Michel in a threatening tone.
+
+"I do!" shouted Nicholl.
+
+"Captain," said Michel, "do not repeat that insult or I will knock your
+teeth down your throat!"
+
+The two adversaries were about to rush upon one another, and this
+incoherent discussion was threatening to degenerate into a battle, when
+Barbicane interfered.
+
+"Stop, unhappy men," said he, putting his two companions back to back,
+"if there are no Selenites, we will do without them!"
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Michel, who did not care more about them than that. "We
+have nothing to do with the Selenites! Bother the Selenites!"
+
+"The empire of the moon shall be ours," said Nicholl. "Let us found a
+Republic of three!"
+
+"I shall be the Congress," cried Michel.
+
+"And I the Senate," answered Nicholl.
+
+"And Barbicane the President," shouted Michel.
+
+"No President elected by the nation!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, then, a President elected by the Congress," exclaimed Michel;
+"and as I am the Congress I elect you unanimously."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah for President Barbicane!" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"Hip--hip--hip! hurrah!" vociferated Michel Ardan.
+
+Then the President and Senate struck up "Yankee Doodle" as loudly as
+they could, whilst the Congress shouted the virile "Marseillaise."
+
+Then began a frantic dance with maniacal gestures, mad stamping, and
+somersaults of boneless clowns. Diana took part in the dance, howling
+too, and jumped to the very roof of the projectile. An inexplicable
+flapping of wings and cock-crows of singular sonority were heard. Five
+or six fowls flew about striking the walls like mad bats.
+
+Then the three travelling companions, whose lungs were disorganised
+under some incomprehensible influence, more than intoxicated, burnt by
+the air that had set their breathing apparatus on fire, fell motionless
+upon the bottom of the projectile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the cause of that singular intoxication, the
+consequences of which might prove so disastrous? Simply carelessness on
+Michel's part, which Nicholl was able to remedy in time.
+
+After a veritable swoon, which lasted a few minutes, the captain, who
+was the first to regain consciousness, soon collected his intellectual
+faculties.
+
+Although he had breakfasted two hours before, he began to feel as hungry
+as if he had not tasted food for several days. His whole being, his
+brain and stomach, were excited to the highest point.
+
+He rose, therefore, and demanded a supplementary collation from Michel,
+who was still unconscious, and did not answer. Nicholl, therefore,
+proceeded to prepare some cups of tea, in order to facilitate the
+absorption of a dozen sandwiches. He busied himself first with lighting
+a fire, and so struck a match.
+
+What was his surprise to see the sulphur burn with extraordinary and
+almost unbearable brilliancy! From the jet of gas he lighted rose a
+flame equal to floods of electric light.
+
+A revelation took place in Nicholl's mind. This intensity of light, the
+physiological disturbance in himself, the extra excitement of all his
+moral and sensitive faculties--he understood it all.
+
+"The oxygen!" he exclaimed.
+
+And leaning over the air-apparatus, he saw that the tap was giving out a
+flood of colourless, savourless, and odourless gas, eminently vital, but
+which in a pure state produces the gravest disorders in the
+constitution. Through carelessness Michel had left the tap full on.
+Nicholl made haste to turn off this flow of oxygen with which the
+atmosphere was saturated, and which would have caused the death of the
+travellers, not by suffocation, but by combustion.
+
+An hour afterwards the air was relieved, and gave their normal play to
+the lungs. By degrees the three friends recovered from their
+intoxication; but they were obliged to recover from their oxygen like a
+drunkard from his wine.
+
+When Michel knew his share of responsibility in this incident he did not
+appear in the least disconcerted. This unexpected intoxication broke the
+monotony of the journey. Many foolish things had been said under its
+influence, but they had been forgotten as soon as said.
+
+"Then," added the merry Frenchman, "I am not sorry for having
+experienced the effect of this captious gas. Do you know, my friends,
+that there might be a curious establishment set up with oxygen-rooms,
+where people whose constitutions are weak might live a more active life
+during a few hours at least? Suppose we had meetings where the air could
+be saturated with this heroic fluid, theatres where the managers would
+send it out in strong doses, what passion there would be in the souls of
+actors and spectators, what fire and what enthusiasm! And if, instead of
+a simple assembly, a whole nation could be saturated with it, what
+activity, what a supplement of life it would receive! Of an exhausted
+nation it perhaps would make a great and strong nation, and I know more
+than one state in old Europe that ought to put itself under the oxygen
+_régime_ in the interest of its health."
+
+Michel spoke with as much animation as if the tap were still full on.
+But with one sentence Barbicane damped his enthusiasm.
+
+"All that is very well, friend Michel," he said, "but now perhaps you
+will tell us where those fowls that joined in our concert came from."
+
+"Those fowls?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+In fact, half-a-dozen hens and a superb cock were flying hither and
+thither.
+
+"Ah, the stupids!" cried Michel. "It was the oxygen that put them in
+revolt."
+
+"But what are you going to do with those fowls?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Acclimatise them in the moon of course! For the sake of a joke, my
+worthy president; simply a joke that has unhappily come to nothing! I
+wanted to let them out on the lunar continent without telling you! How
+astounded you would have been to see these terrestrial poultry pecking
+the fields of the moon!"
+
+"Ah, _gamin_, you eternal boy!" answered Barbicane, "you don't want
+oxygen to make you out of your senses! You are always what we were under
+the influence of this gas! You are always insane!"
+
+"Ah! how do we know we were not wiser then?" replied Michel Ardan.
+
+After this philosophical reflection the three friends repaired the
+disorder in the projectile. Cock and hens were put back in their cage.
+But as they were doing this Barbicane and his two companions distinctly
+perceived a fresh phenomenon.
+
+Since the moment they had left the earth their own weight, that of the
+bullet and the objects it contained, had suffered progressive
+diminution. Though they could not have any experience of this in the
+projectile, a moment must come when the effect upon themselves and the
+tools and instruments they used would be felt.
+
+Of course scales would not have indicated this loss of weight, for the
+weights used would have lost precisely as much as the object itself; but
+a spring weighing-machine, the tension of which is independent of
+attraction, would have given the exact valuation of this diminution.
+
+It is well known that attraction, or weight, is in proportion to the
+bulk, and in inverse proportion to the square of distances. Hence this
+consequence. If the earth had been alone in space, if the other heavenly
+bodies were to be suddenly annihilated, the projectile, according to
+Newton's law, would have weighed less according to its distance from the
+earth, but without ever losing its weight entirely, for the terrestrial
+attraction would always have made itself felt, no matter at what
+distance.
+
+But in the case with which we are dealing, a moment must come when the
+projectile would not be at all under the law of gravitation, after
+allowing for the other celestial bodies, whose effect could not be set
+down as zero.
+
+In fact, the trajectory of the projectile was between the earth and the
+moon. As it went farther away from the earth terrestrial attraction
+would be diminished in inverse proportion to the square of distances,
+but the lunar attraction would be augmented in the same proportion. A
+point must, therefore, be reached where these two attractions would
+neutralise each other, and the bullet would have no weight at all. If
+the volumes of the moon and earth were equal, this point would have been
+reached at an equal distance between the two bodies. But by taking their
+difference of bulk into account it was easy to calculate that this
+point would be situated at 47/52 of the journey, or at 78,114 leagues
+from the earth.
+
+At this point a body that had no principle of velocity or movement in
+itself would remain eternally motionless, being equally attracted by the
+two heavenly bodies, and nothing drawing it more towards one than the
+other.
+
+Now if the force of impulsion had been exactly calculated the projectile
+ought to reach that point with no velocity, having lost all weight like
+the objects it contained.
+
+What would happen then? Three hypotheses presented themselves.
+
+Either the projectile would have kept some velocity, and passing the
+point of equal attraction, would fall on the moon by virtue of the
+excess of lunar attraction over terrestrial attraction.
+
+Or velocity sufficient to reach the neutral point being wanting, it
+would fall back on the earth by virtue of the excess of terrestrial
+attraction over lunar attraction.
+
+Or lastly, endowed with sufficient velocity to reach the neutral point,
+but insufficient to pass it, it would remain eternally suspended in the
+same place, like the pretended coffin of Mahomet, between the zenith and
+nadir.
+
+Such was the situation, and Barbicane clearly explained the consequences
+to his travelling companions. They were interested to the highest
+degree. How were they to know when they had reached this neutral point,
+situated at 78,114 leagues from the earth, at the precise moment when
+neither they nor the objects contained in the projectile should be in
+any way subject to the laws of weight?
+
+Until now the travellers, though they had remarked that this action
+diminished little by little, had not yet perceived its total absence.
+But that day, about 11 a.m., Nicholl having let a tumbler escape from
+his hand, instead of falling, it remained suspended in the air.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "this is a little amusing chemistry!"
+
+And immediately different objects, weapons, bottles, &c, left to
+themselves, hung suspended as if by miracle. Diana, too, lifted up by
+Michel into space, reproduced, but without trickery, the marvellous
+suspensions effected by Robert-Houdin and Maskelyne and Cook.
+
+The three adventurous companions, surprised and stupefied in spite of
+their scientific reasoning, carried into the domain of the marvellous,
+felt weight go out of their bodies. When they stretched out their arms
+they felt no inclination to drop them. Their heads vacillated on their
+shoulders. Their feet no longer kept at the bottom of the projectile.
+They were like staggering drunkards. Imagination has created men
+deprived of their reflection, others deprived of their shadows! But here
+reality, by the neutrality of active forces, made men in whom nothing
+had any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves.
+
+Suddenly Michel, making a slight spring, left the floor and remained
+suspended in the air like the good monk in Murillo's _Cuisine des
+Anges_. His two friends joined him in an instant, and all three, in the
+centre of the projectile, figured a miraculous ascension.
+
+"Is it believable? Is it likely? Is it possible?" cried Michel. "No. And
+yet it exists! Ah! if Raphael could have seen us like this what an
+Assumption he could have put upon canvas!"
+
+"The Assumption cannot last," answered Barbicane. "If the projectile
+passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to the
+moon."
+
+"Then our feet will rest upon the roof of the projectile,' answered
+Michel.
+
+"No," said Barbicane, "because the centre of gravity in the projectile
+is very low, and it will turn over gradually."
+
+"Then all our things will be turned upside down for certain!"
+
+"Do not alarm yourself, Michel," answered Nicholl. "There is nothing of
+the kind to be feared. Not an object will move; the projectile will turn
+insensibly."
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when it has cleared the point of equal
+attraction, its bottom, relatively heavier, will drag it perpendicularly
+down to the moon. But in order that such a phenomenon should take place
+we must pass the neutral line."
+
+"Passing the neutral line!" cried Michel. "Then let us do like the
+sailors who pass the equator--let us water our passage!"
+
+A slight side movement took Michel to the padded wall. Thence he took a
+bottle and glasses, placed them "in space" before his companions, and
+merrily touching glasses, they saluted the line with a triple hurrah.
+
+This influence of the attractions lasted scarcely an hour. The
+travellers saw themselves insensibly lowered towards the bottom, and
+Barbicane thought he remarked that the conical end of the projectile
+deviated slightly from the normal direction towards the moon. By an
+inverse movement the bottom side approached it. Lunar attraction was
+therefore gaining over terrestrial attraction. The fall towards the moon
+began, insensibly as yet; it could only be that of a millimetre (0.03937
+inch), and a third in the first second. But the attractive force would
+gradually increase, the fall would be more accentuated, the projectile,
+dragged down by its bottom side, would present its cone to the earth,
+and would fall with increasing velocity until it reached the Selenite
+surface. Now nothing could prevent the success of the enterprise, and
+Nicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane's joy.
+
+Then they chatted about all the phenomena that had astounded them one
+after another, especially about the neutralisation of the laws of
+weight. Michel Ardan, always full of enthusiasm, wished to deduce
+consequences which were only pure imagination.
+
+"Ah! my worthy friends," he cried, "what progress we should make could
+we but get rid upon earth of this weight, this chain that rivets us to
+her! It would be the prisoner restored to liberty! There would be no
+more weariness either in arms or legs. And if it is true that, in order
+to fly upon the surface of the earth, to sustain yourself in the air by
+a simple action of the muscles, it would take a force 150 times superior
+to that we possess, a simple act of will, a caprice, would transport us
+into space, and attraction would not exist."
+
+"In fact," said Nicholl, laughing, "if they succeeded in suppressing
+gravitation, like pain is suppressed by anaesthesia, it would change the
+face of modern society!"
+
+"Yes," cried Michel, full of his subject, "let us destroy weight and
+have no more burdens! No more cranes, screw-jacks, windlasses, cranks,
+or other machines will be wanted."
+
+"Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight nothing
+would keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel;
+nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight! Not
+even ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence of
+weight. Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held in
+equilibrium by terrestrial attraction. Lastly, not even the atmosphere,
+the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperse
+into space!"
+
+"That is a pity," replied Michel. "There is nothing like positive people
+for recalling you brutally to reality!"
+
+"Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel," resumed Barbicane, "for if no
+star could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are at
+least going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth."
+
+"The moon?"
+
+"Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times less
+than upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy to
+demonstrate."
+
+"And shall we perceive it?" asked Michel. "Evidently, for 400 lbs. only
+weigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Will not our muscular strength be diminished?"
+
+"Not at all. Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six."
+
+"Then we shall be Hercules in the moon," cried Michel.
+
+"Yes," replied Nicholl, "and the more so because if the height of the
+Selenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will be
+hardly a foot high."
+
+"Liliputians!" replied Michel. "Then I am going to play the _rôle_ of
+Gulliver! We shall realise the fable of the giants! That is the
+advantage of leaving one's own planet to visit the solar world!"
+
+"But if you want to play Gulliver," answered Barbicane, "only visit the
+inferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is rather
+less than that of the earth. But do not venture into the big planets,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the _rôles_ would be
+inverted, and you would become Liliputian."
+
+"And in the sun?"
+
+"In the sun, though its density is four times less than that of the
+earth, its volume is thirteen hundred and twenty-four thousand times
+greater, and gravitation there is twenty-seven times greater than upon
+the surface of our globe. Every proportion kept, the inhabitants ought
+on an average to be two hundred feet high."
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Michel. "I should only be a pigmy!"
+
+"Gulliver amongst the giants," said Nicholl.
+
+"Just so," answered Barbicane.
+
+"It would not have been a bad thing to carry some pieces of artillery to
+defend oneself with."
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane; "your bullets would have no effect on the
+sun, and they would fall to the ground in a few minutes."
+
+"That's saying a great deal!"
+
+"It is a fact," answered Barbicane. "Gravitation is so great on that
+enormous planet that an object weighing 70 lbs. on the earth would weigh
+1,930 lbs. on the surface of the sun. Your hat would weigh 20 lbs.! your
+cigar 1/2 lb.! Lastly, if you fell on the solar continent your weight
+would be so great--about 5,000 lbs.--that you could not get up again."
+
+"The devil!" said Michel, "I should have to carry about a portable
+crane! Well, my friends, let us be content with the moon for to-day.
+There, at least, we shall cut a great figure! Later on we shall see if
+we will go to the sun, where you can't drink without a crane to lift the
+glass to your mouth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION.
+
+
+Barbicane had now no fear, if not about the issue of the journey, at
+least about the projectile's force of impulsion. Its own speed would
+carry it beyond the neutral line. Therefore it would not return to the
+earth nor remain motionless upon the point of attraction. One hypothesis
+only remained to be realised, the arrival of the bullet at its goal
+under the action of lunar attraction.
+
+In reality it was a fall of 8,296 leagues upon a planet, it is true,
+where the gravity is six times less than upon the earth. Nevertheless it
+would be a terrible fall, and one against which all precautions ought to
+be taken without delay.
+
+These precautions were of two sorts; some were for the purpose of
+deadening the shock at the moment the projectile would touch lunar
+ground; others were to retard the shock, and so make it less violent.
+
+In order to deaden the shock, it was a pity that Barbicane was no longer
+able to employ the means that had so usefully weakened the shock at
+departure--that is to say, the water used as a spring and the movable
+partitions. The partitions still existed, but water was wanting, for
+they could not use the reserve for this purpose--that would be precious
+in case the liquid element should fail on the lunar soil.
+
+Besides, this reserve would not have been sufficient for a spring. The
+layer of water stored in the projectile at their departure, and on which
+lay the waterproof disc, occupied no less than three feet in depth, and
+spread over a surface of not less than fifty-four feet square. Now the
+receptacles did not contain the fifth part of that. They were therefore
+obliged to give up this effectual means of deadening the shock.
+
+Fortunately Barbicane, not content with employing water, had furnished
+the movable disc with strong spring buffers, destined to lessen the
+shock against the bottom, after breaking the horizontal partitions.
+These buffers were still in existence; they had only to be fitted on and
+the movable disc put in its place. All these pieces, easy to handle, as
+they weighed scarcely anything, could be rapidly mounted.
+
+This was done. The different pieces were adjusted without difficulty. It
+was only a matter of bolts and screws. There were plenty of tools. The
+disc was soon fixed on its steel buffers like a table on its legs. One
+inconvenience resulted from this arrangement. The lower port-hole was
+covered, and it would be impossible for the travellers to observe the
+moon through that opening whilst they were being precipitated
+perpendicularly upon her. But they were obliged to give it up. Besides,
+through the lateral openings they could still perceive the vast lunar
+regions, like the earth is seen from the car of a balloon.
+
+This placing of the disc took an hour's work. It was more than noon when
+the preparations were completed. Barbicane made fresh observations on
+the inclination of the projectile, but to his great vexation it had not
+turned sufficiently for a fall; it appeared to be describing a curve
+parallel with the lunar disc. The Queen of Night was shining splendidly
+in space, whilst opposite the orb of day was setting her on fire with
+his rays.
+
+This situation soon became an anxious one.
+
+"Shall we get there?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We must act as though we should," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You are faint-hearted fellows," replied Michel Ardan. "We shall get
+there, and quicker than we want."
+
+This answer recalled Barbicane to his preparations, and he occupied
+himself with placing the contrivances destined to retard the fall.
+
+It will be remembered that, at the meeting held in Tampa Town, Florida,
+Captain Nicholl appeared as Barbicane's enemy, and Michel Ardan's
+adversary. When Captain Nicholl said that the projectile would be broken
+like glass, Michel answered that he would retard the fall by means of
+fusees properly arranged.
+
+In fact, powerful fusees, resting upon the bottom, and being fired
+outside, might, by producing a recoil action, lessen the speed of the
+bullet. These fusees were to burn in the void it is true, but oxygen
+would not fail them, for they would furnish that themselves like the
+lunar volcanoes, the deflagration of which has never been prevented by
+the want of atmosphere around the moon.
+
+Barbicane had therefore provided himself with fireworks shut up in
+little cannons of bored steel, which could be screwed on to the bottom
+of the projectile. Inside these cannons were level with the bottom;
+outside they went half a foot beyond it. There were twenty of them. An
+opening in the disc allowed them to light the match with which each was
+provided. All the effect took place outside. The exploding mixture had
+been already rammed into each gun. All they had to do, therefore, was to
+take up the metallic buffers fixed in the base, and to put these cannons
+in their place, where they fitted exactly.
+
+This fresh work was ended about 3 p.m., and all precaution taken they
+had now nothing to do but to wait.
+
+In the meantime the projectile visibly drew nearer the moon. It was,
+therefore, submitted in some proportion to its influence; but its own
+velocity also inclined it in an oblique line. Perhaps the result of
+these two influences would be a line that would become a tangent. But it
+was certain that the projectile was not falling normally upon the
+surface of the moon, for its base, by reason of its weight, ought to
+have been turned towards her.
+
+Barbicane's anxiety was increased on seeing that his bullet resisted the
+influence of gravitation. It was the unknown that was before him--the
+unknown of the interstellar regions. He, the _savant_, believed that he
+had foreseen the only three hypotheses that were possible--the return to
+the earth, the fall upon the moon, or stagnation upon the neutral line!
+And here a fourth hypothesis, full of all the terrors of the infinite,
+cropped up inopportunely. To face it without flinching took a resolute
+_savant_ like Barbicane, a phlegmatic being like Nicholl, or an
+audacious adventurer like Michel Ardan.
+
+Conversation was started on this subject. Other men would have
+considered the question from a practical point of view. They would have
+wondered where the projectile would take them to. Not they, however.
+They sought the cause that had produced this effect.
+
+"So we are off the line," said Michel. "But how is that?"
+
+"I am very much afraid," answered Nicholl, "that notwithstanding all the
+precautions that were taken, the Columbiad was not aimed correctly. The
+slightest error would suffice to throw us outside the pale of lunar
+attraction."
+
+"Then the cannon was pointed badly?" said Michel.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "The cannon was rigorously
+perpendicular, and its direction towards the zenith of the place was
+incontestable. The moon passing the zenith, we ought to have reached her
+at the full. There is another reason, but it escapes me."
+
+"Perhaps we have arrived too late," suggested Nicholl.
+
+"Too late?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Nicholl. "The notice from the Cambridge Observatory said
+that the transit ought to be accomplished in ninety-seven hours thirteen
+minutes and twenty seconds. That means that before that time the moon
+would not have reached the point indicated, and after she would have
+passed it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Barbicane. "But we started on the 1st of December at
+11h. 13m. 25s. p.m., and we ought to arrive at midnight on the 5th,
+precisely as the moon is full. Now this is the 5th of December. It is
+half-past three, and eight hours and a half ought to be sufficient to
+take us to our goal. Why are we not going towards it?"
+
+"Perhaps the velocity was greater than it ought to have been," answered
+Nicholl, "for we know now that the initial velocity was greater than it
+was supposed to be."
+
+"No! a hundred times no!" replied Barbicane. "An excess of velocity,
+supposing the direction of the projectile to have been correct, would
+not have prevented us reaching the moon. No! There has been a deviation.
+We have deviated!"
+
+"Through whom? through what?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, Barbicane," then said Michel, "should you like to know what I
+think about why we have deviated?"
+
+"Say what you think."
+
+"I would not give half a dollar to know! We have deviated, that is a
+fact. It does not matter much where we are going. We shall soon find
+out. As we are being carried along into space we shall end by falling
+into some centre of attraction or another."
+
+Barbicane could not be contented with this indifference of Michel
+Ardan's. Not that he was anxious about the future. But what he wanted to
+know, at any price, was why his projectile had deviated.
+
+In the meantime the projectile kept on its course sideways to the moon,
+and the objects thrown out along with it. Barbicane could even prove by
+the landmarks upon the moon, which was only at 2,000 leagues' distance,
+that its speed was becoming uniform--a fresh proof that they were not
+falling. Its force of impulsion was prevailing over the lunar
+attraction, but the trajectory of the projectile was certainly taking
+them nearer the lunar disc, and it might be hoped that at a nearer point
+the weight would predominate and provoke a fall.
+
+The three friends, having nothing better to do, went on with their
+observations. They could not, however, yet determine the topography of
+the satellite. Every relief was levelled under the action of the solar
+rays.
+
+They watched thus through the lateral windows until 8 p.m. The moon then
+looked so large that she hid half the firmament from them. The sun on
+one side, and the Queen of Night on the other, inundated the projectile
+with light.
+
+At that moment Barbicane thought he could estimate at 700 leagues only
+the distance that separated them from their goal. The velocity of the
+projectile appeared to him to be 200 yards a second, or about 170
+leagues an hour. The base of the bullet had a tendency to turn towards
+the moon under the influence of the centripetal force; but the
+centrifugal force still predominated, and it became probable that the
+rectilinear trajectory would change to some curve the nature of which
+could not be determined.
+
+Barbicane still sought the solution of his insoluble problem. The hours
+went by without result. The projectile visibly drew nearer to the moon,
+but it was plain that it would not reach her. The short distance at
+which it would pass her would be the result of two forces, attractive
+and repulsive, which acted upon the projectile.
+
+"I only pray for one thing," repeated Michel, "and that is to pass near
+enough to the moon to penetrate her secrets."
+
+"Confound the cause that made our projectile deviate!" cried Nicholl.
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, as if he had been suddenly struck with an idea,
+"confound that asteroid that crossed our path!"
+
+"Eh?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"I mean," resumed Barbicane, who appeared convinced, "I mean that our
+deviation is solely due to the influence of that wandering body."
+
+"But it did not even graze us," continued Michel.
+
+"What does that matter? Its bulk, compared with that of our projectile,
+was enormous, and its attraction was sufficient to have an influence
+upon our direction."
+
+"That influence must have been very slight," said Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, but slight as it was," answered Barbicane, "upon a
+distance of 84,000 leagues it was enough to make us miss the moon!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON.
+
+
+Barbicane had evidently found the only plausible reason for the
+deviation. However slight it had been, it had been sufficient to modify
+the trajectory of the projectile. It was a fatality. The audacious
+attempt had miscarried by a fortuitous circumstance, and unless anything
+unexpected happened, the lunar disc could no longer be reached. Would
+they pass it near enough to resolve certain problems in physics and
+geology until then unsolved? This was the only question that occupied
+the minds of these bold travellers. As to the fate the future held in
+store for them, they would not even think about it. Yet what was to
+become of them amidst these infinite solitudes when air failed them? A
+few more days and they would fall suffocated in this bullet wandering at
+hazard. But a few days were centuries to these intrepid men, and they
+consecrated every moment to observing the moon they no longer hoped to
+reach.
+
+The distance which then separated the projectile from the satellite was
+estimated at about 200 leagues. Under these conditions, as far as
+regards the visibility of the details of the disc, the travellers were
+farther from the moon than are the inhabitants of the earth with their
+powerful telescopes.
+
+It is, in fact, known that the instrument set up by Lord Rosse at
+Parsonstown, which magnifies 6,500 times, brings the moon to within
+sixteen leagues; and the powerful telescope set up at Long's Peak
+magnifies 48,000 times, and brings the moon to within less than two
+leagues, so that objects twelve yards in diameter were sufficiently
+distinct.
+
+Thus, then, at that distance the topographical details of the moon, seen
+without a telescope, were not distinctly determined. The eye caught the
+outline of those vast depressions inappropriately called "seas," but
+they could not determine their nature. The prominence of the mountains
+disappeared under the splendid irradiation produced by the reflection of
+the solar rays. The eye, dazzled as if leaning over a furnace of molten
+silver, turned from it involuntarily.
+
+However, the oblong form of the orb was already clearly seen.
+
+It appeared like a gigantic egg, with the small end turned towards the
+earth. The moon, liquid and pliable in the first days of her formation,
+was originally a perfect sphere. But soon, drawn within the pale of the
+earth's gravitation, she became elongated under its influence. By
+becoming a satellite she lost her native purity of form; her centre of
+gravity was in advance of the centre of her figure, and from this fact
+some _savants_ draw the conclusion that air and water might have taken
+refuge on the opposite side of the moon, which is never seen from the
+earth.
+
+This alteration in the primitive forms of the satellite was only visible
+for a few moments. The distance between the projectile and the moon
+diminished visibly; its velocity was considerably less than its initial
+velocity, but eight or nine times greater than that of our express
+trains. The oblique direction of the bullet, from its very obliquity,
+left Michel Ardan some hope of touching the lunar disc at some point or
+other. He could not believe that he should not get to it. No, he could
+not believe it, and this he often repeated. But Barbicane, who was a
+better judge, always answered him with pitiless logic.
+
+"No, Michel, no. We can only reach the moon by a fall, and we are not
+falling. The centripetal force keeps us under the moon's influence, but
+the centrifugal force sends us irresistibly away from it."
+
+This was said in a tone that deprived Michel Ardan of his last hopes.
+
+The portion of the moon the projectile was approaching was the northern
+hemisphere. The selenographic maps make it the lower one, because they
+are generally drawn up according to the image given by the telescopes,
+and we know that they reverse the objects. Such was the _Mappa
+Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler which Barbicane consulted. This
+northern hemisphere presented vast plains, relieved by isolated
+mountains.
+
+At midnight the moon was full. At that precise moment the travellers
+ought to have set foot upon her if the unlucky asteroid had not made
+them deviate from their direction. The orb was exactly in the condition
+rigorously determined by the Cambridge Observatory. She was
+mathematically at her perigee, and at the zenith of the twenty-eighth
+parallel. An observer placed at the bottom of the enormous Columbiad
+while it is pointed perpendicularly at the horizon would have framed the
+moon in the mouth of the cannon. A straight line drawn through the axis
+of the piece would have passed through the centre of the moon.
+
+It need hardly be stated that during the night between the 5th and 6th
+of December the travellers did not take a minute's rest. Could they have
+closed their eyes so near to a new world? No. All their feelings were
+concentrated in one thought--to see! Representatives of the earth, of
+humanity past and present, all concentrated in themselves, it was
+through their eyes that the human race looked at these lunar regions and
+penetrated the secrets of its satellite! A strange emotion filled their
+hearts, and they went silently from one window to another.
+
+Their observations were noted down by Barbicane, and were made
+rigorously exact. To make them they had telescopes. To control them they
+had maps.
+
+The first observer of the moon was Galileo. His poor telescope only
+magnified thirty times. Nevertheless, in the spots that pitted the lunar
+disc "like eyes in a peacock's tail," he was the first to recognise
+mountains, and measure some heights to which he attributed,
+exaggerating, an elevation equal to the 20th of the diameter of the
+disc, or 8,000 metres. Galileo drew up no map of his observations.
+
+A few years later an astronomer of Dantzig, Hevelius--by operations
+which were only exact twice a month, at the first and second
+quadrature--reduced Galileo's heights to one-twenty-sixth only of the
+lunar diameter. This was an exaggeration the other way. But it is to
+this _savant_ that the first map of the moon is due. The light round
+spots there form circular mountains, and the dark spots indicate vast
+seas which, in reality, are plains. To these mountains and extents of
+sea he gave terrestrial denominations. There is a Sinai in the middle of
+an Arabia, Etna in the centre of Sicily, the Alps, Apennines,
+Carpathians, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Caspian, &c.--names
+badly applied, for neither mountains nor seas recalled the configuration
+of their namesakes on the globe. That large white spot, joined on the
+south to vaster continents and terminated in a point, could hardly be
+recognised as the inverted image of the Indian Peninsula, the Bay of
+Bengal, and Cochin-China. So these names were not kept. Another
+chartographer, knowing human nature better, proposed a fresh
+nomenclature, which human vanity made haste to adopt.
+
+This observer was Father Riccioli, a contemporary of Hevelius. He drew
+up a rough map full of errors. But he gave to the lunar mountains the
+names of great men of antiquity and _savants_ of his own epoch.
+
+A third map of the moon was executed in the seventeenth century by
+Dominique Cassini; superior to that of Riccioli in the execution, it is
+inexact in the measurements. Several smaller copies were published, but
+the plate long kept in the _Imprimerie Nationale_ was sold by weight as
+old brass.
+
+La Hire, a celebrated mathematician and designer, drew up a map of the
+moon four and a half yards high, which was never engraved.
+
+After him, a German astronomer, Tobie Marger, about the middle of the
+eighteenth century, began the publication of a magnificent selenographic
+map, according to lunar measures, which he rigorously verified; but his
+death, which took place in 1762, prevented the termination of this
+beautiful work.
+
+It was in 1830 that Messrs. Boeer and Moedler composed their celebrated
+_Mappa Selenographica_, according to an orthographical projection. This
+map reproduces the exact lunar disc, such as it appears, only the
+configurations of the mountains and plains are only correct in the
+central part; everywhere else--in the northern or southern portions,
+eastern or western--the configurations foreshortened cannot be compared
+with those of the centre. This topographical map, one yard high and
+divided into four parts, is a masterpiece of lunar chartography.
+
+After these _savants_ may be cited the selenographic reliefs of the
+German astronomer Julius Schmidt, the topographical works of Father
+Secchi, the magnificent sheets of the English amateur, Waren de la Rue,
+and lastly a map on orthographical projection of Messrs. Lecouturier and
+Chapuis, a fine model set up in 1860, of very correct design and clear
+outlines.
+
+Such is the nomenclature of the different maps relating to the lunar
+world. Barbicane possessed two, that of Messrs. Boeer and Moedler and
+that of Messrs. Chapuis and Lecouturier. They were to make his work of
+observer easier.
+
+They had excellent marine glasses specially constructed for this
+journey. They magnified objects a hundred times; they would therefore
+have reduced the distance between the earth and the moon to less than
+1,000 leagues. But then at a distance which towards 3 a.m. did not
+exceed a hundred miles, and in a medium which no atmosphere obstructed,
+these instruments brought the lunar level to less than fifteen hundred
+metres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+IMAGINATION AND REALITY.
+
+
+"Have you ever seen the moon?" a professor asked one of his pupils
+ironically.
+
+"No, sir," answered the pupil more ironically still, "but I have heard
+it spoken of."
+
+In one sense the jocose answer of the pupil might have been made by the
+immense majority of sublunary beings. How many people there are who have
+heard the moon spoken of and have never seen it--at least through a
+telescope! How many even have never examined the map of their satellite!
+
+Looking at a comprehensive selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us
+at once. In contrast to the geographical arrangements of the earth and
+Mars, the continents occupy the more southern hemisphere of the lunar
+globe. These continents have not such clear and regular boundary-lines
+as those of South America, Africa, and the Indian Peninsula. Their
+angular, capricious, and deeply-indented coasts are rich in gulfs and
+peninsulas. They recall the confusion in the islands of the Sound, where
+the earth is excessively cut up. If navigation has ever existed upon the
+surface of the moon it must have been exceedingly difficult and
+dangerous, and the Selenite mariners and hydrographers were greatly to
+be pitied, the former when they came upon these perilous coasts, the
+latter when they were marine surveying on the stormy banks.
+
+It may also be noticed that upon the lunar spheroid the South Pole is
+much more continental than the North Pole. On the latter there is only a
+slight strip of land capping it, separated from the other continents by
+vast seas. (When the word "seas" is used the vast plains probably
+covered by the sea formerly must be understood.) On the south the land
+covers nearly the whole hemisphere. It is, therefore, possible that the
+Selenites have already planted their flag on one of their poles, whilst
+Franklin, Ross, Kane, Dumont d'Urville, and Lambert have been unable to
+reach this unknown point on the terrestrial globe.
+
+Islands are numerous on the surface of the moon. They are almost all
+oblong or circular, as though traced with a compass, and seem to form a
+vast archipelago, like that charming group lying between Greece and Asia
+Minor which mythology formerly animated with its most graceful legends.
+Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, Milo, and Carpathos come into
+the mind, and you seek the ship of Ulysses or the "clipper" of the
+Argonauts. That was what it appeared to Michel Ardan; it was a Grecian
+Archipelago that he saw on the map. In the eyes of his less imaginative
+companions the aspect of these shores recalled rather the cut-up lands
+of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and where the Frenchman looked for
+traces of the heroes of fable, these Americans were noting favourable
+points for the establishment of mercantile houses in the interest of
+lunar commerce and industry.
+
+Some remarks on the orographical disposition of the moon must conclude
+the description of its continents, chains of mountains, isolated
+mountains, amphitheatres, and watercourses. The moon is like an immense
+Switzerland--a continual Norway, where Plutonic influence has done
+everything. This surface, so profoundly rugged, is the result of the
+successive contractions of the crust while the orb was being formed. The
+lunar disc is propitious for the study of great geological phenomena.
+According to the remarks of some astronomers, its surface, although more
+ancient than the surface of the earth, has remained newer. There there
+is no water to deteriorate the primitive relief, the continuous action
+of which produces a sort of general levelling. No air, the decomposing
+influence of which modifies orographical profiles. There Pluto's work,
+unaltered by Neptune's, is in all its native purity. It is the earth as
+she was before tides and currents covered her with layers of soil.
+
+After having wandered over these vast continents the eye is attracted by
+still vaster seas. Not only does their formation, situation, and aspect
+recall the terrestrial oceans, but, as upon earth, these seas occupy the
+largest part of the globe. And yet these are not liquid tracts, but
+plains, the nature of which the travellers hoped soon to determine.
+
+Astronomers, it must be owned, have decorated these pretended seas with
+at least odd names which science has respected at present. Michel Ardan
+was right when he compared this map to a "map of tenderness," drawn up
+by Scudery or Cyrano de Bergerac.
+
+"Only," added he, "it is no longer the map of sentiment like that of the
+18th century; it is the map of life, clearly divided into two parts, the
+one feminine, the other masculine. To the women, the right hemisphere;
+to the men, the left!"
+
+When he spoke thus Michel made his prosaic companions shrug their
+shoulders. Barbicane and Nicholl looked at the lunar map from another
+point of view to that of their imaginative friend. However, their
+imaginative friend had some reason on his side. Judge if he had not.
+
+In the left hemisphere stretches the "Sea of Clouds," where human reason
+is so often drowned. Not far off appears the "Sea of Rains," fed by all
+the worries of existence. Near lies the "Sea of Tempests," where man
+struggles incessantly against his too-often victorious passions. Then,
+exhausted by deceptions, treasons, infidelities, and all the procession
+of terrestrial miseries, what does he find at the end of his career? The
+vast "Sea of Humours," scarcely softened by some drops from the waters
+of the "Gulf of Dew!" Clouds, rain, tempests, humours, does the life of
+man contain aught but these? and is it not summed up in these four
+words?
+
+The right-hand hemisphere dedicated to "the women" contains smaller
+seas, the significant names of which agree with every incident of
+feminine existence. There is the "Sea of Serenity," over which bends the
+young maiden, and the "Lake of Dreams," which reflects her back a happy
+future. The "Sea of Nectar," with its waves of tenderness and breezes of
+love! The "Sea of Fecundity," the "Sea of Crises," and the "Sea of
+Vapours," the dimensions of which are, perhaps, too restricted, and
+lastly, that vast "Sea of Tranquillity" where all false passions, all
+useless dreams, all unassuaged desires are absorbed, and the waves of
+which flow peacefully into the "Lake of Death!"
+
+What a strange succession of names! What a singular division of these
+two hemispheres of the moon, united to one another like man and woman,
+and forming a sphere of life, carried through space. And was not the
+imaginative Michel right in thus interpreting the fancies of the old
+astronomers?
+
+But whilst his imagination thus ran riot on the "seas," his grave
+companions were looking at things more geographically. They were
+learning this new world by heart. They were measuring its angles and
+diameters.
+
+To Barbicane and Nicholl the "Sea of Clouds" was an immense depression
+of ground, with circular mountains scattered about on it; covering a
+great part of the western side of the southern hemisphere, it covered
+184,800 square leagues, and its centre was in south latitude 15°, and
+west longitude 20°. The Ocean of Tempests, _Oceanus Procellarum_, the
+largest plain on the lunar disc, covered a surface of 328,300 square
+leagues, its centre being in north latitude 10°, and east longitude 45°.
+From its bosom emerge the admirable shining mountains of Kepler and
+Aristarchus.
+
+More to the north, and separated from the Sea of Clouds by high chains
+of mountains, extends the Sea of Rains, _Mare Imbrium_, having its
+central point in north latitude 35° and east longitude 20°; it is of a
+nearly circular form, and covers a space of 193,000 leagues. Not far
+distant the Sea of Humours, _Mare Humorum_, a little basin of 44,200
+square leagues only, was situated in south latitude 25°, and east
+longitude 40°. Lastly, three gulfs lie on the coast of this
+hemisphere--the Torrid Gulf, the Gulf of Dew, and the Gulf of Iris,
+little plains inclosed by high chains of mountains.
+
+The "Feminine" hemisphere, naturally more capricious, was distinguished
+by smaller and more numerous seas. These were, towards the north, the
+_Mare Frigoris_, in north latitude 55° and longitude 0°, with 76,000
+square leagues of surface, which joined the Lake of Death and Lake of
+Dreams; the Sea of Serenity, _Mare Serenitatis_, by north latitude 25°
+and west longitude 20°, comprising a surface of 80,000 square leagues;
+the Sea of Crises, _Mare Crisium_, round and very compact, in north
+latitude 17° and west longitude 55°, a surface of 40,000 square leagues,
+a veritable Caspian buried in a girdle of mountains. Then on the
+equator, in north latitude 5° and west longitude 25°, appeared the Sea
+of Tranquillity, _Mare Tranquillitatis_, occupying 121,509 square
+leagues of surface; this sea communicated on the south with the Sea of
+Nectar, _Mare Nectaris_, an extent of 28,800 square leagues, in south
+latitude 15° and west longitude 35°, and on the east with the Sea of
+Fecundity, _Mare Fecunditatis_, the vastest in this hemisphere,
+occupying 219,300 square leagues, in south latitude 3° and west
+longitude 50°. Lastly, quite to the north and quite to the south lie two
+more seas, the Sea of Humboldt, _Mare Humboldtianum_, with a surface of
+6,500 square leagues, and the Southern Sea, _Mare Australe_, with a
+surface of 26,000.
+
+In the centre of the lunar disc, across the equator and on the zero
+meridian, lies the centre gulf, _Sinus Medii_, a sort of hyphen between
+the two hemispheres.
+
+Thus appeared to the eyes of Nicholl and Barbicane the surface always
+visible of the earth's satellite. When they added up these different
+figures they found that the surface of this hemisphere measured
+4,738,160 square leagues, 3,317,600 of which go for volcanoes, chains of
+mountains, amphitheatres, islands--in a word, all that seems to form the
+solid portion of the globe--and 1,410,400 leagues for the seas, lake,
+marshes, and all that seems to form the liquid portion, all of which was
+perfectly indifferent to the worthy Michel.
+
+It will be noticed that this hemisphere is thirteen and a-half times
+smaller than the terrestrial hemisphere. And yet upon it selenographers
+have already counted 50,000 craters. It is a rugged surface worthy of
+the unpoetical qualification of "green cheese" which the English have
+given it.
+
+When Barbicane pronounced this disobliging name Michel Ardan gave a
+bound.
+
+"That is how the Anglo-Saxons of the 19th century treat the beautiful
+Diana, the blonde Phoebe, the amiable Isis, the charming Astarte, the
+Queen of Night, the daughter of Latona and Jupiter, the younger sister
+of the radiant Apollo!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It has already been pointed out that the direction followed by the
+projectile was taking us towards the northern hemisphere of the moon.
+The travellers were far from that central point which they ought to have
+touched if their trajectory had not suffered an irremediable deviation.
+
+It was half-past twelve at night. Barbicane then estimated his distance
+at 1,400 kilometres, a distance rather greater than the length of the
+lunar radius, and which must diminish as he drew nearer the North Pole.
+The projectile was then not at the altitude of the equator, but on the
+tenth parallel, and from that latitude carefully observed on the map as
+far as the Pole, Barbicane and his two companions were able to watch the
+moon under the most favourable circumstances.
+
+In fact, by using telescopes, this distance of 1,400 kilometres was
+reduced to fourteen miles, or four and a-half leagues. The telescope of
+the Rocky Mountains brought the moon still nearer, but the terrestrial
+atmosphere singularly lessened its optical power. Thus Barbicane, in his
+projectile, by looking through his glass, could already perceive certain
+details almost imperceptible to observers on the earth.
+
+"My friends," then said the president in a grave voice, "I do not know
+where we are going, nor whether we shall ever see the terrestrial globe
+again. Nevertheless, let us do our work as if one day it would be of use
+to our fellow-creatures. Let us keep our minds free from all
+preoccupation. We are astronomers. This bullet is the Cambridge
+Observatory transported into space. Let us make our observations."
+
+That said, the work was begun with extreme precision, and it faithfully
+reproduced the different aspects of the moon at the variable distances
+which the projectile reached in relation to that orb.
+
+Whilst the bullet was at the altitude of the 10th north parallel it
+seemed to follow the 20th degree of east longitude.
+
+Here may be placed an important remark on the subject of the map which
+they used for their observations. In the selenographic maps, where, on
+account of the reversal of objects by the telescope, the south is at the
+top and the north at the bottom, it seems natural that the east should
+be on the left and the west on the right. However, it is not so. If the
+map were turned upside down, and showed the moon as she appears, the
+east would be left and the west right, the inverse of the terrestrial
+maps. The reason of this anomaly is the following:--Observers situated
+in the northern hemisphere--in Europe, for example--perceive the moon in
+the south from them. When they look at her they turn their backs to the
+north, the opposite position they take when looking at a terrestrial
+map. Their backs being turned to the north, they have the east to the
+left and the west to the right. For observers in the southern
+hemisphere--in Patagonia, for example--the west of the moon would be on
+their left and the east on their right, for the south would be behind
+them.
+
+Such is the reason for the apparent reversal of these two cardinal
+points, and this must be remembered whilst following the observations of
+President Barbicane.
+
+Helped by the _Mappa Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler, the
+travellers could, without hesitating, survey that portion of the disc in
+the field of their telescopes.
+
+"What are we looking at now?" asked Michel.
+
+"At the northern portion of the Sea of Clouds," answered Barbicane. "We
+are too far off to make out its nature. Are those plains composed of
+dry sand, as the first astronomers believed? Or are they only immense
+forests, according to the opinion of Mr. Waren de la Rue, who grants a
+very low but very dense atmosphere to the moon? We shall find that out
+later on. We will affirm nothing till we are quite certain."
+
+"This Sea of Clouds is rather doubtfully traced upon the maps. It is
+supposed that this vast plain is strewn with blocks of lava vomited by
+the neighbouring volcanoes on its right side, Ptolemy, Purbach, and
+Arzachel. The projectile was drawing sensibly nearer, and the summits
+which close in this sea on the north were distinctly visible. In front
+rose a mountain shining gloriously, the top of which seemed drowned in
+the solar rays."
+
+"That mountain is--?" asked Michel.
+
+"Copernicus," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Let us have a look at Copernicus," said Michel.
+
+This mountain, situated in north latitude 9°, and east longitude 20°,
+rises to a height of nearly 11,000 feet above the surface of the moon.
+It is quite visible from the earth, and astronomers can study it with
+ease, especially during the phase between the last quarter and the new
+moon, because then shadows are thrown lengthways from east to west, and
+allow the altitudes to be taken.
+
+Copernicus forms the most important radiating system in the southern
+hemisphere, according to Tycho Brahe. It rises isolated like a gigantic
+lighthouse over that of the Sea of Clouds bordering on the Sea of
+Tempests, and it lights two oceans at once with its splendid rays. Those
+long luminous trails, so dazzling at full moon, made a spectacle without
+an equal; they pass the boundary chains on the north, and stretch as far
+as the Sea of Rains. At 1 a.m., terrestrial time, the projectile, like a
+balloon carried into space, hung over this superb mountain.
+
+Barbicane could perfectly distinguish its chief features. Copernicus is
+comprehended in the series of annular mountains of the first order in
+the division of the large amphitheatres. Like the mountains of Kepler
+and Aristarchus, which overlook the Ocean of Tempests, it appears
+sometimes like a brilliant point through the pale light, and used to be
+taken for a volcano in activity. But it is only an extinct volcano, like
+those on that side of the moon. Its circumference presented a diameter
+of about twenty-two leagues. The glasses showed traces of
+stratifications in it produced by successive eruptions, and its
+neighbourhood appeared strewn with volcanic remains, which were still
+seen in the crater.
+
+"There exist," said Barbicane, "several sorts of amphitheatres an the
+surface of the moon, and it is easy to see that Copernicus belongs to
+the radiating class. If we were nearer it we should perceive the cones
+which bristle in the interior, and which were formerly so many fiery
+mouths. A curious arrangement, and one without exception on the lunar
+disc, is presented on the interior surface of these amphitheatres, being
+notably downward from the exterior plane, a contrary form to that which
+terrestrial craters present. It follows, therefore, that the general
+curvature at the bottom of these amphitheatres gives us fear of an
+inferior diameter to that of the moon."
+
+"What is the reason of this special arrangement?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is not known," answered Barbicane.
+
+"How splendidly it shines!" said Michel. "I think it would be difficult
+to see a more beautiful spectacle!"
+
+"What should you say, then," answered Barbicane, "if the chances of our
+journey should take us towards the southern hemisphere?"
+
+"Well, I should say it is finer still," replied Michel Ardan.
+
+At that moment the projectile hung right over the amphitheatre. The
+circumference of Copernicus formed an almost perfect circle, and its
+steep ramparts were clearly defined. A second circular inclosure could
+even be distinguished. A grey plain of wild aspect spread around on
+which every relief appeared yellow. At the bottom of the amphitheatre,
+as if in a jewel-case, sparkled for one instant two or three eruptive
+cones like enormous dazzling gems. Towards the north the sides of the
+crater were lowered into a depression which would probably have given
+access to the interior of the crater.
+
+As they passed above the surrounding plain Barbicane was able to note a
+large number of mountains of slight importance, amongst others a little
+circular mountain called "Gay-Lussac," more than twenty-three kilometres
+wide. Towards the south the plain was very flat, without one elevation
+or projection of the soil. Towards the north, on the contrary, as far as
+the place where it borders on the Ocean of Tempests, it was like a
+liquid surface agitated by a storm, of which the hills and hollows
+formed a succession of waves suddenly coagulated. Over the whole of
+this, and in all directions, ran the luminous trails which converged to
+the summit of Copernicus. Some had a width of thirty kilometres over a
+length that could not be estimated.
+
+The travellers discussed the origin of these strange rays, but they
+could not determine their nature any better than terrestrial observers.
+
+"Why," said Nicholl, "may not these rays be simply the spurs of the
+mountains reflecting the light of the sun more vividly?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "if it were so in certain conditions of the
+moon they would throw shadows, which they do not."
+
+In fact, these rays only appear when the sun is in opposition with the
+moon, and they disappear as soon as its rays become oblique.
+
+"But what explanation of these trails of light have been imagined?"
+asked Michel, "for I cannot believe that _savants_ would ever stop short
+for want of explanation."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "Herschel has uttered an opinion, but he does
+not affirm it."
+
+"Never mind; what is his opinion?"
+
+"He thought that these rays must be streams of cold lava which shone
+when the sun struck them normally."
+
+"That may be true, but nothing is less certain. However, if we pass
+nearer to Tycho we shall be in a better position to find out the cause
+of this radiation."
+
+"What do you think that plain is like, seen from the height we are at?"
+asked Michel.
+
+"I don't know," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, with all these pieces of lava, sharpened like spindles, it looks
+like 'an immense game of spilikins,' thrown down pell-mell. We only want
+a hook to draw them up."
+
+"Be serious for once in your life," said Barbicane.
+
+"I will be serious," replied Michel tranquilly, "and instead of
+spilikins let us say they are bones. This plain would then be only an
+immense cemetery upon which would repose the immortal remains of a
+thousand distinct generations. Do you like that comparison better?"
+
+"One is as good as the other," answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil! You are difficult to please," replied Michel.
+
+"My worthy friend," resumed the prosaic Barbicane, "it does not matter
+what it looks like when we don't know what it is."
+
+"A good answer," exclaimed Michel; "that will teach me to argue with
+_savants_."
+
+In the meantime the projectile went with almost uniform speed round the
+lunar disc. It may be easily imagined that the travellers did not dream
+of taking a minute's rest. A fresh landscape lay before their eyes every
+instant. About half-past one in the morning they caught a glimpse of the
+summit of another mountain. Barbicane consulted his map, and recognised
+Eratosthenes.
+
+It was a circular mountain 4,500 metres high, one of those amphitheatres
+so numerous upon the satellite. Barbicane informed his friends of
+Kepler's singular opinion upon the formation of these circles.
+According to the celebrated mathematician, these crateriform cavities
+had been dug out by the hand of man.
+
+"What for?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"In order to preserve themselves from the ardour of the solar rays,
+which strike the moon during fifteen consecutive days."
+
+"The Selenites were not fools!" said Michel.
+
+"It was a singular idea!" answered Nicholl. "But it is probable that
+Kepler did not know the real dimensions of these circles, for digging
+them would have been giants' labour, impracticable for Selenites."
+
+"Why so, if the weight on the surface of the moon is six times less than
+upon the surface of the earth?" said Michel.
+
+"But if the Selenites are six times smaller?" replied Nicholl.
+
+"And if there are no Selenites?" added Barbicane, which terminated the
+discussion.
+
+Eratosthenes soon disappeared from the horizon without the projectile
+having been sufficiently near it to allow a rigorous observation. This
+mountain separated the Apennines from the Carpathians.
+
+In lunar orography, several chains of mountains have been distinguished
+which are principally distributed over the northern hemisphere. Some,
+however, occupy certain portions of the southern hemisphere.
+
+The following is a list of these different chains, with their latitudes
+and the height of their highest summits:--
+
+                        deg.   deg.       metres.
+    Mounts Doerfel       84 to  0 S. lat.  7,603
+      "    Leibnitz      65 "   0   "      7,600
+      "    Rook          20 "  30   "      1,600
+      "    Altai         17 "  28   "      4,047
+      "    Cordilleras   10 "  20   "      3,898
+      "    Pyrenees       8 "  18   "      3,631
+      "    Oural          5 "  13   "        838
+      "    Alembert       4 "  10   "      5,847
+      "    Hoemus         8 "  21 N. lat.  2,021
+      "    Carpathians   15 "  19   "      1,939
+      "    Apennines     14 "  27   "      5,501
+      "    Taurus        21 "  28   "      2,746
+      "    Riphees       25 "  33   "      4,171
+      "    Hercynians    17 "  29   "      1,170
+      "    Caucasia      32 "  41   "      5,567
+      "    Alps          42 "  49   "      3,617
+
+The most important of these different chains is that of the Apennines,
+the development of which extends 150 leagues, and is yet inferior to
+that of the great orographical movements of the earth. The Apennines run
+along the eastern border of the Sea of Rains, and are continued on the
+north by the Carpathians, the profile of which measures about 100
+leagues.
+
+The travellers could only catch a glimpse of the summit of these
+Apennines which lie between west long. 10° and east long. 16°; but the
+chain of the Carpathians was visible from 18° to 30° east long., and
+they could see how they were distributed.
+
+One hypothesis seemed to them very justifiable. Seeing that this chain
+of the Carpathians was here and there circular in form and with high
+peaks, they concluded that it anciently formed important amphitheatres.
+These mountainous circles must have been broken up by the vast cataclysm
+to which the Sea of Rains was due. These Carpathians looked then what
+the amphitheatres of Purbach, Arzachel, and Ptolemy would if some
+cataclysm were to throw down their left ramparts and transform them into
+continuous chains. They present an average height of 3,200 metres, a
+height comparable to certain of the Pyrenees. Their southern slopes fall
+straight into the immense Sea of Rains.
+
+About 2 a.m. Barbicane was at the altitude of the 20th lunar parallel,
+not far from that little mountain, 1,559 metres high, which bears the
+name of Pythias. The distance from the projectile to the moon was only
+1,200 kilometres, brought by means of telescopes to two and a half
+leagues.
+
+The "Mare Imbrium" lay before the eyes of the travellers like an immense
+depression of which the details were not very distinct. Near them on the
+left rose Mount Lambert, the altitude of which is estimated at 1,813
+metres, and farther on, upon the borders of the Ocean of Tempests, in
+north lat. 23° and east long. 29°, rose the shining mountain of Euler.
+This mountain, which rises only 1,815 metres above the lunar surface,
+has been the object of an interesting work by the astronomer Schroeter.
+This _savant_, trying to find out the origin of the lunar mountains,
+asked himself whether the volume of the crater always looked equal to
+the volume of the ramparts that formed it. Now this he found to be
+generally the case, and he hence concluded that a single eruption of
+volcanic matter had sufficed to form these ramparts, for successive
+eruptions would have destroyed the connection. Mount Euler alone was an
+exception to this general law, and it must have taken several successive
+eruptions to form it, for the volume of its cavity is double that of its
+inclosure.
+
+All these hypotheses were allowable to terrestrial observers whose
+instruments were incomplete; but Barbicane was no longer contented to
+accept them, and seeing that his projectile drew regularly nearer the
+lunar disc he did not despair of ultimately reaching it, or at least of
+finding out the secrets of its formation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+LUNAR LANDSCAPES.
+
+
+At half-past two in the morning the bullet was over the 30th lunar
+parallel at an effective distance of 1,000 kilometres, reduced by the
+optical instruments to ten. It still seemed impossible that it could
+reach any point on the disc. Its movement of translation, relatively
+slow, was inexplicable to President Barbicane. At that distance from the
+moon it ought to have been fast in order to maintain it against the
+power of attraction. The reason of that phenomenon was also
+inexplicable; besides, time was wanting to seek for the cause. The
+reliefs on the lunar surface flew beneath their eyes, and they did not
+want to lose a single detail.
+
+The disc appeared through the telescopes at a distance of two and a half
+leagues. If an aëronaut were taken up that distance from the earth, what
+would he distinguish upon its surface? No one can tell, as the highest
+ascensions have not exceeded 8,000 metres.
+
+The following, however, is an exact description of what Barbicane and
+his companions saw from that height:--
+
+Large patches of different colours appeared on the disc. Selenographers
+do not agree about their nature. They are quite distinct from each
+other. Julius Schmidt is of opinion that if the terrestrial oceans were
+dried up, a Selenite observer could only tell the difference between the
+terrestrial oceans and continental plains by patches of colour as
+distinctly varied as those which a terrestrial observer sees upon the
+moon. According to him, the colour common to the vast plains, known
+under the name of "seas," is dark grey, intermingled with green and
+brown. Some of the large craters are coloured in the same way.
+
+Barbicane knew this opinion of the German selenographer; it is shared by
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler. He noticed that they were right, whilst
+certain astronomers, who only allow grey colouring on the surface of the
+moon, are wrong. In certain places the green colour was very vivid;
+according to Julius Schmidt, it is so in the Seas of Serenity and
+Humours. Barbicane likewise remarked the wide craters with no interior
+cones, which are of a bluish colour, analogous to that of fresh-polished
+sheets of steel. These colours really belonged to the lunar disc, and
+did not result, as certain astronomers think, either from some
+imperfection in the object-glasses of the telescopes or the
+interposition of the terrestrial atmosphere. Barbicane had no longer any
+doubt about it. He was looking at it through the void, and could not
+commit any optical error. He considered that the existence of this
+different colouring was proved to science. Now were the green shades
+owing to tropical vegetation, kept up by a low and dense atmosphere? He
+could not yet be certain.
+
+Farther on he noticed a reddish tinge, quite sufficiently distinct. A
+similar colour had already been observed upon the bottom of an isolated
+inclosure, known under the name of the Lichtenberg Amphitheatre, which
+is situated near the Hercynian Mountains, on the border of the moon. But
+he could not make out its nature.
+
+He was not more fortunate about another peculiarity of the disc, for he
+could not find out its cause. The peculiarity was the following one:--
+
+Michel Ardan was watching near the president when he remarked some long
+white lines brilliantly lighted up by the direct rays of the sun. It was
+a succession of luminous furrows, very different from the radiation that
+Copernicus had presented. They ran in parallel lines.
+
+Michel, with his usual readiness, exclaimed--
+
+"Why, there are cultivated fields!"
+
+"Cultivated fields!" repeated Nicholl, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Ploughed fields, at all events," replied Michel Ardan. "But what
+ploughmen these Selenites must be, and what gigantic oxen they must
+harness to their ploughs, to make such furrows!"
+
+"They are not furrows, they are crevices!"
+
+"Crevices let them be," answered Michel with docility. "Only what do you
+mean by crevices in the world of science?" Barbicane soon told his
+companions all he knew about lunar crevices. He knew that they were
+furrows observed upon all the non-mountainous parts of the lunar disc;
+that these furrows, generally isolated, were from four to five leagues
+only; that their width varies from 1,000 to 1,500 metres, and their
+edges are rigorously parallel. But he knew nothing more about their
+formation or their nature.
+
+Barbicane watched these furrows through his telescope very attentively.
+He noticed that their banks were exceedingly steep. They were long
+parallel ramparts; with a little imagination they might be taken for
+long lines of fortifications raised by Selenite engineers.
+
+Some of these furrows were as straight as if they had been cut by line,
+others were slightly curved through with edges still parallel. Some
+crossed each other. Some crossed craters. Some furrowed the circular
+cavities, such as Posidonius or Petavius. Some crossed the seas, notably
+the Sea of Serenity.
+
+These accidents of Nature had naturally exercised the imagination of
+terrestrial astronomers. The earliest observations did not discover
+these furrows. Neither Hevelius, Cassini, La Hire, nor Herschel seems to
+have known them. It was Schroeter who in 1789 first attracted the
+attention of _savants_ to them. Others followed who studied them, such
+as Pastorff, Gruithuysen, Boeer, and Moedler. At present there are
+seventy-six; but though they have been counted, their nature has not yet
+been determined. They are not fortifications certainly, anymore than
+they are beds of dried-up rivers, for water so light on the surface of
+the moon could not have dug such ditches, and there furrows often cross
+craters at a great elevation.
+
+It must, however, be acknowledged that Michel Ardan had an idea, and
+that, without knowing it, he shared it with Julius Schmidt.
+
+"Why," said he, "may not these inexplicable appearances be simply
+phenomena of vegetation?"
+
+"In what way do you mean?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Now do not be angry, worthy president," answered Michel, "but may not
+these black lines be regular rows of trees?"
+
+"Do you want to find some vegetation?" said Barbicane.
+
+"I want to explain what you scientific men do not explain! My hypothesis
+will at least explain why these furrows disappear, or seem to disappear,
+at regular epochs."
+
+"Why should they?"
+
+"Because trees might become invisible when they lose their leaves, and
+visible when they grow again."
+
+"Your explanation is ingenious, old fellow," answered Barbicane, "but it
+cannot be admitted."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it cannot be said to be any season on the surface of the moon,
+and, consequently, the phenomena of vegetation on the surface of the
+moon cannot be produced."
+
+In fact, the slight obliquity of the lunar axis keeps the sun there at
+an almost equal altitude under every latitude. Above the equatorial
+regions the radiant orb almost invariably occupies the zenith, and
+hardly passes the limit of the horizon in the polar regions. Therefore,
+in each region, according to its position, there reigns perpetual
+spring, summer, autumn, or winter, as in the planet Jupiter, whose axis
+is also slightly inclined upon its orbit.
+
+The origin of these furrows is a difficult question to solve. They are
+certainly posterior to the formation of the craters and amphitheatres,
+for several have crossed them, and broken their circular ramparts. It
+may be that they are contemporary with the latest geographical epochs,
+and are only owing to the expansion of natural forces.
+
+In the meantime the projectile had reached the altitude of the 40th
+degree of lunar latitude at a distance that could not be greater than
+800 kilometres. Objects appeared through the telescopes at two leagues
+only. At this point rose under their feet the Helicon, 505 metres high,
+and on the left were the mediocre heights, which inclose a small portion
+of the Sea of Rains under the name of the Gulf of Iris.
+
+The terrestrial atmosphere ought to be 170 times more transparent than
+it is in order to allow astronomers to make complete observations on the
+surface of the moon. But in the void the projectile was moving in no
+fluid lay between the eye of the observer and the object observed. What
+is more, Barbicane was at a less distance than the most powerful
+telescopes, even that of Lord Rosse or the one on the Rocky Mountains,
+could give. It was, therefore, in circumstances highly favourable for
+solving the great question of the habitability of the moon. Yet the
+solution of this question escaped him still. He could only distinguish
+the deserted beds of the immense plains, and, towards the north, arid
+mountains. No labour betrayed the hand of man. No ruin indicated his
+passage. No agglomeration of animals indicated that life was developed
+there, even in an inferior degree. There was no movement anywhere, no
+appearance of vegetation anywhere. Of the three kingdoms represented on
+the terrestrial globe, one only was represented on that of the
+moon--viz., the mineral kingdom.
+
+"So," said Michel Ardan, looking rather put out, "there is nobody after
+all."
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "we have seen neither man, animal, nor tree as
+yet. After all, if the atmosphere has taken refuge at the bottom of
+cavities, in the interior of the amphitheatres, or even on the opposite
+face of the moon, we cannot decide the question."
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "even for the most piercing sight a man is
+not visible at a distance of more than four miles. Therefore if there
+are any Selenites they can see our projectile, but we cannot see them."
+
+About 11 a.m., at the altitude of the 50th parallel, the distance was
+reduced to 300 miles. On the left rose the capricious outlines of a
+chain of mountains, outlined in full light. Towards the right, on the
+contrary, was a large black hole like a vast dark and bottomless well
+bored in the lunar soil.
+
+That hole was the Black Lake, or Pluto, a deep circle from which the
+earth could be conveniently studied between the last quarter and the new
+moon, when the shadows are thrown from west to east.
+
+This black colour is rarely met with on the surface of the satellite. It
+has, as yet, only been seen in the depths of the circle of Endymion, to
+the east of the Cold Sea, in the northern hemisphere, and at the bottom
+of the circle of Grimaldi upon the equator towards the eastern border of
+the orb.
+
+Pluto is a circular mountain, situated in north lat. 51° and east long.
+9°. Its circle is fifty miles long and thirty wide. Barbicane regretted
+not passing perpendicularly over this vast opening. There was an abyss
+to see, perhaps some mysterious phenomenon to become acquainted with.
+But the course of the projectile could not be guided. There was nothing
+to do but submit. A balloon could not be guided, much less a projectile
+when you are inside.
+
+About 5 a.m. the northern limit of the Sea of Rains was at last passed.
+Mounts La Condamine and Fontenelle remained, the one on the left, the
+other on the right. That part of the disc, starting from the 60th
+degree, became absolutely mountainous. The telescopes brought it to
+within one league, an inferior distance to that between the summit of
+Mont Blanc and the sea level. All this region was bristling with peaks
+and amphitheatres. Mount Philolaus rose about the 70th degree to a
+height of 3,700 metres, opening an elliptical crater sixteen leagues
+long and four wide.
+
+Then the disc, seen from that distance, presented an exceedingly strange
+aspect. The landscapes were very different to earthly ones, and also
+very inferior.
+
+The moon having no atmosphere, this absence of vaporous covering had
+consequences already pointed out. There is no twilight on its surface,
+night following day and day following night, with the suddenness of a
+lamp extinguished or lighted in profound darkness. There is no
+transition from cold to heat: the temperature falls in one instant from
+boiling water heat to the cold of space.
+
+Another consequence of this absence of air is the following:--Absolute
+darkness reigns where the sun's rays do not penetrate. What is called
+diffused light upon the earth, the luminous matter that the air holds
+in suspension, which creates twilights and dawns, which produces
+shadows, penumbrae, and all the magic of the chiaro-oscuro, does not
+exist upon the moon. Hence the harshness of contrasts that only admit
+two colours, black and white. If a Selenite shades his eyes from the
+solar rays the sky appears absolutely dark, and the stars shine as in
+the darkest nights.
+
+The impression produced on Barbicane and his two friends by this strange
+state of things may well be imagined. They did not know how to use their
+eyes. They could no longer seize the respective distances in
+perspective. A lunar landscape, which does not soften the phenomenon of
+the chiaro-oscuro, could not be painted by a landscape-painter of the
+earth. It would be nothing but blots of ink upon white paper.
+
+This aspect of things did not alter even when the projectile, then at
+the altitude of the 80th degree, was only separated from the moon by a
+distance of fifty miles, not even when, at 5 a.m., it passed at less
+than twenty-five miles from the mountain of Gioja, a distance which the
+telescopes reduced to half-a-mile. It seemed as if they could have
+touched the moon. It appeared impossible that before long the projectile
+should not knock against it, if only at the North Pole, where the
+brilliant mountains were clearly outlined against the dark background of
+the sky. Michel Ardan wanted to open one of the port-lights and jump
+upon the lunar surface. What was a fall of twelve leagues? He thought
+nothing of that. It would, however, have been a useless attempt, for if
+the projectile was not going to reach any point on the satellite, Michel
+would have been hurled along by its movement, and not have reached it
+either.
+
+At that moment, 6 a.m., the lunar pole appeared. Only half the disc,
+brilliantly lighted, appeared to the travellers, whilst the other half
+disappeared in the darkness. The projectile suddenly passed the line of
+demarcation between intense light and absolute darkness, and was
+suddenly plunged into the profoundest night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF.
+
+
+At the moment this phenomenon took place the projectile was grazing the
+moon's North Pole, at less that twenty-five miles' distance. A few
+seconds had, therefore, sufficed to plunge it into the absolute darkness
+of space. The transition had taken place so rapidly, without gradations
+of light or attenuation of the luminous undulations, that the orb seemed
+to have been blown out by a powerful gust.
+
+"The moon has melted, disappeared!" cried Michel Ardan, wonder-stricken.
+
+In fact, no ray of light or shade had appeared on the disc, formerly so
+brilliant. The obscurity was complete, and rendered deeper still by the
+shining of the stars. It was the darkness of lunar night, which lasts
+354 hours and a half on each point of the disc--a long night, the result
+of the equality of the movements of translation and rotation of the
+moon, the one upon herself, the other round the earth. The projectile in
+the satellite's cone of shadow was no longer under the action of the
+solar rays.
+
+In the interior darkness was, therefore, complete. The travellers could
+no longer see one another. Hence came the necessity to lighten this
+darkness. However desirous Barbicane might be to economise the gas, of
+which he had so small a reserve, he was obliged to have recourse to it
+for artificial light--an expensive brilliancy which the sun then
+refused.
+
+"The devil take the radiant orb!" cried Michel Ardan; "he is going to
+force us to spend our gas instead of giving us his rays for nothing."
+
+"We must not accuse the sun," said Nicholl. "It is not his fault, it is
+the moon's fault for coming and putting herself like a screen between us
+and him."
+
+"It's the sun!" said Michel again.
+
+"It's the moon!" retorted Nicholl.
+
+An idle dispute began, which Barbicane put an end to by saying--
+
+"My friends, it is neither the fault of the sun nor the moon. It is the
+projectile's fault for deviating from its course instead of rigorously
+following it. Or, to be juster still, it is the fault of that
+unfortunate asteroid which so deplorably altered our first direction."
+
+"Good!" answered Michel Ardan; "as that business is settled let us have
+our breakfast. After a night entirely passed in making observations, we
+want something to set us to rights a little."
+
+This proposition met with no contradiction. Michel prepared the repast
+in a few minutes. But they ate for the sake of eating. They drank
+without toasts or hurrahs. The bold travellers, borne away into the
+darkness of space without their accustomed escort of rays, felt a vague
+uneasiness invade their hearts. The "farouche" darkness, so dear to the
+pen of Victor Hugo, surrounded them on all sides.
+
+In the meantime they talked about this interminable night, 354 hours, or
+nearly 15 days, long, which physical laws have imposed upon the
+inhabitants of the moon. Barbicane gave his friends some explanation of
+the causes and consequences of this curious phenomenon.
+
+"Curious it certainly is," said he, "for if each hemisphere of the moon
+is deprived of solar light for fifteen days, the one over which we are
+moving at this moment does not even enjoy, during its long night, a
+sight of the brilliantly-lighted earth. In a word, there is no moon,
+applying that qualification to our spheroid, except for one side of the
+disc. Now, if it was the same upon earth--if, for example, Europe never
+saw the moon, and she was only visible at the antipodes--you can figure
+to yourselves the astonishment of a European on arriving in Australia."
+
+"They would make the voyage for nothing but to go and see the moon,"
+answered Michel.
+
+"Well," resumed Barbicane, "that astonishment is reserved to the
+Selenite who inhabits the opposite side of the moon to the earth, a side
+for ever invisible to our fellow-beings of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"And which we should have seen," added Nicholl, "if we had arrived here
+at the epoch when the moon is new--that is to say, a fortnight later."
+
+"To make amends," resumed Barbicane, "an inhabitant of the visible face
+is singularly favoured by Nature to the detriment on the invisible face.
+The latter, as you see, has dark nights of 354 hours long, without a ray
+of light to penetrate the obscurity. The other, on the contrary, when
+the sun, which has lighted him for a fortnight, sets under the horizon,
+sees on the opposite horizon a splendid orb rise. It is the earth,
+thirteen times larger than that moon which we know--the earth, which is
+developed to a diameter of two degrees, and which sheds a light thirteen
+times greater, which no atmosphere qualifies; the earth, which only
+disappears when the sun reappears."
+
+"A fine sentence," said Michel Ardan; "rather academical perhaps."
+
+"It follows," resumed Barbicane, nowise put out, "that the visible face
+of the disc must be very agreeable to inhabit, as it is always lighted
+by the sun or the moon."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "this advantage must be quite compensated by the
+unbearable heat which this light must cause."
+
+"This inconvenience is the same under two faces, for the light reflected
+by the earth is evidently deprived of heat. However, this invisible face
+is still more deprived of heat than the visible face. I say that for
+you, Nicholl; Michel would probably not understand."
+
+"Thank you," said Michel.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when the invisible face receives the
+solar light and heat the moon is new--that is to say, that she is in
+conjunction, that she is situated between the sun and the earth. She is
+then, on account of the situation which she occupies in opposition when
+she is full, nearer the sun by the double of her distance from the
+earth. Now this distance may be estimated at the two-hundredth part of
+that which separates the sun and the earth; or, in round numbers, at two
+hundred thousand leagues. Therefore this visible face is nearer the sun
+by two hundred thousand leagues when it receives his rays."
+
+"Quite right," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Whilst--" resumed Barbicane.
+
+"Allow me," said Michel, interrupting his grave companion.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I want to go on with the explanation."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"To prove that I have understood."
+
+"Go on, then," said Barbicane, smiling.
+
+"Whilst," said Michel, imitating the tone and gestures of President
+Barbicane, "when the visible face of the moon is lighted by the sun the
+moon is full--that is to say, situated with regard to the earth the
+opposite to the sun. The distance which separates it from the radiant
+orb is then increased in round numbers by 200,000 leagues, and the heat
+which it receives must be rather less."
+
+"Well done!" exclaimed Barbicane. "Do you know, Michel, for an artist
+you are intelligent."
+
+"Yes," answered Michel carelessly, "we are all intelligent on the
+Boulevard des Italiens."
+
+Barbicane shook hands gravely with his amiable companion, and went on
+enumerating the few advantages reserved to the inhabitants of the
+visible face.
+
+Amongst others he quoted the observations of the sun's eclipses, which
+can only be seen from one side of the lunar disc, because the moon must
+be in opposition before they can take place. These eclipses, caused by
+the interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon, may last
+two hours, during which, on account of the rays refracted by its
+atmosphere, the terrestrial globe can only appear like a black spot upon
+the sun.
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the invisible hemisphere is very ill-treated by
+Nature."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "but not the whole of it. By a certain
+movement of liberation, a sort of balancing on its centre, the moon
+presents more than the half of her disc to the earth. She is like a
+pendulum, the centre of gravity of which is towards the terrestrial
+globe, and which oscillates regularly. Whence comes that oscillation?
+Because her movement of rotation on her axis is animated with uniform
+velocity, whilst her movement of translation, following an elliptical
+orb round the earth, is not. At the perigee the velocity of translation
+is greater, and the moon shows a certain portion of her western border.
+At her apogee the velocity of rotation is greater, and a morsel of her
+eastern border appears. It is a strip of about eight degrees, which
+appears sometimes on the west, sometimes on the east. The result is,
+therefore, that of a thousand parts the moon shows five hundred and
+sixty-nine."
+
+"No matter," answered Michel; "if we ever become Selenites, we will
+inhabit the visible face. I like light."
+
+"Unless," replied Nicholl, "the atmosphere should be condensed on the
+other side, as certain astronomers pretend."
+
+"That is a consideration," answered Michel simply.
+
+In the meantime breakfast was concluded, and the observers resumed their
+posts. They tried to see through the dark port-light by putting out all
+light in the projectile. But not one luminous atom penetrated the
+obscurity.
+
+One inexplicable fact preoccupied Barbicane. How was it that though the
+projectile had been so near the moon, within a distance of twenty-five
+miles, it had not fallen upon her? If its speed had been enormous, he
+would have understood why it had not fallen. But with a relatively
+slight speed the resistance to lunar attraction could not be explained.
+Was the projectile under the influence of some strange force? Did some
+body maintain it in the ether? It was henceforth evident that it would
+not touch any point upon the moon. Where was it going? Was it going
+farther away from or nearer to the disc? Was it carried along in the
+gloom across infinitude? How were they to know, how calculate in the
+dark? All these questions made Barbicane anxious, but he could not solve
+them.
+
+In fact, the invisible orb was there, perhaps, at a distance of some
+leagues only, but neither his companions nor he could any longer see it.
+If any noise was made on its surface they could not hear it. The air,
+that vehicle of transmission, was wanting to convey to them the groans
+of that moon which the Arabian legends make "a man already half-granite,
+but still palpitating."
+
+It will be agreed that it was enough to exasperate the most patient
+observers. It was precisely the unknown hemisphere that was hidden from
+their eyes. That face which a fortnight sooner or a fortnight later had
+been, or would be, splendidly lighted up by the solar rays, was then
+lost in absolute darkness. Where would the projectile be in another
+fortnight? Where would the hazards of attraction have taken it? Who
+could say?
+
+It is generally admitted that the invisible hemisphere of the moon is,
+by its constitution, absolutely similar to the visible hemisphere.
+One-seventh of it is seen in those movements of libration Barbicane
+spoke of. Now upon the surface seen there were only plains and
+mountains, amphitheatres and craters, like those on the maps. They could
+there imagine the same arid and dead nature. And yet, supposing the
+atmosphere to have taken refuge upon that face? Suppose that with the
+air water had given life to these regenerated continents? Suppose that
+vegetation still persists there? Suppose that animals people these
+continents and seas? Suppose that man still lives under those conditions
+of habitability? How many questions there were it would have been
+interesting to solve! What solutions might have been drawn from the
+contemplation of that hemisphere! What delight it would have been to
+glance at that world which no human eye has seen!
+
+The disappointment of the travellers in the midst of this darkness may
+be imagined. All observation of the lunar disc was prevented. The
+constellations alone were visible, and it must be acknowledged that no
+astronomers, neither Faye, Chacornac, nor the Secchi, had ever been in
+such favourable conditions to observe them.
+
+In fact, nothing could equal the splendour of this starry world, bathed
+in limpid ether. Diamonds set in the celestial vault threw out superb
+flames. One look could take in the firmament from the Southern Cross to
+the North Star, those two constellations which will in 12,000 years, on
+account of the succession of equinoxes, resign their _rôles_ of polar
+stars, the one to Canopus in the southern hemisphere, the other to Wega
+in the northern. Imagination lost itself in this sublime infinitude,
+amidst which the projectile was moving like a new star created by the
+hand of man. From natural causes these constellations shone with a soft
+lustre; they did not twinkle because there was no atmosphere to
+intervene with its strata unequally dense, and of different degrees of
+humidity, which causes this scintillation.
+
+The travellers long watched the constellated firmament, upon which the
+vast screen of the moon made an enormous black hole. But a painful
+sensation at length drew them from their contemplation. This was an
+intense cold, which soon covered the glasses of the port-lights with a
+thick coating of ice. The sun no longer warmed the projectile with his
+rays, and it gradually lost the heat stored up in its walls. This heat
+was by radiation rapidly evaporated into space, and a considerable
+lowering of the temperature was the result. The interior humidity was
+changed into ice by contact with the window-panes, and prevented all
+observation.
+
+Nicholl, consulting the thermometer, said that it had fallen to 17°
+(centigrade) below zero (1° Fahr). Therefore, notwithstanding every
+reason for being economical, Barbicane was obliged to seek heat as well
+as light from gas. The low temperature of the bullet was no longer
+bearable. Its occupants would have been frozen to death.
+
+"We will not complain about the monotony of the journey," said Michel
+Ardan. "What variety we have had, in temperature at all events! At times
+we have been blinded with light, and saturated with heat like the
+Indians of the Pampas! Now we are plunged into profound darkness amidst
+boreal cold, like the Esquimaux of the pole! No, indeed! We have no
+right to complain, and Nature has done many things in our honour!"
+
+"But," asked Nicholl, "what is the exterior temperature?"
+
+"Precisely that of planetary space," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, "would not this be an opportunity for
+making that experiment we could not attempt when we were bathed in the
+solar rays?"
+
+"Now or never," answered Barbicane, "for we are usefully situated in
+order to verify the temperature of space, and see whether the
+calculations of Fourier or Pouillet are correct."
+
+"Any way it is cold enough," said Michel. "Look at the interior humidity
+condensing on the port-lights. If this fall continues the vapour of our
+respiration will fall around us in snow."
+
+"Let us get a thermometer," said Barbicane.
+
+It will be readily seen that an ordinary thermometer would have given no
+result under the circumstances in which it was going to be exposed. The
+mercury would have frozen in its cup, for it does not keep liquid below
+44° below zero. But Barbicane had provided himself with a spirit
+thermometer, on the Walferdin system, which gives the minima of
+excessively low temperature.
+
+Before beginning the experiment this instrument was compared with an
+ordinary thermometer, and Barbicane prepared to employ it.
+
+"How shall we manage it?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Michel Ardan, who was never at a loss.
+"Open the port-light rapidly, throw out the instrument; it will follow
+the projectile with exemplary docility; a quarter of an hour after take
+it in."
+
+"With your hand?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"With my hand," answered Michel.
+
+"Well, then, my friend, do not try it," said Barbicane, "for the hand
+you draw back will be only a stump, frozen and deformed by the frightful
+cold."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"You would feel the sensation of a terrible burn, like one made with a
+red-hot iron, for the same thing happens when heat is brutally
+abstracted from our body as when it is inserted. Besides, I am not sure
+that objects thrown out still follow us."
+
+"Why?" said Nicholl.
+
+"Because if we are passing through any atmosphere, however slightly
+dense, these objects will be delayed. Now the darkness prevents us
+verifying whether they still float around us. Therefore, in order not to
+risk our thermometer, we will tie something to it, and so easily pull it
+back into the interior."
+
+Barbicane's advice was followed. Nicholl threw the instrument out of the
+rapidly-opened port-light, holding it by a very short cord, so that it
+could be rapidly drawn in. The window was only open one second, and yet
+that one second was enough to allow the interior of the projectile to
+become frightfully cold.
+
+"_Mille diables!_" cried Michel Ardan, "it is cold enough here to freeze
+white bears!"
+
+Barbicane let half-an-hour go by, more than sufficient time to allow the
+instrument to descend to the level of the temperature of space. The
+thermometer was then rapidly drawn in.
+
+Barbicane calculated the quantity of mercury spilt into the little phial
+soldered to the lower part of the instrument, and said--
+
+"One hundred and forty degrees centigrade below zero!" (218° Fahr.)
+
+M. Pouillet was right, not Fourier. Such was the frightful temperature
+of sidereal space! Such perhaps that of the lunar continents when the
+orb of night loses by radiation all the heat which she absorbs during
+the fifteen days of sunshine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA.
+
+
+Our readers will probably be astonished that Barbicane and his
+companions were so little occupied with the future in store for them in
+their metal prison, carried along in the infinitude of ether. Instead of
+asking themselves where they were going, they lost their time in making
+experiments, just as if they had been comfortably installed in their
+own studies.
+
+It might be answered that men so strong-minded were above such
+considerations, that such little things did not make them uneasy, and
+that they had something else to do than to think about their future.
+
+The truth is that they were not masters of their projectile--that they
+could neither stop it nor alter its direction. A seaman can direct the
+head of his ship as he pleases; an aëronaut can give his balloon
+vertical movement. They, on the contrary, had no authority over their
+vehicle. No manoeuvre was possible to them. Hence their not troubling
+themselves, or "let things go" state of mind.
+
+Where were they at that moment, 8 a.m. during that day called upon earth
+the sixth of December? Certainly in the neighbourhood of the moon, and
+even near enough for her to appear like a vast black screen upon the
+firmament. As to the distance which separated them, it was impossible to
+estimate it. The projectile, kept up by inexplicable forces, has grazed
+the north pole of the satellite at less than twenty-five miles'
+distance. But had that distance increased or diminished since they had
+been in the cone of shadow? There was no landmark by which to estimate
+either the direction or the velocity of the projectile. Perhaps it was
+going rapidly away from the disc and would soon leave the pure shadow.
+Perhaps, on the contrary, it was approaching it, and would before long
+strike against some elevated peak in the invisible atmosphere, which
+would have terminated the journey, doubtless to the detriment of the
+travellers.
+
+A discussion began upon this subject, and Michel Ardan, always rich in
+explanations, gave out the opinion that the bullet, restrained by lunar
+attraction, would end by falling on the moon like an aërolite on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe.
+
+"In the first place," answered Barbicane, "all aërolites do not fall
+upon the surface of the earth; only a small proportion do so. Therefore,
+if we are aërolites it does not necessarily follow that we shall fall
+upon the moon."
+
+"Still," answered Michel, "if we get near enough--"
+
+"Error," replied Barbicane. "Have you not seen shooting stars by
+thousands in the sky at certain epochs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, those stars, or rather corpuscles, only shine by rubbing against
+the atmospheric strata. Now, if they pass through the atmosphere, they
+pass at less than 16 miles from our globe, and yet they rarely fall. It
+is the same with our projectile. It may approach very near the moon, and
+yet not fall upon it."
+
+"But then," asked Michel, "I am curious to know how our vehicle would
+behave in space."
+
+"I only see two hypotheses," answered Barbicane, after some minutes'
+reflection.
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"The projectile has the choice between two mathematical curves, and it
+will follow the one or the other according to the velocity with which it
+is animated, and which I cannot now estimate."
+
+"Yes, it will either describe a parabola or an hyperbola."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "with some speed it will describe a parabola,
+and with greater speed an hyperbola."
+
+"I like those grand words!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "I know at once what
+you mean. And what is your parabola, if you please?"
+
+"My friend," answered the captain, "a parabola is a conic section
+arising from cutting a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides."
+
+"Oh!" said Michel in a satisfied tone.
+
+"It is about the same trajectory that the bomb of a howitzer describes."
+
+"Just so. And an hyperbola?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is a curve formed by a section of a cone when the cutting plane
+makes a greater angle with the base than the side of the cone makes."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Michel Ardan in the most serious tone, as if
+he had been informed of a grave event. "Then remember this, Captain
+Nicholl, what I like in your definition of the hyperbola--I was going to
+say of the hyperhumbug--is that it is still less easy to understand than
+the word you pretend to define."
+
+Nicholl and Barbicane paid no attention to Michel Ardan's jokes. They
+had launched into a scientific discussion. They were eager about what
+curve the projectile would take. One was for the hyperbola, the other
+for the parabola. They gave each other reasons bristling with _x_'s.
+Their arguments were presented in a language which made Michel Ardan
+jump. The discussion was lively, and neither of the adversaries would
+sacrifice his curve of predilection.
+
+This scientific dispute was prolonged until Michel Ardan became
+impatient, and said--
+
+"I say, Messrs. Cosine, do leave off throwing your hyperbolas and
+parabolas at one's head. I want to know the only interesting thing about
+the business. We shall follow one or other of your curves. Very well.
+But where will they take us to?"
+
+"Nowhere," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How nowhere?"
+
+"Evidently they are unfinished curves, prolonged indefinitely!"
+
+"Ah, _savants_! What does it matter about hyperbola or parabola if they
+both carry us indefinitely into space?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing. They cared for art for
+its own sake. Never had more useless question been discussed at a more
+inopportune moment. The fatal truth was that the projectile, whether
+hyperbolically or parabolically carried along, would never strike
+against either the earth or the moon.
+
+What would become of these bold travellers in the most immediate future?
+If they did not die of hunger or thirst, they would in a few days, when
+gas failed them, die for want of air, if the cold had not killed them
+first!
+
+Still, although it was so important to economise gas, the excessive
+lowness of the surrounding temperature forced them to consume a certain
+quantity. They could not do without either its light or heat. Happily
+the caloric developed by the Reiset and Regnault apparatus slightly
+elevated the temperature of the projectile, and without spending much
+they could raise it to a bearable degree.
+
+In the meantime observation through the port-lights had become very
+difficult. The steam inside the bullet condensed upon the panes and
+froze immediately. They were obliged to destroy the opacity of the glass
+by constant rubbing. However, they could record several phenomena of the
+highest interest.
+
+In fact, if the invisible disc had any atmosphere, the shooting stars
+would be seen passing through it. If the projectile itself passed
+through the fluid strata, might it not hear some noise echoed--a storm,
+for instance, an avalanche, or a volcano in activity? Should they not
+see the intense fulgurations of a burning mountain? Such facts,
+carefully recorded, would have singularly elucidated the obscure
+question of the lunar constitution. Thus Barbicane and Nicholl, standing
+like astronomers at their port-lights, watched with scrupulous patience.
+
+But until then the disc remained mute and dark. It did not answer the
+multifarious interrogations of these ardent minds.
+
+This provoked from Michel a reflection that seemed correct enough.
+
+"If ever we recommence our journey, we shall do well to choose the epoch
+when the moon is new."
+
+"True," answered Nicholl, "that circumstance would have been more
+favourable. I agree that the moon, bathed in sunlight, would not be
+visible during the passage, but on the other hand the earth would be
+full. And if we are dragged round the moon like we are now, we should
+at least have the advantage of seeing the invisible disc magnificently
+lighted up."
+
+"Well said, Nicholl," replied Michel Ardan. "What do you think about it,
+Barbicane?"
+
+"I think this," answered the grave president: "if ever we recommence
+this journey, we shall start at the same epoch, and under the same
+circumstances. Suppose we had reached our goal, would it not have been
+better to find the continents in full daylight instead of dark night?
+Would not our first installation have been made under better
+circumstances? Yes, evidently. As to the invisible side, we could have
+visited that in our exploring expeditions on the lunar globe. So,
+therefore, the time of the full moon was well chosen. But we ought to
+have reached our goal, and in order to have reached it we ought not to
+have deviated from our road."
+
+"There is no answer to make to that," said Michel Ardan. "Yet we have
+passed a fine opportunity for seeing the moon! Who knows whether the
+inhabitants of the other planets are not more advanced than the
+_savants_ of the earth on the subject of their satellites?"
+
+The following answer might easily have been given to Michel Ardan's
+remark:--Yes, other satellites, on account of their greater proximity,
+have made the study of them easier. The inhabitants of Saturn, Jupiter,
+and Uranus, if they exist, have been able to establish communication
+with their moons much more easily. The four satellites of Jupiter
+gravitate at a distance of 108,260 leagues, 172,200 leagues, 274,700
+leagues, and 480,130 leagues. But these distances are reckoned from the
+centre of the planet, and by taking away the radius, which is 17,000 to
+18,000 leagues, it will be seen that the first satellite is at a much
+less distance from the surface of Jupiter than the moon is from the
+centre of the earth. Of the eight moons of Saturn, four are near. Diana
+is 84,600 leagues off; Thetys, 62,966 leagues; Enceladus, 48,191
+leagues; and lastly, Mimas is at an average distance of 34,500 leagues
+only. Of the eighteen satellites of Uranus, the first, Ariel, is only
+51,520 leagues from the planet.
+
+Therefore, upon the surface of those three stars, an experiment
+analogous to that of President Barbicane would have presented less
+difficulties. If, therefore, their inhabitants have attempted the
+enterprise, they have, perhaps, acquainted themselves with the
+constitution of the half of the disc which their satellite hides
+eternally from their eyes. But if they have never left their planet,
+they do not know more about them than the astronomers of the earth.
+
+In the meantime the bullet was describing in the darkness that
+incalculable trajectory which no landmark allowed them to find out. Was
+its direction altered either under the influence of lunar attraction or
+under the action of some unknown orb? Barbicane could not tell. But a
+change had taken place in the relative position of the vehicle, and
+Barbicane became aware of it about 4 a.m.
+
+The change consisted in this, that the bottom of the projectile was
+turned towards the surface of the moon, and kept itself perpendicular
+with its axis. The attraction or gravitation had caused this
+modification. The heaviest part of the bullet inclined towards the
+invisible disc exactly as if it had fallen towards it.
+
+Was it falling then? Were the travellers at last about to reach their
+desired goal? No. And the observation of one landmark, inexplicable in
+itself, demonstrated to Barbicane that his projectile was not nearing
+the moon, and that it was following an almost concentric curve.
+
+This was a flash of light which Nicholl signalised all at once on the
+limit of the horizon formed by the black disc. This point could not be
+mistaken for a star. It was a reddish flame, which grew gradually
+larger--an incontestable proof that the projectile was getting nearer
+it, and not falling normally upon the surface of the satellite.
+
+"A volcano! It is a volcano in activity!" exclaimed Nicholl--"an
+eruption of the interior fires of the moon. That world, then, is not
+quite extinguished."
+
+"Yes, an eruption!" answered Barbicane, who studied the phenomenon
+carefully through his night-glass. "What should it be if not a volcano?"
+
+"But then," said Michel Ardan, "air is necessary to feed that
+combustion, therefore there is some atmosphere on that part of the
+moon."
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Barbicane, "but not necessarily. A volcano, by
+the decomposition of certain matters, can furnish itself with oxygen,
+and so throw up flames into the void. It seems to me, too, that that
+deflagration has the intensity and brilliancy of objects the combustion
+of which is produced in pure oxygen. We must not be in a hurry to affirm
+the existence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+The burning mountain was situated at the 45th degree of south latitude
+on the invisible part of the disc. But to the great disappointment of
+Barbicane the curve that the projectile described dragged it away from
+the point signalised by the eruption, therefore he could not exactly
+determine its nature. Half-an-hour after it had first been seen this
+luminous point disappeared on the horizon. Still the authentication of
+this phenomenon was a considerable fact in selenographic studies. It
+proved that all heat had not yet disappeared from the interior of this
+globe, and where heat exists, who may affirm that the vegetable kingdom,
+or even the animal kingdom itself, has not until now resisted the
+destructive influences? The existence of this volcano in eruption,
+indisputably established by earthly _savants_, was favourable to the
+theory of the habitability of the moon.
+
+Barbicane became absorbed in reflection. He forgot himself in a mute
+reverie, filled with the mysterious destinies of the lunar world. He was
+trying to connect the facts observed up till then, when a fresh incident
+recalled him suddenly to the reality.
+
+This incident was more than a cosmic phenomenon; it was a threatening
+danger, the consequences of which might be disastrous.
+
+Suddenly in the midst of the ether, in the profound darkness, an
+enormous mass had appeared. It was like a moon, but a burning moon of
+almost unbearable brilliancy, outlined as it was on the total obscurity
+of space. This mass, of a circular form, threw such light that it filled
+the projectile. The faces of Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan,
+bathed in its white waves, looked spectral, livid, _blafard_, like the
+appearance produced by the artificial light of alcohol impregnated with
+salt.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan. "How hideous we are! Whatever is that
+wretched moon?"
+
+"It is a bolis," answered Barbicane.
+
+"A bolis, on fire, in the void?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+This globe of fire was indeed a bolis. Barbicane was not mistaken. But
+if these cosmic meteors, seen from the earth, present an inferior light
+to that of the moon, here, in the dark ether, they shone magnificently.
+These wandering bodies carry in themselves the principle of their own
+incandescence. The surrounding air is not necessary to the deflagration.
+And, indeed, if certain of these bodies pass through our atmosphere at
+two or three leagues from the earth, others describe their trajectory at
+a distance the atmosphere cannot reach. Some of these meteors are from
+one to two miles wide, and move at a speed of forty miles a second,
+following an inverse direction from the movement of the earth.
+
+This shooting star suddenly appeared in the darkness at a distance of at
+least 100 leagues, and measured, according to Barbicane's estimate, a
+diameter of 2,000 metres. It moved with the speed of about thirty
+leagues a minute. It cut across the route of the projectile, and would
+reach it in a few minutes. As it approached it grew larger in an
+enormous proportion.
+
+If possible, let the situation of the travellers be imagined! It is
+impossible to describe it. In spite of their courage, their
+_sang-froid_, their carelessness of danger, they were mute, motionless,
+with stiffened limbs, a prey to fearful terror. Their projectile, the
+course of which they could not alter, was running straight on to this
+burning mass, more intense than the open mouth of a furnace. They seemed
+to be rushing towards an abyss of fire.
+
+Barbicane seized the hands of his two companions, and all three looked
+through their half-closed eyelids at the red-hot asteroid. If they still
+thought at all, they must have given themselves up as lost!
+
+Two minutes after the sudden appearance of the bolis, two centuries of
+agony, the projectile seemed about to strike against it, when the ball
+of fire burst like a bomb, but without making any noise in the void,
+where sound, which is only the agitation of the strata of air, could not
+be made.
+
+Nicholl uttered a cry. His companions and he rushed to the port-lights.
+
+What a spectacle! What pen could describe it, what palette would be rich
+enough in colours to reproduce its magnificence?
+
+It was like the opening of a crater, or the spreading of an immense
+fire. Thousands of luminous fragments lit up space with their fires.
+Every size, colour, and shade were there. There were yellow, red, green,
+grey, a crown of multi-coloured fireworks. There only remained of the
+enormous and terrible globe pieces carried in all directions, each an
+asteroid in its turn, some shining like swords, some surrounded by white
+vapour, others leaving behind them a trail of cosmic dust.
+
+These incandescent blocks crossed each other, knocked against each
+other, and were scattered into smaller fragments, of which some struck
+the projectile. Its left window was even cracked by the violent shock.
+It seemed to be floating in a shower of bullets, of which the least
+could annihilate it in an instant.
+
+The light which saturated the ether was of incomparable intensity, for
+these asteroids dispersed it in every direction. At a certain moment it
+was so bright that Michel dragged Barbicane and Nicholl to the window,
+exclaiming--
+
+"The invisible moon is at last visible!"
+
+And all three, across the illumination, saw for a few seconds that
+mysterious disc which the eye of man perceived for the first time.
+
+What did they distinguish across that distance which they could not
+estimate? Long bands across the disc, veritable clouds formed in a very
+restricted atmospheric medium, from which emerged not only all the
+mountains, but every relief of middling importance, amphitheatres,
+yawning craters, such as exist on the visible face. Then immense tracts,
+no longer arid plains, but veritable seas, oceans which reflected in
+their liquid mirror all the dazzling magic of the fires of space.
+Lastly, on the surface of the continents, vast dark masses, such as
+immense forests would resemble under the rapid illumination of a flash
+of lightning.
+
+Was it an illusion, an error of the eyes, an optical deception? Could
+they give a scientific affirmation to that observation so superficially
+obtained? Dared they pronounce upon the question of its habitability
+after so slight a glimpse of the invisible disc?
+
+By degrees the fulgurations of space gradually died out, its accidental
+brilliancy lessened, the asteroids fled away by their different
+trajectories, and went out in the distance. The ether resumed its
+habitual darkness; the stars, for one moment eclipsed, shone in the
+firmament, and the disc, of which scarcely a glimpse had been caught,
+was lost in the impenetrable night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
+
+
+The projectile had just escaped a terrible danger, a danger quite
+unforeseen. Who would have imagined such a meeting of asteroids? These
+wandering bodies might prove serious perils to the travellers. They were
+to them like so many rocks in the sea of ether, which, less fortunate
+than navigators, they could not avoid. But did these adventurers of
+space complain? No, as Nature had given them the splendid spectacle of a
+cosmic meteor shining by formidable expansion, as this incomparable
+display of fireworks, which no Ruggieri could imitate, had lighted for a
+few seconds the invisible nimbus of the moon. During that rapid peep,
+continents, seas, and forests had appeared to them. Then the atmosphere
+did give there its life-giving particles? Questions still not solved,
+eternally asked by American curiosity.
+
+It was then 3.30 p.m. The bullet was still describing its curve round
+the moon. Had its route again been modified by the meteor? It was to be
+feared. The projectile ought, however to describe a curve imperturbably
+determined by the laws of mechanics. Barbicane inclined to the opinion
+that this curve would be a parabola and not an hyperbola. However, if
+the parabola was admitted, the bullet ought soon to come out of the cone
+of shadow thrown into the space on the opposite side to the sun. This
+cone, in fact, is very narrow, the angular diameter of the moon is so
+small compared to the diameter of the orb of day. Until now the
+projectile had moved in profound darkness. Whatever its speed had
+been--and it could not have been slight--its period of occultation
+continued. That fact was evident, but perhaps that would not have been
+the case in a rigidly parabolical course. This was a fresh problem which
+tormented Barbicane's brain, veritably imprisoned as it was in a web of
+the unknown which he could not disentangle.
+
+Neither of the travellers thought of taking a minute's rest. Each
+watched for some unexpected incident which should throw a new light on
+their uranographic studies. About five o'clock Michel distributed to
+them, by way of dinner, some morsels of bread and cold meat, which were
+rapidly absorbed, whilst no one thought of leaving the port-light, the
+panes of which were becoming incrusted under the condensation of vapour.
+
+About 5.45 p.m., Nicholl, armed with his telescope, signalised upon the
+southern border of the moon, and in the direction followed by the
+projectile, a few brilliant points outlined against the dark screen of
+the sky. They looked like a succession of sharp peaks with profiles in a
+tremulous line. They were rather brilliant. The terminal line of the
+moon looks the same when she is in one of her octants.
+
+They could not be mistaken. There was no longer any question of a simple
+meteor, of which that luminous line had neither the colour nor the
+mobility, nor of a volcano in eruption. Barbicane did not hesitate to
+declare what it was.
+
+"The sun!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What! the sun!" answered Nicholl and Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, my friends, it is the radiant orb itself, lighting up the summit
+of the mountains situated on the southern border of the moon. We are
+evidently approaching the South Pole!"
+
+"After having passed the North Pole," answered Michel. "Then we have
+been all round our satellite."
+
+"Yes, friend Michel."
+
+"Then we have no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves
+to fear!"
+
+"No, but a closed curve."
+
+"Which is called--"
+
+"An ellipsis. Instead of being lost in the interplanetary spaces it is
+possible that the projectile will describe an elliptical orbit round the
+moon."
+
+"Really!"
+
+"And that it will become its satellite."
+
+"Moon of the moon," exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Only I must tell you, my worthy friend, that we are none the less lost
+men on that account!"
+
+"No, but in another and much pleasanter way!" answered the careless
+Frenchman, with his most amiable smile.
+
+President Barbicane was right. By describing this elliptical orbit the
+projectile was going to gravitate eternally round the moon like a
+sub-satellite. It was a new star added to the solar world, a microcosm
+peopled by three inhabitants, whom want of air would kill before long.
+Barbicane, therefore, could not rejoice at the position imposed on the
+bullet by the double influence of the centripetal and centrifugal
+forces. His companions and he were again going to see the visible face
+of the disc. Perhaps their existence would last long enough for them to
+perceive for the last time the full earth superbly lighted up by the
+rays of the sun! Perhaps they might throw a last adieu to the globe they
+were never more to see again! Then their projectile would be nothing but
+an extinct mass, dead like those inert asteroids which circulate in the
+ether. A single consolation remained to them: it was that of seeing the
+darkness and returning to light, it was that of again entering the zones
+bathed by solar irradiation!
+
+In the meantime the mountains recognised by Barbicane stood out more and
+more from the dark mass. They were Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, which
+stand on the southern circumpolar region of the moon.
+
+All the mountains of the visible hemisphere have been measured with
+perfect exactitude. This perfection will, no doubt, seem astonishing,
+and yet the hypsometric methods are rigorous. The altitude of the lunar
+mountains may be no less exactly determined than that of the mountains
+of the earth.
+
+The method generally employed is that of measuring the shadow thrown by
+the mountains, whilst taking into account the altitude of the sun at the
+moment of observation. This method also allows the calculating of the
+depth of craters and cavities on the moon. Galileo used it, and since
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler have employed it with the greatest success.
+
+Another method, called the tangent radii, may also be used for measuring
+lunar reliefs. It is applied at the moment when the mountains form
+luminous points on the line of separation between light and darkness
+which shine on the dark part of the disc. These luminous points are
+produced by the solar rays above those which determine the limit of the
+phase. Therefore the measure of the dark interval which the luminous
+point and the luminous part of the phase leave between them gives
+exactly the height of the point. But it will be seen that this method
+can only be applied to the mountains near the line of separation of
+darkness and light.
+
+A third method consists in measuring the profile of the lunar mountains
+outlined on the background by means of a micrometer; but it is only
+applicable to the heights near the border of the orb.
+
+In any case it will be remarked that this measurement of shadows,
+intervals, or profiles can only be made when the solar rays strike the
+moon obliquely in relation to the observer. When they strike her
+directly--in a word, when she is full--all shadow is imperiously
+banished from her disc, and observation is no longer possible.
+
+Galileo, after recognising the existence of the lunar mountains, was the
+first to employ the method of calculating their heights by the shadows
+they throw. He attributed to them, as it has already been shown, an
+average of 9,000 yards. Hevelius singularly reduced these figures, which
+Riccioli, on the contrary, doubled. All these measures were exaggerated.
+Herschel, with his more perfect instruments, approached nearer the
+hypsometric truth. But it must be finally sought in the accounts of
+modern observers.
+
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler, the most perfect selenographers in the whole
+world, have measured 1,095 lunar mountains. It results from their
+calculations that 6 of these mountains rise above 5,800 metres, and 22
+above 4,800. The highest summit of the moon measures 7,603 metres; it
+is, therefore, inferior to those of the earth, of which some are 1,000
+yards higher. But one remark must be made. If the respective volumes of
+the two orbs are compared the lunar mountains are relatively higher than
+the terrestrial. The lunar ones form 1/70 of the diameter of the moon,
+and the terrestrial only form 1/140 of the diameter of the earth. For a
+terrestrial mountain to attain the relative proportions of a lunar
+mountain, its perpendicular height ought to be 6-1/2 leagues. Now the
+highest is not four miles.
+
+Thus, then, to proceed by comparison, the chain of the Himalayas counts
+three peaks higher than the lunar ones, Mount Everest, Kunchinjuga, and
+Dwalagiri. Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, on the moon, are as high as
+Jewahir in the same chain. Newton, Casatus, Curtius, Short, Tycho,
+Clavius, Blancanus, Endymion, the principal summits of Caucasus and the
+Apennines, are higher than Mont Blanc. The mountains equal to Mont Blanc
+are Moret, Theophylus, and Catharnia; to Mount Rosa, Piccolomini,
+Werner, and Harpalus; to Mount Cervin, Macrobus, Eratosthenes,
+Albateque, and Delambre; to the Peak of Teneriffe, Bacon, Cysatus,
+Philolaus, and the Alps; to Mount Perdu, in the Pyrenees, Roemer and
+Boguslawski; to Etna, Hercules, Atlas, and Furnerius.
+
+Such are the points of comparison that allow the appreciation of the
+altitude of lunar mountains. Now the trajectory followed by the
+projectile dragged it precisely towards that mountainous region of the
+southern hemisphere where rise the finest specimens of lunar orography.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TYCHO.
+
+
+At 6 p.m. the projectile passed the South Pole at less than thirty
+miles, a distance equal to that already reached at the North Pole. The
+elliptical curve was, therefore, being rigorously described.
+
+At that moment the travellers re-entered the beneficent sunshine. They
+saw once more the stars moving slowly from east to west. The radiant orb
+was saluted with a triple hurrah. With its light came also its heat,
+which soon pierced the middle walls. The windows resumed their
+accustomed transparency. Their "layer of ice" melted as if by
+enchantment. The gas was immediately extinguished by way of economy. The
+air apparatus alone was to consume its habitual quantity.
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl, "sunshine is good! How impatiently after their long
+nights the Selenites must await the reappearance of the orb of day!"
+
+"Yes," answered Michel Ardan, "imbibing, as it were, the brilliant
+ether, light and heat, all life is in them."
+
+At that moment the bottom of the projectile moved slightly from the
+lunar surface in order to describe a rather long elliptical orbit. From
+that point, if the earth had been full, Barbicane and his friends could
+have seen it again. But, drowned in the sun's irradiation, it remained
+absolutely invisible. Another spectacle attracted their eyes, presented
+by the southern region of the moon, brought by the telescopes to within
+half-a-mile. They left the port-lights no more, and noted all the
+details of the strange continent.
+
+Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz formed two separate groups stretching nearly
+to the South Pole; the former group extends from the Pole to the 84th
+parallel on the eastern part of the orb; the second, starting from the
+eastern border, stretches from the 65th degree of latitude to the Pole.
+
+On their capriciously-formed ridge appeared dazzling sheets of light
+like those signalised by Father Secchi. With more certainty than the
+illustrious Roman astronomer, Barbicane was enabled to establish their
+nature.
+
+"It is snow," cried he.
+
+"Snow?" echoed Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, snow, the surface of which is profoundly frozen. Look how
+it reflects the luminous rays. Cooled lava would not give so intense a
+reflection. Therefore there is water and air upon the moon, as little as
+you like, but the fact can no longer be contested."
+
+No, it could not be, and if ever Barbicane saw the earth again his notes
+would testify to this fact, important in selenographic observations.
+
+These Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz arose in the midst of plains of
+moderate extent, bounded by an indefinite succession of amphitheatres
+and circular ramparts. These two chains are the only ones which are met
+with in the region of amphitheatres. Relatively they are not very
+broken, and only throw out here and there some sharp peaks, the highest
+of which measures 7,603 metres.
+
+The projectile hung high above all this, and the relief disappeared in
+the intense brilliancy of the disc.
+
+Then reappeared to the eyes of the travellers that original aspect of
+the lunar landscapes, raw in tone, without gradation of colours, only
+white and black, for diffused light was wanting. Still the sight of this
+desolate world was very curious on account of its very strangeness. They
+were moving above this chaotic region as if carried along by the breath
+of a tempest, seeing the summits fly under their feet, looking down the
+cavities, climbing the ramparts, sounding the mysterious holes. But
+there was no trace of vegetation, no appearance of cities, nothing but
+stratifications, lava streams, polished like immense mirrors, which
+reflect the solar rays with unbearable brilliancy. There was no
+appearance of a living world, everything of a dead one, where the
+avalanches rolling from the summit of the mountains rushed noiselessly.
+They had plenty of movement, but noise was wanting still.
+
+Barbicane established the fact, by reiterated observation, that the
+reliefs on the borders of the disc, although they had been acted upon
+by different forces to those of the central region, presented a uniform
+conformation. There was the same circular aggregation, the same
+accidents of ground. Still it might be supposed that their arrangements
+were not completely analogous. In the centre the still malleable crust
+of the moon suffered the double attraction of the moon and the earth
+acting in inverse ways according to a radius prolonged from one to the
+other. On the borders of the disc, on the contrary, the lunar attraction
+has been, thus to say, perpendicular with the terrestrial attraction. It
+seems, therefore, that the reliefs on the soil produced under these
+conditions ought to have taken a different form. Yet they had not,
+therefore the moon had found in herself alone the principle of her
+formation and constitution. She owed nothing to foreign influences,
+which justified the remarkable proposition of Arago's, "No action
+exterior to the moon has contributed to the production of her relief."
+
+However that may be in its actual condition, this world was the image of
+death without it being possible to say that life had ever animated it.
+
+Michel Ardan, however, thought he recognised a heap of ruins, to which
+he drew Barbicane's attention. It was situated in about the 80th
+parallel and 30° longitude. This heap of stones, pretty regularly made,
+was in the shape of a vast fortress, overlooking one of those long
+furrows which served as river-beds in ante-historical times. Not far off
+rose to a height of 5,646 metres the circular mountain called Short,
+equal to the Asiatic Caucasus. Michel Ardan, with his habitual ardour,
+maintained "the evidences" of his fortress. Below he perceived the
+dismantled ramparts of a town; here the arch of a portico, still intact;
+there two or three columns lying on their side; farther on a succession
+of archpieces, which must have supported the conduct of an aqueduct; in
+another part the sunken pillars of a gigantic bridge run into the
+thickest part of the furrow. He distinguished all that, but with so much
+imagination in his eyes, through a telescope so fanciful, that his
+observation cannot be relied upon. And yet who would affirm, who would
+dare to say, that the amiable fellow had not really seen what his two
+companions would not see?
+
+The moments were too precious to be sacrificed to an idle discussion.
+The Selenite city, whether real or pretended, had disappeared in the
+distance. The projectile began to get farther away from the lunar disc,
+and the details of the ground began to be lost in a confused jumble. The
+reliefs, amphitheatres, craters, and plains alone remained, and still
+showed their boundary-lines distinctly.
+
+At that moment there stretched to the left one of the finest
+amphitheatres in lunar orography. It was Newton, which Barbicane easily
+recognised by referring to the _Mappa Selenographica_.
+
+Newton is situated in exactly 77° south lat. and 16° east long. It forms
+a circular crater, the ramparts of which, 7,264 metres high, seemed to
+be inaccessible.
+
+Barbicane made his companions notice that the height of that mountain
+above the surrounding plain was far from being equal to the depth of its
+crater. This enormous hole was beyond all measurement, and made a gloomy
+abyss, the bottom of which the sun's rays could never reach. There,
+according to Humboldt, utter darkness reigns, which the light of the sun
+and the earth could not break. The mythologists would have made it with
+justice hell's mouth.
+
+"Newton," said Barbicane, "is the most perfect type of the circular
+mountains, of which the earth possesses no specimen. They prove that the
+formation of the moon by cooling was due to violent causes, for whilst
+under the influence of interior fire the reliefs were thrown up to
+considerable heights, the bottom dropped in, and became lower than the
+lunar level."
+
+"I do not say no," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+A few minutes after having passed Newton the projectile stood directly
+over the circular mountain of Moret. It also passed rather high above
+the summits of Blancanus, and about 7.30 p.m. it reached the
+amphitheatre of Clavius.
+
+This circle, one of the most remarkable on the disc, is situated in
+south lat. 58° and east long. 15°. Its height is estimated at 7,091
+metres. The travellers at a distance of 200 miles, reduced to two by the
+telescopes, could admire the arrangement of this vast crater.
+
+"The terrestrial volcanoes," said Barbicane, "are only molehills
+compared to the volcanoes of the moon. Measuring the ancient craters
+formed by the first eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna, they are found to be
+scarcely 6,000 metres wide. In France the circle of the Cantal measures
+five miles; at Ceylon the circle of the island is forty miles, and is
+considered the largest on the globe. What are these diameters compared
+to that of Clavius, which we are over in this moment?"
+
+"What is its width?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"About seventy miles," answered Barbicane. "This amphitheatre is
+certainly the largest on the moon, but many are fifty miles wide!"
+
+"Ah, my friends," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "can you imagine what this
+peaceful orb of night was once like? when these craters vomited torrents
+of lava and stones, with clouds of smoke and sheets of flame? What a
+prodigious spectacle formerly, and now what a falling off! This moon is
+now only the meagre case of fireworks, of which the rockets, serpents,
+suns, and wheels, after going off magnificently, only leave torn pieces
+of cardboard. Who can tell the cause, reason, or justification of such
+cataclysms?"
+
+Barbicane did not listen to Michel Ardan. He was contemplating those
+ramparts of Clavius, formed of wide mountains several leagues thick. At
+the bottom of its immense cavity lay hundreds of small extinct craters,
+making the soil like a sieve, and overlooked by a peak more than 15,000
+feet high.
+
+The plain around had a desolate aspect. Nothing so arid as these
+reliefs, nothing so sad as these ruins of mountains, if so they may be
+called, as those heaps of peaks and mountains encumbering the ground!
+The satellite seemed to have been blown up in this place.
+
+The projectile still went on, and the chaos was still the same. Circles,
+craters, and mountains succeeded each other incessantly. No more plains
+or seas--an interminable Switzerland or Norway. Lastly, in the centre of
+the creviced region at its culminating point, the most splendid mountain
+of the lunar disc, the dazzling Tycho, to which posterity still gives
+the name of the illustrious Danish astronomer.
+
+Whilst observing the full moon in a cloudless sky, there is no one who
+has not remarked this brilliant point on the southern hemisphere. Michel
+Ardan, to qualify it, employed all the metaphors his imagination could
+furnish him with. To him Tycho was an ardent focus of light, a centre of
+irradiation, a crater vomiting flames! It was the axle of a fiery wheel,
+a sea-star encircling the disc with its silver tentacles, an immense eye
+darting fire, a nimbo made for Pluto's head! It was a star hurled by the
+hand of the Creator, and fallen upon the lunar surface!
+
+Tycho forms such a luminous concentration that the inhabitants of the
+earth can see it without a telescope, although they are at a distance of
+100,000 leagues. It will, therefore, be readily imagined what its
+intensity must have been in the eyes of observers placed at fifty
+leagues only.
+
+Across this pure ether its brilliancy was so unbearable that Barbicane
+and his friends were obliged to blacken the object-glasses of their
+telescopes with gas-smoke in order to support it. Then, mute, hardly
+emitting a few admirative interjections, they looked and contemplated.
+All their sentiments, all their impressions were concentrated in their
+eyes, as life, under violent emotion, is concentrated in the heart.
+
+Tycho belongs to the system of radiating mountains, like Aristarchus and
+Copernicus. But it testified the most completely of all to the terrible
+volcanic action to which the formation of the moon is due.
+
+Tycho is situated in south lat. 43° and east long. 12°. Its centre is
+occupied by a crater more than forty miles wide. It affects a slightly
+elliptical form, and is inclosed by circular ramparts, which on the east
+and west overlook the exterior plain from a height of 5,000 metres. It
+is an aggregation of Mont Blancs, placed round a common centre, and
+crowned with shining rays.
+
+Photography itself could never represent what this incomparable
+mountain, with all its projections converging to it and its interior
+excrescences, is really like. In fact, it is during the full moon that
+Tycho is seen in all its splendour. Then all shadows disappear, the
+foreshortenings of perspective disappear, and all proofs come out
+white--an unfortunate circumstance, for this strange region would have
+been curious to reproduce with photographic exactitude. It is only an
+agglomeration of holes, craters, circles, a vertiginous network of
+crests. It will be understood, therefore, that the bubblings of this
+central eruption have kept their first forms. Crystallised by cooling,
+they have stereotyped the aspect which the moon formerly presented under
+the influence of Plutonic forces.
+
+The distance which separated the travellers from the circular summits of
+Tycho was not so great that the travellers could not survey its
+principal details. Even upon the embankment which forms the ramparts of
+Tycho, the mountains hanging to the interior and exterior slopes rose in
+stories like gigantic terraces. They appeared to be higher by 300 or 400
+feet on the west than on the east. No system of terrestrial
+castrametation could equal these natural fortifications. A town built at
+the bottom of this circular cavity would have been utterly inaccessible.
+
+Inaccessible and marvellously extended over this ground of picturesque
+relief! Nature had not left the bottom of this crater flat and empty. It
+possessed a special orography, a mountain system which made it a world
+apart. The travellers clearly distinguished the cones, central hills,
+remarkable movements of the ground, naturally disposed for the reception
+of masterpieces of Selenite architecture. There was the place for a
+temple, here for a forum, there the foundations of a palace, there the
+plateau of a citadel, the whole overlooked by a central mountain 1,500
+feet high--a vast circuit which would have held ancient Rome ten times
+over.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, made enthusiastic by the sight, "what
+grand towns could be built in this circle of mountains! A tranquil city,
+a peaceful refuge, away from all human cares! How all misanthropes could
+live there, all haters of humanity, all those disgusted with social
+life!"
+
+"All! It would be too small for them!" replied Barbicane simply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+GRAVE QUESTIONS.
+
+
+In the meantime the projectile had passed the neighbourhood of Tycho.
+Barbicane and his two friends then observed, with the most scrupulous
+attention, those brilliant radii which the celebrated mountain disperses
+so curiously on every horizon.
+
+What was this radiating aureole? What geological phenomenon had caused
+those ardent beams? This question justly occupied Barbicane. Under his
+eyes, in every direction, ran luminous furrows, with raised banks and
+concave middle, some ten miles, others more than twenty miles wide.
+These shining trails ran in certain places at least 300 leagues from
+Tycho, and seemed to cover, especially towards the east, north-east, and
+north, half the southern hemisphere. One of these furrows stretched as
+far as the amphitheatre of Neander, situated on the 40th meridian.
+Another went rounding off through the Sea of Nectar and broke against
+the chain of the Pyrenees after a run of 400 leagues; others towards the
+west covered with a luminous network the Sea of Clouds and the Sea of
+Humours.
+
+What was the origin of these shining rays running equally over plains
+and reliefs, however high? They all started from a common centre, the
+crater of Tycho. They emanated from it.
+
+Herschel attributed their brilliant aspect to ancient streams of lava
+congealed by the cold, an opinion which has not been generally received.
+Other astronomers have seen in these inexplicable rays a kind of
+_moraines_, ranges of erratic blocks thrown out at the epoch of the
+formation of Tycho.
+
+"And why should it not be so?" asked Nicholl of Barbicane, who rejected
+these different opinions at the same time that he related them.
+
+"Because the regularity of these luminous lines, and the violence
+necessary to send them to such a distance, are inexplicable.
+
+"_Par bleu_!" replied Michel Ardan. "I can easily explain to myself the
+origin of these rays."
+
+"Indeed," said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel. "Why should they not be the cracks caused by the
+shock of a bullet or a stone upon a pane of glass?"
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane, smiling; "and what hand would be powerful
+enough to hurl the stone that would produce such a shock?"
+
+"A hand is not necessary," answered Michel, who would not give in; "and
+as to the stone, let us say it is a comet."
+
+"Ah! comets?" exclaimed Barbicane; "those much-abused comets! My worthy
+Michel, your explanation is not bad, but your comet is not wanted. The
+shock might have come from the interior of the planet. A violent
+contraction of the lunar crust whilst cooling was enough to make that
+gigantic crack."
+
+"Contraction let it be--something like a lunar colic," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "that is also the opinion of an English
+_savant_, Nasmyth, and it seems to me to explain the radiation of these
+mountains sufficiently."
+
+"That Nasmyth was no fool!" answered Michel.
+
+The travellers, who could never weary of such a spectacle, long admired
+the splendours of Tycho. Their projectile, bathed in that double
+irradiation of the sun and moon, must have appeared like a globe of
+fire. They had, therefore, suddenly passed from considerable cold to
+intense heat. Nature was thus preparing them to become Selenites.
+
+To become Selenites! That idea again brought up the question of the
+habitability of the moon. After what they had seen, could the travellers
+solve it? Could they conclude for or against? Michel Ardan asked his two
+friends to give utterance to their opinion, and asked them outright if
+they thought that humanity and animality were represented in the lunar
+world.
+
+"I think we cannot answer," said Barbicane, "but in my opinion the
+question ought not to be stated in that form. I ask to be allowed to
+state it differently."
+
+"State it as you like," answered Michel.
+
+"This is it," resumed Barbicane. "The problem is double, and requires a
+double solution. Is the moon habitable? Has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Right," said Nicholl. "Let us first see if the moon is habitable."
+
+"To tell the truth, I know nothing about it," replied Michel.
+
+"And I answer in the negative," said Barbicane. "In her actual state,
+with her certainly very slight atmosphere, her seas mostly dried up, her
+insufficient water, her restricted vegetation, her abrupt alternations
+of heat and cold, her nights and days 354 hours long, the moon does not
+appear habitable to me, nor propitious to the development of the animal
+kingdom, nor sufficient for the needs of existence such as we understand
+it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but is not the moon habitable for beings
+differently organised to us?"
+
+"That question is more difficult to answer," replied Barbicane. "I will
+try to do it, however, but I ask Nicholl if movement seems to him the
+necessary result of existence, under no matter what organisation?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, then, my worthy companion, my answer will be that we have seen
+the lunar continent at a distance of 500 yards, and that nothing
+appeared to be moving on the surface of the moon. The presence of no
+matter what form of humanity would be betrayed by appropriations,
+different constructions, or even ruins. What did we see? Everywhere the
+geological work of Nature, never the work of man. If, therefore,
+representatives of the animal kingdom exist upon the moon, they have
+taken refuge in those bottomless cavities which the eye cannot reach.
+And I cannot admit that either, for they would have left traces of their
+passage upon the plains which the atmosphere, however slight, covers.
+Now these traces are nowhere visible. Therefore the only hypothesis that
+remains is one of living beings without movement or life."
+
+"You might just as well say living creatures who are not alive."
+
+"Precisely," answered Barbicane, "which for us has no meaning."
+
+"Then now we may formulate our opinion," said Michel.
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," resumed Michel Ardan; "the Scientific Commission, meeting
+in the projectile of the Gun Club, after having supported its arguments
+upon fresh facts lately observed, decides unanimously upon the question
+of the habitability of the moon--'No, the moon is not inhabited.'"
+
+This decision was taken down by Barbicane in his notebook, where he had
+already written the _procès-verbal_ of the sitting of December 6th.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl, "let us attack the second question, depending on
+the first. I therefore ask the honourable Commission if the moon is not
+habitable, has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Answer, Citizen Barbicane," said Michel Ardan.
+
+"My friends," answered Barbicane, "I did not undertake this journey to
+form an opinion upon the ancient habitability of our satellite. I may
+add that my personal observations only confirm me in this opinion. I
+believe, I even affirm, that the moon has been inhabited by a human race
+organised like ours, that it has produced animals anatomically formed
+like terrestrial animals; but I add that these races, human or animal,
+have had their day, and are for ever extinct."
+
+"Then," asked Michel, "the moon is an older world than the earth?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane with conviction, "but a world that has grown
+old more quickly, whose formation and deformation have been more rapid.
+Relatively the organising forces of matter have been much more violent
+in the interior of the moon than in the interior of the celestial globe.
+The actual state of this disc, broken up, tormented, and swollen, proves
+this abundantly. In their origin the moon and the earth were only gases.
+These gases became liquids under different influences, and the solid
+mass was formed afterwards. But it is certain that our globe was gas or
+liquid still when the moon, already solidified by cooling, became
+habitable."
+
+"I believe that," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "it was surrounded by atmosphere. The water
+held in by the gassy element could not evaporate. Under the influence of
+air, water, light, and heat, solar and central, vegetation took
+possession of these continents prepared for its reception, and certainly
+life manifested itself about that epoch, for Nature does not spend
+itself in inutilities, and a world so marvellously habitable must have
+been inhabited."
+
+"Still," answered Nicholl, "many phenomena inherent to the movements of
+our satellite must have prevented the expansion of the vegetable and
+animal kingdoms. The days and nights 354 hours long, for example."
+
+"At the terrestrial poles," said Michel, "they last six months."
+
+"That is not a valuable argument, as the poles are not inhabited."
+
+"In the actual state of the moon," resumed Barbicane, "the long nights
+and days create differences of temperature insupportable to the
+constitution, but it was not so at that epoch of historical times. The
+atmosphere enveloped the disc with a fluid mantle. Vapour deposited
+itself in the form of clouds. This natural screen tempered the ardour of
+the solar lays, and retained the nocturnal radiation. Both light and
+heat could diffuse themselves in the air. Hence there was equilibrium
+between the influences which no longer exists now that the atmosphere
+has almost entirely disappeared. Besides, I shall astonish you--"
+
+"Astonish us?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"But I believe that at the epoch when the moon was inhabited the nights
+and days did not last 354 hours!"
+
+"Why so?" asked Nicholl quickly.
+
+"Because it is very probable that then the moon's movement of rotation
+on her axis was not equal to her movement of revolution, an equality
+which puts every point of the lunar disc under the action of the solar
+rays for fifteen days."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but why should not these movements have
+been equal, since they are so actually?"
+
+"Because that equality has only been determined by terrestrial
+attraction. Now, how do we know that this attraction was powerful enough
+to influence the movements of the moon at the epoch the earth was still
+fluid?"
+
+"True," replied Nicholl; "and who can say that the moon has always been
+the earth's satellite?"
+
+"And who can say," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "that the moon did not exist
+before the earth?"
+
+Imagination began to wander in the indefinite field of hypotheses.
+Barbicane wished to hold them in.
+
+"Those," said he, "are speculations too high, problems really insoluble.
+Do not let us enter into them. Let us only admit the insufficiency of
+primordial attraction, and then by the inequality of rotation and
+revolution days and nights could succeed each other upon the moon as
+they do upon the earth. Besides, even under those conditions life was
+possible."
+
+"Then," asked Michel Ardan, "humanity has quite disappeared from the
+moon?"
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "after having, doubtless, existed for
+thousands of centuries. Then gradually the atmosphere becoming rarefied,
+the disc will again be uninhabitable like the terrestrial globe will one
+day become by cooling."
+
+"By cooling?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Barbicane. "As the interior fires became
+extinguished the incandescent matter was concentrated and the lunar disc
+became cool. By degrees the consequences of this phenomenon came
+about--the disappearance of organic beings and the disappearance of
+vegetation. Soon the atmosphere became rarefied, and was probably drawn
+away by terrestrial attraction; the breathable air disappeared, and so
+did water by evaporation. At that epoch the moon became uninhabitable,
+and was no longer inhabited. It was a dead world like it is to-day."
+
+"And you say that the like fate is reserved for the earth?"
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"When the cooling of its crust will have made it uninhabitable."
+
+"Has the time it will take our unfortunate globe to melt been
+calculated?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you know the reason?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then tell us, sulky _savant_--you make me boil with impatience."
+
+"Well, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane tranquilly, "it is well
+known what diminution of temperature the earth suffers in the lapse of a
+century. Now, according to certain calculations, that average
+temperature will be brought down to zero after a period of 400,000
+years!"
+
+"Four hundred thousand years!" exclaimed Michel. "Ah! I breathe again! I
+was really frightened. I imagined from listening to you that we had only
+fifty thousand years to live!"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at their companion's
+uneasiness. Then Nicholl, who wanted to have done with it, reminded them
+of the second question to be settled.
+
+"Has the moon been inhabited?" he asked.
+
+The answer was unanimously in the affirmative.
+
+During this discussion, fruitful in somewhat hazardous theories,
+although it resumed the general ideas of science on the subject, the
+projectile had run rapidly towards the lunar equator, at the same time
+that it went farther away from the lunar disc. It had passed the circle
+of Willem, and the 40th parallel, at a distance of 400 miles. Then
+leaving Pitatus to the right, on the 30th degree, it went along the
+south of the Sea of Clouds, of which it had already approached the
+north. Different amphitheatres appeared confusedly under the white light
+of the full moon--Bouillaud, Purbach, almost square with a central
+crater, then Arzachel, whose interior mountain shone with indefinable
+brilliancy.
+
+At last, as the projectile went farther and farther away, the details
+faded from the travellers' eyes, the mountains were confounded in the
+distance, and all that remained of the marvellous, fantastical, and
+wonderful satellite of the earth was the imperishable remembrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE.
+
+
+For some time Barbicane and his companions, mute and pensive, looked at
+this world, which they had only seen from a distance, like Moses saw
+Canaan, and from which they were going away for ever. The position of
+the projectile relatively to the moon was modified, and now its lower
+end was turned towards the earth.
+
+This change, verified by Barbicane, surprised him greatly. If the bullet
+was going to gravitate round the satellite in an elliptical orbit, why
+was not its heaviest part turned towards it like the moon to the earth?
+There again was an obscure point.
+
+By watching the progress of the projectile they could see that it was
+following away from the moon an analogous curve to that by which it
+approached her. It was, therefore, describing a very long ellipsis which
+would probably extend to the point of equal attraction, where the
+influences of the earth and her satellite are neutralised.
+
+Such was the conclusion which Barbicane correctly drew from the facts
+observed, a conviction which his two friends shared with him.
+
+Questions immediately began to shower upon him.
+
+"What will become of us after we have reached the neutral point?" asked
+Michel Ardan.
+
+"That is unknown!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"But we can make suppositions, I suppose?"
+
+"We can make two," answered Barbicane. "Either the velocity of the
+projectile will then be insufficient, and it will remain entirely
+motionless on that line of double attraction--"
+
+"I would rather have the other supposition, whatever it is," replied
+Michel.
+
+"Or the velocity will be sufficient," resumed Barbicane, "and it will
+continue its elliptical orbit, and gravitate eternally round the orb of
+night."
+
+"Not very consoling that revolution," said Michel, "to become the humble
+servants of a moon whom we are in the habit of considering our servant.
+And is that the future that awaits us?"
+
+Neither Barbicane nor Nicholl answered.
+
+"Why do you not answer?" asked the impatient Michel.
+
+"There is nothing to answer," said Nicholl.
+
+"Can nothing be done?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "Do you pretend to struggle with the
+impossible?"
+
+"Why not? Ought a Frenchman and two Americans to recoil at such a word?"
+
+"But what do you want to do?"
+
+"Command the motion that is carrying us along!"
+
+"Command it?"
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel, getting animated, "stop it or modify it; use it
+for the accomplishment of our plans."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"That is your business! If artillerymen are not masters of their bullets
+they are no longer artillerymen. If the projectile commands the gunner,
+the gunner ought to be rammed instead into the cannon! Fine _savants_,
+truly! who don't know now what to do after having induced me--"
+
+"Induced!" cried Barbicane and Nicholl. "Induced! What do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"No recriminations!" said Michel. "I do not complain. The journey
+pleases me. The bullet suits me. But let us do all that is humanly
+possible to fall somewhere, if only upon the moon."
+
+"We should only be too glad, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane, "but
+we have no means of doing it."
+
+"Can we not modify the motion of the projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor diminish its speed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even by lightening it like they lighten an overloaded ship?"
+
+"What can we throw out?" answered Nicholl. "We have no ballast on board.
+And besides, it seems to me that a lightened projectile would go on more
+quickly."
+
+"Less quickly," said Michel.
+
+"More quickly," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Neither more nor less quickly," answered Barbicane, wishing to make his
+two friends agree, "for we are moving in the void where we cannot take
+specific weight into account."
+
+"Very well," exclaimed Michel Ardan in a determined tone; "there is only
+one thing to do."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Have breakfast," imperturbably answered the audacious Frenchman, who
+always brought that solution to the greatest difficulties.
+
+In fact, though that operation would have no influence on the direction
+of the projectile, it might be attempted without risk, and even
+successfully from the point of view of the stomach. Decidedly the
+amiable Michel had only good ideas.
+
+They breakfasted, therefore, at 2 a.m., but the hour was not of much
+consequence. Michel served up his habitual _menu_, crowned by an amiable
+bottle out of his secret cellar. If ideas did not come into their heads
+the Chambertin of 1863 must be despaired of.
+
+The meal over, observations began again.
+
+The objects they had thrown out of the projectile still followed it at
+the same invariable distance. It was evident that the bullet in its
+movement of translation round the moon had not passed through any
+atmosphere, for the specific weight of these objects would have modified
+their respective distances.
+
+There was nothing to see on the side of the terrestrial globe. The earth
+was only a day old, having been new at midnight the day before, and two
+days having to go by before her crescent, disengaged from the solar
+rays, could serve as a clock to the Selenites, as in her movement of
+rotation each of her points always passes the same meridian of the moon
+every twenty-four hours.
+
+The spectacle was a different one on the side of the moon; the orb was
+shining in all its splendour amidst innumerable constellations, the rays
+of which could not trouble its purity. Upon the disc the plains again
+wore the sombre tint which is seen from the earth. The rest of the
+nimbus was shining, and amidst the general blaze Tycho stood out like a
+sun.
+
+Barbicane could not manage any way to appreciate the velocity of the
+projectile, but reasoning demonstrated that this speed must be uniformly
+diminishing in conformity with the laws of rational mechanics.
+
+In fact, it being admitted that the bullet would describe an orbit round
+the moon, that orbit must necessarily be elliptical. Science proves that
+it must be thus. No mobile circulation round any body is an exception to
+that law. All the orbits described in space are elliptical, those of
+satellites round their planets, those of planets around their sun, that
+of the sun round the unknown orb that serves as its central pivot. Why
+should the projectile of the Gun Club escape that natural arrangement?
+
+Now in elliptical orbits attracting bodies always occupy one of the foci
+of the ellipsis. The satellite is, therefore, nearer the body round
+which it gravitates at one moment than it is at another. When the earth
+is nearest the sun she is at her perihelion, and at her aphelion when
+most distant. The moon is nearest the earth at her perigee, and most
+distant at her apogee. To employ analogous expressions which enrich the
+language of astronomers, if the projectile remained a satellite of the
+moon, it ought to be said that it is in its "aposelene" at its most
+distant point, and at its "periselene" at its nearest.
+
+In the latter case the projectile ought to attain its maximum of speed,
+in the latter its minimum. Now it was evidently going towards its
+"aposelene," and Barbicane was right in thinking its speed would
+decrease up to that point, and gradually increase when it would again
+draw near the moon. That speed even would be absolutely _nil_ if the
+point was coexistent with that of attraction.
+
+Barbicane studied the consequences of these different situations; he was
+trying what he could make of them when he was suddenly interrupted by a
+cry from Michel Ardan.
+
+"I'faith!" cried Michel, "what fools we are!"
+
+"I don't say we are not," answered Barbicane; "but why?"
+
+"Because we have some very simple means of slackening the speed that is
+taking us away from the moon, and we do not use them."
+
+"And what are those means?"
+
+"That of utilising the force of recoil in our rockets."
+
+"Ah, why not?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We have not yet utilised that force, it is true," said Barbicane, "but
+we shall do so."
+
+"When?" asked Michel.
+
+"When the time comes. Remark, my friends, that in the position now
+occupied by the projectile, a position still oblique to the lunar disc,
+our rockets, by altering its direction, might take it farther away
+instead of nearer to the moon. Now I suppose it is the moon you want to
+reach?"
+
+"Essentially," answered Michel.
+
+"Wait, then. Through some inexplicable influence the projectile has a
+tendency to let its lower end fall towards the earth. It is probable
+that at the point of equal attraction its conical summit will be
+rigorously directed towards the moon. At that moment it may be hoped
+that its speed will be _nil_. That will be the time to act, and under
+the effort of our rockets we can, perhaps, provoke a direct fall upon
+the surface of the lunar disc."
+
+"Bravo!" said Michel.
+
+"We have not done it yet, and we could not do it as we passed the
+neutral point, because the projectile was still animated with too much
+velocity."
+
+"Well reasoned out," said Nicholl.
+
+"We must wait patiently," said Barbicane, "and put every chance on our
+side; then, after having despaired so long, I again begin to think we
+shall reach our goal."
+
+This conclusion provoked hurrahs from Michel Ardan. No one of these
+daring madmen remembered the question they had all answered in the
+negative--No, the moon is not inhabited! No, the moon is probably not
+inhabitable! And yet they were going to do all they could to reach it.
+
+One question only now remained to be solved: at what precise moment
+would the projectile reach that point of equal attraction where the
+travellers would play their last card?
+
+In order to calculate that moment to within some seconds Barbicane had
+only to have recourse to his travelling notes, and to take the different
+altitudes from lunar parallels. Thus the time employed in going over the
+distance between the neutral point and the South Pole must be equal to
+the distance which separates the South Pole from the neutral point. The
+hours representing the time it took were carefully noted down, and the
+calculation became easy.
+
+Barbicane found that this point would be reached by the projectile at 1
+a.m. on the 8th of December. It was then 3 a.m. on the 7th of December.
+Therefore, if nothing intervened, the projectile would reach the neutral
+point in twenty-two hours.
+
+The rockets had been put in their places to slacken the fall of the
+bullet upon the moon, and now the bold fellows were going to use them to
+provoke an exactly contrary effect. However that may be, they were
+ready, and there was nothing to do but await the moment for setting fire
+to them.
+
+"As there is nothing to do," said Nicholl, "I have a proposition to
+make."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"I propose we go to sleep."
+
+"That is a nice idea!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"It is forty hours since we have closed our eyes," said Nicholl. "A few
+hours' sleep would set us up again."
+
+"Never!" replied Michel.
+
+"Good," said Nicholl; "every man to his humour--mine is to sleep."
+
+And lying down on a divan, Nicholl was soon snoring like a forty-eight
+pound bullet.
+
+"Nicholl is a sensible man," said Barbicane soon. "I shall imitate him."
+
+A few minutes after he was joining his bass to the captain's baritone.
+
+"Decidedly," said Michel Ardan, when he found himself alone, "these
+practical people sometimes do have opportune ideas."
+
+And stretching out his long legs, and folding his long arms under his
+head, Michel went to sleep too.
+
+But this slumber could neither be durable nor peaceful. Too many
+preoccupations filled the minds of these three men, and a few hours
+after, at about 7 a.m., they all three awoke at once.
+
+The projectile was still moving away from the moon, inclining its
+conical summit more and more towards her. This phenomenon was
+inexplicable at present, but it fortunately aided the designs of
+Barbicane.
+
+Another seventeen hours and the time for action would have come.
+
+That day seemed long. However bold they might be, the travellers felt
+much anxiety at the approach of the minute that was to decide
+everything, either their fall upon the moon or their imprisonment in an
+immutable orbit. They therefore counted the hours, which went too slowly
+for them, Barbicane and Nicholl obstinately plunged in calculations,
+Michel walking up and down the narrow space between the walls
+contemplating with longing eye the impassible moon.
+
+Sometimes thoughts of the earth passed through their minds. They saw
+again their friends of the Gun Club, and the dearest of them all, J.T.
+Maston. At that moment the honourable secretary must have been occupying
+his post on the Rocky Mountains. If he should perceive the projectile
+upon the mirror of his gigantic telescope what would he think? After
+having seen it disappear behind the south pole of the moon, they would
+see it reappear at the north! It was, therefore, the satellite of a
+satellite! Had J.T. Maston sent that unexpected announcement into the
+world? Was this to be the _dénouement_ of the great enterprise?
+
+Meanwhile the day passed without incident. Terrestrial midnight came.
+The 8th of December was about to commence. Another hour and the point of
+equal attraction would be reached. What velocity then animated the
+projectile? They could form no estimate; but no error could vitiate
+Barbicane's calculations. At 1 a.m. that velocity ought to be and would
+be _nil_.
+
+Besides, another phenomenon would mark the stopping point of the
+projectile on the neutral line. In that spot the two attractions,
+terrestrial and lunar, would be annihilated. Objects would not weigh
+anything. This singular fact, which had so curiously surprised Barbicane
+and his companions before, must again come about under identical
+circumstances. It was at that precise moment they must act.
+
+The conical summit of the bullet had already sensibly turned towards the
+lunar disc. The projectile was just right for utilising all the recoil
+produced by setting fire to the apparatus. Chance was therefore in the
+travellers' favour. If the velocity of the projectile were to be
+absolutely annihilated upon the neutral point, a given motion, however
+slight, towards the moon would determine its fall.
+
+"Five minutes to one," said Nicholl.
+
+"Everything is ready," answered Michel Ardan, directing his match
+towards the flame of the gas.
+
+"Wait!" said Barbicane, chronometer in hand.
+
+At that moment weight had no effect. The travellers felt its complete
+disappearance in themselves. They were near the neutral point if they
+had not reached it.
+
+"One o'clock!" said Barbicane.
+
+Michel Ardan put his match to a contrivance that put all the fuses into
+instantaneous communication. No detonation was heard outside, where air
+was wanting, but through the port-lights Barbicane saw the prolonged
+flame, which was immediately extinguished.
+
+The projectile had a slight shock which was very sensibly felt in the
+interior.
+
+The three friends looked, listened, without speaking, hardly breathing.
+The beating of their hearts might have been heard in the absolute
+silence.
+
+"Are we falling?" asked Michel Ardan at last.
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "for the bottom of the projectile has not turned
+towards the lunar disc!"
+
+At that moment Barbicane left his window and turned towards his two
+companions. He was frightfully pale, his forehead wrinkled, his lips
+contracted.
+
+"We are falling!" said he.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "upon the moon?"
+
+"Upon the earth!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan; and he added philosophically, "when we
+entered the bullet we did not think it would be so difficult to get out
+of it again."
+
+In fact, the frightful fall had begun. The velocity kept by the
+projectile had sent it beyond the neutral point. The explosion of the
+fuses had not stopped it. That velocity which had carried the projectile
+beyond the neutral line as it went was destined to do the same upon its
+return. The law of physics condemned it, in its elliptical orbit, _to
+pass by every point it had already passed_.
+
+It was a terrible fall from a height of 78,000 leagues, and which no
+springs could deaden. According to the laws of ballistics the projectile
+would strike the earth with a velocity equal to that which animated it
+as it left the Columbiad--a velocity of "16,000 metres in the last
+second!"
+
+And in order to give some figures for comparison it has been calculated
+that an object thrown from the towers of Notre Dame, the altitude of
+which is only 200 feet, would reach the pavement with a velocity of 120
+leagues an hour. Here the projectile would strike the earth with a
+velocity of 57,600 _leagues an hour_.
+
+"We are lost men," said Nicholl coldly.
+
+"Well, if we die," answered Barbicane, with a sort of religious
+enthusiasm, "the result of our journey will be magnificently enlarged!
+God will tell us His own secret! In the other life the soul will need
+neither machines nor engines in order to know! It will be identified
+with eternal wisdom!"
+
+"True," replied Michel Ardan: "the other world may well console us for
+that trifling orb called the moon!"
+
+Barbicane crossed his arms upon his chest with a movement of sublime
+resignation.
+
+"God's will be done!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA.
+
+
+Well, lieutenant, and what about those soundings?"
+
+"I think the operation is almost over, sir. But who would have expected
+to find such a depth so near land, at 100 leagues only from the American
+coast?"
+
+"Yes, Bronsfield, there is a great depression," said Captain Blomsberry.
+"There exists a submarine valley here, hollowed out by Humboldt's
+current, which runs along the coasts of America to the Straits of
+Magellan."
+
+"Those great depths," said the lieutenant, "are not favourable for the
+laying of telegraph cables. A smooth plateau is the best, like the one
+the American cable lies on between Valentia and Newfoundland."
+
+"I agree with you, Bronsfield. And, may it please you, lieutenant, where
+are we now?"
+
+"Sir," answered Bronsfield, "we have at this moment 21,500 feet of line
+out, and the bullet at the end of the line has not yet touched the
+bottom, for the sounding-lead would have come up again."
+
+"Brook's apparatus is an ingenious one," said Captain Blomsberry. "It
+allows us to obtain very correct soundings."
+
+"Touched!" cried at that moment one of the forecastle-men who was
+superintending the operation.
+
+The captain and lieutenant went on to the forecastle-deck.
+
+"What depth are we in?" asked the captain.
+
+"Twenty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two feet," answered the
+lieutenant, writing it down in his pocket-book.
+
+"Very well, Bronsfield," said the captain, "I will go and mark the
+result on my chart. Now have the sounding-line brought in--that is a
+work of several hours. Meanwhile the engineer shall have his fires
+lighted, and we shall be ready to start as soon as you have done. It is
+10 p.m., and with your permission, lieutenant, I shall turn in."
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly!" answered Lieutenant Bronsfield amiably.
+
+The captain of the Susquehanna, a worthy man if ever there was one, the
+very humble servant of his officers, went to his cabin, took his
+brandy-and-water with many expressions of satisfaction to the steward,
+got into bed, not before complimenting his servant on the way he made
+beds, and sank into peaceful slumber.
+
+It was then 10 p.m. The eleventh day of the month of December was going
+to end in a magnificent night.
+
+The Susquehanna, a corvette of 500 horse power, of the United States
+Navy, was taking soundings in the Pacific at about a hundred leagues
+from the American coast, abreast of that long peninsula on the coast of
+New Mexico.
+
+The wind had gradually fallen. There was not the slightest movement in
+the air. The colours of the corvette hung from the mast motionless and
+inert.
+
+The captain, Jonathan Blomsberry, cousin-german to Colonel Blomsberry,
+one of the Gun Club members who had married a Horschbidden, the
+captain's aunt and daughter of an honourable Kentucky merchant--Captain
+Blomsberry could not have wished for better weather to execute the
+delicate operation of sounding. His corvette had felt nothing of that
+great tempest which swept away the clouds heaped up on the Rocky
+Mountains, and allowed the course of the famous projectile to be
+observed. All was going on well, and he did not forget to thank Heaven
+with all the fervour of a Presbyterian.
+
+The series of soundings executed by the Susquehanna were intended for
+finding out the most favourable bottoms for the establishment of a
+submarine cable between the Hawaiian Islands and the American coast.
+
+It was a vast project set on foot by a powerful company. Its director,
+the intelligent Cyrus Field, meant even to cover all the islands of
+Oceania with a vast electric network--an immense enterprise worthy of
+American genius.
+
+It was to the corvette Susquehanna that the first operations of sounding
+had been entrusted. During the night from the 11th to the 12th of
+December she was exactly in north lat. 27° 7' and 41° 37' long., west
+from the Washington meridian.
+
+The moon, then in her last quarter, began to show herself above the
+horizon.
+
+After Captain Blomsberry's departure, Lieutenant Bronsfield and a few
+officers were together on the poop. As the moon appeared their thoughts
+turned towards that orb which the eyes of a whole hemisphere were then
+contemplating. The best marine glasses could not have discovered the
+projectile wandering round the demi-globe, and yet they were all pointed
+at the shining disc which millions of eyes were looking at in the same
+moment.
+
+"They started ten days ago," then said Lieutenant Bronsfield. "What can
+have become of them?"
+
+"They have arrived, sir," exclaimed a young midshipman, "and they are
+doing what all travellers do in a new country, they are looking about
+them."
+
+"I am certain of it as you say so, my young friend," answered Lieutenant
+Bronsfield, smiling.
+
+"Still," said another officer, "their arrival cannot be doubted. The
+projectile must have reached the moon at the moment she was full, at
+midnight on the 5th. We are now at the 11th of December; that makes six
+days. Now in six times twenty-four hours, with no darkness, they have
+had time to get comfortably settled. It seems to me that I see our brave
+countrymen encamped at the bottom of a valley, on the borders of a
+Selenite stream, near the projectile, half buried by its fall, amidst
+volcanic remains, Captain Nicholl beginning his levelling operations,
+President Barbicane putting his travelling notes in order, Michel Ardan
+performing the lunar solitudes with his Londrès cigar--"
+
+"Oh, it must be so; it is so!" exclaimed the young midshipman,
+enthusiastic at the ideal description of his superior.
+
+"I should like to believe it," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, who was
+seldom carried away. "Unfortunately direct news from the lunar world
+will always be wanting."
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the midshipman, "but cannot President Barbicane
+write?"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted this answer.
+
+"Not letters," answered the young man quickly. "The post-office has
+nothing to do with that."
+
+"Perhaps you mean the telegraph-office?" said one of the officers
+ironically.
+
+"Nor that either," answered the midshipman, who would not give in. "But
+it is very easy to establish graphic communication with the earth."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"By means of the telescope on Long's Peak. You know that it brings the
+moon to within two leagues only of the Rocky Mountains, and that it
+allows them to see objects having nine feet of diameter on her surface.
+Well, our industrious friends will construct a gigantic alphabet! They
+will write words 600 feet long, and sentences a league long, and then
+they can send up news!"
+
+The young midshipman, who certainly had some imagination was loudly
+applauded. Lieutenant Bronsfield himself was convinced that the idea
+could have been carried out. He added that by sending luminous rays,
+grouped by means of parabolical mirrors, direct communications could
+also be established--in fact, these rays would be as visible on the
+surface of Venus or Mars as the planet Neptune is from the earth. He
+ended by saying that the brilliant points already observed on the
+nearest planets might be signals made to the earth. But he said, that
+though by these means they could have news from the lunar world, they
+could not send any from the terrestrial world unless the Selenites have
+at their disposition instruments with which to make distant
+observations.
+
+"That is evident," answered one of the officers, "but what has become of
+the travellers? What have they done? What have they seen? That is what
+interests us. Besides, if the experiment has succeeded, which I do not
+doubt, it will be done again. The Columbiad is still walled up in the
+soil of Florida. It is, therefore, now only a question of powder and
+shot, and every time the moon passes the zenith we can send it a cargo
+of visitors."
+
+"It is evident," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "that J.T. Maston will
+go and join his friends one of these days."
+
+"If he will have me," exclaimed the midshipman, "I am ready to go with
+him."
+
+"Oh, there will be plenty of amateurs, and if they are allowed to go,
+half the inhabitants of the earth will soon have emigrated to the moon!"
+
+This conversation between the officers of the Susquehanna was kept up
+till about 1 a.m. It would be impossible to transcribe the overwhelming
+systems and theories which were emitted by these audacious minds. Since
+Barbicane's attempt it seemed that nothing was impossible to Americans.
+They had already formed the project of sending, not another commission
+of _savants_, but a whole colony, and a whole army of infantry,
+artillery, and cavalry to conquer the lunar world.
+
+At 1 a.m. the sounding-line was not all hauled in. Ten thousand feet
+remained out, which would take several more hours to bring in. According
+to the commander's orders the fires had been lighted, and the pressure
+was going up already. The Susquehanna might have started at once.
+
+At that very moment--it was 1.17 a.m.--Lieutenant Bronsfield was about
+to leave his watch to turn in when his attention was attracted by a
+distant and quite unexpected hissing sound.
+
+His comrades and he at first thought that the hissing came from an
+escape of steam, but upon lifting up his head he found that it was high
+up in the air.
+
+They had not time to question each other before the hissing became of
+frightful intensity, and suddenly to their dazzled eyes appeared an
+enormous bolis, inflamed by the rapidity of its course, by its friction
+against the atmospheric strata.
+
+This ignited mass grew huger as it came nearer, and fell with the noise
+of thunder upon the bowsprit of the corvette, which it smashed off close
+to the stem, and vanished in the waves.
+
+A few feet nearer and the Susquehanna would have gone down with all on
+board.
+
+At that moment Captain Blomsberry appeared half-clothed, and rushing in
+the forecastle, where his officers had preceded him--
+
+"With your permission, gentlemen, what has happened?" he asked.
+
+And the midshipman, making himself the mouthpiece of them all, cried
+out--
+
+"Commander, it is 'they' come back again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+J.T. MASTON CALLED IN.
+
+
+Emotion was great on board the Susquehanna. Officers and sailors forgot
+the terrible danger they had just been in--the danger of being crushed
+and sunk. They only thought of the catastrophe which terminated the
+journey. Thus, therefore, the moat audacious enterprise of ancient and
+modern times lost the life of the bold adventurers who had attempted it.
+
+"It is 'they' come back," the young midshipman had said, and they had
+all understood. No one doubted that the bolis was the projectile of the
+Gun Club. Opinions were divided about the fate of the travellers.
+
+"They are dead!" said one.
+
+"They are alive," answered the other. "The water is deep here, and the
+shock has been deadened."
+
+"But they will have no air, and will die suffocated!"
+
+"Burnt!" answered the other. "Their projectile was only an incandescent
+mass as it crossed the atmosphere."
+
+"What does it matter?" was answered unanimously, "living or dead they
+must be brought up from there."
+
+Meanwhile Captain Blomsberry had called his officers together, and with
+their permission he held a council. Something must be done immediately.
+The most immediate was to haul up the projectile--a difficult operation,
+but not an impossible one. But the corvette wanted the necessary
+engines, which would have to be powerful and precise. It was, therefore,
+resolved to put into the nearest port, and to send word to the Gun Club
+about the fall of the bullet.
+
+This determination was taken unanimously. The choice of a port was
+discussed. The neighbouring coast had no harbour on the 27th degree of
+latitude. Higher up, above the peninsula of Monterey, was the important
+town which has given its name to it. But, seated on the confines of a
+veritable desert, it had no telegraphic communication with the interior,
+and electricity alone could spread the important news quickly enough.
+
+Some degrees above lay the bay of San Francisco. Through the capital of
+the Gold Country communication with the centre of the Union would be
+easy. By putting all steam on, the Susquehanna, in less than two days,
+could reach the port of San Francisco. She must, therefore, start at
+once.
+
+The fires were heaped up, and they could set sail immediately. Two
+thousand fathoms of sounding still remained in the water. Captain
+Blomsberry would not lose precious time in hauling it in, and resolved
+to cut the line.
+
+"We will fix the end to a buoy," said he, "and the buoy will indicate
+the exact point where the projectile fell."
+
+"Besides," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "we have our exact bearings:
+north lat. 27° 7', and west long. 41° 37'."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Bronsfield," answered the captain; "with your
+permission, have the line cut."
+
+A strong buoy, reinforced by a couple of spars, was thrown out on to
+the surface of the ocean. The end of the line was solidly struck
+beneath, and only submitted to the ebb and flow of the surges, so that
+it would not drift much.
+
+At that moment the engineer came to warn the captain that he had put the
+pressure on, and they could start. The captain thanked him for his
+excellent communication. Then he gave N.N.E. as the route. The corvette
+was put about, and made for the bay of San Francisco with all steam on.
+It was then 3 a.m.
+
+Two hundred leagues to get over was not much for a quick vessel like the
+Susquehanna. It got over that distance in thirty-six hours, and on the
+14th of December, at 1.27 p.m., she would enter the bay of San
+Francisco.
+
+At the sight of this vessel of the national navy arriving with all speed
+on, her bowsprit gone, and her mainmast propped up, public curiosity was
+singularly excited. A compact crowd was soon assembled on the quays
+awaiting the landing.
+
+After weighing anchor Captain Blomsberry and Lieutenant Bronsfield got
+down into an eight-oared boat which carried them rapidly to the land.
+
+They jumped out on the quay.
+
+"The telegraph-office?" they asked, without answering one of the
+thousand questions that were showered upon them.
+
+The port inspector guided them himself to the telegraph-office, amidst
+an immense crowd of curious people.
+
+Blomsberry and Bronsfield went into the office whilst the crowd crushed
+against the door.
+
+A few minutes later one message was sent in four different
+directions:--1st, to the Secretary of the Navy, Washington; 2nd, to the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, Baltimore; 3rd, to the Honourable J.T.
+Maston, Long's Peak, Rocky Mountains; 4th, to the Sub-Director of the
+Cambridge Observatory, Massachusetts.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"In north lat. 20° 7', and west long. 41° 37', the projectile of the
+Columbiad fell into the Pacific, on December 12th, at 1.17 am. Send
+instructions.--BLOMSBERRY, Commander Susquehanna."
+
+Five minutes afterwards the whole town of San Francisco knew the
+tidings. Before 6 p.m. the different States of the Union had
+intelligence of the supreme catastrophe. After midnight, through the
+cable, the whole of Europe knew the result of the great American
+enterprise.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the effect produced throughout the
+world by the unexpected news.
+
+On receipt of the telegram the Secretary of the Navy telegraphed to the
+Susquehanna to keep under fire, and wait in the bay of San Francisco.
+She was to be ready to set sail day or night.
+
+The Observatory of Cambridge had an extraordinary meeting, and, with the
+serenity which distinguishes scientific bodies, it peacefully discussed
+the scientific part of the question.
+
+At the Gun Club there was an explosion. All the artillerymen were
+assembled. The Vice-President, the Honourable Wilcome, was just reading
+the premature telegram by which Messrs. Maston and Belfast announced
+that the projectile had just been perceived in the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak. This communication informed them also that the bullet,
+retained by the attraction of the moon, was playing the part of
+sub-satellite in the solar world.
+
+The truth on this subject is now known.
+
+However, upon the arrival of Blomsberry's message, which so formally
+contradicted J.T. Maston's telegram, two parties were formed in the
+bosom of the Gun Club. On the one side were members who admitted the
+fall of the projectile, and consequently the return of the travellers.
+On the other were those who, holding by the observations at Long's Peak,
+concluded that the commander of the Susquehanna was mistaken. According
+to the latter, the pretended projectile was only a bolis, nothing but a
+bolis, a shooting star, which in its fall had fractured the corvette.
+Their argument could not very well be answered, because the velocity
+with which it was endowed had made its observation very difficult. The
+commander of the Susquehanna and his officers might certainly have been
+mistaken in good faith. One argument certainly was in their favour: if
+the projectile had fallen on the earth it must have touched the
+terrestrial spheroid upon the 27th degree of north latitude, and, taking
+into account the time that had elapsed, and the earth's movement of
+rotation, between the 41st and 42nd degree of west longitude.
+
+However that might be, it was unanimously decided in the Gun Club that
+Blomsberry's brother Bilsby and Major Elphinstone should start at once
+for San Francisco and give their advice about the means of dragging up
+the projectile from the depths of the ocean.
+
+These men started without losing an instant, and the railway which was
+soon to cross the whole of Central America took them to St. Louis, where
+rapid mail-coaches awaited them.
+
+Almost at the same moment that the Secretary of the Navy, the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, and the Sub-Director of the Observatory
+received the telegram from San Francisco, the Honourable J.T. Maston
+felt the most violent emotion of his whole existence--an emotion not
+even equalled by that he had experienced when his celebrated cannon was
+blown up, and which, like it, nearly cost him his life.
+
+It will be remembered that the Secretary of the Gun Club had started
+some minutes after the projectile--and almost as quickly--for the
+station of Long's Peak in the Rocky Mountains. The learned J. Belfast,
+Director of the Cambridge Observatory, accompanied him. Arrived at the
+station the two friends had summarily installed themselves, and no
+longer left the summit of their enormous telescope.
+
+We know that this gigantic instrument had been set up on the reflecting
+system, called "front view" by the English. This arrangement only gave
+one reflection of objects, and consequently made the view much clearer.
+The result was that J.T. Maston and Belfast, whilst observing, were
+stationed in the upper part of the instrument instead of in the lower.
+They reached it by a twisted staircase, a masterpiece of lightness, and
+below them lay the metal, well terminated by the metallic mirror, 280
+feet deep.
+
+Now it was upon the narrow platform placed round the telescope that the
+two _savants_ passed their existence, cursing the daylight which hid the
+moon from their eyes, and the clouds which obstinately veiled her at
+night.
+
+Who can depict their delight when, after waiting several days, during
+the night of December 5th they perceived the vehicle that was carrying
+their friends through space? To that delight succeeded deep
+disappointment when, trusting to incomplete observations, they sent out
+with their first telegram to the world the erroneous affirmation that
+the projectile had become a satellite of the moon gravitating in an
+immutable orbit.
+
+After that instant the bullet disappeared behind the invisible disc of
+the moon. But when it ought to have reappeared on the invisible disc the
+impatience of J.T. Maston and his no less impatient companion may be
+imagined. At every minute of the night they thought they should see the
+projectile again, and they did not see it. Hence between them arose
+endless discussions and violent disputes, Belfast affirming that the
+projectile was not visible, J.T. Maston affirming that any one but a
+blind man could see it.
+
+"It is the bullet!" repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"No!" answered Belfast, "it is an avalanche falling from a lunar
+mountain!"
+
+"Well, then, we shall see it to-morrow."
+
+"No, it will be seen no more. It is carried away into space."
+
+"We shall see it, I tell you."
+
+"No, we shall not."
+
+And while these interjections were being showered like hail, the
+well-known irritability of the Secretary of the Gun Club constituted a
+permanent danger to the director, Belfast.
+
+Their existence together would soon have become impossible, but an
+unexpected event cut short these eternal discussions.
+
+During the night between the 14th and 15th of December the two
+irreconcilable friends were occupied in observing the lunar disc. J.T.
+Maston was, as usual, saying strong things to the learned Belfast, who
+was getting angry too. The Secretary of the Gun Club declared for the
+thousandth time that he had just perceived the projectile, adding even
+that Michel Ardan's face had appeared at one of the port-lights. He was
+emphasising his arguments by a series of gestures which his redoubtable
+hook rendered dangerous.
+
+At that moment Belfast's servant appeared upon the platform--it was 10
+p.m.--and gave him a telegram. It was the message from the Commander of
+the Susquehanna.
+
+Belfast tore the envelope, read the inclosure, and uttered a cry.
+
+"What is it?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"It's the bullet!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"It has fallen upon the earth!"
+
+Another cry; this time a howl answered him.
+
+He turned towards J.T. Maston. The unfortunate fellow, leaning
+imprudently over the metal tube, had disappeared down the immense
+telescope--a fall of 280 feet! Belfast, distracted, rushed towards the
+orifice of the reflector.
+
+He breathed again. J.T. Maston's steel hook had caught in one of the
+props which maintained the platform of the telescope. He was uttering
+formidable cries.
+
+Belfast called. Help came, and the imprudent secretary was hoisted up,
+not without trouble.
+
+He reappeared unhurt at the upper orifice.
+
+"Suppose I had broken the mirror?" said he.
+
+"You would have paid for it," answered Belfast severely.
+
+"And where has the infernal bullet fallen?" asked J.T. Maston.
+
+"Into the Pacific."
+
+"Let us start at once."
+
+A quarter of an hour afterwards the two learned friends were descending
+the slope of the Rocky Mountains, and two days afterwards they reached
+San Francisco at the same time as their friends of the Gun Club, having
+killed five horses on the road.
+
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and Bilsby rushed up to them upon their
+arrival.
+
+"What is to be done?" they exclaimed.
+
+"The bullet must be fished up," answered J.T. Maston, "and as soon as
+possible!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+PICKED UP.
+
+
+The very spot where the projectile had disappeared under the waves was
+exactly known. The instruments for seizing it and bringing it to the
+surface of the ocean were still wanting. They had to be invented and
+then manufactured. American engineers could not be embarrassed by such a
+trifle. The grappling-irons once established and steam helping, they
+were assured of raising the projectile, notwithstanding its weight,
+which diminished the density of the liquid amidst which it was plunged.
+
+But it was not enough to fish up the bullet. It was necessary to act
+promptly in the interest of the travellers. No one doubted that they
+were still living.
+
+"Yes," repeated J.T. Maston incessantly, whose confidence inspired
+everybody, "our friends are clever fellows, and they cannot have fallen
+like imbeciles. They are alive, alive and well, but we must make haste
+in order to find them so. He had no anxiety about provisions and water.
+They had enough for a long time! But air!--air would soon fail them.
+Then they must make haste!"
+
+And they did make haste. They prepared the Susquehanna for her new
+destination. Her powerful engines were arranged to be used for the
+hauling machines. The aluminium projectile only weighed 19,250 lbs., a
+much less weight than that of the transatlantic cable, which was picked
+up under similar circumstances. The only difficulty lay in the smooth
+sides of the cylindro-conical bullet, which made it difficult to
+grapple.
+
+With that end in view the engineer Murchison, summoned to San Francisco,
+caused enormous grappling-irons to be fitted upon an automatical system
+which would not let the projectile go again if they succeeded in seizing
+it with their powerful pincers. He also had some diving-dresses
+prepared, which, by their impermeable and resisting texture, allowed
+divers to survey the bottom of the sea. He likewise embarked on board
+the Susquehanna apparatuses for compressed air, very ingeniously
+contrived. They were veritable rooms, with port-lights in them, and
+which, by introducing the water into certain compartments, could be sunk
+to great depths. These apparatuses were already at San Francisco, where
+they had been used in the construction of a submarine dyke. This was
+fortunate, for there would not have been time to make them.
+
+Yet notwithstanding the perfection of the apparatus, notwithstanding the
+ingenuity of the _savants_ who were to use them, the success of the
+operation was anything but assured. Fishing up a bullet from 20,000 feet
+under water must be an uncertain operation. And even if the bullet
+should again be brought to the surface, how had the travellers borne the
+terrible shock that even 20,000 feet of water would not sufficiently
+deaden?
+
+In short, everything must be done quickly. J.T. Maston hurried on his
+workmen day and night. He was ready either to buckle on the diver's
+dress or to try the air-apparatus in order to find his courageous
+friends.
+
+Still, notwithstanding the diligence with which the different machines
+were got ready, notwithstanding the considerable sums which were placed
+at the disposition of the Gun Club by the Government of the Union, five
+long days (five centuries) went by before the preparations were
+completed. During that time public opinion was excited to the highest
+point. Telegrams were incessantly exchanged all over the world through
+the electric wires and cables. The saving of Barbicane, Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan became an international business. All the nations that had
+subscribed to the enterprise of the Gun Club were equally interested in
+the safety of the travellers.
+
+At last the grappling-chains, air-chambers, and automatic
+grappling-irons were embarked on board the Susquehanna. J.T. Maston, the
+engineer Murchison, and the Gun Club delegates already occupied their
+cabins. There was nothing to do but to start.
+
+On the 21st of December, at 8 p.m., the corvette set sail on a calm sea
+with a rather cold north-east wind blowing. All the population of San
+Francisco crowded on to the quays, mute and anxious, reserving its
+hurrahs for the return.
+
+The steam was put on to its maximum of tension, and the screw of the
+Susquehanna carried it rapidly out of the bay.
+
+It would be useless to relate the conversations on board amongst the
+officers, sailors, and passengers. All these men had but one thought.
+Their hearts all beat with the same emotion. What were Barbicane and his
+companions doing whilst they were hastening to their succour? What had
+become of them? Had they been able to attempt some audacious manoeuvre
+to recover their liberty? No one could say. The truth is that any
+attempt would have failed. Sunk to nearly two leagues under the ocean,
+their metal prison would defy any effort of its prisoners.
+
+On the 23rd of December, at 8 a.m., after a rapid passage, the
+Susquehanna ought to be on the scene of the disaster. They were obliged
+to wait till twelve o'clock to take their exact bearings. The buoy
+fastened on to the sounding-line had not yet been seen.
+
+At noon Captain Blomsberry, helped by his officers, who controlled the
+observation, made his point in presence of the delegates of the Gun
+Club. That was an anxious moment. The Susquehanna was found to be at
+some minutes west of the very spot where the projectile had disappeared
+under the waves.
+
+The direction of the corvette was therefore given in view of reaching
+the precise spot.
+
+At 12.47 p.m. the buoy was sighted. It was in perfect order, and did not
+seem to have drifted far.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Shall we begin?" asked Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"Without losing a second," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+Every precaution was taken to keep the corvette perfectly motionless.
+
+Before trying to grapple the projectile, the engineer, Murchison, wished
+to find out its exact position on the sea-bottom. The submarine
+apparatus destined for this search received their provision of air. The
+handling of these engines is not without danger, for at 20,000 feet
+below the surface of the water and under such great pressure they are
+exposed to ruptures the consequences of which would be terrible.
+
+J.T. Maston, the commander's brother, and the engineer Murchison,
+without a thought of these dangers, took their places in the
+air-chambers. The commander, on his foot-bridge, presided over the
+operation, ready to stop or haul in his chains at the least signal. The
+screw had been taken off, and all the force of the machines upon the
+windlass would soon have brought up the apparatus on board.
+
+The descent began at 1.25 p.m., and the chamber, dragged down by its
+reservoirs filled with water, disappeared under the surface of the
+ocean.
+
+The emotion of the officers and sailors on board was now divided between
+the prisoners in the projectile and the prisoners of the submarine
+apparatus. These latter forgot themselves, and, glued to the panes of
+the port-lights, they attentively observed the liquid masses they were
+passing through.
+
+The descent was rapid. At 2.17 p.m. J.T. Maston and his companions had
+reached the bottom of the Pacific; but they saw nothing except the arid
+desert which neither marine flora nor fauna any longer animated. By the
+light of their lamps, furnished with powerful reflectors, they could
+observe the dark layers of water in a rather large radius, but the
+projectile remained invisible in their eyes.
+
+The impatience of these bold divers could hardly be described. Their
+apparatus being in electric communication with the corvette, they made a
+signal agreed upon, and the Susquehanna carried their chamber over a
+mile of space at one yard from the soil.
+
+They thus explored all the submarine plain, deceived at every instant by
+optical delusions which cut them to the heart. Here a rock, there a
+swelling of the ground, looked to them like the much-sought-for
+projectile; then they would soon find out their error and despair again.
+
+"Where are they? Where can they be?" cried J.T. Maston.
+
+And the poor man called aloud to Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan,
+as if his unfortunate friends could have heard him through that
+impenetrable medium!
+
+The search went on under those conditions until the vitiated state of
+the air in the apparatus forced the divers to go up again.
+
+The hauling in was begun at 6 p.m., and was not terminated before
+midnight.
+
+"We will try again to-morrow," said J.T. Maston as he stepped on to the
+deck of the corvette.
+
+"Yes," answered Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"And in another place."
+
+"Yes."
+
+J.T. Maston did not yet doubt of his ultimate success, but his
+companions, who were no longer intoxicated with the animation of the
+first few hours, already took in all the difficulties of the enterprise.
+What seemed easy at San Francisco in open ocean appeared almost
+impossible. The chances of success diminished in a large proportion, and
+it was to chance alone that the finding of the projectile had to be
+left.
+
+The next day, the 24th of December, notwithstanding the fatigues of the
+preceding day, operations were resumed. The corvette moved some minutes
+farther west, and the apparatus, provisioned with air again, took the
+same explorers to the depths of the ocean.
+
+All that day was passed in a fruitless search. The bed of the sea was a
+desert. The day of the 25th brought no result, neither did that of the
+26th.
+
+It was disheartening. They thought of the unfortunate men shut up for
+twenty-six days in the projectile. Perhaps they were all feeling the
+first symptoms of suffocation, even if they had escaped the dangers of
+their fall. The air was getting exhausted, and doubtless with the air
+their courage and spirits.
+
+"The air very likely, but their courage never," said J.T. Maston.
+
+On the 28th, after two days' search, all hope was lost. This bullet was
+an atom in the immensity of the sea! They must give up the hope of
+finding it.
+
+Still J.T. Maston would not hear about leaving. He would not abandon the
+place without having at least found the tomb of his friends. But Captain
+Blomsberry could not stay on obstinately, and notwithstanding the
+opposition of the worthy secretary, he was obliged to give orders to set
+sail.
+
+On the 29th of December, at 9 a.m., the Susquehanna, heading north-east,
+began to return to the bay of San Francisco.
+
+It was 10 a.m. The corvette was leaving slowly and as if with regret the
+scene of the catastrophe, when the sailor at the masthead, who was on
+the look-out, called out all at once--
+
+"A buoy on the lee bow!"
+
+The officers looked in the direction indicated. They saw through their
+telescopes the object signalled, which did look like one of those buoys
+used for marking the openings of bays or rivers; but, unlike them, a
+flag floating in the wind surmounted a cone which emerged five or six
+feet. This buoy shone in the sunshine as if made of plates of silver.
+
+The commander, Blomsberry, J.T. Maston, and the delegates of the Gun
+Club ascended the foot-bridge and examined the object thus drifting on
+the waves.
+
+All looked with feverish anxiety, but in silence. None of them dared
+utter the thought that came into all their minds.
+
+The corvette approached to within two cables' length of the object.
+
+A shudder ran through the whole crew.
+
+The flag was an American one!
+
+At that moment a veritable roar was heard. It was the worthy J.T.
+Maston, who had fallen in a heap; forgetting on the one hand that he had
+only an iron hook for one arm, and on the other that a simple
+gutta-percha cap covered his cranium-box, he had given himself a
+formidable blow.
+
+They rushed towards him and picked him up. They recalled him to life.
+And what were his first words?
+
+"Ah! triple brutes! quadruple idiots! quintuple boobies that we are!"
+
+"What is the matter?" every one round him exclaimed.
+
+"What the matter is?"
+
+"Speak, can't you?"
+
+"It is, imbeciles," shouted the terrible secretary, "it is the bullet
+only weighs 19,250 lbs!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And it displaces 28 tons, or 56,000 lbs., consequently _it floats_!"
+
+Ah! how that worthy man did underline the verb "to float!" And it was
+the truth! All, yes! all these _savants_ had forgotten this fundamental
+law, that in consequence of its specific lightness the projectile, after
+having been dragged by its fall to the greatest depths of the ocean, had
+naturally returned to the surface; and now it was floating tranquilly
+whichever way the wind carried them.
+
+The boats had been lowered. J.T. Maston and his friends rushed into
+them. The excitement was at its highest point. All hearts palpitated
+whilst the boats rowed towards the projectile. What did it contain--the
+living or the dead? The living. Yes! unless death had struck down
+Barbicane and his companions since they had hoisted the flag!
+
+Profound silence reigned in the boats. All hearts stopped beating. Eyes
+no longer performed their office. One of the port-lights of the
+projectile was opened. Some pieces of glass remaining in the frame
+proved that it had been broken. This port-light was situated actually
+five feet above water.
+
+A boat drew alongside--that of J.T. Maston. He rushed to the broken
+window.
+
+At that moment the joyful and clear voice of Michel Ardan was heard
+exclaiming in the accents of victory--"Double blank, Barbicane, double
+blank!"
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, and Nicholl were playing at dominoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+It will be remembered that immense sympathy accompanied the three
+travellers upon their departure. If the beginning of their enterprise
+had caused such excitement in the old and new world, what enthusiasm
+must welcome their return! Would not those millions of spectators who
+had invaded the Floridian peninsula rush to meet the sublime
+adventurers? Would those legions of foreigners from all points of the
+globe, now in America, leave the Union without seeing Barbicane,
+Nicholl, and Michel Ardan once more? No, and the ardent passion of the
+public would worthily respond to the grandeur of the enterprise. Human
+beings who had left the terrestrial spheroid, who had returned after
+their strange journey into celestial space, could not fail to be
+received like the prophet Elijah when he returned to the earth. To see
+them first, to hear them afterwards, was the general desire.
+
+This desire was to be very promptly realised by almost all the
+inhabitants of the Union.
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, Nicholl, and the delegates of the Gun Club
+returned without delay to Baltimore, and were there received with
+indescribable enthusiasm. The president's travelling notes were ready to
+be given up for publicity. The _New York Herald_ bought this manuscript
+at a price which is not yet known, but which must have been enormous. In
+fact, during the publication of the _Journey to the Moon_ they printed
+5,000,000 copies of that newspaper. Three days after the travellers'
+return to the earth the least details of their expedition were known.
+The only thing remaining to be done was to see the heroes of this
+superhuman enterprise.
+
+The exploration of Barbicane and his friends around the moon had allowed
+them to control the different theories about the terrestrial satellite.
+These _savants_ had observed it _de visu_ and under quite peculiar
+circumstances. It was now known which systems were to be rejected, which
+admitted, upon the formation of this orb, its origin, and its
+inhabitability. Its past, present, and future had given up their
+secrets. What could be objected to conscientious observations made at
+less than forty miles from that curious mountain of Tycho, the strangest
+mountain system of lunar orography? What answers could be made to
+_savants_ who had looked into the dark depths of the amphitheatre of
+Pluto? Who could contradict these audacious men whom the hazards of
+their enterprise had carried over the invisible disc of the moon, which
+no human eye had ever seen before? It was now their prerogative to
+impose the limits of that selenographic science which had built up the
+lunar world like Cuvier did the skeleton of a fossil, and to say, "The
+moon was this, a world inhabitable and inhabited anterior to the earth!
+The moon is this, a world now uninhabitable and uninhabited!"
+
+In order to welcome the return of the most illustrious of its members
+and his two companions, the Gun Club thought of giving them a banquet;
+but a banquet worthy of them, worthy of the American people, and under
+such circumstances that all the inhabitants of the Union could take a
+direct part in it.
+
+All the termini of the railroads in the State were joined together by
+movable rails. Then, in all the stations hung with the same flags,
+decorated with the same ornaments, were spread tables uniformly dressed.
+At a certain time, severely calculated upon electric clocks which beat
+the seconds at the same instant, the inhabitants were invited to take
+their places at the same banquet.
+
+During four days, from the 5th to the 9th of January, the trains were
+suspended like they are on Sundays upon the railways of the Union, and
+all the lines were free.
+
+One locomotive alone, a very fast engine, dragging a state saloon, had
+the right of circulating, during these four days, upon the railways of
+the United States.
+
+This locomotive, conducted by a stoker and a mechanic, carried, by a
+great favour, the Honourable J.T. Maston, Secretary of the Gun Club.
+
+The saloon was reserved for President Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan.
+
+The train left the station of Baltimore upon the whistle of the
+engine-driver amidst the hurrahs and all the admiring interjections of
+the American language. It went at the speed of eighty leagues an hour.
+But what was that speed compared to the one with which the three heroes
+had left the Columbiad?
+
+Thus they went from one town to another, finding the population in
+crowds upon their passage saluting them with the same acclamations, and
+showering upon them the same "bravoes." They thus travelled over the
+east of the Union through Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
+Vermont, Maine, and New Brunswick; north and west through New York,
+Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin; south through Illinois, Missouri,
+Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana; south-east through Alabama and Florida,
+Georgia, and the Carolinas; they visited the centre through Tennessee,
+Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana; then after the station of Washington
+they re-entered Baltimore, and during four days they could imagine that
+the United States of America, seated at one immense banquet, saluted
+them simultaneously with the same hurrahs.
+
+This apotheosis was worthy of these heroes, whom fable would have placed
+in the ranks of demigods.
+
+And now would this attempt, without precedent in the annals of travels,
+have any practical result? Would direct communication ever be
+established with the moon? Would a service of navigation ever be founded
+across space for the solar world? Will people ever go from planet to
+planet, from Jupiter to Mercury, and later on from one star to another,
+from the Polar star to Sirius, would a method of locomotion allow of
+visiting the suns which swarm in the firmament?
+
+No answer can be given to these questions, but knowing the audacious
+ingenuity of the Anglo-Saxon race, no one will be astonished that the
+Americans tried to turn President Barbicane's experiment to account.
+
+Thus some time after the return of the travellers the public received
+with marked favour the advertisement of a Joint-Stock Company (Limited),
+with a capital of a hundred million dollars, divided into a hundred
+thousand shares of a thousand dollars each, under the name of _National
+Company for Interstellar Communication_--President, Barbicane;
+Vice-President, Captain Nicholl; Secretary, J.T. Maston; Director,
+Michel Ardan--and as it is customary in America to foresee everything in
+business, even bankruptcy, the Honourable Harry Trollope, Commissary
+Judge, and Francis Dayton were appointed beforehand assignees.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12901 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon-Voyage, by Jules Verne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Moon-Voyage
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Release Date: July 12, 2004 [EBook #12901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOON-VOYAGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Norm Wolcott, Gregory Margo and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE MOON-VOYAGE.
+
+CONTAINING
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON,"
+AND
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+BY
+
+JULES VERNE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA,"
+"AMONG THE CANNIBALS," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY HENRY AUSTIN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON."
+
+I. THE GUN CLUB
+
+II. PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+III. EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+IV. ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY
+
+V. THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON
+
+VI. WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO
+BE BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+VII. THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL
+
+VIII. HISTORY OF THE CANNON
+
+IX. THE QUESTION OF POWDERS
+
+X. ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS
+
+XI. FLORIDA AND TEXAS
+
+XII. "URBI ET ORBI"
+
+XIII. STONY HILL
+
+XIV. PICKAXE AND TROWEL
+
+XV. THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING
+
+XVI. THE COLUMBIAD
+
+XVII. A TELEGRAM
+
+XVIII. THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA
+
+XIX. A MEETING
+
+XX. THRUST AND PARRY
+
+XXI. HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR
+
+XXII. THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+XXIII. THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT
+
+XXIV. THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+
+XXV. FINAL DETAILS
+
+XXVI. FIRE
+
+XXVII. CLOUDY WEATHER
+
+XXVIII. A NEW STAR
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF
+THIS WORK TO SERVE AS PREFACE TO THE SECOND
+
+I. FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+II. THE FIRST HALF-HOUR
+
+III. TAKING POSSESSION
+
+IV. A LITTLE ALGEBRA
+
+V. THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE
+
+VI. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+
+VII. A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION
+
+VIII. AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES
+
+IX. THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION
+
+X. THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON
+
+XI. IMAGINATION AND REALITY
+
+XII. OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS
+
+XIII. LUNAR LANDSCAPES
+
+XIV. A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF
+
+XV. HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA
+
+XVI. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
+
+XVII. TYCHO
+
+XVIII. GRAVE QUESTIONS
+
+XIX. A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE
+
+XX. THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA
+
+XXI. J.T. MASTON CALLED IN
+
+XXII. PICKED UP
+
+XXIII. THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GUN CLUB.
+
+
+During the Federal war in the United States a new and very influential
+club was established in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is well
+known with what energy the military instinct was developed amongst that
+nation of shipowners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Mere tradesmen jumped
+their counters to become extempore captains, colonels, and generals
+without having passed the Military School at West Point; they soon
+rivalled their colleagues of the old continent, and, like them, gained
+victories by dint of lavishing bullets, millions, and men.
+
+But where Americans singularly surpassed Europeans was in the science of
+ballistics, or of throwing massive weapons by the use of an engine; not
+that their arms attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were of
+unusual dimensions, and consequently of hitherto unknown ranges. The
+English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn about flank,
+running, enfilading, or point-blank firing; but their cannon, howitzers,
+and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines
+of American artillery.
+
+This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians
+in the world, are born engineers, just as Italians are musicians and
+Germans metaphysicians. Thence nothing more natural than to see them
+bring their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of ballistics.
+Hence those gigantic cannon, much less useful than sewing-machines, but
+quite as astonishing, and much more admired. The marvels of this style
+by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known. There was nothing left
+the Armstrongs, Pallisers, and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before
+their transatlantic rivals.
+
+Therefore during the terrible struggle between Northerners and
+Southerners, artillerymen were in great request; the Union newspapers
+published their inventions with enthusiasm, and there was no little
+tradesman nor _naïf_ "booby" who did not bother his head day and night
+with calculations about impossible trajectory engines.
+
+Now when an American has an idea he seeks another American to share it.
+If they are three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given
+four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established. Five convoke a
+general meeting, and the club is formed. It thus happened at Baltimore.
+The first man who invented a new cannon took into partnership the first
+man who cast it and the first man that bored it. Such was the nucleus of
+the Gun Club. One month after its formation it numbered eighteen hundred
+and thirty-three effective members, and thirty thousand five hundred and
+seventy-five corresponding members.
+
+One condition was imposed as a _sine quâ non_ upon every one who wished
+to become a member--that of having invented, or at least perfected, a
+cannon; or, in default of a cannon, a firearm of some sort. But, to tell
+the truth, mere inventors of fifteen-barrelled rifles, revolvers, or
+sword-pistols did not enjoy much consideration. Artillerymen were always
+preferred to them in every circumstance.
+
+"The estimation in which they are held," said one day a learned orator
+of the Gun Club, "is in proportion to the size of their cannon, and in
+direct ratio to the square of distance attained by their projectiles!"
+
+A little more and it would have been Newton's law of gravitation applied
+to moral order.
+
+Once the Gun Club founded, it can be easily imagined its effect upon the
+inventive genius of the Americans. War-engines took colossal
+proportions, and projectiles launched beyond permitted distances cut
+inoffensive pedestrians to pieces. All these inventions left the timid
+instruments of European artillery far behind them. This may be estimated
+by the following figures:--
+
+Formerly, "in the good old times," a thirty-six pounder, at a distance
+of three hundred feet, would cut up thirty-six horses, attacked in
+flank, and sixty-eight men. The art was then in its infancy.
+Projectiles have since made their way. The Rodman gun that sent a
+projectile weighing half a ton a distance of seven miles could easily
+have cut up a hundred and fifty horses and three hundred men. There was
+some talk at the Gun Club of making a solemn experiment with it. But if
+the horses consented to play their part, the men unfortunately were
+wanting.
+
+However that may be, the effect of these cannon was very deadly, and at
+each discharge the combatants fell like ears before a scythe. After such
+projectiles what signified the famous ball which, at Coutras, in 1587,
+disabled twenty-five men; and the one which, at Zorndorff, in 1758,
+killed forty fantassins; and in 1742, Kesseldorf's Austrian cannon, of
+which every shot levelled seventy enemies with the ground? What was the
+astonishing firing at Jena or Austerlitz, which decided the fate of the
+battle? During the Federal war much more wonderful things had been seen.
+At the battle of Gettysburg, a conical projectile thrown by a
+rifle-barrel cut up a hundred and seventy-three Confederates, and at the
+passage of the Potomac a Rodman ball sent two hundred and fifteen
+Southerners into an evidently better world. A formidable mortar must
+also be mentioned, invented by J.T. Maston, a distinguished member and
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, the result of which was far more
+deadly, seeing that, at its trial shot, it killed three hundred and
+thirty-seven persons--by bursting, it is true.
+
+What can be added to these figures, so eloquent in themselves? Nothing.
+So the following calculation obtained by the statistician Pitcairn will
+be admitted without contestation: by dividing the number of victims
+fallen under the projectiles by that of the members of the Gun Club, he
+found that each one of them had killed, on his own account, an average
+of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five men and a fraction.
+
+By considering such a result it will be seen that the single
+preoccupation of this learned society was the destruction of humanity
+philanthropically, and the perfecting of firearms considered as
+instruments of civilisation. It was a company of Exterminating Angels,
+at bottom the best fellows in the world.
+
+It must be added that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved
+themselves, did not confine themselves to formulae, but sacrificed
+themselves to their theories. Amongst them might be counted officers of
+every rank, those who had just made their _début_ in the profession of
+arms, and those who had grown old on their gun-carriage. Many whose
+names figured in the book of honour of the Gun Club remained on the
+field of battle, and of those who came back the greater part bore marks
+of their indisputable valour. Crutches, wooden legs, articulated arms,
+hands with hooks, gutta-percha jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses,
+nothing was wanting to the collection; and the above-mentioned Pitcairn
+likewise calculated that in the Gun Club there was not quite one arm
+amongst every four persons, and only two legs amongst six.
+
+But these valiant artillerymen paid little heed to such small matters,
+and felt justly proud when the report of a battle stated the number of
+victims at tenfold the quantity of projectiles expended.
+
+One day, however, a sad and lamentable day, peace was signed by the
+survivors of the war, the noise of firing gradually ceased, the mortars
+were silent, the howitzers were muzzled for long enough, and the cannon,
+with muzzles depressed, were stored in the arsenals, the shots were
+piled up in the parks, the bloody reminiscences were effaced, cotton
+shrubs grew magnificently on the well-manured fields, mourning garments
+began to be worn-out, as well as sorrow, and the Gun Club had nothing
+whatever to do.
+
+Certain old hands, inveterate workers, still went on with their
+calculations in ballistics; they still imagined gigantic bombs and
+unparalleled howitzers. But what was the use of vain theories that could
+not be put in practice? So the saloons were deserted, the servants slept
+in the antechambers, the newspapers grew mouldy on the tables, from dark
+corners issued sad snores, and the members of the Gun Club, formerly so
+noisy, now reduced to silence by the disastrous peace, slept the sleep
+of Platonic artillery!
+
+"This is distressing," said brave Tom Hunter, whilst his wooden legs
+were carbonising at the fireplace of the smoking-room. "Nothing to do!
+Nothing to look forward to! What a tiresome existence! Where is the time
+when cannon awoke you every morning with its joyful reports?"
+
+"That time is over," answered dandy Bilsby, trying to stretch the arms
+he had lost. "There was some fun then! You invented an howitzer, and it
+was hardly cast before you ran to try it on the enemy; then you went
+back to the camp with an encouragement from Sherman, or a shake of the
+hands from MacClellan! But now the generals have gone back to their
+counters, and instead of cannon-balls they expedite inoffensive cotton
+bales! Ah, by Saint Barb! the future of artillery is lost to America!"
+
+"Yes, Bilsby," cried Colonel Blomsberry, "it is too bad! One fine
+morning you leave your tranquil occupations, you are drilled in the use
+of arms, you leave Baltimore for the battle-field, you conduct yourself
+like a hero, and in two years, three years at the latest, you are
+obliged to leave the fruit of so many fatigues, to go to sleep in
+deplorable idleness, and keep your hands in your pockets."
+
+The valiant colonel would have found it very difficult to give such a
+proof of his want of occupation, though it was not the pockets that were
+wanting.
+
+"And no war in prospect, then," said the famous J.T. Maston, scratching
+his gutta-percha cranium with his steel hook; "there is not a cloud on
+the horizon now that there is so much to do in the science of artillery!
+I myself finished this very morning a diagram with plan, basin, and
+elevation of a mortar destined to change the laws of warfare!"
+
+"Indeed!" replied Tom Hunter, thinking involuntarily of the Honourable
+J.T. Maston's last essay.
+
+"Indeed!" answered Maston. "But what is the use of the good results of
+such studies and so many difficulties conquered? It is mere waste of
+time. The people of the New World seem determined to live in peace, and
+our bellicose _Tribune_ has gone as far as to predict approaching
+catastrophes due to the scandalous increase of population!"
+
+"Yet, Maston," said Colonel Blomsberry, "they are always fighting in
+Europe to maintain the principle of nationalities!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"Why, there might be something to do over there, and if they accepted
+our services--"
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Bilsby. "Work at ballistics for the
+benefit of foreigners!"
+
+"Perhaps that would be better than not doing it at all," answered the
+colonel.
+
+"Doubtless," said J.T. Maston, "it would be better, but such an
+expedient cannot be thought of."
+
+"Why so?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Because their ideas of advancement would be contrary to all our
+American customs. Those folks seem to think that you cannot be a
+general-in-chief without having served as second lieutenant, which comes
+to the same as saying that no one can point a gun that has not cast one.
+Now that is simply--"
+
+"Absurd!" replied Tom Hunter, whittling the arms of his chair with his
+bowie-knife; "and as things are so, there is nothing left for us but to
+plant tobacco or distil whale-oil!"
+
+"What!" shouted J.T. Maston, "shall we not employ these last years of
+our existence in perfecting firearms? Will not a fresh opportunity
+present itself to try the ranges of our projectiles? Will the atmosphere
+be no longer illuminated by the lightning of our cannons? Won't some
+international difficulty crop up that will allow us to declare war
+against some transatlantic power? Won't France run down one of our
+steamers, or won't England, in defiance of the rights of nations, hang
+up three or four of our countrymen?"
+
+"No, Maston," answered Colonel Blomsberry; "no such luck! No, not one of
+those incidents will happen; and if one did, it would be of no use to
+us. American sensitiveness is declining daily, and we are going to the
+dogs!"
+
+"Yes, we are growing quite humble," replied Bilsby.
+
+"And we are humiliated!" answered Tom Hunter.
+
+"All that is only too true," replied J.T. Maston, with fresh vehemence.
+"There are a thousand reasons for fighting floating about, and still we
+don't fight! We economise legs and arms, and that to the profit of folks
+that don't know what to do with them. Look here, without looking any
+farther for a motive for war, did not North America formerly belong to
+the English?"
+
+"Doubtless," answered Tom Hunter, angrily poking the fire with the end
+of his crutch.
+
+"Well," replied J.T. Maston, "why should not England in its turn belong
+to the Americans?"
+
+"It would be but justice," answered Colonel Blomsberry.
+
+"Go and propose that to the President of the United States," cried J.T.
+Maston, "and see what sort of a reception you would get."
+
+"It would not be a bad reception," murmured Bilsby between the four
+teeth he had saved from battle.
+
+"I'faith," cried J.T. Maston, "they need not count upon my vote in the
+next elections."
+
+"Nor upon ours," answered with common accord these bellicose invalids.
+
+"In the meantime," continued J.T. Maston, "and to conclude, if they do
+not furnish me with the opportunity of trying my new mortar on a real
+battle-field, I shall send in my resignation as member of the Gun Club,
+and I shall go and bury myself in the backwoods of Arkansas."
+
+"We will follow you there," answered the interlocutors of the
+enterprising J.T. Maston.
+
+Things had come to that pass, and the club, getting more excited, was
+menaced with approaching dissolution, when an unexpected event came to
+prevent so regrettable a catastrophe.
+
+The very day after the foregoing conversation each member of the club
+received a circular couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 3rd.
+
+"The president of the Gun Club has the honour to inform his colleagues
+that at the meeting on the 5th ultimo he will make them a communication
+of an extremely interesting nature. He therefore begs that they, to the
+suspension of all other business, will attend, in accordance with the
+present invitation,
+
+"Their devoted colleague,
+
+"IMPEY BARBICANE, P.G.C."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+On the 5th of October, at 8 p.m., a dense crowd pressed into the saloons
+of the Gun Club, 21, Union-square. All the members of the club residing
+at Baltimore had gone on the invitation of their president. The express
+brought corresponding members by hundreds, and if the meeting-hall had
+not been so large, the crowd of _savants_ could not have found room in
+it; they overflowed into the neighbouring rooms, down the passages, and
+even into the courtyards; there they ran against the populace who were
+pressing against the doors, each trying to get into the front rank, all
+eager to learn the important communication of President Barbicane, all
+pressing, squeezing, crushing with that liberty of action peculiar to
+the masses brought up in the idea of self-government.
+
+That evening any stranger who might have chanced to be in Baltimore
+could not have obtained a place at any price in the large hall; it was
+exclusively reserved to residing or corresponding members; no one else
+was admitted; and the city magnates, common councillors, and select men
+were compelled to mingle with their inferiors in order to catch stray
+news from the interior.
+
+The immense hall presented a curious spectacle; it was marvellously
+adapted to the purpose for which it was built. Lofty pillars formed of
+cannon, superposed upon huge mortars as a base, supported the fine
+ironwork of the arches--real cast-iron lacework.
+
+Trophies of blunderbusses, matchlocks, arquebuses, carbines, all sorts
+of ancient or modern firearms, were picturesquely enlaced against the
+walls. The gas, in full flame, came out of a thousand revolvers grouped
+in the form of lustres, whilst candlesticks of pistols, and candelabra
+made of guns done up in sheaves, completed this display of light. Models
+of cannons, specimens of bronze, targets spotted with shot-marks,
+plaques broken by the shock of the Gun Club, balls, assortments of
+rammers and sponges, chaplets of shells, necklaces of projectiles,
+garlands of howitzers--in a word, all the tools of the artilleryman
+surprised the eyes by their wonderful arrangement, and induced a belief
+that their real purpose was more ornamental than deadly.
+
+In the place of honour was seen, covered by a splendid glass case, a
+piece of breech, broken and twisted under the effort of the powder--a
+precious fragment of J.T. Maston's cannon.
+
+At the extremity of the hall the president, assisted by four
+secretaries, occupied a wide platform. His chair, placed on a carved
+gun-carriage, was modelled upon the powerful proportions of a 32-inch
+mortar; it was pointed at an angle of 90 degs., and hung upon trunnions
+so that the president could use it as a rocking-chair, very agreeable in
+great heat. Upon the desk, a huge iron plate, supported upon six
+carronades, stood a very tasteful inkstand, made of a beautifully-chased
+Spanish piece, and a report-bell, which, when required, went off like a
+revolver. During the vehement discussions this new sort of bell scarcely
+sufficed to cover the voices of this legion of excited artillerymen.
+
+In front of the desk, benches, arranged in zigzags, like the
+circumvallations of intrenchment, formed a succession of bastions and
+curtains where the members of the Gun Club took their seats; and that
+evening, it may be said, there were plenty on the ramparts. The
+president was sufficiently known for all to be assured that he would not
+have called together his colleagues without a very great motive.
+
+Impey Barbicane was a man of forty, calm, cold, austere, of a singularly
+serious and concentrated mind, as exact as a chronometer, of an
+imperturbable temperament and immovable character; not very chivalrous,
+yet adventurous, and always bringing practical ideas to bear on the
+wildest enterprises; an essential New-Englander, a Northern colonist,
+the descendant of those Roundheads so fatal to the Stuarts, and the
+implacable enemy of the Southern gentlemen, the ancient cavaliers of the
+mother country--in a word, a Yankee cast in a single mould.
+
+Barbicane had made a great fortune as a timber-merchant; named director
+of artillery during the war, he showed himself fertile in inventions;
+enterprising in his ideas, he contributed powerfully to the progress of
+ballistics, gave an immense impetus to experimental researches.
+
+He was a person of average height, having, by a rare exception in the
+Gun Club, all his limbs intact. His strongly-marked features seemed to
+be drawn by square and rule, and if it be true that in order to guess
+the instincts of a man one must look at his profile, Barbicane seen
+thus offered the most certain indications of energy, audacity, and
+_sang-froid_.
+
+At that moment he remained motionless in his chair, mute, absorbed, with
+an inward look sheltered under his tall hat, a cylinder of black silk,
+which seems screwed down upon the skull of American men.
+
+His colleagues talked noisily around him without disturbing him; they
+questioned one another, launched into the field of suppositions,
+examined their president, and tried, but in vain, to make out the _x_ of
+his imperturbable physiognomy.
+
+Just as eight o'clock struck from the fulminating clock of the large
+hall, Barbicane, as if moved by a spring, jumped up; a general silence
+ensued, and the orator, in a slightly emphatic tone, spoke as follows:--
+
+"Brave colleagues,--It is some time since an unfruitful peace plunged
+the members of the Gun Club into deplorable inactivity. After a period
+of some years, so full of incidents, we have been obliged to abandon our
+works and stop short on the road of progress. I do not fear to proclaim
+aloud that any war which would put arms in our hands again would be
+welcome--"
+
+"Yes, war!" cried impetuous J.T. Maston.
+
+"Hear, hear!" was heard on every side.
+
+"But war," said Barbicane, "war is impossible under actual
+circumstances, and, whatever my honourable interrupter may hope, long
+years will elapse before our cannons thunder on a field of battle. We
+must, therefore, make up our minds to it, and seek in another order of
+ideas food for the activity by which we are devoured."
+
+The assembly felt that its president was coming to the delicate point;
+it redoubled its attention.
+
+"A few months ago, my brave colleagues," continued Barbicane, "I asked
+myself if, whilst still remaining in our speciality, we could not
+undertake some grand experiment worthy of the nineteenth century, and if
+the progress of ballistics would not allow us to execute it with
+success. I have therefore sought, worked, calculated, and the conviction
+has resulted from my studies that we must succeed in an enterprise that
+would seem impracticable in any other country. This project, elaborated
+at length, will form the subject of my communication; it is worthy of
+you, worthy of the Gun Club's past history, and cannot fail to make a
+noise in the world!"
+
+"Much noise?" cried a passionate artilleryman.
+
+"Much noise in the true sense of the word," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Don't interrupt!" repeated several voices.
+
+"I therefore beg of you, my brave colleagues," resumed the president,
+"to grant me all your attention."
+
+A shudder ran through the assembly. Barbicane, having with a rapid
+gesture firmly fixed his hat on his head, continued his speech in a calm
+tone:--
+
+"There is not one of you, brave colleagues, who has not seen the moon,
+or, at least, heard of It. Do not be astonished if I wish to speak to
+you about the Queen of Night. It is, perhaps, our lot to be the
+Columbuses of this unknown world. Understand me, and second me as much
+as you can, I will lead you to its conquest, and its name shall be
+joined to those of the thirty-six States that form the grand country of
+the Union!"
+
+"Hurrah for the moon!" cried the Gun Club with one voice.
+
+"The moon has been much studied," resumed Barbicane; "its mass, density,
+weight, volume, constitution, movements, distance, the part it plays in
+the solar world, are all perfectly determined; selenographic maps have
+been drawn with a perfection that equals, if it does not surpass, those
+of terrestrial maps; photography has given to our satellite proofs of
+incomparable beauty--in a word, all that the sciences of mathematics,
+astronomy, geology, and optics can teach is known about the moon; but
+until now no direct communication with it has ever been established."
+
+A violent movement of interest and surprise welcomed this sentence of
+the orator.
+
+"Allow me," he resumed, "to recall to you in few words how certain
+ardent minds, embarked upon imaginary journeys, pretended to have
+penetrated the secrets of our satellite. In the seventeenth century a
+certain David Fabricius boasted of having seen the inhabitants of the
+moon with his own eyes. In 1649 a Frenchman, Jean Baudoin, published his
+_Journey to the Moon by Dominique Gonzales, Spanish Adventurer_. At the
+same epoch Cyrano de Bergerac published the celebrated expedition that
+had so much success in France. Later on, another Frenchman (that nation
+took a great deal of notice of the moon), named Fontenelle, wrote his
+_Plurality of Worlds_, a masterpiece of his time; but science in its
+progress crushes even masterpieces! About 1835, a pamphlet, translated
+from the _New York American_, related that Sir John Herschel, sent to
+the Cape of Good Hope, there to make astronomical observations, had, by
+means of a telescope, perfected by interior lighting, brought the moon
+to within a distance of eighty yards. Then he distinctly perceived
+caverns in which lived hippopotami, green mountains with golden borders,
+sheep with ivory horns, white deer, and inhabitants with membraneous
+wings like those of bats. This treatise, the work of an American named
+Locke, had a very great success. But it was soon found out that it was a
+scientific mystification, and Frenchmen were the first to laugh at it."
+
+"Laugh at an American!" cried J.T. Maston; "but that's a _casus belli_!"
+
+"Be comforted, my worthy friend; before Frenchmen laughed they were
+completely taken in by our countryman. To terminate this rapid history,
+I may add that a certain Hans Pfaal, of Rotterdam, went up in a balloon
+filled with a gas made from azote, thirty-seven times lighter than
+hydrogen, and reached the moon after a journey of nineteen days. This
+journey, like the preceding attempts, was purely imaginary, but it was
+the work of a popular American writer of a strange and contemplative
+genius. I have named Edgar Poe!"
+
+"Hurrah for Edgar Poe!" cried the assembly, electrified by the words of
+the president.
+
+"I have now come to an end of these attempts which I may call purely
+literary, and quite insufficient to establish any serious communications
+with the Queen of Night. However, I ought to add that some practical
+minds tried to put themselves into serious communication with her. Some
+years ago a German mathematician proposed to send a commission of
+_savants_ to the steppes of Siberia. There, on the vast plains, immense
+geometrical figures were to be traced by means of luminous reflectors;
+amongst others, the square of the hypothenuse, vulgarly called the
+'Ass's Bridge.' 'Any intelligent being,' said the mathematician, 'ought
+to understand the scientific destination of that figure. The Selenites
+(inhabitants of the moon), if they exist, will answer by a similar
+figure, and, communication once established, it will be easy to create
+an alphabet that will allow us to hold converse with the inhabitants of
+the moon.' Thus spoke the German mathematician, but his project was not
+put into execution, and until now no direct communication has existed
+between the earth and her satellite. But it was reserved to the
+practical genius of Americans to put itself into communication with the
+sidereal world. The means of doing so are simple, easy, certain,
+unfailing, and will make the subject of my proposition."
+
+A hubbub and tempest of exclamations welcomed these words. There was not
+one of the audience who was not dominated and carried away by the words
+of the orator.
+
+"Hear, hear! Silence!" was heard on all sides.
+
+When the agitation was calmed down Barbicane resumed, in a graver tone,
+his interrupted speech.
+
+"You know," said he, "what progress the science of ballistics has made
+during the last few years, and to what degree of perfection firearms
+would have been brought if the war had gone on. You are not ignorant in
+general that the power of resistance of cannons and the expansive force
+of powder are unlimited. Well, starting from that principle, I asked
+myself if, by means of sufficient apparatus, established under
+determined conditions of resistance, it would not be possible to send a
+cannon-ball to the moon!"
+
+At these words an "Oh!" of stupefaction escaped from a thousand panting
+breasts; then occurred a moment of silence, like the profound calm that
+precedes thunder. In fact, the thunder came, but a thunder of applause,
+cries, and clamour which made the meeting-hall shake again. The
+president tried to speak; he could not. It was only at the end of ten
+minutes that he succeeded in making himself heard.
+
+"Let me finish," he resumed coldly. "I have looked at the question in
+all its aspects, and from my indisputable calculations it results that
+any projectile, hurled at an initial speed of twelve thousand yards a
+second, and directed at the moon, must necessarily reach her. I have,
+therefore, the honour of proposing to you, my worthy colleagues, the
+attempting of this little experiment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+It is impossible to depict the effect produced by the last words of the
+honourable president. What cries! what vociferations! What a succession
+of groans, hurrahs, cheers, and all the onomatopoeia of which the
+American language is so full. It was an indescribable hubbub and
+disorder. Mouths, hands, and feet made as much noise as they could. All
+the weapons in this artillery museum going off at once would not have
+more violently agitated the waves of sound. That is not surprising;
+there are cannoneers nearly as noisy as their cannons.
+
+Barbicane remained calm amidst these enthusiastic clamours; perhaps he
+again wished to address some words to his colleagues, for his gestures
+asked for silence, and his fulminating bell exhausted itself in violent
+detonations; it was not even heard. He was soon dragged from his chair,
+carried in triumph, and from the hands of his faithful comrades he
+passed into those of the no less excited crowd.
+
+Nothing can astonish an American. It has often been repeated that the
+word "impossible" is not French; the wrong dictionary must have been
+taken by mistake. In America everything is easy, everything is simple,
+and as to mechanical difficulties, they are dead before they are born.
+Between the Barbicane project and its realisation not one true Yankee
+would have allowed himself to see even the appearance of a difficulty.
+As soon said as done.
+
+The triumphant march of the president was prolonged during the evening.
+A veritable torchlight procession--Irish, Germans, Frenchmen,
+Scotchmen--all the heterogeneous individuals that compose the population
+of Maryland--shouted in their maternal tongue, and the cheering was
+unanimous.
+
+Precisely as if she knew it was all about her, the moon shone out then
+with serene magnificence, eclipsing other lights with her intense
+irradiation. All the Yankees directed their eyes towards the shining
+disc; some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the
+sweetest names; between eight o'clock and midnight an optician in
+Jones-Fall-street made a fortune by selling field-glasses. The Queen of
+Night was looked at through them like a lady of high life. The Americans
+acted in regard to her with the freedom of proprietors. It seemed as if
+the blonde Phoebe belonged to these enterprising conquerors and already
+formed part of the Union territory. And yet the only question was that
+of sending a projectile--a rather brutal way of entering into
+communication even with a satellite, but much in vogue amongst civilised
+nations.
+
+Midnight had just struck, and the enthusiasm did not diminish; it was
+kept up in equal doses in all classes of the population; magistrates,
+_savants_, merchants, tradesmen, street-porters, intelligent as well as
+"green" men were moved even in their most delicate fibres. It was a
+national enterprise; the high town, low town, the quays bathed by the
+waters of the Patapsco, the ships, imprisoned in their docks, overflowed
+with crowds intoxicated with joy, gin, and whisky; everybody talked,
+argued, perorated, disputed, approved, and applauded, from the gentleman
+comfortably stretched on the bar-room couch before his glass of
+"sherry-cobbler" to the waterman who got drunk upon "knock-me-down" in
+the dark taverns of Fell's Point.
+
+However, about 2 a.m. the emotion became calmer. President Barbicane
+succeeded in getting home almost knocked to pieces. A Hercules could not
+have resisted such enthusiasm. The crowd gradually abandoned the squares
+and streets. The four railroads of Ohio, Susquehanna, Philadelphia, and
+Washington, which converge at Baltimore, took the heterogeneous
+population to the four corners of the United States, and the town
+reposed in a relative tranquillity.
+
+It would be an error to believe that during this memorable evening
+Baltimore alone was agitated. The large towns of the Union, New York,
+Boston, Albany, Washington, Richmond, New Orleans, Charlestown, La
+Mobile of Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Florida, all shared in the
+delirium. The thirty thousand correspondents of the Gun Club were
+acquainted with their president's letter, and awaited with equal
+impatience the famous communication of the 5th of October. The same
+evening as the orator uttered his speech it ran along the telegraph
+wires, across the states of the Union, with a speed of 348,447 miles a
+second. It may, therefore, be said with absolute certainty that at the
+same moment the United States of America, ten times as large as France,
+cheered with a single voice, and twenty-five millions of hearts, swollen
+with pride, beat with the same pulsation.
+
+The next day five hundred daily, weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly
+newspapers took up the question; they examined it under its different
+aspects--physical, meteorological, economical, or moral, from a
+political or social point of view. They debated whether the moon was a
+finished world, or if she was not still undergoing transformation. Did
+she resemble the earth in the time when the atmosphere did not yet
+exist? What kind of spectacle would her hidden hemisphere present to our
+terrestrial spheroid? Granting that the question at present was simply
+about sending a projectile to the Queen of Night, every one saw in that
+the starting-point of a series of experiments; all hoped that one day
+America would penetrate the last secrets of the mysterious orb, and some
+even seemed to fear that her conquest would disturb the balance of power
+in Europe.
+
+The project once under discussion, not one of the papers suggested a
+doubt of its realisation; all the papers, treatises, bulletins, and
+magazines published by scientific, literary, or religious societies
+enlarged upon its advantages, and the "Natural History Society" of
+Boston, the "Science and Art Society" of Albany, the "Geographical and
+Statistical Society" of New York, the "American Philosophical Society"
+of Philadelphia, and the "Smithsonian Institution" of Washington sent in
+a thousand letters their congratulations to the Gun Club, with immediate
+offers of service and money.
+
+It may be said that no proposition ever had so many adherents; there was
+no question of hesitations, doubts, or anxieties. As to the jokes,
+caricatures, and comic songs that would have welcomed in Europe, and,
+above all, in France, the idea of sending a projectile to the moon, they
+would have been turned against their author; all the "life-preservers"
+in the world would have been powerless to guarantee him against the
+general indignation. There are things that are not to be laughed at in
+the New World.
+
+Impey Barbicane became from that day one of the greatest citizens of the
+United States, something like a Washington of science, and one fact
+amongst several will serve to show the sudden homage which was paid by a
+nation to one man.
+
+Some days after the famous meeting of the Gun Club the manager of an
+English company announced at the Baltimore Theatre a representation of
+_Much Ado About Nothing_, but the population of the town, seeing in the
+title a damaging allusion to the projects of President Barbicane,
+invaded the theatre, broke the seats, and forced the unfortunate manager
+to change the play. Like a sensible man, the manager, bowing to public
+opinion, replaced the offending comedy by _As You Like It_, and for
+several weeks he had fabulous houses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY.
+
+
+In the meantime Barbicane did not lose an instant amidst the enthusiasm
+of which he was the object. His first care was to call together his
+colleagues in the board-room of the Gun Club. There, after a debate,
+they agreed to consult astronomers about the astronomical part of their
+enterprise. Their answer once known, they would then discuss the
+mechanical means, and nothing would be neglected to assure the success
+of their great experiment.
+
+A note in precise terms, containing special questions, was drawn up and
+addressed to the observatory of Cambridge in Massachusetts. This town,
+where the first University of the United States was founded, is justly
+celebrated for its astronomical staff. There are assembled the greatest
+men of science; there is the powerful telescope which enabled Bond to
+resolve the nebula of Andromeda and Clarke to discover the satellite of
+Sirius. This celebrated institution was, therefore, worthy in every way
+of the confidence of the Gun Club.
+
+After two days the answer, impatiently awaited, reached the hands of
+President Barbicane.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"_The Director of the Cambridge Observatory to the President of the Gun
+Club at Baltimore_.
+
+"On the receipt of your favour of the 6th inst., addressed to the
+Observatory of Cambridge in the name of the members of the Baltimore
+Gun Club, we immediately called a meeting of our staff, who have deemed
+it expedient to answer as follows:--
+
+"The questions proposed to it were these:--
+
+"'1. Is it possible to send a projectile to the moon?
+
+"'2. What is the exact distance that separates the earth and her
+satellite?
+
+"'3. What would be the duration of the projectile's transit to which a
+sufficient initial speed had been given, and consequently at what moment
+should it be hurled so as to reach the moon at a particular point?
+
+"'4. At what moment would the moon present the most favourable position
+for being reached by the projectile?
+
+"'5. What point in the heavens ought the cannon, destined to hurl the
+projectile, be aimed at?
+
+"'6. What place in the heavens will the moon occupy at the moment when
+the projectile will start?'
+
+"Regarding question No. 1, 'Is it possible to send a projectile to the
+moon?'
+
+"Yes, it is possible to send a projectile to the moon if it is given an
+initial velocity of 1,200 yards a second. Calculations prove that this
+speed is sufficient. In proportion to the distance from the earth the
+force of gravitation diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of the
+distance--that is to say, that for a distance three times greater that
+force is nine times less. In consequence, the weight of the projectile
+will decrease rapidly, and will end by being completely annulled at the
+moment when the attraction of the moon will be equal to that of the
+earth--that is to say, at the 47/52 of the distance. At that moment the
+projectile will have no weight at all, and if it clears that point it
+will fall on to the moon only by the effect of lunar gravitation. The
+theoretic possibility of the experiment is, therefore, quite
+demonstrated; as to its success, that depends solely in the power of the
+engine employed.
+
+"Regarding question No. 2, 'What is the exact distance that separates
+the earth from her satellite?'
+
+"The moon does not describe a circle round the earth, but an ellipse, of
+which our earth occupies one of the foci; the consequence is, therefore,
+that at certain times it approaches nearer to, and at others recedes
+farther from, the earth, or, in astronomical language, it has its apogee
+and its perigee. At its apogee the moon is at 247,552 miles from the
+earth, and at its perigee at 218,657 miles only, which makes a
+difference of 28,895, or more than a ninth of the distance. The perigee
+distance is, therefore, the one that should give us the basis of all
+calculations.
+
+"Regarding question No. 3, 'What would be the duration of the
+projectile's transit to which a sufficient initial speed has been given,
+and consequently at what moment should it be hurled so as to reach the
+moon at a particular point?'
+
+"If the projectile kept indefinitely the initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second, it would only take about nine hours to reach its destination;
+but as that initial velocity will go on decreasing, it will happen,
+everything calculated upon, that the projectile will take 300,000
+seconds, or 83 hours and 20 minutes, to reach the point where the
+terrestrial and lunar gravitations are equal, and from that point it
+will fall upon the moon in 50,000 seconds, or 13 hours, 53 minutes, and
+20 seconds. It must, therefore, be hurled 97 hours, 13 minutes, and 20
+seconds before the arrival of the moon at the point aimed at.
+
+"Regarding question No. 4, 'At what moment would the moon present the
+most favourable position for being reached by the projectile?'
+
+"According to what has been said above the epoch of the moon's perigee
+must first be chosen, and at the moment when she will be crossing her
+zenith, which will still further diminish the entire distance by a
+length equal to the terrestrial radius--i.e., 3,919 miles; consequently,
+the passage to be accomplished will be 214,976 miles. But the moon is
+not always at her zenith when she reaches her perigee, which is once a
+month. She is only under the two conditions simultaneously at long
+intervals of time. This coincidence of perigee and zenith must be waited
+for. It happens fortunately that on December 4th of next year the moon
+will offer these two conditions; at midnight she will be at her perigee
+and her zenith--that is to say, at her shortest distance from the earth
+and at her zenith at the same time.
+
+"Regarding question No. 5, 'At what point in the heavens ought the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile be aimed?'
+
+"The preceding observations being admitted, the cannon ought to be aimed
+at the zenith of the place (the zenith is the spot situated vertically
+above the head of a spectator), so that its range will be perpendicular
+to the plane of the horizon, and the projectile will pass the soonest
+beyond the range of terrestrial gravitation. But for the moon to reach
+the zenith of a place that place must not exceed in latitude the
+declination of the luminary--in other words, it must be comprised
+between 0° and 28° of north or south latitude. In any other place the
+range must necessarily be oblique, which would seriously affect the
+success of the experiment.
+
+"Regarding question No. 6, 'What place will the moon occupy In the
+heavens at the moment of the projectile's departure?'
+
+"At the moment when the projectile is hurled into space, the moon, which
+travels forward 13° 10' 35" each day, will be four times as distant from
+her zenith point--i.e., by 52° 42' 20", a space which corresponds to the
+distance she will travel during the transit of the projectile. But as
+the deviation which the rotatory movement of the earth will impart to
+the shock must also be taken into account, and as the projectile cannot
+reach the moon until after a deviation equal to sixteen radii of the
+earth, which, calculated upon the moon's orbit, is equal to about 11°,
+it is necessary to add these 11° to those caused by the
+already-mentioned delay of the moon, or, in round numbers, 64°. Thus, at
+the moment of firing, the visual radius applied to the moon will
+describe with the vertical line of the place an angle of 64°.
+
+"Such are the answers to the questions proposed to the Observatory of
+Cambridge by the members of the Gun Club.
+
+"To sum up--
+
+"1st. The cannon must be placed in a country situated between 0° and 28°
+of north or south latitude.
+
+"2nd. It must be aimed at the zenith of the place.
+
+"3rd. The projectile must have an initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second.
+
+"4th. It must be hurled on December 1st of next year, at 10hrs. 46mins.
+40secs. p.m.
+
+"5th. It will meet the moon four days after its departure on December
+4th, at midnight precisely, at the moment she arrives at her zenith.
+
+"The members of the Gun Club ought, therefore, at once to commence the
+labour necessitated by such an enterprise, and be ready to put them into
+execution at the moment fixed upon, for they will not find the moon in
+the same conditions of perigee and zenith till eighteen years and eleven
+days later.
+
+"The staff of the Observatory of Cambridge puts itself entirely at their
+disposition for questions of theoretic astronomy, and begs to join its
+congratulations to those of the whole of America.
+
+"On behalf of the staff,
+
+"J.M. BELFAST,
+
+"_Director of the Observatory of Cambridge_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON.
+
+
+A spectator endowed with infinite power of sight, and placed at the
+unknown centre round which gravitates the universe, would have seen
+myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of creation.
+But by degrees, as centuries went on, a change took place; a law of
+gravitation manifested itself which the wandering atoms obeyed; these
+atoms, combined chemically according to their affinities, formed
+themselves into molecules, and made those nebulous masses with which the
+depths of the heavens are strewed.
+
+These masses were immediately animated by a movement of rotation round
+their central point. This centre, made of vague molecules, began to turn
+on itself whilst progressively condensing; then, following the immutable
+laws of mechanics, in proportion as its volume became diminished by
+condensation its movement of rotation was accelerated, and these two
+effects persisting, there resulted a principal planet, the centre of the
+nebulous mass.
+
+By watching attentively the spectator would then have seen other
+molecules in the mass behave like the central planet, and condense in
+the same manner by a movement of progressively-accelerated rotation, and
+gravitate round it under the form of innumerable stars. The nebulae, of
+which astronomers count nearly 5,000 at present, were formed.
+
+Amongst these 5,000 nebulae there is one that men have called the Milky
+Way, and which contains eighteen millions of stars, each of which has
+become the centre of a solar world.
+
+If the spectator had then specially examined amongst these eighteen
+millions of stars one of the most modest and least brilliant, a star of
+the fourth order, the one that proudly named itself the sun, all the
+phenomena to which the formation of the universe is due would have
+successively taken place under his eyes.
+
+In fact, he would have perceived this sun still in its gaseous state,
+and composed of mobile molecules; he would have perceived it turning on
+its own axis to finish its work of concentration. This movement,
+faithful to the laws of mechanics, would have been accelerated by the
+diminution of volume, and a time would have come when the centrifugal
+force would have overpowered the centripetal, which causes the molecules
+all to tend towards the centre.
+
+Then another phenomenon would have passed before the eyes of the
+spectator, and the molecules situated in the plane of the equator would
+have formed several concentric rings like that of Saturn round the sun.
+In their turn these rings of cosmic matter, seized with a movement of
+rotation round the central mass, would have been broken up into
+secondary nebulae--that is to say, into planets.
+
+If the spectator had then concentrated all his attention on these
+planets he would have seen them behave exactly like the sun and give
+birth to one or more cosmic rings, origin of those secondary bodies
+which we call satellites.
+
+Thus in going up from the atom to the molecule, from the molecule to the
+nebulae, and from the nebulae to the principal star, from the principal
+star to the sun, from the sun to the planet, and from the planet to the
+satellite, we have the whole series of transformations undergone by the
+celestial powers from the first days of the universe.
+
+The sun seems lost amidst the immensities of the stellar universe, and
+yet it is related, by actual theories of science, to the nebula of the
+Milky Way. Centre of a world, and small as it appears amidst the
+ethereal regions, it is still enormous, for its size is 1,400,000 times
+that of the earth. Around it gravitate eight planets, struck off from
+its own mass in the first days of creation. These are, in proceeding
+from the nearest to the most distant, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Between Mars and Jupiter circulate
+regularly other smaller bodies, the wandering _débris_, perhaps, of a
+star broken up into thousands of pieces, of which the telescope has
+discovered eighty-two at present. Some of these asteroids are so small
+that they could be walked round in a single day by going at a gymnastic
+pace.
+
+Of these attendant bodies which the sun maintains in their elliptical
+orbit by the great law of gravitation, some possess satellites of their
+own. Uranus has eight, Saturn eight, Jupiter four, Neptune three
+perhaps, and the Earth one; this latter, one of the least important of
+the solar world, is called the Moon, and it is that one that the
+enterprising genius of the Americans means to conquer.
+
+The Queen of Night, from her relative proximity and the spectacle
+rapidly renewed of her different phases, at first divided the attention
+of the inhabitants of the earth with the sun; but the sun tires the
+eyesight, and the splendour of its light forces its admirers to lower
+their eyes.
+
+The blonde Phoebe, more humane, graciously allows herself to be seen in
+her modest grace; she is gentle to the eye, not ambitious, and yet she
+sometimes eclipses her brother the radiant Apollo, without ever being
+eclipsed by him. The Mahommedans understood what gratitude they owed to
+this faithful friend of the earth, and they ruled their months at 29-1/2
+days on her revolution.
+
+The first people of the world dedicated particular worship to this
+chaste goddess. The Egyptians called her Isis, the Phoenicians Astarte,
+the Greeks Phoebe, daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and they explained
+her eclipses by the mysterious visits of Diana and the handsome
+Endymion. The mythological legend relates that the Nemean lion traversed
+the country of the moon before its apparition upon earth, and the poet
+Agesianax, quoted by Plutarch, celebrated in his sweet lines its soft
+eyes, charming nose, and admirable mouth, formed by the luminous parts
+of the adorable Selene.
+
+But though the ancients understood the character, temperament, and, in a
+word, moral qualities of the moon from a mythological point of view, the
+most learned amongst them remained very ignorant of selenography.
+
+Several astronomers, however, of ancient times discovered certain
+particulars now confirmed by science. Though the Arcadians pretended
+they had inhabited the earth at an epoch before the moon existed, though
+Simplicius believed her immovable and fastened to the crystal vault,
+though Tacitus looked upon her as a fragment broken off from the solar
+orbit, and Clearch, the disciple of Aristotle, made of her a polished
+mirror upon which were reflected the images of the ocean--though, in
+short, others only saw in her a mass of vapours exhaled by the earth, or
+a globe half fire and half ice that turned on itself, other _savants_,
+by means of wise observations and without optical instruments, suspected
+most of the laws that govern the Queen of Night.
+
+Thus Thales of Miletus, B.C. 460, gave out the opinion that the moon was
+lighted up by the sun. Aristarchus of Samos gave the right explanation
+of her phases. Cleomenus taught that she shone by reflected light.
+Berose the Chaldean discovered that the duration of her movement of
+rotation was equal to that of her movement of revolution, and he thus
+explained why the moon always presented the same side. Lastly,
+Hipparchus, 200 years before the Christian era, discovered some
+inequalities in the apparent movements of the earth's satellite.
+
+These different observations were afterwards confirmed, and other
+astronomers profited by them. Ptolemy in the second century, and the
+Arabian Aboul Wefa in the tenth, completed the remarks of Hipparchus on
+the inequalities that the moon undergoes whilst following the undulating
+line of its orbit under the action of the sun. Then Copernicus, in the
+fifteenth century, and Tycho Brahe, in the sixteenth, completely exposed
+the system of the world and the part that the moon plays amongst the
+celestial bodies.
+
+At that epoch her movements were pretty well known, but very little of
+her physical constitution was known. It was then that Galileo explained
+the phenomena of light produced in certain phases by the existence of
+mountains, to which he gave an average height of 27,000 feet.
+
+After him, Hevelius, an astronomer of Dantzig, lowered the highest
+altitudes to 15,000 feet; but his contemporary, Riccioli, brought them
+up again to 21,000 feet.
+
+Herschel, at the end of the eighteenth century, armed with a powerful
+telescope, considerably reduced the preceding measurements. He gave a
+height of 11,400 feet to the highest mountains, and brought down the
+average of different heights to little more than 2,400 feet. But
+Herschel was mistaken too, and the observations of Schroeter, Louville,
+Halley, Nasmyth, Bianchini, Pastorff, Lohrman, Gruithuysen, and
+especially the patient studies of MM. Boeer and Moedler, were necessary
+to definitely resolve the question. Thanks to these _savants_, the
+elevation of the mountains of the moon is now perfectly known. Boeer and
+Moedler measured 1,905 different elevations, of which six exceed 15,000
+feet and twenty-two exceed 14,400 feet. Their highest summit towers to a
+height of 22,606 feet above the surface of the lunar disc.
+
+At the same time the survey of the moon was being completed; she
+appeared riddled with craters, and her essentially volcanic nature was
+affirmed by each observation. From the absence of refraction in the rays
+of the planets occulted by her it is concluded that she can have no
+atmosphere. This absence of air entails absence of water; it therefore
+became manifest that the Selenites, in order to live under such
+conditions, must have a special organisation, and differ singularly from
+the inhabitants of the earth.
+
+Lastly, thanks to new methods, more perfected instruments searched the
+moon without intermission, leaving not a point of her surface
+unexplored, and yet her diameter measures 2,150 miles; her surface is
+one-thirteenth of the surface of the globe, and her volume
+one-forty-ninth of the volume of the terrestrial spheroid; but none of
+her secrets could escape the astronomers' eyes, and these clever
+_savants_ carried their wonderful observations still further.
+
+Thus they remarked that when the moon was at her full the disc appeared
+in certain places striped with white lines, and during her phases
+striped with black lines. By prosecuting the study of these with greater
+precision they succeeded in making out the exact nature of these lines.
+They are long and narrow furrows sunk between parallel ridges, bordering
+generally upon the edges of the craters; their length varied from ten to
+one hundred miles, and their width was about 1,600 yards. Astronomers
+called them furrows, and that was all they could do; they could not
+ascertain whether they were the dried-up beds of ancient rivers or not.
+The Americans hope, some day or other, to determine this geological
+question. They also undertake to reconnoitre the series of parallel
+ramparts discovered on the surface of the moon by Gruithuysen, a learned
+professor of Munich, who considered them to be a system of elevated
+fortifications raised by Selenite engineers. These two still obscure
+points, and doubtless many others, can only be definitely settled by
+direct communication with the moon.
+
+As to the intensity of her light there is nothing more to be learnt; it
+is 300,000 times weaker than that of the sun, and its heat has no
+appreciable action upon thermometers; as to the phenomenon known as the
+"ashy light," it is naturally explained by the effect of the sun's rays
+transmitted from the earth to the moon, and which seem to complete the
+lunar disc when it presents a crescent form during its first and last
+phases.
+
+Such was the state of knowledge acquired respecting the earth's
+satellite which the Gun Club undertook to perfect under all its aspects,
+cosmographical, geographical, geological, political, and moral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO BE
+BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The immediate effect of Barbicane's proposition was that of bringing out
+all astronomical facts relative to the Queen of Night. Everybody began
+to study her assiduously. It seemed as if the moon had appeared on the
+horizon for the first time, and that no one had ever seen her in the sky
+before. She became the fashion; she was the lion of the day, without
+appearing less modest on that account, and took her place amongst the
+"stars" without being any the prouder. The newspapers revived old
+anecdotes in which this "Sun of the wolves" played a part; they recalled
+the influence which the ignorance of past ages had ascribed to her; they
+sang about her in every tone; a little more and they would have quoted
+her witty sayings; the whole of America was filled with selenomania.
+
+The scientific journals treated the question which touched upon the
+enterprise of the Gun Club more specially; they published the letter
+from the Observatory of Cambridge, they commented upon it and approved
+of it without reserve.
+
+In short, even the most ignorant Yankee was no longer allowed to be
+ignorant of a single fact relative to his satellite, nor, to the oldest
+women amongst them, to have any superstitions about her left. Science
+flooded them; it penetrated into their eyes and ears; it was impossible
+to be an ass--in astronomy.
+
+Until then many people did not know how the distance between the earth
+and the moon had been calculated. This fact was taken advantage of to
+explain to them that it was done by measuring the parallax of the moon.
+If the word "parallax" seemed new to them, they were told it was the
+angle formed by two straight lines drawn from either extremity of the
+earth's radius to the moon. If they were in doubt about the perfection
+of this method, it was immediately proved to them that not only was the
+mean distance 234,347 miles, but that astronomers were right to within
+seventy miles.
+
+To those who were not familiar with the movements of the moon, the
+newspapers demonstrated daily that she possesses two distinct movements,
+the first being that of rotation upon her axis, the second that of
+revolution round the earth, accomplishing both in the same time--that is
+to say, in 27-1/3 days.
+
+The movement of rotation is the one that causes night and day on the
+surface of the moon, only there is but one day and one night in a lunar
+month, and they each last 354-1/3 hours. But, happily, the face, turned
+towards the terrestrial globe, is lighted by it with an intensity equal
+to the light of fourteen moons. As to the other face, the one always
+invisible, it has naturally 354 hours of absolute night, tempered only
+by "the pale light that falls from the stars." This phenomenon is due
+solely to the peculiarity that the movements of rotation and revolution
+are accomplished in rigorously equal periods, a phenomenon which,
+according to Cassini and Herschel, is common to the satellites of
+Jupiter, and, very probably to the other satellites.
+
+Some well-disposed but rather unyielding minds did not quite understand
+at first how, if the moon invariably shows the same face to the earth
+during her revolution, she describes one turn round herself in the same
+period of time. To such it was answered--"Go into your dining-room, and
+turn round the table so as always to keep your face towards the centre;
+when your circular walk is ended you will have described one circle
+round yourselves, since your eye will have successively traversed every
+point of the room. Well, then, the room is the heavens, the table is the
+earth, and you are the moon!"
+
+And they go away delighted with the comparison.
+
+Thus, then, the moon always presents the same face to the earth; still,
+to be quite exact, it should be added that in consequence of certain
+fluctuations from north to south and from west to east, called
+libration, she shows rather more than the half of her disc, about 0.57.
+
+When the ignoramuses knew as much as the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory about the moon's movement of rotation they began to make
+themselves uneasy about her movement of revolution round the earth, and
+twenty scientific reviews quickly gave them the information they wanted.
+They then learnt that the firmament, with its infinite stars, may be
+looked upon as a vast dial upon which the moon moves, indicating the
+time to all the inhabitants of the earth; that it is in this movement
+that the Queen of Night shows herself in her different phases, that she
+is full when she is in opposition with the sun--that is to say, when the
+three bodies are on a line with each other, the earth being in the
+centre; that the moon is new when she is in conjunction with the
+sun--that is to say, when she is between the sun and the earth; lastly,
+that the moon is in her first or last quarter when she makes, with the
+sun and the earth, a right angle of which she occupies the apex.
+
+Some perspicacious Yankees inferred in consequence that eclipses could
+only take place at the periods of conjunction or opposition, and their
+reasoning was just. In conjunction the moon can eclipse the sun, whilst
+in opposition it is the earth that can eclipse him in her turn; and the
+reason these eclipses do not happen twice in a lunar month is because
+the plane upon which the moon moves is elliptical like that of the
+earth.
+
+As to the height which the Queen of Night can attain above the horizon,
+the letter from the Observatory of Cambridge contained all that can be
+said about it. Every one knew that this height varies according to the
+latitude of the place where the observation is taken. But the only zones
+of the globe where the moon reaches her zenith--that is to say, where
+she is directly above the heads of the spectators--are necessarily
+comprised between the 28th parallels and the equator. Hence the
+important recommendation given to attempt the experiment upon some point
+in this part of the globe, in order that the projectile may be hurled
+perpendicularly, and may thus more quickly escape the attraction of
+gravitation. This was a condition essential to the success of the
+enterprise, and public opinion was much exercised thereupon.
+
+As to the line followed by the moon in her revolution round the earth,
+the Observatory of Cambridge had demonstrated to the most ignorant that
+it is an ellipse of which the earth occupies one of the foci. These
+elliptical orbits are common to all the planets as well as to all the
+satellites, and rational mechanism rigorously proves that it could not
+be otherwise. It was clearly understood that when at her apogee the moon
+was farthest from the earth, and when at her perigee she was nearest to
+our planet.
+
+This, therefore, was what every American knew whether he wished to or
+no, and what no one could decently be ignorant of. But if these true
+principles rapidly made their way, certain illusive fears and many
+errors were with difficulty cleared away.
+
+Some worthy people maintained, for instance, that the moon was an
+ancient comet, which, whilst travelling along its elongated orbit round
+the sun, passed near to the earth, and was retained in her circle of
+attraction. The drawing-room astronomers pretended to explain thus the
+burnt aspect of the moon, a misfortune of which they accused the sun.
+Only when they were told to notice that comets have an atmosphere, and
+that the moon has little or none, they did not know what to answer.
+
+Others belonging to the class of "Shakers" manifested certain fears
+about the moon; they had heard that since the observations made in the
+times of the Caliphs her movement of revolution had accelerated in a
+certain proportion; they thence very logically concluded that an
+acceleration of movement must correspond to a diminution in the distance
+between the two bodies, and that this double effect going on infinitely
+the moon would one day end by falling into the earth. However, they were
+obliged to reassure themselves and cease to fear for future generations
+when they were told that according to the calculations of Laplace, an
+illustrious French mathematician, this acceleration of movement was
+restricted within very narrow limits, and that a proportional diminution
+will follow it. Thus the equilibrium of the solar world cannot be
+disturbed in future centuries.
+
+Lastly there was the superstitious class of ignoramuses to be dealt
+with; these are not content with being ignorant; they know what does not
+exist, and about the moon they know a great deal. Some of them
+considered her disc to be a polished mirror by means of which people
+might see themselves from different points on the earth, and communicate
+their thoughts to one another. Others pretended that out of 1,000 new
+moons 950 had brought some notable change, such as cataclysms,
+revolutions, earthquakes, deluges, &c.; they therefore believed in the
+mysterious influence of the Queen of Night on human destinies; they
+think that every Selenite is connected by some sympathetic tie with each
+inhabitant of the earth; they pretend, with Dr. Mead, that she entirely
+governs the vital system--that boys are born during the new moon and
+girls during her last quarter, &c., &c. But at last it became necessary
+to give up these vulgar errors, to come back to truth; and if the moon,
+stripped of her influence, lost her prestige in the minds of courtesans
+of every power, if some turned their backs on her, the immense majority
+were in her favour. As to the Yankees, they had no other ambition than
+that of taking possession of this new continent of the sky, and to plant
+upon its highest summit the star-spangled banner of the United States of
+America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL.
+
+
+The Cambridge Observatory had, in its memorable letter of October 7th,
+treated the question from an astronomical point of view--the mechanical
+point had still to be treated. It was then that the practical
+difficulties would have seemed insurmountable to any other country but
+America; but there they were looked upon as play.
+
+President Barbicane had, without losing any time, nominated a working
+committee in the heart of the Gun Club. This committee was in three
+sittings to elucidate the three great questions of the cannon, the
+projectile, and the powder. It was composed of four members very learned
+upon these matters. Barbicane had the casting vote, and with him were
+associated General Morgan, Major Elphinstone, and, lastly, the
+inevitable J.T. Maston, to whom were confided the functions of
+secretary.
+
+On the 8th of October the committee met at President Barbicane's house,
+No. 3, Republican-street; as it was important that the stomach should
+not trouble so important a debate, the four members of the Gun Club took
+their seats at a table covered with sandwiches and teapots. J.T. Maston
+immediately screwed his pen on to his steel hook and the business began.
+
+Barbicane opened the meeting as follows:--
+
+"Dear colleagues," said he, "we have to solve one of the more important
+problems in ballistics--that greatest of sciences which treats of the
+movement of projectiles--that is to say, of bodies hurled into space by
+some power of impulsion and then left to themselves."
+
+"Oh, ballistics, ballistics!" cried J.T. Maston in a voice of emotion.
+
+"Perhaps," continued Barbicane, "the most logical thing would be to
+consecrate this first meeting to discussing the engine."
+
+"Certainly," answered General Morgan.
+
+"Nevertheless," continued Barbicane, "after mature deliberation, it
+seems to me that the question of the projectile ought to precede that of
+the cannon, and that the dimensions of the latter ought to depend upon
+the dimensions of the former."
+
+J.T. Maston here interrupted the president, and was heard with the
+attention which his magnificent past career deserved.
+
+"My dear friends," said he in an inspired tone, "our president is right
+to give the question of the projectile the precedence of every other;
+the cannon-ball we mean to hurl at the moon will be our messenger, our
+ambassador, and I ask your permission to regard it from an entirely
+moral point of view."
+
+This new way of looking at a projectile excited the curiosity of the
+members of the committee; they therefore listened attentively to the
+words of J.T. Maston.
+
+"My dear colleagues," he continued, "I will be brief. I will lay aside
+the material projectile--the projectile that kills--in order to take up
+the mathematical projectile--the moral projectile. A cannon-ball is to
+me the most brilliant manifestation of human power, and by creating it
+man has approached nearest to the Creator!"
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Major Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," cried the orator, "if God has made the stars and the planets,
+man has made the cannon-ball--that criterion of terrestrial speed--that
+reduction of bodies wandering in space which are really nothing but
+projectiles. Let Providence claim the speed of electricity, light, the
+stars, comets, planets, satellites, sound, and wind! But ours is the
+speed of the cannon-ball--a hundred times greater than that of trains
+and the fastest horses!"
+
+J.T. Maston was inspired; his accents became quite lyrical as he chanted
+the hymn consecrated to the projectile.
+
+"Would you like figures?" continued he; "here are eloquent ones. Take
+the simple 24 pounder; though it moves 80,000 times slower than
+electricity, 64,000 times slower than light, 76 times slower than the
+earth in her movement of translation round the sun, yet when it leaves
+the cannon it goes quicker than sound; it goes at the rate of 14 miles a
+minute, 840 miles an hour, 20,100 miles a day--that is to say, at the
+speed of the points of the equator in the globe's movement of rotation,
+7,336,500 miles a year. It would therefore take 11 days to get to the
+moon, 12 years to get to the sun, 360 years to reach Neptune, at the
+limits of the solar world. That is what this modest cannon-ball, the
+work of our hands, can do! What will it be, therefore, when, with twenty
+times that speed, we shall hurl it with a rapidity of seven miles a
+second? Ah! splendid shot! superb projectile! I like to think you will
+be received up there with the honours due to a terrestrial ambassador!"
+
+Cheers greeted this brilliant peroration, and J.T. Maston, overcome with
+emotion, sat down amidst the felicitations of his colleagues.
+
+"And now," said Barbicane, "that we have given some time to poetry, let
+us proceed to facts."
+
+"We are ready," answered the members of the committee as they each
+demolished half-a-dozen sandwiches.
+
+"You know what problem it is we have to solve," continued the president;
+"it is that of endowing a projectile with a speed of 12,000 yards per
+second. I have every reason to believe that we shall succeed, but at
+present let us see what speeds we have already obtained; General Morgan
+can edify us upon that subject."
+
+"So much the more easily," answered the general, "because during the war
+I was a member of the Experiment Commission. The 100-pound cannon of
+Dahlgren, with a range of 5,000 yards, gave their projectiles an initial
+speed of 500 yards a second."
+
+"Yes; and the Rodman Columbiad?" (the Americans gave the name of
+"Columbiad" to their enormous engines of destruction) asked the
+president.
+
+"The Rodman Columbiad, tried at Fort Hamilton, near New York, hurled a
+projectile, weighing half a ton, a distance of six miles, with a speed
+of 800 yards a second, a result which neither Armstrong nor Palliser has
+obtained in England."
+
+"Englishmen are nowhere!" said J.T. Maston, pointing his formidable
+steel hook eastward.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "a speed of 800 yards is the maximum obtained
+at present."
+
+"Yes," answered Morgan.
+
+"I might add, however," replied J.T. Maston, "that if my mortar had not
+been blown up--"
+
+"Yes, but it was blown up," replied Barbicane with a benevolent gesture.
+"We must take the speed of 800 yards for a starting point. We must keep
+till another meeting the discussion of the means used to produce this
+speed; allow me to call your attention to the dimensions which our
+projectile must have. Of course it must be something very different to
+one of half a ton weight."
+
+"Why?" asked the major.
+
+"Because," quickly answered J.T. Maston, "it must be large enough to
+attract the attention of the inhabitants of the moon, supposing there
+are any."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "and for another reason still more
+important."
+
+"What do you mean, Barbicane?" asked the major.
+
+"I mean that it is not enough to send up a projectile and then to think
+no more about it; we must follow it in its transit."
+
+"What?" said the general, slightly surprised at the proposition.
+
+"Certainly," replied Barbicane, like a man who knew what he was saying,
+"or our experiment will be without result."
+
+"But then," replied the major, "you will have to give the projectile
+enormous dimensions."
+
+"No. Please grant me your attention. You know that optical instruments
+have acquired great perfection; certain telescopes increase objects six
+thousand, and bring the moon to within a distance of forty miles. Now at
+that distance objects sixty feet square are perfectly visible. The power
+of penetration of the telescope has not been increased, because that
+power is only exercised to the detriment of their clearness, and the
+moon, which is only a reflecting mirror, does not send a light intense
+enough for the telescopes to increase objects beyond that limit."
+
+"Very well, then, what do you mean to do?" asked the general. "Do you
+intend giving a diameter of sixty feet to your projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are not going to take upon yourself the task of making the moon
+more luminous?"
+
+"I am, though."
+
+"That's rather strong!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Yes, but simple," answered Barbicane. "If I succeed in lessening the
+density of the atmosphere which the moon's light traverses, shall I not
+render that light more intense?"
+
+"Evidently."
+
+"In order to obtain that result I shall only have to establish my
+telescope upon some high mountain. We can do that."
+
+"I give in," answered the major; "you have such a way of simplifying
+things! What enlargement do you hope to obtain thus?"
+
+"One of 48,000 times, which will bring the moon within five miles only,
+and objects will only need a diameter of nine feet."
+
+"Perfect!" exclaimed J.T. Maston; "then our projectile will have a
+diameter of nine feet?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Allow me to inform you, however," returned Major Elphinstone, "that its
+weight will still be--"
+
+"Oh, major!" answered Barbicane, "before discussing its weight allow me
+to tell you that our forefathers did marvels in that way. Far be it from
+me to pretend that ballistics have not progressed, but it is well to
+know that in the Middle Ages surprising results were obtained, I dare
+affirm, even more surprising than ours."
+
+"Justify your statement," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Barbicane; "I can give you some examples.
+At the siege of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 1453, they hurled
+stone bullets that weighed 1,900 lbs.; at Malta, in the time of its
+knights, a certain cannon of Fort Saint Elme hurled projectiles weighing
+2,500 lbs. According to a French historian, under Louis XI. a mortar
+hurled a bomb of 500 lbs. only; but that bomb, fired at the Bastille, a
+place where mad men imprisoned wise ones, fell at Charenton, where wise
+men imprison mad ones."
+
+"Very well," said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Since, what have we seen, after all? The Armstrong cannons hurl
+projectiles of 500 lbs., and the Rodman Columbiads projectiles of half a
+ton! It seems, then, that if projectiles have increased in range they
+have lost in weight. Now, if we turn our efforts in that direction, we
+must succeed with the progress of the science in doubling the weight of
+the projectiles of Mahomet II. and the Knights of Malta."
+
+"That is evident," answered the major; "but what metal do you intend to
+employ for your own projectile?"
+
+"Simply cast-iron," said General Morgan.
+
+"Cast-iron!" exclaimed J.T. Maston disdainfully, "that's very common for
+a bullet destined to go to the moon."
+
+"Do not let us exaggerate, my honourable friend," answered Morgan;
+"cast-iron will be sufficient."
+
+"Then," replied Major Elphinstone, "as the weight of the projectile is
+in proportion to its volume, a cast-iron bullet, measuring nine feet in
+diameter, will still be frightfully heavy."
+
+"Yes, if it be solid, but not if it be hollow," said Barbicane.
+
+"Hollow!--then it will be an obus?"
+
+"In which we can put despatches," replied J.T. Maston, "and specimens of
+our terrestrial productions."
+
+"Yes, an obus," answered Barbicane; "that is what it must be; a solid
+bullet of 108 inches would weigh more than 200,000 lbs., a weight
+evidently too great; however, as it is necessary to give the projectile
+a certain stability, I propose to give it a weight of 20,000 lbs."
+
+"What will be the thickness of the metal?" asked the major.
+
+"If we follow the usual proportions," replied Morgan, "a diameter of 800
+inches demands sides two feet thick at least."
+
+"That would be much too thick," answered Barbicane; "we do not want a
+projectile to pierce armour-plate; it only needs sides strong enough to
+resist the pressure of the powder-gas. This, therefore, is the
+problem:--What thickness ought an iron obus to have in order to weigh
+only 20,000 lbs.? Our clever calculator, Mr. Maston, will tell us at
+once."
+
+"Nothing is easier," replied the honourable secretary.
+
+So saying, he traced some algebraical signs on the paper, amongst which
+n^2 and x^2 frequently appeared. He even seemed to extract from them a
+certain cubic root, and said--
+
+"The sides must be hardly two inches thick."
+
+"Will that be sufficient?" asked the major doubtfully.
+
+"No," answered the president, "certainly not."
+
+"Then what must be done?" resumed Elphinstone, looking puzzled.
+
+"We must use another metal instead of cast-iron."
+
+"Brass?" suggested Morgan.
+
+"No; that is too heavy too, and I have something better than that to
+propose."
+
+"What?" asked the major.
+
+"Aluminium," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Aluminium!" cried all the three colleagues of the president.
+
+"Certainly, my friends. You know that an illustrious French chemist,
+Henry St. Claire Deville, succeeded in 1854 in obtaining aluminium in a
+compact mass. This precious metal possesses the whiteness of silver, the
+indestructibility of gold, the tenacity of iron, the fusibility of
+copper, the lightness of glass; it is easily wrought, and is very widely
+distributed in nature, as aluminium forms the basis of most rocks; it is
+three times lighter than iron, and seems to have been created expressly
+to furnish us with the material for our projectile!"
+
+"Hurrah for aluminium!" cried the secretary, always very noisy in his
+moments of enthusiasm.
+
+"But, my dear president," said the major, "is not aluminium quoted
+exceedingly high?"
+
+"It was so," answered Barbicane; "when first discovered a pound of
+aluminium cost 260 to 280 dollars; then it fell to twenty-seven dollars,
+and now it is worth nine dollars."
+
+"But nine dollars a pound," replied the major, who did not easily give
+in; "that is still an enormous price."
+
+"Doubtless, my dear major; but not out of reach."
+
+"What will the projectile weigh, then?" asked Morgan.
+
+"Here is the result of my calculations," answered Barbicane. "A
+projectile of 108 inches in diameter and 12 inches thick would weigh, if
+it were made of cast-iron, 67,440 lbs.; cast in aluminium it would be
+reduced to 19,250 lbs."
+
+"Perfect!" cried Maston; "that suits our programme capitally."
+
+"Yes," replied the major; "but do you not know that at nine dollars a
+pound the projectile would cost--"
+
+"One hundred seventy-three thousand and fifty dollars. Yes, I know that;
+but fear nothing, my friends; money for our enterprise will not be
+wanting, I answer for that."
+
+"It will be showered upon us," replied J.T. Maston.
+
+"Well, what do you say to aluminium?" asked the president.
+
+"Adopted," answered the three members of the committee.
+
+"As to the form of the projectile," resumed Barbicane, "it is of little
+consequence, since, once the atmosphere cleared, it will find itself in
+empty space; I therefore propose a round ball, which will turn on
+itself, if it so pleases."
+
+Thus ended the first committee meeting. The question of the projectile
+was definitely resolved upon, and J.T. Maston was delighted with the
+idea of sending an aluminium bullet to the Selenites, "as it will give
+them no end of an idea of the inhabitants of the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HISTORY OF THE CANNON.
+
+
+The resolutions passed at this meeting produced a great effect outside.
+Some timid people grew alarmed at the idea of a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs. hurled into space. People asked what cannon could ever
+transmit an initial speed sufficient for such a mass. The report of the
+second meeting was destined to answer these questions victoriously.
+
+The next evening the four members of the Gun Club sat down before fresh
+mountains of sandwiches and a veritable ocean of tea. The debate then
+began.
+
+"My dear colleagues," said Barbicane, "we are going to occupy ourselves
+with the construction of the engine, its length, form, composition, and
+weight. It is probable that we shall have to give it gigantic
+dimensions, but, however great our difficulties might be, our industrial
+genius will easily overcome them. Will you please listen to me and
+spare objections for the present? I do not fear them."
+
+An approving murmur greeted this declaration.
+
+"We must not forget," resumed Barbicane, "to what point our yesterday's
+debate brought us; the problem is now the following: how to give an
+initial speed of 12,000 yards a second to a shot 108 inches in diameter
+weighing 20,000 lbs.
+
+"That is the problem indeed," answered Major Elphinstone.
+
+"When a projectile is hurled into space," resumed Barbicane, "what
+happens? It is acted upon by three independent forces, the resistance of
+the medium, the attraction of the earth, and the force of impulsion with
+which it is animated. Let us examine these three forces. The resistance
+of the medium--that is to say, the resistance of the air--is of little
+importance. In fact, the terrestrial atmosphere is only forty miles
+deep. With a rapidity of 12,000 yards the projectile will cross that in
+five seconds, and this time will be short enough to make the resistance
+of the medium insignificant. Let us now pass to the attraction of the
+earth--that is to say, to the weight of the projectile. We know that
+that weight diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of
+distances--in fact, this is what physics teach us: when a body left to
+itself falls on the surface of the earth, it falls 15 feet in the first
+second, and if the same body had to fall 257,542 miles--that is to say,
+the distance between the earth and the moon--its fall would be reduced
+to half a line in the first second. That is almost equivalent to
+immobility. The question is, therefore, how progressively to overcome
+this law of gravitation. How shall we do it? By the force of impulsion?"
+
+"That is the difficulty," answered the major.
+
+"That is it indeed," replied the president. "But we shall triumph over
+it, for this force of impulsion we want depends on the length of the
+engine and the quantity of powder employed, the one only being limited
+by the resistance of the other. Let us occupy ourselves, therefore,
+to-day with the dimensions to be given to the cannon. It is quite
+understood that we can make it, as large as we like, seeing it will not
+have to be moved."
+
+"All that is evident," replied the general.
+
+"Until now," said Barbicane, "the longest cannon, our enormous
+Columbiads, have not been more than twenty-five feet long; we shall
+therefore astonish many people by the dimensions we shall have to
+adopt."
+
+"Certainly," exclaimed J.T. Maston. "For my part, I ask for a cannon
+half a mile long at least!"
+
+"Half a mile!" cried the major and the general.
+
+"Yes, half a mile, and that will be half too short."
+
+"Come, Maston," answered Morgan, "you exaggerate."
+
+"No, I do not," said the irate secretary; "and I really do not know why
+you tax me with exaggeration."
+
+"Because you go too far."
+
+"You must know, sir," answered J.T. Maston, looking dignified, "that an
+artilleryman is like a cannon-ball, he can never go too far."
+
+The debate was getting personal, but the president interfered.
+
+"Be calm, my friends, and let us reason it out. We evidently want a gun
+of great range, as the length of the engine will increase the detention
+of gas accumulated behind the projectile, but it is useless to overstep
+certain limits."
+
+"Perfectly," said the major.
+
+"What are the usual rules in such a case? Ordinarily the length of a
+cannon is twenty or twenty-five times the diameter of the projectile,
+and it weighs 235 to 240 times its weight."
+
+"It is not enough," cried J.T. Maston with impetuosity.
+
+"I agree to that, my worthy friend, and in fact by keeping that
+proportion for a projectile nine feet wide, weighing 30,000 lbs., the
+engine would only have a length of 225 feet and a weight of 7,200,000
+lbs."
+
+"That is ridiculous," resumed J.T. Maston. "You might as well take a
+pistol."
+
+"I think so too," answered Barbicane; "that is why I propose to
+quadruple that length, and to construct a cannon 900 feet long."
+
+The general and the major made some objections, but, nevertheless, this
+proposition, strongly supported by the secretary, was definitely
+adopted.
+
+"Now," said Elphinstone, "what thickness must we give its sides?"
+
+"A thickness of six feet," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You do not think of raising such a mass upon a gun-carriage?" asked the
+major.
+
+"That would be superb, however! said J.T. Maston.
+
+"But impracticable," answered Barbicane. "No, I think of casting this
+engine in the ground itself, binding it up with wrought-iron hoops, and
+then surrounding it with a thick mass of stone and cement masonry. When
+it is cast it must be bored with great precision so as to prevent
+windage, so there will be no loss of gas, and all the expansive force of
+the powder will be employed in the propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" said Maston, "we have our cannon."
+
+"Not yet," answered Barbicane, calming his impatient friend with his
+hand.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we have not discussed its form. Shall it be a cannon, howitzer,
+or a mortar?"
+
+"A cannon," replied Morgan.
+
+"A howitzer," said the major.
+
+"A mortar," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+A fresh discussion was pending, each taking the part of his favourite
+weapon, when the president stopped it short.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I will soon make you agree. Our Columbiad will
+be a mixture of all three. It will be a cannon, because the
+powder-magazine will have the same diameter as the chamber. It will be a
+howitzer, because it will hurl an obus. Lastly, it will be a mortar,
+because it will be pointed at an angle of 90°, and that without any
+chance of recoil; unalterably fixed to the ground, it will communicate
+to the projectile all the power of impulsion accumulated in its body."
+
+"Adopted, adopted," answered the members of the committee.
+
+"One question," said Elphinstone, "and will this _canobusomortar_ be
+rifled?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "No, we must have an enormous initial speed,
+and you know very well that a shot leaves a rifle less rapidly than a
+smooth-bore."
+
+"True," answered the major.
+
+"Well, we have it this time," repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"Not quite yet," replied the president.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we do not yet know of what metal it will be made."
+
+"Let us decide that without delay."
+
+"I was going to propose it to you."
+
+The four members of the committee each swallowed a dozen sandwiches,
+followed by a cup of tea, and the debate recommenced.
+
+"Our cannon," said Barbicane, "must be possessed of great tenacity,
+great hardness; it must be infusible by heat, indissoluble, and
+inoxydable by the corrosive action of acids."
+
+"There is no doubt about that," answered the major, "and as we shall
+have to employ a considerable quantity of metal we shall not have much
+choice."
+
+"Well, then," said Morgan, "I propose for the fabrication of the
+Columbiad the best alloy hitherto known--that is to say, 100 parts of
+copper, 12 of tin, and 6 of brass."
+
+"My friends," answered the president, "I agree that this composition has
+given excellent results; but in bulk it would be too dear and very hard
+to work. I therefore think we must adopt an excellent material, but
+cheap, such as cast-iron. Is not that your opinion, major?"
+
+"Quite," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "cast-iron costs ten times less than
+bronze; it is easily melted, it is readily run into sand moulds, and is
+rapidly manipulated; it is, therefore, an economy of money and time.
+Besides, that material is excellent, and I remember that during the war
+at the siege of Atlanta cast-iron cannon fired a thousand shots each
+every twenty minutes without being damaged by it."
+
+"Yet cast-iron is very brittle," answered Morgan.
+
+"Yes, but it possesses resistance too. Besides, we shall not let it
+explode, I can answer for that."
+
+"It is possible to explode and yet be honest," replied J.T. Maston
+sententiously.
+
+"Evidently," answered Barbicane. "I am, therefore, going to beg our
+worthy secretary to calculate the weight of a cast-iron cannon 900 feet
+long, with an inner diameter of nine feet, and sides six feet thick."
+
+"At once," answered J.T. Maston, and, as he had done the day before, he
+made his calculations with marvellous facility, and said at the end of a
+minute--
+
+"This cannon will weigh 68,040 tons."
+
+"And how much will that cost at two cents a pound?"
+
+"Two million five hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and one
+dollars."
+
+J.T. Maston, the major, and the general looked at Barbicane anxiously.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the president, "I can only repeat what I said to
+you yesterday, don't be uneasy; we shall not want for money."
+
+Upon this assurance of its president the committee broke up, after
+having fixed a third meeting for the next evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE QUESTION OF POWDERS.
+
+
+The question of powder still remained to be settled. The public awaited
+this last decision with anxiety. The size of the projectile and length
+of the cannon being given, what would be the quantity of powder
+necessary to produce the impulsion? This terrible agent, of which,
+however, man has made himself master, was destined to play a part in
+unusual proportions.
+
+It is generally known and often asserted that gunpowder was invented in
+the fourteenth century by the monk Schwartz, who paid for his great
+discovery with his life. But it is nearly proved now that this story
+must be ranked among the legends of the Middle Ages. Gunpowder was
+invented by no one; it is a direct product of Greek fire, composed, like
+it, of sulphur and saltpetre; only since that epoch these mixtures;
+which were only dissolving, have been transformed into detonating
+mixtures.
+
+But if learned men know perfectly the false history of gunpowder, few
+people are aware of its mechanical power. Now this is necessary to be
+known in order to understand the importance of the question submitted to
+the committee.
+
+Thus a litre of gunpowder weighs about 2 lbs.; it produces, by burning,
+about 400 litres of gas; this gas, liberated, and under the action of a
+temperature of 2,400°, occupies the space of 4,000 litres. Therefore the
+volume of powder is to the volume of gas produced by its deflagration as
+1 to 400. The frightful force of this gas, when it is compressed into a
+space 4,000 times too small, may be imagined.
+
+This is what the members of the committee knew perfectly when, the next
+day, they began their sitting. Major Elphinstone opened the debate.
+
+"My dear comrades," said the distinguished chemist, "I am going to begin
+with some unexceptionable figures, which will serve as a basis for our
+calculation. The 24-lb. cannon-ball, of which the Hon. J.T. Maston spoke
+the day before yesterday, is driven out of the cannon by 16 lbs. of
+powder only."
+
+"You are certain of your figures?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Absolutely certain," answered the major. "The Armstrong cannon only
+uses 75 lbs. of powder for a projectile of 800 lbs., and the Rodman
+Columbiad only expends 160 lbs. of powder to send its half-ton bullet
+six miles. These facts cannot be doubted, for I found them myself in the
+reports of the Committee of Artillery."
+
+"That is certain," answered the general.
+
+"Well," resumed the major, "the conclusion to be drawn from these
+figures is that the quantity of powder does not augment with the weight
+of the shot; in fact, if a shot of 24 lbs. took 16 lbs. of powder, and,
+in other terms, if in ordinary cannons a quantity of powder weighing
+two-thirds of the weight of the projectile is used, this proportion is
+not always necessary. Calculate, and you will see that for the shot of
+half a ton weight, instead of 333 lbs. of powder, this quantity has been
+reduced to 116 lbs. only.
+
+"What are you driving at?" asked the president.
+
+"The extreme of your theory, my dear major," said J.T. Maston, "would
+bring you to having no powder at all, provided your shot were
+sufficiently heavy."
+
+"Friend Maston will have his joke even in the most serious things,"
+replied the major; "but he need not be uneasy; I shall soon propose a
+quantity of powder that will satisfy him. Only I wish to have it
+understood that during the war, and for the largest guns, the weight of
+the powder was reduced, after experience, to a tenth of the weight of
+the shot."
+
+"Nothing is more exact," said Morgan; "but, before deciding the quantity
+of powder necessary to give the impulsion, I think it would be well to
+agree upon its nature."
+
+"We shall use a large-grained powder," answered the major; "its
+deflagration is the most rapid."
+
+"No doubt," replied Morgan; "but it is very brittle, and ends by
+damaging the chamber of the gun."
+
+"Certainly; but what would be bad for a gun destined for long service
+would not be so for our Columbiad. We run no danger of explosion, and
+the powder must immediately take fire to make its mechanical effect
+complete."
+
+"We might make several touchholes," said J.T. Maston, "so as to set fire
+to it in several places at the same time."
+
+"No doubt," answered Elphinstone, "but that would make the working of it
+more difficult. I therefore come back to my large-grained powder that
+removes these difficulties."
+
+"So be it," answered the general.
+
+"To load his Columbiad," resumed the major, "Rodman used a powder in
+grains as large as chestnuts, made of willow charcoal, simply rarefied
+in cast-iron pans. This powder was hard and shining, left no stain on
+the hands, contained a great proportion of hydrogen and oxygen,
+deflagrated instantaneously, and, though very brittle, did not much
+damage the mouthpiece."
+
+"Well, it seems to me," answered J.T. Maston, "that we have nothing to
+hesitate about, and that our choice is made."
+
+"Unless you prefer gold-powder," replied the major, laughing, which
+provoked a threatening gesture from the steel hook of his susceptible
+friend.
+
+Until then Barbicane had kept himself aloof from the discussion; he
+listened, and had evidently an idea. He contented himself with saying
+simply--
+
+"Now, my friends, what quantity of powder do you propose?"
+
+The three members of the Gun Club looked at one another for the space of
+a minute.
+
+"Two hundred thousand pounds," said Morgan at last.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," replied the major.
+
+"Eight hundred thousand," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+This, time Elphinstone dared not tax his colleague with exaggeration. In
+fact, the question was that of sending to the moon a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs., and of giving it an initial force of 2000 yards a second. A
+moment of silence, therefore, followed the triple proposition made by
+the three colleagues.
+
+It was at last broken by President Barbicane.
+
+"My brave comrades," said he in a quiet tone, "I start from this
+principle, that the resistance of our cannon, in the given conditions,
+is unlimited. I shall, therefore, surprise the Honourable J.T. Maston
+when I tell him that he has been timid in his calculations, and I
+propose to double his 800,000 lbs. of powder."
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds!" shouted J.T. Maston, jumping out of
+his chair.
+
+"Quite as much as that."
+
+"Then we shall have to come back to my cannon half a mile long."
+
+"It is evident," said the major.
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds of powder," resumed the Secretary of
+Committee, "will occupy about a space of 22,000 cubic feet; now, as your
+cannon will only hold about 54,000 cubic feet, it will be half full, and
+the chamber will not be long enough to allow the explosion of the gas to
+give sufficient impulsion to your projectile."
+
+There was nothing to answer. J.T. Maston spoke the truth. They all
+looked at Barbicane.
+
+"However," resumed the president, "I hold to that quantity of powder.
+Think! 1,600,000 pounds of powder will give 6,000,000,000 litres of
+gas."
+
+"Then how is it to be done?" asked the general.
+
+"It is very simple. We must reduce this enormous quantity of powder,
+keeping at the same time its mechanical power."
+
+"Good! By what means?"
+
+"I will tell you," answered Barbicane simply.
+
+His interlocutors all looked at him.
+
+"Nothing is easier, in fact," he resumed, "than to bring that mass of
+powder to a volume four times less. You all know that curious cellular
+matter which constitutes the elementary tissues of vegetables?"
+
+"Ah!" said the major, "I understand you, Barbicane."
+
+"This matter," said the president, "is obtained in perfect purity in
+different things, especially in cotton, which is nothing but the skin of
+the seeds of the cotton plant. Now cotton, combined with cold nitric
+acid, is transformed into a substance eminently insoluble, eminently
+combustible, eminently explosive. Some years ago, in 1832, a French
+chemist, Braconnot, discovered this substance, which he called
+xyloidine. In 1838, another Frenchman, Pelouze, studied its different
+properties; and lastly, in 1846, Schonbein, professor of chemistry at
+Basle, proposed it as gunpowder. This powder is nitric cotton."
+
+"Or pyroxyle," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"Or fulminating cotton," replied Morgan.
+
+"Is there not an American name to put at the bottom of this discovery?"
+exclaimed J.T. Maston, animated by a lively sentiment of patriotism.
+
+"Not one, unfortunately," replied the major.
+
+"Nevertheless, to satisfy Maston," resumed the president, "I may tell
+him that one of our fellow-citizens may be annexed to the study of the
+celluosity, for collodion, which is one of the principal agents in
+photography, is simply pyroxyle dissolved in ether to which alcohol has
+been added, and it was discovered by Maynard, then a medical student."
+
+"Hurrah for Maynard and fulminating cotton!" cried the noisy secretary
+of the Gun Club.
+
+"I return to pyroxyle," resumed Barbicane. "You are acquainted with its
+properties which make it so precious to us. It is prepared with the
+greatest facility; cotton plunged in smoking nitric acid for fifteen
+minutes, then washed in water, then dried, and that is all."
+
+"Nothing is more simple, certainty," said Morgan.
+
+"What is more, pyroxyle is not damaged by moisture, a precious quality
+in our eyes, as it will take several days to load the cannon. Its
+inflammability takes place at 170° instead of at 240° and its
+deflagration is so immediate that it may be fired on ordinary gunpowder
+before the latter has time to catch fire too."
+
+"Perfect," answered the major.
+
+"Only it will cost more."
+
+"What does that matter?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Lastly, it communicates to projectiles a speed four times greater than
+that of gunpowder. I may even add that if 8/10ths of its weight of
+nitrate of potash is added its expansive force is still greatly
+augmented."
+
+"Will that be necessary?" asked the major.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "Thus instead of 1,600,000 lbs.
+of powder, we shall only have 400,000 lbs. of fulminating cotton, and as
+we can, without danger, compress 500 lbs. of cotton into 27 cubic feet,
+that quantity will not take up more than 180 feet in the chamber of the
+Columbiad. By these means the projectile will have more than 700 feet of
+chamber to traverse under a force of 6,000,000,000 of litres of gas
+before taking its flight over the Queen of Night."
+
+Here J.T. Maston could not contain his emotion. He threw himself into
+the arms of his friend with the violence of a projectile, and he would
+have been stove in had he not have been bombproof.
+
+This incident ended the first sitting of the committee. Barbicane and
+his enterprising colleagues, to whom nothing seemed impossible, had just
+solved the complex question of the projectile, cannon, and powder. Their
+plan being made, there was nothing left but to put it into execution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS.
+
+
+The American public took great interest in the least details of the Gun
+Club's enterprise. It followed the committee debates day by day. The
+most simple preparations for this great experiment, the questions of
+figures it provoked, the mechanical difficulties to be solved, all
+excited popular opinion to the highest pitch.
+
+More than a year would elapse between the commencement of the work and
+its completion; but the interval would not be void of excitement. The
+place to be chosen for the boring, the casting the metal of the
+Columbiad, its perilous loading, all this was more than necessary to
+excite public curiosity. The projectile, once fired, would be out of
+sight in a few seconds; then what would become of it, how it would
+behave in space, how it would reach the moon, none but a few privileged
+persons would see with their own eyes. Thus, then, the preparations for
+the experiment and the precise details of its execution constituted the
+real source of interest.
+
+In the meantime the purely scientific attraction of the enterprise was
+all at once heightened by an incident.
+
+It is known what numerous legions of admirers and friends the Barbicane
+project had called round its author. But, notwithstanding the number and
+importance of the majority, it was not destined to be unanimous. One
+man, one out of all the United States, protested against the Gun Club.
+He attacked it violently on every occasion, and--for human nature is
+thus constituted--Barbicane was more sensitive to this one man's
+opposition than to the applause of all the others.
+
+Nevertheless he well knew the motive of this antipathy, from whence came
+this solitary enmity, why it was personal and of ancient date; lastly,
+in what rivalry it had taken root.
+
+The president of the Gun Club had never seen this persevering enemy.
+Happily, for the meeting of the two men would certainly have had
+disastrous consequences. This rival was a _savant_ like Barbicane, a
+proud, enterprising, determined, and violent character, a pure Yankee.
+His name was Captain Nicholl. He lived in Philadelphia.
+
+No one is ignorant of the curious struggle which went on during the
+Federal war between the projectile and ironclad vessels, the former
+destined to pierce the latter, the latter determined not to be pierced.
+Thence came a radical transformation in the navies of the two
+continents. Cannon-balls and iron plates struggled for supremacy, the
+former getting larger as the latter got thicker. Ships armed with
+formidable guns went into the fire under shelter of their invulnerable
+armour. The Merrimac, Monitor, ram Tennessee, and Wechhausen shot
+enormous projectiles after having made themselves proof against the
+projectiles of other ships. They did to others what they would not have
+others do to them, an immoral principle upon which the whole art of war
+is based.
+
+Now Barbicane was a great caster of projectiles, and Nicholl was an
+equally great forger of plate-armour. The one cast night and day at
+Baltimore, the other forged day and night at Philadelphia. Each followed
+an essentially different current of ideas.
+
+As soon as Barbicane had invented a new projectile, Nicholl invented a
+new plate armour. The president of the Gun Club passed his life in
+piercing holes, the captain in preventing him doing it. Hence a constant
+rivalry which even touched their persons. Nicholl appeared in
+Barbicane's dreams as an impenetrable ironclad against which he split,
+and Barbicane in Nicholl's dreams appeared like a projectile which
+ripped him up.
+
+Still, although they ran along two diverging lines, these _savants_
+would have ended by meeting each other in spite of all the axioms in
+geometry; but then it would have been on a duel field. Happily for these
+worthy citizens, so useful to their country, a distance of from fifty to
+sixty miles separated them, and their friends put such obstacles in the
+way that they never met.
+
+At present it was not clearly known which of the two inventors held the
+palm. The results obtained rendered a just decision difficult. It
+seemed, however, that in the end armour-plate would have to give way to
+projectiles. Nevertheless, competent men had their doubts. At the latest
+experiments the cylindro-conical shots of Barbicane had no more effect
+than pins upon Nicholl's armour-plate. That day the forger of
+Philadelphia believed himself victorious, and henceforth had nothing but
+disdain for his rival. But when, later on, Barbicane substituted simple
+howitzers of 600 lbs. for conical shots, the captain was obliged to go
+down in his own estimation. It fact, these projectiles, though of
+mediocre velocity, drilled with holes and broke to pieces armour-plate
+of the best metal.
+
+Things had reached this point and victory seemed to rest with the
+projectile, when the war ended the very day that Nicholl terminated a
+new forged armour-plate. It was a masterpiece of its kind. It defied all
+the projectiles in the world. The captain had it taken to the Washington
+Polygon and challenged the president of the Gun Club to pierce it.
+Barbicane, peace having been made, would not attempt the experiment.
+
+Then Nicholl, in a rage, offered to expose his armour-plate to the shock
+of any kind of projectile, solid, hollow, round, or conical.
+
+The president, who was determined not to compromise his last success,
+refused.
+
+Nicholl, excited by this unqualified obstinacy, tried to tempt Barbicane
+by leaving him every advantage. He proposed to put his plate 200 yards
+from the gun. Barbicane still refused. At 100 yards? Not even at 75.
+
+"At 50, then," cried the captain, through the newspapers, "at 25 yards
+from my plate, and I will be behind it."
+
+Barbicane answered that even if Captain Nicholl would be in front of it
+he would not fire any more.
+
+On this reply, Nicholl could no longer contain himself. He had recourse
+to personalities; he insinuated cowardice--that the man who refuses to
+fire a shot from a cannon is very nearly being afraid of it; that, in
+short, the artillerymen who fight now at six miles distance have
+prudently substituted mathematical formulae for individual courage, and
+that there is as much bravery required to quietly wait for a cannon-ball
+behind armour-plate as to send it according to all the rules of science.
+
+To these insinuations Barbicane answered nothing. Perhaps he never knew
+about them, for the calculations of his great enterprise absorbed him
+entirely.
+
+When he made his famous communication to the Gun Club, the anger of
+Captain Nicholl reached its maximum. Mixed with it was supreme jealousy
+and a sentiment of absolute powerlessness. How could he invent anything
+better than a Columbiad 900 feet long? What armour-plate could ever
+resist a projectile of 30,000 lbs.? Nicholl was at first crushed by this
+cannon-ball, then he recovered and resolved to crush the proposition by
+the weight of his best arguments.
+
+He therefore violently attacked the labours of the Gun Club. He sent a
+number of letters to the newspapers, which they did not refuse to
+publish. He tried to demolish Barbicane's work scientifically. Once the
+war begun, he called reasons of every kind to his aid, reasons it must
+be acknowledged often specious and of bad metal.
+
+Firstly, Barbicane was violently attacked about his figures. Nicholl
+tried to prove by A + B the falseness of his formulae, and he accused
+him of being ignorant of the rudimentary principles of ballistics.
+Amongst other errors, and according to Nicholl's own calculations, it
+was impossible to give any body a velocity of 12,000 yards a second. He
+sustained, algebra in hand, that even with that velocity a projectile
+thus heavy would never pass the limits of the terrestrial atmosphere. It
+would not even go eight leagues! Better still. Granted the velocity, and
+taking it as sufficient, the shot would not resist the pressure of the
+gas developed by the combustion of 1,600,000 pounds of powder, and even
+if it did resist that pressure, it at least would not support such a
+temperature; it would melt as it issued from the Columbiad, and would
+fall in red-hot rain on the heads of the imprudent spectators.
+
+Barbicane paid no attention to these attacks, and went on with his work.
+
+Then Nicholl considered the question in its other aspects. Without
+speaking of its uselessness from all other points of view, he looked
+upon the experiment as exceedingly dangerous, both for the citizens who
+authorised so condemnable a spectacle by their presence, and for the
+towns near the deplorable cannon. He also remarked that if the
+projectile did not reach its destination, a result absolutely
+impossible, it was evident that it would fall on to the earth again, and
+that the fall of such a mass multiplied by the square of its velocity
+would singularly damage some point on the globe. Therefore, in such a
+circumstance, and without any restriction being put upon the rights of
+free citizens, it was one of those cases in which the intervention of
+government became necessary, and the safety of all must not be
+endangered for the good pleasure of a single individual.
+
+It will be seen to what exaggeration Captain Nicholl allowed himself to
+be carried. He was alone in his opinion. Nobody took any notice of his
+Cassandra prophecies. They let him exclaim as much as he liked, till his
+throat was sore if he pleased. He had constituted himself the defender
+of a cause lost in advance. He was heard but not listened to, and he did
+not carry off a single admirer from the president of the Gun Club, who
+did not even take the trouble to refute his rival's arguments.
+
+Nicholl, driven into his last intrenchments, and not being able to fight
+for his opinion, resolved to pay for it. He therefore proposed in the
+_Richmond Inquirer_ a series of bets conceived in these terms and in an
+increasing proportion.
+
+He bet that--
+
+1. The funds necessary for the Gun Club's enterprise would not be
+forthcoming, 1,000 dols.
+
+2. That the casting of a cannon of 900 feet was impracticable and would
+not succeed, 2,000 dols.
+
+3. That it would be impossible to load the Columbiad, and that the
+pyroxyle would ignite spontaneously under the weight of the projectile,
+3,000 dols.
+
+4. That the Columbiad would burst at the first discharge, 4,000 dols.
+
+5. That the projectile would not even go six miles, and would fall a few
+seconds after its discharge, 5,000 dols.
+
+It will be seen that the captain was risking an important sum in his
+invincible obstinacy. No less than 15,000 dols. were at stake.
+
+Notwithstanding the importance of the wager, he received on the 19th of
+October a sealed packet of superb laconism, couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 18th.
+
+"Done.
+
+"BARBICANE."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FLORIDA AND TEXAS.
+
+
+There still remained one question to be decided--a place favourable to
+the experiment had to be chosen. According to the recommendation of the
+Cambridge Observatory the gun must be aimed perpendicularly to the plane
+of the horizon--that is to say, towards the zenith. Now the moon only
+appears in the zenith in the places situated between 0° and 28° of
+latitude, or, in other terms, when her declination is only 28°. The
+question was, therefore, to determine the exact point of the globe where
+the immense Columbiad should be cast.
+
+On the 20th of October the Gun Club held a general meeting. Barbicane
+brought a magnificent map of the United States by Z. Belltropp. But
+before he had time to unfold it J.T. Maston rose with his habitual
+vehemence, and began to speak as follows:--
+
+"Honourable colleagues, the question we are to settle to-day is really
+of national importance, and will furnish us with an occasion for doing a
+great act of patriotism."
+
+The members of the Gun Club looked at each other without understanding
+what the orator was coming to.
+
+"Not one of you," he continued, "would think of doing anything to
+lessen the glory of his country, and if there is one right that the
+Union may claim it is that of harbouring in its bosom the formidable
+cannon of the Gun Club. Now, under the present circumstances--"
+
+"Will you allow me--" said Barbicane.
+
+"I demand the free discussion of ideas," replied the impetuous J.T.
+Maston, "and I maintain that the territory from which our glorious
+projectile will rise ought to belong to the Union."
+
+"Certainly," answered several members.
+
+"Well, then, as our frontiers do not stretch far enough, as on the south
+the ocean is our limit, as we must seek beyond the United States and in
+a neighbouring country this 28th parallel, this is all a legitimate
+_casus belli_, and I demand that war should be declared against Mexico!"
+
+"No, no!" was cried from all parts.
+
+"No!" replied J.T. Maston. "I am much astonished at hearing such a word
+in these precincts!"
+
+"But listen--"
+
+"Never! never!" cried the fiery orator. "Sooner or later this war will
+be declared, and I demand that it should be this very day."
+
+"Maston," said Barbicane, making his bell go off with a crash, "I agree
+with you that the experiment cannot and ought not to be made anywhere
+but on the soil of the Union, but if I had been allowed to speak before,
+and you had glanced at this map, you would know that it is perfectly
+useless to declare war against our neighbours, for certain frontiers of
+the United States extend beyond the 28th parallel. Look, we have at our
+disposition all the southern part of Texas and Florida."
+
+This incident had no consequences; still it was not without regret that
+J.T. Maston allowed himself to be convinced. It was, therefore, decided
+that the Columbiad should be cast either on the soil of Texas or on that
+of Florida. But this decision was destined to create an unexampled
+rivalry between the towns of these two states.
+
+The 28th parallel, when it touches the American coast, crosses the
+peninsula of Florida, and divides it into two nearly equal portions.
+Then, plunging into the Gulf of Mexico, it subtends the arc formed by
+the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; then skirting Texas,
+off which it cuts an angle, it continues its direction over Mexico,
+crosses the Sonora and Old California, and loses itself in the Pacific
+Ocean; therefore only the portions of Texas and Florida situated below
+this parallel fulfilled the requisite conditions of latitude recommended
+by the Observatory of Cambridge.
+
+The southern portion of Florida contains no important cities. It only
+bristles with forts raised against wandering Indians. One town only,
+Tampa Town, could put in a claim in favour of its position.
+
+In Texas, on the contrary, towns are more numerous and more important.
+Corpus Christi in the county of Nuaces, and all the cities situated on
+the Rio Bravo, Laredo, Comalites, San Ignacio in Web, Rio Grande city in
+Starr, Edinburgh in Hidalgo, Santa-Rita, El Panda, and Brownsville in
+Cameron, formed a powerful league against the pretensions of Florida.
+
+The decision, therefore, was hardly made public before the Floridan and
+Texican deputies flocked to Baltimore by the shortest way. From that
+moment President Barbicane and the influential members of the Gun Club
+were besieged day and night by formidable claims. If seven towns of
+Greece contended for the honour of being Homer's birthplace, two entire
+states threatened to fight over a cannon.
+
+These rival parties were then seen marching with weapons about the
+streets of the town. Every time they met a fight was imminent, which
+would have had disastrous consequences. Happily the prudence and skill
+of President Barbicane warded off this danger. Personal demonstrations
+found an outlet in the newspapers of the different states. It was thus
+that the _New York Herald_ and the _Tribune_ supported the claims of
+Texas, whilst the _Times_ and the _American Review_ took the part of the
+Floridan deputies. The members of the Gun Club did not know which to
+listen to.
+
+Texas came up proudly with its twenty-six counties, which it seemed to
+put in array; but Florida answered that twelve counties proved more than
+twenty-six in a country six times smaller.
+
+Texas bragged of its 33,000 inhabitants; but Florida, much smaller,
+boasted of being much more densely populated with 56,000. Besides,
+Florida accused Texas of being the home of paludian fevers, which
+carried off, one year with another, several thousands of inhabitants,
+and Florida was not far wrong.
+
+In its turn Texas replied that Florida need not envy its fevers, and
+that it was, at least, imprudent to call other countries unhealthy when
+Florida itself had chronic "vomito negro," and Texas was not far wrong.
+
+"Besides," added the Texicans through the _New York Herald_, "there are
+rights due to a state that grows the best cotton in all America, a state
+which produces holm oak for building ships, a state that contains superb
+coal and mines of iron that yield fifty per cent. of pure ore."
+
+To that the _American Review_ answered that the soil of Florida, though
+not so rich, offered better conditions for the casting of the Columbiad,
+as it was composed of sand and clay-ground.
+
+"But," answered the Texicans, "before anything can be cast in a place,
+it must get to that place; now communication with Florida is difficult,
+whilst the coast of Texas offers Galveston Bay, which is fourteen
+leagues round, and could contain all the fleets in the world."
+
+"Why," replied the newspapers devoted to Florida, "your Galveston Bay is
+situated above the 29th parallel, whilst our bay of Espiritu-Santo opens
+precisely at the 28th degree of latitude, and by it ships go direct to
+Tampa Town."
+
+"A nice bay truly!" answered Texas; "it is half-choked up with sand."
+
+"Any one would think, to hear you talk," cried Florida, "that I was a
+savage country."
+
+"Well, the Seminoles do still wander over your prairies!"
+
+"And what about your Apaches and your Comanches--are they civilised?"
+
+The war had been thus kept up for some days when Florida tried to draw
+her adversary upon another ground, and one morning the _Times_
+insinuated that the enterprise being "essentially American," it ought
+only to be attempted upon an "essentially American" territory.
+
+At these words Texas could not contain itself.
+
+"American!" it cried, "are we not as American as you? Were not Texas and
+Florida both incorporated in the Union in 1845?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the _Times_, "but we have belonged to America
+since 1820."
+
+"Yes," replied the _Tribune_, "after having been Spanish or English for
+200 years, you were sold to the United States for 5,000,000 of dollars!"
+
+"What does that matter?" answered Florida. "Need we blush for that? Was
+not Louisiana bought in 1803 from Napoleon for 16,000,000 of dollars?"
+
+"It is shameful!" then cried the Texican deputies. "A miserable slice of
+land like Florida to dare to compare itself with Texas, which, instead
+of being sold, made itself independent, which drove out the Mexicans on
+the 2nd of March, 1836, which declared itself Federative Republican
+after the victory gained by Samuel Houston on the banks of the San
+Jacinto over the troops of Santa-Anna--a country, in short, which
+voluntarily joined itself to the United States of America!"
+
+"Because it was afraid of the Mexicans!" answered Florida.
+
+"Afraid!" From the day this word, really too cutting, was pronounced,
+the situation became intolerable. An engagement was expected between the
+two parties in the streets of Baltimore. The deputies were obliged to be
+watched.
+
+President Barbicane was half driven wild. Notes, documents, and letters
+full of threats inundated his house. Which course ought he to decide
+upon? In the point of view of fitness of soil, facility of
+communications, and rapidity of transport, the rights of the two states
+were really equal. As to the political personalities, they had nothing
+to do with the question.
+
+Now this hesitation and embarrassment had already lasted some time when
+Barbicane resolved to put an end to it; he called his colleagues
+together, and the solution he proposed to them was a profoundly wise
+one, as will be seen from the following:--
+
+"After due consideration," said he, "of all that has just occurred
+between Florida and Texas, it is evident that the same difficulties will
+again crop up between the towns of the favoured state. The rivalry will
+be changed from state to city, and that is all. Now Texas contains
+eleven towns with the requisite conditions that will dispute the honour
+of the enterprise, and that will create fresh troubles for us, whilst
+Florida has but one; therefore I decide for Tampa Town!"
+
+The Texican deputies were thunderstruck at this decision. It put them
+into a terrible rage, and they sent nominal provocations to different
+members of the Gun Club. There was only one course for the magistrates
+of Baltimore to take, and they took it. They had the steam of a special
+train got up, packed the Texicans into it, whether they would or no, and
+sent them away from the town at a speed of thirty miles an hour.
+
+But they were not carried off too quickly to hurl a last and threatening
+sarcasm at their adversaries.
+
+Making allusion to the width of Florida, a simple peninsula between two
+seas, they pretended it would not resist the shock, and would be blown
+up the first time the cannon was fired.
+
+"Very well! let it be blown up!" answered the Floridans with a laconism
+worthy of ancient times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"URBI ET ORBI."
+
+
+The astronomical, mechanical, and topographical difficulties once
+removed, there remained the question of money. An enormous sum was
+necessary for the execution of the project. No private individual, no
+single state even, could have disposed of the necessary millions.
+
+President Barbicane had resolved--although the enterprise was
+American--to make it a business of universal interest, and to ask every
+nation for its financial co-operation. It was the bounded right and duty
+of all the earth to interfere in the business of the satellite. The
+subscription opened at Baltimore, for this end extended thence to all
+the world--_urbi et orbi_.
+
+This subscription was destined to succeed beyond all hope; yet the money
+was to be given, not lent. The operation was purely disinterested, in
+the literal meaning of the word, and offered no chance of gain.
+
+But the effect of Barbicane's communication had not stopped at the
+frontiers of the United States; it had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific,
+had invaded both Asia and Europe, both Africa and Oceania. The
+observatories of the Union were immediately put into communication with
+the observatories of foreign countries; some--those of Paris, St.
+Petersburg, the Cape, Berlin, Altona, Stockholm, Warsaw, Hamburg, Buda,
+Bologna, Malta, Lisbon, Benares, Madras, and Pekin--sent their
+compliments to the Gun Club; the others prudently awaited the result.
+
+As to the Greenwich Observatory, seconded by the twenty-two astronomical
+establishments of Great Britain, it made short work of it; it boldly
+denied the possibility of success, and took up Captain Nicholl's
+theories. Whilst the different scientific societies promised to send
+deputies to Tampa Town, the Greenwich staff met and contemptuously
+dismissed the Barbicane proposition. This was pure English jealousy and
+nothing else.
+
+Generally speaking, the effect upon the world of science was excellent,
+and from thence it passed to the masses, who, in general, were greatly
+interested in the question, a fact of great importance, seeing those
+masses were to be called upon to subscribe a considerable capital.
+
+On the 8th of October President Barbicane issued a manifesto, full of
+enthusiasm, in which he made appeal to "all persons on the face of the
+earth willing to help." This document, translated into every language,
+had great success.
+
+Subscriptions were opened in the principal towns of the Union with a
+central office at the Baltimore Bank, 9, Baltimore street; then
+subscriptions were opened in the different countries of the two
+continents:--At Vienna, by S.M. de Rothschild; St. Petersburg, Stieglitz
+and Co.; Paris, Crédit Mobilier; Stockholm, Tottie and Arfuredson;
+London, N.M. de Rothschild and Son; Turin, Ardouin and Co.; Berlin,
+Mendelssohn; Geneva, Lombard, Odier, and Co.; Constantinople, Ottoman
+Bank; Brussels, J. Lambert; Madrid, Daniel Weisweller; Amsterdam,
+Netherlands Credit Co.; Rome, Torlonia and Co.; Lisbon, Lecesne;
+Copenhagen, Private Bank; Buenos Ayres, Mana Bank; Rio Janeiro, Mana
+Bank; Monte Video, Mana Bank; Valparaiso, Thomas La Chambre and Co.;
+Lima, Thomas La Chambre and Co.; Mexico, Martin Daran and Co.
+
+Three days after President Barbicane's manifesto 400,000 dollars were
+received in the different towns of the Union. With such a sum in hand
+the Gun Club could begin at once.
+
+But a few days later telegrams informed America that foreign
+subscriptions were pouring in rapidly. Certain countries were
+distinguished by their generosity; others let go their money less
+easily. It was a matter of temperament.
+
+However, figures are more eloquent than words, and the following is an
+official statement of the sums paid to the credit of the Gun Club when
+the subscription was closed:--
+
+The contingent of Russia was the enormous sum of 368,733 roubles. This
+need astonish no one who remembers the scientific taste of the Russians
+and the impetus which they have given to astronomical studies, thanks to
+their numerous observatories, the principal of which cost 2,000,000
+roubles.
+
+France began by laughing at the pretensions of the Americans. The moon
+served as an excuse for a thousand stale puns and a score of vaudevilles
+in which bad taste contested the palm with ignorance. But, as the French
+formerly paid after singing, they now paid after laughing, and
+subscribed a sum of 1,258,930 francs. At that price they bought the
+right to joke a little.
+
+Austria, in the midst of her financial difficulties, was sufficiently
+generous. Her part in the public subscription amounted to 216,000
+florins, which were welcome.
+
+Sweden and Norway contributed 52,000 rix-dollars. The figure was small
+considering the country; but it would certainly have been higher if a
+subscription had been opened at Christiania as well as at Stockholm. For
+some reason or other the Norwegians do not like to send their money to
+Norway.
+
+Prussia, by sending 250,000 thalers, testified her approbation of the
+enterprise. Her different observatories contributed an important sum,
+and were amongst the most ardent in encouraging President Barbicane.
+
+Turkey behaved generously, but she was personally interested in the
+business; the moon, in fact, rules the course of her years and her
+Ramadan fast. She could do no less than give 1,372,640 piastres, and she
+gave them with an ardour that betrayed, however, a certain pressure from
+the Government of the Porte.
+
+Belgium distinguished herself amongst all the second order of States by
+a gift of 513,000 francs, about one penny and a fraction for each
+inhabitant.
+
+Holland and her colonies contributed 110,000 florins, only demanding a
+discount of five per cent., as she paid ready money.
+
+Denmark, rather confined for room, gave, notwithstanding, 9,000 ducats,
+proving her love for scientific experiments.
+
+The Germanic Confederation subscribed 34,285 florins; more could not be
+asked from her; besides, she would not have given more.
+
+Although in embarrassed circumstances, Italy found 2,000,000 francs in
+her children's pockets, but by turning them well inside out. If she had
+then possessed Venetia she would have given more, but she did not yet
+possess Venetia.
+
+The Pontifical States thought they could not send less than 7,040 Roman
+crowns, and Portugal pushed her devotion to the extent of 3,000
+cruzades.
+
+Mexico gent the widow's mite, 86 piastres; but empires in course of
+formation are always in rather embarrassed circumstances.
+
+Switzerland sent the modest sum of 257 francs to the American scheme. It
+must be frankly stated that Switzerland only looked upon the practical
+side of the operation; the action of sending a bullet to the moon did
+not seem of a nature sufficient for the establishing of any
+communication with the Queen of Night, so Switzerland thought it
+imprudent to engage capital in an enterprise depending upon such
+uncertain events. After all, Switzerland was, perhaps, right.
+
+As to Spain, she found it impossible to get together more than 110
+reals. She gave as an excuse that she had her railways to finish. The
+truth is that science is not looked upon very favourably in that
+country; it is still a little behindhand. And then certain Spaniards,
+and not the most ignorant either, had no clear conception of the size of
+the projectile compared with that of the moon; they feared it might
+disturb the satellite from her orbit, and make her fall on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe. In that case it was better to have
+nothing to do with it, which they carried out, with that small
+exception.
+
+England alone remained. The contemptuous antipathy with which she
+received Barbicane's proposition is known. The English have but a single
+mind in their 25,000,000 of bodies which Great Britain contains. They
+gave it to be understood that the enterprise of the Gun Club was
+contrary "to the principle of non-intervention," and they did not
+subscribe a single farthing.
+
+At this news the Gun Club contented itself with shrugging its shoulders,
+and returned to its great work. When South America--that is to say,
+Peru, Chili, Brazil, the provinces of La Plata and Columbia--had poured
+into their hands their quota of 300,000 dollars, it found itself
+possessed of a considerable capital of which the following is a
+statement:--
+
+United States subscription, 4,000,000 dollars; foreign subscriptions,
+1,446,675 dollars; total, 5,446,675 dollars.
+
+This was the large sum poured by the public into the coffers of the Gun
+Club.
+
+No one need be surprised at its importance. The work of casting, boring,
+masonry, transport of workmen, and their installation in an almost
+uninhabited country, the construction of furnaces and workshops, the
+manufacturing tools, powder, projectile and incidental expenses would,
+according to the estimates, absorb nearly the whole. Some of the
+cannon-shots fired during the war cost 1,000 dollars each; that of
+President Barbicane, unique in the annals of artillery, might well cost
+5,000 times more.
+
+On the 20th of October a contract was made with the Goldspring
+Manufactory, New York, which during the war had furnished Parrott with
+his best cast-iron guns.
+
+It was stipulated between the contracting parties that the Goldspring
+Manufactory should pledge itself to send to Tampa Town, in South
+Florida, the necessary materials for the casting of the Columbiad.
+
+This operation was to be terminated, at the latest, on the 15th of the
+next October, and the cannon delivered in good condition, under penalty
+of 100 dollars a day forfeit until the moon should again present herself
+under the same conditions--that is to say, during eighteen years and
+eleven days.
+
+The engagement of the workmen, their pay, and the necessary transports
+all to be made by the Goldspring Company.
+
+This contract, made in duplicate, was signed by I. Barbicane, president
+of the Gun Club, and J. Murphison, Manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory, who thus signed on the part of the contracting parties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STONY HILL.
+
+
+Since the choice made by the members of the Gun Club to the detriment of
+Texas, every one in America--where every one knows how to read--made it
+his business to study the geography of Florida. Never before had the
+booksellers sold so many _Bertram's Travels in Florida_, _Roman's
+Natural History of East and West Florida_, _Williams' Territory of
+Florida_, and _Cleland on the Culture of the Sugar Cane in East
+Florida_. New editions of these works were required. There was quite a
+rage for them.
+
+Barbicane had something better to do than to read; he wished to see with
+his own eyes and choose the site of the Columbiad. Therefore, without
+losing a moment, he put the funds necessary for the construction of a
+telescope at the disposition of the Cambridge Observatory, and made a
+contract with the firm of Breadwill and Co., of Albany, for the making
+of the aluminium projectile; then he left Baltimore accompanied by J.T.
+Maston, Major Elphinstone, and the manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory.
+
+The next day the four travelling companions reached New Orleans. There
+they embarked on board the _Tampico_, a despatch-boat belonging to the
+Federal Navy, which the Government had placed at their disposal, and,
+with all steam on, they quickly lost sight of the shores of Louisiana.
+
+The passage was not a long one; two days after its departure the
+_Tampico_, having made four hundred and eighty miles, sighted the
+Floridian coast. As it approached, Barbicane saw a low, flat coast,
+looking rather unfertile. After coasting a series of creeks rich in
+oysters and lobsters, the _Tampico_ entered the Bay of Espiritu-Santo.
+
+This bay is divided into two long roadsteads, those of Tampa and
+Hillisboro, the narrow entrance to which the steamer soon cleared. A
+short time afterwards the batteries of Fort Brooke rose above the waves
+and the town of Tampa appeared, carelessly lying on a little natural
+harbour formed by the mouth of the river Hillisboro.
+
+There the _Tampico_ anchored on October 22nd, at seven p.m.; the four
+passengers landed immediately.
+
+Barbicane felt his heart beat violently as he set foot on Floridian
+soil; he seemed to feel it with his feet like an architect trying the
+solidity of a house. J.T. Maston scratched the ground with his steel
+hook.
+
+"Gentlemen," then said Barbicane, "we have no time to lose, and we will
+set off on horseback to-morrow to survey the country."
+
+The minute Barbicane landed the three thousand inhabitants of Tampa Town
+went out to meet him, an honour quite due to the president of the Gun
+Club, who had decided in their favour. They received him with formidable
+exclamations, but Barbicane escaped an ovation by shutting himself up in
+his room at the Franklin Hotel and refusing to see any one.
+
+The next day, October 23rd, small horses of Spanish race, full of fire
+and vigour, pawed the ground under his windows. But, instead of four,
+there were fifty, with their riders. Barbicane went down accompanied by
+his three companions, who were at first astonished to find themselves in
+the midst of such a cavalcade. He remarked besides that each horseman
+carried a carbine slung across his shoulders and pistols in his
+holsters. The reason for such a display of force was immediately given
+him by a young Floridian, who said to him--
+
+"Sir, the Seminoles are there."
+
+"What Seminoles?"
+
+"Savages who frequent the prairies, and we deemed it prudent to give you
+an escort."
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed J.T. Maston as he mounted his steed.
+
+"It is well to be on the safe side," answered the Floridian.
+
+"Gentlemen," replied Barbicane, "I thank you for your attention, and now
+let us be off."
+
+The little troop set out immediately, and disappeared in a cloud of
+dust. It was five a.m.; the sun shone brilliantly already, and the
+thermometer indicated 84°, but fresh sea breezes moderated this
+excessive heat.
+
+Barbicane, on leaving Tampa Town, went down south and followed the coast
+to Alifia Creek. This small river falls into Hillisboro Bay, twelve
+miles below Tampa Town. Barbicane and his escort followed its right bank
+going up towards the east. The waves of the bay disappeared behind an
+inequality in the ground, and the Floridian country was alone in sight.
+
+Florida is divided into two parts; the one to the north, more populous
+and less abandoned, has Tallahassee for capital, and Pensacola, one of
+the principal marine arsenals of the United States; the other, lying
+between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, is only a narrow peninsula,
+eaten away by the current of the Gulf Stream--a little tongue of land
+lost amidst a small archipelago, which the numerous vessels of the
+Bahama Channel double continually. It is the advanced sentinel of the
+gulf of great tempests. The superficial area of this state measures
+38,033,267 acres, amongst which one had to be chosen situated beyond the
+28th parallel and suitable for the enterprise. As Barbicane rode along
+he attentively examined the configuration of the ground and its
+particular distribution.
+
+Florida, discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512, on Palm Sunday, was
+first of all named _Pascha Florida_. It was well worthy of that
+designation with its dry and arid coasts. But a few miles from the shore
+the nature of the ground gradually changed, and the country showed
+itself worthy of its name; the soil was cut up by a network of creeks,
+rivers, watercourses, ponds, and small lakes; it might have been
+mistaken for Holland or Guiana; but the ground gradually rose and soon
+showed its cultivated plains, where all the vegetables of the North and
+South grow in perfection, its immense fields, where a tropical sun and
+the water conserved in its clayey texture do all the work of
+cultivating, and lastly its prairies of pineapples, yams, tobacco, rice,
+cotton, and sugarcanes, which extended as far as the eye could reach,
+spreading out their riches with careless prodigality.
+
+Barbicane appeared greatly satisfied on finding the progressive
+elevation of the ground, and when J.T. Maston questioned him on the
+subject,
+
+"My worthy friend," said he, "it is greatly to our interest to cast our
+Columbiad on elevated ground."
+
+"In order to be nearer the moon?" exclaimed the secretary of the Gun
+Club.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, smiling. "What can a few yards more or less
+matter? No, but on elevated ground our work can be accomplished more
+easily; we shall not have to struggle against water, which will save us
+long and expensive tubings, and that has to be taken into consideration
+when a well 900 feet deep has to be sunk."
+
+"You are right," said Murchison, the engineer; "we must, as much as
+possible, avoid watercourses during the casting; but if we meet with
+springs they will not matter much; we can exhaust them with our machines
+or divert them from their course. Here we have not to work at an
+artesian well, narrow and dark, where all the boring implements have to
+work in the dark. No; we can work under the open sky, with spade and
+pickaxe, and, by the help of blasting, our work will not take long."
+
+"Still," resumed Barbicane, "if by the elevation of the ground or its
+nature we can avoid a struggle with subterranean waters, we can do our
+work more rapidly and perfectly; we must, therefore, make our cutting in
+ground situated some thousands of feet above the level of the sea."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Barbicane, and, if I am not mistaken, we shall soon
+find a suitable spot."
+
+"I should like to see the first spadeful turned up," said the president.
+
+"And I the last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"We shall manage it, gentlemen," answered the engineer; "and, believe
+me, the Goldspring Company will not have to pay you any forfeit for
+delay."
+
+"Faith! it had better not," replied J.T. Maston; "a hundred dollars a
+day till the moon presents herself in the same conditions--that is to
+say, for eighteen years and eleven days--do you know that would make
+658,000 dollars?"
+
+"No, sir, we do not know, and we shall not need to learn."
+
+About ten a.m. the little troop had journeyed about twelve miles; to the
+fertile country succeeded a forest region. There were the most varied
+perfumes in tropical profusion. The almost impenetrable forests were
+made up of pomegranates, orange, citron, fig, olive, and apricot trees,
+bananas, huge vines, the blossoms and fruit of which rivalled each other
+in colour and perfume. Under the perfumed shade of these magnificent
+trees sang and fluttered a world of brilliantly-coloured birds, amongst
+which the crab-eater deserved a jewel casket, worthy of its feathered
+gems, for a nest.
+
+J.T. Maston and the major could not pass through such opulent nature
+without admiring its splendid beauty.
+
+But President Barbicane, who thought little of these marvels, was in a
+hurry to hasten onwards; this country, so fertile, displeased him by its
+very fertility; without being otherwise hydropical, he felt water under
+his feet, and sought in vain the signs of incontestable aridity.
+
+In the meantime they journeyed on. They were obliged to ford several
+rivers, and not without danger, for they were infested with alligators
+from fifteen to eighteen feet long. J.T. Maston threatened them boldly
+with his formidable hook, but he only succeeded in frightening the
+pelicans, phaetons, and teals that frequented the banks, while the red
+flamingoes looked on with a stupid stare.
+
+At last these inhabitants of humid countries disappeared in their turn.
+The trees became smaller and more thinly scattered in smaller woods;
+some isolated groups stood amidst immense plains where ranged herds of
+startled deer.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed Barbicane, rising in his stirrups. "Here is the
+region of pines."
+
+"And savages," answered the major.
+
+In fact, a few Seminoles appeared on the horizon. They moved about
+backwards and forwards on their fleet horses, brandishing long lances or
+firing their guns with a dull report. However, they confined themselves
+to these hostile demonstrations, which had no effect on Barbicane and
+his companions.
+
+They were then in the middle of a rocky plain, a vast open space of
+several acres in extent which the sun covered with burning rays. It was
+formed by a wide elevation of the soil, and seemed to offer to the
+members of the Gun Club all the required conditions for the construction
+of their Columbiad.
+
+"Halt!" cried Barbicane, stopping. "Has this place any name?"
+
+"It is called Stony Hill," answered the Floridians.
+
+Barbicane, without saying a word, dismounted, took his instruments, and
+began to fix his position with extreme precision. The little troop drawn
+up around him watched him in profound silence.
+
+At that moment the sun passed the meridian. Barbicane, after an
+interval, rapidly noted the result of his observation, and said--
+
+"This place is situated 1,800 feet above the sea level in lat. 27° 7'
+and West long. 5° 7' by the Washington meridian. It appears to me by its
+barren and rocky nature to offer every condition favourable to our
+enterprise; we will therefore raise our magazines, workshops, furnaces,
+and workmen's huts here, and it is from this very spot," said he,
+stamping upon it with his foot, "the summit of Stony Hill, that our
+projectile will start for the regions of the solar world!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PICKAXE AND TROWEL.
+
+
+That same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town,
+and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the _Tampico_ for New
+Orleans. He was to engage an army of workmen to bring back the greater
+part of the working-stock. The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa
+Town in order to set on foot the preliminary work with the assistance of
+the inhabitants of the country.
+
+Eight days after its departure the _Tampico_ returned to the
+Espiritu-Santo Bay with a fleet of steamboats. Murchison had succeeded
+in getting together 1,500 workmen. In the evil days of slavery he would
+have lost his time and trouble; but since America, the land of liberty,
+has only contained freemen, they flock wherever they can get good pay.
+Now money was not wanting to the Gun Club; it offered a high rate of
+wages with considerable and proportionate perquisites. The workman
+enlisted for Florida could, once the work finished, depend upon a
+capital placed in his name in the bank of Baltimore.
+
+Murchison had therefore only to pick and choose, and could be severe
+about the intelligence and skill of his workmen. He enrolled in his
+working legion the pick of mechanics, stokers, iron-founders,
+lime-burners, miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every sort, white or
+black without distinction of colour. Many of them brought their families
+with them. It was quite an emigration.
+
+On the 31st of October, at 10 a.m., this troop landed on the quays of
+Tampa Town. The movement and activity which reigned in the little town
+that had thus doubled its population in a single day may be imagined. In
+fact, Tampa Town was enormously benefited by this enterprise of the Gun
+Club, not by the number of workmen who were immediately drafted to Stony
+Hill, but by the influx of curious idlers who converged by degrees from
+all points of the globe towards the Floridian peninsula.
+
+During the first few days they were occupied in unloading the flotilla
+of the tools, machines, provisions, and a large number of plate iron
+houses made in pieces separately pieced and numbered. At the same time
+Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles long that
+was destined to unite Stony Hill and Tampa Town.
+
+It is known how American railways are constructed, with capricious
+bends, bold slopes, steep hills, and deep valleys. They do not cost much
+and are not much in their way, only their trains run off or jump off as
+they please. The railway from Tampa Town to Stony Hill was but a trifle,
+and wanted neither much time nor much money for its construction.
+
+Barbicane was the soul of this army of workmen who had come at his call.
+He animated them, communicated to them his ardour, enthusiasm, and
+conviction. He was everywhere at once, as if endowed with the gift of
+ubiquity, and always followed by J.T. Maston, his bluebottle fly. His
+practical mind invented a thousand things. With him there were no
+obstacles, difficulties, or embarrassment. He was as good a miner,
+mason, and mechanic as he was an artilleryman, having an answer to every
+question, and a solution to every problem. He corresponded actively with
+the Gun Club and the Goldspring Manufactory, and day and night the
+_Tampico_ kept her steam up awaiting his orders in Hillisboro harbour.
+
+Barbicane, on the 1st of November, left Tampa Town with a detachment of
+workmen, and the very next day a small town of workmen's houses rose
+round Stony Hill. They surrounded it with palisades, and from its
+movement and ardour it might soon have been taken for one of the great
+cities of the Union. Life was regulated at once and work began in
+perfect order.
+
+Careful boring had established the nature of the ground, and digging was
+begun on November 4th. That day Barbicane called his foremen together
+and said to them--
+
+"You all know, my friends, why I have called you together in this part
+of Florida. We want to cast a cannon nine feet in diameter, six feet
+thick, and with a stone revetment nineteen and a half feet thick; we
+therefore want a well 60 feet wide and 900 feet deep. This large work
+must be terminated in nine months. You have, therefore, 2,543,400 cubic
+feet of soil to dig out in 255 days--that is to say, 10,000 cubic feet a
+day. That would offer no difficulty if you had plenty of elbow-room, but
+as you will only have a limited space it will be more trouble.
+Nevertheless as the work must be done it will be done, and I depend upon
+your courage as much as upon your skill."
+
+At 8 a.m. the first spadeful was dug out of the Floridian soil, and from
+that moment this useful tool did not stop idle a moment in the hands of
+the miner. The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
+
+Besides, although the work was colossal it did not exceed the limit of
+human capability. Far from that. How many works of much greater
+difficulty, and in which the elements had to be more directly contended
+against, had been brought to a successful termination! Suffice it to
+mention the well of Father Joseph, made near Cairo by the Sultan Saladin
+at an epoch when machines had not yet appeared to increase the strength
+of man a hundredfold, and which goes down to the level of the Nile
+itself at a depth of 300 feet! And that other well dug at Coblentz by
+the Margrave Jean of Baden, 600 feet deep! All that was needed was a
+triple depth and a double width, which made the boring easier. There was
+not one foreman or workman who doubted about the success of the
+operation.
+
+An important decision taken by Murchison and approved of by Barbicane
+accelerated the work. An article in the contract decided that the
+Columbiad should be hooped with wrought-iron--a useless precaution, for
+the cannon could evidently do without hoops. This clause was therefore
+given up. Hence a great economy of time, for they could then employ the
+new system of boring now used for digging wells, by which the masonry is
+done at the same time as the boring. Thanks to this very simple
+operation they were not obliged to prop up the ground; the wall kept it
+up and went down by its own weight.
+
+This manoeuvre was only to begin when the spade should have reached the
+solid part of the ground.
+
+On the 4th of November fifty workmen began to dig in the very centre of
+the inclosure surrounded by palisades--that is to say, the top of Stony
+Hill--a circular hole sixty feet wide.
+
+The spade first turned up a sort of black soil six inches deep, which it
+soon carried away. To this soil succeeded two feet of fine sand, which
+was carefully taken out, as it was to be used for the casting.
+
+After this sand white clay appeared, similar to English chalk, and which
+was four feet thick.
+
+Then the pickaxes rang upon the hard layer, a species of rock formed by
+very dry petrified shells. At that point the hole was six and a half
+feet deep, and the masonry was begun.
+
+At the bottom of that excavation they made an oak wheel, a sort of
+circle strongly bolted and of enormous strength; in its centre a hole
+was pierced the size of the exterior diameter of the Columbiad. It was
+upon this wheel that the foundations of the masonry were placed, the
+hydraulic cement of which joined the stones solidly together. After the
+workmen had bricked up the space from the circumference to the centre,
+they found themselves inclosed in a well twenty-one feet wide.
+
+When this work was ended the miners began again with spade and pickaxe,
+and set upon the rock under the wheel itself, taking care to support it
+on extremely strong tressels; every time the hole was two feet deeper
+they took away the tressels; the wheel gradually sank, taking with it
+its circle of masonry, at the upper layer of which the masons worked
+incessantly, taking care to make vent-holes for the escape of gas during
+the operation of casting.
+
+This kind of work required great skill and constant attention on the
+part of the workmen; more than one digging under the wheel was
+dangerous, and some were even mortally wounded by the splinters of
+stone; but their energy did not slacken for a moment by day nor night;
+by day, when the sun's rays sent the thermometer up to 99° on the
+calcined planes; by night, under the white waves of electric light, the
+noise of the pickaxe on the rock, the blasting and the machines,
+together with the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced a
+circle of terror round Stony Hill, which the herds of buffaloes and the
+detachments of Seminoles never dared to pass.
+
+In the meantime the work regularly advanced; steam-cranes speeded the
+carrying away of the rubbish; of unexpected obstacles there were none;
+all the difficulties had been foreseen and guarded against.
+
+When the first month had gone by the well had attained the depth
+assigned for the time--i.e., 112 feet. In December this depth was
+doubled, and tripled in January. During February the workmen had to
+contend against a sheet of water which sprang from the ground. They were
+obliged to employ powerful pumps and apparatus of compressed air to
+drain it off, so as to close up the orifice from which it issued, just
+as leaks are caulked on board ship. At last they got the better of these
+unwelcome springs, only in consequence of the loosening of the soil the
+wheel partially gave way, and there was a landslip. The frightful force
+of this bricked circle, more than 400 feet high, may be imagined! This
+accident cost the life of several workmen. Three weeks had to be taken
+up in propping the stone revetment and making the wheel solid again.
+But, thanks to the skill of the engineer and the power of the machines,
+it was all set right, and the boring continued.
+
+No fresh incident henceforth stopped the progress of the work, and on
+the 10th of June, twenty days before the expiration of the delay fixed
+by Barbicane, the well, quite bricked round, had reached the depth of
+900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block, thirty
+feet thick, whilst at the top it was on a level with the soil.
+
+President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulated
+the engineer Murchison; his cyclopean work had been accomplished with
+extraordinary rapidity.
+
+During these eight months Barbicane did not leave Stony Hill for a
+minute; whilst he narrowly watched over the boring operations, he took
+every precaution to insure the health and well-being of his workmen, and
+he was fortunate enough to avoid the epidemics common to large
+agglomerations of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe
+exposed to tropical influence.
+
+It is true that several workmen paid with their lives for the
+carelessness engendered by these dangerous occupations; but such
+deplorable misfortunes cannot be avoided, and these are details that
+Americans pay very little attention to. They are more occupied with
+humanity in general than with individuals in particular. However,
+Barbicane professed the contrary principles, and applied them upon every
+occasion. Thanks to his care, to his intelligence and respectful
+intervention in difficult cases, to his prodigious and humane wisdom,
+the average of catastrophes did not exceed that of cities on the other
+side of the Atlantic, amongst others those of France, where they count
+about one accident upon every 200,000 francs of work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING.
+
+
+During the eight months that were employed in the operation of boring
+the preparatory works of the casting had been conducted simultaneously
+with extreme rapidity; a stranger arriving at Stony Hill would have been
+much surprised at what he saw there.
+
+Six hundred yards from the well, and standing in a circle round it as a
+central point, were 1,200 furnaces, each six feet wide and three yards
+apart. The line made by these 1,200 furnaces was two miles long. They
+were all built on the same model, with high quadrangular chimneys, and
+had a singular effect. J.T. Maston thought the architectural arrangement
+superb. It reminded him of the monuments at Washington. He thought there
+was nothing finer in the world, not even in Greece, where he
+acknowledged never to have been.
+
+It will be remembered that at their third meeting the committee decided
+to use cast-iron for the Columbiad, and in particular the grey
+description. This metal is, in fact, the most tenacious, ductile, and
+malleable, suitable for all moulding operations, and when smelted with
+pit coal it is of superior quality for engine-cylinders, hydraulic
+presses, &c.
+
+But cast-iron, if it has undergone a single fusion, is rarely
+homogeneous enough; and it is by means of a second fusion that it is
+purified, refined, and dispossessed of its last earthly deposits.
+
+Before being forwarded to Tampa Town, the iron ore, smelted in the great
+furnaces of Goldspring, and put in contact with coal and silicium heated
+to a high temperature, was transformed into cast-iron. After this first
+operation the metal was taken to Stony Hill. But there were 136 millions
+of pounds of cast-iron, a bulk too expensive to be sent by railway; the
+price of transport would have doubled that of the raw material. It
+appeared preferable to freight vessels at New York and to load them with
+the iron in bars; no less than sixty-eight vessels of 1,000 tons were
+required, quite a fleet, which on May 3rd left New York, took the Ocean
+route, coasted the American shores, entered the Bahama Channel, doubled
+the point of Florida, and on the 10th of the same month entered the Bay
+of Espiritu-Santo and anchored safely in the port of Tampa Town. There
+the vessels were unloaded and their cargo carried by railway to Stony
+Hill, and about the middle of January the enormous mass of metal was
+delivered at its destination.
+
+It will easily be understood that 1,200 furnaces were not too many to
+melt these 60,000 tons of iron simultaneously. Each of these furnaces
+contained about 1,400,000 lbs. of metal; they had been built on the
+model of those used for the casting of the Rodman gun; they were
+trapezoidal in form, with a high elliptical arch. The warming apparatus
+and the chimney were placed at the two extremities of the furnace, so
+that it was equally heated throughout. These furnaces, built of
+fireproof brick, were filled with coal-grates and a "sole" for the bars
+of iron; this sole, inclosed at an angle of 25°, allowed the metal to
+flow into the receiving-troughs; from thence 1,200 converging trenches
+carried it down to the central well.
+
+The day following that upon which the works of masonry and casting were
+terminated, Barbicane set to work upon the interior mould; his object
+now was to raise in the centre of the well, with a coincident axis, a
+cylinder 900 feet high and nine in diameter, to exactly fill up the
+space reserved for the bore of the Columbiad. This cylinder was made of
+a mixture of clay and sand, with the addition of hay and straw. The
+space left between the mould and the masonry was to be filled with the
+molten metal, which would thus make the sides of the cannon six feet
+thick.
+
+This cylinder, in order to have its equilibrium maintained, had to be
+consolidated with iron bands and fixed at intervals by means of
+cross-clamps fastened into the stone lining; after the casting these
+clamps would be lost in the block of metal, which would not be the worse
+for them.
+
+This operation was completed on the 8th of July, and the casting was
+fixed for the 10th.
+
+"The casting will be a fine ceremony," said J.T. Maston to his friend
+Barbicane.
+
+"Undoubtedly," answered Barbicane, "but it will not be a public one!"
+
+"What! you will not open the doors of the inclosure to all comers?"
+
+"Certainly not; the casting of the Columbiad is a delicate, not to say a
+dangerous, operation, and I prefer that it should be done with closed
+doors. When the projectile is discharged you may have a public ceremony
+if you like, but till then, no!"
+
+The president was right; the operation might be attended with unforeseen
+danger, which a large concourse of spectators would prevent being
+averted. It was necessary to preserve complete freedom of movement. No
+one was admitted into the inclosure except a delegation of members of
+the Gun Club who made the voyage to Tampa Town. Among them was the brisk
+Bilsby, Tom Hunter, Colonel Blomsberry, Major Elphinstone, General
+Morgan, and _tutti quanti_, to whom the casting of the Columbiad was a
+personal business. J.T. Maston constituted himself their cicerone; he
+did not excuse them any detail; he led them about everywhere, through
+the magazines, workshops, amongst the machines, and he forced them to
+visit the 1,200 furnaces one after the other. At the end of the 1,200th
+visit they were rather sick of it.
+
+The casting was to take place precisely at twelve o'clock; the evening
+before each furnace had been charged with 114,000 lbs. of metal in bars
+disposed crossway to each other so that the warm air could circulate
+freely amongst them. Since early morning the 1,200 chimneys had been
+pouring forth volumes of flames into the atmosphere, and the soil was
+shaken convulsively. There were as many pounds of coal to be burnt as
+metal to be melted. There were, therefore, 68,000 tons of coal throwing
+up before the sun a thick curtain of black smoke.
+
+The heat soon became unbearable in the circle of furnaces, the rambling
+of which resembled the rolling of thunder; powerful bellows added their
+continuous blasts, and saturated the incandescent furnaces with oxygen.
+
+The operation of casting in order to succeed must be done rapidly. At a
+signal given by a cannon-shot each furnace was to pour out the liquid
+iron and to be entirely emptied.
+
+These arrangements made, foremen and workmen awaited the preconcerted
+moment with impatience mixed with emotion. There was no longer any one
+in the inclosure, and each superintendent took his place near the
+aperture of the run.
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues, installed on a neighbouring eminence,
+assisted at the operation. Before them a cannon was planted ready to be
+fired as a sign from the engineer.
+
+A few minutes before twelve the first drops of metal began to run; the
+reservoirs were gradually filled, and when the iron was all in a liquid
+state it was left quiet for some instants in order to facilitate the
+separation of foreign substances.
+
+Twelve o'clock struck. The cannon was suddenly fired, and shot its flame
+into the air. Twelve hundred tapping-holes were opened simultaneously,
+and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept along twelve hundred troughs
+towards the central well, rolling in rings of fire. There they plunged
+with terrific noise down a depth of 900 feet. It was an exciting and
+magnificent spectacle. The ground trembled, whilst these waves of iron,
+throwing into the sky their clouds of smoke, evaporated at the same time
+the humidity of the mould, and hurled it upwards through the vent-holes
+of the masonry in the form of impenetrable vapour. These artificial
+clouds unrolled their thick spirals as they went up to a height of 3,000
+feet into the air. Any Red Indian wandering upon the limits of the
+horizon might have believed in the formation of a new crater in the
+heart of Florida, and yet it was neither an irruption, nor a typhoon,
+nor a storm, nor a struggle of the elements, nor one of those terrible
+phenomena which Nature is capable of producing. No; man alone had
+produced those reddish vapours, those gigantic flames worthy of a
+volcano, those tremendous vibrations like the shock of an earthquake,
+those reverberations, rivals of hurricanes and storms, and it was his
+hand which hurled into an abyss, dug by himself, a whole Niagara of
+molten metal!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE COLUMBIAD.
+
+
+Had the operation of casting succeeded? People were reduced to mere
+conjecture. However, there was every reason to believe in its success,
+as the mould had absorbed the entire mass of metal liquefied in the
+furnaces. Still it was necessarily a long time impossible to be certain.
+
+In fact, when Major Rodman cast his cannon of 160,000 lbs., it took no
+less than a fortnight to cool. How long, therefore, would the monstrous
+Columbiad, crowned with its clouds of vapour, and guarded by its intense
+heat, be kept from the eyes of its admirers? It was difficult to
+estimate.
+
+The impatience of the members of the Gun Club was put to a rude test
+during this lapse of time. But it could not be helped. J.T. Maston was
+nearly roasted through his anxiety. A fortnight after the casting an
+immense column of smoke was still soaring towards the sky, and the
+ground burnt the soles of the feet within a radius of 200 feet round the
+summit of Stony Hill.
+
+The days went by; weeks followed them. There were no means of cooling
+the immense cylinder. It was impossible to approach it. The members of
+the Gun Club were obliged to wait with what patience they could muster.
+
+"Here we are at the 10th of August," said J.T. Maston one morning. "It
+wants hardly four months to the 1st of December! There still remains the
+interior mould to be taken out, and the Columbiad to be loaded! We never
+shall be ready! One cannot even approach the cannon! Will it never get
+cool? That would be a cruel deception!"
+
+They tried to calm the impatient secretary without succeeding. Barbicane
+said nothing, but his silence covered serious irritation. To see himself
+stopped by an obstacle that time alone could remove--time, an enemy to
+be feared under the circumstances--and to be in the power of an enemy
+was hard for men of war.
+
+However, daily observations showed a certain change in the state of the
+ground. Towards the 15th of August the vapour thrown off had notably
+diminished in intensity and thickness. A few days after the earth only
+exhaled a slight puff of smoke, the last breath of the monster shut up
+in its stone tomb. By degrees the vibrations of the ground ceased, and
+the circle of heat contracted; the most impatient of the spectators
+approached; one day they gained ten feet, the next twenty, and on the
+22nd of August Barbicane, his colleagues, and the engineer could take
+their place on the cast-iron surface which covered the summit of Stony
+Hill, certainly a very healthy spot, where it was not yet allowed to
+have cold feet.
+
+"At last!" cried the president of the Gun Club with an immense sigh of
+satisfaction.
+
+The works were resumed the same day. The extraction of the interior
+mould was immediately proceeded with in order to clear out the bore;
+pickaxes, spades, and boring-tools were set to work without
+intermission; the clay and sand had become exceedingly hard under the
+action of the heat; but by the help of machines they cleared away the
+mixture still burning at its contact with the iron; the rubbish was
+rapidly carted away on the railway, and the work was done with such
+spirit, Barbicane's intervention was so urgent, and his arguments,
+presented under the form of dollars, carried so much conviction, that on
+the 3rd of September all trace of the mould had disappeared.
+
+The operation of boring was immediately begun; the boring-machines were
+set up without delay, and a few weeks later the interior surface of the
+immense tube was perfectly cylindrical, and the bore had acquired a high
+polish.
+
+At last, on the 22nd of September, less than a year after the Barbicane
+communication, the enormous weapon, raised by means of delicate
+instruments, and quite vertical, was ready for use. There was nothing
+but the moon to wait for, but they were sure she would not fail.
+
+J.T. Maston's joy knew no bounds, and he nearly had a frightful fall
+whilst looking down the tube of 900 feet. Without Colonel Blomsberry's
+right arm, which he had happily preserved, the secretary of the Gun
+Club, like a modern Erostatus, would have found a grave in the depths of
+the Columbiad.
+
+The cannon was then finished; there was no longer any possible doubt as
+to its perfect execution; so on the 6th of October Captain Nicholl
+cleared off his debt to President Barbicane, who inscribed in his
+receipt-column a sum of 2,000 dollars. It may be believed that the
+captain's anger reached its highest pitch, and cost him an illness.
+Still there were yet three bets of 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000 dollars, and
+if he only gained 2,000, his bargain would not be a bad one, though not
+excellent. But money did not enter into his calculations, and the
+success obtained by his rival in the casting of a cannon against which
+iron plates sixty feet thick would not have resisted was a terrible blow
+to him.
+
+Since the 23rd of September the inclosure on Stony Hill had been quite
+open to the public, and the concourse of visitors will be readily
+imagined.
+
+In fact, innumerable people from all points of the United States flocked
+to Florida. The town of Tampa was prodigiously increased during that
+year, consecrated entirely to the works of the Gun Club; it then
+comprised a population of 150,000 souls. After having surrounded Fort
+Brooke in a network of streets it was now being lengthened out on that
+tongue of land which separated the two harbours of Espiritu-Santo Bay;
+new quarters, new squares, and a whole forest of houses had grown up in
+these formerly-deserted regions under the heat of the American sun.
+Companies were formed for the erection of churches, schools, private
+dwellings, and in less than a year the size of the town was increased
+tenfold.
+
+It is well known that Yankees are born business men; everywhere that
+destiny takes them, from the glacial to the torrid zone, their instinct
+for business is usefully exercised. That is why simple visitors to
+Florida for the sole purpose of following the operations of the Gun Club
+allowed themselves to be involved in commercial operations as soon as
+they were installed in Tampa Town. The vessels freighted for the
+transport of the metal and the workmen had given unparalleled activity
+to the port. Soon other vessels of every form and tonnage, freighted
+with provisions and merchandise, ploughed the bay and the two harbours;
+vast offices of shipbrokers and merchants were established in the town,
+and the _Shipping Gazette_ each day published fresh arrivals in the port
+of Tampa.
+
+Whilst roads were multiplied round the town, in consequence of the
+prodigious increase in its population and commerce, it was joined by
+railway to the Southern States of the Union. One line of rails connected
+La Mobile to Pensacola, the great southern maritime arsenal; thence from
+that important point it ran to Tallahassee. There already existed there
+a short line, twenty-one miles long, to Saint Marks on the seashore. It
+was this loop-line that was prolonged as far as Tampa Town, awakening in
+its passage the dead or sleeping portions of Central Florida. Thus
+Tampa, thanks to these marvels of industry due to the idea born one line
+day in the brain of one man, could take as its right the airs of a large
+town. They surnamed it "Moon-City," and the capital of Florida suffered
+an eclipse visible from all points of the globe.
+
+Every one will now understand why the rivalry was so great between Texas
+and Florida, and the irritation of the Texicans when they saw their
+pretensions set aside by the Gun Club. In their long-sighted sagacity
+they had foreseen what a country might gain from the experiment
+attempted by Barbicane, and the wealth that would accompany such a
+cannon-shot. Texas lost a vast centre of commerce, railways, and a
+considerable increase of population. All these advantages had been given
+to that miserable Floridian peninsula, thrown like a pier between the
+waves of the Gulf and those of the Atlantic Ocean. Barbicane, therefore,
+divided with General Santa-Anna the Texan antipathy.
+
+However, though given up to its commercial and industrial fury, the new
+population of Tampa Town took care not to forget the interesting
+operations of the Gun Club. On the contrary, the least details of the
+enterprise, every blow of the pickaxe, interested them. There was an
+incessant flow of people to and from Tampa Town to Stony Hill--a perfect
+procession, or, better still, a pilgrimage.
+
+It was already easy to foresee that the day of the experiment the
+concourse of spectators would be counted by millions, for they came
+already from all points of the earth to the narrow peninsula. Europe was
+emigrating to America.
+
+But until then, it must be acknowledged, the curiosity of the numerous
+arrivals had only been moderately satisfied. Many counted upon seeing
+the casting who only saw the smoke from it. This was not much for hungry
+eyes, but Barbicane would allow no one to see that operation. Thereupon
+ensued grumbling, discontent, and murmurs; they blamed the president for
+what they considered dictatorial conduct. His act was stigmatised as
+"un-American." There was nearly a riot round Stony Hill, but Barbicane
+was not to be moved. When, however, the Columbiad was quite finished,
+this state of closed doors could no longer be kept up; besides, it would
+have been in bad taste, and even imprudent, to offend public opinion.
+Barbicane, therefore, opened the inclosure to all comers; but, in
+accordance with his practical character, he determined to coin money out
+of the public curiosity.
+
+It was, indeed, something to even be allowed to see this immense
+Columbiad, but to descend into its depths seemed to the Americans the
+_ne plus ultra_ of earthly felicity. In consequence there was not one
+visitor who was not willing to give himself the pleasure of visiting the
+interior of this metallic abyss. Baskets hung from steam-cranes allowed
+them to satisfy their curiosity. It became a perfect mania. Women,
+children, and old men all made it their business to penetrate the
+mysteries of the colossal gun. The price for the descent was fixed at
+five dollars a head, and, notwithstanding this high charge, during the
+two months that preceded the experiment, the influx of visitors allowed
+the Gun Club to pocket nearly 500,000 dollars!
+
+It need hardly be said that the first visitors to the Columbiad were the
+members of the Gun Club. This privilege was justly accorded to that
+illustrious body. The ceremony of reception took place on the 25th of
+September. A basket of honour took down the president, J.T. Maston,
+Major Elphinstone, General Morgan, Colonel Blomsberry, and other members
+of the Gun Club, ten in all. How hot they were at the bottom of that
+long metal tube! They were nearly stifled, but how delightful--how
+exquisite! A table had been laid for ten on the massive stone which
+formed the bottom of the Columbiad, and was lighted by a jet of electric
+light as bright as day itself. Numerous exquisite dishes, that seemed to
+descend from heaven, were successively placed before the guests, and the
+richest wines of France flowed profusely during this splendid repast,
+given 900 feet below the surface of the earth!
+
+The festival was a gay, not to say a noisy one. Toasts were given and
+replied to. They drank to the earth and her satellite, to the Gun Club,
+the Union, the Moon, Diana, Phoebe, Selene, "the peaceful courier of the
+night." All the hurrahs, carried up by the sonorous waves of the immense
+acoustic tube, reached its mouth with a noise of thunder; then the
+multitude round Stony Hill heartily united their shouts to those of the
+ten revellers hidden from sight in the depths of the gigantic Columbiad.
+
+J.T. Maston could contain himself no longer. Whether he shouted or ate,
+gesticulated or talked most would be difficult to determine. Any way he
+would not have given up his place for an empire, "not even if the
+cannon--loaded, primed, and fired at that very moment--were to blow him
+in pieces into the planetary universe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A TELEGRAM.
+
+
+The great work undertaken by the Gun Club was now virtually ended, and
+yet two months would still elapse before the day the projectile would
+start for the moon. These two months would seem as long as two years to
+the universal impatience. Until then the smallest details of each
+operation had appeared in the newspapers every day, and were eagerly
+devoured by the public, but now it was to be feared that this "interest
+dividend" would be much diminished, and every one was afraid of no
+longer receiving his daily share of emotions.
+
+They were all agreeably disappointed: the most unexpected,
+extraordinary, incredible, and improbable incident happened in time to
+keep up the general excitement to its highest pitch.
+
+On September 30th, at 3.47 p.m., a telegram, transmitted through the
+Atlantic Cable, arrived at Tampa Town for President Barbicane.
+
+He tore open the envelope and read the message, and, notwithstanding his
+great self-control, his lips grew pale and his eyes dim as he read the
+telegram.
+
+The following is the text of the message stored in the archives of the
+Gun Club:--
+
+"France, Paris,
+
+"September 30th, 4 a.m.
+
+"Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States.
+
+"Substitute a cylindro-conical projectile for your spherical shell.
+Shall go inside. Shall arrive by steamer _Atlanta_.
+
+"MICHEL ARDAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA.
+
+
+If this wonderful news, instead of coming by telegraph, had simply
+arrived by post and in a sealed envelope--if the French, Irish,
+Newfoundland, and American telegraph clerks had not necessarily been
+acquainted with it--Barbicane would not have hesitated for a moment. He
+would have been quite silent about it for prudence' sake, and in order
+not to throw discredit on his work. This telegram might be a practical
+joke, especially as it came from a Frenchman. What probability could
+there be that any man should conceive the idea of such a journey? And if
+the man did exist was he not a madman who would have to be inclosed in a
+strait-waistcoat instead of in a cannon-ball?
+
+But the message was known, and Michel Ardan's proposition was already
+all over the States of the Union, so Barbicane had no reason for
+silence. He therefore called together his colleagues then in Tampa Town,
+and, without showing what he thought about it or saying a word about the
+degree of credibility the telegram deserved, he read coldly the laconic
+text.
+
+"Not possible!"--"Unheard of!"--"They are laughing at
+us!"--"Ridiculous!"--"Absurd!" Every sort of expression for doubt,
+incredulity, and folly was heard for some minutes with accompaniment of
+appropriate gestures. J.T. Maston alone uttered the words:--
+
+"That's an idea!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "but if people have such ideas as that they
+ought not to think of putting them into execution."
+
+"Why not?" quickly answered the secretary of the Gun Club, ready for an
+argument. But the subject was let drop.
+
+In the meantime Michel Ardan's name was already going about Tampa Town.
+Strangers and natives talked and joked together, not about the
+European--evidently a mythical personage--but about J.T. Maston, who had
+the folly to believe in his existence. When Barbicane proposed to send a
+projectile to the moon every one thought the enterprise natural and
+practicable--a simple affair of ballistics. But that a reasonable being
+should offer to go the journey inside the projectile was a farce, or, to
+use a familiar Americanism, it was all "humbug."
+
+This laughter lasted till evening throughout the Union, an unusual thing
+in a country where any impossible enterprise finds adepts and partisans.
+
+Still Michel Ardan's proposition did not fail to awaken a certain
+emotion in many minds. "They had not thought of such a thing." How many
+things denied one day had become realities the next! Why should not this
+journey be accomplished one day or another? But, any way, the man who
+would run such a risk must be a madman, and certainly, as his project
+could not be taken seriously, he would have done better to be quiet
+about it, instead of troubling a whole population with such ridiculous
+trash.
+
+But, first of all, did this personage really exist? That was the great
+question. The name of "Michel Ardan" was not altogether unknown in
+America. It belonged to a European much talked about for his audacious
+enterprises. Then the telegram sent all across the depths of the
+Atlantic, the designation of the ship upon which the Frenchman had
+declared he had taken his passage, the date assigned for his
+arrival--all these circumstances gave to the proposition a certain air
+of probability. They were obliged to disburden their minds about it.
+Soon these isolated individuals formed into groups, the groups became
+condensed under the action of curiosity like atoms by virtue of
+molecular attraction, and the result was a compact crowd going towards
+President Barbicane's dwelling.
+
+The president, since the arrival of the message, had not said what he
+thought about it; he had let J.T. Maston express his opinions without
+manifesting either approbation or blame. He kept quiet, proposing to
+await events, but he had not taken public impatience into consideration,
+and was not very pleased at the sight of the population of Tampa Town
+assembled under his windows. Murmurs, cries, and vociferations soon
+forced him to appear. It will be seen that he had all the disagreeables
+as well as the duties of a public man.
+
+He therefore appeared; silence was made, and a citizen asked him the
+following question:--"Is the person designated in the telegram as Michel
+Ardan on his way to America or not?"
+
+"Gentlemen," answered Barbicane, "I know no more than you."
+
+"We must get to know," exclaimed some impatient voices.
+
+"Time will inform us," answered the president coldly.
+
+"Time has no right to keep a whole country in suspense," answered the
+orator. "Have you altered your plans for the projectile as the telegram
+demanded?"
+
+"Not yet, gentlemen; but you are right, we must have recourse to the
+telegraph that has caused all this emotion."
+
+"To the telegraph-office!" cried the crowd.
+
+Barbicane descended into the street, and, heading the immense
+assemblage, he went towards the telegraph-office.
+
+A few minutes afterwards a telegram was on its way to the underwriters
+at Liverpool, asking for an answer to the following questions:--
+
+"What sort of vessel is the _Atlanta_? When did she leave Europe? Had
+she a Frenchman named Michel Ardan on board?"
+
+Two hours afterwards Barbicane received such precise information that
+doubt was no longer possible.
+
+"The steamer _Atlanta_, from Liverpool, set sail on October 2nd for
+Tampa Town, having on board a Frenchman inscribed in the passengers'
+book as Michel Ardan."
+
+At this confirmation of the first telegram the eyes of the president
+were lighted up with a sudden flame; he clenched his hands, and was
+heard to mutter--
+
+"It is true, then! It is possible, then! the Frenchman does exist! and
+in a fortnight he will be here! But he is a madman! I never can
+consent."
+
+And yet the very same evening he wrote to the firm of Breadwill and Co.
+begging them to suspend the casting of the projectile until fresh
+orders.
+
+Now how can the emotion be described which took possession of the whole
+of America? The effect of the Barbicane proposition was surpassed
+tenfold; what the newspapers of the Union said, the way they accepted
+the news, and how they chanted the arrival of this hero from the old
+continent; how to depict the feverish agitation in which every one
+lived, counting the hours, minutes, and seconds; how to give even a
+feeble idea of the effect of one idea upon so many heads; how to show
+every occupation being given up for a single preoccupation, work
+stopped, commerce suspended, vessels, ready to start, waiting in the
+ports so as not to miss the arrival of the _Atlanta_, every species of
+conveyance arriving full and returning empty, the bay of Espiritu-Santo
+incessantly ploughed by steamers, packet-boats, pleasure-yachts, and
+fly-boats of all dimensions; how to denominate in numbers the thousands
+of curious people who in a fortnight increased the population of Tampa
+Town fourfold, and were obliged to encamp under tents like an army in
+campaign--all this is a task above human force, and could not be
+undertaken without rashness.
+
+At 9 a.m. on the 20th of October the semaphores of the Bahama Channel
+signalled thick smoke on the horizon. Two hours later a large steamer
+exchanged signals with them. The name _Atlanta_ was immediately sent to
+Tampa Town. At 4 p.m. the English vessel entered the bay of
+Espiritu-Santo. At 5 p.m. she passed the entrance to Hillisboro Harbour,
+and at 6 p.m. weighed anchor in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+The anchor had not reached its sandy bed before 500 vessels surrounded
+the _Atlanta_ and the steamer was taken by assault. Barbicane was the
+first on deck, and in a voice the emotion of which he tried in vain to
+suppress--
+
+"Michel Ardan!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Present!" answered an individual mounted on the poop.
+
+Barbicane, with his arms crossed, questioning eyes, and silent mouth,
+looked fixedly at the passenger of the _Atlanta_.
+
+He was a man forty-two years of age, tall, but already rather stooping,
+like caryatides which support balconies on their shoulders. His large
+head shook every now and then a shock of red hair like a lion's mane; a
+short face, wide forehead, a moustache bristling like a cat's whiskers,
+and little bunches of yellow hair on the middle of his cheeks, round and
+rather wild-looking, short-sighted eyes completed this eminently feline
+physiognomy. But the nose was boldly cut, the mouth particularly humane,
+the forehead high, intelligent, and ploughed like a field that was never
+allowed to remain fallow. Lastly, a muscular body well poised on long
+limbs, muscular arms, powerful and well-set levers, and a decided gait
+made a solidly built fellow of this European, "rather wrought than
+cast," to borrow one of his expressions from metallurgic art.
+
+The disciples of Lavater or Gratiolet would have easily deciphered in
+the cranium and physiognomy of this personage indisputable signs of
+combativity--that is to say, of courage in danger and tendency to
+overcome obstacles, those of benevolence, and a belief in the
+marvellous, an instinct that makes many natures dwell much on superhuman
+things; but, on the other hand, the bumps of acquisivity, the need of
+possessing and acquiring, were absolutely wanting.
+
+To put the finishing touches to the physical type of the passenger of
+the _Atlanta_, his garments wide, loose, and flowing, open cravat, wide
+collar, and cuffs always unbuttoned, through which came nervous hands.
+People felt that even in the midst of winter and dangers that man was
+never cold.
+
+On the deck of the steamer, amongst the crowd, he bustled about, never
+still for a moment, "dragging his anchors," in nautical speech,
+gesticulating, making friends with everybody, and biting his nails
+nervously. He was one of those original beings whom the Creator invents
+in a moment of fantasy, and of whom He immediately breaks the cast.
+
+In fact, the character of Michel Ardan offered a large field for
+physiological analysis. This astonishing man lived in a perpetual
+disposition to hyperbole, and had not yet passed the age of
+superlatives; objects depicted themselves on the retina of his eye with
+exaggerated dimensions; from thence an association of gigantic ideas; he
+saw everything on a large scale except difficulties and men.
+
+He was besides of a luxuriant nature, an artist by instinct, and witty
+fellow; he loved arguments _ad hominem_, and defended the weak side
+tooth and nail.
+
+Amongst other peculiarities he gave himself out as "sublimely ignorant,"
+like Shakspeare, and professed supreme contempt for all _savants_,
+"people," said he, "who only score our points." He was, in short, a
+Bohemian of the country of brains, adventurous but not an adventurer, a
+harebrained fellow, a Phaeton running away with the horses of the sun, a
+kind of Icarus with relays of wings. He had a wonderful facility for
+getting into scrapes, and an equally wonderful facility for getting out
+of them again, falling on his feet like a cat.
+
+In short, his motto was, "Whatever it may cost!" and the love of the
+impossible his "ruling passion," according to Pope's fine expression.
+
+But this enterprising fellow had the defects of his qualities. Who risks
+nothing wins nothing, it is said. Ardan often risked much and got
+nothing. He was perfectly disinterested and chivalric; he would not have
+signed the death-warrant of his worst enemy, and would have sold himself
+into slavery to redeem a negro.
+
+In France and Europe everybody knew this brilliant, bustling person. Did
+he not get talked of ceaselessly by the hundred voices of Fame, hoarse
+in his service? Did he not live in a glass house, taking the entire
+universe as confidant of his most intimate secrets? But he also
+possessed an admirable collection of enemies amongst those he had cuffed
+and wounded whilst using his elbows to make a passage in the crowd.
+
+Still he was generally liked and treated like a spoiled child. Every one
+was interested in his bold enterprises, and followed them with uneasy
+mind. He was known to be so imprudent! When some friend wished to stop
+him by predicting an approaching catastrophe, "The forest is only burnt
+by its own trees," he answered with an amiable smile, not knowing that
+he was quoting the prettiest of Arabian proverbs.
+
+Such was the passenger of the _Atlanta_, always in a bustle, always
+boiling under the action of inward fire, always moved, not by what he
+had come to do in America--he did not even think about it--but on
+account of his feverish organisation. If ever individuals offered a
+striking contrast they were the Frenchman Michel Ardan and the Yankee
+Barbicane, both, however, enterprising, bold, and audacious, each in his
+own way.
+
+Barbicane's contemplation of his rival was quickly interrupted by the
+cheers of the crowd. These cries became even so frantic and the
+enthusiasm took such a personal form that Michel Ardan, after having
+shaken a thousand hands in which he nearly left his ten fingers, was
+obliged to take refuge in his cabin.
+
+Barbicane followed him without having uttered a word.
+
+"You are Barbicane?" Michel Ardan asked him as soon as they were alone,
+and in the same tone as he would have spoken to a friend of twenty
+years' standing.
+
+"Yes," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"Well, good morning, Barbicane. How are you? Very well? That's right!
+that's right!"
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, without further preliminary, "you have decided
+to go?"
+
+"Quite decided."
+
+"Nothing will stop you?"
+
+"Nothing. Have you altered your projectile as I told you in my message?"
+
+"I waited till you came. But," asked Barbicane, insisting once more,
+"you have quite reflected?"
+
+"Reflected! have I any time to lose? I find the occasion to go for a
+trip to the moon, I profit by it, and that is all. It seems to me that
+does not want so much reflection."
+
+Barbicane looked eagerly at the man who spoke of his project of journey
+with so much carelessness, and with such absence of anxiety.
+
+"But at least," he said, "you have some plan, some means of execution?"
+
+"Excellent means. But allow me to tell you one thing. I like to say my
+say once and for all, and to everybody, and to hear no more about it.
+Then, unless you can think of something better, call together your
+friends, your colleagues, all the town, all Florida, all America if you
+like, and to-morrow I shall be ready to state my means of execution, and
+answer any objections, whatever they may be. Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, that will do," answered Barbicane.
+
+Whereupon the president left the cabin, and told the crowd about Michel
+Ardan's proposition. His words were received with great demonstrations
+of joy. That cut short all difficulties. The next day every one could
+contemplate the European hero at their ease. Still some of the most
+obstinate spectators would not leave the deck of the _Atlanta_; they
+passed the night on board. Amongst others, J.T. Maston had screwed his
+steel hook into the combing of the poop, and it would have taken the
+capstan to get it out again.
+
+"He is a hero! a hero!" cried he in every tone, "and we are only old
+women compared to that European!"
+
+As to the president, after having requested the spectators to withdraw,
+he re-entered the passenger's cabin, and did not leave it till the bell
+of the steamer rang out the midnight quarter.
+
+But then the two rivals in popularity shook each other warmly by the
+hand, and separated friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A MEETING.
+
+
+The next day the sun did not rise early enough to satisfy public
+impatience. Barbicane, fearing that indiscreet questions would be put to
+Michel Ardan, would like to have reduced his auditors to a small number
+of adepts, to his colleagues for instance. But it was as easy as to dam
+up the Falls at Niagara. He was, therefore, obliged to renounce his
+project, and let his friend run all the risks of a public lecture. The
+new Town Hall of Tampa Town, notwithstanding its colossal dimensions,
+was considered insufficient for the occasion, which had assumed the
+proportions of a public meeting.
+
+The place chosen was a vast plain, situated outside the town. In a few
+hours they succeeded in sheltering it from the rays of the sun. The
+ships of the port, rich in canvas, furnished the necessary accessories
+for a colossal tent. Soon an immense sky of cloth was spread over the
+calcined plain, and defended it against the heat of the day. There
+300,000 persons stood and braved a stifling temperature for several
+hours whilst awaiting the Frenchman's arrival. Of that crowd of
+spectators one-third alone could see and hear; a second third saw badly,
+and did not hear. As to the remaining third, it neither heard nor saw,
+though it was not the least eager to applaud.
+
+At three o'clock Michel Ardan made his appearance, accompanied by the
+principal members of the Gun Club. He gave his right arm to President
+Barbicane, and his left to J.T. Maston, more radiant than the midday
+sun, and nearly as ruddy.
+
+Ardan mounted the platform, from which his eyes extended over a forest
+of black hats. He did not seem in the least embarrassed; he did not
+pose; he was at home there, gay, familiar, and amiable. To the cheers
+that greeted him he answered by a gracious bow; then with his hand asked
+for silence, began to speak in English, and expressed himself very
+correctly in these terms:--
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "although it is very warm, I intend to keep you a
+few minutes to give you some explanation of the projects which have
+appeared to interest you. I am neither an orator nor a _savant_, and I
+did not count upon having to speak in public; but my friend Barbicane
+tells me it would give you pleasure, so I do it. Then listen to me with
+your 600,000 ears, and please to excuse the faults of the orator."
+
+This unceremonious beginning was much admired by the audience, who
+expressed their satisfaction by an immense murmur of applause.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "no mark of approbation or dissent is prohibited.
+That settled, I continue. And, first of all, do not forget that you have
+to do with an ignorant man, but his ignorance goes far enough to ignore
+difficulties. It has, therefore, appeared a simple, natural, and easy
+thing to him to take his passage in a projectile and to start for the
+moon. That journey would be made sooner or later, and as to the mode of
+locomotion adopted, it simply follows the law of progress. Man began by
+travelling on all fours, then one fine day he went on two feet, then in
+a cart, then in a coach, then on a railway. Well, the projectile is the
+carriage of the future, and, to speak the truth, planets are only
+projectiles, simple cannon-balls hurled by the hand of the Creator. But
+to return to our vehicle. Some of you, gentlemen, may think that the
+speed it will travel at is excessive--nothing of the kind. All the
+planets go faster, and the earth itself in its movement round the sun
+carries us along three times as fast. Here are some examples. Only I ask
+your permission to express myself in leagues, for American measures are
+not very familiar to me, and I fear getting muddled in my calculations."
+
+The demand appeared quite simple, and offered no difficulty. The orator
+resumed his speech.
+
+"The following, gentlemen, is the speed of the different planets. I am
+obliged to acknowledge that, notwithstanding my ignorance, I know this
+small astronomical detail exactly, but in two minutes you will be as
+learned as I. Learn, then, that Neptune goes at the rate of 5,000
+leagues an hour; Uranus, 7,000; Saturn, 8,858; Jupiter, 11,675; Mars,
+22,011; the earth, 27,500; Venus, 32,190; Mercury, 52,520; some comets,
+14,000 leagues in their perihelion! As to us, veritable idlers, people
+in no hurry, our speed does not exceed 9,900 leagues, and it will go on
+decreasing! I ask you if there is anything to wonder at, and if it is
+not evident that it will be surpassed some day by still greater speeds,
+of which light or electricity will probably be the mechanical agents?"
+
+No one seemed to doubt this affirmation.
+
+"Dear hearers," he resumed, "according to certain narrow minds--that is
+the best qualification for them--humanity is inclosed in a Popilius
+circle which it cannot break open, and is condemned to vegetate upon
+this globe without ever flying towards the planetary shores! Nothing of
+the kind! We are going to the moon, we shall go to the planets, we shall
+go to the stars as we now go from Liverpool to New York, easily,
+rapidly, surely, and the atmospheric ocean will be as soon crossed as
+the oceans of the earth! Distance is only a relative term, and will end
+by being reduced to zero."
+
+The assembly, though greatly in favour of the French hero, was rather
+staggered by this audacious theory. Michel Ardan appeared to see it.
+
+"You do not seem convinced, my worthy hosts," he continued with an
+amiable smile. "Well, let us reason a little. Do you know how long it
+would take an express train to reach the moon? Three hundred days. Not
+more. A journey of 86,410 leagues, but what is that? Not even nine times
+round the earth, and there are very few sailors who have not done that
+during their existence. Think, I shall be only ninety-eight hours on the
+road! Ah, you imagine that the moon is a long way from the earth, and
+that one must think twice before attempting the adventure! But what
+would you say if I were going to Neptune, which gravitates at
+1,147,000,000 leagues from the sun? That is a journey that very few
+people could go, even if it only cost a farthing a mile! Even Baron
+Rothschild would not have enough to take his ticket!"
+
+This argument seemed greatly to please the assembly; besides, Michel
+Ardan, full of his subject, grew superbly eloquent; he felt he was
+listened to, and resumed with admirable assurance--
+
+"Well, my friends, this distance from Neptune to the sun is nothing
+compared to that of the stars, some of which are billions of leagues
+from the sun! And yet people speak of the distance that separates the
+planets from the sun! Do you know what I think of this universe that
+begins with the sun and ends at Neptune? Should you like to know my
+theory? It is a very simple one. According to my opinion, the solar
+universe is one solid homogeneous mass; the planets that compose it are
+close together, crowd one another, and the space between them is only
+the space that separates the molecules of the most compact
+metal--silver, iron, or platinum! I have, therefore, the right to
+affirm, and I will repeat it with a conviction you will all
+share--distance is a vain word; distance does not exist!"
+
+"Well said! Bravo! Hurrah!" cried the assembly with one voice,
+electrified by the gesture and accent of the orator, and the boldness of
+his conceptions.
+
+"No!" cried J.T. Maston, more energetically than the others; "distance
+does not exist!"
+
+And, carried away by the violence of his movements and emotions he could
+hardly contain, he nearly fell from the top of the platform to the
+ground. But he succeeded in recovering his equilibrium, and thus avoided
+a fall that would have brutally proved distance not to be a vain word.
+Then the speech of the distinguished orator resumed its course.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I think that this question is now solved. If I
+have not convinced you all it is because I have been timid in my
+demonstrations, feeble in my arguments, and you must set it down to my
+theoretic ignorance. However that may be, I repeat, the distance from
+the earth to her satellite is really very unimportant and unworthy to
+occupy a serious mind. I do not think I am advancing too much in saying
+that soon a service of trains will be established by projectiles, in
+which the journey from the earth to the moon will be comfortably
+accomplished. There will be no shocks nor running off the lines to fear,
+and the goal will be reached rapidly, without fatigue, in a straight
+line, 'as the crow flies.' Before twenty years are over, half the earth
+will have visited the moon!"
+
+"Three cheers for Michel Ardan!" cried the assistants, even those least
+convinced.
+
+"Three cheers for Barbicane!" modestly answered the orator.
+
+This act of gratitude towards the promoter of the enterprise was greeted
+with unanimous applause.
+
+"Now, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan, "if you have any questions to
+ask me you will evidently embarrass me, but still I will endeavour to
+answer you."
+
+Until now the president of the Gun Club had reason to be very satisfied
+with the discussion. It had rolled upon speculative theories, upon which
+Michel Ardan, carried away by his lively imagination, had shown himself
+very brilliant. He must, therefore, be prevented from deviating towards
+practical questions, which he would doubtless not come out of so well.
+Barbicane made haste to speak, and asked his new friend if he thought
+that the moon or the planets were inhabited.
+
+"That is a great problem, my worthy president," answered the orator,
+smiling; "still, if I am not mistaken, men of great intelligence--Plutarch,
+Swedenborg, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others--answered in the
+affirmative. If I answered from a natural philosophy point of view I
+should do the same--I should say to myself that nothing useless exists
+in this world, and, answering your question by another, friend
+Barbicane, I should affirm that if the planets are inhabitable, either
+they are inhabited, they have been, or they will be."
+
+"Very well," cried the first ranks of spectators, whose opinion had the
+force of law for the others.
+
+"It is impossible to answer with more logic and justice," said the
+president of the Gun Club. "The question, therefore, comes to this: 'Are
+the planets inhabitable?' I think so, for my part."
+
+"And I--I am certain of it," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Still," replied one of the assistants, "there are arguments against the
+inhabitability of the worlds. In most of them it is evident that the
+principles of life must be modified. Thus, only to speak of the planets,
+the people must be burnt up in some and frozen in others according as
+they are a long or short distance from the sun."
+
+"I regret," answered Michel Ardan, "not to know my honourable opponent
+personally. His objection has its value, but I think it may be combated
+with some success, like all those of which the habitability of worlds
+has been the object. If I were a physician I should say that if there
+were less caloric put in motion in the planets nearest to the sun, and
+more, on the contrary, in the distant planets, this simple phenomenon
+would suffice to equalise the heat and render the temperature of these
+worlds bearable to beings organised like we are. If I were a naturalist
+I should tell him, after many illustrious _savants_, that Nature
+furnishes us on earth with examples of animals living in very different
+conditions of habitability; that fish breathe in a medium mortal to the
+other animals; that amphibians have a double existence difficult to
+explain; that certain inhabitants of the sea live in the greatest
+depths, and support there, without being crushed, pressures of fifty or
+sixty atmospheres; that some aquatic insects, insensible to the
+temperature, are met with at the same time in springs of boiling water
+and in the frozen plains of the Polar Ocean--in short, there are in
+nature many means of action, often incomprehensible, but no less real.
+If I were a chemist I should say that aërolites--bodies evidently formed
+away from our terrestrial globe--have when analysed, revealed
+indisputable traces of carbon, a substance that owes its origin solely
+to organised beings, and which, according to Reichenbach's experiments,
+must necessarily have been 'animalised.' Lastly, if I were a theologian
+I should say that Divine Redemption, according to St. Paul, seems
+applicable not only to the earth but to all the celestial bodies. But I
+am neither a theologian, chemist, naturalist, nor natural philosopher.
+So, in my perfect ignorance of the great laws that rule the universe, I
+can only answer, 'I do not know if the heavenly bodies are inhabited,
+and, as I do not know, I am going to see!'"
+
+Did the adversary of Michel Ardan's theories hazard any further
+arguments? It is impossible to say, for the frantic cries of the crowd
+would have prevented any opinion from being promulgated. When silence
+was again restored, even in the most distant groups, the triumphant
+orator contented himself with adding the following considerations:--
+
+"You will think, gentlemen, that I have hardly touched upon this grave
+question. I am not here to give you an instructive lecture upon this
+vast subject. There is another series of arguments in favour of the
+heavenly bodies being inhabited; I do not look upon that. Allow me only
+to insist upon one point. To the people who maintain that the planets
+are not inhabited you must answer, 'You may be right if it is
+demonstrated that the earth is the best of possible worlds; but it is
+not so, notwithstanding Voltaire.' It has only one satellite, whilst
+Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune have several at their service, an
+advantage that is not to be disdained. But that which now renders the
+earth an uncomfortable place of abode is the inclination of its axis
+upon its orbit. Hence the inequality of day and night; hence the
+unfortunate diversity of seasons. Upon our miserable spheroid it is
+always either too warm or too cold; we are frozen in winter and roasted
+in summer; it is the planet of colds, rheumatism, and consumption,
+whilst on the surface of Jupiter, for instance, where the axis has only
+a very slight inclination, the inhabitants can enjoy invariable
+temperature. There is the perpetual spring, summer, autumn, and winter
+zone; each 'Jovian' may choose the climate that suits him, and may
+shelter himself all his life from the variations of the temperature. You
+will doubtless agree to this superiority of Jupiter over our planet
+without speaking of its years, which each lasts twelve years! What is
+more, it is evident to me that, under these auspices, and under such
+marvellous conditions of existence, the inhabitants of that fortunate
+world are superior beings--that _savants_ are more learned, artists more
+artistic, the wicked less wicked, and the good are better. Alas! what is
+wanting to our spheroid to reach this perfection is very little!--an
+axis of rotation less inclined on the plane of its orbit."
+
+"Well!" cried an impetuous voice, "let us unite our efforts, invent
+machines, and rectify the earth's axis!"
+
+Thunders of applause greeted this proposition, the author of which could
+be no other than J.T. Maston. It is probable that the fiery secretary
+had been carried away by his instincts as engineer to venture such a
+proposition; but it must be said, for it is the truth, many encouraged
+him with their cries, and doubtless, if they had found the resting-point
+demanded by Archimedes, the Americans would have constructed a lever
+capable of raising the world and redressing its axis. But this point was
+wanting to these bold mechanicians.
+
+Nevertheless, this eminently practical idea had enormous success: the
+discussion was suspended for a good quarter of an hour, and long, very
+long afterwards, they talked in the United States of America of the
+proposition so energetically enunciated by the perpetual secretary of
+the Gun Club.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THRUST AND PARRY.
+
+
+This incident seemed to have terminated the discussion, but when the
+agitation had subsided these words were heard uttered in a loud and
+severe voice:--
+
+"Now that the orator has allowed his fancy to roam, perhaps he would
+kindly go back to his subject, pay less attention to theories, and
+discuss the practical part of his expedition."
+
+All eyes were turned towards the person who spoke thus. He was a thin,
+dry-looking man, with an energetic face and an American beard. By taking
+advantage of the agitation in the assembly from time to time he had
+gained, by degrees, the front row of spectators. There, with his arms
+crossed, his eyes brilliant and bold, he stared imperturbably at the
+hero of the meeting. After having asked his question he kept silence,
+and did not seem disturbed by the thousands of eyes directed towards him
+nor by the disapproving murmur excited by his words. The answer being
+delayed he again put the question with the same clear and precise
+accent; then he added--
+
+"We are here to discuss the moon, not the earth."
+
+"You are right, sir," answered Michel Ardan, "the discussion has
+wandered from the point; we will return to the moon."
+
+"Sir," resumed the unknown man, "you pretend that our satellite is
+inhabited. So far so good; but if Selenites do exist they certainly live
+without breathing, for--I tell you the fact for your good--there is not
+the least particle of air on the surface of the moon."
+
+At this affirmation Ardan shook his red mane; he understood that a
+struggle was coming with this man on the real question. He looked at him
+fixedly in his turn, and said--
+
+"Ah! there is no air in the moon! And who says so, pray?"
+
+"The _savants_."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel, "joking apart, I have a profound respect for
+_savants_ who know, but a profound contempt for _savants_ who do not
+know."
+
+"Do you know any who belong to the latter category?"
+
+"Yes; in France there is one who maintains that, 'mathematically,' a
+bird cannot fly, and another who demonstrates that a fish is not made to
+live in water."
+
+"There is no question of those two, sir, and I can quote in support of
+my proposition names that you will not object to."
+
+"Then, sir, you would greatly embarrass a poor ignorant man like me!"
+
+"Then why do you meddle with scientific questions which you have never
+studied?" asked the unknown brutally.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan; "because the man who does not suspect danger is
+always brave! I know nothing, it is true, but it is precisely my
+weakness that makes my strength."
+
+"Your weakness goes as far as madness," exclaimed the unknown in a
+bad-tempered tone.
+
+"So much the better," replied the Frenchman, "if my madness takes me to
+the moon!"
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues stared at the intruder who had come so
+boldly to stand in the way of their enterprise. None of them knew him,
+and the president, not reassured upon the upshot of such a discussion,
+looked at his new friend with some apprehension. The assembly was
+attentive and slightly uneasy, for this struggle called attention to the
+dangers and impossibilities of the expedition.
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel Ardan's adversary, "the reasons that prove the
+absence of all atmosphere round the moon are numerous and indisputable.
+I may say, even, that, _à priori_ if that atmosphere had ever existed,
+it must have been drawn away by the earth, but I would rather oppose you
+with incontestable facts."
+
+"Oppose, sir," answered Michel Ardan, with perfect gallantry--oppose as
+much as you like."
+
+"You know," said the unknown, "that when the sun's rays traverse a
+medium like air they are deviated from a straight line, or, in other
+words, they are refracted. Well, when stars are occulted by the moon
+their rays, on grazing the edge of her disc, do not show the least
+deviation nor offer the slightest indication of refraction. It follows,
+therefore, that the moon can have no atmosphere."
+
+Every one looked at the Frenchman, for, this once admitted, the
+consequences were rigorous.
+
+"In fact," answered Michel Ardan, "that is your best if not only
+argument, and a _savant_, perhaps, would be embarrassed to answer it. I
+can only tell you that this argument has no absolute value because it
+supposes the angular diameter of the moon to be perfectly determined,
+which it is not. But let us waive that, and tell me, my dear sir, if
+you admit the existence of volcanoes on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Extinct volcanoes, yes; volcanoes in eruption, no."
+
+"For the sake of argument let us suppose that these volcanoes have been
+in eruption for a certain period."
+
+"That is certain, but as they can themselves furnish the oxygen
+necessary for combustion the fact of their eruption does not in the
+least prove the presence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+"We will pass on, then," answered Michel Ardan, "and leave this series
+of argument and arrive at direct observation. But I warn you that I am
+going to quote names."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"In 1715 the astronomers Louville and Halley, observing the eclipse of
+the 3rd of May, remarked certain fulminations of a remarkable nature.
+These jets of light, rapid and frequent, were attributed by them to
+storms in the atmosphere of the moon."
+
+"In 1715," replied the unknown, "the astronomers Louville and Halley
+took for lunar phenomena phenomena purely terrestrial, such as meteoric
+or other bodies which are generated in our own atmosphere. That was the
+scientific aspect of these facts, and I go with it."
+
+"Let us pass on again," answered Ardan, without being confused by the
+reply. "Did not Herschel, in 1787, observe a great number of luminous
+points on the surface of the moon?"
+
+"Certainly; but without explaining the origin of these luminous points.
+Herschel himself did not thereby conclude the necessity of a lunar
+atmosphere."
+
+"Well answered," said Michel Ardan, complimenting his adversary; "I see
+that you are well up in selenography."
+
+"Yes, sir; and I may add that the most skilful observers, MM. Boeer and
+Moedler, agree that air is absolutely wanting on the moon's surface."
+
+A movement took place amongst the audience, who appeared struck by the
+arguments of this singular personage.
+
+"We will pass on again," answered Michel Ardan, with the greatest
+calmness, "and arrive now at an important fact. A skilful French
+astronomer, M. Laussedat, whilst observing the eclipse of July 18th,
+1860, proved that the horns of the solar crescent were rounded and
+truncated. Now this appearance could only have been produced by a
+deviation of the solar rays in traversing the atmosphere of the moon.
+There is no other possible explanation of the fact."
+
+"But is this fact authenticated?"
+
+"It is absolutely certain."
+
+An inverse movement brought back the audience to the side of their
+favourite hero, whose adversary remained silent.
+
+Ardan went on speaking without showing any vanity about his last
+advantage; he said simply--
+
+"You see, therefore, my dear sir, that it cannot be positively affirmed
+that there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon. This atmosphere
+is probably not dense, but science now generally admits that it exists."
+
+"Not upon the mountains," replied the unknown, who would not give in.
+
+"No, but in the depths of the valleys, and it is not more than some
+hundreds of feet deep."
+
+"Any way you will do well to take your precautions, for the air will be
+terribly rarefied."
+
+"Oh, there will always be enough for one man. Besides, once delivered up
+there, I shall do my best to economise it and only to breathe it on
+great occasions."
+
+A formidable burst of laughter saluted the mysterious interlocutor, who
+looked round the assembly daring it proudly.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, carelessly, "as we are agreed upon the
+presence of some atmosphere, we are forced to admit the presence of some
+water--a consequence I am delighted with, for my part. Besides, I have
+another observation to make. We only know one side of the moon's disc,
+and if there is little air on that side there may be much on the other."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because the moon under the action of terrestrial attraction has assumed
+the form of an egg, of which we see the small end. Hence the consequence
+due to the calculations of Hausen, that its centre of gravity is
+situated in the other hemisphere. Hence this conclusion that all the
+masses of air and water have been drawn to the other side of our
+satellite in the first days of the creation."
+
+"Pure fancies," exclaimed the unknown.
+
+"No, pure theories based upon mechanical laws, and it appears difficult
+to me to refute them. I make appeal to this assembly and put it to the
+vote to know if life such as it exists upon earth is possible on the
+surface of the moon?"
+
+Three hundred thousand hearers applauded this proposition. Michel
+Ardan's adversary wished to speak again, but he could not make himself
+heard. Cries and threats were hailed upon him.
+
+"Enough, enough!" said some.
+
+"Turn him out!" repeated others.
+
+But he, holding on to the platform, did not move, and let the storm
+pass by. It might have assumed formidable proportions if Michel Ardan
+had not appeased it by a gesture. He was too chivalrous to abandon his
+contradicter in such an extremity.
+
+"You wish to add a few words?" he asked, in the most gracious tone.
+
+"Yes, a hundred! a thousand!" answered the unknown, carried away, "or
+rather no, one only! To persevere in your enterprise you must be--"
+
+"Imprudent! How can you call me that when I have asked for a
+cylindro-conical bullet from my friend Barbicane so as not to turn round
+on the road like a squirrel?"
+
+"But, unfortunate man! the fearful shock will smash you to pieces when
+you start."
+
+"You have there put your finger upon the real and only difficulty; but I
+have too good an opinion of the industrial genius of the Americans to
+believe that they will not overcome that difficulty."
+
+"But the heat developed by the speed of the projectile whilst crossing
+the beds of air?"
+
+"Oh, its sides are thick, and I shall so soon pass the atmosphere."
+
+"But provisions? water?"
+
+"I have calculated that I could carry enough for one year, and I shall
+only be four days going."
+
+"But air to breathe on the road?"
+
+"I shall make some by chemical processes."
+
+"But your fall upon the moon, supposing you ever get there?"
+
+"It will be six times less rapid than a fall upon the earth, as
+attraction is six times less on the surface of the moon."
+
+"But it still will be sufficient to smash you like glass."
+
+"What will prevent me delaying my fall by means of rockets conveniently
+placed and lighted at the proper time?"
+
+"But lastly, supposing that all difficulties be solved, all obstacles
+cleared away by uniting every chance in your favour, admitting that you
+reach the moon safe and well, how shall you come back?"
+
+"I shall not come back."
+
+Upon this answer, which was almost sublime by reason of its simplicity,
+the assembly remained silent. But its silence was more eloquent than its
+cries of enthusiasm would have been. The unknown profited by it to
+protest one last time.
+
+"You will infallibly kill yourself," he cried, "and your death, which
+will be only a madman's death, will not even be useful to science."
+
+"Go on, most generous of men, for you prophesy in the most agreeable
+manner."
+
+"Ah, it is too much!" exclaimed Michel Ardan's adversary, "and I do not
+know why I go on with so childish a discussion. Go on with your mad
+enterprise as you like. It is not your fault."
+
+"Fire away."
+
+"No, another must bear the responsibility of your acts."
+
+"Who is that, pray?" asked Michel Ardan in an imperious voice.
+
+"The fool who has organised this attempt, as impossible as it is
+ridiculous."
+
+The attack was direct. Barbicane since the intervention of the unknown
+had made violent efforts to contain himself and "consume his own smoke,"
+but upon seeing himself so outrageously designated he rose directly and
+was going to walk towards his adversary, who dared him to his face, when
+he felt himself suddenly separated from him.
+
+The platform was lifted up all at once by a hundred vigorous arms, and
+the president of the Gun Club was forced to share the honours of triumph
+with Michel Ardan. The platform was heavy, but the bearers came in
+continuous relays, disputing, struggling, even fighting for the
+privilege of lending the support of their shoulders to this
+manifestation.
+
+However, the unknown did not take advantage of the tumult to leave the
+place. He kept in the front row, his arms folded, still staring at
+President Barbicane.
+
+The president did not lose sight of him either, and the eyes of these
+two men met like flaming swords.
+
+The cries of the immense crowds kept at their maximum of intensity
+during this triumphant march. Michel Ardan allowed himself to be carried
+with evident pleasure.
+
+Sometimes the platform pitched and tossed like a ship beaten by the
+waves. But the two heroes of the meeting were good sailors, and their
+vessel safely arrived in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+Michel Ardan happily succeeded in escaping from his vigorous admirers.
+He fled to the Franklin Hotel, quickly reached his room, and glided
+rapidly into bed whilst an army of 100,000 men watched under his
+windows.
+
+In the meanwhile a short, grave, and decisive scene had taken place
+between the mysterious personage and the president of the Gun Club.
+
+Barbicane, liberated at last, went straight to his adversary.
+
+"Come!" said he in a curt voice.
+
+The stranger followed him on to the quay, and they were soon both alone
+at the entrance to a wharf opening on to Jones' Fall.
+
+There these enemies, still unknown to one another, looked at each other.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Captain Nicholl."
+
+"I thought so. Until now fate has never made you cross my path."
+
+"I crossed it of my own accord."
+
+"You have insulted me."
+
+"Publicly."
+
+"And you shall give me satisfaction for that insult."
+
+"Now, this minute."
+
+"No. I wish everything between us to be kept secret. There is a wood
+situated three miles from Tampa--Skersnaw Wood. Do you know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you enter it to-morrow morning at five o'clock by one side?"
+
+"Yes, if you will enter it by the other at the same time."
+
+"And you will not forget your rifle?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Not more than you will forget yours," answered Captain Nicholl.
+
+After these words had been coldly pronounced the president of the Gun
+Club and the captain separated. Barbicane returned to his dwelling; but,
+instead of taking some hours' rest, he passed the night in seeking means
+to avoid the shock of the projectile, and to solve the difficult problem
+given by Michel Ardan at the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR.
+
+
+Whilst the duel was being discussed between the president and the
+captain--a terrible and savage duel in which each adversary became a
+man-hunter--Michel Ardan was resting after the fatigues of his triumph.
+Resting is evidently not the right expression, for American beds rival
+in hardness tables of marble or granite.
+
+Ardan slept badly, turning over and over between the _serviettes_ that
+served him for sheets, and he was thinking of installing a more
+comfortable bed in his projectile when a violent noise startled him from
+his slumbers. Thundering blows shook his door. They seemed to be
+administered with an iron instrument. Shouts were heard in this racket,
+rather too early to be agreeable.
+
+"Open!" some one cried. "Open, for Heaven's sake!"
+
+There was no reason why Ardan should acquiesce in so peremptory a
+demand. Still he rose and opened his door at the moment it was giving
+way under the efforts of the obstinate visitor.
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club bounded into the room. A bomb would not
+have entered with less ceremony.
+
+"Yesterday evening," exclaimed J.T. Maston _ex abrupto_, "our president
+was publicly insulted during the meeting! He has challenged his
+adversary, who is no other than Captain Nicholl! They are going to fight
+this morning in Skersnaw Wood! I learnt it all from Barbicane himself!
+If he is killed our project will be at an end! This duel must be
+prevented! Now one man only can have enough empire over Barbicane to
+stop it, and that man is Michel Ardan."
+
+Whilst J.T. Maston was speaking thus, Michel Ardan, giving up
+interrupting him, jumped into his vast trousers, and in less than two
+minutes after the two friends were rushing as fast as they could go
+towards the suburbs of Tampa Town.
+
+It was during this rapid course that Maston told Ardan the state of the
+case. He told him the real causes of the enmity between Barbicane and
+Nicholl, how that enmity was of old date, why until then, thanks to
+mutual friends, the president and the captain had never met; he added
+that it was solely a rivalry between iron-plate and bullet; and, lastly,
+that the scene of the meeting had only been an occasion long sought by
+Nicholl to satisfy an old grudge.
+
+There is nothing more terrible than these private duels in America,
+during which the two adversaries seek each other across thickets, and
+hunt each other like wild animals. It is then that each must envy those
+marvellous qualities so natural to the Indians of the prairies, their
+rapid intelligence, their ingenious ruse, their scent of the enemy. An
+error, a hesitation, a wrong step, may cause death. In these meetings
+the Yankees are often accompanied by their dogs, and both sportsmen and
+game go on for hours.
+
+"What demons you are!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, when his companion had
+depicted the scene with much energy.
+
+"We are what we are," answered J.T. Maston modestly; "but let us make
+haste."
+
+In vain did Michel Ardan and he rush across the plain still wet with
+dew, jump the creeks, take the shortest cuts; they could not reach
+Skersnaw Wood before half-past five. Barbicane must have entered it
+half-an-hour before.
+
+There an old bushman was tying up faggots his axe had cut.
+
+Maston ran to him crying--
+
+"Have you seen a man enter the wood armed with a rifle? Barbicane, the
+president--my best friend?"
+
+The worthy secretary of the Gun Club thought naïvely that all the world
+must know his president. But the bushman did not seem to understand.
+
+"A sportsman," then said Ardan.
+
+"A sportsman? Yes," answered the bushman.
+
+"Is it long since?"
+
+"About an hour ago."
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Have you heard any firing?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not one shot?"
+
+"Not one. That sportsman does not seem to bag much game!"
+
+"What shall we do?" said Maston.
+
+"Enter the wood at the risk of catching a bullet not meant for us."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Maston, with an unmistakable accent, "I would rather
+have ten bullets in my head than one in Barbicane's head."
+
+"Go ahead, then!" said Ardan, pressing his companion's hand.
+
+A few seconds after the two companions disappeared in a copse. It was a
+dense thicket made of huge cypresses, sycamores, tulip-trees, olives,
+tamarinds, oaks, and magnolias. The different trees intermingled their
+branches in inextricable confusion, and quite hid the view. Michel Ardan
+and Maston walked on side by side phasing silently through the tall
+grass, making a road for themselves through the vigorous creepers,
+looking in all the bushes or branches lost in the sombre shade of the
+foliage, and expecting to hear a shot at every step. As to the traces
+that Barbicane must have left of his passage through the wood, it was
+impossible for them to see them, and they marched blindly on in the
+hardly-formed paths in which an Indian would have followed his adversary
+step by step.
+
+After a vain search of about an hour's length the two companions
+stopped. Their anxiety was redoubled.
+
+"It must be all over," said Maston in despair. "A man like Barbicane
+would not lay traps or condescend to any manoeuvre! He is too frank, too
+courageous. He has gone straight into danger, and doubtless far enough
+from the bushman for the wind to carry off the noise of the shot!"
+
+"But we should have heard it!" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"But what if we came too late?" exclaimed J.T. Maston in an accent of
+despair.
+
+Michel Ardan did not find any answer to make. Maston and he resumed
+their interrupted walk. From time to time they shouted; they called
+either Barbicane or Nicholl; but neither of the two adversaries
+answered. Joyful flocks of birds, roused by the noise, disappeared
+amongst the branches, and some frightened deer fled through the copses.
+
+They continued their search another hour. The greater part of the wood
+had been explored. Nothing revealed the presence of the combatants. They
+began to doubt the affirmation of the bushman, and Ardan was going to
+renounce the pursuit as useless, when all at once Maston stopped.
+
+"Hush!" said he. "There is some one yonder!"
+
+"Some one?" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes! a man! He does not seem to move. His rifle is not in his hand.
+What can he be doing?"
+
+"But do you recognise him?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, yes! he is turning round," answered Maston.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Captain Nicholl!"
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Michel Ardan, whose heart almost stopped beating.
+
+"Nicholl disarmed! Then he had nothing more to fear from his adversary?"
+
+"Let us go to him," said Michel Ardan; "we shall know how it is."
+
+But his companion and he had not gone fifty steps when they stopped to
+examine the captain more attentively. They imagined they should find a
+bloodthirsty and revengeful man. Upon seeing him they remained
+stupefied.
+
+A net with fine meshes was hung between two gigantic tulip-trees, and in
+it a small bird, with its wings entangled, was struggling with plaintive
+cries. The bird-catcher who had hung the net was not a human being but a
+venomous spider, peculiar to the country, as large as a pigeon's egg,
+and furnished with enormous legs. The hideous insect, as he was rushing
+on his prey, was forced to turn back and take refuge in the high
+branches of a tulip-tree, for a formidable enemy threatened him in his
+turn.
+
+In fact, Captain Nicholl, with his gun on the ground, forgetting the
+dangers of his situation, was occupied in delivering as delicately as
+possible the victim taken in the meshes of the monstrous spider. When he
+had finished he let the little bird fly away; it fluttered its wings
+joyfully and disappeared.
+
+Nicholl, touched, was watching it fly through the copse when he heard
+these words uttered in a voice full of emotion:--
+
+"You are a brave man, you are!"
+
+He turned. Michel Ardan was in front of him, repeating in every tone--
+
+"And a kind one!"
+
+"Michel Ardan!" exclaimed the captain, "what have you come here for,
+sir?"
+
+"To shake hands with you, Nicholl, and prevent you killing Barbicane or
+being killed by him."
+
+"Barbicane!" cried the captain, "I have been looking for him these two
+hours without finding him! Where is he hiding himself?"
+
+"Nicholl!" said Michel Ardan, "this is not polite! You must always
+respect your adversary; don't be uneasy; if Barbicane is alive we shall
+find him, and so much the more easily that if he has not amused himself
+with protecting birds he must be looking for you too. But when you have
+found him--and Michel Ardan tells you this--there will be no duel
+between you."
+
+"Between President Barbicane and me," answered Nicholl gravely, "there
+is such rivalry that the death of one of us--"
+
+"Come, come!" resumed Michel Ardan, "brave men like you may detest one
+another, but they respect one another too. You will not fight."
+
+"I shall fight, sir."
+
+"No you won't."
+
+"Captain," then said J.T. Maston heartily, "I am the president's friend,
+his _alter ego_; if you must absolutely kill some one kill me; that will
+be exactly the same thing."
+
+"Sir," said Nicholl, convulsively seizing his rifle, "this joking--"
+
+"Friend Maston is not joking," answered Michel Ardan, "and I understand
+his wanting to be killed for the man he loves; but neither he nor
+Barbicane will fall under Captain Nicholl's bullets, for I have so
+tempting a proposition to make to the two rivals that they will hasten
+to accept it."
+
+"But what is it, pray?" asked Nicholl, with visible incredulity.
+
+"Patience," answered Ardan; "I can only communicate it in Barbicane's
+presence."
+
+"Let us look for him, then," cried the captain.
+
+The three men immediately set out; the captain, having discharged his
+rifle, threw it on his shoulder and walked on in silence.
+
+During another half-hour the search was in vain. Maston was seized with
+a sinister presentiment. He observed Captain Nicholl closely, asking
+himself if, once the captain's vengeance satisfied, the unfortunate
+Barbicane had not been left lying in some bloody thicket. Michel Ardan
+seemed to have the same thought, and they were both looking
+questioningly at Captain Nicholl when Maston suddenly stopped.
+
+The motionless bust of a man leaning against a gigantic catalpa appeared
+twenty feet off half hidden in the grass.
+
+"It is he!" said Maston.
+
+Barbicane did not move. Ardan stared at the captain, but he did not
+wince. Ardan rushed forward, crying--
+
+"Barbicane! Barbicane!"
+
+No answer. Ardan was about to seize his arm; he stopped short, uttering
+a cry of surprise.
+
+Barbicane, with a pencil in his hand, was tracing geometrical figures
+upon a memorandum-book, whilst his unloaded gun lay on the ground.
+
+Absorbed in his work, the _savant_, forgetting in his turn his duel and
+his vengeance, had neither seen nor heard anything.
+
+But when Michel Ardan placed his hand on that of the president, he got
+up and looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"Ah!" cried he at last; "you here! I have found it, my friend, I have
+found it!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The way to do it."
+
+"The way to do what?"
+
+"To counteract the effect of the shock at the departure of the
+projectile."
+
+"Really?" said Michel, looking at the captain out of the corner of his
+eye.
+
+"Yes, water! simply water, which will act as a spring. Ah, Maston!"
+cried Barbicane, "you too!"
+
+"Himself," answered Michel Ardan; "and allow me to introduce at the same
+time the worthy Captain Nicholl."
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Barbicane, up in a moment. "Excuse me, captain," said
+he; "I had forgotten. I am ready."
+
+Michel Ardan interfered before the two enemies had time to recriminate.
+
+"Faith," said he, "it is fortunate that brave fellows like you did not
+meet sooner. We should now have to mourn for one or other of you; but,
+thanks to God, who has prevented it, there is nothing more to fear. When
+one forgets his hatred to plunge into mechanical problems and the other
+to play tricks on spiders, their hatred cannot be dangerous to anybody."
+
+And Michel Ardan related the captain's story to the president.
+
+"I ask you now," said he as he concluded, "if two good beings like you
+were made to break each other's heads with gunshots?"
+
+There was in this rather ridiculous situation something so unexpected,
+that Barbicane and Nicholl did not know how to look at one another.
+Michel Ardan felt this, and resolved to try for a reconciliation.
+
+"My brave friends," said he, smiling in his most fascinating manner, "it
+has all been a mistake between you, nothing more. Well, to prove that
+all is ended between you, and as you are men who risk your lives,
+frankly accept the proposition that I am going to make to you."
+
+"Speak," said Nicholl.
+
+"Friend Barbicane believes that his projectile will go straight to the
+moon."
+
+"Yes, certainly," replied the president.
+
+"And friend Nicholl is persuaded that it will fall back on the earth."
+
+"I am certain of it," cried the captain.
+
+"Good," resumed Michel Ardan. "I do not pretend to make you agree; all I
+say to you is, 'Come with me, and see if we shall stop on the road.'"
+
+"What?" said J.T. Maston, stupefied.
+
+The two rivals at this sudden proposition had raised their eyes and
+looked at each other attentively. Barbicane waited for Captain Nicholl's
+answer; Nicholl awaited the president's reply.
+
+"Well," said Michel in his most engaging tone, "as there is now no shock
+to fear----"
+
+"Accepted!" cried Barbicane.
+
+But although this word was uttered very quickly, Nicholl had finished it
+at the same time.
+
+"Hurrah! bravo!" cried Michel Ardan, holding out his hands to the two
+adversaries. "And now that the affair is arranged, my friends, allow me
+to treat you French fashion. _Allons déjeuner_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+That day all America heard about the duel and its singular termination.
+The part played by the chivalrous European, his unexpected proposition
+which solved the difficulty, the simultaneous acceptation of the two
+rivals, that conquest of the lunar continent to which France and the
+United States were going to march in concert--everything tended to
+increase Michel Ardan's popularity. It is well known how enthusiastic
+the Yankees will get about an individual. In a country where grave
+magistrates harness themselves to a dancer's carriage and draw it in
+triumph, it may be judged how the bold Frenchman was treated. If they
+did not take out his horses it was probably because he had none, but all
+other marks of enthusiasm were showered upon him. There was no citizen
+who did not join him heart and mind:--_Ex pluribus unam_, according to
+the motto of the United States.
+
+From that day Michel Ardan had not a minute's rest. Deputations from all
+parts of the Union worried him incessantly. He was forced to receive
+them whether he would or no. The hands he shook could not be counted; he
+was soon completely worn out, his voice became hoarse in consequence of
+his innumerable speeches, and only escaped from his lips in
+unintelligible sounds, and he nearly caught a gastro-enterite after the
+toasts he proposed to the Union. This success would have intoxicated
+another man from the first, but he managed to stay in a _spirituelle_
+and charming demi-inebriety.
+
+Amongst the deputations of every sort that assailed him, that of the
+"Lunatics" did not forget what they owed to the future conqueror of the
+moon. One day some of these poor creatures, numerous enough in America,
+went to him and asked to return with him to their native country. Some
+of them pretended to speak "Selenite," and wished to teach it to Michel
+Ardan, who willingly lent himself to their innocent mania, and promised
+to take their messages to their friends in the moon.
+
+"Singular folly!" said he to Barbicane, after having dismissed them;
+"and a folly that often takes possession of men of great intelligence.
+One of our most illustrious _savants_, Arago, told me that many very
+wise and reserved people in their conceptions became much excited and
+gave way to incredible singularities every time the moon occupied them.
+Do you believe in the influence of the moon upon maladies?"
+
+"Very little," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"I do not either, and yet history has preserved some facts that, to say
+the least, are astonishing. Thus in 1693, during an epidemic, people
+perished in the greatest numbers on the 21st of January, during an
+eclipse. The celebrated Bacon fainted during the moon eclipses, and only
+came to himself after its entire emersion. King Charles VI. relapsed six
+times into madness during the year 1399, either at the new or full moon.
+Physicians have ranked epilepsy amongst the maladies that follow the
+phases of the moon. Nervous maladies have often appeared to be
+influenced by it. Mead speaks of a child who had convulsions when the
+moon was in opposition. Gall remarked that insane persons underwent an
+accession of their disorder twice in every month, at the epochs of the
+new and full moon. Lastly, a thousand observations of this sort made
+upon malignant fevers and somnambulism tend to prove that the Queen of
+Night has a mysterious influence upon terrestrial maladies."
+
+"But how? why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan. "Why, the only thing I can tell you is what Arago
+repeated nineteen centuries after Plutarch. Perhaps it is because it is
+not true."
+
+In the height of his triumph Michel Ardan could not escape any of the
+annoyances incidental to a celebrated man. Managers of entertainments
+wished to exhibit him. Barnum offered him a million dollars to show him
+as a curious animal in the different towns of the United States.
+
+Still, though he refused to satisfy public curiosity in that way, his
+portraits went all over the world, and occupied the place of honour in
+albums; proofs were made of all sizes from life size to medallions.
+Every one could possess the hero in all positions--head, bust, standing,
+full-face, profile, three-quarters, back. Fifteen hundred thousand
+copies were taken, and it would have been a fine occasion to get money
+by relics, but he did not profit by it. If he had sold his hairs for a
+dollar apiece there would have remained enough to make his fortune!
+
+To tell the truth, this popularity did not displease him. On the
+contrary, he put himself at the disposition of the public, and
+corresponded with the entire universe. They repeated his witticisms,
+especially those he did not perpetrate.
+
+Not only had he all the men for him, but the women too. What an infinite
+number of good marriages he might have made if he had taken a fancy to
+"settle!" Old maids especially dreamt before his portraits day and
+night.
+
+It is certain that he would have found female companions by hundreds,
+even if he had imposed the condition of following him up into the air.
+Women are intrepid when they are not afraid of everything. But he had no
+intention of transplanting a race of Franco-Americans upon the lunar
+continent, so he refused.
+
+"I do not mean," said he, "to play the part of Adam with a daughter of
+Eve up there. I might meet with serpents!"
+
+As soon as he could withdraw from the joys of triumph, too often
+repeated, he went with his friends to pay a visit to the Columbiad. He
+owed it that. Besides, he was getting very learned in ballistics since
+he had lived with Barbicane, J.T. Maston, and _tutti quanti_. His
+greatest pleasure consisted in repeating to these brave artillerymen
+that they were only amiable and learned murderers. He was always joking
+about it. The day he visited the Columbiad he greatly admired it, and
+went down to the bore of the gigantic mortar that was soon to hurl him
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+"At least," said he, "that cannon will not hurt anybody, which is
+already very astonishing on the part of a cannon. But as to your engines
+that destroy, burn, smash, and kill, don't talk to me about them!"
+
+It is necessary to report here a proposition made by J.T. Maston. When
+the secretary of the Gun Club heard Barbicane and Nicholl accept Michel
+Ardan's proposition he resolved to join them, and make a party of four.
+One day he asked to go. Barbicane, grieved at having to refuse, made him
+understand that the projectile could not carry so many passengers. J.T.
+Maston, in despair, went to Michel Ardan, who advised him to be
+resigned, adding one or two arguments _ad hominem_.
+
+"You see, old fellow," he said to him, "you must not be offended, but
+really, between ourselves, you are too incomplete to present yourself in
+the moon."
+
+"Incomplete!" cried the valiant cripple.
+
+"Yes, my brave friend. Suppose we should meet with inhabitants up there.
+Do you want to give them a sorry idea of what goes on here, teach them
+what war is, show them that we employ the best part of our time in
+devouring each other and breaking arms and limbs, and that upon a globe
+that could feed a hundred thousand millions of inhabitants, and where
+there are hardly twelve hundred millions? Why, my worthy friend, you
+would have us shown to the door!"
+
+"But if you arrive smashed to pieces," replied J.T. Maston, "you will be
+as incomplete as I."
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel Ardan, "but we shall not arrive in pieces."
+
+In fact, a preparatory experiment, tried on the 18th of October, had
+been attended with the best results, and given rise to the most
+legitimate hopes. Barbicane, wishing to know the effect of the shock at
+the moment of the projectile's departure, sent for a 32-inch mortar from
+Pensacola Arsenal. It was installed upon the quay of Hillisboro Harbour,
+in order that the bomb might fall into the sea, and the shock of its
+fall be deadened. He only wished to experiment upon the shock of its
+departure, not that of its arrival.
+
+A hollow projectile was prepared with the greatest care for this curious
+experiment. A thick wadding put upon a network of springs made of the
+best steel lined it inside. It was quite a wadded nest.
+
+"What a pity one can't go in it!" said J.T. Maston, regretting that his
+size did not allow him to make the venture.
+
+Into this charming bomb, which was closed by means of a lid, screwed
+down, they put first a large cat, then a squirrel belonging to the
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, which J.T. Maston was very fond of.
+But they wished to know how this little animal, not likely to be giddy,
+would support this experimental journey.
+
+The mortar was loaded with 160 lbs. of powder and the bomb. It was then
+fired.
+
+The projectile immediately rose with rapidity, described a majestic
+parabola, attained a height of about a thousand feet, and then with a
+graceful curve fell into the waves.
+
+Without losing an instant, a vessel was sent to the spot where it fell;
+skilful divers sank under water and fastened cable-chains to the handles
+of the bomb, which was rapidly hoisted on board. Five minutes had not
+elapsed between the time the animals were shut up and the unscrewing of
+their prison lid.
+
+Ardan, Barbicane, Maston, and Nicholl were upon the vessel, and they
+assisted at the operation with a sentiment of interest easy to
+understand. The bomb was hardly opened before the cat sprang out, rather
+bruised but quite lively, and not looking as if it had just returned
+from an aërial expedition. But nothing, was seen of the squirrel. The
+truth was then discovered. The cat had eaten its travelling companion.
+
+J.T. Maston was very grieved at the loss of his poor squirrel, and
+proposed to inscribe it in the martyrology of science.
+
+However that may be, after this experiment all hesitation and fear were
+at an end; besides, Barbicane's plans were destined further to perfect
+the projectile, and destroy almost entirely the effect of the shock.
+There was nothing more to do but to start.
+
+Two days later Michel Ardan received a message from the President of
+the Union, an honour which he much appreciated.
+
+After the example of his chivalrous countryman, La Fayette, the
+government had bestowed upon him the title of "Citizen of the United
+States of America."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT.
+
+
+After the celebrated Columbiad was completed public interest immediately
+centred upon the projectile, the new vehicle destined to transport the
+three bold adventurers across space. No one had forgotten that in his
+despatch of September 30th Michel Ardan asked for a modification of the
+plans laid out by the members of the committee.
+
+President Barbicane then thought with reason that the form of the
+projectile was of slight importance, for, after crossing the atmosphere
+in a few seconds, it would meet with vacuum. The committee had therefore
+chosen the round form, so that the ball might turn over and over and do
+as it liked. But as soon as it had to be made into a vehicle, that was
+another thing. Michel Ardan did not want to travel squirrel-fashion; he
+wished to go up head up and feet down with as much dignity as in the car
+of a balloon, quicker of course, but without unseemly gambols.
+
+New plans were, therefore, sent to the firm of Breadwill and Co., of
+Albany, with the recommendation to execute them without delay. The
+projectile, thus modified, was cast on the 2nd of November, and sent
+immediately to Stony Hill by the Eastern Railway.
+
+On the 10th it arrived without accident at its place of destination.
+Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl awaited with the most lively
+impatience this "projectile compartment" in which they were to take
+their passage for the discovery of a new world.
+
+It must be acknowledged that it was a magnificent piece of metal, a
+metallurgic production that did the greatest honour to the industrial
+genius of the Americans. It was the first time that aluminium had been
+obtained in so large a mass, which result might be justly regarded as
+prodigious. This precious projectile sparkled in the rays of the sun.
+Seeing it in its imposing shape with its conical top, it might easily
+have been taken for one of those extinguisher-shaped towers that
+architects of the Middle Ages put at the angles of their castles. It
+only wanted loopholes and a weathercock.
+
+"I expect," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "to see a man armed _cap-à-pie_ come
+out of it. We shall be like feudal lords in there; with a little
+artillery we could hold our own against a whole army of Selenites--that
+is, if there are any in the moon!"
+
+"Then the vehicle pleases you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, yes! certainly," answered Michel Ardan, who was examining it as an
+artist. "I only regret that its form is not a little more slender, its
+cone more graceful; it ought to be terminated by a metal group, some
+Gothic ornament, a salamander escaping from it with outspread wings and
+open beak."
+
+"What would be the use?" said Barbicane, whose positive mind was little
+sensitive to the beauties of art.
+
+"Ah, friend Barbicane, I am afraid you will never understand the use, or
+you would not ask!"
+
+"Well, tell me, at all events, my brave companion."
+
+"Well, my friend, I think we ought always to put a little art in all we
+do. Do you know an Indian play called _The Child's Chariot_?"
+
+"Not even by name," answered Barbicane.
+
+"I am not surprised at that," continued Michel Ardan. "Learn, then, that
+in that play there is a robber who, when in the act of piercing the wall
+of a house, stops to consider whether he shall make his hole in the
+shape of a lyre, a flower, or a bird. Well, tell me, friend Barbicane,
+if at that epoch you had been his judge would you have condemned that
+robber?"
+
+"Without hesitation," answered the president of the Gun Club, "and as a
+burglar too."
+
+"Well, I should have acquitted him, friend Barbicane. That is why you
+could never understand me."
+
+"I will not even try, my valiant artist."
+
+"But, at least," continued Michel Ardan, "as the exterior of our
+projectile compartment leaves much to be desired, I shall be allowed to
+furnish the inside as I choose, and with all luxury suitable to
+ambassadors from the earth."
+
+"About that, my brave Michel," answered Barbicane, "you can do entirely
+as you please."
+
+But before passing to the agreeable the president of the Gun Club had
+thought of the useful, and the means he had invented for lessening the
+effects of the shock were applied with perfect intelligence.
+
+Barbicane had said to himself, not unreasonably, that no spring would be
+sufficiently powerful to deaden the shock, and during his famous
+promenade in Skersnaw Wood he had ended by solving this great difficulty
+in an ingenious fashion. He depended upon water to render him this
+signal service. This is how:--
+
+The projectile was to be filled to the depth of three feet with water
+destined to support a water-tight wooden disc, which easily worked
+within the walls of the projectile. It was upon this raft that the
+travellers were to take their place. As to the liquid mass, it was
+divided by horizontal partitions which the departing shock would
+successively break; then each sheet of water, from the lowest to the
+highest, escaping by valves in the upper part of the projectile, thus
+making a spring, and the disc, itself furnished with extremely powerful
+buffers, could not strike the bottom until it had successively broken
+the different partitions. The travellers would doubtless feel a violent
+recoil after the complete escape of the liquid mass, but the first shock
+would be almost entirely deadened by so powerful a spring.
+
+It is true that three feet on a surface of 541 square feet would weigh
+nearly 11,500 lbs; but the escape of gas accumulated in the Columbiad
+would suffice, Barbicane thought to conquer that increase of weight;
+besides, the shock would send out all that water in less than a second,
+and the projectile would soon regain its normal weight.
+
+This is what the president of the Gun Club had imagined, and how he
+thought he had solved the great question of the recoil. This work,
+intelligently comprehended by the engineers of the Breadwill firm, was
+marvellously executed; the effect once produced and the water gone, the
+travellers could easily get rid of the broken partitions and take away
+the mobile disc that bore them at the moment of departure.
+
+As to the upper sides of the projectile, they were lined with a thick
+wadding of leather, put upon the best steel springs as supple as
+watch-springs. The escape-pipes hidden under this wadding were not even
+seen.
+
+All imaginable precautions for deadening the first shock having been
+taken, Michel Ardan said they must be made of "very bad stuff" to be
+crushed.
+
+The projectile outside was nine feet wide and twelve feet high. In order
+not to pass the weight assigned the sides had been made a little less
+thick and the bottom thicker, as it would have to support all the
+violence of the gases developed by the deflagration of the pyroxyle.
+Bombs and cylindro-conical howitzers are always made with thicker
+bottoms.
+
+The entrance to this tower of metal was a narrow opening in the wall of
+the cone, like the "man-hole" of steam boilers. It closed hermetically
+by means of an aluminium plate fastened inside by powerful screw
+pressure. The travellers could therefore leave their mobile prison at
+will as soon as they had reached the Queen of Night.
+
+But going was not everything; it was necessary to see on the road.
+Nothing was easier. In fact, under the wadding were four thick
+lenticular footlights, two let into the circular wall of the projectile,
+the third in its lower part, and the fourth in its cone. The travellers
+could, therefore, observe during their journey the earth they were
+leaving, the moon they were approaching, and the constellated spaces of
+the sky. These skylights were protected against the shocks of departure
+by plates let into solid grooves, which it was easy to move by
+unscrewing them. By that means the air contained in the projectile could
+not escape, and it was possible to make observations.
+
+All these mechanical appliances, admirably set, worked with the greatest
+ease, and the engineers had not shown themselves less intelligent in the
+arrangement of the projectile compartment.
+
+Lockers solidly fastened were destined to contain the water and
+provisions necessary for the three travellers; they could even procure
+themselves fire and light by means of gas stored up in a special case
+under a pressure of several atmospheres. All they had to do was to turn
+a tap, and the gas would light and warm this comfortable vehicle for six
+days. It will be seen that none of the things essential to life, or even
+to comfort, were wanting. More, thanks to the instincts of Michel Ardan,
+the agreeable was joined to the useful under the form of objects of art;
+he would have made a veritable artist's studio of his projectile if room
+had not been wanting. It would be mistaken to suppose that three persons
+would be restricted for space in that metal tower. It had a surface of
+54 square feet, and was nearly 10 feet high, and allowed its occupiers a
+certain liberty of movement. They would not have been so much at their
+ease in the most comfortable railway compartment of the United States.
+
+The question of provisions and lighting having been solved, there
+remained the question of air. It was evident that the air confined in
+the projectile would not be sufficient for the travellers' respiration
+for four days; each man, in fact, consumes in one hour all the oxygen
+contained in 100 litres of air. Barbicane, his two companions, and two
+dogs that he meant to take, would consume every twenty-four hours 2,400
+litres of oxygen, or a weight equal to 7 lbs. The air in the projectile
+must, therefore, be renewed. How? By a very simple method, that of
+Messrs. Reiset and Regnault, indicated by Michel Ardan during the
+discussion of the meeting.
+
+It is known that the air is composed principally of twenty-one parts of
+oxygen and seventy-nine parts of azote. Now what happens in the act of
+respiration? A very simple phenomenon, Man absorbs the oxygen of the
+air, eminently adapted for sustaining life, and throws out the azote
+intact. The air breathed out has lost nearly five per cent, of its
+oxygen, and then contains a nearly equal volume of carbonic acid, the
+definitive product of the combustion of the elements of the blood by the
+oxygen breathed in it. It happens, therefore, that in a confined space
+and after a certain time all the oxygen of the air is replaced by
+carbonic acid, an essentially deleterious gas.
+
+The question was then reduced to this, the azote being conserved
+intact--1. To remake the oxygen absorbed; 2. To destroy the carbonic
+acid breathed out. Nothing easier to do by means of chlorate of potash
+and caustic potash. The former is a salt which appears under the form of
+white crystals; when heated to a temperature of 400° it is transformed
+into chlorine of potassium, and the oxygen which it contains is given
+off freely. Now 18 lbs. of chlorate of potash give 7 lbs of oxygen--that
+is to say, the quantity necessary to the travellers for twenty-four
+hours.
+
+As to caustic potash, it has a great affinity for carbonic acid mixed in
+air, and it is sufficient to shake it in order for it to seize upon the
+acid and form bicarbonate of potash. So much for the absorption of
+carbonic acid.
+
+By combining these two methods they were certain of giving back to
+vitiated air all its life-giving qualities. The two chemists, Messrs.
+Reiset and Regnault, had made the experiment with success.
+
+But it must be said the experiment had only been made _in anima vili_.
+Whatever its scientific accuracy might be, no one knew how man could
+bear it.
+
+Such was the observation made at the meeting where this grave question
+was discussed. Michel Ardan meant to leave no doubt about the
+possibility of living by means of this artificial air, and he offered to
+make the trial before the departure.
+
+But the honour of putting it to the proof was energetically claimed by
+J.T. Maston.
+
+"As I am not going with you," said the brave artilleryman, "the least I
+can do will be to live in the projectile for a week."
+
+It would have been ungracious to refuse him. His wish was complied with.
+A sufficient quantity of chlorate of potash and caustic potash was
+placed at his disposition, with provisions for a week; then having
+shaken hands with his friends, on the 12th of November at 6 a.m., after
+having expressly recommended them not to open his prison before the 20th
+at 6 p.m., he crept into the projectile, the iron plate of which was
+hermetically shut.
+
+What happened during that week? It was impossible to ascertain. The
+thickness of the projectile's walls prevented any interior noise from
+reaching the outside.
+
+On the 20th of November, at six o'clock precisely, the plate was
+removed; the friends of J.T. Maston were rather uneasy. But they were
+promptly reassured by hearing a joyful voice shouting a formidable
+hurrah!
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club appeared on the summit of the cone in a
+triumphant attitude.
+
+He had grown fat!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+On the 20th of October of the preceding year, after the subscription
+list was closed, the president of the Gun Club had credited the
+Cambridge Observatory with the sums necessary for the construction of a
+vast optical instrument. This telescope was to be powerful enough to
+render visible on the surface of the moon an object being at least nine
+feet wide.
+
+There is an important difference between a field-glass and a telescope,
+which it is well to recall here. A field-glass is composed of a tube
+which carries at its upper extremity a convex glass called an
+object-glass, and at its lower extremity a second glass called ocular,
+to which the eye of the observer is applied. The rays from the luminous
+object traverse the first glass, and by refraction form an image upside
+down at its focus. This image is looked at with the ocular, which
+magnifies it. The tube of the field-glass is, therefore, closed at each
+extremity by the object and the ocular glasses.
+
+The telescope, on the contrary, is open at its upper extremity. The rays
+from the object observed penetrate freely into it, and strike a concave
+metallic mirror--that is to say, they are focussed. From thence their
+reflected rays meet with a little mirror, which sends them back to the
+ocular in such a way as to magnify the image produced.
+
+Thus in field-glasses refraction plays the principal part, and
+reflection does in the telescope. Hence the name of refractors given to
+the former, and reflectors given to the latter. All the difficulty in
+the execution of these optical instruments lies in the making of the
+object-glass, whether they be made of glass or metallic mirrors.
+
+Still at the epoch when the Gun Club made its great experiment these
+instruments were singularly perfected and gave magnificent results. The
+time was far distant when Galileo observed the stars with his poor
+glass, which magnified seven times at the most. Since the 16th century
+optical instruments had widened and lengthened in considerable
+proportions, and they allowed the stellar spaces to be gauged to a depth
+unknown before. Amongst the refracting instruments at work at that
+period were the glass of the Poulkowa Observatory in Russia, the
+object-glass of which measured 15 inches in width, that of the French
+optician Lerebours, furnished with an object-glass equally large, and
+lastly that of the Cambridge Observatory, furnished with an object-glass
+19 inches in diameter.
+
+Amongst telescopes, two were known of remarkable power and gigantic
+dimensions. The first, constructed by Herschel, was 36 feet in length,
+and had an object-glass of 4 feet 6 inches; it magnified 6,000 times;
+the second, raised in Ireland, at Birrcastle, in Parsonstown Park,
+belonged to Lord Rosse; the length of its tube was 48 feet and the width
+of its mirror 6 feet; it magnified 6,400 times, and it had required an
+immense erection of masonry on which to place the apparatus necessary
+for working the instrument, which weighed 12-1/2 tons.
+
+But it will be seen that notwithstanding these colossal dimensions the
+magnifying power obtained did not exceed 6,000 times in round numbers;
+now that power would only bring the moon within 39 miles, and would only
+allow objects 60 feet in diameter to be perceived unless these objects
+were very elongated.
+
+Now in space they had to deal with a projectile 9 feet wide and 15 long,
+so the moon had to be brought within five miles at least, and for that a
+magnifying power of 48,000 times was necessary.
+
+Such was the problem propounded to the Cambridge Observatory. They were
+not to be stopped by financial difficulties, so there only remained
+material difficulties.
+
+First of all they had to choose between telescopes and field-glasses.
+The latter had some advantages. With equal object-glasses they have a
+greater magnifying power, because the luminous rays that traverse the
+glasses lose less by absorption than the reflection on the metallic
+mirror of telescopes; but the thickness that can be given to glass is
+limited, for too thick it does not allow the luminous rays to pass.
+Besides, the construction of these vast glasses is excessively
+difficult, and demands a considerable time, measured by years.
+
+Therefore, although images are better given by glasses, an inappreciable
+advantage when the question is to observe the moon, the light of which
+is simply reflected they decided to employ the telescope, which is
+prompter in execution and is capable of a greater magnifying power; only
+as the luminous rays lose much of their intensity by traversing the
+atmosphere, the Gun Club resolved to set up the instrument on one of the
+highest mountains of the Union, which would diminish the depth of the
+aërial strata.
+
+In telescopes it has been seen that the glass placed at the observer's
+eye produces the magnifying power, and the object-glass which bears this
+power the best is the one that has the largest diameter and the greatest
+focal distance. In order to magnify 48,000 times it must be much larger
+than those of Herschel and Lord Rosse. There lay the difficulty, for the
+casting of these mirrors is a very delicate operation.
+
+Happily, some years before a _savant_ of the _Institut de France_, Léon
+Foucault, had just invented means by which the polishing of
+object-glasses became very prompt and easy by replacing the metallic
+mirror by taking a piece of glass the size required and plating it.
+
+It was to be fixed according to the method invented by Herschel for
+telescopes. In the great instrument of the astronomer at Slough, the
+image of objects reflected by the mirror inclined at the bottom of the
+tube was formed at the other extremity where the eyeglass was placed.
+Thus the observer, instead of being placed at the lower end of the tube,
+was hoisted to the upper end, and there with his eyeglass he looked down
+into the enormous cylinder. This combination had the advantage of doing
+away with the little mirror destined to send back the image to the
+ocular glass, which thus only reflected once instead of twice; therefore
+there were fewer luminous rays extinguished, the image was less feeble,
+and more light was obtained, a precious advantage in the observation
+that was to be made.
+
+This being resolved upon, the work was begun. According to the
+calculations of the Cambridge Observatory staff, the tube of the new
+reflector was to be 280 feet long and its mirror 16 feet in diameter.
+Although it was so colossal it was not comparable to the telescope
+10,000 feet long which the astronomer Hooke proposed to construct some
+years ago. Nevertheless the setting up of such an apparatus presented
+great difficulties.
+
+The question of its site was promptly settled. It must be upon a high
+mountain, and high mountains are not numerous in the States.
+
+In fact, the orographical system of this great country only contains two
+chains of average height, amongst which flows the magnificent
+Mississippi, which the Americans would call the "king of rivers" if they
+admitted any royalty whatever.
+
+On the east rise the Apalachians, the very highest point of which, in
+New Hampshire, does not exceed the very moderate altitude of 5,600 feet.
+
+On the west are, however, the Rocky Mountains, that immense chain which
+begins at the Straits of Magellan, follows the west coast of South
+America under the name of the Andes or Cordilleras, crosses the Isthmus
+of Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to the very shores of
+the Polar Sea.
+
+These mountains are not very high, and the Alps or Himalayas would look
+down upon them with disdain. In fact, their highest summit is only
+10,701 feet high, whilst Mont Blanc is 14,439, and the highest summit of
+the Himalayas is 26,776 feet above the level of the sea.
+
+But as the Gun Club wished that its telescope, as well as the Columbiad,
+should be set up in the States of the Union, they were obliged to be
+content with the Rocky Mountains, and all the necessary material was
+sent to the summit of Long's Peak in the territory of Missouri.
+
+Neither pen nor language could relate the difficulties of every kind
+that the American engineers had to overcome, and the prodigies of
+audacity and skill that they accomplished. Enormous stones, massive
+pieces of wrought-iron, heavy corner-clamps, and huge portions of
+cylinder had to be raised with an object-glass, weighing nearly 30,000
+lbs., above the line of perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in
+height, after crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful
+rapids far from all centres of population, and in the midst of savage
+regions in which every detail of life becomes an insoluble problem, and,
+nevertheless, American genius triumphed over all these obstacles. Less
+than a year after beginning the works in the last days of the month of
+September, the gigantic reflector rose in the air to a height of 280
+feet. It was hung from an enormous iron scaffolding; an ingenious
+arrangement allowed it to be easily moved towards every point of the
+sky, and to follow the stars from one horizon to the other during their
+journey across space.
+
+It had cost more than 400,000 dollars. The first time it was pointed at
+the moon the observers felt both curious and uneasy. What would they
+discover in the field of this telescope which magnified objects 48,000
+times? Populations, flocks of lunar animals, towns, lakes, and oceans?
+No, nothing that science was not already acquainted with, and upon all
+points of her disc the volcanic nature of the moon could be determined
+with absolute precision.
+
+But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before being used by the Gun
+Club, rendered immense services to astronomy. Thanks to its power of
+penetration, the depths of the sky were explored to their utmost limits,
+the apparent diameter of a great number of stars could be rigorously
+measured, and Mr. Clarke, of the Cambridge staff, resolved the Crab
+nebula in Taurus, which Lord Rosse's reflector had never been able to
+do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+FINAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It was the 22nd of November. The supreme departure was to take place ten
+days later. One operation still remained to bring it to a happy
+termination, a delicate and perilous operation exacting infinite
+precautions, and against the success of which Captain Nicholl had laid
+his third bet. It was, in fact, nothing less than the loading of the gun
+and the introduction into it of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. Nicholl had
+thought, not without reason, perhaps, that the handling of so large a
+quantity of pyroxyle would cause grave catastrophes, and that in any
+case this eminently explosive mass would ignite of itself under the
+pressure of the projectile.
+
+There were also grave dangers increased by the carelessness of the
+Americans, who, during the Federal war, used to load their cannon cigar
+in mouth. But Barbicane had set his heart on succeeding, and did not
+mean to founder in port; he therefore chose his best workmen, made them
+work under his superintendence, and by dint of prudence and precautions
+he managed to put all the chances of success on his side.
+
+First he took care not to bring all his charge at once to the inclosure
+of Stony Hill. He had it brought little by little carefully packed in
+sealed cases. The 400,000 lbs. of pyroxyle had been divided into packets
+of 500 lbs., which made 800 large cartridges made carefully by the
+cleverest artisans of Pensacola. Each case contained ten, and they
+arrived one after the other by the railroad of Tampa Town; by that means
+there were never more than 500 lbs. of pyroxyle at once in the
+inclosure. As soon as it arrived each case was unloaded by workmen
+walking barefoot, and each cartridge transported to the orifice of the
+Columbiad, into which they lowered them by means of cranes worked by the
+men. Every steam-engine had been excluded, and the least fires
+extinguished for two miles round. Even in November it was necessary to
+preserve this gun-cotton from the ardour of the sun. So they worked at
+night by light produced in a vacuum by means of Rühmkorff's apparatus,
+which threw an artificial brightness into the depths of the Columbiad.
+There the cartridges were arranged with the utmost regularity, fastened
+together by a wire destined to communicate the electric spark to them
+all simultaneously.
+
+In fact, it was by means of electricity that fire was to be set to this
+mass of gun-cotton. All these single wires, surrounded by isolating
+material, were rolled into a single one at a narrow hole pierced at the
+height the projectile was to be placed; there they crossed the thick
+metal wall and came up to the surface by one of the vent-holes in the
+masonry made on purpose. Once arrived at the summit of Stony Hill, the
+wire supported on poles for a distance of two miles met a powerful pile
+of Bunsen passing through a non-conducting apparatus. It would,
+therefore, be enough to press with the finger the knob of the apparatus
+for the electric current to be at once established, and to set fire to
+the 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. It is hardly necessary to say that this
+was only to be done at the last moment.
+
+On the 28th of November the 800 cartridges were placed at the bottom of
+the Columbiad. That part of the operation had succeeded. But what worry,
+anxiety, and struggles President Barbicane had to undergo! In vain had
+he forbidden entrance to Stony Hill; every day curious sightseers
+climbed over the palisading, and some, pushing imprudence to folly, came
+and smoked amongst the bales of gun-cotton. Barbicane put himself into
+daily rages. J.T. Maston seconded him to the best of his ability,
+chasing the intruders away and picking up the still-lighted cigar-ends
+which the Yankees threw about--a rude task, for more than 300,000 people
+pressed round the palisades. Michel Ardan had offered himself to escort
+the cases to the mouth of the gun, but having caught him with a cigar in
+his mouth whilst he drove out the intruders to whom he was giving this
+unfortunate example, the president of the Gun Club saw that he could not
+depend upon this intrepid smoker, and was obliged to have him specially
+watched.
+
+At last, there being a Providence even for artillerymen, nothing blew
+up, and the loading was happily terminated. The third bet of Captain
+Nicholl was therefore much imperilled. There still remained the work of
+introducing the projectile into the Columbiad and placing it on the
+thick bed of gun-cotton.
+
+But before beginning this operation the objects necessary for the
+journey were placed with order in the waggon-compartment. There were a
+good many of them, and if they had allowed Michel Ardan to do as he
+pleased he would soon have filled up all the space reserved for the
+travellers. No one can imagine all that the amiable Frenchman wished to
+carry to the moon--a heap of useless trifles. But Barbicane interfered,
+and refused all but the strictly necessary.
+
+Several thermometers, barometers, and telescopes were placed in the
+instrument-case.
+
+The travellers were desirous of examining the moon during their transit,
+and in order to facilitate the survey of this new world they took an
+excellent map by Boeer and Moedler, the _Mappa Selenographica_,
+published in four plates, which is justly looked upon as a masterpiece
+of patience and observation. It represented with scrupulous exactitude
+the slightest details of that portion of the moon turned towards the
+earth. Mountains, valleys, craters, peaks, watersheds, were depicted on
+it in their exact dimensions, faithful positions, and names, from Mounts
+Doerfel and Leibnitz, whose highest summits rise on the eastern side of
+the disc, to the _Mare Frigoris_, which extends into the North Polar
+regions.
+
+It was, therefore, a precious document for the travellers, for they
+could study the country before setting foot upon it.
+
+They took also three rifles and three fowling-pieces with powder and
+shot in great quantity.
+
+"We do not know with whom we may have to deal," said Michel Ardan. "Both
+men and beasts may be displeased at our visit; we must, therefore, take
+our precautions."
+
+The instruments of personal defence were accompanied by pickaxes,
+spades, saws, and other indispensable tools, without mentioning garments
+suitable to every temperature, from the cold of the polar regions to the
+heat of the torrid zone.
+
+Michel Ardan would have liked to take a certain number of animals of
+different sorts, not male and female of every species, as he did not see
+the necessity of acclimatising serpents, tigers, alligators, or any
+other noxious beasts in the moon.
+
+"No," said he to Barbicane, "but some useful animals, ox or cow, ass or
+horse, would look well in the landscape and be of great use."
+
+"I agree with you, my dear Ardan," answered the president of the Gun
+Club; "but our projectile is not Noah's Ark. It differs both in
+dimensions and object, so let us remain in the bounds of possibility."
+
+At last after long discussions it was agreed that the travellers should
+be content to take with them an excellent sporting dog belonging to
+Nicholl and a vigorous Newfoundland of prodigious strength. Several
+cases of the most useful seeds were included amongst the indispensable
+objects. If they had allowed him, Michel Ardan would have taken several
+sacks of earth to sow them in. Any way he took a dozen little trees,
+which were carefully enveloped in straw and placed in a corner of the
+projectile.
+
+Then remained the important question of provisions, for they were
+obliged to provide against finding the moon absolutely barren. Barbicane
+managed so well that he took enough for a year. But it must be added, to
+prevent astonishment, that these provisions consisted of meat and
+vegetable compressed to their smallest volume by hydraulic pressure, and
+included a great quantity of nutritive elements; there was not much
+variety, but it would not do to be too particular in such an expedition.
+There was also about fifty gallons of brandy and water for two months
+only, for, according to the latest observations of astronomers, no one
+doubted the presence of a large quantity of water in the moon. As to
+provisions, it would have been insane to believe that the inhabitants of
+the earth would not find food up there. Michel Ardan had no doubt about
+it. If he had he would not have gone.
+
+"Besides," said he one day to his friends, "we shall not be completely
+abandoned by our friends on earth, and they will take care not to forget
+us."
+
+"No, certainly," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing more simple," answered Ardan. "Will not our Columbiad be still
+there? Well, then, every time that the moon is in favourable conditions
+of zenith, if not of perigee--that is to say, about once a year--could
+they not send us a projectile loaded with provisions which we should
+expect by a fixed date?"
+
+"Hurrah!" cried J.T. Maston. "That is not at all a bad idea. Certainly
+we will not forget you."
+
+"I depend upon you. Thus you see we shall have news regularly from the
+globe, and for our part we shall be very awkward if we do not find means
+to communicate with our good friends on earth."
+
+These words inspired such confidence that Michel Ardan with his superb
+assurance would have carried the whole Gun Club with him. What he said
+seemed simple, elementary, and sure of success, and it would have been
+sordid attachment to this earth to hesitate to follow the three
+travellers upon their lunar expedition.
+
+When the different objects were placed in the projectile the water was
+introduced between the partitions and the gas for lighting purposes laid
+in. Barbicane took enough chlorate of potash and caustic potash for two
+months, as he feared unforeseen delay. An extremely ingenious machine
+working automatically put the elements for good air in motion. The
+projectile, therefore, was ready, and the only thing left to do was to
+lower it into the gun, an operation full of perils and difficulty.
+
+The enormous projectile was taken to the summit of Stony Hill. There
+enormous cranes seized it and held it suspended over the metal well.
+
+This was an anxious moment. If the chains were to break under the
+enormous weight the fall of such a mass would inevitably ignite the
+gun-cotton.
+
+Happily nothing of the sort happened, and a few hours afterwards the
+projectile-compartment rested on its pyroxyle bed, a veritable
+fulminating pillow. The only effect of its pressure was to ram the
+charge of the gun more strongly.
+
+"I have lost," said the captain, handing the sum of 3,000 dollars to
+President Barbicane.
+
+Barbicane did not wish to receive this money from his travelling
+companion, but he was obliged to give way to Nicholl, who wished to
+fulfil all his engagements before leaving the earth.
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "there is but one thing I wish for you now,
+captain."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is that you may lose your other two wagers. By that means we shall
+be sure not to be stopped on the road."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+FIRE!
+
+
+The 1st of December came, the fatal day, for if the projectile did not
+start that very evening at 10h. 46m. and 40s. p.m., more than eighteen
+years would elapse before the moon would present the same simultaneous
+conditions of zenith and perigee.
+
+The weather was magnificent; notwithstanding the approach of winter the
+sun shone brightly and bathed in its radiance that earth which three of
+its inhabitants were about to leave for a new world.
+
+How many people slept badly during the night that preceded the
+ardently-longed-for day! How many breasts were oppressed with the heavy
+burden of waiting! All hearts beat with anxiety except only the heart of
+Michel Ardan. This impassible person went and came in his usual
+business-like way, but nothing in him denoted any unusual preoccupation.
+His sleep had been peaceful--it was the sleep of Turenne upon a
+gun-carriage the night before the battle.
+
+From early dawn an innumerable crowd covered the prairie, which extended
+as far as the eye could reach round Stony Hill. Every quarter of an hour
+the railroad of Tampa brought fresh sightseers. According to the _Tampa
+Town Observer_, five millions of spectators were that day upon Floridian
+soil.
+
+The greater part of this crowd had been living in tents round the
+inclosure, and laid the foundations of a town which has since been
+called "Ardan's Town." The ground bristled with huts, cabins, and tents,
+and these ephemeral habitations sheltered a population numerous enough
+to rival the largest cities of Europe.
+
+Every nation upon earth was represented; every language was spoken at
+the same time. It was like the confusion of tongues at the Tower of
+Babel. There the different classes of American society mixed in absolute
+equality. Bankers, cultivators, sailors, agents, merchants,
+cotton-planters, and magistrates elbowed each other with primitive ease.
+The creoles of Louisiana fraternised with the farmers of Indiana; the
+gentlemen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the elegant and haughty Virginians,
+joked with the half-savage trappers of the Lakes and the butchers of
+Cincinnati. They appeared in broad-brimmed white beavers and Panamas,
+blue cotton trousers, from the Opelousa manufactories, draped in elegant
+blouses of écru cloth, in boots of brilliant colours, and extravagant
+shirt-frills; upon shirt-fronts, cuffs, cravats, on their ten fingers,
+even in their ears, an assortment of rings, pins, diamonds, chains,
+buckles, and trinkets, the cost of which equalled the bad taste. Wife,
+children, servants, in no less rich dress, accompanied, followed,
+preceded, and surrounded their husbands, fathers, and masters, who
+resembled the patriarchs amidst their innumerable families.
+
+At meal-times it was a sight to see all these people devour the dishes
+peculiar to the Southern States, and eat, with an appetite menacing to
+the provisioning of Florida, the food that would be repugnant to a
+European stomach, such as fricasseed frogs, monkey-flesh, fish-chowder,
+underdone opossum, and raccoon steaks.
+
+The liquors that accompanied this indigestible food were numerous.
+Shouts and vociferations to buy resounded through the bar-rooms or
+taverns, decorated with glasses, tankards, decanters, and bottles of
+marvellous shapes, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws.
+
+"Mint-julep!" roars out one of the salesmen.
+
+"Claret sangaree!" shouts another through his nose.
+
+"Gin-sling!" shouts one.
+
+"Cocktail! Brandy-smash!" cries another.
+
+"Who'll buy real mint-julep in the latest style?" shouted these skilful
+salesmen, rapidly passing from one glass to another the sugar, lemon,
+green mint, crushed ice, water, cognac, and fresh pine-apple which
+compose this refreshing drink.
+
+Generally these sounds, addressed to throats made thirsty by the spices
+they consumed, mingled into one deafening roar. But on this 1st of
+December these cries were rare. No one thought of eating and drinking,
+and at 4 p.m. there were many spectators in the crowd who had not taken
+their customary lunch! A much more significant fact, even the national
+passion for gaming was allayed by the general emotion. Thimbles,
+skittles, and cards were left in their wrappings, and testified that the
+great event of the day absorbed all attention.
+
+Until nightfall a dull, noiseless agitation like that which precedes
+great catastrophes ran through the anxious crowd. An indescribable
+uneasiness oppressed all minds, and stopped the beating of all hearts.
+Every one wished it over.
+
+However, about seven o'clock this heavy silence was suddenly broken. The
+moon rose above the horizon. Several millions of hurrahs saluted her
+apparition. She was punctual to the appointment. Shouts of welcome broke
+from all parts, whilst the blonde Phoebe shone peacefully in a clear
+sky, and caressed the enraptured crowd with her most affectionate rays.
+
+At that moment the three intrepid travellers appeared. When they
+appeared the cries redoubled in intensity. Unanimously, instantaneously,
+the national song of the United States escaped from all the spectators,
+and "Yankee Doodle," sung by 5,000,000 of hearty throats, rose like a
+roaring tempest to the farthest limits of the atmosphere.
+
+Then, after this irresistible outburst, the hymn was ended, the last
+harmonies died away by degrees, and a silent murmur floated over the
+profoundly-excited crowd.
+
+In the meantime the Frenchman and the two Americans had stepped into the
+inclosure round which the crowd was pressing. They were accompanied by
+the members of the Gun Club, and deputations sent by the European
+observatories. Barbicane was coolly and calmly giving his last orders.
+Nicholl, with compressed lips and hands crossed behind his back, walked
+with a firm and measured step. Michel Ardan, always at his ease, clothed
+in a perfect travelling suit, with leather gaiters on his legs, pouch at
+his side, in vast garment of maroon velvet, a cigar in his mouth,
+distributed shakes of the hand with princely prodigality. He was full of
+inexhaustible gaiety, laughing, joking, playing pranks upon the worthy
+J.T. Maston, and was, in a word, "French," and, what is worse,
+"Parisian," till the last second.
+
+Ten o'clock struck. The moment had come to take their places in the
+projectile; the necessary mechanism for the descent the door-plate to
+screw down, the removal of the cranes and scaffolding hung over the
+mouth of the Columbiad, took some time.
+
+Barbicane had set his chronometer to the tenth of a second by that of
+the engineer Murchison, who was entrusted with setting fire to the
+powder by means of the electric spark; the travellers shut up in the
+projectile could thus watch the impassive needle which was going to mark
+the precise instant of their departure.
+
+The moment for saying farewell had come. The scene was touching; in
+spite of his gaiety Michel Ardan felt touched. J.T. Maston had found
+under his dry eyelids an ancient tear that he had, doubtless, kept for
+the occasion. He shed it upon the forehead of his dear president.
+
+"Suppose I go too?" said he. "There is still time!"
+
+"Impossible, old fellow," answered Barbicane.
+
+A few moments later the three travelling companions were installed in
+the projectile, and had screwed down the door-plate, and the mouth of
+the Columbiad, entirely liberated, rose freely towards the sky.
+
+Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan were definitively walled up in
+their metal vehicle.
+
+Who could predict the universal emotion then at its paroxysm?
+
+The moon was rising in a firmament of limpid purity, outshining on her
+passage the twinkling fire of the stars; she passed over the
+constellation of the Twins, and was now nearly halfway between the
+horizon and the zenith.
+
+A frightful silence hung over all that scene. There was not a breath of
+wind on the earth! Not a sound of breathing from the crowd! Hearts dared
+not beat. Every eye was fixed on the gaping mouth of the Columbiad.
+
+Murchison watched the needle of his chronometer. Hardly forty seconds
+had to elapse before the moment of departure struck, and each one lasted
+a century!
+
+At the twentieth there was a universal shudder, and the thought occurred
+to all the crowd that the audacious travellers shut up in the vehicle
+were likewise counting these terrible seconds! Some isolated cries were
+heard.
+
+"Thirty-five!--thirty-six!--thirty-seven!--thirty--eight!--thirty-nine!
+--forty! Fire!!!"
+
+Murchison immediately pressed his finger upon the electric knob and
+hurled the electric spark into the depths of the Columbiad.
+
+A fearful, unheard-of, superhuman report, of which nothing could give
+an idea, not even thunder or the eruption of volcanoes, was immediately
+produced. An immense spout of fire sprang up from the bowels of the
+earth as if from a crater. The soil heaved and very few persons caught a
+glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air amidst the
+flaming smoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+CLOUDY WEATHER.
+
+
+At the moment when the pyramid of flame rose to a prodigious height in
+the air it lighted up the whole of Florida, and for an incalculable
+moment day was substituted for night over a considerable extent of
+country. This immense column of fire was perceived for a hundred miles
+out at sea, from the Gulf and from the Atlantic, and more than one
+ship's captain noted the apparition of this gigantic meteor in his
+log-book.
+
+The discharge of the Columbiad was accompanied by a veritable
+earthquake. Florida was shaken to its very depths. The gases of the
+powder, expanded by heat, forced back the atmospheric strata with
+tremendous violence, passing like a waterspout through the air.
+
+Not one spectator remained on his legs; men, women, and children were
+thrown down like ears of wheat in a storm; there was a terrible tumult,
+and a large number of people were seriously injured. J.T. Maston, who
+had very imprudently kept to the fore, was thrown twenty yards backwards
+like a bullet over the heads of his fellow-citizens. Three hundred
+thousand people were temporarily deafened and as though thunderstruck.
+
+The atmospheric current, after throwing over huts and cabins, uprooting
+trees within a radius of twenty miles, throwing the trains off the
+railway as far as Tampa, burst upon the town like an avalanche and
+destroyed a hundred houses, amongst others the church of St. Mary and
+the new edifice of the Exchange. Some of the vessels in the port were
+run against each other and sunk, and ten of them were stranded high and
+dry after breaking their chains like threads of cotton.
+
+But the circle of these devastations extended farther still, and beyond
+the limits of the United States. The recoil, aided by the westerly
+winds, was felt on the Atlantic at more than 300 miles from the American
+shores. An unexpected tempest, which even Admiral Fitzroy could not have
+foreseen, broke upon the ships with unheard-of violence. Several
+vessels, seized by a sort of whirlwind before they had time to furl
+their sails, were sunk, amongst others the _Childe Harold_, of
+Liverpool, a regrettable catastrophe which was the object of lively
+recriminations.
+
+Lastly--although the fact is not warranted except by the affirmation of
+a few natives--half-an-hour after the departure of the projectile the
+inhabitants of Sierra-Leone pretended that they heard a dull noise, the
+last displacement of the sonorous waves, which, after crossing the
+Atlantic, died away on the African coast.
+
+But to return to Florida. The tumult once lessened, the wounded and
+deaf--in short, all the crowd--rose and shouted in a sort of frenzy,
+"Hurrah for Ardan! Hurrah for Barbicane! Hurrah for Nicholl!" Several
+millions of men, nose in air, armed with telescopes and every species of
+field-glass, looked into space, forgetting contusions and feelings, in
+order to look at the projectile. But they sought in vain; it was not to
+be seen, and they resolved to await the telegrams from Long's Peak. The
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, M. Belfast, was at his post in
+the Rocky Mountains, and it was to this skilful and persevering
+astronomer that the observations had been entrusted.
+
+But an unforeseen phenomenon, against which nothing could be done, soon
+came to put public impatience to a rude test.
+
+The weather, so fine before, suddenly changed; the sky became covered
+with clouds. It could not be otherwise after so great a displacement of
+the atmospheric strata and the dispersion of the enormous quantity of
+gases from the combustion of 200,000 lbs. of pyroxyle. All natural order
+had been disturbed. There is nothing astonishing in that, for in
+sea-fights it has been noticed that the state of the atmosphere has been
+suddenly changed by the artillery discharge.
+
+The next day the sun rose upon an horizon covered with thick clouds, a
+heavy and an impenetrable curtain hung between earth and sky, and which
+unfortunately extended as far as the regions of the Rocky Mountains. It
+was a fatality. A concert of complaints rose from all parts of the
+globe. But Nature took no notice, and as men had chosen to disturb the
+atmosphere with their gun, they must submit to the consequences.
+
+During this first day every one tried to pierce the thick veil of
+clouds, but no one was rewarded for the trouble; besides, they were all
+mistaken in supposing they could see it by looking up at the sky, for on
+account of the diurnal movement of the globe the projectile was then, of
+course, shooting past the line of the antipodes.
+
+However that might be, when night again enveloped the earth--a dark,
+impenetrable night--it was impossible to see the moon above the horizon;
+it might have been thought that she was hiding on purpose from the bold
+beings who had shot at her. No observation was, therefore, possible, and
+the despatches from Long's Peak confirmed the disastrous intelligence.
+
+However, if the experiment had succeeded, the travellers, who had
+started on the 1st of December, at 10h. 46m. 40s. p.m., were due at
+their destination on the 4th at midnight; so that as up to that time it
+would, after all, have been difficult to observe a body so small, people
+waited with all the patience they could muster.
+
+On the 4th of December, from 8 p.m. till midnight, it would have been
+possible to follow the trace of the projectile, which would have
+appeared like a black speck on the shining disc of the moon. But the
+weather remained imperturbably cloudy, and exasperated the public, who
+swore at the moon for not showing herself. _Sic transit gloria mundi_!
+
+J.T. Maston, in despair, set out for Long's Peak. He wished to make an
+observation himself. He did not doubt that his friends had arrived at
+the goal of their journey. No one had heard that the projectile had
+fallen upon any continent or island upon earth, and J.T. Maston did not
+admit for a moment that it could have fallen into any of the oceans with
+which the earth is three parts covered.
+
+On the 5th the same weather. The large telescopes of the old
+world--those of Herschel, Rosse, and Foucault--were invariably fixed
+upon the Queen of Night, for the weather was magnificent in Europe, but
+the relative weakness of these instruments prevented any useful
+observation.
+
+On the 6th the same weather reigned. Impatience devoured three parts of
+the globe. The most insane means were proposed for dissipating the
+clouds accumulated in the air.
+
+On the 7th the sky seemed to clear a little. Hopes revived but did not
+last long, and in the evening thick clouds defended the starry vault
+against all eyes.
+
+Things now became grave. In fact, on the 11th, at 9.11 a.m., the moon
+would enter her last quarter. After this delay she would decline every
+day, and even if the sky should clear the chances of observation would
+be considerably lessened--in fact, the moon would then show only a
+constantly-decreasing portion of her disc, and would end by becoming
+new--that is to say, she would rise and set with the sun, whose rays
+would make her quite invisible. They would, therefore, be obliged to
+wait till the 3rd of January, at 12.43 p.m., till she would be full
+again and ready for observation.
+
+The newspapers published these reflections with a thousand commentaries,
+and did not fail to tell the public that it must arm itself with angelic
+patience.
+
+On the 8th no change. On the 9th the sun appeared for a moment, as if to
+jeer at the Americans. It was received with hisses, and wounded,
+doubtless, by such a reception, it was very miserly of its rays.
+
+On the 10th no change. J.T. Maston nearly went mad, and fears were
+entertained for his brain until then so well preserved in its
+gutta-percha cranium.
+
+But on the 11th one of those frightful tempests peculiar to tropical
+regions was let loose in the atmosphere. Terrific east winds swept away
+the clouds which had been so long there, and in the evening the
+half-disc of the moon rode majestically amidst the limpid constellations
+of the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A NEW STAR.
+
+
+That same night the news so impatiently expected burst like a
+thunderbolt over the United States of the Union, and thence darting
+across the Atlantic it ran along all the telegraphic wires of the globe.
+The projectile had been perceived, thanks to the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak.
+
+The following is the notice drawn up by the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory. It resumes the scientific conclusion of the great
+experiment made by the Gun Club:--
+
+"Long's Peak, December 12th.
+
+"To the Staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+"The projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill was perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston on the 12th of December at 8.47 p.m.,
+the moon having entered her last quarter.
+
+"The projectile has not reached its goal. It has deviated to the side,
+but near enough to be detained by lunar attraction.
+
+"There its rectilinear movement changed to a circular one of extreme
+velocity, and it has been drawn round the moon in an elliptical orbit,
+and has become her satellite.
+
+"We have not yet been able to determine the elements of this new star.
+Neither its speed of translation or rotation is known. The distance
+which separates it from the surface of the moon may be estimated at
+about 2,833 miles.
+
+"Now two hypotheses may be taken into consideration as to a modification
+in this state of things:--
+
+"Either the attraction of the moon will end by drawing it towards her,
+and the travellers will reach the goal of their journey,
+
+"Or the projectile, maintained in an immutable orbit, will gravitate
+round the lunar disc till the end of time.
+
+"Observation will settle this point some day, but until now the
+experiment of the Gun Club has had no other result than that of
+providing our solar system with a new star.
+
+"J BELFAST."
+
+What discussions this unexpected _dénouement_ gave rise to! What a
+situation full of mystery the future reserved for the investigations of
+science! Thanks to the courage and devotion of three men, this
+enterprise of sending a bullet to the moon, futile enough in appearance,
+had just had an immense result, the consequences of which are
+incalculable. The travellers imprisoned in a new satellite, if they have
+not attained their end, form at least part of the lunar world; they
+gravitate around the Queen of Night, and for the first time human eyes
+can penetrate all her mysteries. The names of Nicholl, Barbicane, and
+Michel Ardan would be for ever celebrated in astronomical annals, for
+these bold explorers, desirous of widening the circle of human
+knowledge, had audaciously rushed into space, and had risked their lives
+in the strangest experiment of modern times.
+
+The notice from Long's Peak once made known, there spread throughout the
+universe a feeling of surprise and horror. Was it possible to go to the
+aid of these bold inhabitants of the earth? Certainly not, for they had
+put themselves outside of the pale of humanity by crossing the limits
+imposed by the Creator on His terrestrial creatures. They could procure
+themselves air for two months; they had provisions for one year; but
+after? The hardest hearts palpitated at this terrible question.
+
+One man alone would not admit that the situation was desperate. One
+alone had confidence, and it was their friend--devoted, audacious, and
+resolute as they--the brave J.T. Maston.
+
+He resolved not to lose sight of them. His domicile was henceforth the
+post of Long's Peak--his horizon the immense reflector. As soon as the
+moon rose above the horizon he immediately framed her in the field of
+his telescope; he did not lose sight of her for an instant, and
+assiduously followed her across the stellar spaces; he watched with
+eternal patience the passage of the projectile over her disc of silver,
+and in reality the worthy man remained in perpetual communication with
+his three friends, whom he did not despair of seeing again one day.
+
+"We will correspond with them," said he to any one who would listen, "as
+soon as circumstances will allow. We shall have news from them, and they
+will have news from us. Besides, I know them--they are ingenious men.
+Those three carry with them into space all the resources of art,
+science, and industry. With those everything can be accomplished, and
+you will see that they will get out of the difficulty."
+
+(FOR SEQUEL, SEE "AROUND THE MOON.")
+
+[Illustration: "They watched thus through the lateral windows."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
+
+CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF THIS WORK TO SERVE AS
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND.
+
+
+During the course of the year 186---- the entire world was singularly
+excited by a scientific experiment without precedent in the annals of
+science. The members of the Gun Club, a circle of artillerymen
+established at Baltimore after the American war, had the idea of putting
+themselves in communication with the moon--yes, with the moon--by
+sending a bullet to her. Their president, Barbicane, the promoter of the
+enterprise, having consulted the astronomers of the Cambridge
+Observatory on this subject, took all the precautions necessary for the
+success of the extraordinary enterprise, declared practicable by the
+majority of competent people. After having solicited a public
+subscription which produced nearly 30,000,000 of francs, it began its
+gigantic labours.
+
+According to the plan drawn up by the members of the observatory, the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile was to be set up in some country
+situated between the 0° and 28° of north or south latitude in order to
+aim at the moon at the zenith. The bullet was to be endowed with an
+initial velocity of 12,000 yards a second. Hurled on the 1st of December
+at thirteen minutes and twenty seconds to eleven in the evening, it was
+to get to the moon four days after its departure on the 5th of December
+at midnight precisely, at the very instant she would be at her
+perigee--that is to say, nearest to the earth, or at exactly 86,410
+leagues' distance.
+
+The principal members of the Gun Club, the president, Barbicane, Major
+Elphinstone, the secretary, J.T. Maston, and other _savants_, held
+several meetings, in which the form and composition of the bullet were
+discussed, as well as the disposition and nature of the cannon, and the
+quality and quantity of the powder to be employed. It was decided--1,
+that the projectile should be an obus of aluminium, with a diameter of
+800 inches; its sides were to be 12 inches thick, and it was to weigh
+19,250 lbs.; 2, that the cannon should be a cast-iron Columbiad 900 feet
+long, and should be cast at once in the ground; 3, that the charge
+should consist of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, which, by developing
+6,000,000,000 litres of gas under the projectile, would carry it easily
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+These questions settled, President Barbicane, aided by the engineer,
+Murchison, chose a site in Florida in 27° 7' north lat. and 5° 7' west
+long. It was there that after marvels of labour the Columbiad was cast
+quite successfully.
+
+Things were at that pass when an incident occurred which Increased the
+interest attached to this great enterprise.
+
+A Frenchman, a regular Parisian, an artist as witty as audacious, asked
+leave to shut himself up in the bullet in order to reach the moon and
+make a survey of the terrestrial satellite. This intrepid adventurer's
+name was Michel Ardan. He arrived in America, was received with
+enthusiasm, held meetings, was carried in triumph, reconciled President
+Barbicane to his mortal enemy, Captain Nicholl, and in pledge of the
+reconciliation he persuaded them to embark with him in the projectile.
+
+The proposition was accepted. The form of the bullet was changed. It
+became cylindro-conical. They furnished this species of aërial
+compartment with powerful springs and breakable partitions to break the
+departing shock. It was filled with provisions for one year, water for
+some months, and gas for some days. An automatic apparatus made and gave
+out the air necessary for the respiration of the three travellers. At
+the same time the Gun Club had a gigantic telescope set up on one of the
+highest summits of the Rocky Mountains, through which the projectile
+could be followed during its journey through space. Everything was then
+ready.
+
+On the 30th of November, at the time fixed, amidst an extraordinary
+concourse of spectators, the departure took place, and for the first
+time three human beings left the terrestrial globe for the
+interplanetary regions with almost the certainty of reaching their goal.
+
+These audacious travellers, Michel Ardan, President Barbicane, and
+Captain Nicholl were to accomplish their journey in ninety-seven hours
+thirteen minutes and twenty seconds; consequently they could not reach
+the lunar disc until the 5th of December, at midnight, at the precise
+moment that the moon would be full, and not on the 4th, as some
+wrongly-informed newspapers had given out.
+
+But an unexpected circumstance occurred; the detonation produced by the
+Columbiad had the immediate effect of disturbing the terrestrial
+atmosphere, where an enormous quantity of vapour accumulated. This
+phenomenon excited general indignation, for the moon was hidden during
+several nights from the eyes of her contemplators.
+
+The worthy J.T. Maston, the greatest friend of the three travellers, set
+out for the Rocky Mountains in the company of the Honourable J. Belfast,
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, and reached the station of Long's
+Peak, where the telescope was set up which brought the moon, apparently,
+to within two leagues. The honourable secretary of the Gun Club wished
+to observe for himself the vehicle that contained his audacious friends.
+
+The accumulation of clouds in the atmosphere prevented all observation
+during the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of December. It was even
+thought that no observation could take place before the 3rd of January
+in the following year, for the moon, entering her last quarter on the
+11th, would after that not show enough of her surface to allow the trace
+of the projectile to be followed.
+
+But at last, to the general satisfaction, a strong tempest during the
+night between the 11th and 12th of December cleared the atmosphere, and
+the half-moon was distinctly visible on the dark background of the sky.
+
+That same night a telegram was sent from Long's Peak Station by J.T.
+Maston and Belfast to the staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+This telegram announced that on the 11th of December, at 8.47 p.m., the
+projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill had been perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston, that the bullet had deviated from its
+course through some unknown cause, and had not reached its goal, but had
+gone near enough to be retained by lunar attraction; that its
+rectilinear movement had been changed to a circular one, and that it was
+describing an elliptical orbit round the moon, and had become her
+satellite.
+
+The telegram added that the elements of this new star had not yet been
+calculated--in fact, three observations, taking a star in three
+different positions, are necessary to determine them. Then it stated
+that the distance separating the projectile from the lunar surface
+"might be" estimated at about 2,833 leagues, or 4,500 miles.
+
+It ended with the following double hypothesis:--Either the attraction of
+the moon would end by carrying the day, and the travellers would reach
+their goal; or the projectile, fixed in an immutable orbit, would
+gravitate around the lunar disc to the end of time.
+
+In either of these alternatives what would be the travellers' fate? It
+is true they had provisions enough for some time. But even supposing
+that their bold enterprise were crowned with success, how would they
+return? Could they ever return? Would news of them ever reach the earth?
+These questions, debated upon by the most learned writers of the time,
+intensely interested the public.
+
+A remark may here be made which ought to be meditated upon by too
+impatient observers. When a _savant_ announces a purely speculative
+discovery to the public he cannot act with too much prudence. No one is
+obliged to discover either a comet or a satellite, and those who make a
+mistake in such a case expose themselves justly to public ridicule.
+Therefore it is better to wait; and that is what impatient J.T. Maston
+ought to have done before sending to the world the telegram which,
+according to him, contained the last communication about this
+enterprise.
+
+In fact, the telegram contained errors of two sorts, verified later:--1.
+Errors of observation concerning the distance of the projectile from the
+surface of the moon, for upon the date of the 11th of December it was
+impossible to perceive it, and that which J.T. Maston had seen, or
+thought he saw, could not be the bullet from the Columbiad. 2. A
+theoretic error as to the fate of the said projectile, for making it a
+satellite of the moon was an absolute contradiction of the laws of
+rational mechanics.
+
+One hypothesis only made by the astronomers of Long's Peak might be
+realised, the one that foresaw the case when the travellers--if any yet
+existed--should unite their efforts with the lunar attraction so as to
+reach the surface of the disc.
+
+Now these men, as intelligent as they were bold, had survived the
+terrible shock at departure, and their journey in their bullet-carriage
+will be related in its most dramatic as well as in its most singular
+details. This account will put an end to many illusions and previsions,
+but it will give a just idea of the various circumstances incidental to
+such an enterprise, and will set in relief Barbicane's scientific
+instincts, Nicholl's industrial resources, and the humorous audacity of
+Michel Ardan.
+
+Besides, it will prove that their worthy friend J.T. Maston was losing
+his time when, bending over the gigantic telescope, he watched the
+course of the moon across the planetary regions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+
+When ten o'clock struck, Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl said
+good-bye to the numerous friends they left upon the earth. The two dogs,
+destined to acclimatise the canine race upon the lunar continents, were
+already imprisoned in the projectile. The three travellers approached
+the orifice of the enormous iron tube, and a crane lowered them to the
+conical covering of the bullet.
+
+There an opening made on purpose let them down into the aluminium
+vehicle. The crane's tackling was drawn up outside, and the mouth of the
+Columbiad instantly cleared of its last scaffolding.
+
+As soon as Nicholl and his companions were in the projectile he closed
+the opening by means of a strong plate screwed down inside. Other
+closely-fitting plates covered the lenticular glasses of the skylights.
+The travellers, hermetically inclosed in their metal prison, were in
+profound darkness.
+
+"And now, my dear companions," said Michel Ardan, "let us make ourselves
+at home. I am a domestic man myself, and know how to make the best of
+any lodgings. First let us have a light; gas was not invented for
+moles!"
+
+Saying which the light-hearted fellow struck a match on the sole of his
+boot and then applied it to the burner of the receptacle, in which there
+was enough carbonised hydrogen, stored under strong pressure, for
+lighting and heating the bullet for 144 hours, or six days and six
+nights.
+
+Once the gas lighted, the projectile presented the aspect of a
+comfortable room with padded walls, furnished with circular divans, the
+roof of which was in the shape of a dome.
+
+The objects in it, weapons, instruments, and utensils, were solidly
+fastened to the sides in order to bear the parting shock with impunity.
+Every possible precaution had been taken to insure the success of so
+bold an experiment.
+
+Michel Ardan examined everything, and declared himself quite satisfied
+with his quarters.
+
+"It is a prison," said he, "but a travelling prison, and if I had the
+right to put my nose to the window I would take it on a hundred years'
+lease! You are smiling, Barbicane. You are thinking of something you do
+not communicate. Do you say to yourself that this prison may be our
+coffin? Our coffin let it be; I would not change it for Mahomet's, which
+only hangs in space, and does not move!"
+
+Whilst Michel Ardan was talking thus, Barbicane and Nicholl were making
+their last preparations.
+
+It was 10.20 p.m. by Nicholl's chronometer when the three travellers
+were definitely walled up in their bullet. This chronometer was
+regulated to the tenth of a second by that of the engineer, Murchison.
+Barbicane looked at it.
+
+"My friends," said he, "it is twenty minutes past ten; at thirteen
+minutes to eleven Murchison will set fire to the Columbiad; at that
+minute precisely we shall leave our spheroid. We have, therefore, still
+seven-and-twenty minutes to remain upon earth."
+
+"Twenty-six minutes and thirteen seconds," answered the methodical
+Nicholl.
+
+"Very well!" cried Michel Ardan good-humouredly; "in twenty-six minutes
+lots of things can be done. We can discuss grave moral or political
+questions, and even solve them. Twenty-six minutes well employed are
+worth more than twenty-six years of doing nothing. A few seconds of a
+Pascal or a Newton are more precious than the whole existence of a crowd
+of imbeciles."
+
+"And what do you conclude from that, talker eternal?" asked President
+Barbicane.
+
+"I conclude that we have twenty-six minutes," answered Ardan.
+
+"Twenty-four only," said Nicholl.
+
+"Twenty-four, then, if you like, brave captain," answered Ardan;
+"twenty-four minutes, during which we might investigate--"
+
+"Michel," said Barbicane, "during our journey we shall have plenty of
+time to investigate the deepest questions. Now we must think of
+starting."
+
+"Are we not ready?"
+
+"Certainly. But there are still some precautions to be taken to deaden
+the first shock as much as possible!"
+
+"Have we not water-cushions placed between movable partitions elastic
+enough to protect us sufficiently?"
+
+"I hope so, Michel," answered Barbicane gently; "but I am not quite
+sure!"
+
+"Ah, the joker!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "He hopes! He is not quite
+sure! And he waits till we are encased to make this deplorable
+acknowledgment! I ask to get out."
+
+"By what means?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Well!" said Michel Ardan, "it would be difficult. We are in the train,
+and the guard's whistle will be heard in twenty-four minutes."
+
+"Twenty!" ejaculated Nicholl.
+
+The three travellers looked at one another for a few seconds. Then they
+examined all the objects imprisoned with them.
+
+"Everything is in its place," said Barbicane. "The question now is where
+we can place ourselves so as best to support the departing shock. The
+position we assume must be important too--we must prevent the blood
+rushing too violently to our heads."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," answered Michel Ardan, always ready to suit the action to the
+word, "we will stand on our heads like the clowns at the circus."
+
+"No," said Barbicane; "but let us lie on our sides; we shall thus resist
+the shock better. When the bullet starts it will not much matter whether
+we are inside or in front."
+
+"If it comes to 'not much matter' I am more reassured," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Do you approve of my idea, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Entirely," answered the captain. "Still thirteen minutes and a-half."
+
+"Nicholl is not a man," exclaimed Michel; "he is a chronometer marking
+the seconds, and with eight holes in--"
+
+But his companions were no longer listening to him, and they were making
+their last preparations with all the coolness imaginable. They looked
+like two methodical travellers taking their places in the train and
+making themselves as comfortable as possible. One wonders, indeed, of
+what materials these American hearts are made, to which the approach of
+the most frightful danger does not add a single pulsation.
+
+Three beds, thick and solidly made, had been placed in the projectile.
+Nicholl and Barbicane placed them in the centre of the disc that formed
+the movable flooring. There the three travellers were to lie down a few
+minutes before their departure.
+
+In the meanwhile Ardan, who could not remain quiet, turned round his
+narrow prison like a wild animal in a cage, talking to his friends and
+his dogs, Diana and Satellite, to whom it will be noticed he had some
+time before given these significant names.
+
+"Up, Diana! up, Satellite!" cried he, exciting them. "You are going to
+show to the Selenite dogs how well-behaved the dogs of the earth can be!
+That will do honour to the canine race. If we ever come back here I will
+bring back a cross-breed of 'moon-dogs' that will become all the rage."
+
+"If there are any dogs in the moon," said Barbicane.
+
+"There are some," affirmed Michel Ardan, "the same as there are horses,
+cows, asses, and hens. I wager anything we shall find some hens."
+
+"I bet a hundred dollars we find none," said Nicholl.
+
+"Done, captain," answered Ardan, shaking hands with Nicholl. "But,
+by-the-bye, you have lost three bets with the president, for the funds
+necessary for the enterprise were provided, the casting succeeded, and
+lastly, the Columbiad was loaded without accident--that makes six
+thousand dollars."
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl. "Twenty-three minutes and six seconds to
+eleven."
+
+"I hear, captain. Well, before another quarter of an hour is over you
+will have to make over another nine thousand dollars to the president,
+four thousand because the Columbiad will not burst, and five thousand
+because the bullet will rise higher than six miles into the air."
+
+"I have the dollars," answered Nicholl, striking his coat pocket, "and I
+only want to pay."
+
+"Come, Nicholl, I see you are a man of order, what I never could be; but
+allow me to tell you that your series of bets cannot be very
+advantageous to you."
+
+"Why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because if you win the first the Columbiad will have burst, and the
+bullet with it, and Barbicane will not be there to pay you your
+dollars."
+
+"My wager is deposited in the Baltimore Bank," answered Barbicane
+simply; "and in default of Nicholl it will go to his heirs."
+
+"What practical men you are!" cried Michel Ardan. "I admire you as much
+as I do not understand you."
+
+"Eighteen minutes to eleven," said Nicholl.
+
+"Only five minutes more," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, five short minutes!" replied Michel Ardan. "And we are shut up in
+a bullet at the bottom of a cannon 900 feet long! and under this bullet
+there are 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, worth more than 1,600,000 lbs. of
+ordinary powder! And friend Murchison, with his chronometer in hand and
+his eye fixed on the hand and his finger on the electric knob, is
+counting the seconds to hurl us into the planetary regions."
+
+"Enough, Michel, enough!" said Barbicane in a grave tone. "Let us
+prepare ourselves. A few seconds only separate us from a supreme moment.
+Your hands, my friends."
+
+"Yes," cried Michel Ardan, more moved than he wished to appear.
+
+The three bold companions shook hands.
+
+"God help us!" said the religious president.
+
+Michel Ardan and Nicholl lay down on their beds in the centre of the
+floor.
+
+"Thirteen minutes to eleven," murmured the captain.
+
+Twenty seconds more! Barbicane rapidly put out the gas, and lay down
+beside his companions.
+
+The profound silence was only broken by the chronometer beating the
+seconds.
+
+Suddenly a frightful shock was felt, and the projectile, under the
+impulsion of 6,000,000,000 litres of gas developed by the deflagration
+of the pyroxyle, rose into space.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST HALF-HOUR.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the effect of the frightful shock? Had the
+ingenuity of the constructors of the projectile been attended by a happy
+result? Was the effect of the shock deadened, thanks to the springs, the
+four buffers, the water-cushions, and the movable partitions? Had they
+triumphed over the frightful impulsion of the initial velocity of 11,000
+metres a second? This was evidently the question the thousands of
+witnesses of the exciting scene asked themselves. They forgot the object
+of the journey, and only thought of the travellers! Suppose one of
+them--J.T. Maston, for instance--had been able to get a glimpse of the
+interior of the projectile, what would he have seen?
+
+Nothing then. The obscurity was profound in the bullet. Its
+cylindro-conical sides had resisted perfectly. There was not a break, a
+crack, or a dint in them. The admirable projectile was not hurt by the
+intense deflagration of the powders, instead of being liquefied, as it
+was feared, into a shower of aluminium.
+
+In the interior there was very little disorder on the whole. A few
+objects had been violently hurled up to the roof, but the most important
+did not seem to have suffered from the shock. Their fastenings were
+intact.
+
+On the movable disc, crushed down to the bottom by the smashing of the
+partitions and the escape of the water, three bodies lay motionless. Did
+Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan still breathe? Was the projectile
+nothing but a metal coffin carrying three corpses into space?
+
+A few minutes after the departure of the bullet one of these bodies
+moved, stretched out its arms, lifted up its head, and succeeded in
+getting upon its knees. It was Michel Ardan. He felt himself, uttered a
+sonorous "Hum," then said--
+
+"Michel Ardan, complete. Now for the others!"
+
+The courageous Frenchman wanted to get up, but he could not stand. His
+head vacillated; his blood, violently sent up to his head, blinded him.
+He felt like a drunken man.
+
+"Brrr!" said he. "I feel as though I had been drinking two bottles of
+Corton, only that was not so agreeable to swallow!"
+
+Then passing his hand across his forehead several times, and rubbing his
+temples, he called out in a firm voice--
+
+"Nicholl! Barbicane!"
+
+He waited anxiously. No answer. Not even a sigh to indicate that the
+hearts of his companions still beat. He reiterated his call. Same
+silence.
+
+"The devil!" said he. "They seem as though they had fallen from the
+fifth story upon their heads! Bah!" he added with the imperturbable
+confidence that nothing could shake, "if a Frenchman can get upon his
+knees, two Americans will have no difficulty in getting upon their feet.
+But, first of all, let us have a light on the subject."
+
+Ardan felt life come back to him in streams. His blood became calm, and
+resumed its ordinary circulation. Fresh efforts restored his
+equilibrium. He succeeded in getting up, took a match out of his pocket,
+and struck it; then putting it to the burner he lighted the gas. The
+meter was not in the least damaged. The gas had not escaped. Besides,
+the smell would have betrayed it, and had this been the case, Michel
+Ardan could not with impunity have lighted a match in a medium filled
+with hydrogen. The gas, mixed in the air, would have produced a
+detonating mixture, and an explosion would have finished what a shock
+had perhaps begun.
+
+As soon as the gas was lighted Ardan bent down over his two companions.
+Their bodies were thrown one upon the other, Nicholl on the top,
+Barbicane underneath.
+
+Ardan raised the captain, propped him up against a divan, and rubbed him
+vigorously. This friction, administered skilfully, reanimated Nicholl,
+who opened his eyes, instantly recovered his presence of mind, seized
+Ardan's hand, and then looking round him--
+
+"And Barbicane?" he asked.
+
+"Each in turn," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly. "I began with you,
+Nicholl, because you were on the top. Now I'll go to Barbicane."
+
+That said, Ardan and Nicholl raised the president of the Gun Club and
+put him on a divan. Barbicane seemed to have suffered more than his
+companions. He was bleeding, but Nicholl was glad to find that the
+hemorrhage only came from a slight wound in his shoulder. It was a
+simple scratch, which he carefully closed.
+
+Nevertheless, Barbicane was some time before he came to himself, which
+frightened his two friends, who did not spare their friction.
+
+"He is breathing, however," said Nicholl, putting his ear to the breast
+of the wounded man.
+
+"Yes," answered Ardan, "he is breathing like a man who is in the habit
+of doing it daily. Rub, Nicholl, rub with all your might."
+
+And the two improvised practitioners set to work with such a will and
+managed so well that Barbicane at last came to his senses. He opened his
+eyes, sat up, took the hands of his two friends, and his first words
+were--
+
+"Nicholl, are we going on?"
+
+Nicholl and Ardan looked at one another. They had not yet thought about
+the projectile. Their first anxiety had been for the travellers, not for
+the vehicle.
+
+"Well, really, are we going on?" repeated Michel Ardan.
+
+"Or are we tranquilly resting on the soil of Florida?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Or at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?" added Michel Ardan.
+
+"Impossible!" cried President Barbicane.
+
+This double hypothesis suggested by his two friends immediately recalled
+him to life and energy.
+
+They could not yet decide the question. The apparent immovability of the
+bullet and the want of communication with the exterior prevented them
+finding it out. Perhaps the projectile was falling through space.
+Perhaps after rising a short distance it had fallen upon the earth, or
+even into the Gulf of Mexico, a fall which the narrowness of the
+Floridian peninsula rendered possible.
+
+The case was grave, the problem interesting. It was necessary to solve
+it as soon as possible. Barbicane, excited, and by his moral energy
+triumphing over his physical weakness, stood up and listened. A profound
+silence reigned outside. But the thick padding was sufficient to shut
+out all the noises on earth; However, one circumstance struck
+Barbicane. The temperature in the interior of the projectile was
+singularly high. The president drew out a thermometer from the envelope
+that protected it and consulted it. The instrument showed 81° Fahr.
+
+"Yes!" he then exclaimed--"yes, we are moving! This stifling heat oozes
+through the sides of our projectile. It is produced by friction against
+the atmosphere. It will soon diminish; because we are already moving in
+space, and after being almost suffocated we shall endure intense cold."
+
+"What!" asked Michel Ardan, "do you mean to say that we are already
+beyond the terrestrial atmosphere?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt, Michel. Listen to me. It now wants but
+five minutes to eleven. It is already eight minutes since we started.
+Now, if our initial velocity has not been diminished by friction, six
+seconds would be enough for us to pass the sixteen leagues of atmosphere
+which surround our spheroid."
+
+"Just so," answered Nicholl; "but in what proportion do you reckon the
+diminution of speed by friction?"
+
+"In the proportion of one-third," answered Barbicane. "This diminution
+is considerable, but it is so much according to my calculations. If,
+therefore, we have had an initial velocity of 11,000 metres, when we get
+past the atmosphere it will be reduced to 7,332 metres. However that may
+be, we have already cleared that space, and--"
+
+"And then," said Michel Ardan, "friend Nicholl has lost his two
+bets--four thousand dollars because the Columbiad has not burst, five
+thousand dollars because the projectile has risen to a greater height
+than six miles; therefore, Nicholl, shell out."
+
+"We must prove it first," answered the captain, "and pay afterwards. It
+is quite possible that Barbicane's calculations are exact, and that I
+have lost my nine thousand dollars. But another hypothesis has come into
+my mind, and it may cancel the wager."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane quickly.
+
+"The supposition that for some reason or other the powder did not catch
+fire, and we have not started."
+
+"Good heavens! captain," cried Michel Ardan, "that is a supposition
+worthy of me! It is not serious! Have we not been half stunned by the
+shock? Did I not bring you back to life? Does not the president's
+shoulder still bleed from the blow?"
+
+"Agreed, Michel," replied Nicholl, "but allow me to ask one question."
+
+"Ask it, captain."
+
+"Did you hear the detonation, which must certainly have been
+formidable?"
+
+"No," answered Ardan, much surprised, "I certainly did not hear it."
+
+"And you, Barbicane?"
+
+"I did not either."
+
+"What do you make of that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"What indeed!" murmured the president; "why did we not hear the
+detonation?"
+
+The three friends looked at one another rather disconcertedly. Here was
+an inexplicable phenomenon. The projectile had been fired, however, and
+there must have been a detonation.
+
+"We must know first where we are," said Barbicane, "so let us open the
+panel."
+
+This simple operation was immediately accomplished. The screws that
+fastened the bolts on the outer plates of the right-hand skylight
+yielded to the coach-wrench. These bolts were driven outside, and
+obturators wadded with indiarubber corked up the hole that let them
+through. The exterior plate immediately fell back upon its hinges like a
+port-hole, and the lenticular glass that covered the hole appeared. An
+identical light-port had been made in the other side of the projectile,
+another in the dome, and a fourth in the bottom. The firmament could
+therefore be observed in four opposite directions--the firmament through
+the lateral windows, and the earth or the moon more directly through the
+upper or lower opening of the bullet.
+
+Barbicane and his companions immediately rushed to the uncovered
+port-hole. No ray of light illuminated it. Profound darkness surrounded
+the projectile. This darkness did not prevent Barbicane exclaiming--
+
+"No, my friends, we have not fallen on the earth again! No, we are not
+immersed at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico! Yes, we are going up
+through space! Look at those stars that are shining in the darkness, and
+the impenetrable darkness that lies between the earth and us!"
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Michel Ardan and Nicholl with one voice.
+
+In fact, the thick darkness proved that the projectile had left the
+earth, for the ground, then brilliantly lighted by the moon, would have
+appeared before the eyes of the travellers if they had been resting upon
+it. This darkness proved also that the projectile had passed beyond the
+atmosphere, for the diffused light in the air would have been reflected
+on the metallic sides of the projectile, which reflection was also
+wanting. This light would have shone upon the glass of the light-port,
+and that glass was in darkness. Doubt was no longer possible. The
+travellers had quitted the earth.
+
+"I have lost." said Nicholl.
+
+"I congratulate you upon it," answered Ardan.
+
+"Here are nine thousand dollars," said the captain, taking a bundle of
+notes out of his pocket.
+
+"Will you have a receipt?" asked Barbicane as he took the money.
+
+"If you do not mind," answered Nicholl; "it is more regular."
+
+And as seriously and phlegmatically as if he had been in his
+counting-house, President Barbicane drew out his memorandum-book and
+tore out a clear page, wrote a receipt in pencil, dated it, signed it,
+and gave it to the captain, who put it carefully into his pocket-book.
+
+Michel Ardan took off his hat and bowed to his two companions without
+speaking a word. Such formality under such circumstances took away his
+power of speech. He had never seen anything so American.
+
+Once their business over, Barbicane and Nicholl went back to the
+light-port and looked at the constellations. The stars stood out clearly
+upon the dark background of the sky. But from this side the moon could
+not be seen, as she moves from east to west, rising gradually to the
+zenith. Her absence made Ardan say--
+
+"And the moon? Is she going to fail us?"
+
+"Do not frighten yourself," answered Barbicane, "Our spheroid is at her
+post, but we cannot see her from this side. We must open the opposite
+light-port."
+
+At the very moment when Barbicane was going to abandon one window to set
+clear the opposite one, his attention was attracted by the approach of a
+shining object. It was an enormous disc the colossal dimensions of which
+could not be estimated. Its face turned towards the earth was
+brilliantly lighted. It looked like a small moon reflecting the light of
+the large one. It advanced at prodigious speed, and seemed to describe
+round the earth an orbit right across the passage of the projectile. To
+the movement of translation of this object was added a movement of
+rotation upon itself. It was therefore behaving like all celestial
+bodies abandoned in space.
+
+"Eh!" cried Michel Ardan. "Whatever is that? Another projectile?"
+
+Barbicane did not answer. The apparition of this enormous body surprised
+him and made him uneasy. A collision was possible which would have had
+deplorable results, either by making the projectile deviate from its
+route and fall back upon the earth, or be caught up by the attractive
+power of the asteroid.
+
+President Barbicane had rapidly seized the consequences of these three
+hypotheses, which in one way or other would fatally prevent the success
+of his attempt. His companions were silently watching the object, which
+grew prodigiously larger as it approached, and through a certain optical
+illusion it seemed as if the projectile were rushing upon it.
+
+"Ye gods!" cried Michel Ardan; "there will be a collision on the line!"
+
+The three travellers instinctively drew back. Their terror was extreme,
+but it did not last long, hardly a few seconds. The asteroid passed at a
+distance of a few hundred yards from the projectile and disappeared, not
+so much on account of the rapidity of its course, but because its side
+opposite to the moon was suddenly confounded with the absolute darkness
+of space.
+
+"A good journey to you!" cried Michel Ardan, uttering a sigh of
+satisfaction. "Is not infinitude large enough to allow a poor little
+bullet to go about without fear? What was that pretentious globe which
+nearly knocked against us?"
+
+"I know!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Of course! you know everything."
+
+"It is a simple asteroid," said Barbicane; "but so large that the
+attraction of the earth has kept it in the state of a satellite."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Then the earth has two moons
+like Neptune?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, two moons, though she is generally supposed to have but
+one. But this second moon is so small and her speed so great that the
+inhabitants of the earth cannot perceive her. It was by taking into
+account certain perturbations that a French astronomer, M. Petit, was
+able to determine the existence of this second satellite and calculate
+its elements. According to his observations, this asteroid accomplishes
+its revolution round the earth in three hours and twenty minutes only.
+That implies prodigious speed."
+
+"Do all astronomers admit the existence of this satellite?" asked
+Nicholl.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane; "but if they had met it like we have they
+could not doubt any longer. By-the-bye, this asteroid, which would have
+much embarrassed us had it knocked against us, allows us to determine
+our position in space."
+
+"How?" said Ardan.
+
+"Because its distance is known, and where we met it we were exactly at
+8,140 kilometres from the surface of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"More than 2,000 leagues!" cried Michel Ardan. "That beats the express
+trains of the pitiable globe called the earth!"
+
+"I should think it did," answered Nicholl, consulting his
+chronometer; "it is eleven o'clock, only thirteen minutes since we
+left the American continent."
+
+"Only thirteen minutes?" said Barbicane.
+
+"That is all," answered Nicholl; "and if our initial velocity were
+constant we should make nearly 10,000 leagues an hour."
+
+"That is all very well, my friends," said the president; "but one
+insoluble question still remains--why did we not hear the detonation of
+the Columbiad?"
+
+For want of an answer the conversation stopped, and Barbicane, still
+reflecting, occupied himself with lowering the covering of the second
+lateral light-port. His operation succeeded, and through the glass the
+moon filled the interior of the projectile with brilliant light.
+Nicholl, like an economical man, put out the gas that was thus rendered
+useless, and the brilliance of which obstructed the observation of
+planetary space.
+
+The lunar disc then shone with incomparable purity. Her rays, no longer
+filtered by the vapoury atmosphere of the terrestrial globe, shone
+clearly through the glass and saturated the interior air of the
+projectile with silvery reflections. The black curtain of the firmament
+really doubled the brilliancy of the moon, which in this void of ether
+unfavourable to diffusion did not eclipse the neighbouring stars. The
+sky, thus seen, presented quite a different aspect--one that no human
+eye could imagine.
+
+It will be readily understood with what interest these audacious men
+contemplated the moon, the supreme goal of their journey. The earth's
+satellite, in her movement of translation, insensibly neared the zenith,
+a mathematical point which she was to reach about ninety-six hours
+later. Her mountains and plains, or any object in relief, were not seen
+more plainly than from the earth; but her light across the void was
+developed with incomparable intensity. The disc shone like a platinum
+mirror. The travellers had already forgotten all about the earth which
+was flying beneath their feet.
+
+It was Captain Nicholl who first drew attention to the vanished globe.
+
+"Yes!" answered Michel Ardan. "We must not be ungrateful to it. As we
+are leaving our country let our last looks reach it. I want to see the
+earth before it disappears completely from our eyes!"
+
+Barbicane, to satisfy the desires of his companion, occupied himself
+with clearing the window at the bottom of the projectile, the one
+through which they could observe the earth directly. The movable floor
+which the force of projection had sent to the bottom was taken to
+pieces, not without difficulty; its pieces, carefully placed against the
+sides, might still be of use. Then appeared a circular bay window, half
+a yard wide, cut in the lower part of the bullet. It was filled with
+glass five inches thick, strengthened with brass settings. Under it was
+an aluminium plate, held down by bolts. The screws taken out and the
+bolts withdrawn, the plate fell back, and visual communication was
+established between interior and exterior.
+
+Michel Ardan knelt upon the glass. It was dark, and seemed opaque.
+
+"Well," cried he, "but where's the earth?"
+
+"There it is," said Barbicane.
+
+"What!" cried Ardan, "that thin streak, that silvery crescent?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel. In four days' time, when the moon is full, at the
+very minute we shall reach her, the earth will be new. She will only
+appear to us under the form of a slender crescent, which will soon
+disappear, and then she will be buried for some days in impenetrable
+darkness."
+
+"That the earth!" repeated Michel Ardan, staring at the thin slice of
+his natal planet.
+
+The explanation given by President Barbicane was correct. The earth,
+looked at from the projectile, was entering her last quarter. She was in
+her octant, and her crescent was clearly outlined on the dark background
+of the sky. Her light, made bluish by the thickness of her atmosphere,
+was less intense than that of the lunar crescent. This crescent then
+showed itself under considerable dimensions. It looked like an enormous
+arch stretched across the firmament. Some points, more vividly lighted,
+especially in its concave part, announced the presence of high
+mountains; but they disappeared sometimes under black spots, which are
+never seen on the surface of the lunar disc. They were rings of clouds
+placed concentrically round the terrestrial spheroid.
+
+However, by dint of a natural phenomenon, identical with that produced
+on the moon when she is in her octants, the contour of the terrestrial
+globe could be traced. Its entire disc appeared slightly visible through
+an effect of pale light, less appreciable than that of the moon. The
+reason of this lessened intensity is easy to understand. When this
+reflection is produced on the moon it is caused by the solar rays which
+the earth reflects upon her satellite. Here it was caused by the solar
+rays reflected from the moon upon the earth. Now terrestrial light is
+thirteen times more intense than lunar light on account of the
+difference of volume in the two bodies. Hence it follows that in the
+phenomenon of the pale light the dark part of the earth's disc is less
+clearly outlined than that of the moon's disc, because the intensity of
+the phenomenon is in proportion to the lighting power of the two stars.
+It must be added that the terrestrial crescent seems to form a more
+elongated curve than that of the disc--a pure effect of irradiation.
+
+Whilst the travellers were trying to pierce the profound darkness of
+space, a brilliant shower of falling stars shone before their eyes.
+Hundreds of meteors, inflamed by contact with the atmosphere, streaked
+the darkness with luminous trails, and lined the cloudy part of the disc
+with their fire. At that epoch the earth was in her perihelion, and the
+month of December is so propitious to these shooting stars that
+astronomers have counted as many as 24,000 an hour. But Michel Ardan,
+disdaining scientific reasoning, preferred to believe that the earth was
+saluting with her finest fireworks the departure of her three children.
+
+This was all they saw of the globe lost in the darkness, an inferior
+star of the solar world, which for the grand planets rises or sets as a
+simple morning or evening star! Imperceptible point in space, it was now
+only a fugitive crescent, this globe where they had left all their
+affections.
+
+For a long time the three friends, not speaking, yet united in heart,
+watched while the projectile went on with uniformly decreasing velocity.
+Then irresistible sleep took possession of them. Was it fatigue of body
+and mind? Doubtless, for after the excitement of the last hours passed
+upon earth, reaction must inevitably set in.
+
+"Well," said Michel, "as we must sleep, let us go to sleep."
+
+Stretched upon their beds, all three were soon buried in profound
+slumber.
+
+But they had not been unconscious for more than a quarter of an hour
+when Barbicane suddenly rose, and, waking his companions, in a loud
+voice cried--
+
+"I've found it!"
+
+"What have you found?" asked Michel Ardan, jumping out of bed.
+
+"The reason we did not hear the detonation of the Columbiad!"
+
+"Well?" said Nicholl.
+
+"It was because our projectile went quicker than sound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TAKING POSSESSION.
+
+
+This curious but certainly correct explanation once given, the three
+friends fell again into a profound sleep. Where would they have found a
+calmer or more peaceful place to sleep in? Upon earth, houses in the
+town or cottages in the country feel every shock upon the surface of the
+globe. At sea, ships, rocked by the waves, are in perpetual movement. In
+the air, balloons incessantly oscillate upon the fluid strata of
+different densities. This projectile alone, travelling in absolute void
+amidst absolute silence, offered absolute repose to its inhabitants.
+
+The sleep of the three adventurers would have, perhaps, been
+indefinitely prolonged if an unexpected noise had not awakened them
+about 7 a.m. on the 2nd of December, eight hours after their departure.
+
+This noise was a very distinct bark.
+
+"The dogs! It is the dogs!" cried Michel Ardan, getting up immediately.
+
+"They are hungry," said Nicholl.
+
+"I should think so," answered Michel; "we have forgotten them."
+
+"Where are they?" asked Barbicane.
+
+One of the animals was found cowering under the divan. Terrified and
+stunned by the first shock, it had remained in a corner until the moment
+it had recovered its voice along with the feeling of hunger.
+
+It was Diana, still rather sheepish, that came from the retreat, not
+without urging. Michel Ardan encouraged her with his most gracious
+words.
+
+"Come, Diana," he said--"come, my child; your destiny will be noted in
+cynegetic annals! Pagans would have made you companion to the god
+Anubis, and Christians friend to St. Roch! You are worthy of being
+carved in bronze for the king of hell, like the puppy that Jupiter gave
+beautiful Europa as the price of a kiss! Your celebrity will efface that
+of the Montargis and St. Bernard heroes. You are rushing through
+interplanetary space, and will, perhaps, be the Eve of Selenite dogs!
+You will justify up there Toussenel's saying, 'In the beginning God
+created man, and seeing how weak he was, gave him the dog!' Come, Diana,
+come here!"
+
+Diana, whether flattered or not, came out slowly, uttering plaintive
+moans.
+
+"Good!" said Barbicane. "I see Eve, but where is Adam?"
+
+"Adam," answered Michel Ardan, "can't be far off. He is here somewhere.
+He must be called! Satellite! here, Satellite!"
+
+But Satellite did not appear. Diana continued moaning. It was decided,
+however, that she was not wounded, and an appetising dish was set before
+her to stop her complaining.
+
+As to Satellite, he seemed lost. They were obliged to search a long time
+before discovering him in one of the upper compartments of the
+projectile, where a rather inexplicable rebound had hurled him
+violently. The poor animal was in a pitiable condition.
+
+"The devil!" said Michel. "Our acclimatisation is in danger!"
+
+The unfortunate dog was carefully lowered. His head had been fractured
+against the roof, and it seemed difficult for him to survive such a
+shock. Nevertheless, he was comfortably stretched on a cushion, where he
+sighed once.
+
+"We will take care of you," said Michel; "we are responsible for your
+existence. I would rather lose an arm than a paw of my poor Satellite."
+
+So saying he offered some water to the wounded animal, who drank it
+greedily.
+
+These attentions bestowed, the travellers attentively watched the earth
+and the moon. The earth only appeared like a pale disc terminated by a
+crescent smaller than that of the previous evening, but its volume
+compared with that of the moon, which was gradually forming a perfect
+circle, remained enormous.
+
+"_Parbleu_!" then said Michel Ardan; "I am really sorry we did not start
+when the earth was at her full--that is to say, when our globe was in
+opposition to the sun!"
+
+"Why?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Because we should have seen our continents and seas under a new
+aspect--the continents shining under the solar rays, the seas darker,
+like they figure upon certain maps of the world! I should like to have
+seen those poles of the earth upon which the eye of man has never yet
+rested!"
+
+"I daresay," answered Barbicane, "but if the earth had been full the
+moon would have been new--that is to say, invisible amidst the
+irradiation of the sun. It is better for us to see the goal we want to
+reach than the place we started from."
+
+"You are right, Barbicane," answered Captain Nicholl; "and besides, when
+we have reached the moon we shall have plenty of time during the long
+lunar nights to consider at leisure the globe that harbours men like
+us."
+
+"Men like us!" cried Michel Ardan. "But now they are not more like us
+than the Selenites. We are inhabitants of a new world peopled by us
+alone--the projectile! I am a man like Barbicane, and Barbicane is a man
+like Nicholl. Beyond us and outside of us humanity ends, and we are the
+only population of this microcosm until the moment we become simple
+Selenites."
+
+"In about eighty-eight hours," replied the captain.
+
+"Which means?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"That it is half-past eight," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," answered Michel, "I fail to find the shadow of a reason why
+we should not breakfast _illico_."
+
+In fact, the inhabitants of the new star could not live in it without
+eating, and their stomachs then submitted to the imperious laws of
+hunger. Michel Ardan, in his quality of Frenchman, declared himself
+chief cook, an important function that no one disputed with him. The gas
+gave the necessary degrees of heat for cooking purposes, and the
+provision-locker furnished the elements of this first banquet.
+
+The breakfast began with three cups of excellent broth, due to the
+liquefaction in hot water of three precious Liebig tablets, prepared
+from the choicest morsels of the Pampas ruminants. Some slices of
+beefsteak succeeded them, compressed by the hydraulic press, as tender
+and succulent as if they had just come from the butchers of the Paris
+Café Anglais. Michel, an imaginative man, would have it they were even
+rosy.
+
+Preserved vegetables, "fresher than the natural ones," as the amiable
+Michel observed, succeeded the meat, and were followed by some cups of
+tea and slices of bread and butter, American fashion. This beverage,
+pronounced excellent, was made from tea of the first quality, of which
+the Emperor of Russia had put some cases at the disposition of the
+travellers.
+
+Lastly, as a worthy ending to the meal, Ardan ferreted out a fine bottle
+of "Nuits" burgundy that "happened" to be in the provision compartment.
+The three friends drank it to the union of the earth and her satellite.
+
+And as if the generous wine it had distilled upon the hill-sides of
+Burgundy were not enough, the sun was determined to help in the feast.
+The projectile at that moment emerged from the cone of shadow cast by
+the terrestrial globe, and the sun's rays fell directly upon the lower
+disc of the bullet, on account of the angle which the orbit of the moon
+makes with that of the earth.
+
+"The sun!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Of course," answered Barbicane; "I expected it."
+
+"But," said Michel, "the cone of shadow thrown by the earth into space
+extends beyond the moon."
+
+"Much beyond if you do not take the atmospheric refraction into
+account," said Barbicane. "But when the moon is enveloped in that shadow
+the centres of the three heavenly bodies--the sun, the earth, and the
+moon--are in a straight line. Then the nodes coincide with the full moon
+and there is an eclipse. If, therefore, we had started during an eclipse
+of the moon all our journey would have been accomplished in the dark,
+which would have been a pity."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, although we are journeying in the void, our projectile, bathed
+in the solar rays, will gather their light and heat; therefore there
+will be economy of gas, a precious economy in every way."
+
+In fact, under these rays, the temperature and brilliancy of which there
+was no atmosphere to soften, the projectile was lighted and warmed as if
+it had suddenly passed from winter to summer. The moon above and the sun
+below inundated it with their rays.
+
+"It is pleasant here now," said Nicholl.
+
+"I believe you!" cried Michel Ardan. "With a little vegetable soil
+spread over our aluminium planet we could grow green peas in twenty-four
+hours. I have only one fear, that is that the walls of our bullet will
+melt."
+
+"You need not alarm yourself, my worthy friend," answered Barbicane.
+"The projectile supported a much higher temperature while it was
+travelling through the atmosphere. I should not even wonder if it looked
+to the eyes of the spectators like a fiery meteor."
+
+"Then J.T. Maston must think we are roasted!"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Barbicane, "is that we are not. It
+was a danger we did not foresee."
+
+"I feared it," answered Nicholl simply.
+
+"And you did not say anything about it, sublime captain!" cried Michel
+Ardan, shaking his companion's hand.
+
+In the meantime Barbicane was making his arrangements in the projectile
+as though he was never going to leave it. It will be remembered that the
+base of the aërial vehicle was fifty-four feet square. It was twelve
+feet high, and admirably fitted up in the interior. It was not much
+encumbered by the instruments and travelling utensils, which were all in
+special places, and it left some liberty of movement to its three
+inhabitants. The thick glass let into a part of the floor could bear
+considerable weight with impunity. Barbicane and his companions walked
+upon it as well as upon a solid floor; but the sun, which struck it
+directly with its rays, lighting the interior of the projectile from
+below, produced singular effects of light.
+
+They began by examining the state of the water and provision
+receptacles. They were not in the least damaged, thanks to the
+precautions taken to deaden the shock. The provisions were abundant, and
+sufficient for one year's food. Barbicane took this precaution in case
+the projectile should arrive upon an absolutely barren part of the moon.
+There was only enough water and brandy for two months. But according to
+the latest observations of astronomers, the moon had a dense low and
+thick atmosphere, at least in its deepest valleys, and there streams and
+watercourses could not fail. Therefore the adventurous explorers would
+not suffer from hunger or thirst during the journey, and the first year
+of their installation upon the lunar continent.
+
+The question of air in the interior of the projectile also offered all
+security. The Reiset and Regnault apparatus, destined to produce oxygen,
+was furnished with enough chlorate of potash for two months. It
+necessarily consumed a large quantity of gas, for it was obliged to keep
+the productive matter up to 100°. But there was abundance of that also.
+The apparatus wanted little looking after. It worked automatically. At
+that high temperature the chlorate of potash changed into chlorine of
+potassium, and gave out all the oxygen it contained. The eighteen pounds
+of chlorate of potash gave out the seven pounds of oxygen necessary for
+the daily consumption of the three travellers.
+
+But it was not enough to renew the oxygen consumed; the carbonic acid
+gas produced by expiration must also be absorbed. Now for the last
+twelve hours the atmosphere of the bullet had become loaded with this
+deleterious gas, the product of the combustion of the elements of blood
+by the oxygen taken into the lungs. Nicholl perceived this state of the
+air by seeing Diana palpitate painfully. In fact, carbonic acid
+gas--through a phenomenon identical with the one to be noticed in the
+famous Dog's Grotto--accumulated at the bottom of the projectile by
+reason of its weight. Poor Diana, whose head was low down, therefore
+necessarily suffered from it before her masters. But Captain Nicholl
+made haste to remedy this state of things. He placed on the floor of the
+projectile several receptacles containing caustic potash which he shook
+about for some time, and this matter, which is very greedy of carbonic
+acid, completely absorbed it, and thus purified the interior air.
+
+An inventory of the instruments was then begun. The thermometers and
+barometers were undamaged, with the exception of a minimum thermometer
+the glass of which was broken. An excellent aneroid was taken out of
+its padded box and hung upon the wall. Of course it was only acted upon
+by and indicated the pressure of the air inside the projectile; but it
+also indicated the quantity of moisture it contained. At that moment its
+needle oscillated between 25.24 and 25.08. It was at "set fair."
+
+Barbicane had brought several compasses, which were found intact. It
+will be easily understood that under those circumstances their needles
+were acting at random, without any constant direction. In fact, at the
+distance the projectile was from the earth the magnetic pole could not
+exercise any sensible action upon the apparatus. But these compasses,
+taken upon the lunar disc, might show particular phenomena. In any case
+it would be interesting to verify whether the earth's satellite, like
+the earth herself, submitted to magnetical influence.
+
+A hypsometer to measure the altitude of the lunar mountains, a sextant
+to take the height of the sun, a theodolite, an instrument for
+surveying, telescopes to be used as the moon approached--all these
+instruments were carefully inspected and found in good condition,
+notwithstanding the violence of the initial shock.
+
+As to the utensils--pickaxes, spades, and different tools--of which
+Nicholl had made a special collection, the sacks of various kinds of
+grain, and the shrubs which Michel Ardan counted upon transplanting into
+Selenite soil, they were in their places in the upper corners of the
+projectile. There was made a sort of granary, which the prodigal
+Frenchman had filled. What was in it was very little known, and the
+merry fellow did not enlighten anybody. From time to time he climbed up
+the cramp-irons riveted in the walls to this store-room, the inspection
+of which he had reserved to himself. He arranged and re-arranged,
+plunged his hand rapidly into certain mysterious boxes, singing all the
+time in a voice very out of tune some old French song to enliven the
+situation.
+
+Barbicane noticed with interest that his rockets and other fireworks
+were not damaged. These were important, for, powerfully loaded, they
+were meant to slacken the speed with which the projectile would, when
+attracted by the moon after passing the point of neutral attraction,
+fall upon her surface. This fall besides would be six times less rapid
+than it would have been upon the surface of the earth, thanks to the
+difference of volume in the two bodies.
+
+The inspection ended, therefore, in general satisfaction. Then they all
+returned to their posts of observation at the lateral and lower
+port-lights.
+
+The same spectacle was spread before them. All the extent of the
+celestial sphere swarmed with stars and constellations of marvellous
+brilliancy, enough to make an astronomer wild! On one side the sun, like
+the mouth of a fiery furnace, shone upon the dark background of the
+heavens. On the other side the moon, reflecting back his fires, seemed
+motionless amidst the starry world. Then a large spot, like a hole in
+the firmament, bordered still by a slight thread of silver--it was the
+earth. Here and there nebulous masses like large snow-flakes, and from
+zenith to nadir an immense ring, formed of an impalpable dust of
+stars--that milky way amidst which the sun only counts as a star of the
+fourth magnitude!
+
+The spectators could not take their eyes off a spectacle so new, of
+which no description could give any idea. What reflections it suggested!
+What unknown emotions it aroused in the soul! Barbicane wished to begin
+the recital of his journey under the empire of these impressions, and he
+noted down hourly all the events that signalised the beginning of his
+enterprise. He wrote tranquilly in his large and rather
+commercial-looking handwriting.
+
+During that time the calculating Nicholl looked over the formulae of
+trajectories, and worked away at figures with unparalleled dexterity.
+Michel Ardan talked sometimes to Barbicane, who did not answer much, to
+Nicholl, who did not hear, and to Diana, who did not understand his
+theories, and lastly to himself, making questions and answers, going and
+coming, occupying himself with a thousand details, sometimes leaning
+over the lower port-light, sometimes roosting in the heights of the
+projectile, singing all the time. In this microcosm he represented the
+French agitation and loquacity, and it was worthily represented.
+
+The day, or rather--for the expression is not correct--the lapse of
+twelve hours which makes a day upon earth--was ended by a copious supper
+carefully prepared. No incident of a nature to shake the confidence of
+the travellers had happened, so, full of hope and already sure of
+success, they went to sleep peacefully, whilst the projectile, at a
+uniformly increasing speed, made its way in the heavens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A LITTLE ALGEBRA.
+
+
+The night passed without incident. Correctly speaking, the word "night"
+is an improper one. The position of the projectile in regard to the sun
+did not change. Astronomically it was day on the bottom of the bullet,
+and night on the top. When, therefore, in this recital these two words
+are used they express the lapse of time between the rising and setting
+of the sun upon earth.
+
+The travellers' sleep was so much the more peaceful because,
+notwithstanding its excessive speed, the projectile seemed absolutely
+motionless. No movement indicated its journey through space. However
+rapidly change of place may be effected, it cannot produce any sensible
+effect upon the organism when it takes place in the void, or when the
+mass of air circulates along with the travelling body. What inhabitant
+of the earth perceives the speed which carries him along at the rate of
+68,000 miles an hour? Movement under such circumstances is not felt more
+than repose. Every object is indifferent to it. When a body is in repose
+it remains so until some foreign force puts it in movement. When in
+movement it would never stop if some obstacle were not in its road. This
+indifference to movement or repose is inertia.
+
+Barbicane and his companions could, therefore, imagine themselves
+absolutely motionless, shut up in the interior of the projectile. The
+effect would have been the same if they had placed themselves on the
+outside. Without the moon, which grew larger above them, and the earth
+that grew smaller below, they would have sworn they were suspended in a
+complete stagnation.
+
+That morning, the 3rd of December, they were awakened by a joyful but
+unexpected noise. It was the crowing of a cock in the interior of their
+vehicle.
+
+Michel Ardan was the first to get up; he climbed to the top of the
+projectile and closed a partly-open case.
+
+"Be quiet," said he in a whisper. "That animal will spoil my plan!"
+
+In the meantime Nicholl and Barbicane awoke.
+
+"Was that a cock?" said Nicholl.
+
+"No, my friends," answered Michel quickly. "I wished to awake you with
+that rural sound."
+
+So saying he gave vent to a cock-a-doodle-do which would have done
+honour to the proudest of gallinaceans.
+
+The two Americans could not help laughing.
+
+"A fine accomplishment that," said Nicholl, looking suspiciously at his
+companion.
+
+"Yes," answered Michel, "a joke common in my country. It is very Gallic.
+We perpetrate it in the best society."
+
+Then turning the conversation--
+
+"Barbicane, do you know what I have been thinking about all night?"
+
+"No," answered the president.
+
+"About our friends at Cambridge. You have already remarked how
+admirably ignorant I am of mathematics. I find it, therefore, impossible
+to guess how our _savants_ of the observatory could calculate what
+initial velocity the projectile ought to be endowed with on leaving the
+Columbiad in order to reach the moon."
+
+"You mean," replied Barbicane, "in order to reach that neutral point
+where the terrestrial and lunar attractions are equal; for beyond this
+point, situated at about 0.9 of the distance, the projectile will fall
+upon the moon by virtue of its own weight merely."
+
+"Very well," answered Michel; "but once more; how did they calculate the
+initial velocity?"
+
+"Nothing is easier," said Barbicane.
+
+"And could you have made the calculation yourself?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Certainly; Nicholl and I could have determined it if the notice from
+the observatory had not saved us the trouble."
+
+"Well, old fellow," answered Michel, "they might sooner cut off my head,
+beginning with my feet, than have made me solve that problem!"
+
+"Because you do not know algebra," replied Barbicane tranquilly.
+
+"Ah, that's just like you dealers in _x_! You think you have explained
+everything when you have said 'algebra.'"
+
+"Michel," replied Barbicane, "do you think it possible to forge without
+a hammer, or to plough without a ploughshare?"
+
+"It would be difficult."
+
+"Well, then, algebra is a tool like a plough or a hammer, and a good
+tool for any one who knows how to use it."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Could you use that tool before me?"
+
+"If it would interest you."
+
+"And could you show me how they calculated the initial speed of our
+vehicle?"
+
+"Yes, my worthy friend. By taking into account all the elements of the
+problem, the distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the
+moon, of the radius of the earth, the volume of the earth and the volume
+of the moon, I can determine exactly what the initial speed of the
+projectile ought to be, and that by a very simple formula."
+
+"Show me the formula."
+
+"You shall see it. Only I will not give you the curve really traced by
+the bullet between the earth and the moon, by taking into account their
+movement of translation round the sun. No. I will consider both bodies
+to be motionless, and that will be sufficient for us."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because that would be seeking to solve the problem called 'the problem
+of the three bodies,' for which the integral calculus is not yet far
+enough advanced."
+
+"Indeed," said Michel Ardan in a bantering tone; "then mathematics have
+not said their last word."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Good! Perhaps the Selenites have pushed the integral calculus further
+than you! By-the-bye, what is the integral calculus?"
+
+"It is the inverse of the differential calculus," answered Barbicane
+seriously.
+
+"Much obliged."
+
+"To speak otherwise, it is a calculus by which you seek finished
+quantities of what you know the differential quantities."
+
+"That is clear at least," answered Barbicane with a quite satisfied air.
+
+"And now," continued Barbicane, "for a piece of paper and a pencil, and
+in half-an-hour I will have found the required formula."
+
+That said, Barbicane became absorbed in his work, whilst Nicholl looked
+into space, leaving the care of preparing breakfast to his companion.
+
+Half-an-hour had not elapsed before Barbicane, raising his head, showed
+Michel Ardan a page covered with algebraical signs, amidst which the
+following general formula was discernible:--
+
+    1   2   2          r         m'    r     r
+    - (v - v ) = gr { --- - 1 + --- ( --- - ---) }
+    2       0          x         m    d-x   d-r
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked Michel.
+
+"That means," answered Nicholl, "that the half of _v_ minus _v_ zero
+square equals _gr_ multiplied by _r_ upon _x_ minus 1 plus _m_ prime
+upon _m_ multiplied by _r_ upon _d_ minus _x_, minus _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_x_ minus _r_--"
+
+"_X_ upon _y_ galloping upon _z_ and rearing upon _p_" cried Michel
+Ardan, bursting out laughing. "Do you mean to say you understand that,
+captain?"
+
+"Nothing is clearer."
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "it is as plain as a pikestaff, and I want
+nothing more."
+
+"Everlasting laugher," said Barbicane, "you wanted algebra, and now you
+shall have it over head and ears."
+
+"I would rather be hung!"
+
+"That appears a good solution, Barbicane," said Nicholl, who was
+examining the formula like a _connaisseur_. "It is the integral of the
+equation of 'vis viva,' and I do not doubt that it will give us the
+desired result."
+
+"But I should like to understand!" exclaimed Michel. "I would give ten
+years of Nicholl's life to understand!"
+
+"Then listen," resumed Barbicane. "The half of _v_ minus _v_ zero square
+is the formula that gives us the demi-variation of the 'vis viva.'"
+
+"Good; and does Nicholl understand what that means?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel," answered the captain. "All those signs that look so
+cabalistic to you form the clearest and most logical language for those
+who know how to read it."
+
+"And do you pretend, Nicholl," asked Michel, "that by means of these
+hieroglyphics, more incomprehensible than the Egyptian ibis, you can
+find the initial speed necessary to give to the projectile?"
+
+"Incontestably," answered Nicholl; "and even by that formula I could
+always tell you what speed it is going at on any point of the journey."
+
+"Upon your word of honour?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you are as clever as our president."
+
+"No, Michel, all the difficulty consists in what Barbicane has done. It
+is to establish an equation which takes into account all the conditions
+of the problem. The rest is only a question of arithmetic, and requires
+nothing but a knowledge of the four rules."
+
+"That's something," answered Michel Ardan, who had never been able to
+make a correct addition in his life, and who thus defined the rule: "A
+Chinese puzzle, by which you can obtain infinitely various results."
+
+Still Barbicane answered that Nicholl would certainly have found the
+formula had he thought about it.
+
+"I do not know if I should," said Nicholl, "for the more I study it the
+more marvellously correct I find it."
+
+"Now listen," said Barbicane to his ignorant comrade, "and you will see
+that all these letters have a signification."
+
+"I am listening," said Michel, looking resigned.
+
+"_d_," said Barbicane, "is the distance from the centre of the earth to
+the centre of the moon, for we must take the centres to calculate the
+attraction."
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"_r_ is the radius of the earth."
+
+"_r_, radius; admitted."
+
+"_m_ is the volume of the earth; _m prime_ that of the moon. We are
+obliged to take into account the volume of the two attracting bodies, as
+the attraction is in proportion to the volume."
+
+"I understand that."
+
+"_g_ represents gravity, the speed acquired at the end of a second by a
+body falling on the surface of the earth. Is that clear?"
+
+"A mountain stream!" answered Michel.
+
+"Now I represent by _x_ the variable distance that separates the
+projectile from the centre of the earth, and by _v_ the velocity the
+projectile has at that distance."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Lastly, the expression _v_ zero which figures in the equation is the
+speed the bullet possesses when it emerges from the atmosphere."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "you were obliged to calculate the velocity from
+that point, because we knew before that the velocity at departure is
+exactly equal to 3/2 of the velocity upon emerging from the atmosphere."
+
+"Don't understand any more!" said Michel.
+
+"Yet it is very simple," said Barbicane.
+
+"I do not find it very simple," replied Michel.
+
+"It means that when our projectile reached the limit of the terrestrial
+atmosphere it had already lost one-third of its initial velocity."
+
+"As much as that?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, simply by friction against the atmosphere. You will
+easily understand that the greater its speed the more resistance it
+would meet with from the air."
+
+"That I admit," answered Michel, "and I understand it, although your _v_
+zero two and your _v_ zero square shake about in my head like nails in a
+sack."
+
+"First effect of algebra," continued Barbicane. "And now to finish we
+are going to find the numerical known quantity of these different
+expressions--that is to say, find out their value."
+
+"You will finish me first!" answered Michel.
+
+"Some of these expressions," said Barbicane, "are known; the others have
+to be calculated."
+
+"I will calculate those," said Nicholl.
+
+"And _r_," resumed Barbicane, "_r_ is the radius of the earth under the
+latitude of Florida, our point of departure, _d_--that is to say, the
+distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon equals
+fifty-six terrestrial radii--"
+
+Nicholl rapidly calculated.
+
+"That makes 356,720,000 metres when the moon is at her perigee--that is
+to say, when she is nearest to the earth."
+
+"Very well," said Barbicane, "now _m_ prime upon _m_--that is to say,
+the proportion of the moon's volume to that of the earth equals 1/81."
+
+"Perfect," said Michel.
+
+"And _g_, the gravity, is to Florida 9-1/81 metres. From whence it
+results that _gr_ equals--"
+
+"Sixty-two million four hundred and twenty-six thousand square metres,"
+answered Nicholl.
+
+"What next?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Now that the expressions are reduced to figures, I am going to find the
+velocity _v zero_--that is to say, the velocity that the projectile
+ought to have on leaving the atmosphere to reach the point of equal
+attraction with no velocity. The velocity at that point I make equal
+_zero_, and _x_, the distance where the neutral point is, will be
+represented by the nine-tenths of _d_--that is to say, the distance that
+separates the two centres."
+
+"I have some vague idea that it ought to be so," said Michel.
+
+"I shall then have, _x_ equals nine-tenths of _d_, and _v_ equals
+_zero_, and my formula will become--"
+
+Barbicane wrote rapidly on the paper--
+
+     2              10r   1    10r    r
+    v  = 2 gr { 1 - ---  --- ( --- - ---) }
+     0               9d   81    d    d-r
+
+Nicholl read it quickly.
+
+"That's it! that is it!" he cried.
+
+"Is it clear?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"It is written in letters of fire!" answered Nicholl.
+
+"Clever fellows!" murmured Michel.
+
+"Do you understand now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"If I understand!" cried Michel Ardan. "My head is bursting with it."
+
+"Thus," resumed Barbicane, "_v zero_ square equals 2 _gr_ multiplied by
+1 minus 10 _r_ upon 9 _d_ minus 1/81 multiplied by 10 _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_r_ upon _d_ minus _r_."
+
+"And now," said Nicholl, "in order to obtain the velocity of the bullet
+as it emerges from the atmosphere I have only to calculate."
+
+The captain, like a man used to overcome all difficulties, began to
+calculate with frightful rapidity. Divisions and multiplications grew
+under his fingers. Figures dotted the page. Barbicane followed him with
+his eyes, whilst Michel Ardan compressed a coming headache with his two
+hands.
+
+"Well, what do you make it?" asked Barbicane after several minutes'
+silence.
+
+"I make it 11,051 metres in the first second."
+
+"What do you say?" said Barbicane, starting.
+
+"Eleven thousand and fifty-one metres."
+
+"Malediction!" cried the president with a gesture of despair.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" asked Michel Ardan, much surprised.
+
+"The matter! why if at this moment the velocity was already diminished
+one-third by friction, the initial speed ought to have been--"
+
+"Sixteen thousand five hundred and seventy-six metres!" answered
+Nicholl.
+
+"But the Cambridge Observatory declared that 11,000 metres were enough
+at departure, and our bullet started with that velocity only!"
+
+"Well?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Why it was not enough!"
+
+"No."
+
+"We shall not reach the neutral point."
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"We shall not even go half way!"
+
+"_Nom d'un boulet_!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, jumping up as if the
+projectile were on the point of striking against the terrestrial globe.
+
+"And we shall fall back upon the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE.
+
+
+This revelation acted like a thunderbolt. Who could have expected such
+an error in calculation? Barbicane would not believe it. Nicholl went
+over the figures again. They were correct. The formula which had
+established them could not be mistrusted, and, when verified, the
+initial velocity of 16,576 metres, necessary for attaining the neutral
+point, was found quite right.
+
+The three friends looked at one another in silence. No one thought about
+breakfast after that. Barbicane, with set teeth, contracted brow, and
+fists convulsively closed, looked through the port-light. Nicholl
+folded his arms and examined his calculations. Michel Ardan murmured--
+
+"That's just like _savants_! That's the way they always do! I would give
+twenty pistoles to fall upon the Cambridge Observatory and crush it,
+with all its stupid staff inside!"
+
+All at once the captain made a reflection which struck Barbicane at
+once.
+
+"Why," said he, "it is seven o'clock in the morning, so we have been
+thirty-two hours on the road. We have come more than half way, and we
+are not falling yet that I know of!"
+
+Barbicane did not answer, but after a rapid glance at the captain he
+took a compass, which he used to measure the angular distance of the
+terrestrial globe. Then through the lower port-light he made a very
+exact observation from the apparent immobility of the projectile. Then
+rising and wiping the perspiration from his brow, he put down some
+figures upon paper. Nicholl saw that the president wished to find out
+from the length of the terrestrial diameter the distance of the bullet
+from the earth. He looked at him anxiously.
+
+"No!" cried Barbicane in a few minutes' time, "we are not falling! We
+are already more than 50,000 leagues from the earth! We have passed the
+point the projectile ought to have stopped at if its speed had been only
+11,000 metres at our departure! We are still ascending!"
+
+"That is evident," answered Nicholl; "so we must conclude that our
+initial velocity, under the propulsion of the 400,000 lbs. of
+gun-cotton, was greater than the 11,000 metres. I can now explain to
+myself why we met with the second satellite, that gravitates at more
+than 2,000 leagues from the earth, in less than thirteen minutes."
+
+"That explanation is so much the more probable," added Barbicane,
+"because by throwing out the water in our movable partitions the
+projectile was made considerably lighter all at once."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah, my brave Nicholl," cried Barbicane, "we are saved!"
+
+"Very well then," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly, "as we are saved,
+let us have breakfast."
+
+Nicholl was not mistaken. The initial speed had happily been greater
+than that indicated by the Cambridge Observatory, but the Cambridge
+Observatory had no less been mistaken.
+
+The travellers, recovered from their false alarm, sat down to table and
+breakfasted merrily. Though they ate much they talked more. Their
+confidence was greater after the "algebra incident."
+
+"Why should we not succeed?" repeated Michel Ardan. "Why should we not
+arrive? We are on the road; there are no obstacles before us, and no
+stones on our route. It is free--freer than that of a ship that has to
+struggle with the sea, or a balloon with the wind against it! Now if a
+ship can go where it pleases, or a balloon ascend where it pleases, why
+should not our projectile reach the goal it was aimed at?"
+
+"It will reach it," said Barbicane.
+
+"If only to honour the American nation," added Michel Ardan, "the only
+nation capable of making such an enterprise succeed--the only one that
+could have produced a President Barbicane! Ah! now I think of it, now
+that all our anxieties are over, what will become of us? We shall be as
+dull as stagnant water."
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl made gestures of repudiation.
+
+"But I foresaw this, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan. "You have only
+to say the word. I have chess, backgammon, cards, and dominoes at your
+disposition. We only want a billiard-table!"
+
+"What?" asked Barbicane, "did you bring such trifles as those?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel; "not only for our amusement, but also in
+the praiseworthy intention of bestowing them upon Selenite inns."
+
+"My friend," said Barbicane, "if the moon is inhabited its inhabitants
+appeared some thousands of years before those of the earth, for it
+cannot be doubted that the moon is older than the earth. If, therefore,
+the Selenites have existed for thousands of centuries--if their brains
+are organised like that of human beings--they have invented all that we
+have invented, already, and even what we shall only invent in the lapse
+of centuries. They will have nothing to learn from us, and we shall have
+everything to learn from them."
+
+"What!" answered Michel, "do you think they have had artists like
+Phidias, Michael Angelo, or Raphael?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Poets like Homer, Virgil, Milton, Lamartine, and Hugo?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it."
+
+"_Savants_ like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal, and Newton?"
+
+"I could swear it."
+
+"Clowns like Arnal, and photographers like--Nadar?"
+
+"I am certain of it."
+
+"Then, friend Barbicane, if these Selenites are as learned as we, and
+even more so, why have they not hurled a lunar projectile as far as the
+terrestrial regions?"
+
+"Who says they have not done it?" answered Barbicane seriously.
+
+"In fact," added Nicholl, "it would have been easier to them than to us,
+and that for two reasons--the first because the attraction is six times
+less on the surface of the moon than on the surface of the earth, which
+would allow a projectile to go up more easily; secondly the projectile
+would only have 8,000 leagues to travel instead of 80,000, which would
+require a force of propulsion ten times less."
+
+"Then," resumed Michel, "I repeat--why have they not done it?"
+
+"And I," replied Barbicane, "I repeat--who says they have not done it?"
+
+"When?"
+
+"Hundreds of centuries ago, before man's appearance upon earth."
+
+"And the bullet? Where is the bullet? I ask to see the bullet!"
+
+"My friend," answered Barbicane, "the sea covers five-sixths of our
+globe, hence there are five good reasons for supposing that the lunar
+projectile, if it has been fired, is now submerged at the bottom of the
+Atlantic or Pacific, unless it was buried down some abyss at the epoch
+when the earth's crust was not sufficiently formed."
+
+"Old fellow," answered Michel, "you have an answer to everything, and I
+bow before your wisdom. There is one hypothesis I would rather believe
+than the others, and that is that the Selenites being older than we are
+wiser, and have not invented gunpowder at all."
+
+At that moment Diana claimed her share in the conversation by a sonorous
+bark. She asked for her breakfast.
+
+"Ah!" said Michel Ardan, "our arguments make us forget Diana and
+Satellite!"
+
+A good dish of food was immediately offered to the dog, who devoured it
+with great appetite.
+
+"Do you know, Barbicane," said Michel, "we ought to have made this
+projectile a sort of Noah's Ark, and have taken a couple of all the
+domestic animals with us to the moon."
+
+"No doubt," answered Barbicane, "but we should not have had room
+enough."
+
+"Oh, we might have been packed a little tighter!"
+
+"The fact is," answered Nicholl, "that oxen, cows, bulls, and horses,
+all those ruminants would be useful on the lunar continent.
+Unfortunately we cannot make our projectile either a stable or a
+cowshed."
+
+"But at least," said Michel Ardan, "we might have brought an ass,
+nothing but a little ass, the courageous and patient animal old Silenus
+loved to exhibit. I am fond of those poor asses! They are the least
+favoured animals in creation. They are not only beaten during their
+lifetime, but are still beaten after their death!"
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why, don't they use his skin to make drums of?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at this absurd reflection.
+But a cry from their merry companion stopped them; he was bending over
+Satellite's niche, and rose up saying--
+
+"Good! Satellite is no longer ill."
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl.
+
+"No!" resumed Michel, "he is dead. Now," he added in a pitiful tone,
+"this will be embarrassing! I very much fear, poor Diana, that you will
+not leave any of your race in the lunar regions!"
+
+The unfortunate Satellite had not been able to survive his wounds. He
+was dead, stone dead. Michel Ardan, much put out of countenance, looked
+at his friends.
+
+"This makes another difficulty," said Barbicane. "We can't keep the dead
+body of this dog with us for another eight-and-forty hours."
+
+"No, certainly not," answered Nicholl, "but our port-lights are hung
+upon hinges. They can be let down. We will open one of them, and throw
+the body into space."
+
+The president reflected for a few minutes, and then said--
+
+"Yes, that is what we must do, but we must take the most minute
+precautions."
+
+"Why?" asked Michel.
+
+"For two reasons that I will explain to you," answered Barbicane. "The
+first has reference to the air in the projectile, of which we must lose
+as little as possible."
+
+"But we can renew the air!"
+
+"Not entirely. We can only renew the oxygen, Michel; and, by-the-bye, we
+must be careful that the apparatus do not furnish us with this oxygen in
+an immoderate quantity, for an excess of it would cause grave
+physiological consequences. But although we can renew the oxygen we
+cannot renew the azote, that medium which the lungs do not absorb, and
+which ought to remain intact. Now the azote would rapidly escape if the
+port-lights were opened."
+
+"Not just the time necessary to throw poor Satellite out."
+
+"Agreed; but we must do it quickly."
+
+"And what is the second reason?" asked Michel.
+
+"The second reason is that we must not allow the exterior cold, which is
+excessive, to penetrate into our projectile lest we should be frozen
+alive."
+
+"Still the sun--"
+
+"The sun warms our projectile because it absorbs its rays, but it does
+not warm the void we are in now. When there is no air there is no more
+heat than there is diffused light, and where the sun's rays do not reach
+directly it is both dark and cold. The temperature outside is only that
+produced by the radiation of the stars--that is to say, the same as the
+temperature of the terrestrial globe would be if one day the sun were to
+be extinguished."
+
+"No fear of that," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Who knows?" said Michel Ardan. "And even supposing that the sun be not
+extinguished, it might happen that the earth will move farther away from
+it."
+
+"Good!" said Nicholl; "that's one of Michel's ideas!"
+
+"Well," resumed Michel, "it is well known that in 1861 the earth went
+through the tail of a comet. Now suppose there was a comet with a power
+of attraction greater than that of the sun, the terrestrial globe might
+make a curve towards the wandering star, and the earth would become its
+satellite, and would be dragged away to such a distance that the rays of
+the sun would have no action on its surface."
+
+"That might happen certainly," answered Barbicane, "but the consequences
+would not be so redoubtable as you would suppose."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because heat and cold would still be pretty well balanced upon our
+globe. It has been calculated that if the earth had been carried away by
+the comet of 1861, it would only have felt, when at its greatest
+distance from the sun, a heat sixteen times greater than that sent to us
+by the moon--a heat which, when focussed by the strongest lens, produces
+no appreciable effect."
+
+"Well?" said Michel.
+
+"Wait a little," answered Barbicane. "It has been calculated that at its
+perihelion, when nearest to the sun, the earth would have borne a heat
+equal to 28,000 times that of summer. But this heat, capable of
+vitrifying terrestrial matters, and of evaporating water, would have
+formed a thick circle of clouds which would have lessened the excessive
+heat, hence there would be compensation between the cold of the aphelion
+and the heat of the perihelion, and an average probably supportable."
+
+"At what number of degrees do they estimate the temperature of the
+planetary space?"
+
+"Formerly," answered Barbicane, "it was believed that this temperature
+was exceedingly low. By calculating its thermometric diminution it was
+fixed at millions of degrees below zero. It was Fourier, one of Michel's
+countrymen, an illustrious _savant_ of the _Académie des Sciences_, who
+reduced these numbers to a juster estimation. According to him, the
+temperature of space does not get lower than 60° Centigrade."
+
+Michel whistled.
+
+"It is about the temperature of the polar regions," answered Barbicane,
+"at Melville Island or Fort Reliance--about 56° Centigrade below zero."
+
+"It remains to be proved," said Nicholl, "that Fourier was not mistaken
+in his calculations. If I am not mistaken, another Frenchman, M.
+Pouillet, estimates the temperature of space at 160° below zero. We
+shall be able to verify that."
+
+"Not now," answered Barbicane, "for the solar rays striking directly
+upon our thermometer would give us, on the contrary, a very elevated
+temperature. But when we get upon the moon, during the nights, a
+fortnight long, which each of its faces endures alternately, we shall
+have leisure to make the experiment, for our satellite moves in the
+void."
+
+"What do you mean by the void?" asked Michel; "is it absolute void?"
+
+"It is absolutely void of air."
+
+"Is there nothing in its place?"
+
+"Yes, ether," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Ah! and what is ether?"
+
+"Ether, my friend, is an agglomeration of imponderable particles, which,
+relatively to their dimensions, are as far removed from each other as
+the celestial bodies are in space, so say works on molecular physics. It
+is these atoms that by their vibrating movement produce light and heat
+by making four hundred and thirty billions of oscillations a second."
+
+"Millions of millions!" exclaimed Michel Ardan; "then _savants_ have
+measured and counted these oscillations! All these figures, friend
+Barbicane, are _savants'_ figures, which reach the ear but say nothing
+to the mind."
+
+"But they are obliged to have recourse to figures."
+
+"No. It would be much better to compare. A billion signifies nothing. An
+object of comparison explains everything. Example--When you tell me that
+Uranus is 76 times larger than the earth, Saturn 900 times larger,
+Jupiter 1,300 times larger, the sun 1,300,000 times larger, I am not
+much wiser. So I much prefer the old comparisons of the _Double
+Liégoise_ that simply tells you, 'The sun is a pumpkin two feet in
+diameter, Jupiter an orange, Saturn a Blenheim apple, Neptune a large
+cherry, Uranus a smaller cherry, the earth a pea, Venus a green pea,
+Mars the head of a large pin, Mercury a grain of mustard, and Juno,
+Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas fine grains of sand!' Then I know what it
+means!"
+
+After this tirade of Michel Ardan's against _savants_ and their
+billions, which he delivered without stopping to take breath, they set
+about burying Satellite. He was to be thrown into space like sailors
+throw a corpse into the sea.
+
+As President Barbicane had recommended, they had to act quickly so as to
+lose as little air as possible. The bolts upon the right-hand port-hole
+were carefully unscrewed, and an opening of about half a yard made,
+whilst Michel prepared to hurl his dog into space. The window, worked by
+a powerful lever, which conquered the pressure of air in the interior
+upon the sides of the projectile, moved upon its hinges, and Satellite
+was thrown out. Scarcely a particle of air escaped, and the operation
+succeeded so well that later on Barbicane did not fear to get rid of all
+the useless rubbish that encumbered the vehicle in the same way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+On the 4th of December, at 5 a.m. by terrestrial reckoning, the
+travellers awoke, having been fifty-four hours on their journey. They
+had only been five hours and forty minutes more than half the time
+assigned for the accomplishment of their journey, but they had come more
+than seven-tenths of the distance. This peculiarity was due to their
+regularly-decreasing speed.
+
+When they looked at the earth through the port-light at the bottom, it
+only looked like a black spot drowned in the sun's rays. No crescent or
+pale light was now to be seen. The next day at midnight the earth would
+be new at the precise moment when the moon would be full. Above, the
+Queen of Night was nearing the line followed by the projectile, so as to
+meet it at the hour indicated. All around the dark vault was studded
+with brilliant specks which seemed to move slowly; but through the great
+distance they were at their relative size did not seem to alter much.
+The sun and the stars appeared exactly as they do from the earth. The
+moon was considerably enlarged; but the travellers' not very powerful
+telescopes did not as yet allow them to make very useful observations on
+her surface, or to reconnoitre the topographical or geological details.
+
+The time went by in interminable conversations. The talk was especially
+about the moon. Each brought his contingent of particular knowledge.
+Barbicane's and Nicholl's were always serious, Michel Ardan's always
+fanciful. The projectile, its situation and direction, the incidents
+that might arise, the precautions necessitated by its fall upon the
+moon, all this afforded inexhaustible material for conjecture.
+
+Whilst breakfasting a question of Michel's relative to the projectile
+provoked a rather curious answer from Barbicane, and one worthy of being
+recorded.
+
+Michel, supposing the bullet to be suddenly stopped whilst still endowed
+with its formidable initial velocity, wished to know what the
+consequences would have been.
+
+"But," answered Barbicane, "I don't see how the projectile could have
+been stopped."
+
+"But let us suppose it," answered Nicholl.
+
+"It is an impossible supposition," replied the practical president,
+"unless the force of impulsion had failed. But in that case its speed
+would have gradually decreased, and would not have stopped abruptly."
+
+"Admit that it had struck against some body in space."
+
+"What body?"
+
+"The enormous meteor we met."
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the projectile would have been broken into a
+thousand pieces, and we with it."
+
+"More than that," answered Barbicane, "we should have been burnt alive."
+
+"Burnt!" exclaimed Michel. "I regret it did not happen for us just to
+see."
+
+"And you would have seen with a vengeance," answered Barbicane. "It is
+now known that heat is only a modification of movement when water is
+heated--that is to say, when heat is added to it--that means the giving
+of movement to its particles."
+
+"That is an ingenious theory!" said Michel.
+
+"And a correct one, my worthy friend, for it explains all the phenomena
+of caloric. Heat is only molecular movement, a single oscillation of the
+particles of a body. When the break is put on a train it stops. But what
+becomes of the movement which animated it? Why do they grease the axles
+of the wheels? In order to prevent them catching fire from the movement
+lost by transformation. Do you understand?"
+
+"Admirably," answered Michel. "For example, when I have been running
+some time, and am covered with sweat, why am I forced to stop? Simply
+because my movement has been transformed into heat."
+
+Barbicane could not help laughing at this _répartie_ of Michel's. Then
+resuming his theory--
+
+"Thus," said he, "in case of a collision, it would have happened to our
+projectile as it does to the metal cannon-ball after striking
+armour-plate; it would fall burning, because its movement had been
+transformed into heat. In consequence, I affirm that if our bullet had
+struck against the asteroid, its speed, suddenly annihilated, would have
+produced heat enough to turn it immediately into vapour."
+
+"Then," asked Nicholl, "what would happen if the earth were to be
+suddenly stopped in her movement of translation?"
+
+"Her temperature would be carried to such a point," answered Barbicane,
+"that she would be immediately reduced to vapour."
+
+"Good," said Michel; "that means of ending the world would simplify many
+things."
+
+"And suppose the earth were to fall upon the sun?" said Nicholl.
+
+"According to calculations," answered Barbicane, "that would develop a
+heat equal to that produced by 1,600 globes of coal, equal in volume to
+the terrestrial globe."
+
+"A good increase of temperature for the sun," replied Michel Ardan, "of
+which the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune will probably not complain,
+for they must be dying of cold on their planet."
+
+"Thus, then, my friends, any movement suddenly stopped produces heat.
+This theory makes it supposed that the sun is constantly fed by an
+incessant fall of bodies upon its surface. It has been calculated--"
+
+"Now I shall be crushed," murmured Michel, "for figures are coming."
+
+"It has been calculated," continued Barbicane imperturbably, "that the
+shock of each asteroid upon the sun must produce heat equal to that of
+4,000 masses of coal of equal volume."
+
+"And what is the heat of the sun?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is equal to that which would be produced by a stratum of coal
+surrounding the sun to a depth of twenty-seven kilometres."
+
+"And that heat--"
+
+"Could boil 2,900,000,000 of cubic myriametres of water an hour." (A
+myriametre is equal to rather more than 6.2138 miles, or 6 miles 1
+furlong 28 poles.)
+
+"And we are not roasted by it?" cried Michel.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "because the terrestrial atmosphere absorbs
+four-tenths of the solar heat. Besides, the quantity of heat intercepted
+by the earth is only two thousand millionth of the total."
+
+"I see that all is for the best," replied Michel, "and that our
+atmosphere is a useful invention, for it not only allows us to breathe,
+but actually prevents us roasting."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "but, unfortunately, it will not be the same on the
+moon."
+
+"Bah!" said Michel, always confident. "If there are any inhabitants they
+breathe. If there are no longer any they will surely have left enough
+oxygen for three people, if only at the bottom of those ravines where it
+will have accumulated by reason of its weight! Well, we shall not climb
+the mountains! That is all."
+
+And Michel, getting up, went to look at the lunar disc, which was
+shining with intolerable brilliancy.
+
+"Faith!" said he, "it must be hot up there."
+
+"Without reckoning," answered Nicholl, "that daylight lasts 360 hours."
+
+"And by way of compensation night has the same duration," said
+Barbicane, "and as heat is restored by radiation, their temperature must
+be that of planetary space."
+
+"A fine country truly!" said Nicholl.
+
+"Never mind! I should like to be there already! It will be comical to
+have the earth for a moon, to see it rise on the horizon, to recognise
+the configuration of its continents, to say to oneself, 'There's America
+and there's Europe;' then to follow it till it is lost in the rays of
+the sun! By-the-bye, Barbicane, have the Selenites any eclipses?"
+
+"Yes, eclipses of the sun," answered Barbicane, "when the centres of the
+three stars are on the same line with the earth in the middle. But they
+are merely annular eclipses, during which the earth, thrown like a
+screen across the solar disc, allows the greater part to be seen."
+
+"Why is there no total eclipse?" asked Nicholl. "Is it because the cone
+of shade thrown by the earth does not extend beyond the moon?"
+
+"Yes, if you do not take into account the refraction produced by the
+terrestrial atmosphere, not if you do take that refraction into account.
+Thus, let _delta_ be the horizontal parallax and _p_ the apparent
+semidiameter--"
+
+"Ouf!" said Michel, "half of _v_ zero square! Do speak the vulgar
+tongue, man of algebra!"
+
+"Well, then, in popular language," answered Barbicane, "the mean
+distance between the moon and the earth being sixty terrestrial radii,
+the length of the cone of shadow, by dint of refraction, is reduced to
+less than forty-two radii. It follows, therefore, that during the
+eclipses the moon is beyond the cone of pure shade, and the sun sends it
+not only rays from its edges, but also rays from its centre."
+
+"Then," said Michel in a grumbling tone, "why is there any eclipse when
+there ought to be none?"
+
+"Solely because the solar rays are weakened by the refraction, and the
+atmosphere which they traverse extinguishes the greater part of them."
+
+"That reason satisfies me," answered Michel; "besides, we shall see for
+ourselves when we get there. Now, Barbicane, do you believe that the
+moon is an ancient comet?"
+
+"What an idea!"
+
+"Yes," replied Michel, with amiable conceit, "I have a few ideas of that
+kind."
+
+"But that idea does not originate with Michel," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Then I am only a plagiarist."
+
+"Without doubt," answered Nicholl. "According to the testimony of the
+ancients, the Arcadians pretended that their ancestors inhabited the
+earth before the moon became her satellite. Starting from this fact,
+certain _savants_ think the moon was a comet which its orbit one day
+brought near enough to the earth to be retained by terrestrial
+attraction."
+
+"And what truth is there in that hypothesis?" asked Michel.
+
+"None," answered Barbicane, "and the proof is that the moon has not kept
+a trace of the gaseous envelope that always accompanies comets."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "might not the moon, before becoming the earth's
+satellite, have passed near enough to the sun to leave all her gaseous
+substances by evaporation?"
+
+"It might, friend Nicholl, but it is not probable."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because--because, I really don't know."
+
+"Ah, what hundreds of volumes we might fill with what we don't know!"
+exclaimed Michel. "But I say," he continued, "what time is it?"
+
+"Three o'clock," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How the time goes," said Michel, "in the conversation of _savants_ like
+us! Decidedly I feel myself getting too learned! I feel that I am
+becoming a well of knowledge!"
+
+So saying, Michel climbed to the roof of the projectile, "in order
+better to observe the moon," he pretended. In the meanwhile his
+companions watched the vault of space through the lower port-light.
+There was nothing fresh to signalise.
+
+When Michel Ardan came down again he approached the lateral port-light,
+and suddenly uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"What is the matter now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+The president approached the glass and saw a sort of flattened sack
+floating outside at some yards' distance from the projectile. This
+object seemed motionless like the bullet, and was consequently animated
+with the same ascensional movement.
+
+"Whatever can that machine be?" said Michel Ardan. "Is it one of the
+corpuscles of space which our projectile holds in its radius of
+attraction, and which will accompany it as far as the moon?"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Nicholl, "is that the specific
+weight of this body, which is certainly superior to that of the bullet,
+allows it to maintain itself so rigorously on its level."
+
+"Nicholl," said Barbicane, after a moment's reflection, "I do not know
+what that object is, but I know perfectly why it keeps on a level with
+the projectile."
+
+"Why, pray?"
+
+"Because we are floating in the void where bodies fall or move--which is
+the same thing--with equal speed whatever their weight or form may be.
+It is the air which, by its resistance, creates differences in weight.
+When you pneumatically create void in a tube, the objects you throw down
+it, either lead or feathers, fall with the same rapidity. Here in space
+you have the same cause and the same effect."
+
+"True," said Nicholl, "and all we throw out of the projectile will
+accompany us to the moon."
+
+"Ah! what fools we are!" cried Michel.
+
+"Why this qualification?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because we ought to have filled the projectile with useful objects,
+books, instruments, tools, &c. We could have thrown them all out, and
+they would all have followed in our wake! But, now I think of it, why
+can't we take a walk outside this? Why can't we go into space through
+the port-light? What delight it would be to be thus suspended in ether,
+more favoured even than birds that are forced to flap their wings to
+sustain them!"
+
+"Agreed," said Barbicane, "but how are we to breathe?"
+
+"Confounded air to fail so inopportunely!"
+
+"But if it did not fail, Michel, your density being inferior to that of
+the projectile, you would soon remain behind."
+
+"Then it is a vicious circle."
+
+"All that is most vicious."
+
+"And we must remain imprisoned in our vehicle."
+
+"Yes, we must."
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel in a formidable voice.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I know, I guess what this pretended asteroid is! It is not a broken
+piece of planet!"
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is our unfortunate dog! It is Diana's husband!"
+
+In fact, this deformed object, reduced to nothing, and quite
+unrecognisable, was the body of Satellite flattened like a bagpipe
+without wind, and mounting, for ever mounting!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION.
+
+
+Thus a curious but logical, strange yet logical phenomenon took place
+under these singular conditions. Every object thrown out of the
+projectile would follow the same trajectory and only stop when it did.
+That furnished a text for conversation which the whole evening could not
+exhaust. The emotion of the three travellers increased as they
+approached the end of their journey. They expected unforeseen incidents,
+fresh phenomena, and nothing would have astonished them under present
+circumstances. Their excited imagination outdistanced the projectile,
+the speed of which diminished notably without their feeling it. But the
+moon grew larger before their eyes, and they thought they had only to
+stretch out their hands to touch it.
+
+The next day, the 5th of December, they were all wide awake at 5 a.m.
+That day was to be the last of their journey if the calculations were
+exact. That same evening, at midnight, within eighteen hours, at the
+precise moment of full moon, they would reach her brilliant disc. The
+next midnight would bring them to the goal of their journey, the most
+extraordinary one of ancient or modern times. At early dawn, through the
+windows made silvery with her rays, they saluted the Queen of Night with
+a confident and joyful hurrah.
+
+The moon was sailing majestically across the starry firmament. A few
+more degrees and she would reach that precise point in space where the
+projectile was to meet her. According to his own observations, Barbicane
+thought that he should accost her in her northern hemisphere, where vast
+plains extend and mountains are rare--a favourable circumstance if the
+lunar atmosphere was, according to received opinion, stored up in deep
+places only.
+
+"Besides," observed Michel Ardan, "a plain is more suitable for landing
+upon than a mountain. A Selenite landed in Europe on the summit of Mont
+Blanc, or in Asia on a peak of the Himalayas, would not be precisely at
+his destination!"
+
+"What is more," added Nicholl, "on a plain the projectile will remain
+motionless after it has touched the ground, whilst it would roll down a
+hill like an avalanche, and as we are not squirrels we should not come
+out safe and sound. Therefore all is for the best."
+
+In fact, the success of the audacious enterprise no longer appeared
+doubtful. Still one reflection occupied Barbicane; but not wishing to
+make his two companions uneasy, he kept silence upon it.
+
+The direction of the projectile towards the northern hemisphere proved
+that its trajectory had been slightly modified. The aim, mathematically
+calculated, ought to have sent the bullet into the very centre of the
+lunar disc. If it did not arrive there it would be because it had
+deviated. What had caused it? Barbicane could not imagine nor determine
+the importance of this deviation, for there was no datum to go upon. He
+hoped, however, that the only result would be to take them towards the
+upper edge of the moon, a more suitable region for landing.
+
+Barbicane, therefore, without saying anything to his friends, contented
+himself with frequently observing the moon, trying to see if the
+direction of the projectile would not change. For the situation would
+have been so terrible had the bullet, missing its aim, been dragged
+beyond the lunar disc and fallen into interplanetary space.
+
+At that moment the moon, instead of appearing flat like a disc, already
+showed her convexity. If the sun's rays had reached her obliquely the
+shadow then thrown would have made the high mountains stand out. They
+could have seen the gaping craters and the capricious furrows that cut
+up the immense plains. But all relief was levelled in the intense
+brilliancy. Those large spots that give the appearance of a human face
+to the moon were scarcely distinguishable.
+
+"It may be a face," said Michel Ardan, "but I am sorry for the amiable
+sister of Apollo, her face is so freckled!"
+
+In the meantime the travellers so near their goal ceaselessly watched
+this new world. Their imagination made them take walks over these
+unknown countries. They climbed the elevated peaks. They descended to
+the bottom of the large amphitheatres. Here and there they thought they
+saw vast seas scarcely kept together under an atmosphere so rarefied,
+and streams of water that poured them their tribute from the mountains.
+Leaning over the abyss they hoped to catch the noise of this orb for
+ever mute in the solitudes of the void.
+
+This last day left them the liveliest remembrances. They noted down the
+least details. A vague uneasiness took possession of them as they
+approached their goal. This uneasiness would have been doubled if they
+had felt how slight their speed was. It appeared quite insufficient to
+take them to the end of their journey. This was because the projectile
+scarcely "weighed" anything. Its weight constantly decreased, and would
+be entirely annihilated on that line where the lunar and terrestrial
+attractions neutralise each other, causing surprising effects.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of his preoccupations, Michel Ardan did not
+forget to prepare the morning meal with his habitual punctuality. They
+ate heartily. Nothing was more excellent than their broth liquefied by
+the heat of the gas. Nothing better than these preserved meats. A few
+glasses of good French wine crowned the repast, and caused Michel Ardan
+to remark that the lunar vines, warmed by this ardent sun, ought to
+distil the most generous wines--that is, if they existed. Any way, the
+far-seeing Frenchman had taken care not to forget in his collection some
+precious cuttings of the Médoc and Côte d'Or, upon which he counted
+particularly.
+
+The Reiset and Regnault apparatus always worked with extreme precision.
+The air was kept in a state of perfect purity. Not a particle of
+carbonic acid resisted the potash, and as to the oxygen, that, as
+Captain Nicholl said, was of "first quality." The small amount of
+humidity in the projectile mixed with this air and tempered its dryness,
+and many Paris, London, or New York apartments and many theatres do not
+certainly fulfil hygienic conditions so well.
+
+But in order to work regularly this apparatus had to be kept going
+regularly. Each morning Michel inspected the escape regulators, tried
+the taps, and fixed by the pyrometer the heat of the gas. All had gone
+well so far, and the travellers, imitating the worthy J.T. Maston, began
+to get so stout that they would not be recognisable if their
+imprisonment lasted several months. They behaved like chickens in a
+cage--they fattened.
+
+Looking through the port lights Barbicane saw the spectre of the
+dog, and the different objects thrown out of the projectile, which
+obstinately accompanied it. Diana howled lamentably when she perceived
+the remains of Satellite. All the things seemed as motionless as if they
+had rested upon solid ground.
+
+"Do you know, my friends," said Michel Ardan, "that if one of us had
+succumbed to the recoil shock at departure we should have been much
+embarrassed as to how to get rid of him? You see the accusing corpse
+would have followed us in space like remorse!"
+
+"That would have been sad," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah!" continued Michel, "what I regret is our not being able to take a
+walk outside. What delight it would be to float in this radiant ether,
+to bathe in these pure rays of the sun! If Barbicane had only thought of
+furnishing us with diving-dresses and air-pumps I should have ventured
+outside, and have assumed the attitude of a flying-horse on the summit
+of the projectile."
+
+"Ah, old fellow!" answered Barbicane, "you would not have stayed there
+long in spite of your diving-dress; you would have burst like an obus by
+the expansion of air inside you, or rather like a balloon that goes up
+too high. So regret nothing, and do not forget this: while we are moving
+in the void you must do without any sentimental promenade out of the
+projectile."
+
+Michel Ardan allowed himself to be convinced in a certain measure. He
+agreed that the thing was difficult, but not "impossible;" that was a
+word he never uttered.
+
+The conversation passed from this subject to another, and never
+languished an instant. It seemed to the three friends that under these
+conditions ideas came into their heads like leaves in the first warm
+days of spring.
+
+Amidst the questions and answers that crossed each other during this
+morning, Nicholl asked one that did not get an immediate solution.
+
+"I say," said he, "it is all very well to go to the moon, but how shall
+we get back again?"
+
+"What do you mean by that, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane gravely.
+
+"It seems to me very inopportune to ask about getting away from a
+country before you get to it," added Michel.
+
+"I don't ask that question because I want to draw back, but I repeat my
+question, and ask, 'How shall we get back?'"
+
+"I have not the least idea," answered Barbicane.
+
+"And as for me," said Michel, "if I had known how to come back I should
+not have gone."
+
+"That is what you call answering," cried Nicholl.
+
+"I approve of Michel's words, and add that the question has no actual
+interest. We will think about that later on, when we want to return.
+Though the Columbiad will not be there, the projectile will."
+
+"Much good that will be, a bullet without a gun!"
+
+"A gun can be made, and so can powder! Neither metal, saltpetre, nor
+coal can be wanting in the bowels of the moon. Besides, in order to
+return you have only the lunar attraction to conquer, and you will only
+have 8,000 leagues to go so as to fall on the terrestrial globe by the
+simple laws of weight."
+
+"That is enough," said Michel, getting animated. "Let us hear no more
+about returning. As to communicating with our ancient colleagues upon
+earth, that will not be difficult."
+
+"How are we to do that, pray?"
+
+"By means of meteors hurled by the lunar volcanoes."
+
+"A good idea, Michel," answered Barbicane. "Laplace has calculated that
+a force five times superior to that of our cannons would suffice to send
+a meteor from the moon to the earth. Now there is no volcano that has
+not a superior force of propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Michel. "Meteors will be convenient postmen and will not
+cost anything! And how we shall laugh at the postal service! But now I
+think--"
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"A superb idea! Why did we not fasten a telegraph wire to our bullet? We
+could have exchanged telegrams with the earth!"
+
+"And the weight of a wire 86,000 leagues long," answered Nicholl, "does
+that go for nothing?"
+
+"Yes, for nothing! We should have trebled the charge of the Columbiad!
+We could have made it four times--five times--greater!" cried Michel,
+whose voice became more and more violent.
+
+"There is a slight objection to make to your project," answered
+Barbicane. "It is that during the movement of rotation of the globe our
+wire would have been rolled round it like a chain round a windlass, and
+it would inevitably have dragged us down to the earth again."
+
+"By the thirty-nine stars of the Union!" said Michel, "I have nothing
+but impracticable ideas to-day--ideas worthy of J.T. Maston! But now I
+think of it, if we do not return to earth J.T. Maston will certainly
+come to us!"
+
+"Yes! he will come," replied Barbicane; "he is a worthy and courageous
+comrade. Besides, what could be easier? Is not the Columbiad still lying
+in Floridian soil? Is cotton and nitric acid wanting wherewith to
+manufacture the projectile? Will not the moon again pass the zenith of
+Florida? In another eighteen years will she not occupy exactly the same
+place that she occupies to-day?"
+
+"Yes," repeated Michel--"yes, Maston will come, and with him our friends
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and all the members of the Gun Club, and they
+will be welcome! Later on trains of projectiles will be established
+between the earth and the moon! Hurrah for J.T. Maston!"
+
+It is probable that if the Honourable J.T. Maston did not hear the
+hurrahs uttered in his honour his ears tingled at least. What was he
+doing then? He was no doubt stationed in the Rocky Mountains at Long's
+Peak, trying to discover the invisible bullet gravitating in space. If
+he was thinking of his dear companions it must be acknowledged that they
+were not behindhand with him, and that, under the influence of singular
+exaltation, they consecrated their best thoughts to him.
+
+But whence came the animation that grew visibly greater in the
+inhabitants of the projectile? Their sobriety could not be questioned.
+Must this strange erethismus of the brain be attributed to the
+exceptional circumstances of the time, to that proximity of the Queen of
+Night from which a few hours only separated them, or to some secret
+influence of the moon acting on their nervous system? Their faces became
+as red as if exposed to the reverberation of a furnace; their
+respiration became more active, and their lungs played like
+forge-bellows; their eyes shone with extraordinary flame, and their
+voices became formidably loud, their words escaped like a champagne-cork
+driven forth by carbonic acid gas; their gestures became disquieting,
+they wanted so much room to perform them in. And, strange to say, they
+in no wise perceived this excessive tension of the mind.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl in a sharp tone--"now that I do not know whether we
+shall come back from the moon, I will know what we are going there for!"
+
+"What we are going there for!" answered Barbicane, stamping as if he
+were in a fencing-room; "I don't know."
+
+"You don't know!" cried Michel with a shout that provoked a sonorous
+echo in the projectile.
+
+"No, I have not the least idea!" answered Barbicane, shouting in unison
+with his interlocutor.
+
+"Well, then, I know," answered Michel.
+
+"Speak, then," said Nicholl, who could no longer restrain the angry
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I shall speak if it suits me!" cried Michel, violently seizing his
+companion's arm. "It must suit you!" said Barbicane, with eyes on fire
+and threatening hands. "It was you who drew us into this terrible
+journey, and we wish to know why!"
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "now I don't know where I am going, I will know
+why I am going."
+
+"Why?" cried Michel, jumping a yard high--"why? To take possession of
+the moon in the name of the United States! To add a fortieth State to
+the Union! To colonise the lunar regions, to cultivate them, people
+them, to take them all the wonders of art, science, and industry! To
+civilise the Selenites, unless they are more civilised than we are, and
+to make them into a republic if they have not already done it for
+themselves!"
+
+"If there are any Selenites!" answered Nicholl, who under the empire of
+this inexplicable intoxication became very contradictory.
+
+"Who says there are no Selenites?" cried Michel in a threatening tone.
+
+"I do!" shouted Nicholl.
+
+"Captain," said Michel, "do not repeat that insult or I will knock your
+teeth down your throat!"
+
+The two adversaries were about to rush upon one another, and this
+incoherent discussion was threatening to degenerate into a battle, when
+Barbicane interfered.
+
+"Stop, unhappy men," said he, putting his two companions back to back,
+"if there are no Selenites, we will do without them!"
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Michel, who did not care more about them than that. "We
+have nothing to do with the Selenites! Bother the Selenites!"
+
+"The empire of the moon shall be ours," said Nicholl. "Let us found a
+Republic of three!"
+
+"I shall be the Congress," cried Michel.
+
+"And I the Senate," answered Nicholl.
+
+"And Barbicane the President," shouted Michel.
+
+"No President elected by the nation!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, then, a President elected by the Congress," exclaimed Michel;
+"and as I am the Congress I elect you unanimously."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah for President Barbicane!" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"Hip--hip--hip! hurrah!" vociferated Michel Ardan.
+
+Then the President and Senate struck up "Yankee Doodle" as loudly as
+they could, whilst the Congress shouted the virile "Marseillaise."
+
+Then began a frantic dance with maniacal gestures, mad stamping, and
+somersaults of boneless clowns. Diana took part in the dance, howling
+too, and jumped to the very roof of the projectile. An inexplicable
+flapping of wings and cock-crows of singular sonority were heard. Five
+or six fowls flew about striking the walls like mad bats.
+
+Then the three travelling companions, whose lungs were disorganised
+under some incomprehensible influence, more than intoxicated, burnt by
+the air that had set their breathing apparatus on fire, fell motionless
+upon the bottom of the projectile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the cause of that singular intoxication, the
+consequences of which might prove so disastrous? Simply carelessness on
+Michel's part, which Nicholl was able to remedy in time.
+
+After a veritable swoon, which lasted a few minutes, the captain, who
+was the first to regain consciousness, soon collected his intellectual
+faculties.
+
+Although he had breakfasted two hours before, he began to feel as hungry
+as if he had not tasted food for several days. His whole being, his
+brain and stomach, were excited to the highest point.
+
+He rose, therefore, and demanded a supplementary collation from Michel,
+who was still unconscious, and did not answer. Nicholl, therefore,
+proceeded to prepare some cups of tea, in order to facilitate the
+absorption of a dozen sandwiches. He busied himself first with lighting
+a fire, and so struck a match.
+
+What was his surprise to see the sulphur burn with extraordinary and
+almost unbearable brilliancy! From the jet of gas he lighted rose a
+flame equal to floods of electric light.
+
+A revelation took place in Nicholl's mind. This intensity of light, the
+physiological disturbance in himself, the extra excitement of all his
+moral and sensitive faculties--he understood it all.
+
+"The oxygen!" he exclaimed.
+
+And leaning over the air-apparatus, he saw that the tap was giving out a
+flood of colourless, savourless, and odourless gas, eminently vital, but
+which in a pure state produces the gravest disorders in the
+constitution. Through carelessness Michel had left the tap full on.
+Nicholl made haste to turn off this flow of oxygen with which the
+atmosphere was saturated, and which would have caused the death of the
+travellers, not by suffocation, but by combustion.
+
+An hour afterwards the air was relieved, and gave their normal play to
+the lungs. By degrees the three friends recovered from their
+intoxication; but they were obliged to recover from their oxygen like a
+drunkard from his wine.
+
+When Michel knew his share of responsibility in this incident he did not
+appear in the least disconcerted. This unexpected intoxication broke the
+monotony of the journey. Many foolish things had been said under its
+influence, but they had been forgotten as soon as said.
+
+"Then," added the merry Frenchman, "I am not sorry for having
+experienced the effect of this captious gas. Do you know, my friends,
+that there might be a curious establishment set up with oxygen-rooms,
+where people whose constitutions are weak might live a more active life
+during a few hours at least? Suppose we had meetings where the air could
+be saturated with this heroic fluid, theatres where the managers would
+send it out in strong doses, what passion there would be in the souls of
+actors and spectators, what fire and what enthusiasm! And if, instead of
+a simple assembly, a whole nation could be saturated with it, what
+activity, what a supplement of life it would receive! Of an exhausted
+nation it perhaps would make a great and strong nation, and I know more
+than one state in old Europe that ought to put itself under the oxygen
+_régime_ in the interest of its health."
+
+Michel spoke with as much animation as if the tap were still full on.
+But with one sentence Barbicane damped his enthusiasm.
+
+"All that is very well, friend Michel," he said, "but now perhaps you
+will tell us where those fowls that joined in our concert came from."
+
+"Those fowls?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+In fact, half-a-dozen hens and a superb cock were flying hither and
+thither.
+
+"Ah, the stupids!" cried Michel. "It was the oxygen that put them in
+revolt."
+
+"But what are you going to do with those fowls?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Acclimatise them in the moon of course! For the sake of a joke, my
+worthy president; simply a joke that has unhappily come to nothing! I
+wanted to let them out on the lunar continent without telling you! How
+astounded you would have been to see these terrestrial poultry pecking
+the fields of the moon!"
+
+"Ah, _gamin_, you eternal boy!" answered Barbicane, "you don't want
+oxygen to make you out of your senses! You are always what we were under
+the influence of this gas! You are always insane!"
+
+"Ah! how do we know we were not wiser then?" replied Michel Ardan.
+
+After this philosophical reflection the three friends repaired the
+disorder in the projectile. Cock and hens were put back in their cage.
+But as they were doing this Barbicane and his two companions distinctly
+perceived a fresh phenomenon.
+
+Since the moment they had left the earth their own weight, that of the
+bullet and the objects it contained, had suffered progressive
+diminution. Though they could not have any experience of this in the
+projectile, a moment must come when the effect upon themselves and the
+tools and instruments they used would be felt.
+
+Of course scales would not have indicated this loss of weight, for the
+weights used would have lost precisely as much as the object itself; but
+a spring weighing-machine, the tension of which is independent of
+attraction, would have given the exact valuation of this diminution.
+
+It is well known that attraction, or weight, is in proportion to the
+bulk, and in inverse proportion to the square of distances. Hence this
+consequence. If the earth had been alone in space, if the other heavenly
+bodies were to be suddenly annihilated, the projectile, according to
+Newton's law, would have weighed less according to its distance from the
+earth, but without ever losing its weight entirely, for the terrestrial
+attraction would always have made itself felt, no matter at what
+distance.
+
+But in the case with which we are dealing, a moment must come when the
+projectile would not be at all under the law of gravitation, after
+allowing for the other celestial bodies, whose effect could not be set
+down as zero.
+
+In fact, the trajectory of the projectile was between the earth and the
+moon. As it went farther away from the earth terrestrial attraction
+would be diminished in inverse proportion to the square of distances,
+but the lunar attraction would be augmented in the same proportion. A
+point must, therefore, be reached where these two attractions would
+neutralise each other, and the bullet would have no weight at all. If
+the volumes of the moon and earth were equal, this point would have been
+reached at an equal distance between the two bodies. But by taking their
+difference of bulk into account it was easy to calculate that this
+point would be situated at 47/52 of the journey, or at 78,114 leagues
+from the earth.
+
+At this point a body that had no principle of velocity or movement in
+itself would remain eternally motionless, being equally attracted by the
+two heavenly bodies, and nothing drawing it more towards one than the
+other.
+
+Now if the force of impulsion had been exactly calculated the projectile
+ought to reach that point with no velocity, having lost all weight like
+the objects it contained.
+
+What would happen then? Three hypotheses presented themselves.
+
+Either the projectile would have kept some velocity, and passing the
+point of equal attraction, would fall on the moon by virtue of the
+excess of lunar attraction over terrestrial attraction.
+
+Or velocity sufficient to reach the neutral point being wanting, it
+would fall back on the earth by virtue of the excess of terrestrial
+attraction over lunar attraction.
+
+Or lastly, endowed with sufficient velocity to reach the neutral point,
+but insufficient to pass it, it would remain eternally suspended in the
+same place, like the pretended coffin of Mahomet, between the zenith and
+nadir.
+
+Such was the situation, and Barbicane clearly explained the consequences
+to his travelling companions. They were interested to the highest
+degree. How were they to know when they had reached this neutral point,
+situated at 78,114 leagues from the earth, at the precise moment when
+neither they nor the objects contained in the projectile should be in
+any way subject to the laws of weight?
+
+Until now the travellers, though they had remarked that this action
+diminished little by little, had not yet perceived its total absence.
+But that day, about 11 a.m., Nicholl having let a tumbler escape from
+his hand, instead of falling, it remained suspended in the air.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "this is a little amusing chemistry!"
+
+And immediately different objects, weapons, bottles, &c, left to
+themselves, hung suspended as if by miracle. Diana, too, lifted up by
+Michel into space, reproduced, but without trickery, the marvellous
+suspensions effected by Robert-Houdin and Maskelyne and Cook.
+
+The three adventurous companions, surprised and stupefied in spite of
+their scientific reasoning, carried into the domain of the marvellous,
+felt weight go out of their bodies. When they stretched out their arms
+they felt no inclination to drop them. Their heads vacillated on their
+shoulders. Their feet no longer kept at the bottom of the projectile.
+They were like staggering drunkards. Imagination has created men
+deprived of their reflection, others deprived of their shadows! But here
+reality, by the neutrality of active forces, made men in whom nothing
+had any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves.
+
+Suddenly Michel, making a slight spring, left the floor and remained
+suspended in the air like the good monk in Murillo's _Cuisine des
+Anges_. His two friends joined him in an instant, and all three, in the
+centre of the projectile, figured a miraculous ascension.
+
+"Is it believable? Is it likely? Is it possible?" cried Michel. "No. And
+yet it exists! Ah! if Raphael could have seen us like this what an
+Assumption he could have put upon canvas!"
+
+"The Assumption cannot last," answered Barbicane. "If the projectile
+passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to the
+moon."
+
+"Then our feet will rest upon the roof of the projectile,' answered
+Michel.
+
+"No," said Barbicane, "because the centre of gravity in the projectile
+is very low, and it will turn over gradually."
+
+"Then all our things will be turned upside down for certain!"
+
+"Do not alarm yourself, Michel," answered Nicholl. "There is nothing of
+the kind to be feared. Not an object will move; the projectile will turn
+insensibly."
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when it has cleared the point of equal
+attraction, its bottom, relatively heavier, will drag it perpendicularly
+down to the moon. But in order that such a phenomenon should take place
+we must pass the neutral line."
+
+"Passing the neutral line!" cried Michel. "Then let us do like the
+sailors who pass the equator--let us water our passage!"
+
+A slight side movement took Michel to the padded wall. Thence he took a
+bottle and glasses, placed them "in space" before his companions, and
+merrily touching glasses, they saluted the line with a triple hurrah.
+
+This influence of the attractions lasted scarcely an hour. The
+travellers saw themselves insensibly lowered towards the bottom, and
+Barbicane thought he remarked that the conical end of the projectile
+deviated slightly from the normal direction towards the moon. By an
+inverse movement the bottom side approached it. Lunar attraction was
+therefore gaining over terrestrial attraction. The fall towards the moon
+began, insensibly as yet; it could only be that of a millimetre (0.03937
+inch), and a third in the first second. But the attractive force would
+gradually increase, the fall would be more accentuated, the projectile,
+dragged down by its bottom side, would present its cone to the earth,
+and would fall with increasing velocity until it reached the Selenite
+surface. Now nothing could prevent the success of the enterprise, and
+Nicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane's joy.
+
+Then they chatted about all the phenomena that had astounded them one
+after another, especially about the neutralisation of the laws of
+weight. Michel Ardan, always full of enthusiasm, wished to deduce
+consequences which were only pure imagination.
+
+"Ah! my worthy friends," he cried, "what progress we should make could
+we but get rid upon earth of this weight, this chain that rivets us to
+her! It would be the prisoner restored to liberty! There would be no
+more weariness either in arms or legs. And if it is true that, in order
+to fly upon the surface of the earth, to sustain yourself in the air by
+a simple action of the muscles, it would take a force 150 times superior
+to that we possess, a simple act of will, a caprice, would transport us
+into space, and attraction would not exist."
+
+"In fact," said Nicholl, laughing, "if they succeeded in suppressing
+gravitation, like pain is suppressed by anaesthesia, it would change the
+face of modern society!"
+
+"Yes," cried Michel, full of his subject, "let us destroy weight and
+have no more burdens! No more cranes, screw-jacks, windlasses, cranks,
+or other machines will be wanted."
+
+"Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight nothing
+would keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel;
+nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight! Not
+even ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence of
+weight. Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held in
+equilibrium by terrestrial attraction. Lastly, not even the atmosphere,
+the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperse
+into space!"
+
+"That is a pity," replied Michel. "There is nothing like positive people
+for recalling you brutally to reality!"
+
+"Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel," resumed Barbicane, "for if no
+star could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are at
+least going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth."
+
+"The moon?"
+
+"Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times less
+than upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy to
+demonstrate."
+
+"And shall we perceive it?" asked Michel. "Evidently, for 400 lbs. only
+weigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Will not our muscular strength be diminished?"
+
+"Not at all. Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six."
+
+"Then we shall be Hercules in the moon," cried Michel.
+
+"Yes," replied Nicholl, "and the more so because if the height of the
+Selenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will be
+hardly a foot high."
+
+"Liliputians!" replied Michel. "Then I am going to play the _rôle_ of
+Gulliver! We shall realise the fable of the giants! That is the
+advantage of leaving one's own planet to visit the solar world!"
+
+"But if you want to play Gulliver," answered Barbicane, "only visit the
+inferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is rather
+less than that of the earth. But do not venture into the big planets,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the _rôles_ would be
+inverted, and you would become Liliputian."
+
+"And in the sun?"
+
+"In the sun, though its density is four times less than that of the
+earth, its volume is thirteen hundred and twenty-four thousand times
+greater, and gravitation there is twenty-seven times greater than upon
+the surface of our globe. Every proportion kept, the inhabitants ought
+on an average to be two hundred feet high."
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Michel. "I should only be a pigmy!"
+
+"Gulliver amongst the giants," said Nicholl.
+
+"Just so," answered Barbicane.
+
+"It would not have been a bad thing to carry some pieces of artillery to
+defend oneself with."
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane; "your bullets would have no effect on the
+sun, and they would fall to the ground in a few minutes."
+
+"That's saying a great deal!"
+
+"It is a fact," answered Barbicane. "Gravitation is so great on that
+enormous planet that an object weighing 70 lbs. on the earth would weigh
+1,930 lbs. on the surface of the sun. Your hat would weigh 20 lbs.! your
+cigar 1/2 lb.! Lastly, if you fell on the solar continent your weight
+would be so great--about 5,000 lbs.--that you could not get up again."
+
+"The devil!" said Michel, "I should have to carry about a portable
+crane! Well, my friends, let us be content with the moon for to-day.
+There, at least, we shall cut a great figure! Later on we shall see if
+we will go to the sun, where you can't drink without a crane to lift the
+glass to your mouth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION.
+
+
+Barbicane had now no fear, if not about the issue of the journey, at
+least about the projectile's force of impulsion. Its own speed would
+carry it beyond the neutral line. Therefore it would not return to the
+earth nor remain motionless upon the point of attraction. One hypothesis
+only remained to be realised, the arrival of the bullet at its goal
+under the action of lunar attraction.
+
+In reality it was a fall of 8,296 leagues upon a planet, it is true,
+where the gravity is six times less than upon the earth. Nevertheless it
+would be a terrible fall, and one against which all precautions ought to
+be taken without delay.
+
+These precautions were of two sorts; some were for the purpose of
+deadening the shock at the moment the projectile would touch lunar
+ground; others were to retard the shock, and so make it less violent.
+
+In order to deaden the shock, it was a pity that Barbicane was no longer
+able to employ the means that had so usefully weakened the shock at
+departure--that is to say, the water used as a spring and the movable
+partitions. The partitions still existed, but water was wanting, for
+they could not use the reserve for this purpose--that would be precious
+in case the liquid element should fail on the lunar soil.
+
+Besides, this reserve would not have been sufficient for a spring. The
+layer of water stored in the projectile at their departure, and on which
+lay the waterproof disc, occupied no less than three feet in depth, and
+spread over a surface of not less than fifty-four feet square. Now the
+receptacles did not contain the fifth part of that. They were therefore
+obliged to give up this effectual means of deadening the shock.
+
+Fortunately Barbicane, not content with employing water, had furnished
+the movable disc with strong spring buffers, destined to lessen the
+shock against the bottom, after breaking the horizontal partitions.
+These buffers were still in existence; they had only to be fitted on and
+the movable disc put in its place. All these pieces, easy to handle, as
+they weighed scarcely anything, could be rapidly mounted.
+
+This was done. The different pieces were adjusted without difficulty. It
+was only a matter of bolts and screws. There were plenty of tools. The
+disc was soon fixed on its steel buffers like a table on its legs. One
+inconvenience resulted from this arrangement. The lower port-hole was
+covered, and it would be impossible for the travellers to observe the
+moon through that opening whilst they were being precipitated
+perpendicularly upon her. But they were obliged to give it up. Besides,
+through the lateral openings they could still perceive the vast lunar
+regions, like the earth is seen from the car of a balloon.
+
+This placing of the disc took an hour's work. It was more than noon when
+the preparations were completed. Barbicane made fresh observations on
+the inclination of the projectile, but to his great vexation it had not
+turned sufficiently for a fall; it appeared to be describing a curve
+parallel with the lunar disc. The Queen of Night was shining splendidly
+in space, whilst opposite the orb of day was setting her on fire with
+his rays.
+
+This situation soon became an anxious one.
+
+"Shall we get there?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We must act as though we should," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You are faint-hearted fellows," replied Michel Ardan. "We shall get
+there, and quicker than we want."
+
+This answer recalled Barbicane to his preparations, and he occupied
+himself with placing the contrivances destined to retard the fall.
+
+It will be remembered that, at the meeting held in Tampa Town, Florida,
+Captain Nicholl appeared as Barbicane's enemy, and Michel Ardan's
+adversary. When Captain Nicholl said that the projectile would be broken
+like glass, Michel answered that he would retard the fall by means of
+fusees properly arranged.
+
+In fact, powerful fusees, resting upon the bottom, and being fired
+outside, might, by producing a recoil action, lessen the speed of the
+bullet. These fusees were to burn in the void it is true, but oxygen
+would not fail them, for they would furnish that themselves like the
+lunar volcanoes, the deflagration of which has never been prevented by
+the want of atmosphere around the moon.
+
+Barbicane had therefore provided himself with fireworks shut up in
+little cannons of bored steel, which could be screwed on to the bottom
+of the projectile. Inside these cannons were level with the bottom;
+outside they went half a foot beyond it. There were twenty of them. An
+opening in the disc allowed them to light the match with which each was
+provided. All the effect took place outside. The exploding mixture had
+been already rammed into each gun. All they had to do, therefore, was to
+take up the metallic buffers fixed in the base, and to put these cannons
+in their place, where they fitted exactly.
+
+This fresh work was ended about 3 p.m., and all precaution taken they
+had now nothing to do but to wait.
+
+In the meantime the projectile visibly drew nearer the moon. It was,
+therefore, submitted in some proportion to its influence; but its own
+velocity also inclined it in an oblique line. Perhaps the result of
+these two influences would be a line that would become a tangent. But it
+was certain that the projectile was not falling normally upon the
+surface of the moon, for its base, by reason of its weight, ought to
+have been turned towards her.
+
+Barbicane's anxiety was increased on seeing that his bullet resisted the
+influence of gravitation. It was the unknown that was before him--the
+unknown of the interstellar regions. He, the _savant_, believed that he
+had foreseen the only three hypotheses that were possible--the return to
+the earth, the fall upon the moon, or stagnation upon the neutral line!
+And here a fourth hypothesis, full of all the terrors of the infinite,
+cropped up inopportunely. To face it without flinching took a resolute
+_savant_ like Barbicane, a phlegmatic being like Nicholl, or an
+audacious adventurer like Michel Ardan.
+
+Conversation was started on this subject. Other men would have
+considered the question from a practical point of view. They would have
+wondered where the projectile would take them to. Not they, however.
+They sought the cause that had produced this effect.
+
+"So we are off the line," said Michel. "But how is that?"
+
+"I am very much afraid," answered Nicholl, "that notwithstanding all the
+precautions that were taken, the Columbiad was not aimed correctly. The
+slightest error would suffice to throw us outside the pale of lunar
+attraction."
+
+"Then the cannon was pointed badly?" said Michel.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "The cannon was rigorously
+perpendicular, and its direction towards the zenith of the place was
+incontestable. The moon passing the zenith, we ought to have reached her
+at the full. There is another reason, but it escapes me."
+
+"Perhaps we have arrived too late," suggested Nicholl.
+
+"Too late?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Nicholl. "The notice from the Cambridge Observatory said
+that the transit ought to be accomplished in ninety-seven hours thirteen
+minutes and twenty seconds. That means that before that time the moon
+would not have reached the point indicated, and after she would have
+passed it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Barbicane. "But we started on the 1st of December at
+11h. 13m. 25s. p.m., and we ought to arrive at midnight on the 5th,
+precisely as the moon is full. Now this is the 5th of December. It is
+half-past three, and eight hours and a half ought to be sufficient to
+take us to our goal. Why are we not going towards it?"
+
+"Perhaps the velocity was greater than it ought to have been," answered
+Nicholl, "for we know now that the initial velocity was greater than it
+was supposed to be."
+
+"No! a hundred times no!" replied Barbicane. "An excess of velocity,
+supposing the direction of the projectile to have been correct, would
+not have prevented us reaching the moon. No! There has been a deviation.
+We have deviated!"
+
+"Through whom? through what?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, Barbicane," then said Michel, "should you like to know what I
+think about why we have deviated?"
+
+"Say what you think."
+
+"I would not give half a dollar to know! We have deviated, that is a
+fact. It does not matter much where we are going. We shall soon find
+out. As we are being carried along into space we shall end by falling
+into some centre of attraction or another."
+
+Barbicane could not be contented with this indifference of Michel
+Ardan's. Not that he was anxious about the future. But what he wanted to
+know, at any price, was why his projectile had deviated.
+
+In the meantime the projectile kept on its course sideways to the moon,
+and the objects thrown out along with it. Barbicane could even prove by
+the landmarks upon the moon, which was only at 2,000 leagues' distance,
+that its speed was becoming uniform--a fresh proof that they were not
+falling. Its force of impulsion was prevailing over the lunar
+attraction, but the trajectory of the projectile was certainly taking
+them nearer the lunar disc, and it might be hoped that at a nearer point
+the weight would predominate and provoke a fall.
+
+The three friends, having nothing better to do, went on with their
+observations. They could not, however, yet determine the topography of
+the satellite. Every relief was levelled under the action of the solar
+rays.
+
+They watched thus through the lateral windows until 8 p.m. The moon then
+looked so large that she hid half the firmament from them. The sun on
+one side, and the Queen of Night on the other, inundated the projectile
+with light.
+
+At that moment Barbicane thought he could estimate at 700 leagues only
+the distance that separated them from their goal. The velocity of the
+projectile appeared to him to be 200 yards a second, or about 170
+leagues an hour. The base of the bullet had a tendency to turn towards
+the moon under the influence of the centripetal force; but the
+centrifugal force still predominated, and it became probable that the
+rectilinear trajectory would change to some curve the nature of which
+could not be determined.
+
+Barbicane still sought the solution of his insoluble problem. The hours
+went by without result. The projectile visibly drew nearer to the moon,
+but it was plain that it would not reach her. The short distance at
+which it would pass her would be the result of two forces, attractive
+and repulsive, which acted upon the projectile.
+
+"I only pray for one thing," repeated Michel, "and that is to pass near
+enough to the moon to penetrate her secrets."
+
+"Confound the cause that made our projectile deviate!" cried Nicholl.
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, as if he had been suddenly struck with an idea,
+"confound that asteroid that crossed our path!"
+
+"Eh?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"I mean," resumed Barbicane, who appeared convinced, "I mean that our
+deviation is solely due to the influence of that wandering body."
+
+"But it did not even graze us," continued Michel.
+
+"What does that matter? Its bulk, compared with that of our projectile,
+was enormous, and its attraction was sufficient to have an influence
+upon our direction."
+
+"That influence must have been very slight," said Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, but slight as it was," answered Barbicane, "upon a
+distance of 84,000 leagues it was enough to make us miss the moon!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON.
+
+
+Barbicane had evidently found the only plausible reason for the
+deviation. However slight it had been, it had been sufficient to modify
+the trajectory of the projectile. It was a fatality. The audacious
+attempt had miscarried by a fortuitous circumstance, and unless anything
+unexpected happened, the lunar disc could no longer be reached. Would
+they pass it near enough to resolve certain problems in physics and
+geology until then unsolved? This was the only question that occupied
+the minds of these bold travellers. As to the fate the future held in
+store for them, they would not even think about it. Yet what was to
+become of them amidst these infinite solitudes when air failed them? A
+few more days and they would fall suffocated in this bullet wandering at
+hazard. But a few days were centuries to these intrepid men, and they
+consecrated every moment to observing the moon they no longer hoped to
+reach.
+
+The distance which then separated the projectile from the satellite was
+estimated at about 200 leagues. Under these conditions, as far as
+regards the visibility of the details of the disc, the travellers were
+farther from the moon than are the inhabitants of the earth with their
+powerful telescopes.
+
+It is, in fact, known that the instrument set up by Lord Rosse at
+Parsonstown, which magnifies 6,500 times, brings the moon to within
+sixteen leagues; and the powerful telescope set up at Long's Peak
+magnifies 48,000 times, and brings the moon to within less than two
+leagues, so that objects twelve yards in diameter were sufficiently
+distinct.
+
+Thus, then, at that distance the topographical details of the moon, seen
+without a telescope, were not distinctly determined. The eye caught the
+outline of those vast depressions inappropriately called "seas," but
+they could not determine their nature. The prominence of the mountains
+disappeared under the splendid irradiation produced by the reflection of
+the solar rays. The eye, dazzled as if leaning over a furnace of molten
+silver, turned from it involuntarily.
+
+However, the oblong form of the orb was already clearly seen.
+
+It appeared like a gigantic egg, with the small end turned towards the
+earth. The moon, liquid and pliable in the first days of her formation,
+was originally a perfect sphere. But soon, drawn within the pale of the
+earth's gravitation, she became elongated under its influence. By
+becoming a satellite she lost her native purity of form; her centre of
+gravity was in advance of the centre of her figure, and from this fact
+some _savants_ draw the conclusion that air and water might have taken
+refuge on the opposite side of the moon, which is never seen from the
+earth.
+
+This alteration in the primitive forms of the satellite was only visible
+for a few moments. The distance between the projectile and the moon
+diminished visibly; its velocity was considerably less than its initial
+velocity, but eight or nine times greater than that of our express
+trains. The oblique direction of the bullet, from its very obliquity,
+left Michel Ardan some hope of touching the lunar disc at some point or
+other. He could not believe that he should not get to it. No, he could
+not believe it, and this he often repeated. But Barbicane, who was a
+better judge, always answered him with pitiless logic.
+
+"No, Michel, no. We can only reach the moon by a fall, and we are not
+falling. The centripetal force keeps us under the moon's influence, but
+the centrifugal force sends us irresistibly away from it."
+
+This was said in a tone that deprived Michel Ardan of his last hopes.
+
+The portion of the moon the projectile was approaching was the northern
+hemisphere. The selenographic maps make it the lower one, because they
+are generally drawn up according to the image given by the telescopes,
+and we know that they reverse the objects. Such was the _Mappa
+Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler which Barbicane consulted. This
+northern hemisphere presented vast plains, relieved by isolated
+mountains.
+
+At midnight the moon was full. At that precise moment the travellers
+ought to have set foot upon her if the unlucky asteroid had not made
+them deviate from their direction. The orb was exactly in the condition
+rigorously determined by the Cambridge Observatory. She was
+mathematically at her perigee, and at the zenith of the twenty-eighth
+parallel. An observer placed at the bottom of the enormous Columbiad
+while it is pointed perpendicularly at the horizon would have framed the
+moon in the mouth of the cannon. A straight line drawn through the axis
+of the piece would have passed through the centre of the moon.
+
+It need hardly be stated that during the night between the 5th and 6th
+of December the travellers did not take a minute's rest. Could they have
+closed their eyes so near to a new world? No. All their feelings were
+concentrated in one thought--to see! Representatives of the earth, of
+humanity past and present, all concentrated in themselves, it was
+through their eyes that the human race looked at these lunar regions and
+penetrated the secrets of its satellite! A strange emotion filled their
+hearts, and they went silently from one window to another.
+
+Their observations were noted down by Barbicane, and were made
+rigorously exact. To make them they had telescopes. To control them they
+had maps.
+
+The first observer of the moon was Galileo. His poor telescope only
+magnified thirty times. Nevertheless, in the spots that pitted the lunar
+disc "like eyes in a peacock's tail," he was the first to recognise
+mountains, and measure some heights to which he attributed,
+exaggerating, an elevation equal to the 20th of the diameter of the
+disc, or 8,000 metres. Galileo drew up no map of his observations.
+
+A few years later an astronomer of Dantzig, Hevelius--by operations
+which were only exact twice a month, at the first and second
+quadrature--reduced Galileo's heights to one-twenty-sixth only of the
+lunar diameter. This was an exaggeration the other way. But it is to
+this _savant_ that the first map of the moon is due. The light round
+spots there form circular mountains, and the dark spots indicate vast
+seas which, in reality, are plains. To these mountains and extents of
+sea he gave terrestrial denominations. There is a Sinai in the middle of
+an Arabia, Etna in the centre of Sicily, the Alps, Apennines,
+Carpathians, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Caspian, &c.--names
+badly applied, for neither mountains nor seas recalled the configuration
+of their namesakes on the globe. That large white spot, joined on the
+south to vaster continents and terminated in a point, could hardly be
+recognised as the inverted image of the Indian Peninsula, the Bay of
+Bengal, and Cochin-China. So these names were not kept. Another
+chartographer, knowing human nature better, proposed a fresh
+nomenclature, which human vanity made haste to adopt.
+
+This observer was Father Riccioli, a contemporary of Hevelius. He drew
+up a rough map full of errors. But he gave to the lunar mountains the
+names of great men of antiquity and _savants_ of his own epoch.
+
+A third map of the moon was executed in the seventeenth century by
+Dominique Cassini; superior to that of Riccioli in the execution, it is
+inexact in the measurements. Several smaller copies were published, but
+the plate long kept in the _Imprimerie Nationale_ was sold by weight as
+old brass.
+
+La Hire, a celebrated mathematician and designer, drew up a map of the
+moon four and a half yards high, which was never engraved.
+
+After him, a German astronomer, Tobie Marger, about the middle of the
+eighteenth century, began the publication of a magnificent selenographic
+map, according to lunar measures, which he rigorously verified; but his
+death, which took place in 1762, prevented the termination of this
+beautiful work.
+
+It was in 1830 that Messrs. Boeer and Moedler composed their celebrated
+_Mappa Selenographica_, according to an orthographical projection. This
+map reproduces the exact lunar disc, such as it appears, only the
+configurations of the mountains and plains are only correct in the
+central part; everywhere else--in the northern or southern portions,
+eastern or western--the configurations foreshortened cannot be compared
+with those of the centre. This topographical map, one yard high and
+divided into four parts, is a masterpiece of lunar chartography.
+
+After these _savants_ may be cited the selenographic reliefs of the
+German astronomer Julius Schmidt, the topographical works of Father
+Secchi, the magnificent sheets of the English amateur, Waren de la Rue,
+and lastly a map on orthographical projection of Messrs. Lecouturier and
+Chapuis, a fine model set up in 1860, of very correct design and clear
+outlines.
+
+Such is the nomenclature of the different maps relating to the lunar
+world. Barbicane possessed two, that of Messrs. Boeer and Moedler and
+that of Messrs. Chapuis and Lecouturier. They were to make his work of
+observer easier.
+
+They had excellent marine glasses specially constructed for this
+journey. They magnified objects a hundred times; they would therefore
+have reduced the distance between the earth and the moon to less than
+1,000 leagues. But then at a distance which towards 3 a.m. did not
+exceed a hundred miles, and in a medium which no atmosphere obstructed,
+these instruments brought the lunar level to less than fifteen hundred
+metres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+IMAGINATION AND REALITY.
+
+
+"Have you ever seen the moon?" a professor asked one of his pupils
+ironically.
+
+"No, sir," answered the pupil more ironically still, "but I have heard
+it spoken of."
+
+In one sense the jocose answer of the pupil might have been made by the
+immense majority of sublunary beings. How many people there are who have
+heard the moon spoken of and have never seen it--at least through a
+telescope! How many even have never examined the map of their satellite!
+
+Looking at a comprehensive selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us
+at once. In contrast to the geographical arrangements of the earth and
+Mars, the continents occupy the more southern hemisphere of the lunar
+globe. These continents have not such clear and regular boundary-lines
+as those of South America, Africa, and the Indian Peninsula. Their
+angular, capricious, and deeply-indented coasts are rich in gulfs and
+peninsulas. They recall the confusion in the islands of the Sound, where
+the earth is excessively cut up. If navigation has ever existed upon the
+surface of the moon it must have been exceedingly difficult and
+dangerous, and the Selenite mariners and hydrographers were greatly to
+be pitied, the former when they came upon these perilous coasts, the
+latter when they were marine surveying on the stormy banks.
+
+It may also be noticed that upon the lunar spheroid the South Pole is
+much more continental than the North Pole. On the latter there is only a
+slight strip of land capping it, separated from the other continents by
+vast seas. (When the word "seas" is used the vast plains probably
+covered by the sea formerly must be understood.) On the south the land
+covers nearly the whole hemisphere. It is, therefore, possible that the
+Selenites have already planted their flag on one of their poles, whilst
+Franklin, Ross, Kane, Dumont d'Urville, and Lambert have been unable to
+reach this unknown point on the terrestrial globe.
+
+Islands are numerous on the surface of the moon. They are almost all
+oblong or circular, as though traced with a compass, and seem to form a
+vast archipelago, like that charming group lying between Greece and Asia
+Minor which mythology formerly animated with its most graceful legends.
+Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, Milo, and Carpathos come into
+the mind, and you seek the ship of Ulysses or the "clipper" of the
+Argonauts. That was what it appeared to Michel Ardan; it was a Grecian
+Archipelago that he saw on the map. In the eyes of his less imaginative
+companions the aspect of these shores recalled rather the cut-up lands
+of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and where the Frenchman looked for
+traces of the heroes of fable, these Americans were noting favourable
+points for the establishment of mercantile houses in the interest of
+lunar commerce and industry.
+
+Some remarks on the orographical disposition of the moon must conclude
+the description of its continents, chains of mountains, isolated
+mountains, amphitheatres, and watercourses. The moon is like an immense
+Switzerland--a continual Norway, where Plutonic influence has done
+everything. This surface, so profoundly rugged, is the result of the
+successive contractions of the crust while the orb was being formed. The
+lunar disc is propitious for the study of great geological phenomena.
+According to the remarks of some astronomers, its surface, although more
+ancient than the surface of the earth, has remained newer. There there
+is no water to deteriorate the primitive relief, the continuous action
+of which produces a sort of general levelling. No air, the decomposing
+influence of which modifies orographical profiles. There Pluto's work,
+unaltered by Neptune's, is in all its native purity. It is the earth as
+she was before tides and currents covered her with layers of soil.
+
+After having wandered over these vast continents the eye is attracted by
+still vaster seas. Not only does their formation, situation, and aspect
+recall the terrestrial oceans, but, as upon earth, these seas occupy the
+largest part of the globe. And yet these are not liquid tracts, but
+plains, the nature of which the travellers hoped soon to determine.
+
+Astronomers, it must be owned, have decorated these pretended seas with
+at least odd names which science has respected at present. Michel Ardan
+was right when he compared this map to a "map of tenderness," drawn up
+by Scudery or Cyrano de Bergerac.
+
+"Only," added he, "it is no longer the map of sentiment like that of the
+18th century; it is the map of life, clearly divided into two parts, the
+one feminine, the other masculine. To the women, the right hemisphere;
+to the men, the left!"
+
+When he spoke thus Michel made his prosaic companions shrug their
+shoulders. Barbicane and Nicholl looked at the lunar map from another
+point of view to that of their imaginative friend. However, their
+imaginative friend had some reason on his side. Judge if he had not.
+
+In the left hemisphere stretches the "Sea of Clouds," where human reason
+is so often drowned. Not far off appears the "Sea of Rains," fed by all
+the worries of existence. Near lies the "Sea of Tempests," where man
+struggles incessantly against his too-often victorious passions. Then,
+exhausted by deceptions, treasons, infidelities, and all the procession
+of terrestrial miseries, what does he find at the end of his career? The
+vast "Sea of Humours," scarcely softened by some drops from the waters
+of the "Gulf of Dew!" Clouds, rain, tempests, humours, does the life of
+man contain aught but these? and is it not summed up in these four
+words?
+
+The right-hand hemisphere dedicated to "the women" contains smaller
+seas, the significant names of which agree with every incident of
+feminine existence. There is the "Sea of Serenity," over which bends the
+young maiden, and the "Lake of Dreams," which reflects her back a happy
+future. The "Sea of Nectar," with its waves of tenderness and breezes of
+love! The "Sea of Fecundity," the "Sea of Crises," and the "Sea of
+Vapours," the dimensions of which are, perhaps, too restricted, and
+lastly, that vast "Sea of Tranquillity" where all false passions, all
+useless dreams, all unassuaged desires are absorbed, and the waves of
+which flow peacefully into the "Lake of Death!"
+
+What a strange succession of names! What a singular division of these
+two hemispheres of the moon, united to one another like man and woman,
+and forming a sphere of life, carried through space. And was not the
+imaginative Michel right in thus interpreting the fancies of the old
+astronomers?
+
+But whilst his imagination thus ran riot on the "seas," his grave
+companions were looking at things more geographically. They were
+learning this new world by heart. They were measuring its angles and
+diameters.
+
+To Barbicane and Nicholl the "Sea of Clouds" was an immense depression
+of ground, with circular mountains scattered about on it; covering a
+great part of the western side of the southern hemisphere, it covered
+184,800 square leagues, and its centre was in south latitude 15°, and
+west longitude 20°. The Ocean of Tempests, _Oceanus Procellarum_, the
+largest plain on the lunar disc, covered a surface of 328,300 square
+leagues, its centre being in north latitude 10°, and east longitude 45°.
+From its bosom emerge the admirable shining mountains of Kepler and
+Aristarchus.
+
+More to the north, and separated from the Sea of Clouds by high chains
+of mountains, extends the Sea of Rains, _Mare Imbrium_, having its
+central point in north latitude 35° and east longitude 20°; it is of a
+nearly circular form, and covers a space of 193,000 leagues. Not far
+distant the Sea of Humours, _Mare Humorum_, a little basin of 44,200
+square leagues only, was situated in south latitude 25°, and east
+longitude 40°. Lastly, three gulfs lie on the coast of this
+hemisphere--the Torrid Gulf, the Gulf of Dew, and the Gulf of Iris,
+little plains inclosed by high chains of mountains.
+
+The "Feminine" hemisphere, naturally more capricious, was distinguished
+by smaller and more numerous seas. These were, towards the north, the
+_Mare Frigoris_, in north latitude 55° and longitude 0°, with 76,000
+square leagues of surface, which joined the Lake of Death and Lake of
+Dreams; the Sea of Serenity, _Mare Serenitatis_, by north latitude 25°
+and west longitude 20°, comprising a surface of 80,000 square leagues;
+the Sea of Crises, _Mare Crisium_, round and very compact, in north
+latitude 17° and west longitude 55°, a surface of 40,000 square leagues,
+a veritable Caspian buried in a girdle of mountains. Then on the
+equator, in north latitude 5° and west longitude 25°, appeared the Sea
+of Tranquillity, _Mare Tranquillitatis_, occupying 121,509 square
+leagues of surface; this sea communicated on the south with the Sea of
+Nectar, _Mare Nectaris_, an extent of 28,800 square leagues, in south
+latitude 15° and west longitude 35°, and on the east with the Sea of
+Fecundity, _Mare Fecunditatis_, the vastest in this hemisphere,
+occupying 219,300 square leagues, in south latitude 3° and west
+longitude 50°. Lastly, quite to the north and quite to the south lie two
+more seas, the Sea of Humboldt, _Mare Humboldtianum_, with a surface of
+6,500 square leagues, and the Southern Sea, _Mare Australe_, with a
+surface of 26,000.
+
+In the centre of the lunar disc, across the equator and on the zero
+meridian, lies the centre gulf, _Sinus Medii_, a sort of hyphen between
+the two hemispheres.
+
+Thus appeared to the eyes of Nicholl and Barbicane the surface always
+visible of the earth's satellite. When they added up these different
+figures they found that the surface of this hemisphere measured
+4,738,160 square leagues, 3,317,600 of which go for volcanoes, chains of
+mountains, amphitheatres, islands--in a word, all that seems to form the
+solid portion of the globe--and 1,410,400 leagues for the seas, lake,
+marshes, and all that seems to form the liquid portion, all of which was
+perfectly indifferent to the worthy Michel.
+
+It will be noticed that this hemisphere is thirteen and a-half times
+smaller than the terrestrial hemisphere. And yet upon it selenographers
+have already counted 50,000 craters. It is a rugged surface worthy of
+the unpoetical qualification of "green cheese" which the English have
+given it.
+
+When Barbicane pronounced this disobliging name Michel Ardan gave a
+bound.
+
+"That is how the Anglo-Saxons of the 19th century treat the beautiful
+Diana, the blonde Phoebe, the amiable Isis, the charming Astarte, the
+Queen of Night, the daughter of Latona and Jupiter, the younger sister
+of the radiant Apollo!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It has already been pointed out that the direction followed by the
+projectile was taking us towards the northern hemisphere of the moon.
+The travellers were far from that central point which they ought to have
+touched if their trajectory had not suffered an irremediable deviation.
+
+It was half-past twelve at night. Barbicane then estimated his distance
+at 1,400 kilometres, a distance rather greater than the length of the
+lunar radius, and which must diminish as he drew nearer the North Pole.
+The projectile was then not at the altitude of the equator, but on the
+tenth parallel, and from that latitude carefully observed on the map as
+far as the Pole, Barbicane and his two companions were able to watch the
+moon under the most favourable circumstances.
+
+In fact, by using telescopes, this distance of 1,400 kilometres was
+reduced to fourteen miles, or four and a-half leagues. The telescope of
+the Rocky Mountains brought the moon still nearer, but the terrestrial
+atmosphere singularly lessened its optical power. Thus Barbicane, in his
+projectile, by looking through his glass, could already perceive certain
+details almost imperceptible to observers on the earth.
+
+"My friends," then said the president in a grave voice, "I do not know
+where we are going, nor whether we shall ever see the terrestrial globe
+again. Nevertheless, let us do our work as if one day it would be of use
+to our fellow-creatures. Let us keep our minds free from all
+preoccupation. We are astronomers. This bullet is the Cambridge
+Observatory transported into space. Let us make our observations."
+
+That said, the work was begun with extreme precision, and it faithfully
+reproduced the different aspects of the moon at the variable distances
+which the projectile reached in relation to that orb.
+
+Whilst the bullet was at the altitude of the 10th north parallel it
+seemed to follow the 20th degree of east longitude.
+
+Here may be placed an important remark on the subject of the map which
+they used for their observations. In the selenographic maps, where, on
+account of the reversal of objects by the telescope, the south is at the
+top and the north at the bottom, it seems natural that the east should
+be on the left and the west on the right. However, it is not so. If the
+map were turned upside down, and showed the moon as she appears, the
+east would be left and the west right, the inverse of the terrestrial
+maps. The reason of this anomaly is the following:--Observers situated
+in the northern hemisphere--in Europe, for example--perceive the moon in
+the south from them. When they look at her they turn their backs to the
+north, the opposite position they take when looking at a terrestrial
+map. Their backs being turned to the north, they have the east to the
+left and the west to the right. For observers in the southern
+hemisphere--in Patagonia, for example--the west of the moon would be on
+their left and the east on their right, for the south would be behind
+them.
+
+Such is the reason for the apparent reversal of these two cardinal
+points, and this must be remembered whilst following the observations of
+President Barbicane.
+
+Helped by the _Mappa Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler, the
+travellers could, without hesitating, survey that portion of the disc in
+the field of their telescopes.
+
+"What are we looking at now?" asked Michel.
+
+"At the northern portion of the Sea of Clouds," answered Barbicane. "We
+are too far off to make out its nature. Are those plains composed of
+dry sand, as the first astronomers believed? Or are they only immense
+forests, according to the opinion of Mr. Waren de la Rue, who grants a
+very low but very dense atmosphere to the moon? We shall find that out
+later on. We will affirm nothing till we are quite certain."
+
+"This Sea of Clouds is rather doubtfully traced upon the maps. It is
+supposed that this vast plain is strewn with blocks of lava vomited by
+the neighbouring volcanoes on its right side, Ptolemy, Purbach, and
+Arzachel. The projectile was drawing sensibly nearer, and the summits
+which close in this sea on the north were distinctly visible. In front
+rose a mountain shining gloriously, the top of which seemed drowned in
+the solar rays."
+
+"That mountain is--?" asked Michel.
+
+"Copernicus," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Let us have a look at Copernicus," said Michel.
+
+This mountain, situated in north latitude 9°, and east longitude 20°,
+rises to a height of nearly 11,000 feet above the surface of the moon.
+It is quite visible from the earth, and astronomers can study it with
+ease, especially during the phase between the last quarter and the new
+moon, because then shadows are thrown lengthways from east to west, and
+allow the altitudes to be taken.
+
+Copernicus forms the most important radiating system in the southern
+hemisphere, according to Tycho Brahe. It rises isolated like a gigantic
+lighthouse over that of the Sea of Clouds bordering on the Sea of
+Tempests, and it lights two oceans at once with its splendid rays. Those
+long luminous trails, so dazzling at full moon, made a spectacle without
+an equal; they pass the boundary chains on the north, and stretch as far
+as the Sea of Rains. At 1 a.m., terrestrial time, the projectile, like a
+balloon carried into space, hung over this superb mountain.
+
+Barbicane could perfectly distinguish its chief features. Copernicus is
+comprehended in the series of annular mountains of the first order in
+the division of the large amphitheatres. Like the mountains of Kepler
+and Aristarchus, which overlook the Ocean of Tempests, it appears
+sometimes like a brilliant point through the pale light, and used to be
+taken for a volcano in activity. But it is only an extinct volcano, like
+those on that side of the moon. Its circumference presented a diameter
+of about twenty-two leagues. The glasses showed traces of
+stratifications in it produced by successive eruptions, and its
+neighbourhood appeared strewn with volcanic remains, which were still
+seen in the crater.
+
+"There exist," said Barbicane, "several sorts of amphitheatres an the
+surface of the moon, and it is easy to see that Copernicus belongs to
+the radiating class. If we were nearer it we should perceive the cones
+which bristle in the interior, and which were formerly so many fiery
+mouths. A curious arrangement, and one without exception on the lunar
+disc, is presented on the interior surface of these amphitheatres, being
+notably downward from the exterior plane, a contrary form to that which
+terrestrial craters present. It follows, therefore, that the general
+curvature at the bottom of these amphitheatres gives us fear of an
+inferior diameter to that of the moon."
+
+"What is the reason of this special arrangement?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is not known," answered Barbicane.
+
+"How splendidly it shines!" said Michel. "I think it would be difficult
+to see a more beautiful spectacle!"
+
+"What should you say, then," answered Barbicane, "if the chances of our
+journey should take us towards the southern hemisphere?"
+
+"Well, I should say it is finer still," replied Michel Ardan.
+
+At that moment the projectile hung right over the amphitheatre. The
+circumference of Copernicus formed an almost perfect circle, and its
+steep ramparts were clearly defined. A second circular inclosure could
+even be distinguished. A grey plain of wild aspect spread around on
+which every relief appeared yellow. At the bottom of the amphitheatre,
+as if in a jewel-case, sparkled for one instant two or three eruptive
+cones like enormous dazzling gems. Towards the north the sides of the
+crater were lowered into a depression which would probably have given
+access to the interior of the crater.
+
+As they passed above the surrounding plain Barbicane was able to note a
+large number of mountains of slight importance, amongst others a little
+circular mountain called "Gay-Lussac," more than twenty-three kilometres
+wide. Towards the south the plain was very flat, without one elevation
+or projection of the soil. Towards the north, on the contrary, as far as
+the place where it borders on the Ocean of Tempests, it was like a
+liquid surface agitated by a storm, of which the hills and hollows
+formed a succession of waves suddenly coagulated. Over the whole of
+this, and in all directions, ran the luminous trails which converged to
+the summit of Copernicus. Some had a width of thirty kilometres over a
+length that could not be estimated.
+
+The travellers discussed the origin of these strange rays, but they
+could not determine their nature any better than terrestrial observers.
+
+"Why," said Nicholl, "may not these rays be simply the spurs of the
+mountains reflecting the light of the sun more vividly?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "if it were so in certain conditions of the
+moon they would throw shadows, which they do not."
+
+In fact, these rays only appear when the sun is in opposition with the
+moon, and they disappear as soon as its rays become oblique.
+
+"But what explanation of these trails of light have been imagined?"
+asked Michel, "for I cannot believe that _savants_ would ever stop short
+for want of explanation."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "Herschel has uttered an opinion, but he does
+not affirm it."
+
+"Never mind; what is his opinion?"
+
+"He thought that these rays must be streams of cold lava which shone
+when the sun struck them normally."
+
+"That may be true, but nothing is less certain. However, if we pass
+nearer to Tycho we shall be in a better position to find out the cause
+of this radiation."
+
+"What do you think that plain is like, seen from the height we are at?"
+asked Michel.
+
+"I don't know," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, with all these pieces of lava, sharpened like spindles, it looks
+like 'an immense game of spilikins,' thrown down pell-mell. We only want
+a hook to draw them up."
+
+"Be serious for once in your life," said Barbicane.
+
+"I will be serious," replied Michel tranquilly, "and instead of
+spilikins let us say they are bones. This plain would then be only an
+immense cemetery upon which would repose the immortal remains of a
+thousand distinct generations. Do you like that comparison better?"
+
+"One is as good as the other," answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil! You are difficult to please," replied Michel.
+
+"My worthy friend," resumed the prosaic Barbicane, "it does not matter
+what it looks like when we don't know what it is."
+
+"A good answer," exclaimed Michel; "that will teach me to argue with
+_savants_."
+
+In the meantime the projectile went with almost uniform speed round the
+lunar disc. It may be easily imagined that the travellers did not dream
+of taking a minute's rest. A fresh landscape lay before their eyes every
+instant. About half-past one in the morning they caught a glimpse of the
+summit of another mountain. Barbicane consulted his map, and recognised
+Eratosthenes.
+
+It was a circular mountain 4,500 metres high, one of those amphitheatres
+so numerous upon the satellite. Barbicane informed his friends of
+Kepler's singular opinion upon the formation of these circles.
+According to the celebrated mathematician, these crateriform cavities
+had been dug out by the hand of man.
+
+"What for?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"In order to preserve themselves from the ardour of the solar rays,
+which strike the moon during fifteen consecutive days."
+
+"The Selenites were not fools!" said Michel.
+
+"It was a singular idea!" answered Nicholl. "But it is probable that
+Kepler did not know the real dimensions of these circles, for digging
+them would have been giants' labour, impracticable for Selenites."
+
+"Why so, if the weight on the surface of the moon is six times less than
+upon the surface of the earth?" said Michel.
+
+"But if the Selenites are six times smaller?" replied Nicholl.
+
+"And if there are no Selenites?" added Barbicane, which terminated the
+discussion.
+
+Eratosthenes soon disappeared from the horizon without the projectile
+having been sufficiently near it to allow a rigorous observation. This
+mountain separated the Apennines from the Carpathians.
+
+In lunar orography, several chains of mountains have been distinguished
+which are principally distributed over the northern hemisphere. Some,
+however, occupy certain portions of the southern hemisphere.
+
+The following is a list of these different chains, with their latitudes
+and the height of their highest summits:--
+
+                        deg.   deg.       metres.
+    Mounts Doerfel       84 to  0 S. lat.  7,603
+      "    Leibnitz      65 "   0   "      7,600
+      "    Rook          20 "  30   "      1,600
+      "    Altai         17 "  28   "      4,047
+      "    Cordilleras   10 "  20   "      3,898
+      "    Pyrenees       8 "  18   "      3,631
+      "    Oural          5 "  13   "        838
+      "    Alembert       4 "  10   "      5,847
+      "    Hoemus         8 "  21 N. lat.  2,021
+      "    Carpathians   15 "  19   "      1,939
+      "    Apennines     14 "  27   "      5,501
+      "    Taurus        21 "  28   "      2,746
+      "    Riphees       25 "  33   "      4,171
+      "    Hercynians    17 "  29   "      1,170
+      "    Caucasia      32 "  41   "      5,567
+      "    Alps          42 "  49   "      3,617
+
+The most important of these different chains is that of the Apennines,
+the development of which extends 150 leagues, and is yet inferior to
+that of the great orographical movements of the earth. The Apennines run
+along the eastern border of the Sea of Rains, and are continued on the
+north by the Carpathians, the profile of which measures about 100
+leagues.
+
+The travellers could only catch a glimpse of the summit of these
+Apennines which lie between west long. 10° and east long. 16°; but the
+chain of the Carpathians was visible from 18° to 30° east long., and
+they could see how they were distributed.
+
+One hypothesis seemed to them very justifiable. Seeing that this chain
+of the Carpathians was here and there circular in form and with high
+peaks, they concluded that it anciently formed important amphitheatres.
+These mountainous circles must have been broken up by the vast cataclysm
+to which the Sea of Rains was due. These Carpathians looked then what
+the amphitheatres of Purbach, Arzachel, and Ptolemy would if some
+cataclysm were to throw down their left ramparts and transform them into
+continuous chains. They present an average height of 3,200 metres, a
+height comparable to certain of the Pyrenees. Their southern slopes fall
+straight into the immense Sea of Rains.
+
+About 2 a.m. Barbicane was at the altitude of the 20th lunar parallel,
+not far from that little mountain, 1,559 metres high, which bears the
+name of Pythias. The distance from the projectile to the moon was only
+1,200 kilometres, brought by means of telescopes to two and a half
+leagues.
+
+The "Mare Imbrium" lay before the eyes of the travellers like an immense
+depression of which the details were not very distinct. Near them on the
+left rose Mount Lambert, the altitude of which is estimated at 1,813
+metres, and farther on, upon the borders of the Ocean of Tempests, in
+north lat. 23° and east long. 29°, rose the shining mountain of Euler.
+This mountain, which rises only 1,815 metres above the lunar surface,
+has been the object of an interesting work by the astronomer Schroeter.
+This _savant_, trying to find out the origin of the lunar mountains,
+asked himself whether the volume of the crater always looked equal to
+the volume of the ramparts that formed it. Now this he found to be
+generally the case, and he hence concluded that a single eruption of
+volcanic matter had sufficed to form these ramparts, for successive
+eruptions would have destroyed the connection. Mount Euler alone was an
+exception to this general law, and it must have taken several successive
+eruptions to form it, for the volume of its cavity is double that of its
+inclosure.
+
+All these hypotheses were allowable to terrestrial observers whose
+instruments were incomplete; but Barbicane was no longer contented to
+accept them, and seeing that his projectile drew regularly nearer the
+lunar disc he did not despair of ultimately reaching it, or at least of
+finding out the secrets of its formation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+LUNAR LANDSCAPES.
+
+
+At half-past two in the morning the bullet was over the 30th lunar
+parallel at an effective distance of 1,000 kilometres, reduced by the
+optical instruments to ten. It still seemed impossible that it could
+reach any point on the disc. Its movement of translation, relatively
+slow, was inexplicable to President Barbicane. At that distance from the
+moon it ought to have been fast in order to maintain it against the
+power of attraction. The reason of that phenomenon was also
+inexplicable; besides, time was wanting to seek for the cause. The
+reliefs on the lunar surface flew beneath their eyes, and they did not
+want to lose a single detail.
+
+The disc appeared through the telescopes at a distance of two and a half
+leagues. If an aëronaut were taken up that distance from the earth, what
+would he distinguish upon its surface? No one can tell, as the highest
+ascensions have not exceeded 8,000 metres.
+
+The following, however, is an exact description of what Barbicane and
+his companions saw from that height:--
+
+Large patches of different colours appeared on the disc. Selenographers
+do not agree about their nature. They are quite distinct from each
+other. Julius Schmidt is of opinion that if the terrestrial oceans were
+dried up, a Selenite observer could only tell the difference between the
+terrestrial oceans and continental plains by patches of colour as
+distinctly varied as those which a terrestrial observer sees upon the
+moon. According to him, the colour common to the vast plains, known
+under the name of "seas," is dark grey, intermingled with green and
+brown. Some of the large craters are coloured in the same way.
+
+Barbicane knew this opinion of the German selenographer; it is shared by
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler. He noticed that they were right, whilst
+certain astronomers, who only allow grey colouring on the surface of the
+moon, are wrong. In certain places the green colour was very vivid;
+according to Julius Schmidt, it is so in the Seas of Serenity and
+Humours. Barbicane likewise remarked the wide craters with no interior
+cones, which are of a bluish colour, analogous to that of fresh-polished
+sheets of steel. These colours really belonged to the lunar disc, and
+did not result, as certain astronomers think, either from some
+imperfection in the object-glasses of the telescopes or the
+interposition of the terrestrial atmosphere. Barbicane had no longer any
+doubt about it. He was looking at it through the void, and could not
+commit any optical error. He considered that the existence of this
+different colouring was proved to science. Now were the green shades
+owing to tropical vegetation, kept up by a low and dense atmosphere? He
+could not yet be certain.
+
+Farther on he noticed a reddish tinge, quite sufficiently distinct. A
+similar colour had already been observed upon the bottom of an isolated
+inclosure, known under the name of the Lichtenberg Amphitheatre, which
+is situated near the Hercynian Mountains, on the border of the moon. But
+he could not make out its nature.
+
+He was not more fortunate about another peculiarity of the disc, for he
+could not find out its cause. The peculiarity was the following one:--
+
+Michel Ardan was watching near the president when he remarked some long
+white lines brilliantly lighted up by the direct rays of the sun. It was
+a succession of luminous furrows, very different from the radiation that
+Copernicus had presented. They ran in parallel lines.
+
+Michel, with his usual readiness, exclaimed--
+
+"Why, there are cultivated fields!"
+
+"Cultivated fields!" repeated Nicholl, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Ploughed fields, at all events," replied Michel Ardan. "But what
+ploughmen these Selenites must be, and what gigantic oxen they must
+harness to their ploughs, to make such furrows!"
+
+"They are not furrows, they are crevices!"
+
+"Crevices let them be," answered Michel with docility. "Only what do you
+mean by crevices in the world of science?" Barbicane soon told his
+companions all he knew about lunar crevices. He knew that they were
+furrows observed upon all the non-mountainous parts of the lunar disc;
+that these furrows, generally isolated, were from four to five leagues
+only; that their width varies from 1,000 to 1,500 metres, and their
+edges are rigorously parallel. But he knew nothing more about their
+formation or their nature.
+
+Barbicane watched these furrows through his telescope very attentively.
+He noticed that their banks were exceedingly steep. They were long
+parallel ramparts; with a little imagination they might be taken for
+long lines of fortifications raised by Selenite engineers.
+
+Some of these furrows were as straight as if they had been cut by line,
+others were slightly curved through with edges still parallel. Some
+crossed each other. Some crossed craters. Some furrowed the circular
+cavities, such as Posidonius or Petavius. Some crossed the seas, notably
+the Sea of Serenity.
+
+These accidents of Nature had naturally exercised the imagination of
+terrestrial astronomers. The earliest observations did not discover
+these furrows. Neither Hevelius, Cassini, La Hire, nor Herschel seems to
+have known them. It was Schroeter who in 1789 first attracted the
+attention of _savants_ to them. Others followed who studied them, such
+as Pastorff, Gruithuysen, Boeer, and Moedler. At present there are
+seventy-six; but though they have been counted, their nature has not yet
+been determined. They are not fortifications certainly, anymore than
+they are beds of dried-up rivers, for water so light on the surface of
+the moon could not have dug such ditches, and there furrows often cross
+craters at a great elevation.
+
+It must, however, be acknowledged that Michel Ardan had an idea, and
+that, without knowing it, he shared it with Julius Schmidt.
+
+"Why," said he, "may not these inexplicable appearances be simply
+phenomena of vegetation?"
+
+"In what way do you mean?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Now do not be angry, worthy president," answered Michel, "but may not
+these black lines be regular rows of trees?"
+
+"Do you want to find some vegetation?" said Barbicane.
+
+"I want to explain what you scientific men do not explain! My hypothesis
+will at least explain why these furrows disappear, or seem to disappear,
+at regular epochs."
+
+"Why should they?"
+
+"Because trees might become invisible when they lose their leaves, and
+visible when they grow again."
+
+"Your explanation is ingenious, old fellow," answered Barbicane, "but it
+cannot be admitted."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it cannot be said to be any season on the surface of the moon,
+and, consequently, the phenomena of vegetation on the surface of the
+moon cannot be produced."
+
+In fact, the slight obliquity of the lunar axis keeps the sun there at
+an almost equal altitude under every latitude. Above the equatorial
+regions the radiant orb almost invariably occupies the zenith, and
+hardly passes the limit of the horizon in the polar regions. Therefore,
+in each region, according to its position, there reigns perpetual
+spring, summer, autumn, or winter, as in the planet Jupiter, whose axis
+is also slightly inclined upon its orbit.
+
+The origin of these furrows is a difficult question to solve. They are
+certainly posterior to the formation of the craters and amphitheatres,
+for several have crossed them, and broken their circular ramparts. It
+may be that they are contemporary with the latest geographical epochs,
+and are only owing to the expansion of natural forces.
+
+In the meantime the projectile had reached the altitude of the 40th
+degree of lunar latitude at a distance that could not be greater than
+800 kilometres. Objects appeared through the telescopes at two leagues
+only. At this point rose under their feet the Helicon, 505 metres high,
+and on the left were the mediocre heights, which inclose a small portion
+of the Sea of Rains under the name of the Gulf of Iris.
+
+The terrestrial atmosphere ought to be 170 times more transparent than
+it is in order to allow astronomers to make complete observations on the
+surface of the moon. But in the void the projectile was moving in no
+fluid lay between the eye of the observer and the object observed. What
+is more, Barbicane was at a less distance than the most powerful
+telescopes, even that of Lord Rosse or the one on the Rocky Mountains,
+could give. It was, therefore, in circumstances highly favourable for
+solving the great question of the habitability of the moon. Yet the
+solution of this question escaped him still. He could only distinguish
+the deserted beds of the immense plains, and, towards the north, arid
+mountains. No labour betrayed the hand of man. No ruin indicated his
+passage. No agglomeration of animals indicated that life was developed
+there, even in an inferior degree. There was no movement anywhere, no
+appearance of vegetation anywhere. Of the three kingdoms represented on
+the terrestrial globe, one only was represented on that of the
+moon--viz., the mineral kingdom.
+
+"So," said Michel Ardan, looking rather put out, "there is nobody after
+all."
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "we have seen neither man, animal, nor tree as
+yet. After all, if the atmosphere has taken refuge at the bottom of
+cavities, in the interior of the amphitheatres, or even on the opposite
+face of the moon, we cannot decide the question."
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "even for the most piercing sight a man is
+not visible at a distance of more than four miles. Therefore if there
+are any Selenites they can see our projectile, but we cannot see them."
+
+About 11 a.m., at the altitude of the 50th parallel, the distance was
+reduced to 300 miles. On the left rose the capricious outlines of a
+chain of mountains, outlined in full light. Towards the right, on the
+contrary, was a large black hole like a vast dark and bottomless well
+bored in the lunar soil.
+
+That hole was the Black Lake, or Pluto, a deep circle from which the
+earth could be conveniently studied between the last quarter and the new
+moon, when the shadows are thrown from west to east.
+
+This black colour is rarely met with on the surface of the satellite. It
+has, as yet, only been seen in the depths of the circle of Endymion, to
+the east of the Cold Sea, in the northern hemisphere, and at the bottom
+of the circle of Grimaldi upon the equator towards the eastern border of
+the orb.
+
+Pluto is a circular mountain, situated in north lat. 51° and east long.
+9°. Its circle is fifty miles long and thirty wide. Barbicane regretted
+not passing perpendicularly over this vast opening. There was an abyss
+to see, perhaps some mysterious phenomenon to become acquainted with.
+But the course of the projectile could not be guided. There was nothing
+to do but submit. A balloon could not be guided, much less a projectile
+when you are inside.
+
+About 5 a.m. the northern limit of the Sea of Rains was at last passed.
+Mounts La Condamine and Fontenelle remained, the one on the left, the
+other on the right. That part of the disc, starting from the 60th
+degree, became absolutely mountainous. The telescopes brought it to
+within one league, an inferior distance to that between the summit of
+Mont Blanc and the sea level. All this region was bristling with peaks
+and amphitheatres. Mount Philolaus rose about the 70th degree to a
+height of 3,700 metres, opening an elliptical crater sixteen leagues
+long and four wide.
+
+Then the disc, seen from that distance, presented an exceedingly strange
+aspect. The landscapes were very different to earthly ones, and also
+very inferior.
+
+The moon having no atmosphere, this absence of vaporous covering had
+consequences already pointed out. There is no twilight on its surface,
+night following day and day following night, with the suddenness of a
+lamp extinguished or lighted in profound darkness. There is no
+transition from cold to heat: the temperature falls in one instant from
+boiling water heat to the cold of space.
+
+Another consequence of this absence of air is the following:--Absolute
+darkness reigns where the sun's rays do not penetrate. What is called
+diffused light upon the earth, the luminous matter that the air holds
+in suspension, which creates twilights and dawns, which produces
+shadows, penumbrae, and all the magic of the chiaro-oscuro, does not
+exist upon the moon. Hence the harshness of contrasts that only admit
+two colours, black and white. If a Selenite shades his eyes from the
+solar rays the sky appears absolutely dark, and the stars shine as in
+the darkest nights.
+
+The impression produced on Barbicane and his two friends by this strange
+state of things may well be imagined. They did not know how to use their
+eyes. They could no longer seize the respective distances in
+perspective. A lunar landscape, which does not soften the phenomenon of
+the chiaro-oscuro, could not be painted by a landscape-painter of the
+earth. It would be nothing but blots of ink upon white paper.
+
+This aspect of things did not alter even when the projectile, then at
+the altitude of the 80th degree, was only separated from the moon by a
+distance of fifty miles, not even when, at 5 a.m., it passed at less
+than twenty-five miles from the mountain of Gioja, a distance which the
+telescopes reduced to half-a-mile. It seemed as if they could have
+touched the moon. It appeared impossible that before long the projectile
+should not knock against it, if only at the North Pole, where the
+brilliant mountains were clearly outlined against the dark background of
+the sky. Michel Ardan wanted to open one of the port-lights and jump
+upon the lunar surface. What was a fall of twelve leagues? He thought
+nothing of that. It would, however, have been a useless attempt, for if
+the projectile was not going to reach any point on the satellite, Michel
+would have been hurled along by its movement, and not have reached it
+either.
+
+At that moment, 6 a.m., the lunar pole appeared. Only half the disc,
+brilliantly lighted, appeared to the travellers, whilst the other half
+disappeared in the darkness. The projectile suddenly passed the line of
+demarcation between intense light and absolute darkness, and was
+suddenly plunged into the profoundest night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF.
+
+
+At the moment this phenomenon took place the projectile was grazing the
+moon's North Pole, at less that twenty-five miles' distance. A few
+seconds had, therefore, sufficed to plunge it into the absolute darkness
+of space. The transition had taken place so rapidly, without gradations
+of light or attenuation of the luminous undulations, that the orb seemed
+to have been blown out by a powerful gust.
+
+"The moon has melted, disappeared!" cried Michel Ardan, wonder-stricken.
+
+In fact, no ray of light or shade had appeared on the disc, formerly so
+brilliant. The obscurity was complete, and rendered deeper still by the
+shining of the stars. It was the darkness of lunar night, which lasts
+354 hours and a half on each point of the disc--a long night, the result
+of the equality of the movements of translation and rotation of the
+moon, the one upon herself, the other round the earth. The projectile in
+the satellite's cone of shadow was no longer under the action of the
+solar rays.
+
+In the interior darkness was, therefore, complete. The travellers could
+no longer see one another. Hence came the necessity to lighten this
+darkness. However desirous Barbicane might be to economise the gas, of
+which he had so small a reserve, he was obliged to have recourse to it
+for artificial light--an expensive brilliancy which the sun then
+refused.
+
+"The devil take the radiant orb!" cried Michel Ardan; "he is going to
+force us to spend our gas instead of giving us his rays for nothing."
+
+"We must not accuse the sun," said Nicholl. "It is not his fault, it is
+the moon's fault for coming and putting herself like a screen between us
+and him."
+
+"It's the sun!" said Michel again.
+
+"It's the moon!" retorted Nicholl.
+
+An idle dispute began, which Barbicane put an end to by saying--
+
+"My friends, it is neither the fault of the sun nor the moon. It is the
+projectile's fault for deviating from its course instead of rigorously
+following it. Or, to be juster still, it is the fault of that
+unfortunate asteroid which so deplorably altered our first direction."
+
+"Good!" answered Michel Ardan; "as that business is settled let us have
+our breakfast. After a night entirely passed in making observations, we
+want something to set us to rights a little."
+
+This proposition met with no contradiction. Michel prepared the repast
+in a few minutes. But they ate for the sake of eating. They drank
+without toasts or hurrahs. The bold travellers, borne away into the
+darkness of space without their accustomed escort of rays, felt a vague
+uneasiness invade their hearts. The "farouche" darkness, so dear to the
+pen of Victor Hugo, surrounded them on all sides.
+
+In the meantime they talked about this interminable night, 354 hours, or
+nearly 15 days, long, which physical laws have imposed upon the
+inhabitants of the moon. Barbicane gave his friends some explanation of
+the causes and consequences of this curious phenomenon.
+
+"Curious it certainly is," said he, "for if each hemisphere of the moon
+is deprived of solar light for fifteen days, the one over which we are
+moving at this moment does not even enjoy, during its long night, a
+sight of the brilliantly-lighted earth. In a word, there is no moon,
+applying that qualification to our spheroid, except for one side of the
+disc. Now, if it was the same upon earth--if, for example, Europe never
+saw the moon, and she was only visible at the antipodes--you can figure
+to yourselves the astonishment of a European on arriving in Australia."
+
+"They would make the voyage for nothing but to go and see the moon,"
+answered Michel.
+
+"Well," resumed Barbicane, "that astonishment is reserved to the
+Selenite who inhabits the opposite side of the moon to the earth, a side
+for ever invisible to our fellow-beings of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"And which we should have seen," added Nicholl, "if we had arrived here
+at the epoch when the moon is new--that is to say, a fortnight later."
+
+"To make amends," resumed Barbicane, "an inhabitant of the visible face
+is singularly favoured by Nature to the detriment on the invisible face.
+The latter, as you see, has dark nights of 354 hours long, without a ray
+of light to penetrate the obscurity. The other, on the contrary, when
+the sun, which has lighted him for a fortnight, sets under the horizon,
+sees on the opposite horizon a splendid orb rise. It is the earth,
+thirteen times larger than that moon which we know--the earth, which is
+developed to a diameter of two degrees, and which sheds a light thirteen
+times greater, which no atmosphere qualifies; the earth, which only
+disappears when the sun reappears."
+
+"A fine sentence," said Michel Ardan; "rather academical perhaps."
+
+"It follows," resumed Barbicane, nowise put out, "that the visible face
+of the disc must be very agreeable to inhabit, as it is always lighted
+by the sun or the moon."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "this advantage must be quite compensated by the
+unbearable heat which this light must cause."
+
+"This inconvenience is the same under two faces, for the light reflected
+by the earth is evidently deprived of heat. However, this invisible face
+is still more deprived of heat than the visible face. I say that for
+you, Nicholl; Michel would probably not understand."
+
+"Thank you," said Michel.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when the invisible face receives the
+solar light and heat the moon is new--that is to say, that she is in
+conjunction, that she is situated between the sun and the earth. She is
+then, on account of the situation which she occupies in opposition when
+she is full, nearer the sun by the double of her distance from the
+earth. Now this distance may be estimated at the two-hundredth part of
+that which separates the sun and the earth; or, in round numbers, at two
+hundred thousand leagues. Therefore this visible face is nearer the sun
+by two hundred thousand leagues when it receives his rays."
+
+"Quite right," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Whilst--" resumed Barbicane.
+
+"Allow me," said Michel, interrupting his grave companion.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I want to go on with the explanation."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"To prove that I have understood."
+
+"Go on, then," said Barbicane, smiling.
+
+"Whilst," said Michel, imitating the tone and gestures of President
+Barbicane, "when the visible face of the moon is lighted by the sun the
+moon is full--that is to say, situated with regard to the earth the
+opposite to the sun. The distance which separates it from the radiant
+orb is then increased in round numbers by 200,000 leagues, and the heat
+which it receives must be rather less."
+
+"Well done!" exclaimed Barbicane. "Do you know, Michel, for an artist
+you are intelligent."
+
+"Yes," answered Michel carelessly, "we are all intelligent on the
+Boulevard des Italiens."
+
+Barbicane shook hands gravely with his amiable companion, and went on
+enumerating the few advantages reserved to the inhabitants of the
+visible face.
+
+Amongst others he quoted the observations of the sun's eclipses, which
+can only be seen from one side of the lunar disc, because the moon must
+be in opposition before they can take place. These eclipses, caused by
+the interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon, may last
+two hours, during which, on account of the rays refracted by its
+atmosphere, the terrestrial globe can only appear like a black spot upon
+the sun.
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the invisible hemisphere is very ill-treated by
+Nature."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "but not the whole of it. By a certain
+movement of liberation, a sort of balancing on its centre, the moon
+presents more than the half of her disc to the earth. She is like a
+pendulum, the centre of gravity of which is towards the terrestrial
+globe, and which oscillates regularly. Whence comes that oscillation?
+Because her movement of rotation on her axis is animated with uniform
+velocity, whilst her movement of translation, following an elliptical
+orb round the earth, is not. At the perigee the velocity of translation
+is greater, and the moon shows a certain portion of her western border.
+At her apogee the velocity of rotation is greater, and a morsel of her
+eastern border appears. It is a strip of about eight degrees, which
+appears sometimes on the west, sometimes on the east. The result is,
+therefore, that of a thousand parts the moon shows five hundred and
+sixty-nine."
+
+"No matter," answered Michel; "if we ever become Selenites, we will
+inhabit the visible face. I like light."
+
+"Unless," replied Nicholl, "the atmosphere should be condensed on the
+other side, as certain astronomers pretend."
+
+"That is a consideration," answered Michel simply.
+
+In the meantime breakfast was concluded, and the observers resumed their
+posts. They tried to see through the dark port-light by putting out all
+light in the projectile. But not one luminous atom penetrated the
+obscurity.
+
+One inexplicable fact preoccupied Barbicane. How was it that though the
+projectile had been so near the moon, within a distance of twenty-five
+miles, it had not fallen upon her? If its speed had been enormous, he
+would have understood why it had not fallen. But with a relatively
+slight speed the resistance to lunar attraction could not be explained.
+Was the projectile under the influence of some strange force? Did some
+body maintain it in the ether? It was henceforth evident that it would
+not touch any point upon the moon. Where was it going? Was it going
+farther away from or nearer to the disc? Was it carried along in the
+gloom across infinitude? How were they to know, how calculate in the
+dark? All these questions made Barbicane anxious, but he could not solve
+them.
+
+In fact, the invisible orb was there, perhaps, at a distance of some
+leagues only, but neither his companions nor he could any longer see it.
+If any noise was made on its surface they could not hear it. The air,
+that vehicle of transmission, was wanting to convey to them the groans
+of that moon which the Arabian legends make "a man already half-granite,
+but still palpitating."
+
+It will be agreed that it was enough to exasperate the most patient
+observers. It was precisely the unknown hemisphere that was hidden from
+their eyes. That face which a fortnight sooner or a fortnight later had
+been, or would be, splendidly lighted up by the solar rays, was then
+lost in absolute darkness. Where would the projectile be in another
+fortnight? Where would the hazards of attraction have taken it? Who
+could say?
+
+It is generally admitted that the invisible hemisphere of the moon is,
+by its constitution, absolutely similar to the visible hemisphere.
+One-seventh of it is seen in those movements of libration Barbicane
+spoke of. Now upon the surface seen there were only plains and
+mountains, amphitheatres and craters, like those on the maps. They could
+there imagine the same arid and dead nature. And yet, supposing the
+atmosphere to have taken refuge upon that face? Suppose that with the
+air water had given life to these regenerated continents? Suppose that
+vegetation still persists there? Suppose that animals people these
+continents and seas? Suppose that man still lives under those conditions
+of habitability? How many questions there were it would have been
+interesting to solve! What solutions might have been drawn from the
+contemplation of that hemisphere! What delight it would have been to
+glance at that world which no human eye has seen!
+
+The disappointment of the travellers in the midst of this darkness may
+be imagined. All observation of the lunar disc was prevented. The
+constellations alone were visible, and it must be acknowledged that no
+astronomers, neither Faye, Chacornac, nor the Secchi, had ever been in
+such favourable conditions to observe them.
+
+In fact, nothing could equal the splendour of this starry world, bathed
+in limpid ether. Diamonds set in the celestial vault threw out superb
+flames. One look could take in the firmament from the Southern Cross to
+the North Star, those two constellations which will in 12,000 years, on
+account of the succession of equinoxes, resign their _rôles_ of polar
+stars, the one to Canopus in the southern hemisphere, the other to Wega
+in the northern. Imagination lost itself in this sublime infinitude,
+amidst which the projectile was moving like a new star created by the
+hand of man. From natural causes these constellations shone with a soft
+lustre; they did not twinkle because there was no atmosphere to
+intervene with its strata unequally dense, and of different degrees of
+humidity, which causes this scintillation.
+
+The travellers long watched the constellated firmament, upon which the
+vast screen of the moon made an enormous black hole. But a painful
+sensation at length drew them from their contemplation. This was an
+intense cold, which soon covered the glasses of the port-lights with a
+thick coating of ice. The sun no longer warmed the projectile with his
+rays, and it gradually lost the heat stored up in its walls. This heat
+was by radiation rapidly evaporated into space, and a considerable
+lowering of the temperature was the result. The interior humidity was
+changed into ice by contact with the window-panes, and prevented all
+observation.
+
+Nicholl, consulting the thermometer, said that it had fallen to 17°
+(centigrade) below zero (1° Fahr). Therefore, notwithstanding every
+reason for being economical, Barbicane was obliged to seek heat as well
+as light from gas. The low temperature of the bullet was no longer
+bearable. Its occupants would have been frozen to death.
+
+"We will not complain about the monotony of the journey," said Michel
+Ardan. "What variety we have had, in temperature at all events! At times
+we have been blinded with light, and saturated with heat like the
+Indians of the Pampas! Now we are plunged into profound darkness amidst
+boreal cold, like the Esquimaux of the pole! No, indeed! We have no
+right to complain, and Nature has done many things in our honour!"
+
+"But," asked Nicholl, "what is the exterior temperature?"
+
+"Precisely that of planetary space," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, "would not this be an opportunity for
+making that experiment we could not attempt when we were bathed in the
+solar rays?"
+
+"Now or never," answered Barbicane, "for we are usefully situated in
+order to verify the temperature of space, and see whether the
+calculations of Fourier or Pouillet are correct."
+
+"Any way it is cold enough," said Michel. "Look at the interior humidity
+condensing on the port-lights. If this fall continues the vapour of our
+respiration will fall around us in snow."
+
+"Let us get a thermometer," said Barbicane.
+
+It will be readily seen that an ordinary thermometer would have given no
+result under the circumstances in which it was going to be exposed. The
+mercury would have frozen in its cup, for it does not keep liquid below
+44° below zero. But Barbicane had provided himself with a spirit
+thermometer, on the Walferdin system, which gives the minima of
+excessively low temperature.
+
+Before beginning the experiment this instrument was compared with an
+ordinary thermometer, and Barbicane prepared to employ it.
+
+"How shall we manage it?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Michel Ardan, who was never at a loss.
+"Open the port-light rapidly, throw out the instrument; it will follow
+the projectile with exemplary docility; a quarter of an hour after take
+it in."
+
+"With your hand?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"With my hand," answered Michel.
+
+"Well, then, my friend, do not try it," said Barbicane, "for the hand
+you draw back will be only a stump, frozen and deformed by the frightful
+cold."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"You would feel the sensation of a terrible burn, like one made with a
+red-hot iron, for the same thing happens when heat is brutally
+abstracted from our body as when it is inserted. Besides, I am not sure
+that objects thrown out still follow us."
+
+"Why?" said Nicholl.
+
+"Because if we are passing through any atmosphere, however slightly
+dense, these objects will be delayed. Now the darkness prevents us
+verifying whether they still float around us. Therefore, in order not to
+risk our thermometer, we will tie something to it, and so easily pull it
+back into the interior."
+
+Barbicane's advice was followed. Nicholl threw the instrument out of the
+rapidly-opened port-light, holding it by a very short cord, so that it
+could be rapidly drawn in. The window was only open one second, and yet
+that one second was enough to allow the interior of the projectile to
+become frightfully cold.
+
+"_Mille diables!_" cried Michel Ardan, "it is cold enough here to freeze
+white bears!"
+
+Barbicane let half-an-hour go by, more than sufficient time to allow the
+instrument to descend to the level of the temperature of space. The
+thermometer was then rapidly drawn in.
+
+Barbicane calculated the quantity of mercury spilt into the little phial
+soldered to the lower part of the instrument, and said--
+
+"One hundred and forty degrees centigrade below zero!" (218° Fahr.)
+
+M. Pouillet was right, not Fourier. Such was the frightful temperature
+of sidereal space! Such perhaps that of the lunar continents when the
+orb of night loses by radiation all the heat which she absorbs during
+the fifteen days of sunshine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA.
+
+
+Our readers will probably be astonished that Barbicane and his
+companions were so little occupied with the future in store for them in
+their metal prison, carried along in the infinitude of ether. Instead of
+asking themselves where they were going, they lost their time in making
+experiments, just as if they had been comfortably installed in their
+own studies.
+
+It might be answered that men so strong-minded were above such
+considerations, that such little things did not make them uneasy, and
+that they had something else to do than to think about their future.
+
+The truth is that they were not masters of their projectile--that they
+could neither stop it nor alter its direction. A seaman can direct the
+head of his ship as he pleases; an aëronaut can give his balloon
+vertical movement. They, on the contrary, had no authority over their
+vehicle. No manoeuvre was possible to them. Hence their not troubling
+themselves, or "let things go" state of mind.
+
+Where were they at that moment, 8 a.m. during that day called upon earth
+the sixth of December? Certainly in the neighbourhood of the moon, and
+even near enough for her to appear like a vast black screen upon the
+firmament. As to the distance which separated them, it was impossible to
+estimate it. The projectile, kept up by inexplicable forces, has grazed
+the north pole of the satellite at less than twenty-five miles'
+distance. But had that distance increased or diminished since they had
+been in the cone of shadow? There was no landmark by which to estimate
+either the direction or the velocity of the projectile. Perhaps it was
+going rapidly away from the disc and would soon leave the pure shadow.
+Perhaps, on the contrary, it was approaching it, and would before long
+strike against some elevated peak in the invisible atmosphere, which
+would have terminated the journey, doubtless to the detriment of the
+travellers.
+
+A discussion began upon this subject, and Michel Ardan, always rich in
+explanations, gave out the opinion that the bullet, restrained by lunar
+attraction, would end by falling on the moon like an aërolite on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe.
+
+"In the first place," answered Barbicane, "all aërolites do not fall
+upon the surface of the earth; only a small proportion do so. Therefore,
+if we are aërolites it does not necessarily follow that we shall fall
+upon the moon."
+
+"Still," answered Michel, "if we get near enough--"
+
+"Error," replied Barbicane. "Have you not seen shooting stars by
+thousands in the sky at certain epochs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, those stars, or rather corpuscles, only shine by rubbing against
+the atmospheric strata. Now, if they pass through the atmosphere, they
+pass at less than 16 miles from our globe, and yet they rarely fall. It
+is the same with our projectile. It may approach very near the moon, and
+yet not fall upon it."
+
+"But then," asked Michel, "I am curious to know how our vehicle would
+behave in space."
+
+"I only see two hypotheses," answered Barbicane, after some minutes'
+reflection.
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"The projectile has the choice between two mathematical curves, and it
+will follow the one or the other according to the velocity with which it
+is animated, and which I cannot now estimate."
+
+"Yes, it will either describe a parabola or an hyperbola."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "with some speed it will describe a parabola,
+and with greater speed an hyperbola."
+
+"I like those grand words!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "I know at once what
+you mean. And what is your parabola, if you please?"
+
+"My friend," answered the captain, "a parabola is a conic section
+arising from cutting a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides."
+
+"Oh!" said Michel in a satisfied tone.
+
+"It is about the same trajectory that the bomb of a howitzer describes."
+
+"Just so. And an hyperbola?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is a curve formed by a section of a cone when the cutting plane
+makes a greater angle with the base than the side of the cone makes."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Michel Ardan in the most serious tone, as if
+he had been informed of a grave event. "Then remember this, Captain
+Nicholl, what I like in your definition of the hyperbola--I was going to
+say of the hyperhumbug--is that it is still less easy to understand than
+the word you pretend to define."
+
+Nicholl and Barbicane paid no attention to Michel Ardan's jokes. They
+had launched into a scientific discussion. They were eager about what
+curve the projectile would take. One was for the hyperbola, the other
+for the parabola. They gave each other reasons bristling with _x_'s.
+Their arguments were presented in a language which made Michel Ardan
+jump. The discussion was lively, and neither of the adversaries would
+sacrifice his curve of predilection.
+
+This scientific dispute was prolonged until Michel Ardan became
+impatient, and said--
+
+"I say, Messrs. Cosine, do leave off throwing your hyperbolas and
+parabolas at one's head. I want to know the only interesting thing about
+the business. We shall follow one or other of your curves. Very well.
+But where will they take us to?"
+
+"Nowhere," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How nowhere?"
+
+"Evidently they are unfinished curves, prolonged indefinitely!"
+
+"Ah, _savants_! What does it matter about hyperbola or parabola if they
+both carry us indefinitely into space?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing. They cared for art for
+its own sake. Never had more useless question been discussed at a more
+inopportune moment. The fatal truth was that the projectile, whether
+hyperbolically or parabolically carried along, would never strike
+against either the earth or the moon.
+
+What would become of these bold travellers in the most immediate future?
+If they did not die of hunger or thirst, they would in a few days, when
+gas failed them, die for want of air, if the cold had not killed them
+first!
+
+Still, although it was so important to economise gas, the excessive
+lowness of the surrounding temperature forced them to consume a certain
+quantity. They could not do without either its light or heat. Happily
+the caloric developed by the Reiset and Regnault apparatus slightly
+elevated the temperature of the projectile, and without spending much
+they could raise it to a bearable degree.
+
+In the meantime observation through the port-lights had become very
+difficult. The steam inside the bullet condensed upon the panes and
+froze immediately. They were obliged to destroy the opacity of the glass
+by constant rubbing. However, they could record several phenomena of the
+highest interest.
+
+In fact, if the invisible disc had any atmosphere, the shooting stars
+would be seen passing through it. If the projectile itself passed
+through the fluid strata, might it not hear some noise echoed--a storm,
+for instance, an avalanche, or a volcano in activity? Should they not
+see the intense fulgurations of a burning mountain? Such facts,
+carefully recorded, would have singularly elucidated the obscure
+question of the lunar constitution. Thus Barbicane and Nicholl, standing
+like astronomers at their port-lights, watched with scrupulous patience.
+
+But until then the disc remained mute and dark. It did not answer the
+multifarious interrogations of these ardent minds.
+
+This provoked from Michel a reflection that seemed correct enough.
+
+"If ever we recommence our journey, we shall do well to choose the epoch
+when the moon is new."
+
+"True," answered Nicholl, "that circumstance would have been more
+favourable. I agree that the moon, bathed in sunlight, would not be
+visible during the passage, but on the other hand the earth would be
+full. And if we are dragged round the moon like we are now, we should
+at least have the advantage of seeing the invisible disc magnificently
+lighted up."
+
+"Well said, Nicholl," replied Michel Ardan. "What do you think about it,
+Barbicane?"
+
+"I think this," answered the grave president: "if ever we recommence
+this journey, we shall start at the same epoch, and under the same
+circumstances. Suppose we had reached our goal, would it not have been
+better to find the continents in full daylight instead of dark night?
+Would not our first installation have been made under better
+circumstances? Yes, evidently. As to the invisible side, we could have
+visited that in our exploring expeditions on the lunar globe. So,
+therefore, the time of the full moon was well chosen. But we ought to
+have reached our goal, and in order to have reached it we ought not to
+have deviated from our road."
+
+"There is no answer to make to that," said Michel Ardan. "Yet we have
+passed a fine opportunity for seeing the moon! Who knows whether the
+inhabitants of the other planets are not more advanced than the
+_savants_ of the earth on the subject of their satellites?"
+
+The following answer might easily have been given to Michel Ardan's
+remark:--Yes, other satellites, on account of their greater proximity,
+have made the study of them easier. The inhabitants of Saturn, Jupiter,
+and Uranus, if they exist, have been able to establish communication
+with their moons much more easily. The four satellites of Jupiter
+gravitate at a distance of 108,260 leagues, 172,200 leagues, 274,700
+leagues, and 480,130 leagues. But these distances are reckoned from the
+centre of the planet, and by taking away the radius, which is 17,000 to
+18,000 leagues, it will be seen that the first satellite is at a much
+less distance from the surface of Jupiter than the moon is from the
+centre of the earth. Of the eight moons of Saturn, four are near. Diana
+is 84,600 leagues off; Thetys, 62,966 leagues; Enceladus, 48,191
+leagues; and lastly, Mimas is at an average distance of 34,500 leagues
+only. Of the eighteen satellites of Uranus, the first, Ariel, is only
+51,520 leagues from the planet.
+
+Therefore, upon the surface of those three stars, an experiment
+analogous to that of President Barbicane would have presented less
+difficulties. If, therefore, their inhabitants have attempted the
+enterprise, they have, perhaps, acquainted themselves with the
+constitution of the half of the disc which their satellite hides
+eternally from their eyes. But if they have never left their planet,
+they do not know more about them than the astronomers of the earth.
+
+In the meantime the bullet was describing in the darkness that
+incalculable trajectory which no landmark allowed them to find out. Was
+its direction altered either under the influence of lunar attraction or
+under the action of some unknown orb? Barbicane could not tell. But a
+change had taken place in the relative position of the vehicle, and
+Barbicane became aware of it about 4 a.m.
+
+The change consisted in this, that the bottom of the projectile was
+turned towards the surface of the moon, and kept itself perpendicular
+with its axis. The attraction or gravitation had caused this
+modification. The heaviest part of the bullet inclined towards the
+invisible disc exactly as if it had fallen towards it.
+
+Was it falling then? Were the travellers at last about to reach their
+desired goal? No. And the observation of one landmark, inexplicable in
+itself, demonstrated to Barbicane that his projectile was not nearing
+the moon, and that it was following an almost concentric curve.
+
+This was a flash of light which Nicholl signalised all at once on the
+limit of the horizon formed by the black disc. This point could not be
+mistaken for a star. It was a reddish flame, which grew gradually
+larger--an incontestable proof that the projectile was getting nearer
+it, and not falling normally upon the surface of the satellite.
+
+"A volcano! It is a volcano in activity!" exclaimed Nicholl--"an
+eruption of the interior fires of the moon. That world, then, is not
+quite extinguished."
+
+"Yes, an eruption!" answered Barbicane, who studied the phenomenon
+carefully through his night-glass. "What should it be if not a volcano?"
+
+"But then," said Michel Ardan, "air is necessary to feed that
+combustion, therefore there is some atmosphere on that part of the
+moon."
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Barbicane, "but not necessarily. A volcano, by
+the decomposition of certain matters, can furnish itself with oxygen,
+and so throw up flames into the void. It seems to me, too, that that
+deflagration has the intensity and brilliancy of objects the combustion
+of which is produced in pure oxygen. We must not be in a hurry to affirm
+the existence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+The burning mountain was situated at the 45th degree of south latitude
+on the invisible part of the disc. But to the great disappointment of
+Barbicane the curve that the projectile described dragged it away from
+the point signalised by the eruption, therefore he could not exactly
+determine its nature. Half-an-hour after it had first been seen this
+luminous point disappeared on the horizon. Still the authentication of
+this phenomenon was a considerable fact in selenographic studies. It
+proved that all heat had not yet disappeared from the interior of this
+globe, and where heat exists, who may affirm that the vegetable kingdom,
+or even the animal kingdom itself, has not until now resisted the
+destructive influences? The existence of this volcano in eruption,
+indisputably established by earthly _savants_, was favourable to the
+theory of the habitability of the moon.
+
+Barbicane became absorbed in reflection. He forgot himself in a mute
+reverie, filled with the mysterious destinies of the lunar world. He was
+trying to connect the facts observed up till then, when a fresh incident
+recalled him suddenly to the reality.
+
+This incident was more than a cosmic phenomenon; it was a threatening
+danger, the consequences of which might be disastrous.
+
+Suddenly in the midst of the ether, in the profound darkness, an
+enormous mass had appeared. It was like a moon, but a burning moon of
+almost unbearable brilliancy, outlined as it was on the total obscurity
+of space. This mass, of a circular form, threw such light that it filled
+the projectile. The faces of Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan,
+bathed in its white waves, looked spectral, livid, _blafard_, like the
+appearance produced by the artificial light of alcohol impregnated with
+salt.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan. "How hideous we are! Whatever is that
+wretched moon?"
+
+"It is a bolis," answered Barbicane.
+
+"A bolis, on fire, in the void?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+This globe of fire was indeed a bolis. Barbicane was not mistaken. But
+if these cosmic meteors, seen from the earth, present an inferior light
+to that of the moon, here, in the dark ether, they shone magnificently.
+These wandering bodies carry in themselves the principle of their own
+incandescence. The surrounding air is not necessary to the deflagration.
+And, indeed, if certain of these bodies pass through our atmosphere at
+two or three leagues from the earth, others describe their trajectory at
+a distance the atmosphere cannot reach. Some of these meteors are from
+one to two miles wide, and move at a speed of forty miles a second,
+following an inverse direction from the movement of the earth.
+
+This shooting star suddenly appeared in the darkness at a distance of at
+least 100 leagues, and measured, according to Barbicane's estimate, a
+diameter of 2,000 metres. It moved with the speed of about thirty
+leagues a minute. It cut across the route of the projectile, and would
+reach it in a few minutes. As it approached it grew larger in an
+enormous proportion.
+
+If possible, let the situation of the travellers be imagined! It is
+impossible to describe it. In spite of their courage, their
+_sang-froid_, their carelessness of danger, they were mute, motionless,
+with stiffened limbs, a prey to fearful terror. Their projectile, the
+course of which they could not alter, was running straight on to this
+burning mass, more intense than the open mouth of a furnace. They seemed
+to be rushing towards an abyss of fire.
+
+Barbicane seized the hands of his two companions, and all three looked
+through their half-closed eyelids at the red-hot asteroid. If they still
+thought at all, they must have given themselves up as lost!
+
+Two minutes after the sudden appearance of the bolis, two centuries of
+agony, the projectile seemed about to strike against it, when the ball
+of fire burst like a bomb, but without making any noise in the void,
+where sound, which is only the agitation of the strata of air, could not
+be made.
+
+Nicholl uttered a cry. His companions and he rushed to the port-lights.
+
+What a spectacle! What pen could describe it, what palette would be rich
+enough in colours to reproduce its magnificence?
+
+It was like the opening of a crater, or the spreading of an immense
+fire. Thousands of luminous fragments lit up space with their fires.
+Every size, colour, and shade were there. There were yellow, red, green,
+grey, a crown of multi-coloured fireworks. There only remained of the
+enormous and terrible globe pieces carried in all directions, each an
+asteroid in its turn, some shining like swords, some surrounded by white
+vapour, others leaving behind them a trail of cosmic dust.
+
+These incandescent blocks crossed each other, knocked against each
+other, and were scattered into smaller fragments, of which some struck
+the projectile. Its left window was even cracked by the violent shock.
+It seemed to be floating in a shower of bullets, of which the least
+could annihilate it in an instant.
+
+The light which saturated the ether was of incomparable intensity, for
+these asteroids dispersed it in every direction. At a certain moment it
+was so bright that Michel dragged Barbicane and Nicholl to the window,
+exclaiming--
+
+"The invisible moon is at last visible!"
+
+And all three, across the illumination, saw for a few seconds that
+mysterious disc which the eye of man perceived for the first time.
+
+What did they distinguish across that distance which they could not
+estimate? Long bands across the disc, veritable clouds formed in a very
+restricted atmospheric medium, from which emerged not only all the
+mountains, but every relief of middling importance, amphitheatres,
+yawning craters, such as exist on the visible face. Then immense tracts,
+no longer arid plains, but veritable seas, oceans which reflected in
+their liquid mirror all the dazzling magic of the fires of space.
+Lastly, on the surface of the continents, vast dark masses, such as
+immense forests would resemble under the rapid illumination of a flash
+of lightning.
+
+Was it an illusion, an error of the eyes, an optical deception? Could
+they give a scientific affirmation to that observation so superficially
+obtained? Dared they pronounce upon the question of its habitability
+after so slight a glimpse of the invisible disc?
+
+By degrees the fulgurations of space gradually died out, its accidental
+brilliancy lessened, the asteroids fled away by their different
+trajectories, and went out in the distance. The ether resumed its
+habitual darkness; the stars, for one moment eclipsed, shone in the
+firmament, and the disc, of which scarcely a glimpse had been caught,
+was lost in the impenetrable night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
+
+
+The projectile had just escaped a terrible danger, a danger quite
+unforeseen. Who would have imagined such a meeting of asteroids? These
+wandering bodies might prove serious perils to the travellers. They were
+to them like so many rocks in the sea of ether, which, less fortunate
+than navigators, they could not avoid. But did these adventurers of
+space complain? No, as Nature had given them the splendid spectacle of a
+cosmic meteor shining by formidable expansion, as this incomparable
+display of fireworks, which no Ruggieri could imitate, had lighted for a
+few seconds the invisible nimbus of the moon. During that rapid peep,
+continents, seas, and forests had appeared to them. Then the atmosphere
+did give there its life-giving particles? Questions still not solved,
+eternally asked by American curiosity.
+
+It was then 3.30 p.m. The bullet was still describing its curve round
+the moon. Had its route again been modified by the meteor? It was to be
+feared. The projectile ought, however to describe a curve imperturbably
+determined by the laws of mechanics. Barbicane inclined to the opinion
+that this curve would be a parabola and not an hyperbola. However, if
+the parabola was admitted, the bullet ought soon to come out of the cone
+of shadow thrown into the space on the opposite side to the sun. This
+cone, in fact, is very narrow, the angular diameter of the moon is so
+small compared to the diameter of the orb of day. Until now the
+projectile had moved in profound darkness. Whatever its speed had
+been--and it could not have been slight--its period of occultation
+continued. That fact was evident, but perhaps that would not have been
+the case in a rigidly parabolical course. This was a fresh problem which
+tormented Barbicane's brain, veritably imprisoned as it was in a web of
+the unknown which he could not disentangle.
+
+Neither of the travellers thought of taking a minute's rest. Each
+watched for some unexpected incident which should throw a new light on
+their uranographic studies. About five o'clock Michel distributed to
+them, by way of dinner, some morsels of bread and cold meat, which were
+rapidly absorbed, whilst no one thought of leaving the port-light, the
+panes of which were becoming incrusted under the condensation of vapour.
+
+About 5.45 p.m., Nicholl, armed with his telescope, signalised upon the
+southern border of the moon, and in the direction followed by the
+projectile, a few brilliant points outlined against the dark screen of
+the sky. They looked like a succession of sharp peaks with profiles in a
+tremulous line. They were rather brilliant. The terminal line of the
+moon looks the same when she is in one of her octants.
+
+They could not be mistaken. There was no longer any question of a simple
+meteor, of which that luminous line had neither the colour nor the
+mobility, nor of a volcano in eruption. Barbicane did not hesitate to
+declare what it was.
+
+"The sun!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What! the sun!" answered Nicholl and Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, my friends, it is the radiant orb itself, lighting up the summit
+of the mountains situated on the southern border of the moon. We are
+evidently approaching the South Pole!"
+
+"After having passed the North Pole," answered Michel. "Then we have
+been all round our satellite."
+
+"Yes, friend Michel."
+
+"Then we have no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves
+to fear!"
+
+"No, but a closed curve."
+
+"Which is called--"
+
+"An ellipsis. Instead of being lost in the interplanetary spaces it is
+possible that the projectile will describe an elliptical orbit round the
+moon."
+
+"Really!"
+
+"And that it will become its satellite."
+
+"Moon of the moon," exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Only I must tell you, my worthy friend, that we are none the less lost
+men on that account!"
+
+"No, but in another and much pleasanter way!" answered the careless
+Frenchman, with his most amiable smile.
+
+President Barbicane was right. By describing this elliptical orbit the
+projectile was going to gravitate eternally round the moon like a
+sub-satellite. It was a new star added to the solar world, a microcosm
+peopled by three inhabitants, whom want of air would kill before long.
+Barbicane, therefore, could not rejoice at the position imposed on the
+bullet by the double influence of the centripetal and centrifugal
+forces. His companions and he were again going to see the visible face
+of the disc. Perhaps their existence would last long enough for them to
+perceive for the last time the full earth superbly lighted up by the
+rays of the sun! Perhaps they might throw a last adieu to the globe they
+were never more to see again! Then their projectile would be nothing but
+an extinct mass, dead like those inert asteroids which circulate in the
+ether. A single consolation remained to them: it was that of seeing the
+darkness and returning to light, it was that of again entering the zones
+bathed by solar irradiation!
+
+In the meantime the mountains recognised by Barbicane stood out more and
+more from the dark mass. They were Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, which
+stand on the southern circumpolar region of the moon.
+
+All the mountains of the visible hemisphere have been measured with
+perfect exactitude. This perfection will, no doubt, seem astonishing,
+and yet the hypsometric methods are rigorous. The altitude of the lunar
+mountains may be no less exactly determined than that of the mountains
+of the earth.
+
+The method generally employed is that of measuring the shadow thrown by
+the mountains, whilst taking into account the altitude of the sun at the
+moment of observation. This method also allows the calculating of the
+depth of craters and cavities on the moon. Galileo used it, and since
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler have employed it with the greatest success.
+
+Another method, called the tangent radii, may also be used for measuring
+lunar reliefs. It is applied at the moment when the mountains form
+luminous points on the line of separation between light and darkness
+which shine on the dark part of the disc. These luminous points are
+produced by the solar rays above those which determine the limit of the
+phase. Therefore the measure of the dark interval which the luminous
+point and the luminous part of the phase leave between them gives
+exactly the height of the point. But it will be seen that this method
+can only be applied to the mountains near the line of separation of
+darkness and light.
+
+A third method consists in measuring the profile of the lunar mountains
+outlined on the background by means of a micrometer; but it is only
+applicable to the heights near the border of the orb.
+
+In any case it will be remarked that this measurement of shadows,
+intervals, or profiles can only be made when the solar rays strike the
+moon obliquely in relation to the observer. When they strike her
+directly--in a word, when she is full--all shadow is imperiously
+banished from her disc, and observation is no longer possible.
+
+Galileo, after recognising the existence of the lunar mountains, was the
+first to employ the method of calculating their heights by the shadows
+they throw. He attributed to them, as it has already been shown, an
+average of 9,000 yards. Hevelius singularly reduced these figures, which
+Riccioli, on the contrary, doubled. All these measures were exaggerated.
+Herschel, with his more perfect instruments, approached nearer the
+hypsometric truth. But it must be finally sought in the accounts of
+modern observers.
+
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler, the most perfect selenographers in the whole
+world, have measured 1,095 lunar mountains. It results from their
+calculations that 6 of these mountains rise above 5,800 metres, and 22
+above 4,800. The highest summit of the moon measures 7,603 metres; it
+is, therefore, inferior to those of the earth, of which some are 1,000
+yards higher. But one remark must be made. If the respective volumes of
+the two orbs are compared the lunar mountains are relatively higher than
+the terrestrial. The lunar ones form 1/70 of the diameter of the moon,
+and the terrestrial only form 1/140 of the diameter of the earth. For a
+terrestrial mountain to attain the relative proportions of a lunar
+mountain, its perpendicular height ought to be 6-1/2 leagues. Now the
+highest is not four miles.
+
+Thus, then, to proceed by comparison, the chain of the Himalayas counts
+three peaks higher than the lunar ones, Mount Everest, Kunchinjuga, and
+Dwalagiri. Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, on the moon, are as high as
+Jewahir in the same chain. Newton, Casatus, Curtius, Short, Tycho,
+Clavius, Blancanus, Endymion, the principal summits of Caucasus and the
+Apennines, are higher than Mont Blanc. The mountains equal to Mont Blanc
+are Moret, Theophylus, and Catharnia; to Mount Rosa, Piccolomini,
+Werner, and Harpalus; to Mount Cervin, Macrobus, Eratosthenes,
+Albateque, and Delambre; to the Peak of Teneriffe, Bacon, Cysatus,
+Philolaus, and the Alps; to Mount Perdu, in the Pyrenees, Roemer and
+Boguslawski; to Etna, Hercules, Atlas, and Furnerius.
+
+Such are the points of comparison that allow the appreciation of the
+altitude of lunar mountains. Now the trajectory followed by the
+projectile dragged it precisely towards that mountainous region of the
+southern hemisphere where rise the finest specimens of lunar orography.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TYCHO.
+
+
+At 6 p.m. the projectile passed the South Pole at less than thirty
+miles, a distance equal to that already reached at the North Pole. The
+elliptical curve was, therefore, being rigorously described.
+
+At that moment the travellers re-entered the beneficent sunshine. They
+saw once more the stars moving slowly from east to west. The radiant orb
+was saluted with a triple hurrah. With its light came also its heat,
+which soon pierced the middle walls. The windows resumed their
+accustomed transparency. Their "layer of ice" melted as if by
+enchantment. The gas was immediately extinguished by way of economy. The
+air apparatus alone was to consume its habitual quantity.
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl, "sunshine is good! How impatiently after their long
+nights the Selenites must await the reappearance of the orb of day!"
+
+"Yes," answered Michel Ardan, "imbibing, as it were, the brilliant
+ether, light and heat, all life is in them."
+
+At that moment the bottom of the projectile moved slightly from the
+lunar surface in order to describe a rather long elliptical orbit. From
+that point, if the earth had been full, Barbicane and his friends could
+have seen it again. But, drowned in the sun's irradiation, it remained
+absolutely invisible. Another spectacle attracted their eyes, presented
+by the southern region of the moon, brought by the telescopes to within
+half-a-mile. They left the port-lights no more, and noted all the
+details of the strange continent.
+
+Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz formed two separate groups stretching nearly
+to the South Pole; the former group extends from the Pole to the 84th
+parallel on the eastern part of the orb; the second, starting from the
+eastern border, stretches from the 65th degree of latitude to the Pole.
+
+On their capriciously-formed ridge appeared dazzling sheets of light
+like those signalised by Father Secchi. With more certainty than the
+illustrious Roman astronomer, Barbicane was enabled to establish their
+nature.
+
+"It is snow," cried he.
+
+"Snow?" echoed Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, snow, the surface of which is profoundly frozen. Look how
+it reflects the luminous rays. Cooled lava would not give so intense a
+reflection. Therefore there is water and air upon the moon, as little as
+you like, but the fact can no longer be contested."
+
+No, it could not be, and if ever Barbicane saw the earth again his notes
+would testify to this fact, important in selenographic observations.
+
+These Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz arose in the midst of plains of
+moderate extent, bounded by an indefinite succession of amphitheatres
+and circular ramparts. These two chains are the only ones which are met
+with in the region of amphitheatres. Relatively they are not very
+broken, and only throw out here and there some sharp peaks, the highest
+of which measures 7,603 metres.
+
+The projectile hung high above all this, and the relief disappeared in
+the intense brilliancy of the disc.
+
+Then reappeared to the eyes of the travellers that original aspect of
+the lunar landscapes, raw in tone, without gradation of colours, only
+white and black, for diffused light was wanting. Still the sight of this
+desolate world was very curious on account of its very strangeness. They
+were moving above this chaotic region as if carried along by the breath
+of a tempest, seeing the summits fly under their feet, looking down the
+cavities, climbing the ramparts, sounding the mysterious holes. But
+there was no trace of vegetation, no appearance of cities, nothing but
+stratifications, lava streams, polished like immense mirrors, which
+reflect the solar rays with unbearable brilliancy. There was no
+appearance of a living world, everything of a dead one, where the
+avalanches rolling from the summit of the mountains rushed noiselessly.
+They had plenty of movement, but noise was wanting still.
+
+Barbicane established the fact, by reiterated observation, that the
+reliefs on the borders of the disc, although they had been acted upon
+by different forces to those of the central region, presented a uniform
+conformation. There was the same circular aggregation, the same
+accidents of ground. Still it might be supposed that their arrangements
+were not completely analogous. In the centre the still malleable crust
+of the moon suffered the double attraction of the moon and the earth
+acting in inverse ways according to a radius prolonged from one to the
+other. On the borders of the disc, on the contrary, the lunar attraction
+has been, thus to say, perpendicular with the terrestrial attraction. It
+seems, therefore, that the reliefs on the soil produced under these
+conditions ought to have taken a different form. Yet they had not,
+therefore the moon had found in herself alone the principle of her
+formation and constitution. She owed nothing to foreign influences,
+which justified the remarkable proposition of Arago's, "No action
+exterior to the moon has contributed to the production of her relief."
+
+However that may be in its actual condition, this world was the image of
+death without it being possible to say that life had ever animated it.
+
+Michel Ardan, however, thought he recognised a heap of ruins, to which
+he drew Barbicane's attention. It was situated in about the 80th
+parallel and 30° longitude. This heap of stones, pretty regularly made,
+was in the shape of a vast fortress, overlooking one of those long
+furrows which served as river-beds in ante-historical times. Not far off
+rose to a height of 5,646 metres the circular mountain called Short,
+equal to the Asiatic Caucasus. Michel Ardan, with his habitual ardour,
+maintained "the evidences" of his fortress. Below he perceived the
+dismantled ramparts of a town; here the arch of a portico, still intact;
+there two or three columns lying on their side; farther on a succession
+of archpieces, which must have supported the conduct of an aqueduct; in
+another part the sunken pillars of a gigantic bridge run into the
+thickest part of the furrow. He distinguished all that, but with so much
+imagination in his eyes, through a telescope so fanciful, that his
+observation cannot be relied upon. And yet who would affirm, who would
+dare to say, that the amiable fellow had not really seen what his two
+companions would not see?
+
+The moments were too precious to be sacrificed to an idle discussion.
+The Selenite city, whether real or pretended, had disappeared in the
+distance. The projectile began to get farther away from the lunar disc,
+and the details of the ground began to be lost in a confused jumble. The
+reliefs, amphitheatres, craters, and plains alone remained, and still
+showed their boundary-lines distinctly.
+
+At that moment there stretched to the left one of the finest
+amphitheatres in lunar orography. It was Newton, which Barbicane easily
+recognised by referring to the _Mappa Selenographica_.
+
+Newton is situated in exactly 77° south lat. and 16° east long. It forms
+a circular crater, the ramparts of which, 7,264 metres high, seemed to
+be inaccessible.
+
+Barbicane made his companions notice that the height of that mountain
+above the surrounding plain was far from being equal to the depth of its
+crater. This enormous hole was beyond all measurement, and made a gloomy
+abyss, the bottom of which the sun's rays could never reach. There,
+according to Humboldt, utter darkness reigns, which the light of the sun
+and the earth could not break. The mythologists would have made it with
+justice hell's mouth.
+
+"Newton," said Barbicane, "is the most perfect type of the circular
+mountains, of which the earth possesses no specimen. They prove that the
+formation of the moon by cooling was due to violent causes, for whilst
+under the influence of interior fire the reliefs were thrown up to
+considerable heights, the bottom dropped in, and became lower than the
+lunar level."
+
+"I do not say no," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+A few minutes after having passed Newton the projectile stood directly
+over the circular mountain of Moret. It also passed rather high above
+the summits of Blancanus, and about 7.30 p.m. it reached the
+amphitheatre of Clavius.
+
+This circle, one of the most remarkable on the disc, is situated in
+south lat. 58° and east long. 15°. Its height is estimated at 7,091
+metres. The travellers at a distance of 200 miles, reduced to two by the
+telescopes, could admire the arrangement of this vast crater.
+
+"The terrestrial volcanoes," said Barbicane, "are only molehills
+compared to the volcanoes of the moon. Measuring the ancient craters
+formed by the first eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna, they are found to be
+scarcely 6,000 metres wide. In France the circle of the Cantal measures
+five miles; at Ceylon the circle of the island is forty miles, and is
+considered the largest on the globe. What are these diameters compared
+to that of Clavius, which we are over in this moment?"
+
+"What is its width?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"About seventy miles," answered Barbicane. "This amphitheatre is
+certainly the largest on the moon, but many are fifty miles wide!"
+
+"Ah, my friends," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "can you imagine what this
+peaceful orb of night was once like? when these craters vomited torrents
+of lava and stones, with clouds of smoke and sheets of flame? What a
+prodigious spectacle formerly, and now what a falling off! This moon is
+now only the meagre case of fireworks, of which the rockets, serpents,
+suns, and wheels, after going off magnificently, only leave torn pieces
+of cardboard. Who can tell the cause, reason, or justification of such
+cataclysms?"
+
+Barbicane did not listen to Michel Ardan. He was contemplating those
+ramparts of Clavius, formed of wide mountains several leagues thick. At
+the bottom of its immense cavity lay hundreds of small extinct craters,
+making the soil like a sieve, and overlooked by a peak more than 15,000
+feet high.
+
+The plain around had a desolate aspect. Nothing so arid as these
+reliefs, nothing so sad as these ruins of mountains, if so they may be
+called, as those heaps of peaks and mountains encumbering the ground!
+The satellite seemed to have been blown up in this place.
+
+The projectile still went on, and the chaos was still the same. Circles,
+craters, and mountains succeeded each other incessantly. No more plains
+or seas--an interminable Switzerland or Norway. Lastly, in the centre of
+the creviced region at its culminating point, the most splendid mountain
+of the lunar disc, the dazzling Tycho, to which posterity still gives
+the name of the illustrious Danish astronomer.
+
+Whilst observing the full moon in a cloudless sky, there is no one who
+has not remarked this brilliant point on the southern hemisphere. Michel
+Ardan, to qualify it, employed all the metaphors his imagination could
+furnish him with. To him Tycho was an ardent focus of light, a centre of
+irradiation, a crater vomiting flames! It was the axle of a fiery wheel,
+a sea-star encircling the disc with its silver tentacles, an immense eye
+darting fire, a nimbo made for Pluto's head! It was a star hurled by the
+hand of the Creator, and fallen upon the lunar surface!
+
+Tycho forms such a luminous concentration that the inhabitants of the
+earth can see it without a telescope, although they are at a distance of
+100,000 leagues. It will, therefore, be readily imagined what its
+intensity must have been in the eyes of observers placed at fifty
+leagues only.
+
+Across this pure ether its brilliancy was so unbearable that Barbicane
+and his friends were obliged to blacken the object-glasses of their
+telescopes with gas-smoke in order to support it. Then, mute, hardly
+emitting a few admirative interjections, they looked and contemplated.
+All their sentiments, all their impressions were concentrated in their
+eyes, as life, under violent emotion, is concentrated in the heart.
+
+Tycho belongs to the system of radiating mountains, like Aristarchus and
+Copernicus. But it testified the most completely of all to the terrible
+volcanic action to which the formation of the moon is due.
+
+Tycho is situated in south lat. 43° and east long. 12°. Its centre is
+occupied by a crater more than forty miles wide. It affects a slightly
+elliptical form, and is inclosed by circular ramparts, which on the east
+and west overlook the exterior plain from a height of 5,000 metres. It
+is an aggregation of Mont Blancs, placed round a common centre, and
+crowned with shining rays.
+
+Photography itself could never represent what this incomparable
+mountain, with all its projections converging to it and its interior
+excrescences, is really like. In fact, it is during the full moon that
+Tycho is seen in all its splendour. Then all shadows disappear, the
+foreshortenings of perspective disappear, and all proofs come out
+white--an unfortunate circumstance, for this strange region would have
+been curious to reproduce with photographic exactitude. It is only an
+agglomeration of holes, craters, circles, a vertiginous network of
+crests. It will be understood, therefore, that the bubblings of this
+central eruption have kept their first forms. Crystallised by cooling,
+they have stereotyped the aspect which the moon formerly presented under
+the influence of Plutonic forces.
+
+The distance which separated the travellers from the circular summits of
+Tycho was not so great that the travellers could not survey its
+principal details. Even upon the embankment which forms the ramparts of
+Tycho, the mountains hanging to the interior and exterior slopes rose in
+stories like gigantic terraces. They appeared to be higher by 300 or 400
+feet on the west than on the east. No system of terrestrial
+castrametation could equal these natural fortifications. A town built at
+the bottom of this circular cavity would have been utterly inaccessible.
+
+Inaccessible and marvellously extended over this ground of picturesque
+relief! Nature had not left the bottom of this crater flat and empty. It
+possessed a special orography, a mountain system which made it a world
+apart. The travellers clearly distinguished the cones, central hills,
+remarkable movements of the ground, naturally disposed for the reception
+of masterpieces of Selenite architecture. There was the place for a
+temple, here for a forum, there the foundations of a palace, there the
+plateau of a citadel, the whole overlooked by a central mountain 1,500
+feet high--a vast circuit which would have held ancient Rome ten times
+over.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, made enthusiastic by the sight, "what
+grand towns could be built in this circle of mountains! A tranquil city,
+a peaceful refuge, away from all human cares! How all misanthropes could
+live there, all haters of humanity, all those disgusted with social
+life!"
+
+"All! It would be too small for them!" replied Barbicane simply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+GRAVE QUESTIONS.
+
+
+In the meantime the projectile had passed the neighbourhood of Tycho.
+Barbicane and his two friends then observed, with the most scrupulous
+attention, those brilliant radii which the celebrated mountain disperses
+so curiously on every horizon.
+
+What was this radiating aureole? What geological phenomenon had caused
+those ardent beams? This question justly occupied Barbicane. Under his
+eyes, in every direction, ran luminous furrows, with raised banks and
+concave middle, some ten miles, others more than twenty miles wide.
+These shining trails ran in certain places at least 300 leagues from
+Tycho, and seemed to cover, especially towards the east, north-east, and
+north, half the southern hemisphere. One of these furrows stretched as
+far as the amphitheatre of Neander, situated on the 40th meridian.
+Another went rounding off through the Sea of Nectar and broke against
+the chain of the Pyrenees after a run of 400 leagues; others towards the
+west covered with a luminous network the Sea of Clouds and the Sea of
+Humours.
+
+What was the origin of these shining rays running equally over plains
+and reliefs, however high? They all started from a common centre, the
+crater of Tycho. They emanated from it.
+
+Herschel attributed their brilliant aspect to ancient streams of lava
+congealed by the cold, an opinion which has not been generally received.
+Other astronomers have seen in these inexplicable rays a kind of
+_moraines_, ranges of erratic blocks thrown out at the epoch of the
+formation of Tycho.
+
+"And why should it not be so?" asked Nicholl of Barbicane, who rejected
+these different opinions at the same time that he related them.
+
+"Because the regularity of these luminous lines, and the violence
+necessary to send them to such a distance, are inexplicable.
+
+"_Par bleu_!" replied Michel Ardan. "I can easily explain to myself the
+origin of these rays."
+
+"Indeed," said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel. "Why should they not be the cracks caused by the
+shock of a bullet or a stone upon a pane of glass?"
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane, smiling; "and what hand would be powerful
+enough to hurl the stone that would produce such a shock?"
+
+"A hand is not necessary," answered Michel, who would not give in; "and
+as to the stone, let us say it is a comet."
+
+"Ah! comets?" exclaimed Barbicane; "those much-abused comets! My worthy
+Michel, your explanation is not bad, but your comet is not wanted. The
+shock might have come from the interior of the planet. A violent
+contraction of the lunar crust whilst cooling was enough to make that
+gigantic crack."
+
+"Contraction let it be--something like a lunar colic," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "that is also the opinion of an English
+_savant_, Nasmyth, and it seems to me to explain the radiation of these
+mountains sufficiently."
+
+"That Nasmyth was no fool!" answered Michel.
+
+The travellers, who could never weary of such a spectacle, long admired
+the splendours of Tycho. Their projectile, bathed in that double
+irradiation of the sun and moon, must have appeared like a globe of
+fire. They had, therefore, suddenly passed from considerable cold to
+intense heat. Nature was thus preparing them to become Selenites.
+
+To become Selenites! That idea again brought up the question of the
+habitability of the moon. After what they had seen, could the travellers
+solve it? Could they conclude for or against? Michel Ardan asked his two
+friends to give utterance to their opinion, and asked them outright if
+they thought that humanity and animality were represented in the lunar
+world.
+
+"I think we cannot answer," said Barbicane, "but in my opinion the
+question ought not to be stated in that form. I ask to be allowed to
+state it differently."
+
+"State it as you like," answered Michel.
+
+"This is it," resumed Barbicane. "The problem is double, and requires a
+double solution. Is the moon habitable? Has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Right," said Nicholl. "Let us first see if the moon is habitable."
+
+"To tell the truth, I know nothing about it," replied Michel.
+
+"And I answer in the negative," said Barbicane. "In her actual state,
+with her certainly very slight atmosphere, her seas mostly dried up, her
+insufficient water, her restricted vegetation, her abrupt alternations
+of heat and cold, her nights and days 354 hours long, the moon does not
+appear habitable to me, nor propitious to the development of the animal
+kingdom, nor sufficient for the needs of existence such as we understand
+it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but is not the moon habitable for beings
+differently organised to us?"
+
+"That question is more difficult to answer," replied Barbicane. "I will
+try to do it, however, but I ask Nicholl if movement seems to him the
+necessary result of existence, under no matter what organisation?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, then, my worthy companion, my answer will be that we have seen
+the lunar continent at a distance of 500 yards, and that nothing
+appeared to be moving on the surface of the moon. The presence of no
+matter what form of humanity would be betrayed by appropriations,
+different constructions, or even ruins. What did we see? Everywhere the
+geological work of Nature, never the work of man. If, therefore,
+representatives of the animal kingdom exist upon the moon, they have
+taken refuge in those bottomless cavities which the eye cannot reach.
+And I cannot admit that either, for they would have left traces of their
+passage upon the plains which the atmosphere, however slight, covers.
+Now these traces are nowhere visible. Therefore the only hypothesis that
+remains is one of living beings without movement or life."
+
+"You might just as well say living creatures who are not alive."
+
+"Precisely," answered Barbicane, "which for us has no meaning."
+
+"Then now we may formulate our opinion," said Michel.
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," resumed Michel Ardan; "the Scientific Commission, meeting
+in the projectile of the Gun Club, after having supported its arguments
+upon fresh facts lately observed, decides unanimously upon the question
+of the habitability of the moon--'No, the moon is not inhabited.'"
+
+This decision was taken down by Barbicane in his notebook, where he had
+already written the _procès-verbal_ of the sitting of December 6th.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl, "let us attack the second question, depending on
+the first. I therefore ask the honourable Commission if the moon is not
+habitable, has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Answer, Citizen Barbicane," said Michel Ardan.
+
+"My friends," answered Barbicane, "I did not undertake this journey to
+form an opinion upon the ancient habitability of our satellite. I may
+add that my personal observations only confirm me in this opinion. I
+believe, I even affirm, that the moon has been inhabited by a human race
+organised like ours, that it has produced animals anatomically formed
+like terrestrial animals; but I add that these races, human or animal,
+have had their day, and are for ever extinct."
+
+"Then," asked Michel, "the moon is an older world than the earth?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane with conviction, "but a world that has grown
+old more quickly, whose formation and deformation have been more rapid.
+Relatively the organising forces of matter have been much more violent
+in the interior of the moon than in the interior of the celestial globe.
+The actual state of this disc, broken up, tormented, and swollen, proves
+this abundantly. In their origin the moon and the earth were only gases.
+These gases became liquids under different influences, and the solid
+mass was formed afterwards. But it is certain that our globe was gas or
+liquid still when the moon, already solidified by cooling, became
+habitable."
+
+"I believe that," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "it was surrounded by atmosphere. The water
+held in by the gassy element could not evaporate. Under the influence of
+air, water, light, and heat, solar and central, vegetation took
+possession of these continents prepared for its reception, and certainly
+life manifested itself about that epoch, for Nature does not spend
+itself in inutilities, and a world so marvellously habitable must have
+been inhabited."
+
+"Still," answered Nicholl, "many phenomena inherent to the movements of
+our satellite must have prevented the expansion of the vegetable and
+animal kingdoms. The days and nights 354 hours long, for example."
+
+"At the terrestrial poles," said Michel, "they last six months."
+
+"That is not a valuable argument, as the poles are not inhabited."
+
+"In the actual state of the moon," resumed Barbicane, "the long nights
+and days create differences of temperature insupportable to the
+constitution, but it was not so at that epoch of historical times. The
+atmosphere enveloped the disc with a fluid mantle. Vapour deposited
+itself in the form of clouds. This natural screen tempered the ardour of
+the solar lays, and retained the nocturnal radiation. Both light and
+heat could diffuse themselves in the air. Hence there was equilibrium
+between the influences which no longer exists now that the atmosphere
+has almost entirely disappeared. Besides, I shall astonish you--"
+
+"Astonish us?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"But I believe that at the epoch when the moon was inhabited the nights
+and days did not last 354 hours!"
+
+"Why so?" asked Nicholl quickly.
+
+"Because it is very probable that then the moon's movement of rotation
+on her axis was not equal to her movement of revolution, an equality
+which puts every point of the lunar disc under the action of the solar
+rays for fifteen days."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but why should not these movements have
+been equal, since they are so actually?"
+
+"Because that equality has only been determined by terrestrial
+attraction. Now, how do we know that this attraction was powerful enough
+to influence the movements of the moon at the epoch the earth was still
+fluid?"
+
+"True," replied Nicholl; "and who can say that the moon has always been
+the earth's satellite?"
+
+"And who can say," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "that the moon did not exist
+before the earth?"
+
+Imagination began to wander in the indefinite field of hypotheses.
+Barbicane wished to hold them in.
+
+"Those," said he, "are speculations too high, problems really insoluble.
+Do not let us enter into them. Let us only admit the insufficiency of
+primordial attraction, and then by the inequality of rotation and
+revolution days and nights could succeed each other upon the moon as
+they do upon the earth. Besides, even under those conditions life was
+possible."
+
+"Then," asked Michel Ardan, "humanity has quite disappeared from the
+moon?"
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "after having, doubtless, existed for
+thousands of centuries. Then gradually the atmosphere becoming rarefied,
+the disc will again be uninhabitable like the terrestrial globe will one
+day become by cooling."
+
+"By cooling?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Barbicane. "As the interior fires became
+extinguished the incandescent matter was concentrated and the lunar disc
+became cool. By degrees the consequences of this phenomenon came
+about--the disappearance of organic beings and the disappearance of
+vegetation. Soon the atmosphere became rarefied, and was probably drawn
+away by terrestrial attraction; the breathable air disappeared, and so
+did water by evaporation. At that epoch the moon became uninhabitable,
+and was no longer inhabited. It was a dead world like it is to-day."
+
+"And you say that the like fate is reserved for the earth?"
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"When the cooling of its crust will have made it uninhabitable."
+
+"Has the time it will take our unfortunate globe to melt been
+calculated?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you know the reason?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then tell us, sulky _savant_--you make me boil with impatience."
+
+"Well, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane tranquilly, "it is well
+known what diminution of temperature the earth suffers in the lapse of a
+century. Now, according to certain calculations, that average
+temperature will be brought down to zero after a period of 400,000
+years!"
+
+"Four hundred thousand years!" exclaimed Michel. "Ah! I breathe again! I
+was really frightened. I imagined from listening to you that we had only
+fifty thousand years to live!"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at their companion's
+uneasiness. Then Nicholl, who wanted to have done with it, reminded them
+of the second question to be settled.
+
+"Has the moon been inhabited?" he asked.
+
+The answer was unanimously in the affirmative.
+
+During this discussion, fruitful in somewhat hazardous theories,
+although it resumed the general ideas of science on the subject, the
+projectile had run rapidly towards the lunar equator, at the same time
+that it went farther away from the lunar disc. It had passed the circle
+of Willem, and the 40th parallel, at a distance of 400 miles. Then
+leaving Pitatus to the right, on the 30th degree, it went along the
+south of the Sea of Clouds, of which it had already approached the
+north. Different amphitheatres appeared confusedly under the white light
+of the full moon--Bouillaud, Purbach, almost square with a central
+crater, then Arzachel, whose interior mountain shone with indefinable
+brilliancy.
+
+At last, as the projectile went farther and farther away, the details
+faded from the travellers' eyes, the mountains were confounded in the
+distance, and all that remained of the marvellous, fantastical, and
+wonderful satellite of the earth was the imperishable remembrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE.
+
+
+For some time Barbicane and his companions, mute and pensive, looked at
+this world, which they had only seen from a distance, like Moses saw
+Canaan, and from which they were going away for ever. The position of
+the projectile relatively to the moon was modified, and now its lower
+end was turned towards the earth.
+
+This change, verified by Barbicane, surprised him greatly. If the bullet
+was going to gravitate round the satellite in an elliptical orbit, why
+was not its heaviest part turned towards it like the moon to the earth?
+There again was an obscure point.
+
+By watching the progress of the projectile they could see that it was
+following away from the moon an analogous curve to that by which it
+approached her. It was, therefore, describing a very long ellipsis which
+would probably extend to the point of equal attraction, where the
+influences of the earth and her satellite are neutralised.
+
+Such was the conclusion which Barbicane correctly drew from the facts
+observed, a conviction which his two friends shared with him.
+
+Questions immediately began to shower upon him.
+
+"What will become of us after we have reached the neutral point?" asked
+Michel Ardan.
+
+"That is unknown!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"But we can make suppositions, I suppose?"
+
+"We can make two," answered Barbicane. "Either the velocity of the
+projectile will then be insufficient, and it will remain entirely
+motionless on that line of double attraction--"
+
+"I would rather have the other supposition, whatever it is," replied
+Michel.
+
+"Or the velocity will be sufficient," resumed Barbicane, "and it will
+continue its elliptical orbit, and gravitate eternally round the orb of
+night."
+
+"Not very consoling that revolution," said Michel, "to become the humble
+servants of a moon whom we are in the habit of considering our servant.
+And is that the future that awaits us?"
+
+Neither Barbicane nor Nicholl answered.
+
+"Why do you not answer?" asked the impatient Michel.
+
+"There is nothing to answer," said Nicholl.
+
+"Can nothing be done?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "Do you pretend to struggle with the
+impossible?"
+
+"Why not? Ought a Frenchman and two Americans to recoil at such a word?"
+
+"But what do you want to do?"
+
+"Command the motion that is carrying us along!"
+
+"Command it?"
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel, getting animated, "stop it or modify it; use it
+for the accomplishment of our plans."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"That is your business! If artillerymen are not masters of their bullets
+they are no longer artillerymen. If the projectile commands the gunner,
+the gunner ought to be rammed instead into the cannon! Fine _savants_,
+truly! who don't know now what to do after having induced me--"
+
+"Induced!" cried Barbicane and Nicholl. "Induced! What do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"No recriminations!" said Michel. "I do not complain. The journey
+pleases me. The bullet suits me. But let us do all that is humanly
+possible to fall somewhere, if only upon the moon."
+
+"We should only be too glad, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane, "but
+we have no means of doing it."
+
+"Can we not modify the motion of the projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor diminish its speed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even by lightening it like they lighten an overloaded ship?"
+
+"What can we throw out?" answered Nicholl. "We have no ballast on board.
+And besides, it seems to me that a lightened projectile would go on more
+quickly."
+
+"Less quickly," said Michel.
+
+"More quickly," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Neither more nor less quickly," answered Barbicane, wishing to make his
+two friends agree, "for we are moving in the void where we cannot take
+specific weight into account."
+
+"Very well," exclaimed Michel Ardan in a determined tone; "there is only
+one thing to do."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Have breakfast," imperturbably answered the audacious Frenchman, who
+always brought that solution to the greatest difficulties.
+
+In fact, though that operation would have no influence on the direction
+of the projectile, it might be attempted without risk, and even
+successfully from the point of view of the stomach. Decidedly the
+amiable Michel had only good ideas.
+
+They breakfasted, therefore, at 2 a.m., but the hour was not of much
+consequence. Michel served up his habitual _menu_, crowned by an amiable
+bottle out of his secret cellar. If ideas did not come into their heads
+the Chambertin of 1863 must be despaired of.
+
+The meal over, observations began again.
+
+The objects they had thrown out of the projectile still followed it at
+the same invariable distance. It was evident that the bullet in its
+movement of translation round the moon had not passed through any
+atmosphere, for the specific weight of these objects would have modified
+their respective distances.
+
+There was nothing to see on the side of the terrestrial globe. The earth
+was only a day old, having been new at midnight the day before, and two
+days having to go by before her crescent, disengaged from the solar
+rays, could serve as a clock to the Selenites, as in her movement of
+rotation each of her points always passes the same meridian of the moon
+every twenty-four hours.
+
+The spectacle was a different one on the side of the moon; the orb was
+shining in all its splendour amidst innumerable constellations, the rays
+of which could not trouble its purity. Upon the disc the plains again
+wore the sombre tint which is seen from the earth. The rest of the
+nimbus was shining, and amidst the general blaze Tycho stood out like a
+sun.
+
+Barbicane could not manage any way to appreciate the velocity of the
+projectile, but reasoning demonstrated that this speed must be uniformly
+diminishing in conformity with the laws of rational mechanics.
+
+In fact, it being admitted that the bullet would describe an orbit round
+the moon, that orbit must necessarily be elliptical. Science proves that
+it must be thus. No mobile circulation round any body is an exception to
+that law. All the orbits described in space are elliptical, those of
+satellites round their planets, those of planets around their sun, that
+of the sun round the unknown orb that serves as its central pivot. Why
+should the projectile of the Gun Club escape that natural arrangement?
+
+Now in elliptical orbits attracting bodies always occupy one of the foci
+of the ellipsis. The satellite is, therefore, nearer the body round
+which it gravitates at one moment than it is at another. When the earth
+is nearest the sun she is at her perihelion, and at her aphelion when
+most distant. The moon is nearest the earth at her perigee, and most
+distant at her apogee. To employ analogous expressions which enrich the
+language of astronomers, if the projectile remained a satellite of the
+moon, it ought to be said that it is in its "aposelene" at its most
+distant point, and at its "periselene" at its nearest.
+
+In the latter case the projectile ought to attain its maximum of speed,
+in the latter its minimum. Now it was evidently going towards its
+"aposelene," and Barbicane was right in thinking its speed would
+decrease up to that point, and gradually increase when it would again
+draw near the moon. That speed even would be absolutely _nil_ if the
+point was coexistent with that of attraction.
+
+Barbicane studied the consequences of these different situations; he was
+trying what he could make of them when he was suddenly interrupted by a
+cry from Michel Ardan.
+
+"I'faith!" cried Michel, "what fools we are!"
+
+"I don't say we are not," answered Barbicane; "but why?"
+
+"Because we have some very simple means of slackening the speed that is
+taking us away from the moon, and we do not use them."
+
+"And what are those means?"
+
+"That of utilising the force of recoil in our rockets."
+
+"Ah, why not?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We have not yet utilised that force, it is true," said Barbicane, "but
+we shall do so."
+
+"When?" asked Michel.
+
+"When the time comes. Remark, my friends, that in the position now
+occupied by the projectile, a position still oblique to the lunar disc,
+our rockets, by altering its direction, might take it farther away
+instead of nearer to the moon. Now I suppose it is the moon you want to
+reach?"
+
+"Essentially," answered Michel.
+
+"Wait, then. Through some inexplicable influence the projectile has a
+tendency to let its lower end fall towards the earth. It is probable
+that at the point of equal attraction its conical summit will be
+rigorously directed towards the moon. At that moment it may be hoped
+that its speed will be _nil_. That will be the time to act, and under
+the effort of our rockets we can, perhaps, provoke a direct fall upon
+the surface of the lunar disc."
+
+"Bravo!" said Michel.
+
+"We have not done it yet, and we could not do it as we passed the
+neutral point, because the projectile was still animated with too much
+velocity."
+
+"Well reasoned out," said Nicholl.
+
+"We must wait patiently," said Barbicane, "and put every chance on our
+side; then, after having despaired so long, I again begin to think we
+shall reach our goal."
+
+This conclusion provoked hurrahs from Michel Ardan. No one of these
+daring madmen remembered the question they had all answered in the
+negative--No, the moon is not inhabited! No, the moon is probably not
+inhabitable! And yet they were going to do all they could to reach it.
+
+One question only now remained to be solved: at what precise moment
+would the projectile reach that point of equal attraction where the
+travellers would play their last card?
+
+In order to calculate that moment to within some seconds Barbicane had
+only to have recourse to his travelling notes, and to take the different
+altitudes from lunar parallels. Thus the time employed in going over the
+distance between the neutral point and the South Pole must be equal to
+the distance which separates the South Pole from the neutral point. The
+hours representing the time it took were carefully noted down, and the
+calculation became easy.
+
+Barbicane found that this point would be reached by the projectile at 1
+a.m. on the 8th of December. It was then 3 a.m. on the 7th of December.
+Therefore, if nothing intervened, the projectile would reach the neutral
+point in twenty-two hours.
+
+The rockets had been put in their places to slacken the fall of the
+bullet upon the moon, and now the bold fellows were going to use them to
+provoke an exactly contrary effect. However that may be, they were
+ready, and there was nothing to do but await the moment for setting fire
+to them.
+
+"As there is nothing to do," said Nicholl, "I have a proposition to
+make."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"I propose we go to sleep."
+
+"That is a nice idea!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"It is forty hours since we have closed our eyes," said Nicholl. "A few
+hours' sleep would set us up again."
+
+"Never!" replied Michel.
+
+"Good," said Nicholl; "every man to his humour--mine is to sleep."
+
+And lying down on a divan, Nicholl was soon snoring like a forty-eight
+pound bullet.
+
+"Nicholl is a sensible man," said Barbicane soon. "I shall imitate him."
+
+A few minutes after he was joining his bass to the captain's baritone.
+
+"Decidedly," said Michel Ardan, when he found himself alone, "these
+practical people sometimes do have opportune ideas."
+
+And stretching out his long legs, and folding his long arms under his
+head, Michel went to sleep too.
+
+But this slumber could neither be durable nor peaceful. Too many
+preoccupations filled the minds of these three men, and a few hours
+after, at about 7 a.m., they all three awoke at once.
+
+The projectile was still moving away from the moon, inclining its
+conical summit more and more towards her. This phenomenon was
+inexplicable at present, but it fortunately aided the designs of
+Barbicane.
+
+Another seventeen hours and the time for action would have come.
+
+That day seemed long. However bold they might be, the travellers felt
+much anxiety at the approach of the minute that was to decide
+everything, either their fall upon the moon or their imprisonment in an
+immutable orbit. They therefore counted the hours, which went too slowly
+for them, Barbicane and Nicholl obstinately plunged in calculations,
+Michel walking up and down the narrow space between the walls
+contemplating with longing eye the impassible moon.
+
+Sometimes thoughts of the earth passed through their minds. They saw
+again their friends of the Gun Club, and the dearest of them all, J.T.
+Maston. At that moment the honourable secretary must have been occupying
+his post on the Rocky Mountains. If he should perceive the projectile
+upon the mirror of his gigantic telescope what would he think? After
+having seen it disappear behind the south pole of the moon, they would
+see it reappear at the north! It was, therefore, the satellite of a
+satellite! Had J.T. Maston sent that unexpected announcement into the
+world? Was this to be the _dénouement_ of the great enterprise?
+
+Meanwhile the day passed without incident. Terrestrial midnight came.
+The 8th of December was about to commence. Another hour and the point of
+equal attraction would be reached. What velocity then animated the
+projectile? They could form no estimate; but no error could vitiate
+Barbicane's calculations. At 1 a.m. that velocity ought to be and would
+be _nil_.
+
+Besides, another phenomenon would mark the stopping point of the
+projectile on the neutral line. In that spot the two attractions,
+terrestrial and lunar, would be annihilated. Objects would not weigh
+anything. This singular fact, which had so curiously surprised Barbicane
+and his companions before, must again come about under identical
+circumstances. It was at that precise moment they must act.
+
+The conical summit of the bullet had already sensibly turned towards the
+lunar disc. The projectile was just right for utilising all the recoil
+produced by setting fire to the apparatus. Chance was therefore in the
+travellers' favour. If the velocity of the projectile were to be
+absolutely annihilated upon the neutral point, a given motion, however
+slight, towards the moon would determine its fall.
+
+"Five minutes to one," said Nicholl.
+
+"Everything is ready," answered Michel Ardan, directing his match
+towards the flame of the gas.
+
+"Wait!" said Barbicane, chronometer in hand.
+
+At that moment weight had no effect. The travellers felt its complete
+disappearance in themselves. They were near the neutral point if they
+had not reached it.
+
+"One o'clock!" said Barbicane.
+
+Michel Ardan put his match to a contrivance that put all the fuses into
+instantaneous communication. No detonation was heard outside, where air
+was wanting, but through the port-lights Barbicane saw the prolonged
+flame, which was immediately extinguished.
+
+The projectile had a slight shock which was very sensibly felt in the
+interior.
+
+The three friends looked, listened, without speaking, hardly breathing.
+The beating of their hearts might have been heard in the absolute
+silence.
+
+"Are we falling?" asked Michel Ardan at last.
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "for the bottom of the projectile has not turned
+towards the lunar disc!"
+
+At that moment Barbicane left his window and turned towards his two
+companions. He was frightfully pale, his forehead wrinkled, his lips
+contracted.
+
+"We are falling!" said he.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "upon the moon?"
+
+"Upon the earth!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan; and he added philosophically, "when we
+entered the bullet we did not think it would be so difficult to get out
+of it again."
+
+In fact, the frightful fall had begun. The velocity kept by the
+projectile had sent it beyond the neutral point. The explosion of the
+fuses had not stopped it. That velocity which had carried the projectile
+beyond the neutral line as it went was destined to do the same upon its
+return. The law of physics condemned it, in its elliptical orbit, _to
+pass by every point it had already passed_.
+
+It was a terrible fall from a height of 78,000 leagues, and which no
+springs could deaden. According to the laws of ballistics the projectile
+would strike the earth with a velocity equal to that which animated it
+as it left the Columbiad--a velocity of "16,000 metres in the last
+second!"
+
+And in order to give some figures for comparison it has been calculated
+that an object thrown from the towers of Notre Dame, the altitude of
+which is only 200 feet, would reach the pavement with a velocity of 120
+leagues an hour. Here the projectile would strike the earth with a
+velocity of 57,600 _leagues an hour_.
+
+"We are lost men," said Nicholl coldly.
+
+"Well, if we die," answered Barbicane, with a sort of religious
+enthusiasm, "the result of our journey will be magnificently enlarged!
+God will tell us His own secret! In the other life the soul will need
+neither machines nor engines in order to know! It will be identified
+with eternal wisdom!"
+
+"True," replied Michel Ardan: "the other world may well console us for
+that trifling orb called the moon!"
+
+Barbicane crossed his arms upon his chest with a movement of sublime
+resignation.
+
+"God's will be done!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA.
+
+
+Well, lieutenant, and what about those soundings?"
+
+"I think the operation is almost over, sir. But who would have expected
+to find such a depth so near land, at 100 leagues only from the American
+coast?"
+
+"Yes, Bronsfield, there is a great depression," said Captain Blomsberry.
+"There exists a submarine valley here, hollowed out by Humboldt's
+current, which runs along the coasts of America to the Straits of
+Magellan."
+
+"Those great depths," said the lieutenant, "are not favourable for the
+laying of telegraph cables. A smooth plateau is the best, like the one
+the American cable lies on between Valentia and Newfoundland."
+
+"I agree with you, Bronsfield. And, may it please you, lieutenant, where
+are we now?"
+
+"Sir," answered Bronsfield, "we have at this moment 21,500 feet of line
+out, and the bullet at the end of the line has not yet touched the
+bottom, for the sounding-lead would have come up again."
+
+"Brook's apparatus is an ingenious one," said Captain Blomsberry. "It
+allows us to obtain very correct soundings."
+
+"Touched!" cried at that moment one of the forecastle-men who was
+superintending the operation.
+
+The captain and lieutenant went on to the forecastle-deck.
+
+"What depth are we in?" asked the captain.
+
+"Twenty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two feet," answered the
+lieutenant, writing it down in his pocket-book.
+
+"Very well, Bronsfield," said the captain, "I will go and mark the
+result on my chart. Now have the sounding-line brought in--that is a
+work of several hours. Meanwhile the engineer shall have his fires
+lighted, and we shall be ready to start as soon as you have done. It is
+10 p.m., and with your permission, lieutenant, I shall turn in."
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly!" answered Lieutenant Bronsfield amiably.
+
+The captain of the Susquehanna, a worthy man if ever there was one, the
+very humble servant of his officers, went to his cabin, took his
+brandy-and-water with many expressions of satisfaction to the steward,
+got into bed, not before complimenting his servant on the way he made
+beds, and sank into peaceful slumber.
+
+It was then 10 p.m. The eleventh day of the month of December was going
+to end in a magnificent night.
+
+The Susquehanna, a corvette of 500 horse power, of the United States
+Navy, was taking soundings in the Pacific at about a hundred leagues
+from the American coast, abreast of that long peninsula on the coast of
+New Mexico.
+
+The wind had gradually fallen. There was not the slightest movement in
+the air. The colours of the corvette hung from the mast motionless and
+inert.
+
+The captain, Jonathan Blomsberry, cousin-german to Colonel Blomsberry,
+one of the Gun Club members who had married a Horschbidden, the
+captain's aunt and daughter of an honourable Kentucky merchant--Captain
+Blomsberry could not have wished for better weather to execute the
+delicate operation of sounding. His corvette had felt nothing of that
+great tempest which swept away the clouds heaped up on the Rocky
+Mountains, and allowed the course of the famous projectile to be
+observed. All was going on well, and he did not forget to thank Heaven
+with all the fervour of a Presbyterian.
+
+The series of soundings executed by the Susquehanna were intended for
+finding out the most favourable bottoms for the establishment of a
+submarine cable between the Hawaiian Islands and the American coast.
+
+It was a vast project set on foot by a powerful company. Its director,
+the intelligent Cyrus Field, meant even to cover all the islands of
+Oceania with a vast electric network--an immense enterprise worthy of
+American genius.
+
+It was to the corvette Susquehanna that the first operations of sounding
+had been entrusted. During the night from the 11th to the 12th of
+December she was exactly in north lat. 27° 7' and 41° 37' long., west
+from the Washington meridian.
+
+The moon, then in her last quarter, began to show herself above the
+horizon.
+
+After Captain Blomsberry's departure, Lieutenant Bronsfield and a few
+officers were together on the poop. As the moon appeared their thoughts
+turned towards that orb which the eyes of a whole hemisphere were then
+contemplating. The best marine glasses could not have discovered the
+projectile wandering round the demi-globe, and yet they were all pointed
+at the shining disc which millions of eyes were looking at in the same
+moment.
+
+"They started ten days ago," then said Lieutenant Bronsfield. "What can
+have become of them?"
+
+"They have arrived, sir," exclaimed a young midshipman, "and they are
+doing what all travellers do in a new country, they are looking about
+them."
+
+"I am certain of it as you say so, my young friend," answered Lieutenant
+Bronsfield, smiling.
+
+"Still," said another officer, "their arrival cannot be doubted. The
+projectile must have reached the moon at the moment she was full, at
+midnight on the 5th. We are now at the 11th of December; that makes six
+days. Now in six times twenty-four hours, with no darkness, they have
+had time to get comfortably settled. It seems to me that I see our brave
+countrymen encamped at the bottom of a valley, on the borders of a
+Selenite stream, near the projectile, half buried by its fall, amidst
+volcanic remains, Captain Nicholl beginning his levelling operations,
+President Barbicane putting his travelling notes in order, Michel Ardan
+performing the lunar solitudes with his Londrès cigar--"
+
+"Oh, it must be so; it is so!" exclaimed the young midshipman,
+enthusiastic at the ideal description of his superior.
+
+"I should like to believe it," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, who was
+seldom carried away. "Unfortunately direct news from the lunar world
+will always be wanting."
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the midshipman, "but cannot President Barbicane
+write?"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted this answer.
+
+"Not letters," answered the young man quickly. "The post-office has
+nothing to do with that."
+
+"Perhaps you mean the telegraph-office?" said one of the officers
+ironically.
+
+"Nor that either," answered the midshipman, who would not give in. "But
+it is very easy to establish graphic communication with the earth."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"By means of the telescope on Long's Peak. You know that it brings the
+moon to within two leagues only of the Rocky Mountains, and that it
+allows them to see objects having nine feet of diameter on her surface.
+Well, our industrious friends will construct a gigantic alphabet! They
+will write words 600 feet long, and sentences a league long, and then
+they can send up news!"
+
+The young midshipman, who certainly had some imagination was loudly
+applauded. Lieutenant Bronsfield himself was convinced that the idea
+could have been carried out. He added that by sending luminous rays,
+grouped by means of parabolical mirrors, direct communications could
+also be established--in fact, these rays would be as visible on the
+surface of Venus or Mars as the planet Neptune is from the earth. He
+ended by saying that the brilliant points already observed on the
+nearest planets might be signals made to the earth. But he said, that
+though by these means they could have news from the lunar world, they
+could not send any from the terrestrial world unless the Selenites have
+at their disposition instruments with which to make distant
+observations.
+
+"That is evident," answered one of the officers, "but what has become of
+the travellers? What have they done? What have they seen? That is what
+interests us. Besides, if the experiment has succeeded, which I do not
+doubt, it will be done again. The Columbiad is still walled up in the
+soil of Florida. It is, therefore, now only a question of powder and
+shot, and every time the moon passes the zenith we can send it a cargo
+of visitors."
+
+"It is evident," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "that J.T. Maston will
+go and join his friends one of these days."
+
+"If he will have me," exclaimed the midshipman, "I am ready to go with
+him."
+
+"Oh, there will be plenty of amateurs, and if they are allowed to go,
+half the inhabitants of the earth will soon have emigrated to the moon!"
+
+This conversation between the officers of the Susquehanna was kept up
+till about 1 a.m. It would be impossible to transcribe the overwhelming
+systems and theories which were emitted by these audacious minds. Since
+Barbicane's attempt it seemed that nothing was impossible to Americans.
+They had already formed the project of sending, not another commission
+of _savants_, but a whole colony, and a whole army of infantry,
+artillery, and cavalry to conquer the lunar world.
+
+At 1 a.m. the sounding-line was not all hauled in. Ten thousand feet
+remained out, which would take several more hours to bring in. According
+to the commander's orders the fires had been lighted, and the pressure
+was going up already. The Susquehanna might have started at once.
+
+At that very moment--it was 1.17 a.m.--Lieutenant Bronsfield was about
+to leave his watch to turn in when his attention was attracted by a
+distant and quite unexpected hissing sound.
+
+His comrades and he at first thought that the hissing came from an
+escape of steam, but upon lifting up his head he found that it was high
+up in the air.
+
+They had not time to question each other before the hissing became of
+frightful intensity, and suddenly to their dazzled eyes appeared an
+enormous bolis, inflamed by the rapidity of its course, by its friction
+against the atmospheric strata.
+
+This ignited mass grew huger as it came nearer, and fell with the noise
+of thunder upon the bowsprit of the corvette, which it smashed off close
+to the stem, and vanished in the waves.
+
+A few feet nearer and the Susquehanna would have gone down with all on
+board.
+
+At that moment Captain Blomsberry appeared half-clothed, and rushing in
+the forecastle, where his officers had preceded him--
+
+"With your permission, gentlemen, what has happened?" he asked.
+
+And the midshipman, making himself the mouthpiece of them all, cried
+out--
+
+"Commander, it is 'they' come back again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+J.T. MASTON CALLED IN.
+
+
+Emotion was great on board the Susquehanna. Officers and sailors forgot
+the terrible danger they had just been in--the danger of being crushed
+and sunk. They only thought of the catastrophe which terminated the
+journey. Thus, therefore, the moat audacious enterprise of ancient and
+modern times lost the life of the bold adventurers who had attempted it.
+
+"It is 'they' come back," the young midshipman had said, and they had
+all understood. No one doubted that the bolis was the projectile of the
+Gun Club. Opinions were divided about the fate of the travellers.
+
+"They are dead!" said one.
+
+"They are alive," answered the other. "The water is deep here, and the
+shock has been deadened."
+
+"But they will have no air, and will die suffocated!"
+
+"Burnt!" answered the other. "Their projectile was only an incandescent
+mass as it crossed the atmosphere."
+
+"What does it matter?" was answered unanimously, "living or dead they
+must be brought up from there."
+
+Meanwhile Captain Blomsberry had called his officers together, and with
+their permission he held a council. Something must be done immediately.
+The most immediate was to haul up the projectile--a difficult operation,
+but not an impossible one. But the corvette wanted the necessary
+engines, which would have to be powerful and precise. It was, therefore,
+resolved to put into the nearest port, and to send word to the Gun Club
+about the fall of the bullet.
+
+This determination was taken unanimously. The choice of a port was
+discussed. The neighbouring coast had no harbour on the 27th degree of
+latitude. Higher up, above the peninsula of Monterey, was the important
+town which has given its name to it. But, seated on the confines of a
+veritable desert, it had no telegraphic communication with the interior,
+and electricity alone could spread the important news quickly enough.
+
+Some degrees above lay the bay of San Francisco. Through the capital of
+the Gold Country communication with the centre of the Union would be
+easy. By putting all steam on, the Susquehanna, in less than two days,
+could reach the port of San Francisco. She must, therefore, start at
+once.
+
+The fires were heaped up, and they could set sail immediately. Two
+thousand fathoms of sounding still remained in the water. Captain
+Blomsberry would not lose precious time in hauling it in, and resolved
+to cut the line.
+
+"We will fix the end to a buoy," said he, "and the buoy will indicate
+the exact point where the projectile fell."
+
+"Besides," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "we have our exact bearings:
+north lat. 27° 7', and west long. 41° 37'."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Bronsfield," answered the captain; "with your
+permission, have the line cut."
+
+A strong buoy, reinforced by a couple of spars, was thrown out on to
+the surface of the ocean. The end of the line was solidly struck
+beneath, and only submitted to the ebb and flow of the surges, so that
+it would not drift much.
+
+At that moment the engineer came to warn the captain that he had put the
+pressure on, and they could start. The captain thanked him for his
+excellent communication. Then he gave N.N.E. as the route. The corvette
+was put about, and made for the bay of San Francisco with all steam on.
+It was then 3 a.m.
+
+Two hundred leagues to get over was not much for a quick vessel like the
+Susquehanna. It got over that distance in thirty-six hours, and on the
+14th of December, at 1.27 p.m., she would enter the bay of San
+Francisco.
+
+At the sight of this vessel of the national navy arriving with all speed
+on, her bowsprit gone, and her mainmast propped up, public curiosity was
+singularly excited. A compact crowd was soon assembled on the quays
+awaiting the landing.
+
+After weighing anchor Captain Blomsberry and Lieutenant Bronsfield got
+down into an eight-oared boat which carried them rapidly to the land.
+
+They jumped out on the quay.
+
+"The telegraph-office?" they asked, without answering one of the
+thousand questions that were showered upon them.
+
+The port inspector guided them himself to the telegraph-office, amidst
+an immense crowd of curious people.
+
+Blomsberry and Bronsfield went into the office whilst the crowd crushed
+against the door.
+
+A few minutes later one message was sent in four different
+directions:--1st, to the Secretary of the Navy, Washington; 2nd, to the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, Baltimore; 3rd, to the Honourable J.T.
+Maston, Long's Peak, Rocky Mountains; 4th, to the Sub-Director of the
+Cambridge Observatory, Massachusetts.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"In north lat. 20° 7', and west long. 41° 37', the projectile of the
+Columbiad fell into the Pacific, on December 12th, at 1.17 am. Send
+instructions.--BLOMSBERRY, Commander Susquehanna."
+
+Five minutes afterwards the whole town of San Francisco knew the
+tidings. Before 6 p.m. the different States of the Union had
+intelligence of the supreme catastrophe. After midnight, through the
+cable, the whole of Europe knew the result of the great American
+enterprise.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the effect produced throughout the
+world by the unexpected news.
+
+On receipt of the telegram the Secretary of the Navy telegraphed to the
+Susquehanna to keep under fire, and wait in the bay of San Francisco.
+She was to be ready to set sail day or night.
+
+The Observatory of Cambridge had an extraordinary meeting, and, with the
+serenity which distinguishes scientific bodies, it peacefully discussed
+the scientific part of the question.
+
+At the Gun Club there was an explosion. All the artillerymen were
+assembled. The Vice-President, the Honourable Wilcome, was just reading
+the premature telegram by which Messrs. Maston and Belfast announced
+that the projectile had just been perceived in the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak. This communication informed them also that the bullet,
+retained by the attraction of the moon, was playing the part of
+sub-satellite in the solar world.
+
+The truth on this subject is now known.
+
+However, upon the arrival of Blomsberry's message, which so formally
+contradicted J.T. Maston's telegram, two parties were formed in the
+bosom of the Gun Club. On the one side were members who admitted the
+fall of the projectile, and consequently the return of the travellers.
+On the other were those who, holding by the observations at Long's Peak,
+concluded that the commander of the Susquehanna was mistaken. According
+to the latter, the pretended projectile was only a bolis, nothing but a
+bolis, a shooting star, which in its fall had fractured the corvette.
+Their argument could not very well be answered, because the velocity
+with which it was endowed had made its observation very difficult. The
+commander of the Susquehanna and his officers might certainly have been
+mistaken in good faith. One argument certainly was in their favour: if
+the projectile had fallen on the earth it must have touched the
+terrestrial spheroid upon the 27th degree of north latitude, and, taking
+into account the time that had elapsed, and the earth's movement of
+rotation, between the 41st and 42nd degree of west longitude.
+
+However that might be, it was unanimously decided in the Gun Club that
+Blomsberry's brother Bilsby and Major Elphinstone should start at once
+for San Francisco and give their advice about the means of dragging up
+the projectile from the depths of the ocean.
+
+These men started without losing an instant, and the railway which was
+soon to cross the whole of Central America took them to St. Louis, where
+rapid mail-coaches awaited them.
+
+Almost at the same moment that the Secretary of the Navy, the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, and the Sub-Director of the Observatory
+received the telegram from San Francisco, the Honourable J.T. Maston
+felt the most violent emotion of his whole existence--an emotion not
+even equalled by that he had experienced when his celebrated cannon was
+blown up, and which, like it, nearly cost him his life.
+
+It will be remembered that the Secretary of the Gun Club had started
+some minutes after the projectile--and almost as quickly--for the
+station of Long's Peak in the Rocky Mountains. The learned J. Belfast,
+Director of the Cambridge Observatory, accompanied him. Arrived at the
+station the two friends had summarily installed themselves, and no
+longer left the summit of their enormous telescope.
+
+We know that this gigantic instrument had been set up on the reflecting
+system, called "front view" by the English. This arrangement only gave
+one reflection of objects, and consequently made the view much clearer.
+The result was that J.T. Maston and Belfast, whilst observing, were
+stationed in the upper part of the instrument instead of in the lower.
+They reached it by a twisted staircase, a masterpiece of lightness, and
+below them lay the metal, well terminated by the metallic mirror, 280
+feet deep.
+
+Now it was upon the narrow platform placed round the telescope that the
+two _savants_ passed their existence, cursing the daylight which hid the
+moon from their eyes, and the clouds which obstinately veiled her at
+night.
+
+Who can depict their delight when, after waiting several days, during
+the night of December 5th they perceived the vehicle that was carrying
+their friends through space? To that delight succeeded deep
+disappointment when, trusting to incomplete observations, they sent out
+with their first telegram to the world the erroneous affirmation that
+the projectile had become a satellite of the moon gravitating in an
+immutable orbit.
+
+After that instant the bullet disappeared behind the invisible disc of
+the moon. But when it ought to have reappeared on the invisible disc the
+impatience of J.T. Maston and his no less impatient companion may be
+imagined. At every minute of the night they thought they should see the
+projectile again, and they did not see it. Hence between them arose
+endless discussions and violent disputes, Belfast affirming that the
+projectile was not visible, J.T. Maston affirming that any one but a
+blind man could see it.
+
+"It is the bullet!" repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"No!" answered Belfast, "it is an avalanche falling from a lunar
+mountain!"
+
+"Well, then, we shall see it to-morrow."
+
+"No, it will be seen no more. It is carried away into space."
+
+"We shall see it, I tell you."
+
+"No, we shall not."
+
+And while these interjections were being showered like hail, the
+well-known irritability of the Secretary of the Gun Club constituted a
+permanent danger to the director, Belfast.
+
+Their existence together would soon have become impossible, but an
+unexpected event cut short these eternal discussions.
+
+During the night between the 14th and 15th of December the two
+irreconcilable friends were occupied in observing the lunar disc. J.T.
+Maston was, as usual, saying strong things to the learned Belfast, who
+was getting angry too. The Secretary of the Gun Club declared for the
+thousandth time that he had just perceived the projectile, adding even
+that Michel Ardan's face had appeared at one of the port-lights. He was
+emphasising his arguments by a series of gestures which his redoubtable
+hook rendered dangerous.
+
+At that moment Belfast's servant appeared upon the platform--it was 10
+p.m.--and gave him a telegram. It was the message from the Commander of
+the Susquehanna.
+
+Belfast tore the envelope, read the inclosure, and uttered a cry.
+
+"What is it?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"It's the bullet!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"It has fallen upon the earth!"
+
+Another cry; this time a howl answered him.
+
+He turned towards J.T. Maston. The unfortunate fellow, leaning
+imprudently over the metal tube, had disappeared down the immense
+telescope--a fall of 280 feet! Belfast, distracted, rushed towards the
+orifice of the reflector.
+
+He breathed again. J.T. Maston's steel hook had caught in one of the
+props which maintained the platform of the telescope. He was uttering
+formidable cries.
+
+Belfast called. Help came, and the imprudent secretary was hoisted up,
+not without trouble.
+
+He reappeared unhurt at the upper orifice.
+
+"Suppose I had broken the mirror?" said he.
+
+"You would have paid for it," answered Belfast severely.
+
+"And where has the infernal bullet fallen?" asked J.T. Maston.
+
+"Into the Pacific."
+
+"Let us start at once."
+
+A quarter of an hour afterwards the two learned friends were descending
+the slope of the Rocky Mountains, and two days afterwards they reached
+San Francisco at the same time as their friends of the Gun Club, having
+killed five horses on the road.
+
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and Bilsby rushed up to them upon their
+arrival.
+
+"What is to be done?" they exclaimed.
+
+"The bullet must be fished up," answered J.T. Maston, "and as soon as
+possible!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+PICKED UP.
+
+
+The very spot where the projectile had disappeared under the waves was
+exactly known. The instruments for seizing it and bringing it to the
+surface of the ocean were still wanting. They had to be invented and
+then manufactured. American engineers could not be embarrassed by such a
+trifle. The grappling-irons once established and steam helping, they
+were assured of raising the projectile, notwithstanding its weight,
+which diminished the density of the liquid amidst which it was plunged.
+
+But it was not enough to fish up the bullet. It was necessary to act
+promptly in the interest of the travellers. No one doubted that they
+were still living.
+
+"Yes," repeated J.T. Maston incessantly, whose confidence inspired
+everybody, "our friends are clever fellows, and they cannot have fallen
+like imbeciles. They are alive, alive and well, but we must make haste
+in order to find them so. He had no anxiety about provisions and water.
+They had enough for a long time! But air!--air would soon fail them.
+Then they must make haste!"
+
+And they did make haste. They prepared the Susquehanna for her new
+destination. Her powerful engines were arranged to be used for the
+hauling machines. The aluminium projectile only weighed 19,250 lbs., a
+much less weight than that of the transatlantic cable, which was picked
+up under similar circumstances. The only difficulty lay in the smooth
+sides of the cylindro-conical bullet, which made it difficult to
+grapple.
+
+With that end in view the engineer Murchison, summoned to San Francisco,
+caused enormous grappling-irons to be fitted upon an automatical system
+which would not let the projectile go again if they succeeded in seizing
+it with their powerful pincers. He also had some diving-dresses
+prepared, which, by their impermeable and resisting texture, allowed
+divers to survey the bottom of the sea. He likewise embarked on board
+the Susquehanna apparatuses for compressed air, very ingeniously
+contrived. They were veritable rooms, with port-lights in them, and
+which, by introducing the water into certain compartments, could be sunk
+to great depths. These apparatuses were already at San Francisco, where
+they had been used in the construction of a submarine dyke. This was
+fortunate, for there would not have been time to make them.
+
+Yet notwithstanding the perfection of the apparatus, notwithstanding the
+ingenuity of the _savants_ who were to use them, the success of the
+operation was anything but assured. Fishing up a bullet from 20,000 feet
+under water must be an uncertain operation. And even if the bullet
+should again be brought to the surface, how had the travellers borne the
+terrible shock that even 20,000 feet of water would not sufficiently
+deaden?
+
+In short, everything must be done quickly. J.T. Maston hurried on his
+workmen day and night. He was ready either to buckle on the diver's
+dress or to try the air-apparatus in order to find his courageous
+friends.
+
+Still, notwithstanding the diligence with which the different machines
+were got ready, notwithstanding the considerable sums which were placed
+at the disposition of the Gun Club by the Government of the Union, five
+long days (five centuries) went by before the preparations were
+completed. During that time public opinion was excited to the highest
+point. Telegrams were incessantly exchanged all over the world through
+the electric wires and cables. The saving of Barbicane, Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan became an international business. All the nations that had
+subscribed to the enterprise of the Gun Club were equally interested in
+the safety of the travellers.
+
+At last the grappling-chains, air-chambers, and automatic
+grappling-irons were embarked on board the Susquehanna. J.T. Maston, the
+engineer Murchison, and the Gun Club delegates already occupied their
+cabins. There was nothing to do but to start.
+
+On the 21st of December, at 8 p.m., the corvette set sail on a calm sea
+with a rather cold north-east wind blowing. All the population of San
+Francisco crowded on to the quays, mute and anxious, reserving its
+hurrahs for the return.
+
+The steam was put on to its maximum of tension, and the screw of the
+Susquehanna carried it rapidly out of the bay.
+
+It would be useless to relate the conversations on board amongst the
+officers, sailors, and passengers. All these men had but one thought.
+Their hearts all beat with the same emotion. What were Barbicane and his
+companions doing whilst they were hastening to their succour? What had
+become of them? Had they been able to attempt some audacious manoeuvre
+to recover their liberty? No one could say. The truth is that any
+attempt would have failed. Sunk to nearly two leagues under the ocean,
+their metal prison would defy any effort of its prisoners.
+
+On the 23rd of December, at 8 a.m., after a rapid passage, the
+Susquehanna ought to be on the scene of the disaster. They were obliged
+to wait till twelve o'clock to take their exact bearings. The buoy
+fastened on to the sounding-line had not yet been seen.
+
+At noon Captain Blomsberry, helped by his officers, who controlled the
+observation, made his point in presence of the delegates of the Gun
+Club. That was an anxious moment. The Susquehanna was found to be at
+some minutes west of the very spot where the projectile had disappeared
+under the waves.
+
+The direction of the corvette was therefore given in view of reaching
+the precise spot.
+
+At 12.47 p.m. the buoy was sighted. It was in perfect order, and did not
+seem to have drifted far.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Shall we begin?" asked Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"Without losing a second," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+Every precaution was taken to keep the corvette perfectly motionless.
+
+Before trying to grapple the projectile, the engineer, Murchison, wished
+to find out its exact position on the sea-bottom. The submarine
+apparatus destined for this search received their provision of air. The
+handling of these engines is not without danger, for at 20,000 feet
+below the surface of the water and under such great pressure they are
+exposed to ruptures the consequences of which would be terrible.
+
+J.T. Maston, the commander's brother, and the engineer Murchison,
+without a thought of these dangers, took their places in the
+air-chambers. The commander, on his foot-bridge, presided over the
+operation, ready to stop or haul in his chains at the least signal. The
+screw had been taken off, and all the force of the machines upon the
+windlass would soon have brought up the apparatus on board.
+
+The descent began at 1.25 p.m., and the chamber, dragged down by its
+reservoirs filled with water, disappeared under the surface of the
+ocean.
+
+The emotion of the officers and sailors on board was now divided between
+the prisoners in the projectile and the prisoners of the submarine
+apparatus. These latter forgot themselves, and, glued to the panes of
+the port-lights, they attentively observed the liquid masses they were
+passing through.
+
+The descent was rapid. At 2.17 p.m. J.T. Maston and his companions had
+reached the bottom of the Pacific; but they saw nothing except the arid
+desert which neither marine flora nor fauna any longer animated. By the
+light of their lamps, furnished with powerful reflectors, they could
+observe the dark layers of water in a rather large radius, but the
+projectile remained invisible in their eyes.
+
+The impatience of these bold divers could hardly be described. Their
+apparatus being in electric communication with the corvette, they made a
+signal agreed upon, and the Susquehanna carried their chamber over a
+mile of space at one yard from the soil.
+
+They thus explored all the submarine plain, deceived at every instant by
+optical delusions which cut them to the heart. Here a rock, there a
+swelling of the ground, looked to them like the much-sought-for
+projectile; then they would soon find out their error and despair again.
+
+"Where are they? Where can they be?" cried J.T. Maston.
+
+And the poor man called aloud to Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan,
+as if his unfortunate friends could have heard him through that
+impenetrable medium!
+
+The search went on under those conditions until the vitiated state of
+the air in the apparatus forced the divers to go up again.
+
+The hauling in was begun at 6 p.m., and was not terminated before
+midnight.
+
+"We will try again to-morrow," said J.T. Maston as he stepped on to the
+deck of the corvette.
+
+"Yes," answered Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"And in another place."
+
+"Yes."
+
+J.T. Maston did not yet doubt of his ultimate success, but his
+companions, who were no longer intoxicated with the animation of the
+first few hours, already took in all the difficulties of the enterprise.
+What seemed easy at San Francisco in open ocean appeared almost
+impossible. The chances of success diminished in a large proportion, and
+it was to chance alone that the finding of the projectile had to be
+left.
+
+The next day, the 24th of December, notwithstanding the fatigues of the
+preceding day, operations were resumed. The corvette moved some minutes
+farther west, and the apparatus, provisioned with air again, took the
+same explorers to the depths of the ocean.
+
+All that day was passed in a fruitless search. The bed of the sea was a
+desert. The day of the 25th brought no result, neither did that of the
+26th.
+
+It was disheartening. They thought of the unfortunate men shut up for
+twenty-six days in the projectile. Perhaps they were all feeling the
+first symptoms of suffocation, even if they had escaped the dangers of
+their fall. The air was getting exhausted, and doubtless with the air
+their courage and spirits.
+
+"The air very likely, but their courage never," said J.T. Maston.
+
+On the 28th, after two days' search, all hope was lost. This bullet was
+an atom in the immensity of the sea! They must give up the hope of
+finding it.
+
+Still J.T. Maston would not hear about leaving. He would not abandon the
+place without having at least found the tomb of his friends. But Captain
+Blomsberry could not stay on obstinately, and notwithstanding the
+opposition of the worthy secretary, he was obliged to give orders to set
+sail.
+
+On the 29th of December, at 9 a.m., the Susquehanna, heading north-east,
+began to return to the bay of San Francisco.
+
+It was 10 a.m. The corvette was leaving slowly and as if with regret the
+scene of the catastrophe, when the sailor at the masthead, who was on
+the look-out, called out all at once--
+
+"A buoy on the lee bow!"
+
+The officers looked in the direction indicated. They saw through their
+telescopes the object signalled, which did look like one of those buoys
+used for marking the openings of bays or rivers; but, unlike them, a
+flag floating in the wind surmounted a cone which emerged five or six
+feet. This buoy shone in the sunshine as if made of plates of silver.
+
+The commander, Blomsberry, J.T. Maston, and the delegates of the Gun
+Club ascended the foot-bridge and examined the object thus drifting on
+the waves.
+
+All looked with feverish anxiety, but in silence. None of them dared
+utter the thought that came into all their minds.
+
+The corvette approached to within two cables' length of the object.
+
+A shudder ran through the whole crew.
+
+The flag was an American one!
+
+At that moment a veritable roar was heard. It was the worthy J.T.
+Maston, who had fallen in a heap; forgetting on the one hand that he had
+only an iron hook for one arm, and on the other that a simple
+gutta-percha cap covered his cranium-box, he had given himself a
+formidable blow.
+
+They rushed towards him and picked him up. They recalled him to life.
+And what were his first words?
+
+"Ah! triple brutes! quadruple idiots! quintuple boobies that we are!"
+
+"What is the matter?" every one round him exclaimed.
+
+"What the matter is?"
+
+"Speak, can't you?"
+
+"It is, imbeciles," shouted the terrible secretary, "it is the bullet
+only weighs 19,250 lbs!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And it displaces 28 tons, or 56,000 lbs., consequently _it floats_!"
+
+Ah! how that worthy man did underline the verb "to float!" And it was
+the truth! All, yes! all these _savants_ had forgotten this fundamental
+law, that in consequence of its specific lightness the projectile, after
+having been dragged by its fall to the greatest depths of the ocean, had
+naturally returned to the surface; and now it was floating tranquilly
+whichever way the wind carried them.
+
+The boats had been lowered. J.T. Maston and his friends rushed into
+them. The excitement was at its highest point. All hearts palpitated
+whilst the boats rowed towards the projectile. What did it contain--the
+living or the dead? The living. Yes! unless death had struck down
+Barbicane and his companions since they had hoisted the flag!
+
+Profound silence reigned in the boats. All hearts stopped beating. Eyes
+no longer performed their office. One of the port-lights of the
+projectile was opened. Some pieces of glass remaining in the frame
+proved that it had been broken. This port-light was situated actually
+five feet above water.
+
+A boat drew alongside--that of J.T. Maston. He rushed to the broken
+window.
+
+At that moment the joyful and clear voice of Michel Ardan was heard
+exclaiming in the accents of victory--"Double blank, Barbicane, double
+blank!"
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, and Nicholl were playing at dominoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+It will be remembered that immense sympathy accompanied the three
+travellers upon their departure. If the beginning of their enterprise
+had caused such excitement in the old and new world, what enthusiasm
+must welcome their return! Would not those millions of spectators who
+had invaded the Floridian peninsula rush to meet the sublime
+adventurers? Would those legions of foreigners from all points of the
+globe, now in America, leave the Union without seeing Barbicane,
+Nicholl, and Michel Ardan once more? No, and the ardent passion of the
+public would worthily respond to the grandeur of the enterprise. Human
+beings who had left the terrestrial spheroid, who had returned after
+their strange journey into celestial space, could not fail to be
+received like the prophet Elijah when he returned to the earth. To see
+them first, to hear them afterwards, was the general desire.
+
+This desire was to be very promptly realised by almost all the
+inhabitants of the Union.
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, Nicholl, and the delegates of the Gun Club
+returned without delay to Baltimore, and were there received with
+indescribable enthusiasm. The president's travelling notes were ready to
+be given up for publicity. The _New York Herald_ bought this manuscript
+at a price which is not yet known, but which must have been enormous. In
+fact, during the publication of the _Journey to the Moon_ they printed
+5,000,000 copies of that newspaper. Three days after the travellers'
+return to the earth the least details of their expedition were known.
+The only thing remaining to be done was to see the heroes of this
+superhuman enterprise.
+
+The exploration of Barbicane and his friends around the moon had allowed
+them to control the different theories about the terrestrial satellite.
+These _savants_ had observed it _de visu_ and under quite peculiar
+circumstances. It was now known which systems were to be rejected, which
+admitted, upon the formation of this orb, its origin, and its
+inhabitability. Its past, present, and future had given up their
+secrets. What could be objected to conscientious observations made at
+less than forty miles from that curious mountain of Tycho, the strangest
+mountain system of lunar orography? What answers could be made to
+_savants_ who had looked into the dark depths of the amphitheatre of
+Pluto? Who could contradict these audacious men whom the hazards of
+their enterprise had carried over the invisible disc of the moon, which
+no human eye had ever seen before? It was now their prerogative to
+impose the limits of that selenographic science which had built up the
+lunar world like Cuvier did the skeleton of a fossil, and to say, "The
+moon was this, a world inhabitable and inhabited anterior to the earth!
+The moon is this, a world now uninhabitable and uninhabited!"
+
+In order to welcome the return of the most illustrious of its members
+and his two companions, the Gun Club thought of giving them a banquet;
+but a banquet worthy of them, worthy of the American people, and under
+such circumstances that all the inhabitants of the Union could take a
+direct part in it.
+
+All the termini of the railroads in the State were joined together by
+movable rails. Then, in all the stations hung with the same flags,
+decorated with the same ornaments, were spread tables uniformly dressed.
+At a certain time, severely calculated upon electric clocks which beat
+the seconds at the same instant, the inhabitants were invited to take
+their places at the same banquet.
+
+During four days, from the 5th to the 9th of January, the trains were
+suspended like they are on Sundays upon the railways of the Union, and
+all the lines were free.
+
+One locomotive alone, a very fast engine, dragging a state saloon, had
+the right of circulating, during these four days, upon the railways of
+the United States.
+
+This locomotive, conducted by a stoker and a mechanic, carried, by a
+great favour, the Honourable J.T. Maston, Secretary of the Gun Club.
+
+The saloon was reserved for President Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan.
+
+The train left the station of Baltimore upon the whistle of the
+engine-driver amidst the hurrahs and all the admiring interjections of
+the American language. It went at the speed of eighty leagues an hour.
+But what was that speed compared to the one with which the three heroes
+had left the Columbiad?
+
+Thus they went from one town to another, finding the population in
+crowds upon their passage saluting them with the same acclamations, and
+showering upon them the same "bravoes." They thus travelled over the
+east of the Union through Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
+Vermont, Maine, and New Brunswick; north and west through New York,
+Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin; south through Illinois, Missouri,
+Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana; south-east through Alabama and Florida,
+Georgia, and the Carolinas; they visited the centre through Tennessee,
+Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana; then after the station of Washington
+they re-entered Baltimore, and during four days they could imagine that
+the United States of America, seated at one immense banquet, saluted
+them simultaneously with the same hurrahs.
+
+This apotheosis was worthy of these heroes, whom fable would have placed
+in the ranks of demigods.
+
+And now would this attempt, without precedent in the annals of travels,
+have any practical result? Would direct communication ever be
+established with the moon? Would a service of navigation ever be founded
+across space for the solar world? Will people ever go from planet to
+planet, from Jupiter to Mercury, and later on from one star to another,
+from the Polar star to Sirius, would a method of locomotion allow of
+visiting the suns which swarm in the firmament?
+
+No answer can be given to these questions, but knowing the audacious
+ingenuity of the Anglo-Saxon race, no one will be astonished that the
+Americans tried to turn President Barbicane's experiment to account.
+
+Thus some time after the return of the travellers the public received
+with marked favour the advertisement of a Joint-Stock Company (Limited),
+with a capital of a hundred million dollars, divided into a hundred
+thousand shares of a thousand dollars each, under the name of _National
+Company for Interstellar Communication_--President, Barbicane;
+Vice-President, Captain Nicholl; Secretary, J.T. Maston; Director,
+Michel Ardan--and as it is customary in America to foresee everything in
+business, even bankruptcy, the Honourable Harry Trollope, Commissary
+Judge, and Francis Dayton were appointed beforehand assignees.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon-Voyage, by Jules Verne
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon-Voyage, by Jules Verne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Moon-Voyage
+
+Author: Jules Verne
+
+Release Date: July 12, 2004 [EBook #12901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOON-VOYAGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Norm Wolcott, Gregory Margo and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE MOON-VOYAGE.
+
+CONTAINING
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON,"
+AND
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+BY
+
+JULES VERNE,
+
+AUTHOR OF "TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA,"
+"AMONG THE CANNIBALS," ETC.
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY HENRY AUSTIN.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+"FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON."
+
+I. THE GUN CLUB
+
+II. PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+III. EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION
+
+IV. ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY
+
+V. THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON
+
+VI. WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO
+BE BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES
+
+VII. THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL
+
+VIII. HISTORY OF THE CANNON
+
+IX. THE QUESTION OF POWDERS
+
+X. ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS
+
+XI. FLORIDA AND TEXAS
+
+XII. "URBI ET ORBI"
+
+XIII. STONY HILL
+
+XIV. PICKAXE AND TROWEL
+
+XV. THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING
+
+XVI. THE COLUMBIAD
+
+XVII. A TELEGRAM
+
+XVIII. THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA
+
+XIX. A MEETING
+
+XX. THRUST AND PARRY
+
+XXI. HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR
+
+XXII. THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+XXIII. THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT
+
+XXIV. THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
+
+XXV. FINAL DETAILS
+
+XXVI. FIRE
+
+XXVII. CLOUDY WEATHER
+
+XXVIII. A NEW STAR
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"ROUND THE MOON."
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF
+THIS WORK TO SERVE AS PREFACE TO THE SECOND
+
+I. FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+II. THE FIRST HALF-HOUR
+
+III. TAKING POSSESSION
+
+IV. A LITTLE ALGEBRA
+
+V. THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE
+
+VI. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+
+VII. A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION
+
+VIII. AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES
+
+IX. THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION
+
+X. THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON
+
+XI. IMAGINATION AND REALITY
+
+XII. OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS
+
+XIII. LUNAR LANDSCAPES
+
+XIV. A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF
+
+XV. HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA
+
+XVI. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
+
+XVII. TYCHO
+
+XVIII. GRAVE QUESTIONS
+
+XIX. A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE
+
+XX. THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA
+
+XXI. J.T. MASTON CALLED IN
+
+XXII. PICKED UP
+
+XXIII. THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE GUN CLUB.
+
+
+During the Federal war in the United States a new and very influential
+club was established in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is well
+known with what energy the military instinct was developed amongst that
+nation of shipowners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Mere tradesmen jumped
+their counters to become extempore captains, colonels, and generals
+without having passed the Military School at West Point; they soon
+rivalled their colleagues of the old continent, and, like them, gained
+victories by dint of lavishing bullets, millions, and men.
+
+But where Americans singularly surpassed Europeans was in the science of
+ballistics, or of throwing massive weapons by the use of an engine; not
+that their arms attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were of
+unusual dimensions, and consequently of hitherto unknown ranges. The
+English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn about flank,
+running, enfilading, or point-blank firing; but their cannon, howitzers,
+and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines
+of American artillery.
+
+This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians
+in the world, are born engineers, just as Italians are musicians and
+Germans metaphysicians. Thence nothing more natural than to see them
+bring their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of ballistics.
+Hence those gigantic cannon, much less useful than sewing-machines, but
+quite as astonishing, and much more admired. The marvels of this style
+by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known. There was nothing left
+the Armstrongs, Pallisers, and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before
+their transatlantic rivals.
+
+Therefore during the terrible struggle between Northerners and
+Southerners, artillerymen were in great request; the Union newspapers
+published their inventions with enthusiasm, and there was no little
+tradesman nor _naif_ "booby" who did not bother his head day and night
+with calculations about impossible trajectory engines.
+
+Now when an American has an idea he seeks another American to share it.
+If they are three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given
+four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established. Five convoke a
+general meeting, and the club is formed. It thus happened at Baltimore.
+The first man who invented a new cannon took into partnership the first
+man who cast it and the first man that bored it. Such was the nucleus of
+the Gun Club. One month after its formation it numbered eighteen hundred
+and thirty-three effective members, and thirty thousand five hundred and
+seventy-five corresponding members.
+
+One condition was imposed as a _sine qua non_ upon every one who wished
+to become a member--that of having invented, or at least perfected, a
+cannon; or, in default of a cannon, a firearm of some sort. But, to tell
+the truth, mere inventors of fifteen-barrelled rifles, revolvers, or
+sword-pistols did not enjoy much consideration. Artillerymen were always
+preferred to them in every circumstance.
+
+"The estimation in which they are held," said one day a learned orator
+of the Gun Club, "is in proportion to the size of their cannon, and in
+direct ratio to the square of distance attained by their projectiles!"
+
+A little more and it would have been Newton's law of gravitation applied
+to moral order.
+
+Once the Gun Club founded, it can be easily imagined its effect upon the
+inventive genius of the Americans. War-engines took colossal
+proportions, and projectiles launched beyond permitted distances cut
+inoffensive pedestrians to pieces. All these inventions left the timid
+instruments of European artillery far behind them. This may be estimated
+by the following figures:--
+
+Formerly, "in the good old times," a thirty-six pounder, at a distance
+of three hundred feet, would cut up thirty-six horses, attacked in
+flank, and sixty-eight men. The art was then in its infancy.
+Projectiles have since made their way. The Rodman gun that sent a
+projectile weighing half a ton a distance of seven miles could easily
+have cut up a hundred and fifty horses and three hundred men. There was
+some talk at the Gun Club of making a solemn experiment with it. But if
+the horses consented to play their part, the men unfortunately were
+wanting.
+
+However that may be, the effect of these cannon was very deadly, and at
+each discharge the combatants fell like ears before a scythe. After such
+projectiles what signified the famous ball which, at Coutras, in 1587,
+disabled twenty-five men; and the one which, at Zorndorff, in 1758,
+killed forty fantassins; and in 1742, Kesseldorf's Austrian cannon, of
+which every shot levelled seventy enemies with the ground? What was the
+astonishing firing at Jena or Austerlitz, which decided the fate of the
+battle? During the Federal war much more wonderful things had been seen.
+At the battle of Gettysburg, a conical projectile thrown by a
+rifle-barrel cut up a hundred and seventy-three Confederates, and at the
+passage of the Potomac a Rodman ball sent two hundred and fifteen
+Southerners into an evidently better world. A formidable mortar must
+also be mentioned, invented by J.T. Maston, a distinguished member and
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, the result of which was far more
+deadly, seeing that, at its trial shot, it killed three hundred and
+thirty-seven persons--by bursting, it is true.
+
+What can be added to these figures, so eloquent in themselves? Nothing.
+So the following calculation obtained by the statistician Pitcairn will
+be admitted without contestation: by dividing the number of victims
+fallen under the projectiles by that of the members of the Gun Club, he
+found that each one of them had killed, on his own account, an average
+of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five men and a fraction.
+
+By considering such a result it will be seen that the single
+preoccupation of this learned society was the destruction of humanity
+philanthropically, and the perfecting of firearms considered as
+instruments of civilisation. It was a company of Exterminating Angels,
+at bottom the best fellows in the world.
+
+It must be added that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved
+themselves, did not confine themselves to formulae, but sacrificed
+themselves to their theories. Amongst them might be counted officers of
+every rank, those who had just made their _debut_ in the profession of
+arms, and those who had grown old on their gun-carriage. Many whose
+names figured in the book of honour of the Gun Club remained on the
+field of battle, and of those who came back the greater part bore marks
+of their indisputable valour. Crutches, wooden legs, articulated arms,
+hands with hooks, gutta-percha jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses,
+nothing was wanting to the collection; and the above-mentioned Pitcairn
+likewise calculated that in the Gun Club there was not quite one arm
+amongst every four persons, and only two legs amongst six.
+
+But these valiant artillerymen paid little heed to such small matters,
+and felt justly proud when the report of a battle stated the number of
+victims at tenfold the quantity of projectiles expended.
+
+One day, however, a sad and lamentable day, peace was signed by the
+survivors of the war, the noise of firing gradually ceased, the mortars
+were silent, the howitzers were muzzled for long enough, and the cannon,
+with muzzles depressed, were stored in the arsenals, the shots were
+piled up in the parks, the bloody reminiscences were effaced, cotton
+shrubs grew magnificently on the well-manured fields, mourning garments
+began to be worn-out, as well as sorrow, and the Gun Club had nothing
+whatever to do.
+
+Certain old hands, inveterate workers, still went on with their
+calculations in ballistics; they still imagined gigantic bombs and
+unparalleled howitzers. But what was the use of vain theories that could
+not be put in practice? So the saloons were deserted, the servants slept
+in the antechambers, the newspapers grew mouldy on the tables, from dark
+corners issued sad snores, and the members of the Gun Club, formerly so
+noisy, now reduced to silence by the disastrous peace, slept the sleep
+of Platonic artillery!
+
+"This is distressing," said brave Tom Hunter, whilst his wooden legs
+were carbonising at the fireplace of the smoking-room. "Nothing to do!
+Nothing to look forward to! What a tiresome existence! Where is the time
+when cannon awoke you every morning with its joyful reports?"
+
+"That time is over," answered dandy Bilsby, trying to stretch the arms
+he had lost. "There was some fun then! You invented an howitzer, and it
+was hardly cast before you ran to try it on the enemy; then you went
+back to the camp with an encouragement from Sherman, or a shake of the
+hands from MacClellan! But now the generals have gone back to their
+counters, and instead of cannon-balls they expedite inoffensive cotton
+bales! Ah, by Saint Barb! the future of artillery is lost to America!"
+
+"Yes, Bilsby," cried Colonel Blomsberry, "it is too bad! One fine
+morning you leave your tranquil occupations, you are drilled in the use
+of arms, you leave Baltimore for the battle-field, you conduct yourself
+like a hero, and in two years, three years at the latest, you are
+obliged to leave the fruit of so many fatigues, to go to sleep in
+deplorable idleness, and keep your hands in your pockets."
+
+The valiant colonel would have found it very difficult to give such a
+proof of his want of occupation, though it was not the pockets that were
+wanting.
+
+"And no war in prospect, then," said the famous J.T. Maston, scratching
+his gutta-percha cranium with his steel hook; "there is not a cloud on
+the horizon now that there is so much to do in the science of artillery!
+I myself finished this very morning a diagram with plan, basin, and
+elevation of a mortar destined to change the laws of warfare!"
+
+"Indeed!" replied Tom Hunter, thinking involuntarily of the Honourable
+J.T. Maston's last essay.
+
+"Indeed!" answered Maston. "But what is the use of the good results of
+such studies and so many difficulties conquered? It is mere waste of
+time. The people of the New World seem determined to live in peace, and
+our bellicose _Tribune_ has gone as far as to predict approaching
+catastrophes due to the scandalous increase of population!"
+
+"Yet, Maston," said Colonel Blomsberry, "they are always fighting in
+Europe to maintain the principle of nationalities!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"Why, there might be something to do over there, and if they accepted
+our services--"
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Bilsby. "Work at ballistics for the
+benefit of foreigners!"
+
+"Perhaps that would be better than not doing it at all," answered the
+colonel.
+
+"Doubtless," said J.T. Maston, "it would be better, but such an
+expedient cannot be thought of."
+
+"Why so?" asked the colonel.
+
+"Because their ideas of advancement would be contrary to all our
+American customs. Those folks seem to think that you cannot be a
+general-in-chief without having served as second lieutenant, which comes
+to the same as saying that no one can point a gun that has not cast one.
+Now that is simply--"
+
+"Absurd!" replied Tom Hunter, whittling the arms of his chair with his
+bowie-knife; "and as things are so, there is nothing left for us but to
+plant tobacco or distil whale-oil!"
+
+"What!" shouted J.T. Maston, "shall we not employ these last years of
+our existence in perfecting firearms? Will not a fresh opportunity
+present itself to try the ranges of our projectiles? Will the atmosphere
+be no longer illuminated by the lightning of our cannons? Won't some
+international difficulty crop up that will allow us to declare war
+against some transatlantic power? Won't France run down one of our
+steamers, or won't England, in defiance of the rights of nations, hang
+up three or four of our countrymen?"
+
+"No, Maston," answered Colonel Blomsberry; "no such luck! No, not one of
+those incidents will happen; and if one did, it would be of no use to
+us. American sensitiveness is declining daily, and we are going to the
+dogs!"
+
+"Yes, we are growing quite humble," replied Bilsby.
+
+"And we are humiliated!" answered Tom Hunter.
+
+"All that is only too true," replied J.T. Maston, with fresh vehemence.
+"There are a thousand reasons for fighting floating about, and still we
+don't fight! We economise legs and arms, and that to the profit of folks
+that don't know what to do with them. Look here, without looking any
+farther for a motive for war, did not North America formerly belong to
+the English?"
+
+"Doubtless," answered Tom Hunter, angrily poking the fire with the end
+of his crutch.
+
+"Well," replied J.T. Maston, "why should not England in its turn belong
+to the Americans?"
+
+"It would be but justice," answered Colonel Blomsberry.
+
+"Go and propose that to the President of the United States," cried J.T.
+Maston, "and see what sort of a reception you would get."
+
+"It would not be a bad reception," murmured Bilsby between the four
+teeth he had saved from battle.
+
+"I'faith," cried J.T. Maston, "they need not count upon my vote in the
+next elections."
+
+"Nor upon ours," answered with common accord these bellicose invalids.
+
+"In the meantime," continued J.T. Maston, "and to conclude, if they do
+not furnish me with the opportunity of trying my new mortar on a real
+battle-field, I shall send in my resignation as member of the Gun Club,
+and I shall go and bury myself in the backwoods of Arkansas."
+
+"We will follow you there," answered the interlocutors of the
+enterprising J.T. Maston.
+
+Things had come to that pass, and the club, getting more excited, was
+menaced with approaching dissolution, when an unexpected event came to
+prevent so regrettable a catastrophe.
+
+The very day after the foregoing conversation each member of the club
+received a circular couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 3rd.
+
+"The president of the Gun Club has the honour to inform his colleagues
+that at the meeting on the 5th ultimo he will make them a communication
+of an extremely interesting nature. He therefore begs that they, to the
+suspension of all other business, will attend, in accordance with the
+present invitation,
+
+"Their devoted colleague,
+
+"IMPEY BARBICANE, P.G.C."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+On the 5th of October, at 8 p.m., a dense crowd pressed into the saloons
+of the Gun Club, 21, Union-square. All the members of the club residing
+at Baltimore had gone on the invitation of their president. The express
+brought corresponding members by hundreds, and if the meeting-hall had
+not been so large, the crowd of _savants_ could not have found room in
+it; they overflowed into the neighbouring rooms, down the passages, and
+even into the courtyards; there they ran against the populace who were
+pressing against the doors, each trying to get into the front rank, all
+eager to learn the important communication of President Barbicane, all
+pressing, squeezing, crushing with that liberty of action peculiar to
+the masses brought up in the idea of self-government.
+
+That evening any stranger who might have chanced to be in Baltimore
+could not have obtained a place at any price in the large hall; it was
+exclusively reserved to residing or corresponding members; no one else
+was admitted; and the city magnates, common councillors, and select men
+were compelled to mingle with their inferiors in order to catch stray
+news from the interior.
+
+The immense hall presented a curious spectacle; it was marvellously
+adapted to the purpose for which it was built. Lofty pillars formed of
+cannon, superposed upon huge mortars as a base, supported the fine
+ironwork of the arches--real cast-iron lacework.
+
+Trophies of blunderbusses, matchlocks, arquebuses, carbines, all sorts
+of ancient or modern firearms, were picturesquely enlaced against the
+walls. The gas, in full flame, came out of a thousand revolvers grouped
+in the form of lustres, whilst candlesticks of pistols, and candelabra
+made of guns done up in sheaves, completed this display of light. Models
+of cannons, specimens of bronze, targets spotted with shot-marks,
+plaques broken by the shock of the Gun Club, balls, assortments of
+rammers and sponges, chaplets of shells, necklaces of projectiles,
+garlands of howitzers--in a word, all the tools of the artilleryman
+surprised the eyes by their wonderful arrangement, and induced a belief
+that their real purpose was more ornamental than deadly.
+
+In the place of honour was seen, covered by a splendid glass case, a
+piece of breech, broken and twisted under the effort of the powder--a
+precious fragment of J.T. Maston's cannon.
+
+At the extremity of the hall the president, assisted by four
+secretaries, occupied a wide platform. His chair, placed on a carved
+gun-carriage, was modelled upon the powerful proportions of a 32-inch
+mortar; it was pointed at an angle of 90 degs., and hung upon trunnions
+so that the president could use it as a rocking-chair, very agreeable in
+great heat. Upon the desk, a huge iron plate, supported upon six
+carronades, stood a very tasteful inkstand, made of a beautifully-chased
+Spanish piece, and a report-bell, which, when required, went off like a
+revolver. During the vehement discussions this new sort of bell scarcely
+sufficed to cover the voices of this legion of excited artillerymen.
+
+In front of the desk, benches, arranged in zigzags, like the
+circumvallations of intrenchment, formed a succession of bastions and
+curtains where the members of the Gun Club took their seats; and that
+evening, it may be said, there were plenty on the ramparts. The
+president was sufficiently known for all to be assured that he would not
+have called together his colleagues without a very great motive.
+
+Impey Barbicane was a man of forty, calm, cold, austere, of a singularly
+serious and concentrated mind, as exact as a chronometer, of an
+imperturbable temperament and immovable character; not very chivalrous,
+yet adventurous, and always bringing practical ideas to bear on the
+wildest enterprises; an essential New-Englander, a Northern colonist,
+the descendant of those Roundheads so fatal to the Stuarts, and the
+implacable enemy of the Southern gentlemen, the ancient cavaliers of the
+mother country--in a word, a Yankee cast in a single mould.
+
+Barbicane had made a great fortune as a timber-merchant; named director
+of artillery during the war, he showed himself fertile in inventions;
+enterprising in his ideas, he contributed powerfully to the progress of
+ballistics, gave an immense impetus to experimental researches.
+
+He was a person of average height, having, by a rare exception in the
+Gun Club, all his limbs intact. His strongly-marked features seemed to
+be drawn by square and rule, and if it be true that in order to guess
+the instincts of a man one must look at his profile, Barbicane seen
+thus offered the most certain indications of energy, audacity, and
+_sang-froid_.
+
+At that moment he remained motionless in his chair, mute, absorbed, with
+an inward look sheltered under his tall hat, a cylinder of black silk,
+which seems screwed down upon the skull of American men.
+
+His colleagues talked noisily around him without disturbing him; they
+questioned one another, launched into the field of suppositions,
+examined their president, and tried, but in vain, to make out the _x_ of
+his imperturbable physiognomy.
+
+Just as eight o'clock struck from the fulminating clock of the large
+hall, Barbicane, as if moved by a spring, jumped up; a general silence
+ensued, and the orator, in a slightly emphatic tone, spoke as follows:--
+
+"Brave colleagues,--It is some time since an unfruitful peace plunged
+the members of the Gun Club into deplorable inactivity. After a period
+of some years, so full of incidents, we have been obliged to abandon our
+works and stop short on the road of progress. I do not fear to proclaim
+aloud that any war which would put arms in our hands again would be
+welcome--"
+
+"Yes, war!" cried impetuous J.T. Maston.
+
+"Hear, hear!" was heard on every side.
+
+"But war," said Barbicane, "war is impossible under actual
+circumstances, and, whatever my honourable interrupter may hope, long
+years will elapse before our cannons thunder on a field of battle. We
+must, therefore, make up our minds to it, and seek in another order of
+ideas food for the activity by which we are devoured."
+
+The assembly felt that its president was coming to the delicate point;
+it redoubled its attention.
+
+"A few months ago, my brave colleagues," continued Barbicane, "I asked
+myself if, whilst still remaining in our speciality, we could not
+undertake some grand experiment worthy of the nineteenth century, and if
+the progress of ballistics would not allow us to execute it with
+success. I have therefore sought, worked, calculated, and the conviction
+has resulted from my studies that we must succeed in an enterprise that
+would seem impracticable in any other country. This project, elaborated
+at length, will form the subject of my communication; it is worthy of
+you, worthy of the Gun Club's past history, and cannot fail to make a
+noise in the world!"
+
+"Much noise?" cried a passionate artilleryman.
+
+"Much noise in the true sense of the word," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Don't interrupt!" repeated several voices.
+
+"I therefore beg of you, my brave colleagues," resumed the president,
+"to grant me all your attention."
+
+A shudder ran through the assembly. Barbicane, having with a rapid
+gesture firmly fixed his hat on his head, continued his speech in a calm
+tone:--
+
+"There is not one of you, brave colleagues, who has not seen the moon,
+or, at least, heard of It. Do not be astonished if I wish to speak to
+you about the Queen of Night. It is, perhaps, our lot to be the
+Columbuses of this unknown world. Understand me, and second me as much
+as you can, I will lead you to its conquest, and its name shall be
+joined to those of the thirty-six States that form the grand country of
+the Union!"
+
+"Hurrah for the moon!" cried the Gun Club with one voice.
+
+"The moon has been much studied," resumed Barbicane; "its mass, density,
+weight, volume, constitution, movements, distance, the part it plays in
+the solar world, are all perfectly determined; selenographic maps have
+been drawn with a perfection that equals, if it does not surpass, those
+of terrestrial maps; photography has given to our satellite proofs of
+incomparable beauty--in a word, all that the sciences of mathematics,
+astronomy, geology, and optics can teach is known about the moon; but
+until now no direct communication with it has ever been established."
+
+A violent movement of interest and surprise welcomed this sentence of
+the orator.
+
+"Allow me," he resumed, "to recall to you in few words how certain
+ardent minds, embarked upon imaginary journeys, pretended to have
+penetrated the secrets of our satellite. In the seventeenth century a
+certain David Fabricius boasted of having seen the inhabitants of the
+moon with his own eyes. In 1649 a Frenchman, Jean Baudoin, published his
+_Journey to the Moon by Dominique Gonzales, Spanish Adventurer_. At the
+same epoch Cyrano de Bergerac published the celebrated expedition that
+had so much success in France. Later on, another Frenchman (that nation
+took a great deal of notice of the moon), named Fontenelle, wrote his
+_Plurality of Worlds_, a masterpiece of his time; but science in its
+progress crushes even masterpieces! About 1835, a pamphlet, translated
+from the _New York American_, related that Sir John Herschel, sent to
+the Cape of Good Hope, there to make astronomical observations, had, by
+means of a telescope, perfected by interior lighting, brought the moon
+to within a distance of eighty yards. Then he distinctly perceived
+caverns in which lived hippopotami, green mountains with golden borders,
+sheep with ivory horns, white deer, and inhabitants with membraneous
+wings like those of bats. This treatise, the work of an American named
+Locke, had a very great success. But it was soon found out that it was a
+scientific mystification, and Frenchmen were the first to laugh at it."
+
+"Laugh at an American!" cried J.T. Maston; "but that's a _casus belli_!"
+
+"Be comforted, my worthy friend; before Frenchmen laughed they were
+completely taken in by our countryman. To terminate this rapid history,
+I may add that a certain Hans Pfaal, of Rotterdam, went up in a balloon
+filled with a gas made from azote, thirty-seven times lighter than
+hydrogen, and reached the moon after a journey of nineteen days. This
+journey, like the preceding attempts, was purely imaginary, but it was
+the work of a popular American writer of a strange and contemplative
+genius. I have named Edgar Poe!"
+
+"Hurrah for Edgar Poe!" cried the assembly, electrified by the words of
+the president.
+
+"I have now come to an end of these attempts which I may call purely
+literary, and quite insufficient to establish any serious communications
+with the Queen of Night. However, I ought to add that some practical
+minds tried to put themselves into serious communication with her. Some
+years ago a German mathematician proposed to send a commission of
+_savants_ to the steppes of Siberia. There, on the vast plains, immense
+geometrical figures were to be traced by means of luminous reflectors;
+amongst others, the square of the hypothenuse, vulgarly called the
+'Ass's Bridge.' 'Any intelligent being,' said the mathematician, 'ought
+to understand the scientific destination of that figure. The Selenites
+(inhabitants of the moon), if they exist, will answer by a similar
+figure, and, communication once established, it will be easy to create
+an alphabet that will allow us to hold converse with the inhabitants of
+the moon.' Thus spoke the German mathematician, but his project was not
+put into execution, and until now no direct communication has existed
+between the earth and her satellite. But it was reserved to the
+practical genius of Americans to put itself into communication with the
+sidereal world. The means of doing so are simple, easy, certain,
+unfailing, and will make the subject of my proposition."
+
+A hubbub and tempest of exclamations welcomed these words. There was not
+one of the audience who was not dominated and carried away by the words
+of the orator.
+
+"Hear, hear! Silence!" was heard on all sides.
+
+When the agitation was calmed down Barbicane resumed, in a graver tone,
+his interrupted speech.
+
+"You know," said he, "what progress the science of ballistics has made
+during the last few years, and to what degree of perfection firearms
+would have been brought if the war had gone on. You are not ignorant in
+general that the power of resistance of cannons and the expansive force
+of powder are unlimited. Well, starting from that principle, I asked
+myself if, by means of sufficient apparatus, established under
+determined conditions of resistance, it would not be possible to send a
+cannon-ball to the moon!"
+
+At these words an "Oh!" of stupefaction escaped from a thousand panting
+breasts; then occurred a moment of silence, like the profound calm that
+precedes thunder. In fact, the thunder came, but a thunder of applause,
+cries, and clamour which made the meeting-hall shake again. The
+president tried to speak; he could not. It was only at the end of ten
+minutes that he succeeded in making himself heard.
+
+"Let me finish," he resumed coldly. "I have looked at the question in
+all its aspects, and from my indisputable calculations it results that
+any projectile, hurled at an initial speed of twelve thousand yards a
+second, and directed at the moon, must necessarily reach her. I have,
+therefore, the honour of proposing to you, my worthy colleagues, the
+attempting of this little experiment."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+EFFECT OF PRESIDENT BARBICANE'S COMMUNICATION.
+
+
+It is impossible to depict the effect produced by the last words of the
+honourable president. What cries! what vociferations! What a succession
+of groans, hurrahs, cheers, and all the onomatopoeia of which the
+American language is so full. It was an indescribable hubbub and
+disorder. Mouths, hands, and feet made as much noise as they could. All
+the weapons in this artillery museum going off at once would not have
+more violently agitated the waves of sound. That is not surprising;
+there are cannoneers nearly as noisy as their cannons.
+
+Barbicane remained calm amidst these enthusiastic clamours; perhaps he
+again wished to address some words to his colleagues, for his gestures
+asked for silence, and his fulminating bell exhausted itself in violent
+detonations; it was not even heard. He was soon dragged from his chair,
+carried in triumph, and from the hands of his faithful comrades he
+passed into those of the no less excited crowd.
+
+Nothing can astonish an American. It has often been repeated that the
+word "impossible" is not French; the wrong dictionary must have been
+taken by mistake. In America everything is easy, everything is simple,
+and as to mechanical difficulties, they are dead before they are born.
+Between the Barbicane project and its realisation not one true Yankee
+would have allowed himself to see even the appearance of a difficulty.
+As soon said as done.
+
+The triumphant march of the president was prolonged during the evening.
+A veritable torchlight procession--Irish, Germans, Frenchmen,
+Scotchmen--all the heterogeneous individuals that compose the population
+of Maryland--shouted in their maternal tongue, and the cheering was
+unanimous.
+
+Precisely as if she knew it was all about her, the moon shone out then
+with serene magnificence, eclipsing other lights with her intense
+irradiation. All the Yankees directed their eyes towards the shining
+disc; some saluted her with their hands, others called her by the
+sweetest names; between eight o'clock and midnight an optician in
+Jones-Fall-street made a fortune by selling field-glasses. The Queen of
+Night was looked at through them like a lady of high life. The Americans
+acted in regard to her with the freedom of proprietors. It seemed as if
+the blonde Phoebe belonged to these enterprising conquerors and already
+formed part of the Union territory. And yet the only question was that
+of sending a projectile--a rather brutal way of entering into
+communication even with a satellite, but much in vogue amongst civilised
+nations.
+
+Midnight had just struck, and the enthusiasm did not diminish; it was
+kept up in equal doses in all classes of the population; magistrates,
+_savants_, merchants, tradesmen, street-porters, intelligent as well as
+"green" men were moved even in their most delicate fibres. It was a
+national enterprise; the high town, low town, the quays bathed by the
+waters of the Patapsco, the ships, imprisoned in their docks, overflowed
+with crowds intoxicated with joy, gin, and whisky; everybody talked,
+argued, perorated, disputed, approved, and applauded, from the gentleman
+comfortably stretched on the bar-room couch before his glass of
+"sherry-cobbler" to the waterman who got drunk upon "knock-me-down" in
+the dark taverns of Fell's Point.
+
+However, about 2 a.m. the emotion became calmer. President Barbicane
+succeeded in getting home almost knocked to pieces. A Hercules could not
+have resisted such enthusiasm. The crowd gradually abandoned the squares
+and streets. The four railroads of Ohio, Susquehanna, Philadelphia, and
+Washington, which converge at Baltimore, took the heterogeneous
+population to the four corners of the United States, and the town
+reposed in a relative tranquillity.
+
+It would be an error to believe that during this memorable evening
+Baltimore alone was agitated. The large towns of the Union, New York,
+Boston, Albany, Washington, Richmond, New Orleans, Charlestown, La
+Mobile of Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Florida, all shared in the
+delirium. The thirty thousand correspondents of the Gun Club were
+acquainted with their president's letter, and awaited with equal
+impatience the famous communication of the 5th of October. The same
+evening as the orator uttered his speech it ran along the telegraph
+wires, across the states of the Union, with a speed of 348,447 miles a
+second. It may, therefore, be said with absolute certainty that at the
+same moment the United States of America, ten times as large as France,
+cheered with a single voice, and twenty-five millions of hearts, swollen
+with pride, beat with the same pulsation.
+
+The next day five hundred daily, weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly
+newspapers took up the question; they examined it under its different
+aspects--physical, meteorological, economical, or moral, from a
+political or social point of view. They debated whether the moon was a
+finished world, or if she was not still undergoing transformation. Did
+she resemble the earth in the time when the atmosphere did not yet
+exist? What kind of spectacle would her hidden hemisphere present to our
+terrestrial spheroid? Granting that the question at present was simply
+about sending a projectile to the Queen of Night, every one saw in that
+the starting-point of a series of experiments; all hoped that one day
+America would penetrate the last secrets of the mysterious orb, and some
+even seemed to fear that her conquest would disturb the balance of power
+in Europe.
+
+The project once under discussion, not one of the papers suggested a
+doubt of its realisation; all the papers, treatises, bulletins, and
+magazines published by scientific, literary, or religious societies
+enlarged upon its advantages, and the "Natural History Society" of
+Boston, the "Science and Art Society" of Albany, the "Geographical and
+Statistical Society" of New York, the "American Philosophical Society"
+of Philadelphia, and the "Smithsonian Institution" of Washington sent in
+a thousand letters their congratulations to the Gun Club, with immediate
+offers of service and money.
+
+It may be said that no proposition ever had so many adherents; there was
+no question of hesitations, doubts, or anxieties. As to the jokes,
+caricatures, and comic songs that would have welcomed in Europe, and,
+above all, in France, the idea of sending a projectile to the moon, they
+would have been turned against their author; all the "life-preservers"
+in the world would have been powerless to guarantee him against the
+general indignation. There are things that are not to be laughed at in
+the New World.
+
+Impey Barbicane became from that day one of the greatest citizens of the
+United States, something like a Washington of science, and one fact
+amongst several will serve to show the sudden homage which was paid by a
+nation to one man.
+
+Some days after the famous meeting of the Gun Club the manager of an
+English company announced at the Baltimore Theatre a representation of
+_Much Ado About Nothing_, but the population of the town, seeing in the
+title a damaging allusion to the projects of President Barbicane,
+invaded the theatre, broke the seats, and forced the unfortunate manager
+to change the play. Like a sensible man, the manager, bowing to public
+opinion, replaced the offending comedy by _As You Like It_, and for
+several weeks he had fabulous houses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ANSWER FROM THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY.
+
+
+In the meantime Barbicane did not lose an instant amidst the enthusiasm
+of which he was the object. His first care was to call together his
+colleagues in the board-room of the Gun Club. There, after a debate,
+they agreed to consult astronomers about the astronomical part of their
+enterprise. Their answer once known, they would then discuss the
+mechanical means, and nothing would be neglected to assure the success
+of their great experiment.
+
+A note in precise terms, containing special questions, was drawn up and
+addressed to the observatory of Cambridge in Massachusetts. This town,
+where the first University of the United States was founded, is justly
+celebrated for its astronomical staff. There are assembled the greatest
+men of science; there is the powerful telescope which enabled Bond to
+resolve the nebula of Andromeda and Clarke to discover the satellite of
+Sirius. This celebrated institution was, therefore, worthy in every way
+of the confidence of the Gun Club.
+
+After two days the answer, impatiently awaited, reached the hands of
+President Barbicane.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"_The Director of the Cambridge Observatory to the President of the Gun
+Club at Baltimore_.
+
+"On the receipt of your favour of the 6th inst., addressed to the
+Observatory of Cambridge in the name of the members of the Baltimore
+Gun Club, we immediately called a meeting of our staff, who have deemed
+it expedient to answer as follows:--
+
+"The questions proposed to it were these:--
+
+"'1. Is it possible to send a projectile to the moon?
+
+"'2. What is the exact distance that separates the earth and her
+satellite?
+
+"'3. What would be the duration of the projectile's transit to which a
+sufficient initial speed had been given, and consequently at what moment
+should it be hurled so as to reach the moon at a particular point?
+
+"'4. At what moment would the moon present the most favourable position
+for being reached by the projectile?
+
+"'5. What point in the heavens ought the cannon, destined to hurl the
+projectile, be aimed at?
+
+"'6. What place in the heavens will the moon occupy at the moment when
+the projectile will start?'
+
+"Regarding question No. 1, 'Is it possible to send a projectile to the
+moon?'
+
+"Yes, it is possible to send a projectile to the moon if it is given an
+initial velocity of 1,200 yards a second. Calculations prove that this
+speed is sufficient. In proportion to the distance from the earth the
+force of gravitation diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of the
+distance--that is to say, that for a distance three times greater that
+force is nine times less. In consequence, the weight of the projectile
+will decrease rapidly, and will end by being completely annulled at the
+moment when the attraction of the moon will be equal to that of the
+earth--that is to say, at the 47/52 of the distance. At that moment the
+projectile will have no weight at all, and if it clears that point it
+will fall on to the moon only by the effect of lunar gravitation. The
+theoretic possibility of the experiment is, therefore, quite
+demonstrated; as to its success, that depends solely in the power of the
+engine employed.
+
+"Regarding question No. 2, 'What is the exact distance that separates
+the earth from her satellite?'
+
+"The moon does not describe a circle round the earth, but an ellipse, of
+which our earth occupies one of the foci; the consequence is, therefore,
+that at certain times it approaches nearer to, and at others recedes
+farther from, the earth, or, in astronomical language, it has its apogee
+and its perigee. At its apogee the moon is at 247,552 miles from the
+earth, and at its perigee at 218,657 miles only, which makes a
+difference of 28,895, or more than a ninth of the distance. The perigee
+distance is, therefore, the one that should give us the basis of all
+calculations.
+
+"Regarding question No. 3, 'What would be the duration of the
+projectile's transit to which a sufficient initial speed has been given,
+and consequently at what moment should it be hurled so as to reach the
+moon at a particular point?'
+
+"If the projectile kept indefinitely the initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second, it would only take about nine hours to reach its destination;
+but as that initial velocity will go on decreasing, it will happen,
+everything calculated upon, that the projectile will take 300,000
+seconds, or 83 hours and 20 minutes, to reach the point where the
+terrestrial and lunar gravitations are equal, and from that point it
+will fall upon the moon in 50,000 seconds, or 13 hours, 53 minutes, and
+20 seconds. It must, therefore, be hurled 97 hours, 13 minutes, and 20
+seconds before the arrival of the moon at the point aimed at.
+
+"Regarding question No. 4, 'At what moment would the moon present the
+most favourable position for being reached by the projectile?'
+
+"According to what has been said above the epoch of the moon's perigee
+must first be chosen, and at the moment when she will be crossing her
+zenith, which will still further diminish the entire distance by a
+length equal to the terrestrial radius--i.e., 3,919 miles; consequently,
+the passage to be accomplished will be 214,976 miles. But the moon is
+not always at her zenith when she reaches her perigee, which is once a
+month. She is only under the two conditions simultaneously at long
+intervals of time. This coincidence of perigee and zenith must be waited
+for. It happens fortunately that on December 4th of next year the moon
+will offer these two conditions; at midnight she will be at her perigee
+and her zenith--that is to say, at her shortest distance from the earth
+and at her zenith at the same time.
+
+"Regarding question No. 5, 'At what point in the heavens ought the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile be aimed?'
+
+"The preceding observations being admitted, the cannon ought to be aimed
+at the zenith of the place (the zenith is the spot situated vertically
+above the head of a spectator), so that its range will be perpendicular
+to the plane of the horizon, and the projectile will pass the soonest
+beyond the range of terrestrial gravitation. But for the moon to reach
+the zenith of a place that place must not exceed in latitude the
+declination of the luminary--in other words, it must be comprised
+between 0 deg. and 28 deg. of north or south latitude. In any other place the
+range must necessarily be oblique, which would seriously affect the
+success of the experiment.
+
+"Regarding question No. 6, 'What place will the moon occupy In the
+heavens at the moment of the projectile's departure?'
+
+"At the moment when the projectile is hurled into space, the moon, which
+travels forward 13 deg. 10' 35" each day, will be four times as distant from
+her zenith point--i.e., by 52 deg. 42' 20", a space which corresponds to the
+distance she will travel during the transit of the projectile. But as
+the deviation which the rotatory movement of the earth will impart to
+the shock must also be taken into account, and as the projectile cannot
+reach the moon until after a deviation equal to sixteen radii of the
+earth, which, calculated upon the moon's orbit, is equal to about 11 deg.,
+it is necessary to add these 11 deg. to those caused by the
+already-mentioned delay of the moon, or, in round numbers, 64 deg.. Thus, at
+the moment of firing, the visual radius applied to the moon will
+describe with the vertical line of the place an angle of 64 deg..
+
+"Such are the answers to the questions proposed to the Observatory of
+Cambridge by the members of the Gun Club.
+
+"To sum up--
+
+"1st. The cannon must be placed in a country situated between 0 deg. and 28 deg.
+of north or south latitude.
+
+"2nd. It must be aimed at the zenith of the place.
+
+"3rd. The projectile must have an initial speed of 12,000 yards a
+second.
+
+"4th. It must be hurled on December 1st of next year, at 10hrs. 46mins.
+40secs. p.m.
+
+"5th. It will meet the moon four days after its departure on December
+4th, at midnight precisely, at the moment she arrives at her zenith.
+
+"The members of the Gun Club ought, therefore, at once to commence the
+labour necessitated by such an enterprise, and be ready to put them into
+execution at the moment fixed upon, for they will not find the moon in
+the same conditions of perigee and zenith till eighteen years and eleven
+days later.
+
+"The staff of the Observatory of Cambridge puts itself entirely at their
+disposition for questions of theoretic astronomy, and begs to join its
+congratulations to those of the whole of America.
+
+"On behalf of the staff,
+
+"J.M. BELFAST,
+
+"_Director of the Observatory of Cambridge_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ROMANCE OF THE MOON.
+
+
+A spectator endowed with infinite power of sight, and placed at the
+unknown centre round which gravitates the universe, would have seen
+myriads of atoms filling all space during the chaotic epoch of creation.
+But by degrees, as centuries went on, a change took place; a law of
+gravitation manifested itself which the wandering atoms obeyed; these
+atoms, combined chemically according to their affinities, formed
+themselves into molecules, and made those nebulous masses with which the
+depths of the heavens are strewed.
+
+These masses were immediately animated by a movement of rotation round
+their central point. This centre, made of vague molecules, began to turn
+on itself whilst progressively condensing; then, following the immutable
+laws of mechanics, in proportion as its volume became diminished by
+condensation its movement of rotation was accelerated, and these two
+effects persisting, there resulted a principal planet, the centre of the
+nebulous mass.
+
+By watching attentively the spectator would then have seen other
+molecules in the mass behave like the central planet, and condense in
+the same manner by a movement of progressively-accelerated rotation, and
+gravitate round it under the form of innumerable stars. The nebulae, of
+which astronomers count nearly 5,000 at present, were formed.
+
+Amongst these 5,000 nebulae there is one that men have called the Milky
+Way, and which contains eighteen millions of stars, each of which has
+become the centre of a solar world.
+
+If the spectator had then specially examined amongst these eighteen
+millions of stars one of the most modest and least brilliant, a star of
+the fourth order, the one that proudly named itself the sun, all the
+phenomena to which the formation of the universe is due would have
+successively taken place under his eyes.
+
+In fact, he would have perceived this sun still in its gaseous state,
+and composed of mobile molecules; he would have perceived it turning on
+its own axis to finish its work of concentration. This movement,
+faithful to the laws of mechanics, would have been accelerated by the
+diminution of volume, and a time would have come when the centrifugal
+force would have overpowered the centripetal, which causes the molecules
+all to tend towards the centre.
+
+Then another phenomenon would have passed before the eyes of the
+spectator, and the molecules situated in the plane of the equator would
+have formed several concentric rings like that of Saturn round the sun.
+In their turn these rings of cosmic matter, seized with a movement of
+rotation round the central mass, would have been broken up into
+secondary nebulae--that is to say, into planets.
+
+If the spectator had then concentrated all his attention on these
+planets he would have seen them behave exactly like the sun and give
+birth to one or more cosmic rings, origin of those secondary bodies
+which we call satellites.
+
+Thus in going up from the atom to the molecule, from the molecule to the
+nebulae, and from the nebulae to the principal star, from the principal
+star to the sun, from the sun to the planet, and from the planet to the
+satellite, we have the whole series of transformations undergone by the
+celestial powers from the first days of the universe.
+
+The sun seems lost amidst the immensities of the stellar universe, and
+yet it is related, by actual theories of science, to the nebula of the
+Milky Way. Centre of a world, and small as it appears amidst the
+ethereal regions, it is still enormous, for its size is 1,400,000 times
+that of the earth. Around it gravitate eight planets, struck off from
+its own mass in the first days of creation. These are, in proceeding
+from the nearest to the most distant, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Between Mars and Jupiter circulate
+regularly other smaller bodies, the wandering _debris_, perhaps, of a
+star broken up into thousands of pieces, of which the telescope has
+discovered eighty-two at present. Some of these asteroids are so small
+that they could be walked round in a single day by going at a gymnastic
+pace.
+
+Of these attendant bodies which the sun maintains in their elliptical
+orbit by the great law of gravitation, some possess satellites of their
+own. Uranus has eight, Saturn eight, Jupiter four, Neptune three
+perhaps, and the Earth one; this latter, one of the least important of
+the solar world, is called the Moon, and it is that one that the
+enterprising genius of the Americans means to conquer.
+
+The Queen of Night, from her relative proximity and the spectacle
+rapidly renewed of her different phases, at first divided the attention
+of the inhabitants of the earth with the sun; but the sun tires the
+eyesight, and the splendour of its light forces its admirers to lower
+their eyes.
+
+The blonde Phoebe, more humane, graciously allows herself to be seen in
+her modest grace; she is gentle to the eye, not ambitious, and yet she
+sometimes eclipses her brother the radiant Apollo, without ever being
+eclipsed by him. The Mahommedans understood what gratitude they owed to
+this faithful friend of the earth, and they ruled their months at 29-1/2
+days on her revolution.
+
+The first people of the world dedicated particular worship to this
+chaste goddess. The Egyptians called her Isis, the Phoenicians Astarte,
+the Greeks Phoebe, daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and they explained
+her eclipses by the mysterious visits of Diana and the handsome
+Endymion. The mythological legend relates that the Nemean lion traversed
+the country of the moon before its apparition upon earth, and the poet
+Agesianax, quoted by Plutarch, celebrated in his sweet lines its soft
+eyes, charming nose, and admirable mouth, formed by the luminous parts
+of the adorable Selene.
+
+But though the ancients understood the character, temperament, and, in a
+word, moral qualities of the moon from a mythological point of view, the
+most learned amongst them remained very ignorant of selenography.
+
+Several astronomers, however, of ancient times discovered certain
+particulars now confirmed by science. Though the Arcadians pretended
+they had inhabited the earth at an epoch before the moon existed, though
+Simplicius believed her immovable and fastened to the crystal vault,
+though Tacitus looked upon her as a fragment broken off from the solar
+orbit, and Clearch, the disciple of Aristotle, made of her a polished
+mirror upon which were reflected the images of the ocean--though, in
+short, others only saw in her a mass of vapours exhaled by the earth, or
+a globe half fire and half ice that turned on itself, other _savants_,
+by means of wise observations and without optical instruments, suspected
+most of the laws that govern the Queen of Night.
+
+Thus Thales of Miletus, B.C. 460, gave out the opinion that the moon was
+lighted up by the sun. Aristarchus of Samos gave the right explanation
+of her phases. Cleomenus taught that she shone by reflected light.
+Berose the Chaldean discovered that the duration of her movement of
+rotation was equal to that of her movement of revolution, and he thus
+explained why the moon always presented the same side. Lastly,
+Hipparchus, 200 years before the Christian era, discovered some
+inequalities in the apparent movements of the earth's satellite.
+
+These different observations were afterwards confirmed, and other
+astronomers profited by them. Ptolemy in the second century, and the
+Arabian Aboul Wefa in the tenth, completed the remarks of Hipparchus on
+the inequalities that the moon undergoes whilst following the undulating
+line of its orbit under the action of the sun. Then Copernicus, in the
+fifteenth century, and Tycho Brahe, in the sixteenth, completely exposed
+the system of the world and the part that the moon plays amongst the
+celestial bodies.
+
+At that epoch her movements were pretty well known, but very little of
+her physical constitution was known. It was then that Galileo explained
+the phenomena of light produced in certain phases by the existence of
+mountains, to which he gave an average height of 27,000 feet.
+
+After him, Hevelius, an astronomer of Dantzig, lowered the highest
+altitudes to 15,000 feet; but his contemporary, Riccioli, brought them
+up again to 21,000 feet.
+
+Herschel, at the end of the eighteenth century, armed with a powerful
+telescope, considerably reduced the preceding measurements. He gave a
+height of 11,400 feet to the highest mountains, and brought down the
+average of different heights to little more than 2,400 feet. But
+Herschel was mistaken too, and the observations of Schroeter, Louville,
+Halley, Nasmyth, Bianchini, Pastorff, Lohrman, Gruithuysen, and
+especially the patient studies of MM. Boeer and Moedler, were necessary
+to definitely resolve the question. Thanks to these _savants_, the
+elevation of the mountains of the moon is now perfectly known. Boeer and
+Moedler measured 1,905 different elevations, of which six exceed 15,000
+feet and twenty-two exceed 14,400 feet. Their highest summit towers to a
+height of 22,606 feet above the surface of the lunar disc.
+
+At the same time the survey of the moon was being completed; she
+appeared riddled with craters, and her essentially volcanic nature was
+affirmed by each observation. From the absence of refraction in the rays
+of the planets occulted by her it is concluded that she can have no
+atmosphere. This absence of air entails absence of water; it therefore
+became manifest that the Selenites, in order to live under such
+conditions, must have a special organisation, and differ singularly from
+the inhabitants of the earth.
+
+Lastly, thanks to new methods, more perfected instruments searched the
+moon without intermission, leaving not a point of her surface
+unexplored, and yet her diameter measures 2,150 miles; her surface is
+one-thirteenth of the surface of the globe, and her volume
+one-forty-ninth of the volume of the terrestrial spheroid; but none of
+her secrets could escape the astronomers' eyes, and these clever
+_savants_ carried their wonderful observations still further.
+
+Thus they remarked that when the moon was at her full the disc appeared
+in certain places striped with white lines, and during her phases
+striped with black lines. By prosecuting the study of these with greater
+precision they succeeded in making out the exact nature of these lines.
+They are long and narrow furrows sunk between parallel ridges, bordering
+generally upon the edges of the craters; their length varied from ten to
+one hundred miles, and their width was about 1,600 yards. Astronomers
+called them furrows, and that was all they could do; they could not
+ascertain whether they were the dried-up beds of ancient rivers or not.
+The Americans hope, some day or other, to determine this geological
+question. They also undertake to reconnoitre the series of parallel
+ramparts discovered on the surface of the moon by Gruithuysen, a learned
+professor of Munich, who considered them to be a system of elevated
+fortifications raised by Selenite engineers. These two still obscure
+points, and doubtless many others, can only be definitely settled by
+direct communication with the moon.
+
+As to the intensity of her light there is nothing more to be learnt; it
+is 300,000 times weaker than that of the sun, and its heat has no
+appreciable action upon thermometers; as to the phenomenon known as the
+"ashy light," it is naturally explained by the effect of the sun's rays
+transmitted from the earth to the moon, and which seem to complete the
+lunar disc when it presents a crescent form during its first and last
+phases.
+
+Such was the state of knowledge acquired respecting the earth's
+satellite which the Gun Club undertook to perfect under all its aspects,
+cosmographical, geographical, geological, political, and moral.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WHAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE AND WHAT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED TO BE
+BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+The immediate effect of Barbicane's proposition was that of bringing out
+all astronomical facts relative to the Queen of Night. Everybody began
+to study her assiduously. It seemed as if the moon had appeared on the
+horizon for the first time, and that no one had ever seen her in the sky
+before. She became the fashion; she was the lion of the day, without
+appearing less modest on that account, and took her place amongst the
+"stars" without being any the prouder. The newspapers revived old
+anecdotes in which this "Sun of the wolves" played a part; they recalled
+the influence which the ignorance of past ages had ascribed to her; they
+sang about her in every tone; a little more and they would have quoted
+her witty sayings; the whole of America was filled with selenomania.
+
+The scientific journals treated the question which touched upon the
+enterprise of the Gun Club more specially; they published the letter
+from the Observatory of Cambridge, they commented upon it and approved
+of it without reserve.
+
+In short, even the most ignorant Yankee was no longer allowed to be
+ignorant of a single fact relative to his satellite, nor, to the oldest
+women amongst them, to have any superstitions about her left. Science
+flooded them; it penetrated into their eyes and ears; it was impossible
+to be an ass--in astronomy.
+
+Until then many people did not know how the distance between the earth
+and the moon had been calculated. This fact was taken advantage of to
+explain to them that it was done by measuring the parallax of the moon.
+If the word "parallax" seemed new to them, they were told it was the
+angle formed by two straight lines drawn from either extremity of the
+earth's radius to the moon. If they were in doubt about the perfection
+of this method, it was immediately proved to them that not only was the
+mean distance 234,347 miles, but that astronomers were right to within
+seventy miles.
+
+To those who were not familiar with the movements of the moon, the
+newspapers demonstrated daily that she possesses two distinct movements,
+the first being that of rotation upon her axis, the second that of
+revolution round the earth, accomplishing both in the same time--that is
+to say, in 27-1/3 days.
+
+The movement of rotation is the one that causes night and day on the
+surface of the moon, only there is but one day and one night in a lunar
+month, and they each last 354-1/3 hours. But, happily, the face, turned
+towards the terrestrial globe, is lighted by it with an intensity equal
+to the light of fourteen moons. As to the other face, the one always
+invisible, it has naturally 354 hours of absolute night, tempered only
+by "the pale light that falls from the stars." This phenomenon is due
+solely to the peculiarity that the movements of rotation and revolution
+are accomplished in rigorously equal periods, a phenomenon which,
+according to Cassini and Herschel, is common to the satellites of
+Jupiter, and, very probably to the other satellites.
+
+Some well-disposed but rather unyielding minds did not quite understand
+at first how, if the moon invariably shows the same face to the earth
+during her revolution, she describes one turn round herself in the same
+period of time. To such it was answered--"Go into your dining-room, and
+turn round the table so as always to keep your face towards the centre;
+when your circular walk is ended you will have described one circle
+round yourselves, since your eye will have successively traversed every
+point of the room. Well, then, the room is the heavens, the table is the
+earth, and you are the moon!"
+
+And they go away delighted with the comparison.
+
+Thus, then, the moon always presents the same face to the earth; still,
+to be quite exact, it should be added that in consequence of certain
+fluctuations from north to south and from west to east, called
+libration, she shows rather more than the half of her disc, about 0.57.
+
+When the ignoramuses knew as much as the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory about the moon's movement of rotation they began to make
+themselves uneasy about her movement of revolution round the earth, and
+twenty scientific reviews quickly gave them the information they wanted.
+They then learnt that the firmament, with its infinite stars, may be
+looked upon as a vast dial upon which the moon moves, indicating the
+time to all the inhabitants of the earth; that it is in this movement
+that the Queen of Night shows herself in her different phases, that she
+is full when she is in opposition with the sun--that is to say, when the
+three bodies are on a line with each other, the earth being in the
+centre; that the moon is new when she is in conjunction with the
+sun--that is to say, when she is between the sun and the earth; lastly,
+that the moon is in her first or last quarter when she makes, with the
+sun and the earth, a right angle of which she occupies the apex.
+
+Some perspicacious Yankees inferred in consequence that eclipses could
+only take place at the periods of conjunction or opposition, and their
+reasoning was just. In conjunction the moon can eclipse the sun, whilst
+in opposition it is the earth that can eclipse him in her turn; and the
+reason these eclipses do not happen twice in a lunar month is because
+the plane upon which the moon moves is elliptical like that of the
+earth.
+
+As to the height which the Queen of Night can attain above the horizon,
+the letter from the Observatory of Cambridge contained all that can be
+said about it. Every one knew that this height varies according to the
+latitude of the place where the observation is taken. But the only zones
+of the globe where the moon reaches her zenith--that is to say, where
+she is directly above the heads of the spectators--are necessarily
+comprised between the 28th parallels and the equator. Hence the
+important recommendation given to attempt the experiment upon some point
+in this part of the globe, in order that the projectile may be hurled
+perpendicularly, and may thus more quickly escape the attraction of
+gravitation. This was a condition essential to the success of the
+enterprise, and public opinion was much exercised thereupon.
+
+As to the line followed by the moon in her revolution round the earth,
+the Observatory of Cambridge had demonstrated to the most ignorant that
+it is an ellipse of which the earth occupies one of the foci. These
+elliptical orbits are common to all the planets as well as to all the
+satellites, and rational mechanism rigorously proves that it could not
+be otherwise. It was clearly understood that when at her apogee the moon
+was farthest from the earth, and when at her perigee she was nearest to
+our planet.
+
+This, therefore, was what every American knew whether he wished to or
+no, and what no one could decently be ignorant of. But if these true
+principles rapidly made their way, certain illusive fears and many
+errors were with difficulty cleared away.
+
+Some worthy people maintained, for instance, that the moon was an
+ancient comet, which, whilst travelling along its elongated orbit round
+the sun, passed near to the earth, and was retained in her circle of
+attraction. The drawing-room astronomers pretended to explain thus the
+burnt aspect of the moon, a misfortune of which they accused the sun.
+Only when they were told to notice that comets have an atmosphere, and
+that the moon has little or none, they did not know what to answer.
+
+Others belonging to the class of "Shakers" manifested certain fears
+about the moon; they had heard that since the observations made in the
+times of the Caliphs her movement of revolution had accelerated in a
+certain proportion; they thence very logically concluded that an
+acceleration of movement must correspond to a diminution in the distance
+between the two bodies, and that this double effect going on infinitely
+the moon would one day end by falling into the earth. However, they were
+obliged to reassure themselves and cease to fear for future generations
+when they were told that according to the calculations of Laplace, an
+illustrious French mathematician, this acceleration of movement was
+restricted within very narrow limits, and that a proportional diminution
+will follow it. Thus the equilibrium of the solar world cannot be
+disturbed in future centuries.
+
+Lastly there was the superstitious class of ignoramuses to be dealt
+with; these are not content with being ignorant; they know what does not
+exist, and about the moon they know a great deal. Some of them
+considered her disc to be a polished mirror by means of which people
+might see themselves from different points on the earth, and communicate
+their thoughts to one another. Others pretended that out of 1,000 new
+moons 950 had brought some notable change, such as cataclysms,
+revolutions, earthquakes, deluges, &c.; they therefore believed in the
+mysterious influence of the Queen of Night on human destinies; they
+think that every Selenite is connected by some sympathetic tie with each
+inhabitant of the earth; they pretend, with Dr. Mead, that she entirely
+governs the vital system--that boys are born during the new moon and
+girls during her last quarter, &c., &c. But at last it became necessary
+to give up these vulgar errors, to come back to truth; and if the moon,
+stripped of her influence, lost her prestige in the minds of courtesans
+of every power, if some turned their backs on her, the immense majority
+were in her favour. As to the Yankees, they had no other ambition than
+that of taking possession of this new continent of the sky, and to plant
+upon its highest summit the star-spangled banner of the United States of
+America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL.
+
+
+The Cambridge Observatory had, in its memorable letter of October 7th,
+treated the question from an astronomical point of view--the mechanical
+point had still to be treated. It was then that the practical
+difficulties would have seemed insurmountable to any other country but
+America; but there they were looked upon as play.
+
+President Barbicane had, without losing any time, nominated a working
+committee in the heart of the Gun Club. This committee was in three
+sittings to elucidate the three great questions of the cannon, the
+projectile, and the powder. It was composed of four members very learned
+upon these matters. Barbicane had the casting vote, and with him were
+associated General Morgan, Major Elphinstone, and, lastly, the
+inevitable J.T. Maston, to whom were confided the functions of
+secretary.
+
+On the 8th of October the committee met at President Barbicane's house,
+No. 3, Republican-street; as it was important that the stomach should
+not trouble so important a debate, the four members of the Gun Club took
+their seats at a table covered with sandwiches and teapots. J.T. Maston
+immediately screwed his pen on to his steel hook and the business began.
+
+Barbicane opened the meeting as follows:--
+
+"Dear colleagues," said he, "we have to solve one of the more important
+problems in ballistics--that greatest of sciences which treats of the
+movement of projectiles--that is to say, of bodies hurled into space by
+some power of impulsion and then left to themselves."
+
+"Oh, ballistics, ballistics!" cried J.T. Maston in a voice of emotion.
+
+"Perhaps," continued Barbicane, "the most logical thing would be to
+consecrate this first meeting to discussing the engine."
+
+"Certainly," answered General Morgan.
+
+"Nevertheless," continued Barbicane, "after mature deliberation, it
+seems to me that the question of the projectile ought to precede that of
+the cannon, and that the dimensions of the latter ought to depend upon
+the dimensions of the former."
+
+J.T. Maston here interrupted the president, and was heard with the
+attention which his magnificent past career deserved.
+
+"My dear friends," said he in an inspired tone, "our president is right
+to give the question of the projectile the precedence of every other;
+the cannon-ball we mean to hurl at the moon will be our messenger, our
+ambassador, and I ask your permission to regard it from an entirely
+moral point of view."
+
+This new way of looking at a projectile excited the curiosity of the
+members of the committee; they therefore listened attentively to the
+words of J.T. Maston.
+
+"My dear colleagues," he continued, "I will be brief. I will lay aside
+the material projectile--the projectile that kills--in order to take up
+the mathematical projectile--the moral projectile. A cannon-ball is to
+me the most brilliant manifestation of human power, and by creating it
+man has approached nearest to the Creator!"
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Major Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," cried the orator, "if God has made the stars and the planets,
+man has made the cannon-ball--that criterion of terrestrial speed--that
+reduction of bodies wandering in space which are really nothing but
+projectiles. Let Providence claim the speed of electricity, light, the
+stars, comets, planets, satellites, sound, and wind! But ours is the
+speed of the cannon-ball--a hundred times greater than that of trains
+and the fastest horses!"
+
+J.T. Maston was inspired; his accents became quite lyrical as he chanted
+the hymn consecrated to the projectile.
+
+"Would you like figures?" continued he; "here are eloquent ones. Take
+the simple 24 pounder; though it moves 80,000 times slower than
+electricity, 64,000 times slower than light, 76 times slower than the
+earth in her movement of translation round the sun, yet when it leaves
+the cannon it goes quicker than sound; it goes at the rate of 14 miles a
+minute, 840 miles an hour, 20,100 miles a day--that is to say, at the
+speed of the points of the equator in the globe's movement of rotation,
+7,336,500 miles a year. It would therefore take 11 days to get to the
+moon, 12 years to get to the sun, 360 years to reach Neptune, at the
+limits of the solar world. That is what this modest cannon-ball, the
+work of our hands, can do! What will it be, therefore, when, with twenty
+times that speed, we shall hurl it with a rapidity of seven miles a
+second? Ah! splendid shot! superb projectile! I like to think you will
+be received up there with the honours due to a terrestrial ambassador!"
+
+Cheers greeted this brilliant peroration, and J.T. Maston, overcome with
+emotion, sat down amidst the felicitations of his colleagues.
+
+"And now," said Barbicane, "that we have given some time to poetry, let
+us proceed to facts."
+
+"We are ready," answered the members of the committee as they each
+demolished half-a-dozen sandwiches.
+
+"You know what problem it is we have to solve," continued the president;
+"it is that of endowing a projectile with a speed of 12,000 yards per
+second. I have every reason to believe that we shall succeed, but at
+present let us see what speeds we have already obtained; General Morgan
+can edify us upon that subject."
+
+"So much the more easily," answered the general, "because during the war
+I was a member of the Experiment Commission. The 100-pound cannon of
+Dahlgren, with a range of 5,000 yards, gave their projectiles an initial
+speed of 500 yards a second."
+
+"Yes; and the Rodman Columbiad?" (the Americans gave the name of
+"Columbiad" to their enormous engines of destruction) asked the
+president.
+
+"The Rodman Columbiad, tried at Fort Hamilton, near New York, hurled a
+projectile, weighing half a ton, a distance of six miles, with a speed
+of 800 yards a second, a result which neither Armstrong nor Palliser has
+obtained in England."
+
+"Englishmen are nowhere!" said J.T. Maston, pointing his formidable
+steel hook eastward.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "a speed of 800 yards is the maximum obtained
+at present."
+
+"Yes," answered Morgan.
+
+"I might add, however," replied J.T. Maston, "that if my mortar had not
+been blown up--"
+
+"Yes, but it was blown up," replied Barbicane with a benevolent gesture.
+"We must take the speed of 800 yards for a starting point. We must keep
+till another meeting the discussion of the means used to produce this
+speed; allow me to call your attention to the dimensions which our
+projectile must have. Of course it must be something very different to
+one of half a ton weight."
+
+"Why?" asked the major.
+
+"Because," quickly answered J.T. Maston, "it must be large enough to
+attract the attention of the inhabitants of the moon, supposing there
+are any."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "and for another reason still more
+important."
+
+"What do you mean, Barbicane?" asked the major.
+
+"I mean that it is not enough to send up a projectile and then to think
+no more about it; we must follow it in its transit."
+
+"What?" said the general, slightly surprised at the proposition.
+
+"Certainly," replied Barbicane, like a man who knew what he was saying,
+"or our experiment will be without result."
+
+"But then," replied the major, "you will have to give the projectile
+enormous dimensions."
+
+"No. Please grant me your attention. You know that optical instruments
+have acquired great perfection; certain telescopes increase objects six
+thousand, and bring the moon to within a distance of forty miles. Now at
+that distance objects sixty feet square are perfectly visible. The power
+of penetration of the telescope has not been increased, because that
+power is only exercised to the detriment of their clearness, and the
+moon, which is only a reflecting mirror, does not send a light intense
+enough for the telescopes to increase objects beyond that limit."
+
+"Very well, then, what do you mean to do?" asked the general. "Do you
+intend giving a diameter of sixty feet to your projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You are not going to take upon yourself the task of making the moon
+more luminous?"
+
+"I am, though."
+
+"That's rather strong!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Yes, but simple," answered Barbicane. "If I succeed in lessening the
+density of the atmosphere which the moon's light traverses, shall I not
+render that light more intense?"
+
+"Evidently."
+
+"In order to obtain that result I shall only have to establish my
+telescope upon some high mountain. We can do that."
+
+"I give in," answered the major; "you have such a way of simplifying
+things! What enlargement do you hope to obtain thus?"
+
+"One of 48,000 times, which will bring the moon within five miles only,
+and objects will only need a diameter of nine feet."
+
+"Perfect!" exclaimed J.T. Maston; "then our projectile will have a
+diameter of nine feet?"
+
+"Precisely."
+
+"Allow me to inform you, however," returned Major Elphinstone, "that its
+weight will still be--"
+
+"Oh, major!" answered Barbicane, "before discussing its weight allow me
+to tell you that our forefathers did marvels in that way. Far be it from
+me to pretend that ballistics have not progressed, but it is well to
+know that in the Middle Ages surprising results were obtained, I dare
+affirm, even more surprising than ours."
+
+"Justify your statement," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Barbicane; "I can give you some examples.
+At the siege of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 1453, they hurled
+stone bullets that weighed 1,900 lbs.; at Malta, in the time of its
+knights, a certain cannon of Fort Saint Elme hurled projectiles weighing
+2,500 lbs. According to a French historian, under Louis XI. a mortar
+hurled a bomb of 500 lbs. only; but that bomb, fired at the Bastille, a
+place where mad men imprisoned wise ones, fell at Charenton, where wise
+men imprison mad ones."
+
+"Very well," said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Since, what have we seen, after all? The Armstrong cannons hurl
+projectiles of 500 lbs., and the Rodman Columbiads projectiles of half a
+ton! It seems, then, that if projectiles have increased in range they
+have lost in weight. Now, if we turn our efforts in that direction, we
+must succeed with the progress of the science in doubling the weight of
+the projectiles of Mahomet II. and the Knights of Malta."
+
+"That is evident," answered the major; "but what metal do you intend to
+employ for your own projectile?"
+
+"Simply cast-iron," said General Morgan.
+
+"Cast-iron!" exclaimed J.T. Maston disdainfully, "that's very common for
+a bullet destined to go to the moon."
+
+"Do not let us exaggerate, my honourable friend," answered Morgan;
+"cast-iron will be sufficient."
+
+"Then," replied Major Elphinstone, "as the weight of the projectile is
+in proportion to its volume, a cast-iron bullet, measuring nine feet in
+diameter, will still be frightfully heavy."
+
+"Yes, if it be solid, but not if it be hollow," said Barbicane.
+
+"Hollow!--then it will be an obus?"
+
+"In which we can put despatches," replied J.T. Maston, "and specimens of
+our terrestrial productions."
+
+"Yes, an obus," answered Barbicane; "that is what it must be; a solid
+bullet of 108 inches would weigh more than 200,000 lbs., a weight
+evidently too great; however, as it is necessary to give the projectile
+a certain stability, I propose to give it a weight of 20,000 lbs."
+
+"What will be the thickness of the metal?" asked the major.
+
+"If we follow the usual proportions," replied Morgan, "a diameter of 800
+inches demands sides two feet thick at least."
+
+"That would be much too thick," answered Barbicane; "we do not want a
+projectile to pierce armour-plate; it only needs sides strong enough to
+resist the pressure of the powder-gas. This, therefore, is the
+problem:--What thickness ought an iron obus to have in order to weigh
+only 20,000 lbs.? Our clever calculator, Mr. Maston, will tell us at
+once."
+
+"Nothing is easier," replied the honourable secretary.
+
+So saying, he traced some algebraical signs on the paper, amongst which
+n^2 and x^2 frequently appeared. He even seemed to extract from them a
+certain cubic root, and said--
+
+"The sides must be hardly two inches thick."
+
+"Will that be sufficient?" asked the major doubtfully.
+
+"No," answered the president, "certainly not."
+
+"Then what must be done?" resumed Elphinstone, looking puzzled.
+
+"We must use another metal instead of cast-iron."
+
+"Brass?" suggested Morgan.
+
+"No; that is too heavy too, and I have something better than that to
+propose."
+
+"What?" asked the major.
+
+"Aluminium," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Aluminium!" cried all the three colleagues of the president.
+
+"Certainly, my friends. You know that an illustrious French chemist,
+Henry St. Claire Deville, succeeded in 1854 in obtaining aluminium in a
+compact mass. This precious metal possesses the whiteness of silver, the
+indestructibility of gold, the tenacity of iron, the fusibility of
+copper, the lightness of glass; it is easily wrought, and is very widely
+distributed in nature, as aluminium forms the basis of most rocks; it is
+three times lighter than iron, and seems to have been created expressly
+to furnish us with the material for our projectile!"
+
+"Hurrah for aluminium!" cried the secretary, always very noisy in his
+moments of enthusiasm.
+
+"But, my dear president," said the major, "is not aluminium quoted
+exceedingly high?"
+
+"It was so," answered Barbicane; "when first discovered a pound of
+aluminium cost 260 to 280 dollars; then it fell to twenty-seven dollars,
+and now it is worth nine dollars."
+
+"But nine dollars a pound," replied the major, who did not easily give
+in; "that is still an enormous price."
+
+"Doubtless, my dear major; but not out of reach."
+
+"What will the projectile weigh, then?" asked Morgan.
+
+"Here is the result of my calculations," answered Barbicane. "A
+projectile of 108 inches in diameter and 12 inches thick would weigh, if
+it were made of cast-iron, 67,440 lbs.; cast in aluminium it would be
+reduced to 19,250 lbs."
+
+"Perfect!" cried Maston; "that suits our programme capitally."
+
+"Yes," replied the major; "but do you not know that at nine dollars a
+pound the projectile would cost--"
+
+"One hundred seventy-three thousand and fifty dollars. Yes, I know that;
+but fear nothing, my friends; money for our enterprise will not be
+wanting, I answer for that."
+
+"It will be showered upon us," replied J.T. Maston.
+
+"Well, what do you say to aluminium?" asked the president.
+
+"Adopted," answered the three members of the committee.
+
+"As to the form of the projectile," resumed Barbicane, "it is of little
+consequence, since, once the atmosphere cleared, it will find itself in
+empty space; I therefore propose a round ball, which will turn on
+itself, if it so pleases."
+
+Thus ended the first committee meeting. The question of the projectile
+was definitely resolved upon, and J.T. Maston was delighted with the
+idea of sending an aluminium bullet to the Selenites, "as it will give
+them no end of an idea of the inhabitants of the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+HISTORY OF THE CANNON.
+
+
+The resolutions passed at this meeting produced a great effect outside.
+Some timid people grew alarmed at the idea of a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs. hurled into space. People asked what cannon could ever
+transmit an initial speed sufficient for such a mass. The report of the
+second meeting was destined to answer these questions victoriously.
+
+The next evening the four members of the Gun Club sat down before fresh
+mountains of sandwiches and a veritable ocean of tea. The debate then
+began.
+
+"My dear colleagues," said Barbicane, "we are going to occupy ourselves
+with the construction of the engine, its length, form, composition, and
+weight. It is probable that we shall have to give it gigantic
+dimensions, but, however great our difficulties might be, our industrial
+genius will easily overcome them. Will you please listen to me and
+spare objections for the present? I do not fear them."
+
+An approving murmur greeted this declaration.
+
+"We must not forget," resumed Barbicane, "to what point our yesterday's
+debate brought us; the problem is now the following: how to give an
+initial speed of 12,000 yards a second to a shot 108 inches in diameter
+weighing 20,000 lbs.
+
+"That is the problem indeed," answered Major Elphinstone.
+
+"When a projectile is hurled into space," resumed Barbicane, "what
+happens? It is acted upon by three independent forces, the resistance of
+the medium, the attraction of the earth, and the force of impulsion with
+which it is animated. Let us examine these three forces. The resistance
+of the medium--that is to say, the resistance of the air--is of little
+importance. In fact, the terrestrial atmosphere is only forty miles
+deep. With a rapidity of 12,000 yards the projectile will cross that in
+five seconds, and this time will be short enough to make the resistance
+of the medium insignificant. Let us now pass to the attraction of the
+earth--that is to say, to the weight of the projectile. We know that
+that weight diminishes in an inverse ratio to the square of
+distances--in fact, this is what physics teach us: when a body left to
+itself falls on the surface of the earth, it falls 15 feet in the first
+second, and if the same body had to fall 257,542 miles--that is to say,
+the distance between the earth and the moon--its fall would be reduced
+to half a line in the first second. That is almost equivalent to
+immobility. The question is, therefore, how progressively to overcome
+this law of gravitation. How shall we do it? By the force of impulsion?"
+
+"That is the difficulty," answered the major.
+
+"That is it indeed," replied the president. "But we shall triumph over
+it, for this force of impulsion we want depends on the length of the
+engine and the quantity of powder employed, the one only being limited
+by the resistance of the other. Let us occupy ourselves, therefore,
+to-day with the dimensions to be given to the cannon. It is quite
+understood that we can make it, as large as we like, seeing it will not
+have to be moved."
+
+"All that is evident," replied the general.
+
+"Until now," said Barbicane, "the longest cannon, our enormous
+Columbiads, have not been more than twenty-five feet long; we shall
+therefore astonish many people by the dimensions we shall have to
+adopt."
+
+"Certainly," exclaimed J.T. Maston. "For my part, I ask for a cannon
+half a mile long at least!"
+
+"Half a mile!" cried the major and the general.
+
+"Yes, half a mile, and that will be half too short."
+
+"Come, Maston," answered Morgan, "you exaggerate."
+
+"No, I do not," said the irate secretary; "and I really do not know why
+you tax me with exaggeration."
+
+"Because you go too far."
+
+"You must know, sir," answered J.T. Maston, looking dignified, "that an
+artilleryman is like a cannon-ball, he can never go too far."
+
+The debate was getting personal, but the president interfered.
+
+"Be calm, my friends, and let us reason it out. We evidently want a gun
+of great range, as the length of the engine will increase the detention
+of gas accumulated behind the projectile, but it is useless to overstep
+certain limits."
+
+"Perfectly," said the major.
+
+"What are the usual rules in such a case? Ordinarily the length of a
+cannon is twenty or twenty-five times the diameter of the projectile,
+and it weighs 235 to 240 times its weight."
+
+"It is not enough," cried J.T. Maston with impetuosity.
+
+"I agree to that, my worthy friend, and in fact by keeping that
+proportion for a projectile nine feet wide, weighing 30,000 lbs., the
+engine would only have a length of 225 feet and a weight of 7,200,000
+lbs."
+
+"That is ridiculous," resumed J.T. Maston. "You might as well take a
+pistol."
+
+"I think so too," answered Barbicane; "that is why I propose to
+quadruple that length, and to construct a cannon 900 feet long."
+
+The general and the major made some objections, but, nevertheless, this
+proposition, strongly supported by the secretary, was definitely
+adopted.
+
+"Now," said Elphinstone, "what thickness must we give its sides?"
+
+"A thickness of six feet," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You do not think of raising such a mass upon a gun-carriage?" asked the
+major.
+
+"That would be superb, however! said J.T. Maston.
+
+"But impracticable," answered Barbicane. "No, I think of casting this
+engine in the ground itself, binding it up with wrought-iron hoops, and
+then surrounding it with a thick mass of stone and cement masonry. When
+it is cast it must be bored with great precision so as to prevent
+windage, so there will be no loss of gas, and all the expansive force of
+the powder will be employed in the propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" said Maston, "we have our cannon."
+
+"Not yet," answered Barbicane, calming his impatient friend with his
+hand.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we have not discussed its form. Shall it be a cannon, howitzer,
+or a mortar?"
+
+"A cannon," replied Morgan.
+
+"A howitzer," said the major.
+
+"A mortar," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+A fresh discussion was pending, each taking the part of his favourite
+weapon, when the president stopped it short.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I will soon make you agree. Our Columbiad will
+be a mixture of all three. It will be a cannon, because the
+powder-magazine will have the same diameter as the chamber. It will be a
+howitzer, because it will hurl an obus. Lastly, it will be a mortar,
+because it will be pointed at an angle of 90 deg., and that without any
+chance of recoil; unalterably fixed to the ground, it will communicate
+to the projectile all the power of impulsion accumulated in its body."
+
+"Adopted, adopted," answered the members of the committee.
+
+"One question," said Elphinstone, "and will this _canobusomortar_ be
+rifled?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "No, we must have an enormous initial speed,
+and you know very well that a shot leaves a rifle less rapidly than a
+smooth-bore."
+
+"True," answered the major.
+
+"Well, we have it this time," repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"Not quite yet," replied the president.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because we do not yet know of what metal it will be made."
+
+"Let us decide that without delay."
+
+"I was going to propose it to you."
+
+The four members of the committee each swallowed a dozen sandwiches,
+followed by a cup of tea, and the debate recommenced.
+
+"Our cannon," said Barbicane, "must be possessed of great tenacity,
+great hardness; it must be infusible by heat, indissoluble, and
+inoxydable by the corrosive action of acids."
+
+"There is no doubt about that," answered the major, "and as we shall
+have to employ a considerable quantity of metal we shall not have much
+choice."
+
+"Well, then," said Morgan, "I propose for the fabrication of the
+Columbiad the best alloy hitherto known--that is to say, 100 parts of
+copper, 12 of tin, and 6 of brass."
+
+"My friends," answered the president, "I agree that this composition has
+given excellent results; but in bulk it would be too dear and very hard
+to work. I therefore think we must adopt an excellent material, but
+cheap, such as cast-iron. Is not that your opinion, major?"
+
+"Quite," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "cast-iron costs ten times less than
+bronze; it is easily melted, it is readily run into sand moulds, and is
+rapidly manipulated; it is, therefore, an economy of money and time.
+Besides, that material is excellent, and I remember that during the war
+at the siege of Atlanta cast-iron cannon fired a thousand shots each
+every twenty minutes without being damaged by it."
+
+"Yet cast-iron is very brittle," answered Morgan.
+
+"Yes, but it possesses resistance too. Besides, we shall not let it
+explode, I can answer for that."
+
+"It is possible to explode and yet be honest," replied J.T. Maston
+sententiously.
+
+"Evidently," answered Barbicane. "I am, therefore, going to beg our
+worthy secretary to calculate the weight of a cast-iron cannon 900 feet
+long, with an inner diameter of nine feet, and sides six feet thick."
+
+"At once," answered J.T. Maston, and, as he had done the day before, he
+made his calculations with marvellous facility, and said at the end of a
+minute--
+
+"This cannon will weigh 68,040 tons."
+
+"And how much will that cost at two cents a pound?"
+
+"Two million five hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and one
+dollars."
+
+J.T. Maston, the major, and the general looked at Barbicane anxiously.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," said the president, "I can only repeat what I said to
+you yesterday, don't be uneasy; we shall not want for money."
+
+Upon this assurance of its president the committee broke up, after
+having fixed a third meeting for the next evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE QUESTION OF POWDERS.
+
+
+The question of powder still remained to be settled. The public awaited
+this last decision with anxiety. The size of the projectile and length
+of the cannon being given, what would be the quantity of powder
+necessary to produce the impulsion? This terrible agent, of which,
+however, man has made himself master, was destined to play a part in
+unusual proportions.
+
+It is generally known and often asserted that gunpowder was invented in
+the fourteenth century by the monk Schwartz, who paid for his great
+discovery with his life. But it is nearly proved now that this story
+must be ranked among the legends of the Middle Ages. Gunpowder was
+invented by no one; it is a direct product of Greek fire, composed, like
+it, of sulphur and saltpetre; only since that epoch these mixtures;
+which were only dissolving, have been transformed into detonating
+mixtures.
+
+But if learned men know perfectly the false history of gunpowder, few
+people are aware of its mechanical power. Now this is necessary to be
+known in order to understand the importance of the question submitted to
+the committee.
+
+Thus a litre of gunpowder weighs about 2 lbs.; it produces, by burning,
+about 400 litres of gas; this gas, liberated, and under the action of a
+temperature of 2,400 deg., occupies the space of 4,000 litres. Therefore the
+volume of powder is to the volume of gas produced by its deflagration as
+1 to 400. The frightful force of this gas, when it is compressed into a
+space 4,000 times too small, may be imagined.
+
+This is what the members of the committee knew perfectly when, the next
+day, they began their sitting. Major Elphinstone opened the debate.
+
+"My dear comrades," said the distinguished chemist, "I am going to begin
+with some unexceptionable figures, which will serve as a basis for our
+calculation. The 24-lb. cannon-ball, of which the Hon. J.T. Maston spoke
+the day before yesterday, is driven out of the cannon by 16 lbs. of
+powder only."
+
+"You are certain of your figures?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Absolutely certain," answered the major. "The Armstrong cannon only
+uses 75 lbs. of powder for a projectile of 800 lbs., and the Rodman
+Columbiad only expends 160 lbs. of powder to send its half-ton bullet
+six miles. These facts cannot be doubted, for I found them myself in the
+reports of the Committee of Artillery."
+
+"That is certain," answered the general.
+
+"Well," resumed the major, "the conclusion to be drawn from these
+figures is that the quantity of powder does not augment with the weight
+of the shot; in fact, if a shot of 24 lbs. took 16 lbs. of powder, and,
+in other terms, if in ordinary cannons a quantity of powder weighing
+two-thirds of the weight of the projectile is used, this proportion is
+not always necessary. Calculate, and you will see that for the shot of
+half a ton weight, instead of 333 lbs. of powder, this quantity has been
+reduced to 116 lbs. only.
+
+"What are you driving at?" asked the president.
+
+"The extreme of your theory, my dear major," said J.T. Maston, "would
+bring you to having no powder at all, provided your shot were
+sufficiently heavy."
+
+"Friend Maston will have his joke even in the most serious things,"
+replied the major; "but he need not be uneasy; I shall soon propose a
+quantity of powder that will satisfy him. Only I wish to have it
+understood that during the war, and for the largest guns, the weight of
+the powder was reduced, after experience, to a tenth of the weight of
+the shot."
+
+"Nothing is more exact," said Morgan; "but, before deciding the quantity
+of powder necessary to give the impulsion, I think it would be well to
+agree upon its nature."
+
+"We shall use a large-grained powder," answered the major; "its
+deflagration is the most rapid."
+
+"No doubt," replied Morgan; "but it is very brittle, and ends by
+damaging the chamber of the gun."
+
+"Certainly; but what would be bad for a gun destined for long service
+would not be so for our Columbiad. We run no danger of explosion, and
+the powder must immediately take fire to make its mechanical effect
+complete."
+
+"We might make several touchholes," said J.T. Maston, "so as to set fire
+to it in several places at the same time."
+
+"No doubt," answered Elphinstone, "but that would make the working of it
+more difficult. I therefore come back to my large-grained powder that
+removes these difficulties."
+
+"So be it," answered the general.
+
+"To load his Columbiad," resumed the major, "Rodman used a powder in
+grains as large as chestnuts, made of willow charcoal, simply rarefied
+in cast-iron pans. This powder was hard and shining, left no stain on
+the hands, contained a great proportion of hydrogen and oxygen,
+deflagrated instantaneously, and, though very brittle, did not much
+damage the mouthpiece."
+
+"Well, it seems to me," answered J.T. Maston, "that we have nothing to
+hesitate about, and that our choice is made."
+
+"Unless you prefer gold-powder," replied the major, laughing, which
+provoked a threatening gesture from the steel hook of his susceptible
+friend.
+
+Until then Barbicane had kept himself aloof from the discussion; he
+listened, and had evidently an idea. He contented himself with saying
+simply--
+
+"Now, my friends, what quantity of powder do you propose?"
+
+The three members of the Gun Club looked at one another for the space of
+a minute.
+
+"Two hundred thousand pounds," said Morgan at last.
+
+"Five hundred thousand," replied the major.
+
+"Eight hundred thousand," exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+This, time Elphinstone dared not tax his colleague with exaggeration. In
+fact, the question was that of sending to the moon a projectile weighing
+20,000 lbs., and of giving it an initial force of 2000 yards a second. A
+moment of silence, therefore, followed the triple proposition made by
+the three colleagues.
+
+It was at last broken by President Barbicane.
+
+"My brave comrades," said he in a quiet tone, "I start from this
+principle, that the resistance of our cannon, in the given conditions,
+is unlimited. I shall, therefore, surprise the Honourable J.T. Maston
+when I tell him that he has been timid in his calculations, and I
+propose to double his 800,000 lbs. of powder."
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds!" shouted J.T. Maston, jumping out of
+his chair.
+
+"Quite as much as that."
+
+"Then we shall have to come back to my cannon half a mile long."
+
+"It is evident," said the major.
+
+"Sixteen hundred thousand pounds of powder," resumed the Secretary of
+Committee, "will occupy about a space of 22,000 cubic feet; now, as your
+cannon will only hold about 54,000 cubic feet, it will be half full, and
+the chamber will not be long enough to allow the explosion of the gas to
+give sufficient impulsion to your projectile."
+
+There was nothing to answer. J.T. Maston spoke the truth. They all
+looked at Barbicane.
+
+"However," resumed the president, "I hold to that quantity of powder.
+Think! 1,600,000 pounds of powder will give 6,000,000,000 litres of
+gas."
+
+"Then how is it to be done?" asked the general.
+
+"It is very simple. We must reduce this enormous quantity of powder,
+keeping at the same time its mechanical power."
+
+"Good! By what means?"
+
+"I will tell you," answered Barbicane simply.
+
+His interlocutors all looked at him.
+
+"Nothing is easier, in fact," he resumed, "than to bring that mass of
+powder to a volume four times less. You all know that curious cellular
+matter which constitutes the elementary tissues of vegetables?"
+
+"Ah!" said the major, "I understand you, Barbicane."
+
+"This matter," said the president, "is obtained in perfect purity in
+different things, especially in cotton, which is nothing but the skin of
+the seeds of the cotton plant. Now cotton, combined with cold nitric
+acid, is transformed into a substance eminently insoluble, eminently
+combustible, eminently explosive. Some years ago, in 1832, a French
+chemist, Braconnot, discovered this substance, which he called
+xyloidine. In 1838, another Frenchman, Pelouze, studied its different
+properties; and lastly, in 1846, Schonbein, professor of chemistry at
+Basle, proposed it as gunpowder. This powder is nitric cotton."
+
+"Or pyroxyle," answered Elphinstone.
+
+"Or fulminating cotton," replied Morgan.
+
+"Is there not an American name to put at the bottom of this discovery?"
+exclaimed J.T. Maston, animated by a lively sentiment of patriotism.
+
+"Not one, unfortunately," replied the major.
+
+"Nevertheless, to satisfy Maston," resumed the president, "I may tell
+him that one of our fellow-citizens may be annexed to the study of the
+celluosity, for collodion, which is one of the principal agents in
+photography, is simply pyroxyle dissolved in ether to which alcohol has
+been added, and it was discovered by Maynard, then a medical student."
+
+"Hurrah for Maynard and fulminating cotton!" cried the noisy secretary
+of the Gun Club.
+
+"I return to pyroxyle," resumed Barbicane. "You are acquainted with its
+properties which make it so precious to us. It is prepared with the
+greatest facility; cotton plunged in smoking nitric acid for fifteen
+minutes, then washed in water, then dried, and that is all."
+
+"Nothing is more simple, certainty," said Morgan.
+
+"What is more, pyroxyle is not damaged by moisture, a precious quality
+in our eyes, as it will take several days to load the cannon. Its
+inflammability takes place at 170 deg. instead of at 240 deg. and its
+deflagration is so immediate that it may be fired on ordinary gunpowder
+before the latter has time to catch fire too."
+
+"Perfect," answered the major.
+
+"Only it will cost more."
+
+"What does that matter?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"Lastly, it communicates to projectiles a speed four times greater than
+that of gunpowder. I may even add that if 8/10ths of its weight of
+nitrate of potash is added its expansive force is still greatly
+augmented."
+
+"Will that be necessary?" asked the major.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "Thus instead of 1,600,000 lbs.
+of powder, we shall only have 400,000 lbs. of fulminating cotton, and as
+we can, without danger, compress 500 lbs. of cotton into 27 cubic feet,
+that quantity will not take up more than 180 feet in the chamber of the
+Columbiad. By these means the projectile will have more than 700 feet of
+chamber to traverse under a force of 6,000,000,000 of litres of gas
+before taking its flight over the Queen of Night."
+
+Here J.T. Maston could not contain his emotion. He threw himself into
+the arms of his friend with the violence of a projectile, and he would
+have been stove in had he not have been bombproof.
+
+This incident ended the first sitting of the committee. Barbicane and
+his enterprising colleagues, to whom nothing seemed impossible, had just
+solved the complex question of the projectile, cannon, and powder. Their
+plan being made, there was nothing left but to put it into execution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS.
+
+
+The American public took great interest in the least details of the Gun
+Club's enterprise. It followed the committee debates day by day. The
+most simple preparations for this great experiment, the questions of
+figures it provoked, the mechanical difficulties to be solved, all
+excited popular opinion to the highest pitch.
+
+More than a year would elapse between the commencement of the work and
+its completion; but the interval would not be void of excitement. The
+place to be chosen for the boring, the casting the metal of the
+Columbiad, its perilous loading, all this was more than necessary to
+excite public curiosity. The projectile, once fired, would be out of
+sight in a few seconds; then what would become of it, how it would
+behave in space, how it would reach the moon, none but a few privileged
+persons would see with their own eyes. Thus, then, the preparations for
+the experiment and the precise details of its execution constituted the
+real source of interest.
+
+In the meantime the purely scientific attraction of the enterprise was
+all at once heightened by an incident.
+
+It is known what numerous legions of admirers and friends the Barbicane
+project had called round its author. But, notwithstanding the number and
+importance of the majority, it was not destined to be unanimous. One
+man, one out of all the United States, protested against the Gun Club.
+He attacked it violently on every occasion, and--for human nature is
+thus constituted--Barbicane was more sensitive to this one man's
+opposition than to the applause of all the others.
+
+Nevertheless he well knew the motive of this antipathy, from whence came
+this solitary enmity, why it was personal and of ancient date; lastly,
+in what rivalry it had taken root.
+
+The president of the Gun Club had never seen this persevering enemy.
+Happily, for the meeting of the two men would certainly have had
+disastrous consequences. This rival was a _savant_ like Barbicane, a
+proud, enterprising, determined, and violent character, a pure Yankee.
+His name was Captain Nicholl. He lived in Philadelphia.
+
+No one is ignorant of the curious struggle which went on during the
+Federal war between the projectile and ironclad vessels, the former
+destined to pierce the latter, the latter determined not to be pierced.
+Thence came a radical transformation in the navies of the two
+continents. Cannon-balls and iron plates struggled for supremacy, the
+former getting larger as the latter got thicker. Ships armed with
+formidable guns went into the fire under shelter of their invulnerable
+armour. The Merrimac, Monitor, ram Tennessee, and Wechhausen shot
+enormous projectiles after having made themselves proof against the
+projectiles of other ships. They did to others what they would not have
+others do to them, an immoral principle upon which the whole art of war
+is based.
+
+Now Barbicane was a great caster of projectiles, and Nicholl was an
+equally great forger of plate-armour. The one cast night and day at
+Baltimore, the other forged day and night at Philadelphia. Each followed
+an essentially different current of ideas.
+
+As soon as Barbicane had invented a new projectile, Nicholl invented a
+new plate armour. The president of the Gun Club passed his life in
+piercing holes, the captain in preventing him doing it. Hence a constant
+rivalry which even touched their persons. Nicholl appeared in
+Barbicane's dreams as an impenetrable ironclad against which he split,
+and Barbicane in Nicholl's dreams appeared like a projectile which
+ripped him up.
+
+Still, although they ran along two diverging lines, these _savants_
+would have ended by meeting each other in spite of all the axioms in
+geometry; but then it would have been on a duel field. Happily for these
+worthy citizens, so useful to their country, a distance of from fifty to
+sixty miles separated them, and their friends put such obstacles in the
+way that they never met.
+
+At present it was not clearly known which of the two inventors held the
+palm. The results obtained rendered a just decision difficult. It
+seemed, however, that in the end armour-plate would have to give way to
+projectiles. Nevertheless, competent men had their doubts. At the latest
+experiments the cylindro-conical shots of Barbicane had no more effect
+than pins upon Nicholl's armour-plate. That day the forger of
+Philadelphia believed himself victorious, and henceforth had nothing but
+disdain for his rival. But when, later on, Barbicane substituted simple
+howitzers of 600 lbs. for conical shots, the captain was obliged to go
+down in his own estimation. It fact, these projectiles, though of
+mediocre velocity, drilled with holes and broke to pieces armour-plate
+of the best metal.
+
+Things had reached this point and victory seemed to rest with the
+projectile, when the war ended the very day that Nicholl terminated a
+new forged armour-plate. It was a masterpiece of its kind. It defied all
+the projectiles in the world. The captain had it taken to the Washington
+Polygon and challenged the president of the Gun Club to pierce it.
+Barbicane, peace having been made, would not attempt the experiment.
+
+Then Nicholl, in a rage, offered to expose his armour-plate to the shock
+of any kind of projectile, solid, hollow, round, or conical.
+
+The president, who was determined not to compromise his last success,
+refused.
+
+Nicholl, excited by this unqualified obstinacy, tried to tempt Barbicane
+by leaving him every advantage. He proposed to put his plate 200 yards
+from the gun. Barbicane still refused. At 100 yards? Not even at 75.
+
+"At 50, then," cried the captain, through the newspapers, "at 25 yards
+from my plate, and I will be behind it."
+
+Barbicane answered that even if Captain Nicholl would be in front of it
+he would not fire any more.
+
+On this reply, Nicholl could no longer contain himself. He had recourse
+to personalities; he insinuated cowardice--that the man who refuses to
+fire a shot from a cannon is very nearly being afraid of it; that, in
+short, the artillerymen who fight now at six miles distance have
+prudently substituted mathematical formulae for individual courage, and
+that there is as much bravery required to quietly wait for a cannon-ball
+behind armour-plate as to send it according to all the rules of science.
+
+To these insinuations Barbicane answered nothing. Perhaps he never knew
+about them, for the calculations of his great enterprise absorbed him
+entirely.
+
+When he made his famous communication to the Gun Club, the anger of
+Captain Nicholl reached its maximum. Mixed with it was supreme jealousy
+and a sentiment of absolute powerlessness. How could he invent anything
+better than a Columbiad 900 feet long? What armour-plate could ever
+resist a projectile of 30,000 lbs.? Nicholl was at first crushed by this
+cannon-ball, then he recovered and resolved to crush the proposition by
+the weight of his best arguments.
+
+He therefore violently attacked the labours of the Gun Club. He sent a
+number of letters to the newspapers, which they did not refuse to
+publish. He tried to demolish Barbicane's work scientifically. Once the
+war begun, he called reasons of every kind to his aid, reasons it must
+be acknowledged often specious and of bad metal.
+
+Firstly, Barbicane was violently attacked about his figures. Nicholl
+tried to prove by A + B the falseness of his formulae, and he accused
+him of being ignorant of the rudimentary principles of ballistics.
+Amongst other errors, and according to Nicholl's own calculations, it
+was impossible to give any body a velocity of 12,000 yards a second. He
+sustained, algebra in hand, that even with that velocity a projectile
+thus heavy would never pass the limits of the terrestrial atmosphere. It
+would not even go eight leagues! Better still. Granted the velocity, and
+taking it as sufficient, the shot would not resist the pressure of the
+gas developed by the combustion of 1,600,000 pounds of powder, and even
+if it did resist that pressure, it at least would not support such a
+temperature; it would melt as it issued from the Columbiad, and would
+fall in red-hot rain on the heads of the imprudent spectators.
+
+Barbicane paid no attention to these attacks, and went on with his work.
+
+Then Nicholl considered the question in its other aspects. Without
+speaking of its uselessness from all other points of view, he looked
+upon the experiment as exceedingly dangerous, both for the citizens who
+authorised so condemnable a spectacle by their presence, and for the
+towns near the deplorable cannon. He also remarked that if the
+projectile did not reach its destination, a result absolutely
+impossible, it was evident that it would fall on to the earth again, and
+that the fall of such a mass multiplied by the square of its velocity
+would singularly damage some point on the globe. Therefore, in such a
+circumstance, and without any restriction being put upon the rights of
+free citizens, it was one of those cases in which the intervention of
+government became necessary, and the safety of all must not be
+endangered for the good pleasure of a single individual.
+
+It will be seen to what exaggeration Captain Nicholl allowed himself to
+be carried. He was alone in his opinion. Nobody took any notice of his
+Cassandra prophecies. They let him exclaim as much as he liked, till his
+throat was sore if he pleased. He had constituted himself the defender
+of a cause lost in advance. He was heard but not listened to, and he did
+not carry off a single admirer from the president of the Gun Club, who
+did not even take the trouble to refute his rival's arguments.
+
+Nicholl, driven into his last intrenchments, and not being able to fight
+for his opinion, resolved to pay for it. He therefore proposed in the
+_Richmond Inquirer_ a series of bets conceived in these terms and in an
+increasing proportion.
+
+He bet that--
+
+1. The funds necessary for the Gun Club's enterprise would not be
+forthcoming, 1,000 dols.
+
+2. That the casting of a cannon of 900 feet was impracticable and would
+not succeed, 2,000 dols.
+
+3. That it would be impossible to load the Columbiad, and that the
+pyroxyle would ignite spontaneously under the weight of the projectile,
+3,000 dols.
+
+4. That the Columbiad would burst at the first discharge, 4,000 dols.
+
+5. That the projectile would not even go six miles, and would fall a few
+seconds after its discharge, 5,000 dols.
+
+It will be seen that the captain was risking an important sum in his
+invincible obstinacy. No less than 15,000 dols. were at stake.
+
+Notwithstanding the importance of the wager, he received on the 19th of
+October a sealed packet of superb laconism, couched in these terms:--
+
+"Baltimore, October 18th.
+
+"Done.
+
+"BARBICANE."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FLORIDA AND TEXAS.
+
+
+There still remained one question to be decided--a place favourable to
+the experiment had to be chosen. According to the recommendation of the
+Cambridge Observatory the gun must be aimed perpendicularly to the plane
+of the horizon--that is to say, towards the zenith. Now the moon only
+appears in the zenith in the places situated between 0 deg. and 28 deg. of
+latitude, or, in other terms, when her declination is only 28 deg.. The
+question was, therefore, to determine the exact point of the globe where
+the immense Columbiad should be cast.
+
+On the 20th of October the Gun Club held a general meeting. Barbicane
+brought a magnificent map of the United States by Z. Belltropp. But
+before he had time to unfold it J.T. Maston rose with his habitual
+vehemence, and began to speak as follows:--
+
+"Honourable colleagues, the question we are to settle to-day is really
+of national importance, and will furnish us with an occasion for doing a
+great act of patriotism."
+
+The members of the Gun Club looked at each other without understanding
+what the orator was coming to.
+
+"Not one of you," he continued, "would think of doing anything to
+lessen the glory of his country, and if there is one right that the
+Union may claim it is that of harbouring in its bosom the formidable
+cannon of the Gun Club. Now, under the present circumstances--"
+
+"Will you allow me--" said Barbicane.
+
+"I demand the free discussion of ideas," replied the impetuous J.T.
+Maston, "and I maintain that the territory from which our glorious
+projectile will rise ought to belong to the Union."
+
+"Certainly," answered several members.
+
+"Well, then, as our frontiers do not stretch far enough, as on the south
+the ocean is our limit, as we must seek beyond the United States and in
+a neighbouring country this 28th parallel, this is all a legitimate
+_casus belli_, and I demand that war should be declared against Mexico!"
+
+"No, no!" was cried from all parts.
+
+"No!" replied J.T. Maston. "I am much astonished at hearing such a word
+in these precincts!"
+
+"But listen--"
+
+"Never! never!" cried the fiery orator. "Sooner or later this war will
+be declared, and I demand that it should be this very day."
+
+"Maston," said Barbicane, making his bell go off with a crash, "I agree
+with you that the experiment cannot and ought not to be made anywhere
+but on the soil of the Union, but if I had been allowed to speak before,
+and you had glanced at this map, you would know that it is perfectly
+useless to declare war against our neighbours, for certain frontiers of
+the United States extend beyond the 28th parallel. Look, we have at our
+disposition all the southern part of Texas and Florida."
+
+This incident had no consequences; still it was not without regret that
+J.T. Maston allowed himself to be convinced. It was, therefore, decided
+that the Columbiad should be cast either on the soil of Texas or on that
+of Florida. But this decision was destined to create an unexampled
+rivalry between the towns of these two states.
+
+The 28th parallel, when it touches the American coast, crosses the
+peninsula of Florida, and divides it into two nearly equal portions.
+Then, plunging into the Gulf of Mexico, it subtends the arc formed by
+the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; then skirting Texas,
+off which it cuts an angle, it continues its direction over Mexico,
+crosses the Sonora and Old California, and loses itself in the Pacific
+Ocean; therefore only the portions of Texas and Florida situated below
+this parallel fulfilled the requisite conditions of latitude recommended
+by the Observatory of Cambridge.
+
+The southern portion of Florida contains no important cities. It only
+bristles with forts raised against wandering Indians. One town only,
+Tampa Town, could put in a claim in favour of its position.
+
+In Texas, on the contrary, towns are more numerous and more important.
+Corpus Christi in the county of Nuaces, and all the cities situated on
+the Rio Bravo, Laredo, Comalites, San Ignacio in Web, Rio Grande city in
+Starr, Edinburgh in Hidalgo, Santa-Rita, El Panda, and Brownsville in
+Cameron, formed a powerful league against the pretensions of Florida.
+
+The decision, therefore, was hardly made public before the Floridan and
+Texican deputies flocked to Baltimore by the shortest way. From that
+moment President Barbicane and the influential members of the Gun Club
+were besieged day and night by formidable claims. If seven towns of
+Greece contended for the honour of being Homer's birthplace, two entire
+states threatened to fight over a cannon.
+
+These rival parties were then seen marching with weapons about the
+streets of the town. Every time they met a fight was imminent, which
+would have had disastrous consequences. Happily the prudence and skill
+of President Barbicane warded off this danger. Personal demonstrations
+found an outlet in the newspapers of the different states. It was thus
+that the _New York Herald_ and the _Tribune_ supported the claims of
+Texas, whilst the _Times_ and the _American Review_ took the part of the
+Floridan deputies. The members of the Gun Club did not know which to
+listen to.
+
+Texas came up proudly with its twenty-six counties, which it seemed to
+put in array; but Florida answered that twelve counties proved more than
+twenty-six in a country six times smaller.
+
+Texas bragged of its 33,000 inhabitants; but Florida, much smaller,
+boasted of being much more densely populated with 56,000. Besides,
+Florida accused Texas of being the home of paludian fevers, which
+carried off, one year with another, several thousands of inhabitants,
+and Florida was not far wrong.
+
+In its turn Texas replied that Florida need not envy its fevers, and
+that it was, at least, imprudent to call other countries unhealthy when
+Florida itself had chronic "vomito negro," and Texas was not far wrong.
+
+"Besides," added the Texicans through the _New York Herald_, "there are
+rights due to a state that grows the best cotton in all America, a state
+which produces holm oak for building ships, a state that contains superb
+coal and mines of iron that yield fifty per cent. of pure ore."
+
+To that the _American Review_ answered that the soil of Florida, though
+not so rich, offered better conditions for the casting of the Columbiad,
+as it was composed of sand and clay-ground.
+
+"But," answered the Texicans, "before anything can be cast in a place,
+it must get to that place; now communication with Florida is difficult,
+whilst the coast of Texas offers Galveston Bay, which is fourteen
+leagues round, and could contain all the fleets in the world."
+
+"Why," replied the newspapers devoted to Florida, "your Galveston Bay is
+situated above the 29th parallel, whilst our bay of Espiritu-Santo opens
+precisely at the 28th degree of latitude, and by it ships go direct to
+Tampa Town."
+
+"A nice bay truly!" answered Texas; "it is half-choked up with sand."
+
+"Any one would think, to hear you talk," cried Florida, "that I was a
+savage country."
+
+"Well, the Seminoles do still wander over your prairies!"
+
+"And what about your Apaches and your Comanches--are they civilised?"
+
+The war had been thus kept up for some days when Florida tried to draw
+her adversary upon another ground, and one morning the _Times_
+insinuated that the enterprise being "essentially American," it ought
+only to be attempted upon an "essentially American" territory.
+
+At these words Texas could not contain itself.
+
+"American!" it cried, "are we not as American as you? Were not Texas and
+Florida both incorporated in the Union in 1845?"
+
+"Certainly," answered the _Times_, "but we have belonged to America
+since 1820."
+
+"Yes," replied the _Tribune_, "after having been Spanish or English for
+200 years, you were sold to the United States for 5,000,000 of dollars!"
+
+"What does that matter?" answered Florida. "Need we blush for that? Was
+not Louisiana bought in 1803 from Napoleon for 16,000,000 of dollars?"
+
+"It is shameful!" then cried the Texican deputies. "A miserable slice of
+land like Florida to dare to compare itself with Texas, which, instead
+of being sold, made itself independent, which drove out the Mexicans on
+the 2nd of March, 1836, which declared itself Federative Republican
+after the victory gained by Samuel Houston on the banks of the San
+Jacinto over the troops of Santa-Anna--a country, in short, which
+voluntarily joined itself to the United States of America!"
+
+"Because it was afraid of the Mexicans!" answered Florida.
+
+"Afraid!" From the day this word, really too cutting, was pronounced,
+the situation became intolerable. An engagement was expected between the
+two parties in the streets of Baltimore. The deputies were obliged to be
+watched.
+
+President Barbicane was half driven wild. Notes, documents, and letters
+full of threats inundated his house. Which course ought he to decide
+upon? In the point of view of fitness of soil, facility of
+communications, and rapidity of transport, the rights of the two states
+were really equal. As to the political personalities, they had nothing
+to do with the question.
+
+Now this hesitation and embarrassment had already lasted some time when
+Barbicane resolved to put an end to it; he called his colleagues
+together, and the solution he proposed to them was a profoundly wise
+one, as will be seen from the following:--
+
+"After due consideration," said he, "of all that has just occurred
+between Florida and Texas, it is evident that the same difficulties will
+again crop up between the towns of the favoured state. The rivalry will
+be changed from state to city, and that is all. Now Texas contains
+eleven towns with the requisite conditions that will dispute the honour
+of the enterprise, and that will create fresh troubles for us, whilst
+Florida has but one; therefore I decide for Tampa Town!"
+
+The Texican deputies were thunderstruck at this decision. It put them
+into a terrible rage, and they sent nominal provocations to different
+members of the Gun Club. There was only one course for the magistrates
+of Baltimore to take, and they took it. They had the steam of a special
+train got up, packed the Texicans into it, whether they would or no, and
+sent them away from the town at a speed of thirty miles an hour.
+
+But they were not carried off too quickly to hurl a last and threatening
+sarcasm at their adversaries.
+
+Making allusion to the width of Florida, a simple peninsula between two
+seas, they pretended it would not resist the shock, and would be blown
+up the first time the cannon was fired.
+
+"Very well! let it be blown up!" answered the Floridans with a laconism
+worthy of ancient times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"URBI ET ORBI."
+
+
+The astronomical, mechanical, and topographical difficulties once
+removed, there remained the question of money. An enormous sum was
+necessary for the execution of the project. No private individual, no
+single state even, could have disposed of the necessary millions.
+
+President Barbicane had resolved--although the enterprise was
+American--to make it a business of universal interest, and to ask every
+nation for its financial co-operation. It was the bounded right and duty
+of all the earth to interfere in the business of the satellite. The
+subscription opened at Baltimore, for this end extended thence to all
+the world--_urbi et orbi_.
+
+This subscription was destined to succeed beyond all hope; yet the money
+was to be given, not lent. The operation was purely disinterested, in
+the literal meaning of the word, and offered no chance of gain.
+
+But the effect of Barbicane's communication had not stopped at the
+frontiers of the United States; it had crossed the Atlantic and Pacific,
+had invaded both Asia and Europe, both Africa and Oceania. The
+observatories of the Union were immediately put into communication with
+the observatories of foreign countries; some--those of Paris, St.
+Petersburg, the Cape, Berlin, Altona, Stockholm, Warsaw, Hamburg, Buda,
+Bologna, Malta, Lisbon, Benares, Madras, and Pekin--sent their
+compliments to the Gun Club; the others prudently awaited the result.
+
+As to the Greenwich Observatory, seconded by the twenty-two astronomical
+establishments of Great Britain, it made short work of it; it boldly
+denied the possibility of success, and took up Captain Nicholl's
+theories. Whilst the different scientific societies promised to send
+deputies to Tampa Town, the Greenwich staff met and contemptuously
+dismissed the Barbicane proposition. This was pure English jealousy and
+nothing else.
+
+Generally speaking, the effect upon the world of science was excellent,
+and from thence it passed to the masses, who, in general, were greatly
+interested in the question, a fact of great importance, seeing those
+masses were to be called upon to subscribe a considerable capital.
+
+On the 8th of October President Barbicane issued a manifesto, full of
+enthusiasm, in which he made appeal to "all persons on the face of the
+earth willing to help." This document, translated into every language,
+had great success.
+
+Subscriptions were opened in the principal towns of the Union with a
+central office at the Baltimore Bank, 9, Baltimore street; then
+subscriptions were opened in the different countries of the two
+continents:--At Vienna, by S.M. de Rothschild; St. Petersburg, Stieglitz
+and Co.; Paris, Credit Mobilier; Stockholm, Tottie and Arfuredson;
+London, N.M. de Rothschild and Son; Turin, Ardouin and Co.; Berlin,
+Mendelssohn; Geneva, Lombard, Odier, and Co.; Constantinople, Ottoman
+Bank; Brussels, J. Lambert; Madrid, Daniel Weisweller; Amsterdam,
+Netherlands Credit Co.; Rome, Torlonia and Co.; Lisbon, Lecesne;
+Copenhagen, Private Bank; Buenos Ayres, Mana Bank; Rio Janeiro, Mana
+Bank; Monte Video, Mana Bank; Valparaiso, Thomas La Chambre and Co.;
+Lima, Thomas La Chambre and Co.; Mexico, Martin Daran and Co.
+
+Three days after President Barbicane's manifesto 400,000 dollars were
+received in the different towns of the Union. With such a sum in hand
+the Gun Club could begin at once.
+
+But a few days later telegrams informed America that foreign
+subscriptions were pouring in rapidly. Certain countries were
+distinguished by their generosity; others let go their money less
+easily. It was a matter of temperament.
+
+However, figures are more eloquent than words, and the following is an
+official statement of the sums paid to the credit of the Gun Club when
+the subscription was closed:--
+
+The contingent of Russia was the enormous sum of 368,733 roubles. This
+need astonish no one who remembers the scientific taste of the Russians
+and the impetus which they have given to astronomical studies, thanks to
+their numerous observatories, the principal of which cost 2,000,000
+roubles.
+
+France began by laughing at the pretensions of the Americans. The moon
+served as an excuse for a thousand stale puns and a score of vaudevilles
+in which bad taste contested the palm with ignorance. But, as the French
+formerly paid after singing, they now paid after laughing, and
+subscribed a sum of 1,258,930 francs. At that price they bought the
+right to joke a little.
+
+Austria, in the midst of her financial difficulties, was sufficiently
+generous. Her part in the public subscription amounted to 216,000
+florins, which were welcome.
+
+Sweden and Norway contributed 52,000 rix-dollars. The figure was small
+considering the country; but it would certainly have been higher if a
+subscription had been opened at Christiania as well as at Stockholm. For
+some reason or other the Norwegians do not like to send their money to
+Norway.
+
+Prussia, by sending 250,000 thalers, testified her approbation of the
+enterprise. Her different observatories contributed an important sum,
+and were amongst the most ardent in encouraging President Barbicane.
+
+Turkey behaved generously, but she was personally interested in the
+business; the moon, in fact, rules the course of her years and her
+Ramadan fast. She could do no less than give 1,372,640 piastres, and she
+gave them with an ardour that betrayed, however, a certain pressure from
+the Government of the Porte.
+
+Belgium distinguished herself amongst all the second order of States by
+a gift of 513,000 francs, about one penny and a fraction for each
+inhabitant.
+
+Holland and her colonies contributed 110,000 florins, only demanding a
+discount of five per cent., as she paid ready money.
+
+Denmark, rather confined for room, gave, notwithstanding, 9,000 ducats,
+proving her love for scientific experiments.
+
+The Germanic Confederation subscribed 34,285 florins; more could not be
+asked from her; besides, she would not have given more.
+
+Although in embarrassed circumstances, Italy found 2,000,000 francs in
+her children's pockets, but by turning them well inside out. If she had
+then possessed Venetia she would have given more, but she did not yet
+possess Venetia.
+
+The Pontifical States thought they could not send less than 7,040 Roman
+crowns, and Portugal pushed her devotion to the extent of 3,000
+cruzades.
+
+Mexico gent the widow's mite, 86 piastres; but empires in course of
+formation are always in rather embarrassed circumstances.
+
+Switzerland sent the modest sum of 257 francs to the American scheme. It
+must be frankly stated that Switzerland only looked upon the practical
+side of the operation; the action of sending a bullet to the moon did
+not seem of a nature sufficient for the establishing of any
+communication with the Queen of Night, so Switzerland thought it
+imprudent to engage capital in an enterprise depending upon such
+uncertain events. After all, Switzerland was, perhaps, right.
+
+As to Spain, she found it impossible to get together more than 110
+reals. She gave as an excuse that she had her railways to finish. The
+truth is that science is not looked upon very favourably in that
+country; it is still a little behindhand. And then certain Spaniards,
+and not the most ignorant either, had no clear conception of the size of
+the projectile compared with that of the moon; they feared it might
+disturb the satellite from her orbit, and make her fall on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe. In that case it was better to have
+nothing to do with it, which they carried out, with that small
+exception.
+
+England alone remained. The contemptuous antipathy with which she
+received Barbicane's proposition is known. The English have but a single
+mind in their 25,000,000 of bodies which Great Britain contains. They
+gave it to be understood that the enterprise of the Gun Club was
+contrary "to the principle of non-intervention," and they did not
+subscribe a single farthing.
+
+At this news the Gun Club contented itself with shrugging its shoulders,
+and returned to its great work. When South America--that is to say,
+Peru, Chili, Brazil, the provinces of La Plata and Columbia--had poured
+into their hands their quota of 300,000 dollars, it found itself
+possessed of a considerable capital of which the following is a
+statement:--
+
+United States subscription, 4,000,000 dollars; foreign subscriptions,
+1,446,675 dollars; total, 5,446,675 dollars.
+
+This was the large sum poured by the public into the coffers of the Gun
+Club.
+
+No one need be surprised at its importance. The work of casting, boring,
+masonry, transport of workmen, and their installation in an almost
+uninhabited country, the construction of furnaces and workshops, the
+manufacturing tools, powder, projectile and incidental expenses would,
+according to the estimates, absorb nearly the whole. Some of the
+cannon-shots fired during the war cost 1,000 dollars each; that of
+President Barbicane, unique in the annals of artillery, might well cost
+5,000 times more.
+
+On the 20th of October a contract was made with the Goldspring
+Manufactory, New York, which during the war had furnished Parrott with
+his best cast-iron guns.
+
+It was stipulated between the contracting parties that the Goldspring
+Manufactory should pledge itself to send to Tampa Town, in South
+Florida, the necessary materials for the casting of the Columbiad.
+
+This operation was to be terminated, at the latest, on the 15th of the
+next October, and the cannon delivered in good condition, under penalty
+of 100 dollars a day forfeit until the moon should again present herself
+under the same conditions--that is to say, during eighteen years and
+eleven days.
+
+The engagement of the workmen, their pay, and the necessary transports
+all to be made by the Goldspring Company.
+
+This contract, made in duplicate, was signed by I. Barbicane, president
+of the Gun Club, and J. Murphison, Manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory, who thus signed on the part of the contracting parties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+STONY HILL.
+
+
+Since the choice made by the members of the Gun Club to the detriment of
+Texas, every one in America--where every one knows how to read--made it
+his business to study the geography of Florida. Never before had the
+booksellers sold so many _Bertram's Travels in Florida_, _Roman's
+Natural History of East and West Florida_, _Williams' Territory of
+Florida_, and _Cleland on the Culture of the Sugar Cane in East
+Florida_. New editions of these works were required. There was quite a
+rage for them.
+
+Barbicane had something better to do than to read; he wished to see with
+his own eyes and choose the site of the Columbiad. Therefore, without
+losing a moment, he put the funds necessary for the construction of a
+telescope at the disposition of the Cambridge Observatory, and made a
+contract with the firm of Breadwill and Co., of Albany, for the making
+of the aluminium projectile; then he left Baltimore accompanied by J.T.
+Maston, Major Elphinstone, and the manager of the Goldspring
+Manufactory.
+
+The next day the four travelling companions reached New Orleans. There
+they embarked on board the _Tampico_, a despatch-boat belonging to the
+Federal Navy, which the Government had placed at their disposal, and,
+with all steam on, they quickly lost sight of the shores of Louisiana.
+
+The passage was not a long one; two days after its departure the
+_Tampico_, having made four hundred and eighty miles, sighted the
+Floridian coast. As it approached, Barbicane saw a low, flat coast,
+looking rather unfertile. After coasting a series of creeks rich in
+oysters and lobsters, the _Tampico_ entered the Bay of Espiritu-Santo.
+
+This bay is divided into two long roadsteads, those of Tampa and
+Hillisboro, the narrow entrance to which the steamer soon cleared. A
+short time afterwards the batteries of Fort Brooke rose above the waves
+and the town of Tampa appeared, carelessly lying on a little natural
+harbour formed by the mouth of the river Hillisboro.
+
+There the _Tampico_ anchored on October 22nd, at seven p.m.; the four
+passengers landed immediately.
+
+Barbicane felt his heart beat violently as he set foot on Floridian
+soil; he seemed to feel it with his feet like an architect trying the
+solidity of a house. J.T. Maston scratched the ground with his steel
+hook.
+
+"Gentlemen," then said Barbicane, "we have no time to lose, and we will
+set off on horseback to-morrow to survey the country."
+
+The minute Barbicane landed the three thousand inhabitants of Tampa Town
+went out to meet him, an honour quite due to the president of the Gun
+Club, who had decided in their favour. They received him with formidable
+exclamations, but Barbicane escaped an ovation by shutting himself up in
+his room at the Franklin Hotel and refusing to see any one.
+
+The next day, October 23rd, small horses of Spanish race, full of fire
+and vigour, pawed the ground under his windows. But, instead of four,
+there were fifty, with their riders. Barbicane went down accompanied by
+his three companions, who were at first astonished to find themselves in
+the midst of such a cavalcade. He remarked besides that each horseman
+carried a carbine slung across his shoulders and pistols in his
+holsters. The reason for such a display of force was immediately given
+him by a young Floridian, who said to him--
+
+"Sir, the Seminoles are there."
+
+"What Seminoles?"
+
+"Savages who frequent the prairies, and we deemed it prudent to give you
+an escort."
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed J.T. Maston as he mounted his steed.
+
+"It is well to be on the safe side," answered the Floridian.
+
+"Gentlemen," replied Barbicane, "I thank you for your attention, and now
+let us be off."
+
+The little troop set out immediately, and disappeared in a cloud of
+dust. It was five a.m.; the sun shone brilliantly already, and the
+thermometer indicated 84 deg., but fresh sea breezes moderated this
+excessive heat.
+
+Barbicane, on leaving Tampa Town, went down south and followed the coast
+to Alifia Creek. This small river falls into Hillisboro Bay, twelve
+miles below Tampa Town. Barbicane and his escort followed its right bank
+going up towards the east. The waves of the bay disappeared behind an
+inequality in the ground, and the Floridian country was alone in sight.
+
+Florida is divided into two parts; the one to the north, more populous
+and less abandoned, has Tallahassee for capital, and Pensacola, one of
+the principal marine arsenals of the United States; the other, lying
+between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, is only a narrow peninsula,
+eaten away by the current of the Gulf Stream--a little tongue of land
+lost amidst a small archipelago, which the numerous vessels of the
+Bahama Channel double continually. It is the advanced sentinel of the
+gulf of great tempests. The superficial area of this state measures
+38,033,267 acres, amongst which one had to be chosen situated beyond the
+28th parallel and suitable for the enterprise. As Barbicane rode along
+he attentively examined the configuration of the ground and its
+particular distribution.
+
+Florida, discovered by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512, on Palm Sunday, was
+first of all named _Pascha Florida_. It was well worthy of that
+designation with its dry and arid coasts. But a few miles from the shore
+the nature of the ground gradually changed, and the country showed
+itself worthy of its name; the soil was cut up by a network of creeks,
+rivers, watercourses, ponds, and small lakes; it might have been
+mistaken for Holland or Guiana; but the ground gradually rose and soon
+showed its cultivated plains, where all the vegetables of the North and
+South grow in perfection, its immense fields, where a tropical sun and
+the water conserved in its clayey texture do all the work of
+cultivating, and lastly its prairies of pineapples, yams, tobacco, rice,
+cotton, and sugarcanes, which extended as far as the eye could reach,
+spreading out their riches with careless prodigality.
+
+Barbicane appeared greatly satisfied on finding the progressive
+elevation of the ground, and when J.T. Maston questioned him on the
+subject,
+
+"My worthy friend," said he, "it is greatly to our interest to cast our
+Columbiad on elevated ground."
+
+"In order to be nearer the moon?" exclaimed the secretary of the Gun
+Club.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, smiling. "What can a few yards more or less
+matter? No, but on elevated ground our work can be accomplished more
+easily; we shall not have to struggle against water, which will save us
+long and expensive tubings, and that has to be taken into consideration
+when a well 900 feet deep has to be sunk."
+
+"You are right," said Murchison, the engineer; "we must, as much as
+possible, avoid watercourses during the casting; but if we meet with
+springs they will not matter much; we can exhaust them with our machines
+or divert them from their course. Here we have not to work at an
+artesian well, narrow and dark, where all the boring implements have to
+work in the dark. No; we can work under the open sky, with spade and
+pickaxe, and, by the help of blasting, our work will not take long."
+
+"Still," resumed Barbicane, "if by the elevation of the ground or its
+nature we can avoid a struggle with subterranean waters, we can do our
+work more rapidly and perfectly; we must, therefore, make our cutting in
+ground situated some thousands of feet above the level of the sea."
+
+"You are right, Mr. Barbicane, and, if I am not mistaken, we shall soon
+find a suitable spot."
+
+"I should like to see the first spadeful turned up," said the president.
+
+"And I the last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"We shall manage it, gentlemen," answered the engineer; "and, believe
+me, the Goldspring Company will not have to pay you any forfeit for
+delay."
+
+"Faith! it had better not," replied J.T. Maston; "a hundred dollars a
+day till the moon presents herself in the same conditions--that is to
+say, for eighteen years and eleven days--do you know that would make
+658,000 dollars?"
+
+"No, sir, we do not know, and we shall not need to learn."
+
+About ten a.m. the little troop had journeyed about twelve miles; to the
+fertile country succeeded a forest region. There were the most varied
+perfumes in tropical profusion. The almost impenetrable forests were
+made up of pomegranates, orange, citron, fig, olive, and apricot trees,
+bananas, huge vines, the blossoms and fruit of which rivalled each other
+in colour and perfume. Under the perfumed shade of these magnificent
+trees sang and fluttered a world of brilliantly-coloured birds, amongst
+which the crab-eater deserved a jewel casket, worthy of its feathered
+gems, for a nest.
+
+J.T. Maston and the major could not pass through such opulent nature
+without admiring its splendid beauty.
+
+But President Barbicane, who thought little of these marvels, was in a
+hurry to hasten onwards; this country, so fertile, displeased him by its
+very fertility; without being otherwise hydropical, he felt water under
+his feet, and sought in vain the signs of incontestable aridity.
+
+In the meantime they journeyed on. They were obliged to ford several
+rivers, and not without danger, for they were infested with alligators
+from fifteen to eighteen feet long. J.T. Maston threatened them boldly
+with his formidable hook, but he only succeeded in frightening the
+pelicans, phaetons, and teals that frequented the banks, while the red
+flamingoes looked on with a stupid stare.
+
+At last these inhabitants of humid countries disappeared in their turn.
+The trees became smaller and more thinly scattered in smaller woods;
+some isolated groups stood amidst immense plains where ranged herds of
+startled deer.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed Barbicane, rising in his stirrups. "Here is the
+region of pines."
+
+"And savages," answered the major.
+
+In fact, a few Seminoles appeared on the horizon. They moved about
+backwards and forwards on their fleet horses, brandishing long lances or
+firing their guns with a dull report. However, they confined themselves
+to these hostile demonstrations, which had no effect on Barbicane and
+his companions.
+
+They were then in the middle of a rocky plain, a vast open space of
+several acres in extent which the sun covered with burning rays. It was
+formed by a wide elevation of the soil, and seemed to offer to the
+members of the Gun Club all the required conditions for the construction
+of their Columbiad.
+
+"Halt!" cried Barbicane, stopping. "Has this place any name?"
+
+"It is called Stony Hill," answered the Floridians.
+
+Barbicane, without saying a word, dismounted, took his instruments, and
+began to fix his position with extreme precision. The little troop drawn
+up around him watched him in profound silence.
+
+At that moment the sun passed the meridian. Barbicane, after an
+interval, rapidly noted the result of his observation, and said--
+
+"This place is situated 1,800 feet above the sea level in lat. 27 deg. 7'
+and West long. 5 deg. 7' by the Washington meridian. It appears to me by its
+barren and rocky nature to offer every condition favourable to our
+enterprise; we will therefore raise our magazines, workshops, furnaces,
+and workmen's huts here, and it is from this very spot," said he,
+stamping upon it with his foot, "the summit of Stony Hill, that our
+projectile will start for the regions of the solar world!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+PICKAXE AND TROWEL.
+
+
+That same evening Barbicane and his companions returned to Tampa Town,
+and Murchison, the engineer, re-embarked on board the _Tampico_ for New
+Orleans. He was to engage an army of workmen to bring back the greater
+part of the working-stock. The members of the Gun Club remained at Tampa
+Town in order to set on foot the preliminary work with the assistance of
+the inhabitants of the country.
+
+Eight days after its departure the _Tampico_ returned to the
+Espiritu-Santo Bay with a fleet of steamboats. Murchison had succeeded
+in getting together 1,500 workmen. In the evil days of slavery he would
+have lost his time and trouble; but since America, the land of liberty,
+has only contained freemen, they flock wherever they can get good pay.
+Now money was not wanting to the Gun Club; it offered a high rate of
+wages with considerable and proportionate perquisites. The workman
+enlisted for Florida could, once the work finished, depend upon a
+capital placed in his name in the bank of Baltimore.
+
+Murchison had therefore only to pick and choose, and could be severe
+about the intelligence and skill of his workmen. He enrolled in his
+working legion the pick of mechanics, stokers, iron-founders,
+lime-burners, miners, brickmakers, and artisans of every sort, white or
+black without distinction of colour. Many of them brought their families
+with them. It was quite an emigration.
+
+On the 31st of October, at 10 a.m., this troop landed on the quays of
+Tampa Town. The movement and activity which reigned in the little town
+that had thus doubled its population in a single day may be imagined. In
+fact, Tampa Town was enormously benefited by this enterprise of the Gun
+Club, not by the number of workmen who were immediately drafted to Stony
+Hill, but by the influx of curious idlers who converged by degrees from
+all points of the globe towards the Floridian peninsula.
+
+During the first few days they were occupied in unloading the flotilla
+of the tools, machines, provisions, and a large number of plate iron
+houses made in pieces separately pieced and numbered. At the same time
+Barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles long that
+was destined to unite Stony Hill and Tampa Town.
+
+It is known how American railways are constructed, with capricious
+bends, bold slopes, steep hills, and deep valleys. They do not cost much
+and are not much in their way, only their trains run off or jump off as
+they please. The railway from Tampa Town to Stony Hill was but a trifle,
+and wanted neither much time nor much money for its construction.
+
+Barbicane was the soul of this army of workmen who had come at his call.
+He animated them, communicated to them his ardour, enthusiasm, and
+conviction. He was everywhere at once, as if endowed with the gift of
+ubiquity, and always followed by J.T. Maston, his bluebottle fly. His
+practical mind invented a thousand things. With him there were no
+obstacles, difficulties, or embarrassment. He was as good a miner,
+mason, and mechanic as he was an artilleryman, having an answer to every
+question, and a solution to every problem. He corresponded actively with
+the Gun Club and the Goldspring Manufactory, and day and night the
+_Tampico_ kept her steam up awaiting his orders in Hillisboro harbour.
+
+Barbicane, on the 1st of November, left Tampa Town with a detachment of
+workmen, and the very next day a small town of workmen's houses rose
+round Stony Hill. They surrounded it with palisades, and from its
+movement and ardour it might soon have been taken for one of the great
+cities of the Union. Life was regulated at once and work began in
+perfect order.
+
+Careful boring had established the nature of the ground, and digging was
+begun on November 4th. That day Barbicane called his foremen together
+and said to them--
+
+"You all know, my friends, why I have called you together in this part
+of Florida. We want to cast a cannon nine feet in diameter, six feet
+thick, and with a stone revetment nineteen and a half feet thick; we
+therefore want a well 60 feet wide and 900 feet deep. This large work
+must be terminated in nine months. You have, therefore, 2,543,400 cubic
+feet of soil to dig out in 255 days--that is to say, 10,000 cubic feet a
+day. That would offer no difficulty if you had plenty of elbow-room, but
+as you will only have a limited space it will be more trouble.
+Nevertheless as the work must be done it will be done, and I depend upon
+your courage as much as upon your skill."
+
+At 8 a.m. the first spadeful was dug out of the Floridian soil, and from
+that moment this useful tool did not stop idle a moment in the hands of
+the miner. The gangs relieved each other every three hours.
+
+Besides, although the work was colossal it did not exceed the limit of
+human capability. Far from that. How many works of much greater
+difficulty, and in which the elements had to be more directly contended
+against, had been brought to a successful termination! Suffice it to
+mention the well of Father Joseph, made near Cairo by the Sultan Saladin
+at an epoch when machines had not yet appeared to increase the strength
+of man a hundredfold, and which goes down to the level of the Nile
+itself at a depth of 300 feet! And that other well dug at Coblentz by
+the Margrave Jean of Baden, 600 feet deep! All that was needed was a
+triple depth and a double width, which made the boring easier. There was
+not one foreman or workman who doubted about the success of the
+operation.
+
+An important decision taken by Murchison and approved of by Barbicane
+accelerated the work. An article in the contract decided that the
+Columbiad should be hooped with wrought-iron--a useless precaution, for
+the cannon could evidently do without hoops. This clause was therefore
+given up. Hence a great economy of time, for they could then employ the
+new system of boring now used for digging wells, by which the masonry is
+done at the same time as the boring. Thanks to this very simple
+operation they were not obliged to prop up the ground; the wall kept it
+up and went down by its own weight.
+
+This manoeuvre was only to begin when the spade should have reached the
+solid part of the ground.
+
+On the 4th of November fifty workmen began to dig in the very centre of
+the inclosure surrounded by palisades--that is to say, the top of Stony
+Hill--a circular hole sixty feet wide.
+
+The spade first turned up a sort of black soil six inches deep, which it
+soon carried away. To this soil succeeded two feet of fine sand, which
+was carefully taken out, as it was to be used for the casting.
+
+After this sand white clay appeared, similar to English chalk, and which
+was four feet thick.
+
+Then the pickaxes rang upon the hard layer, a species of rock formed by
+very dry petrified shells. At that point the hole was six and a half
+feet deep, and the masonry was begun.
+
+At the bottom of that excavation they made an oak wheel, a sort of
+circle strongly bolted and of enormous strength; in its centre a hole
+was pierced the size of the exterior diameter of the Columbiad. It was
+upon this wheel that the foundations of the masonry were placed, the
+hydraulic cement of which joined the stones solidly together. After the
+workmen had bricked up the space from the circumference to the centre,
+they found themselves inclosed in a well twenty-one feet wide.
+
+When this work was ended the miners began again with spade and pickaxe,
+and set upon the rock under the wheel itself, taking care to support it
+on extremely strong tressels; every time the hole was two feet deeper
+they took away the tressels; the wheel gradually sank, taking with it
+its circle of masonry, at the upper layer of which the masons worked
+incessantly, taking care to make vent-holes for the escape of gas during
+the operation of casting.
+
+This kind of work required great skill and constant attention on the
+part of the workmen; more than one digging under the wheel was
+dangerous, and some were even mortally wounded by the splinters of
+stone; but their energy did not slacken for a moment by day nor night;
+by day, when the sun's rays sent the thermometer up to 99 deg. on the
+calcined planes; by night, under the white waves of electric light, the
+noise of the pickaxe on the rock, the blasting and the machines,
+together with the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air, traced a
+circle of terror round Stony Hill, which the herds of buffaloes and the
+detachments of Seminoles never dared to pass.
+
+In the meantime the work regularly advanced; steam-cranes speeded the
+carrying away of the rubbish; of unexpected obstacles there were none;
+all the difficulties had been foreseen and guarded against.
+
+When the first month had gone by the well had attained the depth
+assigned for the time--i.e., 112 feet. In December this depth was
+doubled, and tripled in January. During February the workmen had to
+contend against a sheet of water which sprang from the ground. They were
+obliged to employ powerful pumps and apparatus of compressed air to
+drain it off, so as to close up the orifice from which it issued, just
+as leaks are caulked on board ship. At last they got the better of these
+unwelcome springs, only in consequence of the loosening of the soil the
+wheel partially gave way, and there was a landslip. The frightful force
+of this bricked circle, more than 400 feet high, may be imagined! This
+accident cost the life of several workmen. Three weeks had to be taken
+up in propping the stone revetment and making the wheel solid again.
+But, thanks to the skill of the engineer and the power of the machines,
+it was all set right, and the boring continued.
+
+No fresh incident henceforth stopped the progress of the work, and on
+the 10th of June, twenty days before the expiration of the delay fixed
+by Barbicane, the well, quite bricked round, had reached the depth of
+900 feet. At the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block, thirty
+feet thick, whilst at the top it was on a level with the soil.
+
+President Barbicane and the members of the Gun Club warmly congratulated
+the engineer Murchison; his cyclopean work had been accomplished with
+extraordinary rapidity.
+
+During these eight months Barbicane did not leave Stony Hill for a
+minute; whilst he narrowly watched over the boring operations, he took
+every precaution to insure the health and well-being of his workmen, and
+he was fortunate enough to avoid the epidemics common to large
+agglomerations of men, and so disastrous in those regions of the globe
+exposed to tropical influence.
+
+It is true that several workmen paid with their lives for the
+carelessness engendered by these dangerous occupations; but such
+deplorable misfortunes cannot be avoided, and these are details that
+Americans pay very little attention to. They are more occupied with
+humanity in general than with individuals in particular. However,
+Barbicane professed the contrary principles, and applied them upon every
+occasion. Thanks to his care, to his intelligence and respectful
+intervention in difficult cases, to his prodigious and humane wisdom,
+the average of catastrophes did not exceed that of cities on the other
+side of the Atlantic, amongst others those of France, where they count
+about one accident upon every 200,000 francs of work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING.
+
+
+During the eight months that were employed in the operation of boring
+the preparatory works of the casting had been conducted simultaneously
+with extreme rapidity; a stranger arriving at Stony Hill would have been
+much surprised at what he saw there.
+
+Six hundred yards from the well, and standing in a circle round it as a
+central point, were 1,200 furnaces, each six feet wide and three yards
+apart. The line made by these 1,200 furnaces was two miles long. They
+were all built on the same model, with high quadrangular chimneys, and
+had a singular effect. J.T. Maston thought the architectural arrangement
+superb. It reminded him of the monuments at Washington. He thought there
+was nothing finer in the world, not even in Greece, where he
+acknowledged never to have been.
+
+It will be remembered that at their third meeting the committee decided
+to use cast-iron for the Columbiad, and in particular the grey
+description. This metal is, in fact, the most tenacious, ductile, and
+malleable, suitable for all moulding operations, and when smelted with
+pit coal it is of superior quality for engine-cylinders, hydraulic
+presses, &c.
+
+But cast-iron, if it has undergone a single fusion, is rarely
+homogeneous enough; and it is by means of a second fusion that it is
+purified, refined, and dispossessed of its last earthly deposits.
+
+Before being forwarded to Tampa Town, the iron ore, smelted in the great
+furnaces of Goldspring, and put in contact with coal and silicium heated
+to a high temperature, was transformed into cast-iron. After this first
+operation the metal was taken to Stony Hill. But there were 136 millions
+of pounds of cast-iron, a bulk too expensive to be sent by railway; the
+price of transport would have doubled that of the raw material. It
+appeared preferable to freight vessels at New York and to load them with
+the iron in bars; no less than sixty-eight vessels of 1,000 tons were
+required, quite a fleet, which on May 3rd left New York, took the Ocean
+route, coasted the American shores, entered the Bahama Channel, doubled
+the point of Florida, and on the 10th of the same month entered the Bay
+of Espiritu-Santo and anchored safely in the port of Tampa Town. There
+the vessels were unloaded and their cargo carried by railway to Stony
+Hill, and about the middle of January the enormous mass of metal was
+delivered at its destination.
+
+It will easily be understood that 1,200 furnaces were not too many to
+melt these 60,000 tons of iron simultaneously. Each of these furnaces
+contained about 1,400,000 lbs. of metal; they had been built on the
+model of those used for the casting of the Rodman gun; they were
+trapezoidal in form, with a high elliptical arch. The warming apparatus
+and the chimney were placed at the two extremities of the furnace, so
+that it was equally heated throughout. These furnaces, built of
+fireproof brick, were filled with coal-grates and a "sole" for the bars
+of iron; this sole, inclosed at an angle of 25 deg., allowed the metal to
+flow into the receiving-troughs; from thence 1,200 converging trenches
+carried it down to the central well.
+
+The day following that upon which the works of masonry and casting were
+terminated, Barbicane set to work upon the interior mould; his object
+now was to raise in the centre of the well, with a coincident axis, a
+cylinder 900 feet high and nine in diameter, to exactly fill up the
+space reserved for the bore of the Columbiad. This cylinder was made of
+a mixture of clay and sand, with the addition of hay and straw. The
+space left between the mould and the masonry was to be filled with the
+molten metal, which would thus make the sides of the cannon six feet
+thick.
+
+This cylinder, in order to have its equilibrium maintained, had to be
+consolidated with iron bands and fixed at intervals by means of
+cross-clamps fastened into the stone lining; after the casting these
+clamps would be lost in the block of metal, which would not be the worse
+for them.
+
+This operation was completed on the 8th of July, and the casting was
+fixed for the 10th.
+
+"The casting will be a fine ceremony," said J.T. Maston to his friend
+Barbicane.
+
+"Undoubtedly," answered Barbicane, "but it will not be a public one!"
+
+"What! you will not open the doors of the inclosure to all comers?"
+
+"Certainly not; the casting of the Columbiad is a delicate, not to say a
+dangerous, operation, and I prefer that it should be done with closed
+doors. When the projectile is discharged you may have a public ceremony
+if you like, but till then, no!"
+
+The president was right; the operation might be attended with unforeseen
+danger, which a large concourse of spectators would prevent being
+averted. It was necessary to preserve complete freedom of movement. No
+one was admitted into the inclosure except a delegation of members of
+the Gun Club who made the voyage to Tampa Town. Among them was the brisk
+Bilsby, Tom Hunter, Colonel Blomsberry, Major Elphinstone, General
+Morgan, and _tutti quanti_, to whom the casting of the Columbiad was a
+personal business. J.T. Maston constituted himself their cicerone; he
+did not excuse them any detail; he led them about everywhere, through
+the magazines, workshops, amongst the machines, and he forced them to
+visit the 1,200 furnaces one after the other. At the end of the 1,200th
+visit they were rather sick of it.
+
+The casting was to take place precisely at twelve o'clock; the evening
+before each furnace had been charged with 114,000 lbs. of metal in bars
+disposed crossway to each other so that the warm air could circulate
+freely amongst them. Since early morning the 1,200 chimneys had been
+pouring forth volumes of flames into the atmosphere, and the soil was
+shaken convulsively. There were as many pounds of coal to be burnt as
+metal to be melted. There were, therefore, 68,000 tons of coal throwing
+up before the sun a thick curtain of black smoke.
+
+The heat soon became unbearable in the circle of furnaces, the rambling
+of which resembled the rolling of thunder; powerful bellows added their
+continuous blasts, and saturated the incandescent furnaces with oxygen.
+
+The operation of casting in order to succeed must be done rapidly. At a
+signal given by a cannon-shot each furnace was to pour out the liquid
+iron and to be entirely emptied.
+
+These arrangements made, foremen and workmen awaited the preconcerted
+moment with impatience mixed with emotion. There was no longer any one
+in the inclosure, and each superintendent took his place near the
+aperture of the run.
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues, installed on a neighbouring eminence,
+assisted at the operation. Before them a cannon was planted ready to be
+fired as a sign from the engineer.
+
+A few minutes before twelve the first drops of metal began to run; the
+reservoirs were gradually filled, and when the iron was all in a liquid
+state it was left quiet for some instants in order to facilitate the
+separation of foreign substances.
+
+Twelve o'clock struck. The cannon was suddenly fired, and shot its flame
+into the air. Twelve hundred tapping-holes were opened simultaneously,
+and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept along twelve hundred troughs
+towards the central well, rolling in rings of fire. There they plunged
+with terrific noise down a depth of 900 feet. It was an exciting and
+magnificent spectacle. The ground trembled, whilst these waves of iron,
+throwing into the sky their clouds of smoke, evaporated at the same time
+the humidity of the mould, and hurled it upwards through the vent-holes
+of the masonry in the form of impenetrable vapour. These artificial
+clouds unrolled their thick spirals as they went up to a height of 3,000
+feet into the air. Any Red Indian wandering upon the limits of the
+horizon might have believed in the formation of a new crater in the
+heart of Florida, and yet it was neither an irruption, nor a typhoon,
+nor a storm, nor a struggle of the elements, nor one of those terrible
+phenomena which Nature is capable of producing. No; man alone had
+produced those reddish vapours, those gigantic flames worthy of a
+volcano, those tremendous vibrations like the shock of an earthquake,
+those reverberations, rivals of hurricanes and storms, and it was his
+hand which hurled into an abyss, dug by himself, a whole Niagara of
+molten metal!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE COLUMBIAD.
+
+
+Had the operation of casting succeeded? People were reduced to mere
+conjecture. However, there was every reason to believe in its success,
+as the mould had absorbed the entire mass of metal liquefied in the
+furnaces. Still it was necessarily a long time impossible to be certain.
+
+In fact, when Major Rodman cast his cannon of 160,000 lbs., it took no
+less than a fortnight to cool. How long, therefore, would the monstrous
+Columbiad, crowned with its clouds of vapour, and guarded by its intense
+heat, be kept from the eyes of its admirers? It was difficult to
+estimate.
+
+The impatience of the members of the Gun Club was put to a rude test
+during this lapse of time. But it could not be helped. J.T. Maston was
+nearly roasted through his anxiety. A fortnight after the casting an
+immense column of smoke was still soaring towards the sky, and the
+ground burnt the soles of the feet within a radius of 200 feet round the
+summit of Stony Hill.
+
+The days went by; weeks followed them. There were no means of cooling
+the immense cylinder. It was impossible to approach it. The members of
+the Gun Club were obliged to wait with what patience they could muster.
+
+"Here we are at the 10th of August," said J.T. Maston one morning. "It
+wants hardly four months to the 1st of December! There still remains the
+interior mould to be taken out, and the Columbiad to be loaded! We never
+shall be ready! One cannot even approach the cannon! Will it never get
+cool? That would be a cruel deception!"
+
+They tried to calm the impatient secretary without succeeding. Barbicane
+said nothing, but his silence covered serious irritation. To see himself
+stopped by an obstacle that time alone could remove--time, an enemy to
+be feared under the circumstances--and to be in the power of an enemy
+was hard for men of war.
+
+However, daily observations showed a certain change in the state of the
+ground. Towards the 15th of August the vapour thrown off had notably
+diminished in intensity and thickness. A few days after the earth only
+exhaled a slight puff of smoke, the last breath of the monster shut up
+in its stone tomb. By degrees the vibrations of the ground ceased, and
+the circle of heat contracted; the most impatient of the spectators
+approached; one day they gained ten feet, the next twenty, and on the
+22nd of August Barbicane, his colleagues, and the engineer could take
+their place on the cast-iron surface which covered the summit of Stony
+Hill, certainly a very healthy spot, where it was not yet allowed to
+have cold feet.
+
+"At last!" cried the president of the Gun Club with an immense sigh of
+satisfaction.
+
+The works were resumed the same day. The extraction of the interior
+mould was immediately proceeded with in order to clear out the bore;
+pickaxes, spades, and boring-tools were set to work without
+intermission; the clay and sand had become exceedingly hard under the
+action of the heat; but by the help of machines they cleared away the
+mixture still burning at its contact with the iron; the rubbish was
+rapidly carted away on the railway, and the work was done with such
+spirit, Barbicane's intervention was so urgent, and his arguments,
+presented under the form of dollars, carried so much conviction, that on
+the 3rd of September all trace of the mould had disappeared.
+
+The operation of boring was immediately begun; the boring-machines were
+set up without delay, and a few weeks later the interior surface of the
+immense tube was perfectly cylindrical, and the bore had acquired a high
+polish.
+
+At last, on the 22nd of September, less than a year after the Barbicane
+communication, the enormous weapon, raised by means of delicate
+instruments, and quite vertical, was ready for use. There was nothing
+but the moon to wait for, but they were sure she would not fail.
+
+J.T. Maston's joy knew no bounds, and he nearly had a frightful fall
+whilst looking down the tube of 900 feet. Without Colonel Blomsberry's
+right arm, which he had happily preserved, the secretary of the Gun
+Club, like a modern Erostatus, would have found a grave in the depths of
+the Columbiad.
+
+The cannon was then finished; there was no longer any possible doubt as
+to its perfect execution; so on the 6th of October Captain Nicholl
+cleared off his debt to President Barbicane, who inscribed in his
+receipt-column a sum of 2,000 dollars. It may be believed that the
+captain's anger reached its highest pitch, and cost him an illness.
+Still there were yet three bets of 3,000, 4,000, and 5,000 dollars, and
+if he only gained 2,000, his bargain would not be a bad one, though not
+excellent. But money did not enter into his calculations, and the
+success obtained by his rival in the casting of a cannon against which
+iron plates sixty feet thick would not have resisted was a terrible blow
+to him.
+
+Since the 23rd of September the inclosure on Stony Hill had been quite
+open to the public, and the concourse of visitors will be readily
+imagined.
+
+In fact, innumerable people from all points of the United States flocked
+to Florida. The town of Tampa was prodigiously increased during that
+year, consecrated entirely to the works of the Gun Club; it then
+comprised a population of 150,000 souls. After having surrounded Fort
+Brooke in a network of streets it was now being lengthened out on that
+tongue of land which separated the two harbours of Espiritu-Santo Bay;
+new quarters, new squares, and a whole forest of houses had grown up in
+these formerly-deserted regions under the heat of the American sun.
+Companies were formed for the erection of churches, schools, private
+dwellings, and in less than a year the size of the town was increased
+tenfold.
+
+It is well known that Yankees are born business men; everywhere that
+destiny takes them, from the glacial to the torrid zone, their instinct
+for business is usefully exercised. That is why simple visitors to
+Florida for the sole purpose of following the operations of the Gun Club
+allowed themselves to be involved in commercial operations as soon as
+they were installed in Tampa Town. The vessels freighted for the
+transport of the metal and the workmen had given unparalleled activity
+to the port. Soon other vessels of every form and tonnage, freighted
+with provisions and merchandise, ploughed the bay and the two harbours;
+vast offices of shipbrokers and merchants were established in the town,
+and the _Shipping Gazette_ each day published fresh arrivals in the port
+of Tampa.
+
+Whilst roads were multiplied round the town, in consequence of the
+prodigious increase in its population and commerce, it was joined by
+railway to the Southern States of the Union. One line of rails connected
+La Mobile to Pensacola, the great southern maritime arsenal; thence from
+that important point it ran to Tallahassee. There already existed there
+a short line, twenty-one miles long, to Saint Marks on the seashore. It
+was this loop-line that was prolonged as far as Tampa Town, awakening in
+its passage the dead or sleeping portions of Central Florida. Thus
+Tampa, thanks to these marvels of industry due to the idea born one line
+day in the brain of one man, could take as its right the airs of a large
+town. They surnamed it "Moon-City," and the capital of Florida suffered
+an eclipse visible from all points of the globe.
+
+Every one will now understand why the rivalry was so great between Texas
+and Florida, and the irritation of the Texicans when they saw their
+pretensions set aside by the Gun Club. In their long-sighted sagacity
+they had foreseen what a country might gain from the experiment
+attempted by Barbicane, and the wealth that would accompany such a
+cannon-shot. Texas lost a vast centre of commerce, railways, and a
+considerable increase of population. All these advantages had been given
+to that miserable Floridian peninsula, thrown like a pier between the
+waves of the Gulf and those of the Atlantic Ocean. Barbicane, therefore,
+divided with General Santa-Anna the Texan antipathy.
+
+However, though given up to its commercial and industrial fury, the new
+population of Tampa Town took care not to forget the interesting
+operations of the Gun Club. On the contrary, the least details of the
+enterprise, every blow of the pickaxe, interested them. There was an
+incessant flow of people to and from Tampa Town to Stony Hill--a perfect
+procession, or, better still, a pilgrimage.
+
+It was already easy to foresee that the day of the experiment the
+concourse of spectators would be counted by millions, for they came
+already from all points of the earth to the narrow peninsula. Europe was
+emigrating to America.
+
+But until then, it must be acknowledged, the curiosity of the numerous
+arrivals had only been moderately satisfied. Many counted upon seeing
+the casting who only saw the smoke from it. This was not much for hungry
+eyes, but Barbicane would allow no one to see that operation. Thereupon
+ensued grumbling, discontent, and murmurs; they blamed the president for
+what they considered dictatorial conduct. His act was stigmatised as
+"un-American." There was nearly a riot round Stony Hill, but Barbicane
+was not to be moved. When, however, the Columbiad was quite finished,
+this state of closed doors could no longer be kept up; besides, it would
+have been in bad taste, and even imprudent, to offend public opinion.
+Barbicane, therefore, opened the inclosure to all comers; but, in
+accordance with his practical character, he determined to coin money out
+of the public curiosity.
+
+It was, indeed, something to even be allowed to see this immense
+Columbiad, but to descend into its depths seemed to the Americans the
+_ne plus ultra_ of earthly felicity. In consequence there was not one
+visitor who was not willing to give himself the pleasure of visiting the
+interior of this metallic abyss. Baskets hung from steam-cranes allowed
+them to satisfy their curiosity. It became a perfect mania. Women,
+children, and old men all made it their business to penetrate the
+mysteries of the colossal gun. The price for the descent was fixed at
+five dollars a head, and, notwithstanding this high charge, during the
+two months that preceded the experiment, the influx of visitors allowed
+the Gun Club to pocket nearly 500,000 dollars!
+
+It need hardly be said that the first visitors to the Columbiad were the
+members of the Gun Club. This privilege was justly accorded to that
+illustrious body. The ceremony of reception took place on the 25th of
+September. A basket of honour took down the president, J.T. Maston,
+Major Elphinstone, General Morgan, Colonel Blomsberry, and other members
+of the Gun Club, ten in all. How hot they were at the bottom of that
+long metal tube! They were nearly stifled, but how delightful--how
+exquisite! A table had been laid for ten on the massive stone which
+formed the bottom of the Columbiad, and was lighted by a jet of electric
+light as bright as day itself. Numerous exquisite dishes, that seemed to
+descend from heaven, were successively placed before the guests, and the
+richest wines of France flowed profusely during this splendid repast,
+given 900 feet below the surface of the earth!
+
+The festival was a gay, not to say a noisy one. Toasts were given and
+replied to. They drank to the earth and her satellite, to the Gun Club,
+the Union, the Moon, Diana, Phoebe, Selene, "the peaceful courier of the
+night." All the hurrahs, carried up by the sonorous waves of the immense
+acoustic tube, reached its mouth with a noise of thunder; then the
+multitude round Stony Hill heartily united their shouts to those of the
+ten revellers hidden from sight in the depths of the gigantic Columbiad.
+
+J.T. Maston could contain himself no longer. Whether he shouted or ate,
+gesticulated or talked most would be difficult to determine. Any way he
+would not have given up his place for an empire, "not even if the
+cannon--loaded, primed, and fired at that very moment--were to blow him
+in pieces into the planetary universe."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A TELEGRAM.
+
+
+The great work undertaken by the Gun Club was now virtually ended, and
+yet two months would still elapse before the day the projectile would
+start for the moon. These two months would seem as long as two years to
+the universal impatience. Until then the smallest details of each
+operation had appeared in the newspapers every day, and were eagerly
+devoured by the public, but now it was to be feared that this "interest
+dividend" would be much diminished, and every one was afraid of no
+longer receiving his daily share of emotions.
+
+They were all agreeably disappointed: the most unexpected,
+extraordinary, incredible, and improbable incident happened in time to
+keep up the general excitement to its highest pitch.
+
+On September 30th, at 3.47 p.m., a telegram, transmitted through the
+Atlantic Cable, arrived at Tampa Town for President Barbicane.
+
+He tore open the envelope and read the message, and, notwithstanding his
+great self-control, his lips grew pale and his eyes dim as he read the
+telegram.
+
+The following is the text of the message stored in the archives of the
+Gun Club:--
+
+"France, Paris,
+
+"September 30th, 4 a.m.
+
+"Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States.
+
+"Substitute a cylindro-conical projectile for your spherical shell.
+Shall go inside. Shall arrive by steamer _Atlanta_.
+
+"MICHEL ARDAN."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA.
+
+
+If this wonderful news, instead of coming by telegraph, had simply
+arrived by post and in a sealed envelope--if the French, Irish,
+Newfoundland, and American telegraph clerks had not necessarily been
+acquainted with it--Barbicane would not have hesitated for a moment. He
+would have been quite silent about it for prudence' sake, and in order
+not to throw discredit on his work. This telegram might be a practical
+joke, especially as it came from a Frenchman. What probability could
+there be that any man should conceive the idea of such a journey? And if
+the man did exist was he not a madman who would have to be inclosed in a
+strait-waistcoat instead of in a cannon-ball?
+
+But the message was known, and Michel Ardan's proposition was already
+all over the States of the Union, so Barbicane had no reason for
+silence. He therefore called together his colleagues then in Tampa Town,
+and, without showing what he thought about it or saying a word about the
+degree of credibility the telegram deserved, he read coldly the laconic
+text.
+
+"Not possible!"--"Unheard of!"--"They are laughing at
+us!"--"Ridiculous!"--"Absurd!" Every sort of expression for doubt,
+incredulity, and folly was heard for some minutes with accompaniment of
+appropriate gestures. J.T. Maston alone uttered the words:--
+
+"That's an idea!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes," answered the major, "but if people have such ideas as that they
+ought not to think of putting them into execution."
+
+"Why not?" quickly answered the secretary of the Gun Club, ready for an
+argument. But the subject was let drop.
+
+In the meantime Michel Ardan's name was already going about Tampa Town.
+Strangers and natives talked and joked together, not about the
+European--evidently a mythical personage--but about J.T. Maston, who had
+the folly to believe in his existence. When Barbicane proposed to send a
+projectile to the moon every one thought the enterprise natural and
+practicable--a simple affair of ballistics. But that a reasonable being
+should offer to go the journey inside the projectile was a farce, or, to
+use a familiar Americanism, it was all "humbug."
+
+This laughter lasted till evening throughout the Union, an unusual thing
+in a country where any impossible enterprise finds adepts and partisans.
+
+Still Michel Ardan's proposition did not fail to awaken a certain
+emotion in many minds. "They had not thought of such a thing." How many
+things denied one day had become realities the next! Why should not this
+journey be accomplished one day or another? But, any way, the man who
+would run such a risk must be a madman, and certainly, as his project
+could not be taken seriously, he would have done better to be quiet
+about it, instead of troubling a whole population with such ridiculous
+trash.
+
+But, first of all, did this personage really exist? That was the great
+question. The name of "Michel Ardan" was not altogether unknown in
+America. It belonged to a European much talked about for his audacious
+enterprises. Then the telegram sent all across the depths of the
+Atlantic, the designation of the ship upon which the Frenchman had
+declared he had taken his passage, the date assigned for his
+arrival--all these circumstances gave to the proposition a certain air
+of probability. They were obliged to disburden their minds about it.
+Soon these isolated individuals formed into groups, the groups became
+condensed under the action of curiosity like atoms by virtue of
+molecular attraction, and the result was a compact crowd going towards
+President Barbicane's dwelling.
+
+The president, since the arrival of the message, had not said what he
+thought about it; he had let J.T. Maston express his opinions without
+manifesting either approbation or blame. He kept quiet, proposing to
+await events, but he had not taken public impatience into consideration,
+and was not very pleased at the sight of the population of Tampa Town
+assembled under his windows. Murmurs, cries, and vociferations soon
+forced him to appear. It will be seen that he had all the disagreeables
+as well as the duties of a public man.
+
+He therefore appeared; silence was made, and a citizen asked him the
+following question:--"Is the person designated in the telegram as Michel
+Ardan on his way to America or not?"
+
+"Gentlemen," answered Barbicane, "I know no more than you."
+
+"We must get to know," exclaimed some impatient voices.
+
+"Time will inform us," answered the president coldly.
+
+"Time has no right to keep a whole country in suspense," answered the
+orator. "Have you altered your plans for the projectile as the telegram
+demanded?"
+
+"Not yet, gentlemen; but you are right, we must have recourse to the
+telegraph that has caused all this emotion."
+
+"To the telegraph-office!" cried the crowd.
+
+Barbicane descended into the street, and, heading the immense
+assemblage, he went towards the telegraph-office.
+
+A few minutes afterwards a telegram was on its way to the underwriters
+at Liverpool, asking for an answer to the following questions:--
+
+"What sort of vessel is the _Atlanta_? When did she leave Europe? Had
+she a Frenchman named Michel Ardan on board?"
+
+Two hours afterwards Barbicane received such precise information that
+doubt was no longer possible.
+
+"The steamer _Atlanta_, from Liverpool, set sail on October 2nd for
+Tampa Town, having on board a Frenchman inscribed in the passengers'
+book as Michel Ardan."
+
+At this confirmation of the first telegram the eyes of the president
+were lighted up with a sudden flame; he clenched his hands, and was
+heard to mutter--
+
+"It is true, then! It is possible, then! the Frenchman does exist! and
+in a fortnight he will be here! But he is a madman! I never can
+consent."
+
+And yet the very same evening he wrote to the firm of Breadwill and Co.
+begging them to suspend the casting of the projectile until fresh
+orders.
+
+Now how can the emotion be described which took possession of the whole
+of America? The effect of the Barbicane proposition was surpassed
+tenfold; what the newspapers of the Union said, the way they accepted
+the news, and how they chanted the arrival of this hero from the old
+continent; how to depict the feverish agitation in which every one
+lived, counting the hours, minutes, and seconds; how to give even a
+feeble idea of the effect of one idea upon so many heads; how to show
+every occupation being given up for a single preoccupation, work
+stopped, commerce suspended, vessels, ready to start, waiting in the
+ports so as not to miss the arrival of the _Atlanta_, every species of
+conveyance arriving full and returning empty, the bay of Espiritu-Santo
+incessantly ploughed by steamers, packet-boats, pleasure-yachts, and
+fly-boats of all dimensions; how to denominate in numbers the thousands
+of curious people who in a fortnight increased the population of Tampa
+Town fourfold, and were obliged to encamp under tents like an army in
+campaign--all this is a task above human force, and could not be
+undertaken without rashness.
+
+At 9 a.m. on the 20th of October the semaphores of the Bahama Channel
+signalled thick smoke on the horizon. Two hours later a large steamer
+exchanged signals with them. The name _Atlanta_ was immediately sent to
+Tampa Town. At 4 p.m. the English vessel entered the bay of
+Espiritu-Santo. At 5 p.m. she passed the entrance to Hillisboro Harbour,
+and at 6 p.m. weighed anchor in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+The anchor had not reached its sandy bed before 500 vessels surrounded
+the _Atlanta_ and the steamer was taken by assault. Barbicane was the
+first on deck, and in a voice the emotion of which he tried in vain to
+suppress--
+
+"Michel Ardan!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Present!" answered an individual mounted on the poop.
+
+Barbicane, with his arms crossed, questioning eyes, and silent mouth,
+looked fixedly at the passenger of the _Atlanta_.
+
+He was a man forty-two years of age, tall, but already rather stooping,
+like caryatides which support balconies on their shoulders. His large
+head shook every now and then a shock of red hair like a lion's mane; a
+short face, wide forehead, a moustache bristling like a cat's whiskers,
+and little bunches of yellow hair on the middle of his cheeks, round and
+rather wild-looking, short-sighted eyes completed this eminently feline
+physiognomy. But the nose was boldly cut, the mouth particularly humane,
+the forehead high, intelligent, and ploughed like a field that was never
+allowed to remain fallow. Lastly, a muscular body well poised on long
+limbs, muscular arms, powerful and well-set levers, and a decided gait
+made a solidly built fellow of this European, "rather wrought than
+cast," to borrow one of his expressions from metallurgic art.
+
+The disciples of Lavater or Gratiolet would have easily deciphered in
+the cranium and physiognomy of this personage indisputable signs of
+combativity--that is to say, of courage in danger and tendency to
+overcome obstacles, those of benevolence, and a belief in the
+marvellous, an instinct that makes many natures dwell much on superhuman
+things; but, on the other hand, the bumps of acquisivity, the need of
+possessing and acquiring, were absolutely wanting.
+
+To put the finishing touches to the physical type of the passenger of
+the _Atlanta_, his garments wide, loose, and flowing, open cravat, wide
+collar, and cuffs always unbuttoned, through which came nervous hands.
+People felt that even in the midst of winter and dangers that man was
+never cold.
+
+On the deck of the steamer, amongst the crowd, he bustled about, never
+still for a moment, "dragging his anchors," in nautical speech,
+gesticulating, making friends with everybody, and biting his nails
+nervously. He was one of those original beings whom the Creator invents
+in a moment of fantasy, and of whom He immediately breaks the cast.
+
+In fact, the character of Michel Ardan offered a large field for
+physiological analysis. This astonishing man lived in a perpetual
+disposition to hyperbole, and had not yet passed the age of
+superlatives; objects depicted themselves on the retina of his eye with
+exaggerated dimensions; from thence an association of gigantic ideas; he
+saw everything on a large scale except difficulties and men.
+
+He was besides of a luxuriant nature, an artist by instinct, and witty
+fellow; he loved arguments _ad hominem_, and defended the weak side
+tooth and nail.
+
+Amongst other peculiarities he gave himself out as "sublimely ignorant,"
+like Shakspeare, and professed supreme contempt for all _savants_,
+"people," said he, "who only score our points." He was, in short, a
+Bohemian of the country of brains, adventurous but not an adventurer, a
+harebrained fellow, a Phaeton running away with the horses of the sun, a
+kind of Icarus with relays of wings. He had a wonderful facility for
+getting into scrapes, and an equally wonderful facility for getting out
+of them again, falling on his feet like a cat.
+
+In short, his motto was, "Whatever it may cost!" and the love of the
+impossible his "ruling passion," according to Pope's fine expression.
+
+But this enterprising fellow had the defects of his qualities. Who risks
+nothing wins nothing, it is said. Ardan often risked much and got
+nothing. He was perfectly disinterested and chivalric; he would not have
+signed the death-warrant of his worst enemy, and would have sold himself
+into slavery to redeem a negro.
+
+In France and Europe everybody knew this brilliant, bustling person. Did
+he not get talked of ceaselessly by the hundred voices of Fame, hoarse
+in his service? Did he not live in a glass house, taking the entire
+universe as confidant of his most intimate secrets? But he also
+possessed an admirable collection of enemies amongst those he had cuffed
+and wounded whilst using his elbows to make a passage in the crowd.
+
+Still he was generally liked and treated like a spoiled child. Every one
+was interested in his bold enterprises, and followed them with uneasy
+mind. He was known to be so imprudent! When some friend wished to stop
+him by predicting an approaching catastrophe, "The forest is only burnt
+by its own trees," he answered with an amiable smile, not knowing that
+he was quoting the prettiest of Arabian proverbs.
+
+Such was the passenger of the _Atlanta_, always in a bustle, always
+boiling under the action of inward fire, always moved, not by what he
+had come to do in America--he did not even think about it--but on
+account of his feverish organisation. If ever individuals offered a
+striking contrast they were the Frenchman Michel Ardan and the Yankee
+Barbicane, both, however, enterprising, bold, and audacious, each in his
+own way.
+
+Barbicane's contemplation of his rival was quickly interrupted by the
+cheers of the crowd. These cries became even so frantic and the
+enthusiasm took such a personal form that Michel Ardan, after having
+shaken a thousand hands in which he nearly left his ten fingers, was
+obliged to take refuge in his cabin.
+
+Barbicane followed him without having uttered a word.
+
+"You are Barbicane?" Michel Ardan asked him as soon as they were alone,
+and in the same tone as he would have spoken to a friend of twenty
+years' standing.
+
+"Yes," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"Well, good morning, Barbicane. How are you? Very well? That's right!
+that's right!"
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, without further preliminary, "you have decided
+to go?"
+
+"Quite decided."
+
+"Nothing will stop you?"
+
+"Nothing. Have you altered your projectile as I told you in my message?"
+
+"I waited till you came. But," asked Barbicane, insisting once more,
+"you have quite reflected?"
+
+"Reflected! have I any time to lose? I find the occasion to go for a
+trip to the moon, I profit by it, and that is all. It seems to me that
+does not want so much reflection."
+
+Barbicane looked eagerly at the man who spoke of his project of journey
+with so much carelessness, and with such absence of anxiety.
+
+"But at least," he said, "you have some plan, some means of execution?"
+
+"Excellent means. But allow me to tell you one thing. I like to say my
+say once and for all, and to everybody, and to hear no more about it.
+Then, unless you can think of something better, call together your
+friends, your colleagues, all the town, all Florida, all America if you
+like, and to-morrow I shall be ready to state my means of execution, and
+answer any objections, whatever they may be. Will that do?"
+
+"Yes, that will do," answered Barbicane.
+
+Whereupon the president left the cabin, and told the crowd about Michel
+Ardan's proposition. His words were received with great demonstrations
+of joy. That cut short all difficulties. The next day every one could
+contemplate the European hero at their ease. Still some of the most
+obstinate spectators would not leave the deck of the _Atlanta_; they
+passed the night on board. Amongst others, J.T. Maston had screwed his
+steel hook into the combing of the poop, and it would have taken the
+capstan to get it out again.
+
+"He is a hero! a hero!" cried he in every tone, "and we are only old
+women compared to that European!"
+
+As to the president, after having requested the spectators to withdraw,
+he re-entered the passenger's cabin, and did not leave it till the bell
+of the steamer rang out the midnight quarter.
+
+But then the two rivals in popularity shook each other warmly by the
+hand, and separated friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A MEETING.
+
+
+The next day the sun did not rise early enough to satisfy public
+impatience. Barbicane, fearing that indiscreet questions would be put to
+Michel Ardan, would like to have reduced his auditors to a small number
+of adepts, to his colleagues for instance. But it was as easy as to dam
+up the Falls at Niagara. He was, therefore, obliged to renounce his
+project, and let his friend run all the risks of a public lecture. The
+new Town Hall of Tampa Town, notwithstanding its colossal dimensions,
+was considered insufficient for the occasion, which had assumed the
+proportions of a public meeting.
+
+The place chosen was a vast plain, situated outside the town. In a few
+hours they succeeded in sheltering it from the rays of the sun. The
+ships of the port, rich in canvas, furnished the necessary accessories
+for a colossal tent. Soon an immense sky of cloth was spread over the
+calcined plain, and defended it against the heat of the day. There
+300,000 persons stood and braved a stifling temperature for several
+hours whilst awaiting the Frenchman's arrival. Of that crowd of
+spectators one-third alone could see and hear; a second third saw badly,
+and did not hear. As to the remaining third, it neither heard nor saw,
+though it was not the least eager to applaud.
+
+At three o'clock Michel Ardan made his appearance, accompanied by the
+principal members of the Gun Club. He gave his right arm to President
+Barbicane, and his left to J.T. Maston, more radiant than the midday
+sun, and nearly as ruddy.
+
+Ardan mounted the platform, from which his eyes extended over a forest
+of black hats. He did not seem in the least embarrassed; he did not
+pose; he was at home there, gay, familiar, and amiable. To the cheers
+that greeted him he answered by a gracious bow; then with his hand asked
+for silence, began to speak in English, and expressed himself very
+correctly in these terms:--
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "although it is very warm, I intend to keep you a
+few minutes to give you some explanation of the projects which have
+appeared to interest you. I am neither an orator nor a _savant_, and I
+did not count upon having to speak in public; but my friend Barbicane
+tells me it would give you pleasure, so I do it. Then listen to me with
+your 600,000 ears, and please to excuse the faults of the orator."
+
+This unceremonious beginning was much admired by the audience, who
+expressed their satisfaction by an immense murmur of applause.
+
+"Gentlemen," said he, "no mark of approbation or dissent is prohibited.
+That settled, I continue. And, first of all, do not forget that you have
+to do with an ignorant man, but his ignorance goes far enough to ignore
+difficulties. It has, therefore, appeared a simple, natural, and easy
+thing to him to take his passage in a projectile and to start for the
+moon. That journey would be made sooner or later, and as to the mode of
+locomotion adopted, it simply follows the law of progress. Man began by
+travelling on all fours, then one fine day he went on two feet, then in
+a cart, then in a coach, then on a railway. Well, the projectile is the
+carriage of the future, and, to speak the truth, planets are only
+projectiles, simple cannon-balls hurled by the hand of the Creator. But
+to return to our vehicle. Some of you, gentlemen, may think that the
+speed it will travel at is excessive--nothing of the kind. All the
+planets go faster, and the earth itself in its movement round the sun
+carries us along three times as fast. Here are some examples. Only I ask
+your permission to express myself in leagues, for American measures are
+not very familiar to me, and I fear getting muddled in my calculations."
+
+The demand appeared quite simple, and offered no difficulty. The orator
+resumed his speech.
+
+"The following, gentlemen, is the speed of the different planets. I am
+obliged to acknowledge that, notwithstanding my ignorance, I know this
+small astronomical detail exactly, but in two minutes you will be as
+learned as I. Learn, then, that Neptune goes at the rate of 5,000
+leagues an hour; Uranus, 7,000; Saturn, 8,858; Jupiter, 11,675; Mars,
+22,011; the earth, 27,500; Venus, 32,190; Mercury, 52,520; some comets,
+14,000 leagues in their perihelion! As to us, veritable idlers, people
+in no hurry, our speed does not exceed 9,900 leagues, and it will go on
+decreasing! I ask you if there is anything to wonder at, and if it is
+not evident that it will be surpassed some day by still greater speeds,
+of which light or electricity will probably be the mechanical agents?"
+
+No one seemed to doubt this affirmation.
+
+"Dear hearers," he resumed, "according to certain narrow minds--that is
+the best qualification for them--humanity is inclosed in a Popilius
+circle which it cannot break open, and is condemned to vegetate upon
+this globe without ever flying towards the planetary shores! Nothing of
+the kind! We are going to the moon, we shall go to the planets, we shall
+go to the stars as we now go from Liverpool to New York, easily,
+rapidly, surely, and the atmospheric ocean will be as soon crossed as
+the oceans of the earth! Distance is only a relative term, and will end
+by being reduced to zero."
+
+The assembly, though greatly in favour of the French hero, was rather
+staggered by this audacious theory. Michel Ardan appeared to see it.
+
+"You do not seem convinced, my worthy hosts," he continued with an
+amiable smile. "Well, let us reason a little. Do you know how long it
+would take an express train to reach the moon? Three hundred days. Not
+more. A journey of 86,410 leagues, but what is that? Not even nine times
+round the earth, and there are very few sailors who have not done that
+during their existence. Think, I shall be only ninety-eight hours on the
+road! Ah, you imagine that the moon is a long way from the earth, and
+that one must think twice before attempting the adventure! But what
+would you say if I were going to Neptune, which gravitates at
+1,147,000,000 leagues from the sun? That is a journey that very few
+people could go, even if it only cost a farthing a mile! Even Baron
+Rothschild would not have enough to take his ticket!"
+
+This argument seemed greatly to please the assembly; besides, Michel
+Ardan, full of his subject, grew superbly eloquent; he felt he was
+listened to, and resumed with admirable assurance--
+
+"Well, my friends, this distance from Neptune to the sun is nothing
+compared to that of the stars, some of which are billions of leagues
+from the sun! And yet people speak of the distance that separates the
+planets from the sun! Do you know what I think of this universe that
+begins with the sun and ends at Neptune? Should you like to know my
+theory? It is a very simple one. According to my opinion, the solar
+universe is one solid homogeneous mass; the planets that compose it are
+close together, crowd one another, and the space between them is only
+the space that separates the molecules of the most compact
+metal--silver, iron, or platinum! I have, therefore, the right to
+affirm, and I will repeat it with a conviction you will all
+share--distance is a vain word; distance does not exist!"
+
+"Well said! Bravo! Hurrah!" cried the assembly with one voice,
+electrified by the gesture and accent of the orator, and the boldness of
+his conceptions.
+
+"No!" cried J.T. Maston, more energetically than the others; "distance
+does not exist!"
+
+And, carried away by the violence of his movements and emotions he could
+hardly contain, he nearly fell from the top of the platform to the
+ground. But he succeeded in recovering his equilibrium, and thus avoided
+a fall that would have brutally proved distance not to be a vain word.
+Then the speech of the distinguished orator resumed its course.
+
+"My friends," said he, "I think that this question is now solved. If I
+have not convinced you all it is because I have been timid in my
+demonstrations, feeble in my arguments, and you must set it down to my
+theoretic ignorance. However that may be, I repeat, the distance from
+the earth to her satellite is really very unimportant and unworthy to
+occupy a serious mind. I do not think I am advancing too much in saying
+that soon a service of trains will be established by projectiles, in
+which the journey from the earth to the moon will be comfortably
+accomplished. There will be no shocks nor running off the lines to fear,
+and the goal will be reached rapidly, without fatigue, in a straight
+line, 'as the crow flies.' Before twenty years are over, half the earth
+will have visited the moon!"
+
+"Three cheers for Michel Ardan!" cried the assistants, even those least
+convinced.
+
+"Three cheers for Barbicane!" modestly answered the orator.
+
+This act of gratitude towards the promoter of the enterprise was greeted
+with unanimous applause.
+
+"Now, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan, "if you have any questions to
+ask me you will evidently embarrass me, but still I will endeavour to
+answer you."
+
+Until now the president of the Gun Club had reason to be very satisfied
+with the discussion. It had rolled upon speculative theories, upon which
+Michel Ardan, carried away by his lively imagination, had shown himself
+very brilliant. He must, therefore, be prevented from deviating towards
+practical questions, which he would doubtless not come out of so well.
+Barbicane made haste to speak, and asked his new friend if he thought
+that the moon or the planets were inhabited.
+
+"That is a great problem, my worthy president," answered the orator,
+smiling; "still, if I am not mistaken, men of great intelligence--Plutarch,
+Swedenborg, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and many others--answered in the
+affirmative. If I answered from a natural philosophy point of view I
+should do the same--I should say to myself that nothing useless exists
+in this world, and, answering your question by another, friend
+Barbicane, I should affirm that if the planets are inhabitable, either
+they are inhabited, they have been, or they will be."
+
+"Very well," cried the first ranks of spectators, whose opinion had the
+force of law for the others.
+
+"It is impossible to answer with more logic and justice," said the
+president of the Gun Club. "The question, therefore, comes to this: 'Are
+the planets inhabitable?' I think so, for my part."
+
+"And I--I am certain of it," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Still," replied one of the assistants, "there are arguments against the
+inhabitability of the worlds. In most of them it is evident that the
+principles of life must be modified. Thus, only to speak of the planets,
+the people must be burnt up in some and frozen in others according as
+they are a long or short distance from the sun."
+
+"I regret," answered Michel Ardan, "not to know my honourable opponent
+personally. His objection has its value, but I think it may be combated
+with some success, like all those of which the habitability of worlds
+has been the object. If I were a physician I should say that if there
+were less caloric put in motion in the planets nearest to the sun, and
+more, on the contrary, in the distant planets, this simple phenomenon
+would suffice to equalise the heat and render the temperature of these
+worlds bearable to beings organised like we are. If I were a naturalist
+I should tell him, after many illustrious _savants_, that Nature
+furnishes us on earth with examples of animals living in very different
+conditions of habitability; that fish breathe in a medium mortal to the
+other animals; that amphibians have a double existence difficult to
+explain; that certain inhabitants of the sea live in the greatest
+depths, and support there, without being crushed, pressures of fifty or
+sixty atmospheres; that some aquatic insects, insensible to the
+temperature, are met with at the same time in springs of boiling water
+and in the frozen plains of the Polar Ocean--in short, there are in
+nature many means of action, often incomprehensible, but no less real.
+If I were a chemist I should say that aerolites--bodies evidently formed
+away from our terrestrial globe--have when analysed, revealed
+indisputable traces of carbon, a substance that owes its origin solely
+to organised beings, and which, according to Reichenbach's experiments,
+must necessarily have been 'animalised.' Lastly, if I were a theologian
+I should say that Divine Redemption, according to St. Paul, seems
+applicable not only to the earth but to all the celestial bodies. But I
+am neither a theologian, chemist, naturalist, nor natural philosopher.
+So, in my perfect ignorance of the great laws that rule the universe, I
+can only answer, 'I do not know if the heavenly bodies are inhabited,
+and, as I do not know, I am going to see!'"
+
+Did the adversary of Michel Ardan's theories hazard any further
+arguments? It is impossible to say, for the frantic cries of the crowd
+would have prevented any opinion from being promulgated. When silence
+was again restored, even in the most distant groups, the triumphant
+orator contented himself with adding the following considerations:--
+
+"You will think, gentlemen, that I have hardly touched upon this grave
+question. I am not here to give you an instructive lecture upon this
+vast subject. There is another series of arguments in favour of the
+heavenly bodies being inhabited; I do not look upon that. Allow me only
+to insist upon one point. To the people who maintain that the planets
+are not inhabited you must answer, 'You may be right if it is
+demonstrated that the earth is the best of possible worlds; but it is
+not so, notwithstanding Voltaire.' It has only one satellite, whilst
+Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune have several at their service, an
+advantage that is not to be disdained. But that which now renders the
+earth an uncomfortable place of abode is the inclination of its axis
+upon its orbit. Hence the inequality of day and night; hence the
+unfortunate diversity of seasons. Upon our miserable spheroid it is
+always either too warm or too cold; we are frozen in winter and roasted
+in summer; it is the planet of colds, rheumatism, and consumption,
+whilst on the surface of Jupiter, for instance, where the axis has only
+a very slight inclination, the inhabitants can enjoy invariable
+temperature. There is the perpetual spring, summer, autumn, and winter
+zone; each 'Jovian' may choose the climate that suits him, and may
+shelter himself all his life from the variations of the temperature. You
+will doubtless agree to this superiority of Jupiter over our planet
+without speaking of its years, which each lasts twelve years! What is
+more, it is evident to me that, under these auspices, and under such
+marvellous conditions of existence, the inhabitants of that fortunate
+world are superior beings--that _savants_ are more learned, artists more
+artistic, the wicked less wicked, and the good are better. Alas! what is
+wanting to our spheroid to reach this perfection is very little!--an
+axis of rotation less inclined on the plane of its orbit."
+
+"Well!" cried an impetuous voice, "let us unite our efforts, invent
+machines, and rectify the earth's axis!"
+
+Thunders of applause greeted this proposition, the author of which could
+be no other than J.T. Maston. It is probable that the fiery secretary
+had been carried away by his instincts as engineer to venture such a
+proposition; but it must be said, for it is the truth, many encouraged
+him with their cries, and doubtless, if they had found the resting-point
+demanded by Archimedes, the Americans would have constructed a lever
+capable of raising the world and redressing its axis. But this point was
+wanting to these bold mechanicians.
+
+Nevertheless, this eminently practical idea had enormous success: the
+discussion was suspended for a good quarter of an hour, and long, very
+long afterwards, they talked in the United States of America of the
+proposition so energetically enunciated by the perpetual secretary of
+the Gun Club.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THRUST AND PARRY.
+
+
+This incident seemed to have terminated the discussion, but when the
+agitation had subsided these words were heard uttered in a loud and
+severe voice:--
+
+"Now that the orator has allowed his fancy to roam, perhaps he would
+kindly go back to his subject, pay less attention to theories, and
+discuss the practical part of his expedition."
+
+All eyes were turned towards the person who spoke thus. He was a thin,
+dry-looking man, with an energetic face and an American beard. By taking
+advantage of the agitation in the assembly from time to time he had
+gained, by degrees, the front row of spectators. There, with his arms
+crossed, his eyes brilliant and bold, he stared imperturbably at the
+hero of the meeting. After having asked his question he kept silence,
+and did not seem disturbed by the thousands of eyes directed towards him
+nor by the disapproving murmur excited by his words. The answer being
+delayed he again put the question with the same clear and precise
+accent; then he added--
+
+"We are here to discuss the moon, not the earth."
+
+"You are right, sir," answered Michel Ardan, "the discussion has
+wandered from the point; we will return to the moon."
+
+"Sir," resumed the unknown man, "you pretend that our satellite is
+inhabited. So far so good; but if Selenites do exist they certainly live
+without breathing, for--I tell you the fact for your good--there is not
+the least particle of air on the surface of the moon."
+
+At this affirmation Ardan shook his red mane; he understood that a
+struggle was coming with this man on the real question. He looked at him
+fixedly in his turn, and said--
+
+"Ah! there is no air in the moon! And who says so, pray?"
+
+"The _savants_."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"Indeed."
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel, "joking apart, I have a profound respect for
+_savants_ who know, but a profound contempt for _savants_ who do not
+know."
+
+"Do you know any who belong to the latter category?"
+
+"Yes; in France there is one who maintains that, 'mathematically,' a
+bird cannot fly, and another who demonstrates that a fish is not made to
+live in water."
+
+"There is no question of those two, sir, and I can quote in support of
+my proposition names that you will not object to."
+
+"Then, sir, you would greatly embarrass a poor ignorant man like me!"
+
+"Then why do you meddle with scientific questions which you have never
+studied?" asked the unknown brutally.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan; "because the man who does not suspect danger is
+always brave! I know nothing, it is true, but it is precisely my
+weakness that makes my strength."
+
+"Your weakness goes as far as madness," exclaimed the unknown in a
+bad-tempered tone.
+
+"So much the better," replied the Frenchman, "if my madness takes me to
+the moon!"
+
+Barbicane and his colleagues stared at the intruder who had come so
+boldly to stand in the way of their enterprise. None of them knew him,
+and the president, not reassured upon the upshot of such a discussion,
+looked at his new friend with some apprehension. The assembly was
+attentive and slightly uneasy, for this struggle called attention to the
+dangers and impossibilities of the expedition.
+
+"Sir," resumed Michel Ardan's adversary, "the reasons that prove the
+absence of all atmosphere round the moon are numerous and indisputable.
+I may say, even, that, _a priori_ if that atmosphere had ever existed,
+it must have been drawn away by the earth, but I would rather oppose you
+with incontestable facts."
+
+"Oppose, sir," answered Michel Ardan, with perfect gallantry--oppose as
+much as you like."
+
+"You know," said the unknown, "that when the sun's rays traverse a
+medium like air they are deviated from a straight line, or, in other
+words, they are refracted. Well, when stars are occulted by the moon
+their rays, on grazing the edge of her disc, do not show the least
+deviation nor offer the slightest indication of refraction. It follows,
+therefore, that the moon can have no atmosphere."
+
+Every one looked at the Frenchman, for, this once admitted, the
+consequences were rigorous.
+
+"In fact," answered Michel Ardan, "that is your best if not only
+argument, and a _savant_, perhaps, would be embarrassed to answer it. I
+can only tell you that this argument has no absolute value because it
+supposes the angular diameter of the moon to be perfectly determined,
+which it is not. But let us waive that, and tell me, my dear sir, if
+you admit the existence of volcanoes on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Extinct volcanoes, yes; volcanoes in eruption, no."
+
+"For the sake of argument let us suppose that these volcanoes have been
+in eruption for a certain period."
+
+"That is certain, but as they can themselves furnish the oxygen
+necessary for combustion the fact of their eruption does not in the
+least prove the presence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+"We will pass on, then," answered Michel Ardan, "and leave this series
+of argument and arrive at direct observation. But I warn you that I am
+going to quote names."
+
+"Very well."
+
+"In 1715 the astronomers Louville and Halley, observing the eclipse of
+the 3rd of May, remarked certain fulminations of a remarkable nature.
+These jets of light, rapid and frequent, were attributed by them to
+storms in the atmosphere of the moon."
+
+"In 1715," replied the unknown, "the astronomers Louville and Halley
+took for lunar phenomena phenomena purely terrestrial, such as meteoric
+or other bodies which are generated in our own atmosphere. That was the
+scientific aspect of these facts, and I go with it."
+
+"Let us pass on again," answered Ardan, without being confused by the
+reply. "Did not Herschel, in 1787, observe a great number of luminous
+points on the surface of the moon?"
+
+"Certainly; but without explaining the origin of these luminous points.
+Herschel himself did not thereby conclude the necessity of a lunar
+atmosphere."
+
+"Well answered," said Michel Ardan, complimenting his adversary; "I see
+that you are well up in selenography."
+
+"Yes, sir; and I may add that the most skilful observers, MM. Boeer and
+Moedler, agree that air is absolutely wanting on the moon's surface."
+
+A movement took place amongst the audience, who appeared struck by the
+arguments of this singular personage.
+
+"We will pass on again," answered Michel Ardan, with the greatest
+calmness, "and arrive now at an important fact. A skilful French
+astronomer, M. Laussedat, whilst observing the eclipse of July 18th,
+1860, proved that the horns of the solar crescent were rounded and
+truncated. Now this appearance could only have been produced by a
+deviation of the solar rays in traversing the atmosphere of the moon.
+There is no other possible explanation of the fact."
+
+"But is this fact authenticated?"
+
+"It is absolutely certain."
+
+An inverse movement brought back the audience to the side of their
+favourite hero, whose adversary remained silent.
+
+Ardan went on speaking without showing any vanity about his last
+advantage; he said simply--
+
+"You see, therefore, my dear sir, that it cannot be positively affirmed
+that there is no atmosphere on the surface of the moon. This atmosphere
+is probably not dense, but science now generally admits that it exists."
+
+"Not upon the mountains," replied the unknown, who would not give in.
+
+"No, but in the depths of the valleys, and it is not more than some
+hundreds of feet deep."
+
+"Any way you will do well to take your precautions, for the air will be
+terribly rarefied."
+
+"Oh, there will always be enough for one man. Besides, once delivered up
+there, I shall do my best to economise it and only to breathe it on
+great occasions."
+
+A formidable burst of laughter saluted the mysterious interlocutor, who
+looked round the assembly daring it proudly.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, carelessly, "as we are agreed upon the
+presence of some atmosphere, we are forced to admit the presence of some
+water--a consequence I am delighted with, for my part. Besides, I have
+another observation to make. We only know one side of the moon's disc,
+and if there is little air on that side there may be much on the other."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because the moon under the action of terrestrial attraction has assumed
+the form of an egg, of which we see the small end. Hence the consequence
+due to the calculations of Hausen, that its centre of gravity is
+situated in the other hemisphere. Hence this conclusion that all the
+masses of air and water have been drawn to the other side of our
+satellite in the first days of the creation."
+
+"Pure fancies," exclaimed the unknown.
+
+"No, pure theories based upon mechanical laws, and it appears difficult
+to me to refute them. I make appeal to this assembly and put it to the
+vote to know if life such as it exists upon earth is possible on the
+surface of the moon?"
+
+Three hundred thousand hearers applauded this proposition. Michel
+Ardan's adversary wished to speak again, but he could not make himself
+heard. Cries and threats were hailed upon him.
+
+"Enough, enough!" said some.
+
+"Turn him out!" repeated others.
+
+But he, holding on to the platform, did not move, and let the storm
+pass by. It might have assumed formidable proportions if Michel Ardan
+had not appeased it by a gesture. He was too chivalrous to abandon his
+contradicter in such an extremity.
+
+"You wish to add a few words?" he asked, in the most gracious tone.
+
+"Yes, a hundred! a thousand!" answered the unknown, carried away, "or
+rather no, one only! To persevere in your enterprise you must be--"
+
+"Imprudent! How can you call me that when I have asked for a
+cylindro-conical bullet from my friend Barbicane so as not to turn round
+on the road like a squirrel?"
+
+"But, unfortunate man! the fearful shock will smash you to pieces when
+you start."
+
+"You have there put your finger upon the real and only difficulty; but I
+have too good an opinion of the industrial genius of the Americans to
+believe that they will not overcome that difficulty."
+
+"But the heat developed by the speed of the projectile whilst crossing
+the beds of air?"
+
+"Oh, its sides are thick, and I shall so soon pass the atmosphere."
+
+"But provisions? water?"
+
+"I have calculated that I could carry enough for one year, and I shall
+only be four days going."
+
+"But air to breathe on the road?"
+
+"I shall make some by chemical processes."
+
+"But your fall upon the moon, supposing you ever get there?"
+
+"It will be six times less rapid than a fall upon the earth, as
+attraction is six times less on the surface of the moon."
+
+"But it still will be sufficient to smash you like glass."
+
+"What will prevent me delaying my fall by means of rockets conveniently
+placed and lighted at the proper time?"
+
+"But lastly, supposing that all difficulties be solved, all obstacles
+cleared away by uniting every chance in your favour, admitting that you
+reach the moon safe and well, how shall you come back?"
+
+"I shall not come back."
+
+Upon this answer, which was almost sublime by reason of its simplicity,
+the assembly remained silent. But its silence was more eloquent than its
+cries of enthusiasm would have been. The unknown profited by it to
+protest one last time.
+
+"You will infallibly kill yourself," he cried, "and your death, which
+will be only a madman's death, will not even be useful to science."
+
+"Go on, most generous of men, for you prophesy in the most agreeable
+manner."
+
+"Ah, it is too much!" exclaimed Michel Ardan's adversary, "and I do not
+know why I go on with so childish a discussion. Go on with your mad
+enterprise as you like. It is not your fault."
+
+"Fire away."
+
+"No, another must bear the responsibility of your acts."
+
+"Who is that, pray?" asked Michel Ardan in an imperious voice.
+
+"The fool who has organised this attempt, as impossible as it is
+ridiculous."
+
+The attack was direct. Barbicane since the intervention of the unknown
+had made violent efforts to contain himself and "consume his own smoke,"
+but upon seeing himself so outrageously designated he rose directly and
+was going to walk towards his adversary, who dared him to his face, when
+he felt himself suddenly separated from him.
+
+The platform was lifted up all at once by a hundred vigorous arms, and
+the president of the Gun Club was forced to share the honours of triumph
+with Michel Ardan. The platform was heavy, but the bearers came in
+continuous relays, disputing, struggling, even fighting for the
+privilege of lending the support of their shoulders to this
+manifestation.
+
+However, the unknown did not take advantage of the tumult to leave the
+place. He kept in the front row, his arms folded, still staring at
+President Barbicane.
+
+The president did not lose sight of him either, and the eyes of these
+two men met like flaming swords.
+
+The cries of the immense crowds kept at their maximum of intensity
+during this triumphant march. Michel Ardan allowed himself to be carried
+with evident pleasure.
+
+Sometimes the platform pitched and tossed like a ship beaten by the
+waves. But the two heroes of the meeting were good sailors, and their
+vessel safely arrived in the port of Tampa Town.
+
+Michel Ardan happily succeeded in escaping from his vigorous admirers.
+He fled to the Franklin Hotel, quickly reached his room, and glided
+rapidly into bed whilst an army of 100,000 men watched under his
+windows.
+
+In the meanwhile a short, grave, and decisive scene had taken place
+between the mysterious personage and the president of the Gun Club.
+
+Barbicane, liberated at last, went straight to his adversary.
+
+"Come!" said he in a curt voice.
+
+The stranger followed him on to the quay, and they were soon both alone
+at the entrance to a wharf opening on to Jones' Fall.
+
+There these enemies, still unknown to one another, looked at each other.
+
+"Who are you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Captain Nicholl."
+
+"I thought so. Until now fate has never made you cross my path."
+
+"I crossed it of my own accord."
+
+"You have insulted me."
+
+"Publicly."
+
+"And you shall give me satisfaction for that insult."
+
+"Now, this minute."
+
+"No. I wish everything between us to be kept secret. There is a wood
+situated three miles from Tampa--Skersnaw Wood. Do you know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you enter it to-morrow morning at five o'clock by one side?"
+
+"Yes, if you will enter it by the other at the same time."
+
+"And you will not forget your rifle?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Not more than you will forget yours," answered Captain Nicholl.
+
+After these words had been coldly pronounced the president of the Gun
+Club and the captain separated. Barbicane returned to his dwelling; but,
+instead of taking some hours' rest, he passed the night in seeking means
+to avoid the shock of the projectile, and to solve the difficult problem
+given by Michel Ardan at the meeting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR.
+
+
+Whilst the duel was being discussed between the president and the
+captain--a terrible and savage duel in which each adversary became a
+man-hunter--Michel Ardan was resting after the fatigues of his triumph.
+Resting is evidently not the right expression, for American beds rival
+in hardness tables of marble or granite.
+
+Ardan slept badly, turning over and over between the _serviettes_ that
+served him for sheets, and he was thinking of installing a more
+comfortable bed in his projectile when a violent noise startled him from
+his slumbers. Thundering blows shook his door. They seemed to be
+administered with an iron instrument. Shouts were heard in this racket,
+rather too early to be agreeable.
+
+"Open!" some one cried. "Open, for Heaven's sake!"
+
+There was no reason why Ardan should acquiesce in so peremptory a
+demand. Still he rose and opened his door at the moment it was giving
+way under the efforts of the obstinate visitor.
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club bounded into the room. A bomb would not
+have entered with less ceremony.
+
+"Yesterday evening," exclaimed J.T. Maston _ex abrupto_, "our president
+was publicly insulted during the meeting! He has challenged his
+adversary, who is no other than Captain Nicholl! They are going to fight
+this morning in Skersnaw Wood! I learnt it all from Barbicane himself!
+If he is killed our project will be at an end! This duel must be
+prevented! Now one man only can have enough empire over Barbicane to
+stop it, and that man is Michel Ardan."
+
+Whilst J.T. Maston was speaking thus, Michel Ardan, giving up
+interrupting him, jumped into his vast trousers, and in less than two
+minutes after the two friends were rushing as fast as they could go
+towards the suburbs of Tampa Town.
+
+It was during this rapid course that Maston told Ardan the state of the
+case. He told him the real causes of the enmity between Barbicane and
+Nicholl, how that enmity was of old date, why until then, thanks to
+mutual friends, the president and the captain had never met; he added
+that it was solely a rivalry between iron-plate and bullet; and, lastly,
+that the scene of the meeting had only been an occasion long sought by
+Nicholl to satisfy an old grudge.
+
+There is nothing more terrible than these private duels in America,
+during which the two adversaries seek each other across thickets, and
+hunt each other like wild animals. It is then that each must envy those
+marvellous qualities so natural to the Indians of the prairies, their
+rapid intelligence, their ingenious ruse, their scent of the enemy. An
+error, a hesitation, a wrong step, may cause death. In these meetings
+the Yankees are often accompanied by their dogs, and both sportsmen and
+game go on for hours.
+
+"What demons you are!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, when his companion had
+depicted the scene with much energy.
+
+"We are what we are," answered J.T. Maston modestly; "but let us make
+haste."
+
+In vain did Michel Ardan and he rush across the plain still wet with
+dew, jump the creeks, take the shortest cuts; they could not reach
+Skersnaw Wood before half-past five. Barbicane must have entered it
+half-an-hour before.
+
+There an old bushman was tying up faggots his axe had cut.
+
+Maston ran to him crying--
+
+"Have you seen a man enter the wood armed with a rifle? Barbicane, the
+president--my best friend?"
+
+The worthy secretary of the Gun Club thought naively that all the world
+must know his president. But the bushman did not seem to understand.
+
+"A sportsman," then said Ardan.
+
+"A sportsman? Yes," answered the bushman.
+
+"Is it long since?"
+
+"About an hour ago."
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Maston.
+
+"Have you heard any firing?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"No."
+
+"Not one shot?"
+
+"Not one. That sportsman does not seem to bag much game!"
+
+"What shall we do?" said Maston.
+
+"Enter the wood at the risk of catching a bullet not meant for us."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Maston, with an unmistakable accent, "I would rather
+have ten bullets in my head than one in Barbicane's head."
+
+"Go ahead, then!" said Ardan, pressing his companion's hand.
+
+A few seconds after the two companions disappeared in a copse. It was a
+dense thicket made of huge cypresses, sycamores, tulip-trees, olives,
+tamarinds, oaks, and magnolias. The different trees intermingled their
+branches in inextricable confusion, and quite hid the view. Michel Ardan
+and Maston walked on side by side phasing silently through the tall
+grass, making a road for themselves through the vigorous creepers,
+looking in all the bushes or branches lost in the sombre shade of the
+foliage, and expecting to hear a shot at every step. As to the traces
+that Barbicane must have left of his passage through the wood, it was
+impossible for them to see them, and they marched blindly on in the
+hardly-formed paths in which an Indian would have followed his adversary
+step by step.
+
+After a vain search of about an hour's length the two companions
+stopped. Their anxiety was redoubled.
+
+"It must be all over," said Maston in despair. "A man like Barbicane
+would not lay traps or condescend to any manoeuvre! He is too frank, too
+courageous. He has gone straight into danger, and doubtless far enough
+from the bushman for the wind to carry off the noise of the shot!"
+
+"But we should have heard it!" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"But what if we came too late?" exclaimed J.T. Maston in an accent of
+despair.
+
+Michel Ardan did not find any answer to make. Maston and he resumed
+their interrupted walk. From time to time they shouted; they called
+either Barbicane or Nicholl; but neither of the two adversaries
+answered. Joyful flocks of birds, roused by the noise, disappeared
+amongst the branches, and some frightened deer fled through the copses.
+
+They continued their search another hour. The greater part of the wood
+had been explored. Nothing revealed the presence of the combatants. They
+began to doubt the affirmation of the bushman, and Ardan was going to
+renounce the pursuit as useless, when all at once Maston stopped.
+
+"Hush!" said he. "There is some one yonder!"
+
+"Some one?" answered Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes! a man! He does not seem to move. His rifle is not in his hand.
+What can he be doing?"
+
+"But do you recognise him?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, yes! he is turning round," answered Maston.
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+"Captain Nicholl!"
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Michel Ardan, whose heart almost stopped beating.
+
+"Nicholl disarmed! Then he had nothing more to fear from his adversary?"
+
+"Let us go to him," said Michel Ardan; "we shall know how it is."
+
+But his companion and he had not gone fifty steps when they stopped to
+examine the captain more attentively. They imagined they should find a
+bloodthirsty and revengeful man. Upon seeing him they remained
+stupefied.
+
+A net with fine meshes was hung between two gigantic tulip-trees, and in
+it a small bird, with its wings entangled, was struggling with plaintive
+cries. The bird-catcher who had hung the net was not a human being but a
+venomous spider, peculiar to the country, as large as a pigeon's egg,
+and furnished with enormous legs. The hideous insect, as he was rushing
+on his prey, was forced to turn back and take refuge in the high
+branches of a tulip-tree, for a formidable enemy threatened him in his
+turn.
+
+In fact, Captain Nicholl, with his gun on the ground, forgetting the
+dangers of his situation, was occupied in delivering as delicately as
+possible the victim taken in the meshes of the monstrous spider. When he
+had finished he let the little bird fly away; it fluttered its wings
+joyfully and disappeared.
+
+Nicholl, touched, was watching it fly through the copse when he heard
+these words uttered in a voice full of emotion:--
+
+"You are a brave man, you are!"
+
+He turned. Michel Ardan was in front of him, repeating in every tone--
+
+"And a kind one!"
+
+"Michel Ardan!" exclaimed the captain, "what have you come here for,
+sir?"
+
+"To shake hands with you, Nicholl, and prevent you killing Barbicane or
+being killed by him."
+
+"Barbicane!" cried the captain, "I have been looking for him these two
+hours without finding him! Where is he hiding himself?"
+
+"Nicholl!" said Michel Ardan, "this is not polite! You must always
+respect your adversary; don't be uneasy; if Barbicane is alive we shall
+find him, and so much the more easily that if he has not amused himself
+with protecting birds he must be looking for you too. But when you have
+found him--and Michel Ardan tells you this--there will be no duel
+between you."
+
+"Between President Barbicane and me," answered Nicholl gravely, "there
+is such rivalry that the death of one of us--"
+
+"Come, come!" resumed Michel Ardan, "brave men like you may detest one
+another, but they respect one another too. You will not fight."
+
+"I shall fight, sir."
+
+"No you won't."
+
+"Captain," then said J.T. Maston heartily, "I am the president's friend,
+his _alter ego_; if you must absolutely kill some one kill me; that will
+be exactly the same thing."
+
+"Sir," said Nicholl, convulsively seizing his rifle, "this joking--"
+
+"Friend Maston is not joking," answered Michel Ardan, "and I understand
+his wanting to be killed for the man he loves; but neither he nor
+Barbicane will fall under Captain Nicholl's bullets, for I have so
+tempting a proposition to make to the two rivals that they will hasten
+to accept it."
+
+"But what is it, pray?" asked Nicholl, with visible incredulity.
+
+"Patience," answered Ardan; "I can only communicate it in Barbicane's
+presence."
+
+"Let us look for him, then," cried the captain.
+
+The three men immediately set out; the captain, having discharged his
+rifle, threw it on his shoulder and walked on in silence.
+
+During another half-hour the search was in vain. Maston was seized with
+a sinister presentiment. He observed Captain Nicholl closely, asking
+himself if, once the captain's vengeance satisfied, the unfortunate
+Barbicane had not been left lying in some bloody thicket. Michel Ardan
+seemed to have the same thought, and they were both looking
+questioningly at Captain Nicholl when Maston suddenly stopped.
+
+The motionless bust of a man leaning against a gigantic catalpa appeared
+twenty feet off half hidden in the grass.
+
+"It is he!" said Maston.
+
+Barbicane did not move. Ardan stared at the captain, but he did not
+wince. Ardan rushed forward, crying--
+
+"Barbicane! Barbicane!"
+
+No answer. Ardan was about to seize his arm; he stopped short, uttering
+a cry of surprise.
+
+Barbicane, with a pencil in his hand, was tracing geometrical figures
+upon a memorandum-book, whilst his unloaded gun lay on the ground.
+
+Absorbed in his work, the _savant_, forgetting in his turn his duel and
+his vengeance, had neither seen nor heard anything.
+
+But when Michel Ardan placed his hand on that of the president, he got
+up and looked at him with astonishment.
+
+"Ah!" cried he at last; "you here! I have found it, my friend, I have
+found it!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The way to do it."
+
+"The way to do what?"
+
+"To counteract the effect of the shock at the departure of the
+projectile."
+
+"Really?" said Michel, looking at the captain out of the corner of his
+eye.
+
+"Yes, water! simply water, which will act as a spring. Ah, Maston!"
+cried Barbicane, "you too!"
+
+"Himself," answered Michel Ardan; "and allow me to introduce at the same
+time the worthy Captain Nicholl."
+
+"Nicholl!" cried Barbicane, up in a moment. "Excuse me, captain," said
+he; "I had forgotten. I am ready."
+
+Michel Ardan interfered before the two enemies had time to recriminate.
+
+"Faith," said he, "it is fortunate that brave fellows like you did not
+meet sooner. We should now have to mourn for one or other of you; but,
+thanks to God, who has prevented it, there is nothing more to fear. When
+one forgets his hatred to plunge into mechanical problems and the other
+to play tricks on spiders, their hatred cannot be dangerous to anybody."
+
+And Michel Ardan related the captain's story to the president.
+
+"I ask you now," said he as he concluded, "if two good beings like you
+were made to break each other's heads with gunshots?"
+
+There was in this rather ridiculous situation something so unexpected,
+that Barbicane and Nicholl did not know how to look at one another.
+Michel Ardan felt this, and resolved to try for a reconciliation.
+
+"My brave friends," said he, smiling in his most fascinating manner, "it
+has all been a mistake between you, nothing more. Well, to prove that
+all is ended between you, and as you are men who risk your lives,
+frankly accept the proposition that I am going to make to you."
+
+"Speak," said Nicholl.
+
+"Friend Barbicane believes that his projectile will go straight to the
+moon."
+
+"Yes, certainly," replied the president.
+
+"And friend Nicholl is persuaded that it will fall back on the earth."
+
+"I am certain of it," cried the captain.
+
+"Good," resumed Michel Ardan. "I do not pretend to make you agree; all I
+say to you is, 'Come with me, and see if we shall stop on the road.'"
+
+"What?" said J.T. Maston, stupefied.
+
+The two rivals at this sudden proposition had raised their eyes and
+looked at each other attentively. Barbicane waited for Captain Nicholl's
+answer; Nicholl awaited the president's reply.
+
+"Well," said Michel in his most engaging tone, "as there is now no shock
+to fear----"
+
+"Accepted!" cried Barbicane.
+
+But although this word was uttered very quickly, Nicholl had finished it
+at the same time.
+
+"Hurrah! bravo!" cried Michel Ardan, holding out his hands to the two
+adversaries. "And now that the affair is arranged, my friends, allow me
+to treat you French fashion. _Allons dejeuner_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES.
+
+
+That day all America heard about the duel and its singular termination.
+The part played by the chivalrous European, his unexpected proposition
+which solved the difficulty, the simultaneous acceptation of the two
+rivals, that conquest of the lunar continent to which France and the
+United States were going to march in concert--everything tended to
+increase Michel Ardan's popularity. It is well known how enthusiastic
+the Yankees will get about an individual. In a country where grave
+magistrates harness themselves to a dancer's carriage and draw it in
+triumph, it may be judged how the bold Frenchman was treated. If they
+did not take out his horses it was probably because he had none, but all
+other marks of enthusiasm were showered upon him. There was no citizen
+who did not join him heart and mind:--_Ex pluribus unam_, according to
+the motto of the United States.
+
+From that day Michel Ardan had not a minute's rest. Deputations from all
+parts of the Union worried him incessantly. He was forced to receive
+them whether he would or no. The hands he shook could not be counted; he
+was soon completely worn out, his voice became hoarse in consequence of
+his innumerable speeches, and only escaped from his lips in
+unintelligible sounds, and he nearly caught a gastro-enterite after the
+toasts he proposed to the Union. This success would have intoxicated
+another man from the first, but he managed to stay in a _spirituelle_
+and charming demi-inebriety.
+
+Amongst the deputations of every sort that assailed him, that of the
+"Lunatics" did not forget what they owed to the future conqueror of the
+moon. One day some of these poor creatures, numerous enough in America,
+went to him and asked to return with him to their native country. Some
+of them pretended to speak "Selenite," and wished to teach it to Michel
+Ardan, who willingly lent himself to their innocent mania, and promised
+to take their messages to their friends in the moon.
+
+"Singular folly!" said he to Barbicane, after having dismissed them;
+"and a folly that often takes possession of men of great intelligence.
+One of our most illustrious _savants_, Arago, told me that many very
+wise and reserved people in their conceptions became much excited and
+gave way to incredible singularities every time the moon occupied them.
+Do you believe in the influence of the moon upon maladies?"
+
+"Very little," answered the president of the Gun Club.
+
+"I do not either, and yet history has preserved some facts that, to say
+the least, are astonishing. Thus in 1693, during an epidemic, people
+perished in the greatest numbers on the 21st of January, during an
+eclipse. The celebrated Bacon fainted during the moon eclipses, and only
+came to himself after its entire emersion. King Charles VI. relapsed six
+times into madness during the year 1399, either at the new or full moon.
+Physicians have ranked epilepsy amongst the maladies that follow the
+phases of the moon. Nervous maladies have often appeared to be
+influenced by it. Mead speaks of a child who had convulsions when the
+moon was in opposition. Gall remarked that insane persons underwent an
+accession of their disorder twice in every month, at the epochs of the
+new and full moon. Lastly, a thousand observations of this sort made
+upon malignant fevers and somnambulism tend to prove that the Queen of
+Night has a mysterious influence upon terrestrial maladies."
+
+"But how? why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why?" answered Ardan. "Why, the only thing I can tell you is what Arago
+repeated nineteen centuries after Plutarch. Perhaps it is because it is
+not true."
+
+In the height of his triumph Michel Ardan could not escape any of the
+annoyances incidental to a celebrated man. Managers of entertainments
+wished to exhibit him. Barnum offered him a million dollars to show him
+as a curious animal in the different towns of the United States.
+
+Still, though he refused to satisfy public curiosity in that way, his
+portraits went all over the world, and occupied the place of honour in
+albums; proofs were made of all sizes from life size to medallions.
+Every one could possess the hero in all positions--head, bust, standing,
+full-face, profile, three-quarters, back. Fifteen hundred thousand
+copies were taken, and it would have been a fine occasion to get money
+by relics, but he did not profit by it. If he had sold his hairs for a
+dollar apiece there would have remained enough to make his fortune!
+
+To tell the truth, this popularity did not displease him. On the
+contrary, he put himself at the disposition of the public, and
+corresponded with the entire universe. They repeated his witticisms,
+especially those he did not perpetrate.
+
+Not only had he all the men for him, but the women too. What an infinite
+number of good marriages he might have made if he had taken a fancy to
+"settle!" Old maids especially dreamt before his portraits day and
+night.
+
+It is certain that he would have found female companions by hundreds,
+even if he had imposed the condition of following him up into the air.
+Women are intrepid when they are not afraid of everything. But he had no
+intention of transplanting a race of Franco-Americans upon the lunar
+continent, so he refused.
+
+"I do not mean," said he, "to play the part of Adam with a daughter of
+Eve up there. I might meet with serpents!"
+
+As soon as he could withdraw from the joys of triumph, too often
+repeated, he went with his friends to pay a visit to the Columbiad. He
+owed it that. Besides, he was getting very learned in ballistics since
+he had lived with Barbicane, J.T. Maston, and _tutti quanti_. His
+greatest pleasure consisted in repeating to these brave artillerymen
+that they were only amiable and learned murderers. He was always joking
+about it. The day he visited the Columbiad he greatly admired it, and
+went down to the bore of the gigantic mortar that was soon to hurl him
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+"At least," said he, "that cannon will not hurt anybody, which is
+already very astonishing on the part of a cannon. But as to your engines
+that destroy, burn, smash, and kill, don't talk to me about them!"
+
+It is necessary to report here a proposition made by J.T. Maston. When
+the secretary of the Gun Club heard Barbicane and Nicholl accept Michel
+Ardan's proposition he resolved to join them, and make a party of four.
+One day he asked to go. Barbicane, grieved at having to refuse, made him
+understand that the projectile could not carry so many passengers. J.T.
+Maston, in despair, went to Michel Ardan, who advised him to be
+resigned, adding one or two arguments _ad hominem_.
+
+"You see, old fellow," he said to him, "you must not be offended, but
+really, between ourselves, you are too incomplete to present yourself in
+the moon."
+
+"Incomplete!" cried the valiant cripple.
+
+"Yes, my brave friend. Suppose we should meet with inhabitants up there.
+Do you want to give them a sorry idea of what goes on here, teach them
+what war is, show them that we employ the best part of our time in
+devouring each other and breaking arms and limbs, and that upon a globe
+that could feed a hundred thousand millions of inhabitants, and where
+there are hardly twelve hundred millions? Why, my worthy friend, you
+would have us shown to the door!"
+
+"But if you arrive smashed to pieces," replied J.T. Maston, "you will be
+as incomplete as I."
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel Ardan, "but we shall not arrive in pieces."
+
+In fact, a preparatory experiment, tried on the 18th of October, had
+been attended with the best results, and given rise to the most
+legitimate hopes. Barbicane, wishing to know the effect of the shock at
+the moment of the projectile's departure, sent for a 32-inch mortar from
+Pensacola Arsenal. It was installed upon the quay of Hillisboro Harbour,
+in order that the bomb might fall into the sea, and the shock of its
+fall be deadened. He only wished to experiment upon the shock of its
+departure, not that of its arrival.
+
+A hollow projectile was prepared with the greatest care for this curious
+experiment. A thick wadding put upon a network of springs made of the
+best steel lined it inside. It was quite a wadded nest.
+
+"What a pity one can't go in it!" said J.T. Maston, regretting that his
+size did not allow him to make the venture.
+
+Into this charming bomb, which was closed by means of a lid, screwed
+down, they put first a large cat, then a squirrel belonging to the
+perpetual secretary of the Gun Club, which J.T. Maston was very fond of.
+But they wished to know how this little animal, not likely to be giddy,
+would support this experimental journey.
+
+The mortar was loaded with 160 lbs. of powder and the bomb. It was then
+fired.
+
+The projectile immediately rose with rapidity, described a majestic
+parabola, attained a height of about a thousand feet, and then with a
+graceful curve fell into the waves.
+
+Without losing an instant, a vessel was sent to the spot where it fell;
+skilful divers sank under water and fastened cable-chains to the handles
+of the bomb, which was rapidly hoisted on board. Five minutes had not
+elapsed between the time the animals were shut up and the unscrewing of
+their prison lid.
+
+Ardan, Barbicane, Maston, and Nicholl were upon the vessel, and they
+assisted at the operation with a sentiment of interest easy to
+understand. The bomb was hardly opened before the cat sprang out, rather
+bruised but quite lively, and not looking as if it had just returned
+from an aerial expedition. But nothing, was seen of the squirrel. The
+truth was then discovered. The cat had eaten its travelling companion.
+
+J.T. Maston was very grieved at the loss of his poor squirrel, and
+proposed to inscribe it in the martyrology of science.
+
+However that may be, after this experiment all hesitation and fear were
+at an end; besides, Barbicane's plans were destined further to perfect
+the projectile, and destroy almost entirely the effect of the shock.
+There was nothing more to do but to start.
+
+Two days later Michel Ardan received a message from the President of
+the Union, an honour which he much appreciated.
+
+After the example of his chivalrous countryman, La Fayette, the
+government had bestowed upon him the title of "Citizen of the United
+States of America."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT.
+
+
+After the celebrated Columbiad was completed public interest immediately
+centred upon the projectile, the new vehicle destined to transport the
+three bold adventurers across space. No one had forgotten that in his
+despatch of September 30th Michel Ardan asked for a modification of the
+plans laid out by the members of the committee.
+
+President Barbicane then thought with reason that the form of the
+projectile was of slight importance, for, after crossing the atmosphere
+in a few seconds, it would meet with vacuum. The committee had therefore
+chosen the round form, so that the ball might turn over and over and do
+as it liked. But as soon as it had to be made into a vehicle, that was
+another thing. Michel Ardan did not want to travel squirrel-fashion; he
+wished to go up head up and feet down with as much dignity as in the car
+of a balloon, quicker of course, but without unseemly gambols.
+
+New plans were, therefore, sent to the firm of Breadwill and Co., of
+Albany, with the recommendation to execute them without delay. The
+projectile, thus modified, was cast on the 2nd of November, and sent
+immediately to Stony Hill by the Eastern Railway.
+
+On the 10th it arrived without accident at its place of destination.
+Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl awaited with the most lively
+impatience this "projectile compartment" in which they were to take
+their passage for the discovery of a new world.
+
+It must be acknowledged that it was a magnificent piece of metal, a
+metallurgic production that did the greatest honour to the industrial
+genius of the Americans. It was the first time that aluminium had been
+obtained in so large a mass, which result might be justly regarded as
+prodigious. This precious projectile sparkled in the rays of the sun.
+Seeing it in its imposing shape with its conical top, it might easily
+have been taken for one of those extinguisher-shaped towers that
+architects of the Middle Ages put at the angles of their castles. It
+only wanted loopholes and a weathercock.
+
+"I expect," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "to see a man armed _cap-a-pie_ come
+out of it. We shall be like feudal lords in there; with a little
+artillery we could hold our own against a whole army of Selenites--that
+is, if there are any in the moon!"
+
+"Then the vehicle pleases you?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, yes! certainly," answered Michel Ardan, who was examining it as an
+artist. "I only regret that its form is not a little more slender, its
+cone more graceful; it ought to be terminated by a metal group, some
+Gothic ornament, a salamander escaping from it with outspread wings and
+open beak."
+
+"What would be the use?" said Barbicane, whose positive mind was little
+sensitive to the beauties of art.
+
+"Ah, friend Barbicane, I am afraid you will never understand the use, or
+you would not ask!"
+
+"Well, tell me, at all events, my brave companion."
+
+"Well, my friend, I think we ought always to put a little art in all we
+do. Do you know an Indian play called _The Child's Chariot_?"
+
+"Not even by name," answered Barbicane.
+
+"I am not surprised at that," continued Michel Ardan. "Learn, then, that
+in that play there is a robber who, when in the act of piercing the wall
+of a house, stops to consider whether he shall make his hole in the
+shape of a lyre, a flower, or a bird. Well, tell me, friend Barbicane,
+if at that epoch you had been his judge would you have condemned that
+robber?"
+
+"Without hesitation," answered the president of the Gun Club, "and as a
+burglar too."
+
+"Well, I should have acquitted him, friend Barbicane. That is why you
+could never understand me."
+
+"I will not even try, my valiant artist."
+
+"But, at least," continued Michel Ardan, "as the exterior of our
+projectile compartment leaves much to be desired, I shall be allowed to
+furnish the inside as I choose, and with all luxury suitable to
+ambassadors from the earth."
+
+"About that, my brave Michel," answered Barbicane, "you can do entirely
+as you please."
+
+But before passing to the agreeable the president of the Gun Club had
+thought of the useful, and the means he had invented for lessening the
+effects of the shock were applied with perfect intelligence.
+
+Barbicane had said to himself, not unreasonably, that no spring would be
+sufficiently powerful to deaden the shock, and during his famous
+promenade in Skersnaw Wood he had ended by solving this great difficulty
+in an ingenious fashion. He depended upon water to render him this
+signal service. This is how:--
+
+The projectile was to be filled to the depth of three feet with water
+destined to support a water-tight wooden disc, which easily worked
+within the walls of the projectile. It was upon this raft that the
+travellers were to take their place. As to the liquid mass, it was
+divided by horizontal partitions which the departing shock would
+successively break; then each sheet of water, from the lowest to the
+highest, escaping by valves in the upper part of the projectile, thus
+making a spring, and the disc, itself furnished with extremely powerful
+buffers, could not strike the bottom until it had successively broken
+the different partitions. The travellers would doubtless feel a violent
+recoil after the complete escape of the liquid mass, but the first shock
+would be almost entirely deadened by so powerful a spring.
+
+It is true that three feet on a surface of 541 square feet would weigh
+nearly 11,500 lbs; but the escape of gas accumulated in the Columbiad
+would suffice, Barbicane thought to conquer that increase of weight;
+besides, the shock would send out all that water in less than a second,
+and the projectile would soon regain its normal weight.
+
+This is what the president of the Gun Club had imagined, and how he
+thought he had solved the great question of the recoil. This work,
+intelligently comprehended by the engineers of the Breadwill firm, was
+marvellously executed; the effect once produced and the water gone, the
+travellers could easily get rid of the broken partitions and take away
+the mobile disc that bore them at the moment of departure.
+
+As to the upper sides of the projectile, they were lined with a thick
+wadding of leather, put upon the best steel springs as supple as
+watch-springs. The escape-pipes hidden under this wadding were not even
+seen.
+
+All imaginable precautions for deadening the first shock having been
+taken, Michel Ardan said they must be made of "very bad stuff" to be
+crushed.
+
+The projectile outside was nine feet wide and twelve feet high. In order
+not to pass the weight assigned the sides had been made a little less
+thick and the bottom thicker, as it would have to support all the
+violence of the gases developed by the deflagration of the pyroxyle.
+Bombs and cylindro-conical howitzers are always made with thicker
+bottoms.
+
+The entrance to this tower of metal was a narrow opening in the wall of
+the cone, like the "man-hole" of steam boilers. It closed hermetically
+by means of an aluminium plate fastened inside by powerful screw
+pressure. The travellers could therefore leave their mobile prison at
+will as soon as they had reached the Queen of Night.
+
+But going was not everything; it was necessary to see on the road.
+Nothing was easier. In fact, under the wadding were four thick
+lenticular footlights, two let into the circular wall of the projectile,
+the third in its lower part, and the fourth in its cone. The travellers
+could, therefore, observe during their journey the earth they were
+leaving, the moon they were approaching, and the constellated spaces of
+the sky. These skylights were protected against the shocks of departure
+by plates let into solid grooves, which it was easy to move by
+unscrewing them. By that means the air contained in the projectile could
+not escape, and it was possible to make observations.
+
+All these mechanical appliances, admirably set, worked with the greatest
+ease, and the engineers had not shown themselves less intelligent in the
+arrangement of the projectile compartment.
+
+Lockers solidly fastened were destined to contain the water and
+provisions necessary for the three travellers; they could even procure
+themselves fire and light by means of gas stored up in a special case
+under a pressure of several atmospheres. All they had to do was to turn
+a tap, and the gas would light and warm this comfortable vehicle for six
+days. It will be seen that none of the things essential to life, or even
+to comfort, were wanting. More, thanks to the instincts of Michel Ardan,
+the agreeable was joined to the useful under the form of objects of art;
+he would have made a veritable artist's studio of his projectile if room
+had not been wanting. It would be mistaken to suppose that three persons
+would be restricted for space in that metal tower. It had a surface of
+54 square feet, and was nearly 10 feet high, and allowed its occupiers a
+certain liberty of movement. They would not have been so much at their
+ease in the most comfortable railway compartment of the United States.
+
+The question of provisions and lighting having been solved, there
+remained the question of air. It was evident that the air confined in
+the projectile would not be sufficient for the travellers' respiration
+for four days; each man, in fact, consumes in one hour all the oxygen
+contained in 100 litres of air. Barbicane, his two companions, and two
+dogs that he meant to take, would consume every twenty-four hours 2,400
+litres of oxygen, or a weight equal to 7 lbs. The air in the projectile
+must, therefore, be renewed. How? By a very simple method, that of
+Messrs. Reiset and Regnault, indicated by Michel Ardan during the
+discussion of the meeting.
+
+It is known that the air is composed principally of twenty-one parts of
+oxygen and seventy-nine parts of azote. Now what happens in the act of
+respiration? A very simple phenomenon, Man absorbs the oxygen of the
+air, eminently adapted for sustaining life, and throws out the azote
+intact. The air breathed out has lost nearly five per cent, of its
+oxygen, and then contains a nearly equal volume of carbonic acid, the
+definitive product of the combustion of the elements of the blood by the
+oxygen breathed in it. It happens, therefore, that in a confined space
+and after a certain time all the oxygen of the air is replaced by
+carbonic acid, an essentially deleterious gas.
+
+The question was then reduced to this, the azote being conserved
+intact--1. To remake the oxygen absorbed; 2. To destroy the carbonic
+acid breathed out. Nothing easier to do by means of chlorate of potash
+and caustic potash. The former is a salt which appears under the form of
+white crystals; when heated to a temperature of 400 deg. it is transformed
+into chlorine of potassium, and the oxygen which it contains is given
+off freely. Now 18 lbs. of chlorate of potash give 7 lbs of oxygen--that
+is to say, the quantity necessary to the travellers for twenty-four
+hours.
+
+As to caustic potash, it has a great affinity for carbonic acid mixed in
+air, and it is sufficient to shake it in order for it to seize upon the
+acid and form bicarbonate of potash. So much for the absorption of
+carbonic acid.
+
+By combining these two methods they were certain of giving back to
+vitiated air all its life-giving qualities. The two chemists, Messrs.
+Reiset and Regnault, had made the experiment with success.
+
+But it must be said the experiment had only been made _in anima vili_.
+Whatever its scientific accuracy might be, no one knew how man could
+bear it.
+
+Such was the observation made at the meeting where this grave question
+was discussed. Michel Ardan meant to leave no doubt about the
+possibility of living by means of this artificial air, and he offered to
+make the trial before the departure.
+
+But the honour of putting it to the proof was energetically claimed by
+J.T. Maston.
+
+"As I am not going with you," said the brave artilleryman, "the least I
+can do will be to live in the projectile for a week."
+
+It would have been ungracious to refuse him. His wish was complied with.
+A sufficient quantity of chlorate of potash and caustic potash was
+placed at his disposition, with provisions for a week; then having
+shaken hands with his friends, on the 12th of November at 6 a.m., after
+having expressly recommended them not to open his prison before the 20th
+at 6 p.m., he crept into the projectile, the iron plate of which was
+hermetically shut.
+
+What happened during that week? It was impossible to ascertain. The
+thickness of the projectile's walls prevented any interior noise from
+reaching the outside.
+
+On the 20th of November, at six o'clock precisely, the plate was
+removed; the friends of J.T. Maston were rather uneasy. But they were
+promptly reassured by hearing a joyful voice shouting a formidable
+hurrah!
+
+The secretary of the Gun Club appeared on the summit of the cone in a
+triumphant attitude.
+
+He had grown fat!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+
+On the 20th of October of the preceding year, after the subscription
+list was closed, the president of the Gun Club had credited the
+Cambridge Observatory with the sums necessary for the construction of a
+vast optical instrument. This telescope was to be powerful enough to
+render visible on the surface of the moon an object being at least nine
+feet wide.
+
+There is an important difference between a field-glass and a telescope,
+which it is well to recall here. A field-glass is composed of a tube
+which carries at its upper extremity a convex glass called an
+object-glass, and at its lower extremity a second glass called ocular,
+to which the eye of the observer is applied. The rays from the luminous
+object traverse the first glass, and by refraction form an image upside
+down at its focus. This image is looked at with the ocular, which
+magnifies it. The tube of the field-glass is, therefore, closed at each
+extremity by the object and the ocular glasses.
+
+The telescope, on the contrary, is open at its upper extremity. The rays
+from the object observed penetrate freely into it, and strike a concave
+metallic mirror--that is to say, they are focussed. From thence their
+reflected rays meet with a little mirror, which sends them back to the
+ocular in such a way as to magnify the image produced.
+
+Thus in field-glasses refraction plays the principal part, and
+reflection does in the telescope. Hence the name of refractors given to
+the former, and reflectors given to the latter. All the difficulty in
+the execution of these optical instruments lies in the making of the
+object-glass, whether they be made of glass or metallic mirrors.
+
+Still at the epoch when the Gun Club made its great experiment these
+instruments were singularly perfected and gave magnificent results. The
+time was far distant when Galileo observed the stars with his poor
+glass, which magnified seven times at the most. Since the 16th century
+optical instruments had widened and lengthened in considerable
+proportions, and they allowed the stellar spaces to be gauged to a depth
+unknown before. Amongst the refracting instruments at work at that
+period were the glass of the Poulkowa Observatory in Russia, the
+object-glass of which measured 15 inches in width, that of the French
+optician Lerebours, furnished with an object-glass equally large, and
+lastly that of the Cambridge Observatory, furnished with an object-glass
+19 inches in diameter.
+
+Amongst telescopes, two were known of remarkable power and gigantic
+dimensions. The first, constructed by Herschel, was 36 feet in length,
+and had an object-glass of 4 feet 6 inches; it magnified 6,000 times;
+the second, raised in Ireland, at Birrcastle, in Parsonstown Park,
+belonged to Lord Rosse; the length of its tube was 48 feet and the width
+of its mirror 6 feet; it magnified 6,400 times, and it had required an
+immense erection of masonry on which to place the apparatus necessary
+for working the instrument, which weighed 12-1/2 tons.
+
+But it will be seen that notwithstanding these colossal dimensions the
+magnifying power obtained did not exceed 6,000 times in round numbers;
+now that power would only bring the moon within 39 miles, and would only
+allow objects 60 feet in diameter to be perceived unless these objects
+were very elongated.
+
+Now in space they had to deal with a projectile 9 feet wide and 15 long,
+so the moon had to be brought within five miles at least, and for that a
+magnifying power of 48,000 times was necessary.
+
+Such was the problem propounded to the Cambridge Observatory. They were
+not to be stopped by financial difficulties, so there only remained
+material difficulties.
+
+First of all they had to choose between telescopes and field-glasses.
+The latter had some advantages. With equal object-glasses they have a
+greater magnifying power, because the luminous rays that traverse the
+glasses lose less by absorption than the reflection on the metallic
+mirror of telescopes; but the thickness that can be given to glass is
+limited, for too thick it does not allow the luminous rays to pass.
+Besides, the construction of these vast glasses is excessively
+difficult, and demands a considerable time, measured by years.
+
+Therefore, although images are better given by glasses, an inappreciable
+advantage when the question is to observe the moon, the light of which
+is simply reflected they decided to employ the telescope, which is
+prompter in execution and is capable of a greater magnifying power; only
+as the luminous rays lose much of their intensity by traversing the
+atmosphere, the Gun Club resolved to set up the instrument on one of the
+highest mountains of the Union, which would diminish the depth of the
+aerial strata.
+
+In telescopes it has been seen that the glass placed at the observer's
+eye produces the magnifying power, and the object-glass which bears this
+power the best is the one that has the largest diameter and the greatest
+focal distance. In order to magnify 48,000 times it must be much larger
+than those of Herschel and Lord Rosse. There lay the difficulty, for the
+casting of these mirrors is a very delicate operation.
+
+Happily, some years before a _savant_ of the _Institut de France_, Leon
+Foucault, had just invented means by which the polishing of
+object-glasses became very prompt and easy by replacing the metallic
+mirror by taking a piece of glass the size required and plating it.
+
+It was to be fixed according to the method invented by Herschel for
+telescopes. In the great instrument of the astronomer at Slough, the
+image of objects reflected by the mirror inclined at the bottom of the
+tube was formed at the other extremity where the eyeglass was placed.
+Thus the observer, instead of being placed at the lower end of the tube,
+was hoisted to the upper end, and there with his eyeglass he looked down
+into the enormous cylinder. This combination had the advantage of doing
+away with the little mirror destined to send back the image to the
+ocular glass, which thus only reflected once instead of twice; therefore
+there were fewer luminous rays extinguished, the image was less feeble,
+and more light was obtained, a precious advantage in the observation
+that was to be made.
+
+This being resolved upon, the work was begun. According to the
+calculations of the Cambridge Observatory staff, the tube of the new
+reflector was to be 280 feet long and its mirror 16 feet in diameter.
+Although it was so colossal it was not comparable to the telescope
+10,000 feet long which the astronomer Hooke proposed to construct some
+years ago. Nevertheless the setting up of such an apparatus presented
+great difficulties.
+
+The question of its site was promptly settled. It must be upon a high
+mountain, and high mountains are not numerous in the States.
+
+In fact, the orographical system of this great country only contains two
+chains of average height, amongst which flows the magnificent
+Mississippi, which the Americans would call the "king of rivers" if they
+admitted any royalty whatever.
+
+On the east rise the Apalachians, the very highest point of which, in
+New Hampshire, does not exceed the very moderate altitude of 5,600 feet.
+
+On the west are, however, the Rocky Mountains, that immense chain which
+begins at the Straits of Magellan, follows the west coast of South
+America under the name of the Andes or Cordilleras, crosses the Isthmus
+of Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to the very shores of
+the Polar Sea.
+
+These mountains are not very high, and the Alps or Himalayas would look
+down upon them with disdain. In fact, their highest summit is only
+10,701 feet high, whilst Mont Blanc is 14,439, and the highest summit of
+the Himalayas is 26,776 feet above the level of the sea.
+
+But as the Gun Club wished that its telescope, as well as the Columbiad,
+should be set up in the States of the Union, they were obliged to be
+content with the Rocky Mountains, and all the necessary material was
+sent to the summit of Long's Peak in the territory of Missouri.
+
+Neither pen nor language could relate the difficulties of every kind
+that the American engineers had to overcome, and the prodigies of
+audacity and skill that they accomplished. Enormous stones, massive
+pieces of wrought-iron, heavy corner-clamps, and huge portions of
+cylinder had to be raised with an object-glass, weighing nearly 30,000
+lbs., above the line of perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in
+height, after crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful
+rapids far from all centres of population, and in the midst of savage
+regions in which every detail of life becomes an insoluble problem, and,
+nevertheless, American genius triumphed over all these obstacles. Less
+than a year after beginning the works in the last days of the month of
+September, the gigantic reflector rose in the air to a height of 280
+feet. It was hung from an enormous iron scaffolding; an ingenious
+arrangement allowed it to be easily moved towards every point of the
+sky, and to follow the stars from one horizon to the other during their
+journey across space.
+
+It had cost more than 400,000 dollars. The first time it was pointed at
+the moon the observers felt both curious and uneasy. What would they
+discover in the field of this telescope which magnified objects 48,000
+times? Populations, flocks of lunar animals, towns, lakes, and oceans?
+No, nothing that science was not already acquainted with, and upon all
+points of her disc the volcanic nature of the moon could be determined
+with absolute precision.
+
+But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before being used by the Gun
+Club, rendered immense services to astronomy. Thanks to its power of
+penetration, the depths of the sky were explored to their utmost limits,
+the apparent diameter of a great number of stars could be rigorously
+measured, and Mr. Clarke, of the Cambridge staff, resolved the Crab
+nebula in Taurus, which Lord Rosse's reflector had never been able to
+do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+FINAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It was the 22nd of November. The supreme departure was to take place ten
+days later. One operation still remained to bring it to a happy
+termination, a delicate and perilous operation exacting infinite
+precautions, and against the success of which Captain Nicholl had laid
+his third bet. It was, in fact, nothing less than the loading of the gun
+and the introduction into it of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. Nicholl had
+thought, not without reason, perhaps, that the handling of so large a
+quantity of pyroxyle would cause grave catastrophes, and that in any
+case this eminently explosive mass would ignite of itself under the
+pressure of the projectile.
+
+There were also grave dangers increased by the carelessness of the
+Americans, who, during the Federal war, used to load their cannon cigar
+in mouth. But Barbicane had set his heart on succeeding, and did not
+mean to founder in port; he therefore chose his best workmen, made them
+work under his superintendence, and by dint of prudence and precautions
+he managed to put all the chances of success on his side.
+
+First he took care not to bring all his charge at once to the inclosure
+of Stony Hill. He had it brought little by little carefully packed in
+sealed cases. The 400,000 lbs. of pyroxyle had been divided into packets
+of 500 lbs., which made 800 large cartridges made carefully by the
+cleverest artisans of Pensacola. Each case contained ten, and they
+arrived one after the other by the railroad of Tampa Town; by that means
+there were never more than 500 lbs. of pyroxyle at once in the
+inclosure. As soon as it arrived each case was unloaded by workmen
+walking barefoot, and each cartridge transported to the orifice of the
+Columbiad, into which they lowered them by means of cranes worked by the
+men. Every steam-engine had been excluded, and the least fires
+extinguished for two miles round. Even in November it was necessary to
+preserve this gun-cotton from the ardour of the sun. So they worked at
+night by light produced in a vacuum by means of Ruehmkorff's apparatus,
+which threw an artificial brightness into the depths of the Columbiad.
+There the cartridges were arranged with the utmost regularity, fastened
+together by a wire destined to communicate the electric spark to them
+all simultaneously.
+
+In fact, it was by means of electricity that fire was to be set to this
+mass of gun-cotton. All these single wires, surrounded by isolating
+material, were rolled into a single one at a narrow hole pierced at the
+height the projectile was to be placed; there they crossed the thick
+metal wall and came up to the surface by one of the vent-holes in the
+masonry made on purpose. Once arrived at the summit of Stony Hill, the
+wire supported on poles for a distance of two miles met a powerful pile
+of Bunsen passing through a non-conducting apparatus. It would,
+therefore, be enough to press with the finger the knob of the apparatus
+for the electric current to be at once established, and to set fire to
+the 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton. It is hardly necessary to say that this
+was only to be done at the last moment.
+
+On the 28th of November the 800 cartridges were placed at the bottom of
+the Columbiad. That part of the operation had succeeded. But what worry,
+anxiety, and struggles President Barbicane had to undergo! In vain had
+he forbidden entrance to Stony Hill; every day curious sightseers
+climbed over the palisading, and some, pushing imprudence to folly, came
+and smoked amongst the bales of gun-cotton. Barbicane put himself into
+daily rages. J.T. Maston seconded him to the best of his ability,
+chasing the intruders away and picking up the still-lighted cigar-ends
+which the Yankees threw about--a rude task, for more than 300,000 people
+pressed round the palisades. Michel Ardan had offered himself to escort
+the cases to the mouth of the gun, but having caught him with a cigar in
+his mouth whilst he drove out the intruders to whom he was giving this
+unfortunate example, the president of the Gun Club saw that he could not
+depend upon this intrepid smoker, and was obliged to have him specially
+watched.
+
+At last, there being a Providence even for artillerymen, nothing blew
+up, and the loading was happily terminated. The third bet of Captain
+Nicholl was therefore much imperilled. There still remained the work of
+introducing the projectile into the Columbiad and placing it on the
+thick bed of gun-cotton.
+
+But before beginning this operation the objects necessary for the
+journey were placed with order in the waggon-compartment. There were a
+good many of them, and if they had allowed Michel Ardan to do as he
+pleased he would soon have filled up all the space reserved for the
+travellers. No one can imagine all that the amiable Frenchman wished to
+carry to the moon--a heap of useless trifles. But Barbicane interfered,
+and refused all but the strictly necessary.
+
+Several thermometers, barometers, and telescopes were placed in the
+instrument-case.
+
+The travellers were desirous of examining the moon during their transit,
+and in order to facilitate the survey of this new world they took an
+excellent map by Boeer and Moedler, the _Mappa Selenographica_,
+published in four plates, which is justly looked upon as a masterpiece
+of patience and observation. It represented with scrupulous exactitude
+the slightest details of that portion of the moon turned towards the
+earth. Mountains, valleys, craters, peaks, watersheds, were depicted on
+it in their exact dimensions, faithful positions, and names, from Mounts
+Doerfel and Leibnitz, whose highest summits rise on the eastern side of
+the disc, to the _Mare Frigoris_, which extends into the North Polar
+regions.
+
+It was, therefore, a precious document for the travellers, for they
+could study the country before setting foot upon it.
+
+They took also three rifles and three fowling-pieces with powder and
+shot in great quantity.
+
+"We do not know with whom we may have to deal," said Michel Ardan. "Both
+men and beasts may be displeased at our visit; we must, therefore, take
+our precautions."
+
+The instruments of personal defence were accompanied by pickaxes,
+spades, saws, and other indispensable tools, without mentioning garments
+suitable to every temperature, from the cold of the polar regions to the
+heat of the torrid zone.
+
+Michel Ardan would have liked to take a certain number of animals of
+different sorts, not male and female of every species, as he did not see
+the necessity of acclimatising serpents, tigers, alligators, or any
+other noxious beasts in the moon.
+
+"No," said he to Barbicane, "but some useful animals, ox or cow, ass or
+horse, would look well in the landscape and be of great use."
+
+"I agree with you, my dear Ardan," answered the president of the Gun
+Club; "but our projectile is not Noah's Ark. It differs both in
+dimensions and object, so let us remain in the bounds of possibility."
+
+At last after long discussions it was agreed that the travellers should
+be content to take with them an excellent sporting dog belonging to
+Nicholl and a vigorous Newfoundland of prodigious strength. Several
+cases of the most useful seeds were included amongst the indispensable
+objects. If they had allowed him, Michel Ardan would have taken several
+sacks of earth to sow them in. Any way he took a dozen little trees,
+which were carefully enveloped in straw and placed in a corner of the
+projectile.
+
+Then remained the important question of provisions, for they were
+obliged to provide against finding the moon absolutely barren. Barbicane
+managed so well that he took enough for a year. But it must be added, to
+prevent astonishment, that these provisions consisted of meat and
+vegetable compressed to their smallest volume by hydraulic pressure, and
+included a great quantity of nutritive elements; there was not much
+variety, but it would not do to be too particular in such an expedition.
+There was also about fifty gallons of brandy and water for two months
+only, for, according to the latest observations of astronomers, no one
+doubted the presence of a large quantity of water in the moon. As to
+provisions, it would have been insane to believe that the inhabitants of
+the earth would not find food up there. Michel Ardan had no doubt about
+it. If he had he would not have gone.
+
+"Besides," said he one day to his friends, "we shall not be completely
+abandoned by our friends on earth, and they will take care not to forget
+us."
+
+"No, certainly," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing more simple," answered Ardan. "Will not our Columbiad be still
+there? Well, then, every time that the moon is in favourable conditions
+of zenith, if not of perigee--that is to say, about once a year--could
+they not send us a projectile loaded with provisions which we should
+expect by a fixed date?"
+
+"Hurrah!" cried J.T. Maston. "That is not at all a bad idea. Certainly
+we will not forget you."
+
+"I depend upon you. Thus you see we shall have news regularly from the
+globe, and for our part we shall be very awkward if we do not find means
+to communicate with our good friends on earth."
+
+These words inspired such confidence that Michel Ardan with his superb
+assurance would have carried the whole Gun Club with him. What he said
+seemed simple, elementary, and sure of success, and it would have been
+sordid attachment to this earth to hesitate to follow the three
+travellers upon their lunar expedition.
+
+When the different objects were placed in the projectile the water was
+introduced between the partitions and the gas for lighting purposes laid
+in. Barbicane took enough chlorate of potash and caustic potash for two
+months, as he feared unforeseen delay. An extremely ingenious machine
+working automatically put the elements for good air in motion. The
+projectile, therefore, was ready, and the only thing left to do was to
+lower it into the gun, an operation full of perils and difficulty.
+
+The enormous projectile was taken to the summit of Stony Hill. There
+enormous cranes seized it and held it suspended over the metal well.
+
+This was an anxious moment. If the chains were to break under the
+enormous weight the fall of such a mass would inevitably ignite the
+gun-cotton.
+
+Happily nothing of the sort happened, and a few hours afterwards the
+projectile-compartment rested on its pyroxyle bed, a veritable
+fulminating pillow. The only effect of its pressure was to ram the
+charge of the gun more strongly.
+
+"I have lost," said the captain, handing the sum of 3,000 dollars to
+President Barbicane.
+
+Barbicane did not wish to receive this money from his travelling
+companion, but he was obliged to give way to Nicholl, who wished to
+fulfil all his engagements before leaving the earth.
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "there is but one thing I wish for you now,
+captain."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is that you may lose your other two wagers. By that means we shall
+be sure not to be stopped on the road."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+FIRE!
+
+
+The 1st of December came, the fatal day, for if the projectile did not
+start that very evening at 10h. 46m. and 40s. p.m., more than eighteen
+years would elapse before the moon would present the same simultaneous
+conditions of zenith and perigee.
+
+The weather was magnificent; notwithstanding the approach of winter the
+sun shone brightly and bathed in its radiance that earth which three of
+its inhabitants were about to leave for a new world.
+
+How many people slept badly during the night that preceded the
+ardently-longed-for day! How many breasts were oppressed with the heavy
+burden of waiting! All hearts beat with anxiety except only the heart of
+Michel Ardan. This impassible person went and came in his usual
+business-like way, but nothing in him denoted any unusual preoccupation.
+His sleep had been peaceful--it was the sleep of Turenne upon a
+gun-carriage the night before the battle.
+
+From early dawn an innumerable crowd covered the prairie, which extended
+as far as the eye could reach round Stony Hill. Every quarter of an hour
+the railroad of Tampa brought fresh sightseers. According to the _Tampa
+Town Observer_, five millions of spectators were that day upon Floridian
+soil.
+
+The greater part of this crowd had been living in tents round the
+inclosure, and laid the foundations of a town which has since been
+called "Ardan's Town." The ground bristled with huts, cabins, and tents,
+and these ephemeral habitations sheltered a population numerous enough
+to rival the largest cities of Europe.
+
+Every nation upon earth was represented; every language was spoken at
+the same time. It was like the confusion of tongues at the Tower of
+Babel. There the different classes of American society mixed in absolute
+equality. Bankers, cultivators, sailors, agents, merchants,
+cotton-planters, and magistrates elbowed each other with primitive ease.
+The creoles of Louisiana fraternised with the farmers of Indiana; the
+gentlemen of Kentucky and Tennessee, the elegant and haughty Virginians,
+joked with the half-savage trappers of the Lakes and the butchers of
+Cincinnati. They appeared in broad-brimmed white beavers and Panamas,
+blue cotton trousers, from the Opelousa manufactories, draped in elegant
+blouses of ecru cloth, in boots of brilliant colours, and extravagant
+shirt-frills; upon shirt-fronts, cuffs, cravats, on their ten fingers,
+even in their ears, an assortment of rings, pins, diamonds, chains,
+buckles, and trinkets, the cost of which equalled the bad taste. Wife,
+children, servants, in no less rich dress, accompanied, followed,
+preceded, and surrounded their husbands, fathers, and masters, who
+resembled the patriarchs amidst their innumerable families.
+
+At meal-times it was a sight to see all these people devour the dishes
+peculiar to the Southern States, and eat, with an appetite menacing to
+the provisioning of Florida, the food that would be repugnant to a
+European stomach, such as fricasseed frogs, monkey-flesh, fish-chowder,
+underdone opossum, and raccoon steaks.
+
+The liquors that accompanied this indigestible food were numerous.
+Shouts and vociferations to buy resounded through the bar-rooms or
+taverns, decorated with glasses, tankards, decanters, and bottles of
+marvellous shapes, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws.
+
+"Mint-julep!" roars out one of the salesmen.
+
+"Claret sangaree!" shouts another through his nose.
+
+"Gin-sling!" shouts one.
+
+"Cocktail! Brandy-smash!" cries another.
+
+"Who'll buy real mint-julep in the latest style?" shouted these skilful
+salesmen, rapidly passing from one glass to another the sugar, lemon,
+green mint, crushed ice, water, cognac, and fresh pine-apple which
+compose this refreshing drink.
+
+Generally these sounds, addressed to throats made thirsty by the spices
+they consumed, mingled into one deafening roar. But on this 1st of
+December these cries were rare. No one thought of eating and drinking,
+and at 4 p.m. there were many spectators in the crowd who had not taken
+their customary lunch! A much more significant fact, even the national
+passion for gaming was allayed by the general emotion. Thimbles,
+skittles, and cards were left in their wrappings, and testified that the
+great event of the day absorbed all attention.
+
+Until nightfall a dull, noiseless agitation like that which precedes
+great catastrophes ran through the anxious crowd. An indescribable
+uneasiness oppressed all minds, and stopped the beating of all hearts.
+Every one wished it over.
+
+However, about seven o'clock this heavy silence was suddenly broken. The
+moon rose above the horizon. Several millions of hurrahs saluted her
+apparition. She was punctual to the appointment. Shouts of welcome broke
+from all parts, whilst the blonde Phoebe shone peacefully in a clear
+sky, and caressed the enraptured crowd with her most affectionate rays.
+
+At that moment the three intrepid travellers appeared. When they
+appeared the cries redoubled in intensity. Unanimously, instantaneously,
+the national song of the United States escaped from all the spectators,
+and "Yankee Doodle," sung by 5,000,000 of hearty throats, rose like a
+roaring tempest to the farthest limits of the atmosphere.
+
+Then, after this irresistible outburst, the hymn was ended, the last
+harmonies died away by degrees, and a silent murmur floated over the
+profoundly-excited crowd.
+
+In the meantime the Frenchman and the two Americans had stepped into the
+inclosure round which the crowd was pressing. They were accompanied by
+the members of the Gun Club, and deputations sent by the European
+observatories. Barbicane was coolly and calmly giving his last orders.
+Nicholl, with compressed lips and hands crossed behind his back, walked
+with a firm and measured step. Michel Ardan, always at his ease, clothed
+in a perfect travelling suit, with leather gaiters on his legs, pouch at
+his side, in vast garment of maroon velvet, a cigar in his mouth,
+distributed shakes of the hand with princely prodigality. He was full of
+inexhaustible gaiety, laughing, joking, playing pranks upon the worthy
+J.T. Maston, and was, in a word, "French," and, what is worse,
+"Parisian," till the last second.
+
+Ten o'clock struck. The moment had come to take their places in the
+projectile; the necessary mechanism for the descent the door-plate to
+screw down, the removal of the cranes and scaffolding hung over the
+mouth of the Columbiad, took some time.
+
+Barbicane had set his chronometer to the tenth of a second by that of
+the engineer Murchison, who was entrusted with setting fire to the
+powder by means of the electric spark; the travellers shut up in the
+projectile could thus watch the impassive needle which was going to mark
+the precise instant of their departure.
+
+The moment for saying farewell had come. The scene was touching; in
+spite of his gaiety Michel Ardan felt touched. J.T. Maston had found
+under his dry eyelids an ancient tear that he had, doubtless, kept for
+the occasion. He shed it upon the forehead of his dear president.
+
+"Suppose I go too?" said he. "There is still time!"
+
+"Impossible, old fellow," answered Barbicane.
+
+A few moments later the three travelling companions were installed in
+the projectile, and had screwed down the door-plate, and the mouth of
+the Columbiad, entirely liberated, rose freely towards the sky.
+
+Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan were definitively walled up in
+their metal vehicle.
+
+Who could predict the universal emotion then at its paroxysm?
+
+The moon was rising in a firmament of limpid purity, outshining on her
+passage the twinkling fire of the stars; she passed over the
+constellation of the Twins, and was now nearly halfway between the
+horizon and the zenith.
+
+A frightful silence hung over all that scene. There was not a breath of
+wind on the earth! Not a sound of breathing from the crowd! Hearts dared
+not beat. Every eye was fixed on the gaping mouth of the Columbiad.
+
+Murchison watched the needle of his chronometer. Hardly forty seconds
+had to elapse before the moment of departure struck, and each one lasted
+a century!
+
+At the twentieth there was a universal shudder, and the thought occurred
+to all the crowd that the audacious travellers shut up in the vehicle
+were likewise counting these terrible seconds! Some isolated cries were
+heard.
+
+"Thirty-five!--thirty-six!--thirty-seven!--thirty--eight!--thirty-nine!
+--forty! Fire!!!"
+
+Murchison immediately pressed his finger upon the electric knob and
+hurled the electric spark into the depths of the Columbiad.
+
+A fearful, unheard-of, superhuman report, of which nothing could give
+an idea, not even thunder or the eruption of volcanoes, was immediately
+produced. An immense spout of fire sprang up from the bowels of the
+earth as if from a crater. The soil heaved and very few persons caught a
+glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air amidst the
+flaming smoke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+CLOUDY WEATHER.
+
+
+At the moment when the pyramid of flame rose to a prodigious height in
+the air it lighted up the whole of Florida, and for an incalculable
+moment day was substituted for night over a considerable extent of
+country. This immense column of fire was perceived for a hundred miles
+out at sea, from the Gulf and from the Atlantic, and more than one
+ship's captain noted the apparition of this gigantic meteor in his
+log-book.
+
+The discharge of the Columbiad was accompanied by a veritable
+earthquake. Florida was shaken to its very depths. The gases of the
+powder, expanded by heat, forced back the atmospheric strata with
+tremendous violence, passing like a waterspout through the air.
+
+Not one spectator remained on his legs; men, women, and children were
+thrown down like ears of wheat in a storm; there was a terrible tumult,
+and a large number of people were seriously injured. J.T. Maston, who
+had very imprudently kept to the fore, was thrown twenty yards backwards
+like a bullet over the heads of his fellow-citizens. Three hundred
+thousand people were temporarily deafened and as though thunderstruck.
+
+The atmospheric current, after throwing over huts and cabins, uprooting
+trees within a radius of twenty miles, throwing the trains off the
+railway as far as Tampa, burst upon the town like an avalanche and
+destroyed a hundred houses, amongst others the church of St. Mary and
+the new edifice of the Exchange. Some of the vessels in the port were
+run against each other and sunk, and ten of them were stranded high and
+dry after breaking their chains like threads of cotton.
+
+But the circle of these devastations extended farther still, and beyond
+the limits of the United States. The recoil, aided by the westerly
+winds, was felt on the Atlantic at more than 300 miles from the American
+shores. An unexpected tempest, which even Admiral Fitzroy could not have
+foreseen, broke upon the ships with unheard-of violence. Several
+vessels, seized by a sort of whirlwind before they had time to furl
+their sails, were sunk, amongst others the _Childe Harold_, of
+Liverpool, a regrettable catastrophe which was the object of lively
+recriminations.
+
+Lastly--although the fact is not warranted except by the affirmation of
+a few natives--half-an-hour after the departure of the projectile the
+inhabitants of Sierra-Leone pretended that they heard a dull noise, the
+last displacement of the sonorous waves, which, after crossing the
+Atlantic, died away on the African coast.
+
+But to return to Florida. The tumult once lessened, the wounded and
+deaf--in short, all the crowd--rose and shouted in a sort of frenzy,
+"Hurrah for Ardan! Hurrah for Barbicane! Hurrah for Nicholl!" Several
+millions of men, nose in air, armed with telescopes and every species of
+field-glass, looked into space, forgetting contusions and feelings, in
+order to look at the projectile. But they sought in vain; it was not to
+be seen, and they resolved to await the telegrams from Long's Peak. The
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, M. Belfast, was at his post in
+the Rocky Mountains, and it was to this skilful and persevering
+astronomer that the observations had been entrusted.
+
+But an unforeseen phenomenon, against which nothing could be done, soon
+came to put public impatience to a rude test.
+
+The weather, so fine before, suddenly changed; the sky became covered
+with clouds. It could not be otherwise after so great a displacement of
+the atmospheric strata and the dispersion of the enormous quantity of
+gases from the combustion of 200,000 lbs. of pyroxyle. All natural order
+had been disturbed. There is nothing astonishing in that, for in
+sea-fights it has been noticed that the state of the atmosphere has been
+suddenly changed by the artillery discharge.
+
+The next day the sun rose upon an horizon covered with thick clouds, a
+heavy and an impenetrable curtain hung between earth and sky, and which
+unfortunately extended as far as the regions of the Rocky Mountains. It
+was a fatality. A concert of complaints rose from all parts of the
+globe. But Nature took no notice, and as men had chosen to disturb the
+atmosphere with their gun, they must submit to the consequences.
+
+During this first day every one tried to pierce the thick veil of
+clouds, but no one was rewarded for the trouble; besides, they were all
+mistaken in supposing they could see it by looking up at the sky, for on
+account of the diurnal movement of the globe the projectile was then, of
+course, shooting past the line of the antipodes.
+
+However that might be, when night again enveloped the earth--a dark,
+impenetrable night--it was impossible to see the moon above the horizon;
+it might have been thought that she was hiding on purpose from the bold
+beings who had shot at her. No observation was, therefore, possible, and
+the despatches from Long's Peak confirmed the disastrous intelligence.
+
+However, if the experiment had succeeded, the travellers, who had
+started on the 1st of December, at 10h. 46m. 40s. p.m., were due at
+their destination on the 4th at midnight; so that as up to that time it
+would, after all, have been difficult to observe a body so small, people
+waited with all the patience they could muster.
+
+On the 4th of December, from 8 p.m. till midnight, it would have been
+possible to follow the trace of the projectile, which would have
+appeared like a black speck on the shining disc of the moon. But the
+weather remained imperturbably cloudy, and exasperated the public, who
+swore at the moon for not showing herself. _Sic transit gloria mundi_!
+
+J.T. Maston, in despair, set out for Long's Peak. He wished to make an
+observation himself. He did not doubt that his friends had arrived at
+the goal of their journey. No one had heard that the projectile had
+fallen upon any continent or island upon earth, and J.T. Maston did not
+admit for a moment that it could have fallen into any of the oceans with
+which the earth is three parts covered.
+
+On the 5th the same weather. The large telescopes of the old
+world--those of Herschel, Rosse, and Foucault--were invariably fixed
+upon the Queen of Night, for the weather was magnificent in Europe, but
+the relative weakness of these instruments prevented any useful
+observation.
+
+On the 6th the same weather reigned. Impatience devoured three parts of
+the globe. The most insane means were proposed for dissipating the
+clouds accumulated in the air.
+
+On the 7th the sky seemed to clear a little. Hopes revived but did not
+last long, and in the evening thick clouds defended the starry vault
+against all eyes.
+
+Things now became grave. In fact, on the 11th, at 9.11 a.m., the moon
+would enter her last quarter. After this delay she would decline every
+day, and even if the sky should clear the chances of observation would
+be considerably lessened--in fact, the moon would then show only a
+constantly-decreasing portion of her disc, and would end by becoming
+new--that is to say, she would rise and set with the sun, whose rays
+would make her quite invisible. They would, therefore, be obliged to
+wait till the 3rd of January, at 12.43 p.m., till she would be full
+again and ready for observation.
+
+The newspapers published these reflections with a thousand commentaries,
+and did not fail to tell the public that it must arm itself with angelic
+patience.
+
+On the 8th no change. On the 9th the sun appeared for a moment, as if to
+jeer at the Americans. It was received with hisses, and wounded,
+doubtless, by such a reception, it was very miserly of its rays.
+
+On the 10th no change. J.T. Maston nearly went mad, and fears were
+entertained for his brain until then so well preserved in its
+gutta-percha cranium.
+
+But on the 11th one of those frightful tempests peculiar to tropical
+regions was let loose in the atmosphere. Terrific east winds swept away
+the clouds which had been so long there, and in the evening the
+half-disc of the moon rode majestically amidst the limpid constellations
+of the sky.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A NEW STAR.
+
+
+That same night the news so impatiently expected burst like a
+thunderbolt over the United States of the Union, and thence darting
+across the Atlantic it ran along all the telegraphic wires of the globe.
+The projectile had been perceived, thanks to the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak.
+
+The following is the notice drawn up by the director of the Cambridge
+Observatory. It resumes the scientific conclusion of the great
+experiment made by the Gun Club:--
+
+"Long's Peak, December 12th.
+
+"To the Staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+"The projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill was perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston on the 12th of December at 8.47 p.m.,
+the moon having entered her last quarter.
+
+"The projectile has not reached its goal. It has deviated to the side,
+but near enough to be detained by lunar attraction.
+
+"There its rectilinear movement changed to a circular one of extreme
+velocity, and it has been drawn round the moon in an elliptical orbit,
+and has become her satellite.
+
+"We have not yet been able to determine the elements of this new star.
+Neither its speed of translation or rotation is known. The distance
+which separates it from the surface of the moon may be estimated at
+about 2,833 miles.
+
+"Now two hypotheses may be taken into consideration as to a modification
+in this state of things:--
+
+"Either the attraction of the moon will end by drawing it towards her,
+and the travellers will reach the goal of their journey,
+
+"Or the projectile, maintained in an immutable orbit, will gravitate
+round the lunar disc till the end of time.
+
+"Observation will settle this point some day, but until now the
+experiment of the Gun Club has had no other result than that of
+providing our solar system with a new star.
+
+"J BELFAST."
+
+What discussions this unexpected _denouement_ gave rise to! What a
+situation full of mystery the future reserved for the investigations of
+science! Thanks to the courage and devotion of three men, this
+enterprise of sending a bullet to the moon, futile enough in appearance,
+had just had an immense result, the consequences of which are
+incalculable. The travellers imprisoned in a new satellite, if they have
+not attained their end, form at least part of the lunar world; they
+gravitate around the Queen of Night, and for the first time human eyes
+can penetrate all her mysteries. The names of Nicholl, Barbicane, and
+Michel Ardan would be for ever celebrated in astronomical annals, for
+these bold explorers, desirous of widening the circle of human
+knowledge, had audaciously rushed into space, and had risked their lives
+in the strangest experiment of modern times.
+
+The notice from Long's Peak once made known, there spread throughout the
+universe a feeling of surprise and horror. Was it possible to go to the
+aid of these bold inhabitants of the earth? Certainly not, for they had
+put themselves outside of the pale of humanity by crossing the limits
+imposed by the Creator on His terrestrial creatures. They could procure
+themselves air for two months; they had provisions for one year; but
+after? The hardest hearts palpitated at this terrible question.
+
+One man alone would not admit that the situation was desperate. One
+alone had confidence, and it was their friend--devoted, audacious, and
+resolute as they--the brave J.T. Maston.
+
+He resolved not to lose sight of them. His domicile was henceforth the
+post of Long's Peak--his horizon the immense reflector. As soon as the
+moon rose above the horizon he immediately framed her in the field of
+his telescope; he did not lose sight of her for an instant, and
+assiduously followed her across the stellar spaces; he watched with
+eternal patience the passage of the projectile over her disc of silver,
+and in reality the worthy man remained in perpetual communication with
+his three friends, whom he did not despair of seeing again one day.
+
+"We will correspond with them," said he to any one who would listen, "as
+soon as circumstances will allow. We shall have news from them, and they
+will have news from us. Besides, I know them--they are ingenious men.
+Those three carry with them into space all the resources of art,
+science, and industry. With those everything can be accomplished, and
+you will see that they will get out of the difficulty."
+
+(FOR SEQUEL, SEE "AROUND THE MOON.")
+
+[Illustration: "They watched thus through the lateral windows."]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+ROUND THE MOON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
+
+CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF THIS WORK TO SERVE AS
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND.
+
+
+During the course of the year 186---- the entire world was singularly
+excited by a scientific experiment without precedent in the annals of
+science. The members of the Gun Club, a circle of artillerymen
+established at Baltimore after the American war, had the idea of putting
+themselves in communication with the moon--yes, with the moon--by
+sending a bullet to her. Their president, Barbicane, the promoter of the
+enterprise, having consulted the astronomers of the Cambridge
+Observatory on this subject, took all the precautions necessary for the
+success of the extraordinary enterprise, declared practicable by the
+majority of competent people. After having solicited a public
+subscription which produced nearly 30,000,000 of francs, it began its
+gigantic labours.
+
+According to the plan drawn up by the members of the observatory, the
+cannon destined to hurl the projectile was to be set up in some country
+situated between the 0 deg. and 28 deg. of north or south latitude in order to
+aim at the moon at the zenith. The bullet was to be endowed with an
+initial velocity of 12,000 yards a second. Hurled on the 1st of December
+at thirteen minutes and twenty seconds to eleven in the evening, it was
+to get to the moon four days after its departure on the 5th of December
+at midnight precisely, at the very instant she would be at her
+perigee--that is to say, nearest to the earth, or at exactly 86,410
+leagues' distance.
+
+The principal members of the Gun Club, the president, Barbicane, Major
+Elphinstone, the secretary, J.T. Maston, and other _savants_, held
+several meetings, in which the form and composition of the bullet were
+discussed, as well as the disposition and nature of the cannon, and the
+quality and quantity of the powder to be employed. It was decided--1,
+that the projectile should be an obus of aluminium, with a diameter of
+800 inches; its sides were to be 12 inches thick, and it was to weigh
+19,250 lbs.; 2, that the cannon should be a cast-iron Columbiad 900 feet
+long, and should be cast at once in the ground; 3, that the charge
+should consist of 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, which, by developing
+6,000,000,000 litres of gas under the projectile, would carry it easily
+towards the Queen of Night.
+
+These questions settled, President Barbicane, aided by the engineer,
+Murchison, chose a site in Florida in 27 deg. 7' north lat. and 5 deg. 7' west
+long. It was there that after marvels of labour the Columbiad was cast
+quite successfully.
+
+Things were at that pass when an incident occurred which Increased the
+interest attached to this great enterprise.
+
+A Frenchman, a regular Parisian, an artist as witty as audacious, asked
+leave to shut himself up in the bullet in order to reach the moon and
+make a survey of the terrestrial satellite. This intrepid adventurer's
+name was Michel Ardan. He arrived in America, was received with
+enthusiasm, held meetings, was carried in triumph, reconciled President
+Barbicane to his mortal enemy, Captain Nicholl, and in pledge of the
+reconciliation he persuaded them to embark with him in the projectile.
+
+The proposition was accepted. The form of the bullet was changed. It
+became cylindro-conical. They furnished this species of aerial
+compartment with powerful springs and breakable partitions to break the
+departing shock. It was filled with provisions for one year, water for
+some months, and gas for some days. An automatic apparatus made and gave
+out the air necessary for the respiration of the three travellers. At
+the same time the Gun Club had a gigantic telescope set up on one of the
+highest summits of the Rocky Mountains, through which the projectile
+could be followed during its journey through space. Everything was then
+ready.
+
+On the 30th of November, at the time fixed, amidst an extraordinary
+concourse of spectators, the departure took place, and for the first
+time three human beings left the terrestrial globe for the
+interplanetary regions with almost the certainty of reaching their goal.
+
+These audacious travellers, Michel Ardan, President Barbicane, and
+Captain Nicholl were to accomplish their journey in ninety-seven hours
+thirteen minutes and twenty seconds; consequently they could not reach
+the lunar disc until the 5th of December, at midnight, at the precise
+moment that the moon would be full, and not on the 4th, as some
+wrongly-informed newspapers had given out.
+
+But an unexpected circumstance occurred; the detonation produced by the
+Columbiad had the immediate effect of disturbing the terrestrial
+atmosphere, where an enormous quantity of vapour accumulated. This
+phenomenon excited general indignation, for the moon was hidden during
+several nights from the eyes of her contemplators.
+
+The worthy J.T. Maston, the greatest friend of the three travellers, set
+out for the Rocky Mountains in the company of the Honourable J. Belfast,
+director of the Cambridge Observatory, and reached the station of Long's
+Peak, where the telescope was set up which brought the moon, apparently,
+to within two leagues. The honourable secretary of the Gun Club wished
+to observe for himself the vehicle that contained his audacious friends.
+
+The accumulation of clouds in the atmosphere prevented all observation
+during the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th of December. It was even
+thought that no observation could take place before the 3rd of January
+in the following year, for the moon, entering her last quarter on the
+11th, would after that not show enough of her surface to allow the trace
+of the projectile to be followed.
+
+But at last, to the general satisfaction, a strong tempest during the
+night between the 11th and 12th of December cleared the atmosphere, and
+the half-moon was distinctly visible on the dark background of the sky.
+
+That same night a telegram was sent from Long's Peak Station by J.T.
+Maston and Belfast to the staff of the Cambridge Observatory.
+
+This telegram announced that on the 11th of December, at 8.47 p.m., the
+projectile hurled by the Columbiad of Stony Hill had been perceived by
+Messrs. Belfast and J.T. Maston, that the bullet had deviated from its
+course through some unknown cause, and had not reached its goal, but had
+gone near enough to be retained by lunar attraction; that its
+rectilinear movement had been changed to a circular one, and that it was
+describing an elliptical orbit round the moon, and had become her
+satellite.
+
+The telegram added that the elements of this new star had not yet been
+calculated--in fact, three observations, taking a star in three
+different positions, are necessary to determine them. Then it stated
+that the distance separating the projectile from the lunar surface
+"might be" estimated at about 2,833 leagues, or 4,500 miles.
+
+It ended with the following double hypothesis:--Either the attraction of
+the moon would end by carrying the day, and the travellers would reach
+their goal; or the projectile, fixed in an immutable orbit, would
+gravitate around the lunar disc to the end of time.
+
+In either of these alternatives what would be the travellers' fate? It
+is true they had provisions enough for some time. But even supposing
+that their bold enterprise were crowned with success, how would they
+return? Could they ever return? Would news of them ever reach the earth?
+These questions, debated upon by the most learned writers of the time,
+intensely interested the public.
+
+A remark may here be made which ought to be meditated upon by too
+impatient observers. When a _savant_ announces a purely speculative
+discovery to the public he cannot act with too much prudence. No one is
+obliged to discover either a comet or a satellite, and those who make a
+mistake in such a case expose themselves justly to public ridicule.
+Therefore it is better to wait; and that is what impatient J.T. Maston
+ought to have done before sending to the world the telegram which,
+according to him, contained the last communication about this
+enterprise.
+
+In fact, the telegram contained errors of two sorts, verified later:--1.
+Errors of observation concerning the distance of the projectile from the
+surface of the moon, for upon the date of the 11th of December it was
+impossible to perceive it, and that which J.T. Maston had seen, or
+thought he saw, could not be the bullet from the Columbiad. 2. A
+theoretic error as to the fate of the said projectile, for making it a
+satellite of the moon was an absolute contradiction of the laws of
+rational mechanics.
+
+One hypothesis only made by the astronomers of Long's Peak might be
+realised, the one that foresaw the case when the travellers--if any yet
+existed--should unite their efforts with the lunar attraction so as to
+reach the surface of the disc.
+
+Now these men, as intelligent as they were bold, had survived the
+terrible shock at departure, and their journey in their bullet-carriage
+will be related in its most dramatic as well as in its most singular
+details. This account will put an end to many illusions and previsions,
+but it will give a just idea of the various circumstances incidental to
+such an enterprise, and will set in relief Barbicane's scientific
+instincts, Nicholl's industrial resources, and the humorous audacity of
+Michel Ardan.
+
+Besides, it will prove that their worthy friend J.T. Maston was losing
+his time when, bending over the gigantic telescope, he watched the
+course of the moon across the planetary regions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+FROM 10.20 P.M. TO 10.47 P.M.
+
+
+When ten o'clock struck, Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl said
+good-bye to the numerous friends they left upon the earth. The two dogs,
+destined to acclimatise the canine race upon the lunar continents, were
+already imprisoned in the projectile. The three travellers approached
+the orifice of the enormous iron tube, and a crane lowered them to the
+conical covering of the bullet.
+
+There an opening made on purpose let them down into the aluminium
+vehicle. The crane's tackling was drawn up outside, and the mouth of the
+Columbiad instantly cleared of its last scaffolding.
+
+As soon as Nicholl and his companions were in the projectile he closed
+the opening by means of a strong plate screwed down inside. Other
+closely-fitting plates covered the lenticular glasses of the skylights.
+The travellers, hermetically inclosed in their metal prison, were in
+profound darkness.
+
+"And now, my dear companions," said Michel Ardan, "let us make ourselves
+at home. I am a domestic man myself, and know how to make the best of
+any lodgings. First let us have a light; gas was not invented for
+moles!"
+
+Saying which the light-hearted fellow struck a match on the sole of his
+boot and then applied it to the burner of the receptacle, in which there
+was enough carbonised hydrogen, stored under strong pressure, for
+lighting and heating the bullet for 144 hours, or six days and six
+nights.
+
+Once the gas lighted, the projectile presented the aspect of a
+comfortable room with padded walls, furnished with circular divans, the
+roof of which was in the shape of a dome.
+
+The objects in it, weapons, instruments, and utensils, were solidly
+fastened to the sides in order to bear the parting shock with impunity.
+Every possible precaution had been taken to insure the success of so
+bold an experiment.
+
+Michel Ardan examined everything, and declared himself quite satisfied
+with his quarters.
+
+"It is a prison," said he, "but a travelling prison, and if I had the
+right to put my nose to the window I would take it on a hundred years'
+lease! You are smiling, Barbicane. You are thinking of something you do
+not communicate. Do you say to yourself that this prison may be our
+coffin? Our coffin let it be; I would not change it for Mahomet's, which
+only hangs in space, and does not move!"
+
+Whilst Michel Ardan was talking thus, Barbicane and Nicholl were making
+their last preparations.
+
+It was 10.20 p.m. by Nicholl's chronometer when the three travellers
+were definitely walled up in their bullet. This chronometer was
+regulated to the tenth of a second by that of the engineer, Murchison.
+Barbicane looked at it.
+
+"My friends," said he, "it is twenty minutes past ten; at thirteen
+minutes to eleven Murchison will set fire to the Columbiad; at that
+minute precisely we shall leave our spheroid. We have, therefore, still
+seven-and-twenty minutes to remain upon earth."
+
+"Twenty-six minutes and thirteen seconds," answered the methodical
+Nicholl.
+
+"Very well!" cried Michel Ardan good-humouredly; "in twenty-six minutes
+lots of things can be done. We can discuss grave moral or political
+questions, and even solve them. Twenty-six minutes well employed are
+worth more than twenty-six years of doing nothing. A few seconds of a
+Pascal or a Newton are more precious than the whole existence of a crowd
+of imbeciles."
+
+"And what do you conclude from that, talker eternal?" asked President
+Barbicane.
+
+"I conclude that we have twenty-six minutes," answered Ardan.
+
+"Twenty-four only," said Nicholl.
+
+"Twenty-four, then, if you like, brave captain," answered Ardan;
+"twenty-four minutes, during which we might investigate--"
+
+"Michel," said Barbicane, "during our journey we shall have plenty of
+time to investigate the deepest questions. Now we must think of
+starting."
+
+"Are we not ready?"
+
+"Certainly. But there are still some precautions to be taken to deaden
+the first shock as much as possible!"
+
+"Have we not water-cushions placed between movable partitions elastic
+enough to protect us sufficiently?"
+
+"I hope so, Michel," answered Barbicane gently; "but I am not quite
+sure!"
+
+"Ah, the joker!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "He hopes! He is not quite
+sure! And he waits till we are encased to make this deplorable
+acknowledgment! I ask to get out."
+
+"By what means?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Well!" said Michel Ardan, "it would be difficult. We are in the train,
+and the guard's whistle will be heard in twenty-four minutes."
+
+"Twenty!" ejaculated Nicholl.
+
+The three travellers looked at one another for a few seconds. Then they
+examined all the objects imprisoned with them.
+
+"Everything is in its place," said Barbicane. "The question now is where
+we can place ourselves so as best to support the departing shock. The
+position we assume must be important too--we must prevent the blood
+rushing too violently to our heads."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," answered Michel Ardan, always ready to suit the action to the
+word, "we will stand on our heads like the clowns at the circus."
+
+"No," said Barbicane; "but let us lie on our sides; we shall thus resist
+the shock better. When the bullet starts it will not much matter whether
+we are inside or in front."
+
+"If it comes to 'not much matter' I am more reassured," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Do you approve of my idea, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Entirely," answered the captain. "Still thirteen minutes and a-half."
+
+"Nicholl is not a man," exclaimed Michel; "he is a chronometer marking
+the seconds, and with eight holes in--"
+
+But his companions were no longer listening to him, and they were making
+their last preparations with all the coolness imaginable. They looked
+like two methodical travellers taking their places in the train and
+making themselves as comfortable as possible. One wonders, indeed, of
+what materials these American hearts are made, to which the approach of
+the most frightful danger does not add a single pulsation.
+
+Three beds, thick and solidly made, had been placed in the projectile.
+Nicholl and Barbicane placed them in the centre of the disc that formed
+the movable flooring. There the three travellers were to lie down a few
+minutes before their departure.
+
+In the meanwhile Ardan, who could not remain quiet, turned round his
+narrow prison like a wild animal in a cage, talking to his friends and
+his dogs, Diana and Satellite, to whom it will be noticed he had some
+time before given these significant names.
+
+"Up, Diana! up, Satellite!" cried he, exciting them. "You are going to
+show to the Selenite dogs how well-behaved the dogs of the earth can be!
+That will do honour to the canine race. If we ever come back here I will
+bring back a cross-breed of 'moon-dogs' that will become all the rage."
+
+"If there are any dogs in the moon," said Barbicane.
+
+"There are some," affirmed Michel Ardan, "the same as there are horses,
+cows, asses, and hens. I wager anything we shall find some hens."
+
+"I bet a hundred dollars we find none," said Nicholl.
+
+"Done, captain," answered Ardan, shaking hands with Nicholl. "But,
+by-the-bye, you have lost three bets with the president, for the funds
+necessary for the enterprise were provided, the casting succeeded, and
+lastly, the Columbiad was loaded without accident--that makes six
+thousand dollars."
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl. "Twenty-three minutes and six seconds to
+eleven."
+
+"I hear, captain. Well, before another quarter of an hour is over you
+will have to make over another nine thousand dollars to the president,
+four thousand because the Columbiad will not burst, and five thousand
+because the bullet will rise higher than six miles into the air."
+
+"I have the dollars," answered Nicholl, striking his coat pocket, "and I
+only want to pay."
+
+"Come, Nicholl, I see you are a man of order, what I never could be; but
+allow me to tell you that your series of bets cannot be very
+advantageous to you."
+
+"Why?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because if you win the first the Columbiad will have burst, and the
+bullet with it, and Barbicane will not be there to pay you your
+dollars."
+
+"My wager is deposited in the Baltimore Bank," answered Barbicane
+simply; "and in default of Nicholl it will go to his heirs."
+
+"What practical men you are!" cried Michel Ardan. "I admire you as much
+as I do not understand you."
+
+"Eighteen minutes to eleven," said Nicholl.
+
+"Only five minutes more," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Yes, five short minutes!" replied Michel Ardan. "And we are shut up in
+a bullet at the bottom of a cannon 900 feet long! and under this bullet
+there are 400,000 lbs. of gun-cotton, worth more than 1,600,000 lbs. of
+ordinary powder! And friend Murchison, with his chronometer in hand and
+his eye fixed on the hand and his finger on the electric knob, is
+counting the seconds to hurl us into the planetary regions."
+
+"Enough, Michel, enough!" said Barbicane in a grave tone. "Let us
+prepare ourselves. A few seconds only separate us from a supreme moment.
+Your hands, my friends."
+
+"Yes," cried Michel Ardan, more moved than he wished to appear.
+
+The three bold companions shook hands.
+
+"God help us!" said the religious president.
+
+Michel Ardan and Nicholl lay down on their beds in the centre of the
+floor.
+
+"Thirteen minutes to eleven," murmured the captain.
+
+Twenty seconds more! Barbicane rapidly put out the gas, and lay down
+beside his companions.
+
+The profound silence was only broken by the chronometer beating the
+seconds.
+
+Suddenly a frightful shock was felt, and the projectile, under the
+impulsion of 6,000,000,000 litres of gas developed by the deflagration
+of the pyroxyle, rose into space.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST HALF-HOUR.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the effect of the frightful shock? Had the
+ingenuity of the constructors of the projectile been attended by a happy
+result? Was the effect of the shock deadened, thanks to the springs, the
+four buffers, the water-cushions, and the movable partitions? Had they
+triumphed over the frightful impulsion of the initial velocity of 11,000
+metres a second? This was evidently the question the thousands of
+witnesses of the exciting scene asked themselves. They forgot the object
+of the journey, and only thought of the travellers! Suppose one of
+them--J.T. Maston, for instance--had been able to get a glimpse of the
+interior of the projectile, what would he have seen?
+
+Nothing then. The obscurity was profound in the bullet. Its
+cylindro-conical sides had resisted perfectly. There was not a break, a
+crack, or a dint in them. The admirable projectile was not hurt by the
+intense deflagration of the powders, instead of being liquefied, as it
+was feared, into a shower of aluminium.
+
+In the interior there was very little disorder on the whole. A few
+objects had been violently hurled up to the roof, but the most important
+did not seem to have suffered from the shock. Their fastenings were
+intact.
+
+On the movable disc, crushed down to the bottom by the smashing of the
+partitions and the escape of the water, three bodies lay motionless. Did
+Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan still breathe? Was the projectile
+nothing but a metal coffin carrying three corpses into space?
+
+A few minutes after the departure of the bullet one of these bodies
+moved, stretched out its arms, lifted up its head, and succeeded in
+getting upon its knees. It was Michel Ardan. He felt himself, uttered a
+sonorous "Hum," then said--
+
+"Michel Ardan, complete. Now for the others!"
+
+The courageous Frenchman wanted to get up, but he could not stand. His
+head vacillated; his blood, violently sent up to his head, blinded him.
+He felt like a drunken man.
+
+"Brrr!" said he. "I feel as though I had been drinking two bottles of
+Corton, only that was not so agreeable to swallow!"
+
+Then passing his hand across his forehead several times, and rubbing his
+temples, he called out in a firm voice--
+
+"Nicholl! Barbicane!"
+
+He waited anxiously. No answer. Not even a sigh to indicate that the
+hearts of his companions still beat. He reiterated his call. Same
+silence.
+
+"The devil!" said he. "They seem as though they had fallen from the
+fifth story upon their heads! Bah!" he added with the imperturbable
+confidence that nothing could shake, "if a Frenchman can get upon his
+knees, two Americans will have no difficulty in getting upon their feet.
+But, first of all, let us have a light on the subject."
+
+Ardan felt life come back to him in streams. His blood became calm, and
+resumed its ordinary circulation. Fresh efforts restored his
+equilibrium. He succeeded in getting up, took a match out of his pocket,
+and struck it; then putting it to the burner he lighted the gas. The
+meter was not in the least damaged. The gas had not escaped. Besides,
+the smell would have betrayed it, and had this been the case, Michel
+Ardan could not with impunity have lighted a match in a medium filled
+with hydrogen. The gas, mixed in the air, would have produced a
+detonating mixture, and an explosion would have finished what a shock
+had perhaps begun.
+
+As soon as the gas was lighted Ardan bent down over his two companions.
+Their bodies were thrown one upon the other, Nicholl on the top,
+Barbicane underneath.
+
+Ardan raised the captain, propped him up against a divan, and rubbed him
+vigorously. This friction, administered skilfully, reanimated Nicholl,
+who opened his eyes, instantly recovered his presence of mind, seized
+Ardan's hand, and then looking round him--
+
+"And Barbicane?" he asked.
+
+"Each in turn," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly. "I began with you,
+Nicholl, because you were on the top. Now I'll go to Barbicane."
+
+That said, Ardan and Nicholl raised the president of the Gun Club and
+put him on a divan. Barbicane seemed to have suffered more than his
+companions. He was bleeding, but Nicholl was glad to find that the
+hemorrhage only came from a slight wound in his shoulder. It was a
+simple scratch, which he carefully closed.
+
+Nevertheless, Barbicane was some time before he came to himself, which
+frightened his two friends, who did not spare their friction.
+
+"He is breathing, however," said Nicholl, putting his ear to the breast
+of the wounded man.
+
+"Yes," answered Ardan, "he is breathing like a man who is in the habit
+of doing it daily. Rub, Nicholl, rub with all your might."
+
+And the two improvised practitioners set to work with such a will and
+managed so well that Barbicane at last came to his senses. He opened his
+eyes, sat up, took the hands of his two friends, and his first words
+were--
+
+"Nicholl, are we going on?"
+
+Nicholl and Ardan looked at one another. They had not yet thought about
+the projectile. Their first anxiety had been for the travellers, not for
+the vehicle.
+
+"Well, really, are we going on?" repeated Michel Ardan.
+
+"Or are we tranquilly resting on the soil of Florida?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Or at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?" added Michel Ardan.
+
+"Impossible!" cried President Barbicane.
+
+This double hypothesis suggested by his two friends immediately recalled
+him to life and energy.
+
+They could not yet decide the question. The apparent immovability of the
+bullet and the want of communication with the exterior prevented them
+finding it out. Perhaps the projectile was falling through space.
+Perhaps after rising a short distance it had fallen upon the earth, or
+even into the Gulf of Mexico, a fall which the narrowness of the
+Floridian peninsula rendered possible.
+
+The case was grave, the problem interesting. It was necessary to solve
+it as soon as possible. Barbicane, excited, and by his moral energy
+triumphing over his physical weakness, stood up and listened. A profound
+silence reigned outside. But the thick padding was sufficient to shut
+out all the noises on earth; However, one circumstance struck
+Barbicane. The temperature in the interior of the projectile was
+singularly high. The president drew out a thermometer from the envelope
+that protected it and consulted it. The instrument showed 81 deg. Fahr.
+
+"Yes!" he then exclaimed--"yes, we are moving! This stifling heat oozes
+through the sides of our projectile. It is produced by friction against
+the atmosphere. It will soon diminish; because we are already moving in
+space, and after being almost suffocated we shall endure intense cold."
+
+"What!" asked Michel Ardan, "do you mean to say that we are already
+beyond the terrestrial atmosphere?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt, Michel. Listen to me. It now wants but
+five minutes to eleven. It is already eight minutes since we started.
+Now, if our initial velocity has not been diminished by friction, six
+seconds would be enough for us to pass the sixteen leagues of atmosphere
+which surround our spheroid."
+
+"Just so," answered Nicholl; "but in what proportion do you reckon the
+diminution of speed by friction?"
+
+"In the proportion of one-third," answered Barbicane. "This diminution
+is considerable, but it is so much according to my calculations. If,
+therefore, we have had an initial velocity of 11,000 metres, when we get
+past the atmosphere it will be reduced to 7,332 metres. However that may
+be, we have already cleared that space, and--"
+
+"And then," said Michel Ardan, "friend Nicholl has lost his two
+bets--four thousand dollars because the Columbiad has not burst, five
+thousand dollars because the projectile has risen to a greater height
+than six miles; therefore, Nicholl, shell out."
+
+"We must prove it first," answered the captain, "and pay afterwards. It
+is quite possible that Barbicane's calculations are exact, and that I
+have lost my nine thousand dollars. But another hypothesis has come into
+my mind, and it may cancel the wager."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane quickly.
+
+"The supposition that for some reason or other the powder did not catch
+fire, and we have not started."
+
+"Good heavens! captain," cried Michel Ardan, "that is a supposition
+worthy of me! It is not serious! Have we not been half stunned by the
+shock? Did I not bring you back to life? Does not the president's
+shoulder still bleed from the blow?"
+
+"Agreed, Michel," replied Nicholl, "but allow me to ask one question."
+
+"Ask it, captain."
+
+"Did you hear the detonation, which must certainly have been
+formidable?"
+
+"No," answered Ardan, much surprised, "I certainly did not hear it."
+
+"And you, Barbicane?"
+
+"I did not either."
+
+"What do you make of that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"What indeed!" murmured the president; "why did we not hear the
+detonation?"
+
+The three friends looked at one another rather disconcertedly. Here was
+an inexplicable phenomenon. The projectile had been fired, however, and
+there must have been a detonation.
+
+"We must know first where we are," said Barbicane, "so let us open the
+panel."
+
+This simple operation was immediately accomplished. The screws that
+fastened the bolts on the outer plates of the right-hand skylight
+yielded to the coach-wrench. These bolts were driven outside, and
+obturators wadded with indiarubber corked up the hole that let them
+through. The exterior plate immediately fell back upon its hinges like a
+port-hole, and the lenticular glass that covered the hole appeared. An
+identical light-port had been made in the other side of the projectile,
+another in the dome, and a fourth in the bottom. The firmament could
+therefore be observed in four opposite directions--the firmament through
+the lateral windows, and the earth or the moon more directly through the
+upper or lower opening of the bullet.
+
+Barbicane and his companions immediately rushed to the uncovered
+port-hole. No ray of light illuminated it. Profound darkness surrounded
+the projectile. This darkness did not prevent Barbicane exclaiming--
+
+"No, my friends, we have not fallen on the earth again! No, we are not
+immersed at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico! Yes, we are going up
+through space! Look at those stars that are shining in the darkness, and
+the impenetrable darkness that lies between the earth and us!"
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried Michel Ardan and Nicholl with one voice.
+
+In fact, the thick darkness proved that the projectile had left the
+earth, for the ground, then brilliantly lighted by the moon, would have
+appeared before the eyes of the travellers if they had been resting upon
+it. This darkness proved also that the projectile had passed beyond the
+atmosphere, for the diffused light in the air would have been reflected
+on the metallic sides of the projectile, which reflection was also
+wanting. This light would have shone upon the glass of the light-port,
+and that glass was in darkness. Doubt was no longer possible. The
+travellers had quitted the earth.
+
+"I have lost." said Nicholl.
+
+"I congratulate you upon it," answered Ardan.
+
+"Here are nine thousand dollars," said the captain, taking a bundle of
+notes out of his pocket.
+
+"Will you have a receipt?" asked Barbicane as he took the money.
+
+"If you do not mind," answered Nicholl; "it is more regular."
+
+And as seriously and phlegmatically as if he had been in his
+counting-house, President Barbicane drew out his memorandum-book and
+tore out a clear page, wrote a receipt in pencil, dated it, signed it,
+and gave it to the captain, who put it carefully into his pocket-book.
+
+Michel Ardan took off his hat and bowed to his two companions without
+speaking a word. Such formality under such circumstances took away his
+power of speech. He had never seen anything so American.
+
+Once their business over, Barbicane and Nicholl went back to the
+light-port and looked at the constellations. The stars stood out clearly
+upon the dark background of the sky. But from this side the moon could
+not be seen, as she moves from east to west, rising gradually to the
+zenith. Her absence made Ardan say--
+
+"And the moon? Is she going to fail us?"
+
+"Do not frighten yourself," answered Barbicane, "Our spheroid is at her
+post, but we cannot see her from this side. We must open the opposite
+light-port."
+
+At the very moment when Barbicane was going to abandon one window to set
+clear the opposite one, his attention was attracted by the approach of a
+shining object. It was an enormous disc the colossal dimensions of which
+could not be estimated. Its face turned towards the earth was
+brilliantly lighted. It looked like a small moon reflecting the light of
+the large one. It advanced at prodigious speed, and seemed to describe
+round the earth an orbit right across the passage of the projectile. To
+the movement of translation of this object was added a movement of
+rotation upon itself. It was therefore behaving like all celestial
+bodies abandoned in space.
+
+"Eh!" cried Michel Ardan. "Whatever is that? Another projectile?"
+
+Barbicane did not answer. The apparition of this enormous body surprised
+him and made him uneasy. A collision was possible which would have had
+deplorable results, either by making the projectile deviate from its
+route and fall back upon the earth, or be caught up by the attractive
+power of the asteroid.
+
+President Barbicane had rapidly seized the consequences of these three
+hypotheses, which in one way or other would fatally prevent the success
+of his attempt. His companions were silently watching the object, which
+grew prodigiously larger as it approached, and through a certain optical
+illusion it seemed as if the projectile were rushing upon it.
+
+"Ye gods!" cried Michel Ardan; "there will be a collision on the line!"
+
+The three travellers instinctively drew back. Their terror was extreme,
+but it did not last long, hardly a few seconds. The asteroid passed at a
+distance of a few hundred yards from the projectile and disappeared, not
+so much on account of the rapidity of its course, but because its side
+opposite to the moon was suddenly confounded with the absolute darkness
+of space.
+
+"A good journey to you!" cried Michel Ardan, uttering a sigh of
+satisfaction. "Is not infinitude large enough to allow a poor little
+bullet to go about without fear? What was that pretentious globe which
+nearly knocked against us?"
+
+"I know!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Of course! you know everything."
+
+"It is a simple asteroid," said Barbicane; "but so large that the
+attraction of the earth has kept it in the state of a satellite."
+
+"Is it possible!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Then the earth has two moons
+like Neptune?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, two moons, though she is generally supposed to have but
+one. But this second moon is so small and her speed so great that the
+inhabitants of the earth cannot perceive her. It was by taking into
+account certain perturbations that a French astronomer, M. Petit, was
+able to determine the existence of this second satellite and calculate
+its elements. According to his observations, this asteroid accomplishes
+its revolution round the earth in three hours and twenty minutes only.
+That implies prodigious speed."
+
+"Do all astronomers admit the existence of this satellite?" asked
+Nicholl.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane; "but if they had met it like we have they
+could not doubt any longer. By-the-bye, this asteroid, which would have
+much embarrassed us had it knocked against us, allows us to determine
+our position in space."
+
+"How?" said Ardan.
+
+"Because its distance is known, and where we met it we were exactly at
+8,140 kilometres from the surface of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"More than 2,000 leagues!" cried Michel Ardan. "That beats the express
+trains of the pitiable globe called the earth!"
+
+"I should think it did," answered Nicholl, consulting his
+chronometer; "it is eleven o'clock, only thirteen minutes since we
+left the American continent."
+
+"Only thirteen minutes?" said Barbicane.
+
+"That is all," answered Nicholl; "and if our initial velocity were
+constant we should make nearly 10,000 leagues an hour."
+
+"That is all very well, my friends," said the president; "but one
+insoluble question still remains--why did we not hear the detonation of
+the Columbiad?"
+
+For want of an answer the conversation stopped, and Barbicane, still
+reflecting, occupied himself with lowering the covering of the second
+lateral light-port. His operation succeeded, and through the glass the
+moon filled the interior of the projectile with brilliant light.
+Nicholl, like an economical man, put out the gas that was thus rendered
+useless, and the brilliance of which obstructed the observation of
+planetary space.
+
+The lunar disc then shone with incomparable purity. Her rays, no longer
+filtered by the vapoury atmosphere of the terrestrial globe, shone
+clearly through the glass and saturated the interior air of the
+projectile with silvery reflections. The black curtain of the firmament
+really doubled the brilliancy of the moon, which in this void of ether
+unfavourable to diffusion did not eclipse the neighbouring stars. The
+sky, thus seen, presented quite a different aspect--one that no human
+eye could imagine.
+
+It will be readily understood with what interest these audacious men
+contemplated the moon, the supreme goal of their journey. The earth's
+satellite, in her movement of translation, insensibly neared the zenith,
+a mathematical point which she was to reach about ninety-six hours
+later. Her mountains and plains, or any object in relief, were not seen
+more plainly than from the earth; but her light across the void was
+developed with incomparable intensity. The disc shone like a platinum
+mirror. The travellers had already forgotten all about the earth which
+was flying beneath their feet.
+
+It was Captain Nicholl who first drew attention to the vanished globe.
+
+"Yes!" answered Michel Ardan. "We must not be ungrateful to it. As we
+are leaving our country let our last looks reach it. I want to see the
+earth before it disappears completely from our eyes!"
+
+Barbicane, to satisfy the desires of his companion, occupied himself
+with clearing the window at the bottom of the projectile, the one
+through which they could observe the earth directly. The movable floor
+which the force of projection had sent to the bottom was taken to
+pieces, not without difficulty; its pieces, carefully placed against the
+sides, might still be of use. Then appeared a circular bay window, half
+a yard wide, cut in the lower part of the bullet. It was filled with
+glass five inches thick, strengthened with brass settings. Under it was
+an aluminium plate, held down by bolts. The screws taken out and the
+bolts withdrawn, the plate fell back, and visual communication was
+established between interior and exterior.
+
+Michel Ardan knelt upon the glass. It was dark, and seemed opaque.
+
+"Well," cried he, "but where's the earth?"
+
+"There it is," said Barbicane.
+
+"What!" cried Ardan, "that thin streak, that silvery crescent?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel. In four days' time, when the moon is full, at the
+very minute we shall reach her, the earth will be new. She will only
+appear to us under the form of a slender crescent, which will soon
+disappear, and then she will be buried for some days in impenetrable
+darkness."
+
+"That the earth!" repeated Michel Ardan, staring at the thin slice of
+his natal planet.
+
+The explanation given by President Barbicane was correct. The earth,
+looked at from the projectile, was entering her last quarter. She was in
+her octant, and her crescent was clearly outlined on the dark background
+of the sky. Her light, made bluish by the thickness of her atmosphere,
+was less intense than that of the lunar crescent. This crescent then
+showed itself under considerable dimensions. It looked like an enormous
+arch stretched across the firmament. Some points, more vividly lighted,
+especially in its concave part, announced the presence of high
+mountains; but they disappeared sometimes under black spots, which are
+never seen on the surface of the lunar disc. They were rings of clouds
+placed concentrically round the terrestrial spheroid.
+
+However, by dint of a natural phenomenon, identical with that produced
+on the moon when she is in her octants, the contour of the terrestrial
+globe could be traced. Its entire disc appeared slightly visible through
+an effect of pale light, less appreciable than that of the moon. The
+reason of this lessened intensity is easy to understand. When this
+reflection is produced on the moon it is caused by the solar rays which
+the earth reflects upon her satellite. Here it was caused by the solar
+rays reflected from the moon upon the earth. Now terrestrial light is
+thirteen times more intense than lunar light on account of the
+difference of volume in the two bodies. Hence it follows that in the
+phenomenon of the pale light the dark part of the earth's disc is less
+clearly outlined than that of the moon's disc, because the intensity of
+the phenomenon is in proportion to the lighting power of the two stars.
+It must be added that the terrestrial crescent seems to form a more
+elongated curve than that of the disc--a pure effect of irradiation.
+
+Whilst the travellers were trying to pierce the profound darkness of
+space, a brilliant shower of falling stars shone before their eyes.
+Hundreds of meteors, inflamed by contact with the atmosphere, streaked
+the darkness with luminous trails, and lined the cloudy part of the disc
+with their fire. At that epoch the earth was in her perihelion, and the
+month of December is so propitious to these shooting stars that
+astronomers have counted as many as 24,000 an hour. But Michel Ardan,
+disdaining scientific reasoning, preferred to believe that the earth was
+saluting with her finest fireworks the departure of her three children.
+
+This was all they saw of the globe lost in the darkness, an inferior
+star of the solar world, which for the grand planets rises or sets as a
+simple morning or evening star! Imperceptible point in space, it was now
+only a fugitive crescent, this globe where they had left all their
+affections.
+
+For a long time the three friends, not speaking, yet united in heart,
+watched while the projectile went on with uniformly decreasing velocity.
+Then irresistible sleep took possession of them. Was it fatigue of body
+and mind? Doubtless, for after the excitement of the last hours passed
+upon earth, reaction must inevitably set in.
+
+"Well," said Michel, "as we must sleep, let us go to sleep."
+
+Stretched upon their beds, all three were soon buried in profound
+slumber.
+
+But they had not been unconscious for more than a quarter of an hour
+when Barbicane suddenly rose, and, waking his companions, in a loud
+voice cried--
+
+"I've found it!"
+
+"What have you found?" asked Michel Ardan, jumping out of bed.
+
+"The reason we did not hear the detonation of the Columbiad!"
+
+"Well?" said Nicholl.
+
+"It was because our projectile went quicker than sound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TAKING POSSESSION.
+
+
+This curious but certainly correct explanation once given, the three
+friends fell again into a profound sleep. Where would they have found a
+calmer or more peaceful place to sleep in? Upon earth, houses in the
+town or cottages in the country feel every shock upon the surface of the
+globe. At sea, ships, rocked by the waves, are in perpetual movement. In
+the air, balloons incessantly oscillate upon the fluid strata of
+different densities. This projectile alone, travelling in absolute void
+amidst absolute silence, offered absolute repose to its inhabitants.
+
+The sleep of the three adventurers would have, perhaps, been
+indefinitely prolonged if an unexpected noise had not awakened them
+about 7 a.m. on the 2nd of December, eight hours after their departure.
+
+This noise was a very distinct bark.
+
+"The dogs! It is the dogs!" cried Michel Ardan, getting up immediately.
+
+"They are hungry," said Nicholl.
+
+"I should think so," answered Michel; "we have forgotten them."
+
+"Where are they?" asked Barbicane.
+
+One of the animals was found cowering under the divan. Terrified and
+stunned by the first shock, it had remained in a corner until the moment
+it had recovered its voice along with the feeling of hunger.
+
+It was Diana, still rather sheepish, that came from the retreat, not
+without urging. Michel Ardan encouraged her with his most gracious
+words.
+
+"Come, Diana," he said--"come, my child; your destiny will be noted in
+cynegetic annals! Pagans would have made you companion to the god
+Anubis, and Christians friend to St. Roch! You are worthy of being
+carved in bronze for the king of hell, like the puppy that Jupiter gave
+beautiful Europa as the price of a kiss! Your celebrity will efface that
+of the Montargis and St. Bernard heroes. You are rushing through
+interplanetary space, and will, perhaps, be the Eve of Selenite dogs!
+You will justify up there Toussenel's saying, 'In the beginning God
+created man, and seeing how weak he was, gave him the dog!' Come, Diana,
+come here!"
+
+Diana, whether flattered or not, came out slowly, uttering plaintive
+moans.
+
+"Good!" said Barbicane. "I see Eve, but where is Adam?"
+
+"Adam," answered Michel Ardan, "can't be far off. He is here somewhere.
+He must be called! Satellite! here, Satellite!"
+
+But Satellite did not appear. Diana continued moaning. It was decided,
+however, that she was not wounded, and an appetising dish was set before
+her to stop her complaining.
+
+As to Satellite, he seemed lost. They were obliged to search a long time
+before discovering him in one of the upper compartments of the
+projectile, where a rather inexplicable rebound had hurled him
+violently. The poor animal was in a pitiable condition.
+
+"The devil!" said Michel. "Our acclimatisation is in danger!"
+
+The unfortunate dog was carefully lowered. His head had been fractured
+against the roof, and it seemed difficult for him to survive such a
+shock. Nevertheless, he was comfortably stretched on a cushion, where he
+sighed once.
+
+"We will take care of you," said Michel; "we are responsible for your
+existence. I would rather lose an arm than a paw of my poor Satellite."
+
+So saying he offered some water to the wounded animal, who drank it
+greedily.
+
+These attentions bestowed, the travellers attentively watched the earth
+and the moon. The earth only appeared like a pale disc terminated by a
+crescent smaller than that of the previous evening, but its volume
+compared with that of the moon, which was gradually forming a perfect
+circle, remained enormous.
+
+"_Parbleu_!" then said Michel Ardan; "I am really sorry we did not start
+when the earth was at her full--that is to say, when our globe was in
+opposition to the sun!"
+
+"Why?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Because we should have seen our continents and seas under a new
+aspect--the continents shining under the solar rays, the seas darker,
+like they figure upon certain maps of the world! I should like to have
+seen those poles of the earth upon which the eye of man has never yet
+rested!"
+
+"I daresay," answered Barbicane, "but if the earth had been full the
+moon would have been new--that is to say, invisible amidst the
+irradiation of the sun. It is better for us to see the goal we want to
+reach than the place we started from."
+
+"You are right, Barbicane," answered Captain Nicholl; "and besides, when
+we have reached the moon we shall have plenty of time during the long
+lunar nights to consider at leisure the globe that harbours men like
+us."
+
+"Men like us!" cried Michel Ardan. "But now they are not more like us
+than the Selenites. We are inhabitants of a new world peopled by us
+alone--the projectile! I am a man like Barbicane, and Barbicane is a man
+like Nicholl. Beyond us and outside of us humanity ends, and we are the
+only population of this microcosm until the moment we become simple
+Selenites."
+
+"In about eighty-eight hours," replied the captain.
+
+"Which means?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"That it is half-past eight," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," answered Michel, "I fail to find the shadow of a reason why
+we should not breakfast _illico_."
+
+In fact, the inhabitants of the new star could not live in it without
+eating, and their stomachs then submitted to the imperious laws of
+hunger. Michel Ardan, in his quality of Frenchman, declared himself
+chief cook, an important function that no one disputed with him. The gas
+gave the necessary degrees of heat for cooking purposes, and the
+provision-locker furnished the elements of this first banquet.
+
+The breakfast began with three cups of excellent broth, due to the
+liquefaction in hot water of three precious Liebig tablets, prepared
+from the choicest morsels of the Pampas ruminants. Some slices of
+beefsteak succeeded them, compressed by the hydraulic press, as tender
+and succulent as if they had just come from the butchers of the Paris
+Cafe Anglais. Michel, an imaginative man, would have it they were even
+rosy.
+
+Preserved vegetables, "fresher than the natural ones," as the amiable
+Michel observed, succeeded the meat, and were followed by some cups of
+tea and slices of bread and butter, American fashion. This beverage,
+pronounced excellent, was made from tea of the first quality, of which
+the Emperor of Russia had put some cases at the disposition of the
+travellers.
+
+Lastly, as a worthy ending to the meal, Ardan ferreted out a fine bottle
+of "Nuits" burgundy that "happened" to be in the provision compartment.
+The three friends drank it to the union of the earth and her satellite.
+
+And as if the generous wine it had distilled upon the hill-sides of
+Burgundy were not enough, the sun was determined to help in the feast.
+The projectile at that moment emerged from the cone of shadow cast by
+the terrestrial globe, and the sun's rays fell directly upon the lower
+disc of the bullet, on account of the angle which the orbit of the moon
+makes with that of the earth.
+
+"The sun!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Of course," answered Barbicane; "I expected it."
+
+"But," said Michel, "the cone of shadow thrown by the earth into space
+extends beyond the moon."
+
+"Much beyond if you do not take the atmospheric refraction into
+account," said Barbicane. "But when the moon is enveloped in that shadow
+the centres of the three heavenly bodies--the sun, the earth, and the
+moon--are in a straight line. Then the nodes coincide with the full moon
+and there is an eclipse. If, therefore, we had started during an eclipse
+of the moon all our journey would have been accomplished in the dark,
+which would have been a pity."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because, although we are journeying in the void, our projectile, bathed
+in the solar rays, will gather their light and heat; therefore there
+will be economy of gas, a precious economy in every way."
+
+In fact, under these rays, the temperature and brilliancy of which there
+was no atmosphere to soften, the projectile was lighted and warmed as if
+it had suddenly passed from winter to summer. The moon above and the sun
+below inundated it with their rays.
+
+"It is pleasant here now," said Nicholl.
+
+"I believe you!" cried Michel Ardan. "With a little vegetable soil
+spread over our aluminium planet we could grow green peas in twenty-four
+hours. I have only one fear, that is that the walls of our bullet will
+melt."
+
+"You need not alarm yourself, my worthy friend," answered Barbicane.
+"The projectile supported a much higher temperature while it was
+travelling through the atmosphere. I should not even wonder if it looked
+to the eyes of the spectators like a fiery meteor."
+
+"Then J.T. Maston must think we are roasted!"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Barbicane, "is that we are not. It
+was a danger we did not foresee."
+
+"I feared it," answered Nicholl simply.
+
+"And you did not say anything about it, sublime captain!" cried Michel
+Ardan, shaking his companion's hand.
+
+In the meantime Barbicane was making his arrangements in the projectile
+as though he was never going to leave it. It will be remembered that the
+base of the aerial vehicle was fifty-four feet square. It was twelve
+feet high, and admirably fitted up in the interior. It was not much
+encumbered by the instruments and travelling utensils, which were all in
+special places, and it left some liberty of movement to its three
+inhabitants. The thick glass let into a part of the floor could bear
+considerable weight with impunity. Barbicane and his companions walked
+upon it as well as upon a solid floor; but the sun, which struck it
+directly with its rays, lighting the interior of the projectile from
+below, produced singular effects of light.
+
+They began by examining the state of the water and provision
+receptacles. They were not in the least damaged, thanks to the
+precautions taken to deaden the shock. The provisions were abundant, and
+sufficient for one year's food. Barbicane took this precaution in case
+the projectile should arrive upon an absolutely barren part of the moon.
+There was only enough water and brandy for two months. But according to
+the latest observations of astronomers, the moon had a dense low and
+thick atmosphere, at least in its deepest valleys, and there streams and
+watercourses could not fail. Therefore the adventurous explorers would
+not suffer from hunger or thirst during the journey, and the first year
+of their installation upon the lunar continent.
+
+The question of air in the interior of the projectile also offered all
+security. The Reiset and Regnault apparatus, destined to produce oxygen,
+was furnished with enough chlorate of potash for two months. It
+necessarily consumed a large quantity of gas, for it was obliged to keep
+the productive matter up to 100 deg.. But there was abundance of that also.
+The apparatus wanted little looking after. It worked automatically. At
+that high temperature the chlorate of potash changed into chlorine of
+potassium, and gave out all the oxygen it contained. The eighteen pounds
+of chlorate of potash gave out the seven pounds of oxygen necessary for
+the daily consumption of the three travellers.
+
+But it was not enough to renew the oxygen consumed; the carbonic acid
+gas produced by expiration must also be absorbed. Now for the last
+twelve hours the atmosphere of the bullet had become loaded with this
+deleterious gas, the product of the combustion of the elements of blood
+by the oxygen taken into the lungs. Nicholl perceived this state of the
+air by seeing Diana palpitate painfully. In fact, carbonic acid
+gas--through a phenomenon identical with the one to be noticed in the
+famous Dog's Grotto--accumulated at the bottom of the projectile by
+reason of its weight. Poor Diana, whose head was low down, therefore
+necessarily suffered from it before her masters. But Captain Nicholl
+made haste to remedy this state of things. He placed on the floor of the
+projectile several receptacles containing caustic potash which he shook
+about for some time, and this matter, which is very greedy of carbonic
+acid, completely absorbed it, and thus purified the interior air.
+
+An inventory of the instruments was then begun. The thermometers and
+barometers were undamaged, with the exception of a minimum thermometer
+the glass of which was broken. An excellent aneroid was taken out of
+its padded box and hung upon the wall. Of course it was only acted upon
+by and indicated the pressure of the air inside the projectile; but it
+also indicated the quantity of moisture it contained. At that moment its
+needle oscillated between 25.24 and 25.08. It was at "set fair."
+
+Barbicane had brought several compasses, which were found intact. It
+will be easily understood that under those circumstances their needles
+were acting at random, without any constant direction. In fact, at the
+distance the projectile was from the earth the magnetic pole could not
+exercise any sensible action upon the apparatus. But these compasses,
+taken upon the lunar disc, might show particular phenomena. In any case
+it would be interesting to verify whether the earth's satellite, like
+the earth herself, submitted to magnetical influence.
+
+A hypsometer to measure the altitude of the lunar mountains, a sextant
+to take the height of the sun, a theodolite, an instrument for
+surveying, telescopes to be used as the moon approached--all these
+instruments were carefully inspected and found in good condition,
+notwithstanding the violence of the initial shock.
+
+As to the utensils--pickaxes, spades, and different tools--of which
+Nicholl had made a special collection, the sacks of various kinds of
+grain, and the shrubs which Michel Ardan counted upon transplanting into
+Selenite soil, they were in their places in the upper corners of the
+projectile. There was made a sort of granary, which the prodigal
+Frenchman had filled. What was in it was very little known, and the
+merry fellow did not enlighten anybody. From time to time he climbed up
+the cramp-irons riveted in the walls to this store-room, the inspection
+of which he had reserved to himself. He arranged and re-arranged,
+plunged his hand rapidly into certain mysterious boxes, singing all the
+time in a voice very out of tune some old French song to enliven the
+situation.
+
+Barbicane noticed with interest that his rockets and other fireworks
+were not damaged. These were important, for, powerfully loaded, they
+were meant to slacken the speed with which the projectile would, when
+attracted by the moon after passing the point of neutral attraction,
+fall upon her surface. This fall besides would be six times less rapid
+than it would have been upon the surface of the earth, thanks to the
+difference of volume in the two bodies.
+
+The inspection ended, therefore, in general satisfaction. Then they all
+returned to their posts of observation at the lateral and lower
+port-lights.
+
+The same spectacle was spread before them. All the extent of the
+celestial sphere swarmed with stars and constellations of marvellous
+brilliancy, enough to make an astronomer wild! On one side the sun, like
+the mouth of a fiery furnace, shone upon the dark background of the
+heavens. On the other side the moon, reflecting back his fires, seemed
+motionless amidst the starry world. Then a large spot, like a hole in
+the firmament, bordered still by a slight thread of silver--it was the
+earth. Here and there nebulous masses like large snow-flakes, and from
+zenith to nadir an immense ring, formed of an impalpable dust of
+stars--that milky way amidst which the sun only counts as a star of the
+fourth magnitude!
+
+The spectators could not take their eyes off a spectacle so new, of
+which no description could give any idea. What reflections it suggested!
+What unknown emotions it aroused in the soul! Barbicane wished to begin
+the recital of his journey under the empire of these impressions, and he
+noted down hourly all the events that signalised the beginning of his
+enterprise. He wrote tranquilly in his large and rather
+commercial-looking handwriting.
+
+During that time the calculating Nicholl looked over the formulae of
+trajectories, and worked away at figures with unparalleled dexterity.
+Michel Ardan talked sometimes to Barbicane, who did not answer much, to
+Nicholl, who did not hear, and to Diana, who did not understand his
+theories, and lastly to himself, making questions and answers, going and
+coming, occupying himself with a thousand details, sometimes leaning
+over the lower port-light, sometimes roosting in the heights of the
+projectile, singing all the time. In this microcosm he represented the
+French agitation and loquacity, and it was worthily represented.
+
+The day, or rather--for the expression is not correct--the lapse of
+twelve hours which makes a day upon earth--was ended by a copious supper
+carefully prepared. No incident of a nature to shake the confidence of
+the travellers had happened, so, full of hope and already sure of
+success, they went to sleep peacefully, whilst the projectile, at a
+uniformly increasing speed, made its way in the heavens.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A LITTLE ALGEBRA.
+
+
+The night passed without incident. Correctly speaking, the word "night"
+is an improper one. The position of the projectile in regard to the sun
+did not change. Astronomically it was day on the bottom of the bullet,
+and night on the top. When, therefore, in this recital these two words
+are used they express the lapse of time between the rising and setting
+of the sun upon earth.
+
+The travellers' sleep was so much the more peaceful because,
+notwithstanding its excessive speed, the projectile seemed absolutely
+motionless. No movement indicated its journey through space. However
+rapidly change of place may be effected, it cannot produce any sensible
+effect upon the organism when it takes place in the void, or when the
+mass of air circulates along with the travelling body. What inhabitant
+of the earth perceives the speed which carries him along at the rate of
+68,000 miles an hour? Movement under such circumstances is not felt more
+than repose. Every object is indifferent to it. When a body is in repose
+it remains so until some foreign force puts it in movement. When in
+movement it would never stop if some obstacle were not in its road. This
+indifference to movement or repose is inertia.
+
+Barbicane and his companions could, therefore, imagine themselves
+absolutely motionless, shut up in the interior of the projectile. The
+effect would have been the same if they had placed themselves on the
+outside. Without the moon, which grew larger above them, and the earth
+that grew smaller below, they would have sworn they were suspended in a
+complete stagnation.
+
+That morning, the 3rd of December, they were awakened by a joyful but
+unexpected noise. It was the crowing of a cock in the interior of their
+vehicle.
+
+Michel Ardan was the first to get up; he climbed to the top of the
+projectile and closed a partly-open case.
+
+"Be quiet," said he in a whisper. "That animal will spoil my plan!"
+
+In the meantime Nicholl and Barbicane awoke.
+
+"Was that a cock?" said Nicholl.
+
+"No, my friends," answered Michel quickly. "I wished to awake you with
+that rural sound."
+
+So saying he gave vent to a cock-a-doodle-do which would have done
+honour to the proudest of gallinaceans.
+
+The two Americans could not help laughing.
+
+"A fine accomplishment that," said Nicholl, looking suspiciously at his
+companion.
+
+"Yes," answered Michel, "a joke common in my country. It is very Gallic.
+We perpetrate it in the best society."
+
+Then turning the conversation--
+
+"Barbicane, do you know what I have been thinking about all night?"
+
+"No," answered the president.
+
+"About our friends at Cambridge. You have already remarked how
+admirably ignorant I am of mathematics. I find it, therefore, impossible
+to guess how our _savants_ of the observatory could calculate what
+initial velocity the projectile ought to be endowed with on leaving the
+Columbiad in order to reach the moon."
+
+"You mean," replied Barbicane, "in order to reach that neutral point
+where the terrestrial and lunar attractions are equal; for beyond this
+point, situated at about 0.9 of the distance, the projectile will fall
+upon the moon by virtue of its own weight merely."
+
+"Very well," answered Michel; "but once more; how did they calculate the
+initial velocity?"
+
+"Nothing is easier," said Barbicane.
+
+"And could you have made the calculation yourself?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Certainly; Nicholl and I could have determined it if the notice from
+the observatory had not saved us the trouble."
+
+"Well, old fellow," answered Michel, "they might sooner cut off my head,
+beginning with my feet, than have made me solve that problem!"
+
+"Because you do not know algebra," replied Barbicane tranquilly.
+
+"Ah, that's just like you dealers in _x_! You think you have explained
+everything when you have said 'algebra.'"
+
+"Michel," replied Barbicane, "do you think it possible to forge without
+a hammer, or to plough without a ploughshare?"
+
+"It would be difficult."
+
+"Well, then, algebra is a tool like a plough or a hammer, and a good
+tool for any one who knows how to use it."
+
+"Seriously?"
+
+"Quite."
+
+"Could you use that tool before me?"
+
+"If it would interest you."
+
+"And could you show me how they calculated the initial speed of our
+vehicle?"
+
+"Yes, my worthy friend. By taking into account all the elements of the
+problem, the distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the
+moon, of the radius of the earth, the volume of the earth and the volume
+of the moon, I can determine exactly what the initial speed of the
+projectile ought to be, and that by a very simple formula."
+
+"Show me the formula."
+
+"You shall see it. Only I will not give you the curve really traced by
+the bullet between the earth and the moon, by taking into account their
+movement of translation round the sun. No. I will consider both bodies
+to be motionless, and that will be sufficient for us."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because that would be seeking to solve the problem called 'the problem
+of the three bodies,' for which the integral calculus is not yet far
+enough advanced."
+
+"Indeed," said Michel Ardan in a bantering tone; "then mathematics have
+not said their last word."
+
+"Certainly not," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Good! Perhaps the Selenites have pushed the integral calculus further
+than you! By-the-bye, what is the integral calculus?"
+
+"It is the inverse of the differential calculus," answered Barbicane
+seriously.
+
+"Much obliged."
+
+"To speak otherwise, it is a calculus by which you seek finished
+quantities of what you know the differential quantities."
+
+"That is clear at least," answered Barbicane with a quite satisfied air.
+
+"And now," continued Barbicane, "for a piece of paper and a pencil, and
+in half-an-hour I will have found the required formula."
+
+That said, Barbicane became absorbed in his work, whilst Nicholl looked
+into space, leaving the care of preparing breakfast to his companion.
+
+Half-an-hour had not elapsed before Barbicane, raising his head, showed
+Michel Ardan a page covered with algebraical signs, amidst which the
+following general formula was discernible:--
+
+    1   2   2          r         m'    r     r
+    - (v - v ) = gr { --- - 1 + --- ( --- - ---) }
+    2       0          x         m    d-x   d-r
+
+"And what does that mean?" asked Michel.
+
+"That means," answered Nicholl, "that the half of _v_ minus _v_ zero
+square equals _gr_ multiplied by _r_ upon _x_ minus 1 plus _m_ prime
+upon _m_ multiplied by _r_ upon _d_ minus _x_, minus _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_x_ minus _r_--"
+
+"_X_ upon _y_ galloping upon _z_ and rearing upon _p_" cried Michel
+Ardan, bursting out laughing. "Do you mean to say you understand that,
+captain?"
+
+"Nothing is clearer."
+
+"Then," said Michel Ardan, "it is as plain as a pikestaff, and I want
+nothing more."
+
+"Everlasting laugher," said Barbicane, "you wanted algebra, and now you
+shall have it over head and ears."
+
+"I would rather be hung!"
+
+"That appears a good solution, Barbicane," said Nicholl, who was
+examining the formula like a _connaisseur_. "It is the integral of the
+equation of 'vis viva,' and I do not doubt that it will give us the
+desired result."
+
+"But I should like to understand!" exclaimed Michel. "I would give ten
+years of Nicholl's life to understand!"
+
+"Then listen," resumed Barbicane. "The half of _v_ minus _v_ zero square
+is the formula that gives us the demi-variation of the 'vis viva.'"
+
+"Good; and does Nicholl understand what that means?"
+
+"Certainly, Michel," answered the captain. "All those signs that look so
+cabalistic to you form the clearest and most logical language for those
+who know how to read it."
+
+"And do you pretend, Nicholl," asked Michel, "that by means of these
+hieroglyphics, more incomprehensible than the Egyptian ibis, you can
+find the initial speed necessary to give to the projectile?"
+
+"Incontestably," answered Nicholl; "and even by that formula I could
+always tell you what speed it is going at on any point of the journey."
+
+"Upon your word of honour?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then you are as clever as our president."
+
+"No, Michel, all the difficulty consists in what Barbicane has done. It
+is to establish an equation which takes into account all the conditions
+of the problem. The rest is only a question of arithmetic, and requires
+nothing but a knowledge of the four rules."
+
+"That's something," answered Michel Ardan, who had never been able to
+make a correct addition in his life, and who thus defined the rule: "A
+Chinese puzzle, by which you can obtain infinitely various results."
+
+Still Barbicane answered that Nicholl would certainly have found the
+formula had he thought about it.
+
+"I do not know if I should," said Nicholl, "for the more I study it the
+more marvellously correct I find it."
+
+"Now listen," said Barbicane to his ignorant comrade, "and you will see
+that all these letters have a signification."
+
+"I am listening," said Michel, looking resigned.
+
+"_d_," said Barbicane, "is the distance from the centre of the earth to
+the centre of the moon, for we must take the centres to calculate the
+attraction."
+
+"That I understand."
+
+"_r_ is the radius of the earth."
+
+"_r_, radius; admitted."
+
+"_m_ is the volume of the earth; _m prime_ that of the moon. We are
+obliged to take into account the volume of the two attracting bodies, as
+the attraction is in proportion to the volume."
+
+"I understand that."
+
+"_g_ represents gravity, the speed acquired at the end of a second by a
+body falling on the surface of the earth. Is that clear?"
+
+"A mountain stream!" answered Michel.
+
+"Now I represent by _x_ the variable distance that separates the
+projectile from the centre of the earth, and by _v_ the velocity the
+projectile has at that distance."
+
+"Good."
+
+"Lastly, the expression _v_ zero which figures in the equation is the
+speed the bullet possesses when it emerges from the atmosphere."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "you were obliged to calculate the velocity from
+that point, because we knew before that the velocity at departure is
+exactly equal to 3/2 of the velocity upon emerging from the atmosphere."
+
+"Don't understand any more!" said Michel.
+
+"Yet it is very simple," said Barbicane.
+
+"I do not find it very simple," replied Michel.
+
+"It means that when our projectile reached the limit of the terrestrial
+atmosphere it had already lost one-third of its initial velocity."
+
+"As much as that?"
+
+"Yes, my friend, simply by friction against the atmosphere. You will
+easily understand that the greater its speed the more resistance it
+would meet with from the air."
+
+"That I admit," answered Michel, "and I understand it, although your _v_
+zero two and your _v_ zero square shake about in my head like nails in a
+sack."
+
+"First effect of algebra," continued Barbicane. "And now to finish we
+are going to find the numerical known quantity of these different
+expressions--that is to say, find out their value."
+
+"You will finish me first!" answered Michel.
+
+"Some of these expressions," said Barbicane, "are known; the others have
+to be calculated."
+
+"I will calculate those," said Nicholl.
+
+"And _r_," resumed Barbicane, "_r_ is the radius of the earth under the
+latitude of Florida, our point of departure, _d_--that is to say, the
+distance from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon equals
+fifty-six terrestrial radii--"
+
+Nicholl rapidly calculated.
+
+"That makes 356,720,000 metres when the moon is at her perigee--that is
+to say, when she is nearest to the earth."
+
+"Very well," said Barbicane, "now _m_ prime upon _m_--that is to say,
+the proportion of the moon's volume to that of the earth equals 1/81."
+
+"Perfect," said Michel.
+
+"And _g_, the gravity, is to Florida 9-1/81 metres. From whence it
+results that _gr_ equals--"
+
+"Sixty-two million four hundred and twenty-six thousand square metres,"
+answered Nicholl.
+
+"What next?" asked Michel Ardan.
+
+"Now that the expressions are reduced to figures, I am going to find the
+velocity _v zero_--that is to say, the velocity that the projectile
+ought to have on leaving the atmosphere to reach the point of equal
+attraction with no velocity. The velocity at that point I make equal
+_zero_, and _x_, the distance where the neutral point is, will be
+represented by the nine-tenths of _d_--that is to say, the distance that
+separates the two centres."
+
+"I have some vague idea that it ought to be so," said Michel.
+
+"I shall then have, _x_ equals nine-tenths of _d_, and _v_ equals
+_zero_, and my formula will become--"
+
+Barbicane wrote rapidly on the paper--
+
+     2              10r   1    10r    r
+    v  = 2 gr { 1 - ---  --- ( --- - ---) }
+     0               9d   81    d    d-r
+
+Nicholl read it quickly.
+
+"That's it! that is it!" he cried.
+
+"Is it clear?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"It is written in letters of fire!" answered Nicholl.
+
+"Clever fellows!" murmured Michel.
+
+"Do you understand now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"If I understand!" cried Michel Ardan. "My head is bursting with it."
+
+"Thus," resumed Barbicane, "_v zero_ square equals 2 _gr_ multiplied by
+1 minus 10 _r_ upon 9 _d_ minus 1/81 multiplied by 10 _r_ upon _d_ minus
+_r_ upon _d_ minus _r_."
+
+"And now," said Nicholl, "in order to obtain the velocity of the bullet
+as it emerges from the atmosphere I have only to calculate."
+
+The captain, like a man used to overcome all difficulties, began to
+calculate with frightful rapidity. Divisions and multiplications grew
+under his fingers. Figures dotted the page. Barbicane followed him with
+his eyes, whilst Michel Ardan compressed a coming headache with his two
+hands.
+
+"Well, what do you make it?" asked Barbicane after several minutes'
+silence.
+
+"I make it 11,051 metres in the first second."
+
+"What do you say?" said Barbicane, starting.
+
+"Eleven thousand and fifty-one metres."
+
+"Malediction!" cried the president with a gesture of despair.
+
+"What's the matter with you?" asked Michel Ardan, much surprised.
+
+"The matter! why if at this moment the velocity was already diminished
+one-third by friction, the initial speed ought to have been--"
+
+"Sixteen thousand five hundred and seventy-six metres!" answered
+Nicholl.
+
+"But the Cambridge Observatory declared that 11,000 metres were enough
+at departure, and our bullet started with that velocity only!"
+
+"Well?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Why it was not enough!"
+
+"No."
+
+"We shall not reach the neutral point."
+
+"The devil!"
+
+"We shall not even go half way!"
+
+"_Nom d'un boulet_!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, jumping up as if the
+projectile were on the point of striking against the terrestrial globe.
+
+"And we shall fall back upon the earth!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE.
+
+
+This revelation acted like a thunderbolt. Who could have expected such
+an error in calculation? Barbicane would not believe it. Nicholl went
+over the figures again. They were correct. The formula which had
+established them could not be mistrusted, and, when verified, the
+initial velocity of 16,576 metres, necessary for attaining the neutral
+point, was found quite right.
+
+The three friends looked at one another in silence. No one thought about
+breakfast after that. Barbicane, with set teeth, contracted brow, and
+fists convulsively closed, looked through the port-light. Nicholl
+folded his arms and examined his calculations. Michel Ardan murmured--
+
+"That's just like _savants_! That's the way they always do! I would give
+twenty pistoles to fall upon the Cambridge Observatory and crush it,
+with all its stupid staff inside!"
+
+All at once the captain made a reflection which struck Barbicane at
+once.
+
+"Why," said he, "it is seven o'clock in the morning, so we have been
+thirty-two hours on the road. We have come more than half way, and we
+are not falling yet that I know of!"
+
+Barbicane did not answer, but after a rapid glance at the captain he
+took a compass, which he used to measure the angular distance of the
+terrestrial globe. Then through the lower port-light he made a very
+exact observation from the apparent immobility of the projectile. Then
+rising and wiping the perspiration from his brow, he put down some
+figures upon paper. Nicholl saw that the president wished to find out
+from the length of the terrestrial diameter the distance of the bullet
+from the earth. He looked at him anxiously.
+
+"No!" cried Barbicane in a few minutes' time, "we are not falling! We
+are already more than 50,000 leagues from the earth! We have passed the
+point the projectile ought to have stopped at if its speed had been only
+11,000 metres at our departure! We are still ascending!"
+
+"That is evident," answered Nicholl; "so we must conclude that our
+initial velocity, under the propulsion of the 400,000 lbs. of
+gun-cotton, was greater than the 11,000 metres. I can now explain to
+myself why we met with the second satellite, that gravitates at more
+than 2,000 leagues from the earth, in less than thirteen minutes."
+
+"That explanation is so much the more probable," added Barbicane,
+"because by throwing out the water in our movable partitions the
+projectile was made considerably lighter all at once."
+
+"That is true," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah, my brave Nicholl," cried Barbicane, "we are saved!"
+
+"Very well then," answered Michel Ardan tranquilly, "as we are saved,
+let us have breakfast."
+
+Nicholl was not mistaken. The initial speed had happily been greater
+than that indicated by the Cambridge Observatory, but the Cambridge
+Observatory had no less been mistaken.
+
+The travellers, recovered from their false alarm, sat down to table and
+breakfasted merrily. Though they ate much they talked more. Their
+confidence was greater after the "algebra incident."
+
+"Why should we not succeed?" repeated Michel Ardan. "Why should we not
+arrive? We are on the road; there are no obstacles before us, and no
+stones on our route. It is free--freer than that of a ship that has to
+struggle with the sea, or a balloon with the wind against it! Now if a
+ship can go where it pleases, or a balloon ascend where it pleases, why
+should not our projectile reach the goal it was aimed at?"
+
+"It will reach it," said Barbicane.
+
+"If only to honour the American nation," added Michel Ardan, "the only
+nation capable of making such an enterprise succeed--the only one that
+could have produced a President Barbicane! Ah! now I think of it, now
+that all our anxieties are over, what will become of us? We shall be as
+dull as stagnant water."
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl made gestures of repudiation.
+
+"But I foresaw this, my friends," resumed Michel Ardan. "You have only
+to say the word. I have chess, backgammon, cards, and dominoes at your
+disposition. We only want a billiard-table!"
+
+"What?" asked Barbicane, "did you bring such trifles as those?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Michel; "not only for our amusement, but also in
+the praiseworthy intention of bestowing them upon Selenite inns."
+
+"My friend," said Barbicane, "if the moon is inhabited its inhabitants
+appeared some thousands of years before those of the earth, for it
+cannot be doubted that the moon is older than the earth. If, therefore,
+the Selenites have existed for thousands of centuries--if their brains
+are organised like that of human beings--they have invented all that we
+have invented, already, and even what we shall only invent in the lapse
+of centuries. They will have nothing to learn from us, and we shall have
+everything to learn from them."
+
+"What!" answered Michel, "do you think they have had artists like
+Phidias, Michael Angelo, or Raphael?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Poets like Homer, Virgil, Milton, Lamartine, and Hugo?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"Philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant?"
+
+"I have no doubt of it."
+
+"_Savants_ like Archimedes, Euclid, Pascal, and Newton?"
+
+"I could swear it."
+
+"Clowns like Arnal, and photographers like--Nadar?"
+
+"I am certain of it."
+
+"Then, friend Barbicane, if these Selenites are as learned as we, and
+even more so, why have they not hurled a lunar projectile as far as the
+terrestrial regions?"
+
+"Who says they have not done it?" answered Barbicane seriously.
+
+"In fact," added Nicholl, "it would have been easier to them than to us,
+and that for two reasons--the first because the attraction is six times
+less on the surface of the moon than on the surface of the earth, which
+would allow a projectile to go up more easily; secondly the projectile
+would only have 8,000 leagues to travel instead of 80,000, which would
+require a force of propulsion ten times less."
+
+"Then," resumed Michel, "I repeat--why have they not done it?"
+
+"And I," replied Barbicane, "I repeat--who says they have not done it?"
+
+"When?"
+
+"Hundreds of centuries ago, before man's appearance upon earth."
+
+"And the bullet? Where is the bullet? I ask to see the bullet!"
+
+"My friend," answered Barbicane, "the sea covers five-sixths of our
+globe, hence there are five good reasons for supposing that the lunar
+projectile, if it has been fired, is now submerged at the bottom of the
+Atlantic or Pacific, unless it was buried down some abyss at the epoch
+when the earth's crust was not sufficiently formed."
+
+"Old fellow," answered Michel, "you have an answer to everything, and I
+bow before your wisdom. There is one hypothesis I would rather believe
+than the others, and that is that the Selenites being older than we are
+wiser, and have not invented gunpowder at all."
+
+At that moment Diana claimed her share in the conversation by a sonorous
+bark. She asked for her breakfast.
+
+"Ah!" said Michel Ardan, "our arguments make us forget Diana and
+Satellite!"
+
+A good dish of food was immediately offered to the dog, who devoured it
+with great appetite.
+
+"Do you know, Barbicane," said Michel, "we ought to have made this
+projectile a sort of Noah's Ark, and have taken a couple of all the
+domestic animals with us to the moon."
+
+"No doubt," answered Barbicane, "but we should not have had room
+enough."
+
+"Oh, we might have been packed a little tighter!"
+
+"The fact is," answered Nicholl, "that oxen, cows, bulls, and horses,
+all those ruminants would be useful on the lunar continent.
+Unfortunately we cannot make our projectile either a stable or a
+cowshed."
+
+"But at least," said Michel Ardan, "we might have brought an ass,
+nothing but a little ass, the courageous and patient animal old Silenus
+loved to exhibit. I am fond of those poor asses! They are the least
+favoured animals in creation. They are not only beaten during their
+lifetime, but are still beaten after their death!"
+
+"What do you mean by that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Why, don't they use his skin to make drums of?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at this absurd reflection.
+But a cry from their merry companion stopped them; he was bending over
+Satellite's niche, and rose up saying--
+
+"Good! Satellite is no longer ill."
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl.
+
+"No!" resumed Michel, "he is dead. Now," he added in a pitiful tone,
+"this will be embarrassing! I very much fear, poor Diana, that you will
+not leave any of your race in the lunar regions!"
+
+The unfortunate Satellite had not been able to survive his wounds. He
+was dead, stone dead. Michel Ardan, much put out of countenance, looked
+at his friends.
+
+"This makes another difficulty," said Barbicane. "We can't keep the dead
+body of this dog with us for another eight-and-forty hours."
+
+"No, certainly not," answered Nicholl, "but our port-lights are hung
+upon hinges. They can be let down. We will open one of them, and throw
+the body into space."
+
+The president reflected for a few minutes, and then said--
+
+"Yes, that is what we must do, but we must take the most minute
+precautions."
+
+"Why?" asked Michel.
+
+"For two reasons that I will explain to you," answered Barbicane. "The
+first has reference to the air in the projectile, of which we must lose
+as little as possible."
+
+"But we can renew the air!"
+
+"Not entirely. We can only renew the oxygen, Michel; and, by-the-bye, we
+must be careful that the apparatus do not furnish us with this oxygen in
+an immoderate quantity, for an excess of it would cause grave
+physiological consequences. But although we can renew the oxygen we
+cannot renew the azote, that medium which the lungs do not absorb, and
+which ought to remain intact. Now the azote would rapidly escape if the
+port-lights were opened."
+
+"Not just the time necessary to throw poor Satellite out."
+
+"Agreed; but we must do it quickly."
+
+"And what is the second reason?" asked Michel.
+
+"The second reason is that we must not allow the exterior cold, which is
+excessive, to penetrate into our projectile lest we should be frozen
+alive."
+
+"Still the sun--"
+
+"The sun warms our projectile because it absorbs its rays, but it does
+not warm the void we are in now. When there is no air there is no more
+heat than there is diffused light, and where the sun's rays do not reach
+directly it is both dark and cold. The temperature outside is only that
+produced by the radiation of the stars--that is to say, the same as the
+temperature of the terrestrial globe would be if one day the sun were to
+be extinguished."
+
+"No fear of that," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Who knows?" said Michel Ardan. "And even supposing that the sun be not
+extinguished, it might happen that the earth will move farther away from
+it."
+
+"Good!" said Nicholl; "that's one of Michel's ideas!"
+
+"Well," resumed Michel, "it is well known that in 1861 the earth went
+through the tail of a comet. Now suppose there was a comet with a power
+of attraction greater than that of the sun, the terrestrial globe might
+make a curve towards the wandering star, and the earth would become its
+satellite, and would be dragged away to such a distance that the rays of
+the sun would have no action on its surface."
+
+"That might happen certainly," answered Barbicane, "but the consequences
+would not be so redoubtable as you would suppose."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Because heat and cold would still be pretty well balanced upon our
+globe. It has been calculated that if the earth had been carried away by
+the comet of 1861, it would only have felt, when at its greatest
+distance from the sun, a heat sixteen times greater than that sent to us
+by the moon--a heat which, when focussed by the strongest lens, produces
+no appreciable effect."
+
+"Well?" said Michel.
+
+"Wait a little," answered Barbicane. "It has been calculated that at its
+perihelion, when nearest to the sun, the earth would have borne a heat
+equal to 28,000 times that of summer. But this heat, capable of
+vitrifying terrestrial matters, and of evaporating water, would have
+formed a thick circle of clouds which would have lessened the excessive
+heat, hence there would be compensation between the cold of the aphelion
+and the heat of the perihelion, and an average probably supportable."
+
+"At what number of degrees do they estimate the temperature of the
+planetary space?"
+
+"Formerly," answered Barbicane, "it was believed that this temperature
+was exceedingly low. By calculating its thermometric diminution it was
+fixed at millions of degrees below zero. It was Fourier, one of Michel's
+countrymen, an illustrious _savant_ of the _Academie des Sciences_, who
+reduced these numbers to a juster estimation. According to him, the
+temperature of space does not get lower than 60 deg. Centigrade."
+
+Michel whistled.
+
+"It is about the temperature of the polar regions," answered Barbicane,
+"at Melville Island or Fort Reliance--about 56 deg. Centigrade below zero."
+
+"It remains to be proved," said Nicholl, "that Fourier was not mistaken
+in his calculations. If I am not mistaken, another Frenchman, M.
+Pouillet, estimates the temperature of space at 160 deg. below zero. We
+shall be able to verify that."
+
+"Not now," answered Barbicane, "for the solar rays striking directly
+upon our thermometer would give us, on the contrary, a very elevated
+temperature. But when we get upon the moon, during the nights, a
+fortnight long, which each of its faces endures alternately, we shall
+have leisure to make the experiment, for our satellite moves in the
+void."
+
+"What do you mean by the void?" asked Michel; "is it absolute void?"
+
+"It is absolutely void of air."
+
+"Is there nothing in its place?"
+
+"Yes, ether," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Ah! and what is ether?"
+
+"Ether, my friend, is an agglomeration of imponderable particles, which,
+relatively to their dimensions, are as far removed from each other as
+the celestial bodies are in space, so say works on molecular physics. It
+is these atoms that by their vibrating movement produce light and heat
+by making four hundred and thirty billions of oscillations a second."
+
+"Millions of millions!" exclaimed Michel Ardan; "then _savants_ have
+measured and counted these oscillations! All these figures, friend
+Barbicane, are _savants'_ figures, which reach the ear but say nothing
+to the mind."
+
+"But they are obliged to have recourse to figures."
+
+"No. It would be much better to compare. A billion signifies nothing. An
+object of comparison explains everything. Example--When you tell me that
+Uranus is 76 times larger than the earth, Saturn 900 times larger,
+Jupiter 1,300 times larger, the sun 1,300,000 times larger, I am not
+much wiser. So I much prefer the old comparisons of the _Double
+Liegoise_ that simply tells you, 'The sun is a pumpkin two feet in
+diameter, Jupiter an orange, Saturn a Blenheim apple, Neptune a large
+cherry, Uranus a smaller cherry, the earth a pea, Venus a green pea,
+Mars the head of a large pin, Mercury a grain of mustard, and Juno,
+Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas fine grains of sand!' Then I know what it
+means!"
+
+After this tirade of Michel Ardan's against _savants_ and their
+billions, which he delivered without stopping to take breath, they set
+about burying Satellite. He was to be thrown into space like sailors
+throw a corpse into the sea.
+
+As President Barbicane had recommended, they had to act quickly so as to
+lose as little air as possible. The bolts upon the right-hand port-hole
+were carefully unscrewed, and an opening of about half a yard made,
+whilst Michel prepared to hurl his dog into space. The window, worked by
+a powerful lever, which conquered the pressure of air in the interior
+upon the sides of the projectile, moved upon its hinges, and Satellite
+was thrown out. Scarcely a particle of air escaped, and the operation
+succeeded so well that later on Barbicane did not fear to get rid of all
+the useless rubbish that encumbered the vehicle in the same way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
+
+
+On the 4th of December, at 5 a.m. by terrestrial reckoning, the
+travellers awoke, having been fifty-four hours on their journey. They
+had only been five hours and forty minutes more than half the time
+assigned for the accomplishment of their journey, but they had come more
+than seven-tenths of the distance. This peculiarity was due to their
+regularly-decreasing speed.
+
+When they looked at the earth through the port-light at the bottom, it
+only looked like a black spot drowned in the sun's rays. No crescent or
+pale light was now to be seen. The next day at midnight the earth would
+be new at the precise moment when the moon would be full. Above, the
+Queen of Night was nearing the line followed by the projectile, so as to
+meet it at the hour indicated. All around the dark vault was studded
+with brilliant specks which seemed to move slowly; but through the great
+distance they were at their relative size did not seem to alter much.
+The sun and the stars appeared exactly as they do from the earth. The
+moon was considerably enlarged; but the travellers' not very powerful
+telescopes did not as yet allow them to make very useful observations on
+her surface, or to reconnoitre the topographical or geological details.
+
+The time went by in interminable conversations. The talk was especially
+about the moon. Each brought his contingent of particular knowledge.
+Barbicane's and Nicholl's were always serious, Michel Ardan's always
+fanciful. The projectile, its situation and direction, the incidents
+that might arise, the precautions necessitated by its fall upon the
+moon, all this afforded inexhaustible material for conjecture.
+
+Whilst breakfasting a question of Michel's relative to the projectile
+provoked a rather curious answer from Barbicane, and one worthy of being
+recorded.
+
+Michel, supposing the bullet to be suddenly stopped whilst still endowed
+with its formidable initial velocity, wished to know what the
+consequences would have been.
+
+"But," answered Barbicane, "I don't see how the projectile could have
+been stopped."
+
+"But let us suppose it," answered Nicholl.
+
+"It is an impossible supposition," replied the practical president,
+"unless the force of impulsion had failed. But in that case its speed
+would have gradually decreased, and would not have stopped abruptly."
+
+"Admit that it had struck against some body in space."
+
+"What body?"
+
+"The enormous meteor we met."
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the projectile would have been broken into a
+thousand pieces, and we with it."
+
+"More than that," answered Barbicane, "we should have been burnt alive."
+
+"Burnt!" exclaimed Michel. "I regret it did not happen for us just to
+see."
+
+"And you would have seen with a vengeance," answered Barbicane. "It is
+now known that heat is only a modification of movement when water is
+heated--that is to say, when heat is added to it--that means the giving
+of movement to its particles."
+
+"That is an ingenious theory!" said Michel.
+
+"And a correct one, my worthy friend, for it explains all the phenomena
+of caloric. Heat is only molecular movement, a single oscillation of the
+particles of a body. When the break is put on a train it stops. But what
+becomes of the movement which animated it? Why do they grease the axles
+of the wheels? In order to prevent them catching fire from the movement
+lost by transformation. Do you understand?"
+
+"Admirably," answered Michel. "For example, when I have been running
+some time, and am covered with sweat, why am I forced to stop? Simply
+because my movement has been transformed into heat."
+
+Barbicane could not help laughing at this _repartie_ of Michel's. Then
+resuming his theory--
+
+"Thus," said he, "in case of a collision, it would have happened to our
+projectile as it does to the metal cannon-ball after striking
+armour-plate; it would fall burning, because its movement had been
+transformed into heat. In consequence, I affirm that if our bullet had
+struck against the asteroid, its speed, suddenly annihilated, would have
+produced heat enough to turn it immediately into vapour."
+
+"Then," asked Nicholl, "what would happen if the earth were to be
+suddenly stopped in her movement of translation?"
+
+"Her temperature would be carried to such a point," answered Barbicane,
+"that she would be immediately reduced to vapour."
+
+"Good," said Michel; "that means of ending the world would simplify many
+things."
+
+"And suppose the earth were to fall upon the sun?" said Nicholl.
+
+"According to calculations," answered Barbicane, "that would develop a
+heat equal to that produced by 1,600 globes of coal, equal in volume to
+the terrestrial globe."
+
+"A good increase of temperature for the sun," replied Michel Ardan, "of
+which the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune will probably not complain,
+for they must be dying of cold on their planet."
+
+"Thus, then, my friends, any movement suddenly stopped produces heat.
+This theory makes it supposed that the sun is constantly fed by an
+incessant fall of bodies upon its surface. It has been calculated--"
+
+"Now I shall be crushed," murmured Michel, "for figures are coming."
+
+"It has been calculated," continued Barbicane imperturbably, "that the
+shock of each asteroid upon the sun must produce heat equal to that of
+4,000 masses of coal of equal volume."
+
+"And what is the heat of the sun?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is equal to that which would be produced by a stratum of coal
+surrounding the sun to a depth of twenty-seven kilometres."
+
+"And that heat--"
+
+"Could boil 2,900,000,000 of cubic myriametres of water an hour." (A
+myriametre is equal to rather more than 6.2138 miles, or 6 miles 1
+furlong 28 poles.)
+
+"And we are not roasted by it?" cried Michel.
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "because the terrestrial atmosphere absorbs
+four-tenths of the solar heat. Besides, the quantity of heat intercepted
+by the earth is only two thousand millionth of the total."
+
+"I see that all is for the best," replied Michel, "and that our
+atmosphere is a useful invention, for it not only allows us to breathe,
+but actually prevents us roasting."
+
+"Yes," said Nicholl, "but, unfortunately, it will not be the same on the
+moon."
+
+"Bah!" said Michel, always confident. "If there are any inhabitants they
+breathe. If there are no longer any they will surely have left enough
+oxygen for three people, if only at the bottom of those ravines where it
+will have accumulated by reason of its weight! Well, we shall not climb
+the mountains! That is all."
+
+And Michel, getting up, went to look at the lunar disc, which was
+shining with intolerable brilliancy.
+
+"Faith!" said he, "it must be hot up there."
+
+"Without reckoning," answered Nicholl, "that daylight lasts 360 hours."
+
+"And by way of compensation night has the same duration," said
+Barbicane, "and as heat is restored by radiation, their temperature must
+be that of planetary space."
+
+"A fine country truly!" said Nicholl.
+
+"Never mind! I should like to be there already! It will be comical to
+have the earth for a moon, to see it rise on the horizon, to recognise
+the configuration of its continents, to say to oneself, 'There's America
+and there's Europe;' then to follow it till it is lost in the rays of
+the sun! By-the-bye, Barbicane, have the Selenites any eclipses?"
+
+"Yes, eclipses of the sun," answered Barbicane, "when the centres of the
+three stars are on the same line with the earth in the middle. But they
+are merely annular eclipses, during which the earth, thrown like a
+screen across the solar disc, allows the greater part to be seen."
+
+"Why is there no total eclipse?" asked Nicholl. "Is it because the cone
+of shade thrown by the earth does not extend beyond the moon?"
+
+"Yes, if you do not take into account the refraction produced by the
+terrestrial atmosphere, not if you do take that refraction into account.
+Thus, let _delta_ be the horizontal parallax and _p_ the apparent
+semidiameter--"
+
+"Ouf!" said Michel, "half of _v_ zero square! Do speak the vulgar
+tongue, man of algebra!"
+
+"Well, then, in popular language," answered Barbicane, "the mean
+distance between the moon and the earth being sixty terrestrial radii,
+the length of the cone of shadow, by dint of refraction, is reduced to
+less than forty-two radii. It follows, therefore, that during the
+eclipses the moon is beyond the cone of pure shade, and the sun sends it
+not only rays from its edges, but also rays from its centre."
+
+"Then," said Michel in a grumbling tone, "why is there any eclipse when
+there ought to be none?"
+
+"Solely because the solar rays are weakened by the refraction, and the
+atmosphere which they traverse extinguishes the greater part of them."
+
+"That reason satisfies me," answered Michel; "besides, we shall see for
+ourselves when we get there. Now, Barbicane, do you believe that the
+moon is an ancient comet?"
+
+"What an idea!"
+
+"Yes," replied Michel, with amiable conceit, "I have a few ideas of that
+kind."
+
+"But that idea does not originate with Michel," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Then I am only a plagiarist."
+
+"Without doubt," answered Nicholl. "According to the testimony of the
+ancients, the Arcadians pretended that their ancestors inhabited the
+earth before the moon became her satellite. Starting from this fact,
+certain _savants_ think the moon was a comet which its orbit one day
+brought near enough to the earth to be retained by terrestrial
+attraction."
+
+"And what truth is there in that hypothesis?" asked Michel.
+
+"None," answered Barbicane, "and the proof is that the moon has not kept
+a trace of the gaseous envelope that always accompanies comets."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "might not the moon, before becoming the earth's
+satellite, have passed near enough to the sun to leave all her gaseous
+substances by evaporation?"
+
+"It might, friend Nicholl, but it is not probable."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because--because, I really don't know."
+
+"Ah, what hundreds of volumes we might fill with what we don't know!"
+exclaimed Michel. "But I say," he continued, "what time is it?"
+
+"Three o'clock," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How the time goes," said Michel, "in the conversation of _savants_ like
+us! Decidedly I feel myself getting too learned! I feel that I am
+becoming a well of knowledge!"
+
+So saying, Michel climbed to the roof of the projectile, "in order
+better to observe the moon," he pretended. In the meanwhile his
+companions watched the vault of space through the lower port-light.
+There was nothing fresh to signalise.
+
+When Michel Ardan came down again he approached the lateral port-light,
+and suddenly uttered an exclamation of surprise.
+
+"What is the matter now?" asked Barbicane.
+
+The president approached the glass and saw a sort of flattened sack
+floating outside at some yards' distance from the projectile. This
+object seemed motionless like the bullet, and was consequently animated
+with the same ascensional movement.
+
+"Whatever can that machine be?" said Michel Ardan. "Is it one of the
+corpuscles of space which our projectile holds in its radius of
+attraction, and which will accompany it as far as the moon?"
+
+"What I am astonished at," answered Nicholl, "is that the specific
+weight of this body, which is certainly superior to that of the bullet,
+allows it to maintain itself so rigorously on its level."
+
+"Nicholl," said Barbicane, after a moment's reflection, "I do not know
+what that object is, but I know perfectly why it keeps on a level with
+the projectile."
+
+"Why, pray?"
+
+"Because we are floating in the void where bodies fall or move--which is
+the same thing--with equal speed whatever their weight or form may be.
+It is the air which, by its resistance, creates differences in weight.
+When you pneumatically create void in a tube, the objects you throw down
+it, either lead or feathers, fall with the same rapidity. Here in space
+you have the same cause and the same effect."
+
+"True," said Nicholl, "and all we throw out of the projectile will
+accompany us to the moon."
+
+"Ah! what fools we are!" cried Michel.
+
+"Why this qualification?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Because we ought to have filled the projectile with useful objects,
+books, instruments, tools, &c. We could have thrown them all out, and
+they would all have followed in our wake! But, now I think of it, why
+can't we take a walk outside this? Why can't we go into space through
+the port-light? What delight it would be to be thus suspended in ether,
+more favoured even than birds that are forced to flap their wings to
+sustain them!"
+
+"Agreed," said Barbicane, "but how are we to breathe?"
+
+"Confounded air to fail so inopportunely!"
+
+"But if it did not fail, Michel, your density being inferior to that of
+the projectile, you would soon remain behind."
+
+"Then it is a vicious circle."
+
+"All that is most vicious."
+
+"And we must remain imprisoned in our vehicle."
+
+"Yes, we must."
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel in a formidable voice.
+
+"What is the matter with you?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I know, I guess what this pretended asteroid is! It is not a broken
+piece of planet!"
+
+"What is it, then?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is our unfortunate dog! It is Diana's husband!"
+
+In fact, this deformed object, reduced to nothing, and quite
+unrecognisable, was the body of Satellite flattened like a bagpipe
+without wind, and mounting, for ever mounting!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION.
+
+
+Thus a curious but logical, strange yet logical phenomenon took place
+under these singular conditions. Every object thrown out of the
+projectile would follow the same trajectory and only stop when it did.
+That furnished a text for conversation which the whole evening could not
+exhaust. The emotion of the three travellers increased as they
+approached the end of their journey. They expected unforeseen incidents,
+fresh phenomena, and nothing would have astonished them under present
+circumstances. Their excited imagination outdistanced the projectile,
+the speed of which diminished notably without their feeling it. But the
+moon grew larger before their eyes, and they thought they had only to
+stretch out their hands to touch it.
+
+The next day, the 5th of December, they were all wide awake at 5 a.m.
+That day was to be the last of their journey if the calculations were
+exact. That same evening, at midnight, within eighteen hours, at the
+precise moment of full moon, they would reach her brilliant disc. The
+next midnight would bring them to the goal of their journey, the most
+extraordinary one of ancient or modern times. At early dawn, through the
+windows made silvery with her rays, they saluted the Queen of Night with
+a confident and joyful hurrah.
+
+The moon was sailing majestically across the starry firmament. A few
+more degrees and she would reach that precise point in space where the
+projectile was to meet her. According to his own observations, Barbicane
+thought that he should accost her in her northern hemisphere, where vast
+plains extend and mountains are rare--a favourable circumstance if the
+lunar atmosphere was, according to received opinion, stored up in deep
+places only.
+
+"Besides," observed Michel Ardan, "a plain is more suitable for landing
+upon than a mountain. A Selenite landed in Europe on the summit of Mont
+Blanc, or in Asia on a peak of the Himalayas, would not be precisely at
+his destination!"
+
+"What is more," added Nicholl, "on a plain the projectile will remain
+motionless after it has touched the ground, whilst it would roll down a
+hill like an avalanche, and as we are not squirrels we should not come
+out safe and sound. Therefore all is for the best."
+
+In fact, the success of the audacious enterprise no longer appeared
+doubtful. Still one reflection occupied Barbicane; but not wishing to
+make his two companions uneasy, he kept silence upon it.
+
+The direction of the projectile towards the northern hemisphere proved
+that its trajectory had been slightly modified. The aim, mathematically
+calculated, ought to have sent the bullet into the very centre of the
+lunar disc. If it did not arrive there it would be because it had
+deviated. What had caused it? Barbicane could not imagine nor determine
+the importance of this deviation, for there was no datum to go upon. He
+hoped, however, that the only result would be to take them towards the
+upper edge of the moon, a more suitable region for landing.
+
+Barbicane, therefore, without saying anything to his friends, contented
+himself with frequently observing the moon, trying to see if the
+direction of the projectile would not change. For the situation would
+have been so terrible had the bullet, missing its aim, been dragged
+beyond the lunar disc and fallen into interplanetary space.
+
+At that moment the moon, instead of appearing flat like a disc, already
+showed her convexity. If the sun's rays had reached her obliquely the
+shadow then thrown would have made the high mountains stand out. They
+could have seen the gaping craters and the capricious furrows that cut
+up the immense plains. But all relief was levelled in the intense
+brilliancy. Those large spots that give the appearance of a human face
+to the moon were scarcely distinguishable.
+
+"It may be a face," said Michel Ardan, "but I am sorry for the amiable
+sister of Apollo, her face is so freckled!"
+
+In the meantime the travellers so near their goal ceaselessly watched
+this new world. Their imagination made them take walks over these
+unknown countries. They climbed the elevated peaks. They descended to
+the bottom of the large amphitheatres. Here and there they thought they
+saw vast seas scarcely kept together under an atmosphere so rarefied,
+and streams of water that poured them their tribute from the mountains.
+Leaning over the abyss they hoped to catch the noise of this orb for
+ever mute in the solitudes of the void.
+
+This last day left them the liveliest remembrances. They noted down the
+least details. A vague uneasiness took possession of them as they
+approached their goal. This uneasiness would have been doubled if they
+had felt how slight their speed was. It appeared quite insufficient to
+take them to the end of their journey. This was because the projectile
+scarcely "weighed" anything. Its weight constantly decreased, and would
+be entirely annihilated on that line where the lunar and terrestrial
+attractions neutralise each other, causing surprising effects.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of his preoccupations, Michel Ardan did not
+forget to prepare the morning meal with his habitual punctuality. They
+ate heartily. Nothing was more excellent than their broth liquefied by
+the heat of the gas. Nothing better than these preserved meats. A few
+glasses of good French wine crowned the repast, and caused Michel Ardan
+to remark that the lunar vines, warmed by this ardent sun, ought to
+distil the most generous wines--that is, if they existed. Any way, the
+far-seeing Frenchman had taken care not to forget in his collection some
+precious cuttings of the Medoc and Cote d'Or, upon which he counted
+particularly.
+
+The Reiset and Regnault apparatus always worked with extreme precision.
+The air was kept in a state of perfect purity. Not a particle of
+carbonic acid resisted the potash, and as to the oxygen, that, as
+Captain Nicholl said, was of "first quality." The small amount of
+humidity in the projectile mixed with this air and tempered its dryness,
+and many Paris, London, or New York apartments and many theatres do not
+certainly fulfil hygienic conditions so well.
+
+But in order to work regularly this apparatus had to be kept going
+regularly. Each morning Michel inspected the escape regulators, tried
+the taps, and fixed by the pyrometer the heat of the gas. All had gone
+well so far, and the travellers, imitating the worthy J.T. Maston, began
+to get so stout that they would not be recognisable if their
+imprisonment lasted several months. They behaved like chickens in a
+cage--they fattened.
+
+Looking through the port lights Barbicane saw the spectre of the
+dog, and the different objects thrown out of the projectile, which
+obstinately accompanied it. Diana howled lamentably when she perceived
+the remains of Satellite. All the things seemed as motionless as if they
+had rested upon solid ground.
+
+"Do you know, my friends," said Michel Ardan, "that if one of us had
+succumbed to the recoil shock at departure we should have been much
+embarrassed as to how to get rid of him? You see the accusing corpse
+would have followed us in space like remorse!"
+
+"That would have been sad," said Nicholl.
+
+"Ah!" continued Michel, "what I regret is our not being able to take a
+walk outside. What delight it would be to float in this radiant ether,
+to bathe in these pure rays of the sun! If Barbicane had only thought of
+furnishing us with diving-dresses and air-pumps I should have ventured
+outside, and have assumed the attitude of a flying-horse on the summit
+of the projectile."
+
+"Ah, old fellow!" answered Barbicane, "you would not have stayed there
+long in spite of your diving-dress; you would have burst like an obus by
+the expansion of air inside you, or rather like a balloon that goes up
+too high. So regret nothing, and do not forget this: while we are moving
+in the void you must do without any sentimental promenade out of the
+projectile."
+
+Michel Ardan allowed himself to be convinced in a certain measure. He
+agreed that the thing was difficult, but not "impossible;" that was a
+word he never uttered.
+
+The conversation passed from this subject to another, and never
+languished an instant. It seemed to the three friends that under these
+conditions ideas came into their heads like leaves in the first warm
+days of spring.
+
+Amidst the questions and answers that crossed each other during this
+morning, Nicholl asked one that did not get an immediate solution.
+
+"I say," said he, "it is all very well to go to the moon, but how shall
+we get back again?"
+
+"What do you mean by that, Nicholl?" asked Barbicane gravely.
+
+"It seems to me very inopportune to ask about getting away from a
+country before you get to it," added Michel.
+
+"I don't ask that question because I want to draw back, but I repeat my
+question, and ask, 'How shall we get back?'"
+
+"I have not the least idea," answered Barbicane.
+
+"And as for me," said Michel, "if I had known how to come back I should
+not have gone."
+
+"That is what you call answering," cried Nicholl.
+
+"I approve of Michel's words, and add that the question has no actual
+interest. We will think about that later on, when we want to return.
+Though the Columbiad will not be there, the projectile will."
+
+"Much good that will be, a bullet without a gun!"
+
+"A gun can be made, and so can powder! Neither metal, saltpetre, nor
+coal can be wanting in the bowels of the moon. Besides, in order to
+return you have only the lunar attraction to conquer, and you will only
+have 8,000 leagues to go so as to fall on the terrestrial globe by the
+simple laws of weight."
+
+"That is enough," said Michel, getting animated. "Let us hear no more
+about returning. As to communicating with our ancient colleagues upon
+earth, that will not be difficult."
+
+"How are we to do that, pray?"
+
+"By means of meteors hurled by the lunar volcanoes."
+
+"A good idea, Michel," answered Barbicane. "Laplace has calculated that
+a force five times superior to that of our cannons would suffice to send
+a meteor from the moon to the earth. Now there is no volcano that has
+not a superior force of propulsion."
+
+"Hurrah!" cried Michel. "Meteors will be convenient postmen and will not
+cost anything! And how we shall laugh at the postal service! But now I
+think--"
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"A superb idea! Why did we not fasten a telegraph wire to our bullet? We
+could have exchanged telegrams with the earth!"
+
+"And the weight of a wire 86,000 leagues long," answered Nicholl, "does
+that go for nothing?"
+
+"Yes, for nothing! We should have trebled the charge of the Columbiad!
+We could have made it four times--five times--greater!" cried Michel,
+whose voice became more and more violent.
+
+"There is a slight objection to make to your project," answered
+Barbicane. "It is that during the movement of rotation of the globe our
+wire would have been rolled round it like a chain round a windlass, and
+it would inevitably have dragged us down to the earth again."
+
+"By the thirty-nine stars of the Union!" said Michel, "I have nothing
+but impracticable ideas to-day--ideas worthy of J.T. Maston! But now I
+think of it, if we do not return to earth J.T. Maston will certainly
+come to us!"
+
+"Yes! he will come," replied Barbicane; "he is a worthy and courageous
+comrade. Besides, what could be easier? Is not the Columbiad still lying
+in Floridian soil? Is cotton and nitric acid wanting wherewith to
+manufacture the projectile? Will not the moon again pass the zenith of
+Florida? In another eighteen years will she not occupy exactly the same
+place that she occupies to-day?"
+
+"Yes," repeated Michel--"yes, Maston will come, and with him our friends
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and all the members of the Gun Club, and they
+will be welcome! Later on trains of projectiles will be established
+between the earth and the moon! Hurrah for J.T. Maston!"
+
+It is probable that if the Honourable J.T. Maston did not hear the
+hurrahs uttered in his honour his ears tingled at least. What was he
+doing then? He was no doubt stationed in the Rocky Mountains at Long's
+Peak, trying to discover the invisible bullet gravitating in space. If
+he was thinking of his dear companions it must be acknowledged that they
+were not behindhand with him, and that, under the influence of singular
+exaltation, they consecrated their best thoughts to him.
+
+But whence came the animation that grew visibly greater in the
+inhabitants of the projectile? Their sobriety could not be questioned.
+Must this strange erethismus of the brain be attributed to the
+exceptional circumstances of the time, to that proximity of the Queen of
+Night from which a few hours only separated them, or to some secret
+influence of the moon acting on their nervous system? Their faces became
+as red as if exposed to the reverberation of a furnace; their
+respiration became more active, and their lungs played like
+forge-bellows; their eyes shone with extraordinary flame, and their
+voices became formidably loud, their words escaped like a champagne-cork
+driven forth by carbonic acid gas; their gestures became disquieting,
+they wanted so much room to perform them in. And, strange to say, they
+in no wise perceived this excessive tension of the mind.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl in a sharp tone--"now that I do not know whether we
+shall come back from the moon, I will know what we are going there for!"
+
+"What we are going there for!" answered Barbicane, stamping as if he
+were in a fencing-room; "I don't know."
+
+"You don't know!" cried Michel with a shout that provoked a sonorous
+echo in the projectile.
+
+"No, I have not the least idea!" answered Barbicane, shouting in unison
+with his interlocutor.
+
+"Well, then, I know," answered Michel.
+
+"Speak, then," said Nicholl, who could no longer restrain the angry
+tones of his voice.
+
+"I shall speak if it suits me!" cried Michel, violently seizing his
+companion's arm. "It must suit you!" said Barbicane, with eyes on fire
+and threatening hands. "It was you who drew us into this terrible
+journey, and we wish to know why!"
+
+"Yes," said the captain, "now I don't know where I am going, I will know
+why I am going."
+
+"Why?" cried Michel, jumping a yard high--"why? To take possession of
+the moon in the name of the United States! To add a fortieth State to
+the Union! To colonise the lunar regions, to cultivate them, people
+them, to take them all the wonders of art, science, and industry! To
+civilise the Selenites, unless they are more civilised than we are, and
+to make them into a republic if they have not already done it for
+themselves!"
+
+"If there are any Selenites!" answered Nicholl, who under the empire of
+this inexplicable intoxication became very contradictory.
+
+"Who says there are no Selenites?" cried Michel in a threatening tone.
+
+"I do!" shouted Nicholl.
+
+"Captain," said Michel, "do not repeat that insult or I will knock your
+teeth down your throat!"
+
+The two adversaries were about to rush upon one another, and this
+incoherent discussion was threatening to degenerate into a battle, when
+Barbicane interfered.
+
+"Stop, unhappy men," said he, putting his two companions back to back,
+"if there are no Selenites, we will do without them!"
+
+"Yes!" exclaimed Michel, who did not care more about them than that. "We
+have nothing to do with the Selenites! Bother the Selenites!"
+
+"The empire of the moon shall be ours," said Nicholl. "Let us found a
+Republic of three!"
+
+"I shall be the Congress," cried Michel.
+
+"And I the Senate," answered Nicholl.
+
+"And Barbicane the President," shouted Michel.
+
+"No President elected by the nation!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, then, a President elected by the Congress," exclaimed Michel;
+"and as I am the Congress I elect you unanimously."
+
+"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah for President Barbicane!" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"Hip--hip--hip! hurrah!" vociferated Michel Ardan.
+
+Then the President and Senate struck up "Yankee Doodle" as loudly as
+they could, whilst the Congress shouted the virile "Marseillaise."
+
+Then began a frantic dance with maniacal gestures, mad stamping, and
+somersaults of boneless clowns. Diana took part in the dance, howling
+too, and jumped to the very roof of the projectile. An inexplicable
+flapping of wings and cock-crows of singular sonority were heard. Five
+or six fowls flew about striking the walls like mad bats.
+
+Then the three travelling companions, whose lungs were disorganised
+under some incomprehensible influence, more than intoxicated, burnt by
+the air that had set their breathing apparatus on fire, fell motionless
+upon the bottom of the projectile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES.
+
+
+What had happened? What was the cause of that singular intoxication, the
+consequences of which might prove so disastrous? Simply carelessness on
+Michel's part, which Nicholl was able to remedy in time.
+
+After a veritable swoon, which lasted a few minutes, the captain, who
+was the first to regain consciousness, soon collected his intellectual
+faculties.
+
+Although he had breakfasted two hours before, he began to feel as hungry
+as if he had not tasted food for several days. His whole being, his
+brain and stomach, were excited to the highest point.
+
+He rose, therefore, and demanded a supplementary collation from Michel,
+who was still unconscious, and did not answer. Nicholl, therefore,
+proceeded to prepare some cups of tea, in order to facilitate the
+absorption of a dozen sandwiches. He busied himself first with lighting
+a fire, and so struck a match.
+
+What was his surprise to see the sulphur burn with extraordinary and
+almost unbearable brilliancy! From the jet of gas he lighted rose a
+flame equal to floods of electric light.
+
+A revelation took place in Nicholl's mind. This intensity of light, the
+physiological disturbance in himself, the extra excitement of all his
+moral and sensitive faculties--he understood it all.
+
+"The oxygen!" he exclaimed.
+
+And leaning over the air-apparatus, he saw that the tap was giving out a
+flood of colourless, savourless, and odourless gas, eminently vital, but
+which in a pure state produces the gravest disorders in the
+constitution. Through carelessness Michel had left the tap full on.
+Nicholl made haste to turn off this flow of oxygen with which the
+atmosphere was saturated, and which would have caused the death of the
+travellers, not by suffocation, but by combustion.
+
+An hour afterwards the air was relieved, and gave their normal play to
+the lungs. By degrees the three friends recovered from their
+intoxication; but they were obliged to recover from their oxygen like a
+drunkard from his wine.
+
+When Michel knew his share of responsibility in this incident he did not
+appear in the least disconcerted. This unexpected intoxication broke the
+monotony of the journey. Many foolish things had been said under its
+influence, but they had been forgotten as soon as said.
+
+"Then," added the merry Frenchman, "I am not sorry for having
+experienced the effect of this captious gas. Do you know, my friends,
+that there might be a curious establishment set up with oxygen-rooms,
+where people whose constitutions are weak might live a more active life
+during a few hours at least? Suppose we had meetings where the air could
+be saturated with this heroic fluid, theatres where the managers would
+send it out in strong doses, what passion there would be in the souls of
+actors and spectators, what fire and what enthusiasm! And if, instead of
+a simple assembly, a whole nation could be saturated with it, what
+activity, what a supplement of life it would receive! Of an exhausted
+nation it perhaps would make a great and strong nation, and I know more
+than one state in old Europe that ought to put itself under the oxygen
+_regime_ in the interest of its health."
+
+Michel spoke with as much animation as if the tap were still full on.
+But with one sentence Barbicane damped his enthusiasm.
+
+"All that is very well, friend Michel," he said, "but now perhaps you
+will tell us where those fowls that joined in our concert came from."
+
+"Those fowls?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+In fact, half-a-dozen hens and a superb cock were flying hither and
+thither.
+
+"Ah, the stupids!" cried Michel. "It was the oxygen that put them in
+revolt."
+
+"But what are you going to do with those fowls?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Acclimatise them in the moon of course! For the sake of a joke, my
+worthy president; simply a joke that has unhappily come to nothing! I
+wanted to let them out on the lunar continent without telling you! How
+astounded you would have been to see these terrestrial poultry pecking
+the fields of the moon!"
+
+"Ah, _gamin_, you eternal boy!" answered Barbicane, "you don't want
+oxygen to make you out of your senses! You are always what we were under
+the influence of this gas! You are always insane!"
+
+"Ah! how do we know we were not wiser then?" replied Michel Ardan.
+
+After this philosophical reflection the three friends repaired the
+disorder in the projectile. Cock and hens were put back in their cage.
+But as they were doing this Barbicane and his two companions distinctly
+perceived a fresh phenomenon.
+
+Since the moment they had left the earth their own weight, that of the
+bullet and the objects it contained, had suffered progressive
+diminution. Though they could not have any experience of this in the
+projectile, a moment must come when the effect upon themselves and the
+tools and instruments they used would be felt.
+
+Of course scales would not have indicated this loss of weight, for the
+weights used would have lost precisely as much as the object itself; but
+a spring weighing-machine, the tension of which is independent of
+attraction, would have given the exact valuation of this diminution.
+
+It is well known that attraction, or weight, is in proportion to the
+bulk, and in inverse proportion to the square of distances. Hence this
+consequence. If the earth had been alone in space, if the other heavenly
+bodies were to be suddenly annihilated, the projectile, according to
+Newton's law, would have weighed less according to its distance from the
+earth, but without ever losing its weight entirely, for the terrestrial
+attraction would always have made itself felt, no matter at what
+distance.
+
+But in the case with which we are dealing, a moment must come when the
+projectile would not be at all under the law of gravitation, after
+allowing for the other celestial bodies, whose effect could not be set
+down as zero.
+
+In fact, the trajectory of the projectile was between the earth and the
+moon. As it went farther away from the earth terrestrial attraction
+would be diminished in inverse proportion to the square of distances,
+but the lunar attraction would be augmented in the same proportion. A
+point must, therefore, be reached where these two attractions would
+neutralise each other, and the bullet would have no weight at all. If
+the volumes of the moon and earth were equal, this point would have been
+reached at an equal distance between the two bodies. But by taking their
+difference of bulk into account it was easy to calculate that this
+point would be situated at 47/52 of the journey, or at 78,114 leagues
+from the earth.
+
+At this point a body that had no principle of velocity or movement in
+itself would remain eternally motionless, being equally attracted by the
+two heavenly bodies, and nothing drawing it more towards one than the
+other.
+
+Now if the force of impulsion had been exactly calculated the projectile
+ought to reach that point with no velocity, having lost all weight like
+the objects it contained.
+
+What would happen then? Three hypotheses presented themselves.
+
+Either the projectile would have kept some velocity, and passing the
+point of equal attraction, would fall on the moon by virtue of the
+excess of lunar attraction over terrestrial attraction.
+
+Or velocity sufficient to reach the neutral point being wanting, it
+would fall back on the earth by virtue of the excess of terrestrial
+attraction over lunar attraction.
+
+Or lastly, endowed with sufficient velocity to reach the neutral point,
+but insufficient to pass it, it would remain eternally suspended in the
+same place, like the pretended coffin of Mahomet, between the zenith and
+nadir.
+
+Such was the situation, and Barbicane clearly explained the consequences
+to his travelling companions. They were interested to the highest
+degree. How were they to know when they had reached this neutral point,
+situated at 78,114 leagues from the earth, at the precise moment when
+neither they nor the objects contained in the projectile should be in
+any way subject to the laws of weight?
+
+Until now the travellers, though they had remarked that this action
+diminished little by little, had not yet perceived its total absence.
+But that day, about 11 a.m., Nicholl having let a tumbler escape from
+his hand, instead of falling, it remained suspended in the air.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "this is a little amusing chemistry!"
+
+And immediately different objects, weapons, bottles, &c, left to
+themselves, hung suspended as if by miracle. Diana, too, lifted up by
+Michel into space, reproduced, but without trickery, the marvellous
+suspensions effected by Robert-Houdin and Maskelyne and Cook.
+
+The three adventurous companions, surprised and stupefied in spite of
+their scientific reasoning, carried into the domain of the marvellous,
+felt weight go out of their bodies. When they stretched out their arms
+they felt no inclination to drop them. Their heads vacillated on their
+shoulders. Their feet no longer kept at the bottom of the projectile.
+They were like staggering drunkards. Imagination has created men
+deprived of their reflection, others deprived of their shadows! But here
+reality, by the neutrality of active forces, made men in whom nothing
+had any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves.
+
+Suddenly Michel, making a slight spring, left the floor and remained
+suspended in the air like the good monk in Murillo's _Cuisine des
+Anges_. His two friends joined him in an instant, and all three, in the
+centre of the projectile, figured a miraculous ascension.
+
+"Is it believable? Is it likely? Is it possible?" cried Michel. "No. And
+yet it exists! Ah! if Raphael could have seen us like this what an
+Assumption he could have put upon canvas!"
+
+"The Assumption cannot last," answered Barbicane. "If the projectile
+passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to the
+moon."
+
+"Then our feet will rest upon the roof of the projectile,' answered
+Michel.
+
+"No," said Barbicane, "because the centre of gravity in the projectile
+is very low, and it will turn over gradually."
+
+"Then all our things will be turned upside down for certain!"
+
+"Do not alarm yourself, Michel," answered Nicholl. "There is nothing of
+the kind to be feared. Not an object will move; the projectile will turn
+insensibly."
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when it has cleared the point of equal
+attraction, its bottom, relatively heavier, will drag it perpendicularly
+down to the moon. But in order that such a phenomenon should take place
+we must pass the neutral line."
+
+"Passing the neutral line!" cried Michel. "Then let us do like the
+sailors who pass the equator--let us water our passage!"
+
+A slight side movement took Michel to the padded wall. Thence he took a
+bottle and glasses, placed them "in space" before his companions, and
+merrily touching glasses, they saluted the line with a triple hurrah.
+
+This influence of the attractions lasted scarcely an hour. The
+travellers saw themselves insensibly lowered towards the bottom, and
+Barbicane thought he remarked that the conical end of the projectile
+deviated slightly from the normal direction towards the moon. By an
+inverse movement the bottom side approached it. Lunar attraction was
+therefore gaining over terrestrial attraction. The fall towards the moon
+began, insensibly as yet; it could only be that of a millimetre (0.03937
+inch), and a third in the first second. But the attractive force would
+gradually increase, the fall would be more accentuated, the projectile,
+dragged down by its bottom side, would present its cone to the earth,
+and would fall with increasing velocity until it reached the Selenite
+surface. Now nothing could prevent the success of the enterprise, and
+Nicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane's joy.
+
+Then they chatted about all the phenomena that had astounded them one
+after another, especially about the neutralisation of the laws of
+weight. Michel Ardan, always full of enthusiasm, wished to deduce
+consequences which were only pure imagination.
+
+"Ah! my worthy friends," he cried, "what progress we should make could
+we but get rid upon earth of this weight, this chain that rivets us to
+her! It would be the prisoner restored to liberty! There would be no
+more weariness either in arms or legs. And if it is true that, in order
+to fly upon the surface of the earth, to sustain yourself in the air by
+a simple action of the muscles, it would take a force 150 times superior
+to that we possess, a simple act of will, a caprice, would transport us
+into space, and attraction would not exist."
+
+"In fact," said Nicholl, laughing, "if they succeeded in suppressing
+gravitation, like pain is suppressed by anaesthesia, it would change the
+face of modern society!"
+
+"Yes," cried Michel, full of his subject, "let us destroy weight and
+have no more burdens! No more cranes, screw-jacks, windlasses, cranks,
+or other machines will be wanted."
+
+"Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight nothing
+would keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel;
+nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight! Not
+even ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence of
+weight. Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held in
+equilibrium by terrestrial attraction. Lastly, not even the atmosphere,
+the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperse
+into space!"
+
+"That is a pity," replied Michel. "There is nothing like positive people
+for recalling you brutally to reality!"
+
+"Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel," resumed Barbicane, "for if no
+star could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are at
+least going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth."
+
+"The moon?"
+
+"Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times less
+than upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy to
+demonstrate."
+
+"And shall we perceive it?" asked Michel. "Evidently, for 400 lbs. only
+weigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon."
+
+"Will not our muscular strength be diminished?"
+
+"Not at all. Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six."
+
+"Then we shall be Hercules in the moon," cried Michel.
+
+"Yes," replied Nicholl, "and the more so because if the height of the
+Selenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will be
+hardly a foot high."
+
+"Liliputians!" replied Michel. "Then I am going to play the _role_ of
+Gulliver! We shall realise the fable of the giants! That is the
+advantage of leaving one's own planet to visit the solar world!"
+
+"But if you want to play Gulliver," answered Barbicane, "only visit the
+inferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is rather
+less than that of the earth. But do not venture into the big planets,
+Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the _roles_ would be
+inverted, and you would become Liliputian."
+
+"And in the sun?"
+
+"In the sun, though its density is four times less than that of the
+earth, its volume is thirteen hundred and twenty-four thousand times
+greater, and gravitation there is twenty-seven times greater than upon
+the surface of our globe. Every proportion kept, the inhabitants ought
+on an average to be two hundred feet high."
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Michel. "I should only be a pigmy!"
+
+"Gulliver amongst the giants," said Nicholl.
+
+"Just so," answered Barbicane.
+
+"It would not have been a bad thing to carry some pieces of artillery to
+defend oneself with."
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane; "your bullets would have no effect on the
+sun, and they would fall to the ground in a few minutes."
+
+"That's saying a great deal!"
+
+"It is a fact," answered Barbicane. "Gravitation is so great on that
+enormous planet that an object weighing 70 lbs. on the earth would weigh
+1,930 lbs. on the surface of the sun. Your hat would weigh 20 lbs.! your
+cigar 1/2 lb.! Lastly, if you fell on the solar continent your weight
+would be so great--about 5,000 lbs.--that you could not get up again."
+
+"The devil!" said Michel, "I should have to carry about a portable
+crane! Well, my friends, let us be content with the moon for to-day.
+There, at least, we shall cut a great figure! Later on we shall see if
+we will go to the sun, where you can't drink without a crane to lift the
+glass to your mouth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION.
+
+
+Barbicane had now no fear, if not about the issue of the journey, at
+least about the projectile's force of impulsion. Its own speed would
+carry it beyond the neutral line. Therefore it would not return to the
+earth nor remain motionless upon the point of attraction. One hypothesis
+only remained to be realised, the arrival of the bullet at its goal
+under the action of lunar attraction.
+
+In reality it was a fall of 8,296 leagues upon a planet, it is true,
+where the gravity is six times less than upon the earth. Nevertheless it
+would be a terrible fall, and one against which all precautions ought to
+be taken without delay.
+
+These precautions were of two sorts; some were for the purpose of
+deadening the shock at the moment the projectile would touch lunar
+ground; others were to retard the shock, and so make it less violent.
+
+In order to deaden the shock, it was a pity that Barbicane was no longer
+able to employ the means that had so usefully weakened the shock at
+departure--that is to say, the water used as a spring and the movable
+partitions. The partitions still existed, but water was wanting, for
+they could not use the reserve for this purpose--that would be precious
+in case the liquid element should fail on the lunar soil.
+
+Besides, this reserve would not have been sufficient for a spring. The
+layer of water stored in the projectile at their departure, and on which
+lay the waterproof disc, occupied no less than three feet in depth, and
+spread over a surface of not less than fifty-four feet square. Now the
+receptacles did not contain the fifth part of that. They were therefore
+obliged to give up this effectual means of deadening the shock.
+
+Fortunately Barbicane, not content with employing water, had furnished
+the movable disc with strong spring buffers, destined to lessen the
+shock against the bottom, after breaking the horizontal partitions.
+These buffers were still in existence; they had only to be fitted on and
+the movable disc put in its place. All these pieces, easy to handle, as
+they weighed scarcely anything, could be rapidly mounted.
+
+This was done. The different pieces were adjusted without difficulty. It
+was only a matter of bolts and screws. There were plenty of tools. The
+disc was soon fixed on its steel buffers like a table on its legs. One
+inconvenience resulted from this arrangement. The lower port-hole was
+covered, and it would be impossible for the travellers to observe the
+moon through that opening whilst they were being precipitated
+perpendicularly upon her. But they were obliged to give it up. Besides,
+through the lateral openings they could still perceive the vast lunar
+regions, like the earth is seen from the car of a balloon.
+
+This placing of the disc took an hour's work. It was more than noon when
+the preparations were completed. Barbicane made fresh observations on
+the inclination of the projectile, but to his great vexation it had not
+turned sufficiently for a fall; it appeared to be describing a curve
+parallel with the lunar disc. The Queen of Night was shining splendidly
+in space, whilst opposite the orb of day was setting her on fire with
+his rays.
+
+This situation soon became an anxious one.
+
+"Shall we get there?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We must act as though we should," answered Barbicane.
+
+"You are faint-hearted fellows," replied Michel Ardan. "We shall get
+there, and quicker than we want."
+
+This answer recalled Barbicane to his preparations, and he occupied
+himself with placing the contrivances destined to retard the fall.
+
+It will be remembered that, at the meeting held in Tampa Town, Florida,
+Captain Nicholl appeared as Barbicane's enemy, and Michel Ardan's
+adversary. When Captain Nicholl said that the projectile would be broken
+like glass, Michel answered that he would retard the fall by means of
+fusees properly arranged.
+
+In fact, powerful fusees, resting upon the bottom, and being fired
+outside, might, by producing a recoil action, lessen the speed of the
+bullet. These fusees were to burn in the void it is true, but oxygen
+would not fail them, for they would furnish that themselves like the
+lunar volcanoes, the deflagration of which has never been prevented by
+the want of atmosphere around the moon.
+
+Barbicane had therefore provided himself with fireworks shut up in
+little cannons of bored steel, which could be screwed on to the bottom
+of the projectile. Inside these cannons were level with the bottom;
+outside they went half a foot beyond it. There were twenty of them. An
+opening in the disc allowed them to light the match with which each was
+provided. All the effect took place outside. The exploding mixture had
+been already rammed into each gun. All they had to do, therefore, was to
+take up the metallic buffers fixed in the base, and to put these cannons
+in their place, where they fitted exactly.
+
+This fresh work was ended about 3 p.m., and all precaution taken they
+had now nothing to do but to wait.
+
+In the meantime the projectile visibly drew nearer the moon. It was,
+therefore, submitted in some proportion to its influence; but its own
+velocity also inclined it in an oblique line. Perhaps the result of
+these two influences would be a line that would become a tangent. But it
+was certain that the projectile was not falling normally upon the
+surface of the moon, for its base, by reason of its weight, ought to
+have been turned towards her.
+
+Barbicane's anxiety was increased on seeing that his bullet resisted the
+influence of gravitation. It was the unknown that was before him--the
+unknown of the interstellar regions. He, the _savant_, believed that he
+had foreseen the only three hypotheses that were possible--the return to
+the earth, the fall upon the moon, or stagnation upon the neutral line!
+And here a fourth hypothesis, full of all the terrors of the infinite,
+cropped up inopportunely. To face it without flinching took a resolute
+_savant_ like Barbicane, a phlegmatic being like Nicholl, or an
+audacious adventurer like Michel Ardan.
+
+Conversation was started on this subject. Other men would have
+considered the question from a practical point of view. They would have
+wondered where the projectile would take them to. Not they, however.
+They sought the cause that had produced this effect.
+
+"So we are off the line," said Michel. "But how is that?"
+
+"I am very much afraid," answered Nicholl, "that notwithstanding all the
+precautions that were taken, the Columbiad was not aimed correctly. The
+slightest error would suffice to throw us outside the pale of lunar
+attraction."
+
+"Then the cannon was pointed badly?" said Michel.
+
+"I do not think so," answered Barbicane. "The cannon was rigorously
+perpendicular, and its direction towards the zenith of the place was
+incontestable. The moon passing the zenith, we ought to have reached her
+at the full. There is another reason, but it escapes me."
+
+"Perhaps we have arrived too late," suggested Nicholl.
+
+"Too late?" said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Nicholl. "The notice from the Cambridge Observatory said
+that the transit ought to be accomplished in ninety-seven hours thirteen
+minutes and twenty seconds. That means that before that time the moon
+would not have reached the point indicated, and after she would have
+passed it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Barbicane. "But we started on the 1st of December at
+11h. 13m. 25s. p.m., and we ought to arrive at midnight on the 5th,
+precisely as the moon is full. Now this is the 5th of December. It is
+half-past three, and eight hours and a half ought to be sufficient to
+take us to our goal. Why are we not going towards it?"
+
+"Perhaps the velocity was greater than it ought to have been," answered
+Nicholl, "for we know now that the initial velocity was greater than it
+was supposed to be."
+
+"No! a hundred times no!" replied Barbicane. "An excess of velocity,
+supposing the direction of the projectile to have been correct, would
+not have prevented us reaching the moon. No! There has been a deviation.
+We have deviated!"
+
+"Through whom? through what?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Well, Barbicane," then said Michel, "should you like to know what I
+think about why we have deviated?"
+
+"Say what you think."
+
+"I would not give half a dollar to know! We have deviated, that is a
+fact. It does not matter much where we are going. We shall soon find
+out. As we are being carried along into space we shall end by falling
+into some centre of attraction or another."
+
+Barbicane could not be contented with this indifference of Michel
+Ardan's. Not that he was anxious about the future. But what he wanted to
+know, at any price, was why his projectile had deviated.
+
+In the meantime the projectile kept on its course sideways to the moon,
+and the objects thrown out along with it. Barbicane could even prove by
+the landmarks upon the moon, which was only at 2,000 leagues' distance,
+that its speed was becoming uniform--a fresh proof that they were not
+falling. Its force of impulsion was prevailing over the lunar
+attraction, but the trajectory of the projectile was certainly taking
+them nearer the lunar disc, and it might be hoped that at a nearer point
+the weight would predominate and provoke a fall.
+
+The three friends, having nothing better to do, went on with their
+observations. They could not, however, yet determine the topography of
+the satellite. Every relief was levelled under the action of the solar
+rays.
+
+They watched thus through the lateral windows until 8 p.m. The moon then
+looked so large that she hid half the firmament from them. The sun on
+one side, and the Queen of Night on the other, inundated the projectile
+with light.
+
+At that moment Barbicane thought he could estimate at 700 leagues only
+the distance that separated them from their goal. The velocity of the
+projectile appeared to him to be 200 yards a second, or about 170
+leagues an hour. The base of the bullet had a tendency to turn towards
+the moon under the influence of the centripetal force; but the
+centrifugal force still predominated, and it became probable that the
+rectilinear trajectory would change to some curve the nature of which
+could not be determined.
+
+Barbicane still sought the solution of his insoluble problem. The hours
+went by without result. The projectile visibly drew nearer to the moon,
+but it was plain that it would not reach her. The short distance at
+which it would pass her would be the result of two forces, attractive
+and repulsive, which acted upon the projectile.
+
+"I only pray for one thing," repeated Michel, "and that is to pass near
+enough to the moon to penetrate her secrets."
+
+"Confound the cause that made our projectile deviate!" cried Nicholl.
+
+"Then," said Barbicane, as if he had been suddenly struck with an idea,
+"confound that asteroid that crossed our path!"
+
+"Eh?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicholl.
+
+"I mean," resumed Barbicane, who appeared convinced, "I mean that our
+deviation is solely due to the influence of that wandering body."
+
+"But it did not even graze us," continued Michel.
+
+"What does that matter? Its bulk, compared with that of our projectile,
+was enormous, and its attraction was sufficient to have an influence
+upon our direction."
+
+"That influence must have been very slight," said Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, but slight as it was," answered Barbicane, "upon a
+distance of 84,000 leagues it was enough to make us miss the moon!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON.
+
+
+Barbicane had evidently found the only plausible reason for the
+deviation. However slight it had been, it had been sufficient to modify
+the trajectory of the projectile. It was a fatality. The audacious
+attempt had miscarried by a fortuitous circumstance, and unless anything
+unexpected happened, the lunar disc could no longer be reached. Would
+they pass it near enough to resolve certain problems in physics and
+geology until then unsolved? This was the only question that occupied
+the minds of these bold travellers. As to the fate the future held in
+store for them, they would not even think about it. Yet what was to
+become of them amidst these infinite solitudes when air failed them? A
+few more days and they would fall suffocated in this bullet wandering at
+hazard. But a few days were centuries to these intrepid men, and they
+consecrated every moment to observing the moon they no longer hoped to
+reach.
+
+The distance which then separated the projectile from the satellite was
+estimated at about 200 leagues. Under these conditions, as far as
+regards the visibility of the details of the disc, the travellers were
+farther from the moon than are the inhabitants of the earth with their
+powerful telescopes.
+
+It is, in fact, known that the instrument set up by Lord Rosse at
+Parsonstown, which magnifies 6,500 times, brings the moon to within
+sixteen leagues; and the powerful telescope set up at Long's Peak
+magnifies 48,000 times, and brings the moon to within less than two
+leagues, so that objects twelve yards in diameter were sufficiently
+distinct.
+
+Thus, then, at that distance the topographical details of the moon, seen
+without a telescope, were not distinctly determined. The eye caught the
+outline of those vast depressions inappropriately called "seas," but
+they could not determine their nature. The prominence of the mountains
+disappeared under the splendid irradiation produced by the reflection of
+the solar rays. The eye, dazzled as if leaning over a furnace of molten
+silver, turned from it involuntarily.
+
+However, the oblong form of the orb was already clearly seen.
+
+It appeared like a gigantic egg, with the small end turned towards the
+earth. The moon, liquid and pliable in the first days of her formation,
+was originally a perfect sphere. But soon, drawn within the pale of the
+earth's gravitation, she became elongated under its influence. By
+becoming a satellite she lost her native purity of form; her centre of
+gravity was in advance of the centre of her figure, and from this fact
+some _savants_ draw the conclusion that air and water might have taken
+refuge on the opposite side of the moon, which is never seen from the
+earth.
+
+This alteration in the primitive forms of the satellite was only visible
+for a few moments. The distance between the projectile and the moon
+diminished visibly; its velocity was considerably less than its initial
+velocity, but eight or nine times greater than that of our express
+trains. The oblique direction of the bullet, from its very obliquity,
+left Michel Ardan some hope of touching the lunar disc at some point or
+other. He could not believe that he should not get to it. No, he could
+not believe it, and this he often repeated. But Barbicane, who was a
+better judge, always answered him with pitiless logic.
+
+"No, Michel, no. We can only reach the moon by a fall, and we are not
+falling. The centripetal force keeps us under the moon's influence, but
+the centrifugal force sends us irresistibly away from it."
+
+This was said in a tone that deprived Michel Ardan of his last hopes.
+
+The portion of the moon the projectile was approaching was the northern
+hemisphere. The selenographic maps make it the lower one, because they
+are generally drawn up according to the image given by the telescopes,
+and we know that they reverse the objects. Such was the _Mappa
+Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler which Barbicane consulted. This
+northern hemisphere presented vast plains, relieved by isolated
+mountains.
+
+At midnight the moon was full. At that precise moment the travellers
+ought to have set foot upon her if the unlucky asteroid had not made
+them deviate from their direction. The orb was exactly in the condition
+rigorously determined by the Cambridge Observatory. She was
+mathematically at her perigee, and at the zenith of the twenty-eighth
+parallel. An observer placed at the bottom of the enormous Columbiad
+while it is pointed perpendicularly at the horizon would have framed the
+moon in the mouth of the cannon. A straight line drawn through the axis
+of the piece would have passed through the centre of the moon.
+
+It need hardly be stated that during the night between the 5th and 6th
+of December the travellers did not take a minute's rest. Could they have
+closed their eyes so near to a new world? No. All their feelings were
+concentrated in one thought--to see! Representatives of the earth, of
+humanity past and present, all concentrated in themselves, it was
+through their eyes that the human race looked at these lunar regions and
+penetrated the secrets of its satellite! A strange emotion filled their
+hearts, and they went silently from one window to another.
+
+Their observations were noted down by Barbicane, and were made
+rigorously exact. To make them they had telescopes. To control them they
+had maps.
+
+The first observer of the moon was Galileo. His poor telescope only
+magnified thirty times. Nevertheless, in the spots that pitted the lunar
+disc "like eyes in a peacock's tail," he was the first to recognise
+mountains, and measure some heights to which he attributed,
+exaggerating, an elevation equal to the 20th of the diameter of the
+disc, or 8,000 metres. Galileo drew up no map of his observations.
+
+A few years later an astronomer of Dantzig, Hevelius--by operations
+which were only exact twice a month, at the first and second
+quadrature--reduced Galileo's heights to one-twenty-sixth only of the
+lunar diameter. This was an exaggeration the other way. But it is to
+this _savant_ that the first map of the moon is due. The light round
+spots there form circular mountains, and the dark spots indicate vast
+seas which, in reality, are plains. To these mountains and extents of
+sea he gave terrestrial denominations. There is a Sinai in the middle of
+an Arabia, Etna in the centre of Sicily, the Alps, Apennines,
+Carpathians, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Caspian, &c.--names
+badly applied, for neither mountains nor seas recalled the configuration
+of their namesakes on the globe. That large white spot, joined on the
+south to vaster continents and terminated in a point, could hardly be
+recognised as the inverted image of the Indian Peninsula, the Bay of
+Bengal, and Cochin-China. So these names were not kept. Another
+chartographer, knowing human nature better, proposed a fresh
+nomenclature, which human vanity made haste to adopt.
+
+This observer was Father Riccioli, a contemporary of Hevelius. He drew
+up a rough map full of errors. But he gave to the lunar mountains the
+names of great men of antiquity and _savants_ of his own epoch.
+
+A third map of the moon was executed in the seventeenth century by
+Dominique Cassini; superior to that of Riccioli in the execution, it is
+inexact in the measurements. Several smaller copies were published, but
+the plate long kept in the _Imprimerie Nationale_ was sold by weight as
+old brass.
+
+La Hire, a celebrated mathematician and designer, drew up a map of the
+moon four and a half yards high, which was never engraved.
+
+After him, a German astronomer, Tobie Marger, about the middle of the
+eighteenth century, began the publication of a magnificent selenographic
+map, according to lunar measures, which he rigorously verified; but his
+death, which took place in 1762, prevented the termination of this
+beautiful work.
+
+It was in 1830 that Messrs. Boeer and Moedler composed their celebrated
+_Mappa Selenographica_, according to an orthographical projection. This
+map reproduces the exact lunar disc, such as it appears, only the
+configurations of the mountains and plains are only correct in the
+central part; everywhere else--in the northern or southern portions,
+eastern or western--the configurations foreshortened cannot be compared
+with those of the centre. This topographical map, one yard high and
+divided into four parts, is a masterpiece of lunar chartography.
+
+After these _savants_ may be cited the selenographic reliefs of the
+German astronomer Julius Schmidt, the topographical works of Father
+Secchi, the magnificent sheets of the English amateur, Waren de la Rue,
+and lastly a map on orthographical projection of Messrs. Lecouturier and
+Chapuis, a fine model set up in 1860, of very correct design and clear
+outlines.
+
+Such is the nomenclature of the different maps relating to the lunar
+world. Barbicane possessed two, that of Messrs. Boeer and Moedler and
+that of Messrs. Chapuis and Lecouturier. They were to make his work of
+observer easier.
+
+They had excellent marine glasses specially constructed for this
+journey. They magnified objects a hundred times; they would therefore
+have reduced the distance between the earth and the moon to less than
+1,000 leagues. But then at a distance which towards 3 a.m. did not
+exceed a hundred miles, and in a medium which no atmosphere obstructed,
+these instruments brought the lunar level to less than fifteen hundred
+metres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+IMAGINATION AND REALITY.
+
+
+"Have you ever seen the moon?" a professor asked one of his pupils
+ironically.
+
+"No, sir," answered the pupil more ironically still, "but I have heard
+it spoken of."
+
+In one sense the jocose answer of the pupil might have been made by the
+immense majority of sublunary beings. How many people there are who have
+heard the moon spoken of and have never seen it--at least through a
+telescope! How many even have never examined the map of their satellite!
+
+Looking at a comprehensive selenographic map, one peculiarity strikes us
+at once. In contrast to the geographical arrangements of the earth and
+Mars, the continents occupy the more southern hemisphere of the lunar
+globe. These continents have not such clear and regular boundary-lines
+as those of South America, Africa, and the Indian Peninsula. Their
+angular, capricious, and deeply-indented coasts are rich in gulfs and
+peninsulas. They recall the confusion in the islands of the Sound, where
+the earth is excessively cut up. If navigation has ever existed upon the
+surface of the moon it must have been exceedingly difficult and
+dangerous, and the Selenite mariners and hydrographers were greatly to
+be pitied, the former when they came upon these perilous coasts, the
+latter when they were marine surveying on the stormy banks.
+
+It may also be noticed that upon the lunar spheroid the South Pole is
+much more continental than the North Pole. On the latter there is only a
+slight strip of land capping it, separated from the other continents by
+vast seas. (When the word "seas" is used the vast plains probably
+covered by the sea formerly must be understood.) On the south the land
+covers nearly the whole hemisphere. It is, therefore, possible that the
+Selenites have already planted their flag on one of their poles, whilst
+Franklin, Ross, Kane, Dumont d'Urville, and Lambert have been unable to
+reach this unknown point on the terrestrial globe.
+
+Islands are numerous on the surface of the moon. They are almost all
+oblong or circular, as though traced with a compass, and seem to form a
+vast archipelago, like that charming group lying between Greece and Asia
+Minor which mythology formerly animated with its most graceful legends.
+Involuntarily the names of Naxos, Tenedos, Milo, and Carpathos come into
+the mind, and you seek the ship of Ulysses or the "clipper" of the
+Argonauts. That was what it appeared to Michel Ardan; it was a Grecian
+Archipelago that he saw on the map. In the eyes of his less imaginative
+companions the aspect of these shores recalled rather the cut-up lands
+of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; and where the Frenchman looked for
+traces of the heroes of fable, these Americans were noting favourable
+points for the establishment of mercantile houses in the interest of
+lunar commerce and industry.
+
+Some remarks on the orographical disposition of the moon must conclude
+the description of its continents, chains of mountains, isolated
+mountains, amphitheatres, and watercourses. The moon is like an immense
+Switzerland--a continual Norway, where Plutonic influence has done
+everything. This surface, so profoundly rugged, is the result of the
+successive contractions of the crust while the orb was being formed. The
+lunar disc is propitious for the study of great geological phenomena.
+According to the remarks of some astronomers, its surface, although more
+ancient than the surface of the earth, has remained newer. There there
+is no water to deteriorate the primitive relief, the continuous action
+of which produces a sort of general levelling. No air, the decomposing
+influence of which modifies orographical profiles. There Pluto's work,
+unaltered by Neptune's, is in all its native purity. It is the earth as
+she was before tides and currents covered her with layers of soil.
+
+After having wandered over these vast continents the eye is attracted by
+still vaster seas. Not only does their formation, situation, and aspect
+recall the terrestrial oceans, but, as upon earth, these seas occupy the
+largest part of the globe. And yet these are not liquid tracts, but
+plains, the nature of which the travellers hoped soon to determine.
+
+Astronomers, it must be owned, have decorated these pretended seas with
+at least odd names which science has respected at present. Michel Ardan
+was right when he compared this map to a "map of tenderness," drawn up
+by Scudery or Cyrano de Bergerac.
+
+"Only," added he, "it is no longer the map of sentiment like that of the
+18th century; it is the map of life, clearly divided into two parts, the
+one feminine, the other masculine. To the women, the right hemisphere;
+to the men, the left!"
+
+When he spoke thus Michel made his prosaic companions shrug their
+shoulders. Barbicane and Nicholl looked at the lunar map from another
+point of view to that of their imaginative friend. However, their
+imaginative friend had some reason on his side. Judge if he had not.
+
+In the left hemisphere stretches the "Sea of Clouds," where human reason
+is so often drowned. Not far off appears the "Sea of Rains," fed by all
+the worries of existence. Near lies the "Sea of Tempests," where man
+struggles incessantly against his too-often victorious passions. Then,
+exhausted by deceptions, treasons, infidelities, and all the procession
+of terrestrial miseries, what does he find at the end of his career? The
+vast "Sea of Humours," scarcely softened by some drops from the waters
+of the "Gulf of Dew!" Clouds, rain, tempests, humours, does the life of
+man contain aught but these? and is it not summed up in these four
+words?
+
+The right-hand hemisphere dedicated to "the women" contains smaller
+seas, the significant names of which agree with every incident of
+feminine existence. There is the "Sea of Serenity," over which bends the
+young maiden, and the "Lake of Dreams," which reflects her back a happy
+future. The "Sea of Nectar," with its waves of tenderness and breezes of
+love! The "Sea of Fecundity," the "Sea of Crises," and the "Sea of
+Vapours," the dimensions of which are, perhaps, too restricted, and
+lastly, that vast "Sea of Tranquillity" where all false passions, all
+useless dreams, all unassuaged desires are absorbed, and the waves of
+which flow peacefully into the "Lake of Death!"
+
+What a strange succession of names! What a singular division of these
+two hemispheres of the moon, united to one another like man and woman,
+and forming a sphere of life, carried through space. And was not the
+imaginative Michel right in thus interpreting the fancies of the old
+astronomers?
+
+But whilst his imagination thus ran riot on the "seas," his grave
+companions were looking at things more geographically. They were
+learning this new world by heart. They were measuring its angles and
+diameters.
+
+To Barbicane and Nicholl the "Sea of Clouds" was an immense depression
+of ground, with circular mountains scattered about on it; covering a
+great part of the western side of the southern hemisphere, it covered
+184,800 square leagues, and its centre was in south latitude 15 deg., and
+west longitude 20 deg.. The Ocean of Tempests, _Oceanus Procellarum_, the
+largest plain on the lunar disc, covered a surface of 328,300 square
+leagues, its centre being in north latitude 10 deg., and east longitude 45 deg..
+From its bosom emerge the admirable shining mountains of Kepler and
+Aristarchus.
+
+More to the north, and separated from the Sea of Clouds by high chains
+of mountains, extends the Sea of Rains, _Mare Imbrium_, having its
+central point in north latitude 35 deg. and east longitude 20 deg.; it is of a
+nearly circular form, and covers a space of 193,000 leagues. Not far
+distant the Sea of Humours, _Mare Humorum_, a little basin of 44,200
+square leagues only, was situated in south latitude 25 deg., and east
+longitude 40 deg.. Lastly, three gulfs lie on the coast of this
+hemisphere--the Torrid Gulf, the Gulf of Dew, and the Gulf of Iris,
+little plains inclosed by high chains of mountains.
+
+The "Feminine" hemisphere, naturally more capricious, was distinguished
+by smaller and more numerous seas. These were, towards the north, the
+_Mare Frigoris_, in north latitude 55 deg. and longitude 0 deg., with 76,000
+square leagues of surface, which joined the Lake of Death and Lake of
+Dreams; the Sea of Serenity, _Mare Serenitatis_, by north latitude 25 deg.
+and west longitude 20 deg., comprising a surface of 80,000 square leagues;
+the Sea of Crises, _Mare Crisium_, round and very compact, in north
+latitude 17 deg. and west longitude 55 deg., a surface of 40,000 square leagues,
+a veritable Caspian buried in a girdle of mountains. Then on the
+equator, in north latitude 5 deg. and west longitude 25 deg., appeared the Sea
+of Tranquillity, _Mare Tranquillitatis_, occupying 121,509 square
+leagues of surface; this sea communicated on the south with the Sea of
+Nectar, _Mare Nectaris_, an extent of 28,800 square leagues, in south
+latitude 15 deg. and west longitude 35 deg., and on the east with the Sea of
+Fecundity, _Mare Fecunditatis_, the vastest in this hemisphere,
+occupying 219,300 square leagues, in south latitude 3 deg. and west
+longitude 50 deg.. Lastly, quite to the north and quite to the south lie two
+more seas, the Sea of Humboldt, _Mare Humboldtianum_, with a surface of
+6,500 square leagues, and the Southern Sea, _Mare Australe_, with a
+surface of 26,000.
+
+In the centre of the lunar disc, across the equator and on the zero
+meridian, lies the centre gulf, _Sinus Medii_, a sort of hyphen between
+the two hemispheres.
+
+Thus appeared to the eyes of Nicholl and Barbicane the surface always
+visible of the earth's satellite. When they added up these different
+figures they found that the surface of this hemisphere measured
+4,738,160 square leagues, 3,317,600 of which go for volcanoes, chains of
+mountains, amphitheatres, islands--in a word, all that seems to form the
+solid portion of the globe--and 1,410,400 leagues for the seas, lake,
+marshes, and all that seems to form the liquid portion, all of which was
+perfectly indifferent to the worthy Michel.
+
+It will be noticed that this hemisphere is thirteen and a-half times
+smaller than the terrestrial hemisphere. And yet upon it selenographers
+have already counted 50,000 craters. It is a rugged surface worthy of
+the unpoetical qualification of "green cheese" which the English have
+given it.
+
+When Barbicane pronounced this disobliging name Michel Ardan gave a
+bound.
+
+"That is how the Anglo-Saxons of the 19th century treat the beautiful
+Diana, the blonde Phoebe, the amiable Isis, the charming Astarte, the
+Queen of Night, the daughter of Latona and Jupiter, the younger sister
+of the radiant Apollo!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS.
+
+
+It has already been pointed out that the direction followed by the
+projectile was taking us towards the northern hemisphere of the moon.
+The travellers were far from that central point which they ought to have
+touched if their trajectory had not suffered an irremediable deviation.
+
+It was half-past twelve at night. Barbicane then estimated his distance
+at 1,400 kilometres, a distance rather greater than the length of the
+lunar radius, and which must diminish as he drew nearer the North Pole.
+The projectile was then not at the altitude of the equator, but on the
+tenth parallel, and from that latitude carefully observed on the map as
+far as the Pole, Barbicane and his two companions were able to watch the
+moon under the most favourable circumstances.
+
+In fact, by using telescopes, this distance of 1,400 kilometres was
+reduced to fourteen miles, or four and a-half leagues. The telescope of
+the Rocky Mountains brought the moon still nearer, but the terrestrial
+atmosphere singularly lessened its optical power. Thus Barbicane, in his
+projectile, by looking through his glass, could already perceive certain
+details almost imperceptible to observers on the earth.
+
+"My friends," then said the president in a grave voice, "I do not know
+where we are going, nor whether we shall ever see the terrestrial globe
+again. Nevertheless, let us do our work as if one day it would be of use
+to our fellow-creatures. Let us keep our minds free from all
+preoccupation. We are astronomers. This bullet is the Cambridge
+Observatory transported into space. Let us make our observations."
+
+That said, the work was begun with extreme precision, and it faithfully
+reproduced the different aspects of the moon at the variable distances
+which the projectile reached in relation to that orb.
+
+Whilst the bullet was at the altitude of the 10th north parallel it
+seemed to follow the 20th degree of east longitude.
+
+Here may be placed an important remark on the subject of the map which
+they used for their observations. In the selenographic maps, where, on
+account of the reversal of objects by the telescope, the south is at the
+top and the north at the bottom, it seems natural that the east should
+be on the left and the west on the right. However, it is not so. If the
+map were turned upside down, and showed the moon as she appears, the
+east would be left and the west right, the inverse of the terrestrial
+maps. The reason of this anomaly is the following:--Observers situated
+in the northern hemisphere--in Europe, for example--perceive the moon in
+the south from them. When they look at her they turn their backs to the
+north, the opposite position they take when looking at a terrestrial
+map. Their backs being turned to the north, they have the east to the
+left and the west to the right. For observers in the southern
+hemisphere--in Patagonia, for example--the west of the moon would be on
+their left and the east on their right, for the south would be behind
+them.
+
+Such is the reason for the apparent reversal of these two cardinal
+points, and this must be remembered whilst following the observations of
+President Barbicane.
+
+Helped by the _Mappa Selenographica_ of Boeer and Moedler, the
+travellers could, without hesitating, survey that portion of the disc in
+the field of their telescopes.
+
+"What are we looking at now?" asked Michel.
+
+"At the northern portion of the Sea of Clouds," answered Barbicane. "We
+are too far off to make out its nature. Are those plains composed of
+dry sand, as the first astronomers believed? Or are they only immense
+forests, according to the opinion of Mr. Waren de la Rue, who grants a
+very low but very dense atmosphere to the moon? We shall find that out
+later on. We will affirm nothing till we are quite certain."
+
+"This Sea of Clouds is rather doubtfully traced upon the maps. It is
+supposed that this vast plain is strewn with blocks of lava vomited by
+the neighbouring volcanoes on its right side, Ptolemy, Purbach, and
+Arzachel. The projectile was drawing sensibly nearer, and the summits
+which close in this sea on the north were distinctly visible. In front
+rose a mountain shining gloriously, the top of which seemed drowned in
+the solar rays."
+
+"That mountain is--?" asked Michel.
+
+"Copernicus," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Let us have a look at Copernicus," said Michel.
+
+This mountain, situated in north latitude 9 deg., and east longitude 20 deg.,
+rises to a height of nearly 11,000 feet above the surface of the moon.
+It is quite visible from the earth, and astronomers can study it with
+ease, especially during the phase between the last quarter and the new
+moon, because then shadows are thrown lengthways from east to west, and
+allow the altitudes to be taken.
+
+Copernicus forms the most important radiating system in the southern
+hemisphere, according to Tycho Brahe. It rises isolated like a gigantic
+lighthouse over that of the Sea of Clouds bordering on the Sea of
+Tempests, and it lights two oceans at once with its splendid rays. Those
+long luminous trails, so dazzling at full moon, made a spectacle without
+an equal; they pass the boundary chains on the north, and stretch as far
+as the Sea of Rains. At 1 a.m., terrestrial time, the projectile, like a
+balloon carried into space, hung over this superb mountain.
+
+Barbicane could perfectly distinguish its chief features. Copernicus is
+comprehended in the series of annular mountains of the first order in
+the division of the large amphitheatres. Like the mountains of Kepler
+and Aristarchus, which overlook the Ocean of Tempests, it appears
+sometimes like a brilliant point through the pale light, and used to be
+taken for a volcano in activity. But it is only an extinct volcano, like
+those on that side of the moon. Its circumference presented a diameter
+of about twenty-two leagues. The glasses showed traces of
+stratifications in it produced by successive eruptions, and its
+neighbourhood appeared strewn with volcanic remains, which were still
+seen in the crater.
+
+"There exist," said Barbicane, "several sorts of amphitheatres an the
+surface of the moon, and it is easy to see that Copernicus belongs to
+the radiating class. If we were nearer it we should perceive the cones
+which bristle in the interior, and which were formerly so many fiery
+mouths. A curious arrangement, and one without exception on the lunar
+disc, is presented on the interior surface of these amphitheatres, being
+notably downward from the exterior plane, a contrary form to that which
+terrestrial craters present. It follows, therefore, that the general
+curvature at the bottom of these amphitheatres gives us fear of an
+inferior diameter to that of the moon."
+
+"What is the reason of this special arrangement?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"It is not known," answered Barbicane.
+
+"How splendidly it shines!" said Michel. "I think it would be difficult
+to see a more beautiful spectacle!"
+
+"What should you say, then," answered Barbicane, "if the chances of our
+journey should take us towards the southern hemisphere?"
+
+"Well, I should say it is finer still," replied Michel Ardan.
+
+At that moment the projectile hung right over the amphitheatre. The
+circumference of Copernicus formed an almost perfect circle, and its
+steep ramparts were clearly defined. A second circular inclosure could
+even be distinguished. A grey plain of wild aspect spread around on
+which every relief appeared yellow. At the bottom of the amphitheatre,
+as if in a jewel-case, sparkled for one instant two or three eruptive
+cones like enormous dazzling gems. Towards the north the sides of the
+crater were lowered into a depression which would probably have given
+access to the interior of the crater.
+
+As they passed above the surrounding plain Barbicane was able to note a
+large number of mountains of slight importance, amongst others a little
+circular mountain called "Gay-Lussac," more than twenty-three kilometres
+wide. Towards the south the plain was very flat, without one elevation
+or projection of the soil. Towards the north, on the contrary, as far as
+the place where it borders on the Ocean of Tempests, it was like a
+liquid surface agitated by a storm, of which the hills and hollows
+formed a succession of waves suddenly coagulated. Over the whole of
+this, and in all directions, ran the luminous trails which converged to
+the summit of Copernicus. Some had a width of thirty kilometres over a
+length that could not be estimated.
+
+The travellers discussed the origin of these strange rays, but they
+could not determine their nature any better than terrestrial observers.
+
+"Why," said Nicholl, "may not these rays be simply the spurs of the
+mountains reflecting the light of the sun more vividly?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane, "if it were so in certain conditions of the
+moon they would throw shadows, which they do not."
+
+In fact, these rays only appear when the sun is in opposition with the
+moon, and they disappear as soon as its rays become oblique.
+
+"But what explanation of these trails of light have been imagined?"
+asked Michel, "for I cannot believe that _savants_ would ever stop short
+for want of explanation."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "Herschel has uttered an opinion, but he does
+not affirm it."
+
+"Never mind; what is his opinion?"
+
+"He thought that these rays must be streams of cold lava which shone
+when the sun struck them normally."
+
+"That may be true, but nothing is less certain. However, if we pass
+nearer to Tycho we shall be in a better position to find out the cause
+of this radiation."
+
+"What do you think that plain is like, seen from the height we are at?"
+asked Michel.
+
+"I don't know," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, with all these pieces of lava, sharpened like spindles, it looks
+like 'an immense game of spilikins,' thrown down pell-mell. We only want
+a hook to draw them up."
+
+"Be serious for once in your life," said Barbicane.
+
+"I will be serious," replied Michel tranquilly, "and instead of
+spilikins let us say they are bones. This plain would then be only an
+immense cemetery upon which would repose the immortal remains of a
+thousand distinct generations. Do you like that comparison better?"
+
+"One is as good as the other," answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil! You are difficult to please," replied Michel.
+
+"My worthy friend," resumed the prosaic Barbicane, "it does not matter
+what it looks like when we don't know what it is."
+
+"A good answer," exclaimed Michel; "that will teach me to argue with
+_savants_."
+
+In the meantime the projectile went with almost uniform speed round the
+lunar disc. It may be easily imagined that the travellers did not dream
+of taking a minute's rest. A fresh landscape lay before their eyes every
+instant. About half-past one in the morning they caught a glimpse of the
+summit of another mountain. Barbicane consulted his map, and recognised
+Eratosthenes.
+
+It was a circular mountain 4,500 metres high, one of those amphitheatres
+so numerous upon the satellite. Barbicane informed his friends of
+Kepler's singular opinion upon the formation of these circles.
+According to the celebrated mathematician, these crateriform cavities
+had been dug out by the hand of man.
+
+"What for?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"In order to preserve themselves from the ardour of the solar rays,
+which strike the moon during fifteen consecutive days."
+
+"The Selenites were not fools!" said Michel.
+
+"It was a singular idea!" answered Nicholl. "But it is probable that
+Kepler did not know the real dimensions of these circles, for digging
+them would have been giants' labour, impracticable for Selenites."
+
+"Why so, if the weight on the surface of the moon is six times less than
+upon the surface of the earth?" said Michel.
+
+"But if the Selenites are six times smaller?" replied Nicholl.
+
+"And if there are no Selenites?" added Barbicane, which terminated the
+discussion.
+
+Eratosthenes soon disappeared from the horizon without the projectile
+having been sufficiently near it to allow a rigorous observation. This
+mountain separated the Apennines from the Carpathians.
+
+In lunar orography, several chains of mountains have been distinguished
+which are principally distributed over the northern hemisphere. Some,
+however, occupy certain portions of the southern hemisphere.
+
+The following is a list of these different chains, with their latitudes
+and the height of their highest summits:--
+
+                        deg.   deg.       metres.
+    Mounts Doerfel       84 to  0 S. lat.  7,603
+      "    Leibnitz      65 "   0   "      7,600
+      "    Rook          20 "  30   "      1,600
+      "    Altai         17 "  28   "      4,047
+      "    Cordilleras   10 "  20   "      3,898
+      "    Pyrenees       8 "  18   "      3,631
+      "    Oural          5 "  13   "        838
+      "    Alembert       4 "  10   "      5,847
+      "    Hoemus         8 "  21 N. lat.  2,021
+      "    Carpathians   15 "  19   "      1,939
+      "    Apennines     14 "  27   "      5,501
+      "    Taurus        21 "  28   "      2,746
+      "    Riphees       25 "  33   "      4,171
+      "    Hercynians    17 "  29   "      1,170
+      "    Caucasia      32 "  41   "      5,567
+      "    Alps          42 "  49   "      3,617
+
+The most important of these different chains is that of the Apennines,
+the development of which extends 150 leagues, and is yet inferior to
+that of the great orographical movements of the earth. The Apennines run
+along the eastern border of the Sea of Rains, and are continued on the
+north by the Carpathians, the profile of which measures about 100
+leagues.
+
+The travellers could only catch a glimpse of the summit of these
+Apennines which lie between west long. 10 deg. and east long. 16 deg.; but the
+chain of the Carpathians was visible from 18 deg. to 30 deg. east long., and
+they could see how they were distributed.
+
+One hypothesis seemed to them very justifiable. Seeing that this chain
+of the Carpathians was here and there circular in form and with high
+peaks, they concluded that it anciently formed important amphitheatres.
+These mountainous circles must have been broken up by the vast cataclysm
+to which the Sea of Rains was due. These Carpathians looked then what
+the amphitheatres of Purbach, Arzachel, and Ptolemy would if some
+cataclysm were to throw down their left ramparts and transform them into
+continuous chains. They present an average height of 3,200 metres, a
+height comparable to certain of the Pyrenees. Their southern slopes fall
+straight into the immense Sea of Rains.
+
+About 2 a.m. Barbicane was at the altitude of the 20th lunar parallel,
+not far from that little mountain, 1,559 metres high, which bears the
+name of Pythias. The distance from the projectile to the moon was only
+1,200 kilometres, brought by means of telescopes to two and a half
+leagues.
+
+The "Mare Imbrium" lay before the eyes of the travellers like an immense
+depression of which the details were not very distinct. Near them on the
+left rose Mount Lambert, the altitude of which is estimated at 1,813
+metres, and farther on, upon the borders of the Ocean of Tempests, in
+north lat. 23 deg. and east long. 29 deg., rose the shining mountain of Euler.
+This mountain, which rises only 1,815 metres above the lunar surface,
+has been the object of an interesting work by the astronomer Schroeter.
+This _savant_, trying to find out the origin of the lunar mountains,
+asked himself whether the volume of the crater always looked equal to
+the volume of the ramparts that formed it. Now this he found to be
+generally the case, and he hence concluded that a single eruption of
+volcanic matter had sufficed to form these ramparts, for successive
+eruptions would have destroyed the connection. Mount Euler alone was an
+exception to this general law, and it must have taken several successive
+eruptions to form it, for the volume of its cavity is double that of its
+inclosure.
+
+All these hypotheses were allowable to terrestrial observers whose
+instruments were incomplete; but Barbicane was no longer contented to
+accept them, and seeing that his projectile drew regularly nearer the
+lunar disc he did not despair of ultimately reaching it, or at least of
+finding out the secrets of its formation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+LUNAR LANDSCAPES.
+
+
+At half-past two in the morning the bullet was over the 30th lunar
+parallel at an effective distance of 1,000 kilometres, reduced by the
+optical instruments to ten. It still seemed impossible that it could
+reach any point on the disc. Its movement of translation, relatively
+slow, was inexplicable to President Barbicane. At that distance from the
+moon it ought to have been fast in order to maintain it against the
+power of attraction. The reason of that phenomenon was also
+inexplicable; besides, time was wanting to seek for the cause. The
+reliefs on the lunar surface flew beneath their eyes, and they did not
+want to lose a single detail.
+
+The disc appeared through the telescopes at a distance of two and a half
+leagues. If an aeronaut were taken up that distance from the earth, what
+would he distinguish upon its surface? No one can tell, as the highest
+ascensions have not exceeded 8,000 metres.
+
+The following, however, is an exact description of what Barbicane and
+his companions saw from that height:--
+
+Large patches of different colours appeared on the disc. Selenographers
+do not agree about their nature. They are quite distinct from each
+other. Julius Schmidt is of opinion that if the terrestrial oceans were
+dried up, a Selenite observer could only tell the difference between the
+terrestrial oceans and continental plains by patches of colour as
+distinctly varied as those which a terrestrial observer sees upon the
+moon. According to him, the colour common to the vast plains, known
+under the name of "seas," is dark grey, intermingled with green and
+brown. Some of the large craters are coloured in the same way.
+
+Barbicane knew this opinion of the German selenographer; it is shared by
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler. He noticed that they were right, whilst
+certain astronomers, who only allow grey colouring on the surface of the
+moon, are wrong. In certain places the green colour was very vivid;
+according to Julius Schmidt, it is so in the Seas of Serenity and
+Humours. Barbicane likewise remarked the wide craters with no interior
+cones, which are of a bluish colour, analogous to that of fresh-polished
+sheets of steel. These colours really belonged to the lunar disc, and
+did not result, as certain astronomers think, either from some
+imperfection in the object-glasses of the telescopes or the
+interposition of the terrestrial atmosphere. Barbicane had no longer any
+doubt about it. He was looking at it through the void, and could not
+commit any optical error. He considered that the existence of this
+different colouring was proved to science. Now were the green shades
+owing to tropical vegetation, kept up by a low and dense atmosphere? He
+could not yet be certain.
+
+Farther on he noticed a reddish tinge, quite sufficiently distinct. A
+similar colour had already been observed upon the bottom of an isolated
+inclosure, known under the name of the Lichtenberg Amphitheatre, which
+is situated near the Hercynian Mountains, on the border of the moon. But
+he could not make out its nature.
+
+He was not more fortunate about another peculiarity of the disc, for he
+could not find out its cause. The peculiarity was the following one:--
+
+Michel Ardan was watching near the president when he remarked some long
+white lines brilliantly lighted up by the direct rays of the sun. It was
+a succession of luminous furrows, very different from the radiation that
+Copernicus had presented. They ran in parallel lines.
+
+Michel, with his usual readiness, exclaimed--
+
+"Why, there are cultivated fields!"
+
+"Cultivated fields!" repeated Nicholl, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"Ploughed fields, at all events," replied Michel Ardan. "But what
+ploughmen these Selenites must be, and what gigantic oxen they must
+harness to their ploughs, to make such furrows!"
+
+"They are not furrows, they are crevices!"
+
+"Crevices let them be," answered Michel with docility. "Only what do you
+mean by crevices in the world of science?" Barbicane soon told his
+companions all he knew about lunar crevices. He knew that they were
+furrows observed upon all the non-mountainous parts of the lunar disc;
+that these furrows, generally isolated, were from four to five leagues
+only; that their width varies from 1,000 to 1,500 metres, and their
+edges are rigorously parallel. But he knew nothing more about their
+formation or their nature.
+
+Barbicane watched these furrows through his telescope very attentively.
+He noticed that their banks were exceedingly steep. They were long
+parallel ramparts; with a little imagination they might be taken for
+long lines of fortifications raised by Selenite engineers.
+
+Some of these furrows were as straight as if they had been cut by line,
+others were slightly curved through with edges still parallel. Some
+crossed each other. Some crossed craters. Some furrowed the circular
+cavities, such as Posidonius or Petavius. Some crossed the seas, notably
+the Sea of Serenity.
+
+These accidents of Nature had naturally exercised the imagination of
+terrestrial astronomers. The earliest observations did not discover
+these furrows. Neither Hevelius, Cassini, La Hire, nor Herschel seems to
+have known them. It was Schroeter who in 1789 first attracted the
+attention of _savants_ to them. Others followed who studied them, such
+as Pastorff, Gruithuysen, Boeer, and Moedler. At present there are
+seventy-six; but though they have been counted, their nature has not yet
+been determined. They are not fortifications certainly, anymore than
+they are beds of dried-up rivers, for water so light on the surface of
+the moon could not have dug such ditches, and there furrows often cross
+craters at a great elevation.
+
+It must, however, be acknowledged that Michel Ardan had an idea, and
+that, without knowing it, he shared it with Julius Schmidt.
+
+"Why," said he, "may not these inexplicable appearances be simply
+phenomena of vegetation?"
+
+"In what way do you mean?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"Now do not be angry, worthy president," answered Michel, "but may not
+these black lines be regular rows of trees?"
+
+"Do you want to find some vegetation?" said Barbicane.
+
+"I want to explain what you scientific men do not explain! My hypothesis
+will at least explain why these furrows disappear, or seem to disappear,
+at regular epochs."
+
+"Why should they?"
+
+"Because trees might become invisible when they lose their leaves, and
+visible when they grow again."
+
+"Your explanation is ingenious, old fellow," answered Barbicane, "but it
+cannot be admitted."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because it cannot be said to be any season on the surface of the moon,
+and, consequently, the phenomena of vegetation on the surface of the
+moon cannot be produced."
+
+In fact, the slight obliquity of the lunar axis keeps the sun there at
+an almost equal altitude under every latitude. Above the equatorial
+regions the radiant orb almost invariably occupies the zenith, and
+hardly passes the limit of the horizon in the polar regions. Therefore,
+in each region, according to its position, there reigns perpetual
+spring, summer, autumn, or winter, as in the planet Jupiter, whose axis
+is also slightly inclined upon its orbit.
+
+The origin of these furrows is a difficult question to solve. They are
+certainly posterior to the formation of the craters and amphitheatres,
+for several have crossed them, and broken their circular ramparts. It
+may be that they are contemporary with the latest geographical epochs,
+and are only owing to the expansion of natural forces.
+
+In the meantime the projectile had reached the altitude of the 40th
+degree of lunar latitude at a distance that could not be greater than
+800 kilometres. Objects appeared through the telescopes at two leagues
+only. At this point rose under their feet the Helicon, 505 metres high,
+and on the left were the mediocre heights, which inclose a small portion
+of the Sea of Rains under the name of the Gulf of Iris.
+
+The terrestrial atmosphere ought to be 170 times more transparent than
+it is in order to allow astronomers to make complete observations on the
+surface of the moon. But in the void the projectile was moving in no
+fluid lay between the eye of the observer and the object observed. What
+is more, Barbicane was at a less distance than the most powerful
+telescopes, even that of Lord Rosse or the one on the Rocky Mountains,
+could give. It was, therefore, in circumstances highly favourable for
+solving the great question of the habitability of the moon. Yet the
+solution of this question escaped him still. He could only distinguish
+the deserted beds of the immense plains, and, towards the north, arid
+mountains. No labour betrayed the hand of man. No ruin indicated his
+passage. No agglomeration of animals indicated that life was developed
+there, even in an inferior degree. There was no movement anywhere, no
+appearance of vegetation anywhere. Of the three kingdoms represented on
+the terrestrial globe, one only was represented on that of the
+moon--viz., the mineral kingdom.
+
+"So," said Michel Ardan, looking rather put out, "there is nobody after
+all."
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "we have seen neither man, animal, nor tree as
+yet. After all, if the atmosphere has taken refuge at the bottom of
+cavities, in the interior of the amphitheatres, or even on the opposite
+face of the moon, we cannot decide the question."
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "even for the most piercing sight a man is
+not visible at a distance of more than four miles. Therefore if there
+are any Selenites they can see our projectile, but we cannot see them."
+
+About 11 a.m., at the altitude of the 50th parallel, the distance was
+reduced to 300 miles. On the left rose the capricious outlines of a
+chain of mountains, outlined in full light. Towards the right, on the
+contrary, was a large black hole like a vast dark and bottomless well
+bored in the lunar soil.
+
+That hole was the Black Lake, or Pluto, a deep circle from which the
+earth could be conveniently studied between the last quarter and the new
+moon, when the shadows are thrown from west to east.
+
+This black colour is rarely met with on the surface of the satellite. It
+has, as yet, only been seen in the depths of the circle of Endymion, to
+the east of the Cold Sea, in the northern hemisphere, and at the bottom
+of the circle of Grimaldi upon the equator towards the eastern border of
+the orb.
+
+Pluto is a circular mountain, situated in north lat. 51 deg. and east long.
+9 deg.. Its circle is fifty miles long and thirty wide. Barbicane regretted
+not passing perpendicularly over this vast opening. There was an abyss
+to see, perhaps some mysterious phenomenon to become acquainted with.
+But the course of the projectile could not be guided. There was nothing
+to do but submit. A balloon could not be guided, much less a projectile
+when you are inside.
+
+About 5 a.m. the northern limit of the Sea of Rains was at last passed.
+Mounts La Condamine and Fontenelle remained, the one on the left, the
+other on the right. That part of the disc, starting from the 60th
+degree, became absolutely mountainous. The telescopes brought it to
+within one league, an inferior distance to that between the summit of
+Mont Blanc and the sea level. All this region was bristling with peaks
+and amphitheatres. Mount Philolaus rose about the 70th degree to a
+height of 3,700 metres, opening an elliptical crater sixteen leagues
+long and four wide.
+
+Then the disc, seen from that distance, presented an exceedingly strange
+aspect. The landscapes were very different to earthly ones, and also
+very inferior.
+
+The moon having no atmosphere, this absence of vaporous covering had
+consequences already pointed out. There is no twilight on its surface,
+night following day and day following night, with the suddenness of a
+lamp extinguished or lighted in profound darkness. There is no
+transition from cold to heat: the temperature falls in one instant from
+boiling water heat to the cold of space.
+
+Another consequence of this absence of air is the following:--Absolute
+darkness reigns where the sun's rays do not penetrate. What is called
+diffused light upon the earth, the luminous matter that the air holds
+in suspension, which creates twilights and dawns, which produces
+shadows, penumbrae, and all the magic of the chiaro-oscuro, does not
+exist upon the moon. Hence the harshness of contrasts that only admit
+two colours, black and white. If a Selenite shades his eyes from the
+solar rays the sky appears absolutely dark, and the stars shine as in
+the darkest nights.
+
+The impression produced on Barbicane and his two friends by this strange
+state of things may well be imagined. They did not know how to use their
+eyes. They could no longer seize the respective distances in
+perspective. A lunar landscape, which does not soften the phenomenon of
+the chiaro-oscuro, could not be painted by a landscape-painter of the
+earth. It would be nothing but blots of ink upon white paper.
+
+This aspect of things did not alter even when the projectile, then at
+the altitude of the 80th degree, was only separated from the moon by a
+distance of fifty miles, not even when, at 5 a.m., it passed at less
+than twenty-five miles from the mountain of Gioja, a distance which the
+telescopes reduced to half-a-mile. It seemed as if they could have
+touched the moon. It appeared impossible that before long the projectile
+should not knock against it, if only at the North Pole, where the
+brilliant mountains were clearly outlined against the dark background of
+the sky. Michel Ardan wanted to open one of the port-lights and jump
+upon the lunar surface. What was a fall of twelve leagues? He thought
+nothing of that. It would, however, have been a useless attempt, for if
+the projectile was not going to reach any point on the satellite, Michel
+would have been hurled along by its movement, and not have reached it
+either.
+
+At that moment, 6 a.m., the lunar pole appeared. Only half the disc,
+brilliantly lighted, appeared to the travellers, whilst the other half
+disappeared in the darkness. The projectile suddenly passed the line of
+demarcation between intense light and absolute darkness, and was
+suddenly plunged into the profoundest night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF.
+
+
+At the moment this phenomenon took place the projectile was grazing the
+moon's North Pole, at less that twenty-five miles' distance. A few
+seconds had, therefore, sufficed to plunge it into the absolute darkness
+of space. The transition had taken place so rapidly, without gradations
+of light or attenuation of the luminous undulations, that the orb seemed
+to have been blown out by a powerful gust.
+
+"The moon has melted, disappeared!" cried Michel Ardan, wonder-stricken.
+
+In fact, no ray of light or shade had appeared on the disc, formerly so
+brilliant. The obscurity was complete, and rendered deeper still by the
+shining of the stars. It was the darkness of lunar night, which lasts
+354 hours and a half on each point of the disc--a long night, the result
+of the equality of the movements of translation and rotation of the
+moon, the one upon herself, the other round the earth. The projectile in
+the satellite's cone of shadow was no longer under the action of the
+solar rays.
+
+In the interior darkness was, therefore, complete. The travellers could
+no longer see one another. Hence came the necessity to lighten this
+darkness. However desirous Barbicane might be to economise the gas, of
+which he had so small a reserve, he was obliged to have recourse to it
+for artificial light--an expensive brilliancy which the sun then
+refused.
+
+"The devil take the radiant orb!" cried Michel Ardan; "he is going to
+force us to spend our gas instead of giving us his rays for nothing."
+
+"We must not accuse the sun," said Nicholl. "It is not his fault, it is
+the moon's fault for coming and putting herself like a screen between us
+and him."
+
+"It's the sun!" said Michel again.
+
+"It's the moon!" retorted Nicholl.
+
+An idle dispute began, which Barbicane put an end to by saying--
+
+"My friends, it is neither the fault of the sun nor the moon. It is the
+projectile's fault for deviating from its course instead of rigorously
+following it. Or, to be juster still, it is the fault of that
+unfortunate asteroid which so deplorably altered our first direction."
+
+"Good!" answered Michel Ardan; "as that business is settled let us have
+our breakfast. After a night entirely passed in making observations, we
+want something to set us to rights a little."
+
+This proposition met with no contradiction. Michel prepared the repast
+in a few minutes. But they ate for the sake of eating. They drank
+without toasts or hurrahs. The bold travellers, borne away into the
+darkness of space without their accustomed escort of rays, felt a vague
+uneasiness invade their hearts. The "farouche" darkness, so dear to the
+pen of Victor Hugo, surrounded them on all sides.
+
+In the meantime they talked about this interminable night, 354 hours, or
+nearly 15 days, long, which physical laws have imposed upon the
+inhabitants of the moon. Barbicane gave his friends some explanation of
+the causes and consequences of this curious phenomenon.
+
+"Curious it certainly is," said he, "for if each hemisphere of the moon
+is deprived of solar light for fifteen days, the one over which we are
+moving at this moment does not even enjoy, during its long night, a
+sight of the brilliantly-lighted earth. In a word, there is no moon,
+applying that qualification to our spheroid, except for one side of the
+disc. Now, if it was the same upon earth--if, for example, Europe never
+saw the moon, and she was only visible at the antipodes--you can figure
+to yourselves the astonishment of a European on arriving in Australia."
+
+"They would make the voyage for nothing but to go and see the moon,"
+answered Michel.
+
+"Well," resumed Barbicane, "that astonishment is reserved to the
+Selenite who inhabits the opposite side of the moon to the earth, a side
+for ever invisible to our fellow-beings of the terrestrial globe."
+
+"And which we should have seen," added Nicholl, "if we had arrived here
+at the epoch when the moon is new--that is to say, a fortnight later."
+
+"To make amends," resumed Barbicane, "an inhabitant of the visible face
+is singularly favoured by Nature to the detriment on the invisible face.
+The latter, as you see, has dark nights of 354 hours long, without a ray
+of light to penetrate the obscurity. The other, on the contrary, when
+the sun, which has lighted him for a fortnight, sets under the horizon,
+sees on the opposite horizon a splendid orb rise. It is the earth,
+thirteen times larger than that moon which we know--the earth, which is
+developed to a diameter of two degrees, and which sheds a light thirteen
+times greater, which no atmosphere qualifies; the earth, which only
+disappears when the sun reappears."
+
+"A fine sentence," said Michel Ardan; "rather academical perhaps."
+
+"It follows," resumed Barbicane, nowise put out, "that the visible face
+of the disc must be very agreeable to inhabit, as it is always lighted
+by the sun or the moon."
+
+"But," said Nicholl, "this advantage must be quite compensated by the
+unbearable heat which this light must cause."
+
+"This inconvenience is the same under two faces, for the light reflected
+by the earth is evidently deprived of heat. However, this invisible face
+is still more deprived of heat than the visible face. I say that for
+you, Nicholl; Michel would probably not understand."
+
+"Thank you," said Michel.
+
+"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when the invisible face receives the
+solar light and heat the moon is new--that is to say, that she is in
+conjunction, that she is situated between the sun and the earth. She is
+then, on account of the situation which she occupies in opposition when
+she is full, nearer the sun by the double of her distance from the
+earth. Now this distance may be estimated at the two-hundredth part of
+that which separates the sun and the earth; or, in round numbers, at two
+hundred thousand leagues. Therefore this visible face is nearer the sun
+by two hundred thousand leagues when it receives his rays."
+
+"Quite right," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Whilst--" resumed Barbicane.
+
+"Allow me," said Michel, interrupting his grave companion.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"I want to go on with the explanation."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"To prove that I have understood."
+
+"Go on, then," said Barbicane, smiling.
+
+"Whilst," said Michel, imitating the tone and gestures of President
+Barbicane, "when the visible face of the moon is lighted by the sun the
+moon is full--that is to say, situated with regard to the earth the
+opposite to the sun. The distance which separates it from the radiant
+orb is then increased in round numbers by 200,000 leagues, and the heat
+which it receives must be rather less."
+
+"Well done!" exclaimed Barbicane. "Do you know, Michel, for an artist
+you are intelligent."
+
+"Yes," answered Michel carelessly, "we are all intelligent on the
+Boulevard des Italiens."
+
+Barbicane shook hands gravely with his amiable companion, and went on
+enumerating the few advantages reserved to the inhabitants of the
+visible face.
+
+Amongst others he quoted the observations of the sun's eclipses, which
+can only be seen from one side of the lunar disc, because the moon must
+be in opposition before they can take place. These eclipses, caused by
+the interposition of the earth between the sun and the moon, may last
+two hours, during which, on account of the rays refracted by its
+atmosphere, the terrestrial globe can only appear like a black spot upon
+the sun.
+
+"Then," said Nicholl, "the invisible hemisphere is very ill-treated by
+Nature."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "but not the whole of it. By a certain
+movement of liberation, a sort of balancing on its centre, the moon
+presents more than the half of her disc to the earth. She is like a
+pendulum, the centre of gravity of which is towards the terrestrial
+globe, and which oscillates regularly. Whence comes that oscillation?
+Because her movement of rotation on her axis is animated with uniform
+velocity, whilst her movement of translation, following an elliptical
+orb round the earth, is not. At the perigee the velocity of translation
+is greater, and the moon shows a certain portion of her western border.
+At her apogee the velocity of rotation is greater, and a morsel of her
+eastern border appears. It is a strip of about eight degrees, which
+appears sometimes on the west, sometimes on the east. The result is,
+therefore, that of a thousand parts the moon shows five hundred and
+sixty-nine."
+
+"No matter," answered Michel; "if we ever become Selenites, we will
+inhabit the visible face. I like light."
+
+"Unless," replied Nicholl, "the atmosphere should be condensed on the
+other side, as certain astronomers pretend."
+
+"That is a consideration," answered Michel simply.
+
+In the meantime breakfast was concluded, and the observers resumed their
+posts. They tried to see through the dark port-light by putting out all
+light in the projectile. But not one luminous atom penetrated the
+obscurity.
+
+One inexplicable fact preoccupied Barbicane. How was it that though the
+projectile had been so near the moon, within a distance of twenty-five
+miles, it had not fallen upon her? If its speed had been enormous, he
+would have understood why it had not fallen. But with a relatively
+slight speed the resistance to lunar attraction could not be explained.
+Was the projectile under the influence of some strange force? Did some
+body maintain it in the ether? It was henceforth evident that it would
+not touch any point upon the moon. Where was it going? Was it going
+farther away from or nearer to the disc? Was it carried along in the
+gloom across infinitude? How were they to know, how calculate in the
+dark? All these questions made Barbicane anxious, but he could not solve
+them.
+
+In fact, the invisible orb was there, perhaps, at a distance of some
+leagues only, but neither his companions nor he could any longer see it.
+If any noise was made on its surface they could not hear it. The air,
+that vehicle of transmission, was wanting to convey to them the groans
+of that moon which the Arabian legends make "a man already half-granite,
+but still palpitating."
+
+It will be agreed that it was enough to exasperate the most patient
+observers. It was precisely the unknown hemisphere that was hidden from
+their eyes. That face which a fortnight sooner or a fortnight later had
+been, or would be, splendidly lighted up by the solar rays, was then
+lost in absolute darkness. Where would the projectile be in another
+fortnight? Where would the hazards of attraction have taken it? Who
+could say?
+
+It is generally admitted that the invisible hemisphere of the moon is,
+by its constitution, absolutely similar to the visible hemisphere.
+One-seventh of it is seen in those movements of libration Barbicane
+spoke of. Now upon the surface seen there were only plains and
+mountains, amphitheatres and craters, like those on the maps. They could
+there imagine the same arid and dead nature. And yet, supposing the
+atmosphere to have taken refuge upon that face? Suppose that with the
+air water had given life to these regenerated continents? Suppose that
+vegetation still persists there? Suppose that animals people these
+continents and seas? Suppose that man still lives under those conditions
+of habitability? How many questions there were it would have been
+interesting to solve! What solutions might have been drawn from the
+contemplation of that hemisphere! What delight it would have been to
+glance at that world which no human eye has seen!
+
+The disappointment of the travellers in the midst of this darkness may
+be imagined. All observation of the lunar disc was prevented. The
+constellations alone were visible, and it must be acknowledged that no
+astronomers, neither Faye, Chacornac, nor the Secchi, had ever been in
+such favourable conditions to observe them.
+
+In fact, nothing could equal the splendour of this starry world, bathed
+in limpid ether. Diamonds set in the celestial vault threw out superb
+flames. One look could take in the firmament from the Southern Cross to
+the North Star, those two constellations which will in 12,000 years, on
+account of the succession of equinoxes, resign their _roles_ of polar
+stars, the one to Canopus in the southern hemisphere, the other to Wega
+in the northern. Imagination lost itself in this sublime infinitude,
+amidst which the projectile was moving like a new star created by the
+hand of man. From natural causes these constellations shone with a soft
+lustre; they did not twinkle because there was no atmosphere to
+intervene with its strata unequally dense, and of different degrees of
+humidity, which causes this scintillation.
+
+The travellers long watched the constellated firmament, upon which the
+vast screen of the moon made an enormous black hole. But a painful
+sensation at length drew them from their contemplation. This was an
+intense cold, which soon covered the glasses of the port-lights with a
+thick coating of ice. The sun no longer warmed the projectile with his
+rays, and it gradually lost the heat stored up in its walls. This heat
+was by radiation rapidly evaporated into space, and a considerable
+lowering of the temperature was the result. The interior humidity was
+changed into ice by contact with the window-panes, and prevented all
+observation.
+
+Nicholl, consulting the thermometer, said that it had fallen to 17 deg.
+(centigrade) below zero (1 deg. Fahr). Therefore, notwithstanding every
+reason for being economical, Barbicane was obliged to seek heat as well
+as light from gas. The low temperature of the bullet was no longer
+bearable. Its occupants would have been frozen to death.
+
+"We will not complain about the monotony of the journey," said Michel
+Ardan. "What variety we have had, in temperature at all events! At times
+we have been blinded with light, and saturated with heat like the
+Indians of the Pampas! Now we are plunged into profound darkness amidst
+boreal cold, like the Esquimaux of the pole! No, indeed! We have no
+right to complain, and Nature has done many things in our honour!"
+
+"But," asked Nicholl, "what is the exterior temperature?"
+
+"Precisely that of planetary space," answered Barbicane.
+
+"Then," resumed Michel Ardan, "would not this be an opportunity for
+making that experiment we could not attempt when we were bathed in the
+solar rays?"
+
+"Now or never," answered Barbicane, "for we are usefully situated in
+order to verify the temperature of space, and see whether the
+calculations of Fourier or Pouillet are correct."
+
+"Any way it is cold enough," said Michel. "Look at the interior humidity
+condensing on the port-lights. If this fall continues the vapour of our
+respiration will fall around us in snow."
+
+"Let us get a thermometer," said Barbicane.
+
+It will be readily seen that an ordinary thermometer would have given no
+result under the circumstances in which it was going to be exposed. The
+mercury would have frozen in its cup, for it does not keep liquid below
+44 deg. below zero. But Barbicane had provided himself with a spirit
+thermometer, on the Walferdin system, which gives the minima of
+excessively low temperature.
+
+Before beginning the experiment this instrument was compared with an
+ordinary thermometer, and Barbicane prepared to employ it.
+
+"How shall we manage it?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Nothing is easier," answered Michel Ardan, who was never at a loss.
+"Open the port-light rapidly, throw out the instrument; it will follow
+the projectile with exemplary docility; a quarter of an hour after take
+it in."
+
+"With your hand?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"With my hand," answered Michel.
+
+"Well, then, my friend, do not try it," said Barbicane, "for the hand
+you draw back will be only a stump, frozen and deformed by the frightful
+cold."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"You would feel the sensation of a terrible burn, like one made with a
+red-hot iron, for the same thing happens when heat is brutally
+abstracted from our body as when it is inserted. Besides, I am not sure
+that objects thrown out still follow us."
+
+"Why?" said Nicholl.
+
+"Because if we are passing through any atmosphere, however slightly
+dense, these objects will be delayed. Now the darkness prevents us
+verifying whether they still float around us. Therefore, in order not to
+risk our thermometer, we will tie something to it, and so easily pull it
+back into the interior."
+
+Barbicane's advice was followed. Nicholl threw the instrument out of the
+rapidly-opened port-light, holding it by a very short cord, so that it
+could be rapidly drawn in. The window was only open one second, and yet
+that one second was enough to allow the interior of the projectile to
+become frightfully cold.
+
+"_Mille diables!_" cried Michel Ardan, "it is cold enough here to freeze
+white bears!"
+
+Barbicane let half-an-hour go by, more than sufficient time to allow the
+instrument to descend to the level of the temperature of space. The
+thermometer was then rapidly drawn in.
+
+Barbicane calculated the quantity of mercury spilt into the little phial
+soldered to the lower part of the instrument, and said--
+
+"One hundred and forty degrees centigrade below zero!" (218 deg. Fahr.)
+
+M. Pouillet was right, not Fourier. Such was the frightful temperature
+of sidereal space! Such perhaps that of the lunar continents when the
+orb of night loses by radiation all the heat which she absorbs during
+the fifteen days of sunshine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA.
+
+
+Our readers will probably be astonished that Barbicane and his
+companions were so little occupied with the future in store for them in
+their metal prison, carried along in the infinitude of ether. Instead of
+asking themselves where they were going, they lost their time in making
+experiments, just as if they had been comfortably installed in their
+own studies.
+
+It might be answered that men so strong-minded were above such
+considerations, that such little things did not make them uneasy, and
+that they had something else to do than to think about their future.
+
+The truth is that they were not masters of their projectile--that they
+could neither stop it nor alter its direction. A seaman can direct the
+head of his ship as he pleases; an aeronaut can give his balloon
+vertical movement. They, on the contrary, had no authority over their
+vehicle. No manoeuvre was possible to them. Hence their not troubling
+themselves, or "let things go" state of mind.
+
+Where were they at that moment, 8 a.m. during that day called upon earth
+the sixth of December? Certainly in the neighbourhood of the moon, and
+even near enough for her to appear like a vast black screen upon the
+firmament. As to the distance which separated them, it was impossible to
+estimate it. The projectile, kept up by inexplicable forces, has grazed
+the north pole of the satellite at less than twenty-five miles'
+distance. But had that distance increased or diminished since they had
+been in the cone of shadow? There was no landmark by which to estimate
+either the direction or the velocity of the projectile. Perhaps it was
+going rapidly away from the disc and would soon leave the pure shadow.
+Perhaps, on the contrary, it was approaching it, and would before long
+strike against some elevated peak in the invisible atmosphere, which
+would have terminated the journey, doubtless to the detriment of the
+travellers.
+
+A discussion began upon this subject, and Michel Ardan, always rich in
+explanations, gave out the opinion that the bullet, restrained by lunar
+attraction, would end by falling on the moon like an aerolite on to the
+surface of the terrestrial globe.
+
+"In the first place," answered Barbicane, "all aerolites do not fall
+upon the surface of the earth; only a small proportion do so. Therefore,
+if we are aerolites it does not necessarily follow that we shall fall
+upon the moon."
+
+"Still," answered Michel, "if we get near enough--"
+
+"Error," replied Barbicane. "Have you not seen shooting stars by
+thousands in the sky at certain epochs?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, those stars, or rather corpuscles, only shine by rubbing against
+the atmospheric strata. Now, if they pass through the atmosphere, they
+pass at less than 16 miles from our globe, and yet they rarely fall. It
+is the same with our projectile. It may approach very near the moon, and
+yet not fall upon it."
+
+"But then," asked Michel, "I am curious to know how our vehicle would
+behave in space."
+
+"I only see two hypotheses," answered Barbicane, after some minutes'
+reflection.
+
+"What are they?"
+
+"The projectile has the choice between two mathematical curves, and it
+will follow the one or the other according to the velocity with which it
+is animated, and which I cannot now estimate."
+
+"Yes, it will either describe a parabola or an hyperbola."
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "with some speed it will describe a parabola,
+and with greater speed an hyperbola."
+
+"I like those grand words!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "I know at once what
+you mean. And what is your parabola, if you please?"
+
+"My friend," answered the captain, "a parabola is a conic section
+arising from cutting a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides."
+
+"Oh!" said Michel in a satisfied tone.
+
+"It is about the same trajectory that the bomb of a howitzer describes."
+
+"Just so. And an hyperbola?" asked Michel.
+
+"It is a curve formed by a section of a cone when the cutting plane
+makes a greater angle with the base than the side of the cone makes."
+
+"Is it possible?" exclaimed Michel Ardan in the most serious tone, as if
+he had been informed of a grave event. "Then remember this, Captain
+Nicholl, what I like in your definition of the hyperbola--I was going to
+say of the hyperhumbug--is that it is still less easy to understand than
+the word you pretend to define."
+
+Nicholl and Barbicane paid no attention to Michel Ardan's jokes. They
+had launched into a scientific discussion. They were eager about what
+curve the projectile would take. One was for the hyperbola, the other
+for the parabola. They gave each other reasons bristling with _x_'s.
+Their arguments were presented in a language which made Michel Ardan
+jump. The discussion was lively, and neither of the adversaries would
+sacrifice his curve of predilection.
+
+This scientific dispute was prolonged until Michel Ardan became
+impatient, and said--
+
+"I say, Messrs. Cosine, do leave off throwing your hyperbolas and
+parabolas at one's head. I want to know the only interesting thing about
+the business. We shall follow one or other of your curves. Very well.
+But where will they take us to?"
+
+"Nowhere," answered Nicholl.
+
+"How nowhere?"
+
+"Evidently they are unfinished curves, prolonged indefinitely!"
+
+"Ah, _savants_! What does it matter about hyperbola or parabola if they
+both carry us indefinitely into space?"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing. They cared for art for
+its own sake. Never had more useless question been discussed at a more
+inopportune moment. The fatal truth was that the projectile, whether
+hyperbolically or parabolically carried along, would never strike
+against either the earth or the moon.
+
+What would become of these bold travellers in the most immediate future?
+If they did not die of hunger or thirst, they would in a few days, when
+gas failed them, die for want of air, if the cold had not killed them
+first!
+
+Still, although it was so important to economise gas, the excessive
+lowness of the surrounding temperature forced them to consume a certain
+quantity. They could not do without either its light or heat. Happily
+the caloric developed by the Reiset and Regnault apparatus slightly
+elevated the temperature of the projectile, and without spending much
+they could raise it to a bearable degree.
+
+In the meantime observation through the port-lights had become very
+difficult. The steam inside the bullet condensed upon the panes and
+froze immediately. They were obliged to destroy the opacity of the glass
+by constant rubbing. However, they could record several phenomena of the
+highest interest.
+
+In fact, if the invisible disc had any atmosphere, the shooting stars
+would be seen passing through it. If the projectile itself passed
+through the fluid strata, might it not hear some noise echoed--a storm,
+for instance, an avalanche, or a volcano in activity? Should they not
+see the intense fulgurations of a burning mountain? Such facts,
+carefully recorded, would have singularly elucidated the obscure
+question of the lunar constitution. Thus Barbicane and Nicholl, standing
+like astronomers at their port-lights, watched with scrupulous patience.
+
+But until then the disc remained mute and dark. It did not answer the
+multifarious interrogations of these ardent minds.
+
+This provoked from Michel a reflection that seemed correct enough.
+
+"If ever we recommence our journey, we shall do well to choose the epoch
+when the moon is new."
+
+"True," answered Nicholl, "that circumstance would have been more
+favourable. I agree that the moon, bathed in sunlight, would not be
+visible during the passage, but on the other hand the earth would be
+full. And if we are dragged round the moon like we are now, we should
+at least have the advantage of seeing the invisible disc magnificently
+lighted up."
+
+"Well said, Nicholl," replied Michel Ardan. "What do you think about it,
+Barbicane?"
+
+"I think this," answered the grave president: "if ever we recommence
+this journey, we shall start at the same epoch, and under the same
+circumstances. Suppose we had reached our goal, would it not have been
+better to find the continents in full daylight instead of dark night?
+Would not our first installation have been made under better
+circumstances? Yes, evidently. As to the invisible side, we could have
+visited that in our exploring expeditions on the lunar globe. So,
+therefore, the time of the full moon was well chosen. But we ought to
+have reached our goal, and in order to have reached it we ought not to
+have deviated from our road."
+
+"There is no answer to make to that," said Michel Ardan. "Yet we have
+passed a fine opportunity for seeing the moon! Who knows whether the
+inhabitants of the other planets are not more advanced than the
+_savants_ of the earth on the subject of their satellites?"
+
+The following answer might easily have been given to Michel Ardan's
+remark:--Yes, other satellites, on account of their greater proximity,
+have made the study of them easier. The inhabitants of Saturn, Jupiter,
+and Uranus, if they exist, have been able to establish communication
+with their moons much more easily. The four satellites of Jupiter
+gravitate at a distance of 108,260 leagues, 172,200 leagues, 274,700
+leagues, and 480,130 leagues. But these distances are reckoned from the
+centre of the planet, and by taking away the radius, which is 17,000 to
+18,000 leagues, it will be seen that the first satellite is at a much
+less distance from the surface of Jupiter than the moon is from the
+centre of the earth. Of the eight moons of Saturn, four are near. Diana
+is 84,600 leagues off; Thetys, 62,966 leagues; Enceladus, 48,191
+leagues; and lastly, Mimas is at an average distance of 34,500 leagues
+only. Of the eighteen satellites of Uranus, the first, Ariel, is only
+51,520 leagues from the planet.
+
+Therefore, upon the surface of those three stars, an experiment
+analogous to that of President Barbicane would have presented less
+difficulties. If, therefore, their inhabitants have attempted the
+enterprise, they have, perhaps, acquainted themselves with the
+constitution of the half of the disc which their satellite hides
+eternally from their eyes. But if they have never left their planet,
+they do not know more about them than the astronomers of the earth.
+
+In the meantime the bullet was describing in the darkness that
+incalculable trajectory which no landmark allowed them to find out. Was
+its direction altered either under the influence of lunar attraction or
+under the action of some unknown orb? Barbicane could not tell. But a
+change had taken place in the relative position of the vehicle, and
+Barbicane became aware of it about 4 a.m.
+
+The change consisted in this, that the bottom of the projectile was
+turned towards the surface of the moon, and kept itself perpendicular
+with its axis. The attraction or gravitation had caused this
+modification. The heaviest part of the bullet inclined towards the
+invisible disc exactly as if it had fallen towards it.
+
+Was it falling then? Were the travellers at last about to reach their
+desired goal? No. And the observation of one landmark, inexplicable in
+itself, demonstrated to Barbicane that his projectile was not nearing
+the moon, and that it was following an almost concentric curve.
+
+This was a flash of light which Nicholl signalised all at once on the
+limit of the horizon formed by the black disc. This point could not be
+mistaken for a star. It was a reddish flame, which grew gradually
+larger--an incontestable proof that the projectile was getting nearer
+it, and not falling normally upon the surface of the satellite.
+
+"A volcano! It is a volcano in activity!" exclaimed Nicholl--"an
+eruption of the interior fires of the moon. That world, then, is not
+quite extinguished."
+
+"Yes, an eruption!" answered Barbicane, who studied the phenomenon
+carefully through his night-glass. "What should it be if not a volcano?"
+
+"But then," said Michel Ardan, "air is necessary to feed that
+combustion, therefore there is some atmosphere on that part of the
+moon."
+
+"Perhaps so," answered Barbicane, "but not necessarily. A volcano, by
+the decomposition of certain matters, can furnish itself with oxygen,
+and so throw up flames into the void. It seems to me, too, that that
+deflagration has the intensity and brilliancy of objects the combustion
+of which is produced in pure oxygen. We must not be in a hurry to affirm
+the existence of a lunar atmosphere."
+
+The burning mountain was situated at the 45th degree of south latitude
+on the invisible part of the disc. But to the great disappointment of
+Barbicane the curve that the projectile described dragged it away from
+the point signalised by the eruption, therefore he could not exactly
+determine its nature. Half-an-hour after it had first been seen this
+luminous point disappeared on the horizon. Still the authentication of
+this phenomenon was a considerable fact in selenographic studies. It
+proved that all heat had not yet disappeared from the interior of this
+globe, and where heat exists, who may affirm that the vegetable kingdom,
+or even the animal kingdom itself, has not until now resisted the
+destructive influences? The existence of this volcano in eruption,
+indisputably established by earthly _savants_, was favourable to the
+theory of the habitability of the moon.
+
+Barbicane became absorbed in reflection. He forgot himself in a mute
+reverie, filled with the mysterious destinies of the lunar world. He was
+trying to connect the facts observed up till then, when a fresh incident
+recalled him suddenly to the reality.
+
+This incident was more than a cosmic phenomenon; it was a threatening
+danger, the consequences of which might be disastrous.
+
+Suddenly in the midst of the ether, in the profound darkness, an
+enormous mass had appeared. It was like a moon, but a burning moon of
+almost unbearable brilliancy, outlined as it was on the total obscurity
+of space. This mass, of a circular form, threw such light that it filled
+the projectile. The faces of Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan,
+bathed in its white waves, looked spectral, livid, _blafard_, like the
+appearance produced by the artificial light of alcohol impregnated with
+salt.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan. "How hideous we are! Whatever is that
+wretched moon?"
+
+"It is a bolis," answered Barbicane.
+
+"A bolis, on fire, in the void?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+This globe of fire was indeed a bolis. Barbicane was not mistaken. But
+if these cosmic meteors, seen from the earth, present an inferior light
+to that of the moon, here, in the dark ether, they shone magnificently.
+These wandering bodies carry in themselves the principle of their own
+incandescence. The surrounding air is not necessary to the deflagration.
+And, indeed, if certain of these bodies pass through our atmosphere at
+two or three leagues from the earth, others describe their trajectory at
+a distance the atmosphere cannot reach. Some of these meteors are from
+one to two miles wide, and move at a speed of forty miles a second,
+following an inverse direction from the movement of the earth.
+
+This shooting star suddenly appeared in the darkness at a distance of at
+least 100 leagues, and measured, according to Barbicane's estimate, a
+diameter of 2,000 metres. It moved with the speed of about thirty
+leagues a minute. It cut across the route of the projectile, and would
+reach it in a few minutes. As it approached it grew larger in an
+enormous proportion.
+
+If possible, let the situation of the travellers be imagined! It is
+impossible to describe it. In spite of their courage, their
+_sang-froid_, their carelessness of danger, they were mute, motionless,
+with stiffened limbs, a prey to fearful terror. Their projectile, the
+course of which they could not alter, was running straight on to this
+burning mass, more intense than the open mouth of a furnace. They seemed
+to be rushing towards an abyss of fire.
+
+Barbicane seized the hands of his two companions, and all three looked
+through their half-closed eyelids at the red-hot asteroid. If they still
+thought at all, they must have given themselves up as lost!
+
+Two minutes after the sudden appearance of the bolis, two centuries of
+agony, the projectile seemed about to strike against it, when the ball
+of fire burst like a bomb, but without making any noise in the void,
+where sound, which is only the agitation of the strata of air, could not
+be made.
+
+Nicholl uttered a cry. His companions and he rushed to the port-lights.
+
+What a spectacle! What pen could describe it, what palette would be rich
+enough in colours to reproduce its magnificence?
+
+It was like the opening of a crater, or the spreading of an immense
+fire. Thousands of luminous fragments lit up space with their fires.
+Every size, colour, and shade were there. There were yellow, red, green,
+grey, a crown of multi-coloured fireworks. There only remained of the
+enormous and terrible globe pieces carried in all directions, each an
+asteroid in its turn, some shining like swords, some surrounded by white
+vapour, others leaving behind them a trail of cosmic dust.
+
+These incandescent blocks crossed each other, knocked against each
+other, and were scattered into smaller fragments, of which some struck
+the projectile. Its left window was even cracked by the violent shock.
+It seemed to be floating in a shower of bullets, of which the least
+could annihilate it in an instant.
+
+The light which saturated the ether was of incomparable intensity, for
+these asteroids dispersed it in every direction. At a certain moment it
+was so bright that Michel dragged Barbicane and Nicholl to the window,
+exclaiming--
+
+"The invisible moon is at last visible!"
+
+And all three, across the illumination, saw for a few seconds that
+mysterious disc which the eye of man perceived for the first time.
+
+What did they distinguish across that distance which they could not
+estimate? Long bands across the disc, veritable clouds formed in a very
+restricted atmospheric medium, from which emerged not only all the
+mountains, but every relief of middling importance, amphitheatres,
+yawning craters, such as exist on the visible face. Then immense tracts,
+no longer arid plains, but veritable seas, oceans which reflected in
+their liquid mirror all the dazzling magic of the fires of space.
+Lastly, on the surface of the continents, vast dark masses, such as
+immense forests would resemble under the rapid illumination of a flash
+of lightning.
+
+Was it an illusion, an error of the eyes, an optical deception? Could
+they give a scientific affirmation to that observation so superficially
+obtained? Dared they pronounce upon the question of its habitability
+after so slight a glimpse of the invisible disc?
+
+By degrees the fulgurations of space gradually died out, its accidental
+brilliancy lessened, the asteroids fled away by their different
+trajectories, and went out in the distance. The ether resumed its
+habitual darkness; the stars, for one moment eclipsed, shone in the
+firmament, and the disc, of which scarcely a glimpse had been caught,
+was lost in the impenetrable night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
+
+
+The projectile had just escaped a terrible danger, a danger quite
+unforeseen. Who would have imagined such a meeting of asteroids? These
+wandering bodies might prove serious perils to the travellers. They were
+to them like so many rocks in the sea of ether, which, less fortunate
+than navigators, they could not avoid. But did these adventurers of
+space complain? No, as Nature had given them the splendid spectacle of a
+cosmic meteor shining by formidable expansion, as this incomparable
+display of fireworks, which no Ruggieri could imitate, had lighted for a
+few seconds the invisible nimbus of the moon. During that rapid peep,
+continents, seas, and forests had appeared to them. Then the atmosphere
+did give there its life-giving particles? Questions still not solved,
+eternally asked by American curiosity.
+
+It was then 3.30 p.m. The bullet was still describing its curve round
+the moon. Had its route again been modified by the meteor? It was to be
+feared. The projectile ought, however to describe a curve imperturbably
+determined by the laws of mechanics. Barbicane inclined to the opinion
+that this curve would be a parabola and not an hyperbola. However, if
+the parabola was admitted, the bullet ought soon to come out of the cone
+of shadow thrown into the space on the opposite side to the sun. This
+cone, in fact, is very narrow, the angular diameter of the moon is so
+small compared to the diameter of the orb of day. Until now the
+projectile had moved in profound darkness. Whatever its speed had
+been--and it could not have been slight--its period of occultation
+continued. That fact was evident, but perhaps that would not have been
+the case in a rigidly parabolical course. This was a fresh problem which
+tormented Barbicane's brain, veritably imprisoned as it was in a web of
+the unknown which he could not disentangle.
+
+Neither of the travellers thought of taking a minute's rest. Each
+watched for some unexpected incident which should throw a new light on
+their uranographic studies. About five o'clock Michel distributed to
+them, by way of dinner, some morsels of bread and cold meat, which were
+rapidly absorbed, whilst no one thought of leaving the port-light, the
+panes of which were becoming incrusted under the condensation of vapour.
+
+About 5.45 p.m., Nicholl, armed with his telescope, signalised upon the
+southern border of the moon, and in the direction followed by the
+projectile, a few brilliant points outlined against the dark screen of
+the sky. They looked like a succession of sharp peaks with profiles in a
+tremulous line. They were rather brilliant. The terminal line of the
+moon looks the same when she is in one of her octants.
+
+They could not be mistaken. There was no longer any question of a simple
+meteor, of which that luminous line had neither the colour nor the
+mobility, nor of a volcano in eruption. Barbicane did not hesitate to
+declare what it was.
+
+"The sun!" he exclaimed.
+
+"What! the sun!" answered Nicholl and Michel Ardan.
+
+"Yes, my friends, it is the radiant orb itself, lighting up the summit
+of the mountains situated on the southern border of the moon. We are
+evidently approaching the South Pole!"
+
+"After having passed the North Pole," answered Michel. "Then we have
+been all round our satellite."
+
+"Yes, friend Michel."
+
+"Then we have no more hyperbolas, no more parabolas, no more open curves
+to fear!"
+
+"No, but a closed curve."
+
+"Which is called--"
+
+"An ellipsis. Instead of being lost in the interplanetary spaces it is
+possible that the projectile will describe an elliptical orbit round the
+moon."
+
+"Really!"
+
+"And that it will become its satellite."
+
+"Moon of the moon," exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"Only I must tell you, my worthy friend, that we are none the less lost
+men on that account!"
+
+"No, but in another and much pleasanter way!" answered the careless
+Frenchman, with his most amiable smile.
+
+President Barbicane was right. By describing this elliptical orbit the
+projectile was going to gravitate eternally round the moon like a
+sub-satellite. It was a new star added to the solar world, a microcosm
+peopled by three inhabitants, whom want of air would kill before long.
+Barbicane, therefore, could not rejoice at the position imposed on the
+bullet by the double influence of the centripetal and centrifugal
+forces. His companions and he were again going to see the visible face
+of the disc. Perhaps their existence would last long enough for them to
+perceive for the last time the full earth superbly lighted up by the
+rays of the sun! Perhaps they might throw a last adieu to the globe they
+were never more to see again! Then their projectile would be nothing but
+an extinct mass, dead like those inert asteroids which circulate in the
+ether. A single consolation remained to them: it was that of seeing the
+darkness and returning to light, it was that of again entering the zones
+bathed by solar irradiation!
+
+In the meantime the mountains recognised by Barbicane stood out more and
+more from the dark mass. They were Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, which
+stand on the southern circumpolar region of the moon.
+
+All the mountains of the visible hemisphere have been measured with
+perfect exactitude. This perfection will, no doubt, seem astonishing,
+and yet the hypsometric methods are rigorous. The altitude of the lunar
+mountains may be no less exactly determined than that of the mountains
+of the earth.
+
+The method generally employed is that of measuring the shadow thrown by
+the mountains, whilst taking into account the altitude of the sun at the
+moment of observation. This method also allows the calculating of the
+depth of craters and cavities on the moon. Galileo used it, and since
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler have employed it with the greatest success.
+
+Another method, called the tangent radii, may also be used for measuring
+lunar reliefs. It is applied at the moment when the mountains form
+luminous points on the line of separation between light and darkness
+which shine on the dark part of the disc. These luminous points are
+produced by the solar rays above those which determine the limit of the
+phase. Therefore the measure of the dark interval which the luminous
+point and the luminous part of the phase leave between them gives
+exactly the height of the point. But it will be seen that this method
+can only be applied to the mountains near the line of separation of
+darkness and light.
+
+A third method consists in measuring the profile of the lunar mountains
+outlined on the background by means of a micrometer; but it is only
+applicable to the heights near the border of the orb.
+
+In any case it will be remarked that this measurement of shadows,
+intervals, or profiles can only be made when the solar rays strike the
+moon obliquely in relation to the observer. When they strike her
+directly--in a word, when she is full--all shadow is imperiously
+banished from her disc, and observation is no longer possible.
+
+Galileo, after recognising the existence of the lunar mountains, was the
+first to employ the method of calculating their heights by the shadows
+they throw. He attributed to them, as it has already been shown, an
+average of 9,000 yards. Hevelius singularly reduced these figures, which
+Riccioli, on the contrary, doubled. All these measures were exaggerated.
+Herschel, with his more perfect instruments, approached nearer the
+hypsometric truth. But it must be finally sought in the accounts of
+modern observers.
+
+Messrs. Boeer and Moedler, the most perfect selenographers in the whole
+world, have measured 1,095 lunar mountains. It results from their
+calculations that 6 of these mountains rise above 5,800 metres, and 22
+above 4,800. The highest summit of the moon measures 7,603 metres; it
+is, therefore, inferior to those of the earth, of which some are 1,000
+yards higher. But one remark must be made. If the respective volumes of
+the two orbs are compared the lunar mountains are relatively higher than
+the terrestrial. The lunar ones form 1/70 of the diameter of the moon,
+and the terrestrial only form 1/140 of the diameter of the earth. For a
+terrestrial mountain to attain the relative proportions of a lunar
+mountain, its perpendicular height ought to be 6-1/2 leagues. Now the
+highest is not four miles.
+
+Thus, then, to proceed by comparison, the chain of the Himalayas counts
+three peaks higher than the lunar ones, Mount Everest, Kunchinjuga, and
+Dwalagiri. Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz, on the moon, are as high as
+Jewahir in the same chain. Newton, Casatus, Curtius, Short, Tycho,
+Clavius, Blancanus, Endymion, the principal summits of Caucasus and the
+Apennines, are higher than Mont Blanc. The mountains equal to Mont Blanc
+are Moret, Theophylus, and Catharnia; to Mount Rosa, Piccolomini,
+Werner, and Harpalus; to Mount Cervin, Macrobus, Eratosthenes,
+Albateque, and Delambre; to the Peak of Teneriffe, Bacon, Cysatus,
+Philolaus, and the Alps; to Mount Perdu, in the Pyrenees, Roemer and
+Boguslawski; to Etna, Hercules, Atlas, and Furnerius.
+
+Such are the points of comparison that allow the appreciation of the
+altitude of lunar mountains. Now the trajectory followed by the
+projectile dragged it precisely towards that mountainous region of the
+southern hemisphere where rise the finest specimens of lunar orography.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+TYCHO.
+
+
+At 6 p.m. the projectile passed the South Pole at less than thirty
+miles, a distance equal to that already reached at the North Pole. The
+elliptical curve was, therefore, being rigorously described.
+
+At that moment the travellers re-entered the beneficent sunshine. They
+saw once more the stars moving slowly from east to west. The radiant orb
+was saluted with a triple hurrah. With its light came also its heat,
+which soon pierced the middle walls. The windows resumed their
+accustomed transparency. Their "layer of ice" melted as if by
+enchantment. The gas was immediately extinguished by way of economy. The
+air apparatus alone was to consume its habitual quantity.
+
+"Ah!" said Nicholl, "sunshine is good! How impatiently after their long
+nights the Selenites must await the reappearance of the orb of day!"
+
+"Yes," answered Michel Ardan, "imbibing, as it were, the brilliant
+ether, light and heat, all life is in them."
+
+At that moment the bottom of the projectile moved slightly from the
+lunar surface in order to describe a rather long elliptical orbit. From
+that point, if the earth had been full, Barbicane and his friends could
+have seen it again. But, drowned in the sun's irradiation, it remained
+absolutely invisible. Another spectacle attracted their eyes, presented
+by the southern region of the moon, brought by the telescopes to within
+half-a-mile. They left the port-lights no more, and noted all the
+details of the strange continent.
+
+Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz formed two separate groups stretching nearly
+to the South Pole; the former group extends from the Pole to the 84th
+parallel on the eastern part of the orb; the second, starting from the
+eastern border, stretches from the 65th degree of latitude to the Pole.
+
+On their capriciously-formed ridge appeared dazzling sheets of light
+like those signalised by Father Secchi. With more certainty than the
+illustrious Roman astronomer, Barbicane was enabled to establish their
+nature.
+
+"It is snow," cried he.
+
+"Snow?" echoed Nicholl.
+
+"Yes, Nicholl, snow, the surface of which is profoundly frozen. Look how
+it reflects the luminous rays. Cooled lava would not give so intense a
+reflection. Therefore there is water and air upon the moon, as little as
+you like, but the fact can no longer be contested."
+
+No, it could not be, and if ever Barbicane saw the earth again his notes
+would testify to this fact, important in selenographic observations.
+
+These Mounts Doerfel and Leibnitz arose in the midst of plains of
+moderate extent, bounded by an indefinite succession of amphitheatres
+and circular ramparts. These two chains are the only ones which are met
+with in the region of amphitheatres. Relatively they are not very
+broken, and only throw out here and there some sharp peaks, the highest
+of which measures 7,603 metres.
+
+The projectile hung high above all this, and the relief disappeared in
+the intense brilliancy of the disc.
+
+Then reappeared to the eyes of the travellers that original aspect of
+the lunar landscapes, raw in tone, without gradation of colours, only
+white and black, for diffused light was wanting. Still the sight of this
+desolate world was very curious on account of its very strangeness. They
+were moving above this chaotic region as if carried along by the breath
+of a tempest, seeing the summits fly under their feet, looking down the
+cavities, climbing the ramparts, sounding the mysterious holes. But
+there was no trace of vegetation, no appearance of cities, nothing but
+stratifications, lava streams, polished like immense mirrors, which
+reflect the solar rays with unbearable brilliancy. There was no
+appearance of a living world, everything of a dead one, where the
+avalanches rolling from the summit of the mountains rushed noiselessly.
+They had plenty of movement, but noise was wanting still.
+
+Barbicane established the fact, by reiterated observation, that the
+reliefs on the borders of the disc, although they had been acted upon
+by different forces to those of the central region, presented a uniform
+conformation. There was the same circular aggregation, the same
+accidents of ground. Still it might be supposed that their arrangements
+were not completely analogous. In the centre the still malleable crust
+of the moon suffered the double attraction of the moon and the earth
+acting in inverse ways according to a radius prolonged from one to the
+other. On the borders of the disc, on the contrary, the lunar attraction
+has been, thus to say, perpendicular with the terrestrial attraction. It
+seems, therefore, that the reliefs on the soil produced under these
+conditions ought to have taken a different form. Yet they had not,
+therefore the moon had found in herself alone the principle of her
+formation and constitution. She owed nothing to foreign influences,
+which justified the remarkable proposition of Arago's, "No action
+exterior to the moon has contributed to the production of her relief."
+
+However that may be in its actual condition, this world was the image of
+death without it being possible to say that life had ever animated it.
+
+Michel Ardan, however, thought he recognised a heap of ruins, to which
+he drew Barbicane's attention. It was situated in about the 80th
+parallel and 30 deg. longitude. This heap of stones, pretty regularly made,
+was in the shape of a vast fortress, overlooking one of those long
+furrows which served as river-beds in ante-historical times. Not far off
+rose to a height of 5,646 metres the circular mountain called Short,
+equal to the Asiatic Caucasus. Michel Ardan, with his habitual ardour,
+maintained "the evidences" of his fortress. Below he perceived the
+dismantled ramparts of a town; here the arch of a portico, still intact;
+there two or three columns lying on their side; farther on a succession
+of archpieces, which must have supported the conduct of an aqueduct; in
+another part the sunken pillars of a gigantic bridge run into the
+thickest part of the furrow. He distinguished all that, but with so much
+imagination in his eyes, through a telescope so fanciful, that his
+observation cannot be relied upon. And yet who would affirm, who would
+dare to say, that the amiable fellow had not really seen what his two
+companions would not see?
+
+The moments were too precious to be sacrificed to an idle discussion.
+The Selenite city, whether real or pretended, had disappeared in the
+distance. The projectile began to get farther away from the lunar disc,
+and the details of the ground began to be lost in a confused jumble. The
+reliefs, amphitheatres, craters, and plains alone remained, and still
+showed their boundary-lines distinctly.
+
+At that moment there stretched to the left one of the finest
+amphitheatres in lunar orography. It was Newton, which Barbicane easily
+recognised by referring to the _Mappa Selenographica_.
+
+Newton is situated in exactly 77 deg. south lat. and 16 deg. east long. It forms
+a circular crater, the ramparts of which, 7,264 metres high, seemed to
+be inaccessible.
+
+Barbicane made his companions notice that the height of that mountain
+above the surrounding plain was far from being equal to the depth of its
+crater. This enormous hole was beyond all measurement, and made a gloomy
+abyss, the bottom of which the sun's rays could never reach. There,
+according to Humboldt, utter darkness reigns, which the light of the sun
+and the earth could not break. The mythologists would have made it with
+justice hell's mouth.
+
+"Newton," said Barbicane, "is the most perfect type of the circular
+mountains, of which the earth possesses no specimen. They prove that the
+formation of the moon by cooling was due to violent causes, for whilst
+under the influence of interior fire the reliefs were thrown up to
+considerable heights, the bottom dropped in, and became lower than the
+lunar level."
+
+"I do not say no," answered Michel Ardan.
+
+A few minutes after having passed Newton the projectile stood directly
+over the circular mountain of Moret. It also passed rather high above
+the summits of Blancanus, and about 7.30 p.m. it reached the
+amphitheatre of Clavius.
+
+This circle, one of the most remarkable on the disc, is situated in
+south lat. 58 deg. and east long. 15 deg.. Its height is estimated at 7,091
+metres. The travellers at a distance of 200 miles, reduced to two by the
+telescopes, could admire the arrangement of this vast crater.
+
+"The terrestrial volcanoes," said Barbicane, "are only molehills
+compared to the volcanoes of the moon. Measuring the ancient craters
+formed by the first eruptions of Vesuvius and Etna, they are found to be
+scarcely 6,000 metres wide. In France the circle of the Cantal measures
+five miles; at Ceylon the circle of the island is forty miles, and is
+considered the largest on the globe. What are these diameters compared
+to that of Clavius, which we are over in this moment?"
+
+"What is its width?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"About seventy miles," answered Barbicane. "This amphitheatre is
+certainly the largest on the moon, but many are fifty miles wide!"
+
+"Ah, my friends," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "can you imagine what this
+peaceful orb of night was once like? when these craters vomited torrents
+of lava and stones, with clouds of smoke and sheets of flame? What a
+prodigious spectacle formerly, and now what a falling off! This moon is
+now only the meagre case of fireworks, of which the rockets, serpents,
+suns, and wheels, after going off magnificently, only leave torn pieces
+of cardboard. Who can tell the cause, reason, or justification of such
+cataclysms?"
+
+Barbicane did not listen to Michel Ardan. He was contemplating those
+ramparts of Clavius, formed of wide mountains several leagues thick. At
+the bottom of its immense cavity lay hundreds of small extinct craters,
+making the soil like a sieve, and overlooked by a peak more than 15,000
+feet high.
+
+The plain around had a desolate aspect. Nothing so arid as these
+reliefs, nothing so sad as these ruins of mountains, if so they may be
+called, as those heaps of peaks and mountains encumbering the ground!
+The satellite seemed to have been blown up in this place.
+
+The projectile still went on, and the chaos was still the same. Circles,
+craters, and mountains succeeded each other incessantly. No more plains
+or seas--an interminable Switzerland or Norway. Lastly, in the centre of
+the creviced region at its culminating point, the most splendid mountain
+of the lunar disc, the dazzling Tycho, to which posterity still gives
+the name of the illustrious Danish astronomer.
+
+Whilst observing the full moon in a cloudless sky, there is no one who
+has not remarked this brilliant point on the southern hemisphere. Michel
+Ardan, to qualify it, employed all the metaphors his imagination could
+furnish him with. To him Tycho was an ardent focus of light, a centre of
+irradiation, a crater vomiting flames! It was the axle of a fiery wheel,
+a sea-star encircling the disc with its silver tentacles, an immense eye
+darting fire, a nimbo made for Pluto's head! It was a star hurled by the
+hand of the Creator, and fallen upon the lunar surface!
+
+Tycho forms such a luminous concentration that the inhabitants of the
+earth can see it without a telescope, although they are at a distance of
+100,000 leagues. It will, therefore, be readily imagined what its
+intensity must have been in the eyes of observers placed at fifty
+leagues only.
+
+Across this pure ether its brilliancy was so unbearable that Barbicane
+and his friends were obliged to blacken the object-glasses of their
+telescopes with gas-smoke in order to support it. Then, mute, hardly
+emitting a few admirative interjections, they looked and contemplated.
+All their sentiments, all their impressions were concentrated in their
+eyes, as life, under violent emotion, is concentrated in the heart.
+
+Tycho belongs to the system of radiating mountains, like Aristarchus and
+Copernicus. But it testified the most completely of all to the terrible
+volcanic action to which the formation of the moon is due.
+
+Tycho is situated in south lat. 43 deg. and east long. 12 deg.. Its centre is
+occupied by a crater more than forty miles wide. It affects a slightly
+elliptical form, and is inclosed by circular ramparts, which on the east
+and west overlook the exterior plain from a height of 5,000 metres. It
+is an aggregation of Mont Blancs, placed round a common centre, and
+crowned with shining rays.
+
+Photography itself could never represent what this incomparable
+mountain, with all its projections converging to it and its interior
+excrescences, is really like. In fact, it is during the full moon that
+Tycho is seen in all its splendour. Then all shadows disappear, the
+foreshortenings of perspective disappear, and all proofs come out
+white--an unfortunate circumstance, for this strange region would have
+been curious to reproduce with photographic exactitude. It is only an
+agglomeration of holes, craters, circles, a vertiginous network of
+crests. It will be understood, therefore, that the bubblings of this
+central eruption have kept their first forms. Crystallised by cooling,
+they have stereotyped the aspect which the moon formerly presented under
+the influence of Plutonic forces.
+
+The distance which separated the travellers from the circular summits of
+Tycho was not so great that the travellers could not survey its
+principal details. Even upon the embankment which forms the ramparts of
+Tycho, the mountains hanging to the interior and exterior slopes rose in
+stories like gigantic terraces. They appeared to be higher by 300 or 400
+feet on the west than on the east. No system of terrestrial
+castrametation could equal these natural fortifications. A town built at
+the bottom of this circular cavity would have been utterly inaccessible.
+
+Inaccessible and marvellously extended over this ground of picturesque
+relief! Nature had not left the bottom of this crater flat and empty. It
+possessed a special orography, a mountain system which made it a world
+apart. The travellers clearly distinguished the cones, central hills,
+remarkable movements of the ground, naturally disposed for the reception
+of masterpieces of Selenite architecture. There was the place for a
+temple, here for a forum, there the foundations of a palace, there the
+plateau of a citadel, the whole overlooked by a central mountain 1,500
+feet high--a vast circuit which would have held ancient Rome ten times
+over.
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, made enthusiastic by the sight, "what
+grand towns could be built in this circle of mountains! A tranquil city,
+a peaceful refuge, away from all human cares! How all misanthropes could
+live there, all haters of humanity, all those disgusted with social
+life!"
+
+"All! It would be too small for them!" replied Barbicane simply.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+GRAVE QUESTIONS.
+
+
+In the meantime the projectile had passed the neighbourhood of Tycho.
+Barbicane and his two friends then observed, with the most scrupulous
+attention, those brilliant radii which the celebrated mountain disperses
+so curiously on every horizon.
+
+What was this radiating aureole? What geological phenomenon had caused
+those ardent beams? This question justly occupied Barbicane. Under his
+eyes, in every direction, ran luminous furrows, with raised banks and
+concave middle, some ten miles, others more than twenty miles wide.
+These shining trails ran in certain places at least 300 leagues from
+Tycho, and seemed to cover, especially towards the east, north-east, and
+north, half the southern hemisphere. One of these furrows stretched as
+far as the amphitheatre of Neander, situated on the 40th meridian.
+Another went rounding off through the Sea of Nectar and broke against
+the chain of the Pyrenees after a run of 400 leagues; others towards the
+west covered with a luminous network the Sea of Clouds and the Sea of
+Humours.
+
+What was the origin of these shining rays running equally over plains
+and reliefs, however high? They all started from a common centre, the
+crater of Tycho. They emanated from it.
+
+Herschel attributed their brilliant aspect to ancient streams of lava
+congealed by the cold, an opinion which has not been generally received.
+Other astronomers have seen in these inexplicable rays a kind of
+_moraines_, ranges of erratic blocks thrown out at the epoch of the
+formation of Tycho.
+
+"And why should it not be so?" asked Nicholl of Barbicane, who rejected
+these different opinions at the same time that he related them.
+
+"Because the regularity of these luminous lines, and the violence
+necessary to send them to such a distance, are inexplicable.
+
+"_Par bleu_!" replied Michel Ardan. "I can easily explain to myself the
+origin of these rays."
+
+"Indeed," said Barbicane.
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel. "Why should they not be the cracks caused by the
+shock of a bullet or a stone upon a pane of glass?"
+
+"Good," replied Barbicane, smiling; "and what hand would be powerful
+enough to hurl the stone that would produce such a shock?"
+
+"A hand is not necessary," answered Michel, who would not give in; "and
+as to the stone, let us say it is a comet."
+
+"Ah! comets?" exclaimed Barbicane; "those much-abused comets! My worthy
+Michel, your explanation is not bad, but your comet is not wanted. The
+shock might have come from the interior of the planet. A violent
+contraction of the lunar crust whilst cooling was enough to make that
+gigantic crack."
+
+"Contraction let it be--something like a lunar colic," answered Michel
+Ardan.
+
+"Besides," added Barbicane, "that is also the opinion of an English
+_savant_, Nasmyth, and it seems to me to explain the radiation of these
+mountains sufficiently."
+
+"That Nasmyth was no fool!" answered Michel.
+
+The travellers, who could never weary of such a spectacle, long admired
+the splendours of Tycho. Their projectile, bathed in that double
+irradiation of the sun and moon, must have appeared like a globe of
+fire. They had, therefore, suddenly passed from considerable cold to
+intense heat. Nature was thus preparing them to become Selenites.
+
+To become Selenites! That idea again brought up the question of the
+habitability of the moon. After what they had seen, could the travellers
+solve it? Could they conclude for or against? Michel Ardan asked his two
+friends to give utterance to their opinion, and asked them outright if
+they thought that humanity and animality were represented in the lunar
+world.
+
+"I think we cannot answer," said Barbicane, "but in my opinion the
+question ought not to be stated in that form. I ask to be allowed to
+state it differently."
+
+"State it as you like," answered Michel.
+
+"This is it," resumed Barbicane. "The problem is double, and requires a
+double solution. Is the moon habitable? Has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Right," said Nicholl. "Let us first see if the moon is habitable."
+
+"To tell the truth, I know nothing about it," replied Michel.
+
+"And I answer in the negative," said Barbicane. "In her actual state,
+with her certainly very slight atmosphere, her seas mostly dried up, her
+insufficient water, her restricted vegetation, her abrupt alternations
+of heat and cold, her nights and days 354 hours long, the moon does not
+appear habitable to me, nor propitious to the development of the animal
+kingdom, nor sufficient for the needs of existence such as we understand
+it."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but is not the moon habitable for beings
+differently organised to us?"
+
+"That question is more difficult to answer," replied Barbicane. "I will
+try to do it, however, but I ask Nicholl if movement seems to him the
+necessary result of existence, under no matter what organisation?"
+
+"Without the slightest doubt," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Well, then, my worthy companion, my answer will be that we have seen
+the lunar continent at a distance of 500 yards, and that nothing
+appeared to be moving on the surface of the moon. The presence of no
+matter what form of humanity would be betrayed by appropriations,
+different constructions, or even ruins. What did we see? Everywhere the
+geological work of Nature, never the work of man. If, therefore,
+representatives of the animal kingdom exist upon the moon, they have
+taken refuge in those bottomless cavities which the eye cannot reach.
+And I cannot admit that either, for they would have left traces of their
+passage upon the plains which the atmosphere, however slight, covers.
+Now these traces are nowhere visible. Therefore the only hypothesis that
+remains is one of living beings without movement or life."
+
+"You might just as well say living creatures who are not alive."
+
+"Precisely," answered Barbicane, "which for us has no meaning."
+
+"Then now we may formulate our opinion," said Michel.
+
+"Yes," answered Nicholl.
+
+"Very well," resumed Michel Ardan; "the Scientific Commission, meeting
+in the projectile of the Gun Club, after having supported its arguments
+upon fresh facts lately observed, decides unanimously upon the question
+of the habitability of the moon--'No, the moon is not inhabited.'"
+
+This decision was taken down by Barbicane in his notebook, where he had
+already written the _proces-verbal_ of the sitting of December 6th.
+
+"Now," said Nicholl, "let us attack the second question, depending on
+the first. I therefore ask the honourable Commission if the moon is not
+habitable, has it been inhabited?"
+
+"Answer, Citizen Barbicane," said Michel Ardan.
+
+"My friends," answered Barbicane, "I did not undertake this journey to
+form an opinion upon the ancient habitability of our satellite. I may
+add that my personal observations only confirm me in this opinion. I
+believe, I even affirm, that the moon has been inhabited by a human race
+organised like ours, that it has produced animals anatomically formed
+like terrestrial animals; but I add that these races, human or animal,
+have had their day, and are for ever extinct."
+
+"Then," asked Michel, "the moon is an older world than the earth?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane with conviction, "but a world that has grown
+old more quickly, whose formation and deformation have been more rapid.
+Relatively the organising forces of matter have been much more violent
+in the interior of the moon than in the interior of the celestial globe.
+The actual state of this disc, broken up, tormented, and swollen, proves
+this abundantly. In their origin the moon and the earth were only gases.
+These gases became liquids under different influences, and the solid
+mass was formed afterwards. But it is certain that our globe was gas or
+liquid still when the moon, already solidified by cooling, became
+habitable."
+
+"I believe that," said Nicholl.
+
+"Then," resumed Barbicane, "it was surrounded by atmosphere. The water
+held in by the gassy element could not evaporate. Under the influence of
+air, water, light, and heat, solar and central, vegetation took
+possession of these continents prepared for its reception, and certainly
+life manifested itself about that epoch, for Nature does not spend
+itself in inutilities, and a world so marvellously habitable must have
+been inhabited."
+
+"Still," answered Nicholl, "many phenomena inherent to the movements of
+our satellite must have prevented the expansion of the vegetable and
+animal kingdoms. The days and nights 354 hours long, for example."
+
+"At the terrestrial poles," said Michel, "they last six months."
+
+"That is not a valuable argument, as the poles are not inhabited."
+
+"In the actual state of the moon," resumed Barbicane, "the long nights
+and days create differences of temperature insupportable to the
+constitution, but it was not so at that epoch of historical times. The
+atmosphere enveloped the disc with a fluid mantle. Vapour deposited
+itself in the form of clouds. This natural screen tempered the ardour of
+the solar lays, and retained the nocturnal radiation. Both light and
+heat could diffuse themselves in the air. Hence there was equilibrium
+between the influences which no longer exists now that the atmosphere
+has almost entirely disappeared. Besides, I shall astonish you--"
+
+"Astonish us?" said Michel Ardan.
+
+"But I believe that at the epoch when the moon was inhabited the nights
+and days did not last 354 hours!"
+
+"Why so?" asked Nicholl quickly.
+
+"Because it is very probable that then the moon's movement of rotation
+on her axis was not equal to her movement of revolution, an equality
+which puts every point of the lunar disc under the action of the solar
+rays for fifteen days."
+
+"Agreed," answered Nicholl; "but why should not these movements have
+been equal, since they are so actually?"
+
+"Because that equality has only been determined by terrestrial
+attraction. Now, how do we know that this attraction was powerful enough
+to influence the movements of the moon at the epoch the earth was still
+fluid?"
+
+"True," replied Nicholl; "and who can say that the moon has always been
+the earth's satellite?"
+
+"And who can say," exclaimed Michel Ardan, "that the moon did not exist
+before the earth?"
+
+Imagination began to wander in the indefinite field of hypotheses.
+Barbicane wished to hold them in.
+
+"Those," said he, "are speculations too high, problems really insoluble.
+Do not let us enter into them. Let us only admit the insufficiency of
+primordial attraction, and then by the inequality of rotation and
+revolution days and nights could succeed each other upon the moon as
+they do upon the earth. Besides, even under those conditions life was
+possible."
+
+"Then," asked Michel Ardan, "humanity has quite disappeared from the
+moon?"
+
+"Yes," answered Barbicane, "after having, doubtless, existed for
+thousands of centuries. Then gradually the atmosphere becoming rarefied,
+the disc will again be uninhabitable like the terrestrial globe will one
+day become by cooling."
+
+"By cooling?"
+
+"Certainly," answered Barbicane. "As the interior fires became
+extinguished the incandescent matter was concentrated and the lunar disc
+became cool. By degrees the consequences of this phenomenon came
+about--the disappearance of organic beings and the disappearance of
+vegetation. Soon the atmosphere became rarefied, and was probably drawn
+away by terrestrial attraction; the breathable air disappeared, and so
+did water by evaporation. At that epoch the moon became uninhabitable,
+and was no longer inhabited. It was a dead world like it is to-day."
+
+"And you say that the like fate is reserved for the earth?"
+
+"Very probably."
+
+"But when?"
+
+"When the cooling of its crust will have made it uninhabitable."
+
+"Has the time it will take our unfortunate globe to melt been
+calculated?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And you know the reason?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"Then tell us, sulky _savant_--you make me boil with impatience."
+
+"Well, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane tranquilly, "it is well
+known what diminution of temperature the earth suffers in the lapse of a
+century. Now, according to certain calculations, that average
+temperature will be brought down to zero after a period of 400,000
+years!"
+
+"Four hundred thousand years!" exclaimed Michel. "Ah! I breathe again! I
+was really frightened. I imagined from listening to you that we had only
+fifty thousand years to live!"
+
+Barbicane and Nicholl could not help laughing at their companion's
+uneasiness. Then Nicholl, who wanted to have done with it, reminded them
+of the second question to be settled.
+
+"Has the moon been inhabited?" he asked.
+
+The answer was unanimously in the affirmative.
+
+During this discussion, fruitful in somewhat hazardous theories,
+although it resumed the general ideas of science on the subject, the
+projectile had run rapidly towards the lunar equator, at the same time
+that it went farther away from the lunar disc. It had passed the circle
+of Willem, and the 40th parallel, at a distance of 400 miles. Then
+leaving Pitatus to the right, on the 30th degree, it went along the
+south of the Sea of Clouds, of which it had already approached the
+north. Different amphitheatres appeared confusedly under the white light
+of the full moon--Bouillaud, Purbach, almost square with a central
+crater, then Arzachel, whose interior mountain shone with indefinable
+brilliancy.
+
+At last, as the projectile went farther and farther away, the details
+faded from the travellers' eyes, the mountains were confounded in the
+distance, and all that remained of the marvellous, fantastical, and
+wonderful satellite of the earth was the imperishable remembrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE.
+
+
+For some time Barbicane and his companions, mute and pensive, looked at
+this world, which they had only seen from a distance, like Moses saw
+Canaan, and from which they were going away for ever. The position of
+the projectile relatively to the moon was modified, and now its lower
+end was turned towards the earth.
+
+This change, verified by Barbicane, surprised him greatly. If the bullet
+was going to gravitate round the satellite in an elliptical orbit, why
+was not its heaviest part turned towards it like the moon to the earth?
+There again was an obscure point.
+
+By watching the progress of the projectile they could see that it was
+following away from the moon an analogous curve to that by which it
+approached her. It was, therefore, describing a very long ellipsis which
+would probably extend to the point of equal attraction, where the
+influences of the earth and her satellite are neutralised.
+
+Such was the conclusion which Barbicane correctly drew from the facts
+observed, a conviction which his two friends shared with him.
+
+Questions immediately began to shower upon him.
+
+"What will become of us after we have reached the neutral point?" asked
+Michel Ardan.
+
+"That is unknown!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"But we can make suppositions, I suppose?"
+
+"We can make two," answered Barbicane. "Either the velocity of the
+projectile will then be insufficient, and it will remain entirely
+motionless on that line of double attraction--"
+
+"I would rather have the other supposition, whatever it is," replied
+Michel.
+
+"Or the velocity will be sufficient," resumed Barbicane, "and it will
+continue its elliptical orbit, and gravitate eternally round the orb of
+night."
+
+"Not very consoling that revolution," said Michel, "to become the humble
+servants of a moon whom we are in the habit of considering our servant.
+And is that the future that awaits us?"
+
+Neither Barbicane nor Nicholl answered.
+
+"Why do you not answer?" asked the impatient Michel.
+
+"There is nothing to answer," said Nicholl.
+
+"Can nothing be done?"
+
+"No," answered Barbicane. "Do you pretend to struggle with the
+impossible?"
+
+"Why not? Ought a Frenchman and two Americans to recoil at such a word?"
+
+"But what do you want to do?"
+
+"Command the motion that is carrying us along!"
+
+"Command it?"
+
+"Yes," resumed Michel, getting animated, "stop it or modify it; use it
+for the accomplishment of our plans."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"That is your business! If artillerymen are not masters of their bullets
+they are no longer artillerymen. If the projectile commands the gunner,
+the gunner ought to be rammed instead into the cannon! Fine _savants_,
+truly! who don't know now what to do after having induced me--"
+
+"Induced!" cried Barbicane and Nicholl. "Induced! What do you mean by
+that?"
+
+"No recriminations!" said Michel. "I do not complain. The journey
+pleases me. The bullet suits me. But let us do all that is humanly
+possible to fall somewhere, if only upon the moon."
+
+"We should only be too glad, my worthy Michel," answered Barbicane, "but
+we have no means of doing it."
+
+"Can we not modify the motion of the projectile?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor diminish its speed?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not even by lightening it like they lighten an overloaded ship?"
+
+"What can we throw out?" answered Nicholl. "We have no ballast on board.
+And besides, it seems to me that a lightened projectile would go on more
+quickly."
+
+"Less quickly," said Michel.
+
+"More quickly," replied Nicholl.
+
+"Neither more nor less quickly," answered Barbicane, wishing to make his
+two friends agree, "for we are moving in the void where we cannot take
+specific weight into account."
+
+"Very well," exclaimed Michel Ardan in a determined tone; "there is only
+one thing to do."
+
+"What is that?" asked Nicholl.
+
+"Have breakfast," imperturbably answered the audacious Frenchman, who
+always brought that solution to the greatest difficulties.
+
+In fact, though that operation would have no influence on the direction
+of the projectile, it might be attempted without risk, and even
+successfully from the point of view of the stomach. Decidedly the
+amiable Michel had only good ideas.
+
+They breakfasted, therefore, at 2 a.m., but the hour was not of much
+consequence. Michel served up his habitual _menu_, crowned by an amiable
+bottle out of his secret cellar. If ideas did not come into their heads
+the Chambertin of 1863 must be despaired of.
+
+The meal over, observations began again.
+
+The objects they had thrown out of the projectile still followed it at
+the same invariable distance. It was evident that the bullet in its
+movement of translation round the moon had not passed through any
+atmosphere, for the specific weight of these objects would have modified
+their respective distances.
+
+There was nothing to see on the side of the terrestrial globe. The earth
+was only a day old, having been new at midnight the day before, and two
+days having to go by before her crescent, disengaged from the solar
+rays, could serve as a clock to the Selenites, as in her movement of
+rotation each of her points always passes the same meridian of the moon
+every twenty-four hours.
+
+The spectacle was a different one on the side of the moon; the orb was
+shining in all its splendour amidst innumerable constellations, the rays
+of which could not trouble its purity. Upon the disc the plains again
+wore the sombre tint which is seen from the earth. The rest of the
+nimbus was shining, and amidst the general blaze Tycho stood out like a
+sun.
+
+Barbicane could not manage any way to appreciate the velocity of the
+projectile, but reasoning demonstrated that this speed must be uniformly
+diminishing in conformity with the laws of rational mechanics.
+
+In fact, it being admitted that the bullet would describe an orbit round
+the moon, that orbit must necessarily be elliptical. Science proves that
+it must be thus. No mobile circulation round any body is an exception to
+that law. All the orbits described in space are elliptical, those of
+satellites round their planets, those of planets around their sun, that
+of the sun round the unknown orb that serves as its central pivot. Why
+should the projectile of the Gun Club escape that natural arrangement?
+
+Now in elliptical orbits attracting bodies always occupy one of the foci
+of the ellipsis. The satellite is, therefore, nearer the body round
+which it gravitates at one moment than it is at another. When the earth
+is nearest the sun she is at her perihelion, and at her aphelion when
+most distant. The moon is nearest the earth at her perigee, and most
+distant at her apogee. To employ analogous expressions which enrich the
+language of astronomers, if the projectile remained a satellite of the
+moon, it ought to be said that it is in its "aposelene" at its most
+distant point, and at its "periselene" at its nearest.
+
+In the latter case the projectile ought to attain its maximum of speed,
+in the latter its minimum. Now it was evidently going towards its
+"aposelene," and Barbicane was right in thinking its speed would
+decrease up to that point, and gradually increase when it would again
+draw near the moon. That speed even would be absolutely _nil_ if the
+point was coexistent with that of attraction.
+
+Barbicane studied the consequences of these different situations; he was
+trying what he could make of them when he was suddenly interrupted by a
+cry from Michel Ardan.
+
+"I'faith!" cried Michel, "what fools we are!"
+
+"I don't say we are not," answered Barbicane; "but why?"
+
+"Because we have some very simple means of slackening the speed that is
+taking us away from the moon, and we do not use them."
+
+"And what are those means?"
+
+"That of utilising the force of recoil in our rockets."
+
+"Ah, why not?" said Nicholl.
+
+"We have not yet utilised that force, it is true," said Barbicane, "but
+we shall do so."
+
+"When?" asked Michel.
+
+"When the time comes. Remark, my friends, that in the position now
+occupied by the projectile, a position still oblique to the lunar disc,
+our rockets, by altering its direction, might take it farther away
+instead of nearer to the moon. Now I suppose it is the moon you want to
+reach?"
+
+"Essentially," answered Michel.
+
+"Wait, then. Through some inexplicable influence the projectile has a
+tendency to let its lower end fall towards the earth. It is probable
+that at the point of equal attraction its conical summit will be
+rigorously directed towards the moon. At that moment it may be hoped
+that its speed will be _nil_. That will be the time to act, and under
+the effort of our rockets we can, perhaps, provoke a direct fall upon
+the surface of the lunar disc."
+
+"Bravo!" said Michel.
+
+"We have not done it yet, and we could not do it as we passed the
+neutral point, because the projectile was still animated with too much
+velocity."
+
+"Well reasoned out," said Nicholl.
+
+"We must wait patiently," said Barbicane, "and put every chance on our
+side; then, after having despaired so long, I again begin to think we
+shall reach our goal."
+
+This conclusion provoked hurrahs from Michel Ardan. No one of these
+daring madmen remembered the question they had all answered in the
+negative--No, the moon is not inhabited! No, the moon is probably not
+inhabitable! And yet they were going to do all they could to reach it.
+
+One question only now remained to be solved: at what precise moment
+would the projectile reach that point of equal attraction where the
+travellers would play their last card?
+
+In order to calculate that moment to within some seconds Barbicane had
+only to have recourse to his travelling notes, and to take the different
+altitudes from lunar parallels. Thus the time employed in going over the
+distance between the neutral point and the South Pole must be equal to
+the distance which separates the South Pole from the neutral point. The
+hours representing the time it took were carefully noted down, and the
+calculation became easy.
+
+Barbicane found that this point would be reached by the projectile at 1
+a.m. on the 8th of December. It was then 3 a.m. on the 7th of December.
+Therefore, if nothing intervened, the projectile would reach the neutral
+point in twenty-two hours.
+
+The rockets had been put in their places to slacken the fall of the
+bullet upon the moon, and now the bold fellows were going to use them to
+provoke an exactly contrary effect. However that may be, they were
+ready, and there was nothing to do but await the moment for setting fire
+to them.
+
+"As there is nothing to do," said Nicholl, "I have a proposition to
+make."
+
+"What is that?" asked Barbicane.
+
+"I propose we go to sleep."
+
+"That is a nice idea!" exclaimed Michel Ardan.
+
+"It is forty hours since we have closed our eyes," said Nicholl. "A few
+hours' sleep would set us up again."
+
+"Never!" replied Michel.
+
+"Good," said Nicholl; "every man to his humour--mine is to sleep."
+
+And lying down on a divan, Nicholl was soon snoring like a forty-eight
+pound bullet.
+
+"Nicholl is a sensible man," said Barbicane soon. "I shall imitate him."
+
+A few minutes after he was joining his bass to the captain's baritone.
+
+"Decidedly," said Michel Ardan, when he found himself alone, "these
+practical people sometimes do have opportune ideas."
+
+And stretching out his long legs, and folding his long arms under his
+head, Michel went to sleep too.
+
+But this slumber could neither be durable nor peaceful. Too many
+preoccupations filled the minds of these three men, and a few hours
+after, at about 7 a.m., they all three awoke at once.
+
+The projectile was still moving away from the moon, inclining its
+conical summit more and more towards her. This phenomenon was
+inexplicable at present, but it fortunately aided the designs of
+Barbicane.
+
+Another seventeen hours and the time for action would have come.
+
+That day seemed long. However bold they might be, the travellers felt
+much anxiety at the approach of the minute that was to decide
+everything, either their fall upon the moon or their imprisonment in an
+immutable orbit. They therefore counted the hours, which went too slowly
+for them, Barbicane and Nicholl obstinately plunged in calculations,
+Michel walking up and down the narrow space between the walls
+contemplating with longing eye the impassible moon.
+
+Sometimes thoughts of the earth passed through their minds. They saw
+again their friends of the Gun Club, and the dearest of them all, J.T.
+Maston. At that moment the honourable secretary must have been occupying
+his post on the Rocky Mountains. If he should perceive the projectile
+upon the mirror of his gigantic telescope what would he think? After
+having seen it disappear behind the south pole of the moon, they would
+see it reappear at the north! It was, therefore, the satellite of a
+satellite! Had J.T. Maston sent that unexpected announcement into the
+world? Was this to be the _denouement_ of the great enterprise?
+
+Meanwhile the day passed without incident. Terrestrial midnight came.
+The 8th of December was about to commence. Another hour and the point of
+equal attraction would be reached. What velocity then animated the
+projectile? They could form no estimate; but no error could vitiate
+Barbicane's calculations. At 1 a.m. that velocity ought to be and would
+be _nil_.
+
+Besides, another phenomenon would mark the stopping point of the
+projectile on the neutral line. In that spot the two attractions,
+terrestrial and lunar, would be annihilated. Objects would not weigh
+anything. This singular fact, which had so curiously surprised Barbicane
+and his companions before, must again come about under identical
+circumstances. It was at that precise moment they must act.
+
+The conical summit of the bullet had already sensibly turned towards the
+lunar disc. The projectile was just right for utilising all the recoil
+produced by setting fire to the apparatus. Chance was therefore in the
+travellers' favour. If the velocity of the projectile were to be
+absolutely annihilated upon the neutral point, a given motion, however
+slight, towards the moon would determine its fall.
+
+"Five minutes to one," said Nicholl.
+
+"Everything is ready," answered Michel Ardan, directing his match
+towards the flame of the gas.
+
+"Wait!" said Barbicane, chronometer in hand.
+
+At that moment weight had no effect. The travellers felt its complete
+disappearance in themselves. They were near the neutral point if they
+had not reached it.
+
+"One o'clock!" said Barbicane.
+
+Michel Ardan put his match to a contrivance that put all the fuses into
+instantaneous communication. No detonation was heard outside, where air
+was wanting, but through the port-lights Barbicane saw the prolonged
+flame, which was immediately extinguished.
+
+The projectile had a slight shock which was very sensibly felt in the
+interior.
+
+The three friends looked, listened, without speaking, hardly breathing.
+The beating of their hearts might have been heard in the absolute
+silence.
+
+"Are we falling?" asked Michel Ardan at last.
+
+"No," answered Nicholl; "for the bottom of the projectile has not turned
+towards the lunar disc!"
+
+At that moment Barbicane left his window and turned towards his two
+companions. He was frightfully pale, his forehead wrinkled, his lips
+contracted.
+
+"We are falling!" said he.
+
+"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "upon the moon?"
+
+"Upon the earth!" answered Barbicane.
+
+"The devil!" cried Michel Ardan; and he added philosophically, "when we
+entered the bullet we did not think it would be so difficult to get out
+of it again."
+
+In fact, the frightful fall had begun. The velocity kept by the
+projectile had sent it beyond the neutral point. The explosion of the
+fuses had not stopped it. That velocity which had carried the projectile
+beyond the neutral line as it went was destined to do the same upon its
+return. The law of physics condemned it, in its elliptical orbit, _to
+pass by every point it had already passed_.
+
+It was a terrible fall from a height of 78,000 leagues, and which no
+springs could deaden. According to the laws of ballistics the projectile
+would strike the earth with a velocity equal to that which animated it
+as it left the Columbiad--a velocity of "16,000 metres in the last
+second!"
+
+And in order to give some figures for comparison it has been calculated
+that an object thrown from the towers of Notre Dame, the altitude of
+which is only 200 feet, would reach the pavement with a velocity of 120
+leagues an hour. Here the projectile would strike the earth with a
+velocity of 57,600 _leagues an hour_.
+
+"We are lost men," said Nicholl coldly.
+
+"Well, if we die," answered Barbicane, with a sort of religious
+enthusiasm, "the result of our journey will be magnificently enlarged!
+God will tell us His own secret! In the other life the soul will need
+neither machines nor engines in order to know! It will be identified
+with eternal wisdom!"
+
+"True," replied Michel Ardan: "the other world may well console us for
+that trifling orb called the moon!"
+
+Barbicane crossed his arms upon his chest with a movement of sublime
+resignation.
+
+"God's will be done!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA.
+
+
+Well, lieutenant, and what about those soundings?"
+
+"I think the operation is almost over, sir. But who would have expected
+to find such a depth so near land, at 100 leagues only from the American
+coast?"
+
+"Yes, Bronsfield, there is a great depression," said Captain Blomsberry.
+"There exists a submarine valley here, hollowed out by Humboldt's
+current, which runs along the coasts of America to the Straits of
+Magellan."
+
+"Those great depths," said the lieutenant, "are not favourable for the
+laying of telegraph cables. A smooth plateau is the best, like the one
+the American cable lies on between Valentia and Newfoundland."
+
+"I agree with you, Bronsfield. And, may it please you, lieutenant, where
+are we now?"
+
+"Sir," answered Bronsfield, "we have at this moment 21,500 feet of line
+out, and the bullet at the end of the line has not yet touched the
+bottom, for the sounding-lead would have come up again."
+
+"Brook's apparatus is an ingenious one," said Captain Blomsberry. "It
+allows us to obtain very correct soundings."
+
+"Touched!" cried at that moment one of the forecastle-men who was
+superintending the operation.
+
+The captain and lieutenant went on to the forecastle-deck.
+
+"What depth are we in?" asked the captain.
+
+"Twenty-one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two feet," answered the
+lieutenant, writing it down in his pocket-book.
+
+"Very well, Bronsfield," said the captain, "I will go and mark the
+result on my chart. Now have the sounding-line brought in--that is a
+work of several hours. Meanwhile the engineer shall have his fires
+lighted, and we shall be ready to start as soon as you have done. It is
+10 p.m., and with your permission, lieutenant, I shall turn in."
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly!" answered Lieutenant Bronsfield amiably.
+
+The captain of the Susquehanna, a worthy man if ever there was one, the
+very humble servant of his officers, went to his cabin, took his
+brandy-and-water with many expressions of satisfaction to the steward,
+got into bed, not before complimenting his servant on the way he made
+beds, and sank into peaceful slumber.
+
+It was then 10 p.m. The eleventh day of the month of December was going
+to end in a magnificent night.
+
+The Susquehanna, a corvette of 500 horse power, of the United States
+Navy, was taking soundings in the Pacific at about a hundred leagues
+from the American coast, abreast of that long peninsula on the coast of
+New Mexico.
+
+The wind had gradually fallen. There was not the slightest movement in
+the air. The colours of the corvette hung from the mast motionless and
+inert.
+
+The captain, Jonathan Blomsberry, cousin-german to Colonel Blomsberry,
+one of the Gun Club members who had married a Horschbidden, the
+captain's aunt and daughter of an honourable Kentucky merchant--Captain
+Blomsberry could not have wished for better weather to execute the
+delicate operation of sounding. His corvette had felt nothing of that
+great tempest which swept away the clouds heaped up on the Rocky
+Mountains, and allowed the course of the famous projectile to be
+observed. All was going on well, and he did not forget to thank Heaven
+with all the fervour of a Presbyterian.
+
+The series of soundings executed by the Susquehanna were intended for
+finding out the most favourable bottoms for the establishment of a
+submarine cable between the Hawaiian Islands and the American coast.
+
+It was a vast project set on foot by a powerful company. Its director,
+the intelligent Cyrus Field, meant even to cover all the islands of
+Oceania with a vast electric network--an immense enterprise worthy of
+American genius.
+
+It was to the corvette Susquehanna that the first operations of sounding
+had been entrusted. During the night from the 11th to the 12th of
+December she was exactly in north lat. 27 deg. 7' and 41 deg. 37' long., west
+from the Washington meridian.
+
+The moon, then in her last quarter, began to show herself above the
+horizon.
+
+After Captain Blomsberry's departure, Lieutenant Bronsfield and a few
+officers were together on the poop. As the moon appeared their thoughts
+turned towards that orb which the eyes of a whole hemisphere were then
+contemplating. The best marine glasses could not have discovered the
+projectile wandering round the demi-globe, and yet they were all pointed
+at the shining disc which millions of eyes were looking at in the same
+moment.
+
+"They started ten days ago," then said Lieutenant Bronsfield. "What can
+have become of them?"
+
+"They have arrived, sir," exclaimed a young midshipman, "and they are
+doing what all travellers do in a new country, they are looking about
+them."
+
+"I am certain of it as you say so, my young friend," answered Lieutenant
+Bronsfield, smiling.
+
+"Still," said another officer, "their arrival cannot be doubted. The
+projectile must have reached the moon at the moment she was full, at
+midnight on the 5th. We are now at the 11th of December; that makes six
+days. Now in six times twenty-four hours, with no darkness, they have
+had time to get comfortably settled. It seems to me that I see our brave
+countrymen encamped at the bottom of a valley, on the borders of a
+Selenite stream, near the projectile, half buried by its fall, amidst
+volcanic remains, Captain Nicholl beginning his levelling operations,
+President Barbicane putting his travelling notes in order, Michel Ardan
+performing the lunar solitudes with his Londres cigar--"
+
+"Oh, it must be so; it is so!" exclaimed the young midshipman,
+enthusiastic at the ideal description of his superior.
+
+"I should like to believe it," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, who was
+seldom carried away. "Unfortunately direct news from the lunar world
+will always be wanting."
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the midshipman, "but cannot President Barbicane
+write?"
+
+A roar of laughter greeted this answer.
+
+"Not letters," answered the young man quickly. "The post-office has
+nothing to do with that."
+
+"Perhaps you mean the telegraph-office?" said one of the officers
+ironically.
+
+"Nor that either," answered the midshipman, who would not give in. "But
+it is very easy to establish graphic communication with the earth."
+
+"And how, pray?"
+
+"By means of the telescope on Long's Peak. You know that it brings the
+moon to within two leagues only of the Rocky Mountains, and that it
+allows them to see objects having nine feet of diameter on her surface.
+Well, our industrious friends will construct a gigantic alphabet! They
+will write words 600 feet long, and sentences a league long, and then
+they can send up news!"
+
+The young midshipman, who certainly had some imagination was loudly
+applauded. Lieutenant Bronsfield himself was convinced that the idea
+could have been carried out. He added that by sending luminous rays,
+grouped by means of parabolical mirrors, direct communications could
+also be established--in fact, these rays would be as visible on the
+surface of Venus or Mars as the planet Neptune is from the earth. He
+ended by saying that the brilliant points already observed on the
+nearest planets might be signals made to the earth. But he said, that
+though by these means they could have news from the lunar world, they
+could not send any from the terrestrial world unless the Selenites have
+at their disposition instruments with which to make distant
+observations.
+
+"That is evident," answered one of the officers, "but what has become of
+the travellers? What have they done? What have they seen? That is what
+interests us. Besides, if the experiment has succeeded, which I do not
+doubt, it will be done again. The Columbiad is still walled up in the
+soil of Florida. It is, therefore, now only a question of powder and
+shot, and every time the moon passes the zenith we can send it a cargo
+of visitors."
+
+"It is evident," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "that J.T. Maston will
+go and join his friends one of these days."
+
+"If he will have me," exclaimed the midshipman, "I am ready to go with
+him."
+
+"Oh, there will be plenty of amateurs, and if they are allowed to go,
+half the inhabitants of the earth will soon have emigrated to the moon!"
+
+This conversation between the officers of the Susquehanna was kept up
+till about 1 a.m. It would be impossible to transcribe the overwhelming
+systems and theories which were emitted by these audacious minds. Since
+Barbicane's attempt it seemed that nothing was impossible to Americans.
+They had already formed the project of sending, not another commission
+of _savants_, but a whole colony, and a whole army of infantry,
+artillery, and cavalry to conquer the lunar world.
+
+At 1 a.m. the sounding-line was not all hauled in. Ten thousand feet
+remained out, which would take several more hours to bring in. According
+to the commander's orders the fires had been lighted, and the pressure
+was going up already. The Susquehanna might have started at once.
+
+At that very moment--it was 1.17 a.m.--Lieutenant Bronsfield was about
+to leave his watch to turn in when his attention was attracted by a
+distant and quite unexpected hissing sound.
+
+His comrades and he at first thought that the hissing came from an
+escape of steam, but upon lifting up his head he found that it was high
+up in the air.
+
+They had not time to question each other before the hissing became of
+frightful intensity, and suddenly to their dazzled eyes appeared an
+enormous bolis, inflamed by the rapidity of its course, by its friction
+against the atmospheric strata.
+
+This ignited mass grew huger as it came nearer, and fell with the noise
+of thunder upon the bowsprit of the corvette, which it smashed off close
+to the stem, and vanished in the waves.
+
+A few feet nearer and the Susquehanna would have gone down with all on
+board.
+
+At that moment Captain Blomsberry appeared half-clothed, and rushing in
+the forecastle, where his officers had preceded him--
+
+"With your permission, gentlemen, what has happened?" he asked.
+
+And the midshipman, making himself the mouthpiece of them all, cried
+out--
+
+"Commander, it is 'they' come back again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+J.T. MASTON CALLED IN.
+
+
+Emotion was great on board the Susquehanna. Officers and sailors forgot
+the terrible danger they had just been in--the danger of being crushed
+and sunk. They only thought of the catastrophe which terminated the
+journey. Thus, therefore, the moat audacious enterprise of ancient and
+modern times lost the life of the bold adventurers who had attempted it.
+
+"It is 'they' come back," the young midshipman had said, and they had
+all understood. No one doubted that the bolis was the projectile of the
+Gun Club. Opinions were divided about the fate of the travellers.
+
+"They are dead!" said one.
+
+"They are alive," answered the other. "The water is deep here, and the
+shock has been deadened."
+
+"But they will have no air, and will die suffocated!"
+
+"Burnt!" answered the other. "Their projectile was only an incandescent
+mass as it crossed the atmosphere."
+
+"What does it matter?" was answered unanimously, "living or dead they
+must be brought up from there."
+
+Meanwhile Captain Blomsberry had called his officers together, and with
+their permission he held a council. Something must be done immediately.
+The most immediate was to haul up the projectile--a difficult operation,
+but not an impossible one. But the corvette wanted the necessary
+engines, which would have to be powerful and precise. It was, therefore,
+resolved to put into the nearest port, and to send word to the Gun Club
+about the fall of the bullet.
+
+This determination was taken unanimously. The choice of a port was
+discussed. The neighbouring coast had no harbour on the 27th degree of
+latitude. Higher up, above the peninsula of Monterey, was the important
+town which has given its name to it. But, seated on the confines of a
+veritable desert, it had no telegraphic communication with the interior,
+and electricity alone could spread the important news quickly enough.
+
+Some degrees above lay the bay of San Francisco. Through the capital of
+the Gold Country communication with the centre of the Union would be
+easy. By putting all steam on, the Susquehanna, in less than two days,
+could reach the port of San Francisco. She must, therefore, start at
+once.
+
+The fires were heaped up, and they could set sail immediately. Two
+thousand fathoms of sounding still remained in the water. Captain
+Blomsberry would not lose precious time in hauling it in, and resolved
+to cut the line.
+
+"We will fix the end to a buoy," said he, "and the buoy will indicate
+the exact point where the projectile fell."
+
+"Besides," answered Lieutenant Bronsfield, "we have our exact bearings:
+north lat. 27 deg. 7', and west long. 41 deg. 37'."
+
+"Very well, Mr. Bronsfield," answered the captain; "with your
+permission, have the line cut."
+
+A strong buoy, reinforced by a couple of spars, was thrown out on to
+the surface of the ocean. The end of the line was solidly struck
+beneath, and only submitted to the ebb and flow of the surges, so that
+it would not drift much.
+
+At that moment the engineer came to warn the captain that he had put the
+pressure on, and they could start. The captain thanked him for his
+excellent communication. Then he gave N.N.E. as the route. The corvette
+was put about, and made for the bay of San Francisco with all steam on.
+It was then 3 a.m.
+
+Two hundred leagues to get over was not much for a quick vessel like the
+Susquehanna. It got over that distance in thirty-six hours, and on the
+14th of December, at 1.27 p.m., she would enter the bay of San
+Francisco.
+
+At the sight of this vessel of the national navy arriving with all speed
+on, her bowsprit gone, and her mainmast propped up, public curiosity was
+singularly excited. A compact crowd was soon assembled on the quays
+awaiting the landing.
+
+After weighing anchor Captain Blomsberry and Lieutenant Bronsfield got
+down into an eight-oared boat which carried them rapidly to the land.
+
+They jumped out on the quay.
+
+"The telegraph-office?" they asked, without answering one of the
+thousand questions that were showered upon them.
+
+The port inspector guided them himself to the telegraph-office, amidst
+an immense crowd of curious people.
+
+Blomsberry and Bronsfield went into the office whilst the crowd crushed
+against the door.
+
+A few minutes later one message was sent in four different
+directions:--1st, to the Secretary of the Navy, Washington; 2nd, to the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, Baltimore; 3rd, to the Honourable J.T.
+Maston, Long's Peak, Rocky Mountains; 4th, to the Sub-Director of the
+Cambridge Observatory, Massachusetts.
+
+It ran as follows:--
+
+"In north lat. 20 deg. 7', and west long. 41 deg. 37', the projectile of the
+Columbiad fell into the Pacific, on December 12th, at 1.17 am. Send
+instructions.--BLOMSBERRY, Commander Susquehanna."
+
+Five minutes afterwards the whole town of San Francisco knew the
+tidings. Before 6 p.m. the different States of the Union had
+intelligence of the supreme catastrophe. After midnight, through the
+cable, the whole of Europe knew the result of the great American
+enterprise.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the effect produced throughout the
+world by the unexpected news.
+
+On receipt of the telegram the Secretary of the Navy telegraphed to the
+Susquehanna to keep under fire, and wait in the bay of San Francisco.
+She was to be ready to set sail day or night.
+
+The Observatory of Cambridge had an extraordinary meeting, and, with the
+serenity which distinguishes scientific bodies, it peacefully discussed
+the scientific part of the question.
+
+At the Gun Club there was an explosion. All the artillerymen were
+assembled. The Vice-President, the Honourable Wilcome, was just reading
+the premature telegram by which Messrs. Maston and Belfast announced
+that the projectile had just been perceived in the gigantic reflector of
+Long's Peak. This communication informed them also that the bullet,
+retained by the attraction of the moon, was playing the part of
+sub-satellite in the solar world.
+
+The truth on this subject is now known.
+
+However, upon the arrival of Blomsberry's message, which so formally
+contradicted J.T. Maston's telegram, two parties were formed in the
+bosom of the Gun Club. On the one side were members who admitted the
+fall of the projectile, and consequently the return of the travellers.
+On the other were those who, holding by the observations at Long's Peak,
+concluded that the commander of the Susquehanna was mistaken. According
+to the latter, the pretended projectile was only a bolis, nothing but a
+bolis, a shooting star, which in its fall had fractured the corvette.
+Their argument could not very well be answered, because the velocity
+with which it was endowed had made its observation very difficult. The
+commander of the Susquehanna and his officers might certainly have been
+mistaken in good faith. One argument certainly was in their favour: if
+the projectile had fallen on the earth it must have touched the
+terrestrial spheroid upon the 27th degree of north latitude, and, taking
+into account the time that had elapsed, and the earth's movement of
+rotation, between the 41st and 42nd degree of west longitude.
+
+However that might be, it was unanimously decided in the Gun Club that
+Blomsberry's brother Bilsby and Major Elphinstone should start at once
+for San Francisco and give their advice about the means of dragging up
+the projectile from the depths of the ocean.
+
+These men started without losing an instant, and the railway which was
+soon to cross the whole of Central America took them to St. Louis, where
+rapid mail-coaches awaited them.
+
+Almost at the same moment that the Secretary of the Navy, the
+Vice-President of the Gun Club, and the Sub-Director of the Observatory
+received the telegram from San Francisco, the Honourable J.T. Maston
+felt the most violent emotion of his whole existence--an emotion not
+even equalled by that he had experienced when his celebrated cannon was
+blown up, and which, like it, nearly cost him his life.
+
+It will be remembered that the Secretary of the Gun Club had started
+some minutes after the projectile--and almost as quickly--for the
+station of Long's Peak in the Rocky Mountains. The learned J. Belfast,
+Director of the Cambridge Observatory, accompanied him. Arrived at the
+station the two friends had summarily installed themselves, and no
+longer left the summit of their enormous telescope.
+
+We know that this gigantic instrument had been set up on the reflecting
+system, called "front view" by the English. This arrangement only gave
+one reflection of objects, and consequently made the view much clearer.
+The result was that J.T. Maston and Belfast, whilst observing, were
+stationed in the upper part of the instrument instead of in the lower.
+They reached it by a twisted staircase, a masterpiece of lightness, and
+below them lay the metal, well terminated by the metallic mirror, 280
+feet deep.
+
+Now it was upon the narrow platform placed round the telescope that the
+two _savants_ passed their existence, cursing the daylight which hid the
+moon from their eyes, and the clouds which obstinately veiled her at
+night.
+
+Who can depict their delight when, after waiting several days, during
+the night of December 5th they perceived the vehicle that was carrying
+their friends through space? To that delight succeeded deep
+disappointment when, trusting to incomplete observations, they sent out
+with their first telegram to the world the erroneous affirmation that
+the projectile had become a satellite of the moon gravitating in an
+immutable orbit.
+
+After that instant the bullet disappeared behind the invisible disc of
+the moon. But when it ought to have reappeared on the invisible disc the
+impatience of J.T. Maston and his no less impatient companion may be
+imagined. At every minute of the night they thought they should see the
+projectile again, and they did not see it. Hence between them arose
+endless discussions and violent disputes, Belfast affirming that the
+projectile was not visible, J.T. Maston affirming that any one but a
+blind man could see it.
+
+"It is the bullet!" repeated J.T. Maston.
+
+"No!" answered Belfast, "it is an avalanche falling from a lunar
+mountain!"
+
+"Well, then, we shall see it to-morrow."
+
+"No, it will be seen no more. It is carried away into space."
+
+"We shall see it, I tell you."
+
+"No, we shall not."
+
+And while these interjections were being showered like hail, the
+well-known irritability of the Secretary of the Gun Club constituted a
+permanent danger to the director, Belfast.
+
+Their existence together would soon have become impossible, but an
+unexpected event cut short these eternal discussions.
+
+During the night between the 14th and 15th of December the two
+irreconcilable friends were occupied in observing the lunar disc. J.T.
+Maston was, as usual, saying strong things to the learned Belfast, who
+was getting angry too. The Secretary of the Gun Club declared for the
+thousandth time that he had just perceived the projectile, adding even
+that Michel Ardan's face had appeared at one of the port-lights. He was
+emphasising his arguments by a series of gestures which his redoubtable
+hook rendered dangerous.
+
+At that moment Belfast's servant appeared upon the platform--it was 10
+p.m.--and gave him a telegram. It was the message from the Commander of
+the Susquehanna.
+
+Belfast tore the envelope, read the inclosure, and uttered a cry.
+
+"What is it?" said J.T. Maston.
+
+"It's the bullet!"
+
+"What of that?"
+
+"It has fallen upon the earth!"
+
+Another cry; this time a howl answered him.
+
+He turned towards J.T. Maston. The unfortunate fellow, leaning
+imprudently over the metal tube, had disappeared down the immense
+telescope--a fall of 280 feet! Belfast, distracted, rushed towards the
+orifice of the reflector.
+
+He breathed again. J.T. Maston's steel hook had caught in one of the
+props which maintained the platform of the telescope. He was uttering
+formidable cries.
+
+Belfast called. Help came, and the imprudent secretary was hoisted up,
+not without trouble.
+
+He reappeared unhurt at the upper orifice.
+
+"Suppose I had broken the mirror?" said he.
+
+"You would have paid for it," answered Belfast severely.
+
+"And where has the infernal bullet fallen?" asked J.T. Maston.
+
+"Into the Pacific."
+
+"Let us start at once."
+
+A quarter of an hour afterwards the two learned friends were descending
+the slope of the Rocky Mountains, and two days afterwards they reached
+San Francisco at the same time as their friends of the Gun Club, having
+killed five horses on the road.
+
+Elphinstone, Blomsberry, and Bilsby rushed up to them upon their
+arrival.
+
+"What is to be done?" they exclaimed.
+
+"The bullet must be fished up," answered J.T. Maston, "and as soon as
+possible!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+PICKED UP.
+
+
+The very spot where the projectile had disappeared under the waves was
+exactly known. The instruments for seizing it and bringing it to the
+surface of the ocean were still wanting. They had to be invented and
+then manufactured. American engineers could not be embarrassed by such a
+trifle. The grappling-irons once established and steam helping, they
+were assured of raising the projectile, notwithstanding its weight,
+which diminished the density of the liquid amidst which it was plunged.
+
+But it was not enough to fish up the bullet. It was necessary to act
+promptly in the interest of the travellers. No one doubted that they
+were still living.
+
+"Yes," repeated J.T. Maston incessantly, whose confidence inspired
+everybody, "our friends are clever fellows, and they cannot have fallen
+like imbeciles. They are alive, alive and well, but we must make haste
+in order to find them so. He had no anxiety about provisions and water.
+They had enough for a long time! But air!--air would soon fail them.
+Then they must make haste!"
+
+And they did make haste. They prepared the Susquehanna for her new
+destination. Her powerful engines were arranged to be used for the
+hauling machines. The aluminium projectile only weighed 19,250 lbs., a
+much less weight than that of the transatlantic cable, which was picked
+up under similar circumstances. The only difficulty lay in the smooth
+sides of the cylindro-conical bullet, which made it difficult to
+grapple.
+
+With that end in view the engineer Murchison, summoned to San Francisco,
+caused enormous grappling-irons to be fitted upon an automatical system
+which would not let the projectile go again if they succeeded in seizing
+it with their powerful pincers. He also had some diving-dresses
+prepared, which, by their impermeable and resisting texture, allowed
+divers to survey the bottom of the sea. He likewise embarked on board
+the Susquehanna apparatuses for compressed air, very ingeniously
+contrived. They were veritable rooms, with port-lights in them, and
+which, by introducing the water into certain compartments, could be sunk
+to great depths. These apparatuses were already at San Francisco, where
+they had been used in the construction of a submarine dyke. This was
+fortunate, for there would not have been time to make them.
+
+Yet notwithstanding the perfection of the apparatus, notwithstanding the
+ingenuity of the _savants_ who were to use them, the success of the
+operation was anything but assured. Fishing up a bullet from 20,000 feet
+under water must be an uncertain operation. And even if the bullet
+should again be brought to the surface, how had the travellers borne the
+terrible shock that even 20,000 feet of water would not sufficiently
+deaden?
+
+In short, everything must be done quickly. J.T. Maston hurried on his
+workmen day and night. He was ready either to buckle on the diver's
+dress or to try the air-apparatus in order to find his courageous
+friends.
+
+Still, notwithstanding the diligence with which the different machines
+were got ready, notwithstanding the considerable sums which were placed
+at the disposition of the Gun Club by the Government of the Union, five
+long days (five centuries) went by before the preparations were
+completed. During that time public opinion was excited to the highest
+point. Telegrams were incessantly exchanged all over the world through
+the electric wires and cables. The saving of Barbicane, Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan became an international business. All the nations that had
+subscribed to the enterprise of the Gun Club were equally interested in
+the safety of the travellers.
+
+At last the grappling-chains, air-chambers, and automatic
+grappling-irons were embarked on board the Susquehanna. J.T. Maston, the
+engineer Murchison, and the Gun Club delegates already occupied their
+cabins. There was nothing to do but to start.
+
+On the 21st of December, at 8 p.m., the corvette set sail on a calm sea
+with a rather cold north-east wind blowing. All the population of San
+Francisco crowded on to the quays, mute and anxious, reserving its
+hurrahs for the return.
+
+The steam was put on to its maximum of tension, and the screw of the
+Susquehanna carried it rapidly out of the bay.
+
+It would be useless to relate the conversations on board amongst the
+officers, sailors, and passengers. All these men had but one thought.
+Their hearts all beat with the same emotion. What were Barbicane and his
+companions doing whilst they were hastening to their succour? What had
+become of them? Had they been able to attempt some audacious manoeuvre
+to recover their liberty? No one could say. The truth is that any
+attempt would have failed. Sunk to nearly two leagues under the ocean,
+their metal prison would defy any effort of its prisoners.
+
+On the 23rd of December, at 8 a.m., after a rapid passage, the
+Susquehanna ought to be on the scene of the disaster. They were obliged
+to wait till twelve o'clock to take their exact bearings. The buoy
+fastened on to the sounding-line had not yet been seen.
+
+At noon Captain Blomsberry, helped by his officers, who controlled the
+observation, made his point in presence of the delegates of the Gun
+Club. That was an anxious moment. The Susquehanna was found to be at
+some minutes west of the very spot where the projectile had disappeared
+under the waves.
+
+The direction of the corvette was therefore given in view of reaching
+the precise spot.
+
+At 12.47 p.m. the buoy was sighted. It was in perfect order, and did not
+seem to have drifted far.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed J.T. Maston.
+
+"Shall we begin?" asked Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"Without losing a second," answered J.T. Maston.
+
+Every precaution was taken to keep the corvette perfectly motionless.
+
+Before trying to grapple the projectile, the engineer, Murchison, wished
+to find out its exact position on the sea-bottom. The submarine
+apparatus destined for this search received their provision of air. The
+handling of these engines is not without danger, for at 20,000 feet
+below the surface of the water and under such great pressure they are
+exposed to ruptures the consequences of which would be terrible.
+
+J.T. Maston, the commander's brother, and the engineer Murchison,
+without a thought of these dangers, took their places in the
+air-chambers. The commander, on his foot-bridge, presided over the
+operation, ready to stop or haul in his chains at the least signal. The
+screw had been taken off, and all the force of the machines upon the
+windlass would soon have brought up the apparatus on board.
+
+The descent began at 1.25 p.m., and the chamber, dragged down by its
+reservoirs filled with water, disappeared under the surface of the
+ocean.
+
+The emotion of the officers and sailors on board was now divided between
+the prisoners in the projectile and the prisoners of the submarine
+apparatus. These latter forgot themselves, and, glued to the panes of
+the port-lights, they attentively observed the liquid masses they were
+passing through.
+
+The descent was rapid. At 2.17 p.m. J.T. Maston and his companions had
+reached the bottom of the Pacific; but they saw nothing except the arid
+desert which neither marine flora nor fauna any longer animated. By the
+light of their lamps, furnished with powerful reflectors, they could
+observe the dark layers of water in a rather large radius, but the
+projectile remained invisible in their eyes.
+
+The impatience of these bold divers could hardly be described. Their
+apparatus being in electric communication with the corvette, they made a
+signal agreed upon, and the Susquehanna carried their chamber over a
+mile of space at one yard from the soil.
+
+They thus explored all the submarine plain, deceived at every instant by
+optical delusions which cut them to the heart. Here a rock, there a
+swelling of the ground, looked to them like the much-sought-for
+projectile; then they would soon find out their error and despair again.
+
+"Where are they? Where can they be?" cried J.T. Maston.
+
+And the poor man called aloud to Nicholl, Barbicane, and Michel Ardan,
+as if his unfortunate friends could have heard him through that
+impenetrable medium!
+
+The search went on under those conditions until the vitiated state of
+the air in the apparatus forced the divers to go up again.
+
+The hauling in was begun at 6 p.m., and was not terminated before
+midnight.
+
+"We will try again to-morrow," said J.T. Maston as he stepped on to the
+deck of the corvette.
+
+"Yes," answered Captain Blomsberry.
+
+"And in another place."
+
+"Yes."
+
+J.T. Maston did not yet doubt of his ultimate success, but his
+companions, who were no longer intoxicated with the animation of the
+first few hours, already took in all the difficulties of the enterprise.
+What seemed easy at San Francisco in open ocean appeared almost
+impossible. The chances of success diminished in a large proportion, and
+it was to chance alone that the finding of the projectile had to be
+left.
+
+The next day, the 24th of December, notwithstanding the fatigues of the
+preceding day, operations were resumed. The corvette moved some minutes
+farther west, and the apparatus, provisioned with air again, took the
+same explorers to the depths of the ocean.
+
+All that day was passed in a fruitless search. The bed of the sea was a
+desert. The day of the 25th brought no result, neither did that of the
+26th.
+
+It was disheartening. They thought of the unfortunate men shut up for
+twenty-six days in the projectile. Perhaps they were all feeling the
+first symptoms of suffocation, even if they had escaped the dangers of
+their fall. The air was getting exhausted, and doubtless with the air
+their courage and spirits.
+
+"The air very likely, but their courage never," said J.T. Maston.
+
+On the 28th, after two days' search, all hope was lost. This bullet was
+an atom in the immensity of the sea! They must give up the hope of
+finding it.
+
+Still J.T. Maston would not hear about leaving. He would not abandon the
+place without having at least found the tomb of his friends. But Captain
+Blomsberry could not stay on obstinately, and notwithstanding the
+opposition of the worthy secretary, he was obliged to give orders to set
+sail.
+
+On the 29th of December, at 9 a.m., the Susquehanna, heading north-east,
+began to return to the bay of San Francisco.
+
+It was 10 a.m. The corvette was leaving slowly and as if with regret the
+scene of the catastrophe, when the sailor at the masthead, who was on
+the look-out, called out all at once--
+
+"A buoy on the lee bow!"
+
+The officers looked in the direction indicated. They saw through their
+telescopes the object signalled, which did look like one of those buoys
+used for marking the openings of bays or rivers; but, unlike them, a
+flag floating in the wind surmounted a cone which emerged five or six
+feet. This buoy shone in the sunshine as if made of plates of silver.
+
+The commander, Blomsberry, J.T. Maston, and the delegates of the Gun
+Club ascended the foot-bridge and examined the object thus drifting on
+the waves.
+
+All looked with feverish anxiety, but in silence. None of them dared
+utter the thought that came into all their minds.
+
+The corvette approached to within two cables' length of the object.
+
+A shudder ran through the whole crew.
+
+The flag was an American one!
+
+At that moment a veritable roar was heard. It was the worthy J.T.
+Maston, who had fallen in a heap; forgetting on the one hand that he had
+only an iron hook for one arm, and on the other that a simple
+gutta-percha cap covered his cranium-box, he had given himself a
+formidable blow.
+
+They rushed towards him and picked him up. They recalled him to life.
+And what were his first words?
+
+"Ah! triple brutes! quadruple idiots! quintuple boobies that we are!"
+
+"What is the matter?" every one round him exclaimed.
+
+"What the matter is?"
+
+"Speak, can't you?"
+
+"It is, imbeciles," shouted the terrible secretary, "it is the bullet
+only weighs 19,250 lbs!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"And it displaces 28 tons, or 56,000 lbs., consequently _it floats_!"
+
+Ah! how that worthy man did underline the verb "to float!" And it was
+the truth! All, yes! all these _savants_ had forgotten this fundamental
+law, that in consequence of its specific lightness the projectile, after
+having been dragged by its fall to the greatest depths of the ocean, had
+naturally returned to the surface; and now it was floating tranquilly
+whichever way the wind carried them.
+
+The boats had been lowered. J.T. Maston and his friends rushed into
+them. The excitement was at its highest point. All hearts palpitated
+whilst the boats rowed towards the projectile. What did it contain--the
+living or the dead? The living. Yes! unless death had struck down
+Barbicane and his companions since they had hoisted the flag!
+
+Profound silence reigned in the boats. All hearts stopped beating. Eyes
+no longer performed their office. One of the port-lights of the
+projectile was opened. Some pieces of glass remaining in the frame
+proved that it had been broken. This port-light was situated actually
+five feet above water.
+
+A boat drew alongside--that of J.T. Maston. He rushed to the broken
+window.
+
+At that moment the joyful and clear voice of Michel Ardan was heard
+exclaiming in the accents of victory--"Double blank, Barbicane, double
+blank!"
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, and Nicholl were playing at dominoes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+It will be remembered that immense sympathy accompanied the three
+travellers upon their departure. If the beginning of their enterprise
+had caused such excitement in the old and new world, what enthusiasm
+must welcome their return! Would not those millions of spectators who
+had invaded the Floridian peninsula rush to meet the sublime
+adventurers? Would those legions of foreigners from all points of the
+globe, now in America, leave the Union without seeing Barbicane,
+Nicholl, and Michel Ardan once more? No, and the ardent passion of the
+public would worthily respond to the grandeur of the enterprise. Human
+beings who had left the terrestrial spheroid, who had returned after
+their strange journey into celestial space, could not fail to be
+received like the prophet Elijah when he returned to the earth. To see
+them first, to hear them afterwards, was the general desire.
+
+This desire was to be very promptly realised by almost all the
+inhabitants of the Union.
+
+Barbicane, Michel Ardan, Nicholl, and the delegates of the Gun Club
+returned without delay to Baltimore, and were there received with
+indescribable enthusiasm. The president's travelling notes were ready to
+be given up for publicity. The _New York Herald_ bought this manuscript
+at a price which is not yet known, but which must have been enormous. In
+fact, during the publication of the _Journey to the Moon_ they printed
+5,000,000 copies of that newspaper. Three days after the travellers'
+return to the earth the least details of their expedition were known.
+The only thing remaining to be done was to see the heroes of this
+superhuman enterprise.
+
+The exploration of Barbicane and his friends around the moon had allowed
+them to control the different theories about the terrestrial satellite.
+These _savants_ had observed it _de visu_ and under quite peculiar
+circumstances. It was now known which systems were to be rejected, which
+admitted, upon the formation of this orb, its origin, and its
+inhabitability. Its past, present, and future had given up their
+secrets. What could be objected to conscientious observations made at
+less than forty miles from that curious mountain of Tycho, the strangest
+mountain system of lunar orography? What answers could be made to
+_savants_ who had looked into the dark depths of the amphitheatre of
+Pluto? Who could contradict these audacious men whom the hazards of
+their enterprise had carried over the invisible disc of the moon, which
+no human eye had ever seen before? It was now their prerogative to
+impose the limits of that selenographic science which had built up the
+lunar world like Cuvier did the skeleton of a fossil, and to say, "The
+moon was this, a world inhabitable and inhabited anterior to the earth!
+The moon is this, a world now uninhabitable and uninhabited!"
+
+In order to welcome the return of the most illustrious of its members
+and his two companions, the Gun Club thought of giving them a banquet;
+but a banquet worthy of them, worthy of the American people, and under
+such circumstances that all the inhabitants of the Union could take a
+direct part in it.
+
+All the termini of the railroads in the State were joined together by
+movable rails. Then, in all the stations hung with the same flags,
+decorated with the same ornaments, were spread tables uniformly dressed.
+At a certain time, severely calculated upon electric clocks which beat
+the seconds at the same instant, the inhabitants were invited to take
+their places at the same banquet.
+
+During four days, from the 5th to the 9th of January, the trains were
+suspended like they are on Sundays upon the railways of the Union, and
+all the lines were free.
+
+One locomotive alone, a very fast engine, dragging a state saloon, had
+the right of circulating, during these four days, upon the railways of
+the United States.
+
+This locomotive, conducted by a stoker and a mechanic, carried, by a
+great favour, the Honourable J.T. Maston, Secretary of the Gun Club.
+
+The saloon was reserved for President Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and
+Michel Ardan.
+
+The train left the station of Baltimore upon the whistle of the
+engine-driver amidst the hurrahs and all the admiring interjections of
+the American language. It went at the speed of eighty leagues an hour.
+But what was that speed compared to the one with which the three heroes
+had left the Columbiad?
+
+Thus they went from one town to another, finding the population in
+crowds upon their passage saluting them with the same acclamations, and
+showering upon them the same "bravoes." They thus travelled over the
+east of the Union through Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
+Vermont, Maine, and New Brunswick; north and west through New York,
+Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin; south through Illinois, Missouri,
+Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana; south-east through Alabama and Florida,
+Georgia, and the Carolinas; they visited the centre through Tennessee,
+Kentucky, Virginia, and Indiana; then after the station of Washington
+they re-entered Baltimore, and during four days they could imagine that
+the United States of America, seated at one immense banquet, saluted
+them simultaneously with the same hurrahs.
+
+This apotheosis was worthy of these heroes, whom fable would have placed
+in the ranks of demigods.
+
+And now would this attempt, without precedent in the annals of travels,
+have any practical result? Would direct communication ever be
+established with the moon? Would a service of navigation ever be founded
+across space for the solar world? Will people ever go from planet to
+planet, from Jupiter to Mercury, and later on from one star to another,
+from the Polar star to Sirius, would a method of locomotion allow of
+visiting the suns which swarm in the firmament?
+
+No answer can be given to these questions, but knowing the audacious
+ingenuity of the Anglo-Saxon race, no one will be astonished that the
+Americans tried to turn President Barbicane's experiment to account.
+
+Thus some time after the return of the travellers the public received
+with marked favour the advertisement of a Joint-Stock Company (Limited),
+with a capital of a hundred million dollars, divided into a hundred
+thousand shares of a thousand dollars each, under the name of _National
+Company for Interstellar Communication_--President, Barbicane;
+Vice-President, Captain Nicholl; Secretary, J.T. Maston; Director,
+Michel Ardan--and as it is customary in America to foresee everything in
+business, even bankruptcy, the Honourable Harry Trollope, Commissary
+Judge, and Francis Dayton were appointed beforehand assignees.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon-Voyage, by Jules Verne
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