Transcriber's note A detailed transcriber's note can be found at the end of this book. [Illustration] A. D. 2000 BY LIEUT. ALVARADO M. FULLER U. S. A. CHICAGO LAIRD & LEE PUBLISHERS 1890 Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and ninety, by LAIRD & LEE, in the office of the librarian of Congress at Washington. (All rights reserved.) PREFACE Lest originality of title and theme be denied, it is but justice to myself to state that both were assumed in November, 1887. My thanks are due to Lieutenant D. L. Brainard, Second Cavalry, for the true copy of the record of the Greely party left in the cairn at the farthest point on the globe ever reached by man--83 degrees 24 minutes North Latitude, 40 degrees 46 minutes West Longitude. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS CHAPTER I JUNIUS COBB'S MARVELOUS DISCOVERY 9 CHAPTER II A STARTLING PROPOSITION 31 CHAPTER III PREPARING FOR THE TEST 45 CHAPTER IV JEAN COLCHIS, CONSPIRATOR AND SAVANT 61 CHAPTER V ON THE EVE OF A CENTURY'S SLEEP 80 CHAPTER VI FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 101 CHAPTER VII "YOU SAY THIS IS A. D. 2000?" 108 CHAPTER VIII SAN FRANCISCO IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 130 CHAPTER IX THE CENTRAL PNEUMATIC RAILROAD 150 CHAPTER X UNDER THE CENTRAL SEA 168 CHAPTER XI THE ARMY OF INSTRUCTION 199 CHAPTER XII JUNIUS COBB READS A NEWSPAPER 235 CHAPTER XIII NEW YORK CITY--POPULATION 4,000,000 245 CHAPTER XIV THE LAW OF THE LAND 261 CHAPTER XV THE SYMPATHETIC TELEGRAPH 278 CHAPTER XVI CHICAGO THE METROPOLIS OF THE COUNTRY 299 CHAPTER XVII NIAGARA FALLS HARNESSED 309 CHAPTER XVIII THE MYSTERY OF THE COPPER CYLINDER 315 CHAPTER XIX RESURRECTED 332 CHAPTER XX AN AERIAL VOYAGE 347 CHAPTER XXI THE TRANSATLANTIC LIFE-SAVING STATIONS 363 CHAPTER XXII LOCATING THE NORTH POLE 380 CHAPTER XXIII UNITED AT LAST 396 CHAPTER XXIV CONCLUSION 404 A. D. 2000 CHAPTER I "Number three! half-past eleven o'clock--and all's well!" "All is well!" came the response from the sentry at the guard-house, while the sharp click of his piece as he brought it to his shoulder and the heavy tread of his retreating footsteps were all that was heard to break the stillness that reigned supreme throughout the garrison. It was a dark, dreary, foggy night. The heavy atmosphere seemed laden with great masses of fleeting vapor, and the walks of the post and the ground surrounding them were as wet as if a heavy shower had just spent its force.