The Field of Ice: Part II of the Adventures of Captain HatterasVerne, Jules
Science
The Field of Ice: Part II of the Adventures of Captain Hatteras
Verne, Jules
Adventure stories; Sea stories
When the result was communicated to Hatteras, he desired that a
formal document might be drawn up to attest the fact, and two copies
made, one of which should be deposited on a cairn on the island.
Clawbonny was the scribe, and indited the following document, a copy
of which is now among the archives of the Royal Geographical Society
of London:--
"On this 11th day of July, 1861, in North latitude 89 deg. 59'
15" was discovered Queen's Island at the North Pole, by Captain
Hatteras, Commander of the brig Forward of Liverpool, who signs
this, as also all his companions.
"Whoever may find this document is requested to forward it to the
Admiralty.
"(Signed) JOHN HATTERAS, Commander
of the Forward
"DR. CLAWBONNY
"ALTAMONT, Commander of the Porpoise
"JOHNSON, Boatswain
"BELL, Carpenter."
"And now, friends, come to table," said the Doctor, merrily.
Coming to table was just squatting on the ground.
"But who," said Clawbonny, "would not give all the tables and
dining-rooms in the world to dine at 89" 59' and 15" N.
lat.?"
It was an exciting occasion this first meal at the Pole! What
neither ancients nor moderns, neither Europeans, nor Americans, nor
Asiatics had been able to accomplish was now achieved, and all past
sufferings and perils were forgotten in the glow of success.
"But, after all," said Johnson, after toasts to Hatteras and the
North Pole had been enthusiastically drunk, "what is there so very
special about the North Pole? Will you tell me, Mr. Clawbonny?"
"Just this, my good Johnson. It is the only point of the globe
that is motionless; all the other points are revolving with extreme
rapidity."
"But I don't see that we are any more motionless here than at
Liverpool."
"Because in both cases you are a party concerned, both in the
motion and the rest; but the fact is certain."
Clawbonny then went on to describe the diurnal and annual motions of
the earth--the one round its own axis, the extremities of which are
the poles, which is accomplished in twenty-four hours, and the other
round the sun, which takes a whole year.
Bell and Johnson listened half incredulously, and
[Illustration: ]
couldn't see why the earth could not have been allowed to keep
still, till Altamont informed them that they would then have had
neither day nor night, nor spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
"Ay, and worse still," said Clawbonny, "if the motion chanced
to be interrupted, we should fall right into the sun in sixty-four
and a half days."
"What! take sixty-four and a half days, to fall?" exclaimed
Johnson.
"Yes, we are ninety-five millions of miles off. But when I say the
Pole is motionless, it is not strictly true; it is only so in
comparison with the rest of the globe, for it has a certain movement
of its own, and completes a circle in about twenty-six thousand
years. This comes from the precession of the equinoxes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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