The Harris-Ingram ExperimentBolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Bolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science fiction, American
"Oh yes, Mrs. Harris, icebergs that float down the Atlantic are born on
the west coast of Greenland. Up there great valleys are filled with snow
and ice from hill-top to hill-top, reaching back up the valleys, in some
instances from thirty to forty miles. This valley-ice is called a 'Mer
de Glace,' and has a motion down the valley, like any river, but of
three feet more or less only per day. If time enough is allowed, vast
quantities of this valley-ice move into the gulf or sea. When the sea
is disturbed by a storm the ice wall or precipice is broken off, and
enormous masses, often a hundred times larger than a big building, fall
and float away with the report of the firing of a park of artillery, and
these floating mountains of ice are lighted in their lonely pathways by
the midnight sun."
Before dinner, came the regular promenade which presented many contrasts.
A pretty bride from the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky walked with her
young husband whom she had first met at a New England seaside. She was
glad to aid in bridging the chasm between north and south. Her traveling
dress of blue was appropriately trimmed with gray.
The gorgeously dressed gambler walked on the deck alone. Then came two
modest nuns dressed in gray and white. Alfonso and his mother, the judge
and Lucille, and a group of little children followed. Dr. Argyle and a
Philadelphia heiress kept step. Everybody walked, talked, and laughed,
and the passengers had little need of the ship's doctor now. If the
weather is fair the decks are always enlivened as a steamer approaches
land. The next day, by noon at latest, Ireland and Fastnet Rock would
be sighted, if the ship's reckoning had been correct.
After dinner, Dr. Argyle was walking the deck with Lucille in the
star-light. He had told her much of his family, of his talented brother
in the Church, and of another in the army; he had even ventured
to speak of Lucille's grace of manner, and she feared what might follow.
The call of Mrs. Harris relieved Lucille of an unpleasant situation.
Secretly, Lucille was pleased to escape from Dr. Argyle. Something in his
manner told her that he was not sincere; that he was a schemer, perhaps a
fortune-seeker, and she gladly rejoined her mother.
Mrs. Harris and her children often wondered how matters were progressing
at home. Alfonso had faith in his father's ability to cope with the
strike, but Mrs. Harris and Lucille were much worried. "Don't let us
trouble," said Alfonso, "till we reach Queenstown, as there we shall
surely get a cablegram from father."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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