“Why?” replied the supporters of President Barbicane. “Because in the carboniferous period, according to a well-known theory, the volume of the Sun was such that the difference in temperature between the Equator and the Poles was inappreciable. Immense forests covered the northern regions long before the appearance of man, when our planet was subject to the prolonged influence of heat and humidity.” And this the journals, reviews, and magazines that supported the North Polar Practical Association insisted on in a thousand articles, popular and scientific. If these forests existed, what more reasonable to suppose than that the weather, the water, and the warmth had converted them into coal-beds? But in addition to this there were certain facts which were undeniable. And these were important enough to suggest that a search might be made for the mineral in the regions indicated. So thought Donellan and Todrin as they sat together in a corner of the “Two Friends.” “Well,” said Todrin, “can Barbicane be right?” “It is very likely,” said the Major. “But then there are fortunes to be made in opening up the Polar regions!” “Assuredly,” said the Major. “North America has immense deposits of coal; new discoveries are often being announced, and there are doubtless more to follow. The Arctic regions seem to be a part of the American continent geologically. They are similar in formation and physiography. Greenland is a prolongation of the new world, and certainly Greenland belongs to America—” “As the horse’s head, which it looks like, belongs to the animal’s body,” said Todrin. “Nordenskiold,” said Donellan, “when he explored Greenland, found among the sandstones and schists intercalations of lignite with many forest plants. Even in the Disko district, Steenstrup discovered eleven localities with abundant vestiges of the luxuriant vegetation which formerly encircled the Pole.” “But higher up?” asked Todrin. “Higher up, or farther up to the northward,” said the Major, “the presence of coal is extremely probable, and it only has to be looked for. And if there is coal on the surface, is it not reasonable to suppose that there is coal underneath?” The Major was right. He was thoroughly posted up in all that concerned the geology of the Arctic regions, and he would have held on for some time if he had not noticed that the people in the “Two Friends” were listening to him. “Are you not surprised at one thing, Major?” “What is that?” “That in this affair, in which you would expect to meet with engineers and navigators, you have only to deal with artillerists. What have they to do with the coal-mines of the North Pole?” “That is rather surprising,” said the Major. And every morning the newspapers returned to this matter of the coal-mines. “Coal-beds!” said one, “what coal-beds?”