The roaring of the wind was now so loud that we could not hear each
other's voices, unless we shouted. The trembling and swaying of the
earth was becoming more pronounced every minute, and some of the people
actually became seasick.
Jim and I lay flat on our faces on the highest point we could reach.
The swaying of the earth had made even my stomach feel a little uneasy.
My scientific ardor was momentarily dampened by my physical discomfort.
Therefore Jim got the first glimpse of what was happening.
"Good Lord, look!" he suddenly exclaimed in an awed voice.
I raised my head and then rubbed my eyes. The whole central Greenland
plateau seemed to be rapidly sinking, and all around the horizon great
mountain ranges were lifting themselves toward the sky. We were lying
on a rock, two infinitely small insects, watching a new continent being
born.
As far as scientists have since been able to determine, the central
Greenland plateau was not lowered, but the effect was caused by the
entire surrounding region being forced out of the ocean high into
the air. Then we did not know what was happening. It was at least a
week later before the first trip in a plane showed us that the entire
ocean floor, extending from Labrador to Norway and northward to the
pole, had been elevated to an average height of ten thousand feet
above sea level. The continent thus formed is the seat of present day
civilization.
The swaying of the earth gradually ceased and all went back to the
town. Again we took hope that the worst was over and we were going to
survive. This time, our faith seems to have been justified. The final
upheaval was a successful effort of the mass of the earth to attain a
position of equilibrium. Five years have passed, and there have been no
evidences of further convulsions.
We have organized our life on the assumption that terrestrial
conditions are now reasonably stable. Our country is a great island
extending from the region of the former Ural mountains to the former
Hudson Bay. It includes northern Russia, Finland, northern Norway and
Sweden, Iceland and Greenland and part of Canada. It extends northward
to the pole and it is bounded on all sides by the great mountain
ranges which rose from the sea.
Our civilization is largely English speaking, and the seat of
government is Upernavik in Greenland. Our population is small,
considering the geographical extent of the country, and we are
encouraging in every way the production of large families.
The catastrophe which destroyed our old world was so overwhelming that
it is impossible to grieve over the smaller things that we have lost.
We are all working cheerfully to build a better world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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