The protracted struggle between science and the classics appears
to be drawing to a close, with victory about to perch on the
banner of science, as a perusal of almost any university or
college catalogue shows. While a limited knowledge of both Greek
and Latin is important for the correct use of our own language,
the amount till recently required, in my judgment, has been
absurdly out of proportion to the intrinsic value of these
branches, or perhaps more correctly roots, of study. The
classics have been thoroughly and painfully threshed out, and it
seems impossible that anything new can be unearthed. We may
equal the performances of the past, but there is no opportunity
to surpass them or produce anything original. Even the
much-vaunted "mental training" argument is beginning to pall; for
would not anything equally difficult give as good developing
results, while by learning a live matter we kill two birds with
one stone? There can be no question that there are many forces
and influences in Nature whose existence we as yet little more
than suspect. How much more interesting it would be if, instead
of reiterating our past achievements, the magazines and
literature of the period should devote their consideration to
what we do NOT know! It is only through investigation and
research that inventions come; we may not find what we are in
search of, but may discover something of perhaps greater moment.
It is probable that the principal glories of the future will be
found in as yet but little trodden paths, and as Prof. Cortlandt
justly says at the close of his history, "Next to religion, we
have most to hope from science."
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
CHAPTERI.-JUPITER.II.-ANTECEDENTALIII.-PRESIDENT BEARWARDEN'S SPEECHIV.-PROF. CORTLANDT'S HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE WORLD
IN A.D. 2000V.-DR. CORTLANDT'S HISTORY CONTINUEDVI.-FAR-REACHING PLANSVII.-HARD AT WORKVIII.-GOOD-BYE
BOOK II.
I.-THE LAST OF THE EARTHII.-SPACE AND MARSIII.-HEAVENLY BODIESIV.-PREPARING TO ALIGHTV.-EXPLORATION AND EXCITEMENTVI.-MASTODON AND WILL-O'-THE-WISPVII.-AN UNSEEN HUNTERVIII.-SPORTSMEN'S REVERIESIX.-THE HONEY OF DEATHX.-CHANGING LANDSCAPESXI.-A JOVIAN NIAGARAXII.-HILLS AND VALLEYSXIII.-NORTH-POLAR DISCOVERIESXIV.-THE SCENE SHIFTS
BOOK III.
I-SATURNII.-THE SPIRIT'S FIRST VISITHI.-DOUBTS AND PHILOSOPHYIV.-A PROVIDENTIAL INTERVENTIONV.-AYRAULT'S VISIONVI.-A GREAT VOID AND A GREAT LONGINGVII.-THE SPIRIT'S SECOND VISITVIII.-CASSANDRA AND COSMOLOGYIX.-DR. CORTLANDT SEES HIS GRAVEX.-AYRAULTXI.-DREAMLAND TO SHADOWLANDXII.-SHEOLXIII.-THE PRIEST'S SERMONXIV.-HIC ILLE JACETXV.-MOTHER EARTH
BOOK I.
A JOURNEY IN OTHER WORLDS.
----
CHAPTER 1.
JUPITER.
Jupiter--the magnificent planet with a diameter of 86,500
miles, having 119 times the surface and 1,300 times the volume of
the earth--lay beneath them.
They had often seen it in the terrestrial sky, emitting its
strong, steady ray, and had thought of that far-away planet,
about which till recently so little had been known, and a burning
desire had possessed them to go to it and explore its mysteries.
Now, thanks to APERGY, the force whose existence the ancients
suspected, but of which they knew so little, all things were
possible.
Ayrault manipulated the silk-covered glass handles, and the
Callisto moved on slowly in comparison with its recent speed,
and all remained glued to their telescopes as they peered through
the rushing clouds, now forming and now dissolving before their
eyes. What transports of delight, what ecstatic bliss, was
theirs! Men had discovered and mastered the secret of apergy,
and now, "little lower than the angels," they could soar through
space, leaving even planets and comets behind.
"Is it not strange," said Dr. Cortlandt, "that though it has been
known for over a century that bodies charged with unlike
electricities attract one another, and those charged with like
repel, no one thought of utilizing the counterpart of
gravitation? In the nineteenth century, savants and Indian
jugglers performed experiments with their disciples and masses of
inert matter, by causing them to remain without visible support
at some distance from the ground; and while many of these, of
course, were quacks, some were on the right track, though they
did not push their research."
President Bearwarden and Ayrault assented. They were steering
for an apparently hard part of the planet's surface, about a
degree and a half north of its equator.
"Since Jupiter's axis is almost at right angles to the plane of
its orbit," said the doctor, "being inclined only about one
degree and a half, instead of twenty-three and a half, as was the
earth's till nearly so recently, it will be possible for us to
have any climate we wish, from constantly warm at the equator to
constantly cool or cold as we approach the poles, without being
troubled by extremes of winter and summer."
Until the Callisto entered the planet's atmosphere, its five
moons appeared like silver shields against the black sky, but now
things were looking more terrestrial, and they began to feel at
home. Bearwarden put down his note-book, and Ayrault returned a
photograph to his pocket, while all three gazed at their new
abode. Beneath them was a vast continent variegated by chains of
lakes and rivers stretching away in all directions except toward
the equator, where lay a placid ocean as far as their telescopes
could pierce. To the eastward were towering and massive
mountains, and along the southern border of the continent smoking
volcanoes, while toward the west they saw forests, gently rolling
plains, and table-lands that would have satisfied a poet or set
an agriculturist's heart at rest. "How I should like to mine
those hills for copper, or drain the swamps to the south!"
exclaimed Col. Bearwarden. "The Lake Superior mines and the
reclamation of the Florida Everglades would be nothing to this."
"Any inhabitants we may find here have so much land at their
disposal that they will not need to drain swamps on account of
pressure of population for some time," put in the doctor.
"I hope we may find some four-legged inhabitants," said Ayrault,
thinking of their explosive magazine rifles. "If Jupiter is
passing through its Jurassic or Mesozoic period, there must be
any amount of some kind of game." Just then a quiver shook the
Callisto, and glancing to the right they noticed one of the
volcanoes in violent eruption. Smoke filled the air in clouds,
hot stones and then floods of lava poured from the crater, while
even the walls of the hermetically sealed Callisto could not
arrest the thunderous crashes that made the interior of the car
resound.
"Had we not better move on?" said Bearwarden, and accordingly
they went toward the woods they had first seen. Finding a firm
strip of land between the forest and an arm of the sea, they
gently grounded the Callisto, and not being altogether sure how
the atmosphere of their new abode would suit terrestrial lungs,
or what its pressure to the square inch might be, they cautiously
opened a port-hole a crack, retaining their hold upon it with its
screw. Instantly there was a rush and a whistling sound as of
escaping steam, while in a few moments their barometer stood at
thirty-six inches, whereupon they closed the opening.
"I fancy," said Dr. Cortlandt, "we had better wait now till we
become accustomed to this pressure. I do not believe it will go
much higher, for the window made but little resistance when we
shut it."
Finding they were not inconvenienced by a pressure but little
greater than that of a deep coal-mine, they again opened the
port, whereupon their barometer showed a further rise to
forty-two, and then remained stationary. Finding also that the
chemical composition of the air suited them, and that they had no
difficulty in breathing, the pressure being the same as that
sustained by a diver in fourteen feet of water, they opened a
door and emerged. They knew fairly well what to expect, and were
not disturbed by their new conditions. Though they had
apparently gained a good deal in weight as a result of their
ethereal journey, this did not incommode them; for though
Jupiter's volume is thirteen hundred times that of the earth, on
account of its lesser specific gravity, it has but three hundred
times the mass--i. e., it would weigh but three hundred times as
much. Further, although a cubic foot of water or anything else
weighs 2.5 as much as on earth, objects near the equator, on
account of Jupiter's rapid rotation, weigh one fifth less than
they do at the poles, by reason of the centrifugal force.
Influenced by this fact, and also because they were 483,000,000
miles from the sun, instead of 92,000,000 as on earth, they had
steered for the northern limit of Jupiter's tropics. And, in
addition to this, they could easily apply the apergetic power in
any degree to themselves when beyond the limits of the Callisto,
and so be attracted to any extent, from twice the pull they
receive from gravitation on earth to almost nothing.
Bearwarden and Ayrault shouldered their rifles, while Dr.
Cortlandt took a repeating shot-gun with No. 4 shot, and, having
also some hunting-knives and a sextant, all three set out in a
northwesterly direction. The ground was rather soft, and a warm
vapor seemed to rise from it. To the east the sky was veiled by
dense clouds of smoke from the towering volcanoes, while on their
left the forest seemed to extend without limit. Clumps of huge
ferns were scattered about, and the ground was covered with
curious tracks.
"Jupiter is evidently passing through a Carboniferous or Devonian
period such as existed on earth, though, if consistent with its
size, it should be on a vastly larger scale," said the doctor.
"I never believed in the theory," he continued, "that the larger
the planet the smaller should be its inhabitants, and always
considered it a makeshift, put forward in the absence of definite
knowledge, the idea being apparently that the weight of very
large creatures would be too great for their strength. Of the
fact that mastodons and creatures far larger than any now living
on earth existed there, we have absolute proof, though
gravitation must have been practically the same then as now."
Just here they came upon a number of huge bones, evidently the
remains of some saurian, and many times the size of a grown
crocodile. On passing a growth of most luxuriant vegetation,
they saw a half-dozen sacklike objects, and drawing nearer
noticed that the tops began to swell, and at the same time became
lighter in colour. Just as the doctor was about to investigate
one of them with his duck-shot, the enormously inflated tops of
the creatures collapsed with a loud report, and the entire group
soared away. When about to alight, forty yards off, they
distended membranous folds in the manner of wings, which checked
their descent, and on touching the ground remained where they
were without rebound.
"We expected to find all kinds of reptiles and birds," exclaimed
the doctor. "But I do not know how we should class those
creatures. They seem to have pneumatic feet and legs, for their
motion was certainly not produced like that of frogs."
When the party came up with them the heads again began to swell.
"I will perforate the air-chamber of one," said Col. Bearwarden,
withdrawing the explosive cartridge from the barrel of his rifle
and substituting one with a solid ball. "This will doubtless
disable one so that we can examine it."
Just as they were about to rise, he shot the largest through the
neck. All but the wounded one, soared off, while Bearwarden,
Ayrault, and Cortlandt approached to examine it more closely.
"You see," said Cortlandt, "this vertebrate--for that is as
definitely as we can yet describe it--forces a great pressure of
air into its head and neck, which, by the action of valves, it
must allow to rush into its very rudimentary lower extremities,
distending them with such violence that the body is shot upward
and forward. You may have noticed the tightly inflated portion
underneath as they left the ground."
While speaking he had moved rather near, when suddenly a
partially concealed mouth opened, showing the unmistakable tongue
and fangs of a serpent. It emitted a hissing sound, and the
small eyes gleamed maliciously.
"Do you believe it is a poisonous species?" asked Ayrault.
"I suspect it is," replied the doctor; "for, though it is
doubtless able to leap with great accuracy upon its prey, we saw
it took some time to recharge the upper air-chamber, so that,
were it not armed with poison glands, it would fall an easy
victim to its more powerful and swifter contemporaries, and would
soon become extinct."
"As it will be unable to spring for some time," said Bearwarden,
"we might as well save it the disappointment of trying," and,
snapping the used shell from his rifle, he fired an explosive
ball into the reptile, whereupon about half the body disappeared,
while a sickening odour arose. Although the sun was still far
above the horizon, the rapidity with which it was descending
showed that the short night of less than five hours would soon be
upon them; and though short it might be very dark, for they were
in the tropics, and the sun, going down perpendicularly, must
also pass completely around the globe, instead of, as in northern
latitudes on earth in summer, approaching the horizon obliquely,
and not going far below it. A slight and diffused sound here
seemed to rise from the ground all about them, for which they
could not account. Presently it became louder, and as the sun
touched the horizon, it poured forth in prolonged strains. The
large trumpet-shaped lilies, reeds, and heliotropes seemed fairly
to throb as they raised their anthem to the sky and the setting
sun, while the air grew dark with clouds of birds that gradually
alighted on the ground, until, as the chorus grew fainter and
gradually ceased, they flew back to their nests. The three
companions had stood astonished while this act was played. The
doctor then spoke:
"This is the most marvellous development of Nature I have seen,
for its wonderful divergence from, and yet analogy to, what takes
place on earth. You know our flowers offer honey, as it were, as
bait to insects, that in eating or collecting it they may catch
the pollen on their legs and so carry it to other flowers,
perhaps of the opposite sex. Here flowers evidently appeal to
the sense of hearing instead of taste, and make use of birds, of
which there are enormous numbers, instead of winged insects, of
which I have seen none, one being perhaps the natural result of
the other. The flowers have become singers by long practice, or
else, those that were most musical having had the best chance to
reproduce, we have a neat illustration of the 'survival of the
fittest.' The sound is doubtless produced by a shrinking of the
fibres as the sun withdraws its heat, in which case we may expect
another song at sunrise, when the same result will be effected by
their expanding."
Searching for a camping-place in which to pass the coming hours,
they saw lights flitting about like will-o'-the-wisps, but
brighter and intermittent.
"They seem to be as bright as sixteen-candle-power lamps, but the
light is yellower, and appears to emanate from a comparatively
large surface, certainly nine or ten inches square," said the
doctor.
They soon gave up the chase, however, for the lights were
continually moving and frequently went out. While groping in the
growing darkness, they came upon a brown object about the size of
a small dog and close to the ground. It flew off with a humming
insect sound, and as it did so it showed the brilliant
phosphorescent glow they had observed.
"That is a good-sized fire-fly," said Bearwarden. "Evidently the
insects here are on the same scale as everything else. They are
like the fire-flies in Cuba, which the Cubans are said to put
into a glass box and get light enough from to read by. Here they
would need only one, if it could be induced to give its light
continuously."
Having found an open space on high ground, they sat down, and
Bearwarden struck his repeater, which, for convenience, had been
arranged for Jupiter time, dividing the day into ten hours,
beginning at noon, midnight being therefore five o'clock.
"Twenty minutes past four," said he, "which would correspond to
about a quarter to eleven on earth. As the sun rises at
half-past seven, it will be dark about three hours, for the time
between dawn and daylight will, of course, be as short as that we
have just experienced between sunset and night."
"If we stay here long," said the doctor, "I suppose we shall
become accustomed, like sailors, to taking our four, or in this
case five, hours on duty, and five hours off."
"Or," added Ayrault, "we can sleep ten consecutive hours and take
the next ten for exploring and hunting, having the sun for one
half the time and the moons for the other."
Bearwarden and Cortlandt now rolled themselves in their blankets
and were soon asleep, while Ayrault, whose turn it was to watch
till the moons rose--for they had not yet enough confidence in
their new domain to sleep in darkness simultaneously--leaned his
back against a rock and lighted his pipe. In the distance he saw
the torrents of fiery lava from the volcanoes reflected in the
sky, and faintly heard their thunderous crashes, while the
fire-flies twinkled unconcernedly in the hollow, and the night
winds swayed the fernlike branches. Then he gazed at the earth,
which, but little above the horizon, shone with a faint but
steady ray, and his mind's eye ran beyond his natural vision
while he pictured to himself the girl of his heart, wishing that
by some communion of spirits he might convey his thoughts to her,
and receive hers. It was now the first week of January on earth.
He could almost see her house and the snow-clad trees in the
park, and knew that at that hour she was dressing for dinner, and
hoped and believed that he was in her heart. While he thus
mused, one moon after another rose, each at a different phase,
till three were at once in the sky. Adjusting the electric
protection- wires that were to paralyze any creature that
attempted to come within the circle, and would arouse them by
ringing a bell, he knocked the ashes from his pipe, rolled
himself in a blanket, and was soon asleep beside his friends.
CHAPTER II.
ANTECEDENTAL.
"Come in!" sounded a voice, as Dr. Cortlandt and Dick Ayrault
tapped at the door of the President of the Terrestrial Axis
Straightening Company's private office on the morning of the 21st
of June, A. D. 2000. Col. Bearwarden sat at his capacious desk,
the shadows passing over his face as April clouds flit across the
sun. He was a handsome man, and young for the important post he
filled--being scarcely forty--a graduate of West Point, with
great executive ability, and a wonderful engineer. "Sit down,
chappies," said he; "we have still a half hour before I begin to
read the report I am to make to the stockholders and
representatives of all the governments, which is now ready. I
know YOU smoke," passing a box of Havanas to the professor.
Prof. Cortlandt, LL. D., United States Government expert,
appointed to examine the company's calculations, was about fifty,
with a high forehead, greyish hair, and quick, grey eyes, a
geologist and astronomer, and altogether as able a man, in his
own way, as Col. Bearwarden in his. Richard Ayrault, a large
stockholder and one of the honorary vice-presidents in the
company, was about thirty, a university man, by nature a
scientist, and engaged to one of the prettiest society girls, who
was then a student at Vassar, in the beautiful town of
Poughkeepsie.
"Knowing the way you carry things in your mind, and the
difficulty of rattling you," said Cortlandt, "we have dropped in
on our way to hear the speech that I would not miss for a
fortune. Let us know if we bother you."
"Impossible, dear boy," replied the president genially. "Since I
survived your official investigations, I think I deserve some of
your attention informally."
"Here are my final examinations," said Cortlandt, handing
Bearwarden a roll of papers. "I have been over all your figures,
and testify to their accuracy in the appendix I have added."
So they sat and chatted about the enterprise that interested
Cortlandt and Ayrault almost as much as Bearwarden himself. As
the clock struck eleven, the president of the company put on his
hat, and, saying au revoir to his friends, crossed the street to
the Opera House, in which he was to read a report that would be
copied in all the great journals and heard over thousands of
miles of wire in every part of the globe. When he arrived, the
vast building was already filled with a distinguished company,
representing the greatest intelligence, wealth, and powers of the
world. Bearwarden went in by the stage entrance, exchanging
greetings as he did so with officers of the company and directors
who had come to hear him. Cortlandt and Ayrault entered by the
regular door, the former going to the Government representatives'
box, the latter to join his fiancee, Sylvia Preston, who was
there with her mother. Bearwarden had a roll of manuscript at
hand, but so well did he know his speech that he scarcely glanced
at it. After being introduced by the chairman of the meeting,
and seeing that his audience was all attention, he began, holding
himself erect, his clear, powerful voice making every part of the
building ring.
CHAPTER III.
PRESIDENT BEARWARDEN'S SPEECH.
"To the Bondholders and Stockholders of the Terrestrial Axis
Straightening Company and Representatives of Earthly Governments.
"GENTLEMEN: You know that the objects of this company are, to
straighten the axis of the earth, to combine the extreme heat of
summer with the intense cold of winter and produce a uniform
temperature for each degree of latitude the year round. At
present the earth's axis--that is, the line passing through its
centre and the two poles--is inclined to the ecliptic about
twenty-three and a half degrees. Our summer is produced by the
northern hemisphere's leaning at that angle towards the sun, and
our winter by its turning that much from it. In one case the
sun's rays are caused to shine more perpendicularly, and in the
other more obliquely. This wabbling, like that of a top, is the
sole cause of the seasons; since, owing to the eccentricity of
our orbit, the earth is actually fifteen hundred thousand miles
nearer the sun during our winter, in the northern hemisphere,
than in summer. That there is no limit to a planet's
inclination, and that inclination is not essential, we have
astronomical proof. Venus's axis is inclined to the plane of her
orbit seventy-five degrees, so that the arctic circle comes
within fifteen degrees of the equator, and the tropics also
extend to latitude seventy-five degrees, or within fifteen
degrees of the poles, producing great extremes of heat and cold.
"Venus is made still more difficult of habitation by the fact
that she rotates on her axis in the same time that she revolves
about the sun, in the same way that the moon does about the
earth, so that one side must be perpetually frozen while the
other is parched.
"In Uranus we see the axis tilted still further, so that the
arctic circle descends to the equator. The most varied climate
must therefore prevail during its year, whose length exceeds
eighty-one of ours.
The axis of Mars is inclined about twenty-eight and two thirds
degrees to the plane of its orbit; consequently its seasons must
be very similar to ours, the extremes of heat and cold being
somewhat greater.
"In Jupiter we have an illustration of a planet whose axis is
almost at right angles to the plane of its orbit, being inclined
but about a degree and a half. The hypothetical inhabitants of
this majestic planet must therefore have perpetual summer at the
equator, eternal winter at the poles, and in the temperate
regions everlasting spring. On account of the straightness of
the axis, however, even the polar inhabitants--if there are
any--are not oppressed by a six months' night, for all except
those at the VERY pole have a sunrise and a sunset every ten
hours--the exact day being nine hours, fifty five minutes, and
twenty-eight seconds. The warmth of the tropics is also tempered
by the high winds that must result from the rapid whirl on its
axis, every object at the equator being carried around by this at
the rate of 27,600 miles an hour, or over three thousand miles
farther than the earth's equator moves in twenty-four hours.
"The inclination of the axis of our own planet has also
frequently considerably exceeded that of Mars, and again has been
but little greater than Jupiter's at least, this is by all odds
the most reasonable explanation of the numerous Glacial periods
through which our globe has passed, and of the recurring mild
spells, probably lasting thousands of years, in which elephants,
mastodons, and other semi-tropical vertebrates roamed in Siberia,
some of which died so recently that their flesh, preserved by the
cold, has been devoured by the dogs of modern explorers.
"It is not to be supposed that the inclining of the axes of
Jupiter, Venus, the Earth, and the other planets, is now fixed;
in some cases it is known to be changing. As long ago as 1890,
Major-Gen. A. W. Drayson, of the British Army, showed, in a work
entitled Untrodden Ground in Astronomy and Geology, that, as a
result of the second rotation of the earth, the inclination of
its axis was changing, it having been 23@ 28' 23" on January 1,
1750, 23@ 27' 55.3" on January 1, 1800, and 23@ 27' 30.9" on
January 1, 1850; and by calculation one hundred and ten years ago
showed that in 1900 (one hundred years ago) it would be 23@ 27'
08.8". This natural straightening is, of course, going on, and
we are merely about to anticipate it. When this improvement was
mooted, all agreed that the EXTREMES of heat and cold could well
be spared. 'Balance those of summer against those of winter by
partially straightening the axis; reduce the inclination from
twenty-three degrees, thirty minutes, to about fifteen degrees,
but let us stop there,' many said. Before we had gone far,
however, we found it would be best to make the work complete.
This will reclaim and make productive the vast areas of Siberia
and the northern part of this continent, and will do much for the
antarctic regions; but there will still be change in temperature;
a wind blowing towards the equator will always be colder than one
blowing from it, while the slight eccentricity of the orbit will
supply enough change to awaken recollections of seasons in our
eternal spring.
"The way to accomplish this is to increase the weight of the pole
leaving the sun, by increasing the amount of material there for
the sun to attract, and to lighten the pole approaching or
turning towards the sun, by removing some heavy substance from
it, and putting it preferably at the opposite pole. This
shifting of ballast is most easily accomplished, as you will
readily perceive, by confining and removing water, which is
easily moved and has a considerable weight. How we purpose to
apply these aqueous brakes to check the wabbling of the earth, by
means of the attraction of the sun, you will now see.
"From Commander Fillmore, of the Arctic Shade and the Committee
on Bulkheads and Dams, I have just received the following by
cable telephone: 'The Arctic Ocean is now in condition to be
pumped out in summer and to have its average depth increased one
hundred feet by the dams in winter. We have already fifty
million square yards of windmill turbine surface in position and
ready to move. The cables bringing us currents from the dynamos
at Niagara Falls are connected with our motors, and those from
the tidal dynamos at the Bay of Fundy will be in contact when
this reaches you, at which moment the pumps will begin. In
several of the landlocked gulfs and bays our system of confining
is so complete, that the surface of the water can be raised two
hundred feet above sea- level. The polar bears will soon have to
use artificial ice. Perhaps the cheers now ringing without may
reach you over the telephone.'"
The audience became greatly interested, and when the end of the
telephone was applied to a microphone the room fairly rang with
exultant cheers, and those looking through a kintograph (visual
telegraph) terminating in a camera obscura on the shores of
Baffin Bay were able to see engineers and workmen waving and
throwing up their caps and falling into one another's arms in
ecstasies of delight. When the excitement subsided, the
president continued:
"Chairman Wetmore, of the Committee on Excavations and
Embankments in Wilkesland and the Antarctic Continent, reports:
'Two hundred and fifty thousand square miles are now hollowed out
and enclosed sufficiently to hold water to an average depth of
four hundred feet. Every summer, when the basin is allowed to
drain, we can, if necessary, extend our reservoir, and shall have
the best season of the year for doing work until the earth has
permanent spring. Though we have comparatively little water or
tidal power, the earth's crust is so thin at this latitude, on
account of the flattening, that by sinking our tubular boilers
and pipes to a depth of a few thousand feet we have secured so
terrific a volume of superheated steam that, in connection with
our wind turbines, we shall have no difficulty in raising half a
cubic mile of water a minute to our enclosure, which is but
little above sea-level, and into which, till the pressure
increases, we can fan or blow the water, so that it can be full
three weeks after our longest day, or, since the present
unimproved arrangement gives the indigenes but one day and night
a year, I will add the 21st day of December.
"'We shall be able to find use for much of the potential energy
of the water in the reservoir when we allow it to escape in June,
in melting some of the accumulated polar ice-cap, thereby
decreasing still further the weight of this pole, in lighting and
warming ourselves until we get the sun's light and heat, in
extending the excavations, and in charging the storage batteries
of the ships at this end of the line. Everything will be ready
when you signal "Raise water."'"
"Let me add parenthetically," said Bearwarden, "that this means
of obtaining power by steam boilers sunk to a great depth is much
to be commended; for, though the amount of heat we can withdraw
is too small to have much effect, the farther towards the centre
our globe can be cooled the deeper will the water of the oceans
be able to penetrate--since it is its conversion into steam that
prevents the water from working its way in farther--and the more
dry land we shall have."
"You see," the president continued, "the storage capacity at the
south pole is not quite as great as at the north, because it is
more difficult to excavate a basin than to close the exits of one
that already exists, which is what we have done in the arctic.
The work is also not so nearly complete, since it will not be
necessary to use the southern reservoir for storing weight for
six months, or until the south pole, which is now at its maximum
declination from the sun, is turned towards it and begins to move
away; then, by increasing the amount of matter there, and at the
same time lightening the north pole, and reversing the process
every six months, we decrease the speed at which the departing
pole leaves the sun and at which the approaching pole advances.
The north pole, we see, will be a somewhat more powerful lever
than the south for working the globe to a straight position, but
we may be sure that the latter, in connection with the former,
will be able to hold up its end."
[The building here fairly shook with applause, so that, had the
arctic workers used the microphone, they might have heard in the
enthusiastic uproar a good counterpart of their own period.]
"I only regret," the president continued, "that when we began
this work the most marvellous force yet discovered--apergy--was
not sufficiently understood to be utilized, for it would have
eased our labours to the point of almost eliminating them. But
we have this consolation: it was in connection with our work that
its applicability was discovered, so that had we and all others
postponed our great undertaking on the pretext of waiting for a
new force, apergy might have continued to lie dormant for
centuries. With this force, obtained by simply blending negative
and positive electricity with electricity of the third element or
state, and charging a body sufficiently with this fluid,
gravitation is nullified or partly reversed, and the earth repels
the body with the same or greater power than that with which it
still attracts or attracted it, so that it may be suspended or
caused to move away into space. Sic itur ad astra, we may say.
With this force and everlasting spring before us, what may we not
achieve? We may some day be able to visit the planets, though
many may say that, since the axes of most of those we have
considered are more inclined than ours, they would rather stay
here. 'Blessed are they that shall inherit the earth,'" he went
on, turning a four-foot globe with its axis set vertically and at
right angles to a yellow globe labelled "Sun"; and again waxing
eloquent, he added: "We are the instruments destined to bring
about the accomplishment of that prophecy, for never in the
history of the world has man reared so splendid a monument to his
own genius as he will in straightening the axis of the planet.
"No one need henceforth be troubled by sudden change, and every
man can have perpetually the climate he desires. Northern Europe
will again luxuriate in a climate that favoured the elephants
that roamed in northern Asia and Switzerland. To produce these
animals and the food they need, it is not necessary to have great
heat, but merely to prevent great cold, half the summer's sun
being absorbed in melting the winter's accumulation of ice.
"When the axis has reached a point at which it inclines but about
twelve degrees, it will become necessary to fill the antarctic
reservoir in June and the Arctic Ocean in December, in order to
check the straightening, since otherwise it might get beyond the
perpendicular and swing the other way. When this motion is
completely arrested, I suggest that we blow up the Aleutian Isles
and enlarge Bering Strait, so as to allow what corresponds to the
Atlantic Gulf Stream in the Pacific to enter the Arctic
Archipelago, which I have calculated will raise the average
temperature of that entire region about thirty degrees, thereby
still further increasing the amount of available land.
"Ocean currents, being the result of the prevailing winds, which
will be more regular than at present, can be counted upon to
continue practically as they are. It may not be plain to you why
the trade winds do not blow towards the equator due south and
north, since the equator has much the same effect on air that a
stove has in the centre of a room, causing an ascending current
towards the ceiling, which moves off in straight lines in all
directions on reaching it, its place being taken by cold currents
moving in opposite directions along the floor. Picture to
yourselves the ascending currents at the equator moving off to
the poles from which they came. As they move north they are
continually coming to parts of the globe having smaller circles
of latitude than those they have left, and therefore not moved
forward as rapidly by the earth's daily rotation as the latitudes
nearer the equator. The winds consequently run ahead of the
surface, and so move east of north--the earth turning towards the
east--while the heavier colder surface currents, rushing towards
the equator to take the place of the ascending column, coming
from regions where the surface whirls comparatively slowly to
those where it is rotating faster, are continually left behind,
and so move southwest; while south of the equator a corresponding
motion results. Though this is not the most exact explanation,
it may serve to make the action clear. I will add, that if any
one prefers a colder or a warmer climate than that of the place
in which he lives, he need only go north or south for an hour;
or, if he prefers his own latitude, he can rise a few thousand
feet in the air, or descend to one of the worked-out coal-mines
which are now used as sanitariums, and secure his object by a
slight change of altitude. Let us speed the departure of racking
changes and extremes of climate, and prepare to welcome what we
believe prevails in paradise--namely, everlasting spring."
Appended to the address was the report of the Government
Examining Committee, which ran: "We have critically examined the
Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company's figures and
calculations, also its statements involving natural philosophy,
physics, and astronomy, all of which we find correct, and hereby
approve.
[Signed] "For the Committee:
"HENRY CHELMSFORD CORTLANDT,
"Chairman."
The Board of Directors having ratified the acts of its officers,
and passed congratulatory resolutions, the meeting adjourned sine
die.
CHAPTER IV.
PROF. CORTLANDT'S HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE WORLD
IN A. D. 2000.