Off on a Comet by Jules Verne (best non fiction books to read .TXT) ๐
It was on one of these occasions that he had first met Madame de L----, the lady to whom he was desirous of dedicating the rondo, the first four lines of which had just seen the light. She was a colonel's widow,
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Soon, however, recovering his equanimity, he continued:
โIt is fortunate that the earth was only touched obliquely;
if the comet had impinged perpendicularly, it must have plowed
its way deep below the surface, and the disasters it might have
caused are beyond reckoning. Perhaps,โ he added, with a smile,
โeven Montmartre might not have survived the calamity.โ
โSir!โ shouted Ben Zoof, quite unable to bear the unprovoked attack.
โQuiet, Ben Zoof!โ said Servadac sternly.
Fortunately for the sake of peace, Isaac Hakkabut, who at length
was beginning to realize something of the true condition of things,
came forward at this moment, and in a voice trembling with eagerness,
implored the professor to tell him when they would all be back again
upon the earth.
โAre you in a great hurry?โ asked the professor coolly.
The Jew was about to speak again, when Captain Servadac interposed:
โAllow me to say that, in somewhat more scientific terms, I was about
to ask you the same question. Did I not understand you to say that,
as the consequence of the collision, the character of the cometโs orbit
has been changed?โ
โYou did, sir.โ
โDid you imply that the orbit has ceased to be a parabola?โ
โJust so.โ
โIs it then an hyperbola? and are we to be carried on far and away
into remote distance, and never, never to return?โ
โI did not say an hyperbola.โ
โAnd is it not?โ
โIt is not.โ
โThen it must be an ellipse?โ
โYes.โ
โAnd does its plane coincide with the plane of the earth?โ
โYes.โ
โThen it must be a periodic comet?โ
โIt is.โ
Servadac involuntarily raised a ringing shout of joy that echoed
again along the gallery.
โYes,โ continued the professor, โGallia is a periodic comet,
and allowing for the perturbations to which it is liable from
the attraction of Mars and Jupiter and Saturn, it will return
to the earth again in two years precisely.โ
โYou mean that in two years after the first shock, Gallia will meet the earth
at the same point as they met before?โ said Lieutenant Procope.
โI am afraid so,โ said Rosette.
โWhy afraid?โ
โBecause we are doing exceedingly well as we are.โ The professor stamped
his foot upon the ground, by way of emphasis, and added, โIf I had my will,
Gallia should never return to the earth again!โ
A REVISED CALENDAR
All previous hypotheses, then, were now forgotten in the presence
of the one great fact that Gallia was a comet and gravitating through
remote solar regions. Captain Servadac became aware that the huge disc
that had been looming through the clouds after the shock was the form
of the retreating earth, to the proximity of which the one high tide
they had experienced was also to be attributed.
As to the fulfillment of the professorโs prediction of an ultimate return
to the terrestrial sphere, that was a point on which it must be owned
that the captain, after the first flush of his excitement was over,
was not without many misgivings.
The next day or two were spent in providing for the accommodation
of the new comer. Fortunately his desires were very moderate;
he seemed to live among the stars, and as long as he was
well provided with coffee, he cared little for luxuries,
and paid little or no regard to the ingenuity with which all
the internal arrangements of Ninaโs Hive had been devised.
Anxious to show all proper respect to his former tutor,
Servadac proposed to leave the most comfortable apartment of
the place at his disposal; but the professor resolutely declined
to occupy it, saying that what he required was a small chamber,
no matter how small, provided that it was elevated and secluded,
which he could use as an observatory and where he might prosecute
his studies without disturbance. A general search was instituted,
and before long they were lucky enough to find, about a hundred
feet above the central grotto, a small recess or reduct hollowed,
as it were, in the mountain side, which would exactly
answer their purpose. It contained room enough for a bed,
a table, an armchair, a chest of drawers, and, what was
of still more consequence, for the indispensable telescope.
One small stream of lava, an off-shoot of the great torrent,
sufficed to warm the apartment enough.
In these retired quarters the astronomer took up his abode. It was on all
hands acknowledged to be advisable to let him go on entirely in his own way.
His meals were taken to him at stated intervals; he slept but little;
carried on his calculations by day, his observations by night, and very rarely
made his appearance amongst the rest of the little community.
The cold now became very intense, the thermometer registering
30 degrees F. below zero. The mercury, however, never exhibited
any of those fluctuations that are ever and again to be observed
in variable climates, but continued slowly and steadily to fall,
and in all probability would continue to do so until it reached
the normal temperature of the regions of outlying space.
This steady sinking of the mercury was accompanied by a complete
stillness of the atmosphere; the very air seemed to be congealed;
no particle of it stirred; from zenith to horizon there was never a cloud;
neither were there any of the damp mists or dry fogs which so often
extend over the polar regions of the earth; the sky was always clear;
the sun shone by day and the stars by night without causing any
perceptible difference in the temperature.
These peculiar conditions rendered the cold endurable even in the open air.
The cause of so many of the diseases that prove fatal to Arctic
explorers resides in the cutting winds, unwholesome fogs, or terrible
snow drifts, which, by drying up, relaxing, or otherwise affecting
the lungs, make them incapable of fulfilling their proper functions.
But during periods of calm weather, when the air has been absolutely still,
many polar navigators, well-clothed and properly fed, have been known
to withstand a temperature when the thermometer has fallen to 60 degrees
below zero. It was the experience of Parry upon Melville Island,
of Kane beyond latitude 81 degrees north, and of Hall and the crew
of the Polaris, that, however intense the cold, in the absence
of the wind they could always brave its rigor.
Notwithstanding, then, the extreme lowness of the temperature,
the little population found that they were able to move about
in the open air with perfect immunity. The governor general
made it his special care to see that his people were all well
fed and warmly clad. Food was both wholesome and abundant,
and besides the furs brought from the Dobrynaโs stores, fresh skins
could very easily be procured and made up into wearing apparel.
A daily course of out-door exercise was enforced upon everyone;
not even Pablo and Nina were exempted from the general rule;
the two children, muffled up in furs, looking like little Esqui-meaux,
skated along together, Pablo ever at his companionโs side,
ready to give her a helping hand whenever she was weary
with her exertions.
After his interview with the newly arrived astronomer,
Isaac Hakkabut slunk back again to his tartan. A change had come
over his ideas; he could no longer resist the conviction that
he was indeed millions and millions of miles away from the earth,
where he had carried on so varied and remunerative a traffic.
It might be imagined that this realization of his true position
would have led him to a better mind, and that, in some degree
at least, he would have been induced to regard the few
fellow-creatures with whom his lot had been so strangely cast,
otherwise than as mere instruments to be turned to his own personal
and pecuniary advantage; but noโthe desire of gain was too
thoroughly ingrained into his hard nature ever to be eradicated,
and secure in his knowledge that he was under the protection
of a French officer, who, except under the most urgent necessity,
would not permit him to be molested in retaining his property,
he determined to wait for some emergency to arise which should
enable him to use his present situation for his own profit.
On the one hand, the Jew took it into account that although the chances
of returning to the earth might be remote, yet from what he had heard from
the professor he could not believe that they were improbable; on the other,
he knew that a considerable sum of money, in English and Russian coinage,
was in the possession of various members of the little colony, and this,
although valueless now, would be worth as much as ever if the proper condition
of things should be restored; accordingly, he set his heart on getting
all the monetary wealth of Gallia into his possession, and to do this
he must sell his goods. But he would not sell them yet; there might come
a time when for many articles the supply would not be equal to the demand;
that would be the time for him; by waiting he reckoned he should be able
to transact some lucrative business.
Such in his solitude were old Isaacโs cogitations, whilst the universal
population of Ninaโs Hive were congratulating themselves upon being rid
of his odious presence.
As already stated in the message brought by the carrier pigeon,
the distance traveled by Gallia in April was 39,000,000 leagues,
and at the end of the month she was 110,000,000 leagues from the sun.
A diagram representing the elliptical orbit of the planet, accompanied by an
ephemeris made out in minute detail, had been drawn out by the professor.
The curve was divided into twenty-four sections of unequal length,
representing respectively the distance described in the twenty-four months
of the Gallian year, the twelve former divisions, according to Keplerโs law,
gradually diminishing in length as they approached the point denoting
the aphelion and increasing as they neared the perihelion.
It was on the 12th of May that Rosette exhibited this result of his
labors to Servadac, the count, and the lieutenant, who visited his
apartment and naturally examined the drawing with the keenest interest.
Galliaโs path, extending beyond the orbit of Jupiter, lay clearly
defined before their eyes, the progress along the orbit and the solar
distances being inserted for each month separately. Nothing could
look plainer, and if the professorโs calculations were correct
(a point upon which they dared not, if they would, express the semblance
of a doubt), Gallia would accomplish her revolution in precisely two years,
and would meet the earth, which would in the same period of time have
completed two annual revolutions, in the very same spot as before.
What would be the consequences of a second collision they scarcely
ventured to think.
Without lifting his eye from the diagram, which he was still
carefully scrutinizing, Servadac said, โI see that during
the month of May, Gallia will only travel 30,400,000 leagues,
and that this will leave her about 140,000,000 leagues distant
from the sun.โ
โJust so,โ replied the professor.
โThen we have already passed the zone of the telescopic planets, have we not?โ
asked the count.
โCan you not use your eyes?โ said the professor, testily.
โIf you will look you will see the zone marked clearly enough
upon the map.โ
Without noticing the interruption, Servadac continued his own remarks,
โThe comet then, I see, is to reach its aphelion on the 15th of January,
exactly a twelvemonth after passing its perihelion.โ
โA twelvemonth! Not a Gallian twelvemonth?โ exclaimed Rosette.
Servadac looked
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