Part 32 (1/2)

”On this 11th day of July, 1861, in North latitude 89 59'

15” was discovered Queen's Island at the North Pole, by Captain Hatteras, Cons this, as also all his companions

”Whoever may find this docuned) JOHN HATTERAS, Commander

of the Forward

”DR CLAWBONNY

”ALTAMONT, Commander of the Porpoise

”JOHNSON, Boatswain

”BELL, Carpenter”

”And now, friends, co to table was just squatting on the ground

”But who,” said Clawbonny, ”would not give all the tables and dining-rooms in the world to dine at 89” 59' and 15” N

lat?”

It was an exciting occasion this first meal at the Pole! What neither ancients nor moderns, neither Europeans, nor Americans, nor Asiatics had been able to accos and perils were forgotten in the glow of success

”But, after all,” said Johnson, after toasts to Hatteras and the North Pole had been enthusiastically drunk, ”what is there so very special about the North Pole? Will you tell ood Johnson It is the only point of the globe that iswith extreme rapidity”

”But I don't see that we are any more motionless here than at Liverpool”

”Because in both cases you are a party concerned, both in the motion and the rest; but the fact is certain”

Clawbonny then went on to describe the diurnal and annual motions of the earth--the one round its own axis, the extremities of which are the poles, which is accomplished in twenty-four hours, and the other round the sun, which takes a whole year

Bell and Johnson listened half incredulously, and

[Illustration: ]

couldn't see why the earth could not have been allowed to keep still, till Altamont inforht, nor spring, summer, autumn, and winter

”Ay, and worse still,” said Clawbonny, ”if the ht into the sun in sixty-four and a half days”

”What! take sixty-four and a half days, to fall?” exclaimed Johnson