tness to speak; let us copy an extract of the account that he
phonographed of this memorable scene. I pass over the part of Miltiades'
discourse in which he related the thrilling story of the dangers he had
encountered from the time he left his vessel. (_Continuous applause_.)
After stating that in passing by Paris on a sledge drawn by
reindeer--thanks to it being the season of the dog-days--he had
recognised the site of this buried city by the double-pointed mound of
snow which had formed over the spires of Notre-Dame--(_excitement in the
audience_)--the speaker continued:--

"The situation is serious," said he, "nothing like it has been seen
since the geological epochs. Is it irretrievable? No! (_Hear! hear!_)
Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. An idea, a glimmer of
hope has flashed upon me, but it is so strange, I shall never dare to
reveal it to you. (_Speak! speak!_) No, I dare not, I shall never dare
to formulate this project. You would believe me to be still insane. You
desire it, you promise me to listen to the end to my absurd and
extravagant project? (_Yes! yes!_) Even to give it a fair trial? (_Yes!
yes!_) Well! I will speak. (_Silence!_)

"The hour has come to ascertain to what extent it is true to say and to
keep on repeating, as has been the practice for the last three centuries
since the time of a certain Stephenson, that all our energy, all our
strength, whether physical or moral, comes to us from the sun....
(_Numerous voices: 'That is so'_). The calculation has been made: in two
years, three months, and six days, if there still remains a morsel of
coal there will not remain a morsel of bread! (_Prolonged sensation_.)
Therefore, if the source of all force, of all motion, and all life is in
the sun, and in the sun alone, there is no ground for self-delusion: in
two years, three months, and six days, the genius of man will be
quenched, and through the gloomy heavens the corpse of mankind, like a
Siberian mammoth, will roll for everlasting, incapable for ever of
resurrection. (_Excitement_.)

"But is that the case? No, it is not, it cannot be the case. With all
the energy of my heart, which does not come from the sun--that energy
which comes from the earth, from our mother earth buried there below,
far, far away, for ever hidden from our eyes--I protest against this
vain theory, and against so many articles of faith and religion which I
have been obliged hitherto to endure in silence. (_Sligh