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