there are more or less determined minds, that is all!"

"Well," said Johnson, "we are here, and it is well. But, Doctor, will
you tell me, once for all, what there is so remarkable about the
Pole?"

"It is this, Johnson, that it is the only motionless part of the
globe, while all the rest is turning with extreme rapidity."

"But I don't see that we are more motionless here than at Liverpool."

"No more than you perceive the motion at Liverpool; and that is
because in both cases you participate in the movement or the repose.
But the fact is no less certain. The earth rotates in twenty-four
hours, and this motion is on an axis with its extremities at the two
poles. Well, we are at one of the extremities of the axis, which is
necessarily motionless."

"So," said Bell, "when our countrymen are turning rapidly, we are
perfectly still?"

"Very nearly, for we are not exactly at the Pole."

"You are right, Doctor," said Hatteras seriously, and shaking his
head; "we are still forty-five seconds from the precise spot."

"That is not far," answered Altamont, "and we can consider ourselves
motionless."

"Yes," continued the doctor, "while those living at the equator move
at the rate of three hundred and ninety-six leagues an hour."

"And without getting tired!" said Bell.

"Exactly!" answered the doctor.

"But," continued Johnson, "besides this movement of rotation, doesn't
the earth also move about the sun?"

"Yes, and this takes a year."

"Is it swifter than the other?"

"Infinitely so; and I ought to say that, although we are at the Pole,
it takes us with it as well as all the people in the world. So our
pretended immobility is a chimera: we are motionless with regard to
the other points of the globe, but not so with regard to the sun."

"Good!" said Bell, with an accent of comic regret; "so I, who thought
I was still, was mistaken! This illusion has to be given up! One can't
have a moment's peace in this world."

"You are right, Bell," answered Johnson; "and will you tell us,
Doctor, how fast this motion is?"

"It is very fast," answered the doctor; "the earth moves around the
sun seventy-six times faster than a twenty-four-pound cannon-ball
flies, which goes one hundred and ninety-five fathoms a second. It
moves, then, seven leagues and six tenths per second; you see it is
very different from the diurnal movement of the equator."

"The deuce!" said Bell; "that is incredible, Doctor! More than seven
lea