DAY AND NIGHT 261 



"Does the terrestrial globe turn very fast?" Emile 

 inquired 



"It turns on its axis once in twenty- four hours. 

 Therefore any point in its middle region, the region 

 that makes the longest journey, travels in the same 

 time forty millions of meters, that is to say a journey 

 e<|iml to the circuit of the earth, or 462 meters a sec- 

 ond. That is about the speed of a cannon-ball as it 

 leaves the cannon's mouth, or about thirty times the 

 speed of the fastest locomotive. Mountains, plains, 

 seas, apparently fixed in their places for time and 

 for eternity, are perpetually chasing one another in a 

 circle, with the formidable speed of more than one- 

 tenth of a league a second. " 



"And yet everything seems to us to be station- 

 ary. " 



' * Without the jolting of the car should we not think 

 we were standing still when the train carries us with 

 su.ch frightful speed? Well, the rapid movement of 

 the earth is at the same time so gentle that it is im- 

 possible to be aware of it except by the apparent 

 motion of the stars." 



"By rising to a certain height in a balloon," said 

 Jules, "we ought to see tin- earth turning under 

 us. Seas and their islands, continents with their 

 empires, forests, and mountains, ou-ht in succession 

 to come under the eyea of the oh-erver, who in 

 twenty four hours sees the tnrninir of the whole 

 earth. What a magnificent spectacle that must be! 

 What a journey, so wondn-ful and with M> little fa- 

 tigue! Whi'ii the rotation l.rinirs hack one's own 

 country, one descends and it is accomplished. Xn 



