THE
PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE
[Illustration:
What would the first inhabitant say?
Page 19.
]
THE
PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE
A SEQUEL TO
“FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON”
BY
JULES VERNE
AUTHOR OF “TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA,” “AROUND THE WORLD IN
EIGHTY DAYS,” “THE FUR COUNTRY,” ETC., ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY
_Limited_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE NORTH POLAR PRACTICAL ASSOCIATION 7
CHAPTER II.
TO SYNDICATE OR NOT TO SYNDICATE 19
CHAPTER III.
THE NORTH POLE IS KNOCKED DOWN TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER 27
CHAPTER IV.
OLD ACQUAINTANCES 34
CHAPTER V.
THE POLAR COAL-FIELD 40
CHAPTER VI.
A TELEPHONIC CONVERSATION 47
CHAPTER VII.
BARBICANE MAKES A SPEECH 59
CHAPTER VIII.
LIKE JUPITER 70
CHAPTER IX.
SULPHURIC ALCIDE 75
CHAPTER X.
A CHANGE IN PUBLIC OPINION 80
CHAPTER XI.
THE CONTENTS OR THE NOTE-BOOK 87
CHAPTER XII.
HEROIC SILENCE 91
CHAPTER XIII.
A TRULY EPIC REPLY 98
CHAPTER XIV.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL VALUE OF _x_ 106
CHAPTER XV.
INTERESTING FOR THE INHABITANTS OF THE TERRESTRIAL SPHEROID 107
CHAPTER XVI.
THE CHORUS OF TERROR 114
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WORKS AT KILIMANJARO 117
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE WAMASAI WAIT FOR THE WORD TO FIRE 126
CHAPTER XIX.
J. T. MASTON REGRETS HE WAS NOT LYNCHED 129
CHAPTER XX.
THE END OF THIS REMARKABLE STORY 136
BARBICANE & CO.;
OR,
THE PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE.
CHAPTER I.
THE NORTH POLAR PRACTICAL ASSOCIATION.
“And so, Mr. Maston, you consider that a woman can do nothing for the
advance of the mathematical or experimental sciences?”
“To my extreme regret, Mrs. Scorbitt,” said J. T. Maston, “I am obliged
to say so. That there have been many remarkable female mathematicians,
especially in Russia, I willingly admit; but with her cerebral
conformation it is not in a woman to become an Archimedes or a Newton.”
“Then, Mr. Maston, allow me to protest in the name of my sex—”
“Sex all the more charming, Mrs. Scorbitt, from its never having taken
to transcendental studies!”
“According to you, Mr. Maston, if a woman had seen an apple fall she
would never have been able to discover the laws of universal gravitation
as did the illustrious Englishman at the close of the seventeenth
century!”
“In seeing an apple fall, Mrs. Scorbitt, a woman would have only one
idea—to eat it, after the example of our mother Eve.”
“You deny us all aptitude for the higher speculations—”
“All aptitude? No, Mrs. Scorbitt. But I would ask you to remember that
since there have been people on this earth, and women consequently,
there has never been discovered a feminine brain to which we owe a
discovery in the domain of science analogous to the discoveries of
Aristotle, Euclid, Kepler, or Laplace.”
“Is that a reason? Is it inevitable that the future should be as the
past?”
“Hum! That which has not happened for thousands of years is not likely
to happen.”
“Then we must resign ourselves to our fate, Mr. Maston. And as we are
indeed good—”
“And how good!” interrupted J. T. Maston, with all the amiable gallantry
of which a philosopher crammed with _x_ was capable.
Mrs. Scorbitt was quite ready to be convinced.
“Well, Mr. Maston,” she said, “each to his lot in this world. Remain the
extraordinary mathematician that you are. Give yourself entirely to the
problems of that immense enterprise to which you and your friends have
devoted their lives! I will remain the good woman I ought to be, and
assist you with the means.”
“For which you will have our eternal gratitude,” said J. T. Maston.
Mrs. Scorbitt blushed deliciously, for she felt, if not for philosophers
in general, at least for J. T. Maston, a truly strange sympathy. Is not
a woman’s heart unfathomable?
An immense enterprise it was which this wealthy American widow had
resolved to support with large sums of money. The object of its
promoters was as follows:—
The Arctic territories, properly so called, according to the highest
geographical authorities, are bounded by the seventy-eighth parallel,
and extend over fourteen hundred thousand square miles, while the seas
extend over seven hundred thousand.
Within this parallel have intrepid modern discoverers advanced nearly as
far as the eighty-fourth degree of latitude, revealing many a coast
hidden beyond the lofty chain of icebergs, giving names to capes,
promontories, gulfs, and bays of these vast Arctic highlands. But beyond
this eighty-fourth parallel is a mystery, the unrealizable desideratum
of geographers. No one yet knows if land or sea lies hid in that space
of six degrees, that impassable barrier of Polar ice.
In this year, 189—, the United States Government had unexpectedly
proposed to put up to auction the circumpolar regions then remaining
undiscovered, having been urged to this extraordinary step by an
American society which had been formed to obtain a concession of the
apparently useless tract.
Some years before the Berlin Conference had formulated a special code
for the use of Great Powers wishing to appropriate the property of
another under pretext of colonization or opening up commercial routes.
But this code was not applicable, under the circumstances, as the Polar
domain was not inhabited. Nevertheless, as that which belongs to nobody
belongs to all, the new society did not propose to “take” but to
“acquire.”
In the United States there is no project so audacious for which people
cannot be found to guarantee the cost and find the working expenses.
This was well seen when a few years before the Gun Club of Baltimore had
entered on the task of despatching a projectile to the Moon, in the hope
of obtaining direct communication with our satellite. Was it not these
enterprising Yankees who had furnished the larger part of the sums
required by this interesting attempt? And if it had succeeded, would it
not be owing to two of the members of the said club who had dared to
face the risk of an entirely novel experiment?
If a Lesseps were one day to propose to cut a gigantic canal through
Europe and Asia, from the shores of the Atlantic to the China Sea; if a
well-sinker of genius were to offer to pierce the earth in the hopes of
finding and utilizing the beds of silicates supposed to be there in a
fluid state; if an enterprising electrician proposed to combine the
currents disseminated over the surface of the globe so as to form an
inexhaustible source of heat and light; if a daring engineer were to
have the idea of storing in vast receptacles the excess of summer
temperature, in order to transfer it to the frozen regions in the
winter; if a hydraulic specialist were to propose to utilize the force
of the tide for the production of heat or power at will; if companies
were to be formed to carry out a hundred projects of this kind—it is the
Americans who would be found at the head of the subscribers, and rivers
of dollars would flow into the pockets of the projectors, as the great
rivers of North America flow into—and are lost in—the ocean.
It was only natural that public opinion should be much exercised at the
announcement that the Arctic regions were to be sold to the highest
bidder, particularly as no public subscription had been opened with a
view to the purchase, for “all the capital had been subscribed in
advance,” and, “it was left for Time to show how it was proposed to
utilize the territory when it had become the property of the purchaser!”
Utilize the Arctic regions! In truth such an idea could only have
originated in the brain of a madman!
But nevertheless nothing could be more serious than the scheme.
In fact, a communication had been sent to many of the journals of both
continents, concluding with a demand for immediate inquiry on the part
of those interested. It was the _New York Herald_ that first published
this curious farrago, and the innumerable patrons of Gordon Bennett
read, on the morning of the 7th of November, the following
advertisement, which rapidly spread through the scientific and
industrial world, and became appreciated in very different ways:—
“NOTICE TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE TERRESTRIAL GLOBE.
“The regions of the North Pole situated within the eighty-fourth degree
of north latitude have not yet been utilized, for the very good reason
that they have not yet been discovered.
“The furthest points attained by the navigators of different nations are
the following:— 82° 45′, said to have been reached by the Englishman,
Parry, in July, 1847, in long. 28° E. north of Spitzbergen; 83° 20′ 28″,
said to have been reached by Markham in the English expedition of Sir
John Nares, in May, 1876, in long. 50° W. north of Grinnell Land; 83°
35′, said to have been reached by Lockwood and Brainard in the American
expedition of Lieutenant Greely, in May, 1882, in long. 42° W. in the
north of Nares’ Land.
“It can thus be considered that the region extending from the
eighty-fourth parallel to the Pole is still undivided among the
different States of the globe. It is, therefore, excellently adapted for
annexation as a private estate after formal purchase in public auction.
“The property belongs to nobody by right of occupation, and the
Government of the United States of America, having been applied to in
the matter, have undertaken to name an official auctioneer for the
purposes of its disposal.
“A company has been formed at Baltimore, under the title of the North
Polar Practical Association, which proposes to acquire the region by
purchase, and thus obtain an indefeasible title to all the continents,
islands, islets, rocks, seas, lakes, rivers, and watercourses whatsoever
of which this Arctic territory is composed, although these may be now
covered with ice, which ice may in summertime disappear.
“It is understood that this right will be perpetual and indefeasible,
even in the event of modification—in any way whatsoever—of the
geographical or meteorological conditions of the globe.
“The project having herewith been brought to the knowledge of the people
of the two worlds, representatives of all nations will be admitted to
take part in the bidding, and the property will be adjudged to the
highest bidder.
“The sale will take place on the 3rd of December of the present year in
the Auction Mart at Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
“For further particulars apply to William S. Forster, provisional agent
of the North Polar Practical Association 93, High Street, Baltimore.”
It may be that this communication will be considered as a madman’s
freak; but at any rate it must be admitted that in its clearness and
frankness it left nothing to be desired. The serious part of it was that
the Federal Government had undertaken to treat a sale by auction as a
valid concession of these undiscovered territories.
Opinions on the matter were many. Some readers saw in it only one of
those prodigious outbursts of American humbug, which would exceed the
limits of puffism if the depths of human credulity were not
unfathomable. Others thought the proposition should be seriously
entertained. And these laid stress on the fact that the new company had
not appealed to the public for funds. It was with their own money that
they sought to acquire the northern regions. They did not seek to drain
the dollars and banknotes of the simple into their coffers. No! All they
asked was to pay with their own money for their circumpolar property!
This was indeed extraordinary!
To those people who were fond of figures it seemed that all the said
company had to do was to buy the right of the first occupant, but that
was difficult, as access to the Pole appeared to be forbidden to man,
and the new company would necessarily act with prudence, for too many
legal precautions could hardly be taken.
It was noticed that the document contained a clause providing for future
contingencies. This clause gave rise to much contradictory
interpretation, for its precise meaning escaped the most subtle minds.
It stipulated that the right would be perpetual, even in the event of
modification in any way whatsoever of the geographical or meteorological
conditions of the globe. What was the meaning of this clause? What
contingency did it provide for? How could the earth ever undergo a
modification affecting its geography or meteorology, especially in the
territories in question?
“Evidently,” said the knowing ones, “there is something in this!”
Explanations there were many to exercise the ingenuity of some and the
curiosity of others.
The _Philadelphia Ledger_ made the following suggestion:—
“The future acquirers of the Arctic regions have doubtless ascertained
by calculation that the nucleus of a comet will shortly strike the earth
in such a manner that the shock will produce the geographical and
meteorological changes for which the clause provides.”
This sounded scientific, but it threw no light on the matter. The idea
of a shock from such a comet did not commend itself to the intelligent.
It seemed inadmissible that the concessionaries should have prepared for
so hypothetical an eventuality.
“Perhaps,” said the _New Orleans Delta_, “the new company imagine that
the precession of the equinoxes will produce the modification favourable
to the utilization of their new property.”
“And why not,” asked the _Hamburger Correspondent_, “if the movement
modifies the parallelism of the axis of our spheroid?”
“In fact,” said the Paris _Revue Scientifique_, “did not Adhemar say, in
his book on the revolutions of the sea, that the precession of the
equinoxes, combined with the secular movement of the major axis of the
terrestrial orbit, would be of a nature to bring about, after a long
period, a modification in the mean temperature of the different parts of
the Earth, and in the quantity of ice accumulated at the Poles?”
“That is not certain,” said the _Edinburgh Guardian_, “and even if it
were so, would it not require a lapse of twelve thousand years for Vega
to become our pole-star, in accordance with the said phenomenon, and for
the Arctic regions to undergo a change in climate?”
“Well,” said the _Copenhagen Dagblad_, “in twelve thousand years it will
be time enough to subscribe the money. Meanwhile we do not intend to
risk a krone.”
But although the _Revue Scientifique_ might be right with regard to
Adhemar, it was probable that the North Polar Practical Association had
never reckoned on a modification due to the precession of the equinoxes.
And no one managed to discover the meaning of the clause, or the
cosmical change for which it provided.
To ascertain what it meant application might perhaps be made to the
directorate of the new company? Why not apply to its chairman? But the
chairman was unknown! Unmentioned, too, were the secretary and
directors. There was nothing to show from whom the advertisement
emanated. It had been brought to the office of the _New York Herald_ by
a certain William S. Forster, of Baltimore, a worthy agent for codfish,
acting for Ardrinell and Co., of Newfoundland, and evidently a man of
straw. He was as mute on the subject as the fish consigned to his care,
and the cleverest of reporters and interviewers could get nothing out of
him.
But if the promoters of this industrial enterprise persisted in keeping
their identity a mystery, their intentions were indicated clearly
enough.
They intended to acquire the freehold of that portion of the Arctic
regions bounded by the eighty-fourth parallel of latitude, with the
North Pole as the central point.
Nothing was more certain than that among modern discoverers only Parry,
Markham, Lockwood and Brainard had penetrated beyond this parallel.
Other navigators of the Arctic seas had all halted below it. Payer, in
1874, had stopped at 82° 15′, to the north of Franz Joseph Land and Nova
Zembla; De Long, in the _Jeannette_ expedition in 1879, had stopped at
78° 45′, in the neighbourhood of the islands which bear his name.
Others, by way of New Siberia and Greenland, in the latitude of Cape
Bismarck, had not advanced beyond the 76th, 77th, and 79th parallels; so
that by leaving a space of twenty-five minutes between Lockwood and
Brainard’s 83° 35′ and the 84° mentioned in the prospectus, the North
Polar Practical Association would not encroach on prior discoveries. Its
project affected an absolutely virgin soil, untrodden by human foot.
The area of the portion of the globe within this eighty-fourth parallel
is tolerably large.
From 84° to 90° there are six degrees, which, at sixty miles each, give
a radius of 360 miles and a diameter of 720 miles. The circumference is
thus 2216 miles, and the area, in round numbers, 407,000 square miles.
This is nearly a tenth of the whole of Europe—a good-sized estate!
The advertisement, it will have been noticed, assumed the principle that
regions not known geographically and belonging to nobody in particular
belonged to the world at large. That the majority of the Powers would
admit this contention was supposable, but it was possible that States
bordering on these Arctic regions, or considering the regions as the
prolongation of their dominions towards the north, might claim a right
of possession. And their pretensions would be all the more justified by
the discoveries that had been made having been chiefly due to these
regions; and of course the Federal Government, as nominators of the
auctioneer, would give these Powers an opportunity of claiming
compensation, and satisfy the claim with the money realized by the sale.
At the same time, as the partisans of the North Polar Practical
Association continually insisted, the property was uninhabited, and as
no one occupied it, no one could oppose its being put up to auction.
The bordering States with rights not to be disregarded were six in
number—Great Britain, the United States, Denmark, Sweden and Norway,
Holland, and Russia. But there were other countries that might put in a
claim on the ground of discoveries made by their navigators.
France might, as usual, have intervened on account of a few of her
children having taken part in occasional expeditions. There was the
gallant Bellot, who died in 1853 near Beechey Island, during the voyage
of the _Phœnix_, sent in search of Sir John Franklin. There was Dr.
Octave Pavy, who died in 1884 at Cape Sabine, during the stay of the
Greely expedition at Fort Conger. And there was the expedition in
1838–39, which took to the Spitzbergen Seas, Charles Martins and Marmier
and Bravais, and their bold companions. But France did not propose to
meddle in the enterprise, which was more industrial than scientific;
and, at the outset, she abandoned any chance she might have of a slice
of the Polar cake.
It was the same with Germany. She could point to the Spitzbergen
expedition of Frederick Martens, and to the expeditions, in 1869–70, of
the _Germania_ and _Hansa_, under Koldewey and Hegeman, which reached
Cape Bismarck on the Greenland coast. But notwithstanding these
brilliant discoveries she decided to make no increase to the Germanic
empire by means of a slice from the Pole.
So it was with Austria-Hungary, which, however, had her claims on Franz
Joseph Land to the northward of Siberia.
As Italy had no right of intervention she did not intervene—which is not
quite so obvious as it may appear.
The same happened with regard to the Samoyeds of Siberia, the Eskimos
who are scattered along the northern regions of America, the natives of
Greenland, of Labrador, of the Baffin Parry Archipelago, of the Aleutian
Islands between Asia and America, and of Russian Alaska, which became
American in 1867. But these people—the undisputed aborigines of the
northern regions—had no voice in the matter. How could such poor folks
manage to make a bid at the auction promoted by the North Polar
Practical Association? And if they outbid the rest, how could they pay?
In shellfish, or walrus teeth, or seal oil? But surely they had some
claim on this territory? Strange to say, they were not even consulted in
the matter!
Such is the way of the world!