"But we have not yet completed the measurement of our meridian."
"Will the Makololos have any regard for your meridian?" asked the hunter.
"Very likely not," answered Sir John; "but we have a regard for it, and will not leave our undertaking incomplete. I am sure my colleagues agree with me."
"Yes," said the Colonel, speaking for all; "as long as one of us survives, and is able to put his eye to his telescope, the survey shall go on. If necessary, we will take our observations with our instrument in one hand and our gun in the other, even to the last extremity."
The energetic philosophers shouted out their resolution to proceed at every hazard.
When it was thus decided that the survey should at all risks be continued, the question arose as to the choice of the next station.
"Although there will be a difficulty," said Strux, "in joining Mount Scorzef trigonometrically to a station to the north of the lake, it is not impracticable. I have fixed on a peak in the extreme north-east, so that the side of the triangle will cross the lake obliquely."
"Well," said the Colonel, "if the peak exists, I do not see any difficulty."
"The only difficulty," replied Strux, "consists in the distance."
"What is the distance?"