“Nordenskiold,” said Donellan, “when he explored Greenland, found among the sandstones and schists intercalations of lignite with many forest plants. Even in the Disko district, Steenstrup discovered eleven localities with abundant vestiges of the luxuriant vegetation which formerly encircled the Pole.”
“But higher up?” asked Todrin.
“Higher up, or farther up to the northward,” said the Major, “the presence of coal is extremely probable, and it only has to be looked for. And if there is coal on the surface, is it not reasonable to suppose that there is coal underneath?”
The Major was right. He was thoroughly posted up in all that concerned the geology of the Arctic regions, and he would have held on for some time if he had not noticed that the people in the “Two Friends” were listening to him.
“Are you not surprised at one thing, Major?”
“What is that?”
“That in this affair, in which you would expect to meet with engineers and navigators, you have only to deal with artillerists. What have they to do with the coal-mines of the North Pole?”
“That is rather surprising,” said the Major.
And every morning the newspapers returned to this matter of the coal-mines.
“Coal-beds!” said one, “what coal-beds?”