“Before you start,” said he, “will you kindly inform the meeting how you intend going? Are you going by sea?”
“Neither by sea, nor by land, nor by air!” said Barbicane sweetly.
And the assembly sat down, a prey to very pardonable curiosity.
“You are not without some knowledge,” continued the orator, “of the attempts that have been made to reach that inaccessible point of the terrestrial spheroid. It is better, however, that I should remind you of a few of them. It will be to render due honour to the bold pioneers who have survived and those who have succumbed in these expeditions.”
Unanimous approval from the entire audience irrespective of nationality.
“In 1845,” resumed Barbicane, “Sir John Franklin with the Erebus and Terror set out to find the North-West Passage, and nothing more was heard of him.
“In 1854 the American, Kane, and his lieutenant, Morton, went in search of Franklin. They returned, but their ship, the Advance did not return.
“In 1859 Sir Leopold MacClintock discovered a document from which it appeared that no survivor remained of the Erebus and Terror expedition.
“In 1860 Hayes left Boston in the schooner United States, crossed the eighty-first parallel, and returned in 1862 without being able to advance farther, notwithstanding the heroic efforts of his companions.
“In 1869 Captains Koldewey and Hegeman, both Germans, left Bremerhaven in the Hansa and Germania. The Hansa was crushed in the ice a little below the seventy-first parallel, and the crew had to take to their boats to reach the coast of Greenland. The Germania was more fortunate, and returned to Bremerhaven, but she had not been able to get higher than the seventy-seventh parallel.