"Then," said Johnson, "according to you, Doctor, this change is impossible?"
"Impossible!"
"And if it should take place?"
"If it did, the equator would be frozen in twenty-four hours!"
"Good! if it were to take place now," said Bell, "people would as likely as not say we had never gone to the Pole."
"Calm yourself, Bell. To return to the immobility of the terrestrial axis, the following is the result: if we were to spend a winter here, we should see the stars describing a circle about us. As for the sun, the day of the vernal equinox, March 23d, it would appear to us (I take no account of refraction) exactly cut in two by the horizon, and would rise gradually in longer and longer curves; but here it is remarkable that when it has once risen it sets no more; it is visible for six months. Then its disk touches the horizon again at the autumnal equinox, September 22d, and as soon as it is set, it is seen no more again all winter."
"You were speaking just now of the flattening of the earth at the poles," said Johnson; "be good enough to explain that, Doctor."
"I will. Since the earth was fluid when first created, you understand that its rotary movement would try to drive part of the mobile mass to the equator, where the centrifugal force was greater. If the earth had been motionless, it would have remained a perfect sphere; but in consequence of the phenomenon I have just described, it has an ellipsoidal form, and points at the pole are nearer the centre of the earth than points at the equator by about five leagues."
"So," said Johnson, "if our captain wanted to take us to the centre of the earth, we should have five leagues less to go?"
"Exactly, my friend."