HECTOR SERVADAC
25
a parabolic orbit. It is the best way to proceed. In
fact, cornets generally show themselves in the vicinity
of their perihelion; that is to say, at their shortest dis-
tance from the sun, which occupies one of the foci of
the orbit. Now, between the ellipse and the parabola,
which have a common focus, the difference is not sen-
sible in this portion of their curve, for a parabola is
only an ellipse with an infinite axis.
Palmyrin Rosette based his calculations on the hypo-
thesis of a parabolic curve, and in this case he was
right.
In order to determine a circle it is necessary to know
three points of its circumference ; in order to determine
the elements of a comet it is necessary to observe suc-
cessively three different positions. They can then trace
the road that the star will follow in space, and estab-
lish what is called "itsephemerides."
Palmyrin Rosette was not content with these posi-
tions. Profiting by an exceptional chance, which
opened the mist at its zenith, he took ten, twenty,
thirty, in right ascension and in declination, and ob-
tained with great precision the five elements of the
new comet, which advanced with frightful rapidity.
He had thus:
1st. The inclination of the cometary orbit to the
ecliptic—that is to say, on the plane which contains the
curve of translation of the earth around the sun.
Generally, the angle which these planes make between
them is very considerable—this, as we know, dimin-
ishes the chances of a meeting. But, in this case, the
two planes coincided.
2d. The fixing of the ascending node of the comet—
that is to say, its longitude on the ecliptic, otherwise,
say the point where the hairy star cuts the earth's
orbit.
These first two elements obtained, the position of the
plane of tlie cometary orbit in space was fixed.
• 3d. The direction of the major axis of the orbit. It
was obtained by calculating the longitude of the
cornet's perihelion, and Palmyrin Rosette had thus the
situation of the parabolic curve in the plane already
determined.
4th. The perihelion distance of the comet;—that is to
say, the distance which separated it from the sun
when it passed nearest to it—a calculation which, in
the end, gave exactly the form of the parabolic orbit,
because it necessarily had the sun in its focus.
5th. Finally, the direction of the comet's motion.
This movement was retrograde in regard to that of the
planets—that is to say, it moved from east to west. Of
two hundred and fifty-two comets, they count one hun-
dred and twenty-three having a direct movement, and
one hundred and twenty-nine as having a retrograde
movement.
These five elements being known, Palmyrin Rosette
calculated the date at which the comet would pass its
perihelion. Then, to his extreme joy, having verified
that this was an unknown comet, he gave it the name
of Gallia, not without hesitating between Palmyra and
Rosetta, and he commenced to write up his report.
It will be asked if the professor had discovered if a
collision was possible between the earth and Gallia.
Perfectly, a collision not only possible, but certain.
To say that he was enchanted, would be far from the
truth. This was astronomical madness. Yes! The
earth would be struck on the night of the thirty-first of
December to the first of January, and the shock would
be all the more terrible as the two stars were going in
contrary directions I
Another, frightened, would have immediately left
Formentera. He remained at his post. Not only he
did not abandon his island, but he said nothing of his
discovery. The days had taught him that thick fogs
rendered all observations impossible on the two con-
tinents, and as no other observatory had signalized this
new comet, he was authorized to believe that he alone
had discovered it in space. This was so, in fact, and
this circumstance spared to the rest of the world the
immense panic with which the inhabitants would have
been seized, had they known the danger which threat-
ened them. Thus, Palmyrin Rosette was the only per-
son who knew that a meeting would take place be-
tween the earth and this comet, which the sky of the
Balearic Isles had let him see, while everywhere else
it hid itself from astronomers' eyes.
The professor lived then at Formentera, and with all
the more obstinacy, because, according to his calcula-
tions, the hairy star ought to strike the earth in the
south of Algiers. Now, he wished to be there, for,
the comet being a comet with a hard nucleus, " that
would be very curious!"
The collision took place with all the results we know;
but this happened—Palmyrin Rosette was instantly
separated from his servant, Joseph; and when he
awoke from a very long swoon, he found himself alone
upon an islet. It was all that remained of the Balearic
Archipelago.
Such was the history told by the professor, with nu-
merous interjections and many frowns, by no means
justified by the complacent attitude of his listeners.
He finished by saying:
"Some important modifications were produced—
change of the cardinal points, diminution of the inten-
sity of gravity. But I was not induced to believe, like
you, gentlemen, that I was still on the terrestrial
spheroid 1 Noi the earth has continued to gravitate
in space, accompanied bv its moon, which has not
abandoned it, and following its normal orbit, which
the collision has not changed. It has only been grazed,
so to speak, by the comet, and has lost only these few
insignificant portions which you have found. AH, then,
has happened for the best, and we have nothing to
complain of. In fact, either we might have been
crushed by the blow of the comet or the latter might
have remained fixed to the earth, and in those two
cases we would not have the advantage of traveling
through the solar system!"
Palmyrin Rosette said all these things with such
satisfaction that no one attempted to contradict him.
Only the clumsy Ben-Zouf hazarded this opinion, " That
if, instead of striking a point of Africa, the comet had
touched the Hill of Montmatre, most certainly, that hill
would have resisted, and then-----"
"Montmartre!" cried Palmyrin Rosette. "The Hill
of Montmartre would have been reduced to powder like
the common sand-hill which it is."
"Sand hill!" cried Ben-Zouf, in his turn wounded to
the heart. "My hill would have caught your scrap of a
comet in the flight, and would have put it on like a mere
military cap!"   .
Hector Servadac, to cut short this unpleasant discus-
sion, imposed silence on Ben-Zouf, explaining to the
professor what singular ideas his soldier had as to the
solidity of the Hill of Montmartre.
The incident was then forgotten " by order." but the
orderly would never forgive Palmyrin Rosette the con-
temptible manner with which the latter had spoken of
his native hill!
Meanwhile, if Palmyrin Rosette, after the collision,
had been able to continue his astronomical observa-
tions, and what the results would be in regard to the
future of the comet, this is what it was important to
know.
Lieutenant Procope, with all the precaution required
by the stern temperament of the profession, put this
double question relative to the road that Gallia now
followed in space, and the duration o£ its revolution
around the sun.
" Yes sir," said Palmyrin Rosette," I had determined
the path of my comet before the collision, and I have
also recommenced my calculations."
"And why, professor?" asked Lieutenant Procope,
much astonished by the answer.
" Because, if the terrestrial orbit has not been modi-
fied by the meeting, it is not so with the Gallian orbit."
" This orbit has been changed by the collision?"
" I dare absolutely affirm it," replied Palmyrin Ro-
sette; "understand that my observations before the
collision were made with extreme exactness."
" And you have obtained the elements of the new
orbit?" Quickly asked Lieutenant Procope.
"Yes,'* replied Palmyrin Bosette, without hesita-
ting.
" But then you know-----"
"What I know, sir, is this. Gallia has collided with
the earth while passing its ascending node, at two
o'clock, forty-seven minutes, thirty-five and six-tenths
seconds in the morning, during the night of the 31st of
December to the 1st of January ; that on the 10th of
January it cut the orbit of Venus; it passed its perihe-
lion on the 15th of January, that it reçut the orbit of
Venus, traversing its descending node, on the 1st of
February, crossed the orbit of Mars on the 13th of
February, entered the zone of the telescopic planets
the 10th of March, took Nerina for a satellite-----"
" Circumstances that we all know, dear professor,"
said Hector Servadac, "since we had the chance of
gathering your notices. Only they bore no signature,
no place of origin."
"Eh! Could you doubt that they were mine!" cried
the professor, proudly. " From me who had thrown
them by hundreds into the sea, from me, Palmyrin
Rosette I"
"We could not!" gravely replied Count Timascheff,
Meanwhile no answer had been given touching the
future of Gallia. It even seemed that Palmyrin Rosette
wished to avoid a direct reply. Lieutenant Procope
was then going to reiterate his demand, and more cate-
gorically ; but Hector Servadac, thinking it better not
to press this original, said to him:
" Ah, well ! Dear professor, can you explain to us
how it was that in such a formidable encounter we were
not treated worse?"
" That is very easily explained."
" And do you think that, with the exception of a
few leagues being lifted from it, the earth has not
suffered, and, among other things, that its rotary axis
was not suddenly changed?"
" I think so, Captain Servadac," replied Palmyrin
Rosette; " and these are my reasons: The earth travels
with a rapidity of twenty-eight thousand eight hundred
leagues an hour, Gallia with a rapidity of fifty-seven
thousand leagues an hour. It is as if a train, making
about eighty-six thousand leagues an hour, were to
rush on an obstacle. What the shock would be, gentle-
men, you can judge. The comet, whose nucleus is of
an extremely hard substance, has done exactly as a
ball would, fired off close to and through a pane of
glass. It has gone through the earth without breaking
anything. "
" In fact," replied Hector Servadac, "things might
certainly have happened thus."
" Must have!" replied the professor, always affirma-
tive; " and all the more so, as the terrestrial globe was
very obliquely touched. But if Gallia had fallen upon
it perpendicularly, it would have been deeply pene-
trated, causing the most serious disasters, and it would
even have flattened the Hill of Montmartre if that hill
had been found in its way."
" Sir!" cried Ben-Zouf, directly attacked, and this
time without provocation.
" Silence, Ben-Zouf," said Captain Servadac.
At this moment Isaac Hakhabut, convinced, perhaps,
of the reality of events, approached Palmyrin Rosette,
and in a voice which denoted extreme anxiety:
" Professor," asked he, " shall we return to the earth,
and when shall we return there?"
" You are, then, in a great hurry?" replied Palmyrin
Rosette.                                                     .       .
" What Isaac asks you, sir," then said Lieutenant
Procope, " I would like to state more scientifically."
"Goon."
"You say that the old orbit of Gallia has been modi-
fied?"
" Incontestably."
"The new orbit, the new curve which the comet fol-
lows, is it hyperbolic; will it lead us off to infinite dis-
tances in the sidereal world without any hope of re-
turning?"
"No I" replied Palmyrin Rosette.
" This orbit, then, has become elliptical?"
"Elliptical."
" And its plane would coincide always with that of
the terrestrial orbit?"
"Absolutely."
" Gallia will then be a periodical comet?"
"Yes,  and of a short period, since its revolution
around the sun, taking into account the perturbations
that it will be subjected to from Jupiter, Saturn, and
Mars, will be accomplished exactly in two years."
"But then," cried  Lieutenant  Procope,   "all  the
chances would be that two years after the collision she
would find the earth at the very point where she had
already met it?"
" Indeed, sir, that is to be feared!"
" To be feared 1" cried Captain Servadac.
"Yes, gentlemen," replied Palmyrin Rosette, stamp-
ing his foot; " we are very well where we are, and if it
depended on me, Gallia should never return to the
earth!"                             --------
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH   PUPIL SERVADAC IS PRETTY WELL   ABUSED BY
PROFESSOR PALMYRIN ROSETTE.
Thus, then, for these seekers, for these inventors of
hypotheses, all was clear at present, all was explained.
They found themselves carried away on a comet, grav-
itating in the solar system. After the shock it was the
earth flying through space, which Captain Servadac had
viewed behind the thick bed of cloud. It was the ter-
restrial globe which had provoked that important and
singular tide, of which the Gallian Sea had felt the in-
fluence.
But, finally, this comet would return to the earth—at
least the professor affirmed it. All the time, were his
calculations so precise that this return was mathe-
matically assured? It will be agreed that the Gallian
might well have some doubts on this subject.
The following days were employed in the installation
of the newly arrived. He was, happily, one of those
men requiring few of the things of this life, who ac-
commodate themselves to circumstances. Living, day
and night, in the heavens, among the stars, running
after the vagabond stars of space, questions of lodgings
and food—his coffee excepted—gave him very little
concern. He did not even seem to remark that in-
genuity displayed by the colonists in the management
of Nina-Hive.
Captain Servadac wished to offer the best room of all
to his old professor. But the latter, little caring to
share the common life, flatly refused. What he needed
was a kind of observatory, well exposed, well isolated,
and in which he could give himself up tranquilly to his
astronomical observations.
Hector Servadac and Lieutenant Procope occupied
themselves then in finding for him the lodging in ques-
tion. They were very fortunate. In the side of the
volcanic rock, about a hundred feet above the central
grotto, they discovered a sort of narrow reduct, suffi-
cient to contain the observer and his instruments.
There was room for a bed, some furniture, table, arm-
chair, cupboard, without counting the famous tele-
scope, which was disposed so as to be easily maneuv-
ered. A simple streamlet of lava, drawn from the large
fall, sufficed to warm the said observatory.
It was there that the professor installed himself, eat-
ing the provisions which they brought him at certain
hours, sleeping littlej calculating by day, observing by
night—in a word, mixing as little as possible in the
common life. The best thing, after all, his originality
being admitted, was to let him have his own way.
The cold had become very intense. The thermometri-
cal column no longer reached an average of more than
thirty degrees below zero. It did not oscillate in the
glass tube as it would have done in capricious climates,
but it sank slowly, progressively. This falling would
continue thus till it would reach the extreme limit of
the cold of space, and the temperature would only rise
when Gallia should approach the sun in following her
elliptical trajectory.
If the mercurial column did not oscillate in the tube
of the thermometer, it was because no breath of air
troubled the Gallian atmosphere. The colonists found
themselves in very strange climatic conditions. Not a
molecule of air changed its place. All that was liquid
or fluid on the surface of the comet seemed to be
frozen. Then, not a storm, not a shower, not a vapor,
neither in the zenith, nor at the horizon. None of
those damp mists, nor of those dry fogs, which invade
the polar regions of the terrestrial spheroid. The sky-
preserved an invariable and unalterable serenity, all
impregnated, by day, with the solar rays, by night,
with the stellar rays, while the former did not appear
any warmer than the latter.
What must be well understood is, that this excessive
temperature was perfectly bearable in the open air.
In fact, what the winterers in Arctic countries cannot
experience with impunity, what wastes their lungs and
makes them unfit for the vital functions, are the vio-
lently displaced air, the sharp breeze, the unhealthy
fogs, the terrible snow-drifts—there is the cause of all
the affections which kill the polar navigators. But,
during the periods of calm, when the atmosphere is
not disturbed, were they at Melville Island, like Parry;
or beyond the eighty-first degree, like Kane; farther
still, beyond the limits reached by the courageous Hall
and the explorers of the " Polaris," they can brave the
cold, no matter how intense it may be. Provided they
are well clothed and well fed, they endure the most
extreme temperatures in the absence of all wind, and
they have done so, even when the alcohol of the ther-
mometers fell to sixty degrees below zero.
The colonists of Hot-Land were then in the best condi-
tions to support the cold of space. Furs from the
schooner, prepared skins did not fail them. Provisions
were abundant and wholesome. Finally, the calm of
the atmosphere permitted them to go and come with
impunity, in spite of the excessive lowering of the
temperature.
Besides, the Governor-General of Gallia saw that all
the colonists were warmly clothed and abundantly fed.
Hygienic exercises were prescribed and executed daily.
No one could withdraw from the programme of the
common life. Neither young Pablo nor little Nina
was exempt from the_ rule. Well wrapped in furs,
these two charming beings had the air of graceful Es-
quimaux, when they skated together along the coast
of Hot-Land. Pablo was very attentive to his com-
panion. He aided her in her games, he sustained her
when she felt very much fatigued. All that suited
their age.
And what had become of Isaac Hakhabut?
After his rather awkward presentation to Palmyrin
Rosette, Isaac Hakhabut had returned all abashed to
his tartane. Isaac's ideas had just changed. After
the precise details given by the professor, he could no
longer doubt, he did no longer doubt. He knew he
was carried away through space by a vagabond comet,
millions of leagues from that terrestrial globe, on
which he had made so many and such good bargains.
To see himself thus, he, the thirty-sixth Crn Gallia, it
would seem that this situation, so much beyond human
previsions, should have modified his ideas and his char-
acter, that he would have been able to make a change
in himself, to return to better sentiments toward those
few fellow-beings who, by the grace of God, were left
near him, and that he would no longer consider them
as material to be utilized for his profit alone.
It was not so. If Isaac Hakhabut could have
changed, he would not have been the accomplished
specimen of what the man may become who thinks
only of himself. On the contrary, he hardened himself
willingly, and no longer dreamed but of this—to work
the situation to the end. He knew Captain Servadac
well enough to be assured that no wrong would be
done to him; he knew that his property was under the
protection of a French officer, and, unless in a case of
extreme necessity, nothing would be attempted against
him.   Now, this case of extreme necessity did not seem