SECOND PART
CHAPTER 14: The South Pole
(continued)
Arriving at the summit of this peak, Captain Nemo carefully determined
its elevation by means of his barometer, since he had to take this
factor into account in his noon sights.
At 11:45 the sun, by then seen only by refraction, looked like a
golden disk, dispersing its last rays over this deserted continent
and down to these seas not yet plowed by the ships of man.
Captain Nemo had brought a spyglass with a reticular eyepiece,
which corrected the sun's refraction by means of a mirror,
and he used it to observe the orb sinking little by little
along a very extended diagonal that reached below the horizon.
I held the chronometer. My heart was pounding mightily.
If the lower half of the sun's disk disappeared just as the chronometer
said noon, we were right at the pole.
"Noon!" I called.
"The South Pole!" Captain Nemo replied in a solemn voice,
handing me the spyglass, which showed the orb of day cut into two
exactly equal parts by the horizon.
I stared at the last rays wreathing this peak, while shadows were
gradually climbing its gradients.
Just then, resting his hand on my shoulder, Captain Nemo said to me:
|