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diff --git a/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/gatech-thesis/julesverne/bellswhistles/jules-verne-chapter2.tex b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/gatech-thesis/julesverne/bellswhistles/jules-verne-chapter2.tex new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..e0f60ee2e7f --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-dist/doc/latex/gatech-thesis/julesverne/bellswhistles/jules-verne-chapter2.tex @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +\chapter{Pro and Con} + +At the period when these events took place, I had just returned +from a scientific research in the disagreeable territory +of Nebraska, in the United States. In virtue of my office +as Assistant Professor in the Museum of Natural History in Paris, +the French Government had attached me to that expedition. +After six months in Nebraska, I arrived in New York towards +the end of March, laden with a precious collection. +My departure for France was fixed for the first days in May. +Meanwhile I was occupying myself in classifying my mineralogical, +botanical, and zoological riches, when the accident happened +to the Scotia. + +I was perfectly up in the subject which was the question of the day. +How could I be otherwise? I had read and reread all the American +and European papers without being any nearer a conclusion. +This mystery puzzled me. Under the impossibility of forming +an opinion, I jumped from one extreme to the other. +That there really was something could not be doubted, +and the incredulous were invited to put their finger on the wound +of the Scotia.\cite{incollection-full} + +\section{An added section} + +On my arrival at New York the question was at its height. +The theory of the floating island, and the unapproachable sandbank, +supported by minds little competent to form a judgment, was abandoned. +And, indeed, unless this shoal had a machine in its stomach, +how could it change its position with such astonishing rapidity? + +From the same cause, the idea of a floating hull of an enormous +wreck was given up. + +\vskip 0.25in +\begin{table}% + \caption[Add a table]{Add an extra table here. Chinese Menu.} + \begin{center} + \begin{tabular}{lp{4.4cm}p{4.4cm}} + & \textbf{column A} & \textbf{column B} \\ + \textbf{hot} & Kung Pao Chicken & General Tso's Chicken \\ + \textbf{mild} & Moo Goo Gai Pan & Sweet and Sour Pork + \end{tabular} + \label{tab:test1} + \end{center} +\end{table} + +There remained, then, only two possible solutions of the question, +which created two distinct parties: on one side, those who were +for a monster of colossal strength; on the other, those who were +for a submarine vessel of enormous motive power. + +\subsection{A subsection} + +But this last theory, plausible as it was, could not stand against +inquiries made in both worlds. That a private gentleman should have +such a machine at his command was not likely. Where, when, and how +was it built? and how could its construction have been kept secret? +Certainly a Government might possess such a destructive machine. +And in these disastrous times, when the ingenuity of man has +multiplied the power of weapons of war, it was possible that, +without the knowledge of others, a State might try to work such +a formidable engine. + +But the idea of a war machine fell before the declaration of Governments. +As public interest was in question, and transatlantic communications +suffered, their veracity could not be doubted. But how admit that +the construction of this submarine boat had escaped the public eye? +For a private gentleman to keep the secret under such circumstances would +be very difficult, and for a State whose every act is persistently watched +by powerful rivals, certainly impossible. + +\begin{figure}% + \centering% + \includegraphics[width=100bp]{jules-verne-test}% + \caption[Another test figure]% + {This is another test figure inserted into this text +\protect\cite{misc-full}}% + \label{fig:test2}% +\end{figure} + +Upon my arrival in New York several persons did me +the honour of consulting me on the phenomenon in question. +I had published in France a work in quarto, in two volumes, +entitled Mysteries of the Great Submarine Grounds. This book, +highly approved of in the learned world, gained for me a special +reputation in this rather obscure branch of Natural History. +My advice was asked. As long as I could deny the reality +of the fact, I confined myself to a decided negative. +But soon, finding myself driven into a corner, I was +obliged to explain myself point by point. I discussed +the question in all its forms, politically and scientifically; +and I give here an extract from a carefully-studied article +which I published in the number of the 30th of April. +It ran as follows: + +\section{Another added section} + +``After examining one by one the different theories, rejecting all +other suggestions, it becomes necessary to admit the existence +of a marine animal of enormous power. + +\begin{equation} +E=mc^2 +\end{equation} + +``The great depths of the ocean are entirely unknown to us. +Soundings cannot reach them. What passes in those remote depths---what +beings live, or can live, twelve or fifteen miles beneath +the surface of the waters---what is the organisation of these animals, +we can scarcely conjecture. However, the solution of the problem +submitted to me may modify the form of the dilemma. Either we do know +all the varieties of beings which people our planet, or we do not. +If we do NOT know them all---if Nature has still secrets in the deeps +for us, nothing is more conformable to reason than to admit the existence +of fishes, or cetaceans of other kinds, or even of new species, +of an organisation formed to inhabit the strata inaccessible to soundings, +and which an accident of some sort has brought at long intervals +to the upper level of the ocean. + +``If, on the contrary, we DO know all living kinds, we must +necessarily seek for the animal in question amongst those marine +beings already classed; and, in that case, I should be disposed +to admit the existence of a gigantic narwhal. + +``The common narwhal, or unicorn of the sea, often attains +a length of sixty feet. Increase its size fivefold or tenfold, +give it strength proportionate to its size, lengthen its +destructive weapons, and you obtain the animal required. +It will have the proportions determined by the officers +of the Shannon, the instrument required by the perforation +of the Scotia, and the power necessary to pierce the hull +of the steamer.\cite{inproceedings-full} + +``Indeed, the narwhal is armed with a sort of ivory sword, +a halberd, according to the expression of certain naturalists. +The principal tusk has the hardness of steel. Some of these tusks +have been found buried in the bodies of whales, which the unicorn +always attacks with success. Others have been drawn out, +not without trouble, from the bottoms of ships, which they +had pierced through and through, as a gimlet pierces a barrel. +The Museum of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris possesses one +of these defensive weapons, two yards and a quarter in length, +and fifteen inches in diameter at the base. + +``Very well! suppose this weapon to be six times stronger and the animal +ten times more powerful; launch it at the rate of twenty miles an hour, +and you obtain a shock capable of producing the catastrophe required. +Until further information, therefore, I shall maintain it to be +a sea-unicorn of colossal dimensions, armed not with a halberd, +but with a real spur, as the armoured frigates, or the `rams' of war, +whose massiveness and motive power it would possess at the same time. +Thus may this puzzling phenomenon be explained, unless there be something over +and above all that one has ever conjectured, seen, perceived, or experienced; +which is just within the bounds of possibility.'' + +\section{The last added section} + +These last words were cowardly on my part; but, up to a certain point, +I wished to shelter my dignity as professor, and not give +too much cause for laughter to the Americans, who laugh well +when they do laugh. I reserved for myself a way of escape. +In effect, however, I admitted the existence of the ``monster.'' +My article was warmly discussed, which procured it a high reputation. +It rallied round it a certain number of partisans. The solution +it proposed gave, at least, full liberty to the imagination. +The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings. +And the sea is precisely their best vehicle, the only medium +through which these giants (against which terrestrial animals, +such as elephants or rhinoceroses, are as nothing) can be produced +or developed. + +The industrial and commercial papers treated the question chiefly from this +point of view. The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, the Lloyd's List, +the Packet-Boat, and the Maritime and Colonial Review, all papers devoted +to insurance companies which threatened to raise their rates of premium, +were unanimous on this point. Public opinion had been pronounced. +The United States were the first in the field; and in New York they +made preparations for an expedition destined to pursue this narwhal. +A frigate of great speed, the Abraham Lincoln, was put in commission +as soon as possible. The arsenals were opened to Commander Farragut, +who hastened the arming of his frigate; but, as it always happens, +the moment it was decided to pursue the monster, the monster did not appear. +For two months no one heard it spoken of. No ship met with it. +It seemed as if this unicorn knew of the plots weaving around it. +It had been so much talked of, even through the Atlantic cable, that jesters +pretended that this slender fly had stopped a telegram on its passage and was +making the most of it. + +So when the frigate had been armed for a long campaign, and provided with +formidable fishing apparatus, no one could tell what course to pursue. +Impatience grew apace, when, on the 2nd of July, they learned that a +steamer of the line of San Francisco, from California to Shanghai, +had seen the animal three weeks before in the North Pacific Ocean. +The excitement caused by this news was extreme. The ship was revictualled +and well stocked with coal. + +Three hours before the Abraham Lincoln left Brooklyn pier, +I received a letter worded as follows: + +\begin{longquote} +To M. ARONNAX, Professor in the Museum of Paris, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York. + +SIR,--If you will consent to join the Abraham Lincoln +in this expedition, the Government of the United States +will with pleasure see France represented in the enterprise. +Commander Farragut has a cabin at your disposal. + +Very cordially yours, J.B. HOBSON, Secretary of Marine. +\end{longquote} |