According to a simple law in Ballistics, _the Projectile was
to strike the Earth with a velocity equal to that by which it had been
animated when issuing from the mouth of the Columbiad_--a velocity of at
least seven miles a second!
To have even a faint idea of this enormous velocity, let us make a
little comparison. A body falling from the summit of a steeple a hundred
and fifty feet high, dashes against the pavement with a velocity of
fifty five miles an hour. Falling from the summit of St. Peter's, it
strikes the earth at the rate of 300 miles an hour, or five times
quicker than the rapidest express train. Falling from the neutral
point, the Projectile should strike the Earth with a velocity of more
than 25,000 miles an hour!
"We are lost!" said M'Nicholl gloomily, his philosophy yielding to
despair.
"One consolation, boys!" cried Ardan, genial to the last. "We shall die
together!"
"If we die," said Barbican calmly, but with a kind of suppressed
enthusiasm, "it will be only to remove to a more extended sphere of our
investigations. In the other world, we can pursue our inquiries under
far more favorable auspices. There the wonders of our great Creator,
clothed in brighter light, shall be brought within a shorter range.
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