President Barbicane.

It ran as follows:--

"_The Director of the Cambridge Observatory to the President of the Gun
Club at Baltimore_.

"On the receipt of your favour of the 6th inst., addressed to the
Observatory of Cambridge in the name of the members of the Baltimore
Gun Club, we immediately called a meeting of our staff, who have deemed
it expedient to answer as follows:--

"The questions proposed to it were these:--

"'1. Is it possible to send a projectile to the moon?

"'2. What is the exact distance that separates the earth and her
satellite?

"'3. What would be the duration of the projectile's transit to which a
sufficient initial speed had been given, and consequently at what moment
should it be hurled so as to reach the moon at a particular point?

"'4. At what moment would the moon present the most favourable position
for being reached by the projectile?

"'5. What point in the heavens ought the cannon, destined to hurl the
projectile, be aimed at?

"'6. What place in the heavens will the moon occupy at the moment when