with the rapidity of seven miles a second! Shall it not,
gentlemen-- shall it not be received up there with the honors
due to a terrestrial ambassador?"

Overcome with emotion the orator sat down and applied himself to
a huge plate of sandwiches before him.

"And now," said Barbicane, "let us quit the domain of poetry and
come direct to the question."

"By all means," replied the members, each with his mouth full
of sandwich.

"The problem before us," continued the president, "is how to
communicate to a projectile a velocity of 12,000 yards per second.
Let us at present examine the velocities hitherto attained.
General Morgan will be able to enlighten us on this point."

"And the more easily," replied the general, "that during the war
I was a member of the committee of experiments. I may say,
then, that the 100-pounder Dahlgrens, which carried a distance
of 5,000 yards, impressed upon their projectile an initial
velocity of 500 yards a second. The Rodman Columbiad threw a
shot weighing half a ton a distance of six miles, with a
velocity of 800 yards per second-- a result which Armstrong and
Palisser have never obtained in England."

"This," replied Barbicane, "is, I believe, the maximum velocity
ever attained?"