Chapter 15 Chapter 15: The Secret Inside the Leather Case

When the ship sailed, the earl, the captain, and the second mate got together and talked about how they had come to Gibraltar.Of course, they can't reveal the whole problem all at once, but at least they can take a step forward and have a deeper discussion. Regarding this issue, what is their more tenable view now?They held that the Dobrina, having set sail from the island of Gulby, which was once west longitude, came to the new coast, which was at thirteen degrees east longitude, and thus traveled fifteen degrees of longitude.The length of the narrow channel was at most three and a half degrees of longitude, about four degrees of longitude from the other end of the channel to Gibraltar, and seven degrees of longitude from Gibraltar to Gulby Island, making a total of twenty-nine degrees of longitude.

in other words.The Dobrina set out from Gulby Island, along the same latitude, and then returned to Gulby Island, making a full circle, and can travel a total of about twenty-nine longitudes. Each longitude is calculated as 80 kilometers, and the total journey is 2320 kilometers. Since the people on the Dobrina arrived at Gibraltar instead of Kjun Ub in the Ionian Islands, this indicates that the rest of the earth at about 331 degrees of longitude no longer exists.Before the disaster, if one traveled eastward from the island of Malta to Gibraltar, one had to go through the eastern Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Sond Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.But now there is only one narrow waterway left.

The above is the result calculated by the second officer, Proco.There may be errors, but generally speaking, the difference is not high. "The Dobrina did not change its course, but in the end it returned to its original starting point." Said Captain Servadac, "In this way, the circumference of our elliptical earth is only 2,300. Twenty kilometers away." "Yes," said Prokop, "the diameter of the earth has now been reduced to seven hundred and forty kilometers, which is one-seventeenth of the 12,792 kilometers before the disaster. These days we are on the There is no doubt that it has been turned around on what is left of it."

"Therefore, many strange phenomena we have seen so far can also have a more personally satisfactory answer." Count Ironmashev said, "For example, the great weakening of gravity is caused by the shrinking of the sphere. I also think that a day and night Its time has been cut in half because its rotation has been greatly accelerated. As for its new orbit around the sun..." The count stopped suddenly, not knowing how to explain this problem with the newly discovered theory. "Go on, count," said Servadac, "how about the new track?" "What's your take on this question?" The count turned around and asked Jin Luokepu.

"My lord," replied Prokop, "there is only one and no two answers to the question of why the course was changed." "You mean..." Servadac asked eagerly, as if he had already understood Prokop's inner thoughts. "Because a part of the earth left the earth with some atmosphere and took a different orbit than the earth," Prokop said. This explanation seemed very reasonable, and all three of them fell silent in unison, considering the dire consequences that would result from it.Because, if that were the case, where on earth would this part of the Earth go after it broke off?What is the eccentricity of its elliptical orbit?What is its maximum distance from the sun?How long does it take to go around the sun once?Will it stay away from the sun for billions of kilometers like a comet, and return to the hot and bright sun after a few years?Also, its orbit is now in line with the ecliptic, is it possible to return to the earth where it left?

Captain Selvadak was finally the first to break the silence, as if he could no longer restrain the anxiety in his heart.he cried: "Second Lieutenant Prokop, your opinion can indeed explain some problems, but it is still difficult to establish after all." "How come? Captain," said Second Officer Prokop, "I think this view is defensible." "Instead, there's a situation that you can't explain." "What's the matter?" Prokop asked. "I think that's how you see it. You think that part of the earth, the Mediterranean region from Gibraltar to the island of Malta, is now an asteroid. The asteroid is now carrying us around the solar system. "

"Yes, that's how I see it." "Okay, then let me explain: Why is there a new continent with a strange structure on the other side of the sea? If this asteroid is separated from the earth, its surface should retain the original composition of granite and limestone, not This metallic condensate that we can't figure out right now." Selvadak raised this question very well.Indeed, one can think that a part of the earth left the earth with some atmosphere and some sea water of the Mediterranean, and it can also be considered that the direction of rotation and orbit of this part are completely different from that of the earth, but it cannot be explained that the fertile south, west and east of the Mediterranean Why is the coast of the sea replaced by a wild and strange composition of cliffs.

Prokop was speechless for a moment.He just said that this question is still difficult to answer, but he believes that the truth will always come to light in the future.However, he believes that his view can explain many incomprehensible phenomena, so it should not be easily denied.Of course, why a part of the earth was separated from the earth, he still has no idea.Can it be considered that this part is thrown into the space due to the expansion of the earth's core force?But that would be too arcane.This problem is extremely complex, and there are still many unknown things to be further clarified.

"However," said Captain Servadac, "it doesn't matter if we are now on a new asteroid, as long as France is also on it." "It should be France and Russia," said Count Ironmashev. "Yes, and Russia." Selvadak felt that the count's words made sense, so he quickly added. But then again, if the place where they are now is really a fragment that broke off from the earth, and this fragment became an oblate spheroid to travel in space, then this small sphere is pitifully small, a part of France. And most of the Russian Empire probably remains on Earth.In England, too, for six weeks all communication, by land or sea, by mail or telegraph, had been interrupted between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom.Moreover, from the fact that the days and nights of Gulby Island are equal in length, it can be considered that this small island lies on the equator of the small village star.The arc between the north and south poles of the asteroid through Gulby Island is only about 1,600 kilometers long, that is to say, from Gulby Island to the planet's north and south poles is 580 kilometers.According to this point, take a look on the map, the North Pole is in the coastal area of ​​Provence, France, and the South Pole is in the African desert at 22 degrees north latitude.

In view of the above inferences, can the second mate Prokop still insist on his opinion that the present place is separated from the earth?No way.It seems that the resolution of the problem will take some time.It may be safer to say, however, that Procope, while not revealing the whole truth, took a step towards it. After the Dobrina had crossed the narrow strait south of the Radha, the weather was fine again.Due to the favorable wind and the normal operation of the machinery, the Dobrina sailed quickly to the north. We just said north, not east, because the Spanish coast has all but disappeared, at least a large area between Gibraltar and Alicante.Malaga, Almeria, the Straits of Gata and Cartagena all disappeared from the map.This part of the Spanish peninsula has been completely swallowed by the sea.The Dobrina sailed to the same latitude as Seville, and here they found not the coast of Andalusia, but a new continent, with a coast full of precipitous cliffs, like those they had found on the island of Malta. The side sees exactly the same.

From here the sea plunged deeply into the new continent, forming a spire whose towering peaks would have been where Madrid should have been.Then the coast stretches south, and the old bays and the Balearic Islands are gone. However, when they left the original channel to see if there were any relics left on these larger islands, they found something unexpected. On the morning of February 21, a sailor standing at the bow suddenly shouted: "There's a wine bottle in the sea!" There may be something literal in the bottle that refers to this big change. Hearing the sailor's yell, Count Ironmashev, Captain Servadak and Second Officer Prokop rushed to the bow together.People sailed over there and scooped up the bottles. This is not a wine bottle, but a leather case for storing ordinary telescopes.The sealing is painted with wax paint.If it had been placed in the sea not long ago, the seawater might not have seeped in yet. Prokop looked at it carefully.There is no branding on the leather case.Sealed tightly with wax, it is still intact.The imprint of the seal is faintly identifiable, consisting of two abbreviations: P. R. Prokop removed the sealing wax, opened the leather case, and took out a piece of ordinary lined paper torn from a notebook, on which a few words were written crookedly, in very old handwriting, and with many question marks and exclamation points: Gallia? ? ? Ab sole, on February 15th: 236 million kilometers! The total distance traveled from January to February: 328 million kilometers. Va benet! All right! Parfait! ! ! "It's really a heavenly book!" Count Timashev read the piece of paper several times, but still didn't understand why. "I can't understand what is written on this note." Captain Servadak said, "But one thing is certain, the person who wrote this note is still alive on February 15th, because the note mentioned this day." "Exactly," said Count Ironmashev. The note was not signed, nor did it say where it was written.There are Latin, Italian, English and French on it, with French being the most. "It's impossible for someone to set up a ecstasy array on purpose." Servadac said, "This note is obviously related to the great changes that have taken place in Tiandiwen this time. The person who wrote this note must have observed it on the ship." This change..." "Not on board, Captain," said Prokop. "This man could have put the note in a wine bottle, which holds up to sea water better than a leather case. I think it might have been a scholar." Trapped alone somewhere by the sea, he wanted to tell others about his observations, but he didn't have a bottle or anything like that, so he had to use a leather case." "And it doesn't matter where he put the holster into the sea," said Count Ironmashev. "The most important thing now is to find out what is written in the note. Let us start from the beginning, sentence by sentence. Analyze it. First, what does 'Galia' mean?" "I don't know of a single star -- big or small -- with that name," Selvadak said. "Captain," said Prokop, "before we go any further, I would like to ask you a question." "Please don't be polite." "Do you think this note further confirms what we have said a while ago: that the place we are in is cut off from the earth?" "Ah! That's also possible..." said Selkedark, "although the objections to this theory of the formation of an asteroid have not yet been refuted." "In that case," said Count Ironmashev, "the scholar who wrote the note probably named this planet Galia." "Then this is a French scholar?" said Prokop. "Very likely," said Servadac, "you see that among the eighteen characters on this note, eleven are in French, three are in Latin, and two are in English. This shows that the scholar did not know whose hands this note would fall into, so he used several languages ​​to make it more likely that the other party would understand it." "Let's just think that 'Galia' is the name of this new planet!" said Count Iron Mashev, "Now let's look further down. What does the sentence 'Ah sole, 236 million kilometers on February 15' mean? " "This apparently refers to the distance from the Sun at the time Gallia reached the orbit of Venus on that day." "Well," said Count Ironmashev, "this is the first common opinion he has with us." "Yes," said Prokop. "Total distance traveled from January to February: 328000000 kilometers.'" The earl continued to read. "This certainly refers to the distance Gallia has traveled on his new trajectory." "Yes," Prokop went on, "according to Kepler's law, Galia's speed, or the distance it travels in equal time, decreases gradually. The highest temperature we experienced was on January 15th. Therefore, on this day, it is likely to be at perihelion, that is, when it is closest to the sun. Its speed is twice that of the earth (115,200 kilometers per hour). "Very good," said Servadac, "but it doesn't say what Galia's aphelion is, and whether this aphelion is a blessing or a curse to us is still hard to predict." "Yes, Captain," said Prokop, "but if we can make careful observations at various points in Gallia's orbit, we can use the law of universal gravitation to calculate its orbital parameters." "So you can figure out what kind of orbit it follows in the solar system." Selvadak said. "If Gallia is really an asteroid, then there is no doubt about it," said Count Ironmashev. "This asteroid, like other celestial bodies, is subject to the laws of mechanics. Like all planets." Similarly, its movement is restricted by the sun. As soon as it leaves the earth, it is under the control of the sun's invisible gravitational force, and its orbit is fixed forever." "Exactly," said Prokop, "unless some other celestial body interferes with its motion. Makes it change its established orbit. Compared with the other planets of the solar system, Gallia is so small that anyone can affect it. big influence." "Gallia will definitely encounter this situation, so it is likely to change its orbit midway." Said Servadac. We've been proven to be Gallians. But God knows if the Gallia this note is talking about is the one hundred and seventieth newly discovered asteroid?" "No, it won't," said Prokop. "The asteroids found with telescopes all move in the narrow space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and have never been so close to the sun as Gallia. About that , we can't have any doubts, not to mention that the opinion on the note is consistent with our opinion." "Unfortunately," said Count Iron Mashev, "we do not have instruments for observations, and therefore cannot calculate the orbital parameters of our asteroid." "It's hard to say," said Servadac. "We'll figure it all out someday." "The last few words on the note: 'Va bene! All right! Parfait!!!'" Count Timashev said again, "there is no meaning..." "It could also be that the person who wrote the note was very happy with this new situation and thought it was bad, but the outcome was ideal," Selvadak said.