A month had elapsed since the meeting in the rooms of the Gun Club, and a change had taken place in public opinion.  
The advantages of altering the axis¹ of rotation² were being forgotten; and the disadvantages were being enlarged upon. It was impossible that a catastrophe³ could be avoided, for any change must necessarily be occasioned by a violent shock. What the catastrophe would be no one could say. Was this amelioration of climate desirable? Who would gain by it except the Eskimos, Laps, and Samoyeds, who had nothing to lose?
 
The Major and his allies were indefatigable⁴ in their prophecies of evil.
 
“It is evident,” said Karkof “that the projectors⁵ will do all they can to protect the United States from the consequences of the shock.”
 
“But can they?” asked Harald. “When you shake a tree all the branches shake.”
 
“And,” said the Dutchman, “when you are hit in the stomach does not your whole body shake?”
 
“That is what that famous clause meant!” said Todrin. “Here are the geographical⁶ and meteorological modifications⁷!”
 
“Yes,” said Baldenak. “But suppose the change of axis throws the seas out of their existing basins?”
 
“And if the ocean level is lowered at different points,” said Jansen, “some people may find themselves so high up in the world that communication with them will be impossible!”
 
81“If they go up too high they will not be able to breathe!” said Harald.
 
“Would you like to see Baltimore as high as Mont Blanc?” asked Donellan.
 
This modification⁸ of the axis was evidently a public danger.
 
A change of 23° 28′ would produce a considerable displacement⁹ in the seas, owing to the flattening¹⁰ at the Poles. The Earth was thus threatened with similar disasters to those that, it is believed, have recently occurred in Mars. There entire continents, among others Libya and Schiaparelli, have been submerged, as shown by the faint blue replacing the faint red. Lake Moeris has disappeared. North and south there have been changes, and the oceans have withdrawn¹¹ from many localities they formerly¹² occupied. If a few charitable souls have been much affected¹³ at the “floods in Mars”—almost as much as to open subscriptions¹⁴ for the sufferers—what would they do for the floods on the Earth?
 
Protests came in by every post. The United States Government was urged to interfere¹⁵.
 
“Look at these Yankees,” said one. “They want to hang the globe on another axletree! As if the old one, after all these centuries, had worn out! But is it not as sound as it was at the beginning?”
 
And there was Sulphuric Alcide at work trying to find out the nature and direction of the shock that J. T. Maston had arranged. Once master of the secret, he would very soon know what parts of the Earth were in danger.
 
It was not likely that the United States would suffer. Barbicane & Co. were quite Yankees enough to take care 82of their own country. Evidently the new Continent between the Arctic Sea and the Gulf¹⁶ of Mexico had nothing to fear. It was even possible that North America would gain a considerable accession of territory.
 
“That may be,” said the nervous people who only saw the perilous¹⁷ side of things. “But are you sure? Supposing J. T. Maston has made a mistake? Supposing Barbicane makes a mistake when he puts Maston’s theory in practice? Such a thing can happen to the cleverest artillerists! They do not always score a bull’s-eye!”
 
These fears were sedulously¹⁸ worked upon by the Major and the opposition¹⁹. Todrin published a number of articles in a leading Canadian newspaper. Harald rushed into print in a Swedish journal. Colonel Boris Karkof tried his hand in a Russian one. The Americans began to take sides. The New York Tribune and the Boston Journal took up their parable²⁰ against Barbicane. In vain the North Polar Practical Association tried to stem the rising tide. In vain Mrs. Scorbitt paid ten dollars a line for serious articles, humorous articles, and smart, scathing²¹ paragraphs treating the dangers as chimerical²². In vain the enthusiastic widow endeavoured to show that if ever hypothesis was unjustifiable, it was that which assumed that J. T. Maston was capable of an error!
 
Neither Barbicane nor his co-directors took the trouble to say anything. They let the talk go on without making any change in their habits. They seemed to be thoroughly²³ absorbed in the immense preparations necessitated²⁴ by their undertaking²⁵. The revulsion of public opinion seemed to concern them not in the least.
 
But in spite of all Mrs. Scorbitt could do, it soon came about that Impey Barbicane, Captain Nicholl, and J. T. 83Maston began to be looked upon as dangers to society. So high grew the clamour that the Federal Government had to interfere, and call upon them to declare their intentions. What were their means of action? How did they intend to substitute one axis for another? What would be the consequences of the substitution? What parts of the globe would the substitution endanger?
 
The excitement raging in every State in the union allowed of no hesitation²⁶ on the part of the Washington Gover............