Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/181

Rh around the sun, travels very much faster during the winter than during the summer. Yet although this increase of speed occurs every year at about the same date, no one feels any unpleasant effects from it, or even notices it.

After vainly trying to solve this puzzle, William was obliged to give it up; but it reminded him that Mr. Curtis had asked him to try two experiments during his trip.

"He told me," said William, "that as soon as bodies in the car lost their weight he would like me to try to throw something from one side of the car to the other. He claimed that I should n't be able to throw an object a single inch.

"He said that up on the earth a very light object, such as a feather, cannot be thrown far, even by a very strong man; and the lighter the body, the less distance it can be thrown. Consequently, if a body had no weight at all, he claimed, it could n't be thrown any distance. He told me that if I tried to throw a ball or any other object, no matter how hard I tried, the ball would stick to my hand as if it were glued there, and that I should n't be able to get rid of it.

"I noticed that Dr. Giles laughed, but he too