Page:Twenty Thousand Verne Frith 1876.pdf/13

 success. To the leading articles of the Geographical Institute of Brazil, of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, of the British Association, of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, to the discussions in the “Indian Archipelago,” in the “Cosmos” of the Abbé Moigno, in the “Mittheilungen” of Petermann, in the scientific notices of French and other journals, the comic papers replied with unflagging energy, their lively writers parodying a speech of Linnæus, quoted by the opponents of the monster, maintained in effect that Nature did not do foolish things, and abjured their contemporaries not to give Nature the lie by admitting the existence of krakens, sea-serpents, “Moby Dick,” and other inventions of drunken sailors. At length, in a very celebrated satirical journal, the editor attacked the monster, gave him a last blow, and conquered, amid universal laughter. Wit had vanquished science.

During the first months of the year 1867 the question remained in abeyance, and did not appear likely to crop up again, when suddenly some new facts were brought to the knowledge of the public. These did not take the shape of a scientific problem which had to be solved, but of an actual danger to be avoided. Thus the question assumed a totally different aspect. The monster was still an islet, a rock, a reef, but a moving rock, indeterminable and unassailable.

On the 5th March, 1867, the Moravian, of the Montreal Ocean Company, in 27° 30' N. lat. 17° 52' W. long., during the night struck, on the starboard quarter, a rock, which no chart had ever laid down. Impelled by steam and wind, the vessel was progressing at the rate of thirteen knots. Had the Moravian not been very stoutly