Besides, as one of the Cambridge men of the party, a young medical student, remarked: the thin, cold air of these high mountains was extremely enervating.
The astronomers, all exceedingly alarmed, did what they could to recover their friend from his fit, but it was nearly ten minutes before they had the satisfaction of seeing his limbs moving with a slight quiver and his breast beginning to heave.

At last the color came back to his face and his eyes opened.

He stared around for a few seconds at his friends, evidently unconscious, but his senses were not long in returning.
"Say!" he uttered at last in a faint voice.
"Well!" replied Belfast.
"Where is that infernal Pro--pro--jectile ?" "In the Pacific Ocean." "What?
?" He was on his feet in an instant.
"Say that again!" "In the Pacific Ocean." "Hurrah! All right! Old Barbican's not made into mincemeat yet! No, sirree! Let's start!" "Where for ?" "San Francisco!" "When ?" "This instant!" "In the dark ?" "We shall soon have the light of the Moon! Curse her! it's the least she can do after all the trouble she has given us!".