"The Coming Race", Chapter XVI, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Montgolfier: actually brothers, Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, notable balloonists of the 18th century, among other things.

1000 miles = 1600 kilometers. Well, 1609 km, to be specific. Stupid extra 9 km... Why it gotta be off by such a slight amount? Just redefine a km so that 1 mile = 1.6 km exactly :-P I mean, they've redefined kilometers before as it is, so just redefine it again!!

sententious: given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner

The picture used is an artist's impression of a Loveland frog at the side of the road, by Tim Bertelink. Used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en).

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1951/1951-h/1951-h.htm#link2HCH0016