visual evidence of its triumphant return, it
was decided to make the entire circuit of the earth before seeking our
starting point and disembarking. Brief accounts in all known languages,
telling the story of what we had done were accordingly prepared, and then
we dropped down through the air until again we saw the well-loved blue
dome over our heads, and found ourselves suspended directly above the
white-topped cone of Fujiyama, the sacred mountain of Japan. Shifting our
place toward the northeast, we hung above the city of Tokio and dropped
down into the crowds that had assembled to watch us, the prepared accounts
of our journey, which, the moment they had been read and comprehended,
led to such an outburst of rejoicing as it would be quite impossible
to describe.

One of the ships containing the Japanese members of the expedition
dropped to the ground, and we left them in the midst of their rejoicing
countrymen. Before we started--and we remained but a short time suspended
above the Japanese capital--millions had assembled to greet us with
their cheers.

We now repeated what we had done during our first examination of the
surface of Mars. We simply remained suspended in the atmosphere, allowing
the earth to turn beneath us. As Japan receded in the distance we found
China beginning to appear. Shifting our position a little toward the
south we again came to rest over the city of Pekin, where once more we
parted with some of our companions, and where the outburst of universal
rejoicing was repeated.

From Asia, crossing the Caspian Sea, we passed over Russia, visiting in
turn Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Still the great globe rolled steadily beneath, and still we kept the
sun with us. Now Germany appeared, and now Italy, and then France,
and England, as we shifted our position, first North then South, in
order to give all the world the opportunity to see that its warriors
had returned victorious from their far conquest. And in each country as
it passed beneath our feet, we left some of the comrades who had shared
our perils and our adventures.

At length the Atlantic had rolled away under us, and we saw the spires
of the new New York.

The news of our coming had been flashed ahead from Europe, and our
countrymen were prepared to welcome us. We had originally started, it
will be remembered, at midnight, and now again as we approached the new
capital of the world the curtain of night was just beginning to be drawn