about the hall,
until, what with the landings of the hammock and the handling of these
sons of Mars, I was sore and wearied beyond expression.

At length I was taken to a small arbor, where I was allowed to rest and
to take food. The Society then, as I have since been told, held a long
discussion, and finally appointed a committee to examine me, observe my
habits, and report at the next regular meeting. There is no moon at
Mars; but the regular meeting was on the twenty-eighth day
following,--the seven notes of music having given them the idea of
weeks.

Extra ropes were then attached to the hammock, (which was built for the
use of the infirm and aged, but the weight of these creatures is scarce
half that of men,) and sixteen of them carried me back to my captor's
homestead. That night I fell asleep before it was dark enough to see the
stars, and assure myself, by a glance at the Milk Dipper, that it was
not all a dream; but I awoke before daylight, and gazed through the
lattice at the Twins, and at the Earth, shining with steady lustre upon
Castor's knee.

I will not weary the reader with details from my journal of each
succeeding day. The committee came day after day and studied me. They
induced me to lay aside part of my clothing that they might examine me
more minutely, especially about the joints of the ankle, the knee,
shoulder, and elbow; and were never weary of examining my neck and
spinal column. I could not talk to them, and they had never seen a
vertebrate higher in organization than their frogs and toads; wherefore,
at the end of four weeks, they reported "that I was a new and wonderful
gigantic Batrachian"; that "they recommended the Society to purchase me,
and, after studying my habits thoroughly, dissect me, and mount my
skeleton." Of which report I was, of course, in blessed ignorance for a
long, long while.

So my captor and his friends took the kindest care of me, and endeavored
to amuse and instruct me, and also to find out what I would do if left
to myself,--taking notes assiduously for the memoirs of their Society. I
can assure the reader that I, on my part, was not idle, but took notes
of them with equal diligence, at which imitation of their actions they
were greatly amused. But I flatter myself that, when my notes, now in
the hands of the Smithsonian Institution, are published, with the
comments of the learned naturalists to whom the Institution has referred
them, they will be found to embod