lumn of smoke arose, as if from the interior of the
earth. This I imagined to be of volcanic origin, but it puzzled me not a
little that the land should be under cultivation and that yet I could
find not so much as a single house or cottage.

So intent was I upon my survey of the distance that I did not note the
approach of a human being until I heard the footsteps close beside me. I
speak of it as a human being, but in many respects the creature differed
from humanity as previously known to me. Particularly noticeable was its
manner of progression. It walked very slowly and laboriously on all
fours, the arms being longer and the legs shorter than in the normal
man. Its body was clothed in two garments of a thick grey woollen
material, and loose boots with tops of a similar material, but with
leather soles, were worn both on the hands and feet. The size of the
head was disproportionately large and seemed too heavy for the slender
neck. It was bald save for a fringe of scanty grey hair. Large
spectacles of high magnifying power distorted the eyes, and the
toothless mouth was absurdly small. The grotesque object was more likely
to inspire laughter than fear, for the body was small and its movements
slow and feeble, but indeed it showed not the slightest sign of
hostility.

"I see," said the creature, "that you are from the old world. Who are
you?" He spoke in a gentle voice and with an accent not unlike that
which we call American.

"My name is Lemuel Gulliver, a shipwrecked mariner, at your service.
Will you tell me what island this is on which I find myself, and to whom
I am speaking."

"The island is Thule--Ultima Thule--the one spot of earth that has
emerged from barbarism. Chance has done great things for you in bringing
you here."

He slipped one hand out of its boot, removed his big spectacles, and
blinked his weak eyes. I watched him narrowly. His face was hairless. It
might have been the face of an old woman or of an old man. A look of
cunning now crept over it.

"I think," he said, "that I grasp your difficulty. You may speak of me
as a man; but for beings of the first class, to which I belong, sex is
abolished. It was perhaps the worst of nature's evils that our
triumphant civilisation in the process of centuries overcame."

"But in that case," I said, "your race, or that class of it to which you
belong, must be rapidly dying out."

"It is undoubtedly dying out," said the strange creature with a
comp