mountain," where he always promised one day to take them.

The end of March came, but the cold was not intense to such a degree
as to confine any of the party to the interior of their resort; several
excursions were made along the shore, and for a radius of three or
four miles the adjacent district was carefully explored. Investigation,
however, always ended in the same result; turn their course in whatever
direction they would, they found that the country retained everywhere
its desert character, rocky, barren, and without a trace of vegetation.
Here and there a slight layer of snow, or a thin coating of ice arising
from atmospheric condensation indicated the existence of superficial
moisture, but it would require a period indefinitely long, exceeding
human reckoning, before that moisture could collect into a stream and
roll downwards over the stony strata to the sea. It seemed at present
out of their power to determine whether the land upon which they were
so happily settled was an island or a continent, and till the cold was
abated they feared to undertake any lengthened expedition to ascertain
the actual extent of the strange concrete of metallic crystallization.

By ascending one day to the summit of the volcano, Captain Servadac
and the count succeeded in getting a general idea of the aspect of the
country. The mountain itself was an enormous block rising symmetrically
to a height of nearly 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, in the
form of a truncated cone, of which the topmost section was crowned by a
wreath of smoke issuing continuously from the mouth of a narrow crater.

Under the old condition of terrestrial things, the ascent of this steep
acclivity would have been attended with much fatigue, but as the effect
of the altered condition of the law of gravity, the travelers performed
perpetual prodigies in the way of agility, and in little over an hour
reached the edge of the crater, without more sense of exertion than if
they had traversed a couple of miles on level ground. Gallia had its
drawbacks, but it had some compensating advantages.

Telescopes in hand, the explorers from the summit scanned the
surrounding view. Their anticipations had already realized what they
saw. Just as they expected, on the north, east, and west lay the Gallian
Sea, smooth and motionless as a sheet of glass, the cold having, as it
were, congealed the atmosphere so that there was not a breath of wind.
Towards the south there