al from Gourbi Island.
Captain Servadac had strictly forbidden any communication with him; and
the smoke that rose from the cabin chimney of the _Hansa_ was the sole
indication of the proprietor being still on board. There was nothing to
prevent him, if he chose, from partaking gratuitously of the volcanic
light and heat which were being enjoyed by all besides; but rather
than abandon his close and personal oversight of his precious cargo, he
preferred to sacrifice his own slender stock of fuel.

Both the schooner and the tartan had been carefully moored in the way
that seemed to promise best for withstanding the rigor of the winter.
After seeing the vessels made secure in the frozen creek. Lieutenant
Procope, following the example of many Arctic explorers, had the
precaution to have the ice beveled away from the keels, so that there
should be no risk of the ships' sides being crushed by the increasing
pressure; he hoped that they would follow any rise in the level of the
ice-field, and when the thaw should come, that they would easily regain
their proper water-line.

On his last visit to Gourbi Island, the lieutenant had ascertained that
north, east, and west, far as the eye could reach, the Gallian Sea had
become one uniform sheet of ice. One spot alone refused to freeze; this
was the pool immediately below the central cavern, the receptacle for
the stream of burning lava. It was entirely enclosed by rocks, and if
ever a few icicles were formed there by the action of the cold, they
were very soon melted by the fiery shower. Hissing and spluttering as
the hot lava came in contact with it, the water was in a continual
state of ebullition, and the fish that abounded in its depths defied
the angler's craft; they were, as Ben Zoof remarked, "too much boiled to
bite."

At the beginning of April the weather changed. The sky became overcast,
but there was no rise in the temperature. Unlike the polar winters of
the earth, which ordinarily are affected by atmospheric influence, and
liable to slight intermissions of their severity at various shiftings
of the wind, Gallia's winter was caused by her immense distance from the
source of all light and heat, and the cold was consequently destined
to go on steadily increasing until it reached the limit ascertained by
Fourier to be the normal temperature of the realms of space.

With the over-clouding of the heavens there arose a violent tempest;
but although the wind raged with an