make a
difficulty about lending us any of his property."

"Why should we not all go?" asked the count; "we should see what kind of
a life the misanthrope leads on board the _Hansa_."

The proposal met with general approbation. Before they started,
Professor Rosette requested that one of the men might be ordered to cut
him a cubic decimeter out of the solid substance of Gallia. "My engineer
is the man for that," said the count; "he will do it well for you if you
will give him the precise measurement."

"What! you don't mean," exclaimed the professor, again going off into a
passion, "that you haven't a proper measure of length?"

Ben Zoof was sent off to ransack the stores for the article in question,
but no measure was forthcoming. "Most likely we shall find one on the
tartan," said the orderly.

"Then let us lose no time in trying," answered the professor, as he
hustled with hasty strides into the gallery.

The rest of the party followed, and were soon in the open air upon the
rocks that overhung the shore. They descended to the level of the frozen
water and made their way towards the little creek where the _Dobryna_
and the _Hansa_ lay firmly imprisoned in their icy bonds.

The temperature was low beyond previous experience; but well muffled up
in fur, they all endured it without much actual suffering. Their breath
issued in vapor, which was at once congealed into little crystals upon
their whiskers, beards, eyebrows, and eyelashes, until their faces,
covered with countless snow-white prickles, were truly ludicrous. The
little professor, most comical of all, resembled nothing so much as the
cub of an Arctic bear.

It was eight o'clock in the morning. The sun was rapidly approaching the
zenith; but its disc, from the extreme remoteness, was proportionately
dwarfed; its beams being all but destitute of their proper warmth and
radiance. The volcano to its very summit and the surrounding rocks were
still covered with the unsullied mantle of snow that had fallen while
the atmosphere was still to some extent charged with vapor; but on the
north side the snow had given place to the cascade of fiery lava, which,
making its way down the sloping rocks as far as the vaulted opening of
the central cavern, fell thence perpendicularly into the sea. Above
the cavern, 130 feet up the mountain, was a dark hole, above which
the stream of lava made a bifurcation in its course. From this hole
projected the case of an astronomer's