ibe as varying both in form and in extent.

The physiology of belts and spots alike was beyond the astronomer's
power to ascertain; and even if he should be destined once again to take
his place in an astronomical congress on the earth, he would be just as
incapable as ever of determining whether or no they owed their existence
to the external accumulation of vapor, or to some internal agency. It
would not be Professor Rosette's lot to enlighten his brother _savants_
to any great degree as to the mysteries that are associated with this,
which must ever rank as one of the most magnificent amongst the heavenly
orbs.

As the comet approached the critical point of its career it cannot be
denied that there was an unacknowledged consciousness of alarm. Mutually
reserved, though ever courteous, the count and the captain were secretly
drawn together by the prospect of a common danger; and as their return
to the earth appeared to them to become more and more dubious, they
abandoned their views of narrow isolation, and tried to embrace the
wider philosophy that acknowledges the credibility of a habitable
universe.

But no philosophy could be proof against the common instincts of their
humanity; their hearts, their hopes, were set upon their natural home;
no speculation, no science, no experience, could induce them to give up
their fond and sanguine anticipation that once again they were to come
in contact with the earth.

"Only let us escape Jupiter," said Lieutenant Procope, repeatedly, "and
we are free from anxiety."

"But would not Saturn lie ahead?" asked Servadac and the count in one
breath.

"No!" said Procope; "the orbit of Saturn is remote, and does not come
athwart our path. Jupiter is our sole hindrance. Of Jupiter we must say,
as William Tell said, 'Once through the ominous pass and all is well.'"

The 15th of October came, the date of the nearest approximation of the
comet to the planet. They were only 31,000,000 miles apart. What would
now transpire? Would Gallia be diverted from its proper way? or would it
hold the course that the astronomer had predicted?

Early next morning the captain ventured to take the count and the
lieutenant up to the observatory. The professor was in the worst of
tempers.

That was enough. It was enough, without a word, to indicate the course
which events had taken. The comet was pursuing an unaltered way.

The astronomer, correct in his prognostications, ought to have been the