chase, however, for the lights were continually
moving and frequently went out. While groping in the growing darkness,
they came upon a brown object about the size of a small dog and close
to the ground. It flew off with a humming insect sound, and as it did
so it showed the brilliant phosphorescent glow they had observed.

"That is a good-sized fire-fly," said Bearwarden. "Evidently the
insects here are on the same scale as everything else. They are like
the fire-flies in Cuba, which the Cubans are said to put into a glass
box and get light enough from to read by. Here they would need only
one, if it could be induced to give its light continuously."

Having found an open space on high ground, they sat down, and
Bearwarden struck his repeater, which, for convenience, had been
arranged for Jupiter time, dividing the day into ten hours, beginning
at noon, midnight being therefore five o'clock.

"Twenty minutes past four," said he, "which would correspond to about a
quarter to eleven on earth. As the sun rises at half-past seven, it
will be dark about three hours, for the time between dawn and daylight
will, of course, be as short as that we have just experienced between
sunset and night."

"If we stay here long," said the doctor, "I suppose we shall become
accustomed, like sailors, to taking our four, or in this case five,
hours on duty, and five hours off."

"Or," added Ayrault, "we can sleep ten consecutive hours and take the
next ten for exploring and hunting, having the sun for one half the
time and the moons for the other."

Bearwarden and Cortlandt now rolled themselves in their blankets and
were soon asleep, while Ayrault, whose turn it was to watch till the
moons rose--for they had not yet enough confidence in their new domain
to sleep in darkness simultaneously--leaned his back against a rock and
lighted his pipe. In the distance he saw the torrents of fiery lava
from the volcanoes reflected in the sky, and faintly heard their
thunderous crashes, while the fire-flies twinkled unconcernedly in the
hollow, and the night winds swayed the fernlike branches. Then he
gazed at the earth, which, but little above the horizon, shone with a
faint but steady ray, and his mind's eye ran beyond his natural vision
while he pictured to himself the girl of his heart, wishing that by
some communion of spirits he might convey his thoughts to her, and
receive hers. It was now the first week of January on earth. He co