Off on a Comet

best accommodation they could find in the adjacent erection. It must be owned that the captain’s slumbers were by no means sound; he

stand that an altered inclination of the earth’s axis with regard to the ecliptic would introduce a change of position in the cardinal points, and bring about a displacement of the sea; but the hypothesis entirely failed to account, either for the shortening

h had overwhelmed the country had left a dozen eggs uninjured, and upon these, with a good dish of his famous couscous, he hoped that he and his master might have a sufficiently substantial meal. The stove was ready for use, the copper skillet was as bright a

s function. But no; the fire was lighted just as usual, and fanned into vigor by Ben Zoof applying his mouth in lieu of bellows, and a bright flame started up from the midst of the twigs and coal. The skillet was duly set upon the stove, and Ben Zoof was prepared to wait a

xclaimed, “a pre

be in the water.” And taking down a centigrade thermometer, which hung upon the wall, he pl

aid; “leave your eggs in the sau

at will never do,”

llow. Trust me, we shall be able to dip

ical phenomenon would have occurred at the summit of a mountain 35,000 feet high; and had Servadac been in possession of a barometer, he would have immediately discovered the fact that only now for the first time, as the result of experiment, revealed itself to him — a fact, moreover, which accounted for the

consequences, felt himself totally at a loss to compre

the same condition; and Ben Zoof came to the conclusion that in future he must be careful to commence his culinary operations an hour earlier

presently, such being his ordin

aptain’s invariable respons

we to do

here we are. We are encamped upon an island,

any of our friends are st

t our friends are all alive and well. No doubt the governor general will be anxious to investigate the full extent of the damage, and will send a vessel from Algiers to explore. It

should appear!”

nd go in search of those who

what sort of a

ailor when he must,”

ly with his telescope. His watching was in vain. No ship appeared upon the desert sea. “

solved to adhere to the computations of the old calendar. Notwithstanding, therefore, that the sun had risen and set twelve times since the commencemen

ne day, he said: “It seems to me, captain, that you have turned into Robins

omplexion isn’t the fairest in the

e a white Friday than a bl

hundred square miles. Bullocks, cows, goats, and sheep existed in considerable numbers; and as there seemed already to be an abundance of game, it was hardly likely that a future supply would fail them. The condition of the cereals was such as to promise a fine ingathering of wh

d. Servadac, moreover, did not fail to observe that for the season the temperature was unusually high; and, as a matter still more surprising, that it kept steadily increasing, as though the earth were gradually and continuously approximating to the sun. In proportion

his advice was received with so angry a rebuff that he retired in all haste, abashed, to résumé his watchman’s duty, which he performed with exemplary perseverance. Day and night, with the shortest possible intervals of rest, despite wind, rain, and storm, he mounted guard upon the cliff — but all in vain. Not a speck appeared upon the desolate horizon. To say the truth, no vess

the shelter of his roof, hastened to join Ben Zoof at his post upon the cliff. Now, he thought, there might be a chance of solving his perplexity; perhaps now the huge disc, of which he had

heavens in surpassing brilliancy, and several nebulae which hitherto no astronomer had b

longer the central pivot of the sidereal system; it occupied a position through which it was out of the question that the axis of the earth indefinitely prolonged could ever pass. In his imp

the required conditions were answered by a certain star that was stationary not far from the horizon. This was Vega, in the constellation Lyra, a star which, according to the precession of the equinoxes, will take the place of our pole-star 12,000 years hence. The most daring imagination could not suppose that a period of 12,000 years had been crowded into th

the tail of the Great Bear, now a zodiacal constellation, was scarcely visible above the waters, to where the

s though overjoyed at once again b

anion of terre

precisely opposite the place where they would have

e planet with its apparent magnitude greatly enlarged by its approximation to the earth. Taking up the powerful field-glass which he was accustomed to use in his surveying operations, he proceeded to investigate more carefully the luminous orb. But he failed to trace any of the

” cried Ben Zo

oon,” again affi

Zoof, unwilling to renou

tention to a bright speck, apparently about the size of one of Jupiter’s satellites seen

rbit of the earth, because it accompanied the sun in its apparent motion; yet it was neit

nfound it!” he cried, “if this is neither Venus nor Mercury, it must be the moon; but if it i

n dire perplexity