A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder

that was on fire, and was burning before our eyes. Agnew thought that it was some burning forest, and that it showed our approach to some habitable and inhabited land. For hour

see it plainly, and discern the cause also. The fire came from two points, at some distance apart-two peaks rising above the horizon, from which there burst forth flames and smoke with incessant explos

are now," I sai

" asked

"is the antarc

likely to be some volcanic island in the South Sea. There's a tremen

are the very volcanoes that Sir

now where he found

ot," I

this. They are south latitude 77°, east longitude 167°; while w

I, "we're drifting s

ind ourselves carried past these volcanic islands, or through them, and then west to the Ca

this ice?" I cri

hould certainly go m

; "I have long sin

me of my consolation. My hope sustains me, and helps me to cheer yo

er, towering up to a tremendous height. I had seen Vesuvius and Stromboli and ?tna and Cotopaxi; but these appeared far larger than any of them, not excepting the last. They rose, like the Peak of Tener

drear accumulation of lava-blocks of every imaginable shape, without a trace of vegetation-uninhabited, uninhabitable, and unpassable to man. But just where the ice ended and the rocks began there was a long,

further progress. But at this spot our attention was suddenly arrested b

ank back, and we stared at each other with quivering lips. It was some time before w

t. It was evidently some sailor who had suffered shipwreck in these frightful solitudes, and had drifted here to starve to death in this appalling wilderness. It was a sight which seemed ominous of o

to search the pock

ng?" asked Agnew,

who he is," I said. "Per

a piece of paper, also mouldy and rotten. This I unfolded with great care, and saw writing there, which, though faded, was still legible. It was a letter, and there were still signs of long and frequent perusals, and

LE

April 2

arlin

my darlin tom but come back an take anoth ship for America baby i as wel as ever but mises is pa an as got a new tooth an i think yo otnt go a walen o darlin tom * * * sea as the wages was i in

ng wife Po

th read it in silence. He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes and drew a long breath. Then he walked away for

you remember any of

d his meani

me of it-a good de

e. "Let's put the poo

hat," I said; "we'll have

e rocks. He was not gone long. When he returned he said, "I've fou

boy. On reaching the spot, we found the crumbled pumice-stone. We placed the body in a crevice among the lava rocks, and then I said what I could remember of t

turned to

, "I feel the better for this;

e may lose it and yet live on. There is another world; and if we can only keep that in our minds we sha

r this I shall try to think of my soul, and cultivate, not the hope of escape, but the hope full of

that kind of silence which one may p

p has been driven too far south; it has foundered; he has escaped in a boat, either alone or wit

, what has be

ago. The letter was written in 182

found fragments of a rotted ro

d to the boat; and as for the boat herself,

now?" I said, af

thing," said Agnew

I asked,

tay here? No. Will you go back? You can't. We

. "Do you still

, full of hope and energy than to perish in inaction and despair. It is better to die in the storm and furious waters than to waste away in this awful place. So

. I've heard some old yarn of a vast opening at each of the poles, or one of them, into which the w

w la

the south, but the north. The warmth of the climate here shows that. Yes, we are drawing north. W

rst we could not be in greater danger while drifting on than in remaining behind.

ava streams which had been arrested by the flood, and cooled into gloomy, overhanging cliffs. The lava rock was of a deep, dull slate-color, which at a distance looked black; and the blackness which thus succeeded to the whiteness of the snow behind us seemed like the funeral pall of nature. Through scenes like these we drifted on, and the volcanoes on either side of the channel tow

l asleep. So the night passed, and the current bore us on until, at length, the morning came. We awoke, and now, for the first time in many days, we saw the f

ed to t

in the northern sky-behind us. We have b

the glow of the volcanic fires, though they were now many miles away; while the sun, but

ift current can have but one ending-there may be an open

d around wi

ave always seen-the open view of land or water, and the boundary of the horizon. As for this current, it seems to me like the Gulf Stream, and it evidently does an important work in the movement of the ocean waters. It pours on through vast fields of ice on its way to other oceans, where it will probably become united with new currents. Theories about openings at the poles, or whirlpools, must be given up. Since the Maelstrom

ither side were precipitous cliffs, broken by occasional declivities, but all of solid rock, so dark as to be almost black, and evidently of volcanic origin. At times there arose rugged eminences, scarred and riven, indescribably dismal and appalling. There was not only an utter absence of life here in

ntense lustre. That night we slept. On awakening we noticed a change in the scene. The shores, though still black and forbidding, were no longer precipitous, but sloped down gradually to the wate

a cry, and pointed t

ed-"do you see

ly some moving figures that wer