you make me good too," said Pablo, gravely.

July had now arrived. During the month Gallia's advance along
its orbit would be reduced to 22,000,000 leagues, the distance from

the sun at the end being 172,000,000 leagues, about four and a half
times as great as the average distance of the earth from the sun.

It was traveling now at about the same speed as the earth,
which traverses the ecliptic at a rate of 21,000,000 leagues a month,

or 28,800 leagues an hour.
In due time the 62d April, according to the revised Gallian calendar, dawned;

and in punctual fulfillment of the professor's appointment, a note
was delivered to Servadac to say that he was ready, and hoped that day

to commence operations for calculating the mass and density of his comet,
as well as the force of gravity at its surface.

A point of far greater interest to Captain Servadac and his friends
would have been to ascertain the nature of the substance of which

the comet was composed, but they felt pledged to render the professor
any aid they could in the researches upon which he had set his heart.

Without delay, therefore, they assembled in the central hall, where they
were soon joined by Rosette, who seemed to be in fairly good temper.

"Gentlemen," he began, "I propose to-day to endeavor
to complete our observations of the elements of my comet.

Three matters of investigation are before us. First, the measure
of gravity at its surface; this attractive force we know,

by the increase of our own muscular force, must of course
be considerably less than that at the surface of the earth.

Secondly, its mass, that is, the quality of its matter.
And thirdly, its density or quantity of matter in a unit

of its volume. We will proceed, gentlemen, if you please,
to weigh Gallia."

Ben Zoof, who had just entered the hall, caught the professor's last sentence,
and without saying a word, went out again and was absent for some minutes.

When he returned, he said, "If you want to weigh this comet of yours,
I suppose you want a pair of scales; but I have been to look, and I

cannot find a pair anywhere. And what's more," he added mischievously,
"you won't get them anywhere."

A frown came over the professor's countenance. Servadac saw it,
and gave his orderly a sign that he should desist entirely

from his bantering.
"I require, gentlemen," resumed Rosette, "first of all to know by how much

the weight of a kilogramme here differs from its weight upon the earth;
the attraction, as we have said, being less, the weight will proportionately

be less also."
"Then an ordinary pair of scales, being under the influence

of attraction, I suppose, would not answer your purpose,"
submitted the lieutenant.

"And the very kilogramme weight you used would have become lighter,"
put in the count, deferentially.

"Pray, gentlemen, do not interrupt me," said the professor, authoritatively,
as if _ex cathedra_." I need no instruction on these points."

Procope and Timascheff demurely bowed their heads.
The professor resumed. "Upon a steelyard, or spring-balance, dependent

upon mere tension or flexibility, the attraction will have no influence.
If I suspend a weight equivalent to the weight of a kilogramme, the index

will register the proper weight on the surface of Gallia. Thus I shall
arrive at the difference I want: the difference between the earth's

attraction and the comet's. Will you, therefore, have the goodness
to provide me at once with a steelyard and a tested kilogramme?"

The audience looked at one another, and then at Ben Zoof,
who was thoroughly acquainted with all their resources.

"We have neither one nor the other," said the orderly.
The professor stamped with vexation.

"I believe old Hakkabut has a steelyard on board his tartan,"
said Ben Zoof, presently.

"Then why didn't you say so before, you idiot?" roared the
excitable little man.

Anxious to pacify him, Servadac assured him that every exertion
should be made to procure the instrument, and directed Ben Zoof

to go to the Jew and borrow it.
"No, stop a moment," he said, as Ben Zoof was moving away on his, errand;

"perhaps I had better go with you myself; the old Jew may 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 precisemeasurement."
"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 telescope;
it was the opening of Palmyrin Rosette's observatory.

Sea and land seemed blended into one dreary whiteness,
to which the pale blue sky offered scarcely any contrast.

The shore was indented with the marks of many footsteps left
by the colonists either on their way to collect ice for

drinking purposes, or as the result of their skating expeditions;
the edges of the skates had cut out a labyrinth of curves

complicated as the figures traced by aquatic insects upon
the surface of a pool.

Across the quarter of a mile of level ground that lay between
the mountain and the creek, a series of footprints, frozen hard

into the snow, marked the course taken by Isaac Hakkabut on his
last return from Nina's Hive.

On approaching the creek, Lieutenant Procope drew his companions'
attention to the elevation of the _Dobryna's_ and _Hansa's_ waterline,

both vessels being now some fifteen feet above the level of the sea.
"What a strange phenomenon!" exclaimed the captain.

"It makes me very uneasy," rejoined the lieutenant;
"in shallow places like this, as the crust of ice thickens,

it forces everything upwards with irresistible force."
"But surely this process of congelation must have a limit!"

said the count.