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122 I described to him as well as I could the natural features in the locality of the vessel, and the route travelled from it to Atazatlan.

He said he believed he understood the position of the Penguin, but that the surface of the country had been considerably changed by the recent volcanic disturbances, which he understood to be of an unusually violent character.

"Did these disturbances have anything to do with the breaking up of the ice in the neighbourhood of your continent?" I inquired.

"Undoubtedly," was the reply; "although the volcanoes in the territory you first visited are always more or less active. Yet were it not for the outbreak you had the privilege of witnessing, Neuroomia would still be encircled, as it has been for ages, by a zone of compact ice."

"In that case," I observed, "it would have been impossible for me to have reached Neuroomia."

"Yes, with the Penguin," was the answer.

"And how do you think an expedition across the ice by means of sledges would fare?" I queried.

"Very probably perish from the intense cold," was the response.

"Is the warm current that carried the Penguin to these shores of a permanent character?" I asked.