ace,
and there are no horses nor cows on the island,--indeed, frogs and toads
are the highest vertebrates known there.

About the middle of the forenoon, my host, or captor, came, guided by
his boy, who, flying from arbor to arbor and from tree to tree, had kept
me in sight during my ramble. He brought with him seven others, bearing
a hammock through the air, four flying on either side, and lowered it
near me in the field. He then made signs to me to lie in the hammock. It
was with some difficulty that I persuaded myself to risk it; but I
thought at last that, after coming safely from the Earth to Mars, I
would not shrink from a little excursion in the atmosphere of that
planet. I laid myself in the hammock, and soon saw that the seven
friends of my host were as much afraid of taking it up as I had been of
getting in it. However, they mustered courage, and, spreading their
wings, raised me up in the air. I was, I suppose, a deal heavier than
they expected; for they set me down upon the top of the first knoll in
their path, and set me down so suddenly that I was aware of their
intention only by being dashed against the ground. I sprang up, and
began to rub the bruised spots, while my winged bearers folded their
wings, and lay panting on the turf. They had not taken me a half-mile.
When they were rested, my host motioned to me to resume my place; and
the eight again bore me, with more deliberate stroke, a full mile before
dropping me again. But they were so much exhausted, and took so long to
rest, that I suggested, by signs and motions, that I should rather walk;
and so for the next mile they carried the empty hammock, flying very
slowly, while I walked rapidly, or ran, after them. When, in my turn, I
became exhausted, they motioned me into the hammock again. In this way,
partly by being carried and partly on my own feet, I at length reached
an immense arbor, in which several hundred of these creatures were
assembled. It was the regular day of meeting for their Society of
Natural History. One of our party first went in, and, I suppose,
announced our arrival, then came out and spoke to my captor, who
beckoned me to follow, and led me in. I was placed on a platform, and he
then made a polyphonous speech, without a consonant sound in it;
describing, as I afterwards learned, the history of my discovery and
capture, and going into some speculations on my nature. Then the
principal men crowded about me and felt me, and led me