down files of leering hippocampuses, now received by
congregations of staid aldermanic lobsters. The torpedo telegraphed my
coming to the tribes before, and at last I reached my abode, on the
line of the equator, in mid-Atlantic.

"The magnitude and beauty of my court no mind can realize. A truncated
cone of granitic rock, whose base extended to the profoundest depths
of the sea--even to the region of perpetual fire--formed with its
upper plane a circular lagoon at the surface of the ocean. Geysers or
volcanoes of fresh water gurgled up through the centre of this palace,
and vast submarine groves, intermixed with meadows, extended for
leagues along its sides. My household consisted entirely of silver and
golden carp, but my guards were of the loyal and gentle, yet
courageous and powerful xiphias (sword-fish). These barred the
unlicensed ingress of my subjects, and if the adventurous foot of man
should profane my lagoon, I could close its inlet and cover it with
floods. The dim aisles of the waters were full of wonderful lights:
combinations of colors, unknown above, were here developed in gigantic
_fuci_, around whose boles the scarlet tangle climbed, and parasites
of purple and emerald played upon their rinds. Some of these forests
pointed upward toward the sun; some grew downward, deriving light and
heat from the incandescent gulfs. My state apartments were built of
coral, in wondrous architecture, and trumpet-weed clothed their
battlements. Some cavernous recesses were lit with constellations of
shining zoophytes, and there were floors of pearl, studded with
diamonds. I could stroll through marvellous arch-ways, gathering
jewels at every step, or wander in my royal meadows, among the wrecks
and spoils of hurricanes; or rising through the mellow depths, sit
among the palms of the lagoon, watching the white sails of ships or
studying the awfulness of the storm.

"For a time I secluded myself, theorizing upon the policy of my
government. My dominions were vast and venerable; they comprehended
two thirds of the surface of the globe; no deluges had destroyed them,
and they had been peopled ages before the coming of man. Life here
inhabited forms, vegetable and animal, to which the greatest
terrestrials were puny. But the darkness which of old rested on the
face of the deep, now shadowed its depths. There was no _mind_ here.
These gigantic beings were shapes without souls. How should I reason
with creatures who could not