monotonous and depressing, and although it might be all very well for a
man like Professor Rosette, absorbed in astronomical studies, it was ill
suited to the temperaments of any of themselves for any longer period
than was absolutely indispensable.

One contingency there was, almost too terrible to be taken into account.
Was it not to be expected that the time might come when the internal
fires of Gallia would lose their activity, and the stream of lava would
consequently cease to flow? Why should Gallia be exempt from the destiny
that seemed to await every other heavenly body? Why should it not roll
onwards, like the moon, a dark cold mass in space?

In the event of such a cessation of the volcanic eruption, whilst the
comet was still at so great a distance from the sun, they would indeed
be at a loss to find a substitute for what alone had served to render
life endurable at a temperature of 60 degrees below zero. Happily,
however, there was at present no symptom of the subsidence of the lava's
stream; the volcano continued its regular and unchanging discharge, and
Servadac, ever sanguine, declared that it was useless to give themselves
any anxiety upon the matter.

On the 15th of December, Gallia was 276,000,000 leagues from the sun,
and, as it was approximately to the extremity of its axis major, would
travel only some 11,000,000 or 12,000,000 leagues during the month.
Another world was now becoming a conspicuous object in the heavens, and
Palmyrin Rosette, after rejoicing in an approach nearer to Jupiter than
any other mortal man had ever attained, was now to be privileged to
enjoy a similar opportunity of contemplating the planet Saturn. Not
that the circumstances were altogether so favorable. Scarcely 31,000,000
miles had separated Gallia from Jupiter; the minimum distance of Saturn
would not be less than 415,000,000 miles; but even this distance,
although too great to affect the comet's progress more than had been
duly reckoned on, was considerably shorter than what had ever separated
Saturn from the earth.

To get any information about the planet from Rosette appeared quite
impossible. Although equally by night and by day he never seemed to quit
his telescope, he did not evince the slightest inclination to impart the
result of his observations. It was only from the few astronomical works
that happened to be included in the _Dobryna's_ library that any details
could be gathered, but these were sufficient to