tiful prospect, and our lungs on the pure
atmosphere, we wandered along the beach, ever and anon pausing to admire
the strange forms and beautiful colouring of the shells and seaweeds, or
to pick up a rare pebble, then shie it away again, little thinking that
it might have been a ruby, sapphire, or topaz, worth a king's ransom on
the earth. At length the way was barred by the mouth of a broad river,
and after a refreshing plunge in the lake, we returned home to
breakfast.

During our absence Carmichael had been visited by our venerable host of
the evening, whose name was Dinus, and a young man called Otare, who
turned out to be his son. They had brought a fresh supply of dainties,
and what was still more important, some pictorial dictionaries and
drawings which would enable us to learn their language. As the structure
of it was simple, and the vocabulary not very copious, and as we also
enjoyed the tuition of the young man, who was devoted to our service,
and conducted us in most of our walks abroad, at the end of a fortnight
we could maintain a conversation with tolerable fluency.

In the meanwhile, and afterwards, we learned a good deal about the
country, and the manners and customs of its inhabitants. Womla, or
Woom-la, which means the "bowl" or hollow-land, is evidently the crater
of an extinct volcano of enormous dimensions, such as are believed to
exist upon the moon. It belongs to an archipelago of similar islands,
which are widely scattered over a vast ocean in this part of Venus, but
is, we were told, far distant from the nearest of them. The climate may
be described as a perpetual spring and summer, with a sky nearly always
serene, and of a beautiful azure blue, veiled with soft and fleecy
clouds.

Thanks to the lofty walls of the crater, which penetrate the clouds and
condense their moisture, the land is watered with many streams. These
flow into the central lake, which discharges into the surrounding ocean
by a rift or chasm in the mountain side. Moreover, there are frequent
showers, and heavy dews by night, to refresh the surface of the ground.
Thunderstorms occur on the tops of the mountain and in the open sea;
but very seldom within the enchanted girdle of the crater. The air is
remarkably pure, sweet, and exhilarating, owing doubtless to the high
percentage of oxygen it contains, and the absence of foreign matter,
such as microbes, dust, and obnoxious fumes. In fact, we all felt a
distinct improvement