of longitude 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, east of Greenwich; and
finally sweeping on, it would reach More's volcanoes at a point which
I should judge to be about 80 degrees south latitude and 10 degrees
west longitude. There it passes between the volcanoes and bursts
through the vast mountain barrier by a subterranean way, which has
been formed for it in past ages by some primeval convulsion of nature.
After this it probably sweeps around the great South Polar ocean, and
emerges at the opposite side, not far from the volcanoes Erebus and
Terror."

Here the doctor paused, and looked around with some self-complacency.

"Oh," said Melick, "if you take that tone, you have us all at your
mercy. I know no more about the geography of the antarctic circle than
I do of the moon. I simply criticize from a literary point of view,
and I don't like his underground cavern with the stream running
through it. It sounds like one of the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.
Nor do I like his description; he evidently is writing for effect.
Besides, his style is vicious; it is too stilted. Finally, he has
recourse to the stale device of a sea-serpent."

"A sea-serpent!" repeated the doctor. "Well, for my part I feel by
no means inclined to sneer at a sea-serpent. Its existence cannot
be proved, yet it cannot be pooh-poohed. Every schoolboy knows that
the waters of the sea were once filled with monsters more tremendous
than the greatest sea-serpent that has ever been imagined. The
plesiosaurus, with its snakelike head, if it existed now, would be
called a sea-serpent. Some of these so-called fossil animals may have
their representatives still living in the remoter parts of the world.
Think of the recently discovered ornithorhynchus of Australia!"

"If you please, I'd really much rather not," said Melick with a
gesture of despair. "I haven't the honor of the gentleman's
acquaintance."

"Well, what do you think of his notice of the sun, and the long light,
and his low position on the horizon?"

"Oh, that's all right," said Melick. "Anyone who chose to get up this
thing would of course read up about the polar day, and all that.
Everyone knows that at the poles there is a six-months' day, followed
by a six-months' night."

"You are a determined sceptic," said the doctor.

"How is it about the polar day?" asked Featherstone.

"Well," said the doctor, "at the poles themselves there is one day
of six months, during which the sun never sets, and on