turn out sufficient hand mitrailleuses to arm one hundred thousand
wayleals in less than a month. He also proposed to furnish our
wayleals with magnic spears, and to arm the legs of the bockhockids
with magnic toes, so that a company of the strange animals could rout
a legion of wayleals. We discovered that the materials for the
manufacture of terrorite existed in abundance in Atvatabar, and as the
secret of this substance was still ours, we were in a position to work
fearful havoc on the enemy.

Before the council broke up the most encouraging news was received
from our agents throughout the kingdom that the enrollment of
volunteers for our cause was proceeding with great rapidity, and a
hundred thousand men would arrive in Kioram within a week from the
date of our proclamation. Hushnoly was appointed general of
volunteers, in addition to his rank as supreme general of the army.
General Yermoul and his colleagues would command the contingent from
Gnaphisthasia, consisting of fourteen thousand wayleals.

While thus discussing the details of our army organization, Astronomer
Starbottle and his body-guard, Flathootly, arrived at the fortress,
having safely escaped all perils in making a very hazardous journey.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE REPORT OF ASTRONOMER STARBOTTLE.

I congratulated our couriers upon their safe return from a successful
expedition. The astronomer made the following report of his journey:

"Following our instructions to bear despatches to Egyplosis and
Gnaphisthasia, and at the same time make such astronomical and
meteorological observations as might be valuable to military
operations in Atvatabar, we rose to a considerable height in the air
after leaving the _Polar King_. We were still under the influence of
the earth's revolution, moving with Atvatabar two hundred and fifty
miles an hour from east to west. We found the atmosphere of equal
density, no matter how high we ascended, showing it to be a
continuation of the denser strata of the outer air pressing into the
earth by way of the open poles. It fills the hollow shell of the earth
as an elastic ball, pressing equally on every part of the interior
surface. Notwithstanding its mobility, it partakes of the revolution
of the earth, hence the particularly serene climate of Bilbimtesirol
and the absence of trade-winds in the region of greatest motion, which
corresponds to the torrid zone of the outer sphere. The only winds are
local disturban