most violent
nature followed. But in the course of about two hundred days, the
internal combustion was overmastered for lack of fuel; the chemical
combinations, which might have gone on for ages causing weak but
incessant outbreaks, were completed and their power exhausted.

This source of disturbance extinguished in the reign of the
twenty-fifth predecessor of my royal patron, the construction of the
great Observatory on Eanelca was commenced. A very elaborate road,
winding round and round the mountain at such an incline as to be
easily ascended by the electric carriages, was built. But this was
intended only as a subsidiary means of ascent. Eight into the bowels
of the mountain a vast tunnel fifty feet in height was driven. At its
inner extremity was excavated a chamber whose dimensions are
imperfectly recorded in my notes, but which was certainly much larger
than the central cavern from which radiate the principal galleries of
the Mammoth Cave. Around this were pierced a dozen shafts, emerging at
different heights, but all near the summit, and all so far outside the
central plateau as to leave the solid foundation on which the
Observatory was to rest, down to the very centre of the planet, wholly
undisturbed. Through each of these, ascending and descending
alternately, pass two cars, or rather movable chambers, worked by
electricity, conveying passengers, instruments, or supplies to and
from the most convenient points in the vast structure of the
Observatory itself. The highest part of Ranelca was a rocky mass of
some 1600 feet in circumference and about 200 in height. This was
carved into a perfect octagon, in the sides of which were arranged a
number of minor chambers--among them those wherein transit and other
secondary observations were to be taken, and in which minor magnifying
instruments were placed to scan their several portions of the heavens.
Within these was excavated a circular central chamber, the dome of
which was constructed of a crystal so clear that I verily believe the
most exacting of Terrestrial astronomers would have been satisfied to
make his observations through it. But an opening was made in this
dome, as for the mounting of one of our equatorial telescopes, and
machinery was provided which caused the roof to revolve with a touch,
bringing the opening to bear on any desired part of the celestial
vault. In the centre of the solid floor, levelled to the utmost
perfection, was left a circular pi