passed during that night of July thirty-first.

Now, what was to follow from this adventure? And especially
concerning myself, what would be its end?

I have said that at the moment when I awoke from my strange sleep,
the "Terror" seemed to me completely motionless. I could hardly be
mistaken; whatever had been her method of progress, I should have
felt some movement, even in the air. I lay in my berth in the cabin,
where I had been shut in without knowing it, just as I had been on
the preceding night which I had passed on board the "Terror" on Lake
Erie.

My business now was to learn if I would be allowed to go on deck here
where the machine had landed. I attempted to raise the hatchway. It
was fastened.

"Ah!" said I, "am I to be kept here until the 'Terror' recommences
its travels?" Was not that, indeed, the only time when escape was
hopeless?

My impatience and anxiety may be appreciated. I knew not how long
this halt might continue.

I had not a quarter of an hour to wait. A noise of bars being removed
came to my ear. The hatchway was raised from above. A wave of light
and air penetrated my cabin.

With one bound I reached the deck. My eyes in an instant swept round
the horizon.

The "Terror," as I had thought, rested quiet on the ground. She was
in the midst of a rocky hollow measuring from fifteen to eighteen
hundred feet in circumference. A floor of yellow gravel carpeted its
entire extent, unrelieved by a single tuft of herbage.

This hollow formed an almost regular oval, with its longer diameter
extending north and south. As to the surrounding-wall, what was its
height, what the character of its crest, I could not judge. Above us
was gathered a fog so heavy, that the rays of the sun had not yet
pierced it. Heavy trails of cloud drifted across the sandy floor,
Doubtless the morning was still young, and this mist might later be
dissolved.

It was quite cold here, although this was the first day of August. I
concluded therefore that we must be far in the north, or else high
above sea-level. We must still be somewhere on the New Continent;
though where, it was impossible to surmise. Yet no matter how rapid
our flight had been, the air-ship could not have traversed either
ocean in the dozen hours since our departure from Niagara.

At this moment, I saw the captain come from an opening in the rocks,
probably a grotto, at the base of this cliff hidden in the fog.
Occasionally, in the mists above, appe