Le Grand Voyage

Summary

The text follows the adventures of Zailm, a young man from Atlantis. After the funeral of Emon, Zailm is unexpectedly appointed Suzerain (governor) of Suern by Rai Gwauxln, a high-ranking official. Zailm hesitates to accept the role due to his incomplete studies but is convinced to take on the responsibility after a period of training. Despite this, Zailm resumes his long-planned journey with friends.

Their travels take them across various regions, including Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific, eventually leading to the land of Umaur, a colony of Atlantis and a future refuge for the Inca civilization. Zailm reflects on the natural beauty and geological changes in places like Arizona, where once vast seas existed. The journey also includes explorations of ancient mines, monasteries, and lands rich in natural resources.

During their travels, they experience advanced Atlantean technology, including airships (vailx) capable of both flight and underwater travel. After a submarine excursion, Zailm has a mystical encounter with his father, Menax, who warns him against reckless behavior.

The group decides to return home to Atlantis, modifying their course to take advantage of faster travel routes. They reach their destination, the grand city of Caiphul, in time for breakfast, reflecting on their adventures and the majesty of their homeland.

Technology

1. Vailx (Airships): These are multipurpose vehicles capable of both flight and underwater travel. They are powered by forces such as repulsion currents, which allow them to hover, fly at high speeds, and maneuver with precision. They can switch to submarine mode by sealing the hull and using attraction forces to sink into the water. The vailx is equipped with external lights to illuminate underwater surroundings.
2. Repulsion and Attraction Currents: These currents are the fundamental forces that control the movement of the vailx. Repulsion currents allow the airship to rise and fly, while attraction currents are used to submerge it into water. These forces are manipulated to manage speed and altitude during travel.
3. Telescopes and Viewing Instruments: The Atlanteans have highly advanced telescopes, far superior to modern equivalents. These devices can bring distant celestial bodies close into view and even detect minute details. They utilize principles that go beyond mere reflection or refraction of light, suggesting an understanding of light as an extension of substance itself.
4. Submarine Navigation: The vailx is also equipped with submarine capabilities, allowing it to travel under the ocean. Its rubber seals and movable parts make it watertight, and it uses specialized lights to navigate in deep waters. This technology allows the Atlanteans to explore the ocean and observe marine life.
5. Electric Trams: In the copper mines near Lake Superior, Atlanteans use electric trams to transport people through a complex system of galleries and tunnels, showing their mastery of electric-powered transport for industrial purposes.
6. Copper Tempering: The Atlanteans possess an advanced method of tempering copper to create tools and weapons with a superior, durable edge that requires little maintenance. This skill, now lost, is highly prized for its utility and craftsmanship.

Copper Tempering

Copper tempering in the context of the Atlanteans refers to a lost art of treating copper to enhance its hardness, durability, and ability to maintain a sharp edge, making it comparable to modern steel or other tempered metals. In the story, this skill is presented as one of the many advanced technological achievements of the Atlantean civilization.

1. Enhanced Durability: Atlanteans were able to temper copper so that it could maintain a sharp edge for extended periods of time, requiring very little sharpening or maintenance. This is a significant improvement over the naturally softer, more malleable properties of untempered copper.
2. Tempered Copper Tools: The text mentions tools and instruments made from tempered copper, such as a knife-like tool given to Zailm during his visit to the copper mines. This tool, according to Zailm, maintained a razor-sharp edge suitable for tasks like shaving.
3. Lost Knowledge: The Atlanteans’ method of copper tempering is described as a “lost art,” implying that modern civilizations no longer possess this advanced metallurgical knowledge. While modern copper is not typically used for edged tools because of its softness, the Atlanteans had discovered a way to significantly enhance its physical properties.
4. Comparison to Modern Metallurgy: In reality, copper is a soft metal that, when alloyed with other metals such as tin (to create bronze), gains hardness. However, the Atlanteans seemed to have discovered a method to directly temper pure copper itself, which is different from typical alloying processes and suggests an advanced understanding of metallurgy and material science beyond what is currently known.

Location

1. Caiphul: The grand city and capital of Atlantis, home to Zailm and the center of the Atlantean civilization.
2. Suern (Suernis): A colony of Atlantis over which Zailm is appointed as Suzerain.
3. Incalithlon: A ceremonial site or temple, likely associated with religious rites and connected to the worship of Incal.
4. Agacoe: A location where Zailm was directed to go before resuming his journey.
5. Necropan (Africa): The African continent, crossed by Zailm and his companions during their travels.
6. Uz: A colony of Suem (a part of Atlantis) located near the Indian Ocean and the present-day East Indies.
7. Pacific Ocean: The vast ocean crossed by Zailm and his companions during their travels.
8. Umaur: The land of future Incan civilizations, located in South America (likely referring to the Andes region).
9. Miti: A large inland sea in the region of present-day Arizona, which has since disappeared.
10. Isthmus of Panama: Described as much broader in the time of Atlantis, connecting Central and South America.
11. Mexico (South Incalia): A part of Atlantis’ colonies, corresponding to present-day Mexico.
12. Mississippi Plains: Large plains that provided much of Atlantis’ food, corresponding to the central United States.
13. Lake Ui (Great Salt Lake): A large freshwater lake in Utah, vastly larger than its present size in Atlantean times.
14. Pitachi Ui: Three snowy peaks near Lake Ui, known for their religious and astronomical significance.
15. Copper Mines (Lake Superior Region): Copper mines located near present-day Lake Superior, used by the Atlanteans.
16. Yellowstone Region: Mentioned as part of the same expedition that explored the Three Tetons (Pitachi Ui), discovered in modern times.
17. Arctic Icefields: Referring to regions of the Arctic that were visited by Zailm and his companions.

CHAPTER XVII – Rai Ni Incal – Ashes to Ashes

On a bier in front of the Holy Seat, by the eastern face of the Maxin-Stone in the Incalithlon, lay all that was of the earth, earthy of Emon of Suemis. In the triangle were gathered a few witnesses asked by Rai Gwauxln to be present, and over all shone the mysterious light which required no fuel, nor for its tall taper any human keeper. High above, hung the white stalactite ceiling, casting down from its many points the radiance of the lights which no one could see from below.

Beside the restful form stood Mainin, the Incaliz, his hand on the shoulder of the dead Rai. After the mighty organ had sounded a mournful requiem, Mainin made the funeral speech, saying:

“Once more has a most noble soul known earth. How hath it treated him who gave his life to the service of its children? Verily, Suerna, thou hast done a deed which shall clothe thee in sackcloth and ashes for aye! Emon, my brother, Son of the Solitude, we bid thee adieu in great sorrow of soul; sorrow not for thee, for thou art at rest; but for us left behind. It shall be until many years ere we know thee again incarnate. As for this, thy poor clay, over it we will say final words, for it hath done its work and is committed to Navazzamin. Brother, peace be with thee evermore.”

Again the mighty organ played in solemn sadness, and while attendants raised the bier upon the cube of the Maxin, the Incaliz raised his hands to heaven and said:

“Unto Incal this soul, unto earth this clay.”

The body, bound with light bands to the bier, was raised with it to an erect posture, trembled a moment in that position, and fell forward into the Maxin. There was no flame, no smoke, not even ash left behind the instantaneous disappearance of body and bed.

The funeral was over. As we who abode in Caiphul turned to depart, we saw that which no man then living had ever before beheld in the Incalithlon. Back of us, in the auditorium, stood groups of grey-habited men, cowled like monks of Rome. There seemed great numbers of them, collected in groups of seven or eight amongst the maze of stalagmite pillars which supported the roof. As we gazed, these men faded slowly from sight, until over four score of Caiphalians seemed indeed small in number in the vast hall where so recently had been hundreds of Incaleni, Sons of the Solitude in astral form, gathered at the funeral of their brother. Yea, verily, had the Sons come to witness the impressive ceremony where all that was mortal of their dead fellow was restored in the keeping of the elements of nature.

Chapter XVIII – Le Grand Voyage

Rai Gwauxln directed me to attend at Agacoe before resuming my vacation trip, although it was all arranged previously to the funeral of Emon that my action in Suern was to his satisfaction. When I obeyed the Rai, which was almost immediately, for we were all ready to resume our journey, Gwauxln, in the presence of his ministers of state affairs, tendered me the position of Suzerain over the land of Suern. I was vastly surprised, yet felt that I might accept and, in conducting the affairs of that country, render good service. But the fact that I was yet an undergraduate at the Xioquithlon made me hesitate. At last, I spoke, saying:

“Zo Rai, I am sensible thou hast done thy servant a great honor. Nevertheless, my liege, feeling that I have not thus far acquired the full knowledge I desire, being yet but a Xioqene, I ask thy permission to refuse the office.”

Gwauxln smiled and said:

“Even so. But the governor thou didst appoint shall execute thy duties for the three years intervening—the four years, I would say, since I would not that thou shouldst study at all this year—and thereafter thou shalt legally assume active duties. I have an object in this besides mere form; I believe that man who hath an object, a direct goal, in view, is more likely to win success than one without. It is a good stimulus. I do therefore appoint thee Suzerain over Suernis, and dismiss thee to thy journey of pleasurable recreation with thy friends as soon as thou shalt sign thy name to this document. That is well written, though thy hand shakes a little because of thy nervousness. Be calm.” This last he said as, trembling slightly, I wrote the desired signature.

Once more we were on our travels. Anzimee, the elf, persisted in calling me “My Lord Zailm” when she had learned the story of my imminent suzerain duties.

Our course was again eastward, although now farther south, for we did not propose to visit Suernis this time but intended to proceed instead to our American colonies, as in the original route we had planned to do after leaving Suemis.

We crossed equatorial Necropan (Africa), then the Indian Ocean and the present East Indies, but then colonies of Suem called Uz, then onward above the wide Pacific, still eastward.

“Umaur! the coast of Umaur!” was the cry that called our little company to the windows to look at a dark, serrate line of the Andes, appearing almost on a level with our vailx, which, two miles high above the ocean, shot towards the hazy, black line. Below was the broad mirror of the blue Pacific, apparently waveless because it was so far beneath us.

Umaur, land of the Incas in a far later day. Umaur, where in eight centuries more they must find a refuge who should be so fortunately fated as to escape from Poseid, ere “Queen of the World” sank beneath the waves of the Atlantic. Eight centuries, whose lapse would see the proud Atlantean become so corrupt that his soul no more reflected the wisdom of the Night-Side because the calmness of morality, being fled, the key to nature’s Penetralia would have been lost, and with it, his dominion over the air and the depths of the sea. Alas, poor Atl!

But Umaur lay ahead of us, and ignorant of the misdeeds-to-be of our national posterity, we in our vailx stood gazing on the coast we were so rapidly approaching and commented upon its majestic mountain ranges as seen through the telescopes. Here we beheld a land where, after thousands of years, the conquering Castilians would come, led by Pizarro, and find a race under the rule of Incas, a name preserved through the many centuries from the day when their remotest ancestors fled from sunken Poseid, calling themselves “Children of the Sun.”

Umaur was the region of the quarries of Poseid and many of its rich mines of mineral wealth. Here, too, were vast plantations, and east of the mountains were regularly planted groves of the rubber tree, the genuine Siphonia Elastica of botany. Here also flourished the Cinchonas, as well as many other trees now indigenous to South America, colonized plants from Poseid. Until planted abroad by Atlanteans, these vegetable treasures never grew outside of Poseid, and today, the wild forests of peculiar South American trees and shrubs are the direct descendants of our regularly cultivated farm and plantation products in Umaur. In that olden time, the Amazon river ran within dykes across the continent, and the trackless sylvas of Brazil were then drained areas of tilled soil, such as the adjacent territory of the Mississippi is today.

Some day this river, “Father of Waters,” in the north, will sweep unresisted, undyked, across the lowland, which, even now, its surface is above in altitude. It will do this because these things are certain to be in the mutations of the coming centuries. It will do this, also, because history repeats itself. Think not that thou shalt inherit, reincarnate the glories of Atl, and escape its shadows. All things move in cycles, but the circle is that of the screw-thread, ever around and around on a higher plane each time. But that time when these things shall come to pass, and no man be able to say nay, is yet far away on the horizon of time future, as far as is the grand recession of the Amazon on the horizon of the past.

From the great orchards and plantations and homes of Umaur, in the north of that continent, to the desert wilds of its southern parts, where one day trouble was to overwhelm me—and thence north along the eastern coasts, we took our way, leaving the doings of the millions of our colonists, the Umauri, to the imagination of the reader. Successively we came to the Isthmus of Panama, then over four hundred miles in breadth; to Mexico (South Incalia) and to the immense plains of the Mississippi. These latter formed the great cattle lands whence Poseid drew most of its supplies of flesh-foods, and where, when the modern world discovered it, enormous herds of wild progeny of our ancient stock roamed at will: buffalo, elk, bear, deer, and mountain sheep, all offspring of the remotest ages. I regret to see them so wantonly slaughtered as they are; surely so old a stock might be spared.

To these broad valleys were to come, in later centuries, invading hordes in boats, and over the far northern isthmus where now are only vestiges of its former existence, the Aleutian Islands. They came from Asia, then, as now, to a large extent the home of semi-barbarians, except where the sway of Suernis had extended a civilizing influence by sending out the tribes which, in a later day, were to occupy so large a niche in history under the name of the Semitic races. But the barbarians who went into Incalia, occupying the North American plains and lake regions—a future age should come which would find these hordes gone from the earth forever; and, later still, curious people digging from archaeological remains would say: “Here lived the mound builders.”

Still farther north than this, in the present “lake region,” were large copper mines, whence we obtained much of our copper, and some silver and other metals. A cold region was this, far colder than it is today, for it lay in the edge of the retreating forces of the glacial epoch, an epoch not over until much more recently than geologists have hitherto thought and even still think.

To the west lay what in early American days were called the “great plains.” But in the days of Poseid, they had a far different appearance from that which they bear today. Not then arid, nor very sparsely inhabited, though vastly colder in winter, owing to the nearness of the vast glaciers of the north.

The Nevada lakes were not then mere dried beds of borax and soda, nor the “Great Salt Lake” of Utah a bitter, brackish body of water of its present comparatively small size. All lakes were large bodies of fresh water and the “Great Salt Lake” was an inland sea of fresh floods, bearing icebergs from the glaciers on its northern shores. Arizona, that treasure-house of the geologist, had its now marvelous desert covered with the waters of “Miti,” as we called the great inland sea of that region. Verdure was on all the slopes of all the hundreds of square miles not covered with lovely bodies of water. On the shores of Miti was a considerable population, and one city of no small size, colonists all, from Atl.

Reader, dost thou remember a promise given in previous pages, wherein I looked forward to a treat in scenic depiction, saying it was from another pen than mine? I redeem it now, for already the geologist is after me for having declared Arizona the scene of a lake or inland sea so vast as Miti, and so recently as twelve thousand years ago. I am reminded that he has decided from evidence afforded by erosion and weathering of the rocks in that amazing region, that while the Arizona lake was undoubtedly a lake or a seabed since the Paleozoic time when it was the site of a shallow ocean, nevertheless that lake was certainly “of an age older than the Pliocene, being probably in the Cretaceous epoch.” My friend, no. Those gorges and stupendous canyons are not merely the gradual product of time, water, and weather. Per contra, they are of sudden formation, the rending and cracking apart of the strata in a similar, but on a far more vast scale than the volcanic outburst at Pitach Rhok, described in the first chapter of this history. The Arizona wonders and the gorge of the “Grand Canyon of the Colorado” were the result of an awful dance of the solid crust of the globe. Even now, the lava beds of the rectangle between the parallels 32 degrees and 34 degrees north latitude and 107 degrees to 110 degrees longitude west from Greenwich, in the Mt. Taylor and Mt. San Francisco region, have few parallels on earth as regards size. All over this hideous work of destruction, when the sea Miti had fled away into Ixla (Gulf of California), the rains and torrents of eleven thousand winter seasons, and the desiccating, powdering influences of as many torrid summers, have smoothed and chiseled and wrought the ruptured, ragged surfaces into yet more fantastic shapes, and claimed the whole work as its own, denying the hand of Pluto as the major worker. And the geologist seems to have admitted the claim, and placed the lake time far back, in order to allow a sufficient term for the execution of the gigantic work. And it is not so, for I saw that lake only twelve thousand years ago. But now for the literary treat; it is taken from a very modern pen, but it is so faithfully descriptive of the appearance of the region today that I desire to enjoy its perusal with my readers. The words are those of Major J. W. Powell, U. S. Army:

“The canyon walls are buttressed on a grand scale, and deep alcoves are excavated; rocky crags crown the cliffs, and the river rolls below. The sun shone in splendor on the vermilion walls, shading into green and gray where the rocks were lichened over; the river filled the channel from wall to wall, and the canyon opened like a beautiful gateway to glory. But at evening, when the sun was going down and the shadows were settling in the canyon, the vermilion gleams and roseate hues, blended with tints of green and gray, slowly changed to brown above, and black shadows crept over below—then it seemed the shadowy portal to a region of gloom. Lying down, we looked straight aloft through the canyon cleft and saw that only a little of the blue heaven appeared overhead—a crescent of dark blue sky with but two or three constellations peering down upon us. I did not sleep for some time, as the excitement of the day had not worn off. Soon I saw a bright star that seemed to rest on the very verge of the cliffs overhead. Slowly it seemed to float from its resting place on the rocks, out over the canyon. At first, it appeared like a jewel set in the brink of the cliff, but as it moved out, I almost wondered that it did not fall. In fact, it did seem to descend in a gentle curve, as though the sky, in which the stars were set, was spread across the canyon, resting on either wall, and swayed down by its own weight. The star appeared to be really in the canyon, so high were the battlemented walls. The morning sun was shining in splendor on their painted faces. The salient angles were as if on fire, and the retreating angles buried in shade; the rocks, red and brown, blazed from their setting of deep gloom below, but above all was vermilion fire. The light above, made more brilliant by the bright-tinted rocks, and the shadows below, made more gloomy by the somber shades of sunlessness, increased the apparent depth of the awful canyons, and it seemed a long, long way up to the world of sunshine—and was a mile!”

Even the wide waters of the Miti, set about with towering peaks in the olden days, beautiful as a dream, were not more grand and glorious than these awful gorges come to take their place.

From the city of Tolta, on the shores of Miti, our vailx arose and sped away north, across the lake Ui (Great Salt) to its northwestern shore, hundreds of miles distant. On this far shore arose three lofty peaks, covered with snow, the Pitachi Ui, from which the lake at their feet took its name. On the tallest of these had stood, perhaps for five centuries, a building made of heavy slabs of granite. It had originally been erected for the double purpose of worship of Incal and astronomical calculations, but was used in my day as a monastery. There was no path up the peak, and the sole means of access was by vailx.

In the neighborhood of twenty years ago, more or less, counting from this Anno Domini 1886, an intrepid American explorer discovered the famous Yellowstone region, and while on the same expedition went as far west as the Three Tetons, in Idaho. These mountain triplets were the Pitachi Ui of Atl. Professor Hayden, having arrived at the base of these lofty peaks, succeeded, after indefatigable toil, in reaching the top of the greater peak, and made the first ascent known to modern times. On its top, he found a roofless structure of granite slabs, within which, he said, “the granite detritus was of a depth indicating that for eleven thousand years it had been undisturbed.” His inference was that this period had elapsed since the construction of the granite walls. Well, the professor was right, as I happen to know. He was examining a structure made by Poseid hands one hundred and twenty-seven and a half centuries ago, and it was because Professor Hayden was once a Poseida and held a position under the Atlan Government, as an attache of the government body of scientists stationed at Pitachi Ui, that he was karmically attracted to return to the scene of his labors long ago. Perhaps knowledge of this fact would have increased the interest he felt in the Three Tetons.

Our vailx alighted upon the ledge without the temple of Ui just as nightfall came on. It was very cold there, so far north, and at such an altitude. But the priests within the heavy, well-built edifice never suffered cold, for Atla, drawing upon Navaz, had Night-Side forces at its call. The primary cause of our visit was our desire to pay devotion to Incal as He arose next morning. All night, the brilliant beams of light from our ruby-colored lanterns flashed the tidings, to such Poseidi as might look our way, that a royal vailx

was in the region. Next morning after sunrise, our vessel lifted and departed for the east, that we might visit our copper mines in the present Lake Superior region. We were conducted in electric trams through the labyrinths of galleries and tunnels. When we were about to leave, the government overseer of the mines presented each of our company with various articles of tempered copper. To me, he gave an instrument, similar to the modern pocket-knife, which I retained to the day of my death, and always valued highly on account of its extra fine temper, which kept a keen edge, good enough to shave with, and rarely required to be sharpened. The Poseidi were adepts in this now lost art of copper tempering. In return, I gave the overseer a nugget of native gold. He asked me whence it came, and when I told him, remarked:

“Any specimen from the famous mine at Pitach Rhok will be highly prized by an old miner like thy servant, more especially as it is presented by the discoverer of the mine himself.”

Thus had the mine, found by me when an obscure lad, returned riches to the pick and shovel which had rendered it famed throughout the civilized world.

After taking counsel among ourselves, we decided not to make the farther northern trip, for every one of us had seen the Arctic icefields at least once, while some of us had been there several times. Instead, we concluded to remain in Incalia for a week longer, and spend the eleven days thereof in visiting, more at our leisure, the great territory where, although of course we did not know it, the Anglo-Saxon was one day to found the glorious American Union. History is said to repeat itself; I believe it does. Certainly, races follow in the track of preceding races, and as the most important and populous part of all the North American colonies of Poseid had its habitat west of the great chain now known as the Rocky Mountains, so also the grandeur of America will be upheld by the western and southwestern States of the American Union.

Man likes pleasant places to live in; he likes those lands where Mother Nature is amiable and laughs with abundant harvests upon slight provocation; man likes to live in a fruit-land, and where shall he find anything more to his mind than this same southwest and west of the Incalia of yore? Along the ocean shore and back to the Sierra Nevada mountains is the region where, under Poseid dominion, lay a province not second in beauty to the lake region along the shores of Miti. And it has retained its fair charm, while that of the other has given place to drifting sands and cactus and the mesquite, and has tenantry of the Moloch lizards, rattlesnakes, and prairie dogs.

It is no more the “Union of lakes and union of lands” that it was in that olden time.

When we finally left Incalia, that we might return home to Caiphul, the last of our colonial lands visible was the coast of Maine, for we journeyed eastward, then south.

To settle straight down into the ocean would be too much like a landing on terra firma. But being at a height of two miles, more or less, the conductor was directed to gradually reduce the repulsion current, thus diminishing our buoyancy so as to bring us into the water ten miles distant from where the slant commenced. He was further ordered to do this while traveling at a speed which would, though very slow for a vailx, be really swift—that is, he was to cover ten miles in as many minutes. For we decided to forsake the realms of the air for those of the deep where the shark is king. Like all vailx of the class to which it belonged, ours was constructed for both aerial and submarine service, the plates of the sliding deck and the other movable parts of the hull being capable of very close approximation by means of set screws and rubber washers.

When we struck the water at this rate of progress, the shock which the entering needle experienced was sufficiently great to cause its inmates to stagger, and little exclamations were made by the ladies.

As soon as we entered the water, the repulsion was made nil, and its opposite, a degree of attraction greater than that of water to the terrestrial center of gravity, was set up, whereby we were enabled to sink to a considerable depth, despite the air contained in the vessel. The lights outside the windows were started, our speed modified to suit the element, and then we all gathered in the salon by the windows, darkness within and the waters lit without, enabling us to see curious tribes of Neptune which crowded about the strange illumination in their midst.

While thus engaged and while listening to the delighted words of an enthusiastic ichthyologist, I heard a familiar voice in the darkness. I knew it for that of my father Menax, and accordingly went to the naim. He could not see me because I stood in darkness, but I could see him in the great mirror, for at home he was in the light and his image was so transmitted, so that I saw not only himself but his immediate surroundings, just as a person outside a lighted window at night beholds everybody and everything in the interior, himself unseen.

“My son,” said the prince, “thou shouldst not have allowed thy love of novelty to cause thee to act so unwisely as thou didst in entering the ocean at even the slow rate of a ven (mile) per minute. I fear that thou hast a vein of reckless daring in thy nature which will some day bring thee misfortune. Incal punishes the reckless by allowing His broken laws to exact their own penalty. Be cautious, Zailm, be cautious!”

After the submarine experiences had become tedious, the opposite course of a rapid but graduated augmentation of repulsion was imparted to our vailx—a procedure not dangerous, as the other had really been—and soon our long spindle shot out of the water like some great bubble, then rose to where the raz, or repulse indicator, was set for its government, only a few hundred feet above the surface of the ocean. There, putting aside the closed deck, we sat in the bright sunshine and enjoyed the pleasant ocean breeze, which blew in the same southern direction in which we were going. Desiring to reach home by the next day, when the afternoon grew cool we closed the deck, arose high in the heavens so as to lessen atmospheric resistance, and made the quickest speed we could towards the south. This, I should remark, was not nearly so great as either an eastern or western course would have allowed. Traveling either due east or due west, we could proceed at the rate of a degree of longitude every four minutes. But north or south we cut the earth’s currents, and just in proportion as a vailx-course deviated from east to west, in that proportion was its speed lessened, until going due north or south we could only travel at the comparatively slow rate of some hundred miles each hour.

We saw that if we traveled home by the straight course, we would not reach Caiphul under two days, and, having set our desires on reaching it by the next morning, the prospective delay was so tedious that we decided to run in on an angle. That is, we would head our vailx southeast for the Necropan coast, then southwest for Caiphul, and though the extra distance would be several thousand miles, the increased speed attained would allow us to reach our destination in time to take our breakfast at home.

Beautiful Caiphul,
There’s no place like thee;
Queen of Atlantis
And Queen of the Sea.