AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. 325 



ideas about every thing. An animated conversation 

 sprang up at once between him and the Professor, 

 and it soon became amusingly evident that his geo- 

 logical ideas did not entirely accord with those of the 

 Philosopher. A sudden turn in the colloquy de- 

 veloped a fact of keen interest to even the most un- 

 scientific member of our party. 



Pointing to the other side of the valley, Louis told 

 us that there lay the bones of an immense snake, all 

 turned to stone. This sudden voice from the past 

 ages sounded in the Professor's ears like the blare of 

 a trumpet to a warrior. He hurried us forward in the 

 direction indicated, and, locking arms with the bloody- 

 shirted little Frenchman, strode on in advance. I 

 wish his class could have seen him thus traversing 

 the desolate bed where that old sunken volcano went 

 to sleep. We were glad that the latter was still 

 asleep, and had never acquired the habit of snorting 

 into wakefulness, and pelting explorers with hot 

 rocks. 



What mysteries, I have often thought, might we 

 not discover, on looking down the throat of a healthy 

 volcano, if some wise alchemist could only brew a 

 dose sufficiently powerful to stop the fiery fellow's 

 foaming at the mouth ! Or, better still, if it could 

 reach the bowels of the earth, and keep the whole 

 system quiet, while we, puny mortals, like trichina 

 mites, swarmed down the interior, and bored scien- 

 tifically back to the crust again. Earth's veins run 

 golden blood, and we might be gorged with that, per- 

 haps, ere making exit into the sunshine again. 



A shout from the further edge of the ravine cut 



