Page:Around the World in Eighty Days (1873, Towle).pdf/19

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Introduction.

Jules Verne.

The autographic sketch on the opposite page represents the "St. Michael," a little decked bark belonging to the author of "Around the World in Eighty Days."

The sketch, which Verne executed in the twinkling of an eye, on our own desk, without suspecting that it would receive the honours of publicity, is accompanied by the inscription, "Bourset Malais," which two words indicate the type of craft of which the "St. Michael" is an example. It is on this frail skiff that Jules Verne goes upon long voyages, and has already explored the English coast and ascended as far as Scotland.

Verne recently took a trip in her to Jersey, in the English Channel, accompanied by his factotum, Antonie Delon, a veritable sea-wolf, who loves danger because he has always overcome it.

These daring peregrinations gave the author of "Twenty