said that, through inhaling the strange atmosphere, some of those who escaped death from accident lived for hundreds of years.
The people began to go about in their boats, for they no longer possessed ships. Their continent, however, was broken up, and in such a brief space of time. They only found islands more or less scattered where it once had been. Between these, in many instances, were numerous shoals and currents that rendered navigation difficult and dangerous. This prevented that intercourse which might have saved, for a time at least, the civilization which had received such a terrible blow, and was already tottering.
The manuscript now at some length gave a detailed description of a few of the islands and their inhabitants, from which it appeared that the crew of the Valina was much pleased with what they had already seen, and that their voyage had hitherto been a most prosperous one. It concluded by stating they had not forgotten their promise to return.
I now learned, to my chagrin, that I should have read this manuscript first, or, at least, immediately after reading the other, for by so doing I should have spared myself considerable mental effort in
