"There might be contrivances for the purpose of navigation without navigators, so that the greatest vessels would be handled by one single man, and at the same time move onward with greater speed than those with numerous crews." [1] As I pondered over such remarkable observations as those, I sank into absolute reverie; all surrounding objects seemed gradually to disappear from my sight, until I got into that peculiar condition in which, while everything material about us is at rest and passive, the mind, on the contrary, proves uncommonly active and alert. I felt myself suddenly in the midst of an immense city; where I did not know, but about me I saw a vast square, and in it a stately edifice with a lofty tower, on which I fancied I read the following inscription: A.D. 2071. January 1st. I could scarcely believe my own eyes, and must have approached the tower with looks highly expressive of curiosity and amazement; for an elderly gentleman, accompanied by a young lady, stepped forward to speak to me. "I see, sir, that you are a stranger in Londinia; if any information could be of service to you----" These kind words caused me to stop; I looked at the man who stood before me, and was at once struck and impressed by his thoughtful and noble features. Nor was I slow in recognising him. He was the very man with whom I had been for some time past engaged in my thoughts. "You are Roger Bacon," said I. "To be sure!" was his reply; "at the same time allow me the pleasure of introducing you to this young lady friend of mine, Miss Phantasia." I happened to be in that frame of mind to which one might apply the Horatian nil mirari. Nothing of what I saw surprised me, not even the appearance in the flesh of a man like Bacon, who had taken his departure from our planet some five hundred years ago. I therefore simply accepted his obliging offer, and began by asking for an explanation of the figures and words on the tower. "On yonder tower, over the clock-face?" answered he. "Why, that means simply this, that we have arrived at the first day of the new year 2071." "But what is the time? I see so many hands and figures on the clock, that I am perfectly bewildered." "What kind of time is it you want to know?" asked he in reply; "true, mean, or Aleutic Time? for each of these has its own set of hands and figures." "I know full well," said I, "what true time is, also what is understood by mean time, but what on earth is meant by aleutic time?"