torrents they would have to breast, the types of energy they would have to accustom their systems to, and all the risks and dangers they would have to meet. And, when their knowledge of the conditions and regions and tracks in the boundless space they might have to traverse was fairly rounded and complete, then some slight adaptation of their sarmolan would be to them their cosmic compass. There was evidence in other discoveries too that this hope was not so utopian as it seemed at first, that at least not countless centuries would pass before they might be able to fulfil it. One especially, that of the Floramo or botanical families, quickened their expectation far beyond the mere flight of fancy. It was a new sublimation of a vegetable extract, which seemed to give their lungs free play when there was little or no air to breathe. They had used for ages the fruit of what they called the floronal or tree of life for giving new vigour to the organs and especially to the nerve-tissues; they still continued to use it, even though the chemical families had analysed it and found all its constituents, and then reproduced a mixture that had most of the revivifying qualities of the fruit. The tree grew only in marshy districts, and they had reserved an obscure and rarely visited corner of the island for its culture and for the culture of plants and trees like it. There was another tree growing only in the cooler zone half-way up the mountain, and preferring shallow and poor soil to root in, whose fruit gave extreme flexibility to the more muscular and cartilaginous tissues, and especially to those in the chest; if taken inwardly or through the pores, muscular exercise became more easy, and breathing became deeper and slower or quicker as the will directed. A third low plant or shrub, which grew only on the highest altitudes of Lilaroma, and had its roots generally in the soil underneath a layer of snow, had been found recently to have in its tissues, and in a concentrated form in its nuts, great stores of oxygen. For ages it had been considered a poisonous plant, and avoided; for within a considerable radius of it breathing had always been more difficult than at a distance from it; it had therefore been eradicated from all parts of the cone frequented by the Limanorans. It had no beauty of form, often grew low like a lichen or moss, and could remain under the snow for years without perishing. It had thus been neglected and in fact seldom observed in its growth; whilst its nuts had been thought to be as poisonous as the plant itself. But recently an avalanche from one of the little-visited slopes of Lilaroma had uncovered a hollow, in which one of the Floramo had found a bird, emaciated and unable to fly, yet still alive; and beside it were the remains of a number of these poison plants and particles of many of their nuts. It had evidently been imprisoned many weeks, if not months, and its only food had been