"I fear my dear Jack that your brain has played a trick on you." "That may be so," I said, "but let us go above and investigate before we jump to conclusions." He assented, and as we reached the deck, the "Halloo!" was repeated in a much louder tone than before and this time, apparently directly over our heads. We looked up and about one hundred feet above our starboard quarter we beheld what, at first sight, appeared to be some monster bird, with outspread wings slowly moving as if to maintain its position. But a second glance revealed it to be some kind of an aerial conveyance, with transparent sides, through which we could plainly see two persons on board, who were watching us with intense interest. "Well Jack, what do you think of it?" asked the Captain. "I hardly know," I replied, "but this seeming monster bird is some kind of a contrivance for navigating the air, and it has passengers on board who evidently want to communicate with us." Our colloquy was brought to a summary conclusion by one of our aerial visitors addressing us in a strangely musical but unknown tongue. We were astonished at the salutation, but we had had so many strange experiences lately, that we did not lose our self possession, and Captain Ganoe responded at once by inviting them to "Come on board." They did not seem to understand, and after a moment's pause he beckoned to them. They understood the gesture and after a short consultation, their strange vessel began to circle around in a spiral and came to a rest on deck, when a side door opened, and two of the finest looking people I had ever seen stepped out and shook hands with us. They were large, very fair and looked almost exactly alike. One of them who seemed to be the leader, presented a paper which I recognized as one of the dispatches which we had committed to the care of the winds a few days after our escape from the ice. I was surprised to see written below it, in strange characters, what seemed to be a translation, and this was signed, "Mac," in a plain round hand. We examined it closely, and handing it back, Captain Ganoe turned to me and exclaimed: "Thank God! English is understood by some people in this inner world. This removes our greatest difficulty. We can get acquainted." Our visitors seemed pleased when they saw that we recognized the dispatch and the leader at once stepped to the larboard side of the ship and waved a handkerchief. I now noticed for the first time that two other airships hovered near, and one of them immediately responded to the signal and came alongside. After a brief consultation with the occupants, it began to circle around and ascend until it had attained a great height, when it darted off at an amazing speed toward the west. I had noticed that these aerial conveyances both ascended and descended, by circling around in a spiral.