“They cannot see down to our habitations, for two reasons. In the first place, although the craters connect with the vast labyrinth of passages and chambers below, with few exceptions they bend and subdivide into numerous dividing branches long before they get down to a habitable level. In the second place there are perpetual clouds standing in all those passages, that lead to the surface of the hump, at various elevations of from two or three to eight or ten miles above the sea level. Of course it is not possible to see down through these—nor up through them either—except when they are cleared away for a special purpose, as is done sometimes for the benefit of our astronomers.” “They sometimes look out through these craters then, do they? How do they get rid of the clouds?” “I will describe one of the craters used by the astronomers for an observatory. It is the shape of a funnel with a diameter at the surface of the hump of twenty-five miles. From there it tapers rapidly inwards till at a distance of about 29 miles below the surface, it has narrowed down to a mile in diameter. This is the entrance, down to what was originally a vast dome shaped chamber. This chamber is now filled to the roof on one side, by material poured down through the funnel, while on the other side the material consisting of volcanic ashes, scoria, rocks etc., slopes down for three miles, the over-arching dome finally closing down to it leaving only a few narrow passages through into other chambers. Well up on this slope and nearly under the center of the great funnel, our astronomers established their observatory. This is for the special purpose of examining the earth, which is always in sight from this point, and as it rolls itself over every twenty-four hours, without apparently moving out of its tracks, it is seemingly on exhibition for our sole benefit. As we revolve around it every month we are enabled to see both poles alternately, while the whole of the equatorial parts can be seen every twenty-four hours. “We are thus enabled to make far more complete and perfect maps of the earth, than you have yourselves. We have powerful telescopes. The one at the funnel observatory I am telling you of, can bring the earth within forty miles.” “If it brought it eleven miles further it would stop up the funnel and become invisible, wouldn’t it?” said I. His eyes expressed a slight gleam of humor, which I fancied was tinged by a shade of compassion, as he recognized this for a joke, and then he went on: