a superficial area of about nine hundred square miles.
Bullocks, cows, goats, and sheep existed in considerable numbers;
and as there seemed already to be an abundance of game,
it was hardly likely that a future supply would fail them.
The condition of the cereals was such as to promise a fine
ingathering of wheat, maize, and rice; so that for the governor
and his population, with their two horses, not only was there
ample provision, but even if other human inhabitants besides
themselves should yet be discovered, there was not the remotest
prospect of any of them perishing by starvation.

From the 6th to the 13th of January the rain came down
in torrents; and, what was quite an unusual occurrence at this
season of the year, several heavy storms broke over the island.
In spite, however, of the continual downfall, the heavens still
remained veiled in cloud. Servadac, moreover, did not fail to observe
that for the season the temperature was unusually high; and, as a matter
still more surprising, that it kept steadily increasing, as though
the earth were gradually and continuously approximating to the sun.
In proportion to the rise of temperature, the light also assumed
greater intensity; and if it had not been for the screen of vapor
interposed between the sky and the island, the irradiation which
would have illumined all terrestrial objects would have been vivid
beyond all precedent.

But neither sun, moon, nor star ever appeared; and Servadac's
irritation and annoyance at being unable to identify any one point
of the firmament may be more readily imagined than described.
On one occasion Ben Zoof endeavored to mitigate his master's
impatience by exhorting him to assume the resignation, even if