true of the other also, for during a large part of these geological
changes she undoubtedly rotated rapidly on her axis like the earth."

"But we traveled five thousand miles on the other side without
encountering anything but a frozen prairie," I objected.

"True enough, and yet I would lay a wager that all of that side of the
planet is not equally level. Remember the vast plains of Russia and
Siberia."

"Well," put in Jack, whose spirits were beginning to revive, "if there's
a shore somewheres, let's find it. I want to see the other kind of
inhabitants. These that we've met don't accord with my ideas of Venus."

"We shall find them," responded Edmund, "and I think I can promise you
that they will not disappoint your expectations."

Yet there seemed to be nothing in our present situation to warrant the
confidence expressed by our leader's words and manner. The current that
had carried us out of the crystal mountains gradually disappeared in a
vast waste of waters, and we were driven hither and thither by the
tempestuous wind. Its force increased hour by hour, and at last the sky,
which at brief intervals had been clear and exquisitely blue, became
choked with black clouds, sweeping down upon the face of the waters, and
often whirled into great _trombes_ by the tornadic blasts. Several times
the car was deluged by waterspouts, and once it was actually lifted up
into the air by the mighty suction. An ordinary vessel would not have
lived five minutes in that hell of winds and waters. But the car, if it
had been built for this kind of navigation, could not have behaved
better.