AURORA AUSTRALIS.
Far behind was the great salt sea and saline borderlands. Ahead was a sea of jungle spread over gradually rising plains. Beyond, where frigid altitudes are reached, a great snowy plateau carried the picture beyond the horizon.
The whole party was overcome with the wild grandeur of the scene and, when it was time for return, we retraced our steps down the snowy slopes in silence. From this reverie we were suddenly awakened by a shout from the foremost, who had come upon the body of a huge animal, about four feet in length, partly buried in the ice. The biologist reported the beast to have affinities between the water bears and the mites, but distinct from anything we had so far noted in Bathybia. We got to work with our ice axes and soon had him out. The body being more or less cylindrical, we found no trouble rolling our prize to the camp near by. In the first instance our intention for so doing was merely to astonish our comrades. However, the biologist, seeing the specimen still intact, asked that it might be spared till further investigated. It was the peculiarity of our biologist to save his specimens for examination in the early morning hours.
After supper, it being the eve of our returning journey, a general discussion regarding the natural
