 This is Chapter 11, Book 2 of a Journey in Other Worlds. A Journey in Other Worlds, Book 2, Chapter 11, A Jovian Niagara. Four days later, after crossing a ridge of mountains, let the pressure on the aneroid barometer showed to be about 32,000 feet high, and a stretch of flat country a few miles in width, they came to a great arm of the sea. It was about 30 miles wide at its mouth, which was narrowed like the neck of a bottle, and farther in Len was over 100 miles across. And through their glasses, the clear air and the planet's size enabled them to see nearly 500 miles, they could not find its end. In the shallow water along its shores, and on the islands rising but a few feet above the waves, they saw all kinds of amphibians and sea monsters. Many of these were almost the exact reproduction in life of the giant Plesiosars, Dinosaurs, and Elasmosars, whose remains are preserved in the museums on earth. The reptilian bodies of the Elasmosars, 75 feet in length, with the forked tongues, distended jaws, and fangs of a snake, were easily taken for the often described, but probably mythical sea serpent, as partially coiled, they occasionally raised their heads 12 or 15 feet. Man in his natural state, said Cortland, would have but small chance of surviving long among such neighbors. Buckland, I think, once indulged in the jude spree of supposing an ichthyosaur lecturing on the human skull. You will at once perceive, said the lecturer, that the skull before us belonged to one of the lower order of animals. The teeth are very insignificant, the power of the jaws trifling, and altogether it seems wonderful how the creature could have procured food. Armed with modern weapons, and in this machine we are, of course, superior to the most powerful monster. But it is not likely that, had man been so surrounded during the whole of his evolution, he could have reached his present plane. Notwithstanding the striking similarity of these creatures to their terrestrial counterparts that existed on earth during its corresponding period, there were some interesting modifications. The organs of locomotion in the amphibians were more developed, while the eyes of all were larger, the former being, of course, necessitated by the power of gravity, and the latter by the greater distance from the sun. The adaptability and economy of nature, said Cortland, have always amazed me. In the total blackness of the Kentucky Mammoth Cave, where eyes would be of no use to the fishes, our common mother has given them none. While if there is any light, though not as much as we are accustomed to, she may be dependent upon to rise to the occasion by increasing the size of the pupil and the power of the eye. In the development of the ambulatory muscles, we again see her handiwork, probably brought about through the survival of the fittest. The fishes and those wholly immersed would need no increase in power, for though they weigh more than they would on earth, the weight of the water they displace is increased at the same rate also, and their buoyancy remains unchanged. Like the development of life here, so closely follows its lines on earth, with the exception of comparatively slight modifications, which are exactly what had we stopped to think, we should have expected to find, may we not reasonably ask, whether she will not continue on those lines, and in time, produced beings like ourselves, but with more powerful muscles and eyes capable of seeing clearly with less light, reasoning by analogy, we can come to no other conclusion, unless their advent is anticipated by the arrival of ready-made columnists from the more advanced earth like ourselves. In that case, man, by pursuing the same destructive methods that he has pursued in regard to many other species, may exterminate the intervening links, and so arrest evolution. Before leaving Deepwater's Bay, they secured a pail of its water, which they found on examination contained a far larger percentage of salt and solid materials than the oceans on earth, while a thermometer that they immediately immersed in it, soon registered 85 degrees Fahrenheit, both of which discoveries confirmed them in what they already knew, namely that Jupiter had advanced comparatively little from the condition in which the water on the surface is hot, in which state the earth once was. They were soon beyond the estuary at which they had stopped to study the forms of life and to make this test, and kept on due north for several days, occasionally rising above the air, as their familiarity with their surroundings increased they made notes of several things. The mountains covered far more territory at their bases than the terrestrial mountains, and they were in places very rugged and showed vast yawning chasms. They were also wooded farther up their sides and bore but little snow. But so far the travelers had not found them much higher than those on earth, the greatest altitude being the 32,000 feet south of Deepwater's Bay and one other ridge that was 40,000, so that compared with the size of the planet and its continents they seemed quite small, and the continents themselves were comparatively level. They also noted that spray was blown in vast sheets till the ocean for miles was white as milk. The wind often attained tornado strength and the whole surface of the water about what seemed to be the storm center frequently moved with rapidity in the form of foam. Yet notwithstanding this the waves were never as large as those to which they were accustomed on earth. This they accounted for very easily by the fact that while water weighed 2.55 times as much as on earth, the pressure of air was but little more than half as much again, and consequently its effect on all but the very surface of the heavy liquid was comparatively slight. Gravity is a useful factor here, observed Cortland, as they made a note of this. For, in addition to giving immunity from waves, it is most effective in checking the elevation of high mountains or table lands in the high latitudes, which we shall doubtless find sufficiently cool or even cold while in tropical regions which might otherwise be too hot it interferes with them least on account of being partly neutralized by the rapid rotation with which all four of the major planets are blessed. At sunrise the following morning they saw they were approaching another great arm of the sea. It was over a thousand miles wide at its mouth and had not the photographs showed the contrary they would have thought the Callisto had reached the northern end of the continent. It extended into the land 15,000 miles and on account of the shape of its mouth they called it Funnel Bay. Rising to a height they flew across and came to a great table land peninsula with the chain of mountains on either side. The southern range was something over and the northern something less than five thousand feet in height while the table land between sloped almost imperceptibly towards the middle in which as they expected they found a river compared to which the Mississippi or the Amazon would be but a brook. In honor of the president of the terrestrial access straightening company they called this great projection which averaged about four thousand miles across by twelve thousand miles long Bearwarden Peninsula. They already noticed a change in climate. The ferns and poms became fewer and were succeeded by pines while the air was also a good deal cooler which was easily accounted for by their altitude though even at that height it was considerably denser than at sea level on earth and by the fact that they were already near latitude 30. The exposed points on the plateau as also the summits of the first mountains they had seen before a lighting were devoid of vegetation scarcely so much as a blade of grass being visible. Since they could not account for this by cold they concluded that the most probable explanation lay in the tremendous hurricanes that produced by the planet's rapid rotation frequently swept along its surface like the earth's trade winds but with far more violence. On reaching the northern coast of the peninsula they increased their elevation and changed their course to northeast not caring to remain long over the great body of water which they named Cortland Bay. The thousands of miles of foam fast flew beneath them the first thing attracting their attention being a change in the ocean's color in the eastern shore of Cortland Bay they soon observed the mouth of a river 10 miles across from which this tinted water issued in a flood. On account of its color which reminded them of a stream they knew so well they christened it the Harlem believing that an expedition up its valley might reveal something of interest they began the ascent remaining at an elevation of a few hundred feet. For about 300 miles they followed this river which had but few bends while its sides became more and more precipitous till it flowed through a cannon four and a half miles across though they knew from the wide discoloration of Cortland Bay that the volume of water discharged was tremendous the stream seldom moved at a rate of more than five miles an hour and for a time was free from rocks and rapids from which they concluded that it must be very deep half an hour later they saw a cloud of steam or mist which expanded and almost obscured the sky as they approached next they heard a sound like distant thunder which they took for the prolonged eruption of some giant crater though they had not expected to find one so far towards the interior of the continent presently it became one continuous roar the echo in the cannon whose walls were at this place over 600 feet high being simply deafening so that the near discharge of the heaviest artillery would have been completely drowned one would think the end of the world was approaching shouted Cortland through his hands look bare warden roared back the wind is scattering the mist as he spoke the vapory curtain was drawn aside revealing a waterfall of such vast proportions as to dwarf completely anything they had ever seen or even imagined a somewhat open horseshoe lip three and a half miles straight across and over four miles following the line of the curve discharged a sheet of water 40 feet thick at the edge into an abyss 600 feet below two islands on the brink divided this sheet of liquid into three nearly equal parts while myriads of rainbows hovered in the clouds of spray two things especially struck the observers the water made but little curve or sweep on passing over the edge and then rushed down to the abyss at almost lightning speed shivering itself to infinitesimal particles on striking any rock or projection at the side its behavior was of course due to its weight and to the fact that on jupiter bodies fall 40.98 feet the first second instead of 16 feet as on earth and at correspondingly increasing speed finding that they were being rapidly dazed and stunned by the noise the travelers caused the callisto to rise rapidly and were soon surveying the superb site from a considerable elevation their minds could grasp but slowly the full meaning and titanic power of what they saw and not even the vast falls in their nearness could make their significance clear here was a sheet of water three and a half miles wide averaging 40 feet in depth moving at a rapid rate towards a sheer fall of 600 feet they felt as they gazed at it that the power of that waterfall would turn backward every engine and dynamo on the earth and it seemed as if it might almost put out the fires of the sun yet it was but an illustration of the action of the solar orb exerted on a vast area of ocean the vapor in the form of rain being afterwards turned into these comparatively narrow limits by the topography of the continent compared with this niagra with its descent of less than 200 feet and its relatively small flow of water would be but a rivulet and at best a rapid stream reluctantly leaving the fascinating spectacle they pursued their exploration along the river above the falls for the first few miles the surface of the water was near that of the land there were occasional rapids but few rocks and the foaming torrent moved at great speed the red sandstone banks of the river being as polished as though they had been waxed after a while the obstructions disappeared but the water continued to rush and surge along at a speed of 10 or 12 miles an hour so that it would be easily navigable only for logs or objects moving in one direction the surface of the river was soon on an average 50 feet below the edge of the banks this depression being one result of the water's rapid motion and weight which facilitated the carving of its channel when they had followed up the river about 60 miles towards its source they came upon what at first had the appearance of an ocean they knew however from its elevation and the flood coming from it that the water must be fresh as they soon found it was this lake was about 300 miles wide and stretched from northeast to southwest there was rolling land with hills about its shores and the foliage on the banks was a beautiful shade of louis purple instead of the terrestrial ubiquitous green when near the great lakes upper end they passed the mouth of a river on their left side which from its volume they concluded must be the principal source and therefore they determined to trace it they found it to be a most beautiful stream averaging two and a half miles in width evidently very deep and with a full steady current after proceeding for several hours they found that the general placidity grew less the smooth surface occasionally became ruffle by projecting rocks and rapids and the banks rose till the voyagers again found themselves in a ravine or cannon during their sojourn on jupiter they had had but little experience with the tremendous winds that they knew for some reason and observation must rage in its atmosphere they now heard them whistling over their heads and notwithstanding the projection afforded by the sides of the cannon occasionally received a gust that made the callisto swerve they kept on steadily however till sunset at which time it became very dark on account of the high banks which rose as steeply as the palisades on the Hudson to a height of nearly a thousand feet finding a small island near the eastern bank they were glad to secure the callisto there for the night below the reach of the winds which they still heard singing loudly but with a musical note in what seemed to them like the sky it is incomprehensible to me said Errol as they sat at dinner how the sun at a distance of 483 million miles can raise the amount of water we have here passing us and compared with which the discharge of the greatest river on earth would be insignificant to say nothing of the stream we ascend it before reaching this we must remember replied courtland that many of the conditions are different here from those that exist on earth we know that some of the streams are warm and even hot and that the temperature of deep waters bay and doubtless that of the ocean also is considerably higher than ours this would facilitate evaporation the density of the atmosphere and the tremendous winds of which i suspect we may see more later must also help the sun very much in its work of raising vapor but the most potent factor is undoubtedly the vast size of the basin that these rivers drain the great speed at which the atmospheric currents move said bear warden coupled with the comparative lowness of the mountain chains and the slight obstruction they offer to their passage must distribute the rain very thoroughly notwithstanding the great unbroken area of the continents there can be no such state of things here as exists in the western part of south america where the andes are so high that any eastbound clouds in crossing them are shoved up so far into a cold region that all moisture they may have brought from the pacific is condensed into rain with which parts of the western slope are deluged while clouds from the atlantic have come so far they have already dispersed their moisture in consequence of which the region just east of the andes gets little if any rain it is bad for a continent to have its high mountains near the ocean from which it should get its rain and good for it to have them set well back i should not be surprised said courtland if we saw another waterfall tomorrow though not in the shape of rain in the hour before we stopped we began to see rapids and protruding rocks that means that we are coming to a part of the channel that is comparatively new since the older parts have had time to wear smooth i take it then that we are near the foot of a retreating cascade which we may hope soon to see that is exactly the order in which we found smooth water and rapids in river number one which we have named the harlem after this not being tired they use the remaining dark hours for recording their recent adventures this is the end of chapter 11 in book two of a journey in other worlds recording by tom weiss this is chapter 12 book two of a journey in other worlds this liberbox recording is in the public domain recording by tom weiss a journey in other worlds book two chapter 12 hills and valleys with the first light they resumed their journey and an hour after setting out they cite it as courtland had predicted another cloud of vapor the fall for such it proved to be was more beautiful than the other or though the volume of water was not so great it fell at one leap without a break and at the same tremendous speed a distance of more than a thousand feet the cannon rang with the echoes while the spray flew in sheets against the smooth glistening sandstone walls instead of coming from a river as the first fall had this poured at once from the rocky lip about two miles across of a lake that was 1100 feet above the surging mass in the veil below it is a thousand pitties said bear warden that this cataract has got so near its source for at the rate these streams must cut this one in a few hundred years unless something is done to prevent it will have worn back to the lake and then goodbye to the falls which will become a series of rapids perhaps the first effect will be merely to reduce by a few feet the height of the falls in which case they will remain in practically the same place about the shores of this lake they saw rhinoceroses with long thick wool and herds of creatures that much resembled buffaloes i do not see said bear warden why the identical species should not exist here that till recently in a geological sense inhabited the earth the climate and all other conditions are practically the same on both planets except a trifling difference in weight to which terrestrials would soon adapt themselves we know by spectroscopic analysis that hydrogen iron magnesium and all our best known substances exist in the sun and even the stars while the earth contains everything we have found in meteorites then why make an exception of life instead of supposing that at corresponding periods of development the same living forms inhabit all it would be assuming the eternal sterilization of the functions of nature to suppose that our earth is the only body that can produce them the world of organic life is so much more complex replied courtland than that of the crystal that it requires great continuity so far we certainly have seen no man or anything like them not even so much as a monkey though i suppose according to your reasoning jupiter has not advanced far enough to produce even that exactly replied bear warden for it will require vast periods and according to my belief at least half the earth's time of habitability had passed before man appeared but we see jupiter is admirably suited for those who have been developed somewhere else and it would be an awful shame if we allowed it to lie unimproved till it produces appreciative inhabitants of its own for we find more to admire in one half hour than its entire present population during its lifetime yet how magnificent this world is and how superior in its natural state to ours the mountainous horns of these crescent shaped continents protect them and the ocean they enclose from the cold polar marine currents and in a measure from the icy winds while the elevated country on the horns near the equator might be a garden of eden or ideal resort to be sure the continents might support a larger population if more broken up notwithstanding the advantage resulting from the comparatively low mountains along the coast and the useful winds a greater subdivision of land and water more great islands connected by isthmuses and more Mediterranean's joined by straits would be a further advantage to commerce but with the sources of power at hand the resistless winds and water power much increased ineffectiveness by their weight the great tides when several moons are on the same side or opposite the sun internal heat near the surface an abundant coal supply doubtless already formed and also near the surface such small alterations could be made very easily and would serve merely to prevent our becoming rusty as jupiter's distance from the sun varies from 506,563 miles at apheleon to only 460,013,000 miles at perihelion this difference in connection with even the slight inclination of the axis must make a slight change in seasons but as the inclination is practically nothing almost the entire change results from the difference in distance this means that the rise or fall in temperature is general on every degree of latitude all being warmed simultaneously more or less as the planet approaches or departs from the sun it means also that about the same conditions that secretary deepwater suggested as desirable for the earth prevail here and that jupiter represents therefore about the acme of climate naturally provided on account of its rapid rotation and vast size the winds have a tornado strength but they are nothing at this distance from the sun to what they would be if a planet with its present rate of rotation and size were venus or even earth is in either of these positions no land life with which we are acquainted could live on the surface for the slope of the atmospheric isobars i.e the lines of equal barometric pressure that produced wind by being tilted through unequal expansion after which the air as it were flows downhill would be too great the ascending currents about the equator would also of course be vastly strengthened so that we see a wise dispensation of providence in placing the large planets which also rotate so rapidly at a great distance from the sun which is the father of all winds rotation alone however rapid being unable to produce them they found this lake was about six times the size of lake superior and that several large and small streams ran into its upper end these had their sources in smaller lakes that were at slightly higher elevations though the air was cool the sun shone brightly while the ground was covered with flowers resembling those of the northern climes on earth of all shapes and lines twice a day these sent up their song and trees were covered with buds and the birds twittered gaily the streams murmured and bubbled and all things reminded the travelers of early morning in spring if anything could reconcile me said bear warden to exchange my active utilitarian life for rustic poetic existence it would be this place for it is far more beautiful than anything i have seen on earth it needs but a mod muller and a few cows to complete the picture since nature gives us a vision of eternal peace and repose somehow the mention of mod muller and the delicate and refined flowers whose perfume he inhaled brought up thoughts that were never far below the surface in erealt's mind this place is heavenly enough said he to make one wish to live and remain here forever but to me it would be hamlet with hamlet left out ah poor chap said courtland you are in love but you are not to be pitied for though the thrusts at the heart are sharp they may be the sweetest that mortals know the following morning they reluctantly left the picturesque shores of lake serenity with their beautiful tints and foliage and resumed the journey to explore a number of islands in the ocean in the west which were recorded on their negatives ascending to rarefied air they saw great chains of mountains which they imagined ran parallel to the coast rising to considerable altitudes in the east the tops of all glistened with a mantle of snow in the sunlight while between the ridges they saw darker and evidently fertile valleys they passed moving northwest over large and small lakes all evidently part of the same great system and continued to sweep along for several days with a beautiful panorama as varying as a kaleidoscope spread beneath their eyes they observed that the character of the country gradually changed the symmetrically rounded mountains and hills began to show angles while great slabs of rock were split from the faces the sides also became less vertical and there was an accumulation of detrital fragments about their bases these heaps of fractured stone had in some cases begun to disintegrate and form soil on which there was a scant growth of vegetation but the sides and summits whose jaggedness increased with their height were absolutely bare here said courtland we have unmistakable evidence of frost and ice action the next interesting question is how recently has denudation occurred the absence of plant life at the exposed places he continued as if lecturing to a class can be accounted for here as nearer the equator by the violence of the wind but i greatly doubt whether water will now freeze in this latitude at any season of the year or even should the northern hemisphere's very insignificant winter coincide with the planet's apelian the necessary drop from the present temperature would be too great to be at all probable if then it is granted that ice does not form here now not withstanding the fact that it has done so the most plausible conclusion is that the inclination of jupiter's access is automatically changing as we know the earth has often done there being nothing incompatible in this view with the evidence at hand we can safely assume it correct for the time being at least when farther south you remember we found no trace of ice action not withstanding the comparative slowness with which we decided that the ridges in the crust have been upheaved on account of the resisting power of gravity and as i see now also on account of jupiter's great mass which must prevent it's losing its heat anything like as fast as the earth has in which i think also we have the explanation of the comparatively low elevation of the mountains that we found we could not account for by the power of gravitation alone from the fact that the exposed surface farther south must be old on account of the slow upheaval and the slight wear to which it is exposed about the only wearing agent being the wind which would be powerless to erase ice scratches especially since on account of gravity's power it cannot like our desert winds carry much sand which as we know has cut away the base of the sphinx i think it is logical to conclude that though jupiter's access is changing naturally as the earth has been it has never varied as much as 23 and a half degrees and certainly to nothing like the extent to which we see venus and uranus tilled it today i follow you said bairwarden and do not see how we could arrive at anything else from jupiter's low specific gravity weighing but little more than an equal bulk of water i should say the interior must be very hot or else is composed of light material for the crust surface or the part we see is evidently about as dense as what we have on earth these things have puzzled me a good deal and i have been wondering if jupiter may not have been formed before the earth and the smaller planets the discrepancies between even the best authorities replied courtland show that as yet but little has been discovered from the earth concerning jupiter's real condition the two theories that try to account for its genesis are the ring theory and the nebulous we know that the sun is constantly emitting vast volumes of heat and light and that with the exception of the heat resulting from the impact of falling meteors it receives none from outside the principal source being the tremendous friction and pressure between the cooling and shrinking strata within the great mass of the sun itself a seeming paradox therefore comes in here which must be considered if the sun were composed entirely of gas it would for a time continue to grow hotter but the sun is incessantly radiating light and heat and consequently becoming smaller therefore the farther back we go the hotter we find the sun and also the larger till instead of having a diameter of 880 000 miles it filled the space now occupied by the entire solar system here is where the two theories start according to the first the revolving nebulous mass threw off a ring that became the planet Neptune afterwards another that contained the material for Uranus and so on the lightest substance in the sun being thrown off first by which they accounted for the lightness of the four great planets and finally Mars the earth and the small dense planets near the sun the advocates of this theory pointed to Saturn's rings as an illustration of the birth of a planet or rather in that case a satellite according to this the major planets have had a far longer separate existence than the minor which would account for their being so advanced not withstanding their size this theory may again come into general acceptance but for the present it has been discredited by the nebulous according to this second theory at the time the sun filled all the space inside of Neptune's orbit or extended even further several centers of condensation were formed within the nebulous gaseous mass the greatest center became the sun and the others large and small the planets which as a result of the spiral motion of the whole such as is now going on before our eyes in the great nebulae of 51 m canoen venaticorum and many others began to revolve about the greatest central body of gas as the separate masses cooled they shrank and their surfaces or extreme edges which at first were contiguous began to recede which recession is still going on with some rapidity on the part of the sun for we may be sure its diameter diminishes as its density increases according to either theory as i see it the major planets on account of their distance from the central mass have had longer separate existences than the minor and are therefore more advanced than they would be had all been formed at the same time this theory explains the practical uniformity in the chemical composition of all members of this system by assuming that they were all once a part of the same body and you may say brothers and sisters of the sun instead of its offspring it also makes size the only factor determining temperature and density but of course modified by age since otherwise jupiter would have had a far less developed crust than that with which we find it i have always considered the period from the molten condition to that with a crust as comparatively short which stands the reason for radiation has then no check and the period from the formation of the crust which acts as a blanket to the depth of a planet as very long i have not found this view clearly set forth in any of the books i have read but it seems to me the simplest and most natural explanation now granted that the solar system was once a nebula on which i think everyone will agree the same forces that changed it into a system of sun and planets must be at work on 51 m canum vinaticorum andromeda and 99 m virginus and must inevitably change them to suns each with doubtless a system of planets if then the condition of a nebula or star depends simply on its size it is reasonable to suppose that andromeda sirius and all the vast bodies we see were created at the same time as our system which involves the necessity of one general and simultaneous creation day but as sirius with its diameter of 12 million miles must be larger than some of the nebula will be when equally condensed we must suppose rather that nebula are forming and coming into the condition of bright and dead stars much as apples or pears on a fruit tree are constantly growing and developing so that the mosaic description of the creation would probably apply in point of time only to our system or perhaps to our globe though the rest will doubtless pass through precisely the same stages this i think i will publish on our return as the courtland astronomical doctrine as the most rational i have seen devised and one that i think we may safely believe until perhaps through increased knowledge it can be disproved after they crossed a line of hills that ran at right angles to their course they found the country more rolling all streams and water courses flowed in their direction while their aneroid showed them that they were gradually descending when they were moving along near the surface of the ground a delicious and refined perfume exhaled by the blue and white flowers that had been growing smaller as they journeyed northward frequently reached their nostrils to courtland and bear warden it was merely the scent of a flower but to eral it recalled mental pictures of sylvia wearing violets and lilies that he had given her he knew that the greatest telescopes on earth could not reveal the callisto moving about in jupiter sunshine as even a point of light at that distance and notwithstanding courtland's learning and bear warden's joviality he felt at times extremely lonely they swept along steadily for 50 hours having bright sunny days and beautifully moonlit nights they passed over finely rounded hills and valleys and well-watered plains as they approached the ocean and its level the temperature rose and there was more moisture in the air the plants and flowers also increased in size again resembling somewhat the large species they had seen near the equator this would be the place to live said bear warden looking at iron mountains silver copper and lead formations primeval forests rich prairies and regions evidently underlaid with coal and petroleum not to mention huge vets of aluminum clay and other natural resources that made his materialistic mouth water it would be joy and delight to develop industries here with no snow avalanches to clog your railroads or icy blizzards to paralyze work nor weather that blights you with sun strokes and fevers on our return to the earth we must organize a company to run regular interplanetary lines we could start on this globe all that is best on our own think what boundless possibilities may be before the human race on this planet which on account of its vast size will be in its prime when our insignificant earth is cold and dead and no longer capable of supporting life think also of the indescribable blessing to the congested communities of europe and america to find an unlimited outlet here mars has already passed its prime and venus scarcely habitable but in jupiter we have a new promised land compared with which our earth is a pygmy or but little more than microscopic i see senaralt that the possibilities here have no limit but i do not see how you can compare it to the promised land since till we undertook this journey no one had even thought of jupiter as a habitable place i trace the divine promise replied bear warden in what you described to us on earth as man's innate longing and desire to rise and in the fact that the almighty has given the race unbounded expansiveness in a very limited space this would look to me as the return of man to the garden of eden through intellectual development for here every man could sit under his own vine and fig tree it seems to me said courtland that no paradise or heaven described in anything but the bible compares with this according to vergell's description the joys on the banks of the river lethy must have been most sad in dreary the general idleness and monotony apparently being broken only by wrestling matches between the children while the rest strolled about with laurel rice or rested in the shade the pilot palanuris who had been drowned by falling overboard while asleep but who before that had presumably done his duty did not seem especially happy while the harsh resentful disposition evidently remained unsophoned for dito became like a cliff of marpezian marble when anias asked to be forgiven though he had doubtless considered himself in duty bound to leave her have he been twice commanded to do so by mercury the messenger of jove she like the rest seems to have had no occupation while the consciences of few appear to have been sufficiently clear to enable them to enjoy the unbroken rest the idleness in the spirit land of all profane writers added bear warden has often surprised me too though i have always recommended a certain amount of recreation for my staff in fact more than i have generally had myself an excess of it becomes a bore i think that all real progress comes through thorough work why should we assume that progress ceases at death i believe in the verse that says we learn here on earth those things the knowledge of which is perfected in heaven according to that said courtland you will someday be setting the axis of heaven right for in order to do work there must be work to be done unnecessary corollary to which is that heaven is still imperfect no said bear warden bristling up at the way courtland sometimes received his speeches it means simply that its development though perfect so far as it goes may not be finished and that we may be the means as on earth of helping it along the conditions constituting heaven said error may be as fixed as the laws of nature though the products of those conditions might it seems to me still be forming and subject to modification thereby the reductio and absurdu would of course apply if we suppose the work of creation absolutely finished this is the end of chapter 12 in book two of a journey in other worlds recording by tom weiss this is chapter 13 book two of a journey in other worlds this labor box recording is in the public domain recording by tom weiss a journey in other worlds book two chapter 13 north polar discoveries two days later on the western horizon they beheld the ocean many of the streams whose sources they had seen when they crossed the divide from the lake basin and whose courses they had followed were now rivers a mile wide with the tide ebbing and rising within them many hundreds of miles from their mouse when they reached the shoreline they found the waves breaking as on earth upon the sands but with this difference they had before noted the smallness of the undulations compared with the strength of the wind the result of the water's weight these waves now reminded them of the behavior of mercury or of melted lead when stirred on earth by the rapidity with which the crest dropped though the wind was blowing an onshore gale there was but little combing and when there was any it lasted but a second the one effort of the crests and ways seemed to be to remain at rest or if stirred in spite of themselves to subside when over the surface of the ocean the voyagers rose to a height of 30 000 meters and after 24 hours traveling saw at a distance of about 200 miles what looked like another continent but which they knew must be an island on finding themselves above it they rose still higher to obtain a view of its outlines and compare its shape with that of the islands in the photographs they had had time to develop the length ran from southeast to northwest though crossed by latitude 40 and not withstanding jupiter's distance from the sun the southern side had a very luxuriant vegetation that was almost semi-tropical this they accounted for by its total immunity from cold the density of the air at sea level and the warm moist breezes it received from the tepid ocean the climate was about the same as that of the riviera or of florida in winter and there was of course no parching summer this shows me said bairwarden that a country's climate depends less on the amount of heat it receives from the sun than on the amount it retains proof of which we have in the tops of the Himalayas perpetually covered with snow and snow-capped mountains on the very equator where they get the most direct rays and where those rays have but little air to penetrate it shows that the presence of a substantial atmosphere is as necessary a part of the calculation in practice as the sun itself i am inclined to think that with the constant effect of the eternal heat on its oceans and atmosphere jupiter could get along with a good deal less solar heat than it receives in proof of which i expect to find the poles themselves quite comfortable the reason the internal heat is so little taken into account on earth is because from the thickness of the crust it cannot make itself felt for if the earth were as chilled through as ice the people on the surface would not feel the difference a jovian week's explorations disclose the fact that though the island's general outlines were fairly regular it had deep water harbors great rivers and landlocked gulfs and bays some of which penetrated many hundred miles into the interior it also showed that the island's length was about six thousand miles and its breadth about three thousand and that it had therefore about the superficial area of asia they found no trace of the great monsters that had been so numerous on the mainland though there were plenty of smaller and gentle looking creatures among them animals whose build was much like that of the prehistoric horse with undeveloped toes on each side of the hoof which in the modern terrestrial horse have disappeared the hoof being in reality but a rounded off middle finger it is wonderful said bear warden how comparatively narrow a body of water can keep different species entirely separate the island of sumatra for instance is inhabited by marsupials belonging to the distinct australian type in which the female as in the kangaroo carries the slightly developed young in a pouch while the melee peninsula joined to the mainland has all the highly developed animals of asia and the connected land of the eastern hemisphere the narrow malacca straight being all that has kept marsupials and mammals apart though the separating power has been increased by the rapid current setting through this has decreased the chance of creatures carried to sea on driftwood or uprooted trees getting safely over to such a degree that apparently none have survived for had they done so we may be certain that the mammals with the advantage their young have over the marsupials would soon have run them out the marsupials being the older and the less perfect form of life of the two before leaving the beautiful seagirt region beneath them courtland proposed that it be named after their host which bear warden seconded whereupon they entered it as airalt island on the charts after this they rose to a great height and flew swiftly over 3 000 miles of ocean till they came to another island not quite as large as the first it was 4500 miles long by something less than 3000 wide and was therefore about the size of Africa it had several high ranges of mountains and a number of great rivers and fine harbors while murmuring bubbling brooks flowed through its forest glades there were active volcanoes along the northern coast and the blue crimson and purple lines in the luxuriant foliage were the most beautiful they had ever seen i propose said bear warden that we christened this sylvia land this courtland immediately seconded and it was so entered on the charts these two islands said bear warden may become the centers of civilizations with flying machines and cables to carry passengers and information and ships of great displacement for the interchange of commodities there is no limit to their possible development the absence of large ways will also be very favorable to sea spiders which will be able to run at tremendous speeds the constancy in the eruptions of the volcanoes will offer a great field to jovian inventors who will unquestionably be able to utilize their heat for the production of steam or electricity to say nothing of an inexhaustible supply of valuable chemicals they may contain the means of producing some force entirely different from apogee and as superior to electricity as that is to steam our earthly volcanoes have been put to slight account because of the long intervals between eruptions after leaving sylvia land they went westward to the eastern of the two crescent continents it was separated from the island by about 6 000 miles of ocean and had less width than the western having about the proportions of a three-day crescent while the western had the shape of the moon when four or five days old they found the height of the mountains and plateaus somewhat less than on the eastern continent but no great difference in other respects except that as they went towards the pole the vegetation became more like that of scotland or a north temperate region than any they had seen on reaching latitude 50 they again came out over the ocean to investigate the speckled condition they had observed there they found a vast archipelago covering as great an area as the whole pacific ocean the islands varied from the size of borneo and madagascar to that of sicily and corsica while some contained but a few square miles the surface of the archipelago was about equally divided between land and water it would take good navigation or an elaborate system of lighthouses said bairwarden for a captain to find the shortest course through these groups the islands were covered with shade trees much resembling those on earth and the leaves on many were turning yellow and red for this hemisphere's autumn had already begun the jovian trees said courtland can never cease to bear though the change of seasons is evidently able to turn their color perhaps by merely ripening them when a ripe leaf falls off its place is doubtless soon taken by a bud for germination and fructification go on side by side before leaving they decided to name this 20th century archipelago since so much of the knowledge appertaining to it had been acquired in their own day at latitude 60 the northern arms of the two continents came within 1500 miles of each other the eastern extension was split like the tail of a fish the great bay formed thereby being filled with islands which also extended about half of the distance across the western extremity shelved very gradually the sandbars running out for miles just below the surface of the water after this the travelers flew northward at great speed in the upper regions of the air for they were anxious to hasten their journey they found nothing but unbroken sea and not till they reached latitude 87 was there a sign of ice they then saw some small birds and field ice but in no great quantities as their outside thermometer when just above the placid water for there were no waves here registered 21 degrees Fahrenheit they accounted for this scarcity of ice by the absence of land on which fresh water could freeze and by the fact that it was not cold enough to congeal the very salt seawater finally they reached another archipelago a few hundred miles in extent the larger islands of which were covered with a sheet of ice at the edges of which small icebergs were being formed by breaking off and slowly floating finding a small island on which the coating was thin they grounded the callisto and stepped out for the first time in several days the air was so still that a small piece of paper released at a height of six feet sank slowly and went as straight as the string of a thumb line the sun was bisected by the line of the horizon and appeared to be moving about them in a circle with only its upper half visible as jupiter's northern hemisphere was passing through its autumnal equinox they concluded they had landed exactly at the pole now to work on our experiment said courtland i wonder how we may best yet below the frozen surface we can explode a small quantity of dynamite replied courtland after which the digging will be comparatively easy while courtland and bear warden prepared the mine arolt brought out a pickaxe two shovels and the battery and wires with which to ignite the explosive they made their preparations within 100 feet of the callisto or much nearer than an equivalent amount of gun powder could have been discharged this recalls an old laboratory experiment or rather lecture said courtland as they completed the arrangements for the illustration is not as a rule carried out explode two pounds of powder on an iron safe in a room with the windows closed and the windows will be blown out while the safe remains uninjured explode an equivalent amount of dynamite on top of the safe and it will be destroyed while the glass panes are not even cracked this illustrates the difference in rapidity with which the explosions take place to the intensely rapid action of dynamite the air affords as much resistance as a solid structure while the explosion of the powder is so slow that the air has time to move away hence the destruction of the windows in the first case and the safe in the second when they had moved beyond the danger line bear warden as the party's practicing engineer pressed the button and the explosion did the rest they found that the ground was frozen to a depth of but little more than a foot below which it became perceptibly warm plying their shovels vigorously they had soon dug the hole so deep that its edges were above their heads when the floor was 10 feet below the surrounding levels the thermometer registered 60 this is scarcely a fair test said courtland since the heat rises and is lost as fast as given off let us therefore close the opening and see in what time it will melt a number of cubic feet of ice accordingly they climbed out threw in about a cartload of ice and covered the opening with two of Callisto's thick rugs in half an hour all the ice had melded and in another half hour the water was hot no arctic expedition need freeze to death here said bear warden since all a man would have to do would be to burrow a few feet to be as warm as toast as the island on which they had landed was at one side of the archipelago but was attached at the exact pole it followed that the center of the archipelago was not the part farthest north this in a measure accounted for the slight thickness of ice and snow for the isobaric lines would slope and consequently what wind there was would flow towards the interior of the archipelago whose surface was colder than the surrounding ocean the moist air however coming almost entirely from the south would lose most of its moisture by condensation in passing over the ice laden land and so like the clouds over the region east of the andes would have but little left to let fall on this extreme northern part the blanketing effect of a great thickness of snow would also cause the lower strata of ice to melt by keeping in the heat constantly given off by the warm planet i think there can be no question said courtland that as a result of jupiter's great flattening at the poles and the drawing of the crust which moves faster in jupiter's rotation than any other part towards the equator the crust must be particularly thin for were it as thin all over there would be no space for the coal beds which judging from the purity of the atmosphere must be very extensive further we can recall that the water in the hot spring near which we alighted which evidently came from a far greater depth than we have here was not as hot as this the conclusion is clear that elsewhere the internal heat is not as near the surfaces here the more i see of jupiter exclaimed bairwarden enthusiastically the more charmed i become it almost exactly supplies what i have been conjuring up as my idea of a perfect planet its compensations of high land near the equator and low with effective internal heat at the poles are ideal the gradual slope of its continental elevations on account of their extent will ease the work of operating railways and the atmosphere's density will be just the thing for our flying machines while nature has supplied all sources of power so lavishly that no undertaking will be too great though land is yet to judge by our photographs occupies only about one eighth of the surface we know from the experience of the other planets that this is bound to increase so that if the human race can perpetuate itself on jupiter long enough it will undoubtedly have one fourth or a larger proportion for occupation though the land already upheived comprises fully 40 times the area of our entire globe which as we know is still three-fourths water since we have reached what we might call the end of jupiter and still have time continued arrow let us proceed to Saturn where we may find even stranger things than here i hoped we could investigate the great red spot but i'm convinced we have seen the beginning of one in 20th century archipelago and what under favorable conditions will be recognized as such on earth it was just six terrestrial weeks since they had set out and therefore February 2nd on earth it would be best in any case to start from jupiter's equator said courtland for the straight line we should make from the surface here would be at right angles to Saturn we shall probably in spite of ourselves swing a few degrees beyond the line and so can get a bird's eye view of some portion of the southern hemisphere all aboard for saturn cried bairwarden enthusiastically in his jovial way this will be a journey this is the end of chapter 13 in book two of a journey in other worlds recording by tom weiss this chapter 14 book two of a journey in other worlds this liberbox recording is in the public domain recording by tom weiss a journey in other worlds book two chapter 14 the scene shifts having returned the rugs to the calisthenics they applied the maximum power of the batteries to rising closed all openings when the barometer registered 30 and moved off into space when several thousand miles above the pole they diverted part of the power to attracting the nearest moon that was in the plane of jupiter's equator and by the time their upward motion had ceased were moving well in its direction their rapid motion aided the work of resisting gravity since their car had in fact become a small moon revolving like those of uranus or that of neptune in an orbit varying greatly from the plane of the ecliptic as they flew south at a height ranging from two thousand to three thousand miles the planet revolves before them and they had a chance of obtaining a thorough view there were but a few scattered islands on the side of the northern hemisphere opposite to that over which they had reached the pole and in the varying colors of the water which they attributed to temperature or to some substance in solution they recognized what they had always heard described on earth as the bands of jupiter in circling the planet with great belts the color varying with the latitude at about latitude 45 these bands were purple farther south light olive green and at the equator a brown orange shortly after they swung across the equator the ocean again became purple and at the same time a well-defined and very brilliant white spot came into view its brightness showed slight variations in intensity though its general shape remained unchanged it had another peculiarity in that it possessed a fairly rapid motion of its own as it moved eastward across the surface of the ocean it exhibited all the phenomena of the storm they had watched in crossing secretary deep waters bay but covered a larger area and was far more violent their glasses showed them vast sheets of spray driven along a tremendous speed while the surface was milky white this said bear warden picking up a book solves to my mind the mystery of the white spot described by the english writer chambers in 1889 as follows during the last few years a brilliant white spot has been visible on the equatorial border of the great southern belt a curious fact in connection with this spot is that it moves with the velocity of some 260 miles per hour greater than the red spot denning obtained 169 observations of this bright marking during the years 1880 to 1883 and determined the period as nine hours 50 minutes eight and seven tenths seconds five and a half minutes less than that of the red spot although the latter is now somewhat faint the white spot gives promise of remaining visible for many years during the year 1886 a large number of observations of jupiter were made at the dearborn university in chicago by professor gw ho using the 18 and a half inch refractor of the observatory in as much as these observations are not only of high intrinsic interest but are in conflict to some extent with previous records a somewhat full abstract of them will be useful the object of general interest was the great red spot the outline shape and size of this remarkable object has remained without material change from the year 1879 when it was first observed here until the present time according to our observations during the whole of this period it is shown a sharp and well-defined outline and at no time has it coalesced or been joined to any belt in its proximity as have been alleged by some observers during the year 1885 the middle of the spot was very much paler in color than the margins causing it to appear as an elliptical ring the ring form has continued up to the present time while the outline of the spot has remained very constant the color has changed materially from year to year during the past three years 1884 to 1886 it has at times been very faint so as barely to be visible the persistence of this object for so many years leads me to infer that the formerly accepted theory that the phenomenon seen on the surface of the planet are atmospheric is no longer tenable the statement so often made in textbooks that in the course of a few days or months the whole aspect of the planet may be changed is obviously erroneous the oval white spots on the southern hemisphere of the planet nine degrees south of the equator have been systematically observed at every opposition during the past eight years they are generally found in groups of three or more but are rather difficult to observe the rotation period deduced from them is nearly the same as from the great red spot these spots usually have a slow drift in longitude of about five seconds daily in the direction of a planet's rotation when referred to the great red spot corresponding to a rotation period of 20 seconds less than the latter this shows continued bear warden that is long ago as towards the close of the 19th century the old idea that we saw nothing but the clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere was beginning to change and also how closely the two English writers and professor hoe were studying the subject though their views did not entirely agree a white spot is merely a storm center passing round and round the planet the wind running a little ahead of the surface which accounts for its rapid rotation compared with the red spot which is a fixture a critic may say we have no such winds on earth to which i reply that winds on a planet of Jupiter's size with its rate of rotation though it is 480 million miles from the sun and the internal heat is so near the surface and with land and water arranged as they are may and indeed must be very different from those prevailing on earth the conditions producing and affecting them being so changed though the storm center moves 260 miles an hour the wind need not blow at that rate later they saw several smaller spots drifting eastward but concluded that any sea worthy ship might pass safely through them for though they were hurricanes of great violence the waves were small there would be less danger said bear warden of shipping seas here than there is on earth the principal risk to travelers would be that of being blown from the deck on account of the air's weight in connection with its velocity this would necessitate some precaution the next object of interest was the great red spot it proved as courtland had predicted to be a continent with at that time no special color though they easily recognized it by comparing its outlines with those of the spot in the map its length as they already knew was 27 000 miles and it's breadth about 8 000 miles so that it contained more square miles than the entire surface of the earth land and water included it is clear said courtland that at some season of jupiter's long year a change takes place that affects the color of the leaves some drought or prolonged norther for it is obvious that that is the simplest explanation in like manner we may expect that at some times more white spots will move across the ocean than at others on account of the size of these continents and oceans said bear warden it is easy to believe that many climatic conditions may prevail here that can scarcely exist on earth but what a magnificent world to develop with its great rivers lakes and mountains showing at even this distance and what natural resources must be lying their dormant awaiting our call this constantly recurs to my mind the subjugation and thorough opening up of this red spot continent will probably supply more interesting problems than straightening the axis of the earth at our next visit replied error when we have established regular interplanetary lines of travel we may have an opportunity to examine it more closely then they again attracted the nearest moon beyond which they had swung increased the repulsion on jupiter and soared away towards Saturn we have a striking illustration of jupiter's enormous mass said courtland as the apparent diameter of the mighty planet rapidly decreased in the fact that notwithstanding its numerous moons it still rotates so rapidly we know that the earth's days were formerly but half for a quarter as long as now having lasted but six or eight hours the explanation of the elongation is simple the earth rotates in about 24 hours while the moon encircles it but once in nearly 28 days so that our satellite is continually drawing the oceans backward against its motion these title breaks acting through the friction of the water on the bottom its unequal pressure and the impact of the waves on the shore are continually retarding its rotation so that the day is a fraction of a second longer now than it was in the time of caesar this same action is of course taking place in jupiter and the great planets in this case there being five moons at work our moon we know rotates on its axis but once while it revolves about the earth this being no doubt due to its own comparative smallness and the great attraction of the earth which must have produced tremendous tides before the lunar oceans disappeared from its surface in crossing the orbits of the satellites they passed near ganymede jupiter's largest moon this said courtland was discovered by gallileo in 1610 it is 3480 miles in diameter while our moon is but 2160 revolves at a distance of 678 300 miles from jupiter completes its rotation in seven days and four hours and has a specific gravity of 1.87 in passing they observed that ganymede possessed an atmosphere and continents and oceans of large area here said bear warden we have a body with a diameter about 500 miles greater than the planet mercury its size light specific gravity atmosphere and oceans seem to indicate that it is less advanced than that planet yet you think jupiter has had a longer separate existence than the planets nearer the sun undoubtedly said courtland jupiter was condensed while in the solar system nebula and began its individual existence and its evolutionary career long before mercury was formed the matter now in ganymede however doubtless remained part of the jupiter system nebula till after mercury's creation and being part of so great a mass did not cool very rapidly i should say that this satellite has about the same relation to jupiter that jupiter has to the sun and is therefore younger in point of time as well of development than the most distant callisto and older at all events and years then europa and lo both of which are nearer this supposition is corroborated by the fact that europa the smallest of these four is also the densest having a specific gravity of two point one four its smallness having enabled it to overtake ganymede in development notwithstanding the latter start in the face of the evidence before us we must believe this or else that perhaps as in the case of the asteroid hilda something like a collision has rejuvenated it this might account for its size and for the nautical almanac statement that there is a small and variable inclination to its orbit while lo and europa revolved exactly in the plane of jupiter's equator they had about as long a journey before them as they had already made in going from the earth to jupiter the great planet soon appeared as a huge crescent since it was between them and the sun its moons became as fifth and sixth magnitude stars and in the evening of the next day jupiter's disk became invisible to the unaided eye since there were no waystations in the shape of planets or asteroids between jupiter and saturn they kept the maximum repulsion on jupiter as long as possible and moved at tremendous speed saturn was somewhat in advance of jupiter in its orbit so that their course from the earth had been along two sides of a triangle with an obtuse angle between during the next four terrestrial days they cited several small comets but spent most of their time writing out their jovian experiences during the sixth day saturn's rings although not as much till it as they would be later in the planet's season presented a most superb sight while they spun in the sun's rays soon after this the eight moons became visible and while slightly reducing the callisto speed they crossed the orbits of lapinus hyperion and titan when they knew they were about 750 000 miles from saturn i am anxious to a certain said courtland whether the composition of yonder rings is similar to that of the comet through which we passed i am sure they shine with more than reflective light we have been in the habit said aero of associating heat with light but it is obvious there is something far more subtle about cometary light and that of saturn's rings both of which seem to have their birth in the intense cold of interplanetary space passing close to memos saturn's nearest moon they supplement it's attraction after swinging by by their own strong pull bringing their speed down to dead slow as they entered the outside ring at distance since often of half a mile they found meteoric masses sometimes lumps the size of a house often no larger than apples while small particles like grains of sand moved between them there were two motions the ring revolves about saturn and the particles vibrated among themselves evidently kept apart by a mutual repulsion which seemed both to increase and decrease faster than gravitation for on approaching one another they were more strongly repelled than attracted but when they separate it the repulsion decreased faster than the attraction so that after a time divergence ceased and they remained at fixed distances the callisto soon became imbued with motion also but nothing ever struck it when any large mass came unusually near both it and their car emitted light and they rapidly separated the sunlight was not as strong here as it had been when they entered the comet and as they penetrated farther they were better able to observe the omnipresent luminosity they were somewhat puzzled by the approach of certain light centers which seem to contain nothing but this concentrated brightness occasionally one of these centers would glow very brightly near them and simultaneously recede at such times the callisto also glowed and itself recoiled slightly at first the travelers could not account for this but finally they concluded that the centers must be meteoric masses consisting entirely of gases possessing weight though invisible we have again to face said courtland that singular law that till recently we did not suppose existed on earth all kinds of suppositions have been advanced in explanation of these rings some writers have their thicknesses looked at from the thin edge as 400 miles some 100 and some but 40 one astronomer of the 19th century a man of considerable eminence was convinced that they consisted of sheets of liquid now it should be obvious that no liquid could maintain itself here for a minute for it would either fall upon the planet as a crushing hail or if dependent for its shape on its own tenacity it would break if formed of the toughest steel on account of the tremendous weight any number of theories have been advanced by any number of men but in weight we have the rub no one has ever shown how these innumerable fragments maintain themselves at a height of but a few thousand miles above Saturn withstanding the giant's gravitational pull their rate of revolution though rapid does not seem fast enough to sustain them neither have I ever seen it explained why the small fragments do not fall upon the large ones though many astronomers have pictured the composition of these rings as we find they exist nor do we know why the molecules of a gas are driven further apart by heat while their activity is also increased though if this activity were revolution about one another to develop the centrifugal it would not need to be as strong then as when they are cold and nearer together there may be explanations but I have found none in any of the literature that I have read it seems to me that all this leads to but one conclusion this apogee is the constant and visible companion of gravitation on these great planets Jupiter and Saturn perhaps on account of some peculiar influence they possess and also in comets in the case of large masses while on earth it appears naturally only among molecules those of gases and every other substance I should go a step farther said bairwarden and say our earth has the peculiarity since it does not possess the influence necessary to generate naturally a great or even considerable development of apogee the electricity of thunderstorms northern lights and other forces seem to be produced freely but as regards apogee our planet's natural productiveness appears to be small the omnipresent luminosity continued but the glow was scarcely bright enough to be perceived from the earth I believe however said bairwarden referring to this that whenever a satellite passes near these fragments preferably when it enters the planet's shadow since it will remove its own light it will create such activity among them as to make the luminosity visible to the large telescopes or gelatin plates on earth now said aero that we have evolved enough theories to keep astronomers busy for some time if they attempt to discuss them I suggest that we elate and leave the abstract for the concrete whereupon they pass through the inner ring and rapidly sank to the ground this is the end of chapter 14 in book two of a journey in other worlds recording by tom weiss this is chapter one book three of a journey in other worlds this labor box recording is in the public domain recording by tom weiss a journey in other worlds book three chapter one Saturn landing on a place about 10 degrees north of the equator so that they might obtain a good view of the great rings since on the line only the thin edge would be visible they opened a porthole with the same caution they had exercised on Jupiter again there was a rush of air showing that the pressure without was greater than that within but on this occasion the barometer stopped at 38 from which they calculated that the pressure was 19 pounds to the square inch on their bodies instead of 15 as at sea level on earth this difference was so slight that they scarcely felt it they also discarded the apragetic outfits that had been so useful on jupiter as unnecessary here the air was an icy blast and though they quickly closed the opening the interior of the callisto was considerably chilled we shall want our winter clothes said bairwarden it might be more comfortable for us exactly on the equator though the scene at night would be far finer here if we can stand the climate doubtless it will also be warmer soon for the sun has but just risen i suspect this is merely one of the cold ways that rushed towards the equator at this season which corresponds to about the 10th of our september replied courtland the poles of saturn must be intensely cold during its long winter of 14 and three-quarter years for the axis being inclined 27 degrees from the perpendicular of its orbit the pole turned from the sun is more shut off from its heat than ours and in addition to this the mean distance more than 880 million miles is very great since the chemical composition of the air we have inhaled has not troubled our lungs it is fair to suppose we shall have no difficulty in breathing having dressed themselves more warmly and seen by a thermometer they had placed outside that the temperature was 38 degrees fahrenheit which had seemed very cold and compared with the warmth inside the callisto they again opened the porthole this time leaving it open longer what they had felt before was evidently merely a sudden gust for the air was now comparatively calm finding that the doctor's prediction as to the suitability of the air to their lungs was correct they ventured out closing the door as they went expecting as on jupiter to find principally vertebrates of the reptile and bird order they carried guns and cartridges loaded with buckshot and number one trusting for solid ball projectiles to their revolvers which they shoved into their belts they also took test tubes for experiments on the saturian bacilli hanging a bucket under the pipe leading from the roof to catch any rain that might fall for they remember the scarcity of drinking water on jupiter they set out in a southwesternly direction walking along they noticed on all sides tall lilies immaculately pure in their whiteness and mushrooms and toadstools nearly a foot high the former having a delicious flavor and extreme freshness as though only an hour old they had seen no animal life or even sign of it and were wondering at its dearth when suddenly two large white birds rose directly in front of them like thought bear warden and arrow had their guns up snapping the thumbpieces over safe and pulling the triggers almost simultaneously bear warden having double buckshot killed his bird at the first fire but arrow having only one had to give his the second barrel almost all damage in both cases being in the head on coming close to their victims they found them to measure 12 feet from tip to tip and to have a tremendous thickness of feathers and down from the looks of these beauties said bear warden i should say they probably inhabit it a pretty cold place they are doubtless northern birds said courtland that have just come south it is easy to believe that the depth to which the temperature may fall in the upper air of this planet must be something startling as they turn from the cranes to which species the birds seem to belong they became mute with astonishment every mushroom had disappeared but the toadstools still remained is it possible we did not see them gasped arrow we must inadvertently have walked some distance since we saw them said courtland they were what i looked forward to for lunch exclaimed bear warden they were greatly perplexed the mushrooms were all about them when they shot the birds which still lay where they had fallen we must be very absent minded said the doctor or perchance our brains are affected by the error we must analyze it to see if it contains our own proportion of oxygen and nitrogen there was a good deal of carbonic acid gas on jupiter but that would hardly confuse our senses the strange thing is that we all seem to have been impressed the same way concluding that they must have been mistaken they continued on their journey all about they heard a curious humming as that of bees or like the murmuring of prayers in a resident cathedral thinking it was the wind in the great trees that grew singly about them they paid no attention to it until emerging on an open plane and finding that the sound continued they stopped now said bear warden this is more curious than anything we found on jupiter here we have an incessant and rather pleasant sound with no visible cause it may possibly be some peculiarity of the grass replied courtland though should it continue when we reach sandy or bare soil i shall believe we need a dose of quinine i feel perfectly well said arrow how is it with you each finding that he was in a normal state they proceeded determined if possible to discover the source from which the sounds came suddenly bear warden raised his gun to bring down a long big talk but the bird flew off and he did not shoot plague the luck said he i went blind just as i was about to pull a haze seemed to cover both barrels and completely screened the bird the callisto will soon be hidden by those trees said courtland i think we had better take our bearings for if our crack shot is going to miss like that we may want canned provisions accordingly he got out his sextant took the altitude of the sun got cross bearings and a few angles and began to make a rough calculation for several minutes he worked industriously used the rubber at the end of his pencil tried again and then scratched out that humming confuses me so that i cannot work correctly said he while the most irrelevant things enter my mind in spite of me and mix up my figures i found the same things said bear warden but said nothing for fear i should not be believed in addition to going blind for a moment i almost forgot what i was trying to do changing their course slightly they went towards a range of hills in the hope of finding rocky or sandy soil in order to test the sounds and a certain if they would cease or bury having ascended a few hundred feet they sat down near some trees to rest the musical hum continuing meanwhile unchanged the ground was strewn with large colored crystals apparently rubies sapphires and emeralds about the size of hen's eggs and also large sheets of icing glass picking up one of the latter arrow examined it points of light and shade kept forming on its surface from which rings radiated like the circles spreading in all directions from a place in still water at which a pebble is thrown he called his companions and the three examined it the icing glass was about 10 inches long by eight across and contained but few impurities in addition to the spreading rings curious forms were continually taking shape and dissolving this is more interesting said bairwarden than sounding shells at the seashore we must make a note of it as another thing to study they then spread their handkerchiefs on a mound of earth so as to make a table and began examining the gems does it not seem to you asked erl a few minutes later addressing his companions as though we are not alone i have thought many times there was someone or perhaps several persons here beside ourselves the same idea has occurred to me replied courtland i was convinced a moment ago that a shadow crossed the page on which i was taking notes can it be there are objects about us we cannot see we know there are vibrations of both light and sound that do not affect our senses i wish we had brought the magnetic eye perchance that might tell us anything sufficiently dense to cast the shadow said erl should be seen since it would also be able to make an image on our retinas i believe any impressions we are receiving are produced through our minds as if someone were thinking very intently about us and that neither the magnetic eye nor a sensitive plate could reveal anything they then returned to the study of the eisinglass which they were able to split into extremely thin sheets suddenly a cloud passed over the table and almost immediately disappeared and then a sharpened pencil with which erl had been writing began to trace on a sheet of paper in an even hand and with a slight frictional sound stop said bairwarden let us each for himself describe in writing what he has seen in a moment they had done this and then compared notes in each case the vision was the same then they looked at the writing made by the invisible hand absorpta est moors in victoria it ran gentlemen began bairwarden as if addressing a meeting this cannot be coincidence we are undoubtedly and unquestionably in the presence of a spirit or of several spirits that they understand latin we see and from what they say they may have known death time may show whether they have been terrestrials like ourselves though the conditions of life here might make us delirious it is scarcely possible that different temperaments like ours should be effective in so precisely the same way besides in this writing we have tangible proof it is perfectly reasonable said erl to conclude it was a spirit if we may assume that spirits have the power to move the pencil which is a material object nobody doubts nowadays that after death we live again that being the case we must admit that we live somewhere space as i take it can be no obstacle to a spirit therefore why suppose they remain on earth this is a wonderful place said courtland we have already seen enough to convince us of the existence of many unknown laws i wish the spirit would reveal itself in some other way as he finished speaking the rays of the distant and cold-looking sun were split and the colors of the spectrum danced upon the linen cloth as if obtained by a prism in astonishment they rose and looked closely at the table when suddenly a shadow that no one recognized as his own appeared upon the cover tracing it to its source their eyes met those of an old man with a white robe and beard and a look of great intelligence on his calm face they knew he had not been in the little grove 30 seconds before and as this was surrounded by open country there was no place from which it could have come