A Journey in Other Worlds [65]
the weight of the water they displace is
increased at the same rate also, and their buoyancy remains
unchanged. If 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 these lines, and in time produce
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 colonists 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 Deepwaters Bay they secured a pail of its water,
which they found, on examination, contained a far larger
percentage of salt and solid material than the oceans on earth,
while a thermometer that they immediately immersed in it soon
registered eighty-five 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 travellers had not found them much higher
than those on earth, the greatest altitude being the thirty-two
thousand feet south of Deepwaters Bay, and one other ridge that
was forty thousand; 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 centre,
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 Cortlandt, 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 fifteen thousand
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 a chain of mountains on either
side. The southern range was something over, and the northern
something less than, five thousand
increased at the same rate also, and their buoyancy remains
unchanged. If 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 these lines, and in time produce
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 colonists 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 Deepwaters Bay they secured a pail of its water,
which they found, on examination, contained a far larger
percentage of salt and solid material than the oceans on earth,
while a thermometer that they immediately immersed in it soon
registered eighty-five 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 travellers had not found them much higher
than those on earth, the greatest altitude being the thirty-two
thousand feet south of Deepwaters Bay, and one other ridge that
was forty thousand; 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 centre,
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 Cortlandt, 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 fifteen thousand
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 a chain of mountains on either
side. The southern range was something over, and the northern
something less than, five thousand