A Journey in Other Worlds [77]
dynamite
the air affords as much resistance as a solid substance, 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, Bearwarden, as the
party's practising 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 ten feet below the surrounding level the
thermometer registered sixty.
"This is scarcely a fair test," said Cortlandt, "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 cart-load of ice,
and covered the opening with two of the Callisto's thick rugs.
In half an hour all the ice had melted, and in another half hour
the water was hot.
"No arctic expedition need freeze to death here," said
Bearwarden, "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 itself at the exact pole, it followed that
the centre 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 Cortlandt, "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 here; 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 surface as here."
"The more I see of Jupiter," exclaimed Bearwarden
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 as 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 upheaved comprises fully forty 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 Ayrault,
the air affords as much resistance as a solid substance, 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, Bearwarden, as the
party's practising 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 ten feet below the surrounding level the
thermometer registered sixty.
"This is scarcely a fair test," said Cortlandt, "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 cart-load of ice,
and covered the opening with two of the Callisto's thick rugs.
In half an hour all the ice had melted, and in another half hour
the water was hot.
"No arctic expedition need freeze to death here," said
Bearwarden, "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 itself at the exact pole, it followed that
the centre 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 Cortlandt, "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 here; 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 surface as here."
"The more I see of Jupiter," exclaimed Bearwarden
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 as 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 upheaved comprises fully forty 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 Ayrault,