A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

by John Jacob Astor

  CHAPTER XII.

  HILLS AND VALLEYS.

  With the first light they resumed their journey, and an hourafter setting out they sighted, as Cortlandt had predicted,another cloud of vapour. The fall--for such it proved to be--wasmore beautiful than the other, for, though the volume of waterwas not so great, it fell at one leap, without a break, and atthe same tremendous speed, a distance of more than a thousandfeet. The canon rang with the echoes, while the spray flew insheets against the smooth, glistening, sandstone walls. Insteadof coming from a river, as the first fall had, this poured atonce from the rocky lip, about two miles across, of a lake thatwas eleven hundred feet above the surging mass in the vale below.

  "It is a thousand pities," said Bearwarden, "that this cataracthas got so near its source; for, at the rate these streams mustcut, this one in a few hundred years, unless something is done toprevent it, will have worn back to the lake, and then good-bye tothe falls, which will become a series of rapids. Perhaps thefirst effect will be merely to reduce by a few feet the height ofthe falls, in which case they will remain in practically the sameplace."

  About the shores of this lake they saw rhinoceroses with longthick wool, and herds of creatures that much resembled buffaloes.

  "I do not see," said Bearwarden, "why the identical speciesshould not exist here that till recently, in a geological sense,inhabited the earth. The climate and all other conditions arepractically the same on both planets, except a triflingdifference in weight, to which terrestrials would soon adaptthemselves. We know by spectroscopic analysis that hydrogen,iron, magnesium, and all our best-known substances exist in thesun, and even the stars, while the earth contains everything wehave found in meteorites. Then why make an exception of life,instead of supposing that at corresponding periods of developmentthe same living forms inhabit all? It would be assuming theeternal sterilization of the functions of Nature to suppose thatour earth is the only body that can produce them."

  "The world of organic life is so much more complex," repliedCortlandt, "than that of the crystal, that it requires greatcontinuity. So far we certainly have seen no men, or anythinglike them, not even so much as a monkey, though I suppose,according to your reasoning, Jupiter has not advanced far enoughto produce even that."

  "Exactly," replied Bearwarden, "for it will require vast periods;and, according to my belief, at least half the earth's time ofhabitability had passed before man appeared. But we see Jupiteris admirably suited for those who have been developed somewhereelse, and it would be an awful shame if we allowed it to lieunimproved till it produces appreciative inhabitants of its own,for we find more to admire in one half-hour than its entirepresent population during its lifetime. Yet, how magnificentthis world is, and how superior in its natural state to ours!The mountainous horns of these crescent-shaped continents protectthem and the ocean they enclose from the cold polar marinecurrents, and in a measure from the icy winds; while the elevatedcountry on the horns near the equator might be a Garden of Eden,or ideal resort. To be sure, the continents might support alarger population, if more broken up, notwithstanding theadvantage resulting from the comparatively low mountains alongthe coasts, and the useful winds. A greater subdivision of landand water, more great islands connected by isthmuses, and moremediterraneans joined by straits, would be a further advantage tocommerce; but with the sources of power at hand, the resistlesswinds and water-power, much increased in effectiveness by theirweight, the great tides when several moons are on the same side,or opposite the sun, internal heat near the surface, and abundantcoal-supply doubtless already formed and also near the surface,such small alterations could be made very easily, and would servemerely to prevent our becoming rusty.

  "As Jupiter's distance from the sun varies from 506,563,000 milesat aphelion to only 460,013,000 at perihelion, this difference,in connection with even the slight inclination of the axis, mustmake a slight change in seasons, but as the inclination ispractically nothing, almost the entire change results from thedifference in distance. This means that the rise or fall intemperature is general on every degree of latitude, all beingwarmed simultaneously, more or less, as the planet approaches ordeparts from the sun. It means also that about the sameconditions that Secretary Deepwaters suggested as desirable forthe earth, prevail here, and that Jupiter represents, therefore,about the acme of climate naturally provided. On account of itsrapid rotation and vast size, the winds have a tornado'sstrength, but they are nothing at this distance from the sun towhat they would be if a planet with its present rate of rotationand size were where Venus or even the earth is. In either ofthese positions no land life with which we are acquainted couldlive on the surface; for the slope of the atmospheric isobars--i.e., the lines of equal barometric pressure that produce wind bybecoming tilted through unequal expansion, after which the air,as it were, flows down-hill--would be too great. The ascendingcurrents about the equator would also, of course, be vastlystrengthened; so that we see a wise dispensation of Providence inplacing the large planets, which also rotate so rapidly, at agreat 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 LakeSuperior, and that several large and small streams ran into itsupper end. These had their sources in smaller lakes that were atslightly higher elevations. Though the air was cool, the sunshone brightly, while the ground was covered with flowersresembling those of the northern climes on earth, of all shapesand lines. Twice a day these sent up their song, and trees werecovered with buds, and the birds twittered gaily. The streamsmurmured and bubbled, and all things reminded the travellers ofearly morning in spring.

  "If anything could reconcile me," said Bearwarden, "to exchangemy active utilitarian life for a rustic poetical existence, itwould be this place, for it is far more beautiful than anything Ihave seen on earth. It needs but a Maud Muller and a few cows tocomplete the picture, since Nature gives us a vision of eternalpeace and repose."

  Somehow the mention of Maud Muller, and the delicate and refinedflowers, whose perfume he inhaled, brought up thoughts that werenever far below the surface in Ayrault's mind. "The place isheavenly enough," said he, "to make one wish to live and remainhere forever, but to me it would be Hamlet with Hamlet left out."

  "Ah! poor chap," said Cortlandt, "you are in love, but you arenot 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 picturesqueshores of Lake Serenity, with their beautiful tints and foliage,and resumed the journey, to explore a number of islands in theocean 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 toconsiderable altitudes in the east. The tops of all glistenedwith a mantle of snow in the sunlight, while between the ridgesthey saw darker and evidently fertile valleys. They passed,moving northwest, over large and small lakes, all evidently partof the same great system, and continued to sweep along forseveral days with a beautiful panorama, as varying as akaleidoscope, spread beneath their eyes. They observed that thecharacter of the country gradually changed. The symmetricallyrounded mountains and hills began to show angles, while greatslabs of rock were split from the faces. The sides also becameless vertical, and there was an accumulation of detritalfragments about their bases. These heaps of fractured stone hadin some cases begun to disintegrate and form soil, on which therewas a scant growth of vegetation; but the sides and summits,whose jaggedness increased with their height, were absolutelybare.

  "Here," said Cortlandt, "we have unmistakable evidence of frostand ice action. The next interesting question is, How recentlyhas denudation occurred? The absence of plant life at theexposed places," he continued, as if lecturing to a class, "canbe accounted for here, as nearer the equator, by the violence ofthe wind; but I greatly doubt w
hether water will now freeze inthis latitude at any season of the year, for, even should theNorthern hemisphere's very insignificant winter coincide with theplanet's aphelion, the necessary drop from the presenttemperature would be too great to be at all probable. If, then,it is granted that ice does not form here now, notwithstandingthe fact that it has done so, the most plausible conclusion isthat the inclination of Jupiter's axis is automatically changing,as we know the earth's has often done. There being nothingincompatible in this view with the evidence at hand, we cansafely assume it correct for the time being at least. Whenfarther south, you remember, we found no trace of ice action,notwithstanding the comparative slowness with which we decidedthat the ridges in the crust had been upheaved on account of theresisting power of gravity, and, as I see now, also on account ofJupiter's great mass, which must prevent its losing its heatanything like as fast as the earth has, in which I think also wehave the explanation of the comparatively low elevation of themountains that we found we could not account for by the power ofgravitation alone.[2] From the fact that the exposed surfacefarther south must be old, on account of the slow upheaval andthe slight wear to which it is exposed, about the only wearingagent being the wind, which would be powerless to eraseice-scratches, especially since, on account of gravity's power,it cannot, like our desert winds, carry much sand--which, as weknow, has cut away the base of the Sphinx--I think it is logicalto conclude that, though Jupiter's axis is changing naturally asthe earth's has been, it has never varied as much as twenty-threeand a half degrees, and certainly to nothing like the extent towhich we see Venus and Uranus tilted to-day."

  [2] It is well known that mountain chains are but ridges orfoldings in the crust upheaved as the interior cools and shrinks.This is proved by reason and by experiments with viscous clay orother material placed upon a sheet of stretched rubber, which isafterwards allowed to contract, whereupon the analogues ofmountain ridges are thrown up.

  "I follow you," said Bearwarden, "and do not see how we couldarrive at anything else. From Jupiter's low specific gravity,weighing but little more than an equal bulk of water, I shouldsay the interior must be very hot, or else is composed of lightmaterial, for the crust's surface, or the part we see, isevidently about as dense as what we have on earth. These thingshave puzzled me a good deal, and I have been wondering if Jupitermay not have been formed before the earth and the smallerplanets."

  "The discrepancies between even the best authorities," repliedCortlandt, "show that as yet but little has been discovered fromthe earth concerning Jupiter's real condition. The two theoriesthat try to account for its genesis are the ring theory and thenebulous. We know that the sun is constantly emitting vastvolumes of heat and light, and that, with the exception of theheat resulting from the impact of falling meteors, it receivesnone from outside, the principal source being the tremendousfriction and pressure between the cooling and shrinking stratawithin the great mass of the sun itself. A seeming paradoxtherefore comes in here, which must be considered: If the sunwere composed entirely of gas, it would for a time continue togrow hotter; but the sun is incessantly radiating light and heat,and consequently becoming smaller. Therefore the farther back wego the hotter we find the sun, and also the larger, till, insteadof having a diameter of eight hundred and eighty thousand 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 theplanet Neptune, afterwards another that contained the materialfor Uranus, and so on, the lightest substance in the sun beingthrown off first, by which they accounted for the lightness ofthe four great planets, and finally Mars, the earth, and thesmall dense planets near the sun. The advocates of this theorypointed to Saturn's rings as an illustration of the birth of aplanet, or, rather, in that case a satellite. According to this,the major planets have had a far longer separate existence thanthe minor, which would account for their being so advancednotwithstanding their size. This theory may again come intogeneral acceptance, but for the present it has been discreditedby the nebulous. According to this second theory, at the timethe sun filled all the space inside of Neptune's, orbit, orextended even farther, several centres of condensation wereformed within the nebulous, gaseous mass. The greatest centrebecame the sun, and the others, large and small, the planets,which--as a result of the spiral motion of the whole, such as isnow going on before our eyes in the great nebulae of fifty- oneM. Canuin venaticorum, and many others--began to revolve aboutthe greatest central body of gas. As the separate masses cooled,they shrank, and their surfaces or extreme edges, which at firstwere contiguous, began to recede, which recession is still goingon with some rapidity on the part of the sun, for we may be sureits diameter diminishes as its density increases. According toeither theory, as I see it, the major planets, on account oftheir distance from the central mass, have had longer separateexistences than the minor, and are therefore more advanced thanthey would be had all been formed at the same time.

  "This theory explains the practical uniformity in the chemicalcomposition of all members of this system by assuming that theywere all once a part of the same body, and you may say brothersand sisters of the sun, instead of its offspring. It also makessize the only factor determining temperature and density, but ofcourse modified by age, since otherwise Jupiter would have a farless developed crust than that with which we find it. I havealways considered the period from the molten condition to thatwith a crust as comparatively short, which stands to reason, forradiation has then no check; and the period from the formation ofthe crust, which acts as a blanket, to the death of a planet, asvery long. I have not found this view clearly set forth in anyof the books I have read, but it seems to me the simplest andmost natural explanation. Now, granted that the solar system wasonce a nebula, on which I think every one will agree--the sameforces that changed it into a system of sun and planets must beat work on fifty-one M. Canum venaticorum, Andromeda, and ninety-nine M. Virginis, and must inevitably change them to suns, eachwith doubtless a system of planets.

  "If, then, the condition of a nebula or star depends simply onits size, it is reasonable to suppose that Andromeda, Sirius, andall the vast bodies we see, were created at the same time as oursystem, which involves the necessity of one general andsimultaneous creation day. But as Sirius, with its diameter oftwelve million miles, must be larger than some of the nebulaewill be when equally condensed, we must suppose rather thatnebulae are forming and coming into the condition of bright anddead stars, much as apples or pears on a fruit tree areconstantly growing and developing, so that the Mosaic descriptionof the creation would probably apply in point of time only to oursystem, or perhaps to our globe, though the rest will doubtlesspass through precisely the same stages. This, I think, I willpublish, on our return, as the Cortlandt astronomical doctrine,as the most rational I have seen devised, and one that I think wemay safely believe, until, perhaps, through increased knowledge,it can be disproved."

  After they crossed a line of hills that ran at right angles totheir course they found the country more rolling. All streamsand water-courses flowed in their direction, while their aneroidshowed them that they were gradually descending. When they weremoving along near the surface of the ground, a delicious andrefined perfume exhaled by the blue and white flowers, that hadbeen growing smaller as they journeyed northward, frequentlyreached their nostrils. To Cortlandt and Bearwarden it wasmerely the scent of a flower, but to Ayrault it recalled mentalpictures of Sylvia wearing violets and lilies that he had givenher. He knew that the greatest telescopes on earth could notreveal the Callisto moving about in Jupiter's sunshine, as even apoint of light, at that distance, and, notwithstandingCortlandt's learning and Bearwarden's joviality, he felt at timesextremely lonely.

  They swept along steadily for fifty hours, having bright sunnydays and beautifully moonlit nights. They passed over finelyrounded hills and valleys and well- watered plains. As theyapproached the ocean and its level the tempera
ture rose, andthere was more moisture in the air. The plants and flowers alsoincreased in size, again resembling somewhat the large speciesthey had seen near the equator.

  "This would be the place to live," said Bearwarden, looking atiron mountains, silver, copper, and lead formations, primevalforests, rich prairies, and regions evidently underlaid with coaland petroleum, not to mention huge beds of aluminum clay, andother natural resources, that made his materialistic mouth water."It would be joy and delight to develop industries here, with nosnow avalanches to clog your railroads, or icy blizzards toparalyze work, nor weather that blights you with sun-strokes andfevers. On our return to the earth we must organize a company torun regular interplanetary lines. We could start on this globeall that is best on our own. Think what boundless possibilitiesmay be before the human race on this planet, which on account ofits vast size will be in its prime when our insignificant earthis cold and dead and no longer capable of supporting life! Thinkalso of the indescribable blessing to the congested communitiesof Europe and America, to find an unlimited outlet here! Mars isalready past its prime, and Venus scarcely habitable, but inJupiter we have a new promised land, compared with which ourearth is a pygmy, or but little more than microscopic."

  "I see," said Ayrault, "that the possibilities here have nolimit; but I do not see how you can compare it to the promisedland, since, till we undertook this journey, no one had eventhought of Jupiter as a habitable place."

  "I trace the Divine promise," replied Bearwarden, "in what youdescribed to us on earth as man's innate longing and desire torise, and in the fact that the Almighty has given the raceunbounded expansiveness in very limited space. This would lookto me as the return of man to the garden of Eden throughintellectual development, for here every man can sit under hisown vine and fig-tree."

  "It seems to me," said Cortlandt, "that no paradise or heavendescribed in anything but the Bible compares with this.According to Virgil's description, the joys on the banks of hisriver Lethe must have been most sad and dreary, the generalidleness and monotony apparently being broken only by wrestlingmatches between the children, while the rest strolled about withlaurel wreaths or rested in the shade. The pilot Palinurus, whohad been drowned by falling overboard while asleep, but whobefore that had presumably done his duty, did not seem especiallyhappy; while the harsh, resentful disposition evidently remainedunsoftened, for Dido became like a cliff of Marpesian marble whenAEneas asked to be forgiven, though he had doubtless consideredhimself in duty bound to leave her, having been twice commandedto do so by Mercury, the messenger of Jove. She, like the rest,seems to have had no occupation, while the consciences of fewappear to have been sufficiently clear to enable them to enjoyunbroken rest."

  "The idleness in the spirit-land of all profane writers," addedBearwarden, "has often surprised me too. Though I have alwaysrecommended a certain amount of recreation for my staff--in fact,more than I have generally had myself--an excess of it becomes abore. I think that all real progress comes through thoroughwork. Why should we assume that progress ceases at death? Ibelieve in the verse that says, 'We learn here on earth thosethings the knowledge of which is perfected in heaven.'"

  "According to that," said Cortlandt, "you will some day besetting the axis of heaven right, for in order to do work theremust be work to be done--a necessary corollary to which is thatheaven is still imperfect."

  "No," said Bearwarden, bristling up at the way Cortlandtsometimes received his speeches, "it means simply that itsdevelopment, though perfect so far as it goes, may not befinished, and that we may be the means, as on earth, of helpingit along."

  "The conditions constituting heaven," said Ayrault, "may be asfixed as the laws of Nature, though the products of thoseconditions might, it seems to me, still be forming and subject tomodification thereby. The reductio ad absurdu would of courseapply if we supposed the work of creation absolutely finished."