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A TRIP TO VENUS
A NOVEL BY JOHN MUNRO
Author of the "The Wire and the Wave," "The Story of Electricity," etc., etc.
Published in 1897 by Jarrold & Sons, London
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. A MESSAGE FROM MARS
CHAPTER II. HOW CAN WE GET TO THE OTHER PLANETS?
CHAPTER III. A NEW FORCE
CHAPTER IV. THE ELECTRIC ORRERY
CHAPTER V. LEAVING THE EARTH
CHAPTER VI. IN SPACE
CHAPTER VII. ARRIVING IN VENUS
CHAPTER VIII. THE CRATER LAND
CHAPTER IX. THE FLOWER OF THE SOUL
CHAPTER X. ALUMION
CHAPTER XI. THE FLYING APE
CHAPTER XII. SUNWARD HO!
CHAPTER XIII. HOME AGAIN
"The heaven that rolls around cries aloud to you while it displays its eternal harmony, and yet your eyes are fixed upon the earth alone."
DANTE.
"This truth within thy mind rehearse, That in a boundless universe Is boundless better, boundless worse.
"Think you this mould of hopes and fears Could find no statelier than his peers In yonder hundred million spheres?"
TENNYSON.
A TRIP TO VENUS.
CHAPTER I.
A MESSAGE FROM MARS.
While I was glancing at the _Times_ newspaper in a morning train for London my eyes fell on the following item:--
A STRANGE LIGHT ON MARS.--On Monday afternoon, Dr. Krueger, who is in charge of the central bureau at Kiel, telegraphed to his correspondents:--
"_Projection lumineuse dans region australe du terminateur de Mars observee par Javelle 28 courant, 16 heures.--Perrotin._"
In plain English, at 4 a.m., a ray of light had been observed on the disc of the planet Mars in or near the "terminator"; that is to say, the zone of twilight separating day from night. The news was doubly interesting to me, because a singular dream of "Sunrise in the Moon" had quickened my imagination as to the wonders of the universe beyond our little globe, and because of a never-to-be-forgotten experience of mine with an aged astronomer several years ago.
This extraordinary man, living the life of a recluse in his own observatory, which was situated in a lonely part of the country, had, or at any rate, believed that he had, opened up a communication with the inhabitants of Mars, by means of powerful electric lights, flashing in the manner of a signal-lantern or heliograph. I had set him down as a monomaniac; but who knows? perhaps he was not so crazy after all.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Trip to Venus by John Munro
- 2: Possibly the Martians have seen the forest fires in America
- 3: The Martians may have discovered a still stronger beam
- 4: The greenish grey patches are probably seas and lakes
- 5: I yielded the spectroscope to him
- 6: If the Martians can tell us what Mars is made of
- 7: How on earth are we to understand what the Martians say
- 8: Jules Verne has an original mind
- 9: The bullet will acquire a velocity due to both discharges
- 10: And begirt with giant solenoids at intervals
- 11: The projectile would wheel round the planet
- 12: We could have small parachutes in readiness as life buoys
- 13: Has an orbital velocity of four miles a second
- 14: Carmichael entered the parlour
- 15: Carmichael opened the case of the instrument
- 16: The inventor laughed with childish glee
- 17: I am not sure that I should ever patent it
- 18: Carmichael Nasmyth Carmichael
- 19: When a planet is dying of old age
- 20: Responded Gazen in a reverent manner
- 21: And the others are the planets with their satellites
- 22: The 'Sunspots' are immense gaps or holes in the photosphere
- 23: And spins about his axis in 24 hours
- 24: Unlike the orbits of the foregoing satellites
- 25: Both Neptune and Uranus are probably dying suns
- 26: If the planetoids were born of a single small ring
- 27: What if meteorites are simply frozen nebula
- 28: Gazen made a mental computation
- 29: Carmichael descended by the trap into the engine room
- 30: I fancy the clouds overhead are the real earth
- 31: Which seemed to float in the limpid ether
- 32: That brilliant white or bluish star
- 33: Which appeared to interest Miss Carmichael very much
- 34: I confess to a certain interest in Miss Carmichael
- 35: And purify it from vulgar associations
- 36: And the stars had ceased to twinkle
- 37: I recognised the voice of Gazen
- 38: As Gazen and I had nicknamed Carmichael
- 39: Our car was falling obliquely towards the orbit
- 40: Exclaimed Miss Carmichael between alarm and wonder
- 41: Gazen now made another test of the atmosphere
- 42: The island rose out of the sea like a volcanic peak
- 43: And a magnificent prospect burst upon our view
- 44: Fragrant with innumerable flowers
- 45: Gazen and I kept a sharp watch on the crowd
- 46: When Gazen and I re entered the car
- 47: And birds of brilliant plumage glancing everywhere
- 48: Gazen concluded that Schiaparelli
- 49: Most of them have iridescent feathers
- 50: For they found Womla inhabited
- 51: For that is how Nature teaches
- 52: The imagination requires the most careful guidance
- 53: Everyone is taught to read aloud
- 54: Crime is practically unknown amongst them
- 55: Otare led us to a kind of throne or stand facing the temple
- 56: It was the young priestess and her train of virgins
- 57: Responded Otare evidently gratified
- 58: And after the Priestess of the Lily
- 59: Alumion Alumion I could think of nothing but Alumion
- 60: Produces an impression of the infinite
- 61: There is a wild beast in the grotto
- 62: Alumion can you not guess what brings me here
- 63: I was curious to know who or what was Siloo
- 64: With Alumion even Hades would be an Elysium
- 65: A yearning as of home sickness
- 66: If I should die and never return
- 67: Alumion tripped to the flowing spring
- 68: My first thoughts were of Alumion
- 69: I observed Professor Gazen coming slowly towards me
- 70: Miss Carmichael alone suspected that you were in love
- 71: Gazen had no opportunity of answering
- 72: Notwithstanding its enormous bulk
- 73: Or that nearest to Miss Carmichael
- 74: Muttered Gazen between his teeth
- 75: And how it wobbles when it is spinning slow
- 76: Professor Sylvanus Pettifer Possil
- 77: Miss Carmichael sprang to investigate the cause
- 78: Gazen directed his instrument on the planet
- 79: As delay might prove fatal to Carmichael
- 80: Where Gazen soon afterwards rejoined me
- 81: I could not call it folly which had brought me to Alumion
- 82: Carmichael recovered from his illness
- 83: And the delightful paradise of Womla
- 84: And after calling on Professor Possil
- 85: Exclaimed the celebrated Possil