Show TIlE BEGINNING OF THE WOULD 1 1 Comets Story of the EarthFrom the Irench of Camille Flaiuiiiarion The following narative is not a fantasy blooming spontaneously in the fertile field of the imagination it is the fruit of study and had its birth on scientific soil soilThe The comet which furnishes the elements of the story is not a myth it exists and millions of people have seen it shining above their heads as they will be convinced con-vinced at the close of this tale c The dates of its earlier appearance have not been arbitrarily imagined both have been calculated according to elliptical elements worth of all confidence and known to astronomers the possible error cannot be greater than onehundredth part The condition of the places visited by our daring tourist has not been described without proof and of all the phenomena described not one even the least has been lightly invented CHAPTER I THE COMET FOB THE FIRST TIME OBSERVES OB-SERVES THE EXISTENCE OF THE EARTH About 611189 years before the Christian era the great comet which the inhabitants inhabit-ants of Saturn had been watching for I nearly 140000 years for the first tim perceived per-ceived a small planet near the sun a pal I revolving try globe 800 awkwardly times smaller enveloped than Saturn with thick vapors subject to terrible geologic and atmospheric convulsions and changes and wholly unfit for human habitation The comets tail was not less than 80 000000 leagues in length its nucleus not yet solidified had a circumference ol 10 I 000 leagues its beautiful comma was not less than 900000 leagues in thickness and I today its dimensions are still half what they then were Up to this time i had been specially Rpecial occupied observing Jupiter Saturn Ura nia and Neptune and had mingled with I none but the noblest society of the I heavens it was therefore strangely and I I disagreeably surprised the aspect of the I poor little terrestrial world While appreciating the power of nature the comet was far from suspecting the possibility of liliputian stars and gazed lone before believing its eyes The sud den knowledge of so crude and inferior a world raised it still higher in its own es timation and presently wrapped in cometary majesty turning its head away it disdainfully passed near the poor earth haughtily shook out its plumage and then returned into the deserts of space proudly pursuing its splendid fight across infinite skies We must confess it our world is indeed a very small one Travelers in space who lIfer the first time see it frst tme would never suspect sus-pect the lass we make over it TiE COMETS 3000 TEAKS JOURNEY i This comet one of the most beautiful beautiul and magnificent of our system never comes nearer to the sun than the earths distance from it It follows an elliptical elptcal orbit and when in our vicinity rapidly describes a half circle andreturns Mov ing a thousand leagues a minute it ascends as-cends toward the confines of the planetary plane-tary kingdom and crosses tho orbits of all the planets As if regretting the glorious sun with his glittering crown its flight grows slower as it leaves him behind After it has traveled a distance of 15387800400 leagues away its speed is reduced to that of the wind a few meters a second But reaching that point the curve of its orbit is soon closed and returns toward the sun whose disk has diminished until it re simbles asimple star Yes in spite of the frightful distance separating them the sun calls back the traveler and it returnscoming upon the ecliptic from polar heights and carefully care-fully avoiding the systems of Jupiter and Saturn Its speed increases and becomes tremendous At last after fifteen centuries of return ing travelit once more reaches the splen dor of perihelion the crown of flaming vapors which has faded and completely disappeared a it withdrew from the sun develops again as an approach i made to this center of plenetary attractions Its form takes on the old amplitude and its beauty grows more radiant and richer as the brilliant domain of the King of Light is entered just as courtiers put on holiday attire to appear in the royal presence When in the year 605124 B C the flaming star returned into the regions near the earth it could not entirely ignore the little seagreen globe which once attracted its attention I deigned fo observed it and to feel curious as to what degree ot life it had attained I remained iu sight of the earth for a year and in a position favorable for observa c U c c tions and during the whole twelvemonths twelve-months not a night or a day of inspection was lost THE CO IE NOTICES A CHANGE IN OUR EARTH The comet had at once noticed that our notced little offshot of a world was inhabitable for intelligent beings I was now slowly but regularly revolving re-volving with alternations of night and day but these produced no effect since its own bosom still emitted an infinitely greater amount of heat than was received from the sun Moreover the enveloping mists and vapors were sufficient in themselves them-selves to intercept all solar rays At the clearing of the atmosphere about the solstice whether winter or summer is not known as the earth was not sufficiently ciently cooled to have seasons at that time which permitted the suns rays to penetrate and illumine the scene the comet approached more closely and the nature of the earths surface became revealed surace vealednever had such a barren world been seen before The comet could not repress an exclamation excla-mation cried A planet covered with shells I cred And so i was The cooling earth was then in its secondary period and the molluscan formations were in progress Approaching the globe still nearer the comet could see nothing but shell fish The sea still practically covered the earth there were no continents simnly islands and swamps The chief of created things was a species of marine cephalopod avery a-very ionffensive animal which little dreamed of one day being christened S Jupiter Ammon Like the nautilus of today these little creatures floated on the surface of the waters in their shells of all sizes shapes and colors whole fleets of them sailed in pursuit of marine prey They hastened hast-ened gracefully and rapidly along winding wind-ing in and out passing each other precisely pre-cisely a i taking part in a regatta and I the only spectator present to enjoy this I antique play was the comet all else was solitude and silence Quite surprised to see nothing but shells in the sea on land and everywhere every-where the comet wearied itself conjecturing conjec-turing the final cause of the earths creation Notwithstanding the insignificance insig-nificance of the terrestial globe it could not believe it had been created expressly ex-pressly to serve these mollusks asa as-a dwelling place All species were examined it took into account ac-count the sociability of mussels and the adroitness of turtles which for the first time had wakened to life but in the whole company not one did the comet see which was invested with the sacred faculty of intelligence THE COMET SEES TH PRICE Tired of fruitless research the comet moved on thinking as i journeyed and journeying as it thought when suddenly a horrible gutteral cry made the echoes of the world tremble Ah said the comet this is probably prob-ably the prince of the creation I thank heaven for not letting me depart without seeing him There soon appeared a black delormed colossal and rugged monster showing the enormous mouth of the crocodile ana the neck of the hippopotamous having short forelegs as long as a camels I was grotesquely dragging itself along the edge of a marsh He is not handsome continued the comet still beauty is only a matter of taste with nothing absolute about i This must be the prince of the earth and those ammonities are the princesses of the sea He is simple modest and ugly in a word perfectly suited to the world he inhabits I never would have suspected sus-pected the existence of such creatures but there can be no question that this labyrinthodon is the only animal with force enough to hold the scepter so he is king kingE TH MAGNIFICENT CIVILIZATION OF SATURN Still dwelling on the apparition of the terrestrial monster the comet continued to travel forward advancing toward the confines of the planetary system without remarking the rapidity of the journey or the sphere encountered on the route until the planet Saturn appeared in sight The splendor and riches of a civilization purchased with ages of labor enveloped the star with radiance It was palpitating palpitat-ing with life and was the home of fertility ana peace Long since had 1 jeic me shadows of chaos and advanced to perfection perec thou ton Planetary worlds show their age by their distance from the sun Those farthest removed from the sun are the most venerable and the most advanced in the oath of progress Neptune situated 11000000 leagues from the sun was the first to leave the solar nebula billions of centuries ago Uranus gravitating 700000000 leagues from the common center of planetary orbits or-bits is several hundred million centuries old oldMore More than 100000000 centuries have passed over the venerable head of Saturn which is 350000000 leagues from the sun Colossal Jupiter distant 190000000 leagues is 70000000 centuries old Mars counts the existence of a thousand thous-and million years and is 56000000 leagues from the sun Tne earth left the burning bosom of the sun a hundred million years ago and is 37000000 leagues distant from it I is perhaps but fifty million years since Venus left the sun and now it gravitates 26000000 leagues away and only 10000000 years ago Mercury whose distance is 14000000 leagues was born from the sun source The moon vas thrown off by the earth The comet having assisted at these beginnings be-ginnings knew well their history and sidereal chronology butit was continually contin-ually finding means of adding to its knowledge and as I had said passed its life in observation Saturn whose system the comet was skirting was in full prosperity Inland seas were covered with ships flying over the vast waters Tho harbors were lull of the riches of all nations The rivers were dotted with smaller vessels wih smaler and the plains traversed by roads lined with sumptuous edifices Through the limpid air whole fleets were seen flying and aerial bridges were swung from the summits sum-mits of towers to meet the crests of precipitous pre-cipitous mountains Mind on Saturn had indeed subjugated matter When regarded from the poles an immense im-mense system of enveloping rings was seen at the distance of 8000 leagues and to them the aerial vessels rose For these rings formed around the central world of baturn an extraSaturnian world all being brought into al communication by a common atmosphere Beyond this second annular world eight other small orange or verdant globes are seen revolving The genius of Saturnian humanity had brought the little universe entirely under its rule and its power radiated from the central globe to all the rest THE COMET ONCE MORE DISGUSTED WITH THE EARTH The musing comet suddenly came to itself it-self on seeing magnificence of Saturn Its speed was slackened and with deeper attention than ever before it studied the marvelous sphere After splere Afer having surveyed sur-veyed the vast empire the comet believed that it had in truth awakened beleved nightmare What was the earth compared to such a splendid star tho earth a miserable little globe where life had ltle le scarcely com menceh in forms beneath description a chaotic mass whose elements were still confused a mere nothing for the comet turning back saw tho earth as a small black spot against the sun TO BE CONTINUED |