A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

by John Jacob Astor

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,

  INCLUDING NINE DRAWINGS BY MR. DAN. BEARD, AND A DIAGRAM. ----

  The Callisto and the CometThe Callisto was going straight upThe Signals from the Arctic CircleDiagram of the Comparative Sizes of the PlanetsThe Ride on the Giant TortoiseA Battle Royal on JupiterThe Combat with the DragonsAyrault's VisionThey look into the FutureThe Return

  BOOK I.

  A JOURNEY IN OTHER WORLDS. ----

  CHAPTER 1.

  JUPITER.

  Jupiter--the magnificent planet with a diameter of 86,500miles, having 119 times the surface and 1,300 times the volume ofthe earth--lay beneath them.

  They had often seen it in the terrestrial sky, emitting itsstrong, steady ray, and had thought of that far-away planet,about which till recently so little had been known, and a burningdesire had possessed them to go to it and explore its mysteries.Now, thanks to APERGY, the force whose existence the ancientssuspected, but of which they knew so little, all things werepossible.

  Ayrault manipulated the silk-covered glass handles, and theCallisto moved on slowly in comparison with its recent speed,and all remained glued to their telescopes as they peered throughthe rushing clouds, now forming and now dissolving before theireyes. What transports of delight, what ecstatic bliss, wastheirs! Men had discovered and mastered the secret of apergy,and now, "little lower than the angels," they could soar throughspace, leaving even planets and comets behind.

  "Is it not strange," said Dr. Cortlandt, "that though it has beenknown for over a century that bodies charged with unlikeelectricities attract one another, and those charged with likerepel, no one thought of utilizing the counterpart ofgravitation? In the nineteenth century, savants and Indianjugglers performed experiments with their disciples and masses ofinert matter, by causing them to remain without visible supportat some distance from the ground; and while many of these, ofcourse, were quacks, some were on the right track, though theydid not push their research."

  President Bearwarden and Ayrault assented. They were steeringfor an apparently hard part of the planet's surface, about adegree and a half north of its equator.

  "Since Jupiter's axis is almost at right angles to the plane ofits orbit," said the doctor, "being inclined only about onedegree and a half, instead of twenty-three and a half, as was theearth's till nearly so recently, it will be possible for us tohave any climate we wish, from constantly warm at the equator toconstantly cool or cold as we approach the poles, without beingtroubled by extremes of winter and summer."

  Until the Callisto entered the planet's atmosphere, its fivemoons appeared like silver shields against the black sky, but nowthings were looking more terrestrial, and they began to feel athome. Bearwarden put down his note-book, and Ayrault returned aphotograph to his pocket, while all three gazed at their newabode. Beneath them was a vast continent variegated by chains oflakes and rivers stretching away in all directions except towardthe equator, where lay a placid ocean as far as their telescopescould pierce. To the eastward were towering and massivemountains, and along the southern border of the continent smokingvolcanoes, while toward the west they saw forests, gently rollingplains, and table-lands that would have satisfied a poet or setan agriculturist's heart at rest. "How I should like to minethose hills for copper, or drain the swamps to the south!"exclaimed Col. Bearwarden. "The Lake Superior mines and thereclamation of the Florida Everglades would be nothing to this."

  "Any inhabitants we may find here have so much land at theirdisposal that they will not need to drain swamps on account ofpressure of population for some time," put in the doctor.

  "I hope we may find some four-legged inhabitants," said Ayrault,thinking of their explosive magazine rifles. "If Jupiter ispassing through its Jurassic or Mesozoic period, there must beany amount of some kind of game." Just then a quiver shook theCallisto, and glancing to the right they noticed one of thevolcanoes in violent eruption. Smoke filled the air in clouds,hot stones and then floods of lava poured from the crater, whileeven the walls of the hermetically sealed Callisto could notarrest the thunderous crashes that made the interior of the carresound.

  "Had we not better move on?" said Bearwarden, and accordinglythey went toward the woods they had first seen. Finding a firmstrip of land between the forest and an arm of the sea, theygently grounded the Callisto, and not being altogether sure howthe atmosphere of their new abode would suit terrestrial lungs,or what its pressure to the square inch might be, they cautiouslyopened a port-hole a crack, retaining their hold upon it with itsscrew. Instantly there was a rush and a whistling sound as ofescaping steam, while in a few moments their barometer stood atthirty-six inches, whereupon they closed the opening.

  "I fancy," said Dr. Cortlandt, "we had better wait now till webecome accustomed to this pressure. I do not believe it will gomuch higher, for the window made but little resistance when weshut it."

  Finding they were not inconvenienced by a pressure but littlegreater than that of a deep coal-mine, they again opened theport, whereupon their barometer showed a further rise toforty-two, and then remained stationary. Finding also that thechemical composition of the air suited them, and that they had nodifficulty in breathing, the pressure being the same as thatsustained by a diver in fourteen feet of water, they opened adoor and emerged. They knew fairly well what to expect, and werenot disturbed by their new conditions. Though they hadapparently gained a good deal in weight as a result of theirethereal journey, this did not incommode them; for thoughJupiter's volume is thirteen hundred times that of the earth, onaccount of its lesser specific gravity, it has but three hundredtimes the mass--i. e., it would weigh but three hundred times asmuch. Further, although a cubic foot of water or anything elseweighs 2.5 as much as on earth, objects near the equator, onaccount of Jupiter's rapid rotation, weigh one fifth less thanthey do at the poles, by reason of the centrifugal force.Influenced by this fact, and also because they were 483,000,000miles from the sun, instead of 92,000,000 as on earth, they hadsteered for the northern limit of Jupiter's tropics. And, inaddition to this, they could easily apply the apergetic power inany degree to themselves when beyond the limits of the Callisto,and so be attracted to any extent, from twice the pull theyreceive from gravitation on earth to almost nothing.

  Bearwarden and Ayrault shouldered their rifles, while Dr.Cortlandt took a repeating shot-gun with No. 4 shot, and, havingalso some hunting-knives and a sextant, all three set out in anorthwesterly direction. The ground was rather soft, and a warmvapor seemed to rise from it. To the east the sky was veiled bydense clouds of smoke from the towering volcanoes, while on theirleft the forest seemed to extend without limit. Clumps of hugeferns were scattered about, and the ground was covered withcurious tracks.

  "Jupiter is evidently passing through a Carboniferous or Devonianperiod such as existed on earth, though, if consistent with itssize, it should be on a vastly larger scale," said the doctor."I never believed in the theory," he continued, "that the largerthe planet the smaller should be its inhabitants, and alwaysconsidered it a makeshift, put forward in the absence of definiteknowledge, the idea being apparently that the weight of verylarge creatures would be too great for their strength. Of thefact that mastodons and creatures far larger than any now livingon earth existed there, we have absolute proof, thoughgravitation must have been practically the same then as now."

  Just here they came upon a number of huge bones, evidently theremains of some saurian, and many times the size of a growncrocodile. On passing a growth of most luxuriant vegetation,they saw a half-dozen sacklike objects, and drawing nearernoticed that the tops began to swell, and at the same time becamelighter in colour. Just as the doctor was about to investigateone of them with his duck-shot, the enormously inflated tops ofthe creatures collapsed with a loud report, and the enti
re groupsoared away. When about to alight, forty yards off, theydistended membranous folds in the manner of wings, which checkedtheir descent, and on touching the ground remained where theywere without rebound.

  "We expected to find all kinds of reptiles and birds," exclaimedthe doctor. "But I do not know how we should class thosecreatures. They seem to have pneumatic feet and legs, for theirmotion was certainly not produced like that of frogs."

  When the party came up with them the heads again began to swell.

  "I will perforate the air-chamber of one," said Col. Bearwarden,withdrawing the explosive cartridge from the barrel of his rifleand substituting one with a solid ball. "This will doubtlessdisable one so that we can examine it."

  Just as they were about to rise, he shot the largest through theneck. All but the wounded one, soared off, while Bearwarden,Ayrault, and Cortlandt approached to examine it more closely.

  "You see," said Cortlandt, "this vertebrate--for that is asdefinitely as we can yet describe it--forces a great pressure ofair into its head and neck, which, by the action of valves, itmust allow to rush into its very rudimentary lower extremities,distending them with such violence that the body is shot upwardand forward. You may have noticed the tightly inflated portionunderneath as they left the ground."

  While speaking he had moved rather near, when suddenly apartially concealed mouth opened, showing the unmistakable tongueand fangs of a serpent. It emitted a hissing sound, and thesmall eyes gleamed maliciously.

  "Do you believe it is a poisonous species?" asked Ayrault.

  "I suspect it is," replied the doctor; "for, though it isdoubtless able to leap with great accuracy upon its prey, we sawit took some time to recharge the upper air-chamber, so that,were it not armed with poison glands, it would fall an easyvictim to its more powerful and swifter contemporaries, and wouldsoon become extinct."

  "As it will be unable to spring for some time," said Bearwarden,"we might as well save it the disappointment of trying," and,snapping the used shell from his rifle, he fired an explosiveball into the reptile, whereupon about half the body disappeared,while a sickening odour arose. Although the sun was still farabove the horizon, the rapidity with which it was descendingshowed that the short night of less than five hours would soon beupon them; and though short it might be very dark, for they werein the tropics, and the sun, going down perpendicularly, mustalso pass completely around the globe, instead of, as in northernlatitudes on earth in summer, approaching the horizon obliquely,and not going far below it. A slight and diffused sound hereseemed to rise from the ground all about them, for which theycould not account. Presently it became louder, and as the suntouched the horizon, it poured forth in prolonged strains. Thelarge trumpet-shaped lilies, reeds, and heliotropes seemed fairlyto throb as they raised their anthem to the sky and the settingsun, while the air grew dark with clouds of birds that graduallyalighted on the ground, until, as the chorus grew fainter andgradually ceased, they flew back to their nests. The threecompanions had stood astonished while this act was played. Thedoctor then spoke:

  "This is the most marvellous development of Nature I have seen,for its wonderful divergence from, and yet analogy to, what takesplace on earth. You know our flowers offer honey, as it were, asbait to insects, that in eating or collecting it they may catchthe pollen on their legs and so carry it to other flowers,perhaps of the opposite sex. Here flowers evidently appeal tothe sense of hearing instead of taste, and make use of birds, ofwhich there are enormous numbers, instead of winged insects, ofwhich I have seen none, one being perhaps the natural result ofthe other. The flowers have become singers by long practice, orelse, those that were most musical having had the best chance toreproduce, we have a neat illustration of the 'survival of thefittest.' The sound is doubtless produced by a shrinking of thefibres as the sun withdraws its heat, in which case we may expectanother song at sunrise, when the same result will be effected bytheir expanding."

  Searching for a camping-place in which to pass the coming hours,they saw lights flitting about like will-o'-the-wisps, butbrighter and intermittent.

  "They seem to be as bright as sixteen-candle-power lamps, but thelight is yellower, and appears to emanate from a comparativelylarge surface, certainly nine or ten inches square," said thedoctor.

  They soon gave up the chase, however, for the lights werecontinually moving and frequently went out. While groping in thegrowing darkness, they came upon a brown object about the size ofa small dog and close to the ground. It flew off with a humminginsect sound, and as it did so it showed the brilliantphosphorescent glow they had observed.

  "That is a good-sized fire-fly," said Bearwarden. "Evidently theinsects here are on the same scale as everything else. They arelike the fire-flies in Cuba, which the Cubans are said to putinto a glass box and get light enough from to read by. Here theywould need only one, if it could be induced to give its lightcontinuously."

  Having found an open space on high ground, they sat down, andBearwarden struck his repeater, which, for convenience, had beenarranged for Jupiter time, dividing the day into ten hours,beginning at noon, midnight being therefore five o'clock.

  "Twenty minutes past four," said he, "which would correspond toabout a quarter to eleven on earth. As the sun rises athalf-past seven, it will be dark about three hours, for the timebetween dawn and daylight will, of course, be as short as that wehave just experienced between sunset and night."

  "If we stay here long," said the doctor, "I suppose we shallbecome accustomed, like sailors, to taking our four, or in thiscase five, hours on duty, and five hours off."

  "Or," added Ayrault, "we can sleep ten consecutive hours and takethe next ten for exploring and hunting, having the sun for onehalf the time and the moons for the other."

  Bearwarden and Cortlandt now rolled themselves in their blanketsand were soon asleep, while Ayrault, whose turn it was to watchtill the moons rose--for they had not yet enough confidence intheir new domain to sleep in darkness simultaneously--leaned hisback against a rock and lighted his pipe. In the distance he sawthe torrents of fiery lava from the volcanoes reflected in thesky, and faintly heard their thunderous crashes, while thefire-flies twinkled unconcernedly in the hollow, and the nightwinds swayed the fernlike branches. Then he gazed at the earth,which, but little above the horizon, shone with a faint butsteady ray, and his mind's eye ran beyond his natural visionwhile he pictured to himself the girl of his heart, wishing thatby some communion of spirits he might convey his thoughts to her,and receive hers. It was now the first week of January on earth.He could almost see her house and the snow-clad trees in thepark, and knew that at that hour she was dressing for dinner, andhoped and believed that he was in her heart. While he thusmused, one moon after another rose, each at a different phase,till three were at once in the sky. Adjusting the electricprotection- wires that were to paralyze any creature thatattempted to come within the circle, and would arouse them byringing a bell, he knocked the ashes from his pipe, rolledhimself in a blanket, and was soon asleep beside his friends.