Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked RecordGreg, Percy
Science
Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record
Greg, Percy
Science fiction
motion, two or three swarms of flying insects, not much resembling any
with which I was acquainted. The vegetation, mostly small, was of a
yellowish colour, the flowers generally red, varied by occasional
examples of dull green and white; the latter, however, presenting that
sort of creamy tinge which I had remarked in the snow. Here I released
and dismissed my birds one by one. The stronger and more courageous
flew away downwards, and soon disappeared; the weakest, trembling and
shivering, evidently suffering from the thinness of the atmosphere,
hung about me or perched upon the cages.
The scene I now contemplated was exceedingly novel and striking. The
sky, instead of the brilliant azure of a similar latitude on earth,
presented to my eye a vault of pale green, closely analogous to that
olive tint which the effect of contrast often throws over a small
portion of clear sky distinguished among the golden and rose-coloured
clouds of a sunset in our temperate zones.
The vapours which still hung around the north-eastern and
south-eastern horizon, though dispelled from the immediate vicinity of
the Sun, were tinged with crimson and gold much deeper than the tints
peculiar to an earthly twilight. The Sun himself, when seen by the
naked eye, was as distinctly golden as our harvest moon; and the whole
landscape, terrestrial, aerial, and celestial, appeared as if bathed
in a golden light, wearing generally that warm summer aspect peculiar
to Tellurian landscapes when seen through glass of a rich yellow tint.
It was a natural inference from all I saw that there takes place in
the Martial atmosphere an absorption of the blue rays which gives to
the sunlight a predominant tinge of yellow or orange. The small rocky
plateau on which I stood, like the whole of the mountainside I had
descended, faced the extremity of the range of which this mountain was
an outpost; and the valley which separated them was not from my
present position visible. I saw that I should have to turn my back
upon this part of the landscape as I descended farther, and therefore
took note at this point of the aspect it presented. The most prominent
object was a white peak in the distant sky, rising to a height above
my actual level, which I estimated conjecturally at 25,000 feet,
guessing the distance at fifty miles. The summit was decidedly more
angular and pointed, less softened in outline by atmospheric
influences, than those of mountains on Earth. Beyond this in the
farthest distance appeared two or three peaks still higher, but of
which, of course, only the summits were visible to me. On this side of
the central peak an apparently continuous double ridge extended to
within three miles of my station, exceedingly irregular in level, the
highest elevations being perhaps 20,000, the lowest visible
depressions 3000 feet above me. There appeared to be a line of
perpetual snow, though in many places above, this line patches of
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