The Smoky God; Or, A Voyage to the Inner WorldEmerson, Willis George
Science
The Smoky God; Or, A Voyage to the Inner World
Emerson, Willis George
Voyages, Imaginary
About three-fourths of the "inner" surface of the earth is land and
about one-fourth water. There are numerous rivers of tremendous size,
some flowing in a northerly direction and others southerly. Some of
these rivers are thirty miles in width, and it is out of these vast
waterways, at the extreme northern and southern parts of the "inside"
surface of the earth, in regions where low temperatures are experienced,
that fresh-water icebergs are formed. They are then pushed out to sea
like huge tongues of ice, by the abnormal freshets of turbulent waters
that, twice every year, sweep everything before them.
We saw innumerable specimens of bird-life no larger than those
encountered in the forests of Europe or America. It is well known that
during the last few years whole species of birds have quit the earth. A
writer in a recent article on this subject says:(19)
(19 "Almost every year sees the final extinction of one or more bird
species. Out of fourteen varieties of birds found a century since on a
single island--the West Indian island of St. Thomas--eight have now to
be numbered among the missing.")
Is it not possible that these disappearing bird species quit their
habitation without, and find an asylum in the "within world"?
Whether inland among the mountains, or along the seashore, we found
bird life prolific. When they spread their great wings some of the
birds appeared to measure thirty feet from tip to tip. They are of great
variety and many colors. We were permitted to climb up on the edge of
a rock and examine a nest of eggs. There were five in the nest, each of
which was at least two feet in length and fifteen inches in diameter.
After we had been in the city of Hectea about a week, Professor Galdea
took us to an inlet, where we saw thousands of tortoises along the sandy
shore. I hesitate to state the size of these great creatures. They were
from twenty-five to thirty feet in length, from fifteen to twenty feet
in width and fully seven feet in height. When one of them projected its
head it had the appearance of some hideous sea monster.
The strange conditions "within" are favorable not only for vast
meadows of luxuriant grasses, forests of giant trees, and all manner of
vegetable life, but wonderful animal life as well.
One day we saw a great herd of elephants. There must have been five
hundred of these thunder-throated monsters, with their restlessly waving
trunks. They were tearing huge boughs from the trees and trampling
smaller growth into dust like so much hazel-brush. They would average
over 100 feet in length and from 75 to 85 in height.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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