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A Journey in Other Worlds

by J. J. Astor

A ROMANCE OF THE FUTURE

BY JOHN JACOB ASTOR

PREFACE.

The protracted struggle between science and the classics appears

to be drawing to a close, with victory about to perch on the

banner of science, as a perusal of almost any university or

college catalogue shows. While a limited knowledge of both Greek

and Latin is important for the correct use of our own language,

the amount till recently required, in my judgment, has been

absurdly out of proportion to the intrinsic value of these

branches, or perhaps more correctly roots, of study. The

classics have been thoroughly and painfully threshed out, and it

seems impossible that anything new can be unearthed. We may

equal the performances of the past, but there is no opportunity

to surpass them or produce anything original. Even the

much-vaunted "mental training" argument is beginning to pall; for

would not anything equally difficult give as good developing

results, while by learning a live matter we kill two birds with

one stone? There can be no question that there are many forces

and influences in Nature whose existence we as yet little more

than suspect. How much more interesting it would be if, instead

of reiterating our past achievements, the magazines and

literature of the period should devote their consideration to

what we do NOT know! It is only through investigation and

research that inventions come; we may not find what we are in

search of, but may discover something of perhaps greater moment.

It is probable that the principal glories of the future will be

found in as yet but little trodden paths, and as Prof. Cortlandt

justly says at the close of his history, "Next to religion, we

have most to hope from science."

CONTENTS.

BOOK I.

CHAPTER

I.-JUPITER.

II.-ANTECEDENTAL

III.-PRESIDENT BEARWARDEN'S SPEECH

IV.-PROF. CORTLANDT'S HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE WORLD

IN A.D. 2000

V.-DR. CORTLANDT'S HISTORY CONTINUED

VI.-FAR-REACHING PLANS

VII.-HARD AT WORK

VIII.-GOOD-BYE

BOOK II.

I.-THE LAST OF THE EARTH

II.-SPACE AND MARS

III.-HEAVENLY BODIES

IV.-PREPARING TO ALIGHT

V.-EXPLORATION AND EXCITEMENT

VI.-MASTODON AND WILL-O'-THE-WISP

VII.-AN UNSEEN HUNTER

VIII.-SPORTSMEN'S REVERIES

IX.-THE HONEY OF DEATH

X.-CHANGING LANDSCAPES

XI.-A JOVIAN NIAGARA

XII.-HILLS AND VALLEYS

XIII.-NORTH-POLAR DISCOVERIES

XIV.-THE SCENE SHIFTS

BOOK III.

I-SATURN

II.-THE SPIRIT'S FIRST VISIT

HI.-DOUBTS AND PHILOSOPHY

IV.-A PROVIDENTIAL INTERVENTION

V.-AYRAULT'S VISION

VI.-A GREAT VOID AND A GREAT LONGING

VII.-THE SPIRIT'S SECOND VISIT

VIII.-CASSANDRA AND COSMOLOGY

IX.-DR. CORTLANDT SEES HIS GRAVE

X.-AYRAULT

XI.-DREAMLAND TO SHADOWLAND

XII.-SHEOL

XIII.-THE PRIEST'S SERMON

XIV.-HIC ILLE JACET

XV.-MOTHER EARTH

BOOK I.

A JOURNEY IN OTHER WORLDS.

----

CHAPTER 1.

JUPITER.

Jupiter--the magnificent planet with a diameter of 86,500

miles, having 119 times the surface and 1,300 times the volume of

the earth--lay beneath them.

They had often seen it in the terrestrial sky, emitting its

strong, steady ray, and had thought of that far-away planet,

about which till recently so little had been known, and a burning

desire had possessed them to go to it and explore its mysteries.

Now, thanks to APERGY, the force whose existence the ancients

suspected, but of which they knew so little, all things were

possible.

Ayrault manipulated the silk-covered glass handles, and the

Callisto moved on slowly in comparison with its recent speed,

and all remained glued to their telescopes as they peered through

the rushing clouds, now forming and now dissolving before their

eyes. What transports of delight, what ecstatic bliss, was

theirs! Men had discovered and mastered the secret of apergy,

and now, "little lower than the angels," they could soar through

space, leaving even planets and comets behind.

"Is it not strange," said Dr. Cortlandt, "that though it has been

known for over a century that bodies charged with unlike

electricities attract one another, and those charged with like

repel, no one thought of utilizing the counterpart of

gravitation? In the nineteenth century, savants and Indian

jugglers performed experiments with their disciples and masses of

inert matter, by causing them to remain without visible support

at some distance from the ground; and while many of these, of

course, were quacks, some were on the right track, though they

did not push their research."

President Bearwarden and Ayrault assented. They were steering

for an apparently hard part of the planet's surface, about a

degree and a half north of its equator.

"Since Jupiter's axis is almost at right angles to the plane of

its orbit," said the doctor, "being inclined only about one

degree and a half, instead of twenty-three and a half, as was the

earth's till nearly so recently, it will be possible for us to

have any climate we wish, from constantly warm at the equator to

constantly cool or cold as we approach the poles, without being

troubled by extremes of winter and summer."

Until the Callisto entered the planet's atmosphere, its five

moons appeared like silver shields against the black sky, but now

things were looking more terrestrial, and they began to feel at

home. Bearwarden put down his note-book, and Ayrault returned a

photograph to his pocket, while all three gazed at their new

abode. Beneath them was a vast continent variegated by chains of

lakes and rivers stretching away in all directions except toward

the equator, where lay a placid ocean as far as their telescopes

could pierce. To the eastward were towering and massive

mountains, and along the southern border of the continent smoking

volcanoes, while toward the west they saw forests, gently rolling

plains, and table-lands that would have satisfied a poet or set

an agriculturist's heart at rest. "How I should like to mine

those hills for copper, or drain the swamps to the south!"

exclaimed Col. Bearwarden. "The Lake Superior mines and the

reclamation of the Florida Everglades would be nothing to this."

"Any inhabitants we may find here have so much land at their

disposal that they will not need to drain swamps on account of

pressure 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 is

passing through its Jurassic or Mesozoic period, there must be

any amount of some kind of game." Just then a quiver shook the

Callisto, and glancing to the right they noticed one of the

volcanoes in violent eruption. Smoke filled the air in clouds,

hot stones and then floods of lava poured from the crater, while

even the walls of the hermetically sealed Callisto could not

arrest the thunderous crashes that made the interior of the car

resound.

"Had we not better move on?" said Bearwarden, and accordingly

they went toward the woods they had first seen. Finding a firm

strip of land between the forest and an arm of the sea, they

gently grounded the Callisto, and not being altogether sure how

the atmosphere of their new abode would suit terrestrial lungs,

or what its pressure to the square inch might be, they cautiously

opened a port-hole a crack, retaining their hold upon it with its

screw. Instantly there was a rush and a whistling sound as of

escaping steam, while in a few moments their barometer stood at

thirty-six inches, whereupon they closed the opening.

"I fancy," said Dr. Cortlandt, "we had better wait now till we

become accustomed to this pressure. I do not believe it will go

much higher, for the window made but little resistance when we

shut it."

Finding they were not inconvenienced by a pressure but little

greater than that of a deep coal-mine, they again opened the

port, whereupon their barometer showed a further rise to

forty-two, and then remained stationary. Finding also that the

chemical composition of the air suited them, and that they had no

difficulty in breathing, the pressure being the same as that

sustained by a diver in fourteen feet of water, they opened a

door and emerged. They knew fairly well what to expect, and were

not disturbed by their new conditions. Though they had

apparently gained a good deal in weight as a result of their

ethereal journey, this did not incommode them; for though

Jupiter's volume is thirteen hundred times that of the earth, on

account of its lesser specific gravity, it has but three hundred

times the mass--i. e., it would weigh but three hundred times as

much. Further, although a cubic foot of water or anything else

weighs 2.5 as much as on earth, objects near the equator, on

account of Jupiter's rapid rotation, weigh one fifth less than

they do at the poles, by reason of the centrifugal force.

Influenced by this fact, and also because they were 483,000,000

miles from the sun, instead of 92,000,000 as on earth, they had

steered for the northern limit of Jupiter's tropics. And, in

addition to this, they could easily apply the apergetic power in

any degree to themselves when beyond the limits of the Callisto,

and so be attracted to any extent, from twice the pull they

receive 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, having

also some hunting-knives and a sextant, all three set out in a

northwesterly direction. The ground was rather soft, and a warm

vapor seemed to rise from it. To the east the sky was veiled by

dense clouds of smoke from the towering volcanoes, while on their

left the forest seemed to extend without limit. Clumps of huge

ferns were scattered about, and the ground was covered with

curious tracks.

"Jupiter is evidently passing through a Carboniferous or Devonian

period such as existed on earth, though, if consistent with its

size, it should be on a vastly larger scale," said the doctor.

"I never believed in the theory," he continued, "that the larger

the planet the smaller should be its inhabitants, and always

considered it a makeshift, put forward in the absence of definite

knowledge, the idea being apparently that the weight of very

large creatures would be too great for their strength. Of the

fact that mastodons and creatures far larger than any now living

on earth existed there, we have absolute proof, though

gravitation must have been practically the same then as now."

Just here they came upon a number of huge bones, evidently the

remains of some saurian, and many times the size of a grown

crocodile. On passing a growth of most luxuriant vegetation,

they saw a half-dozen sacklike objects, and drawing nearer

noticed that the tops began to swell, and at the same time became

lighter in colour. Just as the doctor was about to investigate

one of them with his duck-shot, the enormously inflated tops of

the creatures collapsed with a loud report, and the entire group

soared away. When about to alight, forty yards off, they

distended membranous folds in the manner of wings, which checked

their descent, and on touching the ground remained where they

were without rebound.

"We expected to find all kinds of reptiles and birds," exclaimed

the doctor. "But I do not know how we should class those

creatures. They seem to have pneumatic feet and legs, for their

motion 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 rifle

and substituting one with a solid ball. "This will doubtless

disable one so that we can examine it."

Just as they were about to rise, he shot the largest through the

neck. 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 as

definitely as we can yet describe it--forces a great pressure of

air into its head and neck, which, by the action of valves, it

must allow to rush into its very rudimentary lower extremities,

distending them with such violence that the body is shot upward

and forward. You may have noticed the tightly inflated portion

underneath as they left the ground."

While speaking he had moved rather near, when suddenly a

partially concealed mouth opened, showing the unmistakable tongue