Aleriel/Part 4/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
THE OCEAN WORLD.
Down into the deep we sank. On-rushing through miles of water. As we passed onwards thousands of strange monsters of the deep met our sight, swimming about here and there, single and in shoals. Most of them appeared as irrational as the great fishes of earth. Some were reptilian in aspect, more like the ichthyosaurus or the cetiosaurus of the secondary formation of earth than any earthly fish. Some were apparently higher in type, like the whales or dolphins of the earth's oceans.[1] But a few appeared of rational nature, and were provided with singular implements of swimming, alone, or elsewhere floating in submarine ships of metal, curiously designed, and propelled through the waters with great velocity.
At length we came to a strange scene of aquatic vitality such as I never dreamt of, and such as I can scarcely describe. It seemed like an island in the waters. It was manifestly not the solid bottom, like the bottom of the earth's ocean. Huge walls and towers appeared, vast and massive, as one might expect in the hugest world of all our solar system. Amidst them swam hundreds of vast forms, dashing hither and thither in the waters. It was a scene of bustle, and motion, and activity, yet all most strange.
"Nothing we have yet seen is like this," said Ezariel. "Neither in Mars nor in our own home."
"Nor yet the earth or her satellite," I said. "This is a world of waters. All other peoples we have seen live on the surface. These dwell evidently in the depths of their huge world. To them the waters are as the air to us."
"And might we not have expected this?" replied Ezariel. "Have we not known for ages, that this giant world was very light in its gravitating power, considering its size? It appears a liquid sphere, or system rather, as the mighty Sun is a vast orb of gases or metals fused into a gaseous state. In our world, as on Earth and Mars, all three states of matter exist fairly proportioned—the solid, the liquid and the gaseous; in the Earth's Moon you say you only found the solid; in the Sun there seems to be only the gaseous; why should we not here expect to find the liquid dominant—a world in which the fluid prevails as with us the solid? Now we can understand the sudden changes we have seen, even in a single night, upon this vast globe—his shifting belts, his spots forming and dissolving in a few hours—the most wondrous example (save the mighty Sun himself) of vast and rapid change in our system; now we can understand his lightness, his comparatively small gravitating power, perhaps even his brilliancy."
"There must be an advantage in this," said Arauniel, "to these huge beings, some of whom seem endowed with intelligence. They are not bound to the surface as men or the Martians are, or near the surface as we; they can traverse their world up and down—down into its inner depths for hundreds of miles."
"On earth," I replied, "they partially feel this advantage of the waters. It is true, man has never yet obtained that sovereignty over the sea that he has over the land. But still the sea is of use to man. It is the great highway of commerce. Upon the sea he carries much of his products. The dominion of the sea confers on the nation that holds it a supremacy and power that other nations have not. The sea is a great civiliser, for the ports of many of the wilder regions of the earth are far more civilised than the interior regions; and the last strongholds of barbarism and savagery will probably be the inland parts of Africa. From the sea man gathers much of his food. One of the greater problems of his future on Earth, perhaps, is the utilisation of the ocean to his purpose. On Earth there are, as it were, two worlds of life—the terrestrial and marine; and of these the marine is the larger, though the less important. Each world has its animal and vegetable kingdom, with their orders, families, general species, as distinct as though they belonged to different planets."
"Then it seems," said Ezariel, "that Earth must be a sort of mean between this world and the solid Moon. In Mars we have seen a world where land is quite dominant, though sea exists. May there not be a law in this? The larger worlds more fluid, the smallest solid, the medium ones mixed?"
Our conversation had an abrupt termination. One of the huge Jovians at length perceived our ether-car, and, rapidly swimming to it. strove to grasp it. Seeing the clanger of our capture, and not knowing how we might fare with these huge beings, for once we felt helpless and overcome. But we had provided for such a possible danger. In our car we had, as I said, vast command of electrical forces. Seeing the peril, I at once set the electricity in full force. As he grasped our car, the shock rolled him back into the waters.
Then we set the full motive-power at work. Up we dashed through the deep. For a moment it seemed as if the Jovians would pursue us, for several noticed our ether-car. But we rushed on, defying pursuit towards the surface. Rapidly we dashed upwards through the waste of dark waters, till at last the great billows of the surface could be felt heaving to and fro, and then we rushed up into the air through masses of hissing foam.
We rose from the surface into the mist-lands beneath the clouds.
"It is well," said Ezariel, "we have escaped those Jovian giants of the deep; but it is sad to think that we cannot hope to know them as we did the Martians. Their nature is too distinct from ours for us to understand them, or to make them understand us. And yet this huge world of waters, like everything in creation, appears wonderfully suited for its object."
"How different each world is from all the others," said Arauniel; "and yet each, doubtless, in its way, most admirably adapted. Our fair world is very different from that gorgeous world of Mars; and, from your account, Earth, and the dead world of the Moon are very different from each; and now this giant world is utterly different from all the others."
"Not utterly," I said, "there is an underlying unity beneath all this diversity."
- ↑ "They are aqueous, gelatinous creatures, too sluggish almost to be deemed alive, floating in their ('ice-cold') waters (of Saturn and Jupiter), shrouded for ever by their humid skies."—"Plurality of Worlds;" 301.