ms, no direct
rays of sunlight have ever penetrated its protecting cloud blanket. Here
exists the highest state of civilization on the planet.

Beyond the Light Country, in another concentric ring, lies the Twilight
Country. It forms a belt about the planet, beginning roughly at those
points at which the sun would appear only a short distance above the
horizon, and extending back to where the sun would be below the horizon.
In this region, as its name implies, there is never more than twilight. It
is lightest at the borders of the Light Country, and fades into night at
its other side.

Still farther, beyond the twilight zone, lies the region of perpetual
night and cold--the Dark Country. This area embraces the rest of the
planet, comprising something less than half of its entire surface. Here is
eternal night--a night of Stygian darkness, unlighted even by the stars,
since the same atmosphere makes them invisible.

The Dark Country, so far as it has been explored--which is very little--is
a rocky waste and a sea of solid ice that never melts. Near the borders of
the Twilight Country a few people like our Eskimos exist--savages with
huge white faces, and great, staring eyes. There are a few fur-bearing
animals and birds, but except for this fringe of life the Dark Country is
thought to be uninhabited, its terrible cold making life in any form
impossible.

So much, in general, for the main geographical features of Mercury. The
Great City stands about halfway between the borders of the Fire Country
and the edge of the twilight zone. This level marshland, the barren,
metallic mountains, and a sort of semitropic jungle, partly inundated by
water, comprise nearly all the area of the Light Country.

From the Great City, through the watery jungle, extends a system of little
winding bayous--a perfect maze of them, with hundreds of
intercommunicating branches--which it would be almost impossible to
traverse without losing all sense of direction.

Beyond these bayous, into which their sluggish currents flow, lies the
Narrow Sea. On its farther shore begins the Twilight Country, much of it a
barren, semifrigid waste, with a little level, tillable land, vast rocky
mountain ranges, and a few forests.

In spite of its inhospitable character the Twilight Country is fairly
densely populated; and, I realized when I got into it, civilized life is
exceedingly difficult to maintain there. I understood then why the
Twilight People we