The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Trip to Venus, by John Munro

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Title: A Trip to Venus

Author: John Munro

Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13716]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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A TRIP TO VENUS

A NOVEL BY JOHN MUNRO

Author of the "The Wire and the Wave,"
"The Story of Electricity," etc., etc.

Published in 1897 by Jarrold & Sons, London

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. A MESSAGE FROM MARS

CHAPTER II. HOW CAN WE GET TO THE OTHER PLANETS?

CHAPTER III. A NEW FORCE

CHAPTER IV. THE ELECTRIC ORRERY

CHAPTER V. LEAVING THE EARTH

CHAPTER VI. IN SPACE

CHAPTER VII. ARRIVING IN VENUS

CHAPTER VIII. THE CRATER LAND

CHAPTER IX. THE FLOWER OF THE SOUL

CHAPTER X. ALUMION

CHAPTER XI. THE FLYING APE

CHAPTER XII. SUNWARD HO!

CHAPTER XIII. HOME AGAIN

"The heaven that rolls around cries aloud to you while it displays
its eternal harmony, and yet your eyes are fixed upon the earth
alone."

DANTE.

"This truth within thy mind rehearse,
That in a boundless universe
Is boundless better, boundless worse.

"Think you this mould of hopes and fears
Could find no statelier than his peers
In yonder hundred million spheres?"

TENNYSON.

A TRIP TO VENUS.

CHAPTER I.

A MESSAGE FROM MARS.

While I was glancing at the _Times_ newspaper in a morning train for
London my eyes fell on the following item:--

A STRANGE LIGHT ON MARS.--On Monday afternoon, Dr. Krueger, who is
in charge of the central bureau at Kiel, telegraphed to his
correspondents:--

"_Projection lumineuse dans region australe du terminateur de Mars
observee par Javelle 28 courant, 16 heures.--Perrotin._"

In plain English, at 4 a.m., a ray of light had been observed on the
disc of the planet Mars in or near the "terminator"; that is to say, the
zone of twilight separating day from night. The news was doubly
interesting to me, because a singular dream of "Sunrise in the Moon" had
quickened