k detained me from the observing-chair
till after midnight. When I had adjusted the instrument and took
my first look at Mars, I remember being unable to restrain a cry of
admiration. The planet was fairly dazzling. It seemed nearer and
larger than I had ever seen it before, and its peculiar ruddiness
more striking. In thirty years of observations, I recall, in fact, no
occasion when the absence of exhalations in our atmosphere has coincided
with such cloudlessness in that of Mars as on that night. I could
plainly make out the white masses of vapor at the opposite edges of the
lighted disc, which are the mists of its dawn and evening. The snowy
mass of Mount Hall over against Kepler Land stood out with wonderful
clearness, and I could unmistakably detect the blue tint of the ocean
of De La Rue, which washes its base,--a feat of vision often, indeed,
accomplished by star-gazers, though I had never done it to my complete
satisfaction before.

I was impressed with the idea that if I ever made an original discovery
in regard to Mars, it would be on that evening, and I believed that I
should do it. I trembled with mingled exultation and anxiety, and was
obliged to pause to recover my self-control. Finally, I placed my eye
to the eye-piece, and directed my gaze upon the portion of the planet
in which I was especially interested. My attention soon became fixed and
absorbed much beyond my wont, when observing, and that itself implied no
ordinary degree of abstraction. To all mental intents and purposes I
was on Mars. Every faculty, every susceptibility of sense and intellect,
seemed gradually to pass into the eye, and become concentrated in the
act of gazing. Every atom of nerve and will power combined in the strain
to see a little, and yet a little, and yet a little, clearer, farther,
deeper.

The next thing I knew I was on the bed that stood in a corner of the
observing-room, half raised on an elbow, and gazing intently at the
door. It was broad daylight. Half a dozen men, including several of
the professors and a doctor from the village, were around me. Some were
trying to make me lie down, others were asking me what I wanted, while
the doctor was urging me to drink some whiskey. Mechanically repelling
their offices, I pointed to the door and ejaculated, "President Byxbee
--coming," giving expression to the one idea which my dazed mind at
that moment contained. And sure enough, even as I spoke the door opened,
and the vene