r fly, or whatever it is. Lenox, I
don't know what the rest of Saturn may be like, but I certainly don't
like this part. It's quite too creepy and unearthly for my taste. Look
at the horrors fighting and eating each other. That's the only bit of
earthly character they've got about them; the big ones eating the little
ones. I hope they won't take the _Astronef_ for something nice to eat."

"They'd find her a pretty tough morsel if they did," laughed Redgrave,
"but still we may as well get some steering way on her in case of
accident."

CHAPTER XVIII

A few moments later he sent a signal to Murgatroyd in the engine-room.
The propellers began to revolve slowly, beating the dense air and
driving the _Astronef_ at a speed of about twenty miles an hour through
the depths of this strangely peopled ocean.

They approached nearer and nearer to the surface, and as they did so the
uncanny creatures about them grew more and more numerous. They were
certainly the most extraordinary living things that human eyes had ever
looked upon. Zaidie's comparison to the whale and the jelly-fish was by
no means incorrect; only when they got near enough to them they found,
to their astonishment, that they were double-headed--that is to say,
they had a head with a mouth, nostrils, ear-holes, and eyes at each end
of their bodies.

The larger of the creatures appeared to have a certain amount of respect
for each other. Now and then they witnessed a battle-royal between two
of the monsters who were pursuing the same prey. Their method of attack
was as follows: The assailant would rise above his opponent or prey, and
then, dropping on to its back, envelop it and begin tearing at its sides
and under parts with huge beak-like jaws, somewhat resembling those of
the largest kind of the earthly octopus, only infinitely more
formidable. The substance composing their bodies appeared to be not
unlike that of a terrestrial jelly-fish, but much denser. It seemed from
their motions to have the tenacity of soft indiarubber save at the
headed ends, where it was much harder. The necks were protected for
about fifty feet by huge scales of a dull, greenish hue.

When one of them had overpowered an enemy or a victim the two sank down
into the vegetation, and the victor began to eat the vanquished. Their
means of locomotion consisted of huge fins, or rather half-fins,
half-wings, of which they had three laterally arranged behind each head,
and four much